"Yes."
He sighed contentedly, and still holding tightly to the hermit"s hand, drifted away into refreshing, health-giving slumber.
So it happened that a few days later when strength was flowing back into the injured man"s veins, he called his children to him. They went with something like trepidation in their hearts; but one look into the white face on the pillow told them that this was not the same man whom they had known and feared all their lives. It may have been the restored confidence in his friend, it may have been that the fever had burned out the austerity and selfishness of his heart and brought the real fatherly tenderness to the surface. He mutely held out a thin hand to each, and they awkwardly gave him theirs, not knowing what to say and sitting in silent embarra.s.sment on either side of the bed, waiting for him to speak. At last he laid Tabitha"s hand on the counterpane, and fumbling beneath his pillow, drew forth a bright gold piece, which he held out to her, smiling sadly at the surprise in her face.
"What is this?" she found voice to ask.
"Long ago I punished you severely--too severely--and you called me a beast. I think that was the first time I ever recognized how thoroughly beastly I was. I--I wasn"t man enough to tell you so, nor to admit how sorry I was for my severity; so after you were asleep, I put this in your hand, thinking it might--make up for my harshness. I suppose it dropped to the floor during the night and rolled into that wide crack in the corner where the bed used to stand. I saw the glint of it this morning when a sunbeam chanced to fall upon it, and it brought back the memory of that other day. Tabitha, I am sorry. Is it too late to forgive me now?"
Tom surrept.i.tiously drew his free hand across his eyes; and Tabitha, almost too surprised for reply, squeezed her father"s arm in a gentle caress, as she whispered chokingly, "I forgave that long ago. It did seem too great a punishment then, but it taught me a lesson I have never forgotten."
"Poor little daughter! What a selfish brute I have been! And I might have made you so happy!"
"Don"t, Dad!" she pleaded. "I--I--you have made me happy now! The rest doesn"t count!"
He smiled tenderly into the soft black eyes, as he drew her closer to him and said wistfully, "I wish the rest didn"t count, children; but the fact still remains that I have not done right by my boy and girl. I am sorry, and when I get up from this bed, I mean to be a better man.
"Decker has come back, we are going into partnership again and work those claims for all there is in them. Tom shall finish college and Tabitha shall go back to boarding school or wherever she likes. There is money enough for whatever you want, and it is all yours. A man with children like mine is graciously blessed. I have been a fool and wasted many precious years. I can"t bring them back and live them over, but I can and will live the rest of my life right in G.o.d"s sight. Can you still love me in spite of all that is past, children?"
For answer, by common impulse they slipped their arms around him, and he drew each face down to his and kissed it. The barriers of years were swept away, and father and children were united by love.
For a long time the little group sat there talking over plans for their future happiness and drinking in the supremest joy of living.
Then the father spoke abruptly: "There is another matter, children.
When I named you as I did, I thought I was spiting the world. My own life had been made bitter by just that same thing, and I wanted to get even; but I only broke your mother"s heart and made you both as miserable as I had been. It isn"t too late yet to change that. Drop those names I gave you and choose for yourselves what you would like to be called."
They stared at each other, then at him, in dumb amazement. Change their names! The possibility of having such a privilege granted them had never occurred to either one before. At length Tabitha spoke:
"If you had told me that once, I would have done it only too quickly; but now I have learned that if a person is kind and lovable, no one cares what the name is. Pretty names don"t make nice people, and homely ones don"t make them bad, either. I am--beginning--to rather like "Tabitha" now, and I don"t wish to change my name."
"Or I mine," added Tom; and once more the father drew their faces down to his own and kissed them.
THE END