46 THE SHAMROCK. 



I did : and he would write it out twenty limes, 

 with great delight: but sliil preferred the symbol 

 of the red hand. It may be asked why I did not 

 advance him farther in language ? There was a re- 

 luctance on his part which I could not surmount, 

 and which he in some measure accounted for, by 

 saying that he liked to talk to me, but not to others. 

 He used the word " brother," to explain the sen- 

 sation occasioned by any effort in the way of ac- 

 quiring grammatical learning, and went off to his 

 pencils with such glee, tliat, as he was a good deal 

 employed about the house and garden, and evidently 

 drooped when much confined lo sederjtary ocr"pa- 

 tion, I \iclded to his choice, determined to settle 

 him, after a while, to his ^ladies ; and ronscious 

 that he was right in the remark which he made to 

 me, that his not being able to talk better k<'pt liira 

 out of the way of n^ my bad things. His sister, 

 who came over to me five months before liis death, 

 could not read ; consequently ihey had no com- 

 muiu'cation but by signs ; and often have I been 

 amazed to witness the strong argument 'tive dis- 

 cussions that went forward between them on the 

 grand question of religion. She looked on Jack 

 as an apostate ; while his whole soul was engaged 

 in earnest prayer, that she also might come out 

 from her idolatrous church. 



But to resume the subject of that spiritual le<'»ch-. 

 ing: knowing as I did, how ignorant the boy waa 



