Most people who looked at him felt that he carried in his bosom a dark secret.  As to scholarship, he was unquestionably proficient.  No white man in all the neighboring section, ranked with him intellectually.  Despite the lack of all knowledge of his moral character and previous life, he was pronounced as much too good a man to fritter away his time on “niggers.”

Such was the character of the man into whose hands was committed the destiny of the colored children of Winchester.

As his mother foresaw would be the case, Belton was singled out by the teacher as a special object on which he might expend his spleen.  For a man to be as spiteful as he was, there must have been something gnawing at his heart.  But toward Bernard none of this evil spirit was manifested.  He seemed to have chosen Bernard for his pet, and Belton for his “pet aversion.”  To the one he was all kindness; while to the other he was cruel in the extreme.

Often he would purchase flowers from the florist and give to Bernard to bear home to his mother.  On these days he would seemingly take pains to give Belton fresh bruises to take home to his mother.  When he had a particularly good dinner he would invite Bernard to dine with him, and would be sure to find some pretext for forbidding Belton to partake of his own common meal.

Belton was by no means insensible to all these acts of discrimination.  Nor did Bernard fail to perceive that he, himself, was the teacher’s pet.  He clambered on to the teacher’s knees, played with his mustache, and often took his watch and wore it.  The teacher seemed to be truly fond of him.

The children all ascribed this partiality to the color of Bernard’s skin, and they all, except Belton, began to envy and despise Bernard.  Of course they told their parents of the teacher’s partiality and their parents thus became embittered against the teacher.  But however much they might object to him and desire his removal, their united protests would not have had the weight of a feather.  So the teacher remained at Winchester for twelve years.  During all these years he instructed our young friends Belton and Bernard.

Strangely enough, his ardent love for Bernard and his bitter hatred of Belton accomplished the very same result in respect to their acquirements.  The teacher soon discovered that both boys were talented far beyond the ordinary, and that both were ambitious.  He saw that the way to wound and humiliate Belton was to make Bernard excel him.  Thus he bent all of his energies to improve Bernard’s mind.  Whenever he heard Belton recite he brought all of his talents to bear to point out his failures, hoping thus to exalt Bernard, out of whose work he strove to keep all blemishes.  Thus Belton became accustomed to the closest scrutiny, and prepared himself accordingly.  The result was that Bernard did not gain an inch on him.

The teacher introduced the two boys into every needed field of knowledge, as they grew older, hoping always to find some branch in which Bernard might display unquestioned superiority.  There were two studies in which the two rivals dug deep to see which could bring forth the richest treasures; and these gave coloring to the whole of their afterlives.  One, was the History of the United States, and the other, Rhetoric.