The Boy Patriot | Page 4

and made them join me, when poor Hal came round the corner. Nobody
would have noticed him if I had gone right on; but I pointed him out,
and angry as they were, I could not stop them before they had thrown
him into the water. They thought he could swim, I dare say; but I knew
he couldn't. Oh, mother, what I suffered, thinking he might drown
before I could reach him. But he's safe now. You think he'll get well,
don't you, mother?"
"Yes, my child," said Mrs. Robertson, trembling with deep feeling.
"God's mercy has been great to you, my boy. May you learn this day a
solemn lesson. You have a powerful influence over your companions.
You know it, and I am afraid it has only fed your pride, not prompted
you to usefulness. Is it real love for your country that leads you to these
speeches; or is it a desire to see how you can rouse the passions of your
listeners, and force them to do your bidding? For every talent we must
give an account, and surely for none more strictly than the power to
prompt men to good or evil. I believe you love your country, my boy.
You love our dear country, or I would blush to own you as my son. But
I fear you have as yet but a poor idea what it is to be a true patriot."
"A true patriot, mother? I think I know what that means. One who loves
his country, and would cheerfully die for her," said Blair with
enthusiasm.
"You might even love your country and die for her, and yet be no true
patriot," said the mother. "You might be her disgrace, and the cause of
her afflictions, while you shed for her your heart's blood."
"I don't understand you," said the boy thoughtfully.
"Perhaps Korah and his company thought themselves patriots when

they rebelled against the power of Moses and Aaron. They doubtless
moved the people by cunning speeches about their own short-lived
honor; yet they brought destruction on themselves and a plague upon
Israel. There is nothing more plain in the Bible than God's great regard
to the righteousness or wickedness of individual men. Suppose that
there had been found ten righteous men in Sodom, for whose sake that
wicked city would have been spared its awful doom. Humble and
obscure they might have been; but would not they, who brought such a
blessing down on the neighborhood where they dwelt, be worthy of the
name of patriots? My son, if you were willing to lay down your life for
your country, and yet were guilty of the foul sin of swearing, and
taught all around you to blaspheme, would you not be laying up wrath
against your native land, though you fought with the bravery of an
Alexander? These are times to think on these things, my boy, if we
really love our country. No man liveth unto himself. His home, his state,
his country is in a degree blessed or cursed for his sake. Dear Blair, you
cannot be a true patriot without God's grace to help you rule your heart,
guard your lips, and purify your life. May you this day begin, for your
own sake as well as for that of your country, to serve the God of our
fathers. He has mercifully spared you the bitter self-reproach to which
you might have been doomed. Go in repentance to his footstool, and he
will abundantly pardon. Resolve henceforward to walk humbly before
him, trusting in his grace and striving to do his will, and you shall count
this day the most blessed of your life."
Mrs. Robertson put her arm round the tall, strong boy at her side. He
yielded to her touch, as if he had been a little child. Side by side they
knelt, while the mother poured out such a prayer as can only flow from
the lips of a Christian mother pleading for her only son.
Blair Robertson spent that long Saturday evening alone in his room.
That was indeed to be the beginning of days to him. He was no longer
to be a self-willed seeker of his own pleasure and honor. He was
"bought with a price," and was henceforward to be a servant of the
King of kings.
CHAPTER III.

THE ENGLISH BOY.
No loving friends came to inquire after the fate of Hal Hutchings, the
English boy. His efforts to save his basket of clean linen had been as
vain as his struggles to free himself from the hands of his persecutors.
The garments that had been starched and ironed with such scrupulous
care were scattered along the wharf, and trampled under the feet of the
thoughtless young mob. The