Brave and Bold The Fortunes of Robert Rushton
CHAPTER I. THE YOUNG RIVALS. The main schoolroom in the Millville Academy was brilliantly lighted, and the various desks were occupied by boys and girls of different ages from ten to eighteen, all busily writing under the general direction of Professor George W. Granville, Instructor in Plain and Ornamental Penmanship. Professor Granville, as he styled himself, was a traveling teacher, and generally had two or three evening schools in progress in different places at the same time. He was really a very good penman, and in a course of twelve lessons, for which he charged the very moderate price of a dollar, not, of course, including stationery, he contrived to impart considerable instruction, and such pupils as chose to learn were likely to profit by his instructions. His venture in Millville had been unusually successful. There were a hundred pupils on his list, and there had been no disturbance during the course of lessons.
He strove to keep quiet interiorly, keeping his eyes fixed upon the
broad river in the sunshine and the trees on the other side, and his
heart established on God's Will. He did not know then what kind of a fit
it was into which the King had fallen, nor why it was that himself
should be blamed for it; and when he spoke to the men they gave him
nothing but black looks, and one blessed himself repeatedly, with his
lips moving.
There came the sound of talking from the inner room, and once or twice
the sound of glass on glass. Without it was a fair day, very hot and
with no clouds.
Master Richard told me that he had no fear, neither now nor afterwards;
it seemed to him as if all had been done before; he said it was as if he
were one in a play, whose part and words are all assigned beforehand,
as well as the parts and words of the others, by the will of the
writer; so that when violence is done, or injustice, or hard words
spoken, or death suffered, it is all part of the agreed plan and must
not be resisted nor questioned, else all will be spoiled. It appeared to
him too as if the ankret in the cell were privy to it all, and were
standing, observing and approving; for Master Richard remembered what
the holy man had said as to the five wounds marked upon the linen, and
how he would not need to wear them much longer.
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CHAPTER I. THE YOUNG RIVALS. The main schoolroom in the Millville Academy was brilliantly lighted, and the various desks were occupied by boys and girls of different ages from ten to eighteen, all busily writing under the general direction of Professor George W. Granville, Instructor in Plain and Ornamental Penmanship. Professor Granville, as he styled himself, was a traveling teacher, and generally had two or three evening schools in progress in different places at the same time. He was really a very good penman, and in a course of twelve lessons, for which he charged the very moderate price of a dollar, not, of course, including stationery, he contrived to impart considerable instruction, and such pupils as chose to learn were likely to profit by his instructions. His venture in Millville had been unusually successful. There were a hundred pupils on his list, and there had been no disturbance during the course of lessons.