Onward

The boldness and the quiet,
That calmly go ahead,
In spite of wrath and riot,
In spite of quick and dead--
Warm energy to spur him,
Keen enterprise to guide.
And conscience to upstir him,
And duty by his side,
And hope forever singing
Assurance of success,
And rapid action springing
At once to nothing less!

--M.F. Tupper.

In this persevering labor Ishmael cheerfully passed the winter months.

He had not heard one word of Claudia, or of her father, except such
scant news as reached him through the judge's occasional letters to the
overseer.

He had received an encouraging note from Mr. Middleton in answer to the
letter he had written to that gentleman. About the first of April
Ishmael's first quarterly school bills began to be due.

Tuition fees were not high in that poor neighborhood, and his pay for
each pupil averaged about two dollars a quarter. His school numbered
thirty pupils, about one-third of whom never paid, consequently at the
end of the first three months his net receipts were just forty-two
dollars. Not very encouraging this, yet Ishmael was pleased and happy,
especially as he felt that he was really doing the little savages
intrusted to his care a great deal of good.

Half of this money Ishmael would have forced upon Hannah and Reuben; but
Hannah flew into a passion and demanded if her nephew took her for a
money-grub; and Reuben quietly assured the young man that his services
overpaid his board, which was quite true.