University of Virginia Library

7. CHAPTER VII.
SIDNEY REMOVED TO THE COUNTRY.

Ralph Werter did not mean to leave his demoniaca,
work half done. The trustees of young Jay's school were
his acquaintances, and his not very distant neighbors, who
regarded him as a man of consequence, and desired to be
on good terms with him. They were unfortunately weak-minded
men also, who were easily influenced, and who did
not trouble themselves much about the justice of an act
which became convenient and politic.

Mr. Werter told them that a young man, who would attack
quiet old gentlemen, and roll them down hills, was not
exactly the right sort of person to be entrusted with the
education of children, even if he had the good fortune to
get out of jail, of which there was no present prospect—
and the trustees shook their heads and said they thought
so too. They said they were very sorry, and very much
astonished at what had taken place, because Mr. Jay
seemed like a very excellent young man, whom the scholars
all liked very much, and they did not know where they
could find a substitute for him.

But Ralph relieved them on this point also, for he knew
if they procrastinated and held the matter “under advisement,”
that Addison would soon be at liberty, and would
induce them to change their minds. He sought out, therefore,
an unemployed pedagogue, loaded him with recommendations
from people who knew nothing about him, and
sent him to be Addison's successor, which he immediately

became, to the great terror of the little boys, and the
greater grief of the large girls, for he was a cross-eyed and
cross-tempered man, with bandy legs and yellow hair.

The first day after young Jay's liberation he employed
himself in seeking counsel to defend him on his approaching
trial, and in laying the facts of the case before them,
and on the second day he repaired to his school district to
begin to earn the large fees which he had promised, and
which alone would absorb the wages of long months to
come. How great would be his ruin if the suit was decided
against him, and if he should be heavily amerced in damages,
he did not dare to contemplate, but strong in the
sense of innocence he hoped for the best, and he believed
it impossible for any ingenuity to torture his act of self-defence
into a crime.

Alas! he knew little of what malice and Mammon can
do with that great engine, the law, when a friendless victim
is to be crushed or a gilded villain is to be saved.

Addison intended to call upon the trustees and inform
them of his readiness to resume his duties, and give them
the true version of the affair which had led to his arrest,
but his way led past the school house, and to his great
alarm on approaching it, he saw that it was occupied, and
he heard the loud voices of recitation and command issuing
from the opened windows. Terrified at the new misfortune
which he believed had befallen him, he stopped by the roadside
until a dismissed class came rushing out, and were
soon gathered around him, the larger boys eagerly informing
him of everything pertaining to the unwelcome change,
while the smaller ones kept timidly aloof, as if they did not
consider the late master entirely divested of his official
terrors.

With a full heart the discarded tutor listened to the news
of his disgrace, and learned that Ralph was the direct author

of it all. He heard, but scarcely comprehended the
earnest appeals of his pupils to come back to them, and
abandoning his now useless purpose of calling upon the
trustees, he turned sorrowing upon his homeward way.

His calamity may seem a light one, but it was not so to
the poverty-haunted and almost friendless young man.

The story of his dismissal would precede him wherever
he went, and those who knew nothing of his guilt or innocence
would judge of it by this act of his employers. It
would bar him from any similar engagement, wherever rumor's
baleful whisper could reach; and it would cut off
from him the very means which were absolutely necessary
to enable him to prove his innocence of the offence with
which he was charged. Hope abandoned him, and he returned
to his home utterly disconsolate, until reanimated
by the soothing and cheering voice of a mother, who could
not be quite miserable while she saw her beloved son, and
knew him to be innocent of crime.

Sidney, in the meantime, remained in entire ignorance
of everything which had happened to his cousin, since
their last interview, and after a few weeks had passed
away he was surprised to learn that he was again to be
sent to school.

Mr. Werter had a farmer cousin residing in the interior
of the State, several hundred miles distant from the city,
to whom he had resolved to send the boy, ostensibly for his
health and for the benefit of a neighboring academy, but
really for the purpose of keeping him away from his maternal
relations, as well as from other enlightening influences.

He accompanied him there, and thus fortunately secured
for the child a quiet and comfortable home, where he was
kindly treated and where his freedom from the domestic
tyranny to which he had so long been subjected, was in itself
no small measure of bliss. He had never fully comprehended

the weight of his chains until he had thus happily
thrown them off, and in his new home he soon began
to exhibit something of the usual hilarity of childhood.
His distance from Addison was not a source of much sorrow
to him, because he felt that he was before as effectually
separated from him by the imperious will of his guardian,
as if oceans had rolled between them.

Besides he looked forward with glad anticipation to the
time when he should learn the mystery of writing, and
thus be able to communicate with his cousin, and keep up
an interchange of those friendly and affectionate sentiments
which he was sure they mutually entertained. He
longed especially to inform him fully of all the events
which had occurred to prevent his returning to school—
being very fearful that Addison might believe him in some
way at fault. With what delight did he anticipate his first
letter to his friend, and with what assiduity did he resolve
to pursue that one valuable branch of his studies which was
to place this new power in his hands.

Little did the artless boy dream what wily heads could
plot and guilty hands could execute of craft and guile to
disappoint and defeat his innocent and virtuous designs.

Ralph had foreseen this danger, and he took his measures
accordingly.

“The boy may become home-sick,” he said to the farmer,
who was an ignorant and unsuspecting man, “and may
wish to write to me or to some of his acquaintances. I am
sorry to say he has some bad associates, and, as his guardian,
you know it is my right and duty to know with whom
he corresponds. Make sure, therefore, that he sends no
letter which does not pass through your hands—and do
you direct it to my care and mail it yourself. Can you do
this?”

“O, very easily—I'll speak to Brock, the postmaster,

about it, too, and he'll stop them, if the boy should happen
to take any there without my knowledge, which I don't
think he can do, for it is four miles to the nearest post-office.”

“But Brock might overlook it.”

“Not very well. There ain't more'n two letters a week
mailed at his office, and they say his wife and daughters
always keeps them a day or two, to peep into them, and
turn out the edges and try to read them.”

“Very well, I'll depend on you and Mr. Brock. It is
all for Sidney's good, you know.”

“Of course it is—lots of mischief these little fellows
would get into, if they warn't watched—cause they never
know what's for their good.”

Mr. Reed was very accommodating, because his city
cousin paid a liberal price for the lad's support and schooling,
and seemed to be acting the part of a guardian, who,
though a little strict and stern, was still watchful of his
ward's best interests.