Little Fannie now came down to see her brother. The first thing she did, upon entering the house, was to put both arms round Tige’s neck, and tell him he shouldn’t be whipped if he did do naughty things, for Captain Rhines said so.
Fred’s father was a stern, passionate man, who did not secure the affections of his children. His mother was a fretful, teasing woman; thought she had to work harder, and had more to try her than anybody else in the world; didn’t see what she had so many children for; when the window was down she wanted it up, and when it was up she wanted it down; was never suited. She was a great deal more inclined to scold her children for doing wrong, than to praise them for doing well. The doctor said Fred would never get well, if his mother took care of him, she kept such a fuss, and made him uneasy; so Mrs. Rhines told her there were a good many of them, and they could take care of him as well as not, and had plenty of room; that she had a great family, with much to do, and young children; their dog did the harm, and they would take care of him.
As Fred began to mend, Mrs. Rhines would take her work and sit down by him in the afternoon, and talk with him as she did with her own children; in her kind, motherly way, tell him of the results of vice, and the inducements to a virtuous course; and, as the tears ran down his cheeks, wiped them away, soothing and encouraging him, till the boy’s inmost soul responded to her teachings. His eyes would light up with satisfaction when he saw her take her knitting work to sit by his bedside.
Not long after Fred had given vent to his feelings, John, meeting Uncle Isaac on the beach, said to him, “I believe Fred would be right glad to see you, but don’t like to say so.”
“Well, I’ll happen in.”
So he happened in. What passed between them was never known; but the next day Fred said to John, “Uncle Isaac’s a good man—ain’t he?”
“Good! He’s the goodest man that ever was.”
Not many days after he happened in again, when Fred said to him, “I have an uncle in Salem that’s a tanner and shoemaker. He and I were always great friends; he wants me to come and live with him, and learn the trade. Father has said a great many times that I am such a bad boy, and plague him so much, that he should be glad if I was there. I’ve been thinking while on this bed, that since I have got such a bad name round here, it would be a good thing to go where nobody knows me, or what I have done, and begin brand fire new.”
“The tanner’s trade is a first-rate one, and I should like to have you learn it; but the place where you have lost your character, Fred, is the very place to get it again. There was a man lived in Rowley, who was accused of stealing a sheep. He said he wouldn’t stay in a place where he was so slandered, and moved to Newbury. He had not been there a fortnight when the report came that he had stolen three sheep when he lived in Rowley, and he moved back again.”
“But everybody will scorn me; and when I go to school the boys will twit me of it, and holler after me when I go along the road.”