Both children profited by this companionship in study. Although Petrùsya
was farther advanced, there was still an opportunity for competition.
Moreover, he could often help his new friend about her lessons, and she
was very successful in devising methods of explanation in regard to
subjects which were naturally difficult for a blind boy to comprehend.
Her society had introduced a new element into his studies, contributing a
pleasing excitement to his mental labors.
Taking it all in all, fate had certainly proved propitious in this gift
of friendship. The boy no longer sought solitude; he had found that
congenial companionship which the love of older people had not afforded,
and in moments when his little soul was most peaceful he was glad to
have his friend near him. They always went together to the cliff or
to the river-bank. When he played, she listened with genuine delight;
and after he had laid his pipe aside, she would describe in her vivid
childlike way the various objects in Nature that surrounded them. She
could not of course picture them with absolute fidelity, but from her
simple description the boy gained a very clear idea of the characteristic
coloring of every phenomenon which she described. Thus, for instance,
when she spoke of the darkness with which the black and misty night
shrouded the earth, he formed a conception of this same darkness from
the low tones of her timid voice. Then again, as she raised her serious
face and said to him, “Ah, what a cloud is coming toward us!—a very
dark cloud!” he seemed directly to feel its cold blast, and in her
voice he fancied the rustling sound of the creeping monster advancing
threateningly upon him far above his head.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: IV. BLINDNESS. VAGUE QUESTIONS.]