Have you been out some starry night,
    And found it joy to bend
  Your eyes to one particular light
    Till it became a friend? 
  And then so loved that glistening spot,
    That whether it were far,
  Or more, or less, it mattered not—­
    It still was your own star? 
  Thus, and thus only, can you know
    How I, even lowly I,
  Can live in love, though set so low,
    And my lady-love no high!

  —­Richard Monckton Milnes.

Ishmael’s improvement was marked and rapid; both as to his bodily and mental growth and progress.  His happiness in his studies; his regular morning and evening walks to and from school; his abundant and nutritious noontide meals with the young Middletons; even his wood-cutting at the hut; his whole manner of life, in fact, had tended to promote the best development of his physical organization.  He grew taller, stronger, and broader-shouldered; he held himself erect, and his pale complexion cleared and became fair.  He no longer ate with a canine rapacity; his appetite was moderate, and his habits temperate, because his body was well nourished and his health was sound.

His mental progress was quite equal to his bodily growth.  He quickly mastered the elementary branches of education, and was initiated into the rudiments of Latin, Greek, and mathematics.  He soon overtook the two Burghes and was placed in the same class with them and with John and James Middleton—­Mr. Middleton’s second and third sons.  When he entered the class, of course he was placed at the foot; but he first got above Ben Burghe, and then above Alfred Burghe, and he was evidently resolved to remain above them, and to watch for an opportunity for getting above James and John Middleton, who were equally resolved that no such opportunity should be afforded him.  This was a generous emulation encouraged by Mr. Middleton, who was accustomed to say, laughingly, to his boys: 

“Take care, my sons!  You know Ishmael is a dead shot!  Let him once bring you down, and you will never get up again!”

And to Ishmael: 

“Persevere, my lad!  Some fine day you will catch them tripping, and take a step higher in the class.”  And he declared to Mrs. Middleton that his own sons had never progressed so rapidly in their studies as now that they had found in Ishmael Worth a worthy competitor to spur them on.  Upon that very account, he said, the boy was invaluable in the school.

Well, John and James had all Ishmael’s industry and ambition, but they had not his genius! consequently they were soon distanced in the race by our boy.  Ishmael got above James, and kept his place; then he got above John, at the head of the class, and kept that place also; and finally he got so far ahead of all his classmates that, not to retard his progress, Mr. Middleton felt obliged to advance him a step higher and place him beside Walter who, up to this time, had stood alone, unapproached and unapproachable, at the head of the school.