“Don’t go,” said George, who had tried his best to say something comforting to his almost heart-broken friend. “The professor will not expect anything of you to-night.”
“I shall go and deliver my speech—that is, if I have brains enough to remember it,” said Bob, quietly but firmly. “This sorrow is my own. No one in the wide world has a share in it, and you will see that I have self-control enough to take me through the exercises without detracting in the least from anybody’s enjoyment.”
And he kept his word.
The news of his bereavement had spread all through the village by this time, and not one of the vast audience that crowded the Academy Chapel expected to see him on the stage.
When the valedictory was announced, and the young orator appeared before the footlights, a silence that was almost oppressive fell upon the assembly. They all sympathized with the boy, and their sympathy was so intense that, like the darkness that covered the land of Egypt, it could be felt.
Bob’s voice was husky, and trembled a little at first, but he gradually regained the mastery of himself as he proceeded, and, when he ended his peroration, the applause that followed fairly shook the building.
It was a spontaneous outburst of admiration, not for the oratorical effort of the student—which was something better than common—but for the wonderful nerve he exhibited. Few boys could have passed through such an ordeal.
Bob set out for his boarding-house as soon as he left the stage, and when George entered the room, an hour later, he was pacing the floor, with his hands buried deep in his pockets, and his chin resting on his breast. He was calmer now, and he even smiled as he gave his chum an approving slap on the back.
“You did yourself credit to-night, George,” said he. “If I could write an essay like that, I should feel proud of myself. Now, go to bed, and I will have you up at five o’clock in the morning. I will lie down on the sofa when I get tired. I know how to sympathize with you now, for I am alone in the world as you are.”
“There are your uncle and your cousin,” George ventured to remark.