"Now stir the fire, and close the shutters fast,
Let fall the curtains, wheel the sofa round;
And while the bubbling and loud hissing urn
Throws up a steamy column, and the cups,
That cheer but not inebriate, wait on each,
So let us welcome peaceful evening in."
—COWPER.
One evening, a little more than a week after the captain had moved into the forester's house, he invited the pastor and his wife and the two children to go and take tea with him. On arriving at the house they were shown at once into the room which had been kept so securely locked up since the luggage had arrived, and were delighted at seeing the result of his labours. The children, too, were much amused with looking at some tapestry which covered one of the walls, representing three black slaves in the act of handing coffee and refreshments to the visitors. These were as large as life, and so well done, that at first the children were quite frightened, believing them to be real negroes. When they were all seated, the captain gave them some genuine and very rare tea served in fine porcelain cups which he had brought from China, and also some nice preserved fruits and sweetmeats from the Indies. The room was quite full of curiosities of all kinds, and the pastor's wife was much interested in looking at some beautiful silks from the Levant, and several curiously carved boxes containing spices from the Molucca Islands, and also coffee and cocoa-berries, cotton-pods, and specimens of many other useful articles, which in their prepared state were well known to her.
The chief attraction for the pastor and the two children was a fine collection of objects of natural history, which the captain had already found time to put in order. There were some stuffed birds from foreign countries, which the captain had shot, and several cases containing a great many splendid butterflies from Brazil. They saw also, hanging on the walls of the room, wooden spears and roughly-made axes, with bows and arrows, and other weapons used by the savages of different countries which their host had visited. On the mantel-piece, too, were some lumps of amber from the Black Sea, porphyry from the ruins of Carthage, large shells and fine pieces of coral, agate, and many other curiosities from the sea. Beside the large shells on the mantel-piece, there was a beautiful collection of smaller ones in a small cabinet on the sideboard. In another cabinet, which was made of ebony, and handsomely inlaid with mother-of-pearl and silver, they were shown a valuable assortment of precious stones from Persia and the Indies.
The delight of the children when they saw all these curiosities was unbounded, and they asked so many questions, first about one thing they saw and then about another, that it was impossible for the captain to satisfy their curiosity in one evening. When the time came for them to go home, they were very sorry, but were consoled by the hope of often visiting their kind friend, and getting him to tell them all about his different treasures. After this first visit, the children were often allowed to go over to see the captain, and each time they did so he had something new to surprise them with—either some curiosity to show them, or perhaps a long and interesting story to tell them about some of the foreign countries he had visited. Sometimes, too, he would let them read to him out of a little book full of pretty stories and fables which he had bought, and then he would explain to them all that they read.
One day they had been reading the fable of the grasshopper and the ant, in which the grasshopper is represented as blaming the ant for working so hard during the fine summer weather, instead of enjoying the bright sunshine, and leaving the future to take care of itself. The ant replies that she knows it is very pleasant to have nothing to do but to play and sing among the grass and the flowers, but instinct has taught her that the bright warm weather must in time be exchanged for cold gloomy days with frost and snow, when no food is to be got, and so she is seeking, while she has an opportunity, to lay up a store against a rainy day. The captain asked little Mary if she knew what was meant by the grasshopper in the fable. "I don't know," was her answer; "but I think it must mean a man."
"Yes, my dear," said he, "it does represent a man; but what sort of man? Perhaps Willie can tell us."
"I suppose," said Willie, after thinking a little while, "that the grasshopper in the fable is intended to represent those people who live without any care for the future, and who, when they have plenty of everything around them, forget that a time may come when they will not be able to work, and who never lay up anything for their future wants."
"That is quite right," said the captain, "and we may learn, too, from this fable, to make a good use of our opportunities while we have them,—not only to lay by money as a provision for old age, but, while we are young, to try by diligence and study to lay in a store of useful knowledge, and above all to 'remember our Creator in the days of our youth,' instead of leaving it to an old age, which we may never live to see."
CHAPTER IV.
The Portrait—The Captain begins his Story—His Wilfulness—Goes to the University—Bad Behaviour there—His Father's Letter—Refuses to send him Money—He Runs Away.