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diff --git a/old/65362-h/65362-h.htm b/old/65362-h/65362-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4952202 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/65362-h/65362-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7424 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Harry Fenimore's Principles, by Isabel Thompson Hopkins. + </title> + <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> + <style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + + p.bold {text-align: center; font-weight: bold;} + p.bold2 {text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-size: 150%;} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + h1 span, h2 span { display: block; text-align: center; } + #id1 { font-size: smaller } + + + hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; + } + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 5px; border-collapse: collapse; border: none; text-align: right;} + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + text-indent: 0px; + } /* page numbers */ + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smaller {font-size: smaller;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .mynote { background-color: #DDE; color: black; padding: .5em; margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; } /* colored box for notes at beginning of file */ + .space-above {margin-top: 3em;} + .left {text-align: left;} + + .poem {display: inline-block; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem div {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Harry Fenimore's Principles, by Isabel Thompson Hopkins</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Harry Fenimore's Principles</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Isabel Thompson Hopkins</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: May 17, 2021 [eBook #65362]</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Juliet Sutherland, Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net</div> + +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARRY FENIMORE'S PRINCIPLES ***</div> + +<div class="mynote"><p class="center">Transcriber’s Note:<br /><br /> +A Table of Contents has been added.<br /><br /> +Obvious typographic errors have been corrected.<br /></p></div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="center"><img src="images/front.jpg" alt="front" /></div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="center"><img src="images/i002.jpg" alt="Illustration" /></div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="center"><img src="images/title.jpg" alt="title page" /></div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + +<h1><span class="smcap">Harry Fenimore’s<br />Principles.</span></h1> + +<p class="bold space-above">BY THE AUTHOR OF</p> + +<p class="bold">“A SUMMER IN THE FOREST,” “FLOY LINDSLEY<br />AND HER FRIENDS,” ETC.</p> + +<div class="center space-above"><img src="images/logo.jpg" alt="Logo" /></div> + +<p class="bold2 space-above"><i>American Tract Society</i>,</p> + +<p class="bold">150 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p> + +<p class="center">COPYRIGHT, 1877,<br />BY AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY.</p> + +<hr /> + +<h2><span>CONTENTS</span></h2> + +<table summary="CONTENTS"> + <tr> + <td class="left"></td> + <td><span class="smaller">PAGE</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER I.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_3">3</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER II.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER III.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER IV.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER V.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_46">46</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER VI.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_61">61</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER VII.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_73">73</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER VIII.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_88">88</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER IX.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_97">97</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER X.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_111">111</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER XI.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER XII.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_136">136</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER XIII.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_142">142</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER XIV.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_156">156</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER XV.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_169">169</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER XVI.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_176">176</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER XVII.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_189">189</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER XVIII.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_198">198</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER XIX.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_206">206</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER XX.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_211">211</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER XXI.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_227">227</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER XXII.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_236">236</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER XXIII.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_243">243</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER XXIV.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_250">250</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER XXV.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_258">258</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER XXVI.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_265">265</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER XXVII.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_273">273</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER XXVIII.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_278">278</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER XXIX.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_283">283</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="left">CHAPTER XXX.</td> + <td><a href="#Page_286">286</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + +<p class="bold2"><span class="smcap">Harry Fenimore’s<br />principles.</span></p> + +<div class="center"><img src="images/line.jpg" alt="line" /></div> + +<h2>CHAPTER I.</h2> + +<p>Outside the city limits the country was glowing with garnet and gold, +but within the boundary of walls and pavements, only here and there a +solitary tree, or a vine trailing over a balcony, showed what October +had been doing, and now the short autumn twilight was drawing its gray +veil over even those. But nothing daunted, and as if determined to +keep up for itself, the city began to sparkle here and there with an +illumination of its own, and gas-lights began to gleam from one window +after another, giving for the moment before the blinds were drawn, a +free chance for a peep at the evening just beginning inside.</p> + +<p>The light flashed from the windows of two houses at the same instant. +One stood quite toward<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> the outer limits of the city, and though its +inmates and its furnishings were poor enough, it had a broad outlook +over all the brilliant glory of the country round about, while a great +old butternut-tree, knotted and gnarled by many a year, scattered its +leaves in a golden shower over the roof and down the long yard leading +to the road. The other fronted on one of the fashionable avenues of +the city, where the square of grass before each door was only large +enough for a single shrub, or a garden vase but inside, ivies twining +fresh and green upon the walls, a conservatory window full of flowers, +and the pleasant warmth of the crackling fire in the grate, seemed to +balance the gayety of life outside, and make things very nearly equal +again.</p> + +<p>Whether the advantage was really on the side of the queer rambling old +house under the butternut-tree, or belonged to himself, sitting in the +ivied library of the brown stone front, Hal Fenimore was quite too busy +to decide, as the servant reached his torch up to the chandelier, and +with one burst after another the gas rushed to meet it, and the room +flashed into a sudden burst of light.</p> + +<p>“That’s good,” he exclaimed, as it flooded down upon the table where +with elbows firmly planted, and his hands pushed through his hair, he +had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> impatiently waiting for his companion, Tom Haggarty, to make +the next move in their game.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know about it, though,” he added to himself, under his breath, +as he discovered something to which he had been quite blind before, but +which stood out so plainly now that he did not see how Tom could fail +to see it for another moment. Everything had been going on swimmingly +on his side, up to that moment; but there stood his queen in the very +line of march of one of Tom’s bishops, and not a piece of any size to +interfere! If Tom would only continue blind to his opportunity for one +move more, till there should be time for a masterly retreat!</p> + +<p>Poor little Tom! He did not look like an antagonist much to be dreaded, +as he sat vis-a-vis to Hal, with not only an anxious, but a bewildered +expression upon his face, first lifting a hand towards one of his +pieces, and then withdrawing it, as if his uncertainty had only doubled +by the movement. At last, in a sort of desperation, he made a plunge at +his only remaining knight and moved it into a worse position than it +occupied before. Then, still more hopelessly perplexed by Hal’s chuckle +of triumph at the escape of his queen, and his taunting, “A’n’t you +a bright fellow to play<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> with!” he made two or three aimless moves, +and Hal cried “Checkmate!” in a tone that completed his humiliation. +It was very unpleasant somehow; he wondered if the player who did not +checkmate always felt so. If he did, Tom certainly thought chess a very +disagreeable game. So he slipped down from his chair and told Hal, who +was still rejoicing in the conclusion of things, that he thought he +must go.</p> + +<p>“Don’t go,” said Hal, “let’s play another.”</p> + +<p>“I guess I can’t; I guess I <i>must</i> go,” said Tom; and finding his hat, +he got out of the front door, and heard it close behind him with a +miserable feeling that seemed to run down to the very depths of his +pockets, to the effect that Hal and himself had a clear understanding +between them that he was a stupid little fellow, and that a good player +was more than a match for him.</p> + +<p>When Hal came back to the library, rubbing his hands with renewed +triumph as he glanced at the chess-board, he also saw through the open +door of the dining-room, that dinner had been brought in, and that his +was the only vacant seat at the table.</p> + +<p>So scrambling the pieces into their box, he made haste to take his +place, apologizing for his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> tardiness by saying that he had been to the +door with Tom.</p> + +<p>“But, Hal,” said Mrs. Fenimore, as if a sudden thought struck her, “why +don’t you sometimes invite one of the boys who know the game better? +you seem always to have some little atom of a fellow who has not played +three games in his life, and you have nothing to do but beat him.”</p> + +<p>“That’s the very fun of it,” replied Hal; “I beat Tom all out just now, +and sent him home feeling meaner than the fag end of nothing. That’s +the way of course if you ever come across a fellow that isn’t smart +enough to defend himself.”</p> + +<p>“Why, Hal Fenimore! Do you say such a thing as that? You certainly +never learned such principles at home, and I should be very sorry to +think you had gathered them up since you came to be with your uncle and +me.”</p> + +<p>“I didn’t know it was principles,” said Hal, coming down a little from +his high horse of complacency; “I never thought anything about it, +in any way, only a fellow always likes to make another feel a little +shabby if he can, because then he feels finer himself.”</p> + +<p>“Why, Hal!” was all the lady could exclaim, as she turned to look +closely in his face to see if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> he was really in earnest. “I wonder +how you would have liked chess-playing if your uncle had taken that +way to ‘feel fine’ as you call it, when he taught you? As far as I +can recollect, he found his pleasure entirely in encouraging you, and +helping you on over the rough places till you were able to stand by +yourself.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, that’s different,” said Hal. “Men don’t feel like boys. I suppose +when I am a man, I shall teach my small nephews and nieces, and never +see a mistake they make.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know about that,” said his uncle; “you’ll be pretty likely to +find yourself a grown-up Hal Fenimore when that day comes, and your +friends Tom Haggartys still, and nothing more or less. I give you fair +warning. A good deal depends upon how you strike out with your pawns, +in real life as well as in chess, my boy.”</p> + +<p>“But men try to get ahead of each other, and they fight battles and get +victories,” persisted Hal.</p> + +<p>“I beg your pardon,” said his uncle, “high-minded men don’t like to +fight battles with adversaries much weaker than themselves; and as for +‘getting ahead,’ that is a very different thing from standing still and +crowing over some poor little companion that you have managed to push +down.” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Well,” said Hal, who found the discussion did not seem to turn very +decidedly in his favor, “I only know how boys do; but one thing they +have to look sharp for is having their lessons, and I must get to mine +in a great hurry now, if you will excuse me.”</p> + +<p>The library fire crackled and glowed in the grate until it almost +seemed a pleasant thing that the evenings were getting frosty, and Hal +soon forgot all questions of mutual rights, in the more pressing one +of division of fractions, which took such complete possession of him +that he started as if out of a dream, at the sound of his aunt’s voice +saying, “I declare, Hal, I think I’ll invite Tom Haggarty here, and +give him lessons every evening for a week. He’s a bright little fellow, +and would be a match for you, if he didn’t beat you, in a very short +time.”</p> + +<p>Poor little Tom! If he could only have heard her say it, what a comfort +it would have been! The miserable feeling that had come over him as he +said Good-night to Hal, had stuck fast ever since, till he had fairly +gone to bed to get rid of it, and was lying at that moment, with his +little cold nose tucked away under the blankets, trying to smother the +conviction that he was the stupidest and most <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>insignificant fellow in +the world, and that Hal would be sure to remind him of it at school the +next day.</p> + +<p>“Now, Aunt Melanie!” exclaimed Hal, “I can’t understand how you make so +much of that game of chess. Tom will find a boy smaller than himself +stumbling at his lesson to-morrow, and he’ll crow over him, as uncle +calls it, and then that little one will find another pushed out at a +game of ball and have his crow, and so they will all take their turns +and come out even.”</p> + +<p>“Take their turns at what?” said his uncle, looking up from his +newspaper. “At putting on all manner of airs with themselves, when they +have really done something contemptible, and then at being made to feel +contemptible when perhaps they have done the best they could. It hurts +either way, my boy, and it isn’t starting with your pieces in good +range, let me tell you once more.”</p> + +<p>“Well,” said Hal, growing a little uncomfortable again, “I wish I +could get these figures into range, at all events. I believe there’s +no battleground where things go quite so hard as they do on a fellow’s +slate;” and plunging in again amid rules and examples, he thought +little more of poor Tom or his woes, until he went to join him in the +land of dreams.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER II.</h2> + +<p>The golden shower that the old butternut sent down upon the queer roof +outside the city, was the nearest approach to the real thing the house +ever saw, for though it had had its day with very grand people, they +had all died or moved away long ago, and left it to grow shabby and +old-fashioned as it might, until at last the city had bought it for a +very small sum, and established within its walls the few old people +and strays that the authorities were bound to support. So now it was +nothing more nor less than the city almshouse, and the strip of land +running back from it to the road behind, was called the poor-farm, +though it seemed rather as an odd sort of compliment to the paupers, +(boarders they preferred to be called,) than as a statement of fact, +for there was only room to raise such vegetables as were needed for +daily use in the summer, and the potatoes and great yellow pumpkins +that were stored away for winter-days.</p> + +<p>But old Ben, who had the care of the garden, such as it was, was proud +enough of his charge,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> and would have ruffled up in a moment at any one +who dared to call it small.</p> + +<p>Ben had seen better days himself, as well as the old house, and had +kept many a rich man’s grounds and conservatories in hand; but after +all, was not a garden a garden wherever it was, and had not the good +Lord called himself a husbandman, and said that he walked in the garden +of his spices?</p> + +<p>So when Ben found himself sick and unable to stir from his little room, +just as all the winter things were ready to be brought in, it fretted +and troubled him terribly for a few days, but at last he grew quiet. +They might wait, he said; he was waiting himself till the Husbandman +should see fit to bring him in. He did not have to wait long; and when +the matron saw that he was really gone, she seemed to hear the words he +had repeated so many times ringing in her ears.</p> + +<p>“Waiting! Dear, dear, and what else are we all doing? What are any of +us doing here but to wait?” she had said to old Sue on the morning when +they saw that harvest-time had come for Ben at last.</p> + +<p>Sue had nodded assent, and a queer little bit of humanity, half +standing, half sitting, quite unnoticed, in one of the queer old +windows, had nodded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> too, but not for himself. He could not suppose she +meant to include him.</p> + +<p>“All but me!” he added to himself; that was what he always said, and +somehow it never did seem as if anything was intended for him. The +women had not noticed him, partly because he was so small, his great, +dreamy eyes looking over at them from a point hardly higher than the +window-sill, and partly because no one ever noticed Creepy further than +to speak a kind word, or to manage some little thing that he thought +might go towards his comfort. He came and went as he liked, but so +noiselessly that the gaze of his great eyes, devouring everything from +one corner to another, made the new-comers start, until they were used +to it, and found out at last that it was only “the poor crooked thing,” +as Mrs. Ganderby the matron called him—the stray child with the +crooked back, whom no one had ever claimed or ever would.</p> + +<p>No one ever asked any work of Creepy, and indeed it seemed doubtful +whether anything would ever be found for those white hands, so like a +baby’s in their powerless touch; and it was not always certain, after +all, that one would meet him here or there about the house. There +were days and weeks together when he was only able to sit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> where some +one placed his chair; in summer oftenest under the shade of the old +butternut, and in winter by some one of the queer little windows where +the sun could lie the longest. Old Enoch had made the chair for him, +and a most remarkable specimen of handicraft it was.</p> + +<p>“Does credit to your head and heart, Enoch,” said the doctor when he +saw it.</p> + +<p>Enoch took off his hat and made the best bow his rheumatism would +allow; but pleasant as it was to receive a compliment from the doctor, +even that could not add to his pride in his work.</p> + +<p>“Thanks,” he said. “In course I ought to know my business, for ’twas +the best master-workman in the country round I was ’prenticed to, and +’twas more than forty year my work was called a match to his, far and +near, and would have been yet to this day, if a fall from the big +steeple hadn’t brought me down to stiff joints for the rest of my old +age. Ben had a great deal to say about gardening, to be sure, but what +good would people get out of potatoes to put in their mouths if they +had not a shelter over their heads? I should like to ask. And Ben was +always making it such a thing to remember that the blessed Lord called +himself a husbandman when He was here; but was He not a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> carpenter +first and foremost, and before he even talked a word about sowing seed?”</p> + +<p>Ah! “blessed Lord” indeed! Who else could have made poverty and work +seem sweet?</p> + +<p>So there sat Creepy, always looking and listening, never saying +anything about the pain in his crooked little back, even when it was at +the worst; never saying much about anything, in fact, only nodding and +smiling quietly while he listened to the rest. Except, to be sure, the +one little thing that he was always saying, the same that he had said +in Ben’s room; but even that was almost always whispered to himself.</p> + +<p>“All but me!”</p> + +<p>And indeed it did not seem that many things were intended to include +Creepy. The other paupers had their times of getting new clothing +allowed, but it was never considered necessary for Creepy; the matron +always found some portion of some cast-off garment that had resisted +wear and tear sufficiently to be brought round again, by her devices, +into the right size and shape for “the poor crooked thing,” as she +always called him; “it took such a scrap,” she used to say, “though +dear knows it had been a precious job to worry out a pattern for such a +back and shoulders. She didn’t know<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> whose wit and patience would ever +have done it but her own.”</p> + +<p>And when the census-taker came, Creepy sat in his hollow chair, and +fixed his great dark eyes upon them both, while she gave the names of +Enoch and Sue, and the twenty or more, older or younger, who made up +the list of their companions.</p> + +<p>“And so that’s all, is it?” said the census-taker.</p> + +<p>“That’s all,” replied the matron.</p> + +<p>“That’s all,” repeated Creepy, nodding, “all but me.”</p> + +<p>“Now may Heaven forgive me,” exclaimed the matron, as passing through +the old porch she caught sight of Creepy, “if I did not speak the +truth; but who would ever have thought of the poor crooked thing, and +more than all, of giving such a name as that to go and be printed +before all the world, which no one knows who gave it to him, more than +where he came from himself, may the good Lord have pity upon him.”</p> + +<p>She bustled on in too much haste to let her conscience smite her very +deeply, for there was a stir in the almshouse that morning. It was one +of the glorious golden days in October, and from time immemorial it had +been the custom of the house, once in the year, for every one, old and +young, to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> get work out of the way, don their best clothes, and set off +in a triumphant march still farther out beyond the city, out to the +great belt of yellow woods that lay just on the border of the bay. And +there they would rustle about in the fallen leaves like children, and +fill up the emptied lunch-baskets with nuts for the winter evenings, +and never come back till the golden light of afternoon began to +falter, and it was time to get home before twilight damp should fall +on rheumatic bones. And this was the morning for them, this time. But +they never had been so late getting off. The census-taker had hindered +the matron until she declared at last when he was really gone she was +in such a toss she hardly knew which way to turn first; and then they +missed Ben who had always been such a dependence and it seemed as if +something was all wrong, going without him for the first time.</p> + +<p>But they were off at last, and Creepy watched them until the last +figure disappeared under some yellow trees that stood at the corner of +the road. It was Sue, and she was just taking Enoch’s lunch-basket out +of his hand.</p> + +<p>“Give it to me, man,” she said, “are you forgetting all about that lame +shoulder? ’Twill be stiffer than a rusty hinge to-morrow.” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> + +<p>“It’s you who are forgetting,” said Enoch. “You might remember that you +are five years older than any one of us, and that your feet will be +failing you before we reach the next turn.”</p> + +<p>“And isn’t this the very day of the year for forgetting?” answered Sue. +“We always forget on this day even that we are paupers, for are not the +soft breeze and the blue hills and the crystal air around us the good +Lord’s, and has he not given all his creatures a share in them alike?”</p> + +<p>“What a thing it must be,” Creepy sat thinking to himself, “to move so +light and free as they do, and to go so far. It seems as though they +were all melted into gold, passing under those trees, and that’s the +last I see of them.”</p> + +<p>The last he saw of Sue and the rest, but what came pushing out from +under the gold, and nearing the almshouse so fast that Creepy saw +it plainer and plainer every moment? A jet-black horse and a light +chaise—Creepy knew them in an instant. It was the city physician’s +chaise, Dr. Thorndyke’s, and had stood at the almshouse door a few +moments every day while Ben was sick.</p> + +<p>The matron saw him too.</p> + +<p>“Now whom can he have been visiting on that road?” she said to herself. +“Dear knows, there’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> no house beyond us within the city limits but the +Jellerbys’ and the Diffendorffers’. And now he’s hurrying back for dear +life to folks of more importance.”</p> + +<p>Very much mistaken was Mrs. Ganderby for once. So far from hurrying +back “for dear life,” the horse’s pace was slackened as it drew near +the almshouse, and just as it reached the gate, was drawn up with a +short rein.</p> + +<p>“Now may all that’s good deliver us!” exclaimed the matron, pulling +her apron-strings into a hopeless knot, in her hurry to get it off. +“Who does he think is dying or ready to die in the house to-day, that +he must needs come unawares upon respectable housekeepers on the one +morning in the year when there’s excuse if everything is not in its +place as early as others. It’s none but a young doctor, surely, who has +time to call when he is not sent for.”</p> + +<p>It was of no use; the knot would not be untied, and the doctor could +not be kept waiting, so Mrs. Ganderby proceeded to open the door, +smoothing her apron and her temper as she went, until the doctor +suspected nothing out of the way with either. And, indeed, it would +have been hard to keep any vexation in one’s soul, when fairly face to +face with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> Dr. Thorndyke, his own was so full of friendly greeting and +good cheer; and, moreover, there was something in the hearty, vigorous +way he was setting out in his own life that was positively refreshing, +and made one feel he must certainly be the man to attack any of the +numerous ills that might beset their own.</p> + +<p>“Good-morning, Mrs. Ganderby,” said the doctor, “you wont take it amiss +that I have come this time without being sent for, I hope.”</p> + +<p>“O dear, no, sir; I’m sure it’s only too great a compliment that you +should take a moment from all you have to think of. I’m only sorry our +people have all gone off to-day for a tramp to the woods, that I dare +say seems foolish enough to any one who has more range of pleasures; +but however that may be, they’re all gone, and there’s no one at home +but myself, nor no one could be more pleased to see you, sir; walk in, +I beg.”</p> + +<p>“All gone,” repeated the doctor, a shade coming on his face. “Thank +you; but did you say they were all gone?”</p> + +<p>“All but me,” nodded Creepy, from where he sat under the big tree, +sharing with wondering eyes and ears in the excitement of the doctor’s +visit; but no one noticed him. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Gone for a day in the woods, sir,” said Mrs. Ganderby apologetically; +“it seems childish for people of the age and infirmities of most of +them; but it’s a rare day, sir, which it’s also a way of the house to +get away once or twice in the year.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t mean to say that the lame child, the little cripple I have +seen here, has gone for a walk like that?”</p> + +<p>“What, Creepy! Dear heart, the poor crooked thing couldn’t make his +feet serve him out of sight down the road, which it’s a strange thing I +never can seem to recollect mentioning him with the rest, although it +certainly isn’t from any want of pity for the child that Heaven hasn’t +seen fit to give a body like other people.”</p> + +<p>“Then he is at home,” said the doctor, quite himself again; “and where +shall I find him, Mrs. Ganderby? It is rather early in the day to +detain a housekeeper, and I presume he may be quite at leisure.”</p> + +<p>“Why certainly, sir; it’s little else than leisure the poor thing +has, sitting from morning till night in his chair, which, if you have +leisure enough to spare him a few moments, it may be a great blessing +to him, I am sure. He’s just there, sir, under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> the big butternut, and +if you’ll have the goodness to come in, I’ll bring him in a moment.”</p> + +<p>“No, no,” said the doctor, discovering Creepy for the first time; “I’ll +go to him,” and with a few rapid steps down the gravel walk, he was at +Creepy’s side, leaving Mrs. Ganderby to declare at her leisure that +“wonders never would cease, though if the doctor had the goodness in +his heart, and the time on his hands to look after the poor crooked +thing, there was no one who needed it more; which it was not at all +probable that any one could do anything for the like of him, however.”</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER III.</h2> + +<p>Not so wonderful perhaps, after all. If there was a doctor in the +world, besides the soulless visitor of the year before, stupid enough +to praise the workmanship of a cripple’s chair, and never feel himself +roused at the demand made upon his own skill by the cripple, it was +not Dr. Thorndyke. He had not passed half way from the door of Ben’s +room to the bedside before his eye caught the strange, dwarfed, little +figure stationed motionless in the window, but following every movement +in the room with its great, dreamy eyes.</p> + +<p>The matron admired and wondered at the careful but swift conclusion of +his study of Ben’s case; and when he had—she did not know how—made +her feel sure he understood it, and had shown so kind an interest in +the old man, and had gone again, it was scarcely five minutes by the +great clock in the hall since he came in. But she did not once imagine +that in the same time he had come closer to Creepy, and seen more +clearly what the poor, twisted little frame and the shrinking heart +were needing, than she had in the whole three years she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> had taken the +responsibilities of the almshouse upon herself.</p> + +<p>“But not now,” he said to himself as he passed the window with so quick +a glance that Creepy had no idea he even saw him; “we want more time, +that child and I. I think there’s a chance there for a doctor to amount +to something, for once in a way.”</p> + +<p>So here he was, for Dr. Thorndyke never lost much time when once he +had determined upon a thing; and he was fairly seated beside his new +patient before Creepy had recovered from the amazement of hearing +himself inquired for sufficiently to draw a breath.</p> + +<p>“So, so, young man,” said the doctor, stooping for a quick look into +Creepy’s face, “enjoying the free air and the sunshine with the rest of +the world, eh? Well,” and he lifted his hat to catch the breeze, “it’s +a day to make the most of, and I haven’t seen a more tempting place to +pass an hour anywhere. How the light showers down through these yellow +leaves! Is there enough for you and me both for a little while, do you +think?”</p> + +<p>Creepy could not have spoken to save his life, but the answer shone out +of his eyes, and the doctor was satisfied with that. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> + +<p>“It’s a day to make one feel like a boy again,” he said, pulling up a +handful of grass and showering the seeds through the sunlight. “And so +they’ve all imagined they were children and gone off to the woods, I +hear?”</p> + +<p>“All but me,” said Creepy, nodding at the doctor, with eyes still fixed +upon his face.</p> + +<p>“All but you; you thought this was your place, and kept it, eh? Well, +it’s not every one who has wisdom for that, though we all have our +places in the world, if we could but find them.”</p> + +<p>“All but me,” said Creepy, nodding again.</p> + +<p>The doctor shot another glance into his face. “You’re very much +mistaken,” he said; and then turning to pull more grasses, added +suddenly, “Why didn’t you go with them?”</p> + +<p>“I never go anywhere.”</p> + +<p>“And why not?” asked the doctor, tossing the seeds out into the air +again. “What would happen if you were to go? A pain here and there? A +pain in that back, for instance?”</p> + +<p>The eyes answered again.</p> + +<p>“And not a new pain? A pain that comes quite often, and stays as long +as it likes—is there at this very moment, perhaps?”</p> + +<p>Creepy nodded, but he could not have spoken<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> for his life. It seemed to +him he was talking face to face with a magician. How should <i>he</i> know, +when the people in the house were never told, could only guess, and he +had seen none of them this morning.</p> + +<p>“And don’t you know that’s all wrong?” went on the doctor. “Other boys +of your age play in the sunshine every hour they can get out from the +schoolmaster’s clutches.”</p> + +<p>The never-failing answer came to Creepy’s lips, but he did not speak.</p> + +<p>“Do you know what runs across the road, just beyond the turn under +those yellow trees? There is a brook down there, and not far below it +passes through a shady spot, and gets very deep and almost as cold as +ice. That’s the very place for trout! Suppose you and I go down when +the season comes round again, say next spring, for instance. There are +some great rocks there under the trees, and we could take it as lazily +as we liked.”</p> + +<p>Now the doctor knew very well that if he had proposed that Creepy +should take him on his shoulders and prance away moonward, he could not +have amazed and bewildered him more; and it showed plainly enough in +Creepy’s face, but the doctor would not understand. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p> + +<p>“You think it strange I could find the time, don’t you? That is true +enough; it could not come very often—once in a season, perhaps, as a +great treat. But for to-day it is pleasure enough to sit here in the +sunshine. I wonder who made this bench? The same hand that fitted your +chair, perhaps?”</p> + +<p>“No,” said Creepy; “it was Ben. He used to make them while he was a +gardener. He got roots and crooked branches in the woods and twisted +them together. That was while he was waiting.”</p> + +<p>“Waiting?” asked the doctor. “What was he waiting for?”</p> + +<p>“Waiting to be gathered in. The matron says we’re all waiting. All but +me.”</p> + +<p>“And why not you? Are you in such haste that you cannot wait? You +<i>must</i> wait for spring, before we go fishing, at least. Then you shall +help me gather branches for just such a seat. I must have one on my +piazza. That is to say, if you can get away from school then, eh?” and +the doctor tossed out more seeds, and they floated away and showered +down over the walk, to start up and make Enoch a deal of hoeing in the +spring.</p> + +<p>But nothing to compare with the thoughts he had tossed, and with +seemingly a more careless<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> hand, into Creepy’s heart in the five +minutes he had been sitting on the rustic seat that had been such a +pride to Ben. And there was no waiting with them. Every one had struck +root already, and sprung up into some sudden, bewildering feeling, +until there was a terrible confusion in the little hot-bed. Why had the +doctor come to see him? No one ever came; no one ever sat down to talk +with him. Every one was kind, always kind; but every one went on his +own way. Go fishing! He go fishing? Had he not just told him he never +went anywhere? Could not he see for himself, for did not a doctor know +everything? And how should he help him cut down trees, or how should he +go to school? Schools were made for every one else, that is true; but +no one, except Ben, had ever helped him even so far as to read. Was the +doctor mocking him? Did he not see that he was only made to sit in his +shapeless chair, and feel the pain going up and down the crooked back +like a devouring thing? Why did he talk to him as he would talk to any +one else?</p> + +<p>“Shall we call it an engagement?” said the doctor, looking quickly in +Creepy’s face again.</p> + +<p>“What did you come here for?” cried Creepy, suddenly, with eyes and +voice. “Why do you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> ask me such things? You never saw me before!”</p> + +<p>The doctor rose up and stood before his chair, stretching himself to +his full height.</p> + +<p>“Yes I have seen you before, and you have seen me. You have seen how +strong I am, how light and quick my step is, how full of life all my +veins are, and how that makes it a pleasant thing for me to live. And I +have seen how weak and tired you are, and how your life is only to sit +here and bear pain, as no child ought to do. And that is why I came, +to see what can be done about it all! Don’t you know that sick people +get well, and weak people strong, and crooked limbs are made straight, +sometimes?”</p> + +<p>The burning eyes were dropped now, and Creepy only smiled and shook his +head.</p> + +<p>“Don’t you know that, my little man?”</p> + +<p>“All but me.”</p> + +<p>The doctor stooped and lifting the lame child gently from his chair, +gathered him up in his arms and held him, looking down into his face.</p> + +<p>“Do you know you are mistaken? I do not think we can make things +altogether straight with you, that is true; but I think we can send +that pain where it will never find its way back again, and put<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> +strength into those limbs, so that you shall go and come with the rest, +and find out what it really is to live and move in God’s world; <i>that</i> +is what I want to see about. I do not feel any doubt we shall succeed. +Shall we try?”</p> + +<p>The doctor could not see under the great drooping eyelids and the +quivering lashes, but Creepy scarcely seemed to breathe. Not with the +thought of what the doctor had said, for his words only seemed a sound +passing out into the sunshine; their meaning did not touch him as even +a possibility. But he was speaking, was here, was holding him tenderly +in his arms—that by itself was bewildering enough—he could only hold +his breath and lie still.</p> + +<p>“So you don’t say no? You are not afraid to try?”</p> + +<p>Creepy shook his head.</p> + +<p>“Shall we begin to-morrow?”</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“Good,” said the doctor, with a quick but gentle pressure of the strong +arms, and then they placed Creepy carefully in the queer chair; the +doctor looked closely into his face once, and said Good-by. In another +moment he had passed over the walk where the scattered seeds were to +make so much trouble, sprung into the chaise, and given the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> rein to +the black horse, and the sound of its hoofs was ringing back from +halfway down to the turn in the road under the yellow trees.</p> + +<p>Great was the excitement in the almshouse when the matron, after +bottling up the news of the doctor’s visit all day long, poured it out +on the returning party in the evening.</p> + +<p>“He had been there for nothing in the world but to see the poor crooked +thing, though with manners enough to make a show of asking for the +rest, and had sat talking under the butternut-tree for a full half +hour, five times as long as he had ever stayed by Ben when he was +dying; which she couldn’t get the child to repeat the half he had +said; but the most she could make out was, he was coming every day, +or for aught she knew three times a day, to try some plan of his own +to straighten the poor thing out: which she was sure it was more like +the Lord regarding the sparrows sold for a farthing than any other +happening she had ever seen, if he had sent a young man of the sense +and skill of that one, all unrequested, to lay himself out to mend a +little life like that. And no one could be more rejoiced than she if +he could do it, nor more ready to give praise for a miracle of her own +times, though at the same time she knew it was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> only a young doctor who +could afford to go about picking up cases that never sent for him, and +that nobody could say were responsible to him in one way or another, if +he did not choose to see it.”</p> + +<p>The basket of nuts for the winter evenings, which had made such work +with the arms of one after another of the party before they got it +home, was forgotten where it stood, while they listened with open +mouths and ears to the matron’s speech, and when Enoch in his haste +to go and see if Creepy looked just the same after what had happened, +struck it with his foot and sent the contents rolling half across the +room, no one said a word, or stirred from his place to gather them up.</p> + +<p>“Dear, dear!” said Sue, “but the Lord remembers all in their turn, if +they do but wait his time! And it’s come sooner to him than to some, +but there never was patienter waiting, nor would have been for a +hundred times as long, if it had been His will!”</p> + +<p>“Well, there’ll be waiting enough yet, to see what comes of it all,” +said the matron. “Sometimes doctors cure and sometimes they kill, and +sometimes they do nothing at all, which it remains to be seen whether +it will be one or the other with the poor crooked thing.” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Dear, dear,” said the old woman who had taken the most care of Ben, +“what are we all doing here but to wait?” and then finding there was +really nothing more to be heard, she and Sue bustled off to see about +supper, and then to carry their tired bones to rest, and to dream over +all the events of the wonderful day.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + +<p>Such a battery of eyes as was on the watch for the doctor’s visit the +next morning! Not one of the paupers could be persuaded to any work +that would take his individual pair out of range of the street; each +one had an excellent reason for choosing a station where he could shoot +a glance out of the window, or down the yard, and no very long interval +was allowed between the shots either. Mrs. Ganderby herself found it +highly important to keep in the front part of the house and just make +sure that Enoch was going on well with a bit of repair he had set +himself about on the doorstep. Creepy sat under the butternut-tree, and +the yellow leaves had fluttered down till they lay in a golden circle +around his queer little chair; the doorstep was mended, Mrs. Ganderby +could not find another spot out of order within reach of the front +windows; one after another the old clock in the hall had ticked away +the hours of the glistening October morning, and still no black horse +came dashing up before the door. “If I hadn’t seen the doctor with my +own eyes yesterday,” said Mrs. Ganderby,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> “I should say it was all a +light-headed notion of the poor crooked thing that he was here at all, +which he certainly was here, however; but what he had to say about +coming again is another question that will take care of itself before +the day is gone.”</p> + +<div class="center"><img src="images/i037.jpg" alt="Illustration" /></div> + +<p>Greater and greater grew the wonder and suspense. Was the doctor coming +at all, and what was he going to do if he came? That was so far beyond +what they knew, that they set themselves to imagining, until if they +had seen him alight, one hand holding a terrible knife, with which to +remove the lame child’s poor twisted spine, and the other a big anvil +on which to hammer it straight again, they would not have been very +much more astonished. Could they believe their eyes and ears, when at +last, as the sun was getting round by the west, the ring of the horse’s +hoofs was heard, and almost before he was fairly reined up, the doctor +sprung out empty-handed, and was on the doorstep chatting with Mrs. +Ganderby as gayly as if nothing of any solemnity had ever happened in +the world, or was expected to happen while it should stand?</p> + +<p>Sue crept round to the shadow of the jut where the old clock stood, +just to get an idea of what he was saying. Praising the matron’s bed of +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>nasturtiums which she had saved from the frost, and asking her what +receipt she used for pickling them! Dear, dear, but this was a strange +world! What had doctors to do with pickles? and how were they to notice +the taste of one thing from another, coming in to dinner as they did +with pockets full of poisons, and the cries of the sick and dying in +their ears? But hark! They had stopped talking about the nasturtiums.</p> + +<p>“By the way, Mrs. Ganderby,” said the doctor, “that little fellow that +I was talking with yesterday, the lame child; it seems to me something +might be done for him, and I propose that we should try. It’s rather +dull music for a boy of his age; ten or twelve is he, Mrs. Ganderby?”</p> + +<p>“Indeed, sir, the land knows as well as any of us do, how old the poor +crooked thing may be; you can judge better perhaps yourself, sir. But +whether it’s more or less, it seems a cruel thing and unnatural like, +to see him sit in that chair and let all the summer-days go by, and +know no more of what living is than some poor squirrel shut up in its +cage.”</p> + +<p>“Precisely what I was going to say, Mrs. Ganderby, and though of course +it would be folly to talk of bringing everything right, in a case like +that,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> still I am sure we can do a great deal. I say ‘we,’ because I +shall have to depend a great deal on your kindness in making things go +as I wish.”</p> + +<p>“Well certainly, sir,” said Mrs. Ganderby, stroking her apron and her +gratified pride at the same time; “if there should be anything in my +power, which I should have been the last one, however, to suppose a +poor drought-stricken little life like that could be brought to look up +much in this world.”</p> + +<p>“I want him to have some pleasures,” said the doctor; “something for +those eyes to look at besides what they have dreamed over for a year. +Books, for instance. Perhaps there is not a great variety in the house?”</p> + +<p>“Well, sir, as to that, you would hardly expect the number to be +great; but such as they are, I don’t at this moment remember just what +the poor crooked thing’s book learning may be, though I mind that I +sometimes used to see Ben and himself over a page together when Ben was +here. I should say he knew his letters at least.”</p> + +<p>The doctor snapped one of Enoch’s doorstep splinters in two, and sent +it flying halfway up the horsechestnut-tree that stood a few paces off +the grand walk, and in another moment Sue had to dart from her retreat +in her corner, for Mrs. Ganderby<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> was coming in, and the doctor was +already making a pathway through the yellow circle around Creepy’s +chair.</p> + +<p>And in another half-hour he was gone, and what wonderful thing had +been done, so far as Creepy was concerned, no one could see; but for +the rest of the house, half the people in it had been set to work. +Mrs. Ganderby was bustling about, declaring she only hoped she might +have strength given her to carry on her mind all the ifs and ands, +and things to be done and undone, the doctor had laid out for her to +think of; and something had been slipped into Enoch’s hand, and thence +into his pocket, nobody knew what; but he had come in with great airs +of importance, and was telling every one how he was to go to the +wheelwright’s and get a pair of wheels to be fitted to Creepy’s chair, +and how he was to wheel him down the road every sunny day, and let +him see what lay beyond the turn, under the trees, or anywhere else +he might take a fancy to go. And Sue, who had once taught a district +school in the village where she was born, for a whole summer term, was +engaged to spend half an hour every afternoon, in leading Creepy out +among the mysteries of an arithmetic, slate, and pencil, that were to +be sent to him the next day. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was well for Creepy that he did not hear all this for an hour or +more after the doctor went away, for he had excitement enough in +his own part of the visit, and yet they had seemed to be having the +quietest talk in the world, for the most part.</p> + +<p>“So they got a big basket of nuts yesterday, did they?” the doctor +asked carelessly as he sat down. “Well, that is good sport, but nothing +to compare with trouting. Now, when you and I go trouting, some +day—well, you’ll see how it all is. The nuts don’t try to get away +from you and the trout do—that is one difference; but the fact is, +it’s such very great sport, there’s no use in trying to describe it, +though there have been books written about trouting. Did you ever see +one?”</p> + +<p>“No,” said Creepy with great wondering eyes.</p> + +<p>“Very likely, but you’ll come across them some day. In the meantime I +suppose you read what you like best, or do you take up whatever comes +in your way?”</p> + +<p>“Nothing does come in my way,” said Creepy, “since Ben died. He only +had two books, but they gave them away to somebody, afterwards, and +that’s all there were in the house.”</p> + +<p>“That was the whole library?” asked the doctor, with a smile Creepy did +not exactly understand. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Yes, that was all, and there were pieces gone off from both of them, +but there was enough left for Ben to teach me.”</p> + +<p>“So Ben taught you, did he?” said the doctor, having learned exactly +what he wished. “Ben was a rare fellow, to make schoolmaster and +gardener at once. Did he ever teach you, I wonder, how much flint there +is in a stalk of grass like this?” And he pulled one up, and began to +make mischief with the seeds again.</p> + +<p>“Queer, isn’t it?” he went on, as Creepy only said “No,” with a still +more wondering look. “And there is still more in a stalk of wheat; +that is what makes it strong and straight, partly, and ought to make +you strong and straight too, when you eat it. By the way,” turning his +eyes suddenly upon the queer little jacket Mrs. Ganderby’s “wits and +patience” had “worried out,” “would you mind taking that jacket off one +moment, and letting me just pass my fingers up and down your back?”</p> + +<p>Creepy’s hands trembled a little, but he got it off. He never liked to +have anything touch his back, it always hurt him so.</p> + +<p>“There,” said the doctor; “now tell me, please, do you feel any pain +when I put my finger here?”</p> + +<p>It was the gentlest and tenderest of touches, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> it was hard for the +lame child to bear. He hesitated, but the doctor waited for an answer.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” he said.</p> + +<p>“Ah! and now here, please. Do you feel this same pain now?” as he +removed the touch to another point.</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“And here too?” moving it again.</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“Just as I thought. Now that’s all wrong. We must put a stop to that +somehow or other. I wonder if I can’t get this jacket on again without +as much trouble as it would give you?” and the doctor took up the +shapeless little thing as gently as Ben ever handled the choicest +hot-house plant. Creepy never could tell how it went on, only the wish +ran through his mind that the doctor would always do it for him. It was +so easy, and not a bit of the pain he always felt so long after he put +it on himself.</p> + +<p>“Don’t you think that is a pretty horse of mine?” began the doctor, +sitting down again on Ben’s seat. “We must have a ride after him +together some day. Not just now, perhaps—it is going to be cold very +soon-but when the warm spring days come again, then we’ll try it. And +you’ll be having a good pull at your school-books<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> in the meantime, I +suppose. Boys of your age are all busy with their arithmetics and ugly +things of that kind, eh?”</p> + +<p>Creepy shook his head.</p> + +<p>“All but me.”</p> + +<p>“And why not you? Don’t you know every one has to serve his time with +these things, to get ready for other work by-and-by?”</p> + +<p>“All but—”</p> + +<p>“Tut!” said the doctor, getting up quickly and sending his last bunch +of grass stalks fluttering out on the wind. “Who taught you to say +that? Whoever it was made a great mistake, or wanted to cheat you out +of your rights, I don’t know which. The world was made for you, just as +much as for any one else, and you are to have your share, and find your +place in it with the rest. Will you remember that, my little man?” and +he stopped for a look in Creepy’s face.</p> + +<p>He could not see that Creepy’s heart was throbbing his breath away with +all the watching and the wonder, and the thanks that had gathered up +there since morning, and with hearing such words spoken, although they +didn’t seem any more real than yesterday.</p> + +<p>But he saw how it was swelling up the veins in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> his forehead, and +drooping the eyelids over the great eyes, and he did not wait for +an answer, but walked away and paced back and forth over the yellow +carpet. Then he sat down on the rustic seat again, and chatted as +he had the day before, of what lay out in the world, and along the +trout-stream; then he said Good-by, had his talk with Mrs. Ganderby, +found Enoch and Sue, and settled matters with them, and was off. And no +one suspected that he had been up and at work all the night before, and +had not been able to catch a moment from the duties of the day, until +just then, and that he still saw work ahead to stretch well on into the +night, before there was a chance of rest.</p> + +<p>Hal Fenimore and Tom Haggarty had but just commenced their evening with +library fires crackling and companions gay enough to atone for all +the ups and downs of the day’s school, when Creepy slipped off to his +little bed, thankful to lie down and see if his heart would not stop +that beating that was tiring him so, and if the pain in his back would +let him lie still enough to straighten out all the thoughts that were +making such confusion in his brain.</p> + +<p>What had the doctor said? There was a place in the world and a share +in it for him, as well as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> the rest? But the place must be just here, +under the old butternut; it couldn’t be anywhere else. And he was to +grow stronger, and the pain to grow less, every month until spring, +and then begin to go to school like other boys. What a strange sound +that had! It was pleasant to have the doctor say so; it seemed like a +dream; but one had always to wake up from dreams, and find things were +not so. “All boys go to school.” All but—ah, the doctor did not like +to have him say that. At all events, he was to have a book and study; +and he was to see with his own eyes what lay beyond the turn in the +road. Enoch was to see to his going, and Sue and Mrs. Ganderby were +to do other things, and the doctor was coming again. All these people +thinking of him! It was of no use trying to understand it; if he could +only go to sleep! And yet he feared the dream would be gone when he +waked in the morning; he should find not a word of all to be true.</p> + +<p>He shut his eyes just for a moment as he thought, but when he opened +them again the sun was shining through the patched curtain at the +window, and the night was gone. Had the dream taken flight with it? +There was but one way to find out, so he dressed himself with trembling +fingers and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> crept noiselessly out towards his crooked chair. Enoch +was there before him. Tools lying all around on the yellow leaves, and +the old carpenter so busy with his work that he did not hear Creepy’s +footsteps rustling over them too. The sun had not been fairly above +the horizon before Enoch was off in search of those wheels, belaboring +himself at every step of the way for a stupid blockhead that could +make a chair for a cripple, and never have the idea of putting on a +running-gear come into his head, though he had it before his eyes every +day that the one it was made for never went outside the fence from one +year’s end to another! But where would the money have come from if he +had thought of it ever so long ago? Money makes most wheels turn in +this world, and it’s not strange if a five-dollar bill put into your +hand should bring some of them round to a lame child’s corner once in +a way, as well as elsewhere. A likely young man, that doctor, and wise +enough to know where to choose the right workman to do his job; that +was more than could always be said of them, much as they might know +about people that were laid on their beds and good for nothing!</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER V.</h2> + +<p>The black horse had begun his work in some of the up-town streets +before Enoch had finished his, and was hurrying past a handsome brick +building just as a crowd of boys were entering it.</p> + +<p>“There’s about the place, now,” said Doctor Thorndyke, “where I’d +like to see my little patient with the crooked back, after I once get +him on his feet again. He’d hold his own with the best of them in his +books, if he couldn’t in a foot-race, I’ll warrant, if he only had the +chance; and there’s nothing that would shake him up, and put a stop to +that miserable ‘all but me’ notion of his, like taking his place among +his mates, as he would in a school like that. The only thing is to +get him there. It takes a good deal of a back to sit at one of those +desks;” upon which the doctor fell into such a fit of musing that he +drove three doors beyond the house he was aiming at before he bethought +himself what he was about.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the schoolhouse, at which he had looked with such covetous +eyes for Creepy, seemed half alive with hustling, bustling boys; the +five-minute <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>bell had already rung, and all were making the best of +their way to their places, some flying up to the second floor, two +stairs at a time, some passing in more quietly at other doors, while +here and there a lingering step ventured on a few seconds’ delay to +steal a last glance at a lesson that would have no further chance +after exercises were once commenced. Only one figure stood still at +the foot of the stairs: poor little Tom Haggarty, who had slept off +his humiliation about the chess to some extent, but felt it rushing on +again with most disagreeable force at sight of Hal, and was terribly +anxious to keep at a safe distance from him for the present.</p> + +<p>“If I can just keep out of his track till recess,” thought Tom, “he’ll +get warmed up with something else, and wont be apt to think of it. <i>I</i> +don’t want him to be telling all the boys he can wind me round his +finger in a game like that. ’Twasn’t hardly fair, either, for I hadn’t +tried but two or three times, and he’s had lots of lessons, and there’s +no end of pieces and moves to carry in a fellow’s head.”</p> + +<p>But Hal was one of the lingerers, and it seemed as if he never would +move on. All the other boys on his floor had passed in, and were taking +their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> seats, while with half an eye on the clock, Hal still stood +outside the partly open door mulling over his arithmetic lesson, that +he knew would be the first to come upon the floor. Tick, tick, went the +clock, and pit-a-pat went Tom’s heart. Could he dare another second? If +that door should be shut before he reached the top of the stairs, there +was a tardy mark for him, and he was making a tremendous effort about +marks this term. Would Hal never move? Perhaps he could creep up softly +without his noticing. He put his foot on the first stair, then on the +second, keeping his eye on Hal, when suddenly he was no longer there. +He had glided in and the door was shut! In a second Tom was at the top +and with his hand on the door-knob. The monitor, who had not really +removed his own from it to turn the key, allowed it to open. Tom who +felt small enough at that moment to have gone through the keyhole, was +admitted, and stealing a glance at Hal, already in his seat, met a look +that told him things were worse than ever.</p> + +<p>He would have given his new hat if he had not seen it, for let him +work as he would at his lessons, that look, with what it promised for +recess, hung about him like some ugly hobgoblin all the morning, and +seemed to put a twist into everything. He called<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> Eheu a noun, and +said the Barbadoes were in the Arctic ocean, and finished an algebra +example, on the blackboard, in long division, and altogether, when +recess came, he felt so completely down that he didn’t care about going +out at all, and if he had cared ever so much, he would not have come +across Hal for all the recesses in the quarter. So he sat at his desk, +and heard the shouts of some tremendous fun coming up to his window, +and when the rest came in all aglow with October sun and air, his head +ached, and he couldn’t see head or tail to the lesson that lay before +him.</p> + +<p>But one o’clock came at last; out poured the stream again, and luckless +Tom ran on with the rest, hoping that the tide swelled high enough to +hide him between the waves, but they parted just in time to let Hal get +a glimpse of him.</p> + +<p>“Hallo, Checkmaty!” he shouted, “how are bishops this morning? Don’t +you want to send your compliments to a fellow’s queen?”</p> + +<p>“Checkmaty?” echoed Ned Farraday, a boy in the next class to Tom’s; +“what’s that? Did you corner him?”</p> + +<p>“Corner him! you ought to have seen me wind him up last night! There +wasn’t as much left of him as would point off a fraction. If he had +been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> as slow with his moves as he was in getting to school this +morning, he might have done better. How’s that tardy mark going to look +on the report, my man? ’Twont help much towards your three hundred, eh?”</p> + +<p>“I wasn’t tardy!” answered Tom defiantly, for the question of the three +hundred was too tender to bear touching.</p> + +<p>“Oh, you weren’t!” cried Hal. “Wasn’t he, boys? you saw as well as I +did.”</p> + +<p>“Didn’t he get in?” asked one of the boys. “I didn’t see.”</p> + +<p>“Get in!” said Ned Farraday, taking up the keynote Hal had given; “I +should think not much! The door was shut fair and square before it saw +his shadow. If anybody don’t believe it they can look on the book and +see.”</p> + +<p>“Look on the book and see,” set up a chorus of voices on all sides.</p> + +<p>“I tell you there’s no mark there,” declared Tom again, getting very +red, and the miserable feeling that had got as far as his pockets last +night, was running down to his very boots.</p> + +<p>“I wouldn’t say much about marks if I were you, Ned Farraday,” called +out a boy a little larger than he. “I heard the professor call your +Latin a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> failure, and that marks you down to six, and you know very +well if Tom <i>was</i> tardy it only marks him eight.”</p> + +<p>Ned grew red in his turn and drew in his horns at once, but Hal went on.</p> + +<p>“I say, Checkmaty, how long has Eheu been a noun? Ever since it meant a +<i>lass</i>, hasn’t it?”</p> + +<p>“And <i>I</i> say,” interposed a voice that had not yet spoken, “what’s the +use of badgering a fellow that’s smaller than any nine out of ten of +you here, and can keep up with the best of you if you only give him a +chance. I heard the professor say Tom was six months ahead of his age +in his classes; and as for this morning, you know well enough there’s +no tardy mark when the door hasn’t been locked. Why can’t you be men +enough to see there’s no fun in crowding a fellow? Come along, Tom; +we’re going to have a game of base-ball this afternoon, and I want you +for first pitcher. Let’s all go and get dinner, and be on the ground at +four o’clock.”</p> + +<p>It was Aleck Halliday, and Tom had felt his heart come up out of his +boots with a great thump the instant he heard his voice, for he knew +well enough it never spoke except to make somebody feel all right, if +not positively jolly. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p> + +<p>He slipped over to Aleck’s side and walked along feeling safe in the +shadow of his tall shoulders, and almost sunshiny once more in the +light of his handsome, friendly face. Tom had often wondered what Aleck +was made of; he was sure there was some material in his composition +very different from what went into other boys, but he had never +quite decided whether it was what usually went to make up princes, +or something higher still and supposed to have wings. Any how, a boy +that was being “badgered,” as he called it, might be sure Aleck would +fume and chafe a few minutes, as a great, noble Newfoundland might +watch a cat worrying a mouse, and then, when he couldn’t bear it any +longer, plunge in and scatter the sport, and stand guard by some little +nook or cranny till the victim had a chance to escape. And as for the +badgerers, an indefinite suspicion that they had been doing something +mean was very sure to creep over them, and the ghost of an idea that it +might be nobler sport to help a fellow along, than to push him down, +would glimmer faintly at them from a distance; but unfortunately this +never lasted long, and they were pretty sure to be ready for the next +mouse that might come in their way.</p> + +<p>But for this time the fun was over; Tom was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> safe, and the mousers +scattered off in search of a more substantial mouthful in the shape +of dinner, and one or two lessons to be got well in hand before four +o’clock, so that no demands of body or brain should interfere with the +promised fun on the ball-ground.</p> + +<p>No one was more fond of the game than Tom; and though he was the +smallest boy in his set, he was considered one of the best players, +for he was swift as a deer, and had a true eye and hand, and a deal of +pluck at carrying out what he undertook; that is to say, so long as +nobody snubbed him, but that was the one thing he could not stand, and +the moment anybody did it, he felt everything that would ever make a +man of him oozing out at his finger-ends, and was ready to knock under +for ever. He wished he wasn’t such a little fool about it; other boys +snubbed each other, and were snubbed in turn a hundred times a day, +and never seemed to mind it much, but it was no use with him. If there +were only more Aleck Hallidays! But never mind. He was going to play +a good game this afternoon, he felt it in his bones, and perhaps Hal +would think something of him again, if he made a first-rate run for his +side—of course he would be on his side if he were to play with Aleck. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> + +<p>But to his surprise he found Hal had decided to play a match-game +against Aleck; and Tom, feeling pretty strong under his captain’s +shadow, ventured to prophesy a victory for his own side.</p> + +<p>“Where are you going to get it?” asked Hal.</p> + +<p>“We’ve got better fellows on our side than you have,” answered Tom, +with an innocent idea that the truth should be spoken at all times.</p> + +<p>“I suppose you count yourself among them,” said Hal with a sneer; “name +them over, and when they play.”</p> + +<p>“No, I don’t count myself among them,” said Tom, wishing he had sense +enough to let things alone; but Aleck calling to Hal just then to +choose an umpire, the mouse ran off once more.</p> + +<p>The umpire and the scorer were soon chosen; the umpire pitched up +a cent, which coming down in Aleck’s favor, gave him his choice of +innings, and he of course chose the second.</p> + +<p>As Hal was captain of his side, he struck first, and sent the ball a +little beyond Tom, who was pitcher. Tom picked it up and threw it to +the first-baseman, who caught it on the fly just as Hal was a single +step from the base.</p> + +<p>Tom halloed for judgment, but Hal was pronounced “not out” by the +umpire. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p> + +<p>“That isn’t fair,” said Tom.</p> + +<p>“I say it is,” said Hal.</p> + +<p>“It’s not. I wouldn’t play to it, Tom,” cried his left-fielder.</p> + +<p>“Well, your side can get some one else, then,” said Hal.</p> + +<p>“Never mind,” said the catcher on Tom’s side; “let’s draw lots for a +‘say so.’” The lot was drawn, and gave the decision in Hal’s favor.</p> + +<p>“Three grunts for Tom,” said Hal, with the same disagreeable chuckle +that had worried Tom so much the night before.</p> + +<p>“No, no,” cried Aleck; “it was out by fair rights.”</p> + +<p>“You’re not going to dispute the umpire, are you?” said Hal; but the +umpire called time, and the game went on.</p> + +<p>At Tom’s next pitch, Hal ran for the second base; but the catcher was +too quick for him, throwing the ball to the second-baseman, who caught +it, and this time Hal was fairly out.</p> + +<p>“Judgment on that,” cried Hal and the second-baseman.</p> + +<p>“Out on the second,” said the umpire.</p> + +<p>“There!” cried Tom as Hal went past him; “that proves it was out on +the first, anyhow. A<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> pretty place a player like you gets into when he +calls for judgment.”</p> + +<p>Tom’s side was now in; if he could only do something that would put +him for once above the range of Hal’s success! Fired with this hope +and with the thought of winning laurels for such a captain as he had, +he took up the bat with the determination to do something brilliant; +but venturing one glance at Hal, caught sight of a sideways gesture +that he knew well enough was meant to remind him of the fatal swoop +of Hal’s bishops the night before, his hand faltered, and the ball, +instead of taking the direction he intended, struck directly in front +of him. There was no chance now but in his heels, and flying like a +deer, he made the first three bases successfully, but that was all. On +the home-base, he could not tell how it happened, he was put out by the +catcher.</p> + +<p>“Aha!” came up a taunting laugh from Hal’s side; “there’s a case that +don’t call for judgment very much;” and Tom walked off and sat down by +some of his fellows, feeling miserable enough. What <i>was</i> the reason +all games were so disagreeable, no matter how hard a fellow tried to do +his best?</p> + +<p>“Never mind, Tom,” said Aleck’s cheery voice,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> “Davis will make up for +it, and you got those three bases handsomely.”</p> + +<p>Tom looked up; he hadn’t ventured to raise his eyes before, lest Aleck +should show that he had disappointed him; but there he was, with just +as friendly a glow in his face as if Tom had covered him with glory. +Tom felt his heart warming under it again in an instant, and in another +moment Carter, the catcher, had knocked the ball down beyond the +centre-field, and got a home-run.</p> + +<p>Tom felt all right again now, and began to cheer on the other men to +do their best, determined that he would bring in his own honors when +his turn came again. The next three runners got a score apiece, but the +fourth knocked a fly to left field, and was out; the next got out on +two strikes and Hal’s side was in again, with ten runs ahead when they +took the field.</p> + +<p>The game however went on pretty equally. Aleck played his best, though +there were some mishaps and disappointments on each side, until the +eight inning, when Tom’s side got fairly “choked,” and left Hal’s still +ahead by ten runs.</p> + +<p>“Who did you say had the best fellows on his side?” asked Hal +triumphantly, as he passed near Tom. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Now Tom, my boy,” said Aleck, “this is our last chance; show us your +best playing and help the others on, and we’ll beat them yet.”</p> + +<p>This was enough to have spurred Tom on to meet the thunders of a real +battle-field, if Aleck’s honor had demanded it, and he took his place +with all the determination of a Trojan.</p> + +<p>But Hal saw it was his last chance too, and waiting till his second +baseman, who was also his second best man, was ready, told him to +strike directly for Tom and “scare him.” Tom started and thought +he was in time, but a cry from Hal of “There’s a queen’s head for +you, Checkmaty! Catch her!” flew faster than the ball. It came too +disagreeably on top of the surprise; Tom muffed the ball, and three +groans were set up from the other side.</p> + +<p>Tom never could do anything after he had been hooted. He made a failure +of everything that followed. The rest seemed to catch discouragement +from him, and the game ended in favor of Hal’s side, with a majority of +eleven, the score being forty-one to thirty.</p> + +<p>The boys crowded together to discuss the game, but Tom had a prodigious +amount of something to do at a distance. He could hear Aleck’s catcher<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> +trying to prove that the second baseman had been all wrong somewhere, +and Hal’s triumphant laugh came floating down to where he stood; he +wouldn’t have gone any nearer him to hear all the discussions in the +world. And as for Aleck! he was sure he’d find it hard to forgive him, +this time, if never before.</p> + +<p>He managed to slip off one side of the crowd, without much notice, and +made the best of his way toward home. What <i>was</i> the reason things +always went wrong that he had anything to do with? Other boys didn’t +seem to have half the trouble, or else they didn’t mind it as much. +But he was sure Carter must have felt horridly to have Davis trying +to make out that he had done just the wrong thing, and the rest all +seemed so eager to have it proved. He wondered why there couldn’t be +some pleasure in proving a fellow had done well now and then; but there +couldn’t be, for nobody ever seemed to like it.</p> + +<p>“I say, Tom,” shouted a voice behind him, and there was Aleck, +overtaking him with long strides.</p> + +<p>“I say, Tom—hallo, old fellow, you’re not drawing such a long face as +that over a game of ball are you? It isn’t worth it, my man! It’s fun +enough while it lasts, but nothing after it’s over.” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> + +<p>“I was afraid you’d think it all my fault,” Tom managed to say, though +dreading even the sound of his own words.</p> + +<p>“All your fault! Nonsense! you made as good a score as any of them, and +some of the others were out on more runs than you. I didn’t play any +too well myself, but ’twas the way luck would have it, I suppose, and +we’ll beat them all the same next time. But I was going to say, you’ve +been helping me all the afternoon, and I thought you were bothered with +those examples this morning; don’t you want a lift before to-morrow?”</p> + +<p>“Helping him!” Tom could have hugged the ground he walked on!</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + +<p>How the October and November days flitted away! And when one knew +that December was coming, and the wheels of the queer chair could +never rattle over the frozen ground and plough through the snow! It +made no difference, time scurried on just the same. The only comfort +was in making the most of it, and that was certainly done at the +almshouse. Nobody counted the number of times the wheel-chair was +seen going slowly and carefully down toward the wonderful world that +lay out beyond the turn, or up the other way toward the city. And +sure as the hour came round, there was Sue ready for her part in the +doctor’s programme, and many a time the work carried her back to old +days until she forgot her bargain, and the half hour stretched on into +two or three times its length. How the pages were turned over in that +arithmetic! But that wasn’t all for Creepy. There were the doctor’s +visits! When he was there, such wonder, and such content; and when he +was gone, there were the hours to be counted till<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> he would come again. +Every one in the house came to know the sound of the black horse’s +trot, coming down the road, and just how many seconds might be allowed +between its being reined up and the doctor’s having his hand on the +door-knob. Very few they were, the listeners soon found; there was +hardly time for Creepy’s heart to give a bound and say, “There he is!” +But after he was once at Creepy’s side, no one would have dreamed that +he was in a hurry. Time enough to hear just how many drives Enoch had +given him, and to see the lessons that had been gone over, and to ask +here and there, carelessly as it seemed, about the pain, and how the +medicines were going. Then there was always a little chat about what he +had seen going on in the city, and what the boys were doing there, so +that, as he used to say laughing, Creepy shouldn’t be altogether behind +the times when he took his place among them. Then a moment with Mrs. +Ganderby, or a compliment to Enoch, or Sue, and he was off again.</p> + +<p>And all the while the days were slipping by, until November, dull +and grim as some of its last hours had been, was fairly crowded out, +the ground was frozen hard, and a few flakes of snow came fluttering +down. Then the doctor found Enoch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> standing, cap in hand, in the hall, +looking at the crooked chair, which, if it had been queer at first, was +certainly queerer still since he had rigged the “running-gear.”</p> + +<p>“Is there any trouble, Enoch?” he asked, for the old carpenter was +running his hand through his hair, and with the most uncomfortable +expression upon his face.</p> + +<p>“Ah, sir, you never came in better time,” said Enoch; “it’s plain +enough there’ll be no further use for these wheels this year, and they +make an awkward thing to be standing about in the way; and yet it’s a +job I don’t like to put my hand to, to undo a piece of work like that. +And it’s only a few months after all.”</p> + +<p>“A few months till when?” asked the doctor.</p> + +<p>“Why, sir, till they’re wanted again,” said Enoch, staring in the +wonder whether the doctor had asked a stupid question for once.</p> + +<p>“Well,” said the doctor, “if you intend to keep a hospital here for +broken legs and crippled children, I advise you to take good care +of your wheels, but so far as my little patient is concerned, the +sooner you make kindling-wood of them the better. I intend to have him +walking into the city every day when the roads are settled again in the +spring.” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p> + +<p>Enoch’s stare grew ten times broader, but it was of no use. The doctor +was gone, and if he had not been, Enoch would never have dared to ask +him which of them had lost his senses.</p> + +<p>“Now, my little man,” he was just that moment saying to Creepy, “we’ve +come to a corner in our line of march. I’m not satisfied with what +we’ve been doing for that pain, but I wouldn’t fight it any harder +while these pleasant days lasted. There’s not going to be much getting +out, I’m afraid, for a while, and this is the time to take. Suppose I +should want to do something now and then that would make the pain seem +even worse for a little while, would you have courage to try it with +me?”</p> + +<p>Up to Creepy’s mind rushed a story that Ben used always to be telling +whenever anything came along that seemed a little hard to bear, about +a certain slave, a great while ago and a great way off, Ben did not +remember when or where, but he believed it was in the East, wherever +that might be. And he did not remember what his name was, but that +did not matter; he knew that his master one day ordered him to be +beaten for a trifle, and when some one asked how he could bear it so +patiently, he answered, “Shall I receive so much good at the hand of +my master, and shall I not receive this little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> evil also?” And his +master, hearing of it, was so filled with admiration that he gave him +his liberty, and he became a famous philosopher.</p> + +<p>But Creepy could not have told the doctor about it for his life, so he +only nodded, and said,</p> + +<p>“I am not afraid.”</p> + +<p>“Good,” said the doctor; “and you need not be. It is only that there +will be some days when things look rather forlorn, but every one of +them is bringing you nearer to spring, and don’t forget that we are +going fishing together when that time comes.”</p> + +<p>So on went the weeks, and the days of pain came in among them here and +there; but there were so many other things to think of! The arithmetic +was no longer the only book, by any means; a geography and a copy-book +came along one after the other, and for times when he did not feel like +using those, there were stories enough to be read. But the doctor’s +visits were more than all the books, and the great eyelids did not +droop any more when he came, but Creepy had learned to look him square +in the face, whatever incredible thing he might be saying. But he would +not come <i>this</i> morning; that was certain enough, he thought, as he sat +looking out of the window at the snow that came drifting through the +air until it seemed the clouds <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>themselves were falling. Faster and +thicker every moment, and yet it had been coming all night; the trees +were groaning under their loads, the drifts were like great ocean-waves +up and down the road, and the grass-seeds the doctor had scattered over +the path in the fall were buried ten times deeper than ever before; for +though Enoch had had his shovel ready ever since breakfast, there it +stood by the old clock; there was no use turning out to make paths yet.</p> + +<p>So Creepy stood at the window, just waiting to see what would happen +next, until his eyes were almost blinded; but there was certainly +something coming down the road! Only a little dark object at first, but +nearer and larger every moment. The black horse and his sleigh! And +almost before Creepy could rub his eyes and try to see more surely, +they were at the gate, Enoch’s path was broken for him, and the doctor +was at the door shaking the snow from his shoulders and taking off his +fur cap to knock down a pyramid from the crown, before Mrs. Ganderby +should find it melting over her floor.</p> + +<p>“So you thought it was the sheeted ghost of myself, eh?” he said, +laughing, as Creepy opened the door; and Creepy laughed too, for +that was one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> of the things he had learned of late, though not from +any book. “You’re mistaken, sir; I never was heartier in my life. +There’s nothing like fighting a storm, to send one’s blood gayly to +his finger-ends. And how are you this morning, my little man? Brave +and well? Not quite equal to breasting this weather yet, eh?” and he +stooped with one of those quick looks into Creepy’s face that always +made his heart leap up into his throat.</p> + +<p>And the weather, as if finding that it had done its worst and troubled +nobody, took a new tack; the clouds shut their gates and drew off, then +began to break away, and by the time the doctor was ready to go, were +rolling like great fleeces over a blue sky, and the sun was pouring +down, and the whole work of the storm lay in one measureless, glorious +glitter over the earth.</p> + +<p>“It looks well this morning, doesn’t it, this world that we own?” said +the doctor, as he snatched a glance while he drew on his overcoat. “A +pretty proud bit of ownership for us all, I think, don’t you? Some of +its treasures may not be distributed just even, all around, but the +thing itself belongs to us. Eh, my man?”</p> + +<p>What was he saying? Who? He said a great many things that seemed like +dreaming, and yet,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> he surely would not say them, if they did not seem +real to him!</p> + +<p>As for a bit of this life belonging to Creepy, he didn’t call that a +dream any longer, since he had the doctor’s friendship; it seemed to +him he not only lived, but basked in the sunshine, since that joy had +come in. But God’s world, the real, great, wonderful world that lay out +beyond the turn in the road, out beyond the city even, stretching away +into beauty and treasure that he often tired himself with trying to +imagine; ah, that could never be! That was for the well and the strong +and the rich; for people who rode in their carriages, and would only +think him fit to run after them and open the carriage-door. For the +doctor too, of course, for every one ran after him, and <i>he</i> would be +rich some day. But for himself—</p> + +<p>The doctor stooped, shot a look into his eyes, and saw it all. In +another moment he had lifted Creepy gently in his arms, as he did that +first day under the old butternut, and was holding his face right +before his own.</p> + +<p>“Look here, my little man,” he was saying, “I want to have this thing +understood once for all. I have been trying to put some new ideas into +this head of yours, these three months now, but I have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> not succeeded +as well as I wish, and I must see if I can make myself understood this +time. Who do you think made this world, and who do you think He made +it for, this King of ours who has taught us all to call him Father? +Don’t you know that whatever a king owns, the princes have a share in +as heirs; and more than that, there’s a dominion set apart for them now +and then, as a birthright? This is a great, glorious, beautiful world, +as everything our King makes is, and he made it for us, his children; +and the Prince Royal, our Elder Brother, who came and walked among us, +bought it again for us by his life and his death, after things began +to go wrong. I tell you, my boy, we’re of royal blood, you and I, just +as much as the greatest man that other men bow down to; we can’t be +<i>more</i> than the children of the King, any of us. Only see to it that +you keep close to the Prince Royal, and follow his steps like a child +of the house, and you can claim your share with the tallest and the +strongest of the sons. And if you don’t get hold of a square acre that +men will call your own, in the course of your life, you can look at the +blue hills and the soft skies, and walk among the broad fields and the +flowers, with just as happy and as glad a throb in your heart as the +people who have paid<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> thousands for them. Do you understand, little +man? Do you believe what I say?”</p> + +<p>Once more Creepy couldn’t have spoken for his life; but though the +understanding and the believing that the doctor was asking for were +only stealing over the edge of his heart, like the first ray of +morning, yet they were making a glow there not so very different from +the rosy light he had seen the dawn spread over the snow-drift under +his window. It flushed up to his cheek with very much the same color, +and satisfied the doctor better than words could have done. With the +same quiet, gentle pressure that Creepy remembered so well, he placed +him in his chair again and was gone.</p> + +<p>He was gone, and Creepy stood by the window once more; but was it +the same little almshouse cripple that had looked out from it in the +morning? It seemed to him that chains had fallen from him, as his heart +opened wider and wider to the doctor’s words. The warm glow grew to a +great throbbing joy, and he felt himself stretching up from the stunted +little soul he had been, and <i>almost</i> laying his hand upon things more +joyful than he had ever dreamed that even a strong man could reach.</p> + +<p>The Prince Royal his Elder Brother? That meant the Lord Christ, of +course. The doctor had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> spoken of him more than once, but Creepy had +not dared put the “all but me,” aside then. But why not? Keep close to +Him? Why shouldn’t he? Didn’t he come close to the doctor? and wasn’t +the Lord Jesus like him, only a thousand times stronger, and wiser and +gentler even than he; for wasn’t He a physician himself when He was +here, and wasn’t He always the same? Did He not call the weak and the +lame to Him, and did He not once take some of them in his arms, just as +the doctor had taken him to-day? Children of the King, and the Elder +Brother sharing his birthright with them? Oh, how different the world +looked this time out of the queer old window! He stood still and almost +held his breath, for it seemed to him as he looked up into the blue +sky, that he felt some one drawing near, and the same bewildering joy +that had come when he first felt the doctor’s arms around him, rose up +in his heart once more, only stronger and deeper than before. For was +not this some one who would never go away?</p> + +<p>“Which I did say,” exclaimed Mrs. Ganderby to Sue, a few days +afterwards, as Creepy passed through the room with two or three of his +precious books in his hand, “which I did say wonders never would cease; +and here is the showing of it before<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> our own eyes, for I mentioned +at the same time that sometimes doctors cure and sometimes they kill, +and sometimes they do neither one nor the other; and here it is, not +only that he’s getting the poor crooked thing where he’s going about so +light on his feet that the name Creepy will soon be no further use to +him; but the child that I thought would never learn to look anybody in +the face otherwise than to beg their pardon for being in the world at +all, is certainly getting a way of holding up his head and going about +as if he’d found out that his soul was his own, in spite of anything +that heaven or some people that were lower hadn’t seen fit to do for +his body, which there is no one could be more pleased than myself to +look on and see it, though if it isn’t altogether like a miracle of the +olden times, I don’t know what any one could put themselves about to +call it.”</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + +<p>The hum of Tom’s schoolroom had gone steadily on all this time, and +was busier than ever, if possible just now, looking forward to the few +days’ vacation just at hand, after which would come the short closing +term of the year, followed by examination-day, the culmination of all +excitement to the graduating class. Aleck was at the head of that, +and Tom tried not to think of the day when he would go; it seemed to +him school would be like a boxing-match without gloves after that; he +wondered if he ever <i>should</i> get used to rubs and knocks so as to go on +comfortably through the world. As for a world where people did not like +giving them well enough to keep you in much danger, he never dreamed +of such a possibility. If he could only pluck up enough not to mind it +more than other boys! And yet he was sure, if the truth were told, they +didn’t like snubbing and being crowed over much better than he, but +they had a way of getting over it as he couldn’t.</p> + +<p>However, if he stopped for more reflections, his arithmetic examples +would not be done, and he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> plunged in among them with such zeal, that +the last one was soon unravelled, and stopping to breathe a moment +before taking up his Latin, he caught sight of a little performance +going on between two of his neighbors, Carter, the catcher who had +retrieved fortunes for Tom the afternoon when luck was so against him +on the ball-ground, and Davis, who sat just behind him, and at Tom’s +elbow. They were in a class higher than Tom’s, and had some pretty +tough knots come in their way, as he very well knew, and they were at +work at them just now, but each very much in his own fashion. Carter +sat with one hand drawn through his hair, and pressing it tight with +all his fingers as if that would help pull through his difficulties, +and with knotted brow was working away like a Trojan, with no eyes or +ears for anything off the battle-field, while Davis behind him shuffled +over his pages for some rules or example that should throw a little +light, frowned, put down a few figures, rubbed them out again, and +pushed his slate impatiently aside.</p> + +<p>At last, happening to peep over Carter’s shoulder, he saw the result of +his toil. Every example but the last done to a fraction, and lying in +neat figures in its own corner of the slate. A gleam of satisfaction +spread over his face, and drawing a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>little closer, he quietly and with +rapid strokes, transferred every one to his own slate. All but the +last. Carter was still at work upon that, but it wouldn’t come. Over +and over again the figures were erased, and the example begun again at +the beginning.</p> + +<p>“Pshaw!” exclaimed Davis under his breath, “time’s nearly up;” and +writing a note to one of the older boys who sat near, he quietly passed +it over to him, and in a few moments received it again, with the +example clear as daylight on the back, and requiring but a moment to +transfer it to his slate.</p> + +<p>None too soon, however, for the bell rang as he put down the last +figure, and the class was called to the blackboard.</p> + +<p>Carter was at the head, a place he had held for some time by +persistent, hard work, and accordingly explained the first example +with a precision that showed it lay clear-cut in his own mind. Others +followed rapidly, and the last fell to Davis.</p> + +<p>“Have you the last, Davis?” asked the professor.</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir.”</p> + +<p>“Let us have it, then.”</p> + +<p>He made his proposition and began, but there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> seemed to be some +trouble. He was not apt to get confused, but this certainly made +hodge-podge.</p> + +<p>“Where is that example?” asked the professor.</p> + +<p>“There, sir,” said Davis, handing up his slate.</p> + +<p>He ran his eye rapidly over it, and returned it.</p> + +<p>“That is all right,” he said, “and very well done, and so are all +the rest. You must learn to keep what you know a little more at your +command, Davis. How many of you have the example?”</p> + +<p>How they had managed poor Carter could not imagine, but every hand +except his own went up.</p> + +<p>“You haven’t it, Carter?”</p> + +<p>“No, sir, I couldn’t get it.”</p> + +<p>“I shall have to send you down, I’m sorry to say.”</p> + +<p>The boys made a great deal more haste than was necessary, he thought, +to let him pass down and change places with Davis, adding one or two +very expressive winks to remind him that his hope for a star on the +record of that term was gone.</p> + +<p>But the reminders came in much plainer language at recess.</p> + +<p>“Here we go up, up, up, and here we go downy, downy!” cried a voice, +followed by a chorus.</p> + +<p>“I can’t help it,” said Carter. “I couldn’t get it, and I don’t see how +you did.” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Don’t you wish you knew?” sneered Davis.</p> + +<p>“Isn’t he game, to flunk at a straw like that?” shouted one of the +boys, who had had the example comfortably done for him the night before +under the gaslight at home.</p> + +<p>“Never mind, Carter; perhaps the professor will let you go back to +long-division next term.”</p> + +<p>Carter looked so distressed that Tom, though furious at the whole +affair, began to take a little courage that he wasn’t so much more of +a fool about such things, after all, than some other fellows, when +Aleck’s voice was heard to come to the rescue.</p> + +<p>“What’s that about long-division? If it’s anything that wants a long +head, and a sure one too, Carter is the right one to take it. I’ve +watched him all the term, and he’s had more of those tough examples +right than I ever did when I went over them, and works them out on his +own hook, too, without as much cribbing as some fellows want for a +single lesson. Come round this afternoon, can’t you, Carter? I’m going +to unrig my iceboat, and you can handle a tool much better than I can.”</p> + +<p>Off scattered the mousers, the bell rang, and it was every man looking +out for his own again, till<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> the exercises were ended and the tide +poured outward once more.</p> + +<p>Aleck walked on very busy with his thoughts, but this time they had +nothing to do with lessons, nor even with examination-day, unless as +an event that was to knock away his stays and launch him forth to make +such headway as he might out of the quiet harbor of his schooldays. +He had no fear of breasting contrary winds, or of ploughing the rough +waves of life with a stout heart; the only trouble was to decide on the +port he wished to clear for; and this question, though it would have +been easy enough if he had had only himself to consult, seemed balanced +and counterbalanced whichever way he turned. But Carter never had a +suspicion that anything worried him as they worked away on the iceboat +that afternoon; he only thought Aleck was the handsomest fellow and the +best company in the world, and wondered how it was everything went so +smoothly where he was, the rough places always melting down, as the ice +and snow were vanishing outside under the shining of the March sun.</p> + +<p>He couldn’t help telling him so at last, and Aleck laughed.</p> + +<p>“Do they?” he said, “I didn’t know they did;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> but there’s something +in one’s way of looking at things, I suppose. If the sun were to +pull a cloud of disgust over his face every time he saw a hummock of +ice, they’d be likely to hold on a little longer. Looking straight +at an ugly thing, with a bright face of your own, works pretty well +generally, I think;” but when Carter was gone, and lessons pretty well +out of the way, Aleck had need to try his own maxim, for the question +that had been on his own mind in the morning came up again in full +force, and didn’t look any smoother or rounder for its brief absence.</p> + +<p>It wasn’t a brown-stone front, like Hal Fenimore’s, in the library of +which Aleck sat, but a bit of a gothic cottage slipped in between two +large brick houses, with a clear sunset outlook from the rear, and a +bay-window trailing with vines in front, while a tiny wing, that had +begged room for itself on one side, formed a conservatory, from the +windows of which flowers of every hue had refreshed the eyes of the +passers-by through all the long, dreary winter months. If Creepy could +but once have rested his eyes upon them! His most gorgeous dreams of +what this world might be would have paled into gray twilight before +their unimagined beauty. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p> + +<p>The brick houses on either side stood guard over the cottage, as if +they had taken it up for a pet, and inside its walls everything seemed +to be petted as well. In every nook and corner stood some delicate, +graceful thing, and every article of furniture, every picture on +the walls, and every ornament about the room, seemed chosen to be +loved. But the fairest ornament of all to Aleck’s eyes was the sister +from whom everything else had taken its coloring and its tone, and +he glanced involuntarily up from his book now and then to watch the +graceful movements of her white fingers as they followed the pattern of +her embroidery.</p> + +<p>“I don’t believe there’s a fellow in the city that’s got anything to +compare with her,” he thought as his eye rested on the poise of the +beautiful head, the golden hair drawn back in waves and ripples from +her forehead, the soft eyes drooped over their work, and the half-smile +with which she followed her thoughts, whatever they might be. “I +<i>know</i> there isn’t,” and down he plunged again into syntax, roots, and +terminations.</p> + +<p>The brown eyes were raised at him just then, and let the embroidery +wait a moment, while their owner thought what a manly, handsome +fellow Aleck was, and how like his father, and how proud<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> she should +be some day when she should see him taking his father’s place in his +profession, his father’s old friends welcoming him, and new ones of +his own rising up on every side. There were a good many sacrifices to +be made, and a good deal of waiting to be done, before that day should +come, but it would repay them all a thousand times.</p> + +<p>Aleck lost all this, deep in the mazes of an irregular verb, but he was +out again by the time the eyes had gone back to their embroidery, and +snatched a minute for another look and thought of his own.</p> + +<p>“Poor old Nell!” he said to himself, “she has set her heart on making +a lawyer of me, and I—” up and down went the balances again, and then +the lesson would have attention once more.</p> + +<p>“Yes, yes, I see; it’s irregular, and it works under Rule 53. I’ll make +a note of that.” Another glance at Nelly, and down went the balance +again. “And if she does, what is it going to cost? Four years at +college, three at law studies, and as many more, if not twice as many, +before anybody’ll give me enough to do to keep soul and body together; +and by that time, where will she be? All the bloom of her life brushed +off while she’s waiting for me to come to something! Pshaw!” and in he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> +went again among the Ps and the Qs of the dictionary.</p> + +<p>The lesson was done at last; he was master of every word, and closed +the book, but that was only to open the discussion of the future again.</p> + +<p>“And I know very well how it’s to be done, too,” he went on. “There’s +just enough, as things are now, to keep up the house for her, if I were +to take care of myself; but when it comes to pulling me through those +seven or eight years, there’s only one way to do it. Think of selling +out everything here, and letting her follow me about in some ugly +boardinghouse or other, with only the chance of my being able to make +things up to her by-and-by!” and for once Aleck seemed to have found +something he could not melt down by looking at it.</p> + +<p>“Finished, Aleck?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, Nelly, and to-morrow finishes the week, and next week finishes +the term; then three days holiday, then ten weeks more.”</p> + +<p>“And then?” said Nelly, and the half-smile brightened into something +radiant.</p> + +<p>Aleck hesitated. He knew the picture she was drawing; how was he going +to rub it out, and drag her into all the bothers of a new decision? But +he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> couldn’t put it off much longer. Perhaps it had better come at once.</p> + +<p>“Never mind about then,” he said gayly, “let’s talk about now a little +while. I never thought I should get ahead of you in anything, Nelly; +but I don’t believe you had your first offer before you were sixteen, +and I had mine day before yesterday.”</p> + +<p>Nelly laughed.</p> + +<p>“I hope you didn’t vow secresy,” she said.</p> + +<p>“On the contrary, Uncle Ralph wished me particularly to consult you.”</p> + +<p>“Uncle Ralph! What is it, Aleck? I don’t understand.”</p> + +<p>“He wants me to go into the store with him, and offers to teach me all +he knows, and to give me a share in the business as soon as I am ready +for it.”</p> + +<p>The smile vanished, and a shade of pity came over the beautiful face.</p> + +<p>“Poor Uncle Ralph! He is alone in the world, and I suppose he longs to +have some of his own kith and kin with him every day. I am sorry he +asked you, it will be so hard to refuse him.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t think I had better go, then?”</p> + +<p>“Why, Aleck!” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p> + +<p>That was all she said, but the tone and the look said a thousand times +more.</p> + +<p>Aleck laughed in his turn.</p> + +<p>“Do you say why? Well, I say, why not? I don’t believe I shall ever +make such a prodigy of a lawyer, sister mine, and it’s a horribly long +pull ahead before I show whether I do or not, and here is a chance to +take care of myself right away, instead of dragging on you a dozen +years; and I tell you, Nelly, it would take all the man out of a better +fellow than I am to do that.”</p> + +<p>“Hush, Aleck! You know how much papa wished you to have a profession, +and his own above all others.”</p> + +<p>“I know it, Nelly,” said Aleck, gently; “but perhaps,” and he glanced +questioningly in her face, “perhaps he sees some things differently +now. At any rate,” he added more lightly, “there are more professions +in these days than there used to be, and I’m sure a druggist’s, or at +least a chemist’s, is counted among the most respectable of them. And +as for Uncle Ralph, every one knows that he makes a profession of his +work. Why, what do you think came to him from England the other day? +A certificate of fellowship in the Royal Academy of Sciences! Imagine +me in that place!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> Wouldn’t that shine brighter than being called a +brother by the members of some county bar?”</p> + +<p>“Aleck, why will you trouble me by talking so?”</p> + +<p>“Trouble you, Nelly! I wouldn’t for the world; but Uncle Ralph wants +his answer day after to-morrow.”</p> + +<p>“Well, it is ready for him; he need not have waited as long as that. +Tell him we both love him with all our hearts, for his own sake and +dear papa’s, and if he is lonely nothing would give us greater joy than +to have him come right here with us, but that it was papa’s wish you +should study.”</p> + +<p>Aleck had left his seat and stood behind his sister’s chair, bending +caressingly over the knot of golden curls.</p> + +<p>“Nelly,” he said, in low earnest tones, “papa did not know how little +there would be left; he did not know how it would have to be done. He +was a gentleman himself, every inch, and he wanted me to be one; but +which would he say was most worthy of the name, to take the little +that belongs to my beautiful sister, and use it up, on the chance of +returning it after years and years, or to go into an honorable place +where I can be of more use in a month, saving life and health, than +I could in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> year of settling quarrels and splitting hairs? Nelly, +I <i>can’t</i> do it! I <i>can’t</i> take what belongs to you! If I ever get a +profession, I must wait till I can earn the money, and that will put +the happy day so far off that you will be a tired-out old lady, waiting +for it,” and he laughed again, for Aleck never looked on the gloomy +side many minutes at a time.</p> + +<p>“And if money were as thick as blackberries,” he went on, “I’d rather +be a doctor, anyhow; and this comes next door to it, and I’m not sure +but a little above, for the doctors can’t move hand or foot without the +druggists. I tell you, Nelly, there’s more in it than you think, and I +might come out so scientific, and such a wise man, that you wouldn’t +venture to speak to me except in the most respectful manner. It isn’t +as it was in old times, when doctors took a spoonful of almost anything +out of their pockets for a patient! I wish you could just see them come +to Uncle Ralph with some difficult, delicate thing that they want done, +and that they can’t do themselves with all their wisdom, to save their +lives and their patients’ too! And I promise you it’s a place where +the greenbacks come in! And I should get my share of them, instead of +starving to death, waiting in my office like a spider in his web, to +catch my first unlucky fly!” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p> + +<p>He waited for an answer, but Nelly did not speak. “Nelly,” he began +again, very softly, “I believe papa can see into Uncle Ralph’s heart +now, and if he can, I know what he would say. I only got a glimpse, +just one peep through his eyes, and it almost brought the tears into +mine. They plead pretty hard, Nelly!”</p> + +<p>Nelly’s lips were pressed tightly together, and then parted suddenly. +“Day after to-morrow, did you say, Aleck? Don’t speak of it again till +then. I will tell you when that time comes.”</p> + +<p>When it came, “Aleck, dear,” she said, with a smile, “do whatever you +like best, and whatever you think best. I shall be satisfied, whatever +it is.”</p> + +<p>“All right,” said Aleck, with his gayest glow in his face; “I’ll go and +see Uncle Ralph.”</p> + +<p>So it was settled: and Aleck never knew the pang it cost her to give +up the long-cherished plan for his future, or how thankfully she would +have made any sacrifice necessary to its accomplishment; and she had no +suspicion that he had sacrificed the darling dream of his life, rather +than feel himself a weight upon her, and say No to the lonely heart +that was craving what only he could give it.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + +<p>The doctor had fallen into more than one fit of musing since the one +that carried him three doors beyond his destination on the morning +Enoch’s wheels were being fitted, and the result was, that he had come +to a determination. But as he always kept his determinations very +quietly to himself until it was time to act upon them, no one was any +the wiser for it as yet. But at last, when the snow-banks had dwindled +away under the spring sun, until only a stray mound was left here or +there, and the earth began to peep out once more, brown and bare, the +doctor made up his mind that the time had come. He had just arrived +at that conclusion, when his office-door opened, and some one came +softly in. He knew the step, and could see the tall, gaunt form of old +Joan, the housekeeper, with her apron-strings tied in a hard knot, her +silver-rimmed spectacles, and her high-crowned cap, just as well as +if he had raised his eyes from his book. But Joan never liked to be +noticed when she came in; so he went on reading, with his feet in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +chair before him, as though no one were within a thousand miles.</p> + +<p>Joan had only come to see about the fire, that was all; at least all +she meant should be understood; but the doctor knew very well, from +the endless brushing she was giving the hearth, that she had something +on her mind that would bring her round in front of his chair if he +only gave her time enough, and this suited him very well, as he had +something to say to her himself. Joan had followed the doctor from the +time he needed a nurse until he required a housekeeper, and she would +have been almost ready to quarrel even with him, if she had heard him +talk to Creepy about their owning shares in the world together, for +it was very much her opinion that the world was made for the doctor +exclusively; and if there were a few other people in it, that was +principally for the purpose of supplying him with a round of patients.</p> + +<p>“Ah but he’s a braw laddie, and ony auld heart might weel be proud o’ +raising sic a bairn,” she said to herself, as she glanced toward him +once or twice while she still brushed vigorously away at the hearth, +“though it’s true I never taught him the fashion he has o’ taking the +chair before him that’s almost higher than his head to tilt his feet +in, like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> a parrot fingering the trammels o’ his cage. It’s no so unco +handsome as the rest o’ him, but what can a young man do, shut up in a +room like this, with never a fair face to smile on him from ane years +end to anither; and if he were to bring a young wife hame wi’ him, wha +kens where old Joan might find hersel’ then? Na, na, it’s no change o’ +that kind I’m asking, but <i>some</i> things ought to gae differently, for +the pride o’ the house, and if he doesna see it for himsel’, why then +old Joan maun e’en speak her ain thocht, that is a’.”</p> + +<p>But the speaking did not seem so easy after all, and Joan had +come fairly round before the doctor’s chair, as he had expected, +hearth-broom in hand, without getting her words into shape.</p> + +<p>This wouldn’t do. He had something to settle with Joan himself, and he +must catch her in a propitious frame: at the same time he knew that if +he spoke first, everything would go wrong; so without looking up from +his book, he carelessly touched another that lay on the chair before +him, with his foot, and down it went upon the floor, and the flood +gates were opened.</p> + +<p>“Hoot, mon!” exclaimed Joan, stooping to pick it up, and wiping it +tenderly with the corner of her apron, “hoot, mon, and canna ye be +content wi’<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> finding yoursel’ maister o’ a book like this, that not +one out o’ ten thousand o’ your neebors has learning eno’ to ken the +meaning o’ the very cover itsel’, that ye maun toss it under foot in +sic a fashion? It’s no that I begrudge gathering it up again, but I +dinna like aught belonging to yoursel’ to meet wi’ disrespect, and +that’s what I’m fearing ilka day will be coming to the house, a’though +no fault o’ mine. Not that I fash mysel’ sae muckle if folk maun e’en +mind ither folk’s affairs, but I’m an auld woman to be keeping up the +credit o’ an establishment like this.”</p> + +<p>“You want some one to help you, Joan?”</p> + +<p>“Help me!” exclaimed Joan indignantly, brushing her apron off sidewise +with both hands, as if to brush away the aspersion, “ye ken weel enough +Joan wants nae help, nor ever will, while her two hands can serve the +laddie she raised up to be the learned man he is, wi’ half the city +running after him to save their lives and show them the way out o’ +trouble. Nae, nae, it’s no the work I’m fretting after, it’s only the +gude and proper face o’ things before the een o’ the world.”</p> + +<p>The doctor looked up at her as if he could not understand a word.</p> + +<p>“But you’ve always been called a remarkably<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> good-looking woman, Joan, +and I don’t see that you look a day older than you did the first time I +saw you.”</p> + +<p>“Whist, mon!” and Joan brushed the apron harder than ever, “wad ye +drive the patience clear frae a body? Dinna ye ken that ilka time +there’s a summons for your services, if it’s the richest mon in the +town sending for you to come and bring him back from the grave, there’s +naebody but an auld woman with her cap and spectacles to open the door +for him? The cap may be as white as snaw, but it’s no the livery that’s +becoming to a skelfu’ doctor’s house, and are whose name will soon be +kenned far an’ wide among the wisest o’ ’em.”</p> + +<p>“But what would you have me do, Joan? A young doctor may have all the +wisdom of Solomon, but he’s got his way to make, and his porridge to +earn, for all that, and he must wait awhile before he can afford to +waste his fees on the vanities of life.”</p> + +<p>“Waste! And wha kens better than yoursel’ that it would be neither +waste nor vanity to ha’ things fitting and becoming and commanding +the respect that’s due a high calling like your ain? And what great +physician’s house did I ever see among my ain at home that had na his +footman or two to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> open the door before ever a body had time to lay +hold upon the handle o’ the bell?”</p> + +<p>“Suppose I get one then?” asked the doctor, looking very gravely in her +face.</p> + +<p>“You’re no serious,” she said; “you’re no so easy to persuade, or to +come round to the sound o’ reason a’ in the moment a body just sets it +before your een.”</p> + +<p>“No,” said the doctor, “I don’t suppose I am, but the truth is I’ve +been thinking of the same thing myself. But you know,” and the doctor +got up, laid down his book and shook himself, “you know, Joan, every +ladder must have its lower rounds, and you must not expect all the +glory of midday, when the sun is just getting above the horizon. Now +suppose my new man should be rather small and rather young, so young +in fact that it would be a good thing for him to go to school, out of +office hours. That wouldn’t make any difference, I suppose, in the +welcome you would give him, or the kindness you would show him when he +came in your way?”</p> + +<p>Joan looked doubtful.</p> + +<p>“It’s no a’ the gither what I wad choose,” she said, “but half a +bannock’s better than nae loaf at a’, and young folk grow, if you do +but gie ’em<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> time. But he suld be a braw laddie, weel favored and wi’ +good back and legs.”</p> + +<p>“Weel favored enough,” said the doctor laughing, “but as for the back +and legs, they are good in their way; and getting better every day, but +I fear we can’t make any more of them than the best a hunchback ever +had.”</p> + +<p>Joan’s face grew white. A hunchback opening the doctor’s door? She +would open it herself if she were a hundred years old, sooner than that +should happen!</p> + +<p>“I’ll tell you about him,” went on the doctor, not seeming to notice +her; and beginning as far back as the night in Ben’s room, he gave Joan +a running sketch of the lame child as he had found him, of the dreary +life, the great wistful eyes, the pain that was never tired, and the +sensitive soul, shrinking away behind the “all but me” that had seemed +always to rise like stony walls before it.</p> + +<p>“Now a strong man with any soul in him can’t see a child in a prison +like that, without wanting to knock the gates down for him, if he can,” +went on the doctor, “and that’s what I’ve been trying to do the last +six months, with the help of all hands out there; and I don’t think +we’ve made a bad piece of work of it as far as we’ve gone. I’ve got +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> little fellow on his feet again, and he’s had more than one walk +already, since the snow is passing off, and he’s beginning to believe +all I’ve told him, or thinks he does, but it’s more like a story than +anything else, so far, and I want to make it a reality. I want to get +him away from that place out there, and get him in here where things +are civilized, and put him, as soon as he gets a little more strength, +into the best school there is, and let him measure himself with other +boys of his age, and see what he can make of himself and the world he’s +come into. And I don’t see any way to do this, but to indulge myself +in an office-boy for certain hours of the day. The child must have a +shelter, and some one to look to; and he’ll want more than I can be +to him too. A friend something like yourself for instance, Joan;” and +the doctor darted one of those quick looks and wonderful smiles at the +housekeeper, that always made Creepy’s heart leap to his throat. Joan’s +face ceased to be white long before the doctor had finished, and there +was something the matter with her spectacles; she couldn’t see well +through them, and there was a struggle going on behind them that was +plain enough. It was a drawn battle for a few moments more, and Joan +flourished the hearth-broom again,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> as if determined to knock over one +side or the other with it, but at last she spoke.</p> + +<p>“Puir bairnie,” she said, “it’s no mysel’ that wad we in the way o’ a +work like what you hae been doin’, and if I have na the skill to help +you in what you hae to do wi’ the puir crooked back, I can e’en comfort +the lane heart a bit now and then, and help it take courage for the +fight with the world, that is na sae bad after a’ as some folk would +ca’ it, nor bad enough to think the worse o’ a young doctor that’s +willing to shelter one o’ the Lord’s sorrowful bairns, when he might +hae the finest pair o’ hands in the country to open the door for those +that are looking for him.”</p> + +<p>“Good for you, Joan,” said the doctor, smiling again, “and you needn’t +fear any one is going to look as far as the limbs after they once get +sight of the pair of eyes that shine out above them.”</p> + +<p>“That’s all right,” he added to himself a moment later, as he shook the +reins over the black horse’s head. “Creepy has Joan for his friend for +ever; now for Mrs. Ganderby.”</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + +<p>Joan left the doctor’s office and retired to her own part of the house +with mingled thoughts and sentiments. She had persuaded the doctor to +grant her cherished wish: there was to be some one beside an old woman +to open the door for his calls, and some one, if not in livery, at +least in a tailor’s suit. But a crooked back! How was that ever going +to look?</p> + +<p>“Weel, weel, it were a deed o’ charity at the least, and like the +doctor’s ain sel’ to see that sic a thing could be done at the same +time he waur gratifying old Joan’s pride, and doing the worthy and +respectable thing for himsel’. And who kenned but it might gie a bit o’ +look o’ distinction to the house, after a’? And who could leave a bairn +like that to greet his days awa’ alane and unpitied in what the doctor +who kenned the truth o’ it a’ was pleased to call a prison. Not auld +Joan. Nane suld ever say that.”</p> + +<p>Her reflections were hardly ended, before the black horse had sped away +over the distance from the office to the almshouse, and the doctor was +at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> the door again. That had long ago ceased to surprise any one; the +wonder to-day was that, instead of making his way at once to Creepy’s +corner, he remained at least ten minutes closeted with Mrs. Ganderby, +and when at last the door opened, he held it ajar long enough for Sue, +just ready to dart away from the old clock, to hear her say,</p> + +<p>“Well, well, sir, if you have such a thought in your heart, it’s not +for me to do anything but rejoice that the Lord has shown such pity +upon him, which at the same time, there’s no one in the house but will +be sorry to miss the poor crooked thing, nor can do anything but wonder +how you can find any way to manage things for a poor little ill-favored +creature like him, much less to find him of any use to yourself; though +after the change you’ve succeeded in making already, which it often +seems to me you have done it more as the apostles used to cause the +lame to walk than as a real living man of our day could be expected, no +one can feel inclined to doubt or to wonder at anything you undertake.”</p> + +<p>In another moment Sue had fled away just in time, and was calling upon +Enoch and all the rest to help her imagine what this mysterious speech +could mean, and amid all this excitement the doctor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> was at Creepy’s +side again, and darting one of the old quick inquiring looks into his +face. But it was a joyous look too, and Creepy responded with a smile; +he had learned to do that long ago, but ever since the morning the +doctor had talked to him about the Brotherhood, the blood had seemed to +flow with a fuller throb through his veins, and he could raise his head +and meet the look of any one with what it seemed to him must be the +same feeling that was making the earth blossom out into spring, green +grass and flowers once more.</p> + +<p>“So, so, my little man! All bright and well this morning, and troubles +vanishing away like the last rags and tatters of winter that have been +hiding in the corners of the field? Well, that is as it should be; and +now, if you haven’t been taking a walk with Enoch and tiring yourself +out already, suppose you should get into that chaise of mine, and see +how life seems to me, driving about in it all day. I can’t let you +learn what exercise is all at once, and I want to get you into drill +for that fishing excursion of ours; it will be time for it now before +we can say Jack Robinson.”</p> + +<p>Six months ago this would have made Creepy’s heart stand still, and +then beat with such a great, trembling pulse that he could hardly have +breathed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> but now he only got up from his chair with a glow in his +cheeks and a great shining in his eyes, and said he was ready.</p> + +<p>“Good! And suppose, if you shouldn’t be tired of everything before we +get there, suppose we should stop at my house a while, and see if you +can find anything to amuse yourself with? And if you should, and if I +should be busy, as I am very likely to be, suppose we should not come +back at all to-day; or if we didn’t feel in the mood of it, not even +to-morrow, and give you a chance to see if you like life anywhere else +as well as here?”</p> + +<p>The black horse seemed to understand that something to deal tenderly +with was being lifted into the chaise. He stopped pawing the ground as +he always did when he heard the doctor’s step, and instead of dashing +off at the first touch of a loot upon the chaise floor, he stood as +if such a thing as moving had never been heard of, and only looked +over his shoulder with wondering eyes as the doctor placed Creepy +exactly where he wanted him among the cushions, and tucked the lap-robe +carefully round on that side. But it was only a moment; they were all +right then and off, but there was a touch on the rein that told him +very plainly they were not going as fast as usual, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> that every +roughness in the road was to be left one side, or, if that couldn’t be, +smoothed over by the best motion possible.</p> + +<p>“Driving isn’t quite what it might be, yet,” said the doctor; “but +things are getting better every day, and by the end of another week we +may see the dust flying, after all. Do you see that bit of green grass +showing itself over there? We had better feast our eyes while we can, +for we shall be coming to city pavements before we know it.”</p> + +<p>But he seemed to be in no hurry to come to them, or indeed to come to +anything or any place in particular. They took the first turn in the +road, it is true, the same that Creepy used to wonder at in days gone +by, and which Enoch had showed him, in the queer chair, so many times +since; but instead of keeping on after that towards the city, they +swept off into another, and then leisurely on till they came to what +seemed hardly more than a lane, overhung by sweeping branches of great +old trees.</p> + +<p>“There,” said the doctor, “that is the way we shall take when we bring +our fishing rods along with us. Do you see those willows down there, +yellow as gold, and buds swelling on every twig. When they have fairly +burst forth, and made green<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> leaves of themselves, that will be the +time for us to come. But this morning I don’t know that we can do +better than drive a little farther.”</p> + +<p>Creepy did not answer a word, but that was of no consequence with the +doctor; he always understood him just as well when he could not speak. +Was this the world that he had dreamed of so long? Was this what life +had always been to other people, “all but him,” this thrill that was +filling every vein, this joy at his heart, this free fresh air, this +sunlight, this feeling that there was something more, still lying +beyond every turn? He leaned back among the cushions and drew long +deep breaths, as if in that way he could drink more deeply, and make +something more his own.</p> + +<p>The doctor chatted on, they took one turn after another, until at last +there were no more to take, and they were coming fairly into the city. +And now the doctor watched his patient more carefully; he saw that the +great blue veins were swelling up in his forehead as he had not seen +them now for a long time. The palaces and castles, as they seemed to +Creepy’s eyes, the countless, wonderful throngs of people, the hurry +and bustle and bewildering noise, were going to be too much for him; +they must take the shortest cut home. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p> + +<p>That brought them past the little cottage between its two brick +guardians, and Creepy caught sight of the conservatory window. In an +instant he had started up with a sudden cry, his cheeks turned pale and +then crimson, and he leaned past the side of the chaise until, for a +second, the doctor thought he had lost him.</p> + +<p>“Wait a bit, my man,” he said, laughing, as he caught Creepy’s arm; +“they’re worth looking at, that is true enough; but I can’t quite +consent that you should break your neck for the sake of a peep at them. +Sit up now, like a sensible fellow, till I can roll up the curtain and +then we will walk past once or twice and see what we can make of it +all.”</p> + +<p>The curtain was rolled up, and the black horse brought to a walk and +then turned to pass the window again. This time Creepy’s heart <i>did</i> +stand still! Geraniums, azaleas, roses, heliotropes, and jessamines; +and almost loveliest of all, some one standing behind the flowers, her +face as fair as any of them, and her golden hair bound back from her +forehead like rippling sunlight.</p> + +<p>She had caught sight of Creepy too, Nellie Halliday, and though she +could not read the whole story on the quivering face and great shining +eyes, her quick glance told her enough, and when the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> horse had been +turned again and was passing once more for Creepy’s last look, she had +broken off a handful of the rarest flowers, thrown up one of the sashes +a little way, and stood holding them toward him with a smile.</p> + +<p>Creepy turned one entreating look toward the doctor, and then felt the +reins put into his hand; the doctor had sprung down and was taking them +from her.</p> + +<p>“Excuse me,” she was saying, “I thought the little fellow was an +invalid, and that perhaps they might be a pleasure to him, but I’m +afraid I am venturing too much,” and a blush like one of her own roses +spread over her face as the doctor took them from her hand.</p> + +<p>“Quite the contrary,” said the doctor; “my little patient is indebted +to you for his first taste of one of God’s rarest gifts;” and with his +hat still in his hand he was in the chaise again, and the flowers in +Creepy’s grasp.</p> + +<p>“Well, and what do you think of them?” he asked gently, after a few +moments as Creepy still held them reverently, scarcely pressing his +white fingers upon their stems, and turning them from side to side +before his enraptured eyes.</p> + +<p>He turned and looked in the doctor’s face. “I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> think,” he said, “the +King must have made them for his princess.”</p> + +<p>“Good!” said the doctor, “that’s it exactly—or for a princess now and +then. At least I believe that was one who stood holding these out to +you.”</p> + +<p>But there was no time to talk about the flowers, they had stopped +before the doctor’s door. Could Creepy bear anything more?</p> + +<p>With a word to the black horse, the doctor had lifted him gently from +the chaise, and they were going up the steps together. And this was +where the doctor lived! This had been one of the dreams over which +Creepy’s thoughts had run a thousand times, trying to imagine where +it could be, and what it could be like. And here it was, an everyday +sort of place enough to city eyes, too closely between others for any +thought of conservatory windows, a brown-stone front, and an iron +railing up the steps; but grandeur itself to Creepy’s eyes. And now +they were in the office. Books, books on every hand, and marvellous, +mysterious glittering things that he could not divine the use of; an +arm-chair or two, a lounge, and an ivy trailing over the window. But +the doctor gave him very little time to go from one to the other. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Now, my man, or my prince,” he said, with one of his old smiles, +“I want you to remember that even you might possibly, under some +circumstances, get tired, and I’m afraid your physician may not be +pleased if it goes too far; you have done a good deal for one step +out into life, and I have some writing that hasn’t been done. Suppose +I just make you all right on that lounge a while, and you keep quiet +there half an hour or so, while I do a little work by myself. There—I +think that’s about right; now if you should by any accident fall asleep +a few moments, there would be no harm done.”</p> + +<p>The doctor settled himself to his writing, and appeared to have +forgotten there was such a thing in existence as the throbbing little +life that lay upon his sofa; but he did not forget it, not for an +instant, and stole a look once in a while to see how things were going. +He was afraid there had been a little too much; he had planned all he +thought would do very well before the matter of the flowers came up. +But he was soon relieved by seeing the great eyelids droop, then rest +quietly, and in a few moments more he was sure his patient was asleep.</p> + +<p>“That’s good,” he said as he took one more look to make sure he was not +mistaken; “only a child could do that, and I’m glad to see he has even<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> +so much of it in him. Perhaps he’ll grow young enough to make up for +lost time, after all.”</p> + +<p>When Creepy opened his eyes, everything was as he had left it; the +doctor still sat at his table, not an article in the room had moved +from its place, not a wonder had lessened, not a vision had vanished +away. He wasn’t even sure he had been asleep, and the doctor said +nothing about it as he laid down his pen and turned to look at him.</p> + +<p>“There, that’s done,” he said, “and now, I suppose, I ought to go out. +Do you feel rested enough to amuse yourself for a while? I think I’ll +call old Joan to help you for this time. You must make friends with +Joan, for you wouldn’t have had much of a doctor if it hadn’t been for +her. I was smaller than you, and not a bit stronger, when she undertook +to make something of me.”</p> + +<p>He rang the bell, and the gaunt form, cap, and spectacles appeared.</p> + +<p>“Joan, this is the little man I was speaking to you of; he is going to +stay with me to-day, perhaps to-morrow, perhaps longer, if we can make +him like it. Can’t you find something to entertain him with while I +make a few calls?”</p> + +<p>Joan’s face was a study as she looked at the tiny, crooked form, the +pale face, and the great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> dark eyes that still lay on the corner of +the lounge. First, amazement, then perplexity and the tender pity and +readiness to help that are somewhere in every woman’s heart, no matter +how sharp the outlines of her shoulders; and in none more warmly than +in the old Scotch nurse’s, doubtful as she had looked for a moment.</p> + +<p>“Indeed, mon,” she said, “it’s nae sae muckle auld Joan remembers o’ +the tricks that used to amuse yoursel’ in days gone by; not that the +time’s sae very lang past, either, but it’s brought its changes wi’ it, +and I’ve ta’en my share o’ them, I suppose. But I’ll do what’s in my +power for ony visitor o’ yours gladly enough, and more than a’ for a +tired little heart sic as this seems to be.”</p> + +<p>“Well, well,” said the doctor, “I’ll venture it. Tell him some of the +marvellous stories I used to hear, or take him in your own part of the +house, if he likes, and let him see how we manage to live here all by +ourselves. Good-by, my little man; I’ll see you again before you’re +half done with Joan,” and he was gone.</p> + +<p>It seemed a long time, and yet a short one, before the black horse’s +hoofs were heard clattering up to the pavement again. It took all +Creepy’s quick wits to follow Joan in her strange talk and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> make head +or tail of what she was saying, and she found something quite as new to +herself in the gentle, patient soul, the twisted form, and the “unco +sorrowfu’” look that met her out of the brown eyes.</p> + +<p>But they both kept their difficulties to themselves, and got bravely +along with them; and, best of all to Creepy, Joan was never tired of +talking of the doctor.</p> + +<p>“It’ll take a lang day and a lang search,” she said, “to find anither +man of nae mair years than his that can measure off against his little +finger in all that suld mak the warld the better or the happier for his +living in it. There’s mair wisdom in his head than in a hundred that +think themselves equal wi’ him; an’ sic a braw an’ winsome laddie as he +waur, an’ sae strang an’ gladsome, never dree or wearied, an’ I never +kenned him afraid to raise his head amang the proudest, nor feel that +he couldna fash himsel’ to lift up the weakest and the humblest o’ them +a’. Ye canna see it a’ yet, but maybe ye hae kenned him lang enough to +get a glimmer o’ the truth. Dinne ye think sae, bairnie?”</p> + +<p>“I think,” said Creepy, slowly rising up from where he lay, and fixing +the great brown eyes on Joan’s face, “I think the weak and the sick +must<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> come to him as they came to the Lord Christ when he was here. +Don’t you think He has taught him to be like Himself?”</p> + +<p>From that moment Joan would have fought with wild beasts, if it had +been necessary, to protect and cherish her new charge.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER X.</h2> + +<p>A week later Creepy was as quietly domesticated in the doctor’s house +as if he had been left among the inside finishings by the builder; +and instead of the shrinking from everybody and everything that would +once have made it impossible to him, the warm glow in his veins, that +he had thought must be like spring to the earth, kept on, as warm and +as life-giving as ever; his own old “All but me” seemed to have fled +away, and the doctor’s “Why not you?” to have made some little hold for +itself at last.</p> + +<p>And there was still one more change that covered up, if it did not +eclipse, all others: a new suit from the tailor’s, which, though not +“worried out” by Mrs. Ganderby’s “wits and patience,” smoothed away +so much from the queer figure, and showed to so much advantage the +delicacy of face and form there really was, that Joan was actually +proud to have them appear at the front door.</p> + +<p>But the books were the great thing, after all. A whole new set, and the +doctor to hear his <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>lessons, though the doctor did not think as much of +that as Creepy did.</p> + +<p>“Well enough for a while,” he said to himself, “till I can bring him +up to the mark, but I don’t want him moping at home with an old fellow +like me; I want to get him into that schoolhouse over yonder, and let +him get his blood stirred among boys like himself.”</p> + +<p>“Like himself!” he repeated, with a smile; “well, no, not exactly that, +that’s a fact. They’ve got better backs than he has, but he’s got a +head that will beat any half dozen of them together, if they don’t +look sharp. If I saw other people putting a boy of his health over the +ground he’s making, in the same time, I should say they were a set of +fools, but it seems nothing more than play to him. I believe I could +get him admitted there in another six weeks, and he’ll make a steady +run through, if I can only keep up his health, and then—”</p> + +<p>The doctor glanced with a look quite like fatherly pride at Creepy, +where he sat with his hair pushed back from his forehead, his slender +fingers buried in the pages of his book, and the brown eyes devouring +what lay before them.</p> + +<p>“And then,” he went on, “I don’t know about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> trusting him at college. +I’m not sure he’ll have strength for that; but we’ll make a doctor of +him yet, and one that knows what he’s about too, if I’m not very much +mistaken.”</p> + +<p>And so the time slipped away; long, velvety grass made one forget +the snow had ever lain in the fields, the willow-buds had burst and +were swinging like long, gray plumes over the brook, and Creepy and +the doctor had been trouting along its shore. That was a day that +bewildered him as much as the sight of Nelly Halliday’s flowers, but +the doctor was not afraid this time; the cool, fresh air and the quiet +rests under the old trees with the picnic-baskets were a balance on the +other side, and Creepy’s quiet laughs breaking out now and then told +that everything was going right.</p> + +<p>“So,” said the doctor that evening, as Creepy lay curled up in the +sofa-corner for a rest, “do you remember the two things we talked about +under the old butternut-tree? Fishing and going to school, weren’t +they? Well, now we’ve tried one of them and like it pretty well, hadn’t +we better be getting ready for the other?”</p> + +<p>Creepy only laughed and drew himself up with a look that rewarded +the doctor for all the pains he had taken. It was the “Why not you?” +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>smiling quietly out of his eyes, for after he had really gone fishing +with the doctor, what else might not come to pass?</p> + +<p>But not quite yet. Creepy must get used to as much of the new wine of +life as he was tasting now before the doctor could venture on filling +any nearer to the brim; and moreover he was afraid the “Why not you?” +was still a pretty feeble little thing. If anything should happen to +crush it down and break it off to the roots, he did not know as he +should ever be able to raise it again. He was very much afraid the “All +but me” would start up once more and choke it out for ever.</p> + +<p>So Creepy went on with his lessons, and understood Joan better every +day, and drove about behind the black horse until the palaces and +castles began to look more like houses for real men and women. But best +of all was a walk now and then quite by himself past Nelly Halliday’s +window, and more than once he had come home with just such a handful of +treasures as had set him beside himself the first day he came into the +city.</p> + +<p>But if Creepy was getting used to the affair of the flowers, and began +to take it quietly, so that it didn’t set him in a toss any more, the +doctor didn’t seem to be. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Pshaw!” he said to himself as he saw them, “that’s the privilege a +child has without asking for it! I’d give a month of my life to see a +face like that again, and I don’t dare even to steal a look through +the side of my chaise as I drive by, while he can walk up to the very +window-pane and wait till it opens to him.”</p> + +<p>But he only asked quietly, “Who gave them to you, my little man?”</p> + +<p>“The princess,” said Creepy, seriously enough.</p> + +<p>The doctor laughed, and said, “Good,” again, but the second time Creepy +had a different answer.</p> + +<p>“The princess cut them for me, but some one else who was with her +jumped through the window and brought them to me. He was handsome, +too,” and then the doctor had two to envy, instead of one.</p> + +<p>He would not have disturbed himself much about it, though, if he had +seen that it was only Aleck, and had heard him at that very moment +telling Nelly, with great fun in his eyes, that it was all very fine +for him to play humble servant and dispense her favors, until some +older pair of beseeching eyes than their new visitor’s should stand +pleading before the door.</p> + +<p>But Nelly’s sweet thoughts were wandering off after Creepy, and she +would have envied the doctor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> to his heart’s content had she known that +he had the happiness of doing every day and all day long what had only +fallen in her way two or three times, and might never come again.</p> + +<p>“I wish we knew where the little fellow lives, Aleck, and whom he +belongs to. Somebody is kind to him, I know; but it seems strange they +don’t provide him with a few flowers of his own, he seems so ravenous +for them. I’m almost glad they don’t, though, it is so delightful to +have him coming here now and then.”</p> + +<p>The doctor thought it strange, too, and was just then berating himself +for a stupid fellow, that it had never occurred to him how they +would have brightened up the almshouse the last winter. However, he +couldn’t be altogether sorry, and if things had come round so that +Miss Halliday’s flowers were straying into the office, and bringing +in a light and a fragrance such as the dull, old room had never known +before, it was too pleasant to quarrel with altogether.</p> + +<p>“An’ what’s the doctor been making up his mind to, now, I wonder?” +said old Joan to herself as she lingered about with her dusting one +morning. “Something, I ken well eneugh by the glint in his een and the +close-pulled line about his lips.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> Something is sure to happen when his +face sets itsel’ that fashion;” and she was right.</p> + +<p>“Joan,” he said, “the boy is ready to go to school. It is high time; +it’s altogether too dull music shut up here with only an old woman +and a young doctor to speak to from one day to another. The last term +of the year is half out, it is true, but he had better go the half +and make a few acquaintances to amuse himself with through the long +vacation, and then he’ll be ready to start fair and square when the +next year begins.”</p> + +<p>“Hoot, mon,” she said, “canna ye see that the wee bairnie is doing weel +enough whaur he bides, that ye maun tak him and turn him loose amang a +parcel o’ boys that’s mair like wild animals than anything fit to be +trusted wi’ a tender flower ye hae but just now taught to haud up its +head a bit at the best? Only let ane o’ them trample down your wark wi’ +a rough-shod foot, an’ whaur would it be then?”</p> + +<p>“That would be an ugly piece of work,” said the doctor; “but boys are +not so bad as you think, and a wild animal would be a mild term for one +that wouldn’t lend a helping hand when a little fellow like Creepy came +in his way. And that’s the very thing I want; there are some things you +and I can’t do for him, let our will be ever so good.” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Weel, weel,” said Joan, “its no becoming for me to be disputing wi’ a +doctor about his patient; but if any harm comes, it may need doctor and +nurse baith to bring things right again.”</p> + +<p>“We wont look for anything of that kind,” said the doctor; “and as for +‘bringing things right,’ I don’t see that much help is needed from +anybody just now. Did you ever think the boy would stand as straight, +or walk as fast, as you see him to-day? It’s about time to say Good-by +to that name of his, I think, though I don’t know exactly where to look +for another.”</p> + +<p>“And what need hae ye o’ anither, if anither means aught different frae +your ain?” said Joan. “Havena ye as fair a name as the world turns its +ear to, and dinna ye intend keeping the bairn near eneugh yoursel’ to +let him hae a share in it? What harm wad come to ony o’ us if folk +should learn to ca’ him Thorndyke?”</p> + +<p>“None in the world,” said the doctor, laughing, “and if you and he are +agreed, we’ll call it settled.”</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + +<p>The hurrying, scurrying, scrambling stream of boys was once more +leaping and pushing, running and walking up the schoolhouse-stairs, +where Tom had waited so long in vain hope that Hal would “move on.” +There were not so very many of them, not more than thirty-five or forty +at the most; but there was something in the way they were getting up +stairs that would have made any one who wasn’t used to it sure there +were legs and boots enough for fifty or a hundred. They subsided +considerably at the schoolroom-door, though not altogether, as the +bell had not yet rung, but one by one, as they passed in, they seemed +struck into dumb astonishment at what they saw. It was only Creepy +standing by his desk while the professor looked over his books, and +talked pleasantly of the place he had better take in the classes. But +the queer, twisted little form, the great head with its high, white +forehead and brilliant eyes, and the color coming and going like a +living thing in the pale cheeks, seemed to put a spell on the boys, and +held their eyes as if they had seen a hobgoblin, until the professor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> +turned his own upon them with such a flash and frown as sent them off +to their seats and their own affairs in a twinkling. But Creepy hardly +heard what the professor was saying; the rush had taken his breath +away, and though he had not dared look up as it came, he felt every +step that passed near him, and his heart was throbbing again as it had +not since the day when he crept out to his little room after the first +visit from the doctor.</p> + +<p>And it would not be quiet after the bell had rung, and every one was +so busy that he had ventured as many glances as he liked about the +room. Was this school? Were these the boys he was to know and call his +schoolmates and companions? But so many! Such a great crowd! He had not +thought so many boys ever got together in one school; he had hardly +thought there were as many in the city! How should he ever come to know +one from the other? how would he ever dare to speak to any of them? +Oh, why did he come away from the doctor and Joan? He felt happy, and +remembered that he was one of the princes when he was with them; and +the professor, too, he did not mind; the doctor and he had had such a +pleasant talk when the doctor came to introduce him, and he had said so +many kind things already. No,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> he should never be afraid of him, but +there were too many of these boys, and still more in the next room.</p> + +<p>His head felt dizzy and he laid it down upon his desk, and listened to +the hum a while with his eyes shut. How was he ever going to study in +the midst of it?</p> + +<p>But somehow, after the first half hour, it did not seem quite so much, +and by the time the bell struck ten o’clock, Creepy was going on with +his lessons with a steadier pulse and almost a feeling of pleasure +warming up in his heart again. What if he were to like it, after all! +What if some of the boys were even to like him, and they should come +to be friends, as the doctor wished! At any rate, he should see their +games at recess! The doctor had told him about them, and given him a +great many directions not to run too much until he got a little used to +it; he couldn’t understand very well yet, but it would all come right +if he once saw.</p> + +<p>Hum, hum, went the schoolroom, and on went the routine of lessons. If +any of the other boys had been told the new-comer thought it exciting, +they would have called it about the strangest thing they ever heard +of. Carter and Davis were busy at that very moment in the next room +over an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> illustrated almanac they had been getting up, to show how many +days and hours still remained before it would all be over, and the long +vacation come on. How many hours said almanac had taken from their +studies, and how much care had been necessary to conceal it from proper +authorities, were questions they did not vex their souls about; it was +trouble enough to Davis to furnish the plan, the leading ideas, and the +plain work, while Carter designed the illustrations, and a pretty good +thing they had made of it altogether, they thought.</p> + +<p>It lay open now on Carters desk, just inside his astronomy, and he made +a sign to Davis to look at the last and crowning design just completed.</p> + +<p>Davis signalled “Tip-top” with telegraphic taps of his pencil upon his +slate, and then the astronomy-class was called.</p> + +<p>The boys filed past the open door that led from the small room into the +one where Creepy sat, with a quiet, regular step until Aleck reached +it, and his eyes wandering through, caught sight of the face that had +looked in at the conservatory-window with such rapture two or three +times, but had been missing now so long that he and Nelly had feared +they should never meet it again. Without knowing he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> did it, he came +to such a sudden halt that Carter, who was behind him, was “brought up +all standing,” his astronomy knocked from his hand, and the almanac +went skimming away until at last it fluttered down directly before the +professor’s feet.</p> + +<p>“Thank you,” said the professor, with a nod and a bow to Carter; “yes, +I will look at it with pleasure,” and picking it up he turned leaf +after leaf, and studied one after another of the chefs-d’œuvres.</p> + +<p>“Ah,” he said, after what seemed to the two boys an eternity of +suspense, “I really was not aware I had such an artist in the school. +Modesty is a virtue, and shrinks from having its work exhibited, but +such masterpieces as these I must beg to hold up for one moment to the +admiration of the class,” and mounting the platform he took his seat at +the desk, and holding up the almanac to the view of the whole room, he +turned the pages and exhibited one after another of the grand designs +for the five weeks remaining, in every one of which a caricature of +himself formed a prominent figure.</p> + +<p>A suppressed murmur arose as the pictures met the devouring eyes of the +boys, beginning with a bonfire of compositions at which the professor +was trying to warm his icy heart, and ending with the Fourth of July +in the shape of a spread eagle with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> wings of stars and stripes, the +school bell in one talon and the blackboard brush in the other, flying +away with the professor bodily, while a pile of books like a small +haystack was heaped upon its back, geographies, Virgils, philosophies +and grammars, helter-skelter, and hanging together no one could tell +how.</p> + +<p>Carter looked as if he would sink, or at least as if he would give all +he expected to die possessed of, if a knot-hole would open and let him +escape, but Davis made a tremendous effort and kept so unmoved a face +that no one suspected him of having anything to do with the affair.</p> + +<p>“Allow me to congratulate you,” said the professor, as he returned +the almanac, “not only is such talent worthy of commendation, but the +faithful use of time, and the expenditure of precious moments upon +work of genuine importance, will if formed into a habit, become of +life-long value, and I must congratulate myself that accident has +brought the indication of such promise to my notice;” and with another +bow he placed the fated subject of discussion in Carter’s hands, which +would far sooner have reached themselves out for a flogging than to +acknowledge such an ownership.</p> + +<p>The lesson went on, but a more vivid picture<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> filled Aleck’s mind +than any Carter’s pencil could produce. That face at the desk in the +other room! Their eyes had met, and Creepy had recognized him at the +same instant and with a great bound of joy, and was over his book now +without seeing a word, with no room for anything but the thought that +he was here; and Aleck himself had to take good care that he did not +stumble in his recitation, he was so busy thinking what Nelly would +say when he told her whom he had found, and how she would delight to +surprise him with a handful of flowers on his desk now and then.</p> + +<p>But the recitation was over at last and with it the first division of +the morning session; the bell rang for recess and the stream poured out +once more, though soberly as a funeral procession compared with the way +it had passed in a few hours before.</p> + +<p>This was what Creepy had been longing for, and yet when the moment +fairly came, it seemed to him he could not stir. If he could only see +that face that had looked in at the door! But he saw only one strange +one after another, and each glancing curiously at him as it passed.</p> + +<p>But the professor caught sight of him just then and divined the +difficulty. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Don’t you feel like going out? I think I would try if I were you,” he +said with the same smile that had been so reassuring in the morning. +“Here, Haggarty,” he added to Tom, who had hung behind as usual, to +keep clear of something he knew Hal had on his tongue’s end, “take this +boy along with you, can’t you, and see that he makes a good time out of +it somehow. It don’t do to sit here too long without a breath of air.”</p> + +<p>They went down stairs together, and though Creepy thought Tom seemed +to be casting sidelong glances at him, it never occurred to him that +he saw anything peculiar beyond his being a stranger, and the shouts +coming up from the playground had such a tempting sound, that he +hurried over the stairs in a way that astonished Tom beyond measure.</p> + +<p>“This is the way,” said Tom, pushing open the door, and leading Creepy +out, with a feeling that he would do anything in the world if he only +knew what was the right thing, but that he really didn’t, he took +refuge in a corner close at hand, and a little off the common track of +the players.</p> + +<p>“Hurrah for Carter and his almanac!” was the shout just now coming up, +“Carter’s almanac, the newest thing out!” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p> + +<p>“I say, old fellow, is it time to look out for storms?” cried Hal +Fenimore’s voice.</p> + +<p>“And I say, what quarter of the moon is best for sowing winter wheat?” +said another.</p> + +<p>“You don’t give away those almanacs, do you?” cried a third; “if you do +I want the first chance.”</p> + +<p>“Come, come,” said Aleck, who had been distressed enough at being the +unlucky cause of all the trouble, “what’s the use of harping for ever +on one string. Let’s have a game of ball, or time will be up before we +know it.”</p> + +<p>The mousers scattered again, and drew off for their game, while another +set were establishing bounds for a run of tag. All this had been Greek +to Creepy; he hadn’t understood a word, but it would all come to him in +time, he supposed, if he could ever get through this business of being +acquainted. Aleck had watched for him when the stream first poured out, +but had given him up before now, and moved off, and poor little Tom, +feeling more and more awkward every moment, made a great effort at last +to say, “They’re going to have a game; don’t you want to come?”</p> + +<p>Creepy hesitated a moment, trying to find voice.</p> + +<p>“What a plague! He isn’t going to answer at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> all,” thought Tom, and +in a fit of desperation, dreading above all lest Hal should get a +sight of the situation, plunged his hands into his pockets, and walked +away to join the players. A sudden thought sent Aleck back into the +school-room, and Creepy, who had caught one glimpse of him, felt his +last hope depart.</p> + +<p>“However nobody seems to be taking any notice,” he thought, “and I can +look on, at any rate, I suppose, of course.”</p> + +<p>So this was a real game of ball, that he had so longed to see ever +since the doctor first described it to him! He couldn’t understand it +yet, any better than the talk about the almanac, but the shouts and the +quick runs and the eager contest took hold of him in a moment, and he +forgot himself and his embarrassment together.</p> + +<p>“Oh what sport that must be,” he thought, as the game went on; “and how +strong they are, and how swift, and what throws they make! I wonder if +I shall ever learn? Of course I shall, the doctor said I should;” and +his cheek warmed again, not as it had when the boys rushed into the +school-room, but with as spirited a glow as the swiftest runner felt in +his.</p> + +<p>“Hurrah!” shouted the chorus, at an extra toss,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> and “hurrah,” echoed +Creepy, silently to be sure, but with none the less gusto for all that.</p> + +<p>“Oh how I should like to try! I wonder when they’ll ask me;” and +suddenly the thought that no one noticed him, which had been such a +refuge at first, rushed on him with a very disagreeable suggestion and +brought the old “all but me” nearer to his lips than it had been for +months. But just then he saw that they <i>were</i> noticing him; the game +was halting and more than one group were putting their heads together +and glancing towards his corner with whispers that must have something +to do with him.</p> + +<p>“You ought to ask him to play,” said Tom, whose feeling of +responsibility in the matter had made him decidedly uncomfortable all +the time—only, as he had declared at first, he really didn’t know what +to do.</p> + +<p>“Humph,” said Carter, who, still smarting under his own humiliation, +felt that it would be a relief to put somebody else in his place, “ask +<i>him</i> to play! A bright idea that would be. What’s a fellow like him +going to do?”</p> + +<p>The words floated over to Creepy’s ears, though they were not really +intended to do so, and sent the blood tingling to his fingers’ ends, +and the thought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> of the doctor seemed as far off as if a whole world +lay between them.</p> + +<p>The boys laughed and the game began again, but a feeling like ice was +gathering around Creepy’s heart. He was not to play! They would not +ask him! “Why not you?” Perhaps he did not hear, perhaps he had made a +mistake. Oh, where was the doctor? Why had he ever come here at all?</p> + +<p>“I say, you ought to do it,” began Tom again, uneasily; “the professor +said he was to have a good time out of it somehow.”</p> + +<p>“Suppose you mind your own business,” said Carter; but it seemed to +Davis, who felt himself “just on the brink” with the professor about +the almanac, that he might lay an anchor to windward, and he made his +way across to where Creepy stood.</p> + +<p>“Hallo, can you pitch a ball?” he asked.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know, I never tried,” said Creepy, forcing the words from +between his lips.</p> + +<p>“Well, take this,” said Davis, falling back a little, “and stand about +where you are, and let me have it the best you know how.”</p> + +<p>Creepy took the ball and threw it with a trembling hand; it struck the +ground some distance from Davis’ feet. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Ha, ha,” shouted Carter, “how’s that for high?”</p> + +<p>“How is that for Humpy?” answered Hal Fenimore, in a rather low tone, +but heard well enough for all that.</p> + +<div class="center"><div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<div>“Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,</div> +<div>Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.”</div> +</div></div></div> + +<p>Half a dozen voices in the crowd took up the chorus, and it rang across +the playground until Tom looked up at the professor’s window in agony.</p> + +<p>Ah, those words! The lame child understood it all now! In one instant +the veil his good angel had hung for all those years between his +eyes and his deformity was taken away and an evil demon seemed to be +chuckling the whole truth in his ear.</p> + +<p>He was a cripple, a hunchback, an ugly thing to look upon! He should +never be like other people, and other people would never forget that he +was unlike them. Wherever he went he was to be marked, ridiculed, and +avoided! A prince indeed! Ah, the doctor had been mocking him, mocking +him, with all the rest! The lonely life he had thought ended to-day, +had in reality only begun, for “what was a fellow like him going to +do?” Who wanted a humpback to take a share in their games, much less to +be counted among their friends?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> What was there for him but to shrink +away and hide from scornful eyes for ever?</p> + +<p>His eager, glowing face had turned white as marble; the great eyes +dilated and flashed. He drew himself up for a moment, quite beyond +his poor shrunken height, and then with a wild cry, started from the +grounds and fled away down the street. Away, away! Anywhere that his +flying feet could carry him, only <i>away</i> from everybody and everything!</p> + +<p>The boys stood and looked in each others’ faces without a word. “I +guess you’ve done it now,” said Davis, turning to where Carter stood.</p> + +<p>“I didn’t do it,” said Carter, too near being really terrified to +retort as warmly as he might another time. “Better aim where it belongs +if you’ve got anything to say.”</p> + +<p>At this moment Aleck ran down the steps, looking as if in search of +some one.</p> + +<p>“I say, Tom,” he began, “where’s that little fellow that came this +morning? I thought he was up stairs, but the professor says he made him +over to you. What have you done with him?”</p> + +<p>Tom’s tongue was fast to the roof of his mouth, and Aleck looked at the +tell-tale faces of the other boys. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Look here!” and his eyes flashed as the boys had never seen them, +“don’t tell me there’s a coward among you dastardly enough to touch a +helpless little fellow that’s carrying a burden like that!”</p> + +<p>“We didn’t touch him,” muttered Hal Fenimore. “I suppose he didn’t like +what we had to say, and he stepped out.”</p> + +<p>“Didn’t touch him! You’d better have touched him, better have struck +him in the face a hundred times over, than—which way did he go?”</p> + +<p>Tom pointed to one of the gates, and Aleck followed through it in a +flash, and was looking up and down the street; but in vain—only brisk, +erect walkers were passing on as far as his eye could reach. He ran a +little way past one corner and then another, but no crooked, dwarfed +little figure was in sight; and burning with indignation, he came +hastily back, to find the bell had rung and the boys had taken seats +some time before.</p> + +<p>And was that the professor standing in the desk, his eyes flashing +fire, his face white, and his voice so terrible that half the boys had +got their heads hidden behind one thing or another, as if they thought +it was going to strike them?</p> + +<p>“Didn’t think, and didn’t touch him!” he was thundering, in answer +to the excuses offered; “you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> <i>did</i> think; you thought it would be a +pleasure to see a suffering little life crushed down still farther +under your taunts! And you <i>did</i> touch him; you touched him with words +that were sharper than a serpent’s tooth, and may rankle like poisoned +arrows in his heart to the latest day of his life! No one could ever +have made me believe that I had such a school; and I could give it up +now, and give my whole time to one little fellow like that you have +driven away, with more hope of reward than I feel with you to-day.”</p> + +<p>There was no reprimand for Aleck’s tardiness; the professor understood +too well. He had missed the two boys together, and on inquiring for +them the truth had come out. It seemed as if the rest of that morning +never would take itself away, but it was gone at last, and the boys +filed out under the still scornful glances of the master.</p> + +<p>But as Aleck passed he beckoned him to the desk with a different look.</p> + +<p>“You are a friend of that little fellow?” he asked.</p> + +<p>“I’d like to be,” said Aleck; “but though I’ve seen him two or three +times, I didn’t know his name or even where he lives.”</p> + +<p>“You know where Dr. Thorndyke’s is?” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p> + +<p>Aleck nodded assent.</p> + +<p>“Well, he belongs there, and I want to send our apologies to the +doctor; excuses I have none. Will you go and see how much harm has +been done, and say whatever can be said? And assure the doctor, if he +will try once more, not only shall there be no more trouble, but every +possible reparation shall be made.”</p> + +<p>Aleck took the commission gladly, but at the same time doubtfully +enough. Now he should be able to tell Nelly that he had really found +him; but to “say whatever was to be said,” was not so easy, by a long +mark. Still he must know the worst of what had been done, and perhaps +it might not be so very bad, after all, and it would certainly be +some comfort to the little fellow to hear what a towering wrath the +professor was in about it.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + +<p>The black horse stood at the door, but Joan had no idea of letting +Aleck see the doctor. It was part of her duty to stand guard over his +minutes and save them for him when she could.</p> + +<p>“The doctor’s hame,” she said; “I’ll nae deny it, but it’s no +office-hours, and I mind he’s engaged just at this moment. If ye wad +hae the gudeness to call again atween the hours o’ twa and three ye +might see him then wi’ convenience to every one, or if ye will e’en +leave an order on the slate. It hangs just here in the reach o’ all.”</p> + +<p>“Thank you,” said Aleck; “but if the doctor is engaged, can I see—” +he hesitated, for in all the excitement of coming off he had not even +asked the professor Creepy’s name.</p> + +<p>“The little fellow that—that came to school this morning?” he went on.</p> + +<p>“The wee bairnie? He’s no come hame, and unco whiles it is to keep a +bit thing like him cooped between walls where never a breath of free +air or sunshine can find its way.”</p> + +<p>“He’s not come home?” said Aleck in alarm,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> “then I <i>must</i> see the +doctor!” and Joan, frightened herself, though she did not know why, +opened the office-door without another word.</p> + +<p>The doctor stood before the library with an open book in his hand, +studying up authorities on a difficult point, but one glance at Aleck +brought back his thoughts and sent a misgiving through them like a +flash; he remembered seeing him on the school-grounds that morning.</p> + +<p>“Have you a message from the little fellow at the school?” he asked, +with one of his quick looks, and without waiting for Aleck.</p> + +<p>“No, sir, I hoped I should find him here; but the professor wished me +to say how much he regretted—indeed, sir, he is very sorry, as well +as very angry, and we cannot really tell how it happened, but the boys +did something or said something at recess that troubled him, and he +disappeared before any one could tell which way he went. The professor +was sure he was at home, or he would have sent sooner, but—”</p> + +<p>Before the sentence was finished the doctor had thrown his book across +the room with such force that it went flying through the open window, +where nothing but the iron railing of the little balcony outside saved +it from the sidewalk, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> doctor himself was halfway out of the +front-door. He turned suddenly and put his hand on Aleck’s shoulder.</p> + +<p>“Thank you, my man,” he said, “and thank the professor for me, if you +please,” and in another instant he was gone, and sparks were flying +from under the black horse’s hoofs, almost out of sight down the road +leading to the almshouse. He did not know why he chose it, except that +it was the way he had taken so many times to find him before, and the +one most familiar to Creepy himself. On, on, a mile, more than a mile, +no distance at all to the flying hoofs, but a walk the doctor had never +consented to Creepy’s trying yet, though he had begged for it more than +once. The almshouse was in sight now, but there was Enoch working on +the road, and taking off his hat with as grand a flourish and as serene +a smile as if he had never heard of such a thing as trouble in the +world. Creepy could not have gone that way, but here was the old turn +in the road that he used to visit so often.</p> + +<p>A sudden thought struck the doctor. They had passed in there to follow +the trout brook, and down the road, perhaps half a mile away, was a +great overhanging rock, facing the brook, covered with moss, and a deep +velvety bed of moss beneath<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> it. Creepy had looked at it, and said what +a place that would be to hide from a storm, and the doctor remembered +the half-laughing half-serious look in his face as he said it.</p> + +<p>He turned the black horse with a whirl round the corner and down the +road toward the point where the rock lay. Not a trace of any one yet, +and none to ask whom they had seen; but now the rock was coming in +sight, and what was that fluttering on a torn splinter of the fence? +Something white, a little thing, one of the very handkerchiefs Joan +had been hemming in such a hurry that “the wee bairnie suld be as weel +supplied wi’ everything as ony he might meet wi’ at the school.”</p> + +<p>Was that Creepy, that poor little huddled up heap of something lying +there, with hands holding tightly the very roots of the moss, and a +white face half buried in its depths?</p> + +<p>For one instant, at the sound of the doctor’s step, he raised the eyes +that had been so bright that morning; but in another he had turned them +hastily away.</p> + +<p>“What did you come here for?” he cried, as he had once before so long +ago; “what does any one come to me for? I came here to be alone! No<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> +one must come to me again! No one must ever look at me until I die!”</p> + +<p>The doctor stooped and lifted Creepy gently but firmly in his arms.</p> + +<p>“Yes, they must,” he said, “<i>I</i> must come and take you away from here +this very moment. Don’t you know you might die, lying on such a bed as +that all this time?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I <i>wish</i> I could! I wish I were dead, dead, dead!” and then +suddenly raising his head, he looked almost fiercely in the doctor’s +face.</p> + +<p>“No I don’t! I <i>don’t</i> wish it, for then the angels would cry out, +‘Look at Humpy!’ when they saw me coming! Oh, where shall I go? Where +will no one ever come?”</p> + +<p>What the doctor would have said at that moment, if he could have +reached the right people to say it to, and how much more terrible +than even the professor’s his words would have been, there was no +opportunity to know. He clenched his teeth together for a moment as if +he were fighting a terrible battle with something, and then spoke in +tenderer tones than even Creepy had ever heard from him, but with the +same ring in them that had always brought comfort to the lame child.</p> + +<p>“Where shall you go? I hope you don’t want<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> to go anywhere away from +me; don’t you know you are all I have in the world, little man?”</p> + +<p>Once more Creepy opened his eyes and looked at him. All through the +long hour that he had lain there, an hour that had seemed like a year +of agony sweeping through his life, the same evil voice that had +whispered to him on the playground, had brought up every such word the +doctor had ever spoken, and thrown them at him like cruel taunts! He +had been mocking him with all the rest! It was not <i>true</i> there was a +place in the world and a share in it for him, as well as other people! +He had never meant it, he had known better all the time! How dared he +ever tell him so!</p> + +<p>But he was here again, he had come to find him, he <i>did</i> care! He had +not meant to mock him, it was <i>not</i> all a vanished dream!</p> + +<p>With a low cry he threw his arms around the doctor’s neck and clung +convulsively there, and in another moment Jet looked wonderingly over +his shoulder again while the doctor, one arm still holding the crippled +child, stepped into the chaise and gathered up the reins with his free hand.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + +<p>There never had been anything in the professor’s school like the +excitement that was buzzing in every corner the next morning before the +bell rang. The boys were gathered in groups here and there, and the +affair of the day before, and its probable consequences, were the only +subjects under discussion.</p> + +<p>“I say, Carter,” said one of the smaller boys, “I guess you wont hear +much more about the almanac, after what you had to do with this!”</p> + +<p>“What did I have to do with it?” retorted Carter. “If you’ve got +anything to say, you’d better keep it for the one that was first to +call out <i>Humpy</i>!”</p> + +<p>“And if it comes to that,” answered Hal, bravely enough, but looking +rather pale, “the first one never would have been heard if a dozen or +more of you hadn’t taken it up and shouted it loud enough for all the +world to hear. There’s a few of you to divide what the professor has to +say anyhow.”</p> + +<p>“Well, never mind who it was,” said another voice, “but what’s up +anyhow? What’s the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>mischief done, and what’s the professor going to do +about it?”</p> + +<p>No one seemed to have an answer to these questions, and at last Tom +ventured, though terrified at the sound of his own words.</p> + +<p>“They say he’ll never get over it; they say he’s going to die.”</p> + +<p>“Pshaw!” said Carter, “die of what?” but Tom’s words sounded very +disagreeably and there was a moment’s silence again.</p> + +<p>“Well,” said one of the larger boys at last, “it’s too bad anyhow; it’s +a shame to crowd a little fellow like that, that’s never had half a +chance, though I don’t know as anybody meant to do it; but anyhow the +professor is in a terrible way, and I don’t know how he’s going to get +over it, if one or two fellows don’t get a ticket of leave before he’s +done with the thing.”</p> + +<p>This had about as ugly a sound as what Tom had said, and the boys +feeling there wasn’t much comfort to be had in pursuing the subject, +broke up and went slowly into their places. But that was only fleeing +into the very teeth of the tempest. The black eyes of the professor +were fixed on the door, and each one as he entered had to pass under a +look so scathing that it seemed every guilty <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>conscience must be read +through to the depths. And when he did speak, the words of yesterday +seemed only the first mutterings of a storm that was crashing over +their very heads to-day.</p> + +<p>“Would you like to hear the message Dr. Thorndyke sends to my school +this morning? He sends you word that he doesn’t know whether you have +killed the little fellow or not; the chances of life and death seem +about equal at present; but that you might about as well have killed +him, as to do the work you did for him, body and soul!</p> + +<p>“And <i>I</i> would rather have heard that any misfortune had fallen on +you, than that you were capable of so cowardly a deed: striking at the +one little glimmer of light that was struggling up in a poor life like +that, and putting it out for ever, for aught you know! I have seen +enough of the same spirit among yourselves—the spirit that delights in +seeing another humiliated and pained; and it’s base and contemptible +enough even where each one takes his turn and stands his chance with +the rest. But when it comes to a little creature who, with hardly the +physical strength that lies in the left-hand of one of you great, +cowardly fellows, is trying to stand up, and <i>is</i> standing like a hero +under the burden Heaven has seen fit to lay upon him, I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> have no words +for it. If I had had the least conception of the natures you have, I +would have gone down into the playground and defended him from you as +I would from a company of tigers; and with more need, for I believe +many a wild beast would have found some noble instinct by which the +strong cherishes the weak, and have saved his life. And if I can learn +the names of those who are responsible in this affair, I will expel +them every one from my school, for nothing I can teach them from books +will ever make anything better than brutes of them, until they learn +what are the first elements of a manly nature and a life that is above +contempt!”</p> + +<p>There was no hiding away this time. No one dared to hide, lest he +should be taken for the guilty one; but guilty and innocent alike +almost felt their blood stand still before the professor was done +with them, and could bring those flashing eyes back from their sweep +around the room and fasten them down upon anything like a book. Carter +felt that if he could only live through the next six weeks, till his +graduation, he would not meet the professor’s eyes again as long as +he lived, if he could help it; Hal Fenimore had a mental somerset by +which his memory carried him back to the night of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> chess-playing +with Tom, and a vague idea occurred to him that what his uncle had +said about “principles” then hadn’t altogether a different key-note +from what the professor was thundering this morning; and poor innocent +little Tom sat trembling with the feeling that in some way the whole +thing lay at his door, and would almost have been ready to change +places with Creepy, if that could in any sense have undone or atoned +for it.</p> + +<p>Aleck sat feeling almost as much distressed as Tom with the thought +how different everything might have been if he had spied Creepy before +going back to the schoolroom, where his errand had really been to see +if he could find him. He had followed slowly behind, when the doctor +left the house in such hot haste, wishing he could do something or +search somewhere—but where? He felt sure the doctor knew, however, +from the unhesitating way he had dashed off, and it would be all right; +but when evening came he felt as if he must go once more and see how +things really were, and, moreover, he had given only half of the +professor’s message. Perhaps there had been no great harm done, after +all, and it would be such a comfort to know.</p> + +<p>But he would hardly have mustered courage if<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> he had realized the +reception he was to meet with. The moment Joan recognized him she +bristled like a watch-dog that had seen one onset upon his charge, and +did not know how to be furious enough in guarding it from a second. Her +face was white and hard, the spectacles sat grimly on her nose, and +she held the door so little open that her own form filled the space, +as if she thought Aleck was going to squeeze himself in if the least +opportunity were left.</p> + +<p>“He’s asleep,” she said in a sharp, dry tone, “and the doctor says +he’s to remain sae for mony an hour yet, and it’s o’ the Lord’s mercy +that there’s aught in the power o’ medicine that can do it for a puir +suffering soul and body that a parcel o’ iron-clad boys have made it +their pleasure to trample upon.”</p> + +<p>“Is he so very ill?” asked Aleck, too much troubled to be intimidated +by her manner. “The boys will want to know how he is.”</p> + +<p>“The boys!” exclaimed Joan; “we want nane o’ their messages, but if ye +will tak them ane from mysel’, ye might tell them—”</p> + +<p>She checked herself. “Na, na, that were a sinfu’ thought; I maun forgie +as I hope to be forgi’en; but it’s a cruel sight to look upon a little +life that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> the doctor had been cherishing and nourishing as no other +man could or would hae done, and see it lyin’ there now a crushed and +blighted thing.”</p> + +<p>“Is he too ill?” ventured Aleck once more; “do you think he will be too +ill when he wakes to care for these flowers my sister has sent him? He +has seemed to like them once or twice before.”</p> + +<p>“And were it your very sel’,” exclaimed Joan, throwing open the door, +“were it your very sel’ that made the bairnie’s heart sae glad mony a +time, when he’d never kenned before sae muckle as the fashion God made +a flower to grow in? Come inside, then, and see the doctor himsel’. It +will do his heart good to see a face that has once looked friendly on +the bairn.”</p> + +<p>“No,” said Aleck, “I wont come in now, thank you, but I would like to +come every day for a while and ask how he is.”</p> + +<p>“Come, then,” said Joan, “and as often as ye like, and the first day +he’s weel eneugh to speak to ony friend but the twa that’s truest to +him, ye shall e’en talk wi’ him a bit yoursel’.”</p> + +<p>Joan wondered what made the doctor start, just the merest trifle, as +she carried the flowers to him and told him where they came from, and +she didn’t hear him say to himself, “So, so! the little fellow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> has +been thinking he hasn’t a friend in the world, and he’s richer than I +am this very moment!” She marched off up stairs again to take another +look at Creepy, and make sure the medicine was doing its work, and +that he was still asleep. But the doctor had looked out for that; and +wherever Creepy might be wandering, this world with all its ugliness +and sharp places was shut out; perfect rest for body and heart was the +only hope for saving them from going down together under the shock they +had received, and not until late the next morning did Creepy open his +eyes with anything like a clear look at things around him.</p> + +<p>There stood the doctor, looking as strong and as fresh and exactly the +same in every way as the first day he saw him under the old butternut.</p> + +<p>“Well, little man, and so you have waked at last. You and I both had a +nap of it last night; but the sun is shining and the birds are singing +for us once more.”</p> + +<p>“All but me!”</p> + +<p>“All but me!” those self-same dreaded, almost forgotten words once +more. So that miserable work of yesterday had brought them to life, +and killed everything else at the same time! The doctor stepped out +of sight, and for one instant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> Creepy did not know where he was. Only +at the window, having a sharp tussle with yesterday’s battle again; +but the next moment he was at Creepy’s side once more, looking just as +before, and holding Nellie Halliday’s flowers before his eyes.</p> + +<p>“See here, little man, the world is beautiful after all, is it not?”</p> + +<p>“All but me,” and the great eyes looked wearily at the doctor.</p> + +<p>It took all the self-command the doctor could muster at that moment to +place the vase quietly on the table again, and take Creepy’s pulse in +his fingers without letting him suspect how hotly his own were flying.</p> + +<p>“What is it?” he asked as gently as if there were neither battles nor +enemies to be thought of, as Creepy closed his eyes and turned wearily +on his pillow.</p> + +<p>“Only the pain.”</p> + +<p>“The old pain?”</p> + +<p>Creepy nodded, and the doctor laid down his hand and stepped quietly +out of sight again, for that was the very story he had dreaded to +hear. There it was, raging and burning up and down the twisted spine, +the same trouble as of old, and threatening<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> not only to undo all the +winter’s work, but to make mischief ten times greater than had ever +been there before.</p> + +<p>“Hoot!” muttered Joan from the half-open door where she had been +watching the whole scene, “and fever too, plain eneugh, and as dree a +pain i’ the head, I warrant, as in the puir back itsel’, wi’ sic great +cords o’ blue veins swellin’ above the bairn’s brow. Not a word wad the +doctor hearken when I told him a cripple like itsel’ wad be wantin’ a +nurse ane day; but now the day has come, the nurse shall be Joan and +nane beside;” and stalking noiselessly to the head of the bed she took +her stand.</p> + +<p>Aleck came the next day and the next; there was only the same story to +be told.</p> + +<p>“He’s no himsel’ at all yet, wi’ all the drugs and sleeping potions +we’re striving to rest his soul and body wi’,” Joan said, and Aleck +turned away, feeling miserable enough. As he reached the corner, he +heard some one call him, and Carter came running up from behind.</p> + +<p>“I say,” he said, pointing back toward Dr. Thorndyke’s, “have you been +up there?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said Aleck.</p> + +<p>“What’s the news there?” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Just the same.”</p> + +<p>“Do they call him very sick?”</p> + +<p>“I’m afraid so. It’s the shock, they say, and the long run, and lying +so long on the wet ground. They say even if he pulls through this, +he’ll never be well again.”</p> + +<p>“Well, it’s a shame,” said Carter, “and I’d give all I’m worth if I’d +had nothing to do with it. But I felt so confounded mean when they were +all letting me have it about that miserable almanac, that I couldn’t +help letting fly at the first game that came along.”</p> + +<p>“And did that take off any of the meanness?” asked Aleck.</p> + +<p>“Did it? I tell you I could have sold myself for a yellow dog any +minute since. I didn’t see it at the time; but if I ever get through +with this, I’m going to start things on a different tack somehow. The +only trouble is to see just how.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll tell you how,” said Aleck. “If you could manage to remember how +the Lord has treated us, and that the only way to make a gentleman +or a Christian, is the one he taught us, to love him first, and your +neighbor as yourself.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, but it makes a fellow too much of a prig to keep going over all +that in his mind all the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> time, and measuring a text to everything he +does or says.”</p> + +<p>“Well, don’t go over it in your mind then,” said Aleck smiling; “just +feel it in your heart, and you’ll be all right without stopping to +measure anything when the time comes.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know,” said Carter, “but I must manage it somehow; I’ll never +be mean enough to make anybody else feel mean again, if I can help +it. But what’s the professor going to do about it? Has he found out +anything yet?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know; I think he’s got an idea he’d have to come into the +graduating class, and he don’t like to break that up. And I heard the +doctor begging him not to make any trouble.”</p> + +<p>“Good for him,” said Carter, with a grateful warming at his heart; “it +would make a horrid mess for me at home if I got into trouble just now. +The executive has some pretty strict notions, and I should be likely +to lose something I’ve been fighting hard for, for a year. Do you +know what I want to strike for when I’ve done with Latin grammar and +all that rubbish? I want to go to sea, and my father wants me in the +counting-house with him. Think of that! Mounted up on a stool behind a +set of leather-covered books, with never<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> a chance to stretch yourself, +or breathe the air from morning till night, and smelling of everything +from gunny-bags up.”</p> + +<p>“And what do you expect to smell if you get aboard ship?” asked Aleck +laughing.</p> + +<p>“Oh, I don’t know; horrid things enough, I suppose, but there +will always be a sniff of the glorious old ocean, and the feeling +you’re a free man, any how. That is to say, after you get on to the +quarter-deck, and that’s what I shall aim for, and make it too, as +fast as those things can be done. There are ships enough coming to the +counting-house every year to give all the boys in the firm good berths +if they wanted them; and as I’m the only one that does, it would seem +pretty tough if I couldn’t have one. The counting-house! Bah!”</p> + +<p>“Where do you think I’m going, if you think the counting-house so bad?” +asked Aleck.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know. Where?”</p> + +<p>“In with Uncle Ralph.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t mean it!” exclaimed Carter, looking at him in amazement. “I +thought you were a dead shot for the law.”</p> + +<p>“So dead that I shall never come to life again, I guess,” said Aleck. +“Just step in one week<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> after graduation, and you’ll find me there +behind the counter, mixing up everything that ever went into a mortar, +and not feeling myself anything but a free man either. But you never +could rest on dry land since I knew you, and I suppose you must follow +your destiny.”</p> + +<p>“And when I have caught it, I’ll come to you to fit out my medicine +chest, and we’ll have time then to decide who’s having the best of it,” +said Carter. “But see here, can’t a fellow do anything down there at +the doctor’s? It would be a sort of comfort to make amends if there was +any way to do it.”</p> + +<p>Aleck shook his head.</p> + +<p>“He wont be fit to see any one for longer than I like to think, and I +believe his old nurse would sooner let a flying dragon into the house, +if she knew you belonged to the school. Making amends is a comfort that +don’t always come after a piece of work like that.”</p> + +<p>“That’s a fact,” said Carter; “well, let me know if there’s a chance +turning up anywhere;” and the two boys separated.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + +<p>Aleck came for news every day for a week before he got any different +report, but at last the hard anxious look had lifted a little from +Joan’s face, and she almost smiled as she saw who was there.</p> + +<p>“The bairnie’s waked once mair,” she said, “and lifts his een at us as +if he kenned wha were his friends again, and the doctor’ll no object to +his having a pillow on the lounge for a bit change, the day. But the +pain is unco dree, and shows no sign o’ wearin’ out for many a day, +though the Lord suld een show pity and tak it frae him at the last. +But ye’ll come again, and I mak nae doubt we’ll soon find the day when +ye can speak wi’ him yoursel’, and get his ain thanks for all your +kindness.”</p> + +<p>But the doctor was not quite ready for any more experiments just yet. +If he had been sure that Creepy had only seen Aleck at the window, +he would gladly have tried, but he would have liked to keep every +remembrance of the school out of his sight for ever. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p> + +<p>But in a few days more, it showed plainly that something must be done, +or he would have only the same little patient as a year ago on his +hands, and with nothing like the hope there was of better things.</p> + +<p>“They’ve done their work well, those boys,” he said. “I should say +that was the same grieved hopeless face, the same old pain, and the +same silent matter-of-course bearing of it, that I found under that +dismal old butternut-tree a year ago. The only difference is, it’s got +a ten-times stronger hold than it ever had before, the pain as well +as the rest of it, and I’m afraid it’s a life business this time. I +can’t get a word from the child unless I fight for it, and I don’t dare +try even that, for fear of that miserable ‘all but me,’ that’s taken +possession of him again. I wish those fellows at the school could just +once see the smile he tries to give me, as if he wanted things to be +comfortable with <i>me</i>, though there was no hope for <i>him</i> in the world. +And there isn’t, if time and doing just the right thing don’t bring him +up out of this better than I see any promise of just now; and what that +right thing is, isn’t so easy to decide from one day to another.”</p> + +<p>The doctor paced the room two or three times,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> and then stopped and +shot one of the old quick looks and warming smiles into Creepy’s face.</p> + +<p>“See here, little man, do you know what friend has been bringing you +these flowers ever since you were sick?”</p> + +<p>Creepy shook his head.</p> + +<p>“I haven’t any friends except you—you two,” he said.</p> + +<p>“Haven’t you? Perhaps you have more than you think. Do you remember who +jumped through a window to give you a bunch of roses one day? It is he, +and he wants to see you. Do you think you feel well enough to-day?”</p> + +<p>“Oh no!” exclaimed Creepy, shrinking back among his pillows with almost +a look of terror, and a hot flush coming up to his face, “don’t let +<i>any</i> one come here! Don’t let any one come to see me ever again, as +long as I live!” and the doctor saw the slender fingers tremble as he +shut them tightly together.</p> + +<p>“Well, well,” said the doctor quickly, “no one shall come until you +wish it, but perhaps you will think differently before long. You will +be tired of Joan and me some day;” and he turned off to talking of +something else.</p> + +<p>But he would not leave it so long. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p> + +<p>“This will never do,” he said, when he had waited a few days more and +Creepy was regularly established on the lounge; “the child must have +his medicines, however bitter the first taste may be, and he needs just +what he did need when I sent him to school. If he had found companions +then, instead of a set of wild animals—” The doctor stopped, for he +didn’t like to finish the sentence, even in his thoughts. The contrast +of what might have been, with what was likely to be, was too sharp.</p> + +<p>So he turned suddenly and lifted Creepy in his arms. “Look here, little +man,” he said, “whose word would you take first, mine or the first +person’s you might happen to come across?”</p> + +<p>Creepy hesitated.</p> + +<p>The recollection of the whispering he had heard as he lay under the old +rock, shot through him. “The doctor had been mocking him with all the +rest;” but he could not think so; he knew it was a lie—and yet!</p> + +<p>“Eh, little man?” asked the doctor again, waiting for his answer.</p> + +<p>“I know—I know you always tell me what you think is true,” he said at +last.</p> + +<p>The doctor wouldn’t notice how he shaped what he said, and went on. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Good. Do you remember I told you once there was a place in the world +and a share in it for you, the same as for anyone else? Well, I told +you the truth, and it is just as true to-day as it was then, but +there’s a battle to share in, as well as a kingdom. We’ve each got to +take our place in the ranks, little man, and you with the rest, and +you’ve got some fighting to do that doesn’t come to all of us for each +one has his own. As a general thing you’ve got to fight this old pain +of yours I’m afraid. I hoped it was sent where it would never find its +way back, but I’m afraid now we shall have more or less of it in the +way, for a good many years. And you’ll have to fight with feeling tired +and ill a good deal, while you see others well and strong; and you’ll +have to remember that you are small and crooked while you see them tall +and straight. And you will have to know that every one who looks at you +for the first time will notice this, though those who know you will +never think of it, unless to be sorry.</p> + +<p>“Do you think you can step right into the ranks and meet all this +like a brave soldier, remembering that you are serving the King and +the Elder Brother? Never mind about answering just now; you can think +about it awhile, and remember he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> has not set you to do this without +providing you with weapons. He has given you a nature that can make +every one love you, and a brain that can make every one respect you, +and can enable you to leave half the rest of the world behind in +anything you undertake; and I promise you you’ll get stronger, and find +yourself richer, every day you carry on the fight, like a brave little +man as you are.”</p> + +<p>The fight began then and there! <i>Must</i> he, <i>could</i> he go out into the +world again? Must he let any one but the doctor and Joan look at him? +must he hear what any one might choose to say? He <i>had</i> thought he +could <i>never</i> open the doctor’s door again, never see a boy of his own +age, never see any one. But if it was serving the King and the Elder +Brother! If <i>they</i> wished it! And if they would think he were a coward +or a shirk if he didn’t come up!</p> + +<p>There isn’t sharper fighting on many a battle-field, than went on in +the corner of Creepy’s lounge that day; but it was too sharp to last +long, and he was too brave a little soldier to lose the battle; and +when Joan opened the door for Aleck the next morning, a voice, not very +strong to be sure, but clear and true, called from the little room at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> +the head of the stairs, “Ask him to come in, please.”</p> + +<p>“Come, then,” said Joan, only too gladly, and Aleck sprang up the +stairs and pushed open the door which stood a little ajar.</p> + +<p>Creepy’s courage had almost left him again, by that time. What if he +should say anything about that day?</p> + +<p>Aleck himself had taken one second on the way to wonder how he was +going to manage it, but he stepped in as briskly and as gayly as if +they were the oldest friends in the world, and everything had always +been going on merrily between them.</p> + +<p>“Why, how are you?” he said, giving his hand to Creepy; “we’ve missed +you so long from the window, Nelly and I, that we were afraid you +weren’t coming any more, and how to find you we didn’t know. And here +you are, not five minutes walk from us after all! You see we couldn’t +let it go so, after we had once got to expecting you, and so when you +stopped coming I returned some of your visits. That’s fair, isn’t it? +But you’ve been horridly sick, haven’t you? Shut up here all these +pleasant days, and no end of pain, they tell me.”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said Creepy, “but that doesn’t matter<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> much. I was used to pain +a long time, and if it comes back now, why it’s only the same thing, +you know.”</p> + +<div class="center"><img src="images/i167.jpg" alt="Illustration" /></div> + +<p>“Well, if it went off once, it will again, I hope; and the first thing +when it’s better, we shall be looking for you. There isn’t much in the +conservatory just now of course, but the garden almost goes ahead of +it. Did you ever take care of flowers?”</p> + +<p>“I never saw one till I saw yours,” said Creepy; and then seeing a look +of astonishment, he added, “I never saw anything, until the doctor +came.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know about that,” said Aleck, laughing, that Creepy need not +see how he really felt, “those eyes of yours look as if they had seen +a great deal, and looked through it all pretty well too. But books are +the main things, I guess, from what I see about here. Does the doctor +let you read yet?”</p> + +<p>“Not much; he brought me a book yesterday, but I’m not to read it yet.”</p> + +<p>“That looks jolly,” said Aleck, taking up the book and running over the +illustrations. “There’s a sail-boat that looks for all the world like +mine. Do you like sailing? I’m going out in the harbor this afternoon, +and I wish you were well enough to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> go along. Perhaps you’d like a +row-boat better; everybody likes rowing, I believe.”</p> + +<p>“All but me,” said Creepy, and then he was glad the doctor was not +there to hear; he did not mean to say it, but it slipped out.</p> + +<p>“It does want a pretty strong arm,” said Aleck, “and I don’t know that +it’s quite equal to sailing, after all;” and then he went off into a +long discourse about boats and yachts and rigging, that was rather +bewildering to Creepy; but it was so pleasant to hear it for all that, +that he almost forgot everything else, and the battle of the day before +went clear out of sight. But it all rose up again when Aleck said he +was afraid he was staying too long, and then returned to the subject of +Creepy’s visits.</p> + +<p>“You’ll come and let Nelly see you again the first day you’re well +enough, wont you?”</p> + +<p>The hot flush came up once more, and Creepy shrank back among the +pillows, as he had when the doctor had asked him to see Aleck, and for +a moment the enemy had the upper-hand again.</p> + +<p>“Oh, I can’t! I can’t let her see me, and I don’t want ever to look at +her again; she is too beautiful!”</p> + +<p>“And don’t you like beautiful things?” asked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> Aleck, though fearing +that he understood only too well.</p> + +<p>“Yes; but if <i>she</i> should look at <i>me</i>! If she should say ‘Humpy!’ She +would think it, if she didn’t say the words, and I couldn’t bear it.”</p> + +<p>There! he had done the very thing he had thought would kill him if +Aleck did it!</p> + +<p>In a moment Aleck was on his knee before Creepy’s corner, and had one +arm placed gently and tenderly about his neck.</p> + +<p>“Are you thinking of that still?” he said. “Haven’t you got those +miserable words out of your head yet? If you only knew how the boys +are always saying such things to each other, and how nobody ever minds +it or thinks of it again. It’s a horrid way they have, and they ought +to have seen that you weren’t used to roughing it; they’ve been sorry +enough since, but if you only knew how they never gave a thought to +what they were saying, you might forget it.”</p> + +<p>“But they told the truth,” said Creepy, looking drearily at Aleck; +“they called me Humpy, and said, ‘What is a fellow like him going to +do?’ and it was true! No, I can’t forget it, but I can bear it; the +doctor says I must, to be a good soldier, but I shall always know it is +true.” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p> + +<p>“And what if it is true? What if you are not as straight as they, and +haven’t the strength for all the rough things they have going on? Don’t +you know you’ve got a face that would make up for all the backs in +the world, and that you can leave all the boys where they can’t find +themselves in their studies?”</p> + +<p>Creepy shook his head.</p> + +<p>“It isn’t only they; every one will say it as long as I live.”</p> + +<p>“Nobody will say it that has any sense, and you can soon show the rest +of them that they don’t know what they are talking about. You’ll make a +place for yourself in the world to be proud of yet.”</p> + +<p>Creepy looked up with the same smile that worried the doctor so when he +saw it.</p> + +<p>“No,” he said, “I don’t think there’ll be anything for me but to fight. +The doctor used to think I should have my share, but he doesn’t think +so now; he thinks I shall always be sick. Not that he says so, but I +know.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, don’t say so, don’t even think so, until you know it is true. And +even if it should be true, don’t you know how close the Lord Jesus used +to come to the weak and the sick, and that he’s just the same now in +his heart? It always seemed to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> me it would almost pay to suffer a good +deal, just to know how tender his heart was towards you, and how he +must be thinking of it all, and only waiting for the day to come when +he can take it all away. He must have a great many thoughts about you, +that he never has about great, strong, rough fellows like the rest of +us.”</p> + +<p>Creepy did not answer for a moment; he could not have told Aleck for +his life what a help it was to hear him say all these things. He only +looked in his face, and said, “I shall never be one of His princes, but +I’ll try to make as good a soldier as I can. And I hope you’ll come +again—that is—you’ve been so kind that I forgot—but, of course, +you’ll have other things to do.”</p> + +<p>“Of course I’ll come,” said Aleck; “I should not know how to be +refused, after this. I’ve got to keep a sharp look out ahead, it’s +true, till after examination; but a fellow must have his pleasures +somewhere, you know. Good-by; I’ll be sure to find you better when I +come again.”</p> + +<p>The doctor thought so too. Creepy was off the lounge the next day, +and in a day or two more insisted upon beginning to open the door +for patients again. The pain was there still, and bad enough, it is +true, and there was too much of the old <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>expression in his smile; but +there he was, going quietly about again, very much as if nothing had +happened, except indeed that there was no strength yet.</p> + +<p>“Look at that!” said the doctor. “If one visit from a boy four years +older than himself has been such a medicine, what would it have been if +he could have gone to school with twenty of his own age, as I wanted +him to, instead of being hunted down by a set of—well, no matter what +they were—the very first day I trusted him among them!”</p> + +<p>The doctor was right, but he hadn’t got hold of quite the whole of it. +Aleck’s visit had done a great work, true enough, but the best part +of it was helping Creepy to clinch the victory the doctor’s words had +set him to fighting for just before. And if he had lost the feeling, +perhaps for ever, that had made Mrs. Ganderby notice how light his step +was, and how he “held up his head to look other folks in the face,” +there was something else keeping his heart warm, and giving him courage +for what might be before him. He couldn’t help seeing what he had to +meet; no one could convince him that it was not there; but he would be +one of the King’s soldiers; he would fight as bravely as he could!</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + +<p>Examination-day passed off as it always did at the professor’s school, +creditably, if not brilliantly, for teachers and scholars. Aleck was +decidedly the star, but Carter and Davis both did well; and in the +lower classes Hal and Tom came off with a very respectable score and +some flying colors. Tom had kept out of Hal’s way as he would have +avoided rocks and shallows if he had been putting to sea; and Hal was +for once so entirely engrossed in keeping his own lookout, that he had +no leisure to watch for slips in his neighbors, or to enjoy them if +they happened to occur. There was enough for the boys to talk over for +at least the first week of holidays, and Carter lost very little time +in getting hold of Aleck for a talk about past, present, and future. +The future had the best of it, though, and he was jubilant over the +prospect that it gave.</p> + +<p>“Isn’t that what you call pretty jolly?” he went on. “Carter & Co. have +consented at last, and are going to give me a chance in life, instead +of making me into a wooden thing mounted on a stool and doing short +sums in arithmetic for them all day!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> Just imagine me standing on the +quarter-deck and giving orders to every soul on board, and feeling my +vessel bound over the blue waves as I direct!”</p> + +<p>Aleck laughed.</p> + +<p>“Do you expect to take command the day you go aboard?”</p> + +<p>“Well, no, it must be confessed, that isn’t the usual way. I’ve got to +share my mess with the roughest of them for a while, and work my way +up; but I shall have a command just as soon as I am fit for it.”</p> + +<p>“And when will that be?” asked Aleck.</p> + +<p>“When I understand the ship and the ship’s work. A man isn’t fit to +give orders until he knows how everything, to the very last twist of a +rope, ought to be done, and how to do it himself, too.”</p> + +<p>“And is that all?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know,” said Carter, a little puzzled; “that’s what the +officers say. Shouldn’t you think that was about the whole of it?”</p> + +<p>“It may be,” said Aleck; “but I was always taught that a man wasn’t +ready to command others until he had learned to command himself.”</p> + +<p>“Pshaw!” said Carter. “What a fellow you are to preach! I don’t believe +I could tell you what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> time it is, that it wouldn’t give you a handle +for a sermon or a lecture, whatever it may be. But the truth is, you +hit the nail on the head so well that I can’t help liking it every +time. I’ll treasure that up, and what you said the other day about +making a man and a gentleman of myself.”</p> + +<p>“By becoming a Christian!” said Aleck.</p> + +<p>“Well, I suppose so, only it sounds so much like prigging to put it +that way.”</p> + +<p>“What sounds like prigging? If a ship-captain should offer to take +you under his special instruction after you get aboard, and teach you +all he knew, and make a first-rate officer of you, would you call it +prigging if you were to try your best to learn, and come as near his +own mark as you could?”</p> + +<p>“No, indeed! And if I can only get a chance on the Cumbermede, I should +be proud to be even the shadow of the captain, for I tell you what it +is, I don’t believe a finer officer ever stepped the quarter-deck! But +he wont notice me, not for a year at least. It would be beneath him, of +course.”</p> + +<p>“Well, I’ll tell you who will notice you, and not think it beneath him, +either, and that is the Great Captain, and you know what he is; all the +hosts of heaven call him glorious. You can study him and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> study with +him and wear his colors, and get closer to his standard every year, and +not be very much of a prig either.”</p> + +<p>“And is that what you call being a Christian? I thought it was all in +drawing down your face and quoting Scripture, and never doing anything +to have a good time.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t believe you thought any such thing,” said Aleck, “you have +too much sense for that. A Christian is a follower of the Lord Jesus +Christ, and nothing more or less, except that you can’t very well +follow him without believing in him first and loving him afterwards.”</p> + +<p>“Well, a fellow might look at it that way, and not be a milksop, after +all; and I’ve got to get hold of something or other that will carry +me a peg beyond where I was that day we got the professor into such a +rage. It wasn’t the rage I cared for, but I did feel so contemptibly +mean; and an idea came across me that there must be some different rule +a fellow could work by; but I don’t know as I should ever have seen it +any plainer if you hadn’t given me a lift.”</p> + +<p>“You’ll want more lifts than I can give you,” said Aleck; “it’s only +the Commander-in-chief that can take raw recruits like us and bring +them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> up to the ranks; but he’ll never think it beneath him to help the +lowest of us, you may be sure of that.”</p> + +<p>A week from that day the Cumbermede weighed anchor, and Carter, +regularly shipped as ordinary seaman, stood on her deck, the desire of +his heart accomplished.</p> + +<p>“Good-by, old fellow, I shall take that sermon along!” were his last +words to Aleck; and Aleck, after watching the vessel towed well out +into the stream, turned and made his way back to town, and presented +himself for his own enrolment behind the counter at his Uncle Ralph’s. +He could hardly realize he was there at first; it seemed more like a +joke played off for the day than a life-long decision, and he could not +quite persuade himself that he had set sail for a longer voyage than +Carter’s. But as the day wore on, the earnest way his uncle took of +setting him to work at this and that, and the occasional quiet glance +of pleasure that he cast towards him, began to make him feel that it +was a real thing to one party at least, and would soon become so to the +other.</p> + +<p>“I tell you what it is, Nelly,” he said, when business hours were over +at last, and he was at home once more, “I feel as if I had taken a +flying leap<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> somewhere, and hadn’t quite found out what sort of ground +I was going to strike yet. It’s a pretty different thing from old +times, anyhow.”</p> + +<p>“And different from what we thought new times were going to be, once,” +said Nelly, looking up half regretfully from her work.</p> + +<p>“Well, if you could just get one look at Uncle Ralph’s face, you’d +think the difference was pretty good, and I’m sure papa would too. The +only trouble is, Uncle Ralph hasn’t found out yet what a stupid fellow +he has taken up. I declare I thought my poor head would be turned there +to-day; chemistry and science went clear out of sight, and it was +nothing but weights and measures and compatibilities and all the rest. +But I assure you there’s some pleasure in seeing how the best doctors +in the city hang by Uncle Ralph, Doctor Thorndyke among the rest.”</p> + +<p>“Have you been to the doctor’s within a day or two, Aleck?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said Aleck, with a sudden change of tone.</p> + +<p>“No better yet, Aleck?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I suppose so; but it’s a horrid shame to see the way he is. He +never had known a well day in his life till the doctor took hold of +him; but he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> said there was no reason why he shouldn’t, and he went +to work and did everything that could be thought of for six months or +more, and had just got him where he was finding out what life was—of +course not to be quite as strong as other people, but ready to feel +pretty well and have a good time with the rest of the world; and now +there he is, just able to creep about the house or look at a book now +and then, the old pain ten times worse than ever, and what’s more, the +doctor don’t believe he can ever bring him round to where he was again. +It’s more than he had much hope of at one time to get him through at +all. And that isn’t the worst of it, either; he behaves like a little +man, but I don’t believe he’ll ever forget what happened an hour as +long as he lives.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, he <i>must</i> forget it, Aleck. Bring him up here, and see if we can’t +make him.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know,” said Aleck, smiling. “I invited him once, but I don’t +know as I can flatter you by telling you what objection he had.”</p> + +<p>“Well, only once persuade him, and I’m sure we can find some way to +make his objections vanish.”</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + +<p>A year passed away, and things began to look a good deal clearer to +Aleck; and the farther he went, the more ready he was to confess his +uncle was keeping his promise to show him he could study a profession +behind his counter, as well as he could in a doctor’s office or a +law-school.</p> + +<p>“It isn’t so bad, after all, Nelly,” he said now and then as he came +home with a glowing account of some new experiment, “and you may be +proud of me yet as a distinguished chemist, assayer, and what not. If +you’re not, it will only be because you can’t appreciate me.”</p> + +<p>The year as it closed brought another graduating-class to their +leave-takings at the professor’s, and this time Hal Fenimore gathered +his laurels, and said farewell with the rest, but with no tears of +regret for the past or the future.</p> + +<p>“What a ridiculous little goose Will Carter was,” he said the next day +as he came into Halliday’s for a few minutes’ chat with Aleck; “what a +queer notion that he didn’t like business, and would rather go off and +play middy on that old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> prison of a ship than enter the counting-house. +I’m going straight in with my uncle, and thankful enough to do it, +and expect to be taken in as partner, and make my fortune before he’s +anything more than second-mate, and it isn’t half the chance there +was at Carter & Co.’s, either. I don’t wonder he didn’t want to go to +college and stuff with Latin and Greek four years more; but to throw +away such a chance as he had at home, to go and put himself under the +thumb of a second-mate, and tar ropes and eat hard-tack for nobody +knows how long before he gets a peg higher!”</p> + +<p>Aleck didn’t tell Hal that he himself was stealing every hour he could +get by day and by night to follow up the college course; he only +laughed, and said,</p> + +<p>“Well, it might go rather hard with your store if nobody took a fancy +to go to sea; I don’t know where some of your best goods would come +from.”</p> + +<p>“That’s a fact,” said Hal; “every one to his taste, and I’m glad +Carter’s got a berth to his fancy, and I hope he’ll make the most of +it.”</p> + +<p>Just as Hal left the store, old Joan opened the door of the doctor’s +office and stepped softly in. There was no fire to be brushed up this +time, but she made one pretext after another until she got<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> round in +front of the doctor’s chair, as she always did when she meant to open +a discussion. But this time it seemed as if she could not manage to +begin, and the doctor, guessing at her subject, concluded he must help +her.</p> + +<p>“Where’s Thorndyke, Joan?”</p> + +<p>That was enough; Joan was fairly launched.</p> + +<p>“Hoot, laddie, and where suld the bairnie be, but moping over a book in +some corner or anither o’ the house? It’s little change frae that he +has; and what wi’ his books and the pain, and nae companions to run in +the free sunshine wi’, e’en if he had the strength to do it, we shall +no find we ha’ him wi’ us much longer; either the gude Lord will take +him a’thegither frae our hands, or we shall hae no bairn at a’, but +only a little auld mon, withered and shrunken before his time.”</p> + +<p>“And what do you propose to do about it, Joan?”</p> + +<p>“What wad I propose to do? Ye ken weel eneugh it’s na proposing or +disposing o’ mine, to say what suld be done wi’ the bairn. It were no +notion o’ mine sending him to the school i’ the first place; but I’m +no sae sure I wadna be more favorable to trying something o’ the kind +once mair, provided sic a place could be found and sic <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>companions as +wouldn’t trample the soul out o’ his body before they had time to see +what it waur made of. But I’m e’en thinking he might hae mair strength +to bear a little rough wind now, and it’s a cruel and unnatural thing +to let a bairn o’ his age ken nae mair o’ life than lies within these +four walls and the covers o’ his book, except indeed when the one +friend he has outside comes to talk a bit wi’ him, or tak him to pass +an hour at his ain house now and then.”</p> + +<p>“And you don’t think that’s as much as any reasonable man could ask?” +said the doctor, as a vision of Nelly Halliday, as she stopped one day +with her pony-chaise to leave Thorndyke, as every one called him now, +at the door, rose up before him.</p> + +<p>“As muckle as what?” asked Joan, quite in a puzzle. “I dinna +a’thegither understand how muckle it may be, but mercifu’ as it is, +and sent frae the Lord’s pity, it’s no eneugh. It’s no eneugh for ony +bairn to gang frae his book to the front-door all day lang, and never +a step farther into the world, and never feel his blood stirred wi’ +ony little brush in life, and always wearing a patient, sorrowfu’ look +that’s eneugh to grieve the hardest heart that could look upon it. Not +that I wad hae the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> boldness to bring aught before your notice as if ye +couldna see the whole wi’ far better een than mysel’.”</p> + +<p>The doctor got up and paced the room a few times after Joan went out, +and when he sat down again, he had come to another decision. Not that +Joan had put any new thoughts into his mind; she had only dropped a +spark upon tinder that he had been gathering together for some months +past, as he watched Thorndyke from week to week. He was no slower to +act upon a decision than a year ago, and in fifteen minutes more the +black horse stood before Halliday’s, and the doctor was having a little +private talk behind the desk.</p> + +<p>“I’d like to put him in here,” he was saying, “for I can’t think of any +place where he would do so well. The boy has got brains enough to make +almost anything, and I meant to have made a doctor of him, and one that +would have found high-water mark in his profession before many years; +but that’s all over now. If all I can do for him can give him strength +to get over here two or three times a day and meet his work after he +gets here, it’s the most I can hope for; but we’ll make a man of him +yet, and one we can both be proud of, if you’ll take him after he gets +here and do what you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> can for him. And I assure you, you shall not be +the loser, if you can manage the matter for me as I wish.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Halliday looked thoughtful, but not because he was hesitating as to +his answer. He was thinking of the time when some one, once long ago, +had it in his power to decide for him whether he should be anything or +nothing in the world.</p> + +<p>He turned suddenly with a smile,</p> + +<p>“You don’t care about sending him before to-morrow,” he said.</p> + +<p>“Why, no,” said the doctor, smiling in return. “I don’t know that +to-morrow would not do on the whole.”</p> + +<p>“Well, send him to-morrow, then, or any day after, when you and he are +ready, and Aleck here shall teach him what he knows for a while, and +then I’ll take him in hand and see if we can’t make something pretty +nearly as good as a doctor out of him.”</p> + +<p>“All right, and thank you,” said the doctor laughing; “I don’t doubt +you’ll get him in advance of some of us, and before so very many years +either.”</p> + +<p>So far so good; now for settling the matter with Thorndyke, and he lost +no more time about that than in what had come before. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p> + +<p>“See here, little man,” he said, darting one of the old glances in +Thorndyke’s face, as he came in and found him waiting as usual in the +office, and as usual buried in a book, “do you remember my telling you +once on a time, and possibly more than once, that there was a place in +the world for you as well as for the rest of us?”</p> + +<p>Thorndyke had started, as he always did, at the first sound of the +doctor’s voice, and met it with the same smile that had troubled him +a year ago, but which he had seen so many times since as to expect +nothing else. But as the sentence was finished he shrank back again. +What could the doctor be going to say? If it were only about a share in +the fight, why that was all right, but anything more! The doctor could +not be mistaken in anything else, but it was of no use talking about +that. He could be a soldier, and he was trying hard for it; but one of +the princes!</p> + +<p>“Do you remember, little man?” said the doctor again.</p> + +<p>“Yes, I remember.”</p> + +<p>“Well, that’s just as true as it ever was; but there’s another thing, +that I did not say at that time. The only way to make sure of places, +sometimes, is to step into them, and the only way to get<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> our share, is +to reach out and take it. Do you see?”</p> + +<p>Thorndyke nodded.</p> + +<p>“Well, now, there comes a time to most of us, when we have to do that, +though the change from pleasant old ways makes a rough sort of break +sometimes. For instance, it would go pretty hard with me to miss you +out of the office, but it would not do to keep you here too long, and +I never meant to do it. I meant to make a doctor of you after awhile, +but I’m afraid that isn’t going to do, as things are. Doctors have a +pretty hard time now and then, and as long as that pain holds on, I’m +afraid it wouldn’t do. But what would you say to just going round the +corner to Halliday’s once or twice a day, and trying whether you or +your friend Aleck there can do most toward keeping up the credit of the +firm? How do you think that would do?”</p> + +<p>A soldier! Thorndyke had meant to be one, and thought he had won some +battles, and vanquished some foes for ever, but here the whole thing +seemed to be rising up again, stronger than ever, and the soldier +thrown to the ground in a moment.</p> + +<p>He dropped his book on the table, and hid his face in it for a moment; +then he looked suddenly up. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Oh, I cannot,” he cried; “I never, never can! Why do you ask me such a +thing? To stand there all day long and have people come in every minute +to say, ‘Look at Humpy!’ Oh, it would be too much! I don’t believe even +the King would ever think I could do it.”</p> + +<p>A whole year, and that wound no nearer healing than it was at first! +Not even the words forgotten! Then might not the doctor as well give up +all hope that they ever would be! and all hope of everything else but +making life a little easier from day to day! The pain would be there, +in the heart as well as in the back, for life, he feared.</p> + +<p>It was lucky for Carter and Hal Fenimore that he had nothing to say +to them at that instant, but he stopped before Thorndyke’s chair, and +lifting the white face that had dropped upon the book again, held it +gently in his hands.</p> + +<p>“You cannot let people see the form the King has seen fit to give you, +when you can show them at the same time that he has given you a soul +and a brain worthy of any of his princes? Is it hard to choose between +hiding away here like some poor frightened thing, and stepping out +where you can find every hour filled with work any man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> might be proud +of, and make yourself known and valued all over the city by-and-by? +What should you say if the day were to come when I thought I could not +be satisfied with any prescription that you should not put up? Wouldn’t +that be almost as good as having you for a partner, as I might if you +were stronger?</p> + +<p>“And even if you can’t get over feeling that this costs you a good +deal, can’t you remember that when the Prince Royal was here, his +visage was more marred than any man’s, and yet he let every one look at +it? And if he has a work for you now, and a place where you can gather +up a great share of what is worth having in life, can’t you take it up +for his sake, and for my sake, if not for you own?”</p> + +<p>The blue veins were swelling again, and the old throbbing at the heart +coming back in full force; but he would not forget that he was a +soldier! And yet even a soldier might beg for a truce!</p> + +<p>“Oh, wait, please,” he cried, “only wait till to-morrow!”</p> + +<p>“Of course we will wait,” said the doctor, “and as long as you like; +and in the meantime we will eat our dinner, and after that, suppose we +have a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> drive together? Not so far as to meddle with the pain, but I +think we might get a breath of what lies outside the city for once in a +way.”</p> + +<p>The battle lasted well into the night, in spite of the drive behind +Jet, and everything the doctor could think of to make it seem as if +there were no such thing as fighting in the world. But though Thorndyke +had begged for a truce, he was determined not to go to sleep till the +enemy was put to rout again, and it seemed at one time as if it were +going to take the whole night to do it. He lay with his eyes wide open, +the moon shining into the little room that had seemed so wonderful when +it was first given him, but only a mockery so many times since; and +the forms of all the terrible things he should have to meet if he did +as the doctor wished stalked about it like evil spirits of the night. +The fight had been sharp enough when he determined to open the door for +patients again, and the first time he went home with Aleck it seemed +as if he should die; but opening the door was for the doctor, and he +had got accustomed to it now; and Nellie Halliday never seemed to see +anything but his face, and had taken it in her slender white hands one +day and asked him if he knew it was a wonderful gift of Heaven; he +could not tell what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> she meant, but he had never been afraid to let her +see him since then.</p> + +<p>But Halliday’s! There would be hundreds of people coming in all day +long, and he himself would be standing behind the counter scarcely +able to look over it, and every one looking down upon him to see how +strangely he was made! And then going through the street so many times +every day! Going on errands here and there, very likely, and letting +every one wonder where Halliday had found such a strange little +creature to do his work! He could bear the pain, he could bear knowing +that he was never to learn the games of the boys, and to go about with +them as the doctor had thought he should, he could bear never feeling +that he was one of the princes again, but he could not bear this!</p> + +<p>He shut his eyes, but there it all was, just the same; what could he +do? The ugly forms would not be beaten down, and yet he must not give +it up!</p> + +<p>But at last, a different thought rose up, that seemed to make them +shrink away, and he felt himself gaining a little once more! There were +the Prince Royal and the doctor! If they wished it, and it would please +<i>them</i>, why should he care for anything else! If he could only once +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>determine that he did not care! No, he never could do that, but if he +could only be so happy in pleasing them as to trample all the pain that +might come from anywhere else under his feet! And after all, would it +not be a great thing to have a business, a profession of his own, and +know so much that he could be really of some use as well as if he were +like other people, instead of “hiding away all his life,” as the doctor +called it? And perhaps other people <i>might</i> come to respect him for +what he knew and could do, some day! Oh, he could see it all now! Why +had he not seen it before, and how could he ever thank the doctor for +seeing it for him? He would do it; he would be ready any day!</p> + +<p>The battle was won, and the tired soldier turned on his pillow to go to +sleep, with something nearer the old joyous thrill in his veins than he +had thought he could ever feel again.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + +<p>So it was decided, and when Thorndyke had once decided, he was ready, +and an early day was fixed for his first morning at Halliday’s before +the week was past.</p> + +<p>“Why, hallo, old fellow, if this isn’t about the jolliest go! We’ll +have the old store all in the family yet!” was Aleck’s greeting, so +joyous that it didn’t stop to be elegant; and a “jolly go” it was, as +far as he could possibly help to make it so. Thorndyke could never make +a mistake, in his view; and as to teaching him, that was only letting +him see once how a thing must be done, and he knew it as well as his +teacher. As for Thorndyke, he always felt that the sun shone, and +everything was right, as soon as Aleck came in. All went on as gayly as +it could, and by the time a year had passed, nobody thought the store +was quite right if Thorndyke was absent for a day. Mr. Halliday missed +something, he could not tell what; the customers wanted to know what +had become of “the little fellow;” and Aleck felt as if he were in +imminent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> peril of some catastrophe, for, paragon as Thorndyke thought +him, he had his one fault, which horrified Uncle Ralph, and humiliated +himself: he <i>did</i> now and then forget something very important to +be remembered, and Thorndyke had not been long in the store before +he established himself as guardian over this possibility, and had +already saved Aleck half a dozen times when just “on the brink” of some +predicament or other.</p> + +<p>But the absences came very seldom, only here and there when the pain +was too bad for a day, and then he was back again: sometimes so out of +sight that only a little rustling told he was there; sometimes just +coming into view above a showcase, and sometimes, again, mounting a +little step which had been run along for him just inside the counter, +and which brought him high enough to wait upon customers conveniently. +It made every one start at first to see those great, brilliant eyes, +the high, white forehead, and the delicate features, looking over at +them, when they could scarcely see what they belonged to. And every +one that knew much of such things could read in the wistful eyes +and patient smile a good deal of what had come into them after that +dreadful day a year ago, with still a little change. The pain was +still there; he knew<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> he should never be like other people, but he was +bearing it as a brave soldier should, and he was glad other people were +not like him, and he should learn to be useful to them, yet.</p> + +<p>So another year went on, and another examination-day was coming at the +professor’s, and Tom Haggarty came in the day before to talk about +it with Aleck, though Aleck had taken good care to hush him up when +Thorndyke came within hearing.</p> + +<p>“It’s just as well not to say anything about that before Thorndyke,” he +said; “it isn’t likely to bring very pleasant reminiscences to him!”</p> + +<p>“That’s a fact,” said Tom; “I shouldn’t think he’d ever want to hear of +the school again as long as he lives; and it’s a horrid shame, too, and +always will be; and I always feel as if I had something to do with it, +though I never could tell how. But wont you come down? We shall have a +high old time, and it’s the last but one for me. You know I’m through +next year.”</p> + +<p>“You’ve done well,” said Aleck. “You’re a little shaver to be fitted +for college.”</p> + +<p>“Little’s nothing,” said Tom. “I was thirteen last fall, and I shall be +almost fifteen when I step off. It has seemed for ever and a day to me +since I first saw the professor.” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span></p> + +<p>“But that’s too young; you wont think of entering right away, will you?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know,” said Tom. “I may have to wait a bit, but I sha’n’t know +how to; if it only wasn’t for being a freshman, and the hazing, and all +that. I don’t see how a fellow is ever to get through with that part +of it, but I suppose I’ve got to be hazed wherever I go. If I can live +through it, ’twill be better than to be shut up in a store all my life. +I don’t see how you make it go, with such a smooth face.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t you?” said Aleck, laughing; “come and try it a while, and +perhaps you’ll see.”</p> + +<p>“No, thank you,” said Tom, “I should hate it so that they would turn me +off in a very short time. It’s hard enough to make a fellow’s way in +the world if you let him take the way he likes best, and I’m thankful +enough I’ve got the promise ahead for all the study I can do for the +next eight or ten years. I shall have to strike out for myself then, +and it will be tough enough, I suppose, but I don’t mean to worry +myself about that till the time comes. Come down to-morrow, wont you?”</p> + +<p>Tom went off, and Aleck soon followed towards home, for it was his +hour to go to tea. He walked quickly, for he begrudged every moment +lost on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> the way, and was soon near the house, with some thoughts +running on that came up once in a while, and which went to make up the +only secret ever kept between himself and Nelly. Tom was right about +business. To be sure, his own came nearer to being professional than +almost anything, and there was some comfort in helping to save people’s +lives, if he did only come in as second fiddler. But his dream of a +profession! Neither Uncle Ralph nor Nelly should ever have a suspicion +of the sacrifice he was making. Why should they? If there didn’t happen +to be money enough for him to study on, it was no fault of theirs; and +if Uncle Ralph could take any pleasure in having him in the store, why, +he need not think the favor was all on that side; he had something to +be thankful for himself.</p> + +<p>But what was that sound behind him? A horse’s hoofs flying wildly up +the pavement, and wheels swaying from one side to the other of the +street! He turned, and one glance was enough to show him what was +happening, and that he had better look out for himself while there was +time. It was Tom Haggarty’s father and the horse he was accustomed to +drive quietly past on his way home every night; but in some way the +animal had become terrified and altogether beyond his control,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> and +was dashing wildly up the road, and aiming now directly for the spot +where Aleck stood. Aleck had just time to spring aside and mount his +doorstep with a flying leap when the wheels struck the curbstone, the +horse’s hoofs clattered on the sidewalk, there was a crash, a plunge, +an overthrow, and in another moment the horse had cleared himself from +the carriage, and was dashing madly on, while his owner lay senseless +on the pavement.</p> + +<p>In an instant a group had gathered about the fallen man, but Aleck was +first among them, raising his head and searching hastily for his pulse.</p> + +<p>“All right so far,” he said; “he’s breathing yet, but—” and he glanced +quickly towards the window. Nelly was standing there, and answered the +look with a beckoning signal.</p> + +<p>“Lend a hand here, will you?” said Aleck; “we’ll get him inside and +then see what’s to be done next.”</p> + +<p>They lifted him, hardly believing Aleck that he was still alive, and +carrying him in, laid him on the sofa to which Nelly pointed.</p> + +<p>“Is he alive, Aleck?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, his pulse is beating.”</p> + +<p>“Then a doctor, and the nearest one. Remember what a friend he was to +papa!” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Not so much the nearest one, as the best one,” thought Aleck as he +sped away. “I’ll have Dr. Thorndyke here, if he can be found, and I +think it’s just the time Jet is most likely to be standing at the door.”</p> + +<p>Yes, there was Jet, the reins thrown over his back, and still panting +after his dash into town from a visit a mile outside; the doctor had +just closed the front-door behind him, and it took but a moment for +Aleck to find him and tell his errand.</p> + +<p>For the first time in his life there was a moment when the doctor +didn’t care a fig about what was wanted, compared to some other +considerations. He should see Nelly Halliday in her own house at last, +after all this time that Thorndyke had been having it all to himself, +without the slightest appreciation of what it was!</p> + +<p>But only an instant; at the next he and Aleck were in the chaise, and +one more brought them to where the shattered carriage still lay before +the door.</p> + +<p>“Isn’t that enough to bring a dead man to life!” thought the doctor +as he stepped into the room. There was the same face he had seen two +years ago smiling from the conservatory-window at Thorndyke, the same +soft eyes, the same rippling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> sunlight in her hair, just as he had +remembered them all this while, only this time bending over the still +motionless form of her fathers friend, and watching anxiously for some +sign of returning consciousness.</p> + +<p>But there was no time for ceremony.</p> + +<p>“Here is Dr. Thorndyke, Nelly,” said Aleck, and with a quick smile of +recognition she stepped aside and let the doctor come close to his +patient.</p> + +<p>“Ah! Possibly <i>she</i> recollects, too!” thought the doctor. “But pshaw! +there’s nothing to be thought of just here but this poor fellow,” and +he plunged into the examination of his patient.</p> + +<p>Not a word was spoken for a few moments, except as the doctor asked for +what he wanted.</p> + +<p>“A wine-glass, please,” and Nelly handed it to him with a quick, +noiseless movement.</p> + +<p>But when he had given the restorative and was waiting a moment for its +effect, she spoke,</p> + +<p>“Is it so very bad, doctor? Oh, I hope you can say it is not!”</p> + +<p>“It is pretty bad, I am afraid. If we cannot succeed in improving +things in a few moments, I think Aleck had better call a carriage and +get him home as soon as possible. This has been something of a shock to +you already, Miss Halliday.” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p> + +<p>The remedies seemed of no avail; only a low, heavy breathing and +flitting pulse told there was any life remaining, and at a sign from +the doctor Aleck disappeared. It was but a few moments until he +returned with the carriage, but it seemed hours to Nelly as she watched +the doctor trying one remedy after another, and all equally in vain. +The doctor did not tell her he was almost sure it would be so before +he began; he went on as quietly as if there were more hope, with a few +cheerful words now and then, and at last Aleck came with the carriage.</p> + +<p>“You have been very kind, doctor,” she said, when Mr. Haggarty was +placed inside the carriage and the doctor was preparing to go with him. +“I take it almost as if it were done for papa, they were such friends. +You’ll come again, will you not, some brighter day, and let us thank +you?”</p> + +<p>The doctor answered with one of those quick looks in her face which +Thorndyke knew so well.</p> + +<p>“<i>Some</i> one ought to come very soon and see how you are,” he said. +“This has been rather trying for you, Miss Halliday.”</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + +<p>Poor Tom! It was a dark to-morrow to which he had invited Aleck, and +darker still the days that followed, that he had thought would be full +of holiday enjoyment! Could it be true that his father was gone? Gone! +What did that mean! Oh, if it only were not true! If every one were +mistaken, or had told him false!</p> + +<p>It seemed to him he could never see the boys again. But Aleck would not +leave him to that very long, and Tom really felt the first touch of +comfort when he heard him asking for him at the door.</p> + +<p>“Oh, but you don’t know anything about it, Aleck; you don’t understand! +No one can understand, until it come, how terrible it seems.”</p> + +<p>“And isn’t that the very way I <i>can</i> understand?”</p> + +<p>Tom stared at him with wide eyes a moment.</p> + +<p>“Oh, I forgot! How could I forget! It was horrid in me, but it seems +as if I could not remember anything or know anything except this one +terrible feeling that is everywhere through the house.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> And it doesn’t +seem as if it could ever be any better!”</p> + +<p>“It <i>will</i> be better,” said Aleck, but Tom only shook his head. “Don’t +you suppose it was just as terrible in the houses that the Lord Jesus +came into long ago, because there was trouble in them?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know,” said Tom, hesitating a little, for he was not used to +talking of such things, and didn’t know exactly where he was; “but he +came to bring people back to life, then, and he doesn’t do that now.”</p> + +<p>“No, he doesn’t, but he comes just as close and just as much to bring +comfort as he did then. Suppose he should come so close and speak so +tenderly that you could almost feel his heart beating against yours, +wouldn’t that make it better? And if he should promise he would never +go away, but would watch you even more faithfully than your father +could, and help you along to make the man he hoped to see you, wouldn’t +that make it better?”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps so,” said Tom, not very clear yet that all this amounted to +anything more than talking.</p> + +<p>“I tell you there’s no mistake,” said Aleck. “There are just two or +three things, it seems to me, that we have got to have before we can be +happy, taking us just as we are; we want some one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> to love and some one +to love us; we want something to do that’s worth doing, and we want our +own affairs to be looked out for at the same time.”</p> + +<p>“But I’ve got to look out for myself, now,” said poor Tom.</p> + +<p>“I know it, Tom, and yet you haven’t, after all. If your father had +been here when you went to college, didn’t you expect to send to him +when you needed anything, or when you didn’t see just what ’twas best +to do about anything? And wouldn’t that have left you free to go right +along with your work, and interest yourself for other people, instead +of all the time worrying about yourself? And can’t you do just the same +with the Lord?”</p> + +<p>“But I loved him so! I miss him so!” cried poor little Tom, breaking +down altogether.</p> + +<p>“I know; that comes hard, and there’s no getting away from it; but I +tell you, Tom, it isn’t going to be such a very great while, and I +don’t believe he’s so very far off either. It may be there’s only a +veil between, and who knows but he can see through it as plainly as +if wasn’t there at all? And you’ll find lots to do; that’s one of the +greatest things after all. Just think what you can come to be in taking +his place at home, besides<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> something for somebody outside, every day +of your life, if you’re only looking out for it. And there’s no one to +say he wont see it; and however that may be, there’s One that will be +sure to, and think a good deal of it too.”</p> + +<p>Tom didn’t say much, but he had his own times of going over in his mind +all Aleck had said, until things did begin to seem a little better +after a while, as Aleck had promised, and going back to school did not +seem so very terrible as he had thought; and as the year came once more +to a close, the thought of the new step into college studies really +looked bright and tempting.</p> + +<p>All but the freshman woes, in the way of hazing and all that sort of +thing. Poor Tom hadn’t yet got over his dread of being snubbed or run +upon, only as he had been in the higher class the last year, and there +was no one left in the school who was quite so endlessly doing it since +Hal had left. He had almost forgotten how uncomfortable it was; at any +rate, he was sure he never could see any worse times than some he had +had with Hal, and he had lived through those somehow.</p> + +<p>So he was making the most of his holidays, and the little interval of +deciding what came next; and going into Halliday’s now and then, for a +few <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>moments with Aleck and Thorndyke, was one of the great resources +of the time.</p> + +<p>He came gayly out one day, to see some one beckoning to him, and +reining in his horse close by. Ah, that was Mr. Willoughby, his +guardian, and Tom ran to the chaise.</p> + +<p>“Going towards home, Haggarty?” he said. “Suppose you jump in, and we +drive out together. I want to talk to you about one or two matters, if +you’re not aiming in another direction.”</p> + +<p>Tom sprang in, only too gladly. He should hear something about going to +college, he was sure.</p> + +<p>“Well, and how does it seem to be a free man once more?” he asked, as +Tom took his seat and they started off.</p> + +<p>“Prime,” said Tom, “only if a free man never has anything to do, I +shouldn’t like it to last very long.”</p> + +<p>“Good,” said Mr. Willoughby, laughing, “and that’s just the very point. +How long should you call long enough?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know,” said Tom. “I suppose I ought to enter college this +Commencement, if I’m going at all this year; and if I wait till next, I +ought to be studying or working at something before a great while.” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p> + +<p>“And you are sure of going this year or next? Could you not think of +anything but college and be satisfied?”</p> + +<p>Tom started.</p> + +<p>“My father wished me to go to college.”</p> + +<p>“I know he did; but, Tom, he is not here now to send you. You have been +a brave fellow this last year, and I know you will be brave about what +I have to tell you. I have said nothing about money-matters so far, for +I wished you to get through school with a quiet mind; but perhaps it +is best now to let you understand just how things are. There were some +embarrassments in your father’s affairs that he could have overcome if +he had lived a year or two longer, but as things were left, they have +made a great deal of trouble; and in fact, there does not seem to be +the means of carrying out his plans for you. I’m afraid you’ll have to +go to work, my boy, without waiting for college or Germany or anything +of the kind; and the sooner you can make a man of yourself and get a +start in the world, the better it will be for the rest at home.”</p> + +<p>Tom took hold of the side of the chaise; it seemed to him that the +whole of life had been knocked out from under his feet. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p> + +<p>“I can’t think you’ll find business so very bad,” went on Mr. +Willoughby, “and I think you’ve got the making of a good business man +in you; all you want is a fair chance, and a good send off, to begin +with, and that I think I’ve found for you, by good luck. I’ve been +making some proposals to the Fenimores, and they are ready to take you +in there, and see what you can do for yourself, as soon as you can make +up your mind that you’re ready. It isn’t every day that a chance like +that opens to a boy of your age, and I rather think you’ll decide to +make the most of it.”</p> + +<p>Poor Tom! If what Aleck had said to him that day had been a comfort +before, he needed to get closer hold of it yet this time.</p> + +<p>“You’ll find lots to do, Tom, and that is one of the greatest things, +after all; and there’s One that will be sure to see, and think a good +deal of it, too.”</p> + +<p>He kept saying it over to himself, and the rest of what Aleck had said +about “some one caring for him, while he went about his work for other +people.” And he needed it all; “pretty tough,” Aleck called the sudden +change in his prospects, when he heard of it, but even then he hadn’t +the least idea how Tom dreaded coming so directly in Hal’s way as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> he +knew he should, every day. That seemed to be the last and bitterest +drop in the cup! Not that Hal wasn’t a good fellow; he knew he was, +and that he would do him many a kind turn before the year was out, +but—pshaw! he must get over being such a goose!</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + +<p>Thorndyke had left the store just as Mr. Willoughby picked Tom up; he +never stayed in the evening and it was six o’clock now. But he had an +errand to do that took him past the little cottage with the bay window, +and there stood Jet and the doctor’s chaise. And the doctor himself +came out of the door, just as he came in sight again on his way back.</p> + +<p>“Stand still, Jet!” said the doctor, and Jet pawed the ground till +Thorndyke came up. The doctor reached him a hand, he climbed in, and +Jet’s hoofs struck sparks again as he carried them towards home. The +doctor scarcely spoke, but there was a shining in his eyes that made +Thorndyke feel he could say a good deal if he chose; indeed he had seen +it there every day of late; he wondered if anything had happened!</p> + +<p>But when he came into the office, he was sitting as quietly over a +medical review as if nothing had ever happened, or would ever happen, +and Thorndyke took his own book and his own seat in the window. But +it did not last long; Thorndyke<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> heard a flutter and a fall, and the +doctor had sent the magazine flying.</p> + +<p>“Come over here, Thorndyke,” he said; “I want to say something to you.”</p> + +<p>Thorndyke started, but before he had got halfway, the doctor met him, +and stood there with his hands on his shoulders, and looking full into +his eyes with the shining out of his own brighter than ever.</p> + +<p>“Little man,” he said, “if I told you you had been the means of +bringing to me the greatest gift of my life, what would you say?”</p> + +<p>For an instant Thorndyke stood as much astonished as on the day when +the doctor first talked to him about fishing and going to school.</p> + +<p>“I never gave you anything,” he said; “you give me everything, and it +makes me feel happy and strong even to know that you are near; but I +never gave you anything. What do I ever have to give?”</p> + +<p>“Tut,” said the doctor stooping a little and looking closer into his +face with the old smile, “don’t you know you are all I have in the +world; all I <i>have had</i>, rather. Did you ever see my chaise standing +where it did to-night, before?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said Thorndyke, “and I supposed something was the matter, but I +did not ask of course.” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p> + +<p>The doctor laughed, and letting go his hold of Thorndyke, walked back +and forth across the room.</p> + +<p>“Did it ever occur to you,” he asked, after a while, “did it ever occur +to you that you and I had lived here like two miserable old bachelors, +almost long enough? And if there was any one on the face of the earth +that could come here and take this old world of ours and make a new one +of it that would seem a good deal like Paradise, who should you say it +would be?”</p> + +<p>A sudden thought swept over Thorndyke’s mind, though it seemed only a +dream.</p> + +<p>“The princess!” he exclaimed; “but—”</p> + +<p>“Ah, you think that would be like plucking the morning star down from +over our own heads? And so it is, more like that than anything I ever +thought I should dare try, much less have success granted me, if I did; +but she <i>is</i> coming, little man! The King has given her to me! But I +should never have seen her, much less known her, a thousand times less +asked for her, if <i>you</i> had not found her for me!”</p> + +<p>“Well, if this isn’t about the most magnificent thing that ever +happened!” said Aleck the next day, when a sharp look into Thorndyke’s +face told him he knew all; “The doctor is the only man I know in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> the +world fit to loosen the latchet of Nellie’s shoe, but I don’t believe +there’s another woman fit to do the same for him, and I shall be the +proudest fellow in the city when I can call him brother. Except you, +Thorndyke! He is a heap more yours than he ever will be mine, no matter +what he calls me, and I always thought you were the luckiest fellow in +the world to have a claim on him; but I never thought I should ever +come in for any share! But what will become of me, when I’m left alone +in my glory?”</p> + +<p>This was a question that came into Nellie’s mind also, and she had her +own plans to meet it. When October was turning all the world to garnet +and gold once more, then came the wedding, and Thorndyke was there +with the rest. No pain of any kind could have kept him away; the old +throbbing at his heart rose up, until he could hardly breathe, and when +the bride, with all her beauty and her loveliness, her orange blossoms +and the veil that seemed to Thorndyke like a halo around her golden +hair, stooped and gave him his kiss, he didn’t know whether he were in +the world or not! Only let him get out of sight once more! He slipped +away into a sheltered spot and Uncle Ralph stepped into his place. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Uncle Ralph,” said Nelly, when almost all the guests were gone. “I +know you cannot find it in your heart to refuse me anything on my +wedding-day. I want to leave the house just as it is for Aleck, but of +course he cannot stay in it alone. Wont you say goodby to your hotel +room, and come and fill my place here until either you or he follow in +my footsteps?”</p> + +<p>Uncle Ralph pooh-poohed for a while, but he couldn’t find it in his +heart, as Nelly said, to refuse her; and before the wedding journey +was over, bachelor’s hall was thoroughly established behind the +conservatory window.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + +<p>The Cumbermede had made a long list of successful voyages since Aleck +watched her out of sight and waved his farewell to Carter, and she was +homeward bound once more, with a full cargo and a quick run so far, +before the trade-winds. The moonlight lay soft and clear across the +deck, the phosphorus flashed like monster diamonds in her track, and +not a sound was heard but the low plashing at the bow, as the vessel +made her seven knots, steady before a light breeze. But now the wind +freshened, and the second mate’s voice was heard giving sharp quick +orders to two of his watch.</p> + +<p>“Go aloft there, and close up the main-top-gallant.”</p> + +<p>The men sprang to the rigging, and a few moments more one of them +came down the ratlines and went forward to some work he had left, but +the other seemed to find some delay in accomplishing his share of the +task. The mate glanced impatiently into the rigging once or twice, then +angrily, and then shouted aloft:</p> + +<p>“What are you about up there, you landlubber<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> Jake? If I had a <i>dog</i> +and he didn’t know more than you do, I’d shoot him.”</p> + +<p>The man halfway down by this time, finished his descent and passed the +mate without a word, but a dark scowl covered his face. The mate caught +sight of it and his fury increased; he seized the man by the collar and +pushed him violently toward the wheel.</p> + +<p>“There, go and try your hand at that,” he said, “and see if you can +keep a decent face before your betters! A miserable fool that never saw +three months’ service since he was born, shipping as able seaman, and +then grumbling about under his officers’ feet till it’s enough to drive +them mad! If the next wave should take you overboard ’twould be the +best thing that could happen!”</p> + +<p>The sailor recovered his balance and went off to relieve the man at the +wheel, but the scowl grew darker, and harder lines gathered about his +mouth. Eight bells sounded at last, and the first mate’s watch came +tumbling up from their berths, to relieve those on duty. But it was too +warm to go below, and after loitering a few moments till the second +mate had disappeared to turn in, two or three of the men sauntered +forward, the dark scowl among them, and getting noiselessly together +in the shadow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> of the foremast, began to talk in low undertones, that +could not reach far aft of their position.</p> + +<p>“I tell you, I wont bear it any longer,” said Jake between his teeth. +“One or other of us has got to go under, and that before another +twenty-four hours is past.”</p> + +<p>The man next him gave a low laugh, and then seeing how black the +other’s face was, grew sober again.</p> + +<p>“Pshaw, Jake, you look as if you were in earnest. I should think you +were a landlubber, as the mate says, if you’re going to take notice of +anything an officer says to a hand! If he’d shoot his dog for what you +did, it’s only a wonder he didn’t knock you overboard. A sailor don’t +count for as much as a dog any day.”</p> + +<p>“He knows I’ve only had my hand out of the sling for two days, and how +was I going to handle the earrings,” muttered Jake; “I tell you I mean +what I say. If I can get two or three to stand by me, well and good, +and if not I’ll tackle him alone. I’d as lief jump overboard with him, +as lead this life any longer.”</p> + +<p>“Jake’s about right,” growled the other sailor, under his breath; +“’twould be as good a day’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> work as I ever did to stand by Jake and +see the second mate get his dues.”</p> + +<p>“Humph! and do you know what they call that? That’s mutiny, in plain +English, and we should have the other officers with their pistols out, +and if we didn’t get a little cold lead for our pains, we should find +out how bread and water tasted in the hold for a few weeks.”</p> + +<p>“Who cares for that?” said Jake. “Let ’em come on, if they want to! +They wouldn’t shoot down three or four of us; and if they should try +it, we might get some new recruits on our side, and see which of us +could take the ship into port. If I was a dog when I came aboard, he’s +made a devil of me since, and he may look sharp that I don’t carry him +where I belong, with me.”</p> + +<p>“You wouldn’t get any of the first mate’s watch to stand by you, if the +worst comes to the worst,” said the growling sailor; “a man’s got to do +his duty with him, but when he’s done it he treats him as if he had a +soul in him, after all.”</p> + +<p>“That’s a fact; Carter’s the only officer I ever saw that could get +duty out of a watch and never speak an ugly word to them,” said the +other; “he don’t seem to like it. But he’s sharp as a gun to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> the mark, +at the same time, where any other man would get tipped over for it.”</p> + +<p>“I’d be sorry to go against <i>him</i>” said Jake, “and so I hope he’ll +let me alone, that’s all; for I’ve got where nothing will stop me. If +you’ll give me your hand on it, shipmates, we’ll set sail together, +and if we drop anchor in a worse port, it wont be till I’ve had some +satisfaction, anyhow.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t say but I’m ready,” said the growling sailor; “we shall find +we’ve raised a lively gale of wind, but I don’t much care where it +blows me. I’ve made as many voyages as any man aboard, and been kicked +and cursed my share; but when it comes to crowding a man every hour and +minute of a day, what do you say, Jim?”</p> + +<p>“I say I don’t like to stand to windward of a shipmate,” said Jim, “but +it will be a bad business, and we’re homeward bound. You’d better speak +to Ratlins, anyhow, and see what he says. He’s gone below.”</p> + +<p>“And that’s where we’d better go,” said the growling sailor, “or the +birds of the air will be getting their eye on us before we’re ready.”</p> + +<p>Carter had taken part of his watch below, late as it was, to finish +up some ship’s writing, and his stateroom being close by the +companion-way, he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> had heard what passed between the second officer and +Jake.</p> + +<p>“Pshaw!” he said to himself, fidgeting in his chair, “what’s the use of +that, Penfield? If a man’s rough enough to need that, you can’t hope +to make anything of him; and if he isn’t, it hurts. A man’s got some +feeling, whatever shape he’s in,” and a vision of a crooked little +form, fleeing away like the wind, rose up before him, as it always had, +from that miserable time at the professor’s to this very day, whenever +he heard any one use taunting or cutting words.</p> + +<p>He went on with his writing, but the second mate’s words seemed to echo +in his ears.</p> + +<p>“I wish Penfield wouldn’t be such a bear,” he said again as he put +aside his book to turn in at last for a nap before his watch was +called; “it don’t do to show a soft side with a man, to be sure, and +I know he’s got some rough fellows in his watch; but he’s got two or +three that started as fair as most men, and he’ll make beasts of them +all if he goes on this way. I haven’t heard him speak to a man of them +since he came aboard but as if hanging was too good for him.”</p> + +<p>Carter’s nap was sound enough to make up for its shortness, and he +paced the quarter-deck all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> right and fresh for the four hours before +him as the second mate went below.</p> + +<p>“’Tisn’t a bad idea that every wave we cut brings us so much nearer +home,” he said as he watched the foam flying back over the bow. “‘A +life on the ocean wave!’ that’s the only thing, to be sure; but, after +all, it’s always certain the roughest hand aboard is counting how many +days we’ve made on the home-run. Well, I’ll be glad to see it, for one.”</p> + +<p>His thoughts made the trip before the sentence was finished, and +brought up where they were very apt to do, in a place he always started +for before he had been half a day ashore—Halliday’s.</p> + +<p>“What a number-one fellow that Aleck is,” he went on, “and I owe him +for some things I never should have seen if he hadn’t showed them to +me,” and for the thousandth time some of Aleck’s words came up to his +mind.</p> + +<p>“The only way is to remember how the Lord has treated us, and the way +he has taught us, to love our neighbor as ourselves.</p> + +<p>“And that’s something I wish we officers remembered a little oftener; +to be sure they say you can’t treat a sailor like a man, and keep him +where he ought to be. But Penfield is too much of a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>Tartar, and he’s +got one fellow there that it don’t do any good to, and he don’t see the +difference. Some of them will take anything; but this Jake, though he +seemed fair enough when he shipped, is getting blacker every day, and +the ship that takes him next voyage will find him more so, I’m afraid. +I wonder what those fellows are talking about, forward there; they +ought to be below, but I’ll manage not to see them, if they don’t stay +too long.”</p> + +<p>They glided down, one after the other, as he spoke, and a moment after +Jake was at Ratlins’ bunk and rousing him cautiously from a rather +sonorous dream. “Hush!” he said, “there’s no need of saying anything +just yet;” and leaning closer to him, he whispered the substance of +what had been said at the foremast in his ear.</p> + +<p>Ratlins raised himself on his elbow and swore a bitter oath.</p> + +<p>“How did you know that was the very thing I was dreaming of? But what’s +the use? A sailor is only made to be kicked like a dog, anyhow, and if +one mate kicks harder than another, why that’s all it is, and we’re +homeward-bound, you know.”</p> + +<p>“Homeward-bound,” muttered Jake; “<i>he’s</i> homeward-bound if I get hold +of him, for I’ve got murder in my heart, and it’s his own lookout, for +he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> put it there! I’ve got a mother at home that’s done praying enough +for me to bring a worse ship into port, but she may as well give it +up about this time. I tell you, Penfield is going overboard before +his second dog-watch is over, unless I can get three or four of you +to lend me a hand and help me settle him in some way that he’ll know +more about, and wont leave a mark on me that <i>she’d</i> feel quite so much +aground about, if she knew it. What do you say? Ned and Jim are pretty +much agreed.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, luff a little, shipmate,” said Ratlins, “and let a fellow sleep on +it, anyhow. I’ll stand by you somehow, for he deserves it; but I reckon +you’ll ease off a little by morning, if you don’t lay to altogether.”</p> + +<p>“Not I,” said Jake; “but give me your hand on doing <i>something</i>.”</p> + +<p>Ratlins gave him his hand, and Jake went to his bunk to nurse his +revenge and lay plans for what should be done in case the men would +agree to unite.</p> + +<p>“But if they <i>don’t</i>,” he muttered, “’t wont save the mate. When a +worm does turn, it’s sure to sting, and he’ll never go through another +midnight-watch safe with me!”</p> + +<p>The breeze died down again, and the watch was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> a lazy one, and Carter’s +thoughts, after making voyages round the world, came back to Jake again.</p> + +<p>“Now I suppose a fellow like that is my neighbor,” he said, “let +sailors be what they will. God put a soul in him once, anyhow, and +I can’t believe it’s altogether dead yet. Of course it isn’t, or he +wouldn’t care for Penfield until it came to breaking his head with +a marlingspike, or something of that kind. I’ve got a fellow in my +watch that couldn’t feel anything less than that, but it isn’t so with +Jake. I wonder if I could manage to give him a lift. Who knows but +there’s somebody watching for him at home, that doesn’t want to see him +spoiled? At any rate, there’s One watching above, that laid down his +life for him as well as the rest of us, and it’s a pity to see a fellow +so tormented, if nothing worse should come of it.”</p> + +<p>Penfield’s dog-watch came, the men did their duty, and then went +forward for breakfast. Jake’s face had lost none of its darkness with +the sunrising, but was harder and more threatening than ever.</p> + +<p>“Well, shipmate,” whispered Ratlins, as they sat down, each with his +tin-dipper of coffee, his allowance of duff and ship’s biscuit, “how +many knots is she making this morning? The breeze has gone down a +little, hasn’t it, by daylight?” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p> + +<p>“No, it hasn’t,” said Jake; “and remember you gave me your hand on it, +last night, to stand by.”</p> + +<p>“So I did,” said Ratlins, “and my two hours on the dog-watch this +morning has given me more of a relish for it; but still—”</p> + +<p>“No hanging fire,” said Jake. “Ned and Jim, where are you? If you’re +bound another way, I can cruise alone, and if I go down, it wont be +without carrying some one else with me.”</p> + +<p>“Who said you were to cruise alone?” said the growling sailor, breaking +a biscuit on his knee; “I guess we can fix something before to-night,” +and the whispering grew lower and thicker, until even Jake seemed +satisfied.</p> + +<p>When seven bells struck that noon, Carter came on deck, and seemed to +be loafing about for the half-hour before his watch came on, but in the +course of it he managed to come across the second mate, where a few +words could pass between them unobserved.</p> + +<p>“Look here, Penfield,” he said, “I want to make a little change in the +watch if it’s all the same to you. That long-limbed fellow there, Jake, +I’ve taken a notion to try my hand on him, and I’ve got a fellow among +mine that don’t work in so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> well with the rest. I’ll let you try what +you can make of him, and you turn Jake over to me.”</p> + +<p>The mate stared; a queer sort of proceeding, he thought, and wouldn’t +be called ship-shape on some vessels, but he knew Carter owned in the +Cumbermede, and he supposed he could do as he liked.</p> + +<p>“Taken a notion to Jake,” he said, suppressing the oath that rose to +his lips, out of respect to his superior officer, “I should as soon +think of taking a notion to one of the imps below. You’re welcome to +him if you want him; I’m sure I don’t care if he goes to the bottom. A +miserable dog, for ever under foot, and taking more swearing to get a +little duty out of him, than any three men on board.”</p> + +<p>“Well, I’ll try him,” said Carter; “you let him know, and I’ll send +Dave over to you.”</p> + +<p>Jake stood in the broiling sun, scraping the paint from the house—ugly +work in the heat, and a hideous noise, but no vessel ever stood into +port in more perfect trim than the Cumbermede, and this voyage every +particle of the old paint must be removed from aft, and she was to +shine brighter than ever in new. He did not stir as he heard the mate +approach, but he watched him with eye and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> ear from under his broad +hat. The mate stopped beside him, and Jake set his teeth, with the +thought that whatever came, it was one of the last times.</p> + +<p>“You go over to the first mate’s watch to-night, and much joy may he +have of you,” was all he said, and passed along.</p> + +<p>Jake started, and the knife almost fell from his hands. Were they +suspected? Discovered? What did it mean?</p> + +<p>But he went on with his work, as if the mate had only spoken to a +statue. Penfield passed back and forth, but Jake did not dare lift his +eyes to read his face. At any rate, he had the rest of the day for a +lookout; it would be his watch below soon, and he could consult with +the others.</p> + +<p>“Now I tell you, shipmates, that’s a lucky thing all round,” said +Ratlins. “Maybe they’ve got a scent on the wind; I don’t know, but +it don’t look to me much like foul weather, and if they’re only +wind-clouds, why then we’re all out of a bad business easy; and what do +you care what the second-mate is to us, Jake, so long as he keeps out +of your wake?”</p> + +<p>“But I wont keep out of his,” said Jake. “Do you think I’ll let go as +easy as that?” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Easy,” said Ned. “You may as well reef topsails and scud before the +wind a day or two, anyhow, till you see how she trims. We sha’n’t be +out more than three weeks now, and there’s no great fun going into port +down in the hold, with iron bracelets on.”</p> + +<p>“What’s that got to do with paying off scores?” said Jake; but though +the scowl was still dark, he turned in without another word.</p> + +<p>All through the midnight watch there was a sharp fight going on between +the hatred in Jake’s heart and some new influence that seemed to be +cooling and soothing the fire, he did not know how. Was he going to be +a spooney, and let what he’d vowed one night die out the next, or get +frightened by Ratlins’ talk about cold lead and iron bracelets? But +after all, what was the second mate to him any longer? Yet he <i>had</i> +been something to him, and was he going to forget it? Never!</p> + +<p>The watch wore away, and still the struggle went on.</p> + +<p>“If it only wasn’t for the old woman at home!” thought Jake. “She’s +kept a long watch and done a good deal of praying, in hopes to make +something of me. And I <i>might</i> have been something if it hadn’t been +for—!” and Jake shook his fist towards<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> the mate’s room. “But after +all, foul deeds leave a black mark on a man’s soul, and she’d fret her +heart out if the hearing of it should come to her. But if every man’s +hand is against me, who says it’s my fault if my hand’s against every +man? It’s so long since I’ve had a word spoken to me as if I had as +much of a soul as the plank under my feet, that I don’t know as I have +any to put a stain on; and whose fault is it, I say? And if I don’t +keep the men to their word to-night, they’re bound no longer. And what +difference does it make? There’s nobody that thinks I’ve got any soul +to save.”</p> + +<p>Carter’s voice was heard giving orders to haul taut the main-sheet. The +tones were quiet and decided, but there was something in them that made +the men spring to with a will, and the work was done almost in a minute.</p> + +<p>“Belay there, my hearty!” said Carter; and Jake, who had the end, +glanced suddenly in his face, and caught a look of kindliness, +friendliness, and good cheer, more perhaps than discipline would have +allowed, the mate to show if he had thought it would be observed.</p> + +<p>The work was done! What chord had he touched? Jake did not know, but he +felt a change sweeping through his heart like coming out of an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> icebelt +into tradewinds. A few moments later the bell relieved the watch; Jake +plunged below and threw himself into his bunk, his face covered with +his hard hands and sobbing like a child.</p> + +<p>Carter had been the means of bringing one man to repentance, and saving +the life of another—perhaps of half a dozen more.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + +<p>The same evening that Penfield’s fate was hanging in the balance, Uncle +Ralph sat cosily by the library fire, newspaper in hand, and waiting +for Aleck to come home. Everything was so sure to go well with his two +faithful clerks, and the new luxury of home was so tempting, that he +was getting into the way of leaving business early, and for the first +time in his life enjoying his own fireside for an hour or two in the +evening. But the newspaper was upside down this time, and his own +thoughts seemed to be uppermost and so engrossing that he started when +he heard Aleck’s key in the door.</p> + +<p>“Well, sir,” he said, as Aleck came in with as light a step and as +glowing a face as if such a thing as work had never been heard of, +“I’ve been making a discovery, sitting here all alone; and that is, +that I’ve been a poor fool not to have made a home for myself, in +some shape or other, thirty years ago! Don’t you follow my example, +old fellow. You must get a wife all in good time, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> still it is +possible there are some other things to be thought of first. What day +is to-morrow?”</p> + +<p>“Tuesday, I believe,” said Aleck.</p> + +<p>“Humph! Yes. Anything else?”</p> + +<p>“Only my birthday, so far as I know. I shall be twenty-one, I suppose, +if I live to see it.”</p> + +<p>“Ah! Well that is what I was thinking about half an hour ago, I +believe; and I was only waiting for you to come home to ask you how you +would like to have ‘Halliday’s’ known as ‘Halliday & Co.’ in future.”</p> + +<p>Aleck started.</p> + +<p>“O uncle, I don’t deserve that! That is too much!”</p> + +<p>“We wont go as far as to talk of deserts,” said his uncle. “If I could +tell you how my life came to be a lonely one, and how lonely it has +been, you could understand better what you have been to me the last few +years. If you had refused me when I asked you to come, I don’t know +what I should have done, and it would be ten times worse to part with +you now; and as one never knows what notion a young man may take, you +see I’m only casting an anchor to windward for myself, if I can pin you +a little closer. There aren’t many men lucky enough to have two such +right-hands as you and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> Thorndyke; and if I can get one of them for a +partner, why, we’ll divide the other between us, that is all. Thorndyke +is a genius! If he keeps on at this rate, we old men may have to step +aside and let him come in as number one some day, yet. But you are my +brother’s son, Aleck, and I want you in my sight and by my side as long +as I live; you have been the greatest comfort of my life; you have made +a green spot in it the last few years, and it would be like going back +to Sahara to give you up.”</p> + +<p>Aleck did not sleep much that night; not for worlds would he have told +his uncle that he had been fighting away with college studies all these +years; and as he had watched Thorndyke coming on, a faint hope had +grown stronger and stronger that he might take his place some day, and +so much more than fill it that he could slip away without being really +missed. But that was all gone now; he would never leave his uncle! +And as for himself! Well, he had been happy in the store, even while +dreaming all the time of getting away, and if he could once settle +that question, and be done with fidgeting about it, he might be <i>very</i> +happy. And he was quite sincere in all his gratitude to his uncle. He +was giving him a position to be envied by any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> business man, and there +was no better place than Halliday’s for making a fortune, at all events.</p> + +<p>So it was all settled, and no one was more proud of the new arrangement +than the senior clerk, as Thorndyke now became.</p> + +<p>“And a lucky fellow you are, Thorndyke, to get your foot on that round +in the ladder,” said Tom, who had come in to see how Aleck carried +his new dignity, and stopped, as he always did, for a few words with +Thorndyke. “If I thought I should ever get to that I should take +courage, but it seems as if I never should; and I don’t know that I +shall be any better off, after all, when the day comes at last.”</p> + +<p>Thorndyke glanced quickly in Tom’s face. It had seemed to him looking +rather wobegone for some time past, and he wondered if Tom was having +any trouble. He could give a faint guess, for he had been sent over to +Fenimore & Co.’s a good many times since he had been in the store, and +though the thought of Hal was so inseparably connected with the one +terrible memory of his life, that he had avoided even the sight of him +when possible, he had heard him speak to Tom with those same taunting +tones that brought the whole thing up with a rush, and made him tingle +to his fingers’<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> ends for Tom. Never since that dreadful day could he +hear an unkind word spoken to any human being without a shiver through +his own heart; and when it came in Hal’s own voice, he could only look +at Tom and wonder how he could bear it, and wish he were a strong man +and a rich one, that he might somehow get hold of him and pull him out +of the reach of it.</p> + +<p>“It wont be very long, will it?” he asked; “isn’t Hal going in as +partner soon?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said Tom, “in two or three months; but there’s Gray between +us, you know; and, after all, I don’t know that it makes any great +difference. It will be the same old mill, whatever wheel in it I turn, +and the same ugly grind. Some day before I know it I shall find it has +ground whatever soul I ever had into such small dust I cannot find it.”</p> + +<p>“If you think there is any danger of that, why don’t you get out of +it?” asked Thorndyke, more earnestly than he dared to show Tom, and the +next moment he was almost frightened at the look that came into Tom’s +face.</p> + +<p>“I tell you,” said Tom, “it’s all very fine to ask a drowning man why +he don’t catch at some straw, when there are half a dozen other people +hanging on him at the same time. If it wasn’t that they’re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> depending +on me at home, and have been waiting for me all these years, the world +isn’t so wide but I’d put half of it between me and Fenimore’s before +many days had passed. But, as things are, of course there’s nothing for +it but to stick by. I’ll hold on as long as I can, but if I go down, +and the rest with me, I can’t help it.”</p> + +<p>Tom’s eyes met Thorndyke’s with an almost desperate look, and then he +turned suddenly away. “Pshaw, Thorndyke, I tell you again you don’t +know what a lucky dog you are. Shut up here with a fellow like Aleck I +should not think you had a trouble left in the world!”</p> + +<p>So it was all out! It was Hal, as Thorndyke had thought! And with Tom’s +forlorn face turning away as if ashamed of what he had said, Thorndyke +felt more troubled than ever. What could he do about it?—as he had +asked himself many times before.</p> + +<p>But after Tom had gone the consciousness of another pain came over him; +he had felt it like a stab, at Tom’s last words, but he was too much +engrossed by anxiety for him, to dwell upon them at the moment; now +they came echoing back: “I shouldn’t think you’d feel you had a trouble +in the world.” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p> + +<p>And was that all Tom knew, all he realized after all these years and +with his memory of that terrible day long ago? Well, that was just as +Thorndyke had meant it should be, just as he was trying to have it all +the time; and why should he feel this strange pain when he found it was +so? He had been so bent on being a brave soldier.</p> + +<p>He had let every one look at him, and heard whisperings now and then, +and had done his work, and gone home with a smile for the doctor and +Nellie, and the thought of the great Captain had kept him strong +through it all. It had been hard enough sometimes, and some of the +hardest had been when the other boys came in to tell Aleck about their +games or their excursions, or to beg him off to join them.</p> + +<p>“All but me!” always came quickly up with its old ring, and brought +with it the echo of what the doctor had said when he nodded good-by to +him at the school-room.</p> + +<p>“Remember you don’t run too hard till you are used to it; but I wont be +afraid to match you with the fleetest of them, in a few months’ time.”</p> + +<p>He thought no one had ever guessed a word; the pale face and great +dark eyes looked quietly over the counter, or went about their work, +or smiled good-by <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>as Aleck went off, as if they had no thought of +anything else; but Aleck and the doctor knew it all; and the doctor +used to tramp up and down the room now and then, until Nelly would +glance up wonderingly from her work.</p> + +<p>“The very same! The very same look he gave me the first time he opened +his eyes at me, after it began to seem as if he might pull through +after all! Nothing in the world for him, and it’s all right there +shouldn’t be, and he’s glad there’s such a good time for you and me; +that’s what there is in that smile of his.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t see how he can quite feel that there’s nothing in the world +for him when he has us all,” said Nelly gently. “He surely can’t forget +that.”</p> + +<p>“No,” said the doctor, “he does not forget that, and I don’t believe +the thought of us is out of his mind a moment from the time he leaves +the house in the morning, and he hangs upon it till he comes back at +night; but still, life has something outside of us, or ought to have, +to a fellow like him. And it would have had, if it hadn’t been for a +set of miserable——”</p> + +<p>The doctor’s book was very near taking another fly out of the window; +but he only added quietly, “However, he’ll find out that he’s somebody +yet,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> and make his fortune, if nothing more. Halliday says he’s a +genius, and he’ll be known as the first chemist in the state, some day.”</p> + +<p>The doctor was right about Thorndyke’s “hanging on.” It seemed as if, +aside from the thought of the Prince Royal, he lived and moved in the +doctor and Aleck; and as for Nelly, she had never come to seem quite +like a real person yet, always the beautiful vision of the flower +window. The doctor was first of all, of course; Thorndyke watched his +every movement as if it were food for his eyes, no matter how engrossed +they might be with any work. But still, it only seemed wonderful +that he had them all; he could not make it seem anything that really +belonged to him; only a grace from day to day.</p> + +<p>But poor Tom! He was sure he was having trouble somehow, and to see +any one in trouble was always trouble itself to Thorndyke; what could +he do? How could he make things seem any better? If he could only get +Tom over to Halliday’s, with Aleck! But that would be throwing away the +years he had been working and waiting for promotion at Fenimore’s.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> + +<p>Tom was too busy just then to be thinking of promotion, or of woes by +the way; the busy season was coming on, and he had just been advanced +to the wholesale room; quite a step, and he couldn’t help liking it, +though Hal was in the same department. Hal was a good fellow enough +when he didn’t happen to feel like saying anything disagreeable, and +when he did—pshaw! would Tom never get over being a goose?</p> + +<p>Hal was busy in his turn; a customer had just come in whom the junior +partner had turned over to him with the whisper that it was especially +important he should be pleased, and Hal had been sharpening his +business wits to capture him. But it seemed for some time as if he +would not be caught; he knew precisely what he wanted and would not be +taken in any other net. But if he knew what he wanted it would only +be the more of a failure if Fenimore & Co. couldn’t suit him, and Hal +redoubled his energies, and called every resource into requisition.</p> + +<p>At last it seemed as if triumph were at hand.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> The customer caught +sight of a lot of goods and stopped suddenly before them.</p> + +<p>“There!” he exclaimed, “there’s something I should like, if they’re +what they seem to be;” and he stooped to examine them.</p> + +<p>Hal caught a look from the junior partner which said, “Don’t have any +difficulty there; push your advantage,” and he waited anxiously for +what should come next.</p> + +<p>The inspection was concluded, and the goods pronounced very handsome.</p> + +<p>“Now what do you ask for those?”</p> + +<p>At another look from the partner, Hal named the price, a trifle lower +than the mark.</p> + +<p>“That’s reasonable,” said the customer. “I think I’ll take the whole +lot;” and Hal’s triumph rose to high-water mark as the junior smiled +across to him. A good piece of work for so early in the morning, for +this was a man who bought heavily and paid well, but had never brought +his patronage to Fenimore & Co. before.</p> + +<p>“But wait a moment,” he said, “are these all you have?”</p> + +<p>“All we have,” said Hal, “and we had the only invoice. We sold a +smaller lot to Pollard & Leighton, and I assure you no one else will +have them.” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Ah! Pollard & Leighton have them? Then I do not care to take them, and +as I see nothing else that I require, I will bid you good morning,” and +with a bow he left the store.</p> + +<p>The junior partner hardly waited for him to be out of hearing.</p> + +<p>“And a nice piece of work you’ve made of it for a fellow almost +twenty-one, and coming into the firm before long! He didn’t ask you +if any of the goods had been sold, and you needn’t have gone out of +your way to tell him; but even if you must needs do that, it was quite +another thing to give names. We’ve lost that man now, I suppose.”</p> + +<p>Hal walked into the next room without a word, more annoyed and +chagrined than at anything that had happened since he had been in the +store. He had made a great mistake and there was no getting over it, +and he had sufficient pride in Fenimore & Co. to feel sorry enough at +the best; but the junior being so disturbed about it made the matter +worse. However there was no use fretting, and perhaps he should find +something in the next room to help him forget it.</p> + +<p>Yes there was something sure enough. Tom had got hold of an equally +desirable customer, and was making a great swing with him. His spirits<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> +were rising tremendously, and by the time he had finished his sale +he had forgotten that anything disagreeable had ever happened in the +course of his life.</p> + +<p>“Who was that?” asked Hal.</p> + +<p>“A man from Illinois,” said Tom, “and a pretty good thing we’ve made of +it too.”</p> + +<p>“Let me see the bill,” said Hal, and he ran his eye over it.</p> + +<p>“Look here,” he exclaimed, putting his finger on a point in the list +where Tom’s pride was particularly centred, “you didn’t sell him those +goods at the price marked here, did you?”</p> + +<p>“Of course I did; why not?”</p> + +<p>“Why not?” asked Hal, with the sting of the old sneer made sharper than +ever by the freshness of his own annoyance, “no reason in the world +that I know of, except that it is five cents a yard less than we paid +for them.”</p> + +<p>Tom stood aghast, and his tongue seem fast to the roof of his mouth. +His first week in the salesroom, and a blunder like that! Should he be +sent down again in disgrace, or only left to feel as if he ought to be?</p> + +<p>Hal’s own trouble went clear out of sight, and he laughed a most +exasperating laugh that Tom was only too familiar with. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Better take that bill down to the senior,” he said. “Illinois is a +great state; perhaps he’d like to send you out there to establish a +branch.”</p> + +<p>Tom’s memory suddenly ran back, he didn’t stop to ask how, to a certain +night, years ago, when he sat over his game of chess under Hal’s +gaslight, and the same miserable feeling that had sent him home so fast +that evening hugged him tight as he went down to the counting-room to +have things set right if there was any way to do it. He remembered in +what a hurry he had tucked himself away under his blankets that night; +but there was no such skulking to be done now; he had got to face +things the best way he could.</p> + +<p>And he <i>could</i> face almost anything if people only wouldn’t say +something disagreeable about it! He supposed it was ridiculous, but it +was no use; he would rather any one would knock him down any day. Well, +he must try to keep out of Hal’s way for a few days; that was all that +could be done this time.</p> + +<p>But that was of no use either. Hal stood square in the doorway, with +two or three clerks at his side, the next morning, and the very first +salute was, “How’s Illinois this morning? Suppose we give three cheers +for the Hoosier state?” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p> + +<p>For one moment Tom felt as if <i>he</i> could have knocked somebody down; +but that wasn’t like Tom, and was gone again as quickly as it came, +only the old forlornness that had come to be almost an everyday thing +since he came into the store, stuck by.</p> + +<p>The last straw breaks the camel’s back, and this time Tom found himself +getting desperate. He pushed past Hal, and made his way to his post, +but he was thankful enough that no important business came to him that +day; he should have made worse work of it than yesterday, for his only +thought was how to get out of it altogether, a thousand miles away if +he could, he didn’t care where or what became of him afterwards, if +only he need never see Hal again! And he <i>would</i> get away! Hal was to +be junior partner himself soon, and things would be worse than ever, +and even if the day <i>should</i> ever come when the firm kept their promise +to Mr. Willoughby, Hal would be above him still; and for ever, so far +as he could see. He would rather earn his living with a pick-axe, if +he could only be left to feel like a man while he carried it on his +shoulder.</p> + +<p>“Don’t care what becomes of you, Tom Haggarty! All very well, but what +is going to become<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> of the rest waiting for you at home?” whispered +something in his ear.</p> + +<p>Ah, there it was, and it always came round to that again, no matter +what desperate resolves he took up for a moment.</p> + +<p>Yes, he supposed he must stick where he was and take what came, though +he believed he’d rather be a galley-slave, provided nobody ever spoke +to him; it must be he wasn’t much of a man, after all, or nobody would +dare taunt him quite as often as Hal!</p> + +<p>There was his voice at this moment!</p> + +<p>“Where’s the hoosier general betaken himself? I want to inquire how +he’s brought out profit and loss this morning;” and Tom heard a laugh +from the younger clerks that seemed the echo of Hal’s own.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> + +<p>“Doctor! are you there?” called a voice through Dr. Thorndyke’s +speaking-tube, in the dead of night.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” was the answer; “what’s wanted?”</p> + +<p>“Come down right away, can’t you? It’s Aleck. Uncle Ralph isn’t all +right, I think.”</p> + +<p>“Wait three minutes for me,” and they were scarcely past when the +front-door opened and the doctor was ready.</p> + +<p>“What do you say, Aleck? What’s wrong?”</p> + +<p>“I can’t tell, indeed,” said Aleck as they hurried on; “some sound I +heard led me to fear that he was in trouble, and I went to his room. He +seems to be sleeping, but he looks strangely, and I can’t rouse him.”</p> + +<p>Neither could the doctor. He knew that as soon as he got one look in +the face, but he did not say so; he stepped quietly to the bed and +shook him gently by the shoulder, then lifted an eyelid, listened to +the heavy breathing, and looked Aleck slowly in the face.</p> + +<p>“Stimulants?” asked Aleck, eagerly. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p> + +<p>The doctor shook his head.</p> + +<p>“No use, my boy; we will try, if you like, but the work is done, I’m +afraid.”</p> + +<p>Aleck brought something, but only to find, as the doctor said, it was +of no use.</p> + +<p>“Oh, what is it?” he cried; “what <i>is</i> the matter? Why cannot we do +something?”</p> + +<p>“Because there is nothing to be done, Aleck, nothing but to wait and +watch by him, that he may not be alone at the last.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, why would not he listen to me!” groaned Aleck. “It has seemed as +if he were beside himself of late, arranging his business. I could not +see why he need hurry things so, but I have found him busy over his +papers every night when I came home, and left him busy when I went to +bed. I was sure he was doing too much, but I never thought of this!”</p> + +<p>“That is the secret of it,” said the doctor, “but not the whole secret. +He has not been well; he has felt some symptoms probably that urged him +to it; either weight alone he might have borne.”</p> + +<p>“And there is no hope? He is going to leave us? Oh, do let me call +Nelly!”</p> + +<p>“Not quite yet,” said the doctor, detaining him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> gently; “let us watch +him awhile. A little nearer morning would be better for Nelly.”</p> + +<p>So they watched and waited, and just as morning dawned and Nelly came, +Uncle Ralph was gone, not even knowing that any one stood by his side +to say good-by.</p> + +<p>Gone! Aleck had almost forgotten all the word meant, it was so many +years now since he and Nelly were first left alone together, and he had +not realized how nearly his father’s place had been filled since his +uncle came to make his home at the cottage. And now it was all over +again! The world looked dark enough as he opened the front-door to step +out into it again the next morning, but it was as real as ever, and +making more demands upon him than ever before. There were a thousand +things to be done and thought of, and after a day or two Aleck found +himself, though still bewildered with all that had happened, called +upon on every hand—everything referred to him at the store, and he +knew there must be affairs to be attended to beyond what the books +could show.</p> + +<p>The first thing was to send for his uncle’s lawyer. He came at once, +but the usual form of condolence was rather shortened, and he looked in +Aleck’s face with a smile. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span></p> + +<p>“And now, sir, you must allow me to present my congratulations to +yourself.”</p> + +<p>“To me!” exclaimed Aleck, between surprise and anger; what could he +mean?</p> + +<p>“Yes, sir, to you, as sole heir of your uncle’s estate, which has been +supposed for some years to be large, but the amount disposed of in the +will may even surprise yourself.”</p> + +<p>“The will! I did not suppose a will existed, and indeed I know it did +not a while ago.”</p> + +<p>“Very possibly,” said the lawyer; “but there is one deposited in my +safe at present bearing, I think, the same date with your admission +into partnership, and with the exception of a handsome legacy to your +sister and to the young man associated with you here—Thorndyke, I +think his name is—you will find yourself the recipient of the whole; +and I must beg once more to congratulate you on a fortune and a +business establishment such as fall to the lot of few young men.”</p> + +<p>Aleck stood bewildered, but when Thorndyke heard the news, the “all +but me” was forgotten in his smile for once. “O Aleck, it’s glorious! +The Prince Royal has given it to you, I know he has, and it’s only the +small beginning of what you deserve, and what He’ll find for you some +day.” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p> + +<p>“What I deserve?” said Aleck, putting his hands on Thorndyke’s +shoulders and looking earnestly in his face. “I do not deserve anything +from Him.”</p> + +<p>Thorndyke shook his head.</p> + +<p>“What did He say about a cup of cold water to one of the least? I +should have died of thirst if it had not been for the doctor and you; +you know that very well.”</p> + +<p>“And don’t you think I would rather have had Uncle Ralph than all the +fortunes in the world?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I know you would, and I have lost him too; but, O Aleck, you +can’t help my being glad for what has happened to you.”</p> + +<p>“And something has happened to you, too, young man, if the story is +true at all.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I hope not,” said Thorndyke; “that wouldn’t be right. What have +I ever done, and I owe him everything! No, Aleck, I want you to take +everything, and just let me stay and help you always; that is more than +I deserve.”</p> + +<p>“Tut,” said Aleck, “we’ll see, my boy; but if you shouldn’t stay by, +the old ship would go down on very short notice; you know well enough, +I was never anything more than the tail of the comet, since I undertook +this business.” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p> + +<p>“The story,” as Aleck called it, was quite true, and thanks to all the +toil Uncle Ralph had expended upon his affairs, those last few weeks, +Aleck stepped into his new dignities with very little perplexity or +trouble.</p> + +<p>Some people shook their heads and said they were a young set of hands +left at Halliday’s, to steer such a craft as that. But they soon found +that higher authorities did not think so; the physicians’ patronage +came in just the same, so the rest of the world concluded to give up +their doubts, and popular as Aleck and Thorndyke had always been, it +was more than ever the thing to go to Halliday’s.</p> + +<p>So all went on smoothly and well, only they missed Uncle Ralph more +than they could tell. But as time wore on, Thorndyke, who was always +watching Aleck, thought he saw more of a shadow in his face than even +his loss could account for; it was not natural for Aleck to look as if +his thoughts were busy with something outside, while people and things +close by were forgotten, or only attended to as if they disturbed him. +But once or twice when Thorndyke tried to sound him, or even ventured +to ask what he was thinking about, he got for answer a sudden lighting +up of Aleck’s face, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> the old gay laugh that had been music to +Thorndyke so many times.</p> + +<div class="center"><img src="images/i255.jpg" alt="Illustration" /></div> + +<p>“Thinking about you, old fellow!” he would say, and put his hands on +Thorndyke’s shoulders a moment, and for a little while seemed to have +come back again. But not for long. He had told the truth, as he always +did, and he was thinking about Thorndyke; but that was not all, and the +thinking went on, until at last the problem was worked out, questions +were settled, and Aleck came back to stay. This time Thorndyke asked no +questions; only a quick look and a smile passed between him and Aleck, +and they understood each other perfectly. But Aleck had something to +say, if Thorndyke did not ask, only not quite yet.</p> + +<p>“Not yet,” he said to himself. “I must wait for his birthday; and after +waiting all these years, a few months wont count for much.”</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> + +<p>The few months slipped away and the birthday came, or at least the day +that was always celebrated as such; for though neither Mrs. Ganderby +nor any of the other people under the shadow of the old butternut-tree +had the least idea when or where the record should have been made, the +doctor called him just twelve when he first saw him, and insisted upon +a birthday every year that same day in October.</p> + +<p>Aleck went to the store an hour before time to catch him and have his +talk out before people began to come in. But early as he was, Thorndyke +was there before him, and a customer too; so Aleck retreated into the +sheltered corner behind the desk to wait his opportunity. Thorndyke +gave him a nod and a radiant look as he came in, for these birthdays +were times when, for one day in the year, the “all but me” was <i>forced</i> +to flee away; the doctor had always planned some excursion, and +managed that he could bear it; and the little room, that had seemed +such a paradise the first time he saw<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> it, was gradually filling up +with treasures, more and more beautiful every year, until the walls +would hardly hold anything more. Uncle Ralph’s was missing this time, +but all the rest were there, even to old Joan’s; and the flowers that +had always come from Nelly since the very first, “went ahead,” as +Aleck called it, of all that had ever come before. The doctor was in +high spirits, and Thorndyke thought “the princess” had never been so +bewitching in her gentle, lovely ways. He <i>couldn’t</i> say “All but me” +this morning; he had almost forgotten it, and there was actually a bit +of color in his cheeks, and the great eyes shone as Aleck had not seen +them since that day he stood before the window so many years ago.</p> + +<p>Aleck sat and watched him as he went about to fill the prescription +waited for.</p> + +<p>“Good for him!” he said to himself; “the boy looks gay this morning. +But I declare I wish I didn’t remember how he looked that miserable +day at the school. That thing between his shoulders was hardly worth +noticing then; I wonder the boys saw it at all—and now! It seems as +if it almost buried that splendid head and face of his, and I know the +pain is always there by the patient, wistful look out of his eyes. And +his step that flew<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> down the street so that I couldn’t catch him that +day! It never breaks now from that slow, noiseless way it has. Well, +it’s no use thinking what might have been, and I suppose I should never +have had him here if all had gone well. Will that man <i>never</i> be ready +to go? Ah, there he is actually steering for the door!”</p> + +<p>But at the same instant somebody else came in, only a little child, +however, wanting something that would take but a moment. So Aleck +possessed his soul in patience; there surely would not be any one else +in, it was so early.</p> + +<p>But what was the matter with Thorndyke?</p> + +<p>The child stood innocently enough before the counter, but Thorndyke’s +face was growing white, the glow was gone, and sharp lines coming in +its place, and the thin fingers trembled so that it seemed as if the +package never would be tied. But it was done at last, and Thorndyke +handed it to the child with the same smile and the same gentle +“Anything more?” that the customers had learned to expect. But when +the door was shut, Aleck started. What <i>was</i> the matter? Thorndyke was +leaning against the wall, his lips pressed tightly together, and the +great veins showing blue and hard on his forehead. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span></p> + +<p>“What is it, Thorndyke?” said Aleck, springing towards him.</p> + +<p>Thorndyke covered his face with his fingers, and his whole frame +quivered as Aleck had never seen it before, but as the doctor saw it +once under the overhanging of the old rock.</p> + +<p>“O Aleck, I cannot bear it! Didn’t you see? I can bear anything else. I +can let a strong man look down at me, but that wondering, pitying look +of a little child! That is the one thing I cannot bear! Oh, why must I +always be a soldier? I am <i>so</i> tired, and I had almost forgotten I was +one to-day!”</p> + +<p>Aleck drew him quickly into the shelter of the desk, and got his arm +round his neck.</p> + +<p>“There, there, rest a little if you are so tired! you are the bravest +little soldier in all the world, and the lightest weapons are the +hardest to stand against sometimes. Is that the reason you always get +out of the way when a child comes in? I noticed it, but I never knew. +Why didn’t you tell me? Don’t, old fellow! don’t mind. I’ve got lots +I want to say to you this morning, and I thought it should be such a +happy day. If you only knew, if you only would believe how wonderful +you are to every one! The doctor and Nelly would think they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> had +nothing in the world to be proud of, if it weren’t for you; and you +know what Uncle Ralph thought and everybody else is finding out. And +as for fighting, you get victories every day where the strongest of us +would go down.”</p> + +<p>But Aleck had to wait awhile for his talk. The next customer that came +in saw the queer little form going about just as usual, but Aleck knew +it was no time for him, and waited till evening when he got Thorndyke +by himself in his own room, the fire crackling and the room shining as +if there had never been such a thing as a shadow in the world.</p> + +<p>“Now, old fellow,” he began, after he had been going on merrily for a +while, “I’ve got a little business proposal to make. I want you to buy +me out.”</p> + +<p>The great eyes opened in amazement.</p> + +<p>“Buy you out, Aleck! What do you mean?”</p> + +<p>“I mean exactly what I say,” and then Aleck told him all the sacrifice +it had been to him to go into the store to begin with, how he had done +it for Nellie’s sake and his uncle’s, and how he had gone steadily +through the whole college course out of hours, as well as it was +possible to do by himself.</p> + +<p>“I had an idea, you see, of slipping off and leaving the coast to you, +you were doing so splendidly and Uncle Ralph was so proud of you; but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> +that night he talked to me about the partnership, I saw it would not do +then. But now, why not? I know he thought I should always stay, but if +he sees how things go among us at all, he sees what it would be to me +to get away, and I know what he would say. We’ll never take the name +down, old fellow, it shall be Halliday still, and I’ll hang about more +or less till you have one more birthday, and when you are twenty-one, +up goes ‘Halliday & Thorndyke,’ and I leave you to your own devices +altogether.”</p> + +<p>“But Aleck, where are you going? What do you want to do?”</p> + +<p>“What do I want to do? I want to get my profession: what I have always +wanted, and what my father wanted for me. He thought I should be a +lawyer, I know, but I should never make one in the world; there is only +one profession for me, and I am going to the headquarters you and I +think most of. I’m going to study with Dr. Thorndyke. Why shouldn’t a +man be a doctor if he wants to?”</p> + +<p>“All but me!” The doctor had meant to make one of him, Thorndyke knew +that very well. However that was neither here nor there. Aleck was +going to leave him; that was all to be thought of now. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span></p> + +<p>“But Aleck!” he cried, and then stopped himself. Aleck had sacrificed +everything all these years, because his uncle wanted him; he should +never know what the store and life would seem, when he hadn’t him at +his side any longer!</p> + +<p>“Only you know—why, Aleck, I can’t buy you out! you know very well +what I have wouldn’t buy a corner of the store.”</p> + +<p>“Well, put that in, if you’re not afraid to risk it, and you shall have +the whole profits of the business from to-day onward; and if you manage +the old concern as well as I know you can, you will own the whole of it +before many years. Uncle Ralph would like it, I know, and I don’t see +why we sha’n’t be jolly all around.”</p> + +<p>“But Aleck!” said Thorndyke again, “I can’t do it! It would be just +taking what belongs to you and putting it in my pocket. I never will do +it in the world.”</p> + +<p>“Well now, wait a minute,” said Aleck. “I haven’t finished my remarks +about it. In the first place, there’s more than I know what to do with, +without it, and in the second place, I owe it to you if there wasn’t, +for you have made life in the store a different thing to me a thousand +times over. Do you think I could ever have kept up heart if I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> hadn’t +thought so much of your being there every day, or could ever have been +patient through it all if I hadn’t seen such a little fighter at my +side? So that’s settled so far, and now in the third place, I can’t +desert the ship, unless you will take the whole command, and if you +do you ought to have the whole profits. And in the fourth place,” and +Aleck put his arm around his future partner’s neck again in a most +unbusinesslike way, “in the fourth place, it’s all in the family, +whatever you do and have, you dear, little old soldier? Don’t you know +nobody could be closer to us all? Flesh and blood couldn’t bring it any +nearer, and if we’re so proud of you now, what will it be by-and-by?”</p> + +<p>Nobody could resist Aleck. It was all settled with the doctor and +Thorndyke and everybody else, just as he would like it, and before they +really knew what he was about, and Thorndyke very soon found himself +really steering the ship, and Aleck only “hanging about more or less,” +as he had said. A good deal “less,” Thorndyke thought, but it was +better than losing him altogether, and he was determined he should +never know how he missed him.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> + +<p>Tom sauntered into Halliday’s now and then, as he always had, but +Thorndyke saw something, he couldn’t tell what, that worried him more +and more; at all events Tom looked more hopeless and forlorn every time.</p> + +<p>“What a man you’re making, Thorndyke!” he said one day; “it was in you, +I suppose, and it wasn’t in me; that’s the difference. But you don’t +know what a chance you’ve had. Did Aleck ever badger you or crowd you +in all the time you were together?”</p> + +<p>“<i>Aleck!</i> Why, you know him, Tom!”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I suppose so; only I can’t imagine anybody’s leaving you in peace +and quiet all the time. Well, I might have made something, perhaps, +if I’d been here, though not much, probably. I always was a stupid, +blundering fellow, and never should have been of much account, anyhow. +I’m none at all now, though, and I’d give up and let everything go to +the bottom, if there was nobody that thought he could hold on to me if +I didn’t. They’ll find<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> out their mistake some day; but I suppose I +ought to hold on till they do.”</p> + +<p>“You wouldn’t like any one else to say that,” said Thorndyke, greatly +troubled.</p> + +<p>“Well, it’s not very amusing, but I do hear it every day of my life, +and so I suppose it must be the truth, even if there <i>are</i> some people +kind enough not to tell me so.”</p> + +<p>A customer came before Thorndyke had time to answer, and Tom left the +store with a slow, listless step. Work was waiting for him, however, +and lively enough to stir him up and make him forget whether he could +do it well or not, and when this happened, he was sure to do it well. +If he had known how often the other partners thought so, it would have +changed everything; but he came almost altogether in Hal’s way, and by +the time he had done with him, he couldn’t believe that any kind word +he had from the others was more than out of charity, and he never had +a summons into the counting-room without expecting to be told what a +stupid fellow he was, and wondering that it did not come.</p> + +<p>But this time “stupid” certainly wasn’t the word. Tom was getting more +and more on his mettle as buyers came thicker and faster, and he “was +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>making things fly,” as Aleck would have called it, in a way that Hal +almost looked on with envy. Business hours were just coming to a close +when his run was over, and he stood near the door having a word with +his last customer, and with a record of sales that made him feel as if +he <i>was</i> somebody, for a few minutes at least.</p> + +<p>“Oh, by the way,” said the customer, “I want a drygoods-box. What is +that one worth, and can I have it?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said Tom, “you can have it; about fifty cents will cover it, I +suppose.”</p> + +<p>He handed him the amount, and Tom put it in his vest-pocket, and went +on laughing and chatting a few moments, feeling his extra spirits a +luxury he was tempted to extend over as much ground as possible, and in +fact they lasted him fairly home, and even the ghost of them came back +with him to business hours in the morning.</p> + +<p>But the sound of Hal’s voice calling for the hoosier general dispelled +all that was left in a minute; there was nothing that tormented Tom +like that nickname, and it seemed as if it never would be done with. +Even if it was dropped once in a while, until he began to flatter +himself it had really gone under, up it came again, always at a moment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> +when he felt least like bearing it, and he was sure to see some of +the younger clerks daring to grin; and what could he say if they did? +Hadn’t he made a blunder that almost any of them would have been +disgraced for; and if the junior partner chose to remind him of it, he +supposed they had a <i>right</i> to grin.</p> + +<p>He got through with what Hal wanted, but it seemed to him Hal gave +him a peculiar look now and then. There was no mistake about it, and +it came oftener and oftener as the day went on. What did it mean? It +followed him home after hours, and worried him every time he knew where +he was through the night. What had he done now, and how many people +would hear of it as soon as he did? He should hear of it soon, he was +sure, for the same look was there when he came in the next morning.</p> + +<p>“Sent in your accounts, since Thursday’s sales, general?” asked Hal.</p> + +<p>“Why, yes, of course,” said Tom.</p> + +<p>“Oh, very good,” and the look was more significant than ever.</p> + +<p>Poor Tom was miserable again. Should he ever get through life, and be +done with it? Unluckily he had to get through to-day first, and it +dragged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> miserably enough, but the next promised no better. There was +the look again, and the same question: “Sent in your accounts, general?”</p> + +<p>What did it mean? He couldn’t get Hal to say that it meant anything, +but the same look and the same question came every day, until it seemed +to Tom he should go distracted, and he was divided between thankfulness +and agony when he heard Mr. Vickery, the next partner, ask suddenly,</p> + +<p>“What do you mean, Fenimore? I’ve heard you ask Haggarty that same +thing every day for a week; doesn’t he send in his accounts as a matter +of course?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know that he doesn’t,” said Hal, “but I’ve noticed a little +deficiency, and I’ve been waiting to see it made up.”</p> + +<p>“Deficiency!” exclaimed Tom; “what do you mean?”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps you thought the item too trifling for a place in the books,” +said Hal, with the old intolerable taunt in his tone; “there <i>are</i> +people who don’t like to trouble themselves about trifles.”</p> + +<p>“Not business people,” said Mr. Vickery, “and Haggarty knows that well +enough; if there is anything wrong, it had better be set right as soon +as possible,” and he looked searchingly in Tom’s face. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p> + +<p>Tom’s desperation gave him boldness for once, as he stepped in front of +Hal.</p> + +<p>“Tell me what you mean!” he exclaimed. “Wait a moment, Mr. Vickery, if +you please, and hear what he means.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, nothing of any consequence, only that I saw you make a sale the +other day and put the money in your pocket, and I’ve seen no return of +it in your accounts.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Vickery’s look was piercing now; Tom stood bewildered for a +moment, and then thrust his finger into his vest-pocket with a sharp +exclamation such as no one in the store had ever heard him use before.</p> + +<p>“I sold a drygoods-box the other day,” he said, “and upon my word and +honor I have never thought of it from that moment to this! You know +how we had been worked that day, Fenimore, and I had two hours to come +after that though it was past time to close then. There is the money, +and there it might have been till next year, if you had not reminded +me of it, but I think it is the first time my memory has defrauded the +house of even such a sum as fifty cents.”</p> + +<p>“Possibly,” said Hal, with the sneer still on his face; “but it may be +well to look out for it in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> future;” and he turned to his books +without another word.</p> + +<p>“Let it pass, Haggarty,” said the other partner gravely; “it was a +trifle to be sure, but the world is built on trifles, and that is one +of the first things to be remembered in business.”</p> + +<p>Tom turned away with tight-shut lips and a white face. How many had +overheard the conversation? There were plenty within reach of it, at +any rate, and he might be called a thief all through the store before +night! And even if he escaped that, he did not believe Mr. Vickery +would ever feel sure of him again. Hal <i>knew</i> better, but he had come +very little in the second partner’s way.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2> + +<p>All the rest of that day, Tom went about his work like a wooden thing; +he answered questions and handled things that came in his way, but his +thoughts were running heavily back and forth over the long dreary years +since Mr. Willoughby picked him up in his chaise, and always coming +round to the same miserable point at last. How brave and patient he +had meant to be, how faithful he had tried to be, through it all, for +the sake of those at home, and how he had meant to deserve all the +promotion he should ever get, and let the firm feel he had repaid them +well for all they did for him. And who had ever taken the slightest +notice whether he did or not, who had ever been the wiser for it all? +And now that it was almost over, now that he thought such recompense as +money could give was just before him, to be shunned and sneered at for +a thief!</p> + +<p>Who had even noticed? He remembered suddenly what Aleck had said to +him, that dark terrible time, about <i>One</i> who <i>always</i> did, and was +always ready to help. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Yes,” he said, “I know it. I lived on that all the next year, and I +never felt so much like a man in my life; but since I came here, that, +and everything else that had any life in it, seems to have been driven +out of me. If I <i>could</i> have hung on to it, it might have helped me +through everything. It’s my own fault that I didn’t, I suppose, but +after a fellow gets to feeling so horridly as I have from one year’s +end to another, he lets go of everything sometimes. If I could only +have gone somewhere else! There’s Thorndyke now, he never’ll know what +a chance he had there, with Aleck always next to him! But there’s an +end to everything, and I’ll—”</p> + +<p>But up came once more the thought of “the rest at home.” If he left the +store, and went out into the world, how many more years might it be +before he could be worth anything to them! And where could he go, and +what could he do, if he went out from Fenimore’s with such whisperings +as were likely to follow him! And yet, it seemed to him another day +there would be worse than a thousand deaths. <i>That</i> day was done, at +last, at all events, and Tom, as he passed out into the dark, saw no +one, and scarcely knew where he was. But a familiar voice sounded in +his ears. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p> + +<p>“I say, Haggarty, what a hurry you’re in!”</p> + +<p>He turned and saw Davis, his old schoolfellow at the professor’s. He +had not seen him from that time, until a few days before. He only knew +that he went abroad directly after graduating, and had returned within +a fortnight, “for a visit.”</p> + +<p>“Why, man alive,” he said, as a gaslight fell on Tom’s face, “what’s +the matter with you? How white you are! Are you sick?”</p> + +<p>“I wish I were,” said Tom, “and sick enough to have an end come to it +all,” and then shocked at having said so much to Davis, he stopped +suddenly.</p> + +<p>“Hallo!” said Davis, “what’s the matter? Is luck bad to-day?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know,” said Tom, “some people never have any, you know. How +are you?”</p> + +<p>“Look here,” said Davis, drawing Tom’s arm through his, “come along and +let’s understand about this. We’re old friends you know. There’s no use +in being down about the way the game goes; take heart and throw again, +that’s all.”</p> + +<p>They walked away, and Davis began to talk of old times and of the +changes that had come. “And to think of you being left head of the +family and going to business! I was expecting you over there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> every +year for a while, till I found out how things were. Tell me how you +like it;” and he went on with one question after another, until before +Tom could believe it himself, he had drawn from him a pretty good idea +of how matters stood.</p> + +<p>“I wouldn’t stay there,” said Davis; “I’d clear out and be found +missing some bright morning.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps you would,” said Tom, “with nobody looking to you to be +anything to them, and more money than you know what to do with.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, is that the difficulty? I didn’t know that was the case; but it +isn’t the worst thing in the world to be got over. I can tell you a +way to ease matters off and get a start on your own feet before a +very long time;” and drawing Tom’s arm closer, he dropped into a low, +confidential tone.</p> + +<p>“But I can’t!” exclaimed Tom, starting back in horror, as Davis came to +his point at last.</p> + +<p>“Hold on,” said Davis, and went on talking rapidly in the same low +whisper without giving Tom a chance for another word.</p> + +<p>“Look here!” said Tom, stopping in his walk, and turning on Davis like +some desperate creature driven to bay at last; “what do you take me +for? Do you mean to insult me?”</p> + +<p>“Pooh!” said Davis, in the most imperturbable<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> tone, regaining his hold +on Tom’s arm and drawing him into step again; “don’t fly out with a +fellow for trying to befriend you. There are slow ways of getting on in +the world, and quicker ones for those who can’t afford to wait, that’s +all; and I thought you were in a hurry. If you agree, I’ll introduce +you to as gentlemanly a set of fellows as you know, and I’ll warrant +you a welcome, for the truth is we want one more, of just your measure +too, to make our set complete. Don’t make up your mind in a hurry; it’s +early yet. Meet me here again at nine o’clock.”</p> + +<p>“But I tell you I wont,” began Tom. “I don’t want to hear any such—”</p> + +<p>“Pooh!” interrupted Davis again; “what’s the use of toiling a dozen +years under somebody’s thumb when you might make enough to stand on +your own feet in as many months? The world owes us a living, anyhow, +and I don’t see why handling a bit of paper skilfully isn’t quite as +much the gentlemanly thing as measuring away with a yardstick half a +lifetime. Just come up like a man, and I’ll be responsible for the +rest.”</p> + +<p>It was seven o’clock, and for an hour and a half Tom pushed drearily up +and down the streets through a drizzling mist, but the fog lay thicker<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> +and darker in his own brain. What should he say; what should he do? He +must do something, for he would rather die than have another year like +the last. Rather die? Of course he would; but people don’t always die +for the wishing, and who would there be to take his father’s place if +he should?</p> + +<p>These thoughts crowded and whirled, and then came Aleck’s words, those +words spoken so long ago, but never forgotten, “Some One that always +notices.”</p> + +<p>“I can’t help it,” he cried; “I believe I’m desperate. I’ve tried to +do my best all these years, and what’s the use? as Davis says. Oh, if +I only had one friend that really cared for me that I could go to and +tell everything! I <i>should</i> have, I suppose, if I was worth it, and Hal +would have respected me if I’d been worth it; but he never did, and of +course nobody else did, only they were kind enough to keep it out of +sight.”</p> + +<p>If Tom could only have seen Thorndyke at that moment, and known what he +was thinking of as he sat at his desk, with papers pushed away and his +eyes fixed somewhere a good way beyond, with a pained and troubled look!</p> + +<p>“Hoosier general!” he was saying to himself;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> “I wonder what that +means? Something that Tom winced under, that was plain enough. I don’t +see how Fenimore finds it in his heart to worry him so, and I’m sure +there’s more of it going on than Tom knows how to get along with. I +wish I could do something to help him out of it. I wish I could get him +over here; it would be such a comfort now that Aleck is out of the way +so much! But he’s doing so well there, and he’s worked his way almost +to the top of the ladder, I could never ask him. I heard Fenimore +praising him to the rest of the firm the other day, and I don’t wonder.”</p> + +<p>But Tom didn’t hear; he plodded up and down without knowing that he was +tired, and that he had eaten not a mouthful since morning, and that +the drizzling mist had penetrated and chilled him through. He was only +thinking of the store and of the hour of going back, and that if he did +not soon find some way of escape by which he could still hold on to his +duty at home, he was afraid he should let go of it! Oh, why was he left +so? Why could not his father have lived? The city bell struck eight, +and the echo of Davis’ voice seemed to repeat his words.</p> + +<p>“Come up like a man!”</p> + +<p>“Like a man!” echoed Tom again. “Like a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> counterfeiter and forger! What +did he want me to bring him Fenimore & Co.’s signature for? He thinks +there’s nothing decent in me, like the rest of the world, I suppose. +But no one ever thought I could quite make a thief yet!”</p> + +<p>He started with a sudden stab of recollection.</p> + +<p>“Yes, they have, too! Hal called me a thief, and tried his best to show +me off for one! What difference does it make if I go with Davis? And +who cares, whatever I do?”</p> + +<p>Nine o’clock struck at last, and as he reached the lamppost Davis had +marked as a rendezvous, a figure stepped from behind it.</p> + +<p>“Oh, here you are! That’s the right kind of a fellow!” whispered Davis, +slipping a hand into Tom’s arm. “Now come along and I’ll introduce you +to some of my friends.”</p> + +<p>“Stop!” said Tom, squaring himself, “I’ll tell you in the outset, I +want nothing to do with any black work you may have going on; but if +you can take me somewhere where it’s warm and bright, let’s go. I can’t +walk here all night, and I can’t go home and talk to people, to save my life.”</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2> + +<p>The Cumbermede was ploughing her way merrily under a favoring breeze; +her home run was half made, and everything had prospered as if +Captain Carter were making his first voyage under a propitious star. +His dream was realized at last, and he stood commander on his own +quarter-deck. And commander he was indeed; every one on board found +that out very speedily, for Carter had aimed at perfection from the +day he shipped as a raw hand, and the eight years of holding fast to +his motto hadn’t made him less devoted to it. Perfect order, perfect +discipline, perfect action, nothing less was accepted; but somehow, +instead of the thankless working, like wooden things, that most of them +had always found a sailor’s life to mean, every one sprang to his duty +with a will, and the ropes were pulled to a merry tune, instead of the +unearthly guttural groan that served just as well to keep the time on +many a ship.</p> + +<p>Almost all were new hands this voyage. Penfield had disappeared long +ago, and only the first mate and one of the crew had ever seen the +vessel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> before. But that one stood by like one of her own timbers, +“long-limbed Jake.” His name had been on the ship’s papers ever since +the voyage when Carter had transferred him to his own watch, and +restless as sailors are, always believing the last vessel they sail in +the worst that ever ploughed the sea, no departing ship’s company could +ever tempt him away with them. He reappeared as regularly as repairs +were made and cargo entered, and his only restless times were before +Carter came aboard; as soon as his voice was heard, all right, and Jake +was himself again, and the best man in the ship’s crew, all officers +agreed.</p> + +<p>It was rather hard times for Jake, this voyage. It seemed to him life +would never be anything again, now that Carter no longer had the watch. +But the something, Jake couldn’t have told what, that reached his +heart, and kindled a spark of life there, with that first “Belay there, +my hearty!” had kept its hold ever since, and did not need many words +to help it. The “Take care of yourself, Jake, and there’s a berth for +you next voyage if you want it,” as Carter went ashore, and the “On +hand again, my man?—that’s all right,” as he came aboard for another +voyage, set Jake about his business with a new glow, and the spark grew +brighter,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> and the bit of life warmer, as every trip went on. He had +been restless, this time, dreading lest he shouldn’t get his greeting +now that Carter came as captain. But there it was, just the same, and +with the same hearty tone and friendly look, and with that and his +pride in seeing him take command, Jake had enough to live on, though +the distance was doubled between them, and orders could never come +direct from him again; he should hear his voice at any rate, and could +watch for his coming on deck. What it had all been to Jake, Carter +could never know, for he couldn’t know all the deadly blackness that +had filled his heart that night of Penfield’s watch; and he couldn’t +see all the thoughts and memories that crowded the murderous hatred +out, as Jake lay in his bunk that night, sobbing like a baby.</p> + +<p>They had come back so many times since, that it seemed as if the very +bunk would know them.</p> + +<p>“It may be true after all,” they began that night, “it may be true +after all, what she always taught me, that I’ve got a soul of my own, +and the One that made it cares what becomes of it. If He cares for me, +mayhap it would be a pity not to care for myself. I might even think of +what the old woman at home is always saying, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>wonder if it could +be true. I can remember the day when it did seem as if I was something +more than a dog, and it’s not so many years aback, either; but I’ve +been told I wasn’t, till I began to think other folks were right. It’s +a hard feeling, though, and goes against a man, if he is a man. And he +wouldn’t have looked at me like that if he hadn’t thought I was one!”</p> + +<p>It was the same thing over and over many a night, only stronger and +clearer as time went on, until Jake’s thoughts ventured a little +farther still.</p> + +<p>“And if it should be true, that there’s a man in me after all, mayhap +there’s something in more of what she had to say. She said the One that +made me was looking for something from me; but if he is, he sees plain +enough I’ve made a poor cruise of it so far. I’m a good many points +out of my course, there’s no mistake about that; the only question is +how I’m to get back again. She used to say he’d help me; that he died +to bring my reckoning right, and he was ready to head me towards port +again. Maybe it’s true. I wouldn’t have believed it once, but they say +he’s better than the best of us, and if he’s got more the heart of a +man in him than the mate has, he must be ready to lend a hand. Maybe +he could bring me<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> to my bearings again, if he’d take the wheel; and +I’d set my sails square to the wind, if he would, for it comes rough +on a man when he really believes he might make port, and knows he’s +drifting on the rocks. And as for anything he wants of me, if there’s +more pleasure in bearing a hand or shifting a course for him than there +is for the mate, I should draw my pay in advance a hundred times over.”</p> + +<p>Out from that dark, comfortless bunk, out from that heart so lately +full of bitterness and revenge, went the first upreachings of faith and +loyalty towards Him who was waiting and watching for them—the first +faint “ay, ay, sir,” to orders that were to save him from going down a +wreck. Jake did not know they were the first yielding to whispers he +would never listen to before; but the Whisperer knew and cherished them +as only He knows how to do. And many a night, as the voyages went on, +He drew nearer and said more; and as Jake listened, the lonely heart +reached out more strongly towards the Voice, and fell nearer and nearer +into its course, the homeward track of a soul that God has called.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2> + +<p>The Cumbermede had passed the line of gentle winds, and had struck a +point where strong ones and even storms might be looked for. Still the +sailors took no notice of the clouds; they believed too strongly in +luck, and the new captain had been running in a “streak” of it ever +since he hoisted anchor for the outward trip; he would get in all safe, +no fear of that. But the captain had less faith in his star, and more +in watchfulness, and was more frequently on deck as every day went by.</p> + +<p>“I don’t like those clouds there to starboard, Morton,” he said to his +first officer one afternoon; “they look a little ugly to me.”</p> + +<p>The mate took a sharp look towards them.</p> + +<p>“I don’t believe there’s much in them,” he said, “and they’re to +leeward of us, too, or have been, rather; the wind’s getting round a +trifle, I see.”</p> + +<p>“That’s just it,” said the captain; “and if it gets round a little +farther we may find out what’s in them before night. Keep a good +lookout, and I’ll be on deck again in half an hour.” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p> + +<p>Before the half hour had passed the wind had shifted decidedly, and was +blowing very brisk from where the clouds lay.</p> + +<p>“Reef the topsails,” said the captain the moment he came up.</p> + +<p>“Ay, ay, sir,” said the mate, and passed the order to the men. But the +winds worked faster than the men could, and before the order was fairly +executed it was time to issue another, and still another followed. All +hands were called, and in another half hour the vessel was driving, +close-reefed, before a constantly increasing gale. “A half a gale,” as +the sailors called it at first, then “a gale of wind,” and by the time +the darkness gathered, “a living gale of wind.”</p> + +<p>The captain’s voice could be heard clear and sharp above the tempest +for some time, but at last it was almost impossible for either his or +the mate’s to be distinguished, though there was little to do by that +time but to let the vessel drive.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know what’s coming of this, Morton,” said the captain during a +moment’s lull; “but, however we come out, we’ve done all we can.”</p> + +<p>“I’m afraid we have, sir; but I can’t think this will last much longer. +It seems to be holding off a little just now; and it would be hard to +see <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>anything go wrong so near home, and after such a run as we have +had.”</p> + +<p>But the momentary lull seemed only to have redoubled the strength of +the tempest; the beating and the roar increased until it seemed as if +every sail, close-reefed as it was, would be carried away. At last, +through all the commotion, a sharp, tearing crash and a heavy fall +announced that the foretopmast had yielded to the strain.</p> + +<p>“Clear away there!” shouted the captain, and the men sprang forward +with their axes. It was almost impossible to do anything, with the +vessel pitching as if she would go under with every wave, but the work +must be done, and the captain’s voice was heard now above everything.</p> + +<p>But something else was not heard: a broken spar, just above the +captain’s head, was swaying back and forth, crackling and snapping for +one instant before it should come down. Only Jake’s eye, raised for one +instant, caught sight of it. To shout or to gesture through the roar +and darkness would have been vain; only a momentary flash of lightning +had shown the danger to Jake. In one instant, almost like the lightning +itself, he was at the captain’s side.</p> + +<p>“Stand from under!” he shouted, and pointed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> upward. The captain sprang +aside, Jake turned to do the same, but a pitch of the vessel destroyed +his balance. The one second taken to recover it, was the one second too +late. With a crash near enough now to be heard over all, the spar was +down, and Jake—? Where was he? Overboard? For one moment it seemed +so, but another flash showed him lying senseless against the windlass. +If he could but have known that it was the captain himself who sprang +toward him, lifted him up, and drew him to a place of safety?</p> + +<p>In another half hour, as if the storm with this last cruel blow had +wreaked its vengeance, it had passed away, a fine steady breeze was all +that remained of its force, and the clouds were breaking in rifts along +the sky. And with just such a momentary uncertain light as the moon +was sending through them, Jake’s consciousness was returning; enough, +though to show him that the captain was standing by his bunk and +holding water to his lips. That moment repaid Jake for all the bygone +years that had made his life a wretchedness.</p> + +<p>“On hand again, my man? That’s all right! I was afraid you had shipped +for another voyage, and all for my sake too!”</p> + +<p>If Jake could only have told him what was in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> his heart! He would have +given worlds to do it, but he could not speak.</p> + +<p>“You saved my life, my hearty, and I shall remember that I owe it to +you,” said the captain again.</p> + +<p>Jake made a tremendous effort. He <i>would</i> speak! “No, captain,” he +said, “I owed it to you before! Ever since the night you took me into +your watch. I did not know I <i>had</i> a soul, before that, or that anybody +cared for it if I had, but when I found <i>you</i> did, I believed Another +might. I’ve lived for you ever since, and have tried to live a little +for Him, if He’d accept it, and I’d have died for you any day. If I do +now, it’s all right, and more than I ever thought He’d grant me. It’s +only shipping for another voyage, as you say, and if he takes me safe +to port, you’ll follow.”</p> + +<p>When the morning sun rose over a calm blue sea, Jake’s voyage was +ended, and the Divine hand he had reached out to grasp, in the +loneliness of his comfortless bunk, that night so long ago, had steered +him safely home!</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2> + +<p>At the moment Carter was listening to the few words Jake could summon +strength to utter, Thorndyke sat in a little office Aleck had enclosed +for him at one side of the store, where he could slip away for a little +rest now and then without really leaving his new responsibilities, and +once more Tom and his fortunes came uppermost in his thoughts.</p> + +<p>“I wonder what has become of Haggarty,” he was saying to himself. “I +can’t remember when he has been in here. And he didn’t look right, the +last time he came. There was a while he seemed quite himself again, +but he went down lower than ever before long. I wish I could find out +what is going wrong with him. It can’t be anything at the store, for +Hal’s making a trip abroad for the firm, and wont be back for another +month, and I know the senior partners think well of Tom. Indeed, I +suppose he’ll go in himself before long, and yet something is certainly +dragging on him. He looks worried and keeps out of the way. I’ve a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> +great mind to go up to the house and see if I can get hold of him.”</p> + +<p>Thorndyke got up from his easy chair, a very different affair from the +piece of workmanship old Enoch had been so proud of years ago, and went +out into the darkness.</p> + +<p>“So tired to-day,” was the entry he had made that morning in his pocket +journal, the only visible friend that ever heard a word about the pain, +or how the battle went; only the great Captain himself heard the rest. +“So tired to-day! Should give out utterly if I could leave the store.” +But he wanted to find Tom! It was a long walk from the store, but that +did not signify; he could rest when he reached there.</p> + +<p>No, Tom was not at home and no one could tell him where he might be +found. So he turned and retraced his steps—it is a great thing to be +used to being tired! It was after midnight when Tom passed Halliday’s +and took the same way Thorndyke had gone so wearily over a few hours +ago.</p> + +<p>“Good night, Haggarty,” Davis’ voice was saying, “don’t be so down, +man! What can you expect after letting you share our good times so +long, but that we should want a little work out of you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> some day? All +play and no work makes Jack a poor boy, and you’ll just have to let +us have that signature. If we make a handsome thing out of it, you go +halves, and you certainly couldn’t ask anything more. Perhaps you don’t +realize that you’re a little mixed up with us already, one of us, to +all intents and purposes, and we could make that plain enough if we +chose. We have a claim upon you, mind that.”</p> + +<p>Tom plunged on into the darkness hardly knowing or caring which way he +took; not a star was to be seen, not a footstep stirred the stillness +after Davis’ tread had died away.</p> + +<p>Suddenly that echo of Aleck’s words came again, ringing in his ears, +“Some One who always sees; who never thinks it beneath him to notice.”</p> + +<p>Tom pressed his hands to his forehead. No, no, he could not think of +that! He dared not think of it now! If he had only held on to it once! +If he could only think, now, that he had one friend who cared for him!</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span></p> + +<h2>CHAPTER XXX.</h2> + +<p>The clouds that had made the night so dark were all gone the next +morning, and the sun shone brightly as Aleck called at the doctor’s +to get Thorndyke over to the store early; he wanted to look over some +papers preparatory to the new business arrangement, and he knew evening +was no time for Thorndyke to undertake extra work.</p> + +<p>Old Joan’s face glowed with pride and delight at what was going on, but +she tried her best to conceal it.</p> + +<p>“It’s no favorin’ the wee bairn,” she said, “to fling a’ the doors +wide, and tak him into the very heart o’ the establishment. Ilka +customer that casts a shadow inside kens he has been the heart and soul +o’ it a’ for years, an’ it’s only acknowledging the truth before the +world, to put his name where a’ can read it. And I’m persuaded it is +ower muckle to bring upon a pair o’ shoulders like his the whole burden +o’ sic a house, wi’ the lives and health o’ half the city, and a’ the +wisest o’ the doctors dependin’ on him to fill their needs, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> Mr. +Aleck steppin’ aside, and offerin’ nae muir help, whatever the pinch +may be!”</p> + +<p>“Well, well, Joan, his head will make up for his shoulders, you know +that very well, and he must have all the help he needs, let Aleck go +when he will. Perhaps he’ll be picking up a junior partner for himself +after he comes to be owner of the whole thing, and that wont take so +many years either, eh, little man?” and the doctor gave Thorndyke a +look that wasn’t at all ashamed to show how he felt about the matter, +at least.</p> + +<p>Business hours were early at the Fenimores’, too, and Tom was at his +post as usual, other people would have said, but for himself, he could +hardly have been sure whether he was there or not; he seemed to be +walking in a maze, some terrible dream of perplexity and desperate +resolve, and it grew darker and heavier as the hours wore on.</p> + +<p>“Mixed up” with Davis and his associates? One of them to all intents +and purposes? Did Davis dare say that? And if Davis could pretend to a +claim on him he would push it to the utmost, Tom knew.</p> + +<p>Then why shouldn’t he let them have the signature if they wanted it, +and if that was the only way out of trouble on every side? A whole life +in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> that store was worse than a hundred deaths, and if Davis should +give him shares in a “handsome thing,” as he called it, he might go to +the ends of the earth, and have money to send back to those that needed +it. And after all, could a real thief feel much more miserable and low +than Hal had always kept him since they first came together?</p> + +<p>He passed heavily by the counting-room as the hours drew to a close, +and started as he heard the senior Fenimore’s voice calling “Haggarty!”</p> + +<p>Was the truth discovered? Was there any way in which Davis would dare +play him false and betray him as “mixed up” with his own companions?</p> + +<p>“Why, what is the matter with you?” asked Mr. Fenimore, as Tom’s white +face answered the summons. “Are you sick to-day?”</p> + +<p>“No, I am not sick,” said Tom. “I was up rather late last night, it is +true.”</p> + +<p>“Well, take care of yourself to-night, then; you don’t look right; but +just step in here a moment, if you please. I want to be out for perhaps +a quarter of an hour, if you can remain here. Perhaps you can finish +looking over these letters, and make some minutes of them.”</p> + +<p>Tom sat down and leaned his head upon his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> hands. What was the matter +with it? It throbbed and whirled strangely.</p> + +<p>“Yes, I can do it,” he said drearily, as if trying to rouse himself. +“I should despise myself for ever; but I have always had somebody to +despise me. I wonder if it would be a very different thing.”</p> + +<p>He glanced at a scrap of paper fallen near him, on which “Fenimore & +Co.” had been trying a new pen half a dozen times. He looked at it +again, and then started wildly to his feet.</p> + +<p>“Yes, it would be a different thing! They cannot make me do it, Hal +Fenimore and the whole set of them together! I haven’t the stuff to +make a man of in me, of course, or Hal would never have twitted and +crowded me all my life as he has; but I’ve always been able to declare +to myself he lied when he said I did not do my best, and I always will! +But oh, why do I have to fight like a man, and a brave one too, if I +never was given the soul of one to begin with?”</p> + +<p>He seized the letters and began to look them over. Black, white, or +gray were they? He could not tell. He only saw one question written all +over them. Would Davis dare, would he be able to get him into trouble? +He had meant that ugly phrase “mixed up” as a threat, Tom knew very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> +well; could he manage to bring it to the ears of Fenimore & Co.? It +would be an end to the partnership, drawing pretty near now, if he +should. And what then?</p> + +<p>A sudden thought flashed into his mind. If any mercy, even in a dark +disguise, should set him free from Fenimore’s, there was Carter! He +had heard Aleck talk of what Carter was to the meanest man he had on +board. He would go before the mast with him, if he could but find him. +Thorndyke always knew when he came in. He would ask Thorndyke.</p> + +<p>“I wont keep you any longer, Haggarty,” said Mr. Fenimore’s voice +behind him; “and indeed I would advise you to call hours ended and take +care of yourself. You’re not well to-day, I am sure.”</p> + +<p>Tom turned and left the store. He would go to Halliday’s. The sooner he +got a promise from Thorndyke to let him know when Carter came in, the +better.</p> + +<p>Halliday’s was a place where every one seemed to like an excuse to drop +in; there was always some one there enjoying the light and warmth and +comfortable feeling he could hardly have explained to himself. </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span></p> + +<p>The early twilight had fallen, and the outside air was bitterly cold as +Tom opened the door, and the feeling of comfort reached even his heavy +heart for an instant, as he stepped inside.</p> + +<p>Thorndyke was busy with a solitary customer, and two heavy-coated +policemen stood with their backs to Tom, taking a moment’s respite from +the cold outside, and “warming up” for the next hour’s duty.</p> + +<p>“Anything lively in your beat to-day?” asked one of them listlessly, as +he stretched his hands toward the glowing fire.</p> + +<p>“Well, not a great deal,” replied the other. “We came down on a nest of +pretty dark-feathered birds, up in —— street, but we’ve had an eye on +them for some time.”</p> + +<p>“Do they belong here?” asked the first.</p> + +<p>“No, not more than one of them at least, but there’s a young shoot of +one of the best houses in the city that I’ve had my suspicions they +were trying to make friends with, of late. Can’t quite vouch for it, +though, and wouldn’t if I could, for I don’t think they’ve got any harm +out of him yet, and doubt if they ever would.”</p> + +<p>The policemen left the fire, and passed out by an opposite door, the +customer followed, and <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>Thorndyke looked up at Tom. One look was +enough. Tom’s face had told Thorndyke the secret, and Tom knew he had +read it.</p> + +<p>“For heaven’s sake, Tom,” said Thorndyke, “don’t stand there looking +like that! There will be some one in in another moment. Here, come into +my office, there’s some one coming this instant. See if this glass of +water will make you look like a live man again, and wait there till I +come.”</p> + +<p>The customer wanted a prescription that took time; hours the minutes +seemed to Tom, and then Thorndyke came. Tom looked up at him with a +white, hopeless face.</p> + +<p>“<i>You</i> will despise me now,” he said slowly. “Of course you never +thought much of me; you couldn’t, kind as you were, though I <i>did</i> mean +to do as well as I could. But you <i>were</i> kind, and I had rather all the +world knew I had disgraced myself, than that you should have found it +out.”</p> + +<p>“Tom,” said Thorndyke, in a low pitying tone that thrilled him through, +“tell me what is the matter here! Are you in trouble about money?”</p> + +<p>“No,” said Tom, “or at least, not much; it is worse than that! Those +fellows seemed to be friends, they wanted me with them, and I wanted +friends so much! They never let me see any harm,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> and it always seemed +so light-hearted and gay when they were; but I knew there <i>was</i> harm, +and I ought to have loathed it all, as I really did in my soul all the +time! They wanted me to forge Fenimore & Co.’s name for them; that was +all their friendliness was aimed at from the beginning, I suppose. +They did not get it, thank Heaven, but they came too near it, nearer +than I ever dreamed they could. And now, if they’ve got into trouble +themselves, and my name is going to be whispered along with theirs, who +is ever going to know how far I went with them? Who’s going to believe +that they kept me half-blinded till the last moment, and that then I +had determined to refuse what they wanted, though I couldn’t see a +bright spot before me for half my life in any other track!”</p> + +<p>“Oh why didn’t you come to me?” cried Thorndyke bitterly, and then, +with a sudden check upon himself—“but, Tom, you never would have +turned to friends like these if you hadn’t been in trouble to begin +with. Something has gone wrong with you longer than that, for I have +seen it.”</p> + +<p>Tom looked in his face with a troubled cry.</p> + +<p>“Hal Fenimore drove me desperate!” he said. “Of course he wouldn’t have +dared if I had had the man in me the rest of you had. I suppose I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> +hadn’t. I don’t know, but I <i>had</i> to stand up like one, and try to fill +my father’s place, and he never could say I didn’t before; but now he +will know this, and all the rest of the world will hear it from him.”</p> + +<p>“How will he know this?” said Thorndyke, a sharp look of pain passing +over his face. “Do you think I would tell him or any other one on the +face of the earth?”</p> + +<p>“You wont?” and Tom looked wonderingly but still drearily at him.</p> + +<p>“Get into that easy chair,” said Thorndyke. “Don’t stand leaning +against the wall as if a blow had struck you.”</p> + +<p>Tom stepped mechanically towards the chair, and sat down in it. +Thorndyke stood before him a moment, and then came closer and put his +arms round his shoulders with a yearning tenderness that sent another +thrill through Tom’s heart.</p> + +<p>“Tom,” he said, “Come into my store to-morrow! I want you, and have +wanted you a long time, but I couldn’t say so before. I’ve seen how +things were going with you and Hal, and have longed to put something +between you, if I only could. Of course I couldn’t, so long as you +were with him, but it is time for you to leave there now.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> Come to me, +and you shall find out whether you are a man! I tell you, Tom, there +isn’t one in a thousand who would have stuck to the ship, and fought +as you have, all these years; and not one in all the thousands I know +who could help me as you can. I need you, and the Fenimores have enough +without you. It will be hard for you to begin all over again, but if +you learn as fast as you did at the professor’s, you shall have your +share in the business at the end of the year. And I’ll see that you +have all you need to keep things easy at home, from the day you come. +Only Tom, why, oh why, couldn’t you have trusted me long ago?”</p> + +<p>Changes seem very rapid to passers who only give a glance now and then, +as they hurry by, and the customers at Halliday’s remarked that “the +young people seemed to be rushing things a little,” as they saw Aleck +less and less in the store and Tom behind the counter; then Aleck sent +sometimes in Dr. Thorndyke’s place to a patient, and at last the name +of “Dr. Halliday” making its appearance just below the bell handle over +which “Dr. Thorndyke” had been read so long, and the sign of Halliday +& Thorndyke, which they still considered new, coming down to make room +for “Halliday, Thorndyke & Co.” </p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Rushing things!” repeated Tom to Thorndyke one day with a laugh. +“Why it seems to me as if my life at Fenimore’s was somewhere away +back in the dark ages! There’s been more peace and comfort, in these +later days, more steady standing up with the feeling that I was a man, +in every one of them, than I’d had in my whole life together before. +But even peace and comfort don’t tell the whole of it. There’s more +blessedness than that, by a long shot, in feeling that I have got a +close hold on a fellow like you and another like Aleck. There’s no use +saying much about it, though. Words don’t seem to do the business.”</p> + +<p>No, they do not. And Thorndyke only gave Tom a look in reply; but +that said “God bless you, old fellow, as you’ve blessed us a thousand +times;” and then Thorndyke himself said, “There goes Aleck again with +that fine turnout of his. He’s getting more practice than he knows how +to turn his hand to, already!”</p> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARRY FENIMORE'S PRINCIPLES ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. 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