CHAP. V.[ToC]
THE YOUNGEST BOY.
The deacon had several children. At the time of his failure two or three were married, and of those that still remained at home, Samuel was the youngest. It is natural enough for you to suppose that this Samuel, as I am giving you such a long story about him, was a remarkable child, a sort of prodigy. But such is not the fact, I believe. As to his cradle life, I profess not to know much. I have not much doubt, however, that he was very like other infants—that he had his share of little troubles, and cried lustily over them; that he laughed, and frolicked, and clapped his hands, like most babies; that he went into raptures over a tin whistle and a rattle box; and that, in short, he was as wise as most people are, at that interesting age when the nursery seems to them to comprise the greater portion of the habitable globe.
SAMUEL AND THE SCHOOLMASTER.[ToList]
One of the first anecdotes I ever heard about Samuel—one which, though it does not make him out a prodigy, shows pretty clearly what sort of stuff he was made of, as straws show which way the wind blows—is something like this: When Samuel was quite a small boy, and before he had made much progress in his studies at school, there came to board at his father's, for a few weeks, the teacher of the district school. This man was fond of children, and took quite a fancy to little Samuel. "Samuel," said he, one night, when the boy was playing with a new ball, "did you know the world was round, like your ball?" No, he had never dreamed of such a thing, he said. He had thought it was as flat as a pancake. "Well, it is round," the teacher said, "almost as round as a ball or a marble." The little fellow was so much interested in what the good man told him, that he left his play, and said he wanted to hear all about the world. So the teacher had to get his globe, and talk to him about it, until he was hoarse.