“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.