This to him was the greatest trial he had yet felt; long and
heartrending was their embrace. Jemmy soothed and comforted his beloved
brother, but in vain. The lad threw himself on the spot at which they
parted, and remained there until Jemmy turned an angle of the road which
brought him out of his sight, when the poor boy kissed the marks of his
brother's feet repeatedly, and then returned home, hoarse and broken
down with the violence of his grief.
He was now alone, and for the first time felt keenly the strange object
on which he was bent, together with all the difficulties connected with
its attainment. He was young and uneducated, and many years, he knew,
must elapse e'er he could find himself in possession of his wishes. But
time would pass at home, as well as abroad, he thought; and as there lay
no impediment of peculiar difficulty in his way, he collected all his
firmness and proceeded.
There is no country on the earth in which either education, or the
desire to procure it, is so much reverenced as in Ireland. Next to the
claims of the priest and schoolmaster come those of the poor scholar for
the respect of the people. It matters not how poor or how miserable
he may be; so long as they see him struggling with poverty in the
prosecution of a purpose so laudable, they will treat him with
attention and kindness. Here there is no danger of his being sent to the
workhouse, committed as a vagrant, or passed from parish to parish until
he reaches his own settlement.
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