Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

denied that she had, on that occasion, "Enough of this; it will not shake the provoked it by any intemperate language clear testimony of the young person before or improper deportment. She added, that us. You may stand by, Helen Fleetbeing herself employed in a different room wood; and now what witnesses have we she should not have been present, but for for the defence?" the circumstance taking place while some Helen, with a respectful curtsey to the machinery was mending. bench, retired; but it was plain, by the "This witness has established the point," flushing of her brow and struggling of her said one of the magistrates.

"By your leave, sir, I have a question or two to put, to her," said the overlooker, with a malignant leer, "Turn this way, ma'am, if you please."

breath, that the acquired strength of the hour was passing away. Richard saw his grandmother press forward to meet and receive her; he saw the aged hands that had fondled his infancy stretched out

She turned accordingly, and afforded a to clasp those of its dearest companion; fuller view to Richard.

"Now be so good as to state in what relationship you stand to the family of this Mary Green."

"No relationship at all."

"Oh, you quibble at a word, do you? "Well, then, barring relationship, how long have you lived with them, and on what terms?"

"I have lived with them ever since I lost my parents; that is, from my infancy; and my circumstances are those of being a dependent on their bounty."

and as Helen's head sank on the shoulder of one to whose fond heart the bare suggestion of turning her out of doors had been a dagger, Richard burst away, and rushed out of the court.

It was too much like a feverish dream; and occurring after two sleepless nights of travel, it almost overset the boy's reason. He wandered on, careless where, until a name over a shop-door, similar to that of the gentleman to whom he was sent, recalled the primary object of his journey. Sick at heart, but still true to the principle of duty, he seated himself for a few minutes on a low post, recalling his message, and finding on inquiry that the person lived at the opposite end of the

"No, no!" exclaimed a tremulous voice, that went to Richard's heart; but the magistrate cried "Silence, there!" and all was still. "And if they turned you out of doors, town from the poor abode of his own fam where could you go?"

Richard clenched his fist with a movement so sudden and violent that South, who had been watching him for some time, caught his arm, and whispered, "Be quiet."

"Where could you go, hey?" repeated the questioner, who had succeeded in momentarily confounding his victim by a supposition so new and so monstrous.

But Helen had a great stock of that innate dignity which belongs not to birth or station, but to character. She fixed a steady look upon him, and replied, "If by any dispensation of God I was deprived of my best and only friends on earth, I have still one to go to who has said, 'Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.'"

"That is to say, I suppose, you would turn preacher."

Here a murmur of "shame!" was distinctly heard; and one of the gentlemen on the bench said, rather warmly,

[blocks in formation]

ily, he bent his way thither, and delivered his packet. Orders were given him to wait and refresh himself in the kitchen while it was read; and afterwards he was told to call on the morrow for farther directions. This left him at liberty, and he lost not a moment in hurrying to what, since it contained all that he loved on earth, he already called his home.

Despite of all that combined to wring their hearts with sorrow, the meeting was most joyful. Apprized by James of his arrival, the delicious task of making preparations to receive him again had animated their bosoms and their looks. James was up, wrapped in a blanket, and seated on a low stool, supported on two sides by an angle of the room, and on the third by the crazy table. The widow, Helen, Mary, Katy, were bustling to no end, and Richard's basket had been plundered without scruple to aid in the preparations. The rush that met him at the door, the exclamations of welcome and of

joy, and of wonder too at his immense | particularly to give pain, but he liked to growth, and the caresses that even little produce a sensation, and to exhibit his acKaty would bestow, by hugging and kiss-quaintance with other people's concerns. ing one of his hands-all was so much a He lived in idleness, on the profits of his reality, that he seemed to forget the ugly poor children's toil; and as he closed the dream, and laughed through his tears, and early grave over the heads of successive was the happiest of all. victims, he quieted his conscience by keeping up a vehement and continued protest against the evils of which he availed himself. South spoke the truth; he did not exaggerate facts, but he very much weakened their effect on the minds of his hearers, by sharing the spoil. This rendered a new arrival the more welcome, because from a stranger he was less liable to the retort that those better acquainted with him frequently made.

What, indeed, is the best of this world's happines, but a temporary forgetfulness of the trouble to which man is born as the sparks fly upwards!

CHAPTER XVI.

THE FAMILY MEETING.

SCARCELY had the family party settled down into comparative composure, when South made his appearance. Convinced of Richard's identity by what he had seen in the court, he now came to offer him a bed in his house; saying, that as he knew the visit was unexpected, it would save them some trouble. Richard would have preferred lying on the bare boards under the same roof with those so dear to him; but a glance round the miserable room, which was too evidently their only apartment, convinced him of it impracticability. He therefore confirmed his grandmother's reluctant but grateful acceptance of the neighbourly offer. She was secretly unwilling that he should go to one whose family were far from what she wished, and who would also acquaint him with many things of which she desired him to be kept ignorant; but no other alternative presented itself, except that of turning him loose to seek a lodging where no young stranger was safe.

South did not stay long: his good feelings, always alive toward this family, overcame the temptation to stop. The highly respectable though rustic appearance of the young peasant had pleased him greatly; and he longed to show his goodwill as the world delights to show it; that is, by communicating intelligence nearly concerning those whom he best loved, of the most painful nature, and in a way calculated at once to rouse and to wound his feelings. Not that South loved

When taking leave of the widow, he observed, "You must not be too much disheartened at that fellow's acquittal. I knew how it would be all along. The inspector is getting too sharp, and he must be checked, by showing him how little good his interference can do. As for all the spiteful things they said, and the lies they told for the defence, never heed them: it was only to prevent your getting redress, and so encouraging others to seek it. Well, Mr. Green, don't hurry from your friends to-night: come when you like-I shall be glad to see you."

The momentary dream of enjoyment was now dissipated; the painful reality forced back upon their view, and the effect was felt in a sort of restraint falling on the party. They sate, neither knowing how to break the silence, till Mary began-" So, then, your were in the court, Richard.”

"Yes, I was, dear, I went immediately arter leaving James."

"And did you-did you believe the things they said about us at the end ?"

"I heard nothing of it: I came away directly after Helen was examined: but I saw there was a great deal of wickedness at work against you. Indeed, I went out because I could not stand it any longer without speaking my mind to them all; and I knew that must not be."

"You did right, my dear child,” said the widow.

"But, granny, tell me two things. What has brought you so low in your cirsumstances; and why did you not let me and Mr. Barlow know it in time?" He

looked round the room, then in their altered only stopped two or three weeks in the faces, and tears filled his eyes.

"It would be a long story, Richard, but the story of hundreds upon hundreds whom you meet at every corner in these towns. We have not been dishonest nor idle. Helen, Mary, Willy, and Katy have worked constantly in the mills: James, even now that he is so weak, continues to make little articles for us to sell: and I"—her voice faltered, but she instantly recovered it, and in a firm, cheerful tone continued, "I have gone out with tapes and laces, and such like things, and sometimes get a day's employment at cleaning among the mills. So Richard, we are all, by God's mercy, to this hour, independent."

66 But you seem to have so few comforts." "That is owing to one or another being often ill, and coals and every thing so dear last winter. When we had the fever we got help from a loan fund, and have been paying it back. Indeed, only for bad health, we should be very well off, as times go; and that, you know, is what God sees fit to send us."

"Ah, but living in such a close, unwholesome place, how can you be well ?"

"The rents are too high everywhere else; we staid as long as we could in an airy situation."

"And you never told me you were ill!" "It would only have made you anxious, and perhaps have tempted you to come over and see us, and take the fever too. But now, my dear child, let us speak of 'God's mercies to our souls and bodies, and not talk as if we reproached Him who has been so very gracious to us."

"Tell him about father," said Katy. The subject seemed to animate them all; each had something to tell: and from their united story it seemed that Malony had become more and more attached to the hearing of God's word; and the widow having one day met with an Irish reader, reasoning out of the scriptures with a poor countryman of his, she brought him to Malony, and to her great joy found that he received the word, in his own tongue, not only with gladness, but with the most cheering evidence of a true and saving faith. "It was wonderful," she continued, "how he caught at passages in the Bible, and retained them in his memory, and easted upon them, I may say. The reader

place, but Malony laid up a store that lasted him to his dying breath."

"Please, sir," said Katy, "father did be saying the Bible to himself all day long. I know it was the Bible, because I read the same in English: and he would make me repeat to him what I heard at church: for father sent me to church too, sir.”

"Ay," said James; "do you know, Richard, he would as soon have seen Katy's head off, as let her go to a Protestant church, till one day the priest scolded him for hearing the Bible, and forbade it him. So, directly, Malony, seeing our religion taught us to read the Bible, and his denied it, determined his child should have nothing more to do with Popery. You would not believe scarcely what a work there was when poor little Katy was seen going to church; and when, soon after, she took the fever, the priest told every body it was a judgment upon her for turning heretic, and that she would die and go to hell.”

"But I did'nt die, sir," said Katy.

"So I see, my little lass," replied Richard, smiling; “and I hope you will long live to stand by your friends, as you did this morning."

Katy looked energetic, replying in a decided tone, "And I will sir, please God."

"The fever," resumed the widow, "by laying poor Katy up, deprived Malony of his sole means of support: he was already helpless, in the last stage of decline". she paused, then added, "He died in this room, rejoicing in God his Saviour; a more triumphant death I never witnessed."

"It was you that did it," exclaimed Katy, suddenly rushing up to the old woman, and burying her face in her lap: "it was your own blessed self that did it all."

"No, my child, it was the Lord who did it."

And did'nt you talk

"Ah, but he bid you do it, and you did. Sure, did'nt you bring poor father here. and nurse-tend him, and me too, when never the one of us could lift up head or hand to bless you? to him, and pray for him, when the heart of you was breaking with all of us sick, and give us the half of every sup of drink that was little enough for yourselves; and”

"Well, well, Katy, whatever we were

"We were too happy at L- -," ob served James.

the means of doing for you, we are well repaid by the love you bear us, and far more by seeing you desirous to walk in the same way that has led your dear father to heaven. And what way is that, Katy ?" "Jesus Christ is the way, ma'am, and sure, we had fresh air and sunshine, and the truth, and the life."

The turn thus given to the conversation was farther improved by the widow, Helen, and James, until Richard half forgot the sorrows of the road by which they were travelling in the brightness of the prospect before them. It was nothing new to hear his grandmother discourse of eternal realities until they seemed visible to herself and those around; but Helen astonished him by the quiet fervour of her spirit, and the earnestness with which she pressed on him the consideration of those things which she had formerly recommended indeed by her daily walk, but never spoken much about.

"You see, Richard," she remarked, "how little we really believe what God tells us; or if we do believe it, how little we desire what he says is best for us; even though the dearest of his people bear witness that they have found it so. God says, 'It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth;' and David testifies, 'It is good for me that I have been afflicted; and Paul says, 'If we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him;' and the angel says of those who are before the throne, with white robes, and palms of triumph, 'These are they that came out of great tribulation.' And yet, with all this before us, how little we like that either ourselves or those belonging to us should bear the yoke, or see affliction!" "I cannot deny that, Helen: if we liked it, it would not be affliction: but there are troubles everywhere, and why not meet them where we have the comfort of dear friends to feel with us, and to encourage us? Must you come into such a dreadful place as this to look for misery ?"

"We did not come here to seek misery," said the widow with a sigh, "and dear Richard knows that: but we have found it here, at least what you consider misery, and with such words to cheer us as our Helen has just quoted, surely we may bless the Lord for the portion he sees good to provide us with."

"I don't know what you mean by being too happy," said Mary. "Your health was none of the best: we worked hard, and met with troubles enough. To be

green grass to walk on, and flowers to look at, and decent people about us; and we could really walk about without being run against by drunken men, or hearing people curse and swear at every turn. No doubt, it is much better for us to be where we have none of these indulgences to spoil us; and where I can be beaten and kicked about, and get no redress; and where Helen may be set out in public for a drunkard and every thing that is bad."

"Mary! Mary!" cried the widow sorrowfully, "to hear you talk in such a way is a far worse trial than all the rest."

Richard was shocked: the expression of his sister's face had already struck him as being much altered for the worse; but the bitter scorn, the sarcastic levity that swelled in every feature while she uttered these remarks, bespoke a greater change than he was prepared for. The sorrow, too, depicted on the countenances of the rest was unmingled with surprise at what seemed so strange to him; and he felt that he must stifle his own regrets to avoid giving encouragement to what sounded too like the language of reproach against their best friend.

"Dearest granny," he said, "you must forgive Mary and me too, considering what we cannot help feeling when it was for us that you gave up every comfort, and left your home. We all know you could have staid, and have been better off than before, only for us. If you would have thrown us on the parish, you might have stocked a nice little shop with the money you had, and got rich by it: but you would not; you thought by giving up every thing that would have cheered your old age at home and coming yourself among strangers, and beginning, I may say, the world anew, when you should have been settling in a comfortable nest to end it in, you would have us all independent and prosperous. You could no more foresee what would happen here, than you could foresee the loss of our lease; God has ordered it as he saw best;

but don't blame us if we grieve at whattered: while her countenance lost some of you suffer for us ;" and while he kissed its bad expression. the tear from her aged cheek, he added, "better days may come yet; for I'll turn the world upside down, but something shall be done to bring them round."

"You are more likely to turn your own head in the attempt," said Mary, "even if you use the best spade you have."

Her brother looked sternly at her, and she returned the look with one of sulky defiance: his oblique reproof had failed to reach her heart, and only wounded her pride. She had lately indulged in a habit of indirectly reproaching her grandmother for bringing them there, and Helen for having so long lived upon what, she hinted, would, if laid by, have sufficed to provide another home for them in L. Richard had completely silenced her on the former point, and she longed to take a double revenge on Helen.

Soon after, Willy came in; Richard had asked many times when he would arrive; for he was the pet of his eldest brother, even more than of any one else; and ardently did the youth desire once more to behold "the little one," as he was called. Willy entered abruptly, and stood for a moment surprised to see a stranger seated at their poor table; but his brother flew to him, and lifting him in his arms exclaimed, "My own Willy! my little darling! how I have longed, and longed to look in your dear face again!"

The little boy, for he was not even nearly so much grown as Mary or James, stared at him in perplexity; not that he did not know him, but his head was confused, and he could not understand how Richard came there. On a sudden the latter turned pale, and set him down, but For, alas! little Mary had gradually still holding him by the hand he resumed yielded to the corrupting influence around his seat, and placed Willy on his knee. her, so far as to stifle the pleadings of a At that moment he met a look of anxious better voice within, and to give the reins observation from Helen, who, on catching to an angry temper which when let loose his eye, hastily averted her own, but the would spare none within its range. She glance, short as it was, betrayed too much had become a tyrant; and as tyrants are it told him her fears that he had degenerally cowards, the most helpless was tected in the breath of that child the noxsure to feel its worst effects. She loved ious fumes of ardent spirits! Richard; and she might have learned to Poor Richard's misery seemed now regard him now with somewhat of salu- complete. Of those whom he so fondly tary fear, but the shortness of his stay loved one was on the very brink of the prevented such a feeling, while the de- grave, another evidently beginning to sink, light of vindicating her conscious power to and the remaining two straying in childdistress others even in his presence, dead-hood from the paths of peace. His grandened the sense not only of affection but of common humanity towards him, who must necessarily be made most unhappy by the discovery. So it is, that one evil passion allowed to prevail can overcome every thing good in the character, and spread, like a devouring fire, destruction all around it.

mother became almost an object of resentment, because, knowing as she must the state of those committed to her, she looked so calm, so resigned, almost happy. Little could Richard understand of her real feelings: she had struggled until at one time the apathy of despair came over that active spirit, and then it would indeed have wrung his heart to have seen her ghastly looks; and to have heard the tones of her altered voice: but out of this wretched frame she had been delivered by the instrumentality of Helen and James, and now the language of her soul was once more-"It is the Lord; let him do as seemeth him good." Yet at times the conflict within was dreadful, and self"Who wants to hinder it?" she mut-reproach almost overcame her confidence

James was the only person who possessed any real influence over her, and he, by reminding her how very soon she must se him coffined, sometimes prevailed to calm a rising storm. He now asked her for drink, and while she held it to his lips, whispered, "Mary, I shall never see dear Richard again: for my sake let all be quiet and happy while he stays."

« AnteriorContinuar »