The House in Town

There was a general chorus of assent.

"Well, we don't want to be unlike other people, do we?"

Some said yes, and some said no; conflicting opinions.

"You say no, Heath; give us your reasons."

"They make fun of you" – said the boy, a little under breath.

"They fight you" – said another more boldly.

"They don't want to have nothing to do with you," a girl said.

"Laugh, and quarrel, and separate you from their company," repeated the teacher. "Not very pleasant things. But some of you said yes. Give us your reasons, if you please."

"We can't be like Christ and like the world," Peter answered.

"'Ye are not of the world, even as I am not of the world,'" said Mr. Wharncliffe. "Most true! And some of us do want to be like our Master. Well? who else has a reason?"

"I think it is very hard," said Matilda, "to do right and not be unlike other people."

"So hard, my dear, that it is impossible," said the teacher, looking somewhat steadily at his new scholar. "And are you one of those who want to do right?"

Matilda answered; but as she did so something made her voice tremble and her eyes fill.

"For the sake of doing right, then, and for the sake of being like Jesus, some of us are willing to be unlike other people; though the consequences of that are not always pleasant. Is there nothing more to be said on the subject?"

"The people that have the Lord's name in their foreheads, will be with him by and by," remarked a girl who had not yet spoken.

"And he is with them now," said Mr. Wharncliffe. "Yes, Sarah."

"And then there will be a great gulf between," said a boy.

"Well, I think we have got reason enough," said Mr. Wharncliffe. "To be on the right side of the dividing gulf then, we must be content to be on the same side of it now. Daniel judged so, it is clear. On the whole, did he lose anything?"

The teacher's eyes were looking at Norton, and he was constrained to answer no.

"What did he gain?"

Norton was still the one looked at, and he fidgeted. Mr. Wharncliffe waited.

"I suppose, God gave him learning and wisdom."

"In consequence of his learning and wisdom, which were very remarkable, what then?"

"The king's favour," said Norton.

"Just what the friends of the young Jews had been afraid they would lose. They 'stood before the king;' that means they were appointed to be king's officers; they served him, not any meaner man. Now how does this all come home to us? How are we tempted, as Daniel and his fellows were tempted?"

Norton, at whom Mr. Wharncliffe glanced, replied that he did not know. Matilda also was silent, though longing to utter her confession. The questioning eyes passed on.

"The fellows think you must do as they does," said a lad who sat next Matilda.

"In what?"

That boy hesitated; the next spoke up, and said, "Lying, and lifting."

"And swearing," added a third.

"How if you do not follow their ways?"

"Some thinks you won't never get along, nohow."

"What is your opinion, Lawrence?"

The boy shifted his position a little uneasily. "They say you won't, teacher."

"So Daniel's friend was afraid he would not get along, if he did not eat the king's meat. Girls, does the temptation come to you?"

There was a general chorus of "Yes, sir," and "Yes, sir."

"Have you tried following the Lord's word against people's opinion?"

Again "Yes, sir" – came modestly from several lips.

"Do you find any ill come from it?"

"Yes, sir, a little," said a girl who might have been two or three years older than Matilda. "You get made game of, and scolded, sometimes. And they say you are lofty, or mean. Sometimes they say one to me, and sometimes the other."

"And they plague a feller," said a boy; "the worst kind."

"Is it hard to bear?"

"I think it is," said the girl; and one or two of the boys said again, "Yes, sir."

"Reckon you'd think so, if you tried, teacher," another put in. "They rolled Sam in the mud, the other day. There was six of 'em, you see, and he hadn't no chance."

"Sam, how did it feel? And how did you feel?"

"Teacher, 'twarn't easy to feel right."

"Could you manage it?"

"I guess not, at first. But afterwards I remembered."

"What did you remember?"

"I remembered they didn't know no better, sir."