He had heard very well, nevertheless. Why didn't he go back, then?
Maybe, because he was a fool. More likely, because he was, after all,
human. Within that husk of rags, under all that dull incumbrance of
imperfect physical organs that cramped and stifled it, there dwelt a
soul; and the soul of man knows its own worth, and is proud. The
coarsest, most degraded drudge still harbors in his wretched house of
clay a divine guest. There is that in the convict and slave which stirs
yet at an insult. And even in this lank, half-witted lad, the despised
and outcast of years, there abode a sense of inalienable dignity,--an
immanent instinct that he, too, was a creature of God, and worthy
therefore to be treated with a certain tenderness and respect, and not
to be roughly repulsed. This was as strong in him as in you. His wisdom
was little, but his will was firm. And though the house was cheerful and
large, and had room and comforts enough and to spare, rather than enter
it, after he had been flatly told he was not wanted, he would lie down
in the cold, wet fields and die.
"Certainly, he will find shelter somewhere," thought the Judge's lady,
discharging her conscience of the responsibility.
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