I have not seen you for a great while. I hope you are in good health.
Does William Henry go to school there now? And does Benjie go, and
little Bubby Short? I hope they are in good health. Do the Two Betseys
keep shop there now? Is Gapper Skyblue alive now? I am in very good
health. I go to sea now. That’s where I went when I went away from
school. I suppose all the boys hate me, don’t they? But I don’t blame
them any for hating me. I should think they would all of them hate me.
For I didn’t act very well when I went to that school. Our captain knows
about that school, for he is uncle to a boy that has begun to go. He’s
sent a letter to him. I wish that boy would write a letter to him,
because he might tell about the ones I know.
I’ve been making up my mind about telling you something. I’ve been
thinking about it, and thinking about it. I don’t like to tell things
very well. But I am going to tell this to you. It isn’t anything to
tell. I mean it isn’t like news, or anything happening to anybody. But
it is something about when I was sick. For I had a fit of sickness. I
don’t mean afterwards, when I was so very sick, but at the first
beginning of it.
The captain he took some books out of his chest and said I might have
them to read if I wanted to. And I read about a man in one of them, and
the king wanted him to do something that the man thought wasn’t right to
do; but the man said he would not do what was wrong. And for that he was
sent to row in a very large boat among all kinds of bad man, thieves and
murderers and the worst kind. They had to row every minute, and were
chained to their oars, and above their waists they had no clothes on.
They had overseers with long whips. The officers stayed on deck over the
rowers’ heads, and when they wanted the vessel to go faster, the
overseers made their long whip-lashes cut into the men’s backs till they
were all raw and bleeding. Nights the chains were not taken off, and
they slept all piled up on each other. Sometimes when the officers were
in a hurry, or when there were soldiers aboard, going to fight the
enemy’s vessels, then the men wouldn’t have even a minute to eat, and
were almost starved to death, and got so weak they would fall over, but
then they were whipped again. And when they got to the enemy’s ships,
they had to sit and have cannons fired in among them. Then the dead ones
were picked up and thrown into the water. And the king told the man that
if he wanted to be free, and have plenty to eat and a nice house, and
good clothes to wear, all he had to do was to promise to do that wrong
thing. But the man said no. For to be chained there would only hurt his
body. But to do wrong would hurt his soul.
And I read about some people that lived many hundred years ago and the
emperor of that country wanted these people to say that their religion
was wrong and his religion was the right one. But they said, “No. We
believe ours is true, and we cannot lie.” Then the emperor took away all
their property, and pierced them with red-hot irons, and threw some into
a place where they kept wild beasts. But they still kept saying, “We
cannot lie, we must speak what we believe.” And one was a boy only
fifteen years old. And the emperor thought he was so young they could
scare him very easy. And he said to him, “Now say you believe the way I
want you to, or I will have you shut up in a dark dungeon.” But the boy
said, “I will not say what is false.” And he was shut up in a dark
dungeon, underground. And one day the emperor said to him, “Say you
believe the way I want you to, or I will have you stretched upon a
rack.” But the boy said, “I will not speak falsely.” And he was
stretched upon a rack till his bones were almost pulled apart. Then the
emperor asked, “Now will you believe that my religion is right?” But the
boy could not say so. And the emperor said, “Then you’ll be burned
alive!” The boy said, “I can suffer the burning, but I cannot lie.” Then
he was brought out and the wood was piled up round him, and set on fire,
and the boy was burned up with the wood. And while he was burning up he
thanked God for having strength enough to suffer and not lie.
Dorry, I want to tell you how much I’ve been thinking about that man and
that boy ever since. And I want to ask you to do something. I’ve been
thinking about how mean I was, and what I did there so as not to get
punished. And I want you to go see my mother and tell her that I’m
_ashamed_. Don’t make any promises to my mother, but only just tell,
“_Tom’s ashamed_.” That’s all. I don’t want to make promises. But I know
myself just what I mean to do. But I sha’ n’t talk about that any. Give
my regards to all inquiring friends.
Your affectionate friend,