Hughie's Emancipation
: Glengarry SchooldaysHughie rose late next morning, and the hurry and rush of getting off to
school in time left him no opportunity to get rid of the little packages
in his pocket, that seemed to burn and sting him through his clothes. He
determined to keep them safe in his pocket all day and put them back in
the drawer at night. His mother's face, white with her long watching,
and sad and anxious in spite of its brave smile, filled him with such
an agony of remorse that, hurrying through his breakfast, he snatched a
farewell kiss, and then tore away down the lane lest he should be forced
to confess all his terrible secret.
The first person who met him in the school-yard was Foxy.
"Have you got that?" was his salutation.
A sudden fury possessed Hughie.
"Yes, you red-headed, sneaking fox," he answered, "and I hope it will
bring you the curse of luck, anyway."
Foxy hurried him cautiously behind the school, with difficulty
concealing his delight while Hughie unrolled his little bundles and
counted out the quarters and dimes and half dimes into his hand.
"There's a dollar, and there's a quarter, and--and--there's another," he
added, desperately, "and God may kill me on the spot if I give you any
more!"
"All right, Hughie," said Foxy, soothingly, putting the money into his
pocket. "You needn't be so mad about it. You bought the pistol and the
rest right enough, didn't you?"
"I know I did, but--but you made me, you big, sneaking thief--and then
you--" Hughie's voice broke in his rage. His face was pale, and his
black eyes were glittering with fierce fury, and in his heart he was
conscious of a wild longing to fall upon Foxy and tear him to pieces.
And Foxy, big and tall as he was, glanced at Hughie's face, and saying
not a word, turned and fled to the front of the school where the other
boys were.
Hughie followed slowly, his heart still swelling with furious rage, and
full of an eager desire to be at Foxy's smiling, fat face.
At the school door stood Miss Morrison, the teacher, smiling down
upon Foxy, who was looking up at her with an expression of such sweet
innocence that Hughie groaned out between his clenched teeth, "Oh, you
red-headed devil, you! Some day I'll make you smile out of the other
side of your big, fat mouth."
"Who are you swearing at?" It was Fusie.
"Oh, Fusie," cried Hughie, "let's get Davie and get into the woods. I'm
not going in to-day. I hate the beastly place, and the whole gang of
them."
Fusie, the little, harum-scarum French waif was ready for anything in
the way of adventure. To him anything was better than the even monotony
of the school routine. True, it might mean a whipping both from the
teacher and from Mrs. McLeod; but as to the teacher's whipping, Fusie
was prepared to stand that for a free day in the woods, and as to the
other, Fusie declared that Mrs. McLeod's whipping "wouldn't hurt a
skeeter."
To Davie Scotch, however, playing truant was a serious matter. He had
been reared in an atmosphere of reverence for established law and order,
but when Hughie gave command, to Davie there seemed nothing for it but
to obey.
The three boys watched till the school was called, and then crawling
along on their stomachs behind the heavy cedar-log fence, they slipped
into the balsam thicket at the edge of the woods and were safe. Here
they flung down their schoolbags, and lying prone upon the fragrant bed
of pine-needles strewn thickly upon the moss, they peered out through
the balsam boughs at the house of their bondage with an exultant sense
of freedom and a feeling of pity, if not of contempt, for the unhappy
and spiritless creatures who were content to be penned inside any house
on such a day as this, and with such a world outside.
For some minutes they rolled about upon the soft moss and balsam-needles
and the brown leaves of last year, till their hearts were running over
with a deep and satisfying delight. It is hard to resist the ministry of
the woods. The sympathetic silence of the trees, the aromatic airs
that breathe through the shady spaces, the soft mingling of broken
lights--these all combine to lay upon the spirit a soothing balm, and
bring to the heart peace. And Hughie, sensitive at every pore to that
soothing ministry, before long forgot for a time even Foxy, with his
fat, white face and smiling mouth, and lying on the broad of his back,
and looking up at the far-away blue sky through the interlacing branches
and leaves, he began to feel again that it was good to be alive, and
that with all his misery there were compensations.
But any lengthened period of peaceful calm is not for boys of the age
and spirit of Hughie and his companions.
"What are you going to do?" asked Fusie, the man of adventure.
"Do nothing," said Hughie from his supine position. "This is good enough
for me."
"Not me," said Fusie, starting to climb a tall, lithe birch, while
Hughie lazily watched him. Soon Fusie was at the top of the birch, which
began to sway dangerously.
"Try to fly into that balsam," cried Hughie.
"No, sir!"
"Yes, go on."
"Can't do it."
"Oh, pshaw! you can."
"No, nor you either. That's a mighty big jump."
"Come on down, then, and let me try," said Hughie, in scorn. His
laziness was gone in the presence of a possible achievement.
In a few minutes he had taken Fusie's place a the top of the swaying
birch. It did not look so easy from the top of the birch as from the
ground to swing into the balsam-tree. However, he could not go back now.
"Dinna try it, Hughie!" cried Davie to him. "Ye'll no mak it, and ye'll
come an awfu' cropper, as sure as deith." But Hughie, swaying gently
back and forth, was measuring the distance of his drop. It was not
a feat so very difficult, but it called for good judgment and steady
nerve. A moment too soon or a moment too late in letting go, would mean
a nasty fall of twenty feet or more upon the solid ground, and one never
knew just how one would light.
"I wudna dae it, Hughie," urged Davie, anxiously.
But Hughie, swaying high in the birch, heeded not the warning, and
suddenly swinging out from the slender trunk and holding by his hands,
he described a parabola, and releasing the birch dropped on to the
balsam top. But balsam-trees are of uncertain fiber, and not to be
relied upon, and this particular balsam, breaking off short in Hughie's
hands, allowed him to go crashing through the branches to the earth.
"Man! man!" cried Davie Scotch, bending over Hughie as he lay white
and still upon the ground. "Are ye deid? Maircy me! he's deid," sobbed
Davie, wringing his hands. "Fusie, Fusie, ye gowk! where are ye gone?"
In a moment or two Fusie reappeared through the branches with a capful
of water, and dashed it into Hughie's face, with the result that the lad
opened his eyes, and after a gasp or two, sat up and looked about him.
"Och, laddie, laddie, are ye no deid?" said Davie Scotch.
"What's the matter with you, Scottie?" asked Hughie, with a bewildered
look about him. "And who's been throwing water all over me?" he added,
wrathfully, as full consciousness returned.
"Man! I'm glad to see ye mad. Gang on wi' ye," shouted Davie, joyously.
"Ye were deid the noo. Ay, clean deid. Was he no, Fusie?" Fusie nodded.
"I guess not," said Hughie. "It was that rotten balsam top," looking
vengefully at the broken tree.
"Lie doon, man," said Davie, still anxiously hovering about him. "Dinna
rise yet awhile."
"Oh, pshaw!" said Hughie, and he struggled to his feet; "I'm all right."
But as he spoke he sank down upon the moss, saying, "I feel kind of
queer, though."
"Lie still, then, will ye," said Davie, angrily. "Ye're fair obstinate."
"Get me some water, Fusie," said Hughie, rather weakly.
"Run, Fusie, ye gomeril, ye!"
In a minute Fusie was back with a capful of water.
"That's better. I'm all right now," said Hughie, sitting up.
"Hear him!" said Davie. "Lie ye doon there, or I'll gie ye a crack
that'll mak ye glad tae keep still."
For half an hour the boys lay on the moss discussing the accident fully
in all its varying aspects and possibilities, till the sound of wheels
came up the road.
"Who's that, Fusie?" asked Hughie, lazily.
"Dunno me," said Fusie, peering through the trees.
"Do you, Scotty?"
"No, not I."
Hughie crawled over to the edge of the brush.
"Why, you idiots! it's Thomas Finch. Thomas!" he called, but Thomas
drove straight on. In a moment Hughie sprang up, forgetting all about
his weakness, and ran out to the roadside.
"Hello, Thomas!" he cried, waving his hand. Thomas saw him, stopped, and
looked at him, doubtfully. He, with all the Section, knew how the school
was going, and he easily guessed what took Hughie there.
"I'm not going to school to-day," said Hughie, answering Thomas's look.
Thomas nodded, and sat silent, waiting. He was not a man to waste his
words.
"I hate the whole thing!" exclaimed Hughie.
"Foxy, eh?" said Thomas, to whom on other occasions Hughie had confided
his grievances, and especially those he suffered at the hands of Foxy.
"Yes, Foxy," cried Hughie, in a sudden rage. "He's a fat-faced sneak!
And the teacher just makes me sick!"
Thomas still waited.
"She just smiles and smiles at him, and he smiles at her. Ugh! I can't
stand him."
"Not much harm in smiling," said Thomas, solemnly.
"Oh, Thomas, I hate the school. I'm not going to go any more."
Thomas looked gravely down upon Hughie's passionate face for a few
moments, and then said, "You will do what your mother wants you, I
guess."
Hughie said nothing in reply, while Thomas sat pondering.
Finally he said, with a sudden inspiration, "Hughie, come along with me,
and help me with the potatoes."
"They won't let me," grumbled Hughie. "At least father won't. I don't
like to ask mother."
Thomas's eyes opened in surprise. This was a new thing in Hughie.
"I'll ask your mother," he said, at length. "Get in with me here."
Still Hughie hesitated. To get away from school was joy enough, to go
with Thomas to the potato planting was more than could be hoped for. But
still he stood making pictures in the dust with his bare toes.
"There's Fusie," he said, "and Davie Scotch."
"Well," said Thomas, catching sight of those worthies through the trees,
"let them come, too."
Fusie was promptly willing, but Davie was doubtful. He certainly would
not go to the manse, where he might meet the minister, and meeting the
minister's wife under the present circumstances was a little worse.
"Well, you can wait at the gate with Fusie," suggested Hughie, and so
the matter was settled.
Fortunately for Hughie, his father was not at home. But not Thomas's
earnest entreaties nor Hughie's eager pleading would have availed with
the mother, for attendance at school was a sacred duty in her eyes, had
it not been that her boy's face, paler than usual, and with the dawning
of a new defiance in it, startled her, and confirmed in her the fear
that all was not well with him.
"Well, Thomas, he may go with you to the Cameron's for the potatoes, but
as to going with you to the planting, that is another thing. Your mother
is not fit to be troubled with another boy, and especially a boy like
Hughie. And how is she to-day, Thomas?" continued Mrs. Murray, as Thomas
stood in dull silence before her.
"She's better," said Thomas, answering more quickly than usual, and with
a certain eagerness in his voice. "She's a great deal better, and Hughie
will do her no harm, but good."
Mrs. Murray looked at Thomas as he spoke, wondering at the change in his
voice and manner. The heavy, stolid face had changed since she had last
seen it. It was finer, keener, than before. The eyes, so often dull,
were lighted up with a new, strange fire.
"She's much better," said Thomas again, as if insisting against Mrs.
Murray's unbelief.
"I am glad to hear it, Thomas," she said, gently. "She will soon
be quite well again, I hope, for she has had a long, long time of
suffering."
"Yes, a long, long time," replied Thomas. His face was pale, and in his
eyes was a look of pain, almost of fear.
"And you will come to see her soon?" he added. There was almost a
piteous entreaty in his tone.
"Yes, Thomas, surely next week. And meantime, I shall let Hughie go with
you."
A look of such utter devotion poured itself into Thomas's eyes that
Mrs. Murray was greatly moved, and putting her hand on his shoulder,
she said, gently, "'He will give His angels charge.' Don't be afraid,
Thomas."
"Afraid!" said Thomas, with a kind of gasp, his face going white.
"Afraid! No. Why?" But Mrs. Murray turned from him to hide the tears
that she could not keep out of her eyes, for she knew what was before
Thomas and them all.
Meantime Hughie was busy putting into his little carpet-bag what he
considered the necessary equipment for his visit.
"You must wear your shoes, Hughie."
"Oh, mother, shoes are such an awful bother planting potatoes. They get
full of ground and everything."
"Well, put them in your bag, at any rate, and your stockings, too. You
may need them."
By degrees Hughie's very moderate necessities were satisfied, and with a
hurried farewell to his mother he went off with Thomas. At the gate they
picked up Fusie and Davie Scotch, and went off to the Cameron's for the
seed potatoes, Hughie's heart lighter than it had been for many a day.
And all through the afternoon, and as he drove home with Thomas on
the loaded bags, his heart kept singing back to the birds in the trees
overhead.
It was late in the afternoon when they drove into the yard, for the
roads were still bad in the swamp, where the corduroy had been broken up
by the spring floods.
Thomas hurried through unhitching, and without waiting to unharness
he stood the horses in their stalls, saying, "We may need them this
afternoon again," and took Hughie off to the house straight-way.
The usual beautiful order pervaded the house and its surroundings.
The back yard, through which the boys came from the barn, was free
of litter; the chips were raked into neat little piles close to the
wood-pile, for summer use. On a bench beside the "stoop" door was a row
of milk-pans, lapping each other like scales on a fish, glittering
in the sun. The large summer kitchen, with its spotless floor and
white-washed walls, stood with both its doors open to the sweet air that
came in from the fields above, and was as pleasant a room to look
in upon as one could desire. On the sill of the open window stood
a sweet-scented geranium and a tall fuschia with white and crimson
blossoms hanging in clusters. Bunches of wild flowers stood on the
table, on the dresser, and up beside the clock, and the whole room
breathed of sweet scents of fields and flowers, and "the name of the
chamber was peace."
Beside the open window sat the little mother in an arm-chair, the
embodiment of all the peaceful beauty and sweet fragrance of the room.
"Well, mother," said Thomas, crossing the floor to her and laying his
hand upon her shoulder, "have I been long away? I have brought Hughie
back with me, you see."
"Not so very long, Thomas," said the mother, her dark face lighting with
a look of love as she glanced up at her big son. "And I am glad to see
Hughie. He will excuse me from rising," she added, with fine courtesy.
Hughie hurried toward her.
"Yes, indeed, Mrs. Finch. Don't think of rising." But he could get no
further. Boy as he was, and at the age when boys are most heartless and
regardless, he found it hard to keep his lip and his voice steady and to
swallow the lump in his throat, and in spite of all he could do his eyes
were filling up with tears as he looked into the little woman's face, so
worn and weary, so pathetically bright.
It was months since he had seen her, and during these months a great
change had come to her and to the Finch household. After suffering long
in secret, the mother had been forced to confess to a severe pain in
her breast and under her arm. Upon examination the doctor pronounced the
case to be malignant cancer, and there was nothing for it but removal.
It was what Dr. Grant called "a very beautiful operation, indeed," and
now she was recovering her strength, but only slowly, so slowly that
Thomas at times found his heart sink with a vague fear. But it was not
the pain of the wound that had wrought that sweet, pathetic look into
the little woman's face, but the deeper pain she carried in her heart
for those she loved better than herself.
The mother's sickness brought many changes into the household, but the
most striking of all the changes was that wrought in the slow and
stolid Thomas. The father and Billy Jack were busy with the farm matters
outside, upon little Jessac, now a girl of twelve years, fell the care
of the house, but it was Thomas that, with the assistance of a neighbor
at first, but afterwards alone, waited on his mother, dressing the wound
and nursing her. These weeks of watching and nursing had wrought in him
the subtle change that stirred Mrs. Murray's heart as she looked at him
that day, and that made even Hughie wonder. For one thing his tongue
was loosed, and Thomas talked to his mother of all that he had seen and
heard on the way to the Cameron's and back, making much of his little
visit to the manse, and of Mrs. Murray's kindness, and enlarging upon
her promised visit, and all with such brightness and picturesqueness
of speech that Hughie listened amazed. For all the years he had known
Thomas he had never heard from his lips so many words as in the last few
minutes of talk with his mother. Then, too, Thomas seemed to have found
his fingers, for no woman could have arranged more deftly and with
gentler touch the cushions at his mother's back, and no nurse could have
measured out the medicine and prepared her egg-nog with greater skill.
Hughie could hardly believe his eyes and ears. Was this Thomas the
stolid, the clumsy, the heavy-handed, this big fellow with the quick
tongue and the clever, gentle hand?
Meantime Jessac had set upon the table a large pitcher of rich milk,
with oat cakes and butter, and honey in the comb.
"Now, Hughie, lad, draw in and help yourself. You and Thomas will be
too hungry to wait for supper," said the mother. And Hughie, protesting
politely that he was not very hungry, proceeded to establish the
contrary, to the great satisfaction of himself and the others.
"Now, Thomas," said the mother, "we had better cut the seed."
"Indeed, and not a seed will you cut, mother," said Thomas,
emphatically. "You may boss the job, though. I'll bring the potatoes to
the back door." And this he did, thinking it no trouble to hitch up the
team to draw the wagon into the back yard so that his mother might have
a part in the cutting of the seed potatoes, as she had had every year of
her life on the farm.
Very carefully, and in spite of her protests that she could walk quite
well, Thomas carried his mother out to her chair in the shade of the
house, arranging with tender solicitude the pillows at her back and the
rug at her feet. Then they set to work at the potatoes.
"Mind you have two eyes in every seed, Hughie," said Jessac, severely.
"Huh! I know. I've cut them often enough," replied Hughie, scornfully.
"Well, look at that one, now," said Jessac, picking up a seed that
Hughie had let fall; "that's only got one eye."
"There's two," said Hughie, triumphantly.
"That's not an eye," said Jessac, pointing to a mark on the potato;
"that's where the top grew out of, isn't it, mother?"
"It is, isn't it?" appealed Hughie.
Mrs. Finch took the seed and looked at it.
"Well, there's one very good eye, and that will do."
"But isn't that the mark of the top, mother?" insisted Jessac. But the
mother only shook her head at her.
"That's right, Jessac," said Thomas, driving off with his team; "you
look after Hughie, and mother will look after you both till I get back,
and there'll be a grand crop this year."
It was a happy hour for them all. The slanting rays of the afternoon
sun filled the air with a genial warmth. A little breeze bore from the
orchard near by a fragrance of apple-blossoms. A matronly hen, tethered
by the leg to her coop, raised indignant protest against the outrage on
her personal liberty, or clucked and crooned her invitations, counsels,
warnings, and encouragements, in as many different tones, to her
independent, fluffy brood of chicks, while a huge gobbler strutted
up and down, thrilling with pride in the glossy magnificence of his
outspread tail and pompous, mighty chest.
Hughie was conscious of a deep and grateful content, but across his
content lay a shadow. If only that would lift! As he watched Thomas with
his mother, he realized how far he had drifted from his own mother, and
he thought with regret of the happy days, which now seemed so far in
the past, when his mother had shared his every secret. But for him those
days could never come again.
At supper, Hughie was aware of some subtle difference in the spirit of
the home. As to Thomas so to his father a change had come. The old man
was as silent as ever, indeed more so, but there was no asperity in his
silence. His critical, captious manner was gone. His silence was that
of a great sorrow, and of a great fear. While there was more cheerful
conversation than ever at the table, there was through all a new respect
and a certain tender consideration shown toward the silent old man at
the head, and all joined in an effort to draw him from his gloom. The
past months of his wife's suffering had bowed him as with the weight of
years. Even Hughie could note this.
After supper the old man "took the Books" as usual, but when, as High
Priest, he "ascended the Mount of Ordinances to offer the evening
sacrifice," he was as a man walking in thick darkness bewildered and
afraid. The prayer was largely a meditation on the heinousness of sin
and the righteous judgments of God, and closed with an exaltation of the
Cross, with an appeal that the innocent might be spared the punishment
of the guilty. The conviction had settled in the old man's mind that
"the Lord was visiting upon him and his family his sins, his pride, his
censoriousness, his hardness of heart." The words of his prayer fell
meaningless upon Hughie's English ears, but the boy's heart quivered
in response to the agony of entreaty in the pleading tones, and he rose
from his knees awed and subdued.
There was no word spoken for some moments after the prayer. With people
like the Finches it was considered to be an insult to the Almighty to
depart from "the Presence" with any unseemly haste. Then Thomas came to
help his mother to her room, but she, with her eyes upon her husband,
quietly put Thomas aside and said, "Donald, will you tak me ben?"
Rarely had she called him by his name before the family, and all felt
that this was a most unusual demonstration of tenderness on her part.
The old man glanced quickly at her from under his overhanging eyebrows,
and met her bright upward look with an involuntary shake of the head and
a slight sigh. Comfort was not for him, and he must not delude
himself. But with a little laugh she put her hand on his arm, and as if
administering reproof to a little child, she said some words in Gaelic.
"Oh, woman, woman!" said Donald in reply, "if it was yourself we had to
deal with--"
"Whisht, man! Will you be putting me before your Father in heaven?" she
said, as they disappeared into the other room.
There was no fiddle that evening. There was no heart for it with
Thomas, neither was there time, for there was the milking to do, and the
"sorting" of the pails and pans, and the preparing for churning in the
morning, so that when all was done, the long evening had faded into the
twilight and it was time for bed.
Before going upstairs, Thomas took Hughie into "the room" where his
mother's bed had been placed. Thomas gave her her medicine and made her
comfortable for the night.
"Is there nothing else now, mother?" he said, still lingering about her.
"No, Thomas, my man. How are the cows doing?"
"Grand; Blossom filled a pail to-night, and Spotty almost twice. She's a
great milker, yon."
"Yes, and so was her mother. I remember she used to fill two pails when
the grass was good."
"I remember her, too. Her horns curled right back, didn't they? And she
always looked so fierce."
"Yes, but she was a kindly cow. And will the churn be ready for the
morning?"
"Yes, mother, we'll have buttermilk for our porridge, sure enough."
"Well, you'll need to be up early for that, too early, Thomas, lad, for
a boy like you."
"A boy like me!" said Thomas, feigning indignation, and stretching
himself to his full height. "Where would you be getting your men,
mother?"
"You are man enough, laddie," said his mother, "and a good one you will
come to be, I doubt. And you, too, Hughie, lad," she added, turning to
him. "You will be like your father."
"I dunno," said Hughie, his face flushing scarlet. He was weary and sick
of his secret, and the sight of the loving comradeship between Thomas
and his mother made his burden all the heavier.
"What's wrong with yon laddie?" asked Mrs. Finch, when Hughie had gone
away to bed.
"Now, mother, you're too sharp altogether. And how do you know anything
is wrong with him?"
"I warrant you his mother sees it. Something is on his mind. Hughie is
not the lad he used to be. He will not look at you straight, and that is
not like Hughie."
"Oh, mother, you're a sharp one," said Thomas. "I thought no one had
seen that but myself. Yes, there is something wrong with him. It's
something in the school. It's a poor place nowadays, anyway, and I wish
Hughie were done with it."
"He must keep at the school, Thomas, and I only wish you could do the
same." His mother sighed. She had her own secret ambition for Thomas,
and though she never opened her heart to her son, or indeed to any one,
Thomas somehow knew that it was her heart's desire to see him "in the
pulpit."
"Never you mind, mother," he said, brightly. "It'll all come right.
Aren't you always the one preaching faith to me?"
"Yes, laddie, and it is needed, and sorely at times."
"Now, mither," said Thomas, dropping into her native speech, "ye mauna
be fashin' yersel. Ye'll jist say 'Now I lay me,' and gang to sleep like
a bairnie."
"Ay, that's a guid word, laddie, an' a'll tak it. Ye may kiss me guid
nicht. A'll tak it."
Thomas bent over her and whispered in her ear, "Ay, mither, mither,
ye're an angel, and that ye are."
"Hoots, laddie, gang awa wi' ye," said his mother, but she held her arms
about his neck and kissed him once and again. There was no one to see,
and why should they not give and take their heart's fill of love.
But when Thomas stood outside the room door, he folded his arms tight
across his breast and whispered with lips that quivered, "Ay, mither,
mither, mither, there's nane like ye. There's nane like ye." And he was
glad that when he went upstairs, he found Hughie unwilling to talk.
The next three days they were all busy with the planting of the
potatoes, and nothing could have been better for Hughie. The sweet,
sunny air, and the kindly, wholesome earth and honest hard work were
life and health to mind and heart and body. It is wonderful how the
touch of the kindly mother earth cleanses the soul from its unwholesome
humors. The hours that Hughie spent in working with the clean, red earth
seemed somehow to breathe virtue into him. He remembered the past months
like a bad dream. They seemed to him a hideous unreality, and he could
not think of Foxy and his schemes, nor of his own weakness in yielding
to temptation, without a horrible self-loathing. He became aware of a
strange feeling of sympathy and kinship with old Donald Finch. He seemed
to understand his gloom. During those days their work brought those two
together, for Billy Jack had the running of the drills, and to Thomas
was intrusted the responsibility of "dropping" the potatoes, so Hughie
and the old man undertook to "cover" after Thomas.
Side by side they hoed together, speaking not a word for an hour at a
time, but before long the old man appeared to feel the lad's sympathy.
Hughie was quick to save him steps, and eager in many ways to anticipate
his wishes. He was quick, too, with the hoe, and ambitious to do his
full share of the work, and this won the old man's respect, so that
by the end of the first day there was established between them a solid
basis of friendship.
Old Donald Finch was no cheerful companion for Hughie, but it was to
Hughie a relief, more than anything else, that he was not much with
either Thomas or Billy Jack.
"You're tired," he ventured, in answer to a deep sigh from the old man,
toward the close of the day.
"No, laddie," replied the old man, "I know not that I am working. The
burden of toil is the least of all our burdens." And then, after a
pause, he added, "It is a terrible thing, is sin."
To an equal in age the old man would never have ventured this
confidence, but to Hughie, to his own surprise, he found it easy to
talk.
"A terrible thing," he repeated, "and it will always be finding you
out."
Hughie listened to him with a fearful sinking of heart, thinking of
himself and his sin.
"Yes," repeated the old man, with awful solemnity, "it will come up with
you at last."
"But," ventured Hughie, timidly, "won't God forgive? Won't he ever
forget?"
The old man looked at him, leaning upon his hoe.
"Yes, he will forgive. But for those who have had great privileges, and
who have sinned against light--I will not say."
The fear deepened in Hughie's heart.
"Do you mean that God will not forgive a man who has had a good chance,
an elder, or a minister, or--or--a minister's son, say, like me?"
There was something in Hughie's tone that startled the old man. He
glanced at Hughie's face.
"What am I saying?" he cried. "It is of myself I am thinking, boy, and
of no minister or minister's son."
But Hughie stood looking at him, his face showing his terrible anxiety.
God and sin were vivid realities to him.
"Yes, yes," said the old man to himself, "it is a great gospel. 'As far
as the east is distant from the west.' 'And plenteous redemption is ever
found with him.'"
"But, do you think," said Hughie, in a low voice, "God will tell all our
sins? Will he make them known?"
"God forbid!" cried the old man. "'And their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more.' 'The depths of the sea.' No, no, boy, he will
surely forget, and he will not be proclaiming them."
It was a strange picture. The old man leaning upon the top of his
hoe looking over at the lad, the gloom of his face irradiated with a
momentary gleam of hope, and the boy looking back at him with almost
breathless eagerness.
"It would be great," said Hughie, at last, "if he would forget."
"Yes," said the old man, the gleam in his face growing brighter, "'If we
confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us,' and forgiving
with him is forgetting. Ah, yes, it is a great gospel," he continued,
and standing there he lifted up his hand and broke into a kind of chant
in Gaelic, of which Hughie could catch no meaning, but the exalted look
on the old man's face was translation enough.
"Must we always tell?" said Hughie, after the old man had ceased.
"What are you saying, laddie?"
"I say must we always tell our sins--I mean to people?"
The old man thought a moment. "It is not always good to be talking about
our sins to people. That is for God to hear. But we must be ready to
make right what is wrong."
"Yes, yes," said Hughie, eagerly, "of course one would be glad to do
that."
The old man gave him one keen glance, and began hoeing again.
"Ye'd better be asking ye're mother about that. She will know."
"No, no," said Hughie, "I can't."
The old man paused in his work, looked at the boy for a moment or two,
and then went on working again.
"Speak to my woman," he said, after a few strokes of his hoe. "She's a
wonderful wise woman." And Hughie wished that he dared.
During the days of the planting they became great friends, and to their
mutual good. The mother's keen eyes noted the change both in Hughie and
in her husband, and was glad for it. It was she that suggested to Billy
Jack that he needed help in the back pasture with the stones. Billy
Jack, quick to take her meaning, eagerly insisted that help he must
have, indeed he could not get on with the plowing unless the stones
were taken off. And so it came that Hughie and the old man, with old Fly
hitched up in the stone-boat, spent two happy and not unprofitable days
in the back pasture. Gravely they discussed the high themes of God's
sovereignty and man's freedom, with all their practical issues upon
conduct and destiny. Only once, and that very shyly, did the old man
bring round the talk to the subject of their first conversation that
meant so much to them both.
"The Lord will not be wanting to shame us beyond what is necessary," he
said. "There are certain sins which he will bring to light, but there
are those that, in his mercy, he permits us to hide; provided always,"
he added, with emphasis, "we are done with them."
"Yes, indeed," assented Hughie, eagerly, "and who wouldn't be done with
them?"
But the old man shook his head sadly.
"If that were always true a man would soon be rid of his evil heart.
But," he continued, as if eager to turn the conversation, "you will be
talking with my woman about it. She's a wonderful wise woman, yon."
Somehow the opportunity came to Hughie to take the old man's advice. On
Saturday evening, just before leaving for home, he found himself alone
with Mrs. Finch sitting beside the open window, watching the sun go down
behind the trees.
"What a splendid sunset!" he cried. He was ever sensitive to the
majestic drama of nature.
"Ay," said Mrs. Finch, "the clouds and the sun make wonderful beauty
together, but without the sun the clouds are ugly things."
Hughie quickly took her meaning.
"They are not pleasant," he said.
"No, not pleasant," she replied, "but with the sunlight upon them they
are wonderful."
Hughie was silent for some moments, and then suddenly burst out, "Mrs.
Finch, does God forget sins, and will he keep them hid, from people, I
mean?"
"Ay," she said, with quiet conviction, "he will forget, and he will hide
them. Why should he lay the burden of our sins upon others? And if he
does not why should we?"
"Do you mean we need not always tell? I'd like to tell my--some one."
"Ay," she replied, "it's a weary wark and a lanely to carry it oor lane,
but it's an awfu' grief to hear o' anither's sin. An awfu' grief," she
repeated to herself.
"But," burst out Hughie, "I'll never be right till I tell my mother."
"Ay, and then it is she would be carrying the weight o' it."
"But it's against her," said Hughie, his hands going up to his face.
"Oh, Mrs. Finch, it's just awful mean. I don't know how I did it."
"Ye can tell me, laddie, if ye will," said she, kindly, and Hughie
poured forth the whole burden that had lain so long upon him, but he
told it laying upon Foxy small blame, for during those days, his
own part had come to bulk so large with him that Foxy's was almost
forgotten.
For some moments after he had done Mrs. Finch sat in silence, leaning
forward and patting the boy's bowed head.
"Ay, but he is rightly named," she said, at length.
"Who?" asked Hughie, surprised.
"Yon store-keepin' chiel." Then she added, "But ye're done wi' him and
his tricks, and ye'll stand up against him and be a man for the wee
laddies."
"Oh, I don't know," said Hughie, too sick at heart and too penetrated
with the miserable sense of his own meanness and cowardice, to make any
promise.
"And as tae ye're mither, laddie," went on Mrs. Finch, "it will be
a sair burden for her." When Mrs. Finch was greatly moved she always
dropped into her broadest Scotch.
"Oh, yes, I know," said Hughie, his voice now broken with sobs, "and
that's the worst of it. If I didn't have to tell her! She'll just
break her heart, I know. She thinks I'm so--oh, oh--" The long pent up
feelings came flooding forth in groans and sobs.
For some moments Mrs. Finch sat quietly, and then she said, "Listen,
laddie. There is Another to be thought of first."
"Another?" asked Hughie. "Oh, yes, I know. But He knows already, and
indeed I have often told Him. But besides, you say He will forget, and
take it away. But mother doesn't know, and doesn't suspect."
"Well, then, laddie," said Mrs. Finch, with quiet firmness, "let her
tell ye what to do. Mak ye're offer to tell her, and warn her that it'll
grieve ye baith, and then let her say."
"Yes, I'll do it. I'll do it to-night, and if she says so, then I'll
tell her."
And so he did, and when he came back to the Finch's on Monday morning,
for his mother saw that leaving school for a time would be no serious
loss, and a week or two with the Finches might be a great gain, he came
radiant to Mrs. Finch, and finding her in her chair by the open window
alone, he burst forth, "I told her, and she wouldn't let me. She didn't
want to know so long as I said it was all made right. And she promised
she would trust me just the same. Oh, she's splendid, my mother! And
she's coming this week to see you. And I tell you I just feel like--like
anything! I can't keep still. I'm like Fido when he's let off his chain.
He just goes wild."
Then, after a pause, he added, in a graver tone, "And mother read
Zaccheus to me. And isn't it fine how He never said a word to
him?"--Hughie was too excited to be coherent--"but stood up for him,
and"--here Hughie's voice became more grave--"I'm going to restore
fourfold. I'm going to work at the hay, and I fired that old pistol into
the pond, and I'm not afraid of Foxy any more, not a bit."
Hughie rushed breathlessly through his story, while the dark face before
him glowed with intelligent sympathy, but she only said, when he had
done, "It is a graund thing to be free, is it no'?"
More
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Guardian Angels Are Riding Point
They plunged into darkness again, rode at a half trot over smooth, hard sand, Bud trusting himself wholly to Marian and to the sagacity of the two horses who could see, he hoped, much better than he himself could. His keen hearing had caught a faint... Guile Against The Wily
Bud liked to have his life run along accustomed lines with a more or less perfect balance of work and play, friendships and enmities. He had grown up with the belief that any mystery is merely a synonym for menace. He had learned to be wary of known... Hail And Farewell
Supper was served in the inner room opening from the corridor lit by a few swinging lanterns of polished horn and a dozen wax candles of sacerdotal size and suggestion. The apartment, though spacious, was low and crypt-like, and was not relieved b... Hands Up
Melissy had been up the Can del Oro for wild poppies in her runabout and had just reached the ranch. She was disposing of her flowers in ollas when Jim Budd, waiter, chambermaid, and odd jobs man at the Bar Double G, appeared in the hall with a fr... Hank's Woman
I Many fish were still in the pool; and though luck seemed to have left me, still I stood at the end of the point, casting and casting my vain line, while the Virginian lay and watched. Noonday's extreme brightness had left the river and the pl... Happy Jack
Big Medicine, Irish and Pink, racing almost abreast, heard a scream behind them and pulled up their horses with short, stiff-legged plunges. A brown horse overtook them; a brown horse, with Happy Jack clinging to the saddle-horn, his body swaying fa... Harlan Joins The Gang
At the edge of the big level, where it merged into the floor of the basin, Harlan drew Purgatory to a halt. For an instant he sat in the saddle scrutinizing a section of buffalo grass that fringed a clump of willows near the almost dry bed of the ... Harlan Rides Alone
Upon the morning of the fourth day following Haydon's visit to the Rancho Seco, a dust cloud developed on the northwestern horizon. Harlan observed the cloud; he had been watching for it since dawn, when he had emerged from the stable door, where ... Harlan Strikes
Joe Barr laughingly replied to Johnny Nelson's growled remarks about the condition of things in general and tried to soothe him, but Johnny was unsoothable. "An' I've been telling him right along that he's got the best of it," complained Jackson ... Harlan Takes Charge
Barbara could not have told why she had not acted upon her determination to ride westward to the Star ranch to acquaint John Haydon with the predicament into which the events of the past few hours had plunged her. She could not have explained why ... Harley Makes A Proposition
Apparently the head of the great trust intended to lose no time in having that business talk with Ridgway, which he had graciously promised the latter. Eaton and his chief were busy over some applications for leases when Smythe came into the room wi... Harley Scores
What Harley had sought in the subornation of Eaton had been as much the moral effect of his defection as the tangible results themselves. If he could shake the confidence of the city and State in the freebooter's victorious star, he would have done ... Harry Conroy At Home
It was late next morning when they got under way; for they had not reached camp until long after midnight, and Wooden Shoes was determined the cattle should have one good feed, and all the water they wanted, to requite them for the hard drive of the... Harry Lossing
THE note-book of Mr. Horatio Armorer, president of our street railways, contained a page of interest to some people in our town, on the occasion of his last visit. He wrote it while the train creaked over the river, and the porter of his Pullman ... Head South And Keep Going
At a lunch wagon down near the water front, Bud stopped and bought two "hot dog" sandwiches and a mug of hot coffee boiled with milk in it and sweetened with three cubes of sugar. "O-oh, boy!" he ejaculated gleefully when he set his teeth into biscuit ... Held Up By Mr Kelly
"'Traveler, what lies over the hill?'" questioned a mischievous voice. Keith, dreaming along a winding, rock-strewn trail in the canyon, looked up quickly and beheld his Heart's Desire sitting calmly upon her horse, ten feet before Redcloud's no... Her Majesty's Rancho
FIVE months brought all that Stillwell had dreamed of, and so many more changes and improvements and innovations that it was as if a magic touch had transformed the old ranch. Madeline and Alfred and Florence had talked over a fitting name, and had ... Her Name Was Rosemary
Andy Green came in from a twenty-hour ride through the Wolf Butte country and learned that another disaster had followed on the heels of the first; that miss Allen had been missing for thirty-six hours. While he bolted what food was handiest in the ... Hidden Valley
Across the desert into the hills, where the sun was setting in a great splash of crimson in the saddle between two distant peaks, a bunch of cows trailed heavily. Their tongues hung out and they panted for water, stretching their necks piteously to ... High And Dry
The counsel to don a garb smacking less of the recent East struck me as sound; for although I was not the only person here in Eastern guise, nevertheless about the majority of the populace there was an easy aggressiveness that my appearance eviden... High-water Mark
When the tide was out on the Dedlow Marsh, its extended dreariness was patent. Its spongy, low-lying surface, sluggish, inky pools, and tortuous sloughs, twisting their slimy way, eel-like, toward the open bay, were all hard facts. So were the few... Higher Than Statute Law
Wade descended the stairs of the hotel and went into the barroom, fuming with rage and chagrin because Helen had seen him in such a temper. Like most men of action, he took pride in his self-control, which seldom failed him, but the villainy of th... His Only Asset
It would be a pleasure to record that Capital found Bruce's personality so irresistible that his need of funds met with instant response, that the dashing picturesqueness of his appearance and charm of his unconventional speech and manner was so f... His Shadow Before
At ten o'clock the following morning, in a rear room of "Balleau's First Chance" saloon--which was directly across the street from the Lamo Eating-House--Luke Deveny and two other men were sitting at a card-table with bottle and glasses between th... His Stock In Trade
"The science of salesmanship is quite as exact as the science of astronomy," said Mr. Gross, casting his eyes down the table to see that he had the attention of the other boarders, "and much more intricate. The successful salesman is as much an ar... Holding The Claim
"Oh, we're that gang from th' O-Bar-O," hummed Waffles, sinking the branding-iron in the flank of a calf. The scene was one of great activity and hilarity. Several fires were burning near the huge corral and in them half a dozen irons were getti... Homing Hearts
Jack Kilmeny had not been brought up in the dry sunbaked West for nothing. The winds of the Rockies had entered into his character as well as into his physique. He was a willful man, with a good deal of granite in his make-up. A fighter from his y... Hopalong Keeps His Word
The waters of the Rio Grande slid placidly toward the Gulf, the hot sun branding the sleepy waters with streaks of molten fire. To the north arose from the gray sandy plain the Quitman Mountains, and beyond them lay Bass Ca on. From the latter e... Hopalong Loses A Horse
For a month after their return from the San Miguel, Hopalong and his companions worked with renewed zest, and told and retold the other members of the outfit of their unusual experiences near the Mexican border. Word had come up to them that Martin ... Hopalong Nurses A Grouch
After the excitement incident to the affair at Powers' shack had died down and the Bar-20 outfit worked over its range in the old, placid way, there began to be heard low mutterings, and an air of peevish discontent began to be manifested in various... Hopalong's Decision
Shortly after noon, Hopalong, who had ridden with his head bowed low in meditation, looked up and slapped his thigh. Then he looked at Red and grinned. "Look ahere, Red," he began, "there ain't no rustlers with their headquarters on this God-f... Hostage
The revolution of Todos Santos had to all appearances been effected as peacefully as the gentle Liberator of Quinquinambo could have wished. Two pronunciamientos, rudely printed and posted in the Plaza, and saluted by the fickle garrison of one hu... Houck Takes A Ride
Tolliver rubbed a hand uncertainly over a bristly chin. "Why, what are they doin' that for, Jake?" "Are you the Tolliver girl's father?" asked Larson. "Yes, sir." "Then we got bad news for you. She's sick." "Sick?" the trapper's lips tre... How Happiness Returned To The Lazy A
When Lite rapped with his knuckles on the door of the room where she was waiting, Jean stood with her hands pressed tightly over her face, every muscle rigid with the restraint she was putting upon herself. For Lite this three-day interval had been ... How Tom Connor Went Boring For Oil
One thing was plain at any rate: we could do nothing towards finding the source of the underground stream until the snow cleared off the mountain, and that was likely to be later than usual this year, for the fall had been exceedingly heavy in the... How Trouble Came To The Lazy A
Without going into a deep, psychological discussion of the elements in men's souls that breed events, we may say with truth that the Lazy A ranch was as other ranches in the smooth tenor of its life until one day in June, when the finger of fate wro... Hughie's Emancipation
Hughie rose late next morning, and the hurry and rush of getting off to school in time left him no opportunity to get rid of the little packages in his pocket, that seemed to burn and sting him through his clothes. He determined to keep them safe ... Hunting Big Game
In point of fact, Denver's occupation at that moment was precisely what they had guessed it to be. He was sitting beside Nora Darling in the grand stand, explaining to her the fine points of "roping." Mr. Bob Austin, commonly known as "Texas," was m... I Accept An Offer
We found a small table, one of the several devoted to refreshments for the dancers, in a corner and unoccupied. The affair upon the floor was apparently past history--if it merited even that distinction. The place had resumed its program of dancin... I Cut Loose
I nodded; rebuffing his attentive eyes I stuffed the envelope into my pantaloons pocket. "Good-bye, sir." "Good luck. When you come back remember the Queen." "I'll remember the Queen," said I; and with the envelope smirching my flesh I ste... I Do The Deed
We had camped well beyond a last bunch of the red-shirted graders, so that the thread of a trail wended before, lonely, sand-obscured, leading apparently nowhere, through this desert devoid of human life. Line stakes of the surveyors denoted the g... I Don't Care Much About Girls
"There's no use asking the Injuns to go on the warpath," Gene announced disgustedly, coming out upon the porch where the rest of the boys were foregathered, waiting for the ringing tattoo upon the iron triangle just outside the back door which would... I Go To Rendezvous
The hotel lamps were being lighted by the gnome porter. When I stepped outside twilight had deepened into dusk, the air was almost frosty, and this main street had been made garish by its nightly illumination. It was a strange sight, as I paused... I Go Where Wagalexa Conka Say
That afternoon Ramon joined them, suave as ever and seeming very much at peace with the world and his fellow-beings. He watched the new leading woman make a perilous ride down a steep, rocky point and dash up to camera and on past it where she set h... I Meet Friends
What shall I say of a young man like myself, fresh from the green East of New York and the Hudson River, landed expectant as just aroused from a dream of rare beauty, at this Benton City, Wyoming Territory? The dust, as fine as powder and as white... I Rise In Favor
With that he went forward. So did I; but the barricade at the end of My Lady's seat was intact, and I sat down in my own seat, to keep expectant eye upon her profile--a decided relief amidst that crude melange of people in various stages of hasty ... I Stake Again
They were indistinguishable except as vocal sounds deadened by the impeding fog; but human voices they certainly were. Throwing off her robe she abruptly sat up, seeking, her features tensed with the strain. She beckoned to me. I scuttled over, as... I Stake On The Queen
Jim had disappeared; until when we had made way to another monte table there he was, his hands in his pockets, his cigar half smoked. More of a crowd was here; the voice of the spieler more insistent, yet low-pitched and businesslike. He was a s... I Take A Lesson
From this hour's brief camp, early made, we should have turned southward, to leave the railroad line and cross country for the Overland Stage trail that skirted the southern edge of the worse desert before us. But Captain Hyrum was of different mi... I'd Just As Soon Hang For Nine Men As For One
Baumberger climbed heavily out of the rig, and went lurching drunkenly up the path to the house where the cool shade of the grove was like paradise set close against the boundary of the purgatory of blazing sunshine and scorching sand. He had not go... I'll Never Go Back
A sharp affair indeed was that of this September day!--a fight long talked of on the frontier if soon forgotten in "the States." Obedient to his orders to push to the relief of the imperilled party on the Dry Fork, Ray had made good time to Moccas... I'm Here Neighbor
Moya still rode afternoons with her friends, fished occasionally, and took her regular hand at bridge. But it was unaccountably true that her zest in these amusements was gone. She could give no satisfactory reason for it, but she felt as if somet... In A Lady's Chamber
The drama of the hold-up and of the retribution that had fallen upon the bandits had moved as swiftly as though it had been rehearsed. There had been no wasted words, no delay in the action. But in life the curtain does not always drop at the righ... In A Pioneer Restaurant
CHAPTER I. There was probably no earthly reason why the "Poco Mas o Menos" Club of San Francisco should have ever existed, or why its five harmless, indistinctive members should not have met and dined together as ordinary individuals. Still l... In A State Of Sin
Thunder sat imminent upon the missionary's brow. Many were to be at his mercy soon. But for us he had sunshine still. "I am truly sorry to be turning you upside down," he said importantly. "But it seems the best place for my service." He spoke of ... In Butte
Dave overheard the conversation between the two rough-looking men in the crowded car, and so did Phil and Roger. All glanced at each other suggestively. "Do you think they are talking about the Abe Blower we want to find?" asked Roger of Dave, ... In Dead Man's Cache
Not since the start of their journey had Melissy broken silence, save to answer, in few words as possible, the questions put to her by the outlaw. Yet her silence had not been sullenness. It had been the barrier which she had set up between them--... In Los Angeles
When she felt bewildered, Jean had the trick of appearing merely reserved; and that is what saved her from the charge of rusticity when Robert Grant Burns led her through the station gateway and into a small reception. No less a man than Dewitt, Pr... In Quarantine
We reached Miles City shortly after midnight. It was the recognized cattle centre of Montana at that time, but devoid of the high-lights which were a feature of the trail towns. The village boasted the usual number of saloons and dance-houses, and l... In Sanctuary
When James Hurlstone reached the shelter of the shrubbery he leaned exhaustedly against the adobe wall, and looked back upon the garden he had just traversed. At its lower extremity a tall hedge of cactus reinforced the crumbling wall with a cheva... In The Arroyo
Senor Johnson quietly approached Estrella. The girl had, during the struggle, gone through an aimless but frantic exhibition of terror. Now she shrank back, her eyes staring wildly, her hands behind her, ready to flop again over the brink of hyster... In The Dark
Trevison faced the darkness between him and the pueblo with a wild hope pulsing through his veins. Rosalind Benham had had an opportunity to deliver him into the hands of his enemy and she had not taken advantage of it. There was but one interpret... In The Devil's Frying-pan
Luck, riding confidently on the trail of the three horsemen who had taken to the south along the front of the square butte, believed that the turn of the trail around the southern end meant simply that the three who came this way would meet their co... In The Fog
By noon of the following day the coast of the Peninsula of California had been sighted to leeward. The lower temperature of the northwest Trades had driven Mrs. Brimmer and Miss Chubb into their state-rooms to consult their wardrobes in view of an... In The Image Of God
Houck's jeering laugh of triumph came back to the humiliated boy. He noticed for the first time that two or three men were watching him from the door of the saloon. Ashamed to the depths of his being, he hung his head dejectedly. All his life he w... In The Land Of Revolutions
The knock that sounded on the door was neither gentle nor apologetic. It sounded as if somebody had flung a baseball bat at it. O'Connor smiled, remembering that soft tap of yore. "I reckon--" he was beginning, when the door opened to admit a visi... In The Lazy D Hospital
Helen's first swift glance showed that the wounded man was Bannister. She turned in crisp command to her foreman. "Have him taken to my room and put to bed there. We have no time to prepare another. And send one of the boys on your best horse for ... In The Mountain Cave
Dave had been in perilous situations before, and had learned the important lesson that if he lost his wits all would be lost. The mountain lion was large and powerful and evidently in full fighting humor. The youth was armed, carrying a pistol ... In The Saddle
White winter covered the sage hills and gave the country a bleak and desolate look. The Slash Lazy D riders wrapped up and went out over the wind-swept mesas to look after the cattle cowering in draws or drifting with the storm. When Bob could sle... In The Secret Chamber
The escaping party groped its way along the passage in the wall, down a rough, narrow flight of stone steps to a second tunnel, and along this underground way for several hundred yards. Since he was the only one familiar with the path they were trav... In The Tules
He had never seen a steamboat in his life. Born and reared in one of the Western Territories, far from a navigable river, he had only known the "dugout" or canoe as a means of conveyance across the scant streams whose fordable waters made even tho... In Which Hatred Is Born
For some persons romance dwells in the new and the unusual, and for other persons it dwells not at all. Certain of Rosalind Benham's friends would have been able to see nothing but the crudities and squalor of Manti, viewing it as Miss Benham did,...