Page:The White Slave, or Memoirs of a Fugitive.djvu/310

 already laid aside, as she told me, about thirty-seven dollars, where the rest of the hundred was to come from — and she wanted the boy to have at least a year's schooling — she did not know; and besides, it would take about the whole of her present savings to fit him out with clothes, books, and other necessaries.

I bade the good woman make herself easy on that score, and the boy having washed and dressed himself, and caught a scrubby pony belonging to the family, we set out together that same afternoon to visit the school, which was at no great distance.

The founder and chief teacher of it, lately a trayelling minister of the Methodist connection, but who had now devoted himself entirely to this new work, was, I found, originally from the north. He had been bred a shoemaker, but feeling a call to preach, had quitted his original vocation, and after many wanderings had finally reached South Carolina, of which circuit he had become one of the preachers. In point of education and manners, the contrast was very marked indeed between this good man (for such I soon satisfied myself he was) and my late clerical acquaintance, Mr Telfair; but in zeal, enthusiasm, and the desire of benefiting those about them, both physically and spiritually, there were strong points of resemblance between them. On the whole, I was well satisfied that my young protégé should be trusted in such good hands. I paid down for him his board and tuition for a, year, and in case it should be thought best for him to remain a second year, I left with the teacher an order on the merchant in Charleston, on whom I had letters of credit. I also desired to be informed by letter, through the same source, of the boy's progress and promise, with a view, if he proved deserving, of doing something more for him. Having sent him home with money enough to fit him out, without intrenching on his mother's little store, I turned my horse's head towards Charleston, resolved to take my route as nearly as I could in the general direction of my former travels in that region,

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