“Aunty,” he said one day, after remaining in deep thought for a long time, “do you think if I was to study very hard indeed, night and day, for years and years, I should ever be able to get as much knowledge and make as fine speeches as the professor?”

“How do I know, Ishmael?  You ask such stupid questions.  All I can say is, if it aint in you it will never come out of you,” answered the unappreciating aunt.

“Oh, if that’s all, it is in me; there’s a deal more in me than I can talk about; and so I believe I shall be able to make fine speeches like the professor some day.”

Morris certainly took great pains with his pupil; and Ishmael repaid his teacher’s zeal by the utmost devotion to his service.

By the time our boy had attained his seventh year he could read fluently, write legibly, and work the first four rules in arithmetic.  Besides this, he had glided into a sort of apprenticeship to the odd-job line of business, and was very useful to his principal.  The manner in which he helped his master was something like this:  If the odd job on hand happened to be in the tinkering line, Ishmael could heat the irons and prepare the solder; if it were in the carpentering and joining branch, he could melt the glue; if in the brick-laying, he could mix the mortar; if in the painting and glazing, he could roll the putty.

When he was eight years old he commenced the study of grammar, geography, and history, from old books lent him by his patron; and he also took a higher degree in his art, and began to assist his master by doing the duties of clerk and making the responses, whenever the professor assumed the office of parson and conducted the church services to a barn full of colored brethren; by performing the part of mourner whenever the professor undertook to superintend a funeral; and by playing the tambourine in accompaniment to the professor’s violin whenever the latter became master of ceremonies for a colored ball!

In this manner he not only paid for his own tuition, but earned a very small stipend, which it was his pride to carry to Hannah, promising her that some day soon he should be able to earn enough to support her in comfort.

Thus our boy was rapidly progressing in the art of odd jobs and bidding fair to emulate the fame and usefulness of the eminent professor himself, when an event occurred in the neighborhood that was destined to change the direction of his genius.

CHAPTER XX.

NEWS FROM HERMAN.

  But that which keepeth us apart is not
   Distance, nor depth of wave, nor space of earth,
  But the distractions of a various lot,
   As various as the climates of our birth.

  My blood is all meridian—­were it not
   I had not left my clime, nor should I be,
  In spite of tortures, ne’er to be forgot,
   A slave again of love, at least of thee!