The Bobbin Boy | Page 2

from the top--Trip accompanies
them--meeting with Sam and Ben Drake--Sam's assault upon
Trip--Frank's feelings--Nat's love of nature--this characterizes youth
generally who become renowned--Sir Francis Chantrey--Robert
Burns--Hugh Miller--more hope of boys who love the beautiful of
nature and art--reaching the summit--a fire in the city--Sam's
anger--counting the churches--Sam kicks Trip down the
precipice--Frank and Nat crying--Sam's ridicule--Sam and Ben
leave--Nat tells a story--carrying dead Trip home 69-82
CHAPTER VIII.
THE END OF SCHOOL-DAYS.

The agent of the factory wants Nat--picker-boy in Lowell a short
time--his home-sickness--a good sign for boys to love home, and
why--bad boys do not love home--the young man in prison--such lads
sneer at home-sickness--interview of Nat's father and mother on the
subject--their conclusion to put him into the factory--end of
school-days 83-89
CHAPTER IX.
OPENING THE SUBJECT.
Nat coming home--telling the sad news to his mother--sifting Sam
Drake's character--going to Frank's to bury Trip--asking permission of
parents--how some take advantage--Frank's arrangement for the
burial--Trip's coffin--buried in the garden--Nat's funeral oration--going
to supper--the difficult lesson in arithmetic--stunned by the
announcement--his objection--his mother suggested that the operatives
had a library--the result, and Nat's last thoughts at night 90-99
CHAPTER X.
THE NEW CALL.
Monday morning--prompt boys--not a lazy bone in Nat--how the bell
called him--his first appearance at the factory--remark of the
overseer--meeting with Charlie Stone there--Charlie's
character--making use of knowledge acquired and difference in
boys--talk with the agent about the library--his advice about spare
moments--William Cobbett's account of his own privations in early
life--Nat's first noon-time--his work as bobbin boy--takes the life of Dr.
Franklin out of the library--meets with David Sears--punctuality a
cardinal virtue--how the factory bell cultivates punctuality--here the
beginning of his student life--read through life of Franklin before
Saturday night 100-112
CHAPTER XI.

THE LOFTY STUDY.
Nat's proposition for systematic study--Charlie goes to his house--his
study in the attic--Dr. Kitto's study not so good--nor St. Pierre's--they
read and discuss Franklin and Patrick Henry--copy of Franklin's
rules--Patrick Henry's faculty of observation--Nat like him--studying
men and things--the case of Shakspeare--Nat the best penman in the
mill--choice between study and the party--obliged to deny himself for
the sake of study--some disarrangements--thinks he can never know
much--the poor not so good a chance as the rich--wealth of character
113-123
CHAPTER XII.
THE DEDICATION.
A hall to be dedicated--Nat's conversation with Frank about it, and
removal of the library--going to the dedication--the address on Count
Rumford--a sketch of the address to show why Nat was so deeply
interested--Count Rumford's origin, boyhood, rise, learning,
benevolence, and fame--conversation with his mother about
it--conversation with Charlie at the factory--a life-long impression
made on his mind by it 124-133
CHAPTER XIII.
A SCHOOL SCENE.
A difficulty with Sam Drake in school--Nat hears of it--a true
account--Sam writes a letter about the teacher--the teacher discovers
it--many words spelled incorrectly--a copy of the letter--Sam called
into the floor--made to spell the words he has spelled wrong--spells
Alpheus, Coombs, knife, bargain, spectacles--merriment it occasioned
in school--Sam refuses to spell more--he is punished and
conquered--spells again--then he is ferruled--sent to his seat--advice to
the school--a good teacher--his case before the
committee--expelled--what the incident teaches 134-141

CHAPTER XIV.
TAKING SIDES.
The Federalist--Jefferson and the Democrat--the four votes--studied
with all his soul--Jefferson wrote the Declaration of
Independence--reading it--difference between Jefferson and Adams
--Jefferson's views of slavery--extract from his writings--another
extract--why Nat adopted these principles--his early sympathies--the
life of Jefferson made lasting impression on his mind--case of
Guido--Cotton Mather's "Essays to do Good"--Dr. Franklin--Jeremy
Bentham and greatest good to greatest number--Alfieri and "Plutarch's
Lives"--Loyola and "Lives of the Saints"--a picture made--Dr. Guthrie
142-155
CHAPTER XV.
THREE IMPORTANT EVENTS.
Frank in the factory--bad to be poor--worse to be mean--great men
generally poor--dispute with Dr. Franklin--intimate friendship with
Frank--the poor sympathize with each other--so with the rich--influence
of kindred occupation--the new comer--his poverty--who Marcus
was--the kind letter that brought trial--proposition to leave home--talk
with his mother--reminded of Marcus--decision to leave
home--departure and new field--gone three years--his return 156-164
CHAPTER XVI.
FINDING A LOST OPPORTUNITY.
Odd moments at grammar--making up for a lost
opportunity--confession of an error--inquiry after Sam Drake--his bad
character--Ben Drake--mastering grammar alone--nothing dry in which
we are interested--Nat's literary pocket--Roger Sherman's
pocket--Napoleon's pocket--Hugh Miller's pocket--Elihu Burritt's
pocket--many boys carry only a jack-knife in their pocket--value of one

hour a day--ten years of study in half a century--lost opportunities not
found--the proposed debating club--Marcus again 165-173
CHAPTER XVII.
THE PURCHASE.
A spare day--visit to Boston bookstores--shoe-leather cheap and the
proposed walk--conversation with Charlie and Frank--the walk to
Boston--what would attract some boys there--the book-stores drew
Nat--conversation with a bookseller--purchase of "Locke's Essay on the
Understanding"--his examination of books--bits of knowledge--Dr.
Kitto and the book-stall--homeward bound--Monday morning with
Charlie--influence of Locke's Essay on him--its influence was such on
Robert Burns, Samuel Drew, and Mendelssohn--it aids the speaker to
understand the laws of human nature--more visits to Boston