Luke would not have said he was fond of sums. He would rather do many other things than sums, and usually goes out of his way to put off doing them. But once he is doing them, he always finds himself enjoying the way the numbers line themselves up neatly, first in his head and then on the slate, and likes nothing better than to run straight through and finish them all. If he is interrupted- for whatever reason- he resents the interruption, and finds it a struggle to pull himself away.

'Come here a moment, lad.'

Luke is doing his sums in a corner of the sitting room, and over near the fire his uncle is reading the newspaper and drinking something that smells like medicine. His uncle has set down his newspaper, and when Luke does not come at once, he calls him over again.