At the school, agreeable to the expectations of Barzello, the four
Hebrews made astonishing progress in their multiform studies. Those
profound sciences which had cost their teachers years of ceaseless toil
were, by these four young men, mastered with apparent ease. They soon
became objects of wonder to their instructors, and were pronounced
favorites of the gods. Ashpenaz often would have an interview with
them, and soon they became the objects, not only of his admiration, but
also of his friendship. This became visible to their fellow-students,
and jealousy, accompanied by malice, found a ready entrance to more
than one heart. Alas, for poor fallen humanity!
Among the students from the city of Babylon there were two young men,
brothers, whose father, by a sudden freak of fortune, had arrived at
the possession of much wealth. For some years these young men’s
advantages had been quite favorable, and withal they had not been
negligent in their studies. They were exceedingly vain of their
acquirements, and their pride and arrogance kept pace with their
vanity. The success of others, to them, was invariably a source of
mortification.
They had already heard complimentary reports of the youths of Judah
from no mean sources; and they became their foes, and were determined
to see them humbled. As students, they met but seldom, and the real
acquirements of the Israelitish youths were not known to these envious
Chaldeans. With these two victims of vanity and envy was cast the
unhappy lot of another youth, their cousin. He was of “humbler birth,”
as the term is used, but almost infinitely their superior in everything
that beautifies and adorns humanity. He was frank, generous, noble, and
endowed with no small share of natural wit. For his conceited cousins
he was anything but a pleasant companion; and daily was their arrogance
rebuked by his far-searching repartees. Thus have we introduced to the
reader three young Chaldeans, Scribbo and Shagoth, with their Cousin
Apgomer.
“I cannot, for my part,” said Scribbo, “see the propriety of elevating
these contemptible captives to share equal privileges with the native
sons of Chaldea. Surely the king, in this, has betrayed a lamentable
lack of discernment.”
“Truly!” replied Shagoth, with an air of consequence. “And if he does
not ere long see his folly, and retrace his steps, he will lose _my_
confidence, and that of all the members of our house.”
“May the gods pity the king!” cried Apgomer, with a feigned solemn
visage. “Peradventure, that in the great pressure of business he forgot
that the confidence of my illustrious cousins was so essential to his
well-being, as well as the safety and perpetuity of the empire.”
“My remarks were called forth by the sensible statement of my brother,”
said Shagoth, peevishly; “and it would have been perfectly excusable in
thee to have remained silent, until I should have thought fit to make
some remarks suitable to the capacity of thy mind.”
“My worthy cousin will, I trust, in the plenitude of his overflowing
generosity, pardon the officiousness of his unworthy servant of limited
capacities, and believe him when he assures thee that those remarks
were offered as an humble apology for the great sovereign of the
Chaldean empire; and I still hope that, in the richness of thy
clemency, thou wilt forgive him.”
“I trust,” replied Scribbo, “we are able to appreciate thy remarks, and
undoubtedly they will receive the respect they deserve. If thou couldst
have thy quarters removed to the society of these pretending
foreigners, methinks it would better suit thy groveling taste.”
“Such a sudden bereavement might be more than my tender-hearted cousins
could well endure. May the gods forbid that I should be the means of
overwhelming you with unnecessary sorrow! And, besides, I fear I am not
such a favorite of the gods as to receive such a marked favor.”
“A prodigious favor to be the companions of illiterate captives!” cried
Scribbo, with a disdainful curl of his lip. “The Chaldean who calls
that a favor, is anything but an ornament to his country.”
“We may have different tastes in regard to ornament,” replied the
good-natured cousin, looking with an arch smile on his cousin’s heavy
and useless jewelry. “As for me, I am a plain young man. I value the
useful far above the ornamental. I consider healthy ablutions and clean
linens far more desirable than the decoration of our persons with
ornamental trash. And why may it not be so in the government? So much
in regard to _ornaments_. ‘Ignorant and illiterate captives.’ Ah,
cousin! Believest thou this? Dost thou not rather hope that this is so?
Hope on! The day of trial hastens apace! Hope vigorously and
diligently; for such hope is of short duration. Ye expect, by your
superior learning, to humble the youths of Judah in the presence of the
king and his nobles. Ye are sanguine in your expectations. Already ye
see their heads bowing with shame and embarrassment, while your own
brows are decorated with well-earned laurels. Do ye not already enjoy
the bliss of the prophetic vision, until the bursting in of the
reality? Ah, ye do! Now think it not over-officious in your cousin of
low capacity to assure you that your hopes are but the baseless fabrics
of vain minds. The day of examination will reveal to your astonished
sensibilities that ye have dreamed the dream of fools. Those noble
young men, who are the objects of your hatred, will soar above you
triumphantly, and their enemies will be covered over with shame. Let me
give you fair warning! Ye are ignorant of the strength of those youths,
over whom your vain imaginations appear to triumph with such ease.”
“Our forbearance, brother, I fear, only encourages the insolence of
this, our ungrateful relative,” said Shagoth, in anger. “How soon these
upstarts forget their poverty when they are permitted to mingle in good
society.”
“And how soon they forget the kind hands that lifted them up from their
low estate!” answered Scribbo, casting a reproachful glance in the
direction of Apgomer.
“Now, cousins,” said Apgomer, smilingly, “since these charges are
thrown out against me, without going through the usual form of asking
permission, I shall at once take the liberty of repelling them.
“In the first place, I am charged with being an ‘upstart,’ and of too
soon forgetting my poverty. This I deny. I have, by no means, forgotten
my own poverty, or the low condition of my ancestors. Let us look at
this for a moment. Painful as it may be, I believe ye do occasionally
admit that I am your cousin. Well, then, be it remembered that I am
your cousin. Our fathers were brothers, and our grandfather was one and
the same person. It is well known to you that our respected grand-sire
was an individual who had to plod his way along through the very steeps
of poverty, and procure a little bread for his family by humble
employments. In poverty he lived, and in deep poverty he would have
died, had it not been for the grateful regard of _one_ of his sons; of
the other, I have nothing to say at present. Now to some, who have
suddenly risen from poverty to a degree of affluence, it proves a
source of deep mortification to remember that they sprang from a low
origin. But is this the case with your cousin Apgomer? Have I forgotten
the source whence I sprang? Does it create a blush on this cheek to
remember that my grandfather was poor, and that my father had to win
his bread through the sweat of his brow? Whoever has forgotten the
poverty of his father and grandfather, be it known that Apgomer is not
that youth.
“So much in regard to the first charge. Now for the second. I am
accused of forgetting those ‘kind friends, who lifted me up from my low
estate.’ Those friendly hands who helped me to the situation I now hold
are, by no means, forgotten; they are deeply graven upon a grateful
memory. While this pulse shall beat, and while this heart shall throb,
the names of Barzello and Joram will, by me, be fondly cherished. Then
there was much opposition from certain quarters. There were those who
could not discern the propriety of my being elevated to an equality
with those of greater wealth; and I am not sure, since the king has not
seen fit to retrace his steps, but that he has lost the confidence of
those concerned. Cousins! I am ever grateful to those kind friends who
so nobly took me by the hand. I know well who they are, and I know well
who they are not.”
“Surely our young instructor is becoming eloquent,” said Scribbo,
rather crestfallen.
“Yea, verily,” replied his brother; “and who can withstand such a
mighty torrent of oratory? Let us away to the groves!” And Apgomer was
left, for the time being, the sole occupant of the apartment.