Keene’s Opportunity

Southland Times, Issue 14333, 29 April 1899, Page 2 (Supplement)

Keene’s Opportunity

SS3 e uo was deemed a martinet. In ICQ jßition of. inspector of Schools uo " fil s more feared by the teachers, ered less likely to close this eyes OF irregularity or show sympsthy.for ;M<) who failed from error of judgment than neglect of duty. seni?} manner of expressing his opinions iuot. ning defects was eueli as left no S AX of his meaning, wnile he often, ~ i £ d ever the effect produced on tlo ot »«< ed. ' ever impressed his teachers [Olli iportanoe of cultivating a faculty i ue observation, for. by such. many. were avoidel, many advantages ho i • W* l * l a BOOro^’n S e yP f° r clearR be detected the smallest cobweb ’ 1 the window pane, and asked in e ■>-, tones ‘if the cobwebs kept, the JNIK W im -’ teacher could but reply in the re, while inwardly mut'ering an - sBTj ;P n cobwebs, Keene, and all coni or had not the teacher that JIOX "S' seen.no cobwebs upon the win-, snd had not, fire minutes’ subse s, Ta; Caprice of a spider, given . Keene -—. ,ning 1 , NE, ae once remarked that ‘dust was JBAI cessary t > furniture.’ SSE conclusion was obvious, as was ’ 18SJ i ie discomfiture of the teacher,who DUli jot control the winds of heaven, p ai tide a dust, storm raged continu-e-to 1 a ever b irbed his arrows with a ' an’ such a smile as indicated that fc reOT sre t 0 notice the humor of his ie Ji dions rather than the matter of [ELK 1893 - i his subordinates did not do. n or woman under his service but qq: d him relentless in awarding the •jjents prescribed by the regula'Oß, ;r neglect or breaches of discip--ILD Keene’s moral influence was u ig, yet as a matter of fact, he had ™ «en known to visit punishment —r inybody. *' ALL these people think me a terror,’ foi |, ‘lt is as well, for thus they E themselves without effort of iofc ’ 1 And he laughed nt rememof incidents, for above all, Keene irony bis^little joke/ J, Too slow for’—Delpmti,.one Fjusi ene’s teachers, looked ont of the tuak :en b e f° re him—‘f° r a bullockf the j!’ The object was supplied by ,vn * who passed with his team of • 18a , two steers, ‘a stag, and: five

F see, woaa—Sta’rr I Gee over, Hoot, Clinker! Paddy, you e dab dais ay. ' ionti did not hear, the end of the dgeis he turned over in bis. bunk ■ H*-' iked up at the rafters. 3 c ii Saturday morning, and having 2 jto do, he was doing that in his —wrii ffe generally spent Saturday at irtown, playing billiards, but be L . A ‘ isrmined not to go there to-day, iad no money. He was ‘cleaned VEB! wed LIO, and the midwinter vaor Bo of his school commenced in a “ “ Ibis last circumstance hurt Del--4T j job’, hurt because of the first and in, icircumstances, chiefly the first, Me ! sat lightly upon him, being an , OjAwle part of his existence. ■ Waked steadily towards the rafFißiyfrjbng time, but.finding no so?ewj rf his difficulties by earnest tflor quite a quarter of anfiour, Ram of bis bunk,dresssd,and went post office. 3BK felUoo.out of sorts to have breakEiv 15 took his meals at a selector’s sack than half-a-mile. -away—so he 1 d about and smoked. —7 an-the mail came in be gob’ his “ snd went back to his room,a skilrgj ehind the school, slab walls and ie a"« oof. ,nd f re were the usual official papers ime along in batches just before »s: station, Delponti threw them :e . they covld stay till- Monday, he ■ going to work on Saturday. shai ie opened bis private letters. One sc m with much enthusiasm' of the aecoj ranged for the vacation by 4 Byd» Fall * nip; the last week especially was ’ ■“ with amueement, something lor day and night, ‘after we ; get our — 3, you know;’’ four dances, tssE jti left off reading, rolled into lof ak, and groaned. He had been ss« mtbs in the busb. He was only n<fs used to have such jolly times le was in the city—those picnics, coming-homes in the moonlight 3 E o ; ths water, those Friday night —- rellas,’ and now—r>( ponti sat up in his bunk. l ’Stuck e; gumtrees and ’possums; bultE sobers and cookies, teaching kids hink you’re eomething astonishi?n you know you’re not, their ” toc imira ion for you and subservi’s,c uake you wjld, and the holidays t c ’ 1 roflnd and you haven’t ‘a bean,’ >enw ijjg’j to p a y yoijr fare out of the q“c 1 hole you love so well, and can’t Pj J A r it, for you’ve spoiled the mar-

& n ii slipped off his bunk and lusit j hi 3 box, from which he took his - suit, — tcy a fellow being such a fool as Lx 5g that here ! I ought to have rEBS oa hire down below ; I’d have s is, enough to pay my way back to it ; ; looked it over carefully, and went outside and hung it oyer nee to take out the creases itr the i en he sat on the back step and i | ;ht seriously of trying to writei- L 4e to a dress suit out of employes .■ isr a while he thought, however, flfc ooer letters unopened, so he put rh 10 ode, and turned to them—both -one with a short request for payon or immediately after the l=b B QlO ' fi e, y nice! Wnen is the Ist? i right its the m’ddle of the holi108I oB the Friday I Pity school didn’t »: o! tup that day instead of the 24th Sfi • I’d get my cheque and clear; , s # ’d be nothing left to pay these fe> —- when I came back.’ lii |?n a bright idee came suddenly to yjjo onti. *' He’d break np on the Ist geS instead of the J24th June ! He’d oebiS (be jolly week and then a quiet one 'I his own,’ while everybody eke uod !t ff ork, He couldn’t get away bcien. the Isb, as he had no money, so he it as well work that week and take by* h vacation after he was paid, Holi» fit. ■

days are useless without money. Who knew out here when the vacation ought to be 1 he was in the busb away from everybody ? So he decided to teach an extra week in .this half; 1 year andtake it off next : instead of his vacation being from the 27th (June (jfcmday) to the 8 h July (Friday),’ both, days inclusive, it should be from the 4 h July (Munday) to the 15th July (Friday), both days inclusive. He could fix the books so as to mark the, attendances on the proper dates : he’d do the actual work, and what did it matter, so long as he worked the week, whe her it were this week or next 1 So argued Delponti. The odds against his being found out were almost ‘anything to nothing,’ for the inspector bad been round the district about a month before, and in all the years that a school bad been there never had he,come more than once in 12 months, Delponti remembered nothing now to bring him, and if the, inspector did not find him out; it mattered nothing who else remarked the irregularity.

8o pleased was Delp mti that he b rrowed five shillings from the p stmaeter and rode off to the town,, where he played billiards till Sunday morning. Delponli’s echo 4 was a tenth-class Public, his average attendance 20, his salary £8 a month, if married £9. Del podti had not attempted to prove whether bis Department’s extra £la month was sufficient reward for extra demand upon his resources. He remained single, despite the addttionaFsalary offered. He worked very hard all the week, promised a special prize to every youngster who came every day in ’he week ending Ist July (the week that ought to have tern vacation), and felt when that day came that the school (since he bad been in charge) had never received so thorough a fortoigbi’e ednotion. Delponii was determined that though he bioke the regu--1 >tion concerning the time of vacation the school shoull not suffer in any particular. All his ability, and—careless fellow as he often wai—such was not small, was brought to his work, and Delponti rode away on the coach on the afternoon of Friday the Ist, satisfied that be had done his duty though he had done it in.the wrong week. He smiled as he thought to himself: ‘Those youngsters need a holiday now more than they did a fortnight ago ’ So he left behind him the gumtrees and the ’possums and the cookies along the flats and the bullock-punchers, and with bis cheque io bis pocket and bis dress suit in his bag,made citywards. He told .toe fellows when he got to town that his school had gone up wonderfully, tLe numbers increasing every week, that bis lajt reporL.was ‘very good plus,’ and it would have been 'excellent’ only one ‘kid' failed to spell goat in the first class—no word for a first-class kid —(Delponti memt no pun, children with him were always ‘kids’) —and that he wouldn’t leave where he was for any ordinary, consideration, Then be went to the office and asked for a move, which he didn’t get. He enjoye 1 himself, spent his cheque, and borrowed L 5 on the strength of saying that he hadn’t been paid fcr the month yet; the month he meant was J uly. C'n the second Monday, when he ought to hive been ba k -t work, he revelled in the delight of picturing all the fellows toiling away in their far-off bush schools trying to reconcile themselves patiently to the inevitable, soothing their soreness with memories of the holidays, while he strolled' about the city with the iar of never having had any work to do in his life.

What fan should he have that day 7 He though? hv’d take a run down to Manly and on to Narrabaen. He’d go round bo ‘Angela’ and see if one of ‘the girls’ could get ,away for the day. So he started off, and turning into the Strand met Gregg. ‘Hullo, Delponti !’ ‘Hallo—Gregg’ rather sickly. Gregg was the.teacher of the big school in the near, town.; to. Delponti,’’ a thorough ‘grinder,’lived do; his .school, a public school teacher and nothing else, Delponti would, have as soon met his chief.

’On leave, too f Gregg ssked. ‘l’m off for a month ; broke down, beastly climate out there ; bad luck, for I was just expecting exam, for first class.’ Delponti didn’t care for Gregg’s first class or anything of Gregg. He blurted out ; ‘No, I’m moved, have to see the chief at 10, must go, sorry can’t stay,’ and hurried ‘Ho, Delponti ?’ Delponti stopped. ‘Saw Keene, your inspector on Satur day, when I was coming away. He’s going out where you were this week ; new buildings or something.’ Delponti couldn’t answer ; he got away still more quickly. No ‘Angels,’ no Manly and Narrabeen that day. He went to his lodgings, packed up, and in trepidation stayed inside all the afternoon till it was time to go to the station. He was relieved only when his v train moved off for the south.

‘My blooming ■uck,’ he kept ing to himself. 'Lost my week, ana have a big chance or the sack if Keenes there before me.’ «

He travelled all night, hired a horse at the town where be left the train, atd rode as if for a doctor over the 30 miles between it and bis school.

He got there before the inspector, who came by coach in the afternoon, to find Delponti working diligently, bub the driver of the coach had been innocently communicative. Keene enquired about the new buildings, Delponti bolding bis breath all the while. Then he went off smiling urbanely, and with most kindly wishes for Delponti’s welfare. Keene gone, Delpon i rushed back into h;8 school, The children had been dismissed.

‘Did it,’ he cried. ‘Saved my billet, though 1 lost my week, If Keene—’ His eye fell on a note on the table. He took it up, trembling with anxiety. ‘Mr Delponti.— ‘lt is as well to take the whole period allowed for vacation. The Department does not pay for overtime. ‘Note and attend.

‘J, Keene, ‘lnspector.’ Delponti thought it ‘as well,’ and changed his opinion of Keene. A.G. V., in Sydney Mai).