Chapter V: Learning to Work

WHEN the first load of chips was nicely stored in the cellar, Mr. Irvington sent a second, still larger. And at this Arthur worked until the Sabbath. It had now become his habit to eat his breakfast, dinner and supper in the neat kitchen, and after he had done his work, he received a shilling and a basket of food sufficient to last his mother and Matilda till the next evening.

On Sunday morning, Mrs. Irvington bid him come to her house and accompany her to the Sunday school. She was glad to see that his face and hands were as clean as soap and water could make them; and that the clothes she had sent to Matilda to make over for the boy, fitted him neatly.

On their way to the school the following conversation took place.

"Can you read, Arthur?"

"Oh, yes, mum!"

"Can you say the ten commandments?"

"I don't think I can say quite all the long ones. Mother taught me the others when I was a little boy; but I only said: 'Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.' I can't remember all the rest of it."

"I think I will take you into my class."

"Thank you, mum. I should like to go there, I'd try not to trouble you."

From this time, Arthur Thompson became a regular attendant at the Sabbath school. He was always respectful and attentive, and well prepared in his lesson. Perhaps no scholar in the room appreciated the privilege more than he did. In after life, and when himself a teacher, he often alluded to the hours passed in Mrs. Irvington's class as among the happiest and most profitable of his early years.

In less than a month from the time when Joseph Hickie first called him through the knot-hole, he was an orphan, his mother having been called to her heavenly home.

During Mrs. Irvington's frequent visits to the sick woman, she found Matilda so devoted and tender as a nurse, that after the death of Mrs. Thompson, the lady gave her the offer of becoming nurse in the children's asylum, with a salary sufficient to support her in comfort. The offer was accepted with tears of gratitude.

"I am so fond of children," she said, "I can think of nothing that would please me more."

For Arthur's sake, however, the kind lady did not wish to break up his home too suddenly. She had, by this time, become greatly interested in the boy, and therefore, at her own expense hired the room for another month, and engaged Matilda to make the orphan a suit of stout winter clothes.

During the day, Arthur was regularly employed in the ship-yard, sometimes sweeping the office, again running errands, or raking chips into piles ready to be carted away. With nourishing food and healthy employment, Arthur had gained both in flesh and strength. He was, indeed, often weary with work, and his arms ached with lifting the heavy rake, but he was contented and happy. In his nightly prayer, he often thanked God that he had had a pious mother, so that he was early taught that it was right to work and not to idle away his time like Joseph Hickie.

Mrs. Irvington's interest in Arthur led her to keep a constant watch over him. She had promised the dying mother that she would be a friend to the motherless boy; and she was not a woman to break her word. She cautioned him to keep clear of Joseph, and then, knowing that a child must have companions, she allowed him to come to the house on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons to play with her son, Willie.

At first, she was careful to be present when the children were together. But perceiving that Arthur was not only amiable in disposition, but that even in his plays, he exhibited a firmness of principle remarkable in one so young, she allowed the poor orphan to become the intimate friend of her more impulsive Willie.

One afternoon when the two boys were playing post-office in the library, Mrs. Irvington sat writing at the desk in her husband's office. When she had sealed her letter, her attention was arrested by the stillness in the adjoining room, for Willie's merry laugh and rather boisterous voice generally announced his presence in the house. Presently, she heard Arthur's gentle tones say:

"Do you like to hear stories?"

"Yes, I think they are first-rate."

"Well, I will tell you one I read in a book Matilda lent me."