BROTHERLY LOVE.
Daniel’s path seemed to lie plain before him. He was a college student,
receiving and using such advantages as Dartmouth could give him. At
nineteen he would be a graduate, and well qualified to commence a
professional course. So far as he was concerned Daniel felt that he had
reason to congratulate himself. But there was another for whom he began
to feel solicitude.
Ezekiel Webster was nearly two years older than Daniel, and like him
possessed uncommon natural gifts. A strong affection had united the two
brothers from their earliest years. There was no reason, apart from
Judge Webster’s poverty, why Ezekiel, as well as his younger brother,
should not be allowed a college education. But the father hesitated
long before he ventured to offer Daniel the education which he longed
to give him, and to raise the necessary money was obliged to mortgage
his humble house. His plan for Ezekiel was that he should remain at
home and carry on the farm. As he grew older, and hard work had made
him in his own words “old before his time,” he felt that it would
be a relief to have a son like Ezekiel to take the burden from his
shoulders, and keep up the farm. But Ezekiel scarcely more than Daniel
had a vocation for farming. He too had a thirst for learning, and felt
that a farmer’s life would be uncongenial. It is natural that he should
have felt dissatisfied with his prospects, and that the claims of Duty
which he recognized should nevertheless have seemed to him difficult to
obey.
Such was the state of feeling when Daniel came home on a vacation. To
him Ezekiel revealed his thoughts and inward struggles.
“I ought to stay, Daniel,” he said; “now that you are away father
needs me more than ever, but I can’t bear the idea of growing up in
ignorance, with no work more elevating than working on the farm.”
Daniel was touched. He could see how unequal their lots were likely
to be. While he might be a successful lawyer, his favorite brother,
whose talents he considered to equal his own, would have to toil on the
barren acres of their paternal farm.
“I can’t bear the idea, either, Zeke,” he answered. “You are
sacrificing yourself to me. Father has mortgaged the farm to pay my
expenses, and you are working to pay it.”
“If but one of us can have an education, Dan, I am glad that you are
that one.”
“But, Zeke, you are as smart as I, nay, smarter, and ought to have the
same advantages.”
“It cannot be, Daniel. I know that well enough. If I could be spared to
leave home I should like to go out West. In a new part of the country I
should have a better chance of getting on than here. Here on our barren
little farm there is no chance to do better than get a bare living.”
“I wish you could go to college too. Isn’t there some way of managing
it?”
“I have thought of it many times, but I see no way,” answered Ezekiel
despondently.
“May I mention the subject to father, Zeke?”
“It would only trouble him, and after all it would do no good.”
All night long the two brothers talked the matter over, and finally
Zeke gave his consent to Dan’s broaching the subject to their father.
The result I will give in Daniel’s words.
“I ventured on the negotiation, and it was carried, as other things
often are, by the earnest and sanguine manner of youth. I told him
[Judge Webster] that I was unhappy at my brother’s prospects. For
myself I saw my way to knowledge, respectability and self-protection;
but as to him, all looked the other way; that I would keep school,
and get along as well as I could, be more than four years in getting
through college, if necessary, provided he also could be sent to study.
He said at once he lived but for his children; that he had but little,
and on that little he put no value, except so far as it might be useful
to them; that to carry us both through college would take all he was
worth; that, for himself, he was willing to run the risk, but that this
was a serious matter to our mother and two unmarried sisters; that we
must settle the matter with them, and if their consent was obtained, he
would trust to Providence, and get along as well as he could.”
So the matter was referred to Mrs. Webster, and she showed a devotion
equal to that exhibited by her husband. Though she knew that the
education of both of her boys would take the balance of their little
property, she never hesitated. “I will trust the boys,” she answered
promptly.
Her confidence was not misplaced. She lived long enough to rejoice in
the success of both sons, and to find a happy and comfortable home
with Ezekiel. Nothing in the life of Daniel Webster is more beautiful
than the devotion of the parents to their children, and the mutual
affection which existed between them.