. His father's letter
gave him one of his many fits of melancholy over his own worthlessness,
but the thought of the organ consoled him, and he felt sure that here at
any rate was something to which he could apply himself steadily without
growing tired of it.

It was settled that the organ was not to be begun before the Christmas
holidays were over, and that till then Ernest should do a little plain
carpentering, so as to get to know how to use his tools. Miss Pontifex
had a carpenter's bench set up in an outhouse upon her own premises, and
made terms with the most respectable carpenter in Roughborough, by which
one of his men was to come for a couple of hours twice a week and set
Ernest on the right way; then she discovered she wanted this or that
simple piece of work done, and gave the boy a commission to do it, paying
him handsomely as well as finding him in tools and materials. She never
gave him a syllable of good advice, or talked to him about everything's
depending upon his own exertions, but she kissed him often, and would
come into the workshop and act the part of one who took an interest in
what was being done so cleverly as ere long to become really interested.

What boy would not take kindly to almost anything with such assistance?
All boys like making things; the exercise of sawing, planing and
hammering, proved exactly what his aunt had wanted to find--something
that should exercise, but not too much, and at the same time amuse him;
when Ernest's sallow face was flushed with his work, and his eyes were
sparkling with pleasure, he looked quite a different boy from the one his
aunt had taken in hand only a few months earlier. His inner self never
told him that this was humbug, as it did about Latin and Greek. Making
stools and drawers was worth living for, and after Christmas there loomed
the organ, which was scarcely ever absent from his mind.

His aunt let him invite his friends, encouraging him to bring those whom
her quick sense told her were the most desirable. She smartened him up
also in his personal appearance, always without preaching to him. Indeed
she worked wonders during the short time that was allowed her, and if her
life had been spared I cannot think that my hero would have come under
the shadow of that cloud which cast so heavy a gloom over his younger
manhood; but unfortunately for him his gleam of sunshine was too hot and
too brilliant to last, and he had many a storm yet to weathe