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