Knew better
Leo dreamed about going to school. He was like his mother, a social butterfly, not to mention that the boy needed friends and craved for new impressions. However, his father wasn’t too fond of his son’s ideas. The problem was that the man had his own “unorthodox theories of education”, one of which was that Leo “should not be sent to school.” “As far as he could” he educated the boy himself “with the help of a tutor who came out from Salisbury.” The irony of that situation was that Leo would soon change his mind. School wasn’t as great as he expected and he would gladly stay home.
Underestimation
The talents of Leo’s father went “into his hobbies”, which were “book collecting and gardening.” As for his career, he had accepted “a routine occupation” and was “quite content to be a bank manager in Salisbury.” Leo’s mother wasn’t too fond of her husband’s hobbies and often criticized his “his lack of enterprise” and was “a little jealous and impatient of his hobbies, which enclosed him in himself” and “got him nowhere.” The irony was that Leo’s mother turned out to be “wrong,” for her husband’s books “made a sum that astonished” them when they were sold.
Just a child
Leo’s mother loved her son dearly and wanted him to be happy; thus, she sent him to school he had dreamed about so much. She wanted to see him smiling, meet new friends, and just enjoy his life. But it wasn’t that easy. Though Leo was an outgoing boy, there were pupils who would rather make fun of him rather than be his friends. When Leo told the mother about them, he called them “enemies.” “But you oughtn't to have enemies at your age,” was all she could say. The irony of the situation was that she failed to notice that Leo wasn’t a little boy anymore, not to mention that he tended to see the world in black and white colors.
