'Very well, he is no gentleman while there, especially if he clamors and fights as you did. That was too vulgar even for a gentleman's servant, and I was ashamed to have the public see you had not been better trained.'
'It is hard to get into jail, Massa, for being so glad to see an old friend. Is it one of the laws, Massa?'
'It is every where a law, to pick up vagabonds in the gutter,' said Walter; 'if you put me to this trouble every day, I shall send you back to Virginia.'
'Right glad to go, Massa; homesick enough,' said Pompey.
'Well, you must get over it, and behave in better fashion for the future. I am not without hopes, you will learn good manners in due time. This lesson will help you a little, and so will I, if you will try to help yourself. I want you now at my lodgings, and will there show you what you have to do.'
Pompey followed Walter to the inn, in better spirits; for a word of encouragement always gave him a glow of happiness, and he tossed his head with a new sense of his importance, as he entered the hotel to receive the orders and wait upon the movements of his young master.
In a few weeks, Walter was received into the family of Mr. Gardner, a highly respectable merchant, who was a friend and correspondent of his father. In this situation he was favored with the best literary advantages and possessed every facility for social enjoyment. He was committed to the special care of Mr. Cheever, one of the best teachers New England has ever produced, and made rapid proficiency in his studies; in less than two years, he was fully prepared for college; the usual examination was passed with singular credit, and he entered Harvard University in the year 1688. The social and moral influences which had surrounded him in Boston had done much to check his too volatile disposition, and to inspire him with a high respect for the consistent and exemplary piety which so much prevailed in those days; he was freely admitted to the best circles, where elegance without ostentation, cheerfulness without frivolity, and refinement without the despotism of fashion, were the natural and graceful ornaments of the social character.
Walter was not slow in improving the advantages he enjoyed. It is true, he sometimes thought the bow was bent too long, and that the demands of religious duty might be somewhat relaxed, yet he had the good sense to perceive in the state of the community around him, the best illustration of the excellence and moral force of that education in which science and religion acted in concert and moulded the temper and habits by their combined influence. Walter, however, was not religious in the true sense of the term. His understanding admitted the excellence of the moral precepts that were taught him, and his conscience confessed their power. He wanted neither light nor conviction on the subject, but he had no special love for the strict requirements of religion and had no experience of its renovating power on the heart.
We must now pass over the first years of college life, and pursue the train of incidents up to the period which introduced our narrative. Walter had attained his senior year in college, and had proceeded thus far with credit to himself and the esteem and confidence of his instructors. He had now reached that period when the character is rapidly developed, and new forms of good or ill are daily stamped on its features. At the age of twenty years, with a graceful person, pleasing manners, and confessedly in the highest literary ranks, his prospects were too flattering to escape the fears of his friends, that the temptations of life might prove too strong for his principles; but those fears were groundless. Although every distinction which wealth or talents could bestow were at his command, yet Strale was never unduly elated; there was no affectation of superiority, no arrogant assumption of rank, no pride of distinction. His whole course at Cambridge had been marked by a strict regard to his moral and social duties. He had even declined the personal services of Pompey, who was left in the family of Mr. Gardner, and chose to perform himself the little drudgery of college rooms, and to live in commons upon the ordinary college fare. The uniform kindness of his temper, his liberality to his fellow students, and his strict regard to every point of order and discipline, procured for him an enviable and well deserved reputation.