188

THE YOUTH’S CABINET.

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departed for the mines, after having em-
braced my brother and sisters.

Dickson was right, sir, in saying that
I did not know what under-ground labor
was. At the first moment, when I felt
the tub at the bottom of which I was
seated descend into the shaft, and saw
the sun disappear, it seemed to me as if
I was entering my tomb. But it was
quite otherwise when I reached the gal-
lery where the digging was going on.
There I perceived a swarm of men naked
down to the middle, and coal-black ;
some were kneeling, some were stoop-
ing ; many were stretched on their backs,
and all were occupied in silence by lamp
light. I fancied that I beheld the reali-
zation of an old engraving which I had
formerly noticed at one of our neighbor's,
representing the punishments of hell.

There were also amid this dismal
crowd of laborers some children, who
were employed in rolling cars on rails,
or in opening and shutting the doors of
the galleries every time that a wheel-
barrow went out. To this last employ-
ment I was destined.

I was placed in the inside of a niche,
hollowed out in one of the doors of the
gallery, and a cord was put into my hand,
by means of which the door was to be
opened and shut.

This occupation was by no means
fatiguing ; but my isolation, the forced
silence occasioned by it, and above all,
the darkness, threw me into a profound
melancholy. In fact, imagine to your-
self, sir, a young boy accustomed to live
among the broom and flowery heather,
to see the sunrise and set over the fields,
and to run wherever his feet could carry
him, suddenly condemned to the still-
ness, the darkness and the scorching at-

 

 

mosphere of those frightful subterranean
regions, For the first two days I tried
to pay no heed to myself, but to oppose
my will to my sensations ; at the end of
that time, however, my resolution gave
way, and I yielded to despondency.
Sometimes I wept for whole hours,
ceasing only when I had no more tears
to shed, and beginning again as soon as
I recovered them.

Still, in spite of everything, I was de-
termined to persist. I said to myself,
“Thy brother John died in laboring for
the little ones; labor like him, even
though thou in like manner shouldst die.
It is thy duty.”

By dint of repeating these words to
myself, I resumed courage. Then fear-
ing lest the despondent fit might return,
I did like cowardly children, when they
pull the coverlet over their eyes lest they
should see something; I ceased from
looking around me, I hindered myself
from thinking, and at last I succeeded
in pulling my cord mechanically, without
knowing what I was about. |

This lasted some months; but at the
end of that time I became aware that
my mind was actually asleep, and that I
had no longer the power of awakening
it—not even when I needed it. One
day I heard a foreman, as he was passing
near me, say, “That boy is becoming an
idiot !””

That word, sir, appalled me ; if I be-
came an idiot, how was I to protect my
sisters and my young brother? What
would I be good for, and of what use
should I be to the master? I resolved
to shake off my stupor and compel my
mind to walk, after having kept it for
many months, if I may so say, with its
legs crossed. The difficulty was, to find