What boy would not take kindly to almost anything with such
assistance? All boys like making things; the exercise of sawing,
planing, and hammering, proved exactly what his aunt had wanted to
find- something that should exercise, but not too much, and at the
same time amuse him; when Ernest's sallow face was flushed with his
work, and his eyes were sparkling with pleasure, he looked quite a
different boy from the one his aunt had taken in hand only a few
months earlier. His inner self never told him that this was humbug, as
it did about Latin and Greek. Making tools and drawers was worth
living for, and after Christmas there loomed the organ, which was
scarcely ever absent from his mind.
His aunt let him invite his friends, encouraging him to bring
those whom her quick sense told her were the most desirable. She
smartened him up also in his personal appearance, always without
preaching to him. Indeed she worked wonders during the short time that
was allowed her, and if her life had been spared I cannot think that
my hero would have come under the shadow of that cloud which cast so
heavy a gloom over his younger manhood; but unfortunately for him
his gleam of sunshine was too hot and too brilliant to last, and he
had many a storm yet to weather, before he became fairly happy.
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