Uncle Maxim was very much disturbed by this occurrence. He had of late
ordered a number of physiological, psychological, and educational works,
and with his habitual energy had devoted himself to the study of all that
science has revealed concerning the mysterious growth and development
of a child’s soul. The delight of these studies had so charmed him that
all brooding fancies concerning his own uselessness in the battle of
life, “the worm grovelling in the dust,” and “the hospital ambulance,”
had long since vanished from the invalid’s square head, and in their
stead appeared a deep and thoughtful absorption; rose-colored hopes even
came from time to time to warm the veteran’s heart. Uncle Maxim grew
more and more convinced that Nature, although she had deprived the boy
of his sight, had not in other respects dealt unjustly with him. He was
a creature who responded with remarkable activity and completeness to
the exterior impressions accessible to him. Uncle Maxim conceived it to
be his duty to develop the latent capabilities of the boy, so that the
injustice of his doom might be counterbalanced by the efforts of his own
mind and influence, and that he might be enabled to send as a substitute
into the battle of life another and a younger combatant, who without his
influence would be lost to the service.
“Who knows,” thought the old Garibaldian, “but there may be a fight in
which neither lance nor sword are needed? Perchance he with whom fate
has dealt so hardly may sometime employ the weapons that he is capable of
wielding in the defence of others, victims of fate like himself; and then
my life will not have been spent in vain, old crippled soldier that I am!”
Even the free-thinkers during the forties and fifties of the present
century were not free from superstitious ideas regarding the “mysterious
designs of Nature.” Therefore it was not surprising that with the gradual
development of the child, who showed unusual gifts, Uncle Maxim should
have arrived at the firm conviction that his very blindness was only one
of the manifestations of those mysterious designs. “One unfortunate for
another,”—this was the motto which Uncle Maxim had already inscribed on
his pupil’s standard.