Every remonstrance and every prayer were useless; he brought forward
the necessity of initiating himself into all the details of an
important contract, the facilities he should have, in his new
position, of improving himself in his trade, and the hopes he had of
turning his knowledge to advantage. At last, when his mother, having
come to the end of her arguments, began to cry, he hastily kissed
her, and went away, that he might avoid any further remonstrances.
He had been absent a year, and there was nothing to give them hopes
of his return. His parents hardly saw him once a month, and then he
only stayed a few moments with them.
"I have been punished where I had hoped to be rewarded," Michael
said to me just now; "I had wished for a saving and industrious son,
and God has given me an ambitious and avaricious one. I had always
said to myself, that, when once he was grown up, we should have him
always with us, to recall our youth and to enliven our hearts; his
mother was always thinking of getting him married, and having
children again to care for. You know women always will busy
themselves about others. As for me, I thought of him working near my
bench, and singing his new songs--for he has learnt music, and is
one of the best singers at the Orpheon.
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