"Is there any
boy among you," he inquired, "who will bring me home? You know I am a
stranger, an' far from my own, God help me!"
This was followed by a profound silence. Not one of those who had so
often befriended him, or who would, on any other occasion, share their
bed and their last morsel with him, would even touch his person, much
less allow him, when thus plague-stricken, to take shelter under their
roof. Such are the effects of selfishness, when it is opposed only by
the force of those natural qualities that are not elevated into a sense
of duty by clear and profound views of Christian truth. It is one thing
to perform a kind action from constitutional impulse, and another to
perform it as a fixed duty, perhaps contrary to that impulse.
Jemmy, on finding himself avoided like a Hebrew leper of old, silently
left the school, and walked on without knowing whither he should
ultimately direct his steps. He thought of his friend the priest, but
the distance between him and his place of abode was greater, he felt,
than his illness would permit him to travel. He walked on, therefore,
in such a state of misery as can scarcely be conceived, much less
described. His head ached excessively, an intense pain shot like
death-pangs through his lower back and loins, his face was flushed, and
his head giddy. In this state he proceeded, without money or friends;
without a house to shelter him, or a bed on which to lie, far from
his own relations, and with the prospect of death, under circumstances
peculiarly dreadful, before him! He tottered on, however, the earth, as
he imagined, reeling under him; the heavens, he thought, streaming with
fire, and the earth indistinct and discolored.
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