278 



JUVENILE GLEANINGS. 



May 



the middle of the floor, on his back. Now, 

 Thomas was always remarkable for his ex- 

 treme care of his dress, and, in fact, every 

 part of his clothing ; and to be lying on the 

 dirty floor on his back was to him humiliat- 

 ing in the extreme. lie essayed to get up, 

 but the master said, very quietly, — 



"No, Thomas, I shall have you stay there 

 until you can promise me to be a good boy, 

 and obey orders when I give them." 



Thomas promised, and that was the end 

 of attempting to disobey the master. 



One of the next things I remember in re- 

 gard to the new teacher was his coming 

 along one day when I was fussing with a pe- 

 culiar chemical apparatus. For the experi- 

 ment I was making, I wanted a wooden box 

 to hold water ; and although I filled the 

 cracks in my box with tar and cotton, and 

 patched it up as boatmen often do leaky 

 boats, it still bothered me in leaking. iSaid 

 the new teacher, who was looking on, — 



"Why, Amos, why don't you make a box 

 that won't leak V" 



I looked up at him and replied, — 



"Can you make a box that won't leak, 

 without any tar on it ?" 



He said he thought he could, and pretty 

 soon Avith some thin boards, and the aid of 

 father's old chest of carpenter's tools, he 

 cut out the boards and nailed up the box, 

 and it was so nice a piece of work that even 

 I had faith that it would hold water. Quite 

 anxiously I inspected every crack and point 

 when we poured water into it, and, sure 

 enough, it cZicZ hold water; for not a drop 

 ever came out of it. My friends, do you 

 think you can make and nail up a box so 

 well that it will hold water? Perhaps you 

 had better try it. 



Well, after the new master had made the 

 pneumatic trough for me, for that is wliat I 

 called it, he somehow got into the way of 

 assisting me with a good many of my chem- 

 ical experiments. lie helped me make a 

 little steam-engine out of an old kettle ; and 

 one evening after school we made a fire-bal- 

 loon which, although it never went up very 

 much, afforded us quite a good deal of fun. 

 One remark the new master made about 

 that time", was one I have long remembered. 

 He told somebody (when I was out of hear- 

 ing) that he would like no better fun than 

 to do nothing else but " make things " for 

 "that boy." I used to show him my old 

 book on chemistry, and by and by he used 

 to spend considerable time at our house, 

 and he and I began to be great friends ; al- 

 though I do remember just now that I once 

 complained to mother that James didn't 

 seem to care very much about chemistry, 

 after all. The reason that I made the re- 

 mark was, that on that special evening he 

 seemed to care more about talking with one 

 of my grown-up sisters than he did listening 

 to what I was trying to show him. 



Years passed. The chemistry was some- 

 what forgotten ; but my old disposition of 

 wanting to pry into strange things about me, 

 and learn all about things, had not left me. 

 I was a man grownup, in business ; yet as in 

 my boyhood, I had many things 1 wanted 

 made, and I wanted many things. Although 

 I was unable to make them myself always, 



people were at hand to make them for me. 

 80 1 got into the way of employing a good 

 many people. Among other things, I had 

 learned, too, to know and love my Savior, 

 and it had become a habit with both myself 

 and wife to go to him for all the heljp we 

 needed, of whatever kind. One evening, 

 toward the opening of spring, I told my 

 wife that my business accumulating on my 

 hands was getting to be more than I could 

 possibly stand. I told her that some one 

 who was not only capable of taking chai'ge 

 of the work, but to take charge of the hands, 

 was getting to be almost a necessity. As it 

 was just before we were retiring for the 

 night, I told her we would ask God to direct 

 us in finding just such a one. We knelt and 

 prayed God to guide me in the selection of 

 such a one. As we arose, I told my wife 

 that I could think of only just one man in 

 the world who had the faculty of doing 

 what I wanted done, but I didn't think it 

 would be possible to get him. 



" Who is it ?" said she. 



The one of whom I was thinking was none 

 other than my old schoolmaster, the man 

 who could make a box that would " hold 

 water," and the man, also, who had the 

 faculty of taking a disorderly school and 

 bringing them into subjection without words 

 or argument. In short, it was Mr. Gray of 

 whom I was thinking. The next morning 

 I wrote him a letter, and in due course of 

 time he came to help me ; and then the wish 

 he expressed so many years before, came to 

 pass. He has been now for years as "my 

 neighbor," making boxes for me that will 

 " hold water," helping me to bring order and 

 beauty out of rough pine boards, and some- 

 times, also, perhaps, rough humanity. 



I want to tell you just one more little inci- 

 dent about Mr. Gray, when he was a school- 

 master. As well as a day-school teacher, he 

 was also a beautiful penman and writing- 

 teacher, and so of course we soon had a writ- 

 ing-school started in our little town. Well, 

 in the course of the winter another writing- 

 teacher came there and started a writing- 

 school. As is often the case, a little rivalry 

 sprang up between the two teachers, and the 

 new comer used Mr. Gray in a way that was 

 any thing but gentlemanly. Now, while 

 everybody expected to see Mr. Gray retali- 

 ate, and pay him back in his own coin, as 

 the saying is, we were all very much sur- 

 prised to see nothing but great kindness and 

 friendliness shown in return. Even my sis- 

 ter got impatient with the master, because 

 he would not show a " spark of spunk," as 

 she termed it. But James very quietly re- 

 plied to her, " Eliza, I am sure my course is 

 the best." And so it proved eventually. 

 During this same winter my eldest brother 

 had a strong desire to go to a dancing-school. 

 When parents and sisters had remonstrated, 

 and, as it seemed, all in vain, James settled 

 the question in this wise : — - 



" Look here, Marsh, you give up the danc- 

 ing-school, and I will teach you drawing- 

 lessons. Then you can go out and teach 

 drawing and penmanship, and see some- 

 thing of the world." 



"Marsh" accepted the oflier, and in due 

 time astonished us all by becoming not only 



