“We will be good to him because he never had any chestnut-tree to play under and swing on, nor any garden of his own,” said Maria.
“How can we be good to him if he won’t say anything, Maria!” said Bertie.
“Can’t we be good to the cattle, and I’m sure they don’t talk?”
“If they don’t they say something; the cat she purrs, the hens prate, Fowler wags his tail and barks and whines; and the horses neigh, and snort, and put down their heads for me to pat them; but how could you be good to a stone? and he’s just like a stone, when mother put out her hand to shake hands he did not take it, nor look pleased nor anything.”
“Perhaps ‘twas ‘cause he was afraid. When we first got our kitten she hid away up garret, and we didn’t see her for three days, but she got tame, and so perhaps he will.”
They finally made up their minds that James was entitled to all the sympathy and kindness they could manifest towards him, when they were called to supper.
It now became a question between Mr. Whitman and his wife, where to stow James that night.
“Put him in the barn and give him some blankets to-night, and to-morrow we will clean him up.”
“I can’t bear to put him in the barn, husband, I’ll make him a bed of some old ‘duds’ on the floor in the porch. Send him right off to bed; I’ll wash his clothes and dry ‘em before morning. I can fix up some old clothes of yours for him to work in, for I don’t want any of the neighbors to see him in those he has on.”
Mr. Whitman now ushered James to bed, waited till he undressed, and brought in his clothes that were soon in scalding suds. Had Mr. Whitman gone back he would have seen this poor ignorant lad rise from his bed, kneel down and repeat the Lord’s prayer, and though repeated with a very feeble sense of its import may we not believe it was accepted by Him who “requireth according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not,” and whose hand that through the ocean storm guides the sea-bird to its nest amid the breakers, has directed this wayfarer to the spot where there are hearts to pity and hands to aid him.