Greg’s first published story
“Hey Editor,” you might be asking, “What was Greg Clark’s first published story?” Now you might think that it was from 1912, when he started working for the Toronto Star. That would be hard to discern, as back then, most news articles were not credited, especially for a new reporter, even if he is the editor’s son. However, his first story dates back to 1905, in something called the “The School Children’s Star”, “A Weekly Newspaper Written, Illustrated, and Edited by School Children, Published Every Saturday by The Toronto Daily Star in its Regular Issue.” Each week, a different school gets to participate. On November 4, 1905, the issue is “Contributed this week by Huron Street School.” The illustrations are not credited, so they could have been done by Greg?
HOME WORK, DEAR OLD HOME WORK.
How I love the time, in the evening as I am buried deep in a Henty story1, when my father says to me, “Now, boy, get at your home work.” And in my hunting for my school bag I come across that long lost hat, and put it in a place where it is findable in the morning. When at last I am again in the sitting room, I pull from the depths of my school bag my grammar and begin learning its beautiful rules.
I have had some experience which shows that you should do home work when your father is around. I had dropped the speller accidentally and stooped to pick it up. The Henty came up with it. Unfortunately, my pater found out my mistake, and put on a look of the most surprised amazement. I had been reading a short time, but I had not comprehended that it was not spelling. He only said that he’d been a boy once himself.
The telephone bell rang and father went down stairs to answer. For the comfort of his feet, he had put on those old noiseless slippers, but I didn’t know this. So picked up Henty to be sure that the hero got over the wall of Tippoo Sahib’s palace2. There was a creak at the door, and on looking up I beheld father gazing at me out of the corner of his eye. “I-I-er–just wanted to see if he got off the wall,” I stammered.
It is said that some bad boys in Hamilton, when their parents want to test them on their work, say that their home work is up nearer the front in their spellers and grammars, so that they’ll get easy things, and are able to show off. But they are generally found out. Their parents will ask them for the book they have got their home work in, and see they have been fooling them – then, you know the rest.
But I don’t see why teachers want home work anyway. If it’s to get pupils through and get silly ones out of the class, why, just as many and just as silly ones come in again. Maybe I’m wrong, but I know most of us wish that home work wasn’t.
Anyway it always ends the same. Spelling, grammar, arithmetic, and even the heroes of Henty fade away, under the bright colors and jolly ramblings in Dreamland.
Gregory Clark, aged 13, Senior Fourth.
Editor’s Note:
- This is G.A. Henty, an English novelist best known for his works of adventure fiction and historical fiction. These stories would have been popular with schoolboys of the era. His children’s novels typically revolved around a boy or young man living in troubled times. Henty’s heroes are uniformly intelligent, courageous, honest and resourceful with plenty of ‘pluck’ yet are also modest. These themes have made Henty’s novels popular today among many conservative Christians and homeschoolers. 122 books were published between 1867 and 1906. ↩︎
- The particular book he is reading is The Tiger of Mysore: A Story of the War with Tippoo Saib from 1896. ↩︎