There was
wine and cake upon the table, and the lady looked a little flustered.
Mr Root was trying with a forty Chesterfieldean power to look amiable.
Mrs Root was very fidgety. As I appeared at the door timorously, the
lady said to me, without rising, but extending her delicate white hand,
"Come here to me, Ralph; do you not know me?"

I could get no further than the middle of the room, where I stood still,
and burst out into a passion of tears. Those sweet tones of tenderness,
the first I had heard for nine months, thrilled like fire through my
whole frame. It was a feeling so intense, that, had it not been agony,
it would have been bliss.

"Good God!" said she, deeply agitated; "my poor boy, why do you cry?"

"Because--because you are so kind," said I, rushing forward to her
extended arms; and, falling on my knees at her feet, I buried my face in
her lap, and felt all happiness amidst my sobbings. She bent over me,
and her tears trickled upon my neck. This did not last long. She
placed me upon my feet, and drawing me to her side, kissed my cheeks,
and my eyes, and my forehead. Her countenance soon became serene; and
turning to my master, she said, quietly, "This, sir, is very singular."

"Yes, ma'am, Master Rattlin _is_ very singular. All clever boys are.
He knows already his five declensions, and the four conjugations, active
and passive. Come, Master Rattlin, decline for the lady the adjective
felix--come, begin, nominative hic et haec et hoc felix."

"I don't know anything about it," said I, doggedly.

"I told you he was a _singular_ child," resumed the pedagogue, with a
most awkward attempt at a smile.

"The singularity to which I allude," said the lady, "is his finding
kindness so singular."

"Kind! bless you, my dear madam," said they both together; "you can't
conceive how much we love the little dear."

"It was but yesterday," said Mrs Root, "that I was telling the lady of
Mr Alderman Jenkins--we have the five Jenkinses, ma'am--that Master
Rattlin was the sweetest, genteelist, and beautifullest boy in the whole
school."

"It was but yesterday," said Mr Root, "that I was saying to Doctor
Duncan (our respected rector, madam), that Master Rattlin had evinced
such an uncommon talent, that we might, by-and-by, expect the greatest
things from him. Not yet ten months with me, madam. Already in
Phaedrus--the rule of three--and his French master gives the best
account of him. He certainly has n