On a pleasant summer afternoon the children of the neighborhood had assembled in the little forest-crowned amphitheatre behind the meeting-house , and the recovering invalid was there , leaning on a staff . The glee of a score of untainted bosoms was heard in light and airy voices , which danced among the trees like sunshine become audible ; the grown men of this weary world as they journeyed by the spot marvelled why life , beginning in such brightness , should proceed in gloom , and their hearts or their imaginations answered them and said that the bliss of childhood gushes from its innocence . But it happened that an unexpected addition was made to the heavenly little band . It was Ilbrahim , who came toward the children with a look of sweet confidence on his fair and spiritual face , as if , having manifested his love to one of them , he had no longer to fear a repulse from their society . A hush came over their mirth the moment they beheld him , and they stood whispering to each other while he drew nigh ; but all at once the devil of their fathers entered into the unbreeched fanatics , and , sending up a fierce , shrill cry , they rushed upon the poor Quaker child . In an instant he was the centre of a brood of baby-fiends , who lifted sticks 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 intellect widely contradicted the promise of his features , but the secret was in the direction of Ilbrahim 's thoughts , which were brooding within him when they should naturally have been wandering abroad . An attempt of Dorothy to revive his former sportiveness was the single occasion on which his quiet demeanor yielded to a violent display of grief ; he burst into passionate weeping and ran and hid himself , for his heart had become so miserably sore that even the hand of kindness tortured it like fire . Sometimes at night , and probably in his dreams , he was heard to cry , `` Mother ! Mother ! '' as if her place , which a stranger had supplied while Ilbrahim was happy , admitted of no substitute in his extreme affliction . Perhaps among the many life-weary wretches then upon the earth there was not one who combined innocence and misery like this poor broken-hearted infant so soon the victim of his own heavenly nature .
While this melancholy change had taken place in Ilbrahim , one XXXXX an earlier origin and of different character had come to its perfection in his adopted father .
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