r, and the means of supporting myself. I
don't wish to be a burden on Farmer Rowe, the only friend I have beside
Jane Hayes, my old nurse."

Mr Fluke surveyed Owen from head to foot. "What can such a boy as you
do, except run errands, or sweep out the office?" he asked in a tone of
contempt. "What do you happen to know? Can you write? Have you any
knowledge of arithmetic?"

"Yes, sir," said Owen, "I am tolerably well acquainted with quadratic
equations; I have gone through the first six books of Euclid, and have
begun trigonometry, but have not got very far. I am pretty well up in
Latin. I have read Caesar and Virgil, and a little of Horace; and in
Greek, the New Testament, Xenophon, and two plays of Aeschylus; and my
father considered me well acquainted with English history and
geography."

"Umph! a prodigy of learning!" muttered the old gentleman. "Can you do
the rule of three and sum up?--that's more to the purpose. What sort of
fist do you write? Can you do as well as this?" and he exhibited a
crabbed scrawl barely legible.

"I hope that my writing would be more easily read than that, sir,"
answered Owen. "I could do the rule of three several years ago, and am
pretty correct at summing up."

"Umph!" repeated the old gentleman, "if I take you at your word, I must
set you down as a genius. I don't know that the learning you boast of
will be of much use to you in the world. If, however, I find the
account I have just heard correct, I may perhaps give you a trial. I am
not to be taken in by impostors, old or young; you will understand,
therefore, that I make no promises. I am busy now and cannot spend more
time on you, so you must go. I suppose that you did not come up here by
yourself?"

"No, sir, John Howe, Farmer Rowe's eldest son, accompanied me, and is
waiting outside; if you cannot give me employment, he wants me to go
back with him to Fenside."

"Tell him to stay in town until I have seen the book, and have had time
to look into the matter," said Mr Fluke. "Where are you stopping, in
case I may wish to send to you? But I am not likely to do that. Come
again when you have got the book."

"We are stopping at the `Green Dragon,' Bishopsgate Street, sir," said
Owen.

"Well, write down your address and the name of your friend," and Simon
Fluke handed a pen to Owen, and placed a piece of paper on the desk
before him. "Umph! a clear hand, more like a man's than a boy's,"
muttered the old