By CLIFFORD COLLINS I T was a Thursday, 8.45 ain., a
couple of. weeks beford Christmas in Dellow Road. You will have passed Dellow Road, if you've ever driven via Maidstone to Dover, for Calais. But on this pre-Christmas Thursday, 1 was bound for the West County School, passing en route the Corner Shop, Mrs. Perks's Haberdashery, the Milk Bar, and a row of meant tidy, four-roomed houses, with labels like ' The Laurels,' ' Park View,' even ' Journey's End.' And I was walking, say, twenty yards behind Hillcroft, who is a one-armed man I ex-service, and the teacher of our D-stream. Hillcroft, must say, was until recently not popular; for he is sour, a9 well as severe, which he has to be. Without authority, he was unprotected along the two-hundred-yard stretch of Dellow Road, between the bus stop and the iron school gates. So it was a fine opportunity for a boy named Mason, a pupil of Hillcroft's, to poke his head out of the first floor window of ' Journey's End' and call out, as he did on this occasion, ' Scrooge ! Scrooge ! Look at old Scroogic ! ' He had been reading A Christmas Carol; or, I should say, as Mason can't read, that Hillcroft had been reading the book aloud to 3D. He had not reached the part yet when Scrooge reforms. YOU remember, Scrooge provides a dinner. Now Hillcroft is a teacher condemned to teach fourteen, year-old boys who can't count to count, who can't read to read. He is quite good at it. His pupils learn to make theit way through comics, to count their wages, and fill in theit football pool coupons. It is a pathetic, uneasy task. Every day I pass the but in which Hillcroft and thirty pupi19 are immured, and notice the loose jaws, the bright but reflectionless eyes, the cognitionless faces which compose Hillcroft's audience. Hillcroft is at the blackboard demon. strafing. He is ingenious. On the blackboard is written : Aston Villa 2, Wolverhampton Wanderers 2; Bolton Wanderers 4, Newcastle United 1; Arsenal 6, Chelsea 0; and so on. Hill, croft used to be a keen footballer. He is an educational psychologist. Each pupil has in front of him a duplicated football pool coupon.. And the exercise consists in putting 1, 2, X, or 0 in the appropriate column, according to the scores that are written on the blackboard. It is a valuable arab• metical exercise; according to the 1944 Act, ' education for life,' and such like. Hillcroft's work with the D-stream hag been recognised by the award of a Special Responsibility Allowance (£45 p.a.). And the method undoubtedly gelS results, as this story will show. the sauté of beef was steaming cold. After spending a minute or two balancing plate and cup against a cardboard ice pudding on top of a Wall's refrigerator, listening the while to dis- jointed ejaculations such as ' Lucky, ain't 'e ? " For twenty- three points," Once in a bloomin' lifetime,' and Five thahsend nicker,' I managed to secure a stool next to the butcher's assistant, and discover what it was about. Two or three stools away was the magnetic centre of the Milk Bar, and enthroned upon it was Mason's old man from Journey's End.' I dunno 'ow many years 'e's been doin' it,' said the butcher's assistant, and this is the first bloomin' time 'e's won, aht.'
Five thousand,' I confirmed.
' Yes, second divvy,' said the cooked meat man.
I had just enough time to make a rapid calculation—ten Ford Anglias, fifty large-screen TVs, seventy-five family-size refrigerators—before Mason's old man called out to me along the counter. You just try clahtin' my boy nah,' he laughed, filled in me bloomin' coup'n 'e did. Wait till 1 see Mr. 'Illcroft, ah've got somethin' for 'im.'
What've you got ? ' I asked.
'Illcroft can 'ave anythin"e bloomin' well likes,' said Mason's old man, full of himself to bursting, "Illcroft can. 'Ave a cup o' tea ? Afterwards I hurried back to the staffroom with the news, and on the way met Hillcroft coming back from canteen, swinging his single arm to keep warm in the frosty air. He looked preoccupied. He inclines his head to one side as he walks, which gives him a slightly absent appearance, and he Was no doubt thinking about how to demonstrate a point to 3D during the afternoon lesson. dough lively in class, he is inclined to be melancholic outside it. He is dry, dour. ' At last I've done something useful,' was all he said, apart from muttering Five thousand quid ' once or twice. It was worse when everyone started congratulating him, as if he'd won the money himself.
The West County School breaks up late for Christmas, and we have as a rule only two or three days left to buy presents and things. On the penultimate day, old man Mason came round to see us. He had tea in the statfroom, and made an attempt to formally present our colleague Hillcroft with a cheque. Of course, he wouldn't accept it. ' After all, Mr. Mason,' he said, ' it isn't as if I actually gave you the perm.' There was no bloomin' perm, cock,' old man Mason rejoined. Our Fred just wrote dahn what you 'ad on your board.'
It was the general opinion that 3Rs or 3D, young Fred would go far.
At the end of term, of course, no one shouted, Scrooge ! Look at old Scroogie ! ' as Hillcroft walked home along Dellow Road. A Christmas Carol was finished, and they knew he'd reformed. ' Afternoon, Mr. 'Illcroft, was Mason's Christmas farewell over the Journey's End' garden gate. Already the television aerial was up, and the CWS furniture van-man was on his way in with a three-piece suite. Fred was wearing a bright red, brand-new waterproof jacket, his elder brother was in Edwardians, and Maisie, his sister, had the best pair of fur boots that money could buy. And on Christmas morning, of course, a goose will be delivered hot and ready to cut.
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