Go to your tutor, my child.
He will doubtless make it all clear to you; and pray accept my
apologies for being unable to help you," and the Fifth-form boy
would go away feeling thoroughly ashamed of himself. After his
death, it was discovered from his diary that John had been in the
habit of praying for twenty boys by name, every night of his life.
He went right down the school list, and then he began again. Any
lack of personal cleanliness drove him frantic. I myself have
heard him order a boy with dirty nails and hands out of the room,
crying, "Out of my sight, unclean wretch! Go and cleanse the hands
God gave you, before I allow you to associate with clean
gentlemen, and write out for me two hundred times, 'Cleanliness is
next to godliness.'"
John took the First Fourth, and his little boys could always be
detected by their neatness and extreme cleanliness. Neither of
these can be called a characteristic of little boys in general,
but the little fellows made an effort to overcome their natural
tendencies "to please old John." When his hereditary enemy
triumphed, and his reason left him, hundreds of his old pupils
wished to subscribe, and to surround John for the remainder of his
life with all the comforts that could be given him in his
afflicted condition.
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