Page:Hornung - Fathers of Men.djvu/377

 like to think that—what?—say 10 or 20 per cent, of the best of you came from this place. Yet you might have learnt to bowl as well on any local ground. And I wonder if we've taught you a single concrete thing that will come in useful in the bush."

"I might have been a pro. by this time," said Jan, set thinking of his prospects in his father's life-time. "I certainly was more used to horses when I came here than I am now."

"It isn't as if we'd taught you book-keeping, for instance," continued Heriot, pursuing his own line of thought. "That, I believe, is an important job on the most remote stations; but I doubt if we've even fitted you to audit books that have been kept for you. The only books we have rubbed into you are the very ones you'll never open again. And what have you got out of them?"

"I can think of one thing," said Jan—"and I got it from Mr. Haigh, too! Possunt quia posse videntur—you can because you think you can. I've often said that to myself when there was a good man in—and sometimes I've got him!"

"That's good!" exclaimed Heriot. "That's fine, Jan; you must let me tell Haigh that. Can you think of anything else?"

"I don't know, sir. I never was much good at work. But sometimes I've thought it teaches you your place, a school like this."

"It does—if you want teaching. But you"

"I'd learnt it somewhere else, but I had it to learn all over again here."

"You always have—each time you get your step—that's one of the chief points about promotion! You may have been schoolmastering for fifteen years, but you've got to