Chapter VII

EBEN MAKES A NEW FRIEND AND MEETS AN OLD ONE.

EBEN knew his way to the college very well, and found Dr. Porter without trouble. The old gentleman was in the anatomical museum, and Eben glanced round him with wondering and delighted eyes while Dr. Henry's note was being read. Dr. Porter smiled when he came to the postscript.

"So you think you would like to see the museum?"

"Yes, sir, if you would be so kind as to show me," said Eben, starting, for his whole attention was already absorbed by an unspeakably hideous anatomical painting which hung near him.

"Do you know anything about anatomy?" asked the doctor.

"Not much," replied Eben, blushing. "Only what I read in Miss Milliard's physiology and in the old Edinburgh encyclopaedia that father had."

"Well, that is not a bad beginning," said the doctor, kindly. "But how came you to care for such reading?"

"I don't know, sir; I always did like it. When I was a very little boy, mother scolded me for pulling open the cat's mouth and looking down her throat; but I did not mean to hurt her: I only wanted to see how it was that she purred."

"That was pursuit of knowledge under difficulties," said Dr. Porter, laughing. "I dare say your mother's fears were quite as much for you as for puss. Didn't she bite you?"

"Oh no, sir. We were old friends, and she knew I didn't mean any harm."

Dr. Porter was a very kind old gentleman, of most polished and winning manners, though he could be stern enough on occasions, and sarcastic enough too to make a rude or impudent student wish to creep into the smallest hole he could find. He was really interested in Eben, and Eben felt that he was so. Something in his manner overcame the boy's usual shyness and awkwardness of expression, and before they finished the tour of the museum, he had told his whole story and opened his whole heart to his new friend. Dr. Porter listened to and sympathized with him, and explained what they were looking at, to Eben's heart's content.

"But it must be dinner-time," said the doctor, stopping at last and looking at his watch. "Have you had your dinner?"

"No, sir," replied Eben. "Mr. Antis gave me the money to pay for my dinner, but I had forgotten all about it."

"Don't you feel hungry?"

"Yes, sir, now I think of it, I believe I do," said Eben. "I had a pretty early breakfast, and not much time to eat it."

"Well, you had better come up and get your dinner with me. I live at the hotel now. My daughter is away, and I want to see a little more of you."

"I am not dressed," said Eben, looking at his clothes, which were those which he wore about his work every day. "I came off in such a hurry I had hardly time to put on my hat."

"Oh, never mind. We shall find soap and water in my room. Come! It is time we were off. I am hungry, if you are not, and I have no notion of dining off bones and preparations, I can assure you!"

Great indeed was the amazement of certain fine young students boarding at the hotel to see Dr. Porter come into the dining-room with Eben, seat him at his own particular table, and treat him with every attention. More than one of them would have given a good deal for such a mark of consideration, for Dr. Porter was a great personage, not only in the college, but also in the society of the little town.

Eben, on his part, enjoyed his dinner very much. He had been taught "manners" when he was young, and he had something of the instinctive good-breeding of an Indian. An American Indian, however newly caught, is rarely guilty of any breach of table manners, simply because he waits to see what other people do.

"Come up to my room," said the doctor when the dinner was over. "You have time, haven't you?"

"Oh yes, sir, plenty of time. The train does not go till three fifteen, and it is only two now."

"Well, you will want to run about town a little, I dare say. However, we shall have time for a little chat."

"How many books!" said Eben, looking at the two well-filled bookcases. "I think I should be perfectly happy if I had so many books as that."

"Here is but a small part of my library," said the doctor. "These are my working tools which I use every day. Some other time I will show you my whole collection. Now, see here, Eben: suppose I render you partly happy by lending you one of these books to read; will you take good care of it, and be ready to give me some account of it when I see you again?"

"Yes, sir; indeed I will," replied Eben. "I will take the greatest care of it."

"Well, then, here is Carpenter's 'Comparative Physiology,' a stout fellow, as you see, but interesting as a romance to any one who cares for such things. Now, if you work through this faithfully, you will have made a very good beginning. Stay! You must have a dictionary of some kind. Do you know French?"

"No, sir. I began to learn Latin, and I have tried not to forget it."

"You had better let the Latin go, and study French," said Dr. Porter. "You will find the modern languages of more practical use to you in the beginning. There! Now you are pretty well equipped, and I shall have to send you away, for I have a lecture to prepare. Perhaps you may have lectures of your own to prepare some day."

A happier boy was not to be found in the United States than was Eben Fairchild that day as he walked down the long hill on which stood the group of college buildings. He could not resist the temptation to look into his books as he went along, till a stumble over a stone brought him nearly on his nose and quite to his senses at the same moment.

"Well, there! They'll keep!" And resolutely closing them, Eben began to study the shop-windows, that he might amuse his mother and Flora with an account of them when he got home. He was looking at a beautiful picture in the window of a bookstore, when some one slapped him on the shoulder, and looking round, he saw Tom Wilbur. Tom was no special favourite of Eben's, but he was in the mood to be cordial to everybody.

"Why, Eben, is this you? How came you over here?"

"I came on an errand for Mr. Antis," replied Eben, shaking hands.

"Seems to me I'd have dressed up a little," said Tom, with his usual politeness. "The folks here ain't like the folks in Boonville. They don't think much of a fellow, unless he looks nice."

"I hadn't time to dress," said Eben, feeling vexed at himself for being annoyed at Tom's words. "I had to catch a ride and come off at a moment's warning."

"Oh, well, it don't matter for you, I dare say. What are you staring at in this window? I don't see anything very interesting."

"At the pictures. I think they are beautiful, and Flossy will like to hear about them."

"Oh, well, never mind! Come and have a game of billiards."

"I don't know how to play billiards."

"Well, at tenpins, then. I think you know how to play tenpins, and they have a capital alley in this saloon."

Now, Eben did know how to play tenpins, and was fond of the game. He hesitated, but only for a minute.

"No, thank you, Tom. Mr. Antis told me particularly not to go to any saloon."

"Fiddle-de-dee for Mr. Antis! He ain't your father, and if he was, he isn't here. Come along, and don't be such a great baby! I'll pay for you, and like as not you'll make some money, for I know you are a good player. I won five dollars there the other day."

Eben remembered Jem Carter's words about the first bet. "No, Tom, I can't go to a saloon, and I won't, so don't ask me. How do you like the dry goods business?"

"Oh, I have left there. I couldn't stand it."

"Why, what a fellow you are to change about!" said Eben. "You will be one of the rolling stones that gather no moss, if you don't mind. What was the matter this time?"

"Enough was the matter," said Tom, sulkily. "I guess you wouldn't find it very pleasant to stand behind a counter all day, pulling down things just to put them up again, and getting a precious blowing up if you didn't have everything just so, or answered back anybody's impudence. It was enough to make anybody mad."

"If you don't do anything till you find everything just right, you won't do much," said Eben, sagely.

"I don't care; I ain't going to be bullied and treated like a slave for anybody."

"What are you doing now?"

"Oh, I am in a shoe store, but I don't like it much. The college fellows hold their heads so high and look down on clerks as if they were no better than toads. I mean to make my father send me to school and to college. I know he can afford it as well as not if he chooses, and then, I shall be somebody."

"And then the Seniors will bully you, and you will have to mind the professors and tutors, and be on hand for prayers and recitations, and how will you like that?" asked Eben.

"I don't care; I mean to try it, anyway. But come; go with me and got some oysters and a glass of lager."

"No, thank you," said Eben again. "I have just had my dinner at the hotel."

"Whew!" whistled Tom, opening his eyes. "We are grand, to be sure! How did you come to do that?"

"Well, I went up to the college to carry a letter from Dr. Henry to Dr. Porter, and Dr. Porter showed me the museum, and then asked me to dinner with him. He lent me these books, too. I think he is a nice old gentleman."

"Nice! I should think he was. There is not a person in Hobartown more thought of—no, not the president himself. Well, to be sure, the luck that some people have! But did he really ask you to dinner, or are you fooling, now? You are just trying to make me believe a big one, I bet."

"Believe or not, as you like," said Eben, indignantly. "It's nothing to me."

"Oh, come, don't be mad," said Tom, who began to think Eben might, after all, be a friend worth cultivating. "I dare say it is all as you say, only it seems so odd. Are you working for Mr. Antis yet?"

"Yes, but I am in the mill now."

"In my place, I suppose?" said Tom.

"Not exactly. I have more work to do, and I have more wages."

"Well, I am sure you are welcome," returned Tom. "How do you like it?"

"Very well, so far," said Eben, smiling. "I only went in this morning, and I came right away after breakfast."

"Well, I wonder at that. I expected you would step right into my shoes."

"I believe Mr. Antis wanted me to finish something about the garden. But good-bye, Tom; I must be going, or I shall miss the train."

"I'll go down with you."

"Won't you be wanted at the shop?"

"Oh, that don't matter. However, perhaps I had better be going."

Eben was not sorry to part with Tom. He wanted time to think over his new-found pleasures and all the things that had happened to him. He had the feeling that I suppose almost every one has experienced after a day of unwonted pleasure and excitement—as though he must have done or said something wrong or unbecoming. However, when he came to consider the matter, he could not find anything very important of which to accuse himself, unless it was that he had talked rather too freely to Dr. Porter and to Jem Carter.

"Certainly I never said so much to any stranger before, but the old gentleman seemed somehow to lead me on from one thing to another. Dr. Henry said he was fond of young people, and I am sure he must be, or he would not have lent me these nice books. I wonder how he knows that I won't run away with them or sell them? I wonder if Flossy would give up Latin and study French with me? Mary Clarke has studied French, and she could help us along."

"But there was Jem Carter. I wonder if I was right to speak so plainly to him? It was hard work enough for me to do it, I know, so I didn't speak to please or show off myself. It seems like taking a great deal on myself, now I look back on it, but, after all, I know that every word I said was true, and he was not offended, either, for he was as kind as could be, and asked me to pray for him. Oh, if he could only turn round, and be a good, sober, Christian man, how happy all his friends would be! Well, there is no use in going back on it, as Jeduthun says. I remember reading in that book Miss Barnard lent Flossy last week, that it was a bad habit to get into the way of always going back in the dark to see if you hadn't left a spark from a candle behind you. Why, what a crowd!"

They were now near the Springs, and as they came up Eben saw that there was a great crowd about the station. This was nothing very unusual, for going down to see the train come in was one of the few public amusements that the Springs afforded, but it was not the usual merry crowd of ladies and gentlemen from the Cure and the hotel. They were almost all men. There was no laughing and very little talking, and every one seemed to be speaking in low tones. What could have happened? As Eben got out of the car, somebody said:

"No, he was perfectly sober. I was talking with him not half an hour before, and he was just as straight as I am—not joking and carrying on, as he generally is, but kind of grave and serious."

"Here's Eben Fairchild," said some one else. "I dare say he will take the mare home. Eben, would you be afraid to drive poor Jem Carter's mare over home?"

"No, of course not," replied Eben. "But why does not Jem take her himself?"

"Why, haven't you heard?"

"No, I have been at Hobartown all day. Is he sick?"

"Dead!" replied the man. "Killed in a minute, not an hour ago."

Eben felt sick. "How was it?" he asked.

"He was standing down here when the two o'clock freight came in, and just as it was slacking, that little two-year-old girl of Marvin's went toddling right on to the track before the engine. Jem saw her and sprang to save her, and he did, somehow, manage to throw her over on the other track, but the engine knocked him down and killed him instantly. He was stone dead when they took him up. Halloo, my boy, don't faint! What's the matter?"

"I don't know. It was so sudden," said Eben, recovering himself with a great effort. "Why, I rode over with him from Boonville this morning."

"Did you?" asked another bystander. "Was he quite sober then?"

"Yes, indeed; as sober and sensible as anybody. Oh, poor Jem! What will his poor mother do? Does she know about it?"

"Yes, before this time; Mr. Edwards, the minister, went over to tell her the news, but they can't take the body home till they get a coffin. They have telegraphed for one, and it will be here by the five fifteen."

"After all," said some one else, "if he was to die, it was better so than in delirium tremens or in some drunken brawl, as seemed most likely to happen. He died in a good cause, and there is no telling what thoughts passed through his mind in that minute."

"'Between the saddle and the ground,
If mercy's sought, mercy's found.'"

"But it is a dreadful thing to live the life he did, and then be called away so sudden."

As Eben drove homewards with the mare, who almost seemed to understand that something had happened to her master, he could no longer regret that he had spoken freely to poor Jem. He had not known that he was speaking to a dying man, but if he had, he did not feel that he would have said much more. He remembered, with a thrill of sudden joy, that Jem had seemed to take his words not only kindly but gladly, and had asked his prayers.

"That will be a comfort to his poor old mother," he thought; "and one thing I know—I will never be so backward as I have been, in speaking on such subjects at proper times."

He drove the mare home and attended to her comforts with special care, but the poor creature whinnied and looked wistfully about her as though she missed something. Eben's tears came fast as he patted and caressed her.

"Poor Beauty! You are looking for your master, but he will never take care of you any more. He was always a good master to you, wasn't he, Beauty?"

"Well, Eben, here you are at last," said Jeduthun as Eben entered the mill to report himself before going home. "I've been looking for you all day. The old lady was real worried, when we first heard that somebody was killed over at the Springs, for fear it was you, but I told her I guessed there was no occasion. What has kept you so long?"

"I got carried off on the cars, and had to stay at Hobartown till three," said Eben, "and then I drove poor Jem's mare home and took care of her."

"Ah, poor Jam! He was called dreadful sudden, wasn't he? And to think it was only this morning you was riding with him! Well, we must all go some time, we don't know how soon, and the only thing is to be ready. But you look regularly beat out, Eben. You had better run down home and see your mother, and you needn't mind coming back again to-night if you don't want to. Oh, I forgot to ask you: of course you found Mr. Antis?"

"Yes. I just made out to get on the back end of the train, and I had to go clear through to the Pullman car before I found him. I was going to get off at P—, but he said I might just as well go on to Hobartown, where I could have a good time."

"That's just like the boss!" said Jeduthun. "He's about the consideratest man ever I knew. Well, did you have a good time?"

"I guess I did!" said Eben. "Dr. Henry was on the train, and he gave me a note to carry to Dr. Porter up at the college, and Dr. Porter, he showed me the museum and lent me these books, see."

"They look like dreadful hard reading," said Jeduthun, glancing at the dictionary of anatomical terms. "I don't suppose I could make head or tail of them, but I'm glad if you like them, and I'm glad you had such a pleasant day."