When Nat went into school on Monday morning, he quaked
inwardly, for now he thought he should have to display his
ignorance before them all. But Mr. Bhaer gave him a seat in the
deep window, where he could turn his back on the others, and
Franz heard him say his lessons there, so no one could hear his
blunders or see how he blotted his copybook. He was truly grateful
for this, and toiled away so diligently that Mr. Bhaer said, smiling,
when he saw his hot face and inky fingers:

"Don’t work so hard, my boy; you will tire yourself out, and there
is time enough."

"But I must work hard, or I can’t catch up with the others. They
know heaps, and I don’t know anything," said Nat, who had been
reduced to a state of despair by hearing the boys recite their
grammar, history, and geography with what he thought amazing
ease and accuracy.

"You know a good many things which they don’t," said Mr. Bhaer,
sitting down beside him, while Franz led a class of small students
through the intricacies of the multiplication table.

"Do I?" and Nat looked utterly incredulous.

"Yes; for one thing, you can keep your temper, and Jack, who is
quick at numbers, cannot; that is an excellent lesson, and I think
you have learned it well. Then, you can play the violin, and not
one of the lads can, though they want to do it very much. But, best
of all, Nat, you really care to learn something, and that is half the
battle. It seems hard at first, and you will feel discouraged, but
plod away, and things will get easier and easier as you go on."

Nat’s face had brightened more and more as he listened, for, small
as the list of his learning was, it cheered him immensely to feel
that he had anything to fall back upon. "Yes, I can keep my temper
father’s beating taught me that; and I can fiddle, though I don’t
know where the Bay of Biscay is," he thought, with a sense of
comfort impossible to express. Then he said aloud, and so
earnestly that Demi heard him:

"I do want to learn, and I will try. I never went to school, but I
couldn’t help it; and if the fellows don’t laugh at me, I guess I’ll get
on first rate you and the lady are so good to me."

"They shan’t laugh at you; if they do, I’ll I’ll tell them not to," cried
Demi, quite forgetting where he was.

The class stopped in the middle of 7 times 9, and everyone looked
up to see what was going on.

Thinking that a lesson in learning to help one another was better
than arithmetic just then, Mr. Bhaer told them about Nat, making
such an interesting and touching little story out of it that the
good-hearted lads all promised to lend him a hand, and felt quite
honored to be called upon to impart their stores of wisdom to the
chap who fiddled so capitally. This appeal established the right
feeling among them, and Nat had few hindrances to struggle
against, for every one was glad to give him a "boost" up the ladder
of learning.

Till he was stronger, much study was not good for him, however,
and Mrs. Jo found various amusements in the house for him while
others were at their books. But his garden was his best medicine,
and he worked away like a beaver, preparing his little farm,
sowing his beans, watching eagerly to see them grow, and
rejoicing over each green leaf and slender stock that shot up and
flourished in the warm spring weather. Never was a garden more
faithfully hoed; Mr. Bhaer really feared that nothing would find
time to grow, Nat kept up such a stirring of the soil; so he gave
him easy jobs in the flower garden or among the strawberries,
where he worked and hummed as busily as the bees booming all
about him.

"This is the crop I like best," Mrs. Bhaer used to say, as she
pinched the once thin cheeks, now getting plump and ruddy, or
stroked the bent shoulders that were slowly straightening up with
healthful work, good food, and the absence of that heavy burden,
poverty.

Demi was his little friend, Tommy his patron, and Daisy the
comforter of all his woes; for, though the children were younger
than he, his timid spirit found a pleasure in their innocent society,
and rather shrunk from the rough sports of the elder lads. Mr.
Laurence did not forget him, but sent clothes and books, music and
kind messages, and now and then came out to see how his boy was
getting on, or took him into town to a concert; on which occasions
Nat felt himself translated into the seventh heaven of bliss, for he
went to Mr. Laurence’s great house, saw his pretty wife and little
fairy of a daughter, had a good dinner, and was made so
comfortable, that he talked and dreamed of it for days and nights
afterward.

It takes so little to make a child happy that it is a pity, in a world so
full of sunshine and pleasant things, that there should be any
wistful faces, empty hands, or lonely little hearts. Feeling this, the
Bhaers gathered up all the crumbs they could find to feed their
flock of hungry sparrows, for they were not rich, except in charity.
Many of Mrs. Jo’s friends who had nurseries sent her they toys of
which their children so soon tired, and in mending these Nat found
an employment that just suited him. He was very neat and skillful
with those slender fingers of his, and passed many a rainy
afternoon with his gum-bottle, paint-box, and knife, repairing
furniture, animals, and games, while Daisy was dressmaker to the
dilapidated dolls. As fast as the toys were mended, they were put
carefully away in a certain drawer which was to furnish forth a
Christmas-tree for all the poor children of the neighborhood, that
being the way the Plumfield boys celebrated the birthday of Him
who loved the poor and blessed the little ones.

Demi was never tired of reading and explaining his favorite books,
and many a pleasant hour did they spend in the old willow,
revelling over "Robinson Crusoe," "Arabian Nights," "Edgeworth’s
Tales," and the other dear immortal stories that will delight
children for centuries to come. This opened a new world to Nat,
and his eagerness to see what came next in the story helped him on
till he could read as well as anybody, and felt so rich and proud
with his new accomplishment, that there was danger of his being
as much of a bookworm as Demi.

Another helpful thing happened in a most unexpected and
agreeable manner. Several of the boys were "in business," as they
called it, for most of them were poor, and knowing that they would
have their own way to make by and by, the Bhaers encouraged any
efforts at independence. Tommy sold his eggs; Jack speculated in
live stock; Franz helped in the teaching, and was paid for it; Ned
had a taste for carpentry, and a turning-lathe was set up for him in
which he turned all sorts of useful or pretty things, and sold them;
while Demi constructed water-mills, whirligigs, and unknown
machines of an intricate and useless nature, and disposed of them
to the boys.

"Let him be a mechanic if he likes," said Mr. Bhaer. "Give a boy a
trade, and he is independent. Work is wholesome, and whatever
talent these lads possess, be it for poetry or ploughing, it shall be
cultivated and made useful to them if possible."

So, when Nat came running to him one day to ask with an excited
face:

"Can I go and fiddle for some people who are to have a picnic in
our woods? They will pay me, and I’d like to earn some money as
the other boys do, and fiddling is the only way I know how to do it
"

Mr. Bhaer answered readily:

"Go, and welcome. It is an easy and a pleasant way to work, and I
am glad it is offered you."

Nat went, and did so well that when he came home he had two
dollars in his pocket, which he displayed with intense satisfaction,
as he told how much he had enjoyed the afternoon, how kind the
young people were, and how they had praised his dance music, and
promised to have him again.

"It is so much nicer than fiddling in the street, for then I got none
of the money, and now I have it all, and a good time besides. I’m in
business now as well as Tommy and Jack, and I like it ever so
much," said Nat, proudly patting the old pocketbook, and feeling
like a millionaire already.

He was in business truly, for picnics were plenty as summer
opened, and Nat’s skill was in great demand. He was always at
liberty to go if lessons were not neglected, and if the picnickers
were respectable young people. For Mr. Bhaer explained to him
that a good plain education is necessary for everyone, and that no
amount of money should hire him to go where he might be
tempted to do wrong. Nat quite agreed to this, and it was a
pleasant sight to see the innocent-hearted lad go driving away in
the gay wagons that stopped at the gate for him, or to hear him
come fiddling home tired but happy, with his well-earned money
in one pocket, and some "goodies" from the feast for Daisy or little
Ted, whom he never forgot.

"I’m going to save up till I get enough to buy a violin for myself,
and then I can earn my own living, can’t I?" he used to say, as he
brought his dollars to Mr. Bhaer to keep.

"I hope so, Nat; but we must get you strong and hearty first, and
put a little more knowledge into this musical head of yours. Then
Mr. Laurie will find you a place somewhere, and in a few years we
will all come to hear you play in public."

With much congenial work, encouragement, and hope, Nat found
life getting easier and happier every day, and made such progress
in his music lessons that his teacher forgave his slowness in some
other things, knowing very well that where the heart is the mind
works best. The only punishment the boy ever needed for neglect
of more important lessons was to hang up the fiddle and the bow
for a day. The fear of losing his bosom friend entirely made him go
at his books with a will; and having proved that he could master
the lessons, what was the use of saying "I can’t?"

Daisy had a great love of music, and a great reverence for any one
who could make it, and she was often found sitting on the stairs
outside Nat’s door while he was practising. This pleased him very
much, and he played his best for that one quiet little listener; for
she never would come in, but preferred to sit sewing her gay
patchwork, or tending one of her many dolls, with an expression of
dreamy pleasure on her face that made Aunt Jo say, with tears in
her eyes: "So like my Beth," and go softly by, lest even her familiar
presence mar the child’s sweet satisfaction.

Nat was very fond of Mrs. Bhaer, but found something even more
attractive in the good professor, who took fatherly care of the shy
feeble boy, who had barely escaped with his life from the rough
sea on which his little boat had been tossing rudderless for twelve
years. Some good angel must have been watching over him, for,
though his body had suffered, his soul seemed to have taken little
harm, and came ashore as innocent as a shipwrecked baby.
Perhaps his love of music kept it sweet in spite of the discord all
about him; Mr. Laurie said so, and he ought to know. However that
might be, Father Bhaer took pleasure in fostering poor Nat’s
virtues, and in curing his faults, finding his new pupil as docile and
affectionate as a girl. He often called Nat his "daughter" when
speaking of him to Mrs. Jo, and she used to laugh at his fancy, for
Madame liked manly boys, and thought Nat amiable but weak,
though you never would have guessed it, for she petted him as she
did Daisy, and he thought her a very delightful woman.

One fault of Nat’s gave the Bhaers much anxiety, although they
saw how it had been strengthened by fear and ignorance. I regret to
say that Nat sometimes told lies. Not very black ones, seldom
getting deeper than gray, and often the mildest of white fibs; but
that did not matter, a lie is a lie, and though we all tell many polite
untruths in this queer world of ours, it is not right, and everybody
knows it.

"You cannot be too careful; watch your tongue, and eyes, and
hands, for it is easy to tell, and look, and act untruth," said Mr.
Bhaer, in one of the talks he had with Nat about his chief
temptation.

"I know it, and I don’t mean to, but it’s so much easier to get along
if you ain’t very fussy about being exactly true. I used to tell ’em
because I was afraid of father and Nicolo, and now I do sometimes
because the boys laugh at me. I know it’s bad, but I forget," and
Nat looked much depressed by his sins.

"When I was a little lad I used to tell lies! Ach! what fibs they
were, and my old grandmother cured me of it how, do you think?
My parents had talked, and cried, and punished, but still did I
forget as you. Then said the dear old grandmother, ‘I shall help you
to remember, and put a check on this unruly part,’ with that she
drew out my tongue and snipped the end with her scissors till the
blood ran. That was terrible, you may believe, but it did me much
good, because it was sore for days, and every word I said came so
slowly that I had time to think. After that I was more careful, and
got on better, for I feared the big scissors. Yet the dear
grandmother was most kind to me in all things, and when she lay
dying far away in Nuremberg, she prayed that little Fritz might
love God and tell the truth."

"I never had any grandmothers, but if you think it will cure me, I’ll
let you snip my tongue," said Nat, heroically, for he dreaded pain,
yet did wish to stop fibbing.

Mr. Bhaer smiled, but shook his head.

"I have a better way than that, I tried it once before and it worked
well. See now, when you tell a lie I will not punish you, but you
shall punish me."

"How?" asked Nat, startled at the idea.

"You shall ferule me in the good old-fashioned way; I seldom do it
myself, but it may make you remember better to give me pain than
to feel it yourself."

"Strike you? Oh, I couldn’t!" cried Nat.

"Then mind that tripping tongue of thine. I have no wish to be hurt,
but I would gladly bear much pain to cure this fault."

This suggestion made such an impression on Nat, that for a long
time he set a watch upon his lips, and was desperately accurate, for
Mr. Bhaer judged rightly, that love of him would be more powerful
with Nat that fear for himself. But alas! one sad day Nat was off
his guard, and when peppery Emil threatened to thrash him, if it
was he who had run over his garden and broken down his best hills
of corn, Nat declared he didn’t, and then was ashamed to own up
that he did do it, when Jack was chasing him the night before.

He thought no one would find it out, but Tommy happened to see
him, and when Emil spoke of it a day or two later, Tommy gave
his evidence, and Mr. Bhaer heard it. School was over, and they
were all standing about in the hall, and Mr. Bhaer had just set
down on the straw settee to enjoy his frolic with Teddy; but when
he heard Tommy and saw Nat turn scarlet, and look at him with a
frightened face, he put the little boy down, saying, "Go to thy
mother, bbchen, I will come soon," and taking Nat by the hand
led him into the school and shut the door.

The boys looked at one another in silence for a minute, then
Tommy slipped out and peeping in at the half-closed blinds,
beheld a sight that quite bewildered him. Mr. Bhaer had just taken
down the long rule that hung over his desk, so seldom used that it
was covered with dust.

"My eye! He’s going to come down heavy on Nat this time. Wish I
hadn’t told," thought good-natured Tommy, for to be feruled was
the deepest disgrace at this school.

"You remember what I told you last time?" said Mr. Bhaer,
sorrowfully, not angrily.

"Yes; but please don’t make me, I can’t bear it," cried Nat, backing
up against the door with both hands behind him, and a face full of
distress.

"Why don’t he up and take it like a man? I would," thought
Tommy, though his heart beat fast at the sight.

"I shall keep my word, and you must remember to tell the truth.
Obey me, Nat, take this and give me six good strokes."

Tommy was so staggered by this last speech that he nearly tumbled
down the bank, but saved himself, and hung onto the window
ledge, staring in with eyes as round as the stuffed owl’s on the
chimney-piece.

Nat took the rule, for when Mr. Bhaer spoke in that tone everyone
obeyed him, and, looking as scared and guilty as if about to stab
his master, he gave two feeble blows on the broad hand held out to
him. Then he stopped and looked up half-blind with tears, but Mr.
Bhaer said steadily:

"Go on, and strike harder."

As if seeing that it must be done, and eager to have the hard task
soon over, Nat drew his sleeve across his eyes and gave two more
quick hard strokes that reddened the hand, yet hurt the giver more.

"Isn’t that enough?" he asked in a breathless sort of tone.

"Two more," was all the answer, and he gave them, hardly seeing
where they fell, then threw the rule all across the room, and
hugging the kind hand in both his own, laid his face down on it
sobbing out in a passion of love, and shame, and penitence:

"I will remember! Oh! I will!"

Then Mr. Bhaer put an arm about him, and said in a tone as
compassionate as it had just now been firm:

"I think you will. Ask the dear God to help you, and try to spare us
both another scene like this."

Tommy saw no more, for he crept back to the hall, looking so
excited and sober that the boys crowded round him to ask what
was being done to Nat.

In a most impressive whisper Tommy told them, and they looked
as if the sky was about to fall, for this reversing the order of things
almost took their breath away.

"He made me do the same thing once," said Emil, as if confessing
a crime of the deepest dye.

"And you hit him? dear old Father Bhaer? By thunder, I’d just like
to see you do it now!" said Ned, collaring Emil in a fit of righteous
wrath.

"It was ever so long ago. I’d rather have my head cut off than do it
now," and Emil mildly laid Ned on his back instead of cuffing
him, as he would have felt it his duty to do on any less solemn
occasion.

"How could you?" said Demi, appalled at the idea.

"I was hopping mad at the time, and thought I shouldn’t mind a bit,
rather like it perhaps. But when I’d hit uncle one good crack,
everything he had ever done for me came into my head all at once
somehow, and I couldn’t go on. No sir! If he’d laid me down and
walked on me, I wouldn’t have minded, I felt so mean," and Emil
gave himself a good thump in the chest to express his sense of
remorse for the past.

"Nat’s crying like anything, and feels no end sorry, so don’t let’s say
a word about it; will we?" said tender-hearted Tommy.

"Of course we won’t, but it’s awful to tell lies," and Demi looked as
if he found the awfulness much increased when the punishment
fell not upon the sinner, but his best Uncle Fritz.

"Suppose we all clear out, so Nat can cut upstairs if he wants to,"
proposed Franz, and led the way to the barn, their refuge in
troublous times.

Nat did not come to dinner, but Mrs. Jo took some up to him, and
said a tender word, which did him good, though he could not look
at her. By and by the lads playing outside heard the violin, and said
among themselves: "He’s all right now." He was all right, but felt
shy about going down, till opening his door to slip away into the
woods, he found Daisy sitting on the stairs with neither work nor
doll, only her little handkerchief in her hand, as if she had been
mourning for her captive friend.

"I’m going to walk; want to come?" asked Nat, trying to look as if
nothing was the matter, yet feeling very grateful for her silent
sympathy, because he fancied everyone must look upon him as a
wretch.

"Oh yes!" and Daisy ran for her hat, proud to be chosen as a
companion by one of the big boys.

The others saw them go, but no one followed, for boys have a great
deal more delicacy than they get credit for, and the lads
instinctively felt that, when in disgrace, gentle little Daisy was
their most congenial friend.

The walk did Nat good, and he came home quieter than usual, but
looking cheerful again, and hung all over with daisy-chains made
by his little playmate while he lay on the grass and told her stories.

No one said a word about the scene of the morning, but its effect
was all the more lasting for that reason, perhaps. Nat tried his very
best, and found much help, not only from the earnest little prayers
he prayed to his Friend in heaven, but also in the patient care of the
earthly friend whose kind hand he never touched without
remembering that it had willingly borne pain for his sake.