Only an Irish Boy eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 199 pages of information about Only an Irish Boy.

Only an Irish Boy eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 199 pages of information about Only an Irish Boy.

“No; nor of anybody else.  He only likes Godfrey Preston.”

“We got into a fight the first day I ever saw him.”

“What was it about?”

“He called my mother names, and hit me.  So I knocked him flat.”

“You served him right.  He’s disgustingly conceited.  Nobody likes him.”

“Ben Travers goes around with him all the time.”

“Ben likes him because he is rich.  If he should lose his property, you’d see how soon he would leave him.  That isn’t a friend worth having.”

“I’ve got one consolation,” said Andy, laughing; “nobody likes me for my money.”

“But someone likes you for yourself, Andy,” said Charlie.

“Who?”

“Myself, to be sure.”

“And I like you as much, Charlie,” said Andy, warmly.  “You’re ten times as good a fellow as Godfrey.”

“I hope so,” said Charlie.  “That isn’t saying very much, Andy.”

So the friendship was cemented, nor did it end there.  Charlie spoke of Andy’s good qualities at home, and some time afterward Andy was surprised by an invitation to spend the evening at Dr. Fleming’s.  He felt a little bashful, but finally went—­nor was he at all sorry for so doing.  The whole family was a delightful one, and Andy was welcomed as a warm friend of Charlie’s, and, in the pleasant atmosphere of the doctor’s fireside, he quite forgot that there was one who looked down upon him as an inferior being.

Dr. Fleming had himself been a poor boy.  By a lucky chance—­or Providence, rather—­he had been put in the way of obtaining an education, and he was not disposed now, in his prosperity, to forget his days of early struggle.

Andy found that, in spite of the three hours taken up at school, he was able to do all that was required of him by the Misses Grant.  They were glad to hear of his success at school, and continued to pay him five dollars a week for his services.  This money he regularly carried to his mother, after paying for the new clothes, of which he stood so much in need.

CHAPTER XII A LITTLE DIFFICULTY

It has already been said that Godfrey Preston was a conceited and arrogant boy.  He had a very high idea of his own importance, and expected that others would acknowledge it; but he was not altogether successful.  He would like to have had Andy Burke look up to him as a member of a superior class, and in that case might have condescended to patronize him, as a chieftain might in the case of a humble retainer.  But Andy didn’t want to be patronized by Godfrey.  He never showed by his manner that he felt beneath him socially, and this greatly vexed Godfrey.

“His mother used to iron at our house,” he said to Ben Travers one day; “but my mother discharged her.  I don’t see why the boys treat him as an equal.  I won’t, for my part.”

“Of course, he isn’t your equal,” said the subservient Ben.  “That’s a good joke.”

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Only an Irish Boy from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.