The boys got
their fair share of praise in his rescue, but their grandmother did not
see it in such a favorable light.
"You ought never to have left your lessons without leave, or taken a
cart belonging to a stranger all unknown to him, or gone off alone
without telling any one about it. And you were shown the folly and
uselessness of such a proceeding by arriving on the scene and being
utterly unable to extricate him from his position. If children would
realize their weakness and foolishness more in these days, they would
develop into better men and women, but self-sufficiency and self-conceit
are signs of the times!"
Every day the boys went to see their friend, and even Mrs. Selby allowed
that they could be quiet and well-behaved in a sick room. It was a long
time before old Principle regained his health, and he seemed to have
grown much older and feebler since his accident; but his serenity of
spirit was undisturbed, and some of the neighbors who had before voted
him close and cranky, now offered to come and sit with him, and learned
many a lesson from his sickbed. When he was at last able to take his
place in the shop again, Roy's mind was at ease about him.
"I was so afraid he was going to die as long as he stayed in bed," he
confided to Dudley: "I hope no one will ever die that I like, it must be
such a dreadful thing to have them gone.
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