Page:Robert Carter- his life and work. 1807-1889 (IA robertcarterhis00coch).pdf/140

124 her to founder, and it was a most pathetic sight to see her rescued passengers peering out into the obscurity from the deck of the “Europa,” and dreading lest they might again encounter shipwreck. A few years later, the “Pacific” sailed from port and was never heard from again.

When he was leaving home on this voyage to Europe, one of his Sunday school teachers came to him to talk about a boy in her class who had long been very troublesome, and said: “I wish before you go that you would dismiss that boy from the school. It is hard enough work for us to control him while you are here, the only person of whom he stands in awe. When you go, he will be unmanageable.” Mr. Carter told her that he could not take the responsibility of dismissing a boy from what was perhaps the only good influence in his life. One of the first letters that reached him in England informed him of the death of this boy by drowning while bathing on Sunday. Over and over again in after life he spoke of this, and thanked God that he had not turned that boy out of school, as if he had done so he should have felt that he had given him the opportunity of Sabbath-breaking which led to his death.

On their return to America Mr. Carter’s two eldest sons, fifteen and fourteen years of age, matriculated at the New York University, whence they graduated with the first and second honors of their class, in 1858. All through their college course Mr. Carter exercised the same careful oversight over their studies that he did when they were in school, and their young companions always had a ready welcome to the house. Hospitality was ever one of his most marked virtues. He kept open house, and the family were seldom without guests,