_ CHAPTER LIX. WINGFOLD AND ARTHUR MANSON
When the first delight of their meeting was abated, Simon sent to let Arthur Manson know that his brother was there. For Arthur had all this time been with Simon, to whom Richard, saving enough from his allowance, had prevented him from being a burden.
He looked much better, and was enchanted to see his brother again, and learn the good news of his recognition by his father. "I'm so glad it's you and not me, Richard!" he said. "It makes me feel quite safe and happy. We shall have nothing now but fair play all round, the rest of our lives! How happy Alice will be!"
"Is Alice still in the old place? I haven't heard of her for some time," said Richard.
"Don't you know?" exclaimed Arthur. "She's been at the parsonage for months and months! Mrs. Wingfold went and fetched her away, to work for her, and be near me. She's as happy now as the day is long. She says if everybody was as good as her master and mistress, there would be no misery left in the world."
"I don't doubt it," answered Richard. "--But I've just parted with Mr. Wingfold, and he didn't say a word about her!"
"When anything has to be done, Mr. Wingfold never forgets it," said Arthur; "but I should just like to hear all the things Mr. Wingfold did and forgot in a month!"
"Arthur's getting on." thought Richard.
But he had to learn how much Wingfold had done for him. First of all he had set himself, by talking to him and lending him books, to find out his bent, or at least something he was capable of. But for months he could not wake him enough to know anything of what was in him: the poor fellow was weary almost to death. At last, however, he got him to observe a little. Then he began to set him certain tasks; and as he was an invalid, the first was what he called "The task of twelve o'clock;"--which was, for a quarter of an hour from every noon during a month, to write down what he then saw going on in the world.
The first day he had nothing to show: he had seen nothing!
"What were the clouds doing?" Mr. Wingfold asked. "What were the horses in the fields doing?--What were the birds you saw doing?--What were the ducks and hens doing?--Put down whatever you see any creature about."
The next evening, he went to him again, and asked him for his paper. Arthur handed him a folded sheet.
"Now," said Mr. Wingfold, "I am not going to look at this for the present. I am going to lay it in one of my drawers, and you must write another for me to-morrow. If you are able, bring it over to me; if not, lay it by, and do not look at it, but write another, and another--one every day, and give them all to me the next time I come, which will be soon. We shall go on that way for a month, and then we shall see something!"
At the end of the month, Mr. Wingfold took all the papers, and fastened them together in their proper order. Then they read them together, and did indeed see something! The growth of Arthur's observation both in extent and quality, also the growth of his faculty for narrating what he saw, were remarkable both to himself and his instructor. The number of things and circumstances he was able to see by the end of the month, compared with the number he had seen in the beginning of it, was wonderful; while the mode of his record had changed from that of a child to that almost of a man.
Mr. Wingfold next, as by that time the weather was quite warm, set him "The task of six o'clock in the evening," when the things that presented themselves to his notice would be very different. After a fortnight, he changed again the hour of his observation, and went on changing it. So that at length the youth who had, twice every day, walked along Cheapside almost without seeing that one face differed from another, knew most of the birds and many of the insects, and could in general tell what they were about, while the domestic animals were his familiar friends. He delighted in the grass and the wild flowers, the sky and the clouds and the stars, and knew, after a real, vital fashion, the world in which he lived. He entered into the life that was going on about him, and so in the house of God became one of the family. He had ten times his former consciousness; his life was ten times the size it was before. As was natural, his health had improved marvellously. There is nothing like interest in life to quicken the vital forces--the secret of which is, that they are left freer to work.
Richard was rejoiced with the change in him, and reckoned of what he might learn from Arthur in the long days before them; while he in turn would tell him many things he would now be prepared to hear. The soul that had seemed rapidly sinking into the joyless dark, was now burning clear as a torch of heaven. _