SGB Chapter 262

## Chapter 262: The Education Problem (4k2)

**London, Westminster, 4 Whitehall Street.**

Arthur sat in his office, arms crossed, gazing at the two young lads seated before him. On the table between them lay two reports from the Greenwich Grammar School, delivered to Scotland Yard.

The office was silent, and Arthur didn’t need to speak. A single sweep of his gaze sent the boys’ heads down in shame.

Arthur flipped through the reports, reading aloud, “Torn up another student’s writing sample, fought with classmates, and insulted the teacher. Adam, Allen, do you have anything to say about this feedback?”

“Mr. Hastings, I…” Adam, sporting a black eye, looked up at Arthur, then glanced at his sidekick, Pinkerton, whose left cheek was bruised. He seemed hesitant to speak.

Pinkerton abruptly jumped from his chair, slamming his hat onto the floor. “Sir, if you’re looking for a scapegoat, then you can blame me. This was my doing, Adam had nothing to do with it. He’s a coward, he wouldn’t have dared to defy the teacher without me backing him up. You understand, just like how you back up Miss Fiona.”

Arthur merely raised an eyebrow at this. “Allen, if only you learned as quickly in spelling and arithmetic.”

The Red Devil, standing nearby, couldn’t help but burst into laughter. He fanned his hand, creating a small breeze that ruffled Pinkerton’s blonde hair. “Look at that, Arthur, this little guy is going places.”

Pinkerton retorted, “Sir, you have no idea how shitty that grammar school is! They underestimate me and Adam, thinking we’re just two meek good-for-nothings. They need to understand that I came from the Glasgow slums, and Adam rolled in from Saint Giles. If the teacher hadn’t stopped us, we would have twisted the ears off those snobby bastards! You understand, just like how you back up Miss Fiona.”

Arthur, about to speak, swallowed his words and took a sip of tea. “Sounds like there’s more to this story?”

“Of course!”

Pinkerton said with a grudge, “The grammar teacher doesn’t like me and Adam. Maybe because he thinks we don’t listen to him, so he constantly finds fault with us. First it was spelling mistakes, then grammar errors, then he said our handwriting was messy. We corrected all of them, but then during class one day, he suddenly called me and Adam up to repeat what he had just said.

Me and Adam couldn’t remember it, so he made us wear a dunce cap and hung a sign around our necks with insulting words written on it. After class, those snobby bastards wouldn’t stop talking in our ears, singing songs to mock us. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I ripped up their writing samples and punched them a couple of times.”

Adam chimed in, “Mr. Hastings, I tried to calm Allen down. I went to a workhouse for a few days, and that was much worse than grammar school. The teachers there were two drunken old sailors who didn’t teach anything. They just made sure we kept quiet. Except for the lunch, which was often meager, grammar school was overall better. But Allen was already furious, he wouldn’t listen to anything, he just wanted to give those bastards a taste of their own medicine, so…”

Arthur asked, “So… how did you get involved?”

Adam replied sheepishly, “Allen was riding one of the kids, beating him up. That kid was our monitor. Mr. Hastings, you know what a monitor is? It’s a university student, the most learned among us. When the teacher’s not there, he teaches us. He gets four pence a week from the school, so he listens to the teacher like a dog.

The teacher didn’t like me and Allen, so he joined in on the bullying. That’s why Allen went after him. But the monitor had his own group of sycophants, and when they saw their leader getting beaten up, they all rushed to give Allen a lesson.

I thought to myself, ‘Oh my god! These little bastards are going to hurt my buddy! I can’t let anything happen to Allen, how would I explain it to my parents back home? How could I face Mr. Hastings at Scotland Yard? I’ve lost him a good man.'”

Arthur flipped through the documents in his hand. “Adam.”

Adam said innocently, “What is it, Mr. Hastings?”

Arthur looked at him and said, “Looks like Allen didn’t feed you candy for nothing. You actually stepped up when things went down.”

Adam was confused. “Sir, are you praising me? I thought you’d at least give us a good scolding for this.”

Arthur leaned back in his chair and said, “If what you both said is true, then yes, I am praising you. Though beating someone up is definitely wrong, but considering you thought of a way to solve the problem, improved your spelling, grammar, and messy handwriting, and you didn’t have any better options at the time, then it is what it is.

But to prove you’re not lying, tomorrow Tom will prepare two writing samples for you. If you can write down all the words on them, then I’ll believe your story and arrange a transfer for you to a better school, one more suitable for you two. What do you think?”

Pinkerton was initially happy, but at the mention of switching schools, he couldn’t help but feel a little deflated. “Sir, can’t we just not go to school? I think it’s fine right now, I already know how to spell a lot of words. If this hadn’t happened, by the end of this semester, I should be able to jump from first grade to third grade.”

“Oh! Is that so? Congratulations, Allen, you now have the basic skills to become a clerk or a journalist.”

With that, Arthur changed his tone. “But for an employee of the London Metropolitan Police Intelligence Bureau, or to become an outstanding detective, knowing how to spell is far from enough.”

“But…”

Pinkerton replied, “My old man, who’s buried in the ground now, said that to find a job in society, you mostly need more than just reading. Like, if a wealthy family wants a maid, they’ll usually ask their maids for introductions. Or, if the mines need people, they’ll mostly hire relatives of the current miners. The son of a priest becomes a priest, the officers of the Royal Navy usually have an uncle or a cousin who’s a general. Isn’t that how Mr. Carter got here? If my old man hadn’t kicked the bucket, maybe I’d be a cop in Glasgow.”

Arthur smiled, “Allen, your father was right about that. But you also have to consider that you have me standing here in front of you. There are more than just Elder Carter in the Royal Navy officer group. Captains who climbed their way up from pig herders are rare, but if you dig hard enough, you can still find a few. The worst part is, you still haven’t realized what you have. You have a priest uncle and a Royal Navy officer uncle out at sea, you have a police officer uncle sitting right here, and you and Adam are…”

Arthur was interrupted by a knock on the door.

The door was pushed open, Louis Bonaparte stood at the doorway holding a stack of documents. He was about to enter when he was startled by the two boys.

Arthur pointed at the two boys, “See, there’s an emperor right there. All you need to do is study hard, and as for those rotten things that happen at school, I can’t guarantee they won’t happen again, nor can I force you to put up with them. But you can’t stop going to school because you don’t like it.

I don’t like talking about my past, but Allen, Adam, I think I need to tell you this. Is reading not important? If your goal is to become some big shot, then reading isn’t that important. But if you just want to live better than you do now, then reading is crucial.

Don’t think I’m all that glamorous now. When I was nine, I was worse off than you two. Allen, you lost your father at nine, and I was the same. I don’t remember what my father looked like. The neighbors said he might have been taken by the Royal Navy recruiters. We haven’t heard from him in all these years, he might be dead at sea for all we know.

As for my mother, she remarried after a few years, just like your mother, and followed a stranger to who knows where. The reason I didn’t starve to death is because the neighbors and the local priest were kind, and of course, the most important thing is that I was strong and never had a serious illness.

From the age of seven, I was a scarecrow in the fields of York. I still remember it was early spring. I would sit on the edge of the field from dawn till dusk, throwing stones at crows whenever they came to steal the seeds. I wouldn’t get back to sleep until the sun set.

Even now, I sometimes have nightmares about that scene. I’m alone, sitting there, the world is silent, the hardened soil of early spring digging into my butt, I’m cold and hungry, no one to talk to, it’s like time has stopped. I didn’t want to do this job, but I had to. I had to work to get some bread.

Besides, all the kids with parents had to do this, let alone me, who had neither a father nor a mother.

When the seeds sprouted, my treatment got a little better. I could then go to the farm and herd sheep. During the busy harvest season, I would help the adults harvest barley, throwing bundles of wheat onto the wagon and then into the warehouse.

After all that, I became a pig feeder. Then in winter, I’d carry a hoe and follow the farm workers to plow the fields, starting the cycle all over again.

Because of this, when I got the chance to read, I clung to it like a drowning man clutching a life raft. I didn’t know back then that I could become an inspector at Scotland Yard. I only knew that reading more could help me, a man trapped in the hell of the York countryside, to get out.

Being a company clerk or a copyist may not seem like a big deal, but to me back then, it was an unimaginable dream.”

Agareus leaned against Arthur’s shoulder and grinned, “No need to thank me, Arthur, it’s just a small favor. But it’s interesting, living this kind of life, the first time I saw you, you were thinking about stealing a Bible from the local priest. Was I just a little late, and you were about to convert to God? Or did you just find life too boring?”

Before Arthur could reply to the Red Devil, the two boys jumped down from their chairs and apologized.

“Sorry, Mr. Hastings.”

Louis Bonaparte, surprised, said, “This… I thought a gentleman with your upbringing would have received a good family education… I didn’t know you were a farmer’s son?”

Immediately, Alexandre Dumas popped his head out from behind Louis Bonaparte. The French fat man chuckled, “A farmer’s son? That’s still higher than my ancestors’ status. But this world is pretty magical, Arthur. How did you come up with the idea of having a Bonaparte as your police secretary? The most absurd thing is that he actually agreed!”

Louis Bonaparte didn’t pay attention to Dumas’ words. He said, “Mr. Dumas, there’s nothing absurd about it. I think learning at Scotland Yard is better than wandering the streets of London.”

Dumas wanted to say something, but the words got stuck in his throat.

As a French republican, he, like his friends Hugo and Balzac, had a very conflicted feeling about Napoleon and his family.

While they all agreed that Napoleon was a usurper, they also highly respected the legacy and glorious past that Napoleon left behind for France.

This is why he didn’t verbally attack Louis Bonaparte when he first met him, and even felt a strange sense of closeness.

On the one hand, because he was a Bonaparte, on the other hand, because this guy participated in the Carbonari uprising in Italy.

But when he saw the article Louis Bonaparte published in The Economist, that sense of closeness turned into deep suspicion and confusion.

Because Dumas couldn’t understand what a republican monarchy was. This innovative political system was unheard of, beyond Dumas’ own imagination, which he thought was already quite outlandish.

As Dumas pondered Louis Bonaparte’s intentions, the police secretary stepped forward and handed Arthur the documents.

“Sir, MP Bernie Harrison sent someone to Scotland Yard this morning, hoping to meet with Commissioner Rowan. But Commissioner Rowan seems to be unwell and went home early today. He recommended that Mr. Harrison meet with you first. If you think it’s okay, I’ll have someone send him a reply. What do you think about the coffee shop outside Whitehall Street?”

(End of Chapter)