"Father!"
"Andrew!" responded Mr. Howland, catching eagerly hold of the offered hand; "Andrew! my son! my son! are you yet alive?"
The great deep of the old man"s heart was suddenly broken up, and he was overwhelmed by the rising floods of emotion. His lips quivered; there was a convulsive play of all the muscles of his face; and then large tears came slowly over his cheeks. The man of iron will was melted down; he wept like a child, and his son wept with him.
Scarcely had the first strong emotions created by this meeting exhausted themselves, when another person entered the store, and advanced to where the father and son were standing. He held a small slip of paper in his hand, and as he came up to Mr. Howland, he said, holding up the piece of paper--
"Your note for fifteen hundred dollars remains unpaid."
"I"m sorry, but I can"t lift it," replied Mr. Howland, in a low voice that he wished not to reach the ear of his son; but Andrew heard the answer distinctly, and instantly drawing a large pocket book from his pocket, took out a roll of bank bills which he reached to his father, saying, as he did so--
"Take what you want. How timely has been my arrival!"
"My heart blesses you, my son, for this generous tender of aid in a great extremity," said Mr. Howland in a trembling voice, as he pushed back the roll of money. "But a crisis in my affairs has just arrived, and the lifting of this note will not save me."
"How much will save you?" asked Andrew.
"I must have five or six thousand dollars in as many days," replied Mr. Howland.
"This package of money will serve you then, for it contains ten thousand dollars," said Andrew. "Take it."
"I cannot rob you thus," returned Mr. Howland, in a broken voice, as he still drew back.
"Let me have that note, my friend." Andrew now turned to the Notary, who did not hesitate to exchange the merchant"s promise to pay, for three five hundred dollar bills of a solvent bank.
A brief but earnest and affectionate interview then took place between Andrew and his father, which closed with a request from the former that he might be permitted to see his mother alone, and spend with her the few hours that remained until evening, before the latter joined them.
CHAPTER XIII.
IT is nine years since Mrs. Howland looked her last look on her wayward, wandering boy, and eight years since any tidings came from him to bless her yearning heart. She appears older by almost twenty years, and moves about with a quiet drooping air, as if her heart were releasing itself from its hold on earthly objects, and reaching out its tendrils for a higher and surer support. With the exception of Martha, the youngest, all her children have given her trouble.
Scarcely one of the sweet hopes cherished by her heart, when they first lay in helpless innocence upon her bosom, have been realized.
Disappointment--disappointment--has come at almost every step of her married life. The iron hand of her husband has crushed almost every thing. Ah! how often and often, as she breathed the chilling air of her own household, where all was constrained propriety, would her heart go back to the sunny home in which were pa.s.sed the happy days of girlhood, and wish that something of the wisdom and gentleness that marked her father"s intercourse with his children could be transferred to her uncompromising husband. But that was a vain wish.
The two men had been cast in far different moulds.
Martha, now in her eighteenth year, was more like her mother than any of the children, and but for the light of her presence Mrs.
Howland could hardly have kept her head above the waters that were rushing around her. Toward Martha the conduct of her father had, from the first, been of a mild character compared with his action toward the other children; and this received a still farther modification, when it become apparent even to himself, that by his hardness he had estranged the affections of his elder children, and driven them away. Gentle and loving in all her actions, she gradually won her way more and more deeply into the heart of her father, until she acquired a great influence over him. This influence she had tried to make effectual in bringing about a reconciliation between him and her sister"s husband; but, up to this time, her good offices were not successful. The old man"s prejudices remained strong--he was not prepared to yield; and Markland"s self-love having been deeply wounded by Mr. Howland, he was not disposed to make any advances toward healing the breach that existed. As for Mary, she cherished too deeply the remembrance of her father"s unbending severity toward his children--in fact his iron hand had well nigh crushed affection out of her heart--to feel much inclined to use any influence with her husband. And so the separation, unpleasant and often painful to both parties, continued.
To Mrs. Howland it was a source of constant affliction. Much had she done toward affecting a reconciliation; but the materials upon which she tried to impress something of her own gentle and forgiving spirit were of too hard a nature.
On the afternoon of the day on which Andrew returned so unexpectedly, almost like one rising from the dead, Mrs. Howland was alone, Martha having gone out to visit a friend. She was sitting in her chamber thinking of the long absent one--she had thought of him a great deal of late--when she heard the street door open and shut, and then there came the sound of a man"s feet along the pa.s.sage. She bent her head and listened. It was not the sound of her husband"s feet--she knew his tread too well. Soon the man, whoever he was, commenced ascending the stairs; then he came toward her door, and then there was a gentle tap. The heart of Mrs. Howland was, by this time, beating violently. A moment or two pa.s.sed before she had presence of mind sufficient to go to the door and open it.
"Andrew! Andrew! Oh, Andrew, my son!" she cried, in a glad, eager voice, the instant her eyes rested on the fine figure of a tall, sun-burnt man, and as she spoke, she flung her arms around his neck, and kissed him with all the fondness of a mother caressing her babe.
"Mother! dear, dear mother!" came sobbing from the lips of Andrew, as he returned her embrace fervently.
"Am I dreaming? or, is this all really so?" murmured the happy mother, pushing her son from her, yet clinging to him with an earnest grasp, and gazing fondly upon his face.
"It is no dream, mother," returned Andrew, "but a glad reality.
After a long, long absence I have come back."
"Long--long! Oh, it has been an age, my son! How could you? But hush, my chiding heart! My wandering one has returned, and I will ask no questions as to his absence. Enough that I look upon his face again."
Andrew now led his mother to a seat, and taking one beside her, while he still held her hand tightly, and gazed with a look of tenderness into her face, said--
"You have grown old in nine years, mother; older than I had thought."
"Do you wonder at it, my son?" significantly inquired Mrs. Howland.
"I ought not to wonder, perhaps," replied Andrew, a touch of sadness in his voice. "There is such a thing as living too fast for time."
"You may well say that," answered Mrs. Howland, with visible emotion, "Years are sometimes crowded into as many days. This has been my own experience."
Both were now silent for a little while.
"And how are all the rest, mother?" asked Andrew, in a more animated voice.
"Your father has failed a good deal of late," replied Mrs. Howland, as she partly averted her eyes, doubtful as to the effect such reference might have.
"He has failed almost as much as you have, mother," was the unexpected reply. "I saw him a little while ago."
"Did you!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Mrs. Howland, a light of pleasure and surprise breaking over her face.
"Yes; I called first at his store."
"I"m glad you did. Poor man! He has had his own troubles, and, I"m afraid, is falling into difficulties again. He has looked very unhappy for a week or two. Last night I hardly think he slept an hour at a time, and to-day he scarcely tasted food."
"I found him in trouble," said Andrew, "and fortunately was able to give him the relief he needed."
Mrs. Howland looked wonderingly into her son"s face.
"I have not come back empty-handed, mother," said Andrew. "A year ago, when thousands of miles from home, I heard of father"s troubles. I was about returning to see you all again, and to make P--my future abiding place, if I could find any honest employment; but this intelligence caused me to change my mind. News had just been received of the wonderful discoveries of gold in California, and I said to myself, "If there is gold to be had there, I will find it." I was not thinking of myself when I made this resolution, but of you and father. In this spirit I made the long and wearisome overland journey, and for more than eight, months worked amid the golden sands of that far off region. And my labor was not in vain. I acc.u.mulated a large amount of grains and lumps of the precious metal, and then hurried homeward to lay the treasures at your feet.
Happily, I arrived at the most fitting time."
Mrs. Howland was deeply affected by this relation, so strange and so unlooked for in every particular.
"And now, mother, what of Mary?" said Andrew, before time was given for any remark upon this brief narrative. "Has she and her husband yet been reconciled to father?"
"No; and my heart has grown faint with hope deferred in relation to this matter. I think Mary"s husband is too unyielding. Your father, I know, regrets the unkind opposition he made to their marriage; and has seen many good reasons for changing his opinion of Mr. Markland"s character. But you know his unbending disposition. If they would yield a little--if they would only make the first step toward a reconciliation, he would be softened in a moment. And then, oh, how much happier would all be!"
"They must yield; they must take the first step," said Andrew, rising from his chair.
"That reconciliation would be the top sheaf of my happiness, today,"
replied Mrs. Howland.
"It shall crown your rejoicing," said Andrew, in a positive tone.