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Title: The freed boy in Alabama
Author: Anne M. Mitchell
Release date: November 21, 2024 [eBook #74773]
Language: English
Original publication: United States: Presyterian Board of Publication
Credits: David E. Brown and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FREED BOY IN ALABAMA ***
[Illustration: “Say, Boy! Do you want to hire out?”
_Freed-Boy in Alabama._ Frontispiece. See page 5.]
THE
FREED BOY IN ALABAMA.
BY
ANNE M. MITCHELL,
AUTHOR OF “MARTHA’S GIFT.”
“If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.”
PHILADELPHIA:
PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION,
1334 CHESTNUT STREET.
Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
WM. L. HILDEBURN, TREASURER,
_in trust for the_
PRESBYTERIAN PUBLICATION COMMITTEE,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court for the Eastern District
of Pennsylvania.
WESTCOTT & THOMSON,
Stereotypers, Philada.
THE FREED BOY IN ALABAMA.
CHAPTER I.
“New are the leaves on the oaken spray,
New the blades of the silky grass;
Flowers that were buds but yesterday
Peep from the ground where’er I pass.”
BRYANT.
It was an April day in the South--not windy and blustering, with the
remembrances of March still clinging about it, but warm and lovely,
mild and balmy, with spring beauty and promise of good over everything.
The grass was springing everywhere, and the buds on the trees were
bursting into blossom, and one could gather tender leaves and delicate
sprays of white and hold them with the tender, caressing touch which
we give to all that heralds spring. It was a good day to breathe the
soft, mild air, to be among the growing things and dismiss winter from
the mind; and, above all, it was one of those days when the restless
feeling we all have sometimes returns in full force, and the thought
of coming life and energy in the natural world fills the mind with a
longing to do something more than sit still and enjoy.
All this--not exactly in this form, but the substance of this--with a
restless, unsatisfied feeling, was possessing and fast getting control
of Tom Alson, as he sat on a box in front of a store in Huntsville,
idly tapping one foot after the other against its wooden sides. He had
anything but an ambitious, energetic look, but then Tom never showed
his feelings, and any one gazing at him would hardly have imagined that
at this very moment he was longing to go out into the world and “do
something.”
Certainly the man who came up to him just then had very little idea of
the lofty thought in which Tom was indulging, for he gave him only a
hasty glance before he addressed him.
“Say, boy, want to hire out?” asked the man.
Tom started and roused himself: “I was not thinking of it, sir,” he
replied.
“Well, think of it now, then; I am trying to find boys to work for Mr.
Sutherland on his plantation, about twenty miles out. They are growing
corn and cotton. I’d be glad to have you go; give you six dollars a
month and board.”
“No, sir,” replied Tom; “I think I will not hire out this summer.”
“Oh think again! Six dollars a month is no mean pay, and I’ve a lot of
Huntsville niggers going along.”
“No, sir,” replied Tom again, decidedly, and rising as he spoke, as if
not wishing to continue the conversation.
“What’s to hinder you?” asked the man.
“I am going to school, sir,” returned the boy, knowing that this would
put a stop to the urging; and it was successful, for the man, with a
few coarse words about “niggers and education,” turned suddenly and
walked away, and Tom, with his hands in his pockets, sauntered off in
an opposite direction, whistling.
He came up to his home by and by, and found his sister Martha in a
chair outside the door, busied with some sewing. He sat down on a step
near and watched her swift-moving hand in silence for some minutes,
with his eyes on her work and his thoughts a long way off.
“Has mother come back?” he asked, at length.
“Yes, Tom,” replied Martha, with a little sigh, “but she didn’t succeed
in getting any work. I do not see how we are going to get along. I
think I shall try to see if I can get something to do.”
“I was thinking of that, too,” said Tom. “There’s a man here to-day who
wants hands to go twenty miles out. He wanted me, but I told him ‘No.’”
Martha stitched away in silence.
“I’d go,” said Tom, suddenly, “but there’s the school; I could not give
that up.”
“Not for Jesus, Tom?” asked Martha, looking round with a little smile.
“_Would_ it be for Jesus, Martha,” said Tom, earnestly, “to give up
school and go to work, neglecting my education meanwhile?”
“Think about it, Tom, and remember what Paul did for Jesus.”
Tom did think. The conversation ceased between them entirely, and the
fresh spring breezes came from the South, laden with the breath of
flowers, and passed gently by the two seated before the cabin door, one
of them so busy with his decision.
When Tom, at length, rose and moved off, Martha could not tell his
thought, although she peered anxiously into his face to see if possible
what lay there, but it was unmoved, and he did not meet her look of
inquiry with any return, but passed out of the gate, swinging it after
him, and walking off toward the quarter of the town where his father
was at work. He looked very grave when the two came in together at
dinner-time, and hurried off toward the school-room before his sister
was ready. She watched him a little anxiously all the afternoon, but
the grave, intent face did not once relax its gravity, and the lines of
soberness remained even after the pleasant afternoon session came to a
close. Martha waited for her brother some minutes, with the hope that
she might have one of their customary talks on their way home, but he
did not come away, so she went on alone.
It was not until an hour later, while she was busily weeding the little
garden, that Tom came up and stopped at her side.
“Martha, I’m going,” he said, abruptly.
“Tom! why, Tom--going! when and what for,” she said, starting and
turning round toward him.
“Going to-morrow, Martha, and for Jesus,” he replied, quietly.
Martha turned back again suddenly without remark, and industriously
weeded the springing grass from around the young plants.
Tom waited several minutes, and then spoke again:
“Are you not glad of this, Martha?”
She dropped the shovel with which she had been working, turned toward
him, and lifting her hands to her head in a nervous way, replied, with
quivering lips:
“That I am glad, you know, but oh I shall lose my brother!”
Tom’s eyes fell and his mouth twitched.
“I’ve been to see Miss Mason,” he said, after a minute, “to bid her
good-bye. She says I must send her a letter. That is a great blessing
which we did not always have, Martha--we may write to each other. That
is good.”
“Yes.” Martha knew it as well as Tom, and I think it was the thought
of this more than almost anything else which served to keep them in
some degree of cheerfulness during the remainder of his stay. It was
not long, only so many short hours Martha almost counted the minutes.
It was like Tom to act in a moment when the question of duty came home
to him, and although Martha knew this, yet she had been surprised,
after all, at his sudden acting upon her suggestion. What if Tom should
sicken or be in any want so far from home?--for to Martha the distance
seemed immense. Would she not then be sorry she had ever encouraged
him? But those precious letters! How thankful she felt that she could
write, and that though miles were between them, yet words could pass
from one to the other!
How Tom felt no one knew. He hid his feelings always. Martha was the
only one who ever had a glimpse, and she only now and then. He counted
the cost at every step, yet still he had gone back to his acquaintance
of the morning, and agreed with him to work on the plantation during
the summer. His father had listened, too, when he proposed it, and
although he would have liked to keep his boy at home, yet work was
scarce, and he could not always find means to live; so Tom must go. He
had taken leave of his teacher and the school-room quite calmly, to all
appearance, and no one knew how hard the struggle was to give up all
this for Jesus. Yet it was this thought which kept him up through it
all, and watching Martha’s grave face as she bent over his box placing
his things together, he longed to tell her his source of comfort. But
perhaps he needed it himself more than she did, for to one of his
disposition to go from home and mingle among strangers was very hard,
very much against his will. Yet as he looked at it, he thought perhaps
God had sent him just this trial to make him better, and that he might
have something for him to do for his service in the country. And so his
courage did not quite fail.
How his eyes lingered the next morning upon everything about his home,
trying as he did to impress each little portion of the house-furnishing
upon his memory! It seemed as if he could not lose sight of his sister
Martha’s face. His eyes followed her everywhere. It was almost strange,
the devoted affection which had sprung up between the two; and it was
so hard, just as they were helping one another along the narrow way
through the journey of life, to be obliged to part.
But it came, late in the afternoon--the parting--and was over, and Tom
found himself in the car looking out at the country, green, and fresh,
and beautiful, and trying to realize how long it would be before the
familiar faces would be near him again. Of all Tom’s boy friends there
was but one who was of this company, and he, although a school-mate,
knew Tom only slightly. But he was alone too, and so after a while,
seeing the empty seat beside Tom, he came and sat down.
“How do you think you’ll like it out there?” he asked, as Tom turned
round.
“I have hardly thought,” replied Tom. “I do not know anything about
it.”
“I can tell you a heap then. It’s a big plantation, with quarters for
the hands not far from the house. The master lives in a big, white
mansion, and has charge of the cotton and cornfields. My brother is
there, and he says it’s a pretty good place. Pay is regular, and that’s
the most, you know.”
“Where shall we stay? Do you know?” asked Tom.
“No, I don’t. I ’spects likely we’ll be quartered with some old
auntie or other. I don’t much care. They have jolly times after
hours--breakdowns and dances. Hi! it’s gay fun!”
Tom’s heart sank. He looked out of the window and saw the great trees
with their tops just lighted with the rising moon, heard the shrill
cry of the mocking-bird, and saw the fireflies lighting up the woods
with a thousand tiny lamps. Cool the evening air came across his face,
with the motion of the car hurrying on through one of the most glorious
countries on which the sun shines. Tom saw it all, and loved it for
the sake of Him who made it, but his heart was heavy with the grief of
parting, the sting of poverty which sent him away from home, and the
prospect before him. Very rebellious, very discontented, his thoughts
were for a few minutes, until some old auntie going out with the
company, and who had learned with the experience of years to leave her
burden of care in His hands “who careth for us,” struck up a hymn, and
as the voices one by one joined in with her, until the car was full of
the melody which floated out upon the evening air among the moss-laden
trees, Tom’s head sank and rested upon the seat in front, and the tears
came--tears of penitence and joy--as he listened:
“Oh God’s got a plenty for all of his children--
Sit all around God’s table;
For God’s got plenty for all his children--
Sit all around God’s table.”
There was a prayer for help and courage as Tom listened, and after it
was finished his head was lifted with new resolve. He was immediately
attacked again by the boy at his side.
“You went to see Miss Mason yesterday, did you not?” he demanded.
“Yes,” replied Tom, with a softened remembrance of the words of
kindliness and cheer given him by his teacher. “Yes, I did; I went to
bid her good-bye. How did you know?”
“Because I went myself, and she told me you were of the company. She
said you would help me get along.”
“I will, all that I can,” replied Tom.
“She said you had got religion. Is that so?”
Tom gave an instant’s glance out into the night again. “It is ‘known
of me,’ then,” he thought; and finally said, with a little smile which
showed more than anything else could have done the value that religion
was to him, “I love the Lord Jesus.”
“I don’t think you and I will do for each other,” said the boy, a
little mystified by Tom’s smile and moving uneasily in his seat. “I am
up to all sorts of shines.”
“I think we’ll do very nicely for one another,” replied Tom, brightly,
seeing, with joy, part of the Master’s work already at his hands. “We
are school-mates, you know, and both love to study; that ought to make
us friends if nothing else does. We will work together in the evenings.”
The boy roused instantly, and they fell into earnest talk of the
ways and means for study, the lessons they had already learned, the
remembrance of happy school-hours, and a thousand other things which to
these boys, who until lately had never known the joys of school-life,
were the brightest spots in their existence.
So the miles were passed over, and the beautiful Southern country left
behind: the short journey--so long to many--was accomplished, and at
a little station-house, within about a mile of the plantation, they
were at length set down, fifty souls in all, and took up their line
of march. Tom and his friend Jimmy Harrison walked on silently with
the rest. The final landing at the station had not been pleasant. The
agent who had them in charge was not kind, and the people were feeling
very unpleasantly. Tom had rather better control of himself than the
rest, for with the first shock and rebellious thoughts, as the words
of harshness and anger fell upon his ears, his soul went up to God
in a prayer for patience and strength, to keep down any feelings of
unkindness. Then turning to Jimmy, whose quick temper had been roused
by the rough treatment, with a few gentle kindly words of encouragement
he put his arm through his, and led him forward in the line of march.
And long afterward, when the summer breezes would bring to him the cool
fragrant breath of plants and growing flowers, he was always reminded
of this first night, when the work which he longed to do for Jesus
commenced; and knowing the blessed influence which followed all through
that long, hard summer, he ever after thanked God and took courage.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER II.
“Trials must and will befall,
But with humble faith to see
Love inscribed upon them all,
This is happiness to me.”
Tom and Jimmy were quartered with an old colored woman called Aunt
Margaret, one of the family servants, who in her old age had been
furnished with a tiny brick house near the mansion, in which she had
lived some years by herself. The house contained three rooms, two on
the lower floor and one above stairs, and the master, who had dismissed
the agent upon their arrival, and superintended the settling of the
people himself, placed the two boys, Tom and Jimmy, in this upper
room. Tom was greatly pleased on account of the quiet which he thought
would result from their removal from the cabins or quarters of the rest
of the hands, and pictured to himself many happy hours of study in the
room up-stairs.
But he discovered his mistake very soon. Aunt Margaret was very fond of
company, and the cabin was the common resort of half the working-people
on the place, and study, to say nothing of quiet, was out of the
question.
It was on the second evening after his arrival, at the close of the
first day’s work in the field, that Tom took out his books. How sadly
and mournfully he had missed his school all day, no one knew but
himself; and now he took his books and slate with no small degree of
pleasure.
“What’s the chile gwine to do?” asked the old woman, peering at him
over her spectacles.
“Going to read and study a while by your candle, Aunt Margaret, if I
may,” he replied.
“Laws, chile! you may do as you likes, for all me,” she returned with a
shake of her head; “but it ’pears like there’ll be mighty little quiet
here to-night.”
Tom soon found it so, to his utter dismay. First, Jimmy came in with
one or two others, talking loud and making a confusion.
“Are you going to study with me to-night?” asked Tom as he came up to
the table and glanced at the books.
“No, I’m not _that_,” replied the boy; “it’s larks I’m after, and if
you wasn’t a stupid, you wouldn’t either.”
Tom was disappointed, and bent his head over his books silently,
and tried to work. But there was no study to be had there. The room
gradually filled with women and men, and attention to books was
impossible. He gave it up at last, but not before he had two or three
laughing remarks addressed to him. He closed his book and rested his
head wearily on his hand. He concluded he would go up-stairs. “I am not
used to such company as this,” he thought with a new feeling creeping
into his heart. “I will go away, and just show them all that I am made
of a different sort from them.”
Then he suddenly bethought him how wrongly he was acting in thus
putting himself above his fellows; so he immediately raised his head
and joined in the conversation.
It was no pleasure to him, but he stayed half an hour, and then, seeing
he could go without giving offence to any one, he gladly gathered up
his books and went off up-stairs. A candle was a luxury not to be
indulged in, but as Tom ascended the stairs he saw that the moonlight
was pouring in through the one window, so that the room was quite
light. He put his books away, and seating himself on the floor under
the window, which was very low, he leaned his head on his arm upon the
sill and began to think.
It was a long, sober thought. With quick understanding he saw very
soon what a battle the summer would be to him, and how hard it would
be for him to accomplish his aims. He was resolved upon one thing:
study he must and would, if every leisure minute of the noontide hour
was given up to it. Then, again, he must do some work for Jesus. The
summer must not yet pass without some deed accomplished whereby his
Master should be glorified. He realized that to this end he must make
himself familiar with the hands about the place--not only with those
who came from Huntsville, but also with the old family servants.
The dangers, the temptations accompanying such a course, if they
occurred to him at all, did not present themselves in their dangerous
form--the temptation that while leading others he might himself be led
away--that his faith might fail or his courage droop. The whole armor
of God was the only thing which could keep him from all the ills and
troubles thus presented. He did not know how much trial was before him,
but he _did_ know that he needed a stronger arm than his own to lead
him, and he looked above for strength and shelter.
The trial came first in a most unexpected direction. Jimmy, in all
good humor, reported that Tom “had got religion,” and to those to whom
he told it it was a very bad recommendation, and they held themselves
aloof; and not only that, but they would amuse themselves with sundry
jokes at his expense. Tom was astonished and wounded. He could not
imagine where they could have heard it, and it prevented, for a time,
the advancement he wished to make in their regard. He tried his best.
By every effort in his power he endeavored to gain friends among this
new company, and in a few instances he succeeded immediately; in
others not so well; and often it was impossible to have a talk with
those whose friendship he wished most to gain, on account of their
leisure-time being so much occupied with dances in the great barn.
The studying was scarcely better at first. It was very hard between
his bites of corn-bread in the noon-spell to give his attention to
looking out words in the dictionary, or mastering what seemed to him
such profound problems in arithmetic. There was an hour before supper
which was his own, and that was devoted, half to study and half to
Bible-reading. It was very hard work to stand firmly by his resolution,
and go after his books at the close of a warm, tiresome day, and study
so persistently just when the twilight was growing beautiful and the
people were all resting before their cabin doors. Sometimes he was
quite discouraged, and almost determined to give up.
One afternoon, when he had been perhaps two weeks on the plantation,
he was coming home from work just at sunset, with his jacket thrown
over his arm, warm and tired with his day’s labor, and rather dreading
than otherwise the hour of study which was before him, when suddenly,
as he passed near the mansion, the master stepped from the doorway and
accosted him. Tom stopped and waited for what he might have to say.
“Is your name Tom Alson?” he asked, feeling in his coat pocket and
drawing out a number of letters.
“Yes, sir,” he answered, his heart bounding with a hope he hardly dared
to own.
“Well, then, I’ve a letter for you,” he said, selecting one from a
number. He scanned it curiously for a few minutes, and then gave it to
the boy, adding, “Can you read writing?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Tom; “I can read writing, and write myself. I am
much obliged to you.”
“Not at all,” answered Mr. Sutherland, carelessly. “Do you know who
wrote that direction?”
Tom looked at the letter which his fingers held so lovingly, and
replied with a very bright face,
“Yes, sir--my teacher.”
“Is she white?” inquired the master.
“Oh yes, sir! She is a Northern lady.”
“Well, go off and enjoy your letter,” said Mr. Sutherland, dismissing
him, and turning away pleased with the eager look of welcome the boy
had given the letter.
And Tom, glad to be so dismissed, ran off to his seat under the trees,
leaving his books to take care of themselves while he read the precious
letter--the first one he had ever received in his life.
There were two, he found, when he opened the envelope. One with all the
dainty prettiness of French paper and stamped “M,” in the delicate
handwriting of Miss Mason, and the other in the round, school-girl hand
of Martha. Ah! how every word of those two letters went to Tom’s heart!
Martha’s was full of home news, every item well expressed, because her
heart was in this the first letter written to her brother Tom. It was
penned in good spirits, for her mother had been able to obtain a few
days’ work.
“I am looking for a place for myself,” she wrote, “and hope to get one,
but I have not seen any opportunity as yet, and sometimes I almost wish
I had gone with you.”
“I am glad she didn’t,” thought Tom.
“Our Sunday-school has been so pleasant lately,” she continued, “I only
wish you could be here. Mr. Allen gave us some beautiful illuminated
texts last Sunday. I had been thinking about you all the afternoon,
and had been wishing you could have heard Mr. Allen’s talk, and I am
afraid I was feeling a little wrong and disappointed that you could not
be with us, when Mr. Allen laid upon my desk my little text. I did not
wish any more, Tom; I just believed what it said, and kept still. Now
I am going to send it to you, and if you have--as I have no doubt you
often do, good as you are--any longings for home that grow too strong,
then here is my text;” and Tom read in red and gold letters on a bit of
card which fell from the letter:
“Trust in the Lord, and wait patiently for him.”
Tom’s eyes were blinded for several minutes, so that he could scarcely
see to read Miss Mason’s kind note. It told him just what he wanted
most to know--all the school news; how Martha was getting on, what new
songs they were learning, and how his own class was prospering. “And
knowing that you had your books with you,” she added, “and thinking you
might have time for study, I have marked on a slip of paper all that
your class has learned, and a few directions which will help you to
study for yourself.
“And now,” she concluded, “I do not know that you need counsel, but let
me just remind you that you are a soldier of Jesus Christ, and that it
is a part of a soldier’s duty to see that his comrades are saved from
danger; so, my dear boy, try and bring back to God some who are still
outside the fold. We all have work to do for Jesus, you know.”
Tom’s heart rested. He did not see how he could be sorrowful with these
two bits of cheer coming to him when he felt so weary and heartsick.
He was not so any more--that night, at any rate--and the letters were
shown to many admiring eyes. Jimmy opened his very wide.
“Had a letter from Miss Mason?” exclaimed he. “My sakes! let’s read;”
but Tom could not do that.
“I’d rather not, Jimmy,” said he, looking at Jimmy’s fingers and
thinking of the delicate paper, “but I’ll tell you all she said.”
He told so much about school and the work she had sent him that Jimmy’s
slumbering ambition was aroused.
“I declare, Tom,” said he, “I haven’t studied a bit since I came; have
you?”
“Yes,” replied Tom, “a good deal.”
“Are you up with your class?”
“Yes,” returned Tom.
“Oh dear! and I promised to study with you. I’ll begin this very night.”
And he did, and added thereby for a short time much to Tom’s happiness.
For a while he gave his evenings pretty steadily, but at noon he was
inexorable.
“No, sir,” he said--“noon is for rest.”
The next day Tom was very busy shelling corn for the planting. He had
stationed himself on the doorstep of the barn, and as he shelled and
the kernels fell from the cob, he thought of his two letters; and
suddenly thinking of some task Miss Mason assigned him, and not being
able distinctly to recall it, he took out her letter and laid it open
near him, and tried to puzzle out the meaning of an example she had
given him, continuing his work while he did so. As he was still thus
engaged, the noon-bell struck, and throwing down his ear of corn, he
drew a pencil and paper out of his pocket and proceeded carefully to
write out the problem. So busy was he that he did not perceive that any
one had come up until his master’s voice spoke.
“What are you busy about, Tom?” he asked.
He looked up suddenly, and then rose out of respect to his master. “I
was copying out an example my teacher sent me,” he said.
“Is that your writing? Let me see it.” He reached for the paper on
which Tom had been working, and eyed it narrowly.
“Would you like to see my teacher’s letter, sir?” he asked.
“Yes, I should,” he replied; so Tom produced it, and it was read very
attentively. “How long did you go to school?” he asked, as he finished
it and laid it back into Tom’s hand.
“Two years, sir.”
“And can you do all those examples your teacher has given you?”
“I think so, sir. I am trying them now.”
“Is this the way you always pass your noon-time rest?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Tom.
“The world has turned about,” said the master, with a curious, puzzled
look, and then he turned about himself. But he had not gone three steps
before he came back again.
“Say, my boy,” he said, “come up to the house after supper to-night.
Tell Aunt Dinah, the cook, that master said you were to come to the
library. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Tom; “I will come, sir.”
So the master went away, and Tom returned to his task, so intent and
interested that it never entered into his mind to conjecture why he was
wanted in the evening at the mansion.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER III.
“O little hearts! that throb and beat
With such impatient, feverish heat,
Such limitless and strong desires!”
LONGFELLOW.
Tom found, however, when he told the incident to the people who were
assembled in Aunt Margaret’s cabin when he came in at night, that it
created quite a sensation. The idea of any one of them being sent
for into the master’s library was a wonder, and Tom found himself a
lion among them. He did not feel the least elated, however. He only
feared, when he came to think of it, that his master’s discovery of his
knowledge would lead to his dismissal, and he had felt as if he was
just beginning to gain the friendship of his fellow-workers which he
so much wished to have. Therefore it was with rather a grave face and
sober step that he walked in the gathering twilight toward the mansion.
Aunt Dinah was standing on the back porch, throwing corn and feed to
the chickens, who, having grown tame from long acquaintance, were
crowding close around her, in order to get each one a full share of the
evening meal.
Tom came up and touched his cap. “Auntie,” said he, “has Mr. Sutherland
finished his supper?”
Now Aunt Dinah was crabbed, and she determined, when she saw him
coming, that she would send him off rather quicker than he came, but
the touched cap and voice of respect went to just the right place in
her heart. “Sure, honey, he’s done supper,” she said. “What did you
want with him?”
“He bade me come up after tea,” replied Tom, “and he said you would
show me the way to the library.” Tom rose higher in Aunt Dinah’s regard
immediately. In her own words, “If marster wanted one of them field
hands in the lib’ry, it meant sumthin’, sure enough.”
Therefore, with a little smoothing touch to her apron, she led the way
through the matted hall, and knocked at one of the doors which opened
from it. “This is the library,” she said, and so left him.
A little girl came and opened the door--a sweet-looking, black-eyed
child of about seven years old--and held it open as he stepped in. Mr.
Sutherland lifted his eyes from a bundle of papers, and seeing who it
was, said, “Ah! here you are. Just sit down a few minutes and I shall
be able to attend to you.”
Tom seated himself quietly, glad of the few minutes given him to
examine the pretty room. Called a library out of compliment, it was
more like a tiny drawing-room, so many little things of elegance were
gathered here. The taste of the owner had full play, and showed itself
rather too fond of gilt and bright colors, but at the same time toned
down by a few Parian figures and antique vases, which showed where the
wife had been at work. Tom looked at her, after his survey of the room,
with eyes which certainly did not lack admiration. A delicate, fair
woman, with the languid manner characteristic of her countrywomen, but
with an air of refinement and culture resting upon every move of her
hand and turn of her head. A vision of beauty such as Tom had never
seen before. The little girl who had opened the door for him was seated
at her mother’s feet, very industriously engaged in undressing a large
doll, and at the same time singing softly to herself--
“Jesus loves me--this I know,
For the Bible tells me so.”
There she would stop, hum the remainder of the tune, and then go back
to the beginning again. Tom wondered whether she knew the rest of
the verse, and was longing to tell her, when his master called him,
and he ceased to listen. “Tom,” said he, “I find you can write much
better than I can--(my education was neglected somehow)” he added
in parenthesis, moving uneasily in his chair, with a glance at his
wife--“and I have much trouble in making the merchants comprehend the
accounts. I thought perhaps you might know how to decipher them, and in
that case I thought I would employ you to copy them, spending say an
hour every evening. Of course you will be paid,” he added.
Mrs. Sutherland looked up from her delicate work, and eyed the boy as
he bent over the papers Mr. Sutherland laid before him.
“Can this boy read?” she asked, indolently.
“Yes,” replied her husband.
“What does he do about the place?”
“He is a field hand,” he replied.
“He had better confine his attention to corn and cotton than serve you
as an amanuensis. You are spoiling the hands,” she added, impatiently.
Tom’s eyes never wandered from his paper, but he lost not a word, and
the firm set of lips showed him no indifferent listener.
“Can you read these?” asked the master with no reply to his wife’s
observation.
“Yes, sir, I think so.”
“Well, then, let me hear them.”
[Illustration: Tom made a Clerk.
_Freed-Boy in Alabama._ Page 49.]
So Tom read aloud the month’s report of the number of hands employed,
the wages of each, the amount of work performed and the expenses
of the place. It was all correctly done, and then the two fell to
work--the master arranging the books for Tom’s future work, and the
boy copying. There was nothing very elegant about the writing, but
it was a round, even hand, very plain and distinct. Yet as he wrote
Tom was troubled. He wondered if his Master knew that these business
affairs were all fully understood by him. Mr. Sutherland’s books were
very simple, and, with Tom’s late knowledge of arithmetic, very easily
understood. He wondered if his master realized that one of his field
hands comprehended all the business of the plantation.
By and by, when for a few minutes both came to a standstill, Tom spoke:
“Mr. Sutherland, do you know that I understand all this work I am
copying.”
“Do you mean to tell me you understand the losses and gains during the
month?”
“Yes, sir.”
Mr. Sutherland looked annoyed and perplexed, and his wife laughed and
remarked that he had better take her advice and send the boy back to
his cotton.
“I would not care, Bertha,” he replied, “if I were only sure I could
trust the boy.”
“Of what are you afraid, Mr. Sutherland?” asked Tom, with a little fire
in his eyes.
“Only of your reporting the state of affairs at Aunt Margaret’s
gatherings,” he replied.
“I shall not do that, sir,” said Tom, firmly.
“But the question is,” said Mr. Sutherland, “whether I can trust your
word.”
Tom’s eyes certainly flashed fire for a moment; all his old spirit of
unrestrained passion ran through him, sending the blood throbbing all
over his body, trembling on his lips, dancing in his eyes, gathering on
his forehead, and causing the fingers that held the pen to close upon
it like a vice. This lasted for a minute, and then remembering his love
for the Lord Jesus, and at the same time that the master could not know
how well he could be trusted, the fingers relaxed their grasp, the brow
cleared, the lips unbent and formed a smile, and the eyes dropped.
“I hope I may be trusted, sir. Will you try me?” he asked, quietly.
“Yes, I will,” replied Mr. Sutherland, who had watched the play of
feature, and understood a little, although not half, of the boy’s
thought.
So they fell to work again--the little battle over and the victory won,
and a battle-song of triumph in Tom’s heart, for “he that ruleth his
own spirit is greater than he that taketh a city.”
By and by, when the minutes had made an hour and more, the books were
closed. The master’s little girl had come round near her father’s
chair, and stood there holding on to the arm of the chair, swinging
to and fro, and singing, “Jesus loves me,” as Tom and Mr. Sutherland
finished the evening’s work with arrangements to resume it at the same
hour on the morrow.
Then Tom turned to the little girl:
“Miss Lillie, do you know the rest of that verse?” he asked.
“No,” she replied, stopping short; “do you?”
“Yes,” replied Tom; “I know all the hymn.”
“Well, then, sing it,” she demanded.
Tom looked toward Mrs. Sutherland, but her eyes were turned away, so he
looked down into the waiting face upturned toward him, and softly and
gently gave the sweet words:
“Jesus loves me--this I know,
For the Bible tells me so;
Little ones to him belong;
They are weak, but he is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
“Jesus loves me--he who died:
Heaven’s gate to open wide;
He will wash away my sin,
Let his little child come in.
Yes, Jesus loves me.
“Jesus loves me--he will stay
Close beside me all the way;
If I love him when I die,
He will take me home on high.
Yes, Jesus love me.”
She had kept her black eyes fixed upon his face throughout the hymn,
and when he had finished, seeing his earnestness, she asked:
“Do _you_ love Jesus?”
How it startled him! He glanced quickly toward the two listeners, but
Mrs. Sutherland had not changed her position, and the master’s eyes
were on the floor and his face unreadable.
It was a pity they were not looking at him, for as his eyes came back
to the questioner and saw how she was awaiting his reply, all the new
love and allegiance flashed back upon him, and his reply was given with
a smile that was worth seeing.
“Oh yes, I love the Lord Jesus.”
Then he rose and moved toward the door, but his bare feet on the carpet
made no sound. He stopped at the threshold and waited for a word, but
none came; so he said: “Good-evening, Mr. and Mrs. Sutherland.” The
mistress dismissed him with a little bow, without raising her head, and
the master roused and replied,
“Ah! going? Well, good-night. I’ll see you to-morrow.”
So Tom went out into the night, clear and beautiful, with innumerable
stars shining down out of heaven, and the rich earth lying in the
beauty of its early spring dress all about him. Down at the quarters he
could see sparkling lights from the fires which the open doors left in
view. From the little log-barn, long ago out of use, came the voices of
the people who were holding a meeting there. He listened a moment, but
he could not catch the words, so he walked nearer, and stopped beneath
the tree where he had read his precious letters, and there the words
came distinctly to his ear, borne to him by the sweet evening breeze:
“My good Lord’s been here,
Has been here, has been here:
My good Lord’s been here,
And blessed my soul, and gone.
Seeker, where were you
When my good Lord was here?”
“My good Lord’s been here,” said Tom softly to himself, and then
he kneeled down and thanked God humbly and gratefully both for the
opportunity he had given him, and also for this night’s victory. No
pride of the task assigned him entered his mind; and when, after
curious questioning in Aunt Margaret’s cabin as to the result of his
visit to the mansion, he told them that Mr. Sutherland wanted some
writing done by him, he had no pride in the announcement; and when
he saw, as he could not help seeing, how he rose immediately in the
estimation of his questioners, he was very glad, only because it might
help in his work for Jesus.
It was Tom’s plan to start a little Sunday-school after a while. He
felt very timid about it, and although he had taken no decided step in
the matter, he had gradually won his way to the hearts of the people on
the place, and by frequent acts of kindness was becoming rather popular
among them. As I said before, this was very dangerous. He might forget
for whom he was working, and learn to think only of himself. This
could not be yet, however, for he still looked to Jesus for help and
strength, and while he did so he was secure.
As soon as it was noised abroad that the master needed Tom’s services
to write for him every night, the respect for Tom increased, and put
him in the way of more work. The people who, like Tom, had come to the
plantation for the summer, came to him to have letters written and
messages sent to their absent friends, so Tom’s hands began to be quite
full; and always intent as he was upon his work for Jesus, he would
send a message or a bit of advice or counsel to the friends of those
for whom he wrote, and so his influence became widespread. How much
pleasure he took in answering the two letters which had brought him so
much comfort was best known to himself, but his face was brighter and
his step lighter for days afterward.
There was one face, however, which was steadily set against his
growing popularity from the first. This was Jimmy, his school-mate
in Huntsville and his room-mate here. After a few evenings, he gave
up study and withdrew himself from his friend more and more. He knew
almost as much as Tom, but he cared nothing at all about it, except
to be envious of his friend’s position. “I can write as well as he,”
he would often say, but when asked to send a letter, he would always
refuse. So he continually boasted of the amount he knew, but would
never show his knowledge. Their rooming together had been pleasant at
first, but of late there had been scarcely a word between them. Jimmy
shunned him on every occasion, and when forced into his company would
say sneering things with regard to Tom’s “great learning,” as he called
it. Yet still Tom was uniformly kind and polite, and when those around
would silence Jimmy in some one of his insolent speeches, his replies
came always mild and gentle. This conduct gained for him more friends
and more kindly attention to the words he spoke for Jesus than anything
else could have done. It does not take learned minds to know when those
around them live according to their profession.
Not a word of all this reached Martha; and when, months after, he told
her of the struggle of these days, she knew that only the strength
given him from above had enabled him to bear it. No, the letters that
came as a piece of freshness and unbounded pleasure to Martha were full
of whatever Tom could find of love and cheer to put in them. Of his
efforts in the work for Jesus he told her, with a longing to do more,
but there was no mention of trials or difficulties, and the letters
were read and put carefully away with just the feeling of joy and
thankfulness which Tom had striven for when he wrote them.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER IV.
“Leave God to order all thy ways,
And hope in him, whate’er betide;
Thou’lt find him in the evil days:
An all-sufficient strength and guide
Who trusts in God’s unchanging love,
Builds on a rock that naught can move.”
GEORGE NEWMARK’S HYMN.
About this time, and for some weeks later, Tom longed continually to
commence a more decided service for his Master. But there were several
things that came in the way: First, after his long day’s work in the
fields, his evening writing, although only for an hour, was very
wearying, and often when he reached the house at night he could not,
from fatigue, either study or talk with those who nightly gathered
there. Then, too, he felt that if he should undertake a regular
Sunday-school, it would meet with opposition from the master, Mr.
Sutherland. He had been very kind to him so far, and paid him liberally
for his evening work, but Tom had never seen the little girl since that
first night, and somehow he connected the little hymn he had taught
her and her absence together. Then his pupils had no books, and it
seemed to him that whatever other people might do, he could not teach
a Sunday-school without books. With it all he became weary and very
homesick, longing for the sight of a familiar face. His face grew more
sober and his step heavier. He strove against it and tried to feel
thankful, but it was hard indeed, and although his friends noticed it
less than he imagined, yet Tom was not happy.
One night, however, the opportunity for which he had been watching
and waiting so long came to him when he least expected it. He turned
homeward from his writing on this particular evening very weary and
heartsick. Had Martha seen him, she would have known that all was
not well with him, but he knew that he was alone, so he allowed his
despondent feelings full play.
As he lifted the latch of the door and heard the voices within, he
heaved a little sigh, wished for an hour’s quiet study with Martha, and
then resolutely stepped within the room.
There were a number gathered as usual, and they were very busily
talking about something, yet they all looked up when Tom came in.
“Ah! here he is now,” some one remarked.
“Tom,” said one of the men, whose voice he had heard as he came in,
“we’ve been talking about you. You see, we’ve come to the conclusion
that you knows a heap more’n the rest of us, and we’s been studyin’ as
to how maybe you’d be willin’ to teach us a little of nights, after you
gets through up to the great house.”
“I would very gladly teach you any time, Uncle Silas,” replied Tom,
thinking that any hold on their hearts was a gain, “but the trouble
here, just as in another plan of mine, is that we have no books.”
“But some of us has got books, honey,” said one old woman, “and we’ll
lend ’em to those as has none of their own. Now there’s eight of us
here to-night, and plenty more that wants to come. What do you say?”
What do you think he said, reader? Can you imagine how his face
brightened, or can you hear the heartiness of his consent to their
plan? This new work, sent him, as he believed, by God, was entered
upon immediately with a great deep joy and a silent thanksgiving in
his heart. He gave his first lesson that very night, listening to the
slowly-spelled words of those who were proud to say they had commenced
to learn, and to the rest showing the first letters of the alphabet. He
did not confine himself to these, however, but as he went the rounds
from one to another, he would lead the talk from some word in the book
to something he had heard or read elsewhere, putting them in a way,
while they were learning their letters, to store their minds from his
with many better things.
“Such an opportunity to work for Jesus!” his heart cried exultingly,
and so when the clock struck nine, as he told them they had learned
enough for one evening, he added that “he would like to read to them
before they went.”
They were very well content; so he opened his Bible and read to
them--with such an interest in the words himself that the listening was
pleasant--the story of the Good Samaritan; and then, closing the book,
he repeated it again in words which were better understood by them,
enforcing the lesson which is among the most beautiful taught by our
Saviour in his parables: “Go and do thou likewise.”
Then he dismissed them, saying that on the next evening they should
meet again, and that they might bring as many of their friends as chose
to come.
“My house used to be a place of frolic, honey,” Aunt Margaret said, as
they went out, “but now it is a place of education.”
And Tom, happy boy! went up-stairs and kneeled beside his bed with his
heart full of thanks. They could not be expressed, but a tear or two
told all he could not say, and Jimmy’s rather spiteful remark, that “he
supposed he felt too big for anything,” fell on his ears as lightly
as the summer’s rain upon the moist soil. Although his head throbbed
with the effort of the day, his field-work in the burning sun and the
double task of the evening, yet his waking thoughts were as sweet as
his sleep, and _that_ was most calm and peaceful.
It so happened that, a day or two after, Mr. Sutherland took him away
from his regular work in the field, and sent him into the barn to
receive the loads of hay which were being brought in from the field.
Tom was always glad of these occasional changes, because they rested
him from more fatiguing work, and often gave him a few minutes in which
to study. He brought his Bible and his arithmetic with him when he came
out this morning, and it so happened that he found leisure to give them
attention, for the field from which the hay was being brought was at a
considerable distance, and it took some time for them to come with the
loads. During one of these leisure times he had seated himself on the
step of the great door at the back of the barn, and was intent upon his
Bible, when he heard some child’s voice singing, and looking up he saw,
just coming into the barn at the other end, Lillie Sutherland, whom he
had not seen since the first evening he spent at the house. She saw
him just as he looked up, and stopped both her walk and her music, and
stood looking at him.
She was a pretty little creature to see, but Tom did not wait for that.
“Miss Lillie, can’t you come here and see me?” asked he.
She shook her head, but stood still with her eyes still fixed upon him,
and then suddenly stepped very quickly forward.
“Oh, are you the boy that writes for papa?” she asked.
“Yes, Miss Lillie,” replied Tom; “do you remember me?”
“Certainly I do. Sing ‘Jesus loves me.’”
So Tom, amused at her manner, but very well content to do as she
asked, sung the hymn through to a very attentive listener; but to his
astonishment, when he had finished she asked him the same question as
once before.
“Do you love Jesus?”
“Yes,” replied Tom--adding quietly, “do you?”
“Yes,” she returned; “I cannot help it, because he is so kind; but
mamma does not like it, nor papa, very much.”
Tom was not astonished, only grieved, but he said as calmly as before,
“That makes no difference.”
“Ought I to love Jesus just the same, and pray to him just the same, if
mamma does not like it?”
“What has Jesus done for you?” asked Tom.
“He died for me,” she replied, as if it were a needless question.
“Yes,” replied Tom, with a smile, turning over the leaves of his Bible,
“he died for you and me.”
“Well, what then?” asked the child, waiting to see what was coming
next, but getting no word.
“Why,” said Tom, looking up, “I think when anybody has died for me, I
can never do enough for them if I work all my life.”
She stood for several minutes after that, with her eyes away out in
the green fields, and then she said suddenly:
“Does God love you just as well as he does me, when you are black and I
am white?”
Tom’s lip took a sorrowful curve for an instant, and then he replied,
“Just as well;” and the words were very decided.
She gave him another good look out of her great black eyes, and then
seating herself on the step, she said:
“Read.”
So he opened his Bible and read to her the story of the crucifixion.
It needed no comment or simpler rendering, for the story, as it ever
does and ever will, made instant impress on the heart and mind of the
listener. Did you ever try to imagine what the feelings of the apostles
must have been when they wrote those four sublime gospels? What a work
of intermingled joy and pain it must have been!
“Now, Miss Lillie,” said Tom, when he had finished, “if you can read,
I want you to go home and read this over for yourself, and then think
whom you ought to love.”
“What shall I do then?” asked the child, as if she already surmised the
result of the reading.
“Remember this one verse, and if I ever see you again, I shall ask you
whether you have done as it commands: ‘If God so loved us, we ought
also to love one another.’”
She repeated it two or three times after him, and then stood quietly
until the sound of voices reached her; and then, with one quick glance
in the direction from which they came, she sprang through the door,
out across the yard toward the back of the house. Up through the front
gate in the opposite direction came the great load, and Tom received
the hay, standing in the upper loft of the barn.
And so it was that, after thinking over the interview, and sorrowing
that the religion he loved was to some hedged about with so many
difficulties, when he gathered his class about him that night, and
looked around upon them, feeling that he need not be afraid to speak
for Jesus here, he felt most devoutly thankful in his heart for the
liberty which is ours when Christ has made us free.
The interest manifested by his pupils was wonderful. Old gray-headed
men bent over their spelling-books and tried hard to decipher the
words, looking up into the youthful face that watched them as to one
above themselves, because to him had been granted a privilege which was
not theirs. As the days advanced this did not lessen in the least; if
anything, it seemed to increase. It was a beautiful thing to see, and
to any one who felt an interest in the welfare of these neglected souls
a peep into this tiny school-room was worth going far to see. Tom often
wished Miss Mason could be there. He tried to say as little in his home
letters about his own connection with it as he well could, but he knew
not what a happy sense of duty done they contained in those days. His
teacher used to read them over, and say it was sweet refreshment in
her weary work--this boy’s good service for his Lord, and the utter
simplicity and yet full gladness with which he wrote of it.
It was joy, yet the letters home were the best part of it. There were
hours abroad and at home when the work was all done--house, field, and
school tasks all completed--when the pressure on Tom’s mind seemed more
than he could bear. That which lay heaviest was the care he felt over
these souls who for five or six hours every week were committed to his
care. Teach them he did, well and faithfully, but it was the work for
Jesus which he was in constant fear that he should neglect. He grew so
morbid over it that whenever he heard a man in the field swear or speak
wrongly, he always questioned whether if he, Tom, had done his duty
this would have happened. His success was far beyond his knowledge. He
was so constantly in the habit of dropping a word for Jesus, because
“out of the abundance of his heart his mouth spake,” that the people
learned to expect that when they came to him in odd minutes for
assistance in their tasks, there would be a word of holy cheer given
them before they went away. They learned to have a strange reverence
for this boy. It was some little time before Tom discovered that Mr.
Sutherland knew of all this, but the master had heard the boy’s name in
so many directions that at length he became interested to know how far
his popularity extended. A few inquiries gave him all he wanted--enough
to astonish him at any rate--and then Tom heard of it.
One day at noon Tom stood in the field, leaning against the branch of
a tree, resting himself and softly singing, when up came one of his
evening scholars with an appeal for help.
“I knowed you knowed,” he said, apologetically, “so I brought it to
find out.”
Tom took it with a little weary sigh, which he did not allow to reach
his lips, and gave the required help. As he handed back the book he
asked, with a smile,
“How are you getting on now, Uncle Gilbert?”
“Only toler’ble, Tom,” he returned; “old feller’s aches and pains right
smart bad sometimes.”
“The Lord Jesus will take the pain away, because you will not feel it
when you are bearing it for him. Have you asked him, uncle?”
“I reckon, Tom, the Lord thinks old Gil no ’count.”
“You are as useful as I am, Uncle Gilbert, and I once asked God for
patience, and he gave me enough to last me through a long illness. Look
to him, uncle.”
So Uncle Gilbert went away, and after a few minutes’ very grave
thought, Tom turned around to take up his hoe and found his master at
his elbow. His hand was at his cap in an instant.
“You do your teaching at all hours of the day, Tom?” he said,
pleasantly.
“Yes, sir, they are anxious to learn,” replied Tom; and then, gathering
courage, he added, “I have been wanting to ask you for a long time
whether you had any objection to the school which I hold every evening
at Aunt Margaret’s.”
“No, not in the least,” replied Mr. Sutherland, “although I must say I
was surprised to find that you had undertaken it, when I knew you had
your hands full already.”
“They wanted, sir, and I knew how I used to want when I could not have.
I could not refuse.”
“I sometimes think,” said Mr. Sutherland slowly, with his eyes on his
fingers, which were chipping off pieces of bark from the tree against
which Tom leaned--“I sometimes think that we are just beginning to
understand your people.”
He got a very deep look out of the dark eyes in reply, but that was
all.
“I came over here,” he continued after a moment, “to say to you that I
think you had better leave your field-work altogether, and devote your
days to my books and your evenings to your school. You are doing too
much.”
Tom’s eyes sparkled for a moment, but then he returned gravely, “I know
it, sir, but I think with your leave I will still keep on. Martha--my
sister--writes me that work is hard to get, and they will need my
earnings.”
“Oh, I shall continue your wages just the same,” said Mr. Sutherland
hastily. “It is for my interest to do so. I shall need you longer now,
as the returns begin to come in.”
“Then, sir, I would gladly come,” replied Tom joyfully, “and thank you
very much. My work is very wearying sometimes.”
“Well, that is all then. Come up as usual to-night--I shall want you.
Good-morning.”
“Good-morning, sir,” replied Tom, and after watching his master until
he disappeared, he clasped his hands and looked upward, with every
particle of pain and weariness banished from his face. “He knoweth them
that trust in him,” he thought.
His letter to Martha that night carried joy with it.
[Illustration]
CHAPTER V.
“Get thy spindle and thy distaff ready, and God will give thee
flax.”--OLD PROVERB.
After the commencement of Tom’s evening-school, and before he gave up
his field-work, his time was so fully occupied that when the labors
of the day were over, he often felt so very weary that he had almost
given up the thought of his Sunday-school; and when it did occur to
him in his longing to do more Christian work, he knew very well that
he had not leisure enough to devote to any such thing. Now, however,
as soon as he was installed in the master’s house, to spend five or
six hours every day with his books, in the leisure hours which came
to him, the thought of the Sunday-school recurred to him constantly.
Still, he dreaded to undertake this task. He felt how very young he
was, and saw dimly what an undertaking it would be. It was quite a long
time therefore before he took any active steps in the matter, and then
it was through a letter from Miss Mason. She had known a little, from
what Tom had written, of how the boy was progressing; and although long
ago he had told her of his anxiety to commence a Sunday-school, she
had never heard more of it, and of late his letters were written in a
half-desponding tone, which she could not feel easy about; so she wrote
him a letter which, without mentioning the subject, gave him just what
he wanted to think about.
“The Lord’s work needs hands always,” she wrote. “I took up a book the
other day when I was feeling rather listless and inclined to remain
at home, and I had not read two verses of a hymn upon which my eyes
fell before I laid it down, put on my bonnet and went out to visit my
scholars. Isn’t there some work for you, Tom, among all those people?
Suppose you remember the two verses I read, and if they affect you as
they did me, it will not be long before the Lord’s work comes ready at
your hands.”
“Two hands across the breast,
And work is done;
Two pale feet crossed in rest
The race is run;
Two eyes with coin-weights shut,
And all tears cease;
Two lips where grief is mute,
And wrath at peace:
So pray we ofttimes, mourning our lot;
God in his kindness answereth not.
“Two hands to work addressed,
Aye for his praise!
Two feet that never rest,
Walking his ways;
Two eyes that look above,
Still through all tears;
Two lips that speak but love,
Never more fears:
So cry we afterward low on our knee,
Pardon those erring prayers--Father, hear these!”
“I was feeling just in the mood that the first verse expresses, Tom,
but the second verse sent me out. Can we do too much for Him who said,
‘the fields are white unto the harvest,’ and who told us through his
blessed apostle John, ‘Let him that heareth say, Come’?”
Tom drank in every word of this letter as one who was athirst, and he
had just put it away the morning after its reception, after a third
reading, and was bending over his writing, when Mr. Sutherland came
in and sat down to read the newspaper. Tom’s pen moved more slowly.
He glanced frequently from his task to Mr. Sutherland, and once or
twice held his pen above the paper, watching him as though he wished
to speak, and finally, when Mr. Sutherland laid down his reading, Tom
lifted his head and spoke--very faintly, indeed, at first:
“Mr. Sutherland, I wanted to ask a favor of you.”
“Well, Tom, be in a hurry; I must get over to the other plantation.”
This was not very cheering, but after the first effort he gained fresh
courage:
“I have long been wishing to start a Sunday-school among the people,
Mr. Sutherland. Have you any objection to my undertaking it?”
“Isn’t one school enough for you, Tom?” asked Mr. Sutherland, a little
gruffly.
“No, sir,” he replied, with a little smile--“not while I can do more
good.”
“There is no place to hold a Sunday-school,” objected the master.
“There is an empty log-cabin out beyond the quarters, which would do
very well in warm weather.”
“Then I suppose you will shout and make a great noise about it.”
“No, sir, indeed,” urged Tom; “it will be as quiet as white people’s
schools--as near like the one I have been attending all the year as I
can possibly make it.”
“Well,” returned Mr. Sutherland, “I don’t know that I care much; but
mind, if there is any disturbance I will put an end to it at short
notice.”
Tom thanked him with a face full of pleasure, and returned to his work
with a glad heart.
That evening, just after his work at the house was finished, and just
before school-time, he went down to the quarters and visited the
people. With a great deal of timidity and faint-heartedness he knocked
at the first cabin door, but it was here his round of joy began. He
used in years after to look back upon the pretty twilight walk with
utter joy, and never without a fresh desire in his heart to work for
that Lord who always gives the wherewithal when we have the spirit.
“It’s Tom Alson,” said the little child who opened the first cabin
door, and Tom heard his welcome from within:
“Come in, Tom, here’s supper just ready,” said Aunt Polly’s voice, “and
you must have somethin’, sure. It’s a fine ev’nin’, isn’t it?”
“Beautiful, Aunt Polly, but I must not stop. We are going to have a
Sunday-school in the log-house behind the quarters Sunday afternoon,
and I came to find out whether you would come.”
“Is you gwine to be thar?” asked she.
“Certainly, Aunt Polly.”
“Then I’ll come, sure. Bring the chil’ens, did you say? I reckon I
will if you want them. Why, do you know Polly and Becky?” for the
children had given Tom a very glad greeting.
“Yes’m, I know them,” he replied; “we are quite old friends. Now I must
go; good-bye.”
And so on to the next house, and the next, and the next--everywhere
a warm greeting and a petition that he would stay; everywhere
the children ran, for Tom had in no way neglected to make their
acquaintance long ago, thinking always that he might leave with them
of the sweet Bible words on which he lived. His heart grew bigger and
bigger with thankful delight and pleasure as his list swelled. Two or
three places he was obliged to stop to explain the evening lesson or
read a few words, so that when he reached the step of Aunt Margaret’s
cabin it was almost dark. To any but Tom the experience of the
afternoon might have brought a little feeling of his own importance and
the respect in which these people held him, but there was nothing of
that--only a devout thankfulness and a longing to have Martha with him
to share his joy.
But more than ever he longed for the help which he knew she could give
when he called his little Sunday-school together on Sunday afternoon.
His face did not show what he felt, but it was only with the help of a
fervent prayer that he brought himself there at all. When he opened his
little Bible to read, there were thirty faces looking toward him--men,
women and children of every age. They each brought a chair or a stool
with them, and sitting around the sides of the cabin, some leaning back
and others erect, they all gave the most careful and fixed attention to
the voice, manner and words of the reader. As for Tom, with a trembling
heart, he opened his Bible and began. He had chosen one of the Psalms,
and as the words of trust, and refuge, and sure strength have come home
to tired hearts ever since the words were first given, so they came
home to Tom’s heart, and made him “strong in the Lord of hosts.”
The prayer that followed was our Saviour’s own, and oh how much better
it made Tom feel! They sang after that one of their own hymns, and the
words given in their full, rich voices, with all the pathos belonging
peculiarly to the race, stilled more hearts than one.
“There’s no more rain to wet you,
Oh yes! I want to go home--want to go home;
Dere’s no sun to burn you,
Oh yes! I want to go home--want to go home;
Dere’s no hard trials,
Oh yes! I want to go home--want to go home;
No evil-doers in de kingdom,
Oh yes! I want to go home--want to go home;
All is gladness in de kingdom,
Oh yes! I want to go home--want to go home.”
After they had finished, Tom talked to them a while from some sweet
Bible words. Oh how humble, how unfit he felt that he should be the one
to lead them home! It was only his love for Christ that brought the
words forth at all, but that, stirring his soul, sent that which was
sweet to hear. As for those who listened, it was nothing new to them.
All that was strange was that he should talk to them all at once, but
there was not one there who had not heard the name of Jesus from the
boy’s lips before. They all knew how sweetly it came, or they would not
have been here to-day. “When young Tom talks religion, I can listen,”
said one old man. “He talks sense, and he is brimming over with God’s
love.” That was the secret of his success everywhere.
Just as he had finished his little talk he looked up, and through the
doorway he could see Mr. Sutherland walking quietly down the road
toward the building. It confused him for a minute, but then, regaining
his composure, he asked them to sing again; so when Mr. Sutherland
came in the wild notes of another hymn were being thrown out on the
sweet summer afternoon air. The master stopped just within the door
and stood still to listen. When they ceased singing, Tom asked them if
they remembered any texts which they could repeat. There was a moment’s
hesitation, and then one said:
“Men ought always to pray and not to faint.”
“Yes,” replied Tom, with a smile, “if people pray they will not faint.
Are there any more?”
There were plenty more. It only needed some one to commence. One
followed another, and their memories seemed stored with sweet words
of rest and hope. Minds which could not grasp many a simpler thing of
every-day life, rested and dwelt upon the divine words, and understood
them because they _were_ divine.
When they had finished Tom looked round toward Mr. Sutherland with a
little smile of triumph, but there was no response there. He stood with
his hat pushed back off his forehead, and one hand thrust negligently
into his pocket, leaning against the door-post. His eyes were on the
floor, but somehow Tom knew they had not been fixed there for the past
fifteen minutes. Nevertheless, he turned back a little disappointed.
“I think it is time to close now,” he said. “We have no books or we
would have a short lesson, but if you like to come next Sunday we will
be glad to see you all. Now let us put ourselves in God’s hands, and
then go home.”
So Tom kneeled by the little rush-bottomed chair he had brought from
Aunt Margaret’s cabin, and gave his school into God’s keeping for the
week, praying that the words they had heard to-day might stay by them
always, and help them in all they did to work for God’s glory.
Then Tom arose, just in time to see Mr. Sutherland standing erect in
the doorway, his hat in his hand and his head bent in the attitude
of prayer. Tom’s heart gave one throb of joy. There were others that
saw it besides himself, he knew, and it was all he wanted to impress
the lesson of the afternoon. What a blessed Sunday evening that
was! I think Tom never spent such another. The Sunday-school grew
and prospered ever after that, and the Sunday evenings were always
pleasant, but never one like this. It was a stand taken, a point
gained; begun thus in God’s strength, it was sure to succeed. Tom was
very grateful.
After supper, he sat on the step of Aunt Margaret’s cabin, letting the
full moonlight pour over him, and longing for Martha’s presence that
he might talk over the precious afternoon with her. Whilst he thus sat
and mused two or three children approached him from the quarters, and
stopping near him, one of them timidly asked him,
“If you please Tom, could you teach us a text for next Sunday? We want
to recite something.”
“Yes, oh yes.” Tom was willing, so they sat down on the step below him,
and each one was given a text.
“Love one another with a pure heart fervently.” That was the first.
“God resisteth the proud and giveth grace unto the humble.” That was
the second.
The third--which Tom gave to the eldest of the three, who sat looking
up earnestly at him, waiting for his words--was one whose glorious
words had been pouring their light through Tom’s soul ever since the
afternoon school--his triumph in Christ’s name:
“This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”
[Illustration]
CHAPTER VI.
“How sweet, how heavenly is the sight
When those that love the Lord
In one another’s peace delight,
And thus fulfill his word!”
There was one part of Tom’s Sunday-school and evening-school work which
I think he never took into consideration when he was endeavoring to
calculate, as he was very fond of doing, the extent of its influence
and the number of people to whom it had been the means of doing good.
I say, I think he never discovered the amount of good it did to two
loving hearts at home--Miss Mason and Martha. After the commencement of
his evening-school, he had written every week, either to his sister or
his teacher, and when the modestly written accounts were read by those
for whom they were written, it did them a world of good.
“Brother Tom is doing so much, Miss Mason,” said Martha, one day, as
she stood by Miss Mason’s sitting-room fire, with Tom’s last letter in
her hand, “I feel as if I was not doing anything.”
“We must just sit still and be thankful, until our work comes, Martha,”
replied Miss Mason. “God will send it to us if we ask him. You had
part of yours when Tom was sick, and this that he is doing is only an
outgrowth from that.”
“This that Tom was doing” was a great deal. No one who saw him
bending over Mr. Sutherland’s books hour after hour, copying the
roughly-written accounts, would have imagined that his name was
spoken everywhere over the plantation with praise and love. A very
modest-looking colored boy he was, plain of face, with only those dark,
earnest eyes to make him beautiful. A grave mouth, not much given to
smiling, but which never wore any look of discontent or distrust. Hands
used to work, but grown tender of late when the work had been only
the long hours of writing. His feet were bare; there was no need of
shoes and stockings, and there was no inclination for them, for Tom’s
money went to buy what was needed at home; so they rested on the soft
carpet of the library and the carpetless floor of Aunt Margaret’s cabin
alike. To a stranger going into Mr. Sutherland’s house of a morning,
and watching the still figure at the desk in the library, the contrast
between the boy and his surroundings would have been striking. There
was nothing fine or stylish about Tom. His dress was very plain, whole
and neat, but coarse and ordinary. There was nothing elegant about him,
yet all things around him were so.
You remember I told you about the library. There was everything there
that money could buy and taste devise. Mr. Sutherland had taken this
room for himself and Tom, soon after the boy had commenced to spend his
time there, and they two were the only ones who occupied it. Not one
bit of the prettiness was lost upon Tom. The little education he had
received had fitted him, as education fits everybody, to admire and
appreciate all that is worthy of praise. Tom liked the velvet library
chairs better than the wooden ones at home; he preferred the hanging
scarlet curtains to none at all; and he even chose rather to see the
time by the French clock on the walnut bracket than by Aunt Margaret’s
ancient time-piece.
He never showed this outside. He only thought it to himself, and he
never felt out of place in the library. Nobody who knew him well
thought so either. He seemed a part of the library to Mr. Sutherland,
and in no way a contrast to any of the surroundings. The house-servants
had learned to have a wonderful respect for him. Occasionally he had
been obliged to ask of them some little service, and with considerable
timidity he had done so, but he was always served with the utmost
willingness and pleasure.
The first time he ever ventured this was one wet morning in August.
Mr. Sutherland always ordered a fire when there was a rain-storm,
even in the close, warm days of summer, and on this particular day he
was expected home about ten o’clock, and had ordered a fire to be in
readiness. The order, however, was forgotten, and when Tom came in to
his morning’s work it was cold and cheerless, and the heavy summer rain
was beating against the windows. Tom knew there would be trouble if
Mr. Sutherland came home and found it so, but, on the other hand, he
thought there might be more trouble if he were to go into the kitchen
and order a fire made. He thought of it several minutes, and then,
coming to the conclusion that it would better to stand the fire of Aunt
Dinah’s anger than Mr. Sutherland’s, he quietly betook himself across
the wide hall and appeared at the kitchen door.
“Laws! here’s Tom,” said Aunt Dinah, stopping her work to look at him.
“What brings you here?” she added.
“Aunt Dinah,” he replied, “I’m sorry to trouble you, but there is no
fire in the library, and Mr. Sutherland ordered one before he went away
this morning. If you will be kind enough to give me the wood, I’ll
make one, for I think Mr. Sutherland will be better pleased to find a
cheerful room when he comes back.”
“Tom, you just turn round and go back to your writing,” said Aunt
Dinah, indignantly. “I’m sorry as ever I can be that there’s no fire,
but I’ll have one there in five minutes. I don’t know what these
niggers means by disobeyin’ my orders. Here, you Jack!” she called
out, catching sight of the youngest of her flock, “why didn’t you make
the library fire? Here’s Tom got no fire to write by, and he your
Sunday-school teacher, too. Ain’t you ’shamed of yourself.”
“Oh, Aunt Dinah, I don’t care for myself,” Tom replied. “Give me the
wood and I’ll make it.”
“What do you ’spose Master Sutherland do to this chile if she let you
make the fire? Go ’long with you and set your pen to scratchin’, and
in five minutes there be a blaze goin’ up that chimney fit to take the
roof off.”
So Tom obeyed, and in less than the time she mentioned a little boy was
kneeling in front of the grate, softly laying in the pieces of wood,
and Tom heard Aunt Dinah tell him, as a last word as she opened the
library door to admit him,
“Now, you Jack, whatever you do, don’t ’sturb Tom’s writin’.”
One morning, some time later than this, Tom was occupied over his
morning’s work, writing away very busily, when he heard the door open
softly and then close again. He was sitting with his back to it, so he
did not look around, but went on with his task. Presently, however,
lifting his head and hand together to move some papers, he found
standing by his side, with motionless eyes fixed upon his face, Lillie
Sutherland.
“Good-morning, Miss Lillie,” said Tom, respectfully. “I did not know
you were there, or I would have spoken before.”
“Papa said,” returned the child, “that I might come in and see you if I
could be very still and not speak to you until you were ready.”
“Well, I am ready now,” replied Tom; “only first let me get you a
chair.” So he rose and with a gentle courtesy placed a low-seated
rocking-chair near his table and asked her to be seated.
She watched him bring it, and then seated herself with the utmost
satisfaction.
“I came,” she said with an important air, which sat very curiously on
her little figure, “to ask you if I might come to your Sunday-school.”
Tom was very much surprised. “I am afraid your father would not like
it, Miss Lillie,” he said, gently.
“But papa said I might, and mamma said she did not care,” urged Lillie.
“I am sure I’ll be glad to see you, Miss Lillie, but are you sure you
would like it? There is no one there but the people from the quarters.”
“Yes, I know, but you talk about Jesus, don’t you?”
“Oh yes!” replied Tom, the little smile hovering about his lips which
always came at any loving mention of his Saviour’s name.
“Well, then, that’s just what I want to come for. I never hear anything
about Jesus at home. And besides, he is there with you.”
“Yes,” replied Tom, earnestly--“yes indeed, Miss Lillie. I was very
wrong to forget that. I shall be very glad to see you.”
“Thank you, Tom; then I will come, but I want something more. Jake says
the children learn verses to say--hymns or Bible verses. Won’t you
teach me one? I know a good many old ones, but I want something quite
new for the first Sunday.”
Tom’s eyes fell for a moment, and a curious look flashed from them
into the roses on the carpet. It was of gladness that he knew just
what she wanted and could give it to her--of sorrow that more about
him did not know, and a mingling of both joy and sorrow that she, the
daughter of the house, should be obliged to come to him, a laborer on
the plantation, for the knowledge of Jesus.
But when his words came, they showed none of his thought, except a
realization of who it was to whom he was speaking:
“I think, Miss Lillie, I can give you a very pretty little verse I
learned a few days ago. Will you stay a few minutes longer and learn
it?”
“Yes indeed,” she replied, “I will stay.”
So line by line, in the same simple way he had given the Bible verses
to the children on Sunday, he taught her the four lines he had
selected. She learned them very soon and then rose to go. Tom rose too,
and opened the door for her.
“If you please, Miss Lillie,” he said as he dismissed her, “send one of
the children down to the cabin with a chair on Sunday. We all bring our
own seats.”
Tom did not forget his new scholar between that morning and the
following Sunday afternoon. He thought of her many times, and was very
glad that she was coming; nevertheless it was with a mingled feeling
of pleasure and embarrassment that he saw the little green velvet
chair standing close to his own when he came into the cabin on Sunday
afternoon. The people were evidently very curious about it, and divided
their glances between Tom’s face and the pretty seat. The greater part
of them thought it was for him, but he took his own chair, and left
them still in doubt. Tom waited for Lillie a little beyond his time,
so that when the child appeared at length in the doorway there were a
number of eyes watching her.
She brought herself in her little embroidered dress down through the
midst of them, and seated herself in the chair, and the two fitted each
other so exactly as to leave no doubt as to the person for whom it had
been placed there.
Then Tom commenced his school in his usual way, without the least
want of composure, although he felt his position not a little. He had
perfect attention. Lillie’s dress attracted two or three pair of bright
eyes, but no more; the teacher’s words were too good to be lost.
There were a number of verses given this afternoon, but each one was
rewarded with a word of praise from Tom. He had learned his position.
Outside he might be, and was, one of them, but here he was undoubtedly
their teacher, and no one ever attempted to gainsay his authority
inside his Sunday-school room.
[Illustration: The Log-Cabin Sunday School.
_Freed-Boy in Alabama._ Page 116.]
“Would you like to say your verse, Miss Lillie?” he said at length,
turning to her as the others finished.
“Certainly I should,” she replied. “I learned it perfectly.”
So she rose and stood beside her chair, with one hand resting on its
carved back, and recited with an earnestness caught in part from the
way which Tom had given her the words--
“He prayeth best who loveth best,
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.”
There was a low laugh of admiration went all around the room when she
finished, and Tom with a pleased smile said,
“That was very nicely done.”
Then, with the usual prayer for help and guidance, he dismissed them,
and then offered to take Miss Lillie’s chair up to the house for her.
“No,” she replied, carelessly, “let it stand; I will send Jack for it.”
So he did as she requested, and took his way toward the quarters. Miss
Lillie, however, kept up with him, talking and asking questions about
the Sunday-school. Tom, however, seemed absent-minded, and finally
stopped short in the path.
“Miss Lillie, I wish you would let me go back after that chair,” he
said.
“Why, Tom, I don’t care if you want to,” she replied, in a surprised
tone, “but Jack can come just as well.”
Tom would not listen, but ran to the school-room, took the chair, and
came back to where Lillie was standing, bearing it on his shoulder.
So they walked up through the quarters beside all the cabin doors, at
which the people were gathered and watching; on up to the house, on the
piazza of which Tom put down his burden, and touching his cap bade Miss
Lillie “good-afternoon,” and walked away.
He knew exactly what he had done, and why he had done it. When he
had found that Miss Lillie intended coming up with him through the
quarters, he knew that among the people, even those that loved Tom
best, there would arise a jealousy that Miss Lillie should notice
one more than another. The beginning of this he had seen before, and
for fear his influence with them might be lessened in the slightest
degree, he did the very thing which set it all at rest immediately. And
so, as they stood at their doors and watched the two go by, it seemed
just as it should be to them. Tom, as Lillie’s servant, bore her chair.
It satisfied them entirely, and Tom gained rather than lost in their
opinion.
Now, do my young readers understand what I am talking about. Tom felt
not one whit above his fellow-servants, but for fear they should think
he did, and so the religion he was trying to spread should be hindered,
he wished to carry Miss Lillie’s chair. And let me tell you it was an
honor to him, for it was what St. Paul meant when he said: “Let not
your good be evil spoken of.”
CHAPTER VII.
“Abide with me from morn till eve,
For without Thee I cannot live:
Abide with me when death is nigh,
For without Thee I dare not die.”
Lillie’s first Sunday at the school was the commencement of a very
strange friendship which grew up between herself and Tom. She never
entered the library, except when especially sent by her father, but she
was always waiting at the door when Tom came out, and walked with him
as far as the cabin door. Tom was afraid at first that Mr. Sutherland
would object, but finding one day, from some chance word he dropped,
that he knew of it and had no objection, Tom began to take great
pleasure in Lillie’s company. He thought, too, that young as she was,
if she once became interested in the people, she might learn to do
good among them after he had gone away. So he often took her with him
to the quarters during his visits to the people. It grew to be such a
common custom to see them together about the grounds that the people
forgot to be jealous, and her gentle bearing pleased them. She never
said much, but listened attentively to all that went on, only once in a
while putting in a question. Simple and child-like, she never seemed to
remember the difference in position between herself and the people; and
they, finding they were looked upon as equals, learned to love her.
Tom was quick to see this, and take advantage of it, to interest Lillie
in every way in his power in the Sunday-school and the people. Mr.
Sutherland saw it and shut his eyes to it, taking care that no rumor of
it should reach his wife.
All this was quite encouraging to Tom, and he grew happy in the long
summer days. There was one thing, however, he very much wished for,
but which seemed beyond his reach. This was the friendship of his
school-mate, Jimmy. He seemed opposed to all Tom’s movements--not in
any active way, but he shunned him on all occasions, and never came
near the Sunday-school. Miss Mason often sent messages to him, and Tom
always took great pains to deliver them, sometimes showing him where
she had mentioned him in the letter. But although the messages were
received with evident pleasure, the messenger was not, and Tom often
went away sorrowful. He could not see that Jimmy took an interest in
anything. He always went to bed when the evening-school assembled, and
did his work mechanically. Yet his words and actions in Tom’s presence
seemed always under restraint.
Therefore, Tom was very much surprised one morning, as he came from the
library, to meet Jimmy at the foot of the steps, evidently waiting to
speak with him.
“Tom,” he said, excitedly, “there’s a bundle come for you by the cars
this morning, and I should not in the least wonder if it should be
books for the Sunday-school. There’s a letter, too, for I heard master
say so. Perhaps it’s from Miss Mason.”
Tom was pleased with the news, and more than pleased with Jimmy’s
interest. He made the most of it, immediately.
“Why, Jimmy, that’s splendid!” he said, his dark eyes sparkling. “Come
and show me where I can find it.”
So Jimmy, nothing loth, started with Tom, and brought him round the
corner of the house to where the wagon from the station was just
depositing its load.
“Ah, Tom,” said Mr. Sutherland as he came up, “I was just about sending
for you. You are getting to be of considerable importance. There’s
a great heavy bundle addressed to you, which came by express this
morning, and here I have a letter which appears to belong to it.”
“It’s books, Tom, I know,” said Jimmy, pounding the bundle with his
hand; “unfasten it, won’t you?”
“Wait a minute,” replied Tom, “until I see what Miss Mason says.”
So carefully cutting the end of the envelope (Miss Mason’s letters were
never roughly handled), he drew the letter out and glanced over the
contents.
“Jimmy,” he said, as he finished and turned toward the boy with a
very touched face, “I think you must read this letter to pay you for
bringing me such good news.” So he gave him the precious words.
Jimmy knew what a treat that was, and that there was not another person
on the place to whom Tom would have shown it, so he thanked him
earnestly as he took it.
“My dear Tom,” she wrote, “I am about sending you a bundle of books
for your Sunday-school; so I thought I would forward a letter with
them, for fear you would be too much surprised. I wrote, not long
ago, to some of my Northern friends, and among other things I told
them of your work for Jesus on the Sutherland Plantation. In answer
to my letter the books I send you came. How gladly I forward them you
can easily imagine. I have been thinking for a long time how much
you needed them, and how I should like to send you a bundle. Well,
here they are then, and I feel sure you will not forget to thank ‘the
Giver of every good and perfect gift,’ for it is he who sent them.
“I opened the bundle to put in two or three lesson-books, and I
have marked in the arithmetic and grammar the lessons of your class
for the next month. I hope Jimmy is well, and that your work is
progressing. Martha says, ‘Oh, Miss Mason, I am so glad for Tom!’ and
I can tell you there is another one who is glad, and that is Tom’s
old teacher,
“R. MASON.”
“Now, Jimmy,” said Tom as the boy finished and handed him back the
letter with a pleased smile, “come with me and we will unpack it.”
“You don’t want me, Tom, I am sure,” replied Jimmy, holding back
reluctantly.
“Don’t want my old school-mate to help me unpack Miss Mason’s present!
Of course I do! Come, I am in a hurry to see those precious books.”
So the bundle was carried into the cabin, and, much to Aunt Margaret’s
satisfaction, was unpacked there in the main room. Ah! how nice the
books looked! Bibles and Testaments in plenty to the delight of Tom’s
heart--illuminated texts for the school-room, little picture cards, the
preciousness of which every Sunday-school teacher knows. A quantity of
penny hymn-books, and little tracts for distribution, and then a nice
pile--just twenty--of well-selected library-books. Tom was perfectly
happy. There was a little package at the bottom directed to himself in
Miss Mason’s hand, and in this he found a new arithmetic and grammar,
with the places marked, a parcel of pure white paper and envelopes,
with pens and holder, and a very pretty Bible Dictionary. Tom’s eyes
were full of joyful tears. He had been thanking God all the time,
and he only wondered how he should rightly express to Miss Mason his
gratitude for the gift. Jimmy was in an ecstasy. His old taste for
books and study woke right up, and he was Tom’s friend from that minute.
“I have been thinking a long time about coming to the school, Tom,” he
said, “and of being friends again, but somehow I didn’t know how to get
about it, after having been out with you so long. But now I can’t help
it; I must come.”
Late that afternoon Tom came up toward the mansion, and seeing Mr.
Sutherland and Lillie on the porch, he walked toward them.
“Mr. Sutherland,” he said, rather timidly, “if you feel any interest,
I would like very much to have you come and see the books sent to the
Sunday-school this morning. I think it is a very nice collection.”
“I should be very glad to do so, Tom,” said Mr. Sutherland,
good-naturedly, rising and coming down off the steps; “I will go with
you now; are they down at Aunt Margaret’s?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Tom, and then as they stepped away, Tom, looking
back, saw Lillie still sitting in her low chair upon the piazza. “Miss
Lillie,” he said, stepping back, “won’t you come too?”
“Yes, certainly,” she replied, springing up; “I was only afraid you did
not want me. Wait a minute, papa,” she added, “until I get my hat from
the stand in the hall.”
“Stay here, Miss Lillie,” said Tom, checking her and disappearing
within the doorway. He returned in a moment with the hat, which he gave
her with a little bright smile.
“You are quite a courtier,” said Mr. Sutherland with an amused face, as
Tom joined him. “Lillie should wait upon herself sometimes.”
“Miss Lillie does more for me, by her influence among my scholars, than
I can ever do for her in this way; and besides,” he added, “I am very
glad to serve her in any way that I can.”
The books, and the manner of sending them, were a puzzle to Mr.
Sutherland. He could make nothing of it. But with the wisdom of the
selection and the value of the books he was fully acquainted, and
praised them to Tom’s fullest satisfaction. Lillie lost herself among
the picture cards, and would hardly be aroused when her father, after a
long examination of Tom’s treasures, asked her if she was not ready to
go.
But she had leave to look a while longer, for the people, returning
from the field, having heard--for the news flew--of the arrival of the
books, all stopped at Aunt Margaret’s cabin on their way home, to have
a peep at them. Mr. Sutherland stayed to look and listen, for their
interest and excitement were a marvel to him.
“If Tom can read all these, he must be mighty learned,” said one of the
women, touching them with the tips of her fingers.
“Not very, auntie,” replied Tom, laughing.
“Won’t we feel big,” said another, “when we gets all these shining
words hangin’ round that cabin?”
“I expect we will,” Tom replied, “but we will feel a great deal more
proud when we get the shining words so stamped on our hearts that we
can never get them out.”
All this was a leaf in the history of these people that Mr. Sutherland
had never before taken the trouble to turn over; and now that it lay
open before him, he was both puzzled and surprised. By and by, however,
he took Lillie’s hand, and as he turned to go back to the house, he
said to Tom, “By the way, I wish you would walk over with us. I find
there are some accounts which arrived this morning, which require some
explanation before they are copied, and I am going away early in the
morning.”
So Tom, hastily putting aside the precious books, took his way back
with them. Midway between the cabin and the house the workmen of the
place were engaged in putting up a store-house, which was to be in
readiness for the gathering in of the cotton crop. The men at work were
unskilled in their task, and had caused Mr. Sutherland much anxiety by
the clumsy way in which they were rearing the building. Just as he came
opposite them this afternoon, they were raising a heavy beam by means
of ropes and pulleys, with a great deal of noise and very little work.
Mr. Sutherland, with an exclamation of impatience, stopped his words
and his walk, and came up to where they were at work--the two, Tom and
Lillie, following.
He spoke to the workmen rather severely for a few moments, and then
stopped to direct the work. His two companions, interested in the
raising of the beam, stood under the shadow of the unfinished part,
watching.
Mr. Sutherland stood just outside giving orders, and the beam was
slowly finding its way to the top, when there was a sudden strain of
the ropes, and they cracked and parted.
Tom saw what was coming just in time to seize Lillie, who was standing
beside him, and throw her violently from him out into the green grass
of the lawn, and then the heavy timber had fallen into the house,
crushing in the part already finished, and with it the boy who stood
under its shadow.
“Oh, papa!” said Lillie, standing on her feet in the long green grass,
and half crying, “Tom hurt me so bad.”
“Hush!” said her father in reply. “Go home to your mother. Tom is under
those ruins.”
It was with a very white face that he gave quick directions that the
timbers should be removed, and Lillie, as soon as she saw what had
happened, never moved. The news spread like lightning, and a group of
pained, grave faces soon gathered round the crushed building, to see
if possible whether the human body covered with the fearful weight had
still life within it.
When at length they lifted Tom from the ruins, he was found to be
wounded and bruised terribly, but there was life still there, for the
heart was beating. With a tinge of returning color in his face, Mr.
Sutherland announced as much to the people, who stood waiting, thankful
that the life was spared; and then, taking the trembling hand of his
little daughter in his, he gave his orders.
“Take Tom into my house, and put him in the south room. Tell Aunt Dinah
that no pains must be spared to relieve him, and tell Gordon to order
the horse immediately and I will ride for Dr. Bartier.”
[Illustration]
CHAPTER VIII.
“It is well!”
God’s ways are always right,
And love is o’er them all,
Tho’ far above our sight.
Five weeks afterward, at the window of the south room in the mansion
of the Sutherland plantation, in a deep easy-chair, propped up with
pillows, sat or rather reclined, Tom Alson. His hands, grown slender
and delicate by long illness, were resting upon an open letter which
lay upon his knee, and his eyes were wandering out over the glorious
country, with a little wistfulness in them that had of late been at
home there.
The landscape upon which the sick eyes rested was truly a beautiful
one. The rich lands of the plantation stretched out and away off to
the banks of the Tennessee, the waters of which were hidden by the
cliff-like shores. Beyond this the mountains rose, and the eye followed
the bends of the river by their ever-changing curves. A few of the
trees on these densely-wooded slopes were changing color, and the
scarlet and yellow among so much green made each color more intense.
The fields which lay nearer home were truly “white unto the harvest.”
The cotton-buds had burst everywhere, and over the Southern hills the
fresh breezes of September were blowing. The hands were busy in the
fields, and Tom counted many dark forms among the white cotton, hard at
work.
Somehow this first sight of the fields led Tom’s mind back to the
letter he had received, telling of other fields, just as “white.” That,
and the letter just received from home, had sent his thoughts out after
his Sunday-school, of which he had not been able to hear for so many
weeks. He hardly dared ask after its welfare even now. But he brought
his eyes in from the window, and they rested upon Lillie, sitting in
a low chair near him, busily employed in some little manufacture with
cotton and needle. He watched the white fingers move to and fro in
silence for a few minutes, and then he said,
“Miss Lillie, I have not been able to think of my Sunday-school in a
very long time.”
“I have been waiting for you to speak of it all the afternoon,” said
Lillie, rousing herself and stopping her work.
“Well?” said Tom, not daring yet to ask the question.
“Well,” echoed Lillie, “we consider ourselves something wonderful,
I can tell you. We have met every Sunday in the cabin, and Jimmy
Harrison--you know him--reads to us from one of the new books and the
Bible. He says he cannot pray, so old Uncle Ben prays, and when it
comes the time you used to speak to us, I tell them how you are, and
what you have been talking about, and then we all try and remember
what you have told us and to repeat verses. I did not know there were
so many of the people learning to love Jesus, Tom. Then, one Sunday,
father came down--it was that Sunday after you and he were talking so
long in the morning--and he talked to the people a long time, and they
were all so pleased.”
There was a great sob which prevented Tom’s reply. He did not know
even then--only God knew--what had been accomplished during the summer
months on the Sutherland Plantation.
“Have the books been distributed, Miss Lillie?” asked Tom when he could
find voice.
“No, only two or three were taken by Jimmy to read. Then our
illuminated text--that one you said was prettier than all the rest, ‘We
would see Jesus’--we had put up first over your chair. We have a little
table that papa sent down, and my velvet chair stays there now, and
last Sunday the back was covered with a beautiful wreath of flowers.”
Tom looked out again through dim eyes over the white fields, and
thought of the promise: “He that goeth forth weeping, bearing precious
seed, shall doubtless come again with joy, bringing his sheaves with
him.” Tom thought he had a harvest.
Just then Mr. Sutherland opened the door and came in, and coming up to
Tom’s chair, asked him “how he was.”
“Very happy indeed, sir,” replied Tom with a quiet smile.
“What would you like most in the world just at this minute?” asked Mr.
Sutherland, whose heart always went out warmly toward the boy who had
saved his child.
Tom’s eyes grew a little wistful. “I should like most of all to see
my sister Martha,” said he; “but next to that,” he added, smiling, “I
would like to have you read to me, Mr. Sutherland.”
So Mr. Sutherland sat down by the sick boy and read to Tom until the
sunlight faded.
“That was the next best thing to seeing Martha, sir,” said Tom
gratefully as he finished. “I am very much obliged to you.”
“Not at all,” replied Mr. Sutherland, heartily. “Now I am going away,
and I shall send Aunt Dinah to see that you have what you want for
supper. Come, pet.”
So he went away, taking Lillie with him, and left happy Tom, sitting
in the twilight, grateful and content, with the words of the Psalmist
making sweet music in his heart:
“Thou shalt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.”
After this first day of pleasure Tom could not be kept away from the
window, and so, day after day, his chair was moved up to it, and
himself put into it, all wrapped about with shawls and supported by
pillows, and left to spend the day by the window. He had numerous
visitors--not too many--but just enough to make him feel that he was
not alone.
One morning, after he had been up about a week, he was sitting by the
open window as usual, watching the cotton-pickers in the distance, when
he heard steps coming up the stairs. “Somebody is coming to see me,”
he thought, so he listened, still looking out of the window. Something
attracted his attention there, so that when the door opened he did not
immediately turn his head. There were quick steps across the floor and
some one came kneeling by his chair, and then he turned and looked down
into the eager face of his sister Martha.
“Oh, Martha! Martha!” he cried, seizing her hand and bending down to
her face, “has God sent me this joy too? My dear sister, I have wanted
to see you more than anything on earth.”
“And I am here, Tom,” she replied joyfully--“come to take good care of
you. Mr. Sutherland wrote me that you would not send for me for fear
I could not come, but that you wanted me very much. How are you, dear
Tom?”
“I believe, Martha,” he said, still holding her hand and looking down
into her face, “I believe I am perfectly happy.”
“And how is the Sunday-school?” his sister asked. “Oh, you can’t think
how Miss Mason and I have enjoyed that school!”
“It’s perfectly wonderful, Martha,” he replied with glowing eyes. “It
seems to me that for the past few days, when the thought of it came,
those four grand words, ‘What hath God wrought?’ have been the only
ones which could anyway rest me. Listen while I tell.”
Thereupon followed a long conversation in questions and answers about
the summer’s doings, with pleased eagerness on one side and loving
sympathy on the other, until they knew all those little things which
pen and paper never tell, and which therefore the letters which had
passed between them had not contained.
“And now, Tom,” said Martha, when home and plantation news seemed to be
exhausted, “I believe I’ve something to tell you. Mr. Sutherland said
to me, as we rode up this morning, that he would like to keep you all
winter if you were pleased to stay. He said that you understood his
business, and did it well, and that you had wound yourself round the
hearts of the people; although,” she added, “I did not need for him to
tell me that, after Jimmy’s letter.”
“Jimmy?” asked Tom, in amaze.
“Yes,” laughed Martha. “Jimmy wrote Miss Mason and me a joint letter
of confession of his own sins and praise of you. It was funny, but it
was good. I will show it to you some day.”
Tom gave her a bright smile in answer, and asked her if there was
anything more.
“Yes,” returned Martha. “Mr. Sutherland wants me to stay here too, to
be a sort of waiting-maid for Miss Lillie. How do you like that?”
“My dear Martha, that is glorious,” said Tom, bringing his hands
together with sudden joy. “There will be no discouragements if you are
here.”
“But, Tom dear,” said Martha, “I would not stay, and I should not want
to leave you, but in the fall the good people who sent Miss Mason to us
in Huntsville are going to send a teacher to this plantation, and Mr.
Sutherland is perfectly willing. So we may study yet, Tom.”
“There is no truer word in the world than that which God spake,
Martha,” replied Tom, looking into her gentle, earnest face with
glistening eyes: “‘All things work together for good to them that love
God.’
‘Who trusts in God’s unchanging love,
Builds on a rock which naught can move.’”
And now, dear reader, I had meant to leave you here, and let the story
of Tom’s summer work leave its own impress on your minds and hearts,
but when I think of the joy, and love, and reward of working for Jesus,
and the faintness with which I have tried to show them to you, I am
longing for power to carry home the truth to your hearts. But God
who giveth the increase will bring it to pass when human hands fall
powerless.
Do you remember how John finished his gospel? He says: “And there
are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they should
be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not
contain the books that should be written.” So I believe, with him, that
if the beauty and joy of the lives spent in work for the Lord were
given to mankind, “even the world itself could not contain the books
that should be written.”
THE END.
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