I must now explain how they came to take Julius into their family. Though they had been married twelve years, they had but one child, a little girl of five, a{91} pretty and attractive child. Having no son, it occurred to them to receive into their household a boy, who would be company for little Carrie, and whom, if found worthy, they might hereafter adopt and provide for. A boy of the age of Julius can always make himself useful on a Western farm, but it was only partially with a view to this consideration that he was received.
Mr. Taylor resolved to give him a good education, and increase his advantages, if he showed himself to possess capability and willingness to learn.
Comparatively few of the boys who are sent to the West can hope to obtain such homes; but though their privileges and opportunities may be less, they will in most cases obtain a decent education, good treatment, and a chance to rise.
While Julius was upstairs, Mr. Taylor asked his wife:
“Well, Emma, what do you think of the boy I have brought home?”
“He looks bright, but I judge that he has not had much education.”
“Quite right; it will be for us to remedy that. He has been brought up in the streets of New York, but I don’t think he has any bad faults.”
“He described his room as ‘stavin’,” said Mrs. Taylor, smiling. “I never heard the word before.”
“It is an emphatic word of approval among boys. I have heard it among those who are not street boys. They{92} use it where girls would say a thing was ‘perfectly lovely’.”
“I never had much to do with boys, Ephraim. You know I had no brothers, so I am ignorant of their dialect.”