The Poorhouse Waif and His Divine Teacher | Page 7

about in the tall grass, so many
pleasant recollections were brought to his mind that he laughed aloud.
They met other horses and buggies similar to their own as well as
covered carriages, and passed some horses quite like his uncle's tied to
hitching-racks in front of houses or running about in the rich
pasturelands.
The musical birds also added much to the boy's enjoyment when he
heard them now and then singing in some tree-top or bower, but all that

he thought about any of the beautiful things around him was
unexpressed and securely fastened within his little mind for future
meditation. His small store of knowledge had been gained in this way,
but it seemed to be God's method of teaching him the lessons that in
later years would be the most useful to him.
Occasionally he turned to look at the "big man" by his side, and each
time beneath the poverty-branded garments there throbbed a heart full
of the deepest esteem, and his desire to do his very best to win the
confidence and friendship of his new companion was strong. This was
not a new impulse in Edwin, for he had always endeavored to please
every one, and in doing this he had found real pleasure.
The afternoon was rapidly passing away, and as the sun sank in the
western horizon, the blue sky above him became streaked with crimson
and gold. Then Edwin noticed that the houses were closer together, but
he did not know that it was because he was entering a village and was
close to his mother's home.
During the entire journey from the poorhouse the uncle had been silent,
but suddenly Edwin saw the right line tightening, and in answer to the
uncle's command, "Whoa there, Bill!" they stopped close beside a
hitching-post.
Without a word of explanation the uncle sprang lightly to the ground
and after tying the horse grasped Edwin's shoulders and roughly placed
him upon the ground. Again the boy's decision to endeavor to please
was strengthened, and when the uncle started toward the pretty brown
house just inside the picket fence and repeated the words he had used at
the poorhouse, "Come along," Edwin instantly obeyed.
As they passed in through the open gateway, Edwin noticed pretty
flower-bushes. His uncle told him that it was his mother's home. As
they stepped upon the porch, Edwin could not refrain from sniffing in
some of the delicious fragrance of the honey-suckle blossoms dangling
so gracefully here and there from the pillars of the porch, but he was
hurried on.

When they entered the house, Edwin looked about in amazement, for
everything seemed so very beautiful. Then he saw a woman sitting near
a window with a piece of sewing in her hands and three children--a boy
about his own size, a girl, and a boy younger--playing on the floor.
"This is your mother," he heard his uncle say.
Without rising or giving the child a word of welcome, the unfeeling
woman said to the uncle:
"What do you think of him?"
"I don't know what to think," was the uncle's answer. "He hasn't said a
word since Engler turned him over into my care, and I certainly tried
hard to get something out of him. All he did until I told him to come
along was to stare at me with those large brown eyes of his. While we
were riding along, though, he seemed to see everything there was to see,
and by the way he kept smiling to himself one would have supposed he
was looking at a circus."
Ah, could they have known the deep thoughts that had been passing
through the childish mind even upon that trip, they would have
understood better how to encourage him. With no consideration for the
manner in which Edwin had been shut away from the better class of
society and the proper helps that are usually thrown about the young,
they at once gave him a low and degraded place in their estimation and
pronounced him dull, stupid, and idiotic. All commands were given in a
harsh tone and in such a manner that he could not comprehend them.
Before going farther into the life of Edwin, it might be well to explain
that the uncle and his three small children were making their home with
Edwin's mother. The house in which they were living, although rented,
contained many comforts and even luxuries; for the mother, aside from
her pension-money, was being liberally paid by the uncle for keeping
him and his family. And Edwin's ignorance, as has already been
inferred, was due to his lack of training and to the fact that everything
in his mother's house was so new and different from what he had been
used to