profession--an accountant--as they call it in Scotland. Lately he had
made some serious blunders in his arithmetic, and his eyesight was
so weak that his wife persuaded him to consult a first-rate Edinburgh
oculist, whose opinion, given only yesterday, after many days of anxious
suspense, was that in a few months he would become incurably blind.
"Blind, poor father blind!" Donald put his hand before his own eyes. He
was too big a boy to cry, or at any rate, to be seen crying, but it
was with a choking voice that he spoke next: "I'll be his eyes; I'm old
enough."
"Yes; in many ways you are, my son," said Mrs. Boyd, who had had a day
and a night to face her sorrow, and knew she must do so calmly. "But you
are not old enough to manage the business; your father will require
to take a partner immediately, which will reduce our income one-half.
Therefore we cannot possibly afford to send you to school again. The
little ones must go, they are not nearly educated yet, but you are. You
will have to face the world and earn your own living, as soon as ever
you can. My poor boy!"
"Don't call me poor, mother. I've got you and father and the rest. And,
as you say, I've had a good education so far. And I'm fifteen and a
half, no, fifteen and three-quarters--almost a man. I'm not afraid."
"Nor I," said his mother, who had waited a full minute before Donald
could find voice to say all this, and it was at last stammered out
awkwardly and at random. "No; I am not afraid because my boy has to
earn his bread; I had earned mine for years as a governess when father
married me. I began work before I was sixteen. My son will have to do
the same, that is all."
That day the mother and son spoke no more together. It was as much
as they could do to bear their trouble, without talking about it, and
besides, Donald was not a boy to "make a fuss" over things. He could
meet sorrow when it came, that is, the little of it he had ever known,
but he disliked speaking of it, and perhaps he was right.So he just "made himself scarce" till bedtime, and never said a word to anybody until his mother came into the boys' room to bid them good-night. There were three of them, but all were asleep except Donald. As his mother bent down to kiss him, he put both arms round her neck.

"Mother, I'm going to begin to-morrow."

"Begin what, my son?"

"Facing the world, as you said I must. I can't go to school again, so I mean to try and earn my own living."

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