against him, pelted him with stones and displayed an instinct of
destruction far more loathsome than the bloodthirstiness of manhood.

The invalid, in the mean while, stood apart from the tumult, crying
out with a loud voice, "Fear not, Ilbrahim; come hither and take my
hand," and his unhappy friend endeavored to obey him. After watching
the victim's struggling approach with a calm smile and unabashed eye,
the foul-hearted little villain lifted his staff and struck Ilbrahim
on the mouth so forcibly that the blood issued in a stream. The poor
child's arms had been raised to guard his head from the storm of
blows, but now he dropped them at once. His persecutors beat him down,
trampled upon him, dragged him by his long fair locks, and Ilbrahim
was on the point of becoming as veritable a martyr as ever entered
bleeding into heaven. The uproar, however, attracted the notice of a
few neighbors, who put themselves to the trouble of rescuing the
little heretic, and of conveying him to Pearson's door.

Ilbrahim's bodily harm was severe, but long and careful nursing
accomplished his recovery; the injury done to his sensitive spirit was
more serious, though not so visible. Its signs were principally of a
negative character, and to be discovered only by those who had
previously known him. His gait was thenceforth slow, even and unvaried
by the sudden bursts of sprightlier motion which had once corresponded
to his overflowing gladness; his countenance was heavier, and its
former play of expression--the dance of sunshine reflected from moving
water--was destroyed by the cloud over his existence; his notice was
attracted in a far less degree by passing events, and he appeared to
find greater difficulty in comprehending what was new to him than at a
happier period. A stranger founding his judgment upon these
circumstances would have said that the dulness of the child's