Richard Honeywood's Bequest [pp. 166-180]

RICHARD HIONE YWOOD' S BEQUEST.
started it; and how much good has it done? Perhaps some in the
remote past, but it has fallen away from its purpose and been
misused and neglected. Who amongst us can remember one
bright lad or one good citizen who has been turned out by
that grammar-school, as it has been managed for the last hun dred years? What we have got to do is this: find out what
Richard Honeywood wanted, and follow his wishes as nearly
as we can. He is the man who has got to be consulted, and
no one else."
Father Kirton thought a great deal of young Clarkson's
speech. There was a pathos in the idea of that poor soul
helpless to prevent its riches being misappropriated which
struck him forcibly. He went to the club library the following
morning to search the county history for a record of Honeywood.
He found Arthur a Court deep in the volume.
"You've come to look up Honeywood, I suppose," he said.
"There have been so many here already that the book opens
naturally at that place."
The entry merely stated that moneys and land had been left
for the maintenance of a school-house and master, to provide free
education for twelve boys of Wiggonhurst, and for as many more
as could be accommodated, on the payment of a small fee. In return the children were to say certain prayers before beginning
school for the repose of Honeywood's soul, and a Mass was to be
offered weekly for the same object. "Of course," the book said,
"as there has been no Catholic church in Wiggonhurst since the
Reformation, the latter conditions have been abandoned." The
book was published about i837, before the mission was started.
All day the priest was thinking of poor Honeywood. The
charity, as it stood now, was such a miserable, worthless thing no
man would care to be the founder of it. "He was a Catholic,"
he thought, "and if Allman and his party gain the day it will be
turned into a free-thinking establishment, a school for scoffing
and unbelief, or the money that he left for the spread of knowledge will be spent in paving-stones!"
That night the knockings on his floor and door were louder
and more persistent than ever. As he listened to them an idea
shot through his brain.
"Suppose it is some poor soul trying to make known a wishsomething that they have earnestly desired in life." Then, by a
quick transition of thought: "If I could help Honeywood!
Perhaps I am the only man who can help him. I will."
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