Put Yourself in His Place | Page 9

Little and myself is
at an end, oblige me with your address in Birmingham, that I may remit
to you, half-yearly, as her agent, the small sum that has escaped bricks
and mortar.
"When her son comes of age, she will probably forgive me for
declining to defraud him of his patrimony.
"But it will be too late; for I shall never forgive her, alive or dead.
"I am, sir, your obedient servant,
"GUY RABY."
When he had posted this letter he turned Edith's picture to the wall, and
wrote on the canvas--
"GONE INTO TRADE."
He sent for his attorney, made a new will, and bequeathed his land,
houses, goods, and chattels, to Dissolute Dick and his heirs forever.
CHAPTER III
.
The sorrowful widow was so fond of her little Henry, and the
uncertainty of life was so burnt into her now, that she could hardly bear
him out of her sight. Yet her love was of the true maternal stamp; not
childish and self-indulgent. She kept him from school, for fear he
should be brought home dead to her; but she gave her own mind with
zeal to educate him. Nor was she unqualified. If she had less learning
than school-masters, she knew better how to communicate what she did
know to a budding mind. She taught him to read fluently, and to write
beautifully; and she coaxed him, as only a woman can, over the dry
elements of music and arithmetic. She also taught him dancing and
deportment, and to sew on a button. He was a quick boy at nearly
everything, but, when he was fourteen, his true genius went ahead of
his mere talents; he showed a heaven-born gift for--carving in wood.
This pleased Joseph Little hugely, and he fostered it judiciously.
The boy worked, and thought, and in time arrived at such delicacies of
execution, he became discontented with the humdrum tools then
current. "Then learn to make your own, boy," cried Joseph Little,
joyfully; and so initiated him into the whole mystery of hardening,

forging, grinding, handle-making, and cutlery: and Henry, young and
enthusiastic, took his turn at them all in right down earnest.
At twenty, he had sold many a piece of delicate carving, and could
make graving-tools incomparably superior to any he could buy; and,
for his age, was an accomplished mechanic.
Joseph Little went the way of all flesh.
They mourned and missed him; and, at Henry's earnest request, his
mother disposed of the plant, and went with him to London.
Then the battle of life began. He was a long time out of employment,
and they both lived on his mother's little fortune.
But Henry was never idle. He set up a little forge hard by, and worked
at it by day, and at night he would often sit carving, while his mother
read to him, and said he, "Mother, I'll never rest till I can carve the
bloom upon a plum."
Not to dwell on the process, the final result was this. He rose at last to
eminence as a carver: but as an inventor and forger of carving tools he
had no rival in England.
Having with great labor, patience, and skill, completed a masterpiece of
carving (there were plums with the bloom on, and other incredibles),
and also a set of carving-tools equally exquisite in their way, he got a
popular tradesman to exhibit both the work and the tools in his window,
on a huge silver salver.
The thing made a good deal of noise in the trade, and drew many
spectators to the shop window.
One day Mr. Cheetham, a master-cutler, stood in admiration before the
tools, and saw his way to coin the workman.
This Cheetham was an able man, and said to himself, "I'll nail him for
Hillsborough, directly. London mustn't have a hand that can beat us at
anything in our line."
He found Henry out, and offered him constant employment, as a forger
and cutler of carving-tools, at L4 per week.
Henry's black eyes sparkled, but he restrained himself. "That's to be
thought of. I must speak to my old lady. She is not at home just now."
He did speak to her, and she put her two hands together and said,
"Hillsborough! Oh Henry!" and the tears stood in her eyes directly.
"Well, don't fret," said he: "it is only saying no."
So when Mr. Cheetham called again for the reply, Henry declined, with

thanks. On this, Mr. Cheetham never moved, but smiled, and offered
him L6 per week, and his journey free.
Henry went into another room, and argued the matter. "Come, mother,
he is up to L6 a week now; and that is every shilling I'm worth; and,
when I get an apprentice, it will be L9 clear