Windyridge

THE RETURN OF THE PRODIGAL

I have been one whole year in Windyridge, and like a good business woman I have taken stock and endeavoured to get out a balance sheet in regular "Profit and Loss" fashion. I am afraid a professional accountant would heap scorn upon it, as my methods are not those taught in the arithmetics; but that consideration does not concern me.

My net profits from the portraiture branch amount to the huge sum of nine pounds, eighteen shillings and sevenpence. If these figures were to be published I do not think they would attract compet.i.tors to Windyridge, and I can see plainly that I shall not recoup my initial outlay on the studio for several years. But that matters little, as my London firms have kept me well supplied with work, and would give me a great deal more if I were willing to take it.

But I am _not_ willing. Man does not live by bread alone, nor by painting miniatures and designing book ill.u.s.trations, and I am determined to live and not just exist, and I _have_ lived during these twelve months. And even from the monetary point of view I am better off than I was when I came, because if I have lost in the way of income I have gained by a saving in expenditure. You simply cannot spend money in Windyridge, and, what is more, the things best worth having cannot be bought with money.

These "more excellent" things appear upon another page in my balance sheet--a page which would make the professional auditor gasp for breath.

My experiences have made me a richer woman, though not a more important personage to my bankers. I am healthier and happier than I was a year ago. I have a living interest in an entire community, and an entire community has a living interest in me. And I have a few real friends in various stations of life, each of whom would do a great deal for me, and each of whom has taught me several valuable lessons without fee or reward. The moors and the glens, too, have had me to school and opened to me their secret stores of knowledge, and who shall compute the worth of that education? As a result, I have a saner outlook and a truer judgment, and that counts for much in my case. Undoubtedly the balance is on the right side, and I have no regrets as I turn and look back along the track of the year.

The anniversary day itself was marked by an incident of uncommon interest. The weather was atrocious, and in marked contrast to that of the previous year on the corresponding date. Had such conditions prevailed when I first saw Windyridge the village would not have known me as one of its householders.

It rained as though the floodgates of heaven had been opened and got rusted fast. For three days there had been one endless downpour, but on the fateful Wednesday it degenerated into a miserable, depressing drizzle which gave me the blues. The distance disappeared behind an impenetrable wall of mist, and the horizon was the hedge of the field fifty yards away. The drip, drip, drip from a leak in the glazing of my studio so got on my nerves that in the afternoon I put on my strong boots and a waterproof and set out for a walk.

But though the rain could not conquer me the sticky mud did. After covering a mile in half an hour I was so tired with the exertion that I turned back, and was relieved when the distance has been almost covered and only a few hundred yards separated me from the cottage.

I had had the road to myself so far, but as I came down the hill which skirts the graveyard I saw a stranger in the act of opening the gate and entering. At the same moment, apparently, he caught sight of me, and we scrutinised each other with interest as the distance between us lessened.

He was a well-dressed young fellow of about thirty, with a stern expression on an otherwise rather pleasing face. His mouth was hidden by a heavy moustache, but I liked his eyes, which had a frank look in them. His rather long raincoat was dripping wet, and he had no other protection from the rain, for he carried in his hand a stout stick of peculiar shape. His hands and face were brown from exposure, and I took him to be a prosperous, intelligent farmer.

He raised his hat at my approach. "I am sorry to detain you, even for a moment, in this rain," he said, "but I wondered if you could tell me whether anyone of the name of Brown--Greenwood Brown--is buried here."

Oh! thought I, you have come back, have you? But I merely replied:

"Yes, Mr. Brown"s grave is near the top of the hill. I will show you which it is."

"Please do not put yourself to that trouble," he protested; "if you will be good enough to direct me I shall be able to find it."

"You could not identify it," I said, "for there is no stone, but just a gra.s.sy mound, like many of the rest. Let me point it out to you, and then I will go on my way."

He made no further objection, but held the gate open for me to enter.

There are no paths, and he protested again when he saw me plunge into the long, wet gra.s.s, but I laughed at his fears and led the way to the spot where all that was mortal of poor Farmer Brown lay beneath the sod.

"This is his grave," I said, and he thanked me with another courteous inclination of the head. As I turned to leave he asked a further question.

"Can you tell me if any of his people still live in this neighbourhood?

I--I have a message for them."

"If you will call at my cottage," I replied, indicating the little house a stone"s-throw away, "I will tell you all I know. Pray do not stay too long in the rain. You have no umbrella."

"Thank you," he said, "I shall take no harm, and I will call at your house shortly, as you are so very kind."

I left him, but I could not forbear looking from the window in Mother Hubbard"s bedroom, and I could distinctly see him standing with head bent and uncovered in an att.i.tude of deep dejection over his father"s grave. I had no misgiving on that point. In spite of the thick moustache the likeness was too strong to admit of doubt.

I went into the studio and brought out the copy of Farmer Brown"s portrait which I had retained, and placed it on the chest of drawers where he could hardly fail to see it; but I said nothing to Mother Hubbard, who was laying the cloth for tea. The kettle was boiling when he came in, and I fetched a third cup and saucer and invited him to the table.

I could see that reluctance struggled with desire, but Mother Hubbard"s added entreaties turned the scale, and he removed his soaking overcoat with many apologies for the trouble he was causing.

He drank his tea, but appeared to have little appet.i.te for the crisp b.u.t.tered toast which Mother Hubbard pressed upon him, and he took a rather absent part in the desultory conversation which accompanied the meal. I did not think it right to reveal the curiosity I felt, but after a while he made an opening.

"I only heard of Farmer Brown"s death as I entered the village," he said. "I met a boy, of whom I inquired, and he told me the farmer was buried here in the beginning of the year."

Mother Hubbard put on her gla.s.ses and looked at him with a new interest, and removed them again in a minute or two as if satisfied.

"He died early in January," I said; "did you know him?"

"Yes," he said, and there was no sign of emotion in his voice or face; "but I have not seen him for several years. He had a wife and daughter; are they living, and still at the old place? I forgot to ask the boy."

I thought it curious that he should have overlooked so natural a question, if, as seemed likely, he had come to the neighbourhood with the intention of finding them; but after all, the explanation lay upon the surface--he manifestly did not wish to arouse too much curiosity.

"Yes, they are still at the farm, and both are well," I replied; "I often see them. If you knew the farmer you will perhaps recognise his photograph. It was taken only a little while before he died."

I got up and handed it to him, and I saw his mouth twitch at the corners as he took the card in his hand. All the same he examined it critically, and his voice was still firm as he replied:

"He had evidently aged a good deal since I knew him, but I am sure it was a good likeness."

"It was trouble that aged him, Joe," broke in Mother Hubbard"s gentle voice; "the good Lord overrules all things for good, but it was you who brought his grey hairs with sorrow to the grave."

There was a mild severity of tone which astonished me and revealed Mother Hubbard in a new light, but I was too interested in the change which came over the startled man"s face to think much of it at the time.

"So you recognise me," he said. "I thought your face was familiar, though the young lady"s is not so. Well, everybody will know of my return soon, so I need not complain that you have antic.i.p.ated the news by a few hours. Yes, the prodigal has come home, but too late to receive his father"s blessing."

"Not too late to receive _a_ Father"s blessing, Joe," replied Mother Hubbard; "not too late to find forgiveness and reconciliation if you have come in the right spirit; but too late to bring the joy-light into your earthly father"s eyes: too late to hear the welcome he would have offered you."

"I do not ask nor deserve to be spared," he said, with some dignity, "and my first explanations shall be offered to those who have most right to them. But this I will say, for I can see that you speak with sincerity. I came back to seek forgiveness and to find peace, but I am justly punished for my sin in that I forfeit both. You have not said much, but you have said enough to let me realise that the curse of Cain is upon me."

"It is not," said Mother Hubbard calmly and with firmness; "your father would have told you so. Go home to your mother, and you will find in her forgiveness and love a dim reflection of the forgiveness and love of G.o.d, and peace will follow."

He rested one elbow upon the table and leaned his head upon his hand, whilst his fingers tapped a mechanical tune upon his forehead, but he did not speak for several minutes--nor did we. Then he rose and took the still damp overcoat from the clothes-horse before the fire, and said as he put it on:

"Since I left home I have had many hard tasks to perform, But the hardest of them all now lies before me, and though I have made some little money I would give every penny I possess if the past could be undone and that grey-haired man brought back to life. I am accounted a bold man, but I would sooner face a lion in the Rhodesian jungle than my mother and sister on yonder farm."

"Go in peace!" said the little mother. "G.o.d stands by the side of every man who does his duty, and your mother, remember, is about to experience a great joy. Let them see that you love them both, and that you loved your father too, and that will heal the wound more quickly than anything else."

He shook Mother Hubbard"s hand, bowed to me, and stepped out into the rain; and I watched him walk briskly forward until the mist swallowed him up.

Two days afterwards I heard the sequel. The rain had cleared away and the roads were fairly dry when I set off with the intention of walking as far as Uncle Ned"s. Before I had gone very far I overtook Farmer Goodenough, who was journeying in the same direction, and almost immediately afterwards we met Jane Brown.

"I was just comin" to see you, Miss Holden," she said, "but as you"re going my way I"ll walk back with you if you"ll let me. Mother wants to know if you can take our photographs--hers and Joe"s and mine--on Monday."

I told her it would be quite convenient, and Farmer Goodenough began to question her about her brother"s home-coming. I hardly expected much response, for Jane is not usually very communicative, but on this occasion she was full of talk.

"I came o" purpose to say my say," she explained, "for I must either talk or burst."

We encouraged the former alternative, and she began: "If you want to be made a fuss of, and have people lay down their lives for you, you mustn"t stop at "ome and do your duty; you must go wrong. Only you mustn"t go wrong just a little bit: you must go the whole hog an" be a rank wrong "un--kill your father or summat o" that sort--and then when you come back you"ll be hugged an" kissed an" petted till it"s fair sickenin"."

"Gently, la.s.s, gently!" said Farmer Goodenough; "that sounds just a trifle bitter."