"He"s got a good wife," remarked the brother of Mrs. Freeman, in his quiet way. "I always liked that young man, and like him better than ever now. I knew he was a fellow of good sense; but he has showed himself to possess more of that sterling material than I thought."
Mr. Freeman also gave his opinion, and in doing so, expressed himself pretty freely in regard to the treatment Jessie had received, while in the house.
As for his wife, when the truth a.s.sumed an undoubted form, she sunk into mortified silence, and f.a.n.n.y felt even worse than her mother, and for reasons that lay nearer her heart.
In a little while the bride took her old place in society, and many who, in her seclusion, pa.s.sed her coldly, or all unnoticed, met her now with smiles and with warm congratulations. Of all the changes that followed as a consequence of her marriage, there was none that filled her with so much delight as the improved prospects of her uncle, Mr.
Hartman. Her husband became his fast friend, and sustained him through every difficulty. One home held them both. How purely and brightly the stream of Jessie"s happiness flowed on, need not be told.
Virtue and integrity of character had met their just reward. In adversity she was not cast down, and when prosperity again smiled she was not unduly elated. In either relation to society, she was a dispenser of blessings to those she loved.
It is a fact worthy of notice, that those who looked down upon Jessie, and pa.s.sed her unnoticed while she was only a governess, now referred to the n.o.ble, self-sacrificing spirit that prompted her to act as she had done, and spoke of her conduct with admiration.
THE NEW YEAR"S GIFT.
"JUST four weeks off," said a little boy, striking his hands together, "and papa will be home!"
"Yes, four weeks more, and we shall see dear father. It will be the happiest New Year"s day we ever had; won"t it, mother?" said the little boy"s sister, a bright smile playing over her face.
"I hope so," replied the mother. "Father has been away so long, his coming home would make any day in the year a happy one."
"I wonder what he will bring me for a New Year"s present?" said the boy.
"I know what I"ll get," said the little sister.
"What?"
"A hundred kisses."
"Oh! I don"t care much for kisses."
"But I do; and I"m sure of getting them."
"I wonder what mamma will get?"
"I know!" replied the sister, with an arch smile.
"What?"
"Just what I will." And the little girl looked at her mother, and smiled still more archly.
"A hundred kisses, you mean?"
"We"ll see."
The mother"s hand rested from her work, and she looked at her children, with a calm, yet happy face. Their words had caused her to realize, in imagination, with more than usual distinctness, the fact of her husband"s return, which he had written would be on the first day of the coming new year. He had been away for many months, and home had hardly seemed like home during his absence.
"We mustn"t think too much about it," said the mother, "or we will get so impatient for dear father"s return as to make ourselves unhappy. I am sure we will all love him better than ever we did, when he does come home!"
"I am sure I will," returned the little girl.
"Oh! I think I never loved him so well in my life as I have since he has been away."
Thus talked the mother and her children of the return of one whose presence was so dear to them all.
This brief conversation took place in a farm-house. In the room sat, near the fire, a man whose appearance was any thing but pleasant to the eyes. He was a labourer, who had been hired, some months previously, by the farmer. He did not seem to hear what was said, yet he was listening with reluctant attention. The mother and her children continued still to talk of what was uppermost in their minds--the absent one, and his expected return--until the man became restless, and at last got up and went out.
"I don"t wonder Mr. Foster went out of the room," said the boy, as the person alluded to shut the door.
"Why, Edward?" asked his sister.
"Can"t you think, Maggy?"
"No. What made him go out?"
"Because we said we were so glad papa was coming home on New Year"s day. I"m sure he must have thought of his home. They won"t be so glad to see him on New Year"s day, as we are to see our dear, good father."
"Why do you say that, my son?" asked the mother.
"I"m sure they can"t be so glad," said Edward. "I know I wouldn"t be so glad to see my father, if he was like Mr. Foster. Doesn"t he spend nearly all the money he gets in liquor? I"ve heard you say that his poor wife and children hardly have enough to eat or to wear, although he gets very good wages, and could make them comfortable if he would.
No, I"m sure they can"t love him as we love our father, nor be as glad to see him come home as we will be to see our father. And he knows it, and that made him go out of the room. He didn"t like to hear us talking."
The boy was correct in his conclusions. The man Foster, of whom he spoke, did feel troubled. He had children and a wife, and he was absent from them, and had been absent for many months. On New Year"s day he was to go home; but many painful feelings mingled with the thought of seeing his long-neglected and much-abused family. Since he had been away, he had expended more than half his earnings upon himself, and yet his appearance was worse than when he went from home, for, in exchange for his money, he had received only poison.
It was evening. Without, the air was cold. The sky was clear, and the moon and stars shone brightly. Foster walked a short distance from the house, trying to drive from his mind the images that had been conjured up by the words of the children and their mother; but he could not. His own abused wife and neglected little ones were before him, in their comfortless home, poorly clad, and pale and thin from want of healthy and sufficient food. Did they think of him, and talk with so much delight of his return? Alas! no. He brought no sunshine to their cheerless abode.
"Wretch! wretch!" he said to himself, striking his hand hard against his bosom. "A curse to them!--a curse to myself!"
For an hour the unhappy man stayed out in the chilly air; but he did not feel the cold. Then he re-entered the house, but did not go into the room where the happy mother sat with her children, but to the lonely attic where he slept.
Twenty miles away lived the wife and three children of Foster. The oldest boy was eleven years of age, and the youngest child, a little girl, just five. Three small mounds, in a burying-ground near by where the humble dwelling stood, marked the place where as many more slept--more blessed than the living. The mother of these children was a pale-faced woman, with a bent forth and an aspect of suffering. She had been long acquainted with sorrow and trouble. Like hundreds and thousands of others in our land, she had left, years before, the pleasant home of her girlhood, to be the loving companion of one on whose solemnly pledged faith she relied with the most unwavering confidence. And, for a time, the trust was not in vain. The first golden period of her married life was a happy time indeed! None could have been more thoughtful of her comfort, nor more tender of her feelings, than was her husband. But, alas! it was with him as with hundreds and thousands of others. Not once did it cross his mind that there was danger to him in the pleasant gla.s.s that was daily taken. The bare suggestion he would have repelled as an insult. On the day of his marriage, Henry Foster received from the father of his wife the t.i.tle-deeds of a snug little place containing thirty acres, which was well stocked for a small farmer. He had, himself, laid by a few hundred dollars. Thus he had a fair start in the world, and a most comfortable a.s.surance of happiness and prosperity. For several years every thing went on pleasantly. The farm was a very garden spot, and had increased from thirty to sixty acres by the purchase of contiguous lands. Then a change became apparent. Foster took more interest than formerly in what was going on in the village near by. He attended the various political meetings held at the "Travellers" Rest," and was a prominent man on training and election days. After a while, his wife began to look on these days with a troubled feeling, for they generally sent him home in a sad plight; and it took nearly a week for him to get settled down again to his work. Thus the declension began, and its progress was too sadly apparent to the eyes of Mrs. Foster, even before others, less interested than herself, observed it. At the end of ten years from the happy wedding day, the farm, now more like a wilderness than a beautiful garden, was seized and sold for debt. There were no friends to step in and go Foster"s security, and thus save his property from sacrifice. The father of his wife was dead, and his own friends, even if they had not lost confidence in him, were unable to render any a.s.sistance.
The rented farm upon which Foster went with his family, after being sold out, was cultivated with no more industry than his own had been of late years. The man had lost all ambition, and was yielding himself a slave to the all-degrading appet.i.te for drink. At first, his wife opposed a gentle remonstrance; but he became impatient and angry at a word, and she shrank back into herself, choosing rather to bear silently the ills of poverty and degradation, which she saw were rapidly approaching, than to run the risk of having unkindness, from one so tenderly loved, added thereto.
Affliction came with trouble. Death took from the mother"s arms, in a single year, three children. The loss of one was accompanied by a most painful, yet deeply warning circ.u.mstance. The father came home from the village one evening, after having taken a larger quant.i.ty of liquor than usual. While the mother was preparing supper, he took the babe that lay fretting in the cradle, and hushed its frettings in his arms.
While holding it, overcome with what he had been drinking, he fell asleep, and the infant rolled upon the floor, striking its head first.
It awoke and screamed for a minute or two, and then sank into a heavy slumber, and did not awake until the next morning. Then it was so sick, that a physician had to be called. In a week it died of brain fever, occasioned, the doctor said, by the fall.
For a whole month not a drop of liquor pa.s.sed the lips of the rebuked and penitent father. Even in that short time the desert places of home began to put forth leaves, and to give promise of sweet buds and blossoms; and the grieving mother felt that out of this great sorrow was to come forth joy. Alas! that even a hope so full of sadness should be doomed to disappointment. In a moment of temptation her husband fell, and fell into a lower deep. Then, with more rapid steps the downward road was traversed. Five more years of sorrow sufficed to do the work of suffering and degradation. There was another seizure for debt, and the remnant of stock, with nearly all their furniture, was taken and sold. The rented farm had to be given up; with this, the hope of gaining even sufficient food for her little ones died in the wretched mother"s mind.
From a farmer on his own account, Foster now became a mere farm labourer; with wages sufficient, however, to have made things comfortable at home under the management of his frugal, industrious wife, if all he earned had been brought home to her. But at least one third, and finally one half, and sometimes more, went to swell the gain of the tavern-keeper. Had it not been that a cow and a few chickens were left to them at the last seizure of their things, pinching hunger would have entered the comfortless home where the mother hid herself with her children.
At last Foster became so good for nothing, that he could not obtain employment as a farm hand anywhere in the neighbourhood, and was obliged to go off to a distance to get work. This, to him, was not felt to be a very great trial, for it removed him from the sight of his half-fed, half-clothed children, and dejected, suffering wife; and he could, therefore spend with more freedom, and fewer touches, of compunction, the greater portion of his earnings in gratifying the inordinate cravings of his vitiated appet.i.te.
Thus, in general, stood affairs at the opening of our story. Let us now take a nearer and more particular view. Let us approach, and enter the cheerless abode of the man who, to feed an evil and debasing appet.i.te, could heartlessly turn away from his faithful wife and dependent little ones, and leave them to the keenest suffering.