Hurrah for New England! | Page 9

life of Paul with attention, and this question appeared to
amuse him still more; and then he told me he had been through the
Book of Acts in Sunday school, and had learned several chapters in it
by heart; but for all that he had never thought of St. Paul as a hero.
I asked him what made a hero,--if it was not courage in the time of
danger.
"Yes," he said, "but it must be in action, not in words."
I reminded him then of some of the Grecian orators, who made
themselves immortal by their speeches, when their country was in
danger, and asked if their words were not considered heroic.
This question puzzled him a little, and he was not willing to own that it
was a similar case, but I defied him to find a Greek or Roman who had
hazarded his life more freely for the good of others than St. Paul. Then
I turned to the chapter containing Paul's speech before Agrippa, and
asked him where he could match its eloquence. Then I read over the
account of the sufferings of this brave Apostle, and demanded of David
whether any other man could give a catalogue of so many and great
evils so manfully borne. Finally, we reviewed the story of Paul's
shipwreck at Melita, and David was forced to avow that my hero
showed a calmness and self-possession in that hour of danger which
few mariners display.

If I only had had you to help me argue the point, I should have made
him own that Paul was very far superior to Alexander the Great.
You must not think, from what I say of David, that New England boys
are not as piously brought up as the Virginians; for I believe the
generality of them are much better instructed; but you know we have
had peculiar advantages, and David has been but little at home with his
mother, and his father cannot teach him what he does not himself know.
David will be a good man one of these days, and would be better now if
he had not the idea that there was something manly in being wicked. I
am so glad that I was not brought up to think the same, for I begin to
see how true it is, that, the older we grow, the more difficult it is for us
to change our course.
There is poor Moody Dick! I really believe he would like to be a better
man. They say that he is not more than twenty-five, but I thought that
he was over thirty, for his face is wrinkled already, and there are gray
hairs around his temples.
Yesterday, David and I were talking about our sisters. I told him all
about Nannie, and that I thought she was the prettiest girl in the whole
State of Virginia, and that was saying a great deal for her.
He allowed that this might be true, but he had a sister of his own who
was a match for her, and began describing her quite like a poet, and
then quoted some pretty lines from a piece addressed to a sister, by Mr.
Everett, I believe.
The words seemed to touch Moody Dick, who was pacing the deck
near us, for he stopped and listened to them with that same distressed
expression of countenance which I had noticed before, and when they
were finished he said, half unconsciously,--"A sister! I have a sister.
There is none like her."
"Have you seen her lately?" I asked. "It must be hard to be so much
away from her."
"I have not seen her for many years; but what is that to you?" he replied,

almost angrily.
My question might have been injudicious, and I immediately made an
apology for it, which appeased Dick. He walked up and down the deck
two or three times, as if debating some point in his own mind, and then,
returning, said, in a very sad tone,--"My life has been a useless one, but
I wish to make what is left of some service to others. You two boys are
still young, and may be saved from the errors into which I have fallen.
Come with me to the end of the vessel, where there are no listeners, and
I will tell you the story of my life, and you will then know better how
to appreciate a sister's love than you have ever done before."
You may imagine that we accepted this invitation very readily, but just
as I was seated Clarendon called to me to come quickly to him, for he
was very ill; so I had to jump up and run away.
I found that brother had only an attack of pain in his