"Never mind, Aunt Hannah! Don"t cry; maybe if I work hard I may be able to earn more."
"Yes; times is brisk; I dare say, young Ishmael will be able to bring you as much as two dollars a week for a while," chimed in the professor.
Hannah dropped her coa.r.s.e handkerchief and lifted her weeping face to ask:
"What did they want with you up at the Hall, my dear?"
"The commodore wanted to send me to school, Aunt Hannah; but it don"t matter," said Ishmael firmly.
Hannah sighed.
And the professor, knowing now that he should have no pleasure in seeing Hannah"s delight in her nephew"s advancement, since the school plan was nipped in the bud, took up his hat to depart.
"Well, young Ishmael, I shall start for Mr. Martindale"s to-morrow, to dig that well. I shall have a plenty for you to do, so you must be at my house as usual at six o"clock in the morning," he said.
"Professor, I think I will walk with you. I ought to tell Mr. Middleton at once. And I shall have no more time after to-day," replied the boy rising.
They went out together and in silence retraced their steps to Brudenell Heights. Both were brooding over Ishmael"s defeated hopes and over that strange fatality in the lot of the poor that makes them miss great fortunes for the lack of small means.
The professor parted with his companion at his own cottage door. But Ishmael, with his hands in his pockets, walked slowly and thoughtfully on towards Brudenell Heights.
To have the cup of happiness dashed to the ground the very moment it was raised to his lips! It was a cruel disappointment. He could not resign himself to it. All his nature was in arms to resist it. His mind was laboring with the means to reconcile his duty and his desire. His intense longing to go to school, his burning thirst for knowledge, the eagerness of his hungry and restless intellect for food and action, can scarcely be appreciated by less gifted beings. While earnestly searching for the way by which he might supply Hannah with the means of living, without sacrificing his hopes of school, he suddenly hit upon a plan. He quickened his footsteps to put it into instant execution. He arrived at Brudenell Hall and asked to see Mrs. Middleton. A servant took up his pet.i.tion and soon returned to conduct him to that lady"s presence. They went up two flights of stairs, when the man, turning to the left, opened a door, and admitted the boy to the bed-chamber of Mrs. Middleton.
The lady, wrapped in a dressing gown and shawl, reclined in an arm-chair in the chimney corner.
"Come here, my dear," she said, in a sweet voice. And when Ishmael had advanced and made his bow, she took his hand kindly and said: "You are the only visitor whom I would have received to-day, for I have taken a very bad cold from last night"s exposure, my dear; but you I could not refuse. Now sit down in that chair opposite me, and tell me what I can do for you. I hear you are coming to school here; I am glad of it."
"I was, ma"am; but I do not know that I am", replied the boy.
"Why, how is that?"
"I hope you won"t be displeased with me, ma"am--"
"Certainly not, my boy. What is it that you wish to say?"
"Well, ma"am, my Aunt Hannah cannot weave now, because her wrists are crippled with rheumatism; and, as she cannot earn any money in that way, I shall be obliged to give up school--unless--" Ishmael hesitated.
"Unless what, my boy?"
"Unless she can get some work that she can do. She can knit and sew very nicely, and I thought maybe, ma"am--I hope you won"t be offended--"
"Certainly not."
"I thought, then, maybe you might have some sewing or some knitting to put out."
"Why, Ishmael, I have been looking in vain for a seamstress for the last three or four weeks. And I thought I really should have to go to the trouble and expense of sending to Baltimore or Washington for one; for all our spring and summer sewing is yet to do. I am sure I could keep one woman in fine needlework all the year round."
"Oh, ma"am, how glad I would be if Aunt Hannah would suit you."
"I can easily tell that. Does she make your clothes?"
"All of them, ma"am, and her own too."
"Come here, then, and let me look at her sewing."
Ishmael went to the lady, who took his arm and carefully examined the st.i.tching of his jacket and shirt sleeve.
"She sews beautifully. That will do, my boy. Ring that bell for me."
Ishmael obeyed and a servant answered the summons.
"Jane," she said, "hand me that roll of linen from the wardrobe."
The woman complied, and the mistress put the bundle in the hands of Ishmael, saying:
"Here, my boy: here are a dozen shirts already cut out, with the sewing cotton, b.u.t.tons, and so forth rolled up in them. Take them to your aunt.
Ask her if she can do them, and tell her that I pay a dollar apiece."
"Oh! thank you, thank you, ma"am! I know Aunt Hannah will do them very nicely!" exclaimed the boy in delight, as he made his bow and his exit.
He ran home, leaping and jumping as he went.
He rushed into the hut and threw the bundle on the table, exclaiming gleefully:
"There, Aunt Hannah! I have done it!"
"Done what, you crazy fellow?" cried Hannah, looking up from the frying pan in which she was turning savory rashers of bacon for their second meal.
"I have got you--"an engagement," as the professor calls a big lot of work to do. I"ve got it for you, aunt; and I begin to think a body may get any reasonable thing in this world if they will only try hard enough for it!" exclaimed Ishmael.
Hannah sat down her frying pan and approached the table, saying:
"Will you try to be sensible now, Ishmael; and tell me where this bundle of linen came from?"
Ishmael grew sober in an instant, and made a very clear statement of his afternoon"s errand, and its success, ending as he had begun, by saying: "I do believe in my soul, Aunt Hannah, that anybody can get any reasonable thing in the world they want, if they only try hard enough for it! And now, dear Aunt Hannah, I would not be so selfish as to go to school and leave all the burden of getting a living upon your shoulders, if I did not know that it would be better even for you by-and-by! For if I go to school and get some little education, I shall be able to work at something better than odd jobbing. The professor and Mr. Middleton, and even the commodore himself, thinks that if I persevere, I may come to be county constable, or parish clerk, or schoolmaster, or something of that sort; and if I do, you know, Aunt Hannah, we can live in a house with three or four rooms, and I can keep you in splendor! So you won"t think your boy selfish in wanting to go to school, will you, Aunt Hannah?"
"No, my darling, no. I love you dearly, my Ishmael. Only my temper is tried when you run your precious head into the fire, as you did last night."
"But, Aunt Hannah, Israel Putnam, or Francis--"
"Now, now, Ishmael--don"t, dear, don"t! If you did but know how I hate the sound of those old dead and gone men"s names, you wouldn"t be foreverlasting dinging of them into my ears!" said Hannah nervously.
"Well, Aunt Hannah--I"ll try to remember not to name them to you again.
But for all that I must follow where they lead me!" said this young aspirant and unconscious prophet. For I have elsewhere said, what I now with emphasis repeat, that "aspirations are prophecies," which it requires only faith to fulfill.
Hannah made no reply. She was busy setting the table for the supper, which the aunt and nephew presently enjoyed with the appreciation only to be felt by those who seldom sit down to a satisfactory meal.
When it was over, and the table was cleared, Hannah, who never lost time, took the bundle of linen, unrolled it, sat down, and commenced sewing.