CHAPTER XII.
HOME AGAIN.
THE pony phaeton stood before the school-house. Jasper and Hero noddingtheir heads impatiently in the April sunshine. The prettiest stripedlap-robe imaginable was thrown over the empty seat, the plating of theharness made a silvery glitter, and altogether it was a turnout that onemight be rather proud of, if one's self-complacency was nurtured uponsuch things.
And the driver thereof was not to be despised. The girls, as theytrooped down stairs, thought Kathie Alston "so lucky!" No one inBrookside had a father or uncle or brother so devoted,--not old, by anymeans, and certainly good-looking, but, best of all, showing hisaffection in a manner that made her envied of others.
Sue Coleman had met him several times through the course of the winter,and pronounced him "magnificent," in her enthusiastic fashion. Indeed,he was the kind of man to be very attractive to young girls. She bowednow in her most gracious manner. Belle bit her lip angrily. If she hadtaken up Kathie instead of that insignificant little gossiping LottieThorne! Her mother had been to call at Cedarwood, but it wasn't at alllikely that she would be invited within its charmed precincts. Of courseshe said she did not care; but there was a gnawing jealousy at herheart.
Uncle Robert was so in the habit of coming for Kathie that she sprangin, nodded a gay farewell to the group, and went on for some distancebefore she thought it anything more than a pleasure drive.
Suddenly her heart gave a quick bound. "You are going to the Darrells'?"she said.
"Yes." Disguise it as he might, there was a glow in the half-avertedeyes.
"O, Mr. Meredith hasn't--come home!"
"Hasn't he? Are you quite sure?"--with a little smile.
"O Uncle Robert!"
"They came at twelve. I was in there half an hour, when he insisted thatI should drive over for you."
It was very flattering to be remembered first of all; and yet there wassomething connected with it which made Kathie's heart beat in anunwonted manner, and a quiver came into her throat almost as if shewanted to cry. Six months ago!--how much had happened since then!
He fastened the horses, and entered the hall with Kathie, who seemedstrangely shy.
"They took him right up to Miss Jessie's room," said her uncle.
Thither they went, though there was a sound of joyous voices ingrandmother's room, just across the hall. The two halted a moment, thenUncle Robert pushed the door a little wider open.
"Have you brought her?"
The dear, well-known voice, sounding a bit husky and tremulous, and withsomething in it which brought the tears to Kathie's eyes. What with theflood of sunshine, the white bed and pillows a little tumbled, and agray travelling-wrap thrown partly over somebody, she seemed to seenothing but confusion at first; then a thin white hand was stretchedout.
"I am so tired that I cannot rise. Dear Kathie! Dear child!"
They were both crying then, and neither felt ashamed. Just a miraclethat he was here at all; and if he had gone to the other country, thegolden key opening the gates set with jasper and pearl must have beenKathie's precious words.
"My dear Kathie, I've lost all the little sense I ever did have. I sentJessie away for fear she might indulge in a scene, and here I am cryinglike a baby! But there are so many things to think of, and it is sodelightful to see familiar faces once more!"
Then Kathie took a look at him. He was very thin and pale, the hair andbeard cropped quite close, the eyes sunken, yet with the old bright glowshe had watched so many times; and, oddest of all, the once plump handslooking, as Hannah would have said, like "chickens' claws."
"Well, should you know me?"
"Yes, but you are changed."
"And if you had seen me a month ago! The doctors have cut me open,turned me inside out, and run up and down my body with lodestone insearch of a stray rebel ball. When they had me nearly killed, they wouldleave off a little while; but as soon as they saw signs of coming tolife they went at it again. It's a kind of gymnastics that a man can'tget fat on, try his best."
"I should think not"; and Kathie couldn't help laughing.
"But it's through now. I feel like saying, with Joe Gargery, 'And now,Pip, old chap,' (Pip, in this instance, standing for country) 'we'vedone our duty by one another.' School is out, and Uncle Sam is sendingus home as fast as possible. I've nothing to do now but to be gloriouslylazy, and have every one wait upon me."
"O, I am so glad, so thankful," and Kathie pressed the thin hands in herown, so soft and warm, "to have you back here, when we were afraid--"
"It has been a hard struggle, little Kathie. I shall never see a bluecoat again without thinking of what many a brave fellow has had tosuffer. I seem to have been feasted upon roses; but hundreds of them hadno such luck."
"And to come to peace at last,--to know there will be no more calls!"
"It certainly is good tidings of great joy. And though I couldn't be inat the last, losing all the triumph and glory, I feel that I did alittle good work, and shall never regret the rest."
Her soft eyes answered him.
"And there is something else. I want to tell you that your preciouswords bore good fruit after many days. My dear child," drawing hercloser to him until the silken curls swept his cheek, "I owe you morethan I can ever express, ever pay. It was your sweet, simple daily life,and your unconscious heroism that first led me to think. I have heardhundreds of sermons, and had hosts of religious friends, but nothingever touched me like your gentle firmness that night so long ago at mybrother's, and your rare modesty afterward, and all your straightforwardcourse, even when it involved pain and sacrifice. I can't exactly tellyou how the truth and the peace came to me, enabling me to do my duty toGod and man; but when I was ill and helpless, and hovering on the vergeof death, I want you to know that _His_ love was infinitely precious tome. It took away all perplexity, all care and trouble, and gave me restin the dreariest of nights. And as He suffered for us, so ought we to bewilling to suffer for one another. I never realized before what a greatand grand thing life was when obedience to God crowns it first of allAnd even out there it seemed as if I was always taking lessons of you,remembering what you had said and done."
"O no, no!" she cried, with her utmost sweet humility. "I am not worthyof so much."
"My darling friend, I think you are one of God's own messengers. Throughyou I have found him, come to see him as he is, a tender, lovingFather."
She hardly dared to taste the rich ripe fruit gathered here to her hand.It was such a sacred work to have guided another soul ever so little,and she could scarcely believe that it had come through her.
"Are you going to keep Kathie all the afternoon?" asked a soft, pleadingvoice.
Both started. For many minutes they had been silently thinking of thelittle steps that reached to God, made so much more simple and easy bythe tender spirit-leading than all the learned philosophy of the world.
"O Miss Jessie!"
"Mrs. Meredith, if you please," he exclaimed with a little laugh in histone. "There, you have kissed enough. Come, sit down and look at me. Iam afraid you will forget about my being one of our country's noblesons."
Jessie might have been a little thinner with all her anxiety andwatching, but she was the same dear, sweet friend, and Kathie thoughtprettier than ever, with her half shy, tender grace.
"He has grown very exacting," the young wife said, with a smile.
Kathie blushed. "It seems so odd for you to--be--"
"Married," exclaimed Mr. Meredith. "Why, what else could I do? When Iwas a poor, helpless log, unable to stir hand or foot, some one had totake pity upon me. She was very good, I assure you."
"As if I had not known it long before!" and a host of old memoriesrushed over Kathie.
"Isn't it odd," Mr. Meredith said, in a lower tone, taking his wife'shand, "that it was through Kathie we came to know each other? I can justsee the picture she made in the great hall of the hotel, like a littlewild-flower blown astray by a gust of wind."
Je
ssie thought of something else,--how she and Charlie were sitting bythe cheerful fire one winter night, when he had expressed a desire tomake her happy in some way, because she was always studying the pleasureof others. But for that she might never have known the Alstons sointimately, and of course--
There she had to stop with a dainty blush.
It was very odd, Kathie decided, in her simple child's way.
"And we have to thank Kathie for a good deal of delicacy in keeping oursecret," Mr. Meredith said. "Circumstances gave it into her hands longago."
She smiled a little. "What did Ada say?" she asked, rather shyly.
"I have not been favored with Ada's opinion, but she and her mother areto pay me a short visit presently. George wanted me to come immediatelyto New York, but I fancied Jessie must be a trifle homesick; and, toconfess the truth, I was longing for a glimpse of Brookside. Have youbegun gardening yet, Kathie? And tell me the story of the whole winter.I'm just famishing for gossip."
Uncle Robert proposed returning presently, but they would not listen tohis taking Kathie. Mr. Meredith begged her and Jessie to have tea up inthe room, where he could look at them. His side was still very weak, andhis journey had fatigued him too much to admit of his sitting up. "But Ishall soon be about with a crutch," he announced, gayly.
Passing the lodge cottage again that evening, Kathie gave a tenderthought to its inmates, and the childish longing for fairy power cameback to her. No wand, nothing but a Fortunatus's purse with one piece ofgold in it, and that could not do everything.
Kathie was up betimes the next morning. There were lessons to study, anexercise to write, and a music practice to be sandwiched in somewhere,for Mr. Lawrence was to come that afternoon. And her head was still sofull of Mr. Meredith and dear Jessie.
"It will not do," she said, presently, to herself, when she found thatshe was listening to every bird, and watching the cloud of motes in thesunshine; so with that she set to work in good earnest.
Belle Hadden was loftier than ever on this day, and seemed to holdherself quite apart. "A new kink of grandeur," Emma Lauriston said.
Lottie Thorne always had the earliest news. Now she made sundrymysterious confidences, prefaced with, "Would you have believed it?"
"What is that, Lottie?" asked one of the girls.
"O, haven't you heard?" the face aglow with a sense of importance. "Papatold us last night, though I suppose it is all over. Poor Belle! Why,it would kill me!"
"But what _is_ it?"
"About Mr. Hadden. He has been embezzling, or making false returns, orsomething, and charged the government with a great deal more than hesupplied. Why, I believe it is almost a million! And he is in prison!"
"Not so bad as that," subjoined Sue Coleman, quietly.
"But he _is_ in prison."
"Yes, there is some trouble, but maybe it will not amount to much."
"I should think she would be ashamed to show her face!"
"How can _she_ help it?" said the softest and sweetest of voices. "It isvery hard to punish her or make her answerable for her father's faults."
"What should you do, Kathie Alston, if you had been intimate with her?"It was Sue Coleman who spoke, and there was a husky strand in her voice.
"I should keep on just the same. It will be very painful for her to bearanyhow. Suppose it was one of us!"
"You don't know what hateful things she said about your uncle ever solong ago," pursued Lottie.
"But if they were false, her merely saying them could not make themtrue, you know."
It was a bit of philosophy quite new to the girls, though each one mighthave thought of it long before, and was one of the things that had beena great comfort to Kathie many a time.
"But this _is_ true."
"It will be bitter enough to bear, then, without our adding to theburden"; and a tremulous color flitted over Kathie's fair face, not somuch at what she had been saying as the fact that these girls weregrouped around listening for her verdict.
"I don't believe she will come to-morrow," two or three voices decided.
They never knew how hard her coming was, how she had begged andentreated her mother to let her stay at home, and finally threatened_not_ to go, when Mrs. Hadden had taken her in the carriage. There wasno pride in her soul as she stepped out of it, only a bitter, haughtyhatred.
"Don't act like a fool!" was her mother's parting advice. "The matterwill soon blow over."
For Mrs. Hadden felt that she should not be utterly crushed. The deed ofthe house was in her name, and the furniture bills had been made out inthe same manner, consequently that much was secure. Mr. Hadden hadprobably not done more than hundreds of others, and she felt confidentthat he would get out of it somehow. They had plenty of money, and couldstart afresh in a new place, but the people here should see that she wasable to hold her head as high as the best of them.
There was a little bouquet on Belle's desk. No one knew who put itthere. They would have suspected Kathie Alston, of course, if they hadnot seen her come in empty-handed, but no one guessed it was her secondcoming that morning.
The Brookside Standard copied the report, stating also that Mr. Haddenhad asked a suspension of public opinion for the present.
"Do you suppose it is really true?" inquired Kathie of Uncle Robert.
"I believe Mr. Hadden's reputation does not stand very high, at thebest. I can forgive a man who is tempted to retrieve himself by somedesperate step, when on the brink of ruin; but the men who wronged ourpoor brave boys with clothing that was but half made, and food of thepoorest kind, enriching themselves while the country was at her sorestneed, do deserve punishment. Still, it would be hardly kind to begin bymeting it out to his children."
"How terrible it must be, Uncle Robert, to know that some one you helddear was guilty of such a crime!"
"Yes, I think it would be worse than taking up poor and uncultivatedpeople"; and a peculiar smile crossed his face. "You will have anopportunity to show your blue blood, Kathie. I believe I never knew aConover who struck a fallen foe."
"Yes," she answered, wondering if it would be foolish to tell him aboutthe flowers; but just then Freddy ran in, full of tribulation as usual.
Mr. Meredith improved rapidly. Kathie had to take him in her way sometime during the day, or there was a most heart-rending complaint.
"It is so delightful to have them all love him so well!" she said toAunt Ruth. "Charlie has a hero of his own now."
They received a long and characteristic letter from Rob, who wished hewas a bombshell and could be dropped down into Brookside. The war wasactually ended, and "Johnny was marching home," and everything hadhappened about right. "Only I am awful sorry about Mr. Morrison. I can'tseem to believe but that he will come to light somewhere yet. It gave mesuch a strange feeling,--thinking, for a moment, if it _had_ been UncleRobert. We will try all our lives to make it up to Ethel. I will nevertease her again, at any rate." Which was all the resolve in Rob's powerat present.