The Literary echo, and Pawcatuck advertiser. [volume] (Westerly, R.I.) 1851-1854, 1852-12-09

true benevoience which removes all
fear, and Robert did not hesitate to do
as he was told.
swell, who arc you, my little bare.
head, said the cripple, and what have
you done with your hat"
81 lost it from BRIDGE" said Rob
| ert.
What is your name 20
Robert, sir, but don't ask me my
other name, for do not wish to be
sent home"
" You have run away, them"
Yes, sir; played truant, was
cruelty beaten by my master, and as my
father promised to pay me when l re-
turned home, 1 would not 90 home to
be beaten again, for my back was already
raw.
Let me look at it," said the cripple
who saw at once that the back would be
a certificate of the truth or falsehood of
the story. Robert stripped himself,
and all doubt was at once removed
g Why did you play truant;" inquired
the cripple, who had become quite in.
terested in the boy.
" | could not learn my lesson, sir,
and hated study. Ny master did not
explain my lessons so that | could not
understand them, and not being able to
commit to memory so many words
that were all Greek to me, was Aogged
every day until / got tired of it."
Very NATURAL" said the cripple,
"very natural, and perhaps not very
naughty. Do yoa hate study Z"
If that is what you call study, l
do" said Robert, but guess l am as
ready as any body to get any knowledge
worth having"
"Well, said the cripple, you may
eat your apple now, and as am toe
lame to 60 home to dinner, l brought
something for dinner, and here is wha,
is left of it."
Robert ate heartily, as hungry child
ren, know how to do, and when he had
done the children of the neighboring
village school began to enter the little
shop, and there was hardly room to
turn around in it. a.a
81 want a cents worth of chestnuts, 81
said one.
Robert" said the cripple, 4" can you
count out twenty five chestnuts for that
little girl :"
81 guess l can," said Robert, delight
ed at the task, and still more SO with the
confidence it implied.
I" l should like stick of candy" said
another.
Hand it to him, Robert, and put the
cent in the drawer" said the cripple.
Two or three others wanted some thing,
and X bert was allowed to wait upon
them.
"Who is that fellow" said one of
the boys to the cripple.
" He is a poor little fellow that was
dying with pain and hunger, and l have
just been feeding him." replied he.
"Won't y u have thum of my chest
nuth 2" said little girl, holding out her
little stock.
"You may have this APPLE" said a
rosy faced boy, &" don't want any more
of it," He bad taken only one large
bite from one side.
"You may have half of my candy
said a third, and the cripple let them
give, and told Robert to take the Offer
ing, because he had known by hard ex-
perience that such sacr fees are lessons
in benevolence, one of which is worth
thousand of those committed to memory.
The readiness with which Robert
waited on the children satisfied the Grip
pie that his natural powers were, to say
the least, as good as those Of common
children, and not knowing what better
to do, he took Robert home with him
for the night. la the course of the
evening he made some inquiries into the
studies to which the boy had attended,
and the manner in which he had studied
them. The spelling lessons had been
learned by looking at the words, reading
them over to himself, and then spelling
them as the master "put them out. I"
Geography had been learned by rote in
the words of the book, without any ex-
PLANTATION or illustration. But it was
grammar that had driven him from the
school. He could not understand a
word of it, and it was never explained
or applied. He knew that Man, Virtue,
London, was substantive. He knew
that a pronoun stood instead of noun,
but he could not make any of them stand
instead of Man, Virtue, London. He
knew that a verb was a word that sig-