Toilers of Babylon: A NovelFarjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
General
Toilers of Babylon: A Novel
Farjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
Inheritance and succession -- Fiction
It is not so uncommon as may be supposed to chance upon a lad in
Teddy's station in life able to express himself so well. Looking round
upon the familiar faces in the gallery of art and literature, and
recognizing in this one and that one portraits of earnest workers, the
fruit of whose labors have imparted intellectual pleasure to hundreds
of thousands of men and women, one cannot fail to be struck by the
fact that it is not from the ranks of the rich and powerful that the
majority of these bright stars have emerged. It may be that the rich
have not that incentive to succeed--the spur of necessity forming part
of it--which the poor have, but the fact remains. Thus it is not
surprising to find a lad of Teddy's stamp in the squalid East, and his
weak physical frame may be set down to his intellectual advantage.
He lay and listened to Timothy's story. Timothy spoke softly and
slowly, and when, at the expiration of fifteen or sixteen minutes, he
saw Teddy's eyes close, and judged that he had fallen into slumber, he
stopped till Teddy, after the lapse of another few minutes, opened his
eyes, and said:
"Yes, Tim, and then--"
Then Timothy resumed his story, pausing again when Teddy closed his
eyes again, and continuing when the dying lad was sensible once more
of what was going on around him. Now and then the mother would enter
the room, very softly, and, in obedience to Timothy's finger at his
lips, would close the door behind her and step to the bedside so
quietly and noiselessly that she might have been a pitying spirit of
air instead of a suffering mother whose heart was filled with woe.
Then would she bend over the bed, sometimes with a terrible fear that
her son had passed away; but she would raise her head and look at
Timothy with tears in her eyes, and whisper:
"Thank God, he only sleeps!"
Ah! in these vigils of love, kept through day and night in the homes
of the rich and poor, drawing the sick ones together until they stand
upon the eternal platform of equality, there is much to be thankful
for. If the lessons they teach were more enduring the world would be
more human than it is, and justice--not that kind of justice we seek
in wig and gown--would be dispensed more equally.
At length the story was finished, and Teddy, awake, but growing weaker
and weaker, lay and thought over it. His voice now sometimes wandered
away, and the sense of his words was blurred by the approaching
change, but for the most part he held himself in control, and spoke
intelligently, with a full consciousness of what he was saying.
"It was a lucky thing you got into that school, Tim."
"Yes, Teddy, it was."
"I always knew you were clever, and only wanted teaching. You must
read 'Ivanhoe.'"
"I will, Teddy."
"And 'The Old Curiosity Shop,' and 'The Cricket on the Hearth.' Oh,
how I've laughed and cried over them. Is Miss Emily pretty?"
"Very pretty, Ted."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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