Not to follow them through the process of restoring animation, we will say that he was carefully removed to Mr. Barton’s house, and tenderly watched by his kind wife.  He had been stunned by the fall, but this was not the extent of the mischief.  It was found upon examination that the spine had received irreparable injury, and that if poor White lived, which was doubtful, it would be as a helpless cripple.  Who can tell the reflections of those boys?  Who can estimate the misery of hearts which had thus returned evil for evil?  It was a sore lesson, but one which of itself could yield no good fruit.

It was a great grief to Fred that his presence, in the excitable state of the sufferer, seemed to do him harm.  He would have liked to sit by him, and share in the duties of his nursing, but whenever Fred approached, White became restless and uneasy, and continually alluded, even in his delirium, to the sod he had thrown, and to other points of his ungrateful malicious conduct to his school-fellow.  This feeling, however, in time wore away, and many an hour did Fred take from play to go and sit by poor Joe’s couch.

He had no mother to come and watch beside that couch, no kind gentle sister, no loving father.  He was an orphan, taken care of by an uncle and aunt, who had no experience in training children, and were accustomed to view young persons in the light of evils, which it was unfortunately necessary to bear until the fault of youth should have passed away.  Will you not then cease to wonder that Joe seemed to have so little heart?  Affection needs to be cultivated; his uncle thought that in sending him to school and giving him a good education, he was doing his duty by the boy.  His aunt considered that if in the holidays she let him rove about as he pleased, saw to the repairs of his clothes, sent him back fitted out comfortably, with a little pocket money and a little advice, she had done her duty by the child.  But poor Joe!  No kind mother ever stole to his bedside to whisper warnings and gentle reproof if the conduct of the day had been wrong; no knee ever bent to ask for grace and blessing on that orphan boy; no sympathy was ever expressed in one of his joys or griefs; no voice encouraged him in self-denial; no heart rejoiced in his little victories over temper and pride.  Now, instead of blaming and disliking, will you not pity and love the unlovable and neglected lad?

He had not been long under Mr. Barton’s care, and after all, what could a schoolmaster do in twelve months, to remedy the evils which had been growing up for twelve years?  He did his best, but the result was very little, and perhaps the most useful lesson Joe ever had was that which Fred gave him about the Dahlias.

CHAPTER TENTH.

EDITH’S VISIT TO JOE.

Fred and Edith were sitting in the Canary room one Saturday afternoon, shortly after the event recorded in the last chapter; Edith listening with an earnest interest to the oft-repeated tale of the fall in the wood.