had one leg out of the cart, "I am glad Lucy was not with us. She would have been frightened out of her wits at seeing me coming down." "Look to yourself now, and take your other leg out of the cart," said Mr. Watson, "for we want the cart to go up again." "It was lucky I drew my leg out of the way in time, or I should have been thrown out of the cart along with that mountain of coal," said Harry. 66 'Yes, people must take care of their own legs and arms in these places," said Mr. Watson; " and in all places it is no bad thing to do." Bluff and rough as he was, Harry liked Mr. Watson, who was very goodnatured, and whenever he had time to think of the boy, pointed out what was worth his seeing; but once nearly threw him into a ditch, by swinging him too far with one arm over a stile. At the next stile Harry said, "I would rather get over by myself, sir, if you please." "Do so if you can; and I see that you can, so I need not trouble myself more about you." It was dinner time when they reached Mr. Watson's house. Here they dined at an earlier hour than Harry and Lucy were used to, but they were quite ready to eat; Harry especially, after all the exercise he had taken. The dinner was plentiful though plain, and there were creams and sweet things in abundance, for the master loved them, and his wife and sisters were skilled in confectionary arts. As soon as the cloth was removed, Mr. Watson swallowed a glass of wine, and pushing the bottle to his guests, rose from table, saying, "I must leave you now to take care of yourselves, I must go to my business." Harry jumped up directly, and followed him to the door. His mother called him back, saying, she was afraid he would be troublesome. "Mr. Watson did not ask you to go with him, did he?" "I did not think of the boy," said Mr. Watson, looking back from the door. "I am going only to see my workmen paid this Saturday evening; this would be no diversion to you, my boy, would it?" "Yes it would," said Harry, "if I should not be troublesome," he was going to say, but Mr. Watson went on, "Follow then, and welcome. You will not be any trouble to me: I shall not think you more than if you were not with of So much the better, thought Harry, who liked to stand by, and see and hear, without any body's minding him. Mr. Watson hastily swinging round his great coat as he spoke, flung the flaps into Harry's eyes; but Harry not minding that, ran after him; Mr. Watson strode across the court yard, and up the office stairs, three steps at a time. The room was full of men, who made way directly for their master, but the crowd closed again before Harry could pass. However, he squeezed in under the elbows of the great men, till he got to a corner beside the desk of the clerk, who was sitting with a great open book, and a bag of money before him. Harry knew he was not to interrupt, so he asked no questions, but got up on a tall mushroom-topped leather stool, which stood beside the clerk's seat, and watched all that went on. He was amused with the countenances of the men, who each in turn came to the desk. He observed that Mr. Watson was in the first place very exact to see that they were rightly paid. Once when there was some difficulty, with a deaf stupid old man, about the balance of his account, he looked into the books himself, to see whether the old man or the clerk was right; and Harry, looking and listening, tried to learn what was meant by this balance of account. Mr. Watson was better than his word, for he found time between the going away of one class of workmen, and the coming of another, to explain it to Harry, whom he saw poring over the clerk's shoulder, and who once ventured to say, "Where is the balance that he is talking of?" 1 "Look here, the whole mystery is this. Look at the top of these pages, and of all the pages in the book. D'. and C., that is, Debtor and Creditor. Debtor on the left hand page; Creditor on the right hand page. All that this man owes to me is put on the Debtor, or left hand side of the book; all that is due to him is to be put on the Creditor, or right hand side. Then add together all the sums, that belong to the Debtor side, and all the sums that belong to the Creditor side, and see which is the heaviest, or largest, and deduct the least, or lightest sum from it; the difference, whatever it may be, is called the balance. You may consider an account as a pair of scales, and the sums put on either side as weights: weights: the two sides are at last to be made to balance each other, as the weights in the opposite scales. Now, for example, look here, at John Smith's account, Debtor side two pounds. Creditor side four pounds eight shillings; you, my boy, may make out what the balance is, which I am to pay him. Write your answer down, when you know it. But take your head |