ight anybody, and who are so strong and good, and whom no one dares
bully, and who are not laughed at, and made a butt of, as I am."

"Look at Power," said Walter, "or look at Dubbs. They came as young as
you, Arty, and as weak as you, but no one ever made _them_ do wrong.
Power somehow looks too noble to be bullied by anyone; they're afraid of
him, I don't know why. But what had Dubbs to protect him? Yet not all
the Harpours in the world would ever make him go to such a place as
Dan's."

Poor Eden felt it hard to be blamed for this; he was not yet strong
enough to learn that the path of duty, however hard and thorny, however
hedged in with difficulties and antagonisms, is always the easiest and
the pleasantest in the end.

"But they'd half kill me, Walter," he said plaintively.

"They'll have much more chance of doing that as it is," said Walter.
"They'd thrash you a little, no doubt, but respect you more for it. And
surely it would be better to bear one thrashing, and not do what's
wrong, than to do it and to go two such journeys out of the window, and
get the thrashings into the bargain? So even on _that_ ground you ought
to refuse. Eh, Arty?"

"Yes, Walter," he said, casting down his eyes.

"Well; next time either Harpour, or any one else, tries to make you do
what's wrong, remember they _can't_ make you, if you don't choose; and
say flatly `_No_!' and stick to it in spite of everything, like a brave
little man, will you?"

"I did say `No!' at first, Walter; but they threatened to frighten me,"
he said. "They knew I daren't hold out."

Yes; there was the secret of it all. Walter saw that they had played on
this child's natural terrors with such refinement of cruelty, that fear
had become the master principle in his mind; they had only to touch that
spring and he obeyed them mechanically like a puppet, and because of his
very fear, was driven to do things that might well cause genuine fear,
till he lived in such a region of increasing fear and dread, that
Walter's only surprise was that he had not been made an idiot already.
Poor child! it was no wonder that he was becoming more stupid, cunning,
untidy, and uninteresting, every day. And all this was going on under
the very eyes of many thoroughly noble boys, and conscientious masters,
and yet they never saw or noticed it, and looked on Eden as an idle and
unprincipled little sloven. O our harsh human judgments! The Priest
and the Levite still pass