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diff --git a/25978.txt b/25978.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6ed85b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/25978.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2703 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Flip's "Islands of Providence", by Annie Fellows Johnston + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere 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 www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Flip's "Islands of Providence" + +Author: Annie Fellows Johnston + +Illustrator: E. F. Bonsall + +Release Date: July 6, 2008 [EBook #25978] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FLIP'S "ISLANDS OF PROVIDENCE" *** + + + + +Produced by David Garcia, Dr. Graeme M. Handisides and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net +(This file was produced from images generously made +available by The Kentuckiana Digital Library) + + + + + + + + + + FLIP'S + + "ISLANDS + OF + PROVIDENCE" + + ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON + + COSY CORNER SERIES + + * * * * * + + + FLIP'S "ISLANDS OF + PROVIDENCE" + + Works of + + Annie Fellows Johnston + + + =The Little Colonel Series= + + (_Trade Mark, Reg. U. S. Pat. Of._) + Each one vol., large 12mo, cloth, illustrated + + The Little Colonel Stories $1.50 + (Containing in one volume the three stories, "The + Little Colonel," "The Giant Scissors," and + "Two Little Knights of Kentucky.") + The Little Colonel's House Party 1.50 + The Little Colonel's Holidays 1.50 + The Little Colonel's Hero 1.50 + The Little Colonel at Boarding-School 1.50 + The Little Colonel in Arizona 1.50 + The Little Colonel's Christmas Vacation 1.50 + The Little Colonel: Maid of Honor 1.50 + The above 8 vols., _boxed_ 12.00 + + + Illustrated Holiday Editions + + Each one vol., small quarto, cloth, illustrated, and printed + in color + + The Little Colonel $1.25 + The Giant Scissors 1.25 + Two Little Knights of Kentucky 1.25 + The above 3 vols., _boxed_ 3.75 + + + Cosy Corner Series + + Each one vol., thin 12mo. cloth, illustrated + + The Little Colonel $.50 + The Giant Scissors .50 + Two Little Knights of Kentucky .50 + Big Brother .50 + Ole Mammy's Torment .50 + The Story of Dago .50 + Cicely .50 + Aunt 'Liza's Hero .50 + The Quilt that Jack Built .50 + Flip's "Islands of Providence" .50 + Mildred's Inheritance .50 + + + Other Books + + Joel: A Boy of Galilee $1.50 + In the Desert of Waiting .50 + The Three Weavers .50 + Keeping Tryst .50 + Asa Holmes 1.00 + Songs Ysame (Poems, with Allison Fellows Bacon) 1.00 + + + L. C. PAGE & COMPANY + 200 Summer Street Boston, Mass. + + +[Illustration: "'ALEC,' HE SAID, PAUSING IN THE DOORWAY, 'WHAT'S A +GREEN GOODS MAN?'" (_See page 75_)] + + + + + Cosy Corner Series + + + FLIP'S "ISLANDS + OF PROVIDENCE" + + By + + Annie Fellows Johnston + + Author of "Asa Holmes," "The Little Colonel Stories," + "Big Brother," etc. + + _Illustrated by_ + E. F. Bonsall + + + "_I know not where His islands lift + Their fronded palms in air;_" + --_Whittier_ + + + _Boston_ + _L.C. Page & Company_ + _Publishers_ + + + + + _Copyright, 1902_ + BY THE TRUSTEES OF THE PRESBYTERIAN BOARD + OF PUBLICATION AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK + + _Copyright, 1903_ + By L. C. PAGE & COMPANY + (INCORPORATED) + _All rights reserved_ + + + Published August, 1903 + + _Fourth Impression, February, 1907_ + + + _Colonial Press_ + Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. + Boston, Mass., U. S. A. + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + + "'ALEC,' HE SAID, PAUSING IN THE DOORWAY, + 'WHAT'S A GREEN GOODS MAN?'" (_See page 75_) + _Frontispiece_ + + "'YOU'RE BOUND TO HEAR IT SOMETIME'" 19 + + "'THE LORD HAS CERTAINLY SENT YOU, + DICK'" 57 + + "HE MADE SEVERAL RAPID CALCULATIONS ON + THE BACK OF THE ENVELOPE" 109 + + "'IT'S THE FIRST MONEY I EVER EARNED IN + MY LIFE,' SHE SAID, GLEEFULLY" 117 + + "HIS HAND WENT UP INVOLUNTARILY TOWARD + HIS HAT" 145 + + "HE BLURTED OUT HIS TROUBLE IN BROKEN + SENTENCES" 161 + + "'IT WAS THAT UNLUCKY GOLD COIN'" 177 + + * * * * * + + + + + FLIP'S "ISLANDS OF + PROVIDENCE" + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +Carefully locking the door of his little gable bedroom, Alec Stoker +put down the cup of hot water he carried, and peered into the mirror +above his wash-stand. Then, although he had come up-stairs fully +determined to attempt his first shave, he stood irresolute, stroking +the almost imperceptible down on his boyish lip and chin. + +"It does make me look older, that's a fact," he muttered to his +reflection in the glass. "Maybe I'd better not cut it off until I've +had my interview with the agent. The older I look, the more likely +he'll be to trust me with a responsible position. Still," he +continued, surveying himself critically, "I might make a more +favourable impression if I had that 'well-groomed' look the papers +lay so much stress on nowadays, and I could mention in a careless, +offhand way something about having just shaved." + +It was not yet dark out-of-doors, but after a few minutes of further +deliberation, Alec pulled down the blind over his window and lighted +the lamp. Then, opening a box that he took from his bureau, he drew +out his Grandfather Macklin's razor and ivory-handled shaving-brush. + +"I'm sure the old gentleman never dreamed, when they made me his +namesake, that this was all of his property I would fall heir to," he +thought, bitterly. + +The moody expression that settled on his face at the thought had +become almost habitual in the last four weeks. The happy-go-lucky boy +of seventeen seemed to have changed in that time to a morose man. +June had left him the jolliest boy in the high school graduating +class. September found him a morbid cynic. + +It had been nine years since his mother, just before her death, had +brought him back to the old home for her sister Eunice to take care +of--Alec and the little five-year-old Philippa and the baby Macklin. +Their Aunt Eunice had made a happy home for them, and although she +rarely laughed herself, and her hair had whitened long before its +time, she had allowed no part of her burdens to touch their +thoughtless young lives. It was only lately that Alec had been +aroused to the fact that she had any burdens. He was rehearsing them +all now, as he rubbed the lather over his chin, so busily that he did +not hear Philippa's light step on the back stairs. Philippa could +step very lightly when she chose, despite the fact that she was long +and awkward, with that temporary awkwardness of a growing girl who +finds it hard to adjust herself and her skirts to her constantly +increasing height. + +Alec almost dropped his brush as she suddenly banged on his door. "Is +that you, Flip?" he called, although he knew no one but Philippa ever +beat such thundering tattoos on his door. + +"Yes! Let me in! I want to ask you something." + +He knew just how her sharp gray eyes would scan him, and he hesitated +an instant, divided between a desire to let her see him in the manly +act of shaving himself and the certain knowledge that she would tease +him if he did. + +Finally he threw open the door and turned to the glass in his most +indifferent manner, as if it were an every-day occurrence with him. +"Come in," he said; "I'm only shaving. I'm going out this evening." + +If he had thought she would be impressed by his lordly air, he was +mistaken, for, after one prolonged stare, she threw herself on the +bed, shrieking with laughter. Long practice in bandying words with +her brother had made her an expert tease. Usually they both enjoyed +such combats, but now, to her surprise, he seemed indifferent to her +most provoking comments, and scraped away at his chin in dignified +silence. + +"I believe you said you had something to say to me, Philippa," he +said presently, in a stern tone that made her stare. Never, except +when he was very angry, did he call her anything but Flip. + +Suddenly sobered, she took her face out of the pillows and peered at +him curiously, twisting one of the long plaits of hair that hung over +her shoulder. + +"I have," she said. "I want to know what's the matter with you. What +has come over you lately? You've been as sullen as a brown bear for +days and days. I asked Aunt Eunice just now, while we were washing +the supper dishes, what had changed you so. You used to be whistling +and joking whenever you came near the house. Now you never open your +lips except to make some sarcastic speech. + +"She said that it was probably because you were so disappointed +about not getting that position in the bank that you had set your +heart on, and she was afraid that you were growing discouraged +about ever finding any position worth while in this sleepy little +village. She didn't know that I saw it, but while she was talking +a tear splashed right down in the dish-water, and I made up my mind +that it must be something lots worse than just plain disappointment +or discouragement, and that I was going to ask you. Now, you needn't +snap your mouth shut that way, like a clam. You've got to tell me!" + +"Aunt Eunice doesn't want you to know," he said, turning away from +the glass, razor in hand, to look at her intently. "But you're a big +girl, Flip--nearly as tall as she is, if you are only fifteen. You're +bound to hear it sometime, and in my opinion it would be better for +you to hear it from me than to have it knock you flat coming +unexpectedly from a stranger, as I heard it." + +[Illustration: "'YOU'RE BOUND TO HEAR IT SOMETIME.'"] + +"Tell me," she urged, her curiosity aroused. + +"Can you stand a pretty tough knock?" + +"As well as you," she answered, meeting his gaze steadily, yet with a +queer kind of chill creeping over her at his mysterious manner. + +"Well, what do you suppose you and Mack and I have been living on all +these years that we have been living with Aunt Eunice?" + +"Why--I--I don't know! Mother's share of Grandfather Macklin's +property, I suppose. He divided it equally between her and Aunt +Eunice." + +"Well, we just haven't!" Alec exclaimed. "That was spent before we +came here, and nearly all of Aunt Eunice's share, too. She's been +drawing right out of the principal the last two years so that she +could keep us in school, and there's hardly anything left but this +old house and the ground it stands on. She never told me until this +summer. That's why I took the first job that offered, and drove +Murray's delivery wagon till the regular driver was well. It wasn't +particularly good pay, but it paid for my board and kept me from +feeling that I was a burden on Aunt Eunice. + +"I was sure of getting that position in the bank. One of the +directors had as good as promised it to me. While it wouldn't have +paid much at first, it would have been an entering wedge, and have +put me in the direct line of promotion. And you know that from the +time I was Macklin's age it has been my ambition to be a banker like +grandfather. Since I failed to get that, nobody, not even Aunt +Eunice, knows how hard I've tried to get into some steady, +good-paying job. I've been to every business man in the village, and +done everything a fellow could do, seems to me, but in a little place +like this there's absolutely no opening unless somebody dies. The +good places are already filled by reliable, middle-aged men who have +grown up in them. There's no use trying any longer. Every time I get +my hopes up it's only to have them dashed to pieces--shipwrecked, you +might say." + +He paused a minute, ostensibly to give his chin a fresh coating of +lather, but in reality to gather courage for the words he found so +difficult to say. In the silence, Macklin's voice came floating up to +them from the porch below. Sitting on the steps in the twilight, with +his bare feet doubled under him, he was reciting something to his +Aunt Eunice in a high, sturdy voice. It came in shrilly through the +open window of Alec's room, where the brown shade and overhanging +muslin curtains flapped back and forth in the evening breeze. + +Philippa smiled as she listened. He was reciting a poem that Aunt +Eunice had taught each of them in turn, after the Creed and the +Commandments and the Catechism. It was Whittier's hymn--"The Eternal +Goodness." She had paid them a penny a stanza for learning it, and as +there are twenty-two stanzas in all, Philippa remembered how rich she +felt the day she dropped the last copper down the chimney of her +little red savings-bank. + +It had been seven years since Alec learned it, but the words were as +familiar still as the letters of the alphabet. As Macklin's +high-pitched voice reached them, Philippa joined in in a singsong +undertone, and even Alec found himself unconsciously following the +well-remembered lines in his thought: + + "I know not where His islands lift + Their fronded palms in air; + I only know I cannot drift + Beyond His love and care." + +"There!" said Philippa, stopping abruptly, "you were talking about +shipwrecks. According to that hymn, there's always some island ready +for you to be washed up on. How do you know but that you're going to +land some place where you'll be lots better off than if you'd stayed +here in Ridgeville?" + +There was a contemptuous sneer on Alec's face, not pleasant to see, +as he answered, roughly: "Bosh! That's all right for people who can +believe in such things, but I'm past such Robinson Crusoe fables." + +"Why, Alec Stoker!" she cried, in amazement, "do you mean to say that +you don't believe in Providence any more?" There was a look of horror +on her face. + +He shrugged his shoulders. "I've come to think it's a case of every +fellow for himself; sink or swim--and if you're not strong enough to +push to shore, it's drown and leave more room for the rest." + +"Alec Mack--lin Sto--ker!" was all that Philippa could find breath to +say at first. Presently she exclaimed, "I should think you'd be +ashamed to talk so! Any boy that had such a grand old grandfather as +you! He didn't have any better chance than you in the beginning, and +had to struggle along for years. Look what a place he made for +himself in the world!" + +"That's all you know about it!" cried Alec, his hand trembling with +an emotion he was trying hard to control. In that instant the razor +slipped, slightly cutting his chin. + +"Now!" he muttered, hastily tearing a bit of paper from the margin of +a newspaper to stop the blood, and then rummaging in the wash-stand +drawer for a piece of court-plaster. He was a long time adjusting it +to his satisfaction, for the words he wanted to say would not take +shape. He knew what he had to tell her would wound deeply, and he +hesitated to begin. When he faced her again, his voice trembled with +suppressed excitement. He spoke rapidly: + +"I may as well out with it. You want to know why I didn't get that +position in the bank? It is because my father, J. Stillwell Stoker, +died behind the bars of a penitentiary! I'm the son of a jailbird--a +defaulter and a forger! That's why the bank didn't want me. They'd +had their fingers burned with him, and didn't want to risk another of +that name. Thought there might be something in the blood, I suppose. +That's where all grandfather's property went, to pay it back; all but +this house and the little Aunt Eunice kept for our support. And +that's why mother came back here with us and died of a broken heart! +Now do you wonder that I can't believe in the eternal goodness when +it starts me out in life handicapped like that? Do you blame me when +I say I am going to get out of this town and go away to some place +where I'll not have my father's disgrace thrown in my teeth every +time I try to do anything worth while? No wonder I'm moody! No wonder +I'm a pessimist when I think of the legacy he's saddled us with! Aunt +Eunice thought she could always shield us from the knowledge of it, +but she could no more do it than she could hide fire!" + +Philippa sat on the bed as if stunned by the words flowing in such a +vehement rush from her brother's lips. She was white and trembled. "O +Alec," she gasped, with a shudder, "it can't be true!" Then, after a +distressing silence, she sobbed, "Does everybody know it?" + +"Everybody in the village now, but little Mack, and he'll have to be +knocked flat with the fact some day, I suppose, just as we have +been." + +Philippa shivered and drew herself up into a disconsolate bunch +against the foot-board. "To think of the way I've prided myself on +our family!" she said, in a husky voice. "I've actually bragged of +the Macklins and paraded the virtues of my ancestors." + +Alec made no answer. Down-stairs the big kitchen clock slowly struck +seven. + +"I'll have to hurry," he remarked. Catching up his blacking-brush, he +began polishing his shoes in nervous haste. "It's later than I +thought. I'm due at the hotel in thirty minutes." + +"At the hotel!" repeated Philippa, wondering dully how he could take +any interest in anything more in life, knowing all that had blighted +their young lives. + +"Yes; but don't you tell Aunt Eunice until it's all settled. I +promised to meet a man there, who's been talking to me about a +position a thousand miles from here. He's interested in a +manufacturing business. His firm has a scheme for making money hand +over fist. He didn't tell me what it is, but he wants some young +fellow about my age to go into it. 'Somebody who can keep his mouth +shut,' he said, 'write a good letter, and make a favourable +impression on strangers in introducing the goods.' Stumpy Fisher +introduced me to him last night, and he gave me a hint of what he +might do if I suited. Seemed to think I was just the man for the +place. There's another fellow after it, but he thought I'd make a +better impression on strangers, and that is a great consideration in +their business. We're to settle it this evening, as he has to leave +on the nine o'clock train. If we come to terms, he'll want me to +follow next week." + +"Stumpy Fisher introduced you?" repeated Philippa; "why, he--he's the +man that runs the Golconda, isn't he?" + +"Yes," admitted Alec, inwardly resenting the disapproval in her tone. +"They do gamble in there, I know, and sometimes have a pretty tough +row, but Stumpy is as kind-hearted a man as there is in the village." + +Throwing the blacking-brush hastily back into its box, Alec +straightened himself up and faced his sister, "There, skip along now, +Flip, like a good girl. I have to dress. And don't say a word to Aunt +Eunice. I'll tell her myself." + +Philippa rose slowly from the bed and started toward the door. "I +feel as if I were in a horrible nightmare," she said. "What you have +just told me about our--him, you know, and then your going away to +live. It's all so sudden and so dreadful. O Alec, I can't stand it to +have you go!" + +To his great surprise and confusion, for Philippa had never been +demonstrative in her affection, she threw her arms round his neck, +and, dropping her head on his shoulder, began sobbing violently. + +"Oh, come now, Flip," he protested, awkwardly patting the heavy +braids of hair swung over her shoulder; "I wouldn't have told you if +I'd thought you'd take it so. I thought you had so much grit that +you'd stand by me and back me up if Aunt Eunice objected. We're not +going to be separated for ever. From what the man told me of the +business, I'm sure that I can make enough in a year or so to send for +you. Then you can come and keep house for me, and we'll pay back +every cent we've cost Aunt Eunice, so she'll have something in her +old age. Oh, stop crying, like a good girl, Flip! Don't make it any +harder for me than it already is. You don't want me to be late, do +you, and miss the best chance of my life? Punctuality counts for +everything when a man's looking for a reliable employee." + +Without a word, but still sobbing, Philippa rushed from the room. He +heard her going down the back stairs and across the kitchen. When the +outer door closed behind her, he knew as well as if he had seen her +that she was running down the orchard path to her old refuge in the +June-apple-tree. + +"The stars ought to be out now," thought Alec, a few minutes later, +as he slipped into his best coat. Pulling up the shade, he peered out +through the open window. "There'll not be any to-night," he added; +"looks as if it would rain." + +The wind was rising. It blew the muslin curtains softly across his +face. It had driven Miss Eunice and Macklin from the porch. Alec +could hear their voices in the sitting-room. Suddenly another puff of +wind blew the hall door shut, and the cheerful sound was lost. + +"It's certainly going to storm!" he exclaimed, aloud. Raising his +lamp for one more scrutiny of himself in the little mirror, he set it +on his desk, while he hunted in the closet for an umbrella. + +When he reached the hotel, it was in the deepest voice that he could +summon that he asked to be shown to Mr. Humphrey Long's room. Then he +blushed, startled by its unfamiliar sound; it was so deep. + +Mr. Long was busy, he was told. He had been closeted in his room for +an hour with a stranger who had taken supper with him, and had left +orders that Alec, if he came, was not to be shown up till the other +man had gone. + +Alec wandered from the office into the parlour, walking round +nervously while he waited. Half an hour went by. He watched the clock +anxiously, than desperately. The minutes were slipping by so fast +that he was afraid there would be no time for his turn before the bus +started to the train. What if the other man should be taken in his +stead after all Mr. Long's fair speeches! The thought made him break +into a cold perspiration. He drummed nervously on the table beside +him with impatient fingers. + +Presently, through his absorption, came the consciousness that the +bell in the town hall was clanging the fire alarm. It was an unusual +sound in the quiet little village. Noisy shouts in the next street +proclaimed that the volunteer fire brigade was dragging out the +hand-power engine and hose reel. From all directions came the sound +of hurrying feet and the cry of "Fire! fire!" + +He rushed to the door and looked out. Half a mile toward the north, +he judged the distance to be, an angry glow was spreading upward. It +was in the direction of his home. + +"Where's the fire, Bob?" called a voice across the street. + +"The old Macklin house," was the answer, tossed back over a man's +shoulder as he ran. Instantly there flashed into Alec's mind the +remembrance of the muslin curtains flapping across his face, and the +lamp left near them on his desk. Had he blown it out or not? He could +not remember. He tried to think as he dashed up the street after the +running crowds. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +There was no faster runner in the village than Alec Stoker. In the +last two field-day contests he had carried off the honours, and now +he surpassed all previous records in that mad dash from the hotel to +the burning house. + +Swift as he was, however, the flames were bursting from the windows +of his room by the time he reached the gate, and curling up over the +eaves with long, licking tongues. It was as he had feared. He had +forgotten to put out the light, the curtains had blown over it, and, +fanned by the rising wind, the fire had leaped from curtain to bed, +from mosquito-bar to wall, until the whole room was in a blaze. + +Shielded by the tall cedars in front of the house, it had burned some +time before a passing neighbour discovered it. By the time the alarm +brought any response, the upper story was full of stifling pine +smoke. The yard swarmed with neighbours when Alec reached it. In and +out they ran, bumping precious old family portraits against wash-tubs +and coal-scuttles, emptying bureau drawers into sheets, and dumping +books and dishes in a pile in the orchard, in wildest confusion. +Everything was taken out of the lower story. Even the carpets were +ripped up from the floors before the warning cry came to stand back, +that the roof was about to fall in. The fire brigade turned its +attention to saving the barn, but that was old, too, and burned like +tinder, as the breath of the approaching storm fanned the flames +higher and higher. + +As Alec leaned back against the fence, breathless and flushed from +his frantic exertions, Philippa came up to him, carrying the parlour +clock and her best hat. + +"Come on," she said; "we've got to get all these things under shelter +before the storm strikes us, or they'll be spoiled. Mrs. Sears has +offered us part of her house. There are four empty rooms in the west +wing, and Aunt Eunice says that we can't do any better than to take +them for awhile." + +Again the neighbours came to the rescue, and, spurred on by the +warning thunder, hurried the scattered household goods into shelter. +They were all piled into one room in a hopeless tangle. + +"We'll not attempt to straighten out anything to-night," said Miss +Eunice, looking round wearily when the last sympathetic neighbour had +departed in time to escape the breaking storm. She and Philippa had +accepted Mrs. Sears's offer of her guest-chamber for the night. +Macklin had gone home with the minister's son. Alec had had many +invitations, but he refused them all. With a morbid feeling that +because his carelessness caused the fire he ought to do penance and +not allow himself to be comfortable, he pulled a pillow and a +mattress from the pile of goods into the empty room adjoining, and +threw himself down on that. + +In the excitement of the scene through which he had just passed, he +had entirely forgotten the engagement he had run away from. Now, as +he stretched himself wearily out on the mattress, it flashed across +his mind that he had failed to keep his appointment, and that the man +had gone. A groan of disappointment escaped him. + +"If I wasn't born to a dog's luck!" he exclaimed, "to miss a position +like that just when we need it the most. Goodness only knows what we +are going to do now. But I needn't say that. It's a hard world, and +there's no goodness in it." + +The next instant, he pulled the sheet over his eyes to shut out the +blinding glare of lightning that lit up the empty room. The crash of +thunder that followed seemed to his distorted fancy the defiant +challenge of all the powers of darkness. All sorts of rebellious +thoughts flocked through the boy's mind, as he lay there in the +darkness of the empty room, thinking bitterly of his thwarted plans. +Midnight always magnifies troubles, and as he brooded over his +disappointments and railed at his fate, not only his past wrongs +loomed up to colossal size, but a vague premonition of worse evil to +come began to weigh on him. It was nearly morning before he dropped +into a troubled sleep. + +Refreshed by a long night's rest and the tempting breakfast Mrs. +Sears spread for her three guests, Philippa soon recovered her usual +gay spirits. The news that Alec had disclosed the night before, which +sent her stunned and heart-sick to her retreat in the old apple-tree, +had faded into the background in the excitement of the fire. She +thought of it all the time she was dressing, but the keenness of her +distress was not so overwhelming as it had been. It was like some old +pain that had lost its worst sting in the healing passage of time. + +She was young enough to take a keen pleasure in the novelty of the +situation, and ran up-stairs and down with hammer and broom, laughing +and joking over the settlement of every picture and piece of +furniture with contagious good humour. Alec could not understand it. +Even his Aunt Eunice was not as downcast as he had pictured her in +the night, over the loss of her old home. With patient, steady +effort, she moved along, bringing order out of confusion, and when +Philippa's fresh young voice up-stairs broke out in the song that had +come to be regarded as the family hymn, she joined in, at her work +below, with a full, strong alto: + + "Yet, in the maddening maze of things, + Though tossed by storm and flood, + To one fixed trust my spirit clings: + I know that God is good." + +"Jine in, Br'er Stoker," called Philippa, laughingly waving her +duster in the doorway. "Why don't you sing?" + +Alec, who was prone on the floor, tacking down a bedroom carpet, +hammered away without an answer. After waiting a minute, she dropped +down on the floor beside him, upsetting a saucer full of tacks as she +did so. "Say, Alec," she began, in a confidential tone, "what did the +man at the hotel say last night? Is he going to take you?" + +"Of course not," was the sulky reply. "You didn't suppose I'd be +lucky enough for that, did you? I didn't even see him. Another fellow +was there ahead of me, and the fire-alarm sounded while I waited, and +then it was all up. I couldn't dally round waiting for an interview +when our home was burning, could I?" + +"Maybe he left some word for you," she suggested. + +"No; I ran down to the hotel to inquire, just as soon as I got the +kitchen stove set up this morning. He left on the nine o'clock train +last night, as he warned me he would, and as I didn't come according +to my agreement, that's the last he'll ever think of me. Such luck as +mine is, anyhow! It was my anxiety to get the place that made me go +off and leave the lamp burning, and now I've not only missed the last +chance I'll ever have, but I've been the means of burning the roof +off from over our heads. You haven't any idea of the way I feel, +Flip. I'm desperate! It fairly sets my teeth on edge to hear you go +round singing of 'The Eternal Goodness' when I'm knocked out every +way I turn, no matter how hard I try." + +"But, Alec," she answered, between taps of his noisy hammer, "it's +foolish of you to take it so to heart, and look on nothing but the +dark side. Of course, it is dreadful to be burned out of house and +home, but it might have been lots worse. All the down-stairs +furniture was saved, and the insurance company is going to put us up +a nice little cottage as soon as possible. We were not without a roof +over our heads for one single hour. Before the old one fell in, Mrs. +Sears offered these rooms, and already things are beginning to look +homelike. Mrs. Sears was one of our 'islands.' + +"There we were, you see. It was black night, and we didn't know which +way to turn, but here were these empty rooms, all nice and clean, +waiting for us. And it will be the same way about your getting a +place if you don't lose faith and courage. You'll float along awhile +farther, and when you're least expecting it, you'll come on your +island that's been waiting for you all the time." + +"Oh, you don't know what you're talking about, Flip," answered Alec, +impatiently, pounding away harder than ever. "You make me tired." + +"I do know what I'm talking about," she retorted, scrambling to her +feet; "and I'll let you know, sir, my singing doesn't set your teeth +on edge half as bad as your sour looks do mine. I wouldn't be such a +grumble-bug! You act like a baby instead of a boy who prides himself +on being old enough to shave." + +With this parting thrust, she flounced out of the room, unmindful of +what he called after her, but she thought, guiltily, as she ran, "Now +I've done it! He'll be furious all day; but I just had to! He needed +somebody to shake him up out of himself, and I don't care!" + +Nevertheless, she sang no more that day, and a few tears dropped on +her books, as she made a place for them on the shelves. All Alec's +had been burned. He had lost more than any of them, for his was the +only up-stairs room that was occupied. Philippa loved her brother too +dearly not to suffer with him in all his losses and disappointments. + +It was a day of hard work for all of them, but four energetic, +determined people can accomplish much, especially when one is a +ten-year-old boy, whose sturdy legs can make countless trips up and +down stairs without tiring, and another is an athletic young fellow +with the endurance of a man. + +Late in the afternoon, Alec made a final round of inspection. +Up-stairs the two bedrooms were in spotless order. They were +furnished even better than those in the old house, for the library +rugs and curtains had found place there, with some of the best +pictures and ornaments. Down-stairs Philippa was standing in the +centre of the room, about to remove the cover and lamp from the +dining-room table. + +"Now it is the parlour," she said, gaily, waving her hand toward the +old piano, the bookcases, and the familiar bric-a-brac on the mantel. +"But shut your eyes a minute, and--_abracadabra!_ it's the +dining-room." As she spoke, she whisked a white cloth on the old +claw-footed mahogany table, and, throwing open a closet door, +displayed the orderly rows of china. + +"We'll not have much for supper to-night, but I'm bound it shall be +set out in style to celebrate our house-warming; so, Mack, if you +have any legs left to toddle on, I wish you'd run out and get me a +handful of purple asters to put in this glass bowl. I am glad that it +wasn't broken. Some kind but agitated friend pitched it out of the +window into the geranium bed." + +She rattled along gaily, with a furtive side-glance at Alec. He had +had nothing to say to her since her outburst up-stairs, and now, +ignoring her pleasantries, he walked into the kitchen in his most +dignified manner. + +"Is there anything more you want me to do, Aunt Eunice?" he asked. + +Finding that there was nothing just then, he went out to the side +porch opening off the room which was to be used as both dining-room +and parlour. He had hung the hammock there a little while before, and +he threw himself into it with a sigh of relief. Swinging back and +forth in the shelter of the vines, the feeling of comfort began to +steal over him that comes with the relaxation of tired muscles. The +rattle of dishes and aroma of hot coffee coming out to him were +pleasantly suggestive to his healthy young appetite. + +He closed his eyes, not intending to go to sleep, but the hammock +stopped swinging almost instantly, and he did not hear the footsteps +going past him a few minutes later, nor his Aunt Eunice's surprised +cry of welcome as a tall, bearded stranger knocked at the door. + +The continuous murmur of voices finally roused him, and he lay there +blinking and listening, trying to recognize the deep bass voice that +laughed and talked so familiarly with his aunt. + +"The Lord has certainly sent you, Dick," Alec heard her say in a +tremulous tone, and then he knew instantly who had come. + +[Illustration: "'THE LORD HAS CERTAINLY SENT YOU, DICK.'"] + +All his life he had heard of Dick Willis, one of the many boys his +grandfather had befriended and taken into the shelter of his home for +awhile. Dick had lived five years in the old house that had just +burned, when Eunice and Sally Macklin were children; and all the +stories of their school days were full of their foster-brother's +mischievous sayings and doings. + +That the harum-scarum boy had given place to this middle-aged, +successful business man, with the deep voice and big whiskers, was +hard for Alec to realize, for in all Miss Eunice's reminiscences he +had kept the perennial prankishness of youth. But now Alec, +listening, learned the changes that had taken place since the man's +last visit to his home. He had thought every year that he would come +back for another visit, he told Miss Eunice, but he had put it off +from season to season, hard pressed by the demands of business, and +now it was too late for him to ever see the old homestead again. He +had seen an account of the fire in a paper which he read on the train +on his way East, and he decided to stop his journey long enough to +run over to the old place for a few hours, and see if she did not +need his help. He wanted her to feel that he stood ready to give it +to the extent of his power, and expected her to call upon him as +freely as if he were a real brother. + +Then it was that Miss Eunice's tremulous voice exclaimed again: "The +Lord has certainly sent you, Dick! I have been worried for weeks over +Alec's future. There is no outlook here in the village for him. If +you could only get him a position somewhere--" She paused, the tears +in her eyes. Alec listened breathlessly for his answer. + +"Why didn't you write me before this, Eunice? My business, travelling +for a wholesale shoe house, takes me over a wide territory and gives +me a large acquaintance. I am sure that I can get him into something +or other very soon. You know that I would do anything for Sally's +boy, and when you add to that the fact that he is Alexander Macklin's +grandson, and I owe everything I am under heaven to that man, you may +know that I'd leave no stone unturned to repay a little of his +kindness to me." + +Alec's heart gave a great throb of hope. The good cheer of the hearty +voice inspired him with a courage he had not felt in weeks. There was +a patter of bare feet down the garden path, and, peering out between +the vines, Alec saw one of the neighbour's boys coming in with a big +dish covered carefully with a napkin. + +"It's fried chicken," announced the boy, with a grin, as Alec went +down the step to meet him. "Mother said to eat it while it was hot. +She knew you all would be too tired to cook much to-night." + +Without waiting to hear Alec's thanks, he scampered down the path +again and squeezed through the gap in the fence made by a missing +picket. Alec carried the dish round the house to the kitchen, where +Philippa was putting the finishing touches to the supper, in her +aunt's stead. + +"Did you know that Uncle Dick has come?" she asked, joyfully. "Oh, +how good of Mrs. Pine to send the chicken! We didn't have anything +for supper but coffee and rolls and eggs. He's certainly bringing +good things in his wake. How delicious that chicken does smell! Let's +take it as a good omen, Alec, a forerunner of better days. He'll +surely get you out of your slough of despond." + +"Who, Flip? The chicken or Uncle Dick?" asked Alec, in his old +jesting way, giving one of her long braids a tweak as he passed. A +heavy load seemed to lift itself from Philippa's heart at this sign +of Alec's return to his merry old self. All during supper she kept +glancing at him, for, absorbed in their guest's interesting +reminiscences, he seemed to have forgotten the grievances he had +brooded over so long, and laughed and joked as he had not done for +weeks. + +To their great regret, Uncle Dick had to leave that night. Alec +walked to the station with him, feeling that he was being subjected +to a very close cross-examination as to his capabilities and +preferences. The train was late, and as they sat in the waiting-room, +the man fell into a profound silence, his hands thrust into his +pockets and his brows drawn together in deep thought. + +Finally he said: "You want to be a banker, like your grandfather. +Well, I can't manage that, my boy. My influence doesn't lie in that +direction. The best I can do is to get you in with the firm that +manufactures all the shoes I sell. It is a big concern. The general +manager of the factory at Salesbury is a good friend of mine, and I +happen to know he is on the lookout for a reliable young fellow to +put in training as his assistant. He is constantly giving somebody a +trial, but nobody measures up to his requirements. Whoever takes it +must go through a regular apprenticeship in the factory and learn the +business from the ground up. According to his ideas, you'd not be +fitted until you'd tried your hand at every piece of machinery in the +factory, and knew how to turn out a pair of shoes from the raw +leather. The wages will be small at first. Some of the duties are +disagreeable, many of the requirements exacting, but promotion is +rapid, and probably by the end of the year you'd be in the office, +learning to take an oversight of the different departments; that is, +if you had proved there was good stuff in you. If money is what you +are after, this opening is better a thousand times than anything the +village bank could give you in years, and in my opinion it's just as +respectable a calling to handle leather as lucre. You'll have to work +and work hard." + +"I don't mind how hard the work is," answered Alec. "I hate to give +up the one thing that has been my ambition all my life, but I have +come to the point where I'd do anything honest to get a place +somewhere out of this town. I'd even scrub floors. You don't know +what I've been through this summer, Uncle Dick. Of course, you know +about my father?" + +He asked the question with such bitterness of tone that his listener +scanned his face intently, then sympathetically. + +"Well, I must get away from that," Alec continued. "It's an awful +handicap. The thought of it made me desperate at times. If they +should hear about him in Salesbury and turn me down on his +account--well, I'd just give up! I couldn't stand any more than I +have already suffered on his account." + +There was no answer for a minute, then the deep voice answered, +cheerily: "Alec, your grandmother Macklin once told me that when she +was a very small child she went to visit her grandmother; quite a +remote ancestor of yours that would be, wouldn't it? For some reason, +she was put to sleep in a trundle-bed in the old lady's room, and +along late in the night she was awakened by a very earnest voice. She +sat up in the little trundle-bed to listen, and there was the old +saint on her knees, praying for--now, what do you suppose? For 'all +her posterity to the latest generation!' She said she didn't +understand then what the words meant, but years afterward, when she +held her first baby in her arms, they came back to her with a feeling +of awe, to think that prayers uttered for him, long years before he +was born, were still working to his blessing. + +"It is the same with you, Alec. Evil influences were set afloat by +your father's crime that will undoubtedly work against you many a +time, but you must remember all the good that lies on the other hand +to counteract them. Even your great-great-grandmother's prayers must +count for something in your behalf. I remember that Alexander Macklin +planted an apple orchard after he was eighty years old. He never +lived to gather even its first harvest, but you have been enjoying it +all your life. He did a thousand unrecorded kindnesses that brought +him no returns seemingly, but 'bread cast upon the waters' does come +back after many days, my boy, every time. And you will be eating the +results of that scattering all your life. The little that I may be +able to do for you will only be the result of kindness he showed me, +and which I could not repay, but am glad now to pass it on to his +grandson. Don't grow bitter because of your father, and say that fate +has handicapped you. That admission of itself will sap your courage +and go far toward defeating you. Say, instead, '_The Eternal +Goodness_ will more than compensate for the evil that this one man +has wrought me.' Then go on, trusting in that, and win in spite of +everything. The harder the struggle the more praise to the victor, +you know." + +The whistle of the approaching train brought his little sermon to a +close, and, seizing his satchel, he started hurriedly to the door. +"I'll see the manager in a few days," he continued, hurriedly. "I +have only a few stops to make this time on my way to Salesbury. +Probably I'll have something definite to write you the last of the +week. Good-bye and good luck to you!" He shook hands heartily, swung +himself up on the platform, and disappeared into the car. + +Philippa was waiting in the hammock with a shawl over her head when +Alec returned. The moonlight nights were chilly, but she could not +bear to go inside until she heard the result of their conversation. + +"Oh, Alec," she exclaimed, as he came up wide awake and glowing from +his walk and his hopeful interview, "wasn't it just like a lovely +story to have the traditional uncle drop down long enough to restore +the family fortunes and then disappear again?" + +"Yes, you're a good prophet," he laughed. "I drifted on to my island +when I least expected it, and in the middle of my darkest night. +Salesbury is four hundred miles from here, Flip, and we sha'n't see +each other often, so if it will be any comfort to you, you may say, +'I told you so,' three times a day, from now on until I leave." + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +Philippa, coming home from school one afternoon, late in September, +loitered at the gate for a few more words with the girls who had +walked that far with her. Sometimes the little group lingered there +until nearly sundown, between the laburnum bushes and hollyhocks of +the old garden, but to-day, Alec's impatient whistle from an upper +window signalled her. He waved a letter toward her, calling, +excitedly, "It's come, Flip! It's come! I'm to start in the morning. +I'm packing my trunk now." + +With a hurried good-bye to the girls at the gate, Philippa rushed up +the stairs to her brother's room. The bureau drawers had all been +emptied on the bed, and every chair was full. + +"Here's some things that need buttons," he announced, as she came in. +"Aunt Eunice is pressing my best suit, and Mack has gone down-town +after the shoes that I left to be half-soled. I'll have to rush, for +the letter says to come at once. I didn't suppose they'd be in such a +hurry. They're hustlers, I guess." + +His haste was so contagious that Philippa ran into the next room for +her sewing-basket, without waiting to take off her hat, and sitting +down on the floor beside the window began to sew on buttons as fast +as she asked questions. She always had plenty to say to Alec, and now +that the time for conversation was limited to a few short hours, she +could not talk fast enough. + +Presently the click of the gate made her look out. "Here comes Mack," +she said. "Your shoes are wrapped in a newspaper, and he's so busy +reading something on it that he doesn't know where he is going. Look +out, snail!" she called; "you'll bump into the house in a minute if +you are not careful!" + +The boy came slowly up the stairs still spelling out the paragraph +that interested him. + +"Alec," he said, pausing in the doorway, "what's a green goods man? +This says that a gang of 'em were arrested in New York. The +detectives traced them by a letter one of them left here in +Ridgeville at the hotel. Think of that! Jonas Clark is the man's real +name, alias H-u-m-p-h," he spelled, "Humphrey (I guess it is) Long." + +Alec snatched the knotty bundle and glanced at the paragraph so +eagerly that Philippa looked at him in surprise. She was still more +surprised to see a deep flush spread over his face, as he tore the +newspaper off the shoes and glanced at the date. Then he dropped it +on the bed and began to fumble for something in the bottom of his +trunk, saying, carelessly, "Oh, green goods men are just fellows who +rope people in to buy counterfeit money. Here, Mack, you'll not have +a chance to run many more errands for me. Trot down to Aunt Eunice +with these neckties, please, and ask her to press them for me while +she's in the business." + +As soon as Mack disappeared, Alec caught up the paper again. "Flip," +he said, in an impressive voice, after his second reading, "do you +remember the night of the fire I was to meet a man at the hotel and +make the final arrangement with him for taking a position he had +offered me?" + +Philippa nodded. + +"Well, that is the man; Humphrey Long. Think of what I have escaped. +From what he said about his sure scheme for making money and making +it easy, I know now that is what he meant; but I never suspected such +a thing then. He was the smoothest talker I ever saw, and was as +gentlemanly and well dressed as the minister. And such a way as he +had! He could almost make a body believe that black was white. +Suppose I had gone off with him. Whillikens! but I would be in hot +water now! Everybody would have said, 'Only a chip off the old block. +Just what might have been expected with such a father.'" + +"But, Alec, you wouldn't have gone after he had told you what his +business was!" Philippa exclaimed, in a horrified tone. "You know +that you wouldn't." + +"No," he answered, slowly, "but I think now that he intended to keep +me in the dark till he got me just where he wanted me, in too deep to +inform on them. And I was so desperate for a job away from here that +I would have accepted his offer with very few questions. Don't you +see, my very ignorance of his schemes would have made me a better +decoy in some cases than if I had not been such an innocent young +duck. Of course, Stumpy Fisher told him all about me," he added, +after a moment's thought. "He might have counted on my being enough +like my father to take kindly to his crookedness." + +"How queerly things work out!" said Philippa. "If you had had your +own way, you'd have been off with that man and probably in jail with +him now. But the fire stopped you. And if it hadn't been for the +fire, Uncle Dick never would have been aroused to the necessity of +leaving his business long enough to make us a visit, and if it hadn't +been for the visit you never would have had this position in +Salesbury." + +"That's so," Alec assented, gravely. "It's a whole chain of those +islands that you and Aunt Eunice are always singing about. I'll make +a map of them some day and name each one: 'Fire Island,' 'Isle of +Uncle Dick,' etc. Then I'll name the whole group after you: 'Flip's +Providence Islands,' or something like that." + +Then the subject was dropped, as Macklin came clattering back up the +stairs. + + * * * * * + +If the history of Alec's experiences during the next few weeks could +have been written, it would have differed little from that of +thousands of boys who yearly leave farm and village to push their way +into the already overcrowded cities. Eager and hopeful, his ambition +placed no limit to the success he meant to achieve. That he might +fall short of the goal he set for himself never once entered his +thoughts. He knew the conditions requisite to success, and felt an +honest pride in the consciousness that he could meet them. He had a +strong, healthy body, a thorough education so far as the high school +could take him, good habits, and high ideals. + +As the train whirled him on toward Salesbury, he felt that at last he +was placing himself in line with the long list of illustrious men who +had begun life as poor boys and ended it as the benefactors of +mankind. And he felt that he had a distinct advantage over Franklin +and some of his ilk, for he faced his future with far more than a +loaf of bread under his arm. Forward in the baggage-car his +grandfather's old leather trunk held ample provision for his present, +and an assured position awaited him. + +Salesbury was not a large city, but it seemed a crowded metropolis to +Alec's eyes, accustomed to the quiet life of the little inland +village. But it was not as a gaping backwoodsman he viewed its +sights. If he had never seen a trolley-car before, he had carefully +studied the power that propels one. The whir and clang, the rush of +automobiles, the pounding of machinery in the great factory all +seemed familiar, because they were a part of the world he had learned +to know in his extensive reading. Keenly alive to new impressions, he +was so interested in everything that went on round him that he had +little time to be lonesome at first. + +He stayed only a few days at the hotel. Anxious to repay his Aunt +Eunice as soon as possible the money she had spent in replenishing +his wardrobe after the fire, and defraying his travelling expenses, +he took a room in a lodging-house, and his meals at a cheap +restaurant. In that way he was able to save nearly twice as much each +week toward cancelling his indebtedness. + +The letters he wrote home were re-read many times. They were so +bright and cheerful and full of interesting descriptions. He didn't +like the work in the factory, but he liked the manager, and with the +determination to make his apprenticeship as short as possible and +gain a place in the office, he pegged away with a faithfulness and +energy that he felt sure must bring a speedy reward. + +Not till the cold November nights came did Miss Eunice detect a +little note of homesickness creeping into his letters. She would not +have wondered could she have looked in on him while he wrote, +buttoned up in his overcoat and with his hat on. His chilly little +bedroom, with its dim lamp and worn matting, was a dismal contrast to +the cheerful home where he had always spent his winter evenings. Then +she noticed that there was nearly always some reference to the +restaurant fare, some longing expressed for one more taste of her +cooking--the good cream gravy, the mince turnovers, the crisp +doughnuts that had been his favourite dishes at home. + +Once he wrote to Philippa: + + "Think of it, Flip! I don't know a single girl in town. + Excepting my landlady, I haven't spoken to a woman since I + pulled out of the depot at Ridgeville two months ago. It seems + so strange to know only the factory fellows, when at home I + was acquainted with everybody. The manager, Mr. Windom, has a + pretty daughter whom I'd give a good deal to know. She drives + down to the office with him sometimes, and I see her at church. + She looks something like your chum, Nordic Gray, laughing sort + of eyes, and soft, light hair, and a saucy little nose like + your own." + +Later, in a reply to a question from Miss Eunice, he wrote: + + "No, I haven't put in my church letter yet. I took it with me + every Sunday for awhile, but I can't get screwed up to the + point, somehow. People here are so stand-offish with strangers. + I've gone pretty regularly, but nobody has spoken to me yet. I + suppose they think that a gawky country boy doesn't belong in + such a fashionable congregation. The minister doesn't come down + after service to shake hands with people, as Doctor Meldrum + does at home. They have a Christian Endeavour Society that I + think might be nice if there was any way of breaking the ice to + get into it. The young people seem to have the best kind of + times among themselves, but they don't seem to care for anybody + that hasn't the inside track in their exclusive little circle." + +Then the letters grew shorter. "He had no time to write during the +day," he explained. At night he was either so tired that he went to +bed as soon as he had his supper, or some of the boys that worked +where he did came round for him to go out with them. He had been to +the library several times, and to a free band-concert. When he was +out of debt, he intended to get a season lecture course ticket and go +to other entertainments once in awhile to keep from getting the +blues. + +He did not mention some of the other places to which he had gone with +the boys. It would only worry his Aunt Eunice, he thought. Probably +she wouldn't think it was any harm if she lived in the city. People +in little places were apt to be narrow-minded, he told himself. He +could feel that his own opinions were broadening every day. + +He wrote to Macklin on Thanksgiving Day, saying that he intended to +make the most of his holiday and skate all the afternoon. He was glad +that he had brought his skates, for the ice was in fine condition. +That was the last letter home for two weeks. + +While Miss Eunice worried, and Philippa haunted the post-office, he +was lying ill in his cheerless little bedroom, on the top floor of +the cheap lodging-house. He had skated not only Thanksgiving +afternoon, but again at night when the ice was illuminated by +bonfires and lanterns. There was a danger-signal posted farther down +where the ice was thin. He had avoided it all the afternoon, but +intent on cutting some fancy figure one of the boys had taught him, +he did not notice how near he was to the dangerous spot until he +heard a cracking noise all round him, and it was too late to save +himself from a plunge into the icy water. + +Although he was helped out immediately, and ran every step of the way +to his room, he was shaking with a chill when he reached it. All the +covering he could pile on the bed did not stop the chattering of his +teeth as he lay shivering between the cold sheets. In the morning he +was burning with fever. There was such a sharp pain in his lungs that +he could not draw a full breath. + +He tried to get up and dress, but the attempt made him so weak and +dizzy that he could only stagger back to bed and lie there in a sort +of stupor. It was not quite clear to him who brought a doctor, but +one came in the course of the morning and left two kinds of little +pellets and a glass of water on the chair beside his bed. He was to +take two pink pellets every hour and one white one every two hours, +he was told. + +There was no clock in the room, and he had no watch, but the +engine-house bell in the next block clanged the alarm regularly. + +The responsibility of giving himself his own medicine kept him from +dropping asleep as he longed to do. He would doze for a few minutes +and start up, fearing that he had let the time go by, or that he had +taken a double dose, or that he had confused directions. Was it two +pink ones or two white ones, or one hour or two hours? He said it +over and over with every variation possible. The confusion was +maddening. + +The pain in his lungs grew worse. He was burning with thirst, but +there was no more water in the glass. He looked round the room with +feverish, aching eyes, that suddenly filled with hot tears. If he +could only be back in his own room at home, with Aunt Eunice to care +for him, and Flip to make him comfortable, how good it would seem! He +was tasting to the dregs the misery of being ill, all alone among +strangers. + +Toward evening the woman who kept the lodging-house sent a little +coloured boy up to ask if he wanted anything. A pitcher of water was +all that Alec asked for. That being supplied, the boy shut the door +and clattered down the hall, whistling. The night seemed endless. +Hour after hour he started up shuddering, as the bell's loud clang +awakened him, not knowing what it was that startled him. In his +feverish hallucinations he thought he was continually breaking +through the ice into a sea of burning water. He kept clutching at the +pillows, thinking they were islands that he was for ever drifting +past and could never reach. + +When morning came at last, and the doctor made his second visit, he +found Alec delirious and the medicine still on the chair beside the +bed. With one glance round the cheerless room, he shrugged his +shoulders and went out for help. + +When Alec next noticed his surroundings with eyes that were once more +clear and rational, he saw that the dingy little grate had been +opened and a bright fire was burning in it. The clothing he had left +on the floor in a heap had been put away. The window shade no longer +hung askew. He looked round half-expecting to see his Aunt Eunice or +Flip, and wondered if he had been so ill that some one had sent for +them. Then his glance fell on a grizzled old man with a wooden leg, +dozing in a rocking-chair by the fire. + +"Old Jimmy Scott!" Alec said to himself after a moment's puzzled +scrutiny, in which he racked his brain to recall where he had seen +the face before. Finally he remembered. One of the boys had pointed +him out as an old soldier who had taken to nursing when he could no +longer fight. He held no diploma from any training-school for nurses, +he was uncouth and rough in many ways, but his varied experiences had +made him a valuable assistant to the doctor, whom he called his +general, and obeyed with military exactness. + +As Alec stirred on his pillow, the old soldier looked up, and then +hobbled over to the bed as quietly as his wooden leg would allow. He +bent over him, felt his pulse, and then said, cheerfully, "All right, +buddy, guess it's time now for rations." Taking a covered cup from +the hob on the grate, he deftly put a spoonful of hot beef tea to +Alec's lips. + +"You had a pretty close call, young man," he said, in response to +Alec's attempt to question him. "A leetle more and it would have been +double pneumonia. But you're about out of the woods now. We'll soon +have you on your feet." Giving his patient a few more spoonfuls, he +drew the covers gently in place, saying, "Now don't you talk any +more. Turn over and go to sleep." + +Weak, yet thrilled with a delightful sense of comfort and freedom +from pain, Alec obeyed unquestioningly. True, a thought did trail +teasingly across his mind for a moment, a dim wonder as to where the +money was to come from to pay for the expensive luxuries of nurse and +doctor and medicines and fire, but it faded presently, and instead +his Aunt Eunice's old song took its place: + + "I know not where His islands lift + Their fronded palms in air; + I only know I cannot drift + Beyond--beyond--beyond--" + +He groped languidly for the final words, but could not recall them. +"Never mind," he thought, drowsily; "I've got as far as old Jimmy +Scott, and that's a big enough island for this trip." + +A most comfortable stopping-place old Jimmy proved to be. + +Considerate as a woman of his patient's comfort, cheerful, tireless, +and prompt as a minute-gun in carrying out the doctor's instructions, +it was not long before he had Alec sitting up for a little while each +day. With such an old philosopher to keep him company, and +entertained by the old veteran's endless fund of anecdote, Alec +enjoyed those few days of convalescence more than he could have +believed possible. + +"It isn't such a bad sort of world, after all," he remarked one +morning, the day after the minister had called. "It is strange what a +difference knowing persons makes in the way you feel toward them. The +minister was as cordial and friendly as Doctor Meldrum used to be in +Ridgeville. Wonder how he found out about me? I didn't know he'd ever +heard of me or noticed me in the congregation." + +Old Jimmy made no reply, although he longed to say: "He came because +I sent for him, buddy, as people ought to do. They are quick enough +to send for a doctor when their bodies are sick, but when they are +out of sorts either physically or mentally they never think of +letting their minister know. They hang back and feel hurt if he +doesn't come, just as if he could tell by intuition or a sort of +sixth sense that he's needed. How can a D. D. be expected to know +when you want him, any more than an M. D.?" + +That afternoon as Alec sat propped up by the window for a little +while, looking down on the snowy street, there was a knock at the +door. Old Jimmy, answering it, came back with a florist's box +addressed, "Mr. Alec Stoker, with best wishes and sympathy of the +Grace Church Christian Endeavour Society." Inside was a fragrant +bunch of hothouse roses. + +Alec held them up in amazement. "Why should they have sent them to +me?" he cried. There was no Endeavour society in Ridgeville, and he +did not understand its methods. + +"The flower committee sends 'em to all the sick people in the +congregation," explained Jimmy. "Posies and piety always sorter go +together, seems like. Pretty, ain't they? But they ain't half so +pretty as the young ladies that brought 'em." + +"Young ladies!" gasped Alec, looking toward the door. + +"Yes, the flower committee itself, I suppose. I didn't know two of +them. But one of them you ought to know, buddy, seeing as it's the +daughter of your boss. Thomas Windom's daughter--Avery, I believe +they call her." + +Alec's heart gave a thump. Avery Windom was the pretty girl he had +written to Flip about; the one whom he had wanted of all others to +know; and she had climbed to his door, had left the roses; it seemed +too strange to be true. + +He leaned toward the window and looked down. Yes, there she went with +her friends, fluttering along the snowy street. He could see the +gleam of her soft, light hair under her velvet hat. Her cheeks were +flushed with her walk in the cold. He leaned eagerly nearer the +window as she fluttered along, farther and farther down the street, +until she was lost in the crowd. Then he lay back in the chair with a +sigh. It seemed so long since he had lived in a world where there +were bright, friendly girls like Flip. The sight of these who had +been so near made him homesick for the old friends of his school +days, and he began to talk to old Jimmy about his sister and the good +times they used to have together. + +"I wonder which one wrote this card," he thought, as he slipped it +out of the box. "I am sure she did. The handwriting is so light and +graceful, just like her. So her name is Avery. I might have known it +would be different from other girls'. Avery! Avery!" he repeated +softly, while old Jimmy stumped out into the hall for some water in +which to put the roses. "It's a pretty name. I wonder if I'll ever +know her well enough to call her that." + +"Time to get back into bed now," said old Jimmy, coming in with the +pitcher. He placed the roses in it on a stand beside the bed. +"Mustn't overdo matters." + +"No, indeed," said Alec, with a new note of determination in his +voice which did not escape old Jimmy. "I've got to get well in a +hurry now, and go back to work." Then he settled himself on his +pillow, and lay smiling happily at the roses. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +If the calendar over Alec's mantel could have told the history of the +next few weeks, it would have been the record of a hard struggle with +homesickness and discouragement. There was a heavy black cross drawn +through the date of his return to work. He had come in that night +when it was over weighed down with the fact that his wages had been +stopped in his absence, and that it would take a long time to pay the +debts incurred during his illness. + +There was a zigzag line struck twice across the calendar below that +date. "That much goes for the doctor!" he exclaimed, fiercely +checking off the time with a stubby pencil. "And that much to old +Jimmy, and that much for fire and extras. It'll take way into the new +year to get straightened out. Luckily I am nearly through with my +debt to Aunt Eunice." + +Later there was a tiny star drawn in the corner of one date. It +marked the Sabbath evening he had gone to the Christian Endeavour +praise service and heard Avery Windom sing. He had been introduced to +half a dozen of the boys and girls, and been invited to come again, +and had gone back to his calendar to count the nights until the next +meeting. Ever since he had left home, he had longed with a longing +that was like hunger for the companionship of young people such as he +had known at home. There was a blur over one of the dates, the little +square that marked the twenty-fifth of December. It was a red-letter +day on the calendar, but in Alec's bare little room a holiday that +dragged its dismal length out toward dark, like a dull ache. + +The box that had been sent him from home failed to reach him till the +next day. Standing with his hands in his pockets, looking out over +the snowy roofs of the city, he recalled all the merry Christmas days +at home, since the first time he and Flip had hung up their stockings +beside their grandfather's wide chimney-seat. This was the first time +he had ever missed following the old custom. The city seemed +overflowing with the joy and good-will of the Yuletide, yet none of +it was for him. He had never felt so utterly left out and alone in +all his life. + +Despite his seventeen years, there was an ache in his throat that he +could not drive back, and when he laid down the calendar he had been +mechanically examining, although he whistled bravely, there was a +telltale blur on the page. + +But there came a day when he tore off the leaf that was crossed with +the double black lines meaning debt and worry, and began a fresh +sheet which seemed to promise better days. A change of work came the +first of February, and a slight advance in wages. The manager, who +had kept a keen eye on him, was beginning to think that at last he +had found a boy who was worth training, and that if he proved as +efficient in every stage of his apprenticeship as he had in the +first, he would soon have the capable assistant that he had long been +in search of. + +Alec's notification of his promotion was in the envelope which held +his check for the last week in January. He did not see it until he +stepped into the bank to have the check cashed, and in his delight +and surprise he could scarcely refrain from turning a handspring. + +So many people were ahead of him that he had to stand several minutes +awaiting his turn at the little barred window. In that time he made +several rapid calculations on the back of the envelope. + +"Can you give me five dollars of that in gold?" he asked of the +cashier when his turn finally came. With a nod of assent, the cashier +counted out several small bills, and laid a shining five-dollar gold +piece on top. Alec seized it eagerly and, thrusting the bills into +his pocket, walked out with the coin in his hand. + +Long ago he had decided how to spend his first surplus five dollars +if it came in time. It should go as a happy surprise to Flip on her +sixteenth birthday. It had come in time. Her birthday was on the +twenty-first of the month. At first he thought he could not wait +three long weeks before sending it. He wanted her to have the +pleasure and surprise of receiving it at once; and he wanted the +thrill of feeling that he was man enough not only to be +self-supporting, but to help care for his sister. + +[Illustration: "HE MADE SEVERAL RAPID CALCULATIONS ON THE BACK OF THE +ENVELOPE."] + +He wrapped the coin in a bit of tissue-paper, torn from the +shaving-case Flip had sent him in the delayed Christmas box. Then he +carefully put it in the inner pocket of the old wallet he carried. +But scarcely a night passed between that time and the twentieth that +he did not take a peep at the coin, and then count the days on his +calendar. + +Ever since the night of the praise service, when he first heard Avery +Windom sing, he had been a regular attendant at the Christian +Endeavour meetings. It was like a bit of home to sit there in the +midst of the young people, singing the familiar old hymns, and he +sang them so heartily and entered into the exercises of the meeting +with such zest that he soon lost the feeling that he was only a +stranger within the gates. + +There were some, it is true, who were only coolly polite to him, +thinking of his position, an unknown boy working in the shoe factory +as a common labourer. He felt the chill of their manner keenly, and +he knew why he was so pointedly ignored. It was not a deeply +spiritual society. Only a few of the members were really consecrated +Christians. There were more socials and concerts and literary +evenings than devotional meetings. Most of the members belonged to +old, wealthy families, and had always been accustomed to leisure and +pocket-money. Alec soon realized the bounds that were set to his +social privileges. He might take a prominent part in the meetings, +even be asked to lead on occasions, be put on committees, be assigned +many tasks in connection with suppers and festivals, but outside of +his church relationship he was never noticed. No hospitable home +swung open its doors for him. + +Only one who has lived in a country place, which knows no class +distinctions, where character is all that counts, and where the +butcher and baker may be bidden any day, in simple village fashion, +to banquet with the judge, only such an one can understand the +feeling of a boy in Alec's position. He wondered sometimes, with a +sudden sinking of the heart, what would be the result if they knew +about his father. + +He never looked at Avery Windom without thinking of it. He used to +watch her in church, sitting up between her aristocratic father and +mother, sweet and refined, like a dainty white flower. He wondered if +her slim-gloved hand would ever be held out to him again in greeting, +as it had been on several occasions, if she knew that he was the son +of a criminal. + +Then he wondered what she would think if she knew that the touch of +that little hand in his had been like the saving touch of a guardian +angel. Once, urged on by one of the factory boys, an almost +overwhelming temptation had seized him, but the remembrance that if +he yielded he would never again be fit to take her hand made him +thrust his into his pockets and turn away toward home with a shrug of +the shoulders. + +Avery, as ignorant of the influence she was exerting as a lily is of +the fragrance it sheds, went serenely on in her gentle, high-bred +way. Alec held no larger place in her thoughts than any other of the +employees in her father's factory. + +"Flip would call her one of my islands," he said to himself one +night, as he parted on the corner from a crowd of boys who were +begging him to go with them for a little game of cards and a lark +afterward. "No telling where I would have drifted if it hadn't been +for her. It's no easy matter to keep straight when you're all alone +in a city as big and tough as this." + +On his way home, he stopped at the library for a book he had heard +her mention. He had overheard her quoting a line from Sir Galahad, +and although he knew the story well of the maiden knight "whose +strength was as the strength of ten because his heart was pure," it +took on a new meaning because she had praised it. He learned the +entire poem by heart, and the inspiration of the lines as he bent +over his work in the factory gave him many an uplift that left him +more nearly the man whom he imagined Avery's ideal to be. + +One other date was marked on the calendar with a star before Flip's +birthday came round. It was the night of the literary contest at the +high school, when Avery's essay took the prize. Alec had manoeuvred +for a week to get a ticket, and finally procured one from the head +bookkeeper at the factory, whose sister taught in the high school. + +[Illustration: "'IT'S THE FIRST MONEY I EVER EARNED IN MY LIFE,' SHE +SAID, GLEEFULLY."] + +He lingered a little while after the contest in the outskirts of the +crowd that flocked up to congratulate Avery. She came out to the +carriage on her father's arm, with a fleecy evening cloak wrapped +round her, and he saw the prize. She held it out a moment in her +bare, white hand to some one who stood near Alec. It was a bright +five-dollar gold piece. + +"It's the first money I ever earned in my life," she said, gleefully, +including Alec in her smile, so that he felt that the remark was +addressed to him. "It is so precious I shall have to put it under a +glass case. Maybe I can never earn another one." + +In his room once more, Alec took out his little gold coin, and, +looking at it, thought he could understand just how proud Avery must +feel of hers. + +The next time he saw her it was at a Christian Endeavour meeting. +Ralph Bently was with her, a gentlemanly, elegant boy in appearance, +but Alec knew the reputation he had among the young fellows who knew +him best, and it made him set his teeth together hard to see him with +a girl as pure and refined as Avery. + +"He isn't fit," he thought. "He shouldn't speak to Flip if I could +prevent it, and even if he is Avery's cousin and such a young boy, +Mr. Windom oughtn't to let him into the house." + +For several weeks, at every meeting, the president had made an +especial appeal for larger contributions. A large, expensive organ +was being built for the church. The Christian Endeavour Society had +pledged themselves to pay five hundred dollars of the amount due on +it, but part of the sum was still lacking, even after all the socials +and fairs that had been given to raise the amount. The president +urged each member to add a little to his previous subscription, even +at the cost of much self-denial. + +Alec had been asked to assume the duty of regularly passing one of +the collection boxes at the Sunday night services. He had done this +so often in the Sunday school at home that he felt no embarrassment +in doing so now, except when he reached the row of chairs where Avery +and her cousin sat. He sneezed just as he extended the long-handled +collection box toward them, and flushed hotly for having called every +one's attention to himself by the loud noise. + +The other collector, having finished first, placed his box on the +secretary's little stand and went back to his seat. As Alec came +forward, the president asked him in a low tone to count the money, +and be ready to report the amount after the singing of the last hymn. + +Turning his back to the audience, Alec emptied both boxes into the +seat of the big pulpit chair standing next to the president's. The +two chairs were old Gothic ones, recently retired from the church +pulpit to make room for new furniture. There were a number of pennies +in the lot, and during the singing he counted them carefully several +times, in order to be sure that he had made no mistake. + +The hymn was a short one. It came to an end as Alec laid several +little piles of coin on the table at the secretary's elbow. + +"Four dollars and ninety-six cents, did you say?" repeated the +president, leaning over to catch the report Alec gave in an +undertone. "Four dollars and ninety-six cents," he announced aloud. +"Really we must do better than that." + +Alec saw Avery and Ralph exchange surprised glances. The president +went on repeating his former explanations of their financial +difficulties. Alec, still watching, saw Ralph Bently make a move to +rise, and Avery's hand was laid detainingly on his arm. She was +whispering and shaking her head; but Ralph was not to be deterred by +any remonstrance. He was on his feet, exclaiming: + +"Mr. President, pardon the interruption. There is some mistake in +that report! The collection should amount to far more than four +dollars and ninety-six cents. Miss Windom alone gave more than that. +I saw her drop a five-dollar gold piece into the box." + +Avery blushed furiously at being called into public notice in such a +manner by her impetuous young cousin. Every drop of blood seemed to +leave Alec's face for an instant, and then rushed back until it +burned a fiery crimson. He was indignant that Ralph Bently should have +been so wanting in courtesy as to proclaim in public the amount of +his cousin's donation, the cherished gold piece she had won at the +prize contest. And he was deeply mortified to think that he could +have made a mistake in counting it. He wondered if he could have been +such a fool as to have mistaken the coin for a new penny. What would +Avery think of him? + +He turned toward the table, evidently disturbed, and counted the +money again. Then he shook his head. + +"You can see for yourself," he said; "four dollars and ninety-six +cents!" + +The president picked up both boxes, and, turning them upside down +over the table, shook them energetically. The secretary shoved back +the chair in which the money had been counted, gave it a tip that +would have dislodged any coin left on its smooth plush seat, and +peered anxiously round on the floor. + +"Don't give it another thought, Mr. Stoker, please don't!" exclaimed +Avery, going up to him when her attention was called to his worried +expression. "I'm sure it has rolled off into some corner and the +janitor will find it when he sweeps. I'll speak to him about it. +Anyhow, it is too small a matter to make such a fuss over. I never +should have told Ralph what it was if he hadn't teased me about what +I had tied up in the corner of my handkerchief." Then she passed on +with a smile. + +Alec lingered to help collect the hymn-books, and when he passed into +the vestibule he heard voices on the outer steps. One of them sounded +like Ralph Bently's. + +"Oh, maybe so!" it exclaimed, with a disagreeable little laugh; "but +it's queer how money will stick to some people's fingers." + +Alec, who was in the act of opening the door to go from the +prayer-meeting room into the auditorium of the church for the evening +service, paused an instant. He was overwhelmed by the sudden +conviction that he was the person meant. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +The next day at noon, after a hurried lunch at the restaurant, Alec +stopped at the post-office on his way back to the factory. He wanted +to add a few lines to the birthday letter which he had written +Philippa the night before. He wrote them standing at the public desk; +then, drawing the old wallet from his pocket, he took out the +long-cherished gold coin from its wrapping of tissue-paper and +dropped it into the envelope. + +"I'm afraid it isn't safe to send it that way," he said to himself, +balancing the letter on two fingers. "It is so heavy that any one +could guess what's in it, and it might wear through. I did want her +to have it in gold, but I suppose it will be more sensible to send a +postal order." + +After a moment's deliberation, he turned to the window beside the +desk, and asked for a money-order blank. Some one came in while he +was filling it out, but he was so absorbed in his occupation that he +did not look up until he turned to push the slip and the money +through the window bars toward the clerk. Then he saw that it was +Ralph Bently who stood behind him, flipping a postal order in his +fingers, impatient to have it cashed. They exchanged careless nods, +and Alec, sealing his letter, dropped it into the box and hurried +back to his work. As the outer door swung shut, Bently leaned his +arms on the window ledge and spoke to the clerk, who was an intimate +friend of his. + +"Say, Billy," he exclaimed, "let me see that coin that Stoker paid +you just now, will you? Push it out here a minute." + +"What's up?" inquired the clerk, as he complied with the request. + +"Oh, nothing much. I just wanted to look at the date." As he examined +it, he gave a long whistle. "Whe-ew! It's the same. Curious +coincidence, I must say! This young brother takes up a collection +Sunday night. Avery drops in her five-dollar gold piece that she got +as a prize, you know. Collector turns his back on the meeting to +count the money, hands in a report of only four dollars and +ninety-six cents. Vows he never saw the gold in the box. A thorough +search of the room fails to bring it to light. Nobody can imagine how +it disappeared. The next morning he has a coin of the same date to +dispose of." + +"Who is the fellow, anyway?" asked the clerk. + +"That's just it! Who is he? Nobody knows. He came here from some +little place back in the country several months ago, and went to work +in the Downs & Company shoe factory." + +"If that's the case, why don't you ask your uncle about him? He's +both the company and the manager in the firm, isn't he? He'd know +whether the fellow was to be trusted or not." + +"I intend to," was the answer; "and say, Billy, if you don't mind, +I'll take that coin. Here's its equivalent." + +He pushed a rustling new bank-note toward his friend. "See me play +Sherlock Holmes now. I always did think I'd make a good detective." + +"Look out," was the warning reply. "You have only a slim bit of +circumstantial evidence, and it would be hard on the boy to start +such a tale if there were no truth in it." + +With the coin in his pocket, Ralph sauntered down to his uncle's +office. It was some time before the busy man could spare time to +listen to him. + +"Well," he said at last, looking up, pen in hand, "what can I do for +you this morning, Ralph?" He had always taken a special interest in +his sister's only son, and now smiled kindly as he approached. + +"Oh, nothing, thank you, uncle. I just dropped in to ask you about +one of the employees in the factory. Who is this Alec Stoker, and +where did he come from?" + +The manager's brow contracted an instant in thought. The factory was +a large one, and the roll of employees long. + +"Stoker! Stoker!" he repeated. Then his face cleared. "Ah! He is the +nephew of the best salesman we have on the road. Came well +recommended from a little town called Ridgeville, I believe. He seems +to be a faithful, energetic boy, and has already pushed up to one +promotion." + +"Did any one recommend him besides his uncle?" asked Ralph, +meaningly. + +"No, that was sufficient. But you evidently have a reason for these +inquiries. Do you know anything about him?" + +"No, only--" he shrugged his shoulders. "Something happened last +night that put me on my guard. Didn't Avery tell you?" + +At the mention of his daughter's name in connection with Ralph's +insinuations, Mr. Windom was instantly alert. He laid down his pen. +"No, tell me!" he demanded. + +In as few words as possible, Ralph told of the disappearance of +Avery's money from the collection box, and the discovery he had made +at the post-office. When he had finished, Mr. Windom shook his head +gravely. + +"You are making a very serious charge, Ralph," he said, "and on very +slight provocation. At sixteen one is apt to jump at hasty +conclusions. Take the advice of sober sixty, my boy. It is a +remarkable coincidence, I admit, but even the common law regards a +man as innocent until he is proved guilty, and surely a society that +stands for all that the Christian Endeavour does would not fall below +the common law in its sense of justice. I'm surprised that its +members should be so quick to whisper suspicion and point the +accusing finger." + +"Oh, I'm not a member!" Ralph exclaimed, hastily. "I am perfectly +free to say what I think. Somehow I've never liked the fellow from +the start. He takes so much on himself, and seems to want to push +himself in where he doesn't belong." + +Mr. Windom, swinging round in his revolving chair toward his desk, +picked up his pen again. "Stoker is all right so far as I know," he +said. "It would be a very small thing to let a personal dislike +influence you in this." + +He spoke sternly. Adjusting his eyeglasses, he pulled some papers +toward him, and Ralph, feeling that he desired the conversation to +close, backed out of the office with a hasty good day. His face +flushed at his uncle's implied rebuke, and he resolved that if there +was any possible way, he would prove that his suspicion was right. He +stopped at the post-office on his way home, to speak to the clerk +again. + +"Billy," he said, in a confidential tone, "do a favour for me. Just +drop a line to the postmaster at that address, will you, and ask him +to tell you what he knows about a former resident of that place--one +Alec Stoker? I'm hot on his track now, and I'm going to trace this +thing out if it takes all the year." + +"Found out anything?" asked the clerk. + +"Ask me later," Ralph answered, with a knowing look. "It's a +detective's policy to keep mum." + +So the poison of suspicion began its work. In a few days, the answer +came to the clerk's letter. Alec Stoker was O. K. so far as the +postmaster of Ridgeville knew. His grandfather had been one of the +most highly respected citizens of the place, but--then followed an +account of Alec's father. This the self-appointed young detective +seized eagerly. + +"Humph! Thought there was bad blood somewhere!" he exclaimed. He took +the report to his uncle, who read it gravely, and dismissed him with +a short lecture on the cruelty of repeating such stories to the +intentional hurt of a fellow creature. Stung to anger by this +additional reproof, Ralph was more determined than before to prove +that his suspicions were correct. He carried the letter to the +president of the society, urging investigation. + +"No!" was the determined answer; "better lose a thousand times that +amount than accuse him falsely. Because his father was dishonest is +no proof that he is a thief. Drop it, Bently. Don't put a +stumbling-block in the poor fellow's way by spreading such +insinuations as that. He seems one of the most earnest and sincere +members we ever had in the society." + +With a muttered reply about wolves in sheep's clothing, Ralph took +his letter to the treasurer and secretary. Meeting the same response +from them, he talked the matter over with some of the members, who +were more willing to listen than the others, and less conscientious +about repeating their surmises. So the poison spread and the story +grew. It came to Alec's ears at last. There is always some +thoughtless talebearer ready to gather up the arrows of gossip and +thrust them into the quivering heart of the victim. + +Then the matter dropped so far as the society was concerned. Alec +simply stayed away. Some there were who never noticed his absence. +Some were confirmed in their suspicions by it. Ralph Bently declared +that it was proof enough for him that Stoker felt guilty. If nothing +was the matter, why should he have dropped out so suddenly when he +had pretended all along to be so interested in the services and had +taken such an active part in them? + +The president, noting his absence, promised himself to look him up +sometime, but such promises, never finding definite dates, are never +fulfilled. The member of the visiting committee who had called on +Alec during his illness, and was really interested in him, started to +call again. Something interrupted him, however, and he eased his +conscience, which kept whispering that it was his duty to go, by +sending him one of the printed invitations they always sent to +strangers, cordially urging a regular attendance at the meetings. + +Then the society went selfishly on in its old channels, unmindful of +the young life set adrift again in a sea of doubt and discouragement, +with no hand held out to draw it back from the peril of shipwreck. +The despairing mood that had settled down on Alec during the summer +seized him again. He would work doggedly on during the day, thinking +of Flip and his Aunt Eunice, and feeling that for their sakes he must +stick bravely at it. There was no other position open to him. But it +was almost intolerable staying in a town where people not only knew +of his father's disgrace, but pointed accusing fingers at him. His +sensitiveness on the subject made him grow more and more morbid. He +brooded over it until he imagined that every one who happened to +glance steadily in his direction must be saying, inwardly, "Like +father, like son." + +He knew that Ralph Bently had gone to Mr. Windom with his +information. The talebearer had given him an exaggerated account of +the interview. He felt that there was no longer any use for him to +hope the manager would ever raise him to the position of his trusted +assistant, no matter how thoroughly he might learn the details of the +business. For that reason he studied the newspapers for the +advertisements of help wanted. He intended to make a change at the +first opportunity. + +Once, crossing a street, he met the Windom carriage coming toward +him. Avery, fair and gracious beside her mother, was bowing to an +acquaintance. He started forward eagerly. He had not seen her since +the last night he attended church, but the picture of her pure, sweet +face, upturned like a white flower as she listened to the service, +had been with him ever since. It had come before him many an evening +when, with head bowed on his hands, he had leaned over the little +table in his room, gazing intently into vacancy; it had laid a +detaining hand on him when he would have flung out of the house in +his desperation, in search of some diversion to keep him from +brooding over his fate. + +Now they were almost face to face. Forgetting everything but his +pleasure in seeing her once more, and remembering her smiling +greetings in the past, his hand went up involuntarily toward his hat; +but he stopped half-way, for, turning toward her mother just then, +she called her attention to something on the other side of the +street. + +"Just what I might have expected!" muttered Alec, thinking she +purposely avoided him. His teeth were set and his face white with +mortification. But in his heart he had not expected it. He had taken +a vague comfort in the thought that she would believe in his +innocence, no matter who else doubted. She had insisted so kindly on +his never giving the lost money another thought. + +[Illustration: "HIS HAND WENT UP INVOLUNTARILY TOWARD HIS HAT."] + +If there had been only one accusation to deny, he could have gone to +her with that, he thought. He would have compelled her to believe his +innocence by the very force of his earnestness. But the knowledge of +the accusation against his father silenced him. + +"Hello! You nearly knocked me down, Stoker. Where are you going?" It +was one of the factory boys who asked the question, and Alec, +hurrying down the street with unseeing eyes, became suddenly aware +that he had run against some one who had caught him by the arm, and +was laughingly shaking him to make him answer. "Where are you going?" + +"Oh, I don't know, and I don't care," was the reckless answer. + +"All right, come along if you want good company," was the joking +reply, and the other boy, slipping his arm in Alec's, turned his +steps to a corner where a jolly crowd were waiting for him to join +them. + +After that there were no more lonely evenings for Alec, when he sat +with bowed head beside his table, staring into vacancy. He should +have had another promotion in March. Alec felt that he was proficient +enough to be advanced, and he told himself bitterly that the reason +he was not was because the manager mistrusted him. + +It was true that the manager did distrust him. Not on account of the +suspicions which Ralph Bently had sowed broadcast, but because, made +doubly watchful by the hint, he discovered how Alec was spending his +evenings. Although the work in the factory was done as well as ever, +he knew that no one could keep the company and late hours that Alec +did and not fall short of the high standard he had set for the one +who was ultimately to become his assistant. + +The months slipped slowly by. Philippa wrote that the garden was gay +with spring crocuses and snowdrops; then that Ridgeville had never +been such a bower of roses as it was that June. But to Alec the +months were marked only by his little winnings and little losings. + +There came a time in the early autumn when Alec crept up the creaking +stairs to his room, haggard and pale in the gray light of the +breaking dawn. He had been out all night and lost not only all the +money he had put away in the bank, the savings of seven endless +months, but he was in debt for a greater sum than all his next +month's salary would amount to. + +Heavy-eyed and dizzy from the long hours spent in the close little +gambling den, reeking with stifling tobacco smoke, Alec dragged +himself to his room. After he had closed the door, he stood leaning +with his back against it for a moment. He was facing two pictures +that gazed at him from the mantel: One was the patient, wistful face +of his Aunt Eunice; the other was Philippa's, looking straight out at +him with such honest, sincere eyes, such eager questioning, that he +could not meet their clear gaze. He strode across the room and turned +both faces to the wall. Then, without undressing, he threw himself on +the bed with a groan. + +He was late reaching the factory that morning, for he fell asleep at +once into a sleep of exhaustion, so deep that the usual sounds did +not arouse him. As it was his first offence, the foreman passed it by +in silence; but, faint from lack of food (there had been no time for +breakfast), worn by the excitement and high nervous tension of the +night before, he was in no condition to do his work. He made one +mistake after another, until, made more nervous by repeated accidents +both to the material and machinery he was handling, he made a blunder +too serious to pass without a report to the manager. It involved the +loss of considerable money to the company. + +"You'll be lucky if that mistake doesn't give you your walking +papers," said the foreman. "You'll hear from it at the end of the +month." + +If there had been only himself to consider, Alec would have welcomed +his dismissal, but there was Flip and his Aunt Eunice. How they +believed in him! How proud they were of him! Not for worlds would he +have them know how far he had fallen short of their ideal of him. So +for their sakes he waited in feverish anxiety to know the result. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +It was a rainy Sunday afternoon. A few lumps of coal burned in the +dingy grate in Alec's room. He had slept for several hours, had +finished reading his last library book, and now, as he clasped his +hands behind his head, yawning lazily, he remembered that he had not +written home for two weeks. Letter-writing had become a dreaded task +now. What was there to tell them of himself that he cared for them to +know? Only that he worked from seven until six, ate, slept, and rose +to work again with the dreary monotony of a machine. + +For seven months he had not been inside a church door. The only +people he met now were the workmen at the factory and the boys with +whom he spent his evenings. He could not mention them. Long ago he +had exhausted his descriptions of the city. There was nothing for him +to write but that he was well and busy, and to fill up the pages with +questions about the people at home. It taxed his ingenuity sometimes +to evade Flip's straightforward questions, and he often thought that +his letters had an insincere ring. + +"I wonder what they are doing at home now!" he exclaimed, looking +thoughtfully into the coals. "It's just a year ago to-day that I +left. I can't imagine them living in the new house. It's always the +old sitting-room I see when I think of them. Mack is probably down on +the hearth-rug, popping corn or roasting apples, and Flip's curled up +in the chimney-seat, telling him stories. And Aunt Eunice--I know +what she's doing; what she always does Sunday evening just at this +time, when the twilight begins to fall. She has gone into her room +and shut the door and knelt down by the big red rocking-chair that we +used to be rocked to sleep in. And she's praying for us this very +minute, and doesn't know that the dust is half an inch thick on my +Bible, and that a prayer hasn't passed my lips since last February. +Dear old Aunt Eunice!" + +An ache clutched his throat as he thought of her, and a tender mood, +such as he had not known for weeks, rushed warm across him. One after +another the old scenes rose up before him, until an overwhelming +longing to see the well-known faces made the homesick tears start to +his eyes. + +The twilight shadows deepened in the room, but, lost in the rush of +tender memories, he forgot everything save the pictures that seemed +to rise before him out of the glowing embers in the grate. In the +midst of his reverie, there was a noise on the stairs--a familiar +noise, although he had not heard it for months, a tread and a double +tap, as if a foot and two canes were coming up the steps. + +"Old Jimmy Scott!" thought Alec, looking round as if awakening from a +dream and discovering that the room was nearly dark; he stirred the +fire until it burst into cheerful flames. + +"Well!" he exclaimed, cordially, throwing open the door in answer to +old Jimmy's knock, "of all people! Did you rain down? Here I sat in +the dumps, feeling that I hadn't a friend in the town. Come in! Come +in!" + +He pulled a chair hospitably toward the grate for his guest, and put +another lump of coal on the fire. + +"Knew you'd be surprised to see me a day like this," said the old +soldier, thrusting his foot toward the blaze; "but I've been +intending to look you up for some time. Kind o' had a drawing in this +direction. Thinks I, when I felt it, wonder if he's sick and needs +me. When I have feelings like that, I usually pay attention to 'em." + +They talked of various things for the next quarter of an hour; of the +weather, the new city hall, the approaching elections; but they were +both ill at ease. It seemed to Alec that the old man's heart was not +in the conversation; that he was only trying to pave the way to some +other topic. Finally a pause fell between them. Alec rose to put +another lump of coal on the fire, and old Jimmy, looking round the +room, noticed the two photographs on the mantel with their faces +turned to the wall. He knew well enough whose pictures they were. +During Alec's convalescence he had studied them many a time while he +listened to the homesick boy's enthusiastic description of his sister +and the aunt who had been like a mother to him. + +As Alec took his chair again, he saw the old man's surprised glance +at the pictures. Then their eyes met. Alec flushed guiltily. + +"Something's wrong, boy," said old Jimmy, tenderly. "I knew it. +That's why I felt moved to come. Seemed as if the Lord put it in my +heart that I must. There's special services going on at Grace Church +this week. Something in the evangelist's sermon this morning made me +feel that I'd got to speak to somebody before nightfall--stir up +somebody to a better life--or I'd be held accountable. Then all of a +sudden I began to think of you, so I came up to ask if you wouldn't +go to hear him to-night. But I see now that it's more than an +invitation to church you need. You're in trouble, or you never would +have done that." He nodded toward the pictures. "What is it?" + +Alec hesitated a minute, and old Jimmy, reaching over, laid a +sympathetic hand on his shoulder. Something in the friendly touch +brought a swift rush of tears to Alec's eyes. He was so homesick and +lonely, and it seemed so good to have some one to talk with who was +really interested in him. Dropping his face in his hands and leaning +forward with his elbows on his knees, he blurted out his trouble in +broken sentences. + +[Illustration: "HE BLURTED OUT HIS TROUBLE IN BROKEN SENTENCES."] + +He told the whole story, beginning with the missing coin; Ralph +Bently's insinuations and subsequent endeavour to fasten suspicion on +him; the disclosure of his father's disgrace; the gossip that had +caused him to drop out of the society and church, where he felt that +he was no longer wanted. Finally the habits he had fallen into, and +the money he had lost, and the foreman's prophecy of his discharge +from the factory at the end of the month. + +"I tried to do right," he said in conclusion. "I had tried all my +life. I joined the church when I was no older than Mack, and I lived +just as straight as I knew how. But after that--when every one cut +me--it didn't seem as if it was any use. I just lost faith in +everything and gave up trying. I used to believe in Aunt Eunice's +idea of the eternal goodness. It made me feel so safe, somehow, to +think that, no matter what happened, we could never-- + + "'Drift beyond His love and care.'" + +That He had set islands for us to come across at every turn. You +know. You remember that little map I made when I was getting well. +One of the islands was named for you, and one was the Isle of Roses, +because those flowers the Christian Endeavour society sent seemed to +put new courage into me, and led to the acquaintances and friendships +that helped me so much while I had them. + +"But I've lost that feeling now. I'm cut loose from everything, and +you don't know how terribly adrift I feel. I'm just whirled along +from day to day, till I've almost come to the place it tells about in +Job, where there's nothing left to do but 'curse God and die.'" + +As he paused, old Jimmy's voice broke in with hearty cheerfulness, +"Why, bless you, my boy, you're all in a fog. And do you know the +reason? You haven't the right Pilot aboard any more. + +"The 'islands' are all round you, just the same, put there on purpose +for you, but you let the devil get his hand at the wheel, and he +keeps you steered away from 'em. You say you stopped praying? That +very moment he got aboard and took possession. You quit trusting the +Lord the instant you got into deep water. + +"You made a mistake when you let anybody's gossip run you out of the +church or the society. You ought to have stayed and lived it down! +That's the only thing for you to do now; go back and begin again and +make people believe in your innocence. It will be hard for you, and +powerfully awkward, for you have more than your share of pride and +sensitiveness, but it's the only manly thing to do." + +"Oh, I _couldn't_ go back!" groaned Alec. "I believe I'd rather die +first. If it had only been what they said about me, I might have done +it, but I couldn't face what they'd continually be thinking about my +father. I could never live that down." + +"Yes, you can! If you'll only put yourself entirely in the Lord's +hands, He'll furnish the strength for you to do whatever is right. +You've come to a crisis, Alec Stoker. You've got to fight it out +right now, which is to have control of the rest of your life, God or +the devil." + +There was a long silence. Presently, in a voice choked with emotion, +the old man said, "Kneel down, son; I want to pray with you." +Together they knelt in the darkening room. + +For a long time after old Jimmy took his leave, Alec sat gazing into +the flickering fire, as the room grew dimmer and dimmer. Then, urged +on by some impulse almost beyond his control, he slipped on his +overcoat and hurried out into the street. When he reached the +vestibule at the side door of the church, he stood a moment with his +hand on the latch. His courage had suddenly failed him. He would go +back home and wait until another time, he told himself. The service +must be nearly over. + +But just then some one struck a few soft chords on the piano, and a +full, clear voice began to sing. It was Avery's voice, and she sang +with all the pleading earnestness of a prayer: + + "Jesus, Saviour, pilot me + Over life's tempestuous sea! + Unknown waves before me roll, + Hiding rock and treacherous shoal; + Chart and compass come from thee: + Jesus, Saviour, pilot me." + +Out in the darkness, the storm-tossed, homesick boy stood listening, +till his whole soul seemed to go out in that one cry, "Jesus, +Saviour, pilot me!" It was a complete surrender of self, and as he +whispered the words a peace that he had never known before, a great +peace he could not understand, seemed to fold him safe in its +keeping. + +As the last words of the song died away, he opened the door and +walked in. If there was surprise on the faces of many, he did not see +it. If it was a departure from the usual custom, he never stopped to +consider it. The evangelist who had charge of the service stood for a +final word of exhortation, asking if there were not many who could +make that song their own, and offer it as a prayer of consecration. + +It was never quite clear to Alec afterward just what he said then. +But as he told of the struggle he had just been through, and in +broken sentences made a public confession of his faith, eyes grew +dim, and hearts already touched by the song were strangely thrilled +and stirred. Afterward the members came crowding round him with a +warm welcome, and he carried away with him the remembrance of many a +hearty hand-clasp. One of them was Mr. Windom's. He rarely attended +the young people's meetings, and to-night had come only to hear his +daughter sing. If he had had any misgivings as to the boy's sincerity +of purpose before, every doubt was cleared away as he listened to his +manly confession of faith, and looked into his happy face, almost +transformed with the hope that illuminated it. + +It was Thanksgiving Day. Alec, home on his first vacation, stood in +front of the open fire, watching Philippa set the table for their +little feast. He had talked late the night before, and told of the +many changes that had taken place during the last two months. He was +in the office now, and his salary had been raised sufficiently to +enable him to take a room in a comfortable boarding-house. Since his +conversion, Mr. Windom had taken several occasions to show Alec that +he trusted him implicitly. + +Radiant in her joy at having her brother home again, Philippa kept +breaking into little snatches of song whenever there was a pause in +the conversation. She thought she had never known such a happy +Thanksgiving. + +"How nice and homelike it all is!" Alec exclaimed, sniffing the +savoury odours that rushed in from the kitchen, of turkey and mince +turnovers, whenever Aunt Eunice opened the oven door. "And how good +it seems to hear you singing like that, Flip!" + +"Do you remember the day you told me that it set your teeth on edge +to hear me singing that hymn?" asked Philippa, laughingly. + +"Yes, but that was because I was all out of tune myself. Everything +is different now. Since I've given up trying to do my own piloting, +it seems to me that I come across one of His 'islands' nearly every +day." As he spoke, Macklin came running up on the porch, stamping the +snow from his feet, and burst into the house, his cheeks as red as +winter apples. + +"Here's a letter for you, Alec!" he cried. "Where's my hammer, Flip? +I want to crack some of those nuts we gathered on purpose for +to-day." + +She brought him the hammer, and he hurried away. Alec was turning the +dainty blue envelope over in his hands. + +The address was written in the same hand as the card which had come +nearly a year ago with the Christian Endeavour roses. He tore open +the envelope, glanced at the monogram, then down the page, and turned +to Philippa with a long-drawn whistle. "I wish you'd listen to this!" +he exclaimed. + + "DEAR MR. STOKER:--I am writing this in the hope that it + will reach you on Thanksgiving Day. You have suffered so + much on account of that miserable gold piece of mine, it + is only fair that you should have this explanation at once. + + "This afternoon Miss Cornish and I went to the church to + practise a new song that I am to sing at the Thanksgiving + service. She was to play my accompaniments. The side door + of the church was open, for the florist was decorating the + altar, so we did not need to use the minister's latch-key, + which we had borrowed for the occasion. We practised for + some time, and then sat and talked until it was almost dark. + When we started home, we found to our dismay that the + janitor, thinking we had gone, had double-locked the door + for the night with his big key. Our little latch-key was then + of no use. + + "We called and pounded until we were desperate. I had an + engagement for dinner, and could not afford to lose any time. + Finally we went into the prayer-meeting room, and found that + we could open one of the panes in the great stained-glass + window at the side. Miss Cornish climbed up on one of those + old pulpit chairs that the officers use, and said that if she + could lean out through the pane, she would call to the first + one who passed, and ask him to bring the janitor to our + release. + + "But some way, in climbing, Miss Cornish caught her high heel + in the plush with which the seat is upholstered. The goods is + frayed and old. The chair tipped, and they both came to the + floor with a bang. Just as I sprang to catch her, something + bright and round rolled out of the chair toward me and dropped + right at my feet. + + "It was that unlucky gold coin, which must have slipped under + the plush in some way when you counted the money on it that + night. + + "It was so late when we were finally rescued that I could not + keep my dinner engagement. I am glad for one reason; it gives + me time to write this now. I know that it will make your + Thanksgiving brighter to know this, and I am sure that it is + needless for me to say that I never for an instant connected + the disappearance of the coin with you in any way. I regret + extremely the silly gossip that wounded you so sorely, and + want to tell you how much I respect the manly way in which + you have since met and answered it. + + "Wishing you a happy Thanksgiving with your family, I am + + "Sincerely your friend, + + "AVERY WINDOM." + +[Illustration: "'IT WAS THAT UNLUCKY GOLD COIN.'"] + +Philippa, watching his face as he read, came up to him when he had +finished, and put a hand on each shoulder. + +"Alec," she said, with the straightforwardness of sixteen, "that +means a lot to you, doesn't it, that she should write that she is +'sincerely your friend'?" + +"Yes," he answered, honestly; "a very great deal." + +"Do you suppose it would stand in the way, sometime, when you are +older, you know, and have made a place for yourself in the world, her +knowing about--about father?" + +"I don't know, Flip," he answered, slowly; "I've often wondered about +that." + +Through the open door came Aunt Eunice's voice, singing jubilantly: + + "I know not what the future hath + Of marvel or surprise, + Assured alone that life and death + His mercy underlies." + +"How that old hymn answers everything!" Alec said, softly. "No matter +what lies ahead, it's all right now. God's at the helm, little +sister! I shall find all the 'islands' he has set for me." + + THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Flip's "Islands of Providence", by +Annie Fellows Johnston + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FLIP'S "ISLANDS OF PROVIDENCE" *** + +***** This file should be named 25978.txt or 25978.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/9/7/25978/ + +Produced by David Garcia, Dr. Graeme M. 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