I I THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES >~- Yon are a mean temperance meddler THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM: A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF CRANE'S CORNER, WHERE " LUCK " WAS SLOWLY LEARNED. THE WHOLE INTENDED AS A SAFE GUIDE OF ALL YOUNG PEOPLE TO "GOOD LUCK." BY REV. Z. A. MUDGE, AUTHOB OP " SHELL COVE," ETC. Soston: Published by "Zeke," said Tom, "it will be a dry old time at Alden Farm next Wednesday night ; a big heap of corn to husk, and no rum and sugar in the bottoms of the tumblers." " That is so ; a dry, mean old time," re- sponded Zeke. THE HUSKING. 99 A pause of a moment followed, which Tom broke with an exclamation of great energy for him. "Zeke, let's go!" " Agreed ! " shouted Zeke, jumping up and striking his cowhide boots together as he ! came down upon the barn floor. Tom at- tested his joy at the anticipated "dry old time," by tossing his fur cap into the air, and kicking it as it came down, with such vigor, that it lodged on the hay mow. There was, somehow, an attraction about all that was going on at Aid en Farm, which made the children of the parish want to go, though their "notions" were sneered at by both old and young. Some of the old folks went so far as to say that if Patience Alden should send out word to the young folks to come to Alden Farm to be whipped all round, they would go, for they would say, "Aunt Patience's love will more'n pay for the rods." We cannot say whether this was so or 100 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. not, but we know that "young America" of those times, "loved dearly" to go to all gatherings at John Alden's. The husking afternoon arrived. At an early hour the people came in large num- bers. The young people were largely rep- resented. Even Mr. and Mrs. Crone could not see their children go without accompany- ing them. The hard drinking loungers of the tavern and stores, came late and styly. They had first secured a stiff glass of rum and molasses, in view of John Alden's ex- pected stinginess in this direction. William Treat and Moses Pond were representative men of this class. They passed on ahead of % their companions " to explore the coast," as they said, while their companions sat down in a turn of the road, a few rods from the premises. "Look here, Mose," said Treat, in a whis- per, as he pushed open the door of the new shed, and peered at its contents, "look here, I say, Mose." THE HUSKING. 101 Moses Pond crept softly to the shed door, took a deliberate survey of its contents. "Whew!" said Mose, in an undertone, "let's go to the husking!" Moses slipped into the barn among the buskers, while Treat returned to his com- panions to report concerning the appearance of things. "Men I" he exclaimed, like one amazed, "Aunt Patience has set a table clear'n the whole length of the new shed. Her table cloths are as "white as old maid Crone's, who's been known to chase a fly a half a day in summer, rather'ern to have one in her kitchen. Then you ought to see what she's got on it ! Such punk'in pies ! and such poodens ! I smelled the tea and coffee too, and they set me right up. They's got the real Java, and no mistake ; and I shouldn't wonder if the tea was the real 'old hisin.' Men, let's go to John Alden's buskin'." To this all agreed, but several of them K)2 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. slyly peered into the new shed to assure themselves that there could be an attractive looking table without alcohol. The half drunken men pushed open the barn door and stepped in. At the first sight of the buskers, they involuntarily paused and stood confused. A profusion of light blazed upon the company from lanterns suspended over their heads. Parson Curtis, and the leading members of his flock, were there. The young people the girls and the boys were present in great numbers. John Alden was in his happiest mood, taking away the rapidly filled baskets of yellow corn, and watching to secure for all comfor- table positions near the diminishing heap. The face of Patience Alden glowed with animation. She seemed free from care, as if the successful conducting of this enterprise, in which a great moral reform was concerned, was no responsibility of hers. Like a skillful general, she provided before the forces came THE HUSKING. 103 into the field, for all the necessities of a victory, so that now the conflict was going on, she calmly surveyed its progress. It was noticed by the observing ones that the most of her time was spent helping to fill the baskets of certain shy, ragged boys, who had crept timidly into the busy circle. Patience, seeing "Mose" and "Bill" hesi- tate at the door, invited them forward, and seated them in a quiet corner, where they could see but not be very generally seen. "Mose ! " whispered Bill, " them's nice look- ing folks tho' that's huskin' round that heap ! " "Yes, Bill, they be, but I feel dry a'ready. Don't you think John will have any liquor here on the sly?" No, Mose. You'll need to turn into a pillar of salt and keep forever, if you think to sit here until John Alden does anything on the sly ! " One of the pleasant entertainments of the occasion, was a rivalry in filling the baskets 104 TELE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. with the husked ears. Clubs of three or more strove against each other for the palm. All, young and old, engaged in the exciting strife, and men full of years and honors, were for the time, young again, and joined in the happy shouts of the young over the victories. "Mose, let's jine in that sport and beat them gals. 'T would be something to brag on," said William Treat, becoming quite ex- cited by the contest. "I'm awful dry, I tell you, Bill. I think if John would bring on his cordial I might give 'em all a sweat; shouldn't wonder in that case, if I beat the parson and the squire ! " Moses Pond went out to "wet up," and became too drunk to return. William Treat joined the husking circle, and soon felt John Alden's great, warm hand upon his head, and his greater, warmer heart beating in sympathy with his. It was the beginning THE HUSKING. 105 of a new life, which gave promise of eternal life, to William Treat. On such seeming slender threads hang everlasting things ! The Crone boys, Ezekiel and Thomas, had had several trials with boys of their age. But somehow, the luck of Crone's Corner would follow them even to John Alden's husking. They were beaten every time, either because their unthrifty habits adhered to them, or because the presence of so many "great folks," abashed them to the disadvantage of their hands. Just as that expression the great destroyer of true moral courage "I don't care, I won't try any more" was about to seal their failure, Jane Curtis drew her stool in between Ezekiel and Thomas Crone, much to the disgust of the small aristocracy, and the delight of the true no- bility such as John and Patience Alden. Miss Priscilla Codliu sneered at the act. "Do see," she whispered to a companion of like airs. "If there aii't our minister's daugh- 106 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. ter gone to join in a trial with the dirty Crone children! I wouldn't be seen doing so if I was she ! " Miss Codlin's grandfather was "a tithing man," and her father was captain of the town militia. The family was rising, so she stood on her dignity. "Now, boys," said Miss Jane, "we will try. Come, Martha Turner, you get two more, and husk against us three. See you get two real smar.t ones or you will have no chance at all." Martha was Deacon Turner's daughter one of the nobility of the town in unpre- tending intelligence and goodness. Martha sought two associates for the trial. She soon brought along a little hunchback girl, by the name of Martha Vose, but everybody called her Patty. Patty had a little body, but a great heart. Her hand was as tiny as a child's, and her voice squeaked and broke, in ordinary conversation even, like an invalid old woman's, though Patty was only twenty- THE HUSKING. 107 two. But Patty Vose had a large brain, and she kept it well exercised in acquiring knowl- edge, and with thoughts of truth which per- tained to this world, and that which is to come. Martha next approached Miss Priscilla Cod- lin, daughter of Captain John Codlin. She was always very fastidious about being rec- ognized as "the captain's daughter," seeming to think the "Captain" belonged to the fam- ily, and to herself in particular. The wits called her "Captain Priscilla." "Come, Pris," said Mattie, in her innocent, hearty way, "You be one with me and Patty, to- beat the Crone boys." "Indeed, I won't!" exclaimed Pris, turning up her little nose which was likely to be larger from its frequent exercise that way and giving her head a toss. As to the toss- ing of the head, that was easy, there being so little in it. "You won't, Pris ! Well, then, I'll have" 108 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FAEM. and Martha cast her eye over the busy busk- ers for a companion. "I'll have our minis- ter's wife." Away Martha went, crowding through the company, and stumbling over the baskets, now jostling this one, and then pitching against another, as full of merriment the while, as a child on Christmas eve. She stated her case to Mrs. Curtis, and in her simplicity told who were the parties, and who had refused. Mrs. Curtis saw how the case stood. Her husband, who stood by, looked a significant "go." These good people saw in this pass- ing incident the workings of a true moral greatness in conflict with pretentious little- ness. So it turned out that the Rev. Mrs. Cur- tis, Martha Turner, and Patty, the pigmy hunchback, had a "set to" at husking with Jane Curtis and the two Crone boys, of Crone's Corner. Expectation stood on tip- THE HUSKING. 109 toe. "Long time in even scales the victory hung." It was evident both parties were doing their best, and that there was to be no " giving in " to please somebody. Patty's little hands tore off the husks with evident exertion, if not pain, so, though she had the will, she counted but little in the contest. It was not brain work, or Patty would have counted a host. "Tom," whispered Zeke, without abating a jot of his hot haste, "put in for dear life. The Crones will be somebody if we beat." Tom did "put in." A new fnspiration came over the usually crest-fallen boys. It might be a " silly " contest on the part of a cultured lady and the genteel young la- dies, in the estimation of the Priscillas whose grandfathers were tithing men. But the true nobility said it was a sermon from the fa- vored ones of the upper social circle, to the lowly and discouraged, on self-reliance. And the sermon bore fruit. The Crone side beat, 110 TELE LUCK OF ALDEN FAEM. and Zeke and Tom felt that they could look in the face every person at the husking. Though Priscillas may laugh at the assertion, a weight of no mean value had been thrown into the scale, which should lift the life of these burdened boys into a purer and higher sphere. The husking had been going on from early in the afternoon. At an early hour in the evening John Aldeu's great "heap" of corn was in the corn house. The husks were pitched upon the scaffolding prepared for them. William Treat aided the latter work, much to the surprise of all except the Alden Farm folks. John had his eye upon just this class of people, and for them he con- stantly prayed, and for them, on every suit- able occasion, he labored. More than in the yellow grain of his corn bins, he rejoiced in the God-given fruit of his moral sowing. ' Zeke and Tom were now out of their cor- ner and among folks. They volunteered to THE HUSKING. Ill sweep up the barn floor, even hanging be- hind while other boys rushed to the new shed where the supper table was spread. John's eye was upon the Crone boys. He gave its true value to their every movement. He seemed to read their thoughts. When all seemed to be ready, and the company stood about the well laden table, with keen appetites, not only whetted by long and earnest work, but by the enticing manner in which Aunt Patience had put her good things before them, the minister whis- pered to John, "Are you ready, brother Al- den, to have the blessing asked?" "Wait a minute, sir," said John, in an un- dertone, glancing along the whole line. He disappeared, while all stood waiting in solemn silence. He soon re-appeared with Zeke and Tom, pushed them in ahead of some of the boys who had come early to get the first grab at the food. He then nodded to the parson, and the blessing was asked. 112 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. Miss Priscilla's nose was turned up again when she saw this movement. George Hawes, who found capital for much fun in Priscilla's nose, said its condition was alarm- ing, for it was certainly getting "out of joint." But William Treat declared that it was not alarming at all, for he was certain her nose had been " out of joint " with all her neighbors from the time her father was commissioned captain of the militia company." William Treat ate a hearty supper without liquor. He looked round upon the happy company, not one of whom was drunk, and contrasted it with all other huskings he>had ever seen. He put his hand upon his head. It did not ache as it had usually done on such occasions. He laid his hand solemnly upon his heart. It throbbed quietly, for he had peace within. Since he was a boy, he had not been home from any social or pub- lic gathering perfectly sober. He drew back from the gaze of the company and solemnly THE HUSKING. 113 resolved, "God being my helper, I will never touch the accursed thing again ; " and the Holy Spirit in his heart whispered, "I will be your helper." ! The minister addressed the company a few moments. He said his time for retiring had come. Others might remain for social pleas- ure. He rejoiced in the happiness which beamed in every face, for all were 'sober. He thought his friends of Aldeu Farm were p right, and that such occasions were better without strong drink. Pausing a little, he raised his voice and added with a clear, solemn tone, "I will go further, friends, and say that new light upon this subject rests upon my mind and heart. I believe that God will be honored and all the people ben- efited, if its use is wholly discontinued, except for a medicine." The parson and the deacons retired. The young folks returned to the barn floor to play blind man's buff. Patty took her place 6 114 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. on a stool in a little cuddy made for her in the hay mow by Mr. Alden. She shouted at the joy of others and none were happier than she ! The young folks, remembering that John Alden and Aunt Patience were looking on, gave the Crones a full share of the sport. CHAPTER VIH. AFTER THE HUSKING. THE Aldeii Farm husking had cost its owner something. Patience and the children had worked hard to get ready the feast. The extra bill at the grocery was not small. The work of the next day in " righting up things," was considerable. Yet none con- cerned felt or thought that there had been any work. Love lightens burdens as to huskings as well as more important matters, and all had engaged in it with hearty good will. " Now," shouted Carver, " hurrah for school ! That heap of corn lay in our track ! I guess we'll give the boys a sweat at school this winter. Do you know though we are to 115 116 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. have a new teacher this winter, a real smart one they say, who knows as much as a min- ister, and not the old Granny we had last winter." "Well, Carve," replied Miles, "I'm glad if our new master is smart, but you needn't call our good Master Paul a granny. It's kind of mean to kick a worn out horse be- cause he don't draw as much as a young one. Father says that all he knows about ciphering he owes to Master Paul, and I'll bet father can cipher better than some young schoolmasters ! " Carver blushed at this deserved reproof, and like all manly, right-minded boys, took the correction kindly. "You're right, Miles!" he said mildly. " Master Paul is good, and knows lots." The younger children had to run to the corn house to take a look at the great bin full of corn, and then to the barn floor to assure themselves that the "big heap" had AFTER THE HUSKING. 117 gone. When they had fully assured their wondering minds of these important facts, which they knew well enough the night be- fore, they all shouted "hurrah!" Jeremiah stood in the middle of the barn floor, and took his best position and put on his most important air, and exclaimed, "Look here, cows ! " All the cows looked of course twenty of them, all having just eaten their breakfast, and so they had nothing else to do but look at Master Jerry, and listen. "Look a-here, cows, 'oo may have all 'em corn 'usks up there, and nobody else shan't have any ! " " Old Briudle " threw up her head, which was her way of saying " thank you ! " and "Spot," a hearty young miss who didn't know when she had eaten enough, turned her eye up to the husks, as much as to say, " Give us some now, Master Jerry." But Jeremiah darted out of the barn, like a summer bird which had flown in to twitter 118 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. for a moment, and then fly off to its mate in the tree top. If the children of Alden Farm were happy so were the older folks. When John and Patience drew about the evening lamp, they talked over the incidents and results of the husking. Not a word was said of the work which had been done in transferring the corn from the barn floor to the corn house. That they appreciated, but there were other mat- ters more on their minds. "I do hope," said Patience, "that the Crone boys will fall in love with husking without liquor, and never get drunk again. Oh, if they could be taught courage to do right !" "They went home with new resolutions to be somebody, or I cannot read human nature. But, Patience, did you see William Treat? yes, Treat remained to the last, drank the coffee and went home sober and with his wife ? " AFTER THE HUSKING. 119 This was spoken with so unusual warmth for Mr. Alden, that his wife looked up calm- ly from her work, and remarked slowly aud seriously, "How often are the resolutions of the drunkard like the early dew, soon gone ! God grant that William may become a sober man. He only knows how much his family have suffered I " " Didn't Parson Curtis speak out ! " said John, starting from his chair with joyful excitement, and beginning to walk the room. "I see," said Patience, smiling at her hus- band's warmth, "nothing but good to come of our minister's remarks. Let us thank God, John." The great family Bible was taken from the stand earlier than usual. The children drew about their parents with fixed and lov- ing eyes. It seemed to them that the pre- cious Word never sounded so pleasantly from their father's lips. When they were all bowed in prayer, there was a sweet tenderness in 120 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. the petition for the family of Ezekiel Crone, and for the complete and permanent refor- mation of William Treat. "I mean to help Zeke Crone in his les- sons this winter," whispered Carver to his brother, as they rose to their feet. "I'll choose Tom on my side when we are playing," replied Miles, in a subdued voice. Such was the spirit which prevailed at the Alden Farm after the husking. Let us look in upon some others who were there. " Mr. Crone," said Jerusha Crone to her husband, as they drew up to their great back-log, which sent out its cheerful light and heat over the large kitchen. Ezekiel Crone looked at his wife lovingly and lis- tened. He felt in a pleasant frame of mind, and there was a cheerful expression about the face of his wife, though tinged by a slight shade of sadness. "Mr. Crone, didu't John Aldeu have good luck as usual, to- night?" AFTER THE HUSKING. 121 "He certainly did," said Ezekicl. There was now a pause, and both looked into the fire. They neither knew why, but somehow both felt an embarrassment in speaking freely of the afternoon and evening. Zeke and Tom tarried unnecessarily long at the barn where they had been to put up the horse and to see if all was right. When they came into the long woodshed which opened into the kitchen, they lingered, but their cheerful chat, and occasional suppressed but hearty laugh were plainly heard, and declared their state of mind. The neighbor who had come to stay with the little ones, give them their supper and put them to bed, had re- turned home. "When the boys reached the kitchen, their happy spirit still sparkled and run over, and for once, they met with no reproof for it. The family prayers were briefly offered, and soon after the whole family had retired, and the midnight still- ness had stolen upon the sleeping household. 122 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FAKM. For many days there was with the parents an absorbing, and in some respects, a pain- ful thinking. With Zeke and Tom there was an incessant happy talking. "Tom," said Zeke, as they trudged along to school on the Monday morning of its opening, "do you think we are to have a new teacher ! A real smart one, they say, that's got more learn- ing in his head than would split 3 r ourn and mine open ! " "Yes," replied Tom. "There will be one new scholar, too ! " "Wuo's that, Tom?" said Zeke, stopping and putting his hand on his brother's shoul- der. "It's this boy," replied Tom, straightening up as if able to look down upon his older brother. "Wan't we somebody at the husk- ing, Zeke? didn't we help Jane Curtis beat the minister's wife, and didn't all the folks allow we were smart boys? I never knew it though, before, Zeke, for mother always said AFTER THE HUSKING. 123 we were lazy louts, that never could be any- body ; but John Alden told us just to do right, and hold our heads up with the very best." "You're right, Tom," said Zeke, "only there's to be two new scholars. I believe that it's their father's and mother's talk at home, that's about all of it in making Car- ver and Miles Alden so smart at school. And," added Zeke, putting his mouth close to his brother's ear, and whispering, with deep emotion, "seems to me Crone's Corner has been more like Alden Farm since the husking." Tom did not stop to reply, for he saw the Alden boys coming up the lane from their home, with their satchels in one hand, and each leading a sister with the other. When they saw the Crone boys they let go their sisters' hands and run, so that the boys went racing towards each other. Zeke and Tom looked the new scholars, as they 124 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FAIiM. walked with their Alden friends towards the school-house. We will leave the boys for a while. It will take a little time a few weeks at least, for those of each family to work out, and test by experiments their new formed reso- lutions, the one to be helpers of the feeble, and the others to learn the hard lessons of self-reliance in doing^ right. ***** "How good it seems, William," said Hul- dah, the wife of William Treat, on the night in which they retired from the husking to- gether "How good it seems to have you come home with us, and" Huldah stopped suddenly and looked her husband in the face, as if fearing to add "and not drunk as usual." The tear stood on her face as she missed the angry flash of a demoniac eye, and looked into, instead, the calm, affection- ate countenance of her once loving, devoted husband. AFTER THE HUSKING. 125 "Say it, wife," he Padded "not drunk! Fool that I have been ! No rum at the husking to-night ! No swearing nor fighting when it broke up ! Huldah, didn't John Alden's lanterns light up the old barn glori- ously ! Wasn't everybody brimming over with good feeling ! Why, Huldah, John Al- den's folks, and the parson's folks, and the deacon's folks, treated Bill Treat as if he was worth saving and Huldah do you think," and the penitent seeker of divine strength to lead a new life, buried his face in his hands and cried aloud. "I think, my dear husband I know, that by God's help, you can be a new man ! " After a few moments, in which a measure of composure came to both, Huldah took from a side table the family Bible. On the little stand, drawn towards the fire, she laid it, where, in other days, before the Rum Fiend had entered their family, it had been laid, morning and evening, and read at the 126 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FAEM. hours of family devotion. "You did not mean, Huldah, for me to read and pray, to-night, wicked as I am ! " "Yes, dear," said Huldah, in a tone and with a countenance of tender entreaty. ""What better can you do than to look into God's Word to learn the way back to him, and to pray to him to forgive and heal you?" Whether by accident or design, William did not know, but when Huldah laid the Bible upon the stand it opened at the fifty- first Psalm. The prodigal read on with a melted and broken heart. When he came to the verse, "Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities," he dropped his face upon the open Bible, and cried, sobbing, "Do, Lord!" Huldah kneeled at the stand, reached up her hands and put them upon her husband's head and whispered the promises in his ear : "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as wool, though they be red like crimson, AFTER THE HUSKING. 127 they shall be white as snow." "Blessed be God who forgiveth our iniquities and healeth all our diseases." "But when the prodigal was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck and kissed him." The spirit of enduring, wifely, Christian affection, gave a wonderful sweetness to her utterance of these divine words, and the spirit of the forgiving Saviour gave them power to heal. While the angels were rejoicing over the repentance of William Treat, there were those indulging towards the gathering in John Alden's barn, a very different feeling. Dr. Burt was not present, but when he heard what sentiments his pastor had there uttered, he hurried away to Deacon Prime's. The deacon was the senior official bearing that title. He was an old man, and was seldom now seen in the gatherings of God's people. He had been very jealous in his day, for the iutregrity of the church over 128 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. which he was set as an under-shepherd. His jealously had been mainly exhibited in hunt- ing for heresy through the sermons, on the Sabbath, and for flaws in the government of their children on the part of the parents among the church members. He had studied theology under an old divine, six weeks, in his early manhood, aiming to be a preacher. This admirably qualified him to hunt heresy. He never had children of his own, which was an equally admirable qualification for him, and his amiable wife, to tell Christian parents how to bring up their households. To the good deacon Dr. Burt went with his heavy heart. "Deacon," said the doctor, seating himself at a little stand on which the never failing mug of hard cider was sitting "deacon, I feel our church is getting into a bad way ! " "I fear so too," said the deacon. "The doctrines an't preached as they used to be. The members are sadly remiss in correcting AFTER THE HUSKING. 129 their children ; ' Spare the rod and spoil the child,' is the text I've tried for forty years to impress upon the fathers and mothers of the parish. I've even offered, in some cases, to do the whipping of the youngsters for their parents, and they were ungrateful enough to tell me to mind my own .business. I agree with you, doctor, that our church is in a bad way." "Yes," said the doctor, solemnly, and our pastor has been to John Alden's husking, and " "There it is," interposed the deacon. "John's a good kind of a man, but he's been and got one of them ere stoves, and bricked up the fire-place of his father and grandsir ! I do think it's wicked, doctor, to do so. Children should have more re- spect for them that's gone." "I was saying," continued the doctor, "that our good minister for I do believe he means to be good, went to John Alden's husking, 130 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. where John had set a table without- liquor. John in so doing had reflected upon my professional judgment, which is, as is quite generally known, that liquor is one of God's good creatures, to be used lawfully. Now I hold that Mr. Curtis should not have countenanced him in so doing." "You're right," said the deacon, taking up the mug of cider and drinking heartily. "What's to become of the doctor's author- ity over young people in leading them into right habits concerning their health and morals, if farmers are to be encouraged in opposing them?" "And what's to become of deacons too?" said the old gentleman, pushing the mug of cider towards the doctor, who nodded his thanks and drank lustily. "But that's not all, deacon," continued the doctor, " nor the worst of it. Mr. Curtis made a speech, in which he commended John Alden's ultra notions, and declared that no- AFTEK THE HUSKING. 131 body ought to touch a bit of liquor of any kind who is not sick ! and that's the gospel we are to have preached to us ! " " Dreadful ! " said the deacon ; " we must have a parish meeting called right off." While the deacon and the doctor were maturing plans to stop the alarming devel- opments of the temperance fanaticism of Alden Farm, Moses Pond came in. He came rather unceremoniously, having knocked and answered ^ his own call most promptly. Mose was decidedly drunk, that is, in the lan- guage of the conservatives, had been drink- ing "somewhat indiscreetly." "Sit down, Moses," said the deacon, " the doctor and I are considering important parish affairs." "Yes," hiccoughed Mose, "and that's what I come for. Things are getting alarming down there to John Alden's house. Not that I believe in taking too much, though the best of us yes, deacon you know, I say deacon the best of us will err some- times, and be a little indiscreet. " 132 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. "Be silent, Moses," interposed the doctor, " my professional duties require me to be in haste. I must finish without interruption, my business with the deacon." This was spoken in a majesterial manner, and Mose subsided into quiet. "I leave you, deacon, whose office it is, with your colleague, to direct in stopping this growing evil. Our good friend Alden, will, I trust, by proper church labor, be made to see .the wrong of his well intended course, and " "There, now, doctor!" exclaimed Mose, rising and approaching him with extended hand, "I know'd you'n the deacon was on our side, and I told the tavern folks so " "/Sit dotvn, sir," shouted the doctor, bring- ing his foot down on the kitchen floor so violently, that the dishes rattled in the old cupboard in the corner. " You're leetlc hard, doctor, on your friends, what thinks as you do," muttered AFTER THE HUSKING. 133 Mose, sidling away to the cider, of which he took a large potation. "Deacon," he said patronizingly, patting him on the shoulder, and whispering in his ear, "your cider's the best in town. It's got the real grit to it ! It's eeny most as good as the tavern rum." The doctor left, and the deacon gave his attention to Moses. "It is plain," said the deacon, "that you have been taking too much. I'm agin that, as much as anybody. I say, Moses, to your face, that it is ivicked." The last word was uttered with such emphasis, that it brought Moses to his feet. "Now don't be too hard on a fellow that's on your side in the fight agin the Alden folks. I have I confess it I will, dea- con confess I'm I'm no hypocrite I've taken a leeile too much, and I won't no, deacon, I won't take too much, agin. I'll be very prudent. So, if you please, I'll take a drop of your cider, and be going. 134 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. There now, deacon, I prououce that yes it's in my opinion the best cider in town it's as good, any time, yes, as good as the tavern rum. That, you know, between you and I, that's jest a leetle watered." Moses Pond left, greatly to the relief of the deacon. The good man kept repeating to his wife, what, he said, he had always preached, both by precept and practice, that such drinkers as Moses Pond were wicked men, and their example was very bad. Every time the deacon repeated this, he said it with more emphasis. He felt that he must repel the sermon preached to him against his principles and practice on the temper- ance question, by the presence and agree- ment of Moses Pond. The ghost of his reproof would not down ! "Have you had a satisfactory call on the good deacon, Prime?" said Dr. Burt's wife to him, as he rather peevishly threw aside his coat and gloves. AFTER THE HUSKING. 135 Very," was the reply, "only Moses Pond came in, beastly drunk, to interrupt our con- sultation. Such fellows do annoy me greatly." "Oh, pooh!" said his wife, "Moses is no- body." CHAPTER IX. THE NEW SCHOOLMASTER. WINTER was reigning over New England. He had dropped his robe of white over fields and forests. He had frozen up the mead- ows, and made a solid foundation over which the farmer might drive his team. He had sealed over the pond, for the boys to skate and the girls to slide. He had spread his level covering over the brush and smaller obstacles in the woods, to the farmer's sled. The wood choppers were busy, in their frocks and heavy boots, loading the teams, before furious winds should pile up the snow and lay bare the ground. While the chop- pers scattered the chips with the vigorous blows of the axe, or thrashed their brawny 136 THE NEW SCHOOLMASTEK. 137 hands, and stamped their feet, shouting joy- ously to the echoing woods, the wood-peck- ers answered with a busy, peck ! peck ! and the crow with an insolent, caw ! caw ! The squirrels for the most of the time, kept house, nibbling frugally at their winter store of fruit, and wondering what the use was of having snow to bury up the nuts. The rabbits left their clumsy tracks on the yield- ing snow, as they hopped from place to place, nipping at whatever the frosty winter had left eatable, listening the while with their great ears. The fox roused up in his den, and wondered at the din of men, birds and beasts, and said, in his foxy way, "When you are all still, and welcome night has come, I'll be round!" But none were happier than John Alden. The* breeze which his raising and husking had stirred up in the parish, did not excite his resentment, nor annoy him. No drunken neighbor came to his house to claim affiliation with his prin- 138 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. ciples or practice. No accusing ghost of conscience had to be talked down. John Alden's joyous feeling run over even, at times, and in one of these moods he de- clared to Patience that she had, during the last year, grown younger, smarter and hand- somer than ever ! Patience did not return the compliment, as her husband declared afterwards, he desired she should, but said in her quiet way, "John, you always was a boy, and you always will " be a boy ! " We left the boys of Alden Farm and Crone's Corner going into school. Several weeks' experience has given them some ac- quaintance with the new master, and the kind of stuff their own good purposes were made of. George Everett, the teacher, was a young man about twenty-one years of age. He was quiet and self-relying in school, never seeming disturbed, however suddenly any annoying conduct was sprung upon him, and THE NEW SCHOOLMASTER. 139 never appearing at loss what % to do in an emergency. His education was superior for his years and for those times, and to his scholars, his knowledge, seemed immense. His calm, unyielding purpose in enforcing discipline, made him a terror to the insub- ordinate, and his sincere interest, expressed by self-sacrificing labor for the improvement of his scholars, made him the idol of those ambitious to learn. Among the parents of the town, a differ- ence of opinion prevailed in reference to the success of the young teacher. The friends of master Paul thought that it was a pity that venerable man had been set aside for an inexperienced stripling. Besides, Mr. Everett had brought with him some new no- tions about teaching, and had introduced some new text books. " Colburn's First Lessons in Arithmetic" came now into the school. Some laughed at it. "How many fingers have you got on one hand? How many on 140 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. both?" "Pooh!" they said, "who couldn't tell that? We don't pay our money to a teacher to be spent in larnin' our children how many fingers .they have got." Others, who dipped into it a little, said, "It's got no rules nor ciphering. Who ever heard of a 'Rithmetic without ciphering ! It hasn't got no 'rule of three.'" It was as foolish as John Alden's stove, and as radical as his temperance notions. The first evening that Carver and Miles brought home their "Colburn," they were full of glee about it. "Carver," said Miles, "there is some hitch about this Arithmetic, I do believe." "What makes you think so, Miles?" "Why, when the master heard the boys 'at recess, laughing at it, he looked real funny ; and when school was dismissed he heard Zeke Crone say he was going to go through it, and learn it all by heart, he laughed right out, and said that Ezekiel had THE NEW SCHOOLMASTER. 141 not studied, he guessed, more than two pages of it." "Well, Miles, here's a boy that means to examine Mr. Colburn's book, and see whether he knows as much about Arithmetic as your Ezekiel Crone, of that noted place, Crone's Corner." "And here's a young man," said Miles, slipping his barn frock over his head, "bother this frock," he suddenly exclaimed, pulling it back again, and fumbling about for the sleeve, forgetting at the same time the funny thing he was going to say in reply to his brother. " Bother this frock ! " he again exclaimed, setting his milk pail down, and going to work more deliberately to see why the frock would not go on. "You mean, Miles," said his mother, ap- proaching him in her calm and quiet way, "that the frock 'bothers' you. There, my son, it's all right now. You had turned one sleeve inside out, when you took it off 142 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FAEM. to put on your school frock. I suppose you was in the same hot haste then that you are now. Run now, or Carver will beat you in milking, and don't say 'bother it.' It may lead to a worse word." "Thank you, mother," said Miles, catching up his milk pail and darting out of the kitchen door. He found his brother with one cow about half milked. "I'll beat you to-night, Miles," said Carver. "Bother no, this old frock bothered me so," said Miles, a little vexed. "Yes, and I saw you bother the frock this morning when you stripped it off in such a hurry to beat me in getting ready for school," said Carver, laughing. Miles seated himself on his "milking- block," subsided into a calm frame of mind, and began to philosophize a little. "It's no use, I see, to be in such a hurry," he said, in a low tone, as if talking to the cow he was milking. "It only puts a fellow into THE NEW SCHOOLMASTER. 143 a fret. I'll be as cool as my mother, and by" he was about to say "by jingo, I'll be as smart," but his mother's chiding about "idle words," checked him, and he simply but emphatically added "I wish I could be as smart." When the "chores" were all done, the supper eaten, and the family prayers, which immediately followed, were offered, Carver and Miles soon became absorbed in Colburu. The lesson was a long one, carrying the boys through the simple questions of the multi- plication table, into the deeper mysteries of that wonderful little book. "Mr. Colburn is somebody," whispered Miles, when he considered his lesson learned. "His book isn't such very great things yet," said Carver, rather grandly, as he laid Colburn aside for " Murray's First Lessons " in grammar. When the boys had returned from school, their father took up one of the Colburns. 144 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FAEM. He read quietly, on and on, looking for a while rather skeptical about this new way of learning Arithmetic. He was considered one of the best "cipherers" among his towns- men. He had mastered the "Rule of three," the second and 'last winter he ever attended school. "Reckoning" was his hobby, .and in this he was almost- equal to the minister, about as smart as the squire, and "the beat, any day," of the doctor. The more Mr. Alden studied the more he became inter- ested. Weeks of the school term passed away, and the Alden boys had settled down into hard study over their Colburn. "John," said Patience, one evening, laying down little Rachel's frock, on which she had been busily sewing, " what is there about that child's Arithmetic that interests you so? Are you getting ready to teach the 'ma'am's school ' next summer ? " . "Patience," said John, with one of his very quizzical looks, " let's hear you do this THE NEW SCHOOLMASTER. 145 sum right off now, iii your mind, and no ciphering " and then he gave out, " Six eights of ninety-six are how many sixths of twenty-four ? " "Pooh! John," said Patience, dryly, "that's nothing for anybody that's been studying it two weeks, every night except Saturday and Sunday night." John acknowledged the justice of his wife's answer, and proceeded to enlighted her in the process of solving this puzzling question. Patience, who when a girl had "hated frac- tions," began to see a little daylight shining through them. Her husband was delighted with the interest manifested by his scholar. It became a new stimulus in his study, and he plunged deeper into the mysteries of the sensational book. At first he studied slyly, after the boys had laid the book aside. He now had them arrange their lessons the first hours of the long winter evenings, so that he might get his lesson. 10 146 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. "Carve," whispered Miles, one evening, "father ought to recite his lesson. Who knows whether he gets the answer to these crooked questions?" "Maybe," said Carver, with a knowing look at his brother, "you'd better ask him to re- cite to you." "Guess I'll study awhile first," replied Miles. Two weeks more passed away, and Miles had become quite confident in his knowledge of Colburn. "Father," he said one evening, in that playful manner which the children of Alden Farm learned of their parents, "you don't have to recite. I tell you, Master Everett puts us through I " "Well," said his father, in an easy kind of way, "put me through, Miles, only don't go quite through the book." "Oh," said Miles, beginning already to back down, "we haven't been half way through yet!" THE NEW SCHOOLMASTEE. 147 "He'll put you through before the play's over," whispered Carver. But Miles was not to be put down without a trial. He plied his father with questions which he had just conquered, with some promptings from his teacher. His father went through them to the children's astonishment, and the delight of Patience, who began to catch some of her husband's enthusiasm. The younger children listened wonderingly, and queried if they would ever know so much. Miles soon gave up trying to teach his father, and excused himself when asked by him to answer ques- tions he did not know, by saying, "We haven't got to such questions yet." But John Alden soon got beyond his depth. Yes, the little book, at which the boys had laughed, and the "knowing ones" had sneered, had defied, as he advanced, his patient thought and persistent puzzling. It was in vain that he scratched his head, tipped back in his great arm-chair, gazed at the ceiling, as if 148 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. there was some wonderful thing up there, and thought. John Alden was a great think- er, but Colburn had drowned his deepest thoughts, even in his First Lessons. Carver and Miles enjoyed their father's per- plexity. It was fun to them, because he was always running over with good nature in such perplexities. They enjoyed it too, be- cause their father generally found a way out of such corners, after a while. "It seems to me, John," said his wife one evening, when he had spent much time puzzling over Colburn, "that a good deal of precious time goes with that Arithmetic. You haven't read much of any to me this winter, in "Watts on the Mind, nor more than half through The Pilgrim's Progress. You have read them both through every winter before, since we have been married." John took the reproof kindly, went to the book case, took down Watt's on the Mind, and read aloud for a full hour. For a THE NEW SCHOOLMASTER. 149 whole week his wife did not see the little school book in his hand. Yet the puzzling questions were in his head, and he was con- tinually seeking their solution. One Satur- day he had an errand in town, but was gone much longer than usual. He had called at his friend's, Squire True's, where the schoolmaster boarded. Whether he had any speciar*business at the squire's we do not know, but we are sure it was very grat- ifying to Mr. Aldeu to make the acquaint- ance of the new schoolmaster, and that it was easy for him to get into a talk about the new lesson book. The teacher was sur- prised to find in the farmer so much appre- ciation of the much talked of innovation in his method of presenting Arithmetic, and still more surprised when he learned that he had solved correctly most of its questions. By a little prompting, John's difficulties van- ished, and he returned home, like a captain who had taken great spoils. That evening, 150 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. a little while after the evening study hours had commenced, he took up Colburn for a short time, then slapped it together, laid it upon the stand and walked the floor with an air of triumph ! "Father's conquered Colburn," said Carver to his brother, in a low tone. "Yes, every bit of it," replied Miles, with- out taking his eyes from his book. The two boys felt as soldiers feel when they see their commanding officer rushing into the thickest of the fight. They were inspired to follow. Many were their stum- blings, and many times they were sore vexed. But "I can't," "It's no use trying," "I mean to ask father if I may give it up and study something else," were expressions which never escaped their lips. To be sure they did get a little vexed sometimes, and their heads ached with trying. But their father's long puzzling, his patient, perplexed, but good- natured trying, and his final air of triumph, THE NEW SCHOOLMASTER. 151 were to them like battles just won by their comrades to soldiers now fighting. There was victory in every sound, and success was breathed from the very atmosphere which surrounded them. John Alden had been lucky again, and his boys were declared by all the boys, "the lucky fellows who always come out ahead." CHAPTER X. A BEEEZE AT CKONE'S CORNER. "I DO think, Jerusha," said Ezekiel Croiie, "that our boys are getting along nicely at school this winter. I hope they'll have good luck until it closes." "Yes," replied Mrs. Crone, "remarkably for them, and I do think, and always shall, though I suppose you'll give one of your provoking smiles when I say it, that it was my perseverance in teaching them the Cat- echism that gave them a good start." "The husking at John Alden's," timidly sii2frested Mr. Crone. oc? "There it is," replied his wife. "You are so afraid that I shall have a little credit. Alden's folks must always be dragged in. 152 A BREEZE AT CKONE's CORNER. 153 But if anything goes wrong with the chil- dren you are ready enough with your blame ! Then it's, 'Jerusha, you was too hasty!' or, 'Jerusha, you needn't have spoken so!' but I'm determined the boys shall get along in school. If they don't, they mustn't think I'm going to put up with it." Mr. Crone sighed when his wife began this strain, like a man who had just heard bad news concerning an absent friend. He soon after looked very thoughtful and anx- ious. But he soon began to drum with his fingers on the table. He then had resort to his ever present score book, in which he soon seemed absorbed. Silence reigned awhile in the kitchen of Ezekiel Crone. The children were all in bed. The fire was burning low on the hearth, while the smouldering back-log oc- casionally sent out a flickering flame. The old clock in the corner seemed to tick louder than common, as if to warn its master and 154 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. mistress of the lateness of the hour. The cat curled up in the end of the settle, sent out her low, dreamy purr. "I'm going to bed, Ezekiel Crone," said Jerusha, suddenly starting up, and seizing a candle. "You may set and poke over that old score book as long as you please." The Crone boys, Zeke and Tom, were astir early the next morning. They had planned to get a little time in the kitchen for study before the rest of the family were up. They were creeping softly down stairs by the door of the sleeping room of their parents. But their mother's ear was like that of a watch-dog, always open. She bounded from the bed, and opened the door. "What mischief are you up to now, you young rogues?" she exclaimed. "Where are you going this time of night?" "We are going down into the kitchen to study," stammered Zeke. "The master says the Crones can learn as much as anybody, if they will. And we are going to try." A BREEZE AT CRONE'S CORNER. 155 " Going down to study ! " replied Mrs. Crone, with a sneer, which she could express like a practiced stage player. "Going to study ! " she repeated with a withering look of incredulity. "Your father might believe such stories, but you can't cheat me. My closets have been turned upside down too many times by having you round before I'm up. Besides, you'll be setting the house on fire. No, go back to bed this minute, and don't you stir till your father calls you. Then do you get up instantly." The old clock just at this moment struck four. Five o'clock was the customary hour of winter rising at the Crones'. The boys went -back, put off their clothes, re-adjusted their bed, and lay down. For a moment or two no word was spoken. Strong emotions of anger and grief were struggling in their hearts for mastery, and as usual, anger soon held sway. "It's no use, I'm not agoing to try to study," muttered Zeke, breaking the silence. 156 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. "Xor I either," replied Tom. "It's always the way in this house. If we are going to try to do anything right, nobody will be- lieve us, and we are accused of lying and planning mischief." There was silence for a while, when Tom said, pensively, "Zeke, them Aldeii boys have been real kind this term." "Yes," replied Zeke. Silence followed this remark, and the thoughts of the boys troubled them. The Alden boys had indeed been good friends, prompting them when necessary in their lessons, seeking their company in play, de- feuding them against those annoyances which low minds delight to inflict upon the -weak and the obscure, and especially, speaking those kind words of encouragement, which are often better to the halting, than great riches. The} r had promised to call at Crone's 011 their way to school, on the morning of which we are speaking. It was a full half A BEEEZE AT CRONE'S CORNER. 157 mile out of their way. The Crones, de- lighted with the attention promised, had agreed to be ready in good season, and Zeke had added, "With good lessons all learned." But their case was that of the soldier who fights after his army is defeated. Every sight and sound is depressing. The air is tainted with failure. "Hurrah, boys!" shouted the Aldens, rush- ing into the great kitchen of the Crones, carrying an influence like the sudden over- flow of a spring freshet upon a frozen meadow, driving the frost before it, and leaving springing grass and flowers behind it. "All ready, boys?" inquired Carver, in a quick, stirring tone. "Most, wait a minute, Carver," replied Zeke, almost ready to burst into tears. "Got those splendid lessons you promised?" said Miles, and without waiting for an answer, rattled on "Carve and I shot ahead this 158 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. morning with our lessons like a rocket. We got up real early, and got more than an hour before chore time. We planned to steal a march on mother, so we got the wood and kindlings all ready the night be- fore hand. We awoke about four o'clock, and crept down stairs as softly as mice, but I thought I heard mother laugh as we passed the door of her room, just as she does when she thinks she has got ahead of us. When we reached the kitchen, I'll bet there was a jolly fire ! Mother had been down, made the fire, and gone back to bed again." "That's just like mother," interposed Car- ver, "she was afraid we would lose a few minutes in getting the room warm." Zeke and Tom were ready before this unwelcome talk was done, and their mother had hurried them off, hoping that Miles would cut his story short; but he lingered behind to finish it, and then followed the other boys like a race horse. A BREEZE AT CRONE'S CORNER. 159 "Them'Alden boys is real kind," said little Betsey Crone, looking innocently into her mother's face ; " and their mother," she con- tinued, "is real kind too." "Your mother an't, I suppose!" said Mrs. Crone, sharply ; " she never does anything for her children ! " The child slunk timidly away unable to see how she had offended, though she felt her mother's harsh rebuff. Zeke and Tom did not respond cheerfully to the out-gushing good feeling of their gen- erous young friends. Their very steps, as they loitered behind, seemed to say, It's no use ; we can't, and that's the whole of it. Carver, seeing this depression, so evidently different from the spirit with which they had parted the evening before, lingered behind, drew Zeke out and learned the history of the morning. Zeke could not refrain from tears, and, while he was telling his story, Carver wiped his eyes with the back of his hand. 160 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FAEM. Zeke and Tom Crone were detairred at the close of the school in the afternoon of that day. All the other scholars had been dis- missed. Their lessons had gone badly, and it seemed to the kind yet firm young teacher, that there had been no effort on their part to do better. He was a good deal puzzled and some vexed. He had spoken many kind, encouraging words to them, and given special assistance. His hope of their improvement had been raised, but the history of to-day had nearly destroyed it. "It seems to me, boys," he said, in a tone of miugled grief and anger, "that you are bent on stupidity and idleness." Just then a boy who had been crouching down under the window outside, in malicious curiosity, to learn the punishment which the master inflicted upon the delinquents, shouted out, as he ran away, "The boys of Crone's Corner, Will be drones forever." A BEEEZE AT CRONE'S CORNER. 161 "I fear so," said the teacher, indorsing the bitter fling from the outside. Zeke involun- tarily clinched his fist and scuffed his heavy boots on the floor. Mr. Everett understood this as a defiance of his authority, and an expressed contempt of his kind entreaties. He took a rattan from his desk, coiled at one end, and flexible at the other, being well suited to inflict stinging pain, without breaking the flesh or bones. He seized Zeke by the collar, and, with a sudden and violent jerk, laid him, with his face down, across the top of the desk. Tom started up, tossed his books into the middle of the floor, straightened himself up to his full height, and looked at the humiliating position of his brother, with lips quivering with excitement, and a face flushed with uncontrolled anger, bitterness and grief. The first blow' of the rattan would be the signal for him to fly, reckless of consequences, to the rescue of his brother. 11 162 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FAEM. Just at this moment the door opened and Carver Alden rushed into the room. " Don't strike him, sir ! please, Mr. Ever- ett, don't strike Zeke ! He isn't to blame, nor Tom, neither." The teacher paused. His first impulse was to strike Carver to the floor for his imper- tinent interference. But the boy's tender, beseeching face, down which the big, manly tears were rapidly chasing each other, and, most of all the profound respect and warm affection which he felt for the interferer, caused him to let go of Zeke and drop the rattan upon the floor. Zeke and Tom set- tled back into their seats. Their unger was gone at the first sight of Carver, and both buried their faces in their hands and wept bitterly. Carver laid his hand on the teacher's shoulder, looked up into his now placid face and whispered, "Please, sir, let the boys go, and I will explain all." The tears of the Crone boys came to the A BREEZE AT CRONE'S CORNER. 1)3 aid of their advocate, and the teacher said, with a faltering voice, and a bewildered look, "Go, boys." Carver remained alone with the teacher. His self-imposed task was a delicate one. His sense of justice due to his young friends, whose case he was sure was not understood, and the explanation due to the teacher, com- pelled him to speak. But he was reluctant to criminate older persons than himself, and those who were the parents too, of his friends. What business was their manage- ment of their children to him? expressed a thought which troubled him. Then, he was not sure his parents would approve of his course. Under these oppressing and con- flicting emotions, he was for a few moments silent. He saw in his teacher's gathering frown at his silence, a demand for an ex- planation. Carver instantly became calm under a sense of duty. He told simply and truthfully the incidents of the preceding 164 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. evening, his promise to call for the Crones, their expressed ambition to be ready with good lessons, and then stated, delicately, Zeke's account of what had occurred at home in the morning. The story of Carver fell upon the teacher like a revelation. It was, to his penetrating mind, a key which unlocked the secret con- cerning the Crone boys' character, which Imd so perplexed him. " It explains all ! " he exclaimed, grasping Carver's hand cordially. "My noble boy!" he continued, "you ha^e saved me from wronging the oppressed and doing what I never should have forgiven myself for, after learning what you have told me. Go, and God bless you." Carver bounded towards the door. "Tell nobody of this affair but your parents ! " said Mr. Everett, as the bo} f passed out. "No, sir," just reached his ear, and he stepped to the window and caught a glimpse of Carver as he disappeared in the now guth- A BKEEZE AT CEONE'S COENEE. 165 ering twilight, running with most surprising fleetness. The Crone boys walked slowly homeward. The thought that "everybody is against us," would have been the burden of their minds but for Carver's timely interference in their behalf. They felt also that he was even then making a generous plea in their behalf. < But discouragement weighed heavily upon them, and they sauntered homeward with a snail's pace. It was dark when they reached the kitchen, where they expected no word to comfort or inspire them. The barn chores were behind ; the wood box was empty ; the preparations for supper were not half com- pleted, though the time had fully come ; and the younger children were impatient and fretful. "Well, you lazy fellows!" exclaimed Mrs. Crone, in an excited, harsh tone, "you've arrived at last. I suppose you'll claim you stopped to study, and try to cheat me at 166 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. both ends of the day. I've heard how you / have blundered through the day, and so had to stop and settle with your teacher. I hope he's flogged you both well." Zeke was about to defend himself as he walked up to his mother with what little resolution the disasters of the day had left him. But Mrs. Crone seemed to anticipate the ground of his defense, and she prevented the utterance of a word of excuse, by ex- claiming, in a boisterous tone, "There, be still ! none of your sniveling excuses ; you've had time enough, you know you have. I've done my best, mercy knows, to make some- thing of you. Do you go, Zeke, and help your father in the barn ; and do you, Tom, bring in some wood, and then help me set the table. There's nobody in this house to do a thing without I make a fuss about it." Zeke's temper, which had not recovered from the strain imposed upon it at the school room, was not just now very amiable. A BREEZE AT CRONE'S CORNER. 167 He muttered inaudibly as he was leaving his mother's presence. This was peculiarly un- fortunate, as the mother's irritability was in- tense. Springing towards him, she gave him a rousing box on the ear. Zeke turned round and shouted spitefully, "Let me alone ! Everybody blames or beats me. I wish I was dead ! " The unusual earnestness with which this was said, and the sudden uproar of the younger children, who began to cry violent- ly, brought Mrs. Crone to a sudden pause. Zeke hurried away sobbing to the barn. In the meantime his mother hushed up the chil- dren, prepared the supper, and the whole family were soon gathered about the table. The countenance of every member looked as if they had suddenly been smitten by a pes- tilence. There was plenty of food, and it was served up in no mean style. Mrs. Crone's table cloth was snowy white. Her bread was of the best quality, and her pies 168 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. the delight of all visitors to her house. The supper this evening was equal to her best. But it was eaten by the children as a fright- ened horse eats his oats hesitating and half choked. When the girls, Jane and Betsey, had gone to bed, and the evening caudles were ablaze on the stand, Zeke and Tom took their place mopiugly in the chimney corner. Silence reigned for a while. Mrs. Crone suddenly started up, and exclaimed, "There, Mr. Crone, do you see how those two great lazy boys waste their time? To-day both of them were detained after school, because th^y played the dunce all day, and disgraced themselves and us. Besides, Zeke was im- pudent to me to-night. They want the rod, that's what they want, and if you don't give it to them both you won't do your duty ! " Mr. Crone compromised between the re- quirement of his wife and his own inclina- tion, which was to let the boys do about as A BREEZE AT CRONE'S CORNER. 169 they pleased, and began to scold them. Mr. Crone could scold. He was, in this respect, the superior of his wife ; but carrying heav- ier shot, he did not fire so often, nor move to the attack so quickly. This evening every one of his words were like barbed arrows. They tore their way through the tender sen- sibilities of the boys, as a Minnie rifle ball tears up the flesh. Zeke's face indicated at one moment a disposition to stand up and fight, and at another an inclination to sit down and cry. Suddenly, as if his whole soul was in the purpose he had formed, he strode out of the room. * * * * The old clock had struck nine, and *all the family but Mr. Crone had gone to bed. No Ezekiel had returned. Somehow the father felt that some serious injury had been done by his cutting words, and that the consequences would not be seemingl} 7 harm- less, as at other times. He had never con- sidered that every word which had "pro- 170 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. yoked to anger," leaving "discouragement,'* had done his child a -wrong, and that the accumulated effects overflow at last in deso- lating desperation. Ten o'clock, and no Ezekiel ! Mr. Crone took the lantern, and went out to the barn. "Ezekiel! Ezekiel!" he shouted, in a sub- dued and tender tone. The cattle yawned and looked amazed that their quiet should be disturbed at such an hour. He looked into the wood-shed, the corn-barn, and re- turned to the kitchen, set down the light, and took his seat on the settle, and looked into the fire. "I was a fool," he mused, "to indulge in such harsh language. The boys are not so much to blame, after all. They have, no encouragement in this house to try to be anybody. It's all their mother's fault ! It wau't my way to scold them, but wife made such a clamor about whipping, that I was driven to scolding. I wont do it again for any woman ! " A BREEZE AT CKONE'S CORNER. 171 Eleven o'clock, and no Ezekiel ! Mr. Crone took the lamp, and went to his sleeping-room. He found his wife tossing in bed, in feverish excitement. "Has Ezekiel come?" she in- quired, in a sharp, quick tone. " No ! " was the equally sharp and quick reply. " Well, Mr. Crone, you needn't be so cross about it. If you'd whipped the boys, as I advised you to do, and been done with it, they would have been asleep this very min- ute, and my life wouldn't have been plagued out of me, as I believe it will be." "And they'd been a world better off if I hadn't heard to you, and taken my own way, and let them alone," retorted Mr. Crone. "I didn't advise yon to scold them so, and you know it," exclaimed Mrs. Crone. "But then you must blame me, of course, or you'd never live through any trouble." Mrs. Crone burst into one of her violent fits of crying, and Mr. Crone returned, with 172 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FAEM. the lighted candle, to the kitchen. As he stood a moment and listened upon the stairs, as he passed down, he heard the suppressed sighs of Tom, whose eyes had not closed in sleep. He sat down by the kitchen fire, put on a fresh stick or two, which blazed up cheerfully, but it was only a mockery of his feelings. He crept up to Tom's bed-room, and whispered, tenderly, "Thomas, do you know where your brother has gone?" "No, sir," was the reply; and Tom buried his face in the bed-clothes, and sobbed vio- lently. Mr. Crone's feelings were almost insuffer- able, and he watched out the weary hours of the night by the kitchen fire. With heavy hearts, the Crone family pub- lished among their neighbors the loss of their boy. None had seen or heard from him. As day after day passed, it became the common talk. There were no railroads or telegrams, to spread the alarm, nor to A BREEZE AT CRONE'S CORNER. 173 bring in other exciting topics to displace the unpleasant one concerning the missing boy. Tom grieved, as did the other children, but kindly refrained from speaking of Zeke's prov- ocation for running away. Some blamed the boy. "He was a stubborn, willful fellow," said they, "and his departure is no loss to the town. We pity the parents, but hope Zeke will find the world rough enough to bring him to his bearings." w I don't blame the poor fellow ! " exclaimed another. "He's been abused from his child- hood. I hope he'll find a good place, and peace, somewhere, for he never had any at home. I hope now the Crones will treat the children which remain decently." While people thus flippantly talked, there was real anguish of heart at Crone's Corner. The parents there loved their children, not- withstanding their unwise treatment. The daily petulance had given way to deep-seated grief. They were not understood, and few 174 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. approached them with Christian words suited to their peculiar case. They had sinned. That they knew and felt; and that was what people most remembered when thinking or speaking of them. But they sorrowed deeply for their sin. That was what most of the people did not know, nor appreciate, if it were told them. But One knew. To Him they unburdened their hearts. The family altar became a place of penitent confession and tender entreaty. Little Betsey nestled affectionately up to her mother at such times, and was lovingly caressed. Peace, sweet peace, the "My peace," of the Prince of Peace, came to the family circle, as never before. How strange that the night of their sorrow had brought the noon-day light of Him who came a Light into the world ! CHAPTEE XI. THE WINTER SCHOOL. CARVER ALDEN was late in reaching home, the afternoon of his interference in behalf of Zeke. Such an occurrence was very un- usual, and as he had not intimated, even to his brother, the occasion of his lingering behind, there was some uneasiness felt con- cerning him. Beside, there was extra work at the barn awaiting him. Where's Carver? had been more than once repeated when he came bounding into the kitchen. "Will tell you all about being late home this evening, when the chores are done," he exclaimed to his mother, catching up the milk pail and hurrying to the barn. "Very well," said his mother, quietly. She 176 176 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. had not asked for an explanation, but ex- pected one. Her son knew one was needed, and did not wait to be asked. He did not hesitate to explain, because he knew his explanation would be listened to, and kindly and candidly considered. "Carve, did you stop to take Zeke's flog- ging for him ! " said Miles, when they were left alone in the barn. "Hold the lantern so I can see if your eyes are not- red. May- be though, you stayed to take a flogging on your own account, against the blunders you are agoing to make ! Now, Carve, if you did, just have the whipping transferred to my account. I'll do the blundering, and you take the floggings ! Now that's a good fel- low ! " "No, I won't!" exclaimed Carver, bringing his foot down with emphasis. "If Mr. Ev- erett settled for all your shortcomings on my back, he would use it up in a week ! But, Miles, you needn't try to be funny. I tell THE WINTER SCHOOL. 177 you what, I do pity Zeke and Tom. I should not matter one flogging if they could have a fair chance to go ahead in school for a whole winter. You ought to have seen how desperate Zeke looked to-night ! " "Did Mr. Everett flog him though?" in- terposed Miles, with serious concern. "No," said Carver, dropping the conversa- tion and starting for the house. "I'll bet I see through it all," said Miles to himself; "Carve stopped to beg Zeke off. The Crones did blunder awfully to-day ; and they looked so kind of stupid and discour- aged. I wonder if they ever mean to be anybody ! " Miles did not know the history of the morning at Crone's Corner, as related to Carver. His musings were therefore a little hard on those he had tried so much to en- courage. John and Patience Alden heard Carver's straight-forward explanation without a word 12 178 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. of comment. Patience wiped her eyes once with one corner of her checked apron when Zeke's trials were related. When Carver had finished, his father simply said, "Very well, my son," and resumed his reading. The boy saw approval in his parents' faces, and he settled down to his evening studies with a will . When the children were all in bed, John Alden said to his wife, musingly, "Patience, I think I must reason with sister Crone. Yes, I must reprove her ! She'll have to answer for the ruin of the boys ! " "Perhaps," said Patience, "she is not rightly reported by the boy." "That's a wise thought," said her husband. "S'pose they would not thank me for in- terfering. Things do go askew though, there at the Corner." A silence, of some mo- ments followed this remark, which Patience broke by saying in a solemn, feeling tone, "Who hath made us to differ?" THE WINTER SCHOOL. 179 When the news of Zeke's departure was fully confirmed, the sorrow at Alden Farm was scarcely less than at Crone's Corner. "I'll bet they flogged Zeke for getting home late last night ! " said Carver, with a flush of anger quite unusual with him. The thought that Zeke was flogged after all, was too much for his good temper. "I'd like to" he was about to say "flog old Crone, and I'll bet I could do it." But his eye at the moment met that of his mother's, expressing a calm reproof at his heat, and he brought a smile upon her face by saying with a sly twinkle of roguery, "I'd like to yes, convince Mr. and Mrs. Crone that my father and mother's way of managing bad boys is a great sight better than their's." It was a week after Zeke left before Tom came to school. It had been a week of weeping at home, but of such kindly words, and loving quiet, as the place had never 180 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. before known. The work had been done with wonderful promptness. The hours about the evening lamp had been productive, not- withstanding heaviness of heart, of more work of the fingers and improvement of mind than at former times. Affliction proved a better condition for both, than the excitement of ill tempers. So Tom showed a preparation for his recitations which surprised the whole school. The Alden boys were watchful for opportunities to soothe his spirits and stim- ulate his zeal. The evident special attention towards him of the teacher, excited no jeal- ousy. The taunts of the scholars directed against Crone's Corner, had ceased, with the exception of those of one boy. His persis- tent bitterness against the Crones requires a passing notice, especially in view of its cause and results. His name was Fred Organ. He lived three miles from the town, on an out-of-the-way farm. His mother was a cousin to Mrs. THE WINTER SCHOOL. 181 Ezekiel Crone. But somehow, as will un- accountably occur at times, among relatives, there had existed for many years a most bitter feud between the Organs and the Crones. They had watched for each others' haltings. They exchanged no friendly family visits. If any of the members met, it was in the most cold and formal manner. The Organs were not professed Christians, and they made the Crones the occasion of many a pharisaical sneer at the church. Now that Zeke had gone, nobody seemed to know where, they were afforded what was to them a rich topic of discourse. "I told you so," said Mrs. Organ. "God always punishes such bad family government, and such cruel- ty to their children, as there have always been at the Crone's. For my part, I'm no member of the church, but I do try to have my children behave decently. As to Zeke, I'm glad he's gone. He never did have any peace, poor fellow, and I hope he'll fall into 182 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. good bauds. I shouldn't wonder though if he had gone to sea ! If so, he will catch a rope's end pretty often I'll be bound, and it "will be a long time, if ever, before the Crones will hear from him. But it's good enough for them." The Crones heard of the reproaches which their relatives cast upon them. But their hearts were humbled. They could forgive no\v. They even made advances towards a restoration of fellowship, but it was scorned. So it naturally occurred that Fred Organ stood out, among his school fellows, in his persecution of Thomas Crone. The weeks passed on. The winter had assumed its sternest force. The cold was at times intense. Yet Tom was always at school, and in season. One morning, the children awoke, and peered as well as they could out of the frost covered windows, and saw the drifted snow higher than the tops of the fences. The storm had been in a THE WINTER SCHOOL. 183 merry mood. Here it filled a door yard, blocking up the door, with a towering heap * which reached nearly to the eaves of the house. Then it swept a clean path, laying bare the frozen sods and graveled walks. Now it shut the cattle up in the barns, as much as to say, It will not be for your health to leave your stalls. Then it just shook a barn door, to let the inmates know it was round, and passed by with its freight of snow, as if to say, You, cattle and horses, you had better walk out and see what's agoing on. There's no snow in your way. Mr. Everett, the teacher, looked out, and remarked, " A small number at school to- day ! A few living near will be there, and two boys from a distance those of Aldeu Farm. Well, I must make it pay them well to come." Mr. Everett was like a sen- sible . preacher who said he tried to preach his best sermons to the stormy day hearers. He went to his trunk, took out some blocks, 184 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. then novel articles to explain some of the rules in Arithmetic. He took down a choice map which hung against the room wall, rolled it up, and put it under his arm. He also took along a rare Work detailing some of the incidents of the American revolution, which every family could not get access to, as all can now. Thus armed he waded through the snow to the school-house. The faithful fire-builder of that week for the larger boys took turns in building the fire and sweeping the school-room had made the fire early, and the school-room fire-place glowed with its blazing sticks, and slowly burning back-log. The two Alden boys were already there when the teacher arrived. Soon, Thomas Crone came stamping into the entry. His face was ruddy with the ex- ertion of wading through the drifts, and facing the still blustering wind. "Well done, Thomas!" exclaimed the teacher, greeting him at the door. The few THE WINTER SCHOOL. 185 scholars gathered round him, one pulliug off his frozen mittens, another taking his snowy cap which had been pulled down over his ears, and a third brushing the snow from his frock. The teacher invited the boys about a dozen of them to take a bench and draw up round the fire, placing his chair, at the same time, in one corner so as to face them all. After the devotional exercises, which seemed to the boys, more solemn than usual, the teacher proposed, much to the satisfaction of his scholars, to have what he called an "explaining session." He com- menced with some of the most difficult por- tions which had been gone over by the first class of Colburu. He encouraged familiar conversation concerning the questions. The eyes of the boys fairly snapped with delight. They looked at each other with knowing nods, as if to say, Don't you see that? It's as clear as a whistle ! The blocks came next. They were inclined 186 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. to laugh at them. They had seen the babies play with blocks, and they could not see any other use for them. But when those who had been blindly following the rule in "Daboll's Arithmetic," on the square and cube root, saw the teacher's arrangement of his prettily finished pieces of wood, they jumped from their old backless, hard seats, and gathered about the teacher in an unre- strained expression of pleasure. Next came the reading of "Incidents of the Revolutionary War." First, Mr. Ever- ett read, and then passed the book to the best reader among the boys. The story was freely discussed, and the teacher, at the same time, made suggestions to improve the man- ner of reading. So the book went round. The boys were getting a stimulus to their taste for historical reading, and were learn- ing too some important facts concerning the struggle of our fathers in throwing off a foreign government. But most of all, they THE WINTER SCHOOL. 187 were getting a healthful inspiration to study, the mainspring of all good scholarship. "Boys," said the teacher, taking out his watch, and looking at it with surprise, "it is one o'clock, and you have had no recess, and no intermission for dinner." "Why, Mr. Everett," exclaimed several voices at once, " you must be mistaken ! It don't seem ten o'clock." A half hour was spent in eating their lunch, while the boys, at the same time dis- cussed the experience of the day thus far. "It was pretty tough, boys, wading the snow this morning," said Carver, "and, whew ! how it comes against the window ! it will be tougher, I reckon, going home." "Yes," said Thomas Crone, "it was tough. But I'm glad I came." ""NVau't Mr. Everett splendid?" whispered Miles. "I'll bet I can beat father in Col- burn now ! " "I'm going to be a soldier, when I grow 188 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. up, and fight the British ! " said the young- est boy of the group, Willie True, whose home was within a few moments' walk of the school house. The fine spirits of the boys grew more intense as the teacher piled on the wood, and the storm without sung more and more uproarously its warning to those away from their own snug homes. "We will have a spelling match, and go home," said the teacher, endeavoring to scratch the frost upon the window-pane, to look out upon the tempestuous scene. " It will be too soon to go ! " exclaimed Miles. "I guess not," said the teacher, as a heavy gust of wind shook the very foundation of the school-house. The trial of spelling was an exciting fea- ture in most of New England schools of a former generation. There were no girls present at this trial, so the interest was less THE WINTEK SCHOOL. 189 exciting. It is reported, in the accounts of these merry but profitable contests, that the girls beat the boys, "out of sight in a pair of minutes." If so our present champions were saved the mortification of such humil- iating defeat. It may have seemed strange to the teacher on this occasion, but it turned, out that the little William True carried off the greenest laurels ; while the representa- tive present of the Crones of Crone's Corner, came in next in the race, and quite near the victor. Spelling was the weak point in the scholarship of the Aldens. When hard study was required, or close and clear thinking, they were the leaders. In matters of memory they faltered. " Good on Willie True, Esq. ! " exclaimed Miles, when the school was dismissed ; " he's a smasher at spelling. I am glad the girls wan't here to beat him ! " "Hurrah for Crone's Corner, which has beat Alden Farm ! " generously shouted Car- 190 THE LUCK OF ALUEN FAKM. ver. "Guess Miles and I will have to study up on the speller. But a plague take it, I'd rather study two Colburns and a Daboll, with Murray's Grammar thrown it ! " The countenance of Thomas Crone, which had worn for weeks a sad cast, lighted up with a momentary flush of joy. But it set- tled down into its customary shade of de- spondency as he buttoned up his coat, tied his comforter about his neck, pulled his cap down over his ears, and thought how Zeke and he had waded together, at other times, through such drifting snow. He was just about to say, "Good bye, boys," and "here goes ! " when his father appeared in the school yard. "I was afraid, my son," he said, approaching Tom with a smile, "that you would get stuck in the snow. It's aw- ful deep, and the wind cuts like a knife. Your mother would have me come. I would have harnessed up, only old AVhite Hoofs never could have got through these drifts." THE WINTER SCHOOL. 191 He then took Tom's hand and turned a res- olute face to the storm. "Was that old Zeke Crone?" said Carver, in a quiet tone. "That's not the way he used to meet the boys ! " Mrs. Crone had gone herself to the barn, and finished the chores which her husband was at work upon when she suggested that he go to meet Tom. "My boy," she most always called him "my boy" now "shall have nothing to do," she said, musingly, "but to eat his supper and set down to his les- sons." Her table was spread in her best style. The fire in the huge old fire-place fairly roared defiance to the storm king out- side, and smiled warmly to his patrons with- in. Jane put her spelliug book under her arm, to be ready to show Tom what won- derful progress she had made during the day, and little Betsey stowed herself away under the table to "scare him," when he approached the fire. There were no chidings now for 192 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FAEM. these childish airs. The mother having as- sured herself that everything was upon the table, or "at the fire warming," for the sup- per, went frequently to the window, to endeavor to peer through the wintry at- mosphere to get a sight of Tom and his father. But twilight had set in, and night was hastening on, although, as she said, it seemed only the middle of the after- noon. Soon a cheerful shout from Tom announced their coming. The mother and the sisters flew to the door. "It's a glorious old storm ! " he shouted, stamping vigorously, and throwing off his hat. His mother un- loosed his comforter, helped him off with his coat, uttering, at the same time, hearty words of welcome. But a tear at the -same time fell from her face. There was but one boy, she remembered, to welcome home. "I'll finish the chores," said Mr. Crone, "and soon be in to supper." THE WINTER SCHOOL. 193 "And I will help you, father," said Tom. "I haven't taken off my boots." "I wouldn't go, either of you, out into this storm again," said Mrs. Crone. "Why," replied Mr. Crone, "I shouldn't sleep to-night if old Brindle wan't milked, and the young stock hadn't the rest of their supper pushed up to them." "Nor I either," replied his wife, archly. Ezekiel at once read the explanation in his wife's pleasant face. "It was kind in you, Jerusha," he said, as they all drew around the inviting table. "It is pleasanter to sit down here than to go into the barn through the storm." The supper being finished, the usual family prayer was offered. When the father re- quested of Him to watch over their lost one, his voice trembled more than usual, and the suppressed sobs were heard from every kneel- ing member of the family ; and when he added, "Give him repentance unto life, and 13 194 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. forgive us all our parental errors towards him," there came from the mother a scarcely audible, but deeply felt " amen ! " Tom had related at the table, with great animation, his success in the spelling class. "Why, mother!" he exclaimed, exultingly, "I beat both the Alden boys ! " "And so, of course, you beat all the schol- ars who were present," said his mother, with evident satisfaction. "No," replied Tom, frankly, "Willie True beat me ! " All laughed at this, and agreed it would do very well for Willie to beat Tom if he could beat all others. Jane and Betsey had kissed father and mother and brother, and said their "good night," and their prayers, and were fast asleep. Tom lifted up his eyes from his lesson, in which he had been quite absorbed, and observed the pleasant light which the fire and the candles threw over the room, THE WINTER SCHOOL. 195 and the quiet and loving, though sad coun- tenances of his parents. "If Zeke were here, how we could study now ! " he thought, and in the depth of his emotion, almost said aloud. But he sadly reflected that it was not so when his brother was at home, and the Spirit of God whis- pered in his heart that this separation and its consequent sorrow was a part of the "all things " which " work together for good " to the trusting heart. He turned again to his lessons with a freer spirit. The school term was fast drawing to a close. The spring, as its inspiring breath toned down the chilly atmosphere of winter, called upon all the young men of those days to exchange the school-room for the barn, and books for the plough and the hoe. The committee were expected to visit the school, to show their learning, and incidentally to ascertain how much, or rather how little, the children and young people knew by com- 196 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. parisou. Those scholars who were conscious of having well spent the winter's privileges, looked forward to their coming with pleasure. The drones were already planning to find an excuse for staying away. The recitations were becoming exciting, for they were re- views, and Mr. Everett was evidently drill- ing his little army for the inspection of the review officers. In these daily general ex- aminations, Fred Organ, the relative and persecutor of Thomas Crone, was dropping down towards the foot of his class. His temper, never amiable, was becoming heated with shame and envy. Just at this point of his school trials, Thomas spelt a word which he had missed, and passed above him. This was not all. The hated Crone was becoming the respected boy and scholar, gradually advancing in all his classes, and gaining daily upon the confidence of his teacher and schoolmates. More than once, Mr. Everett had said to himself, "I'm glad THE WINTER SCHOOL. 197 I did not flog Zekc thanks to Carver." Fred saw and felt all this, and it was as a thorn in his flesh. He wanted to "spite" Tom some way, though if asked for the rea- son, he probably could have given none better than that given by children often for their acts, "because I wanted to." Fred wanted to spite Tom, so when Tom was running swiftly in play at recess around the corner of the school-house, Fred put out his foot and tripped him up. The fall was a heavy one, and as the boy struck the frozen ground, a serious gash was cut in his head, his hands were torn by his effort to break the fall, and his knees were badly bruised. He was taken up bleeding and groaning, and carried into the school-house, the object of the sympathy of all, while a cloud of angry countenances lowered over Fred. "I didn't go to do it," whimpered Fred, beginning to be alarmed at what he had done. 198 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. " You did ! You did it a-purpose. I saw you ! " exclaimed Willie True. " I wish the law required me to whip Fred ; because I would discharge my duty so faithfully ! " said Miles Alden, as the boys were rushing into the school room at the call of the bell. "The law of God, Miles?" inquired Car- ver. "But it don't: now straighten out your V fist, and don't go to acting the bully ! Fred will catch something worse than your mos- quito bites." Miles nodded assent, as he blushed and fell back upon his mother's saying, t; Hot tempers make bitter repentance." The incident broke up the remaining hour of the session, and the children were dis- missed early, carrying, as they scattered through the district, a fresh and eagerly im- proved topic of gossip. Thomas was carried home, and was found more frightened than seriously injured. The flesh wound in the THE WINTER SCHOOL. 199 head, and the bruises upon his hands and knees were soon healed by good care on the part of his mother. There was no blaming now the bad luck of Crone's Corner. The unusual sympathy on the part of the neigh- bors surprised the Crone family. The inci- dent soon grew, in their estimation, into a cause of gratitude a cloud tinged with a golden sunrising, as it brought out a grow- ing respect for them and their boy. CHAPTER XH. THE EXAMINATION. EXAMINATION DAY came at last. Mr. Cur- tis, the minister, was there, the most deeply interested of all the committee, because the most appreciative of what had been done by the faithful teacher. Deacon Turner sat near to, and leaned upon the judgment of his pastor in matters of learning. Squire True was more independent, and was only a little jealous of any departure from the old paths. Dr. Burt looked through and over his spec-, tacles with awful gravity. His wisdom was that of an owl in an ivy bush. Old Deacon Prime was there, in a seat of honor due his age and sacred office. He was not of the committee, but with them that is, if they 200 THE EXAMINATION. 201 scolded the boys, solemnly lectured the girls, commended what was old, and scouted that which was new. He was called upon to make a prayer at the opening of the exer- cises, and he did so, under a solemn sense of the responsibility of giving thereby the true key-note to them. He remembered to implore pardon for the great waywardness of all children at the present time. He told God, with great emphasis, that Eli's sin was never so prevalent as now. He asked that the committee might have moral courage to do all their duty, and rise above a slavish and sinful fear of man; by which he was uncharitably understood to mean that the committee should condemn everybody in gen- eral, and all young people in particular, ex- cept the chosen few whom Deacon Prime represented, and with whom the wisdom of the town was expected to die. The exercises commenced with reading. Some humorous pieces were read, in which 202 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. Mr. Everett bad taken great pains to secure in his pupils, a natural expression, and a just modulation of the voice. Deacon Turner's daughter, Martha, and Miles Aldeu, entered into this kind of reading with spirit. It was a little in the line of their exhuberant love of fun. The teacher, with an excusable weak- ness, showed them off by giving them each a select piece, of this character, from his own library. For a moment or two the solemn gravity, for which* such occasions had been noted both before and since the fathers had fallen asleep, was broken down. Mr. Curtis and Deacon Turner smiled, Squire True was not seen to scowl, and so the school and the greater part felt at full lib- erty to laugh, which they did, much to their satisfaction. John Alden sat, fortunately, in a corner, a little out of sight from Deacon Prime's seat, for he laughed until his face fairly glowed. "This is truly awful trifling," whispered Deacon Prime to Doctor Burt. THE EXAMINATION. 203 "It is," said the doctor, "and something must be done about it." Next came an examination in the innocent but mischief-making little book, "Colburn's First Lessons in Arithmetic." "Tut! tut!" said Deacon Prime, reading the first few questions, "what have we here?" This was said in an undertone to Dr. Burt, who replied, "It's one of the new teacher's follies. It's got no Kule of Three in it ! " Both looked very solemn during the ex- amination, which was very spirited, giving earnest of the revolution in our schools in tho method of teaching Arithmetic, which this text-book has effected. Mr. Curtis was de- lighted. Deacon Turner had given it a suffi- cient examination to see its great value. Squire True looked puzzled, and was dis- posed to keep his opinion of this part of the examination to himself. But John Alden held a copy of the book in his hand, and seemed entirely absorbed in the way the scholars answered the questions. 204 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. But we will turn our attention to a few of the scholars. There was the minister's daughter Jane, who showed not only her own diligence and good sense in her studies, but her parents' promptings in them. She was quiet, ready, and self-possessed. Mar- tha Turner's eye meant fun all through the examination, though she was a deacon's daughter. But she did not discredit her father's sacred position in the church. She never made fun at the cost of a schoolmate's good name, or sensitive feelings. It was a pleasantry which lifted many a desponding one over a hard place. It was a sunbeam often to a darkened spirit. Her wit, which was keen, was always indulged in behalf of the weakest party in a dispute. She had been the uniform friend of the Crones, and when Zeke disappeared from the school, his home and the town, she wept like a child. She made the scholars slyly laugh when she looked at the sombre faces of Dr. Burt and THE EXAMINATION. 205 Deacon Prime. The doctor was positively vexed to meet the mischievous glance of her eye. He would have tried to trip her up in her recitations, but he felt that the experiment would be dangerous. Deacon Prime thought, when he looked at her, that it was plain that his Brother Turner did not make a sufficient use of the rod in his pa- rental government; but the scholars, espe- cially the little ones in the profound study of the Primer, thought that she was "just as good as she could be," and one little "Tot" declared, with great solemnity, that it was his opinion " Mattie Turner was one of God's angels run away from heaven to come to their school." What the larger boys thought they were not so free to say. Carver and Miles Alden passed the ex- amination like boys who had studied and thought, without having any ability to shine. They looked self-relying and happy. But the scholar towards whom all eyes were di- 206 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. reeled, was Thomas Crone. His head was still bandaged, which, with his lonely look without Zeke, excited sympathy. Then there was so evident a determination to struggle out of the low position in school which the Crones had occupied, and so much in his countenance which seemed to confess his present inferiority, that every right-minded looker-on wished him success. It was evi- dent too, that the teacher was ready to give him every fair means of appearing well ; indeed, it was plain that he slightly petted him. The spelling match was the last ex- ercise before the committee. Nearly the whole school was arranged around the sides of the school-house, and across the front seats. It was an exciting time for children and the parents who were looking on. Even the Alden boys looked just a little anxious for the result. They had stood the fairest and most thorough test of good improvement in all their recitations thus far. The spell- THE EXAMINATION. 207 ing book had been studied by them care- fully, their mother, who knew their weakness in this study, having prompted them often by her sensible remarks of its importance. Still, somehow, spelling slips from some minds, as money does from a spendthrift's fingers. It seemed to do so at times from Miles and Carver. "Yet," said Miles, "we'll spike the words into our noddles, won't we, Carver?" And they had, by dint of hard study, " spiked them in." So they appeared in the hour of trial, before the august com- mittee, with only a little perturbation, just enough to aid rather than disturb their mem- ories. Martha Turner's face, as she stood in the class, waiting for the coming conflict, was wreathed in smiles. It seemed to say, "I will enjoy somebody's success, if not my own." Thomas Crone never looked more intelli- gent and attractive. His usually dull coun- 208 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. tenauce was animated. He stood erect, the conscious equal here, of the majority of the school. Dr. Burt commenced the examination by giving out words of " Learned length and thundering sound." The class had learned that such words are not the hardest to spell. The words went round, and only one scholar sat down, he having just tripped a little, when the stern voice of the doctor growled, " Sit down, sir." He gave the Speller to Deacon Prime, who prefaced his part of the exercises by some grave remarks on the great neglect, now-a- days, of spelling, while so much time was given to "light reading," and trifling little books like the new "Kethmetic." He then gave out words, over which he first paused, spelling them out himself. Two more failed, and were sent, with a solemn admonition, to their seats. "When he put the word to Mat- THE EXAMINATION. 209 tie Turner, she paused, just a moment, as if hesitating about the spelling. But it was like the pause of a racer who feels sure of winning the race. She fixed, the while, her quizzical eyes on the deacon, until every scholar was ready to laugh outright. He felt the joke, and was provoked, but the shot that annoyed him was from a masked battery, and he dared not move. He was about to say "the next," when Mattie spelt the word so glibly, and with such force and distinctness, that every syllable shot through him. He passed his book to Squire True, and sat down, feeling like a man who has been thrown in a wrestling match. The squire was coldly fair, gave the class a rather easy word round, and called upon Deacon Turner. The class at once relaxed from their stiff attitude, into an easy posi- tion, as in the presence of a friend. Sym- pathy is electrical. It is not seen but felt; nor can one always tell whence it comes or u 210 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. whither it goes ; yet its presence can no more be mistaken than can the presence of sunshine. So the class were at once in the most cordial sympathy with their examiner. It was as if one of their own number asked the questions. The words given out were harder to spell than any before given, yet none missed. Mr. Curtis was now expected to put words to the class, until all but one should have missed and set down, and he brought the trial to a speedy close, by giving them short words in common use, which sound alike, but have a different spelling and meaning. Thomas Crone stood with the four last the others were Martha Turner and the Al- dens. The first cloud which had been seen on Mattie's face, lingered there for a moment when Thomas tripped and sat down. She declared afterwards, that if Tom had beat the Aldens, she would have spelt the next word wrong on purpose. But she tried her THE EXAMINATION. 211 best to beat Carver and Miles, and she did it. Now came the "remarks." It was already late. The little ones lolled wearily from side to side. Mr. Curtis spoke a few words of discriminating praise. He commended the labors of the teacher, "as faithful, thorough and progressive." Deacon Turner thanked God that he was permitted to see his chil- dren enjoy privileges so greatly in advance of those he had received. The squire said that all had done "very tolerably well." "Be faithful, Brother Burt," whispered Deacon Prime. "My infirmities won't let me speak." The doctor rose with great solemnity. It seemed to the children to grow suddenly darker in the school-room, when he stood erect. "I have," he remarked, "a duty to do, which I dare not evade, though it is painful to the flesh." Deacon Prime nodded assent, and actually smiled. 212 THE LUCK OF ALDEN- FAEM. "There has been great levity in the school- room to-day. And it pains me to be obliged to say that this was encouraged at the very commencement of our exercises, by your teacher, in the kind of reading lessons given to the scholars." The doctor looked over his glasses, right at the young teacher. Deacon Prime groaned audibly. Mr. Everett had taken his chair at the commencement of the addresses, and, very accidently of course, placed it against the end of the seat in which Mattie Turner sat. "When the doctor uttered his reproof to the teacher, she leaned forward before him, so that her eyes took the range of the doc- tor's, and screened in part those of her loved instructor's. The scholars, in turning inthe direction of the speaker's withering gaze, caught Mattie's bewitching glance. Te every boy and girl of them, her eyes exclaimed, right in the doctor's /ace, "Oh, fudge !" There was a twitter all over the house. The van- THE EXAMINATION. 213 quished doctor sat down in confusion. Dea- con Prime groaned again, louder than before. An old lady who sat near him, not quite comprehending the situation, but seeing the deacon clasp his hands together and roll up his eyes as if in pain, leaned forward and whispered, "Lor sakes, deacon, what's the matter? Are you sick?" Mr. Curtis arose just at this moment. He said he was aware that the session had been a long one, and that it was now late. "But," he continued, "there is one warm friend to our children, who is deeply interested in their improvement. You will all be pleased to hear from him. Brother Alden will make some remarks." The uneasy rustling at once ceased. The eyes of the little ones sparkled with delight at the sight of him, as he came forward from the corner in which but few had noticed him. The teacher came forward nearer to the speaker. Thomas Crone's sad countenance 214 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. lighted up, as does that of a stranger when unexpectedly meeting an old friend. Dr. Burt tried to look indifferent concerning what a rough, uneducated farmer might say, but he could not forget, and he would not for- give, the humiliation inflicted upon him when he went to Alden Farm to teach its propri- etor the true doctrine of temperance. So he tried not to care what he might say, but his restless eye, uneasy hands and nervous mov- ing about, betrayed him. "My friends," said Alden, speaking with honest directness and force, W I have experi- enced a loss by this school this winter." He paused, stood erect, and looked coolly at the dignified committee. The teacher and schol- ars seemed a little puzzled, but felt assured Mr. Alden would come out on their side. Deacon Prime hastily inferred he was coming out on the side of the croakers. He whis- pered, leaning forward and directing his re- mark to Alden, "You mean, Brother Alden, THE EXAMINATION. 215 that your children have experienced a loss by the school." "No sir" thundered Alden, .with a look which wilted the deacon. "/ have lost by the school ! I have lost my prejudice against a young teacher, who has proved that his head is well informed, and his heart in the right place. I have lost my prejudice against new books for our children to study. The new Arithmetic has woke up my young- sters' faculty of reckoning amazingly. It has put thinking and study into them. We have had Arithmetic questions at Alden Farm for breakfast, dinner, and supper." The scholars laughed, the teacher and min- ister smiled, Deacon Prime sighed, and the doctor scowled. "I have lost still more," continued Alden. "I have lost the chopping of full a cord of wood ! My boys were a little more interested in school than work, though they have worked with a will, and I have 216 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. caught the study fever, and it has cost me, friends, the chopping of a whole cord of wood ! " John Alden screwed his mouth round into such a funny pucker when he said this, and looked at Deacon Prime with such a com- ical air, that the whole school laughed out- right. The deacon rested his elbow upon his knee, his chin upon the palm of his hand, and sighed. He did not look up, but his ears took in the painful sounds of levity. Dr. Burt was not so meek. He held up his head and looked fight. He was just about to be rash enough to reprove the school and the offending speaker, when Mr. Alden pro- ceeded. "But I have received in place of the labor of chopping a cord of wood, more knowledge of Arithmetic than I ever had be- fore. My boys have liad excited in them a thirst for study and learning, that I esteem of more value than my whole farm. It's my opinion that a new era has commenced in the THE EXAMINATION. 217 history of our school, from which shall date greater progress by our children in useful knowledge than ever before. My losses, then, friends, have been great gain. I hope we shall go on losing and gaining in this way for years to come." Thus closed the winter term of the school. The scholars gathered about their teacher uttering their "good bye" with a cordial and sincere interest. "I thank you, Mr. Ever- ett, for being so kind to me," said Thomas Crone, timidly. "I shall try to be some- body!" No farewell word fell on the teacher's ear more gratefully. It was the hopeful word of an oppressed heart struggling upward under the warming beams of his Christian kindness. For weeks after the close of the school, every household of the town took up the subject of " our school." The evident im- 218 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. proved interest of the children in all school studies silenced all disparagements. John Alden's speech was another hit of his good luck. His influence for good was never greater. CHAPTER XIII. PATTY VOSE. AMONG those who were vexed at the al- tered spirit at Crone's Corner, and who found some way to account for it without allowing any improvement, were the Organs. "Crones will be Crones still," said Mrs. Organ. "It's all outside washing; they are the same old hard folks at home, I'll warrant." But the evident improvement in Tom, and the different bearing of his parents , towards him, which was apparent in so many ways, were opposed to her assumptions. But this only made her the more clamorous. She was provoked too that her Fred had fallen behind Tom in his classes, and was gener- ally very much blamed for his bruised head, 219 220 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. though she stoutly contended that Tom's fall was an accident. It began to be noticed that the more sympathy the people of the parish manifested for the Crone's, the more bitter and loud were the Organs in decrying them. If Zeke was named, and pity was expressed for his parents, Mrs. Organ grew red in the face with excitement. Her words of denunciation at such times, of their treat- ment of the missing boy, whom she called "poor fellow," knew no bounds. Among those who greatly rejoiced at the hopeful look at the Corner, and the history during the winter, of the school, was Martha Yose known as Patty, whom we met at the Alden Farm husking. Her dwarfed body and shriveled limbs grew neither stronger nor larger. But her mind had caught fresh vigor from the labors of fhe young teacher. He had visited her often, and through his occasional help she had thoroughly learned Cohburn's Arithmetic. It would not have PATTY VOSE. 221 done for the croakers against the school to come within Patty's reach. Gifted with a fine flow of language, perfect self-command, and a Christian spirit which grew daily more Christ-like, she disarmed her opponents of all prejudice against what she had to say, and then stated and urged her case with melting power. Thomas Crone had just begun to find in her an ever ready helper of all his manly efforts of self-elevation. Patty's home was an humble, but comfort- able one. She was the only child of a widowed mother, who owned the house. A barn, a garden, a small orchard, and a few acres of land, belonged to the place. These last the widow Vose had sometimes let, or otherwise turned to profit as best she could. Patty took in sewing for the neighbors, and her mother was an ever ready helper of the sick of wealthier families, by which a comfortable income was secured. So the two lived for and in each other, in frugal 222 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FAKM. independence, owing no man and envying none. Charitable offerings did not often enter, but frequently went from their home. But above these they had a priceless treasure to bestow which made many rich. They bestowed, by example in holy living, by a Christian spirit which breathed in their words and acts, and by a divinely inspired wisdom which distilled as the dew, treasures of grace. Those seeking to know Christ found in them apt teachers. The burdened in heart often went away casting all their care on the great Helper. The desponding were cheered, as much by the atmosphere they breathed at " Hope Cottage," as by the words which were spoken. All classes of people, who loved the atmosphere of a Christian home sought Hope Cottage. Gos- sipers avoided it, for it became well under- stood that for them no listening ears were there. Mere idlers did not go, for Patty was always busy except when there was good to be done. PATTY VO8E. 223 "Patience," said John Alden to his wife, soon after the school had closed, "what a spirit of study does possess our boys ! I overheard Carver and Miles, as they were shelling corn this forenoon, .talking over their plans ; Miles said he was a-going to be a great statesman, for Mr. Everett said a boy could make himself,- by hard work and an honest heart, about what he pleased. Car- ver said he hadn't made up his mind what he should be, but, 'maybe a minister.' They seemed very serious in their talk, and hinted at plans for study during the summer. Now, Patience, I kind of hate to keep them to work all summer on the farm. Maybe their relish for books will die out over the planting, hoeing, haying and harvesting." " I've been thinking of that myself," said Patience, in her peculiarly quiet, thoughtful way. " I have a plan in my mind," she added, without emotion, and without taking her eyes from her work. 224 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FAEM. "There, Patience!" exclaimed John, with animation, "you are always getting ahead of me by your plans. Let me tell you mine first." John moved his chair up nearer to Pa- tience, and looked lovingly into her face, and remarked, roguishly, before detailing his plan, "A man don't want always to be in- debted to his wife for the best management. It's been the plague of my married life ! " "You're a boy, John," said Patience, turn- her face dangerously near to his, and adding, "Now do state your plan." "You know there is old Dr. Peters' Acad- emy on Cedar Hill. It is not more than twenty miles from here. He is said to be a good scholar, only rather stiff and formal. After the spring planting is done, we might spare them until fall. I won't turn up so much ground as common, and we must econ- omize, for the sake of educating the boys. Who knows, Patience, but God may convert PATTY VOSE. 225 Carver and Miles, and make one a minister and put the other into a place to bless the country? You can fix up their clothes as no other woman can, and they won't be ex- travagant, I know." Mr. Alden was disappointed, and almost vexed would have been if grace had not long since taught him a better way at Patience's cool and simple nod of the head, at each point in the development of his plan. He waited awhile for an enthusiastic concur- rence, but none being tendered, he tipped back in his chair, clasped his hands behind his head, and asked, "What do you think of my plan, Patience?" "Kather expensive," remarked Patience, working with renewed diligence. "We have a few hundreds laid up, you know?" suggested her husband. "But you'll want that when they go to college, maybe." "College!" exclaimed Mr. Alden, starting 16 226 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. to his feet and pushing his 'fingers through his hair, and brushing it up until it stood erect on his head. He began to understand Patience. She was taking a more compre- hensive view of the boys' education, than he had done. "But," he queried, "they must go to the academy before they go to col- lege?" "Now, husband," replied Patience, laying clown her work, and turning towards the fire, and pointing to a chair to have him sit down by her, "there is where I think your plan is faulty." "What do you propose, Patience?" said Mr. Alden, drawing his chair close to that of his wife. "Why, send them to Patt}V said Patience, decidedly. John was silent for a few moments. He then began in his usual thorough way to turn his wife's plan over, and look at it from every point of view. The more he PATTY VOSE. 227 did so, asking questions and suggesting ob- jections, the more he liked it. Patty had studied Latin and Greek under Mr. Curtis' instruction, for several years. Mr. Curtis had prepared several young men for college, was known as a thorough scholar, but was too much engaged now in parish matters to do so. He had often said that Patty was more critical in the languages than most of his college classmates. She was an enthu- siast in these advanced studies, reading them as most of her age read the lighter literature. Old Dr. Peters of Cedar Hill Academy," suggested Patience, "is about like, in his sphere, our old master Paul, who taught our school so long. He don't love boys. I don't believe in a teacher who don't love boys." "You are right," said John. "Our Miles said when the doctor preached for Mr. Cur- tis, that his face looked as if it were bitten some time by a January frost, and never thawed out." 228 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. "The boys are at that age when their moral improvement is best given at home." "Eight again," said John, growing warm in his admiration for his wife's plan. "If they remain at home," continued Mrs. Alden, "they will be under the preaching and pastoral care of Mr. Curtis, who says he sees some signs of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon us. If that comes, we shall want the boys here, you know, to share in its great benefits." Mr. Alden assented with increasing emo- tion, while his wife quietly added, "They will be at home, too, to assist you night and morning, and to come to your help in any emergency on the farm. I have a no- tion that some out-door w T ork does not hurt boys who study." "There it is again!" exclaimed Mr. Aldeu, " my plan is all upset by a woman ! It's nowhere when compared with my wife's. You are a witch, and I'll have you re- ported " PATTY VOSE. 229 "Don't, John, they hang witches!" inter- posed Patience. " I will, though ! This very week I'll re- port you to Patty, who shall know how you bewitch me out of my own plans into an adoption unanimously of yours, and she shall render a verdict in the case." "Patty is mercifully inclined," remarked Patience. Patty was delighted with the proposal from the Aldens. Arrangements were at once made in reference to the hours of recitation each day. The boys were to continue their English studies, giving them at present the most of their time, with easy, occasional lessons in the Latin Grammar. They were to do all the work, in return, on the little farm of Patty's mother. Besides, there was to be such money payment as might seem right when the plan was in full operation. Patty knew she was safe in leaving the final compensation to Mr. Alden's judgment and sense of right. 230 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. Carver and Miles were jubilant when the arrangement was announced to them. They lay awake full two hours that night, after they were in bed, maturing the spring and summer campaign. "Won't we," said Miles, "make the widow Vose's old place shine? It won't take much of our time, neither." "And father shall see that we can help him too," chimed in Carver. Thus devising "lib- eral things," the boys fell asleep. Gossip was soon astir to discuss the new move at Alden Farm. Old ladies looked over the tops of their spectacles and ex- claimed, "Lor sakes ! what won't John Alden do next!" " "What are we coming to ! " exclaimed Deacon Prime ; " women teaching big boys ! John Alden had better keep his boys at work, and not spoil them with high notions about larnin'." But Mr. Curtis was decidedly gratified PATTY VOSE. 231 with the arrangement. "It will be for the benefit of all the parties concerned. The boys will be well instructed in their studies, and favorably impressed with regard to re- ligious things. Brother Alden always looks carefully into matters before he moves." But none were more impressed with the importance of this enterprise, than Patty herself. She commenced immediately a care- ful review of her studies, while at the same time she was much more engaged in read- ing the Scriptures and in prayer. She seemed lifted into another sphere, intellectually and morally. It appeared to her that she now understood why God had given her from a child, a great thirst for knowledge, and un- usual aptness in attaining it. She thankfully, too, acknowledged His hand in opening to her a long desired path of greater useful- ness. Her deformity, of body had been, in earlier years, a source of deep grief to her. She often went to bed in tears and bitterness 232 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. of spirit, after seeing a company of rollick- ing children. Now she thanked God for all His dealings with her. She felt that while he had withheld with one hand, he had boun- tifully given with the other. "The peace that passeth understanding," filled her heart, and thanksgiving and supplication were con- stantly flowing from it to the Great Giver. None who knew Patty's frame of mind were surprised at a new feature which she proposed in reference to her anticipated w r ork. She came from her sleeping room one morn- ing with her face aglow with delight. She felt her heart "enlarged," and her "mouth opened " in prayer that morning. As was usual with her at such times, she remem- bered the lone boy at Crone's Corner, and the lamented wanderer. As she rose from her knees, the thought came to her, as if spoken audibly, "Invite Thomas to your class." Her full heart answered, "I will." It was this which caused her face to glow PATTY VOSE. 233 and her heart to rejoice. When she told her mother of this purpose, she mildly suggested that perhaps Mr. Alden would object. For a moment Patty's countenance was shaded with doubt. Then she exclaimed joyfully, "John Alden's family always agree to any project which benefits others." There was a very sober joy at Crone's Corner after the close of the school. Tom's i improved position at the examination, grat- ified all. Jane and Betsey echoed their brother's praise as it fell from their parents' lips. Yet Mr. and Mrs. Crone heard with a slight feeling of regret Tom's intimations that he wanted to continue his studies. What did he want to be studying so much for? Their life-long narrow views of learning did not at once give way when their hearts came into an improved condition. But they were in a good frame to be instructed. They now thought that nearly a whole winter's opportunity to study, in a school so much 234 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. better than ever they had, had placed their son on nearly the top of the Hill of Knowl- edge. And then, how was the farm work to be done by a boy whose head was being crammed with new ideas? He would be spoiled by being above his business. It would be, they argued, a sheer waste of time. Yet, we are pleased to say, Mrs. Crone did not storm against it as she once would have done. She only gave it a quiet but decided "cold shoulder." This greatly burdened Tom. He went about the work of preparing for the spring plowing and planting, with a resolute de- termination to do his duty to his parents. His studies were pursued in little fractions of time, and slyly, as if he was doing wrong. No boy ever learns much with cowed and burdened spirits, and so he was fast losing his interest in seeking further improvement, and thus in danger of receding from the advanced ground he had taken. Heretofore his parents PATTY VOSE. 235 had done wickedly from reckless passion. Now they simply erred from ignorance, but yet the error was likely to be very serious in its influence upon their boy. His interest in his books when once lost, would leave him exposed to adopt his 'old, bad habits of employing his little leisure time. Just at this point in his experience, the arrangement at Alden Farm for its boys, was reported to them. It came through their neighbor, an "Old Maid gossiper," Miss Corner. "Did you ever," said Miss Corner, " see anything beat it ! John Alden is sartinly crazy. Deacon Prime thinks as how he is, and the deacon is never mis- taken." "What has he been doing now?" inquired Mrs. Crone, with none of her former enthu- siasm in such talk. Miss Corner had felt she was losing her influence with the Crones, and she had come, hoping to revive it with her present bit of gossip. 236 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. "Why, sartin as you're alive, he's a-going to send his two lazy boys to school all sum- mer ! And that isn't the whole on't neither ! He's a-going to send 'em to Patty Yose ! There now ! " Miss Corner waited for Jerusha Crone's acceptance of her statements, and hearty agreement with her denunciation. But Mrs. Crone simply remarked that maybe there was some mistake, and added, "John Alden's folks are amazing lucky somehow they do hit on the right way." Miss Corner was disgusted. She left the house immediately, muttering to herself, "Je- rusha has grown so crusty like, since Zeke run away, that I'll never tell her anything again ! " "When Mr. and Mrs. Crone learned the facts about the plan for the boys at Alden Farm, it caused them much talk when alone at tjieir fireside. John Alden, they agreed, was very wise. If he was going to encour- PATTY VOSE. 237 age the boys to study, most likely that was best. Besides, they learned that his plan was to have them work some every day. "Perhaps," suggested Mr. Crone, "he thinks he will get about as much work out of them as if they wan't encouraged to get learning." "Yes," said Mrs. Crone, warmly, "when boys want to study, it stands to reason that they will be kinder moping, if they don't have a chance." Silence followed this remark, and both were plainly wandering away to Tom, with painful associations with Zeke. Tom soon saw the altered bearing of his parents towards his books. He became less shy when he had a book in hand. Grad- ually he found the way opening for more time for his studies, plainly by his parents' arrangement. His place at the stand was reserved for him, or a candle and table placed apart for his use. The children were hushed, if they were unnecessarily noisy. 238 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. No words were spoken, but actions and the spirit which breathes in them are often "winged words." It was just in this state of things that Patty's invitation to -Tom, through his par- ents, came. The Spirit who had prompted her while in prayer for his guidance, to ten- der the work of love, had prepared them to receive it. CHAPTEE XIV. STUDYING BY RULE. PRISCILLA CODLIN, whose father, it must never be forgotten, was captain of the mili- tia company of the town, had been conde- scendingly entertaining the question whether she should honor Patty by becoming one of her scholars. She had learned that John Alden's plans were popular in the end ; she would therefore be thought to be a partaker of his wisdom. She would, she thought, take private lessons in Latin and Greek, having long since finished her education in the more common studies. But when Priscilla heard that Tom Crone was to be among her pupils, she was amazed. "I am astonished!" she exclaimed, throwing up both hands, and 239 240 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. turning up her one little pug nose she would have -turned both up if she had owned two "I am amazed!" she added, putting her foot down with emphasis, "at Mr. Alden's want of refinement ! Why ! did you ever ! his children going to a private school with Tom Crone ! Well, / shall not go, that's settled!" So it has gone into history that is the history of the transaction we are writing, that Miss Priscilla Codlin, daughter of Cap- tain Ichabod Codlin, did not become a pupil of our friend Patty, and for the reason above stated. The arrangement first made with Patty by Mr. Alden was this : The boys were to spend from ten to twelve A. M., with her, Tuesday and Friday forenoon. They were then to recite such lessons as had been given them, and receive her explanations. He thought this would do to start with. Be- sides, the spring work was especially press- STUDYING BY RULE. 241 ing, and he desired too, to see, as he ex- pressed it, how hard work and hard study would go together. At the first meeting of the three boys with their new teacher, the time was spent in a pleasant talk. Miles showed a little impa- tience at first, under the talk. Why don't she give us our lessons, and explain them, if she's going to, was an expression with which he would have vented his vexation if he had been away from his teacher. But he suon dismissed all uneasiness. Patty was teaching them how to study, and she drew them so gently into her own systematic way that they hardly knew how they came by the resolution to adopt her method. Miles sat down in a corner, of the kitchen by him- self that evening, and became deeply ab- sorbed in puzzling over something which very much interested him. "You mean to get your lessons on the sly," said Carver, good naturedly. " Don't 16 242 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FAKM. get up an ambition to beat Torn and me so soon. Give us a decent chance." Miles took no notice of this bantering. After another half hour's puzzling, he handed Carver a little slip of paper. It was a plan for the disposal of each of the twenty-four hours. The hour of retiring was to be nine o'clock. That generally had been the hour. They were to rise at four, and study one hour until five, when the cattle were to be fed, and other work at the barn done, which would take the time until six, the breakfast hour. Then followed the family devotions. Miles put down an hour for breakfast and family prayer. From seven to twelve was set down for work on the farm, as their father might direct; dinner at twelve, and then study until five, when the time to seven was to be absorbed by chores, supper, family prayer, affording two even- ing hours for study. Carver laughed heartily at this programme, STUDYING BY RULE. 243 but after a few moments he whispered se- riously to Miles, "Brother, you didn't put down any time for reading the Bible and secret prayer. You know Patty had Luther's motto in Latin written and hung up over her study table. She told us it meant, 'To pray weil is to study well.'" Miles blushed at the reproof, took his paper and corrected it, by putting in, as Patty had suggested, reading the Bible and prayer on rising, and before retiring, and always prayer before commencing to study. "There," said Miles, handing the paper back to his brother, and speaking rather lightly, "will that do? It's too pious though, and I shan't live up to it. I'll scratch out the prayer before studying. As to the other, you know, Carve, we always say our pray- ers when we get up and when we go to bed." "How about reading the Bible?" suggested Carver. 244 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FAHM. "Well, don't father read at the family prayers twice a day?" replied Miles, a little petulantly. " Won't that do ? " "I suppose so," said Carver, feeling that he had said more than became him on a matter in reference to which his practice had been no better than his brother's. But Patty's few words on the subject of private prayer and reading the Scriptures in con- nection with study, given with modesty and great tenderness, had deeply impressed the older brother. He yielded to his brother's thoughtless remark on not being too pious about the matter, while he secretly resolved that he would give more attention to it. A few days' experiment taught Miles that he could not calculate quite so closely. One morning little Jeremiah was quite sick, and the breakfast hour was delayed, and for the same reason the dinner was not eaten until one o'clock. Another morning was put into disorder by the boys themselves. They STUDYING BY RULE. 245 slept soundly until their father called them at five o'clock. "A plague take it!" said Miles, when he saw the lateness of the hour. "It's no use to be systematic. It only bothers a fellow to try." Carver laughed, and took the matter very coolly. "We'll soon make it up," he re- marked, as he dressed very deliberately. "No, we shan't," persisted Miles. "We may chase this hour all day, and not catch it." Some special calls would occasionally com- pel their father to break over his own ar- rangement of allowing the boys the afternoon. Nor was the evening always at their dis- posal. Their place of study was one corner of the great kitchen, which, thanks to the stove, always aglow, was as comfortable as any part of the room. But callers sometimes spent an hour or more, talking so loud and incessantly, that their heads became confused. 246 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. So at the end of a few days, Miles took his programme and wrote on the bottom in large letters, "Studying by rule is all a humbug! (signed) Miles Alden." He pushed the paper along to Carver the next morning just as they were sitting down to their books at half-past four. Carver took it, and wrote beneath Miles' signature, in a bolder hand, "Studying with- out rule is a greater humbug. (Signed) Car- ver Alden." Miles acknowledged himself hit, but he did not exactly see the point. But nothing more was said. Both were soon so deeply absorbed in their lessons, that they had to be reminded by their mother that, "Certain creatures in the barn wonder if the rules of Alden Farm are not being broken to their annoyance." The boys needed only this hint. They scampered off to the barn almost too promptly to catch the last word, "annoy- ance." But Miles did hear it, and exclaimed, STUDYING BY RULE. 247 as they entered the barn, half playfully and half in earnest, " I guess * rules ' annoy some- body besides cattle and horses." "No rules would be worse," insisted Car- ver. ***** Hope Cottage was a little nearer Crone's Corner than it was to Alden Farm. Tom was promptly in his place on recitation days. His lessons were not so perfectly learned as were those of his schoolmates. Yet his teacher greeted him with words of encour- agement only. The Alden boys had towards him all of the cordial good will which they had cultivated during the winter. To an old friend who bantered Miles on having a Crone for a school fellow, he showed some- thing like resentment. "Tom's company is as good as yours any day ! " was the tart reply. It alienated for many months old friends, and Miles regretted it, and finally restored good feeling, by a manly apology. 248 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. To a more provoking taunt, Carver had a better answer. " If Tom is better than we are," he replied, with that independence which belonged to the Aldens, "we shall be lifted up a piece by his influence. If he is below us, we shall lift him up, and that will be still pleasanter." "There's no getting round John Alden's boys," said the teaser, and walked away. But candor requires us to say that Carver quoted 'the substance of this remark from Patty, though the application of it to Tom was his own. Tom's lessons, we stated, were not quite as perfectly learned as were those of the other boys. He had copied Miles' rules for systemizing study time. But things were much less orderly at the Corner than at the Farm. Although his parents had con- sented to give him the same time for his books which was granted to his two friends, it was subject to almost constant interruption. STUDYING BY RULE. 249 He became much disturbed sometimes he was vexed and discouraged. He did not write down in large letters, " Studying by rule is a humbug," but he often exclaimed, "It's no use." Besides, Tom was constantly oppressed by a sense of his loneliness. "If Zeke was only here," he would involuntarily say to himself, and when he saw Carver and Miles coining bounding along together towards Hope Cottage oft recitation day, he wiped the unbidden tear from his pensive face. The parents of Tom encouraged their boy just as much as they knew how. To them it was an effort of parental sacrifice and duty, in an unpractised direction. They earnestly desired the "good luck" of Alden Farm in their children, and they were now, according to their small ability, willing to pay the price it demanded. They were "ceasing to do evil, and learning to do well," and God was daily increasing both their strength and pleasure in the good way. 250 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. In the meantime the blunders of Tom's parents, which nearly upset all the good there was in him, were offset by Patty's steady hand, and her keen perception both of Tom's wants and their proper supply. Miles, one day, in his good-natured, bluff way, pushed his programme for study, with its emphatic additions over his and Carver's names, under the eye of Patty. She -read it all, and then looked at the boys with one of her meaning smiles. "There's something coming about that pro- gramme," whispered Miles to Carver, laying down his book, and looking Patty attentively in the face. "I have had large experience on this sub- ject for one no older than I am," said Patty. "And," she added, with a merry twinkle of her eye, which always made the boys merry too, "I believe with Miles, that studying by rule is a humbug " Miles fairly jumped from his seat, clap- STUDYING BY KULE. 251 ping his hands with delight, to think that his teacher had indorsed his emphatic note. Carver and Tom laughed, of course, for Patty's merry face said they might, but they were a little puzzled to understand what Patty could mean, since she 'had prompted some such programme by her remarks on being "very regular" in all that was under- taken, " saving every moment of time pos- sible." When the laugh was subsided, Patty continued, more seriously, by saying, "and I believe with Carver, that no rules for study are a greater humbug ! " It was Carver's turn now to laugh out- right, which he did, with a knowing glance at Miles. "A plan of study," continued the teacher, "is a humbug, especially for boys situated as you are, which has not a large margin for necessary interruptions. Very persistent boys who make them, fret when they fail to be able to keep them. It plagues them dreadfully." 252 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. "It annoys them as it does the cows to have a late breakfast," whispered Miles. "They are not willing," continued the teacher, "that their parents should call them away from their books, however great the necessity for doing so. They feel like being disobedient, or what is about the same thing, they want to stop, and say, 'I don't want to. I shouldn't think you would make me. I shall never get my lesson.' Or they get discouraged, and say, 'It's no use!" "That's me," said Tom to himself. "I would rather have you adopt this rule," added Patty, her face becoming at once more serious and animated in its expression, "es- tablish a habit of improving every moment in some useful way. When duty or neces- sity does not call another way, give it to study. A will in study which settles us into a pleasant, easy habit of sitting down to a book w r hen duty does not call us in another way, makes itself a rule. And what is of STUDYING BY EULE. 253 priceless value, makes it pleasant for us not to study, if duty forbids it." The boys had settled into the mos.t sober attention before Patty had closed these re- marks. Tom's countenance lost its shade of sadness. Miles gazed at his teacher with a look which said, 'I understand you I see it now ! ' and Carver folded his arms and as- sumed a thoughtful attitude. Patty dropped her voice and added at the close of her re- marks, pointing to Luther's motto hung upon the wall, "Remember always, my young friends, that 'To have prayed well is to have studied well.'" The boys scampered home, frisky as young colts, and light of heart as the uncaged spring birds. The Aldens, "just for the fun of it," they said, accompanied Thomas to the gateway leading to his home. Then with exclamations, shouted out with a hearty good will, "Good bye, Tom!" "Success to you!" "Be on hand next Friday!" they turned their faces and run home. 254 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. Mrs. Crone came to the doorway just in time to see the cordial good will at parting, and to hear the farewell shouts. Tom bounded up the path with a "How d'ye do, mother?" and a v What can I do for you first?" The whole scene impressed itself so upon the mother's now tender feelings, as con- trasted with the too frequent manner of the meeting of boys and mother in the past, that she buried her face in her checked apron and burst into tears. Tom, thinking he had in some way wounded his mother's feelings, approached her timidly with words of apol- ogy. She at once dropped her apron, and threw her arms about his neck and kissed him, weeping the while like a child. This turn of affairs at once enabled Tom to un- derstand the spirit of the occasion. It was a new inspiration of effort in the right way. It thrilled his heart, and, added to Patt}''s winning ways, made him strong to endure, and willing to act, in the pathway of duty. CHAPTER XV. MOSE POND. THE spring was fading off into summer. The ground, mellowed by the plough, har- row and hoe, had received its seed. The birds were less engaged in song, and more with their nests, around which they hovered, looking with pride and tender care at their contents. The Alden boys had, by permis- sion, devoted their field working hours, for a few weeks, to the little farm at Hope Cottage. Patty often came out with her great sun-bonnet, beneath which her little N form seemed hid away, and out from under which her bright eyes shone like sunbeams in pearly dew drops. Miles insisted that their teacher, on such occasions", "was real 256 256 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. bewitching." "I tell you what it is, Carver," he would say, "Patty is handsome she's the prettiest girl ill this town." "She is the smartest and best," was Car- ver's sober reply. The little cultivated patches about the Cot- tage were beginning to show plainly the springing seed which had been planted. The trees of the orchard had been nicely rid of caterpillars, which were Patty's detestation. Her often expressed faith that God had made nothing in vain, was severely tried when she saw a huge nest of these little creatures, from which slimy tracks might be traced over every tender limb and twig. Her part had been to point them out when the new race were yet in the egg, and Miles had made quick and thorough work with them, by crushing them in his gloved hand. Patty herself had made and planted the flower beds, some of which were full of beauty and sweet perfume. MOSE POND. 257 Besides what they had done at the Cot- tage farm, the Aldeu boys had been worth at home, as their father said, in his spirited way, "A dozen mopes, who were dragging about the farm because they were compelled to work." They had made pleasure of their duty. The neighbors were very critical in their examination of the Alden Farm, this spring, to see how its owner's experiment was working. But the croakers found no capital for their grumbling. Everything was in order, as usual. His fields were among the most thrifty looking. His orchards were well trimmed, and cleaned of their enemies. No barns were in tidier order. No stock looked better satisfied, or spoke better words for their owner. William Treat, whose life, long one of drifting down the Broad Way, but had been one, since the husking, which looked heaven- ward, declared, in his enthusiasm for his good friend Aldeu, that his fowls cackled 17 258 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. and crowed more joyously than any others. Treat's old companion in sin, Mose Pond, still about always drunk with "moderate drinking," came and leaned upon the fence of John Alden's corn-field. He knew how it had always looked, but he had hoped to find the fences down, and the weeds tower- ing above the corn. "Lucky fellow, is this John Alden ! " muttered Mose. " I be blamed if his corn wouldn't grow and the weeds die, if he, and his stuck-up boys didn't do nothing. It always was his luck. My corn won't grow. It never would, and all John Alden's weeds are just mean enough to move off his premises and stick themselves down on my planting. I be blamed if they don't ! And this here fence of John's why a thousand tornadoes couldn't start a strip of it " and Moses clinched the innocent fence, and, bracing his feet, jerked and twisted this way and that, with drunken fury, to prove that he could do what a tor- MOSE POND. 259 nado could not. Suddenly the fence gave way. Down Mose rolled full eight feet, until he reached the bottom of the banking. "It wouldn't a sarved John Alden so, nor none of his stuck-up, go to school boys ! " said Mose, picking himself up, and brushing the dust from his eyes, and spitting the dirt from his mouth. "You mean thing, you," added Mose, giving the board a kick, "go tell yer owner to nail yer tighter next time, so yer can stand a fellow's heft." There was so little comfort to the drunken idler iu looking at John Alden's fields, that he staggered down, the next day, to Crone's Corner. He had heard that his boy too had got "high notions." He knew too that one boy "was not." He felt certain of com- fort here in seeing neglected fields, fallen fences, and a desponding farmer. He had not quite reached the Corner before his legs gave out. He said, "They'd been weak like for some time, and he had taken his "mod- 260 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. erate" glass that very morning to strengthen them. It was strange, he thought, they did not hold out. He laid it, however, to the smallness of the glass. As he sat, or, rather lay, under the fence, a boon companion came along, who was also afflicted with leg weak- ness. "It's no use," said his companion, "to go down to see Zeke. I've been." "Temperance folks well nigh ruined him, hey?" said Mose. "Xo, he and Jerusha's real stuck up." "They've run young Zeke off, though," said Mose ; " I oilers shall believe John Alden's folks rim him off. They's got 'tothcr boy off too under Patty Vose's sun-bonnet ! Old Zeke's farm looks like crazy, hey?" "Never looked half so well! Blamed if it did ! All the temperance folks got luck this year ! Old Zeke has jined 'em. He wouldn't wet a fellow's whistle if it was to save him." MOSE POND. 261 Mose turned his unsteady steps homeward. It was his last visit, or attempted visit to the fields of his neighbors. He fell at his own gate- way as he had often done before. His wife and children ran from him instead of towards him, when he fell. But his groans soon brought them to his relief. They lifted him up, and the blood flowed freely down his face. He had struck his temple against a sharp stone. Moses Pond's "moderate" drinking had given him so many falls and cuts which had caused his bad blood to flow, that very little was thought of this affair by his family. But no sooner had they stopped the flow of blood, than a wild start or frantic gesture started it again. Dr. Burt was finally sent for. The flow of blood was prevented, but the patient became uncontrolfa- bly delirious. His ravings were frightful to his family, beyond any former experience. "See! see!" he exclaimed, staring at a fancied object in the corner of the room. 262 THE LUCK OF AL.DEN FAEM. "Take them away ! take them away, won't you ! Don't anybody care ! They'll claw me to death ! Take them off, I say ! " he screamed with great violence. Utterly exhausted at last, Mose fell into a quiet sleep. When he awoke he stared about, as if to assure himself that he was with his family. "It's you, Eunice, is it?" he said, addressing his wife. "Yes, dear, it is your own wife." " Come here, Becky," he said to his oldest child, a girl about ten years old. Eebecca approached timidly, as if in doubt whether her father was drunk or sober. He stretched out his feeble hand and drew her to his face and kissed her. The child looked con- fused. She had been often struck and kicked, and but seldom kissed. He called Jennie, the only other child, a sickly girl of four years. He stroked her flaxen hair tenderly, kissed her and wept freely. Then looking up into his wife's face, he said, in MOSE POND. 263 sobbing accents, "My dear, can you ever forgive me?" No such tender words had she heard from him since he had become a noisy advocate of "moderate drinking." She knelt by his bed-side and wet her penitent husband's face with her tears. "Eunice, I must die, but tell me, can you forgive me?" "Yes, dear husband, I do, but you must not die. You must live to comfort us." "I must die, Eunice," he said, more feebly. "Shall I send for your good friend, Dea- con Prime?" inquired his wife. The dying man shook his head, and whispered, "Cur- tis John " "The minister?" "Y-e-s, and J-o-h-u." "John Alden?" said his wife. He nodded assent, and sunk back upon his pillow, scarcely giving signs of life. The minister and John Alden were soon 264 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FA KM. present, and both prayed fervently and ten- derly for God's mercy to be granted, through Jesus Christ, "even as to the thief upon the cross." Moses opened his eyes and looked with apparent consciousness upon Mr. Alden, as if his last thoughts were of the groat truths of religion which he had so often urged in vain upon his attention, and then closed them in death. ***** Moses Pond was buried quietly, as was fitting he should be, from his own home, now full of mourning, but not more desolate than his life had made it. The next Sab- bath a solemn and large audience listened to the words of the faithful pastor. He closed his sermon with tender entreaty to all, especially to the young, to give their hearts to God to turn from every evil way, especially that of the intoxicating cup. "I warn you," added the preacher, with a fervor that melted the congregation, "against MOSE POND. 2 1)5 the first glass! The time has fully cornel" he exclaimed, with a tone of authority, "to declare that total abstinence is the only tem- perance." There was a commotion in the parish the following week. Dr. Burt demanded a par- ish meeting to consider the pastor's heresy of faith on the temperance question. He went about arguing warmly that lie had not been the cause of Mose Pond's dreadful death, though nobody accused him. "Mose," he declared everywhere, "would take too much in spite of all my faithful and kind warnings. I knew he took too much and told him so. Am 7 to blame because he died a drunkard ? " John Alden now roused himself, like a lion whose lair is invaded by the hunters. He held temperance meetings in every neigh- borhood in town, the people flocking to hear him, and signing the pledge. Patty said she never wanted so much to 266 THE LUCK OF ABDEN FARM. be a minister. But she thanked God that her minister was on the right track. She at once set herself at work to do what she could in her own way. She had three at least trusty servants at her command. She reckoned them a host. She gave her three scholars a prompting to get up a boys' tem- perance society. "What can we do?" inquired Tom, timidly. "You can do a great deal!" said Patty, with spirit. Then suddenly checking her earnestness, she added, in a lower, gentle tone, "I mean if you seek divine help. How I wish my boys knew hoio to pray aright." Patty wrote for the boys a pledge, and gave each a copy. They agreed to see, be- fore many weeks, every boy in town. They divided off the town into districts, and each took an assigned territory. As the boys were going out, after having received their pledges, Miles lingered for a moment behind. There was a half serious, half comical ex- POND. 267 pression about his face, not uncommon with him. "Well, Miles," said Patty, approaching him in her gentle, loving way, "what do you wish to say ? " "Can't you, teacher, do the praying about this business, while we do the work?" whis- pered Miles. "I don't think we boys can any how." Having freed his mind, Miles did not wait for an answer. He soon overtook Carver and Tom, and the three talked over their plans about the new enterprise. They thought they knew the name and residence of every boy in town. So they agreed to write them down that evening. The Aldens generously offered to take a part of those assigned to Tom, for they saw he was quite timid about the business. Tom told his mother at once, what Patty had proposed for her scholars to do. She received the statement quite coldly at 268 THE LUCK OF ALPEN FARM. first. Her son's courage, never great, went down to utter cowardice. " I can't," strug- gled for utterance. In the mother's mind there was a conflict. Old, narrow views were warring with new and better ones. Her husband felt in the same manner, though he waited for his wife to declare her feeling. The fireside talk, just before retiring, brought the matter to a decision. "I should think," said Mrs. Crone, "that Tom had enough to do already." "I should think so," replied her husband. There was a moment's silence. "It would do Tom good, I suppose," re- marked Mrs. Crone, dreamily. "It certainly would," said Mr. Crone. Another pause, and Mrs. Crone remarked, "The Alden boys will do it all if he don't. They'll have all the boys with them too, I'll warrant. Aldens can always make folks go with them, and I wonder why our boy can't do something as well as they!" MOSE POND. 269 "I should think he' might," said Ezekiel Crone, decisively. The parents having reached a satisfactory conclusion on the matter, the mother re- ported to Tom accordingly. Tom's courage went up again. He had just that timid na- ture which needed sympathy, and wanted courage breathed into him from a stronger nature. Then he could work well in a good cause work persistently, and reap for him- self and others a 'harvest. He and Miles were, as Patty said, good complements for each other. Miles liked sympathy, but nei- ther sought it nor depended upon it. A little opposition was a spur to his resolution. He had strong convictions, and a will strong enough to act up to them. Tom put unusual energy into his part of the farm work, and every time he went out with his paper for "signers," he came back with greater self-respect and moral power. If at any time his heart was growing faint 270 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. under an unexpected rebuff, when he "com- pared notes " with Miles, he was strong again. One day as he was arguing for total abstinence and the pledge, a special friend and disciple of Doctor Burt broke in upon his talk. His name was Green. He was about ten years older than Tom. "Look here, now, you young meddler," said Green, breaking in upon Tom's conver- sation, "you talk like a ninny. What do you know about the matter any way? Do you know more than all the doctors? Dr. Burt has studied at college. He's got laru- iu'. He says a little liquor's good for a man, and au't all our fathers used it the ministers, and all good folks! Now, it isn't likely they'd a used it if it was such an awful bad thing. You're trying to get away the rights of the boys by that are pledge." Tom modestly suggested that every drunk- ard began by taking a little ; that when peo- ple began to drink it was not easy to take MOSE POND. 271 only a little, nor to leave off when they found it hurt them. He cited Mose Pond's case, as an illustration of the evils of mod- erate drinking. Tom had good arguments, and Green a loud voice and a bad temper. When Tom named Pond, Green exclaimed, shaking his fist in Tom's face, "Torn Crone, you're a fool ! All the Crones are fools, and always was!" To these insults Green added a vio- lent push, saying, as Tom went reeling against the fence, "What do you think yourself to be? Sich as you trying to tell folks when they ought to drink ! " Tom pursued his mission work no further that day. It was his first experience in a violent return of evil for his good. He .had not learned to rejoice at it, nor to feel that it was for Christ's sake. He did not recover from the disheartening blow until he had re- ceived the sympathy of his mother and of the Aldeus. When Miles heard Tom's story 272 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. concerning his contact with Green, Miles shrugged his shoulders, saying, "Mean to hunt up Green next time I go out, wouldn't you, Carver?" "Don't know as I should," replied Carver. "You will cast your pearls before swine, maybe." "Oh, it's not a pearl I am going to throw at him," said Miles, laughing. "What will you throw at him?" K Hard arguments." " And what if he laughs at them ? " "Why, I'll let him laugh." "But what more than argments will you use with Green?" "Facts." "Father says facts are the best kind of arguments," added Carver. "Yes," replied Miles, with a significant nod of his head, "especially when they hit as hard as mine will hit Green." The boys separated. There was something MOSE POND. 273 in the defiant spirit of Miles toward Green that made Tom ashamed that he had allowed so worthless a fellow, who so meanly de- fended a bad cause, to burden him. "I wish I did have more courage when I know I'm right," he said to himself, as he walked thoughtfully home. Miles found no difficulty in meeting Green. He found him where he was generally to be found, lounging about the grocery store sta- bles. Green's triumph over Tom was so easy in his own estimation, that he counted on an equally easy task in sending home abashed any temperance boy. He was be- coming very insolent, and a great hindrance to the further circulation of the pledge among the young folks. Miles commenced his efforts to get pledges in the presence of this defiant advocate of rum. Green at once strode towards him, and began his denun- ciation of all teetotalism. He rehearsed the old argument of a little being good for one, 18 274 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. and sneered at boys pretending to know "more'n the doctors," and being "wiser than all the fathers." "How much is f a little rum'?" said Miles. "Why, as much as will do a man good." "How much will do a man good, hey?" "Why yes as much as makes him feel better. I don't believe, you see, in getting drunk." "Just so much as Mose Pond always had only just enough to make him feel bet- ter. He never had too much, in his own judgment." "Mose was a fool, and so are you." Not regarding the personal insult, Miles confronted Green with an unflinching bravery, and demanded, in a clear, strong, unfaltering voice, "Do you know what a little is? do you know when you get enough?" " Yes," was the faltering reply, as Green looked upon Miles' honest, bold face and searching eye, and upon the crowd of boys MOSE POND. 275 who had gathered about them, all of whom knew his habits well. "Yes, sir" replied Miles, in a voice so vociferous that he made every boy in the crowd feel the force of his reply "Yes, sir, you knew exactly what was enough when you lay under the wall drunk last Saturday night ! You have known just how much is a little, for twelve months, and been drunk all of twelve times ! " "You're a mean temperance meddler!" ex- claimed Green, in a passion, drawing back and raising his arm defiantly. Miles stood on the defensive, without flinching. "A fight! a fight!" shouted the boys. "Give 'em fair play." Green was much the older, but Miles' well developed muscles, large and strong limbs, showed that he had at least, a tolerable chance, if the dispute came to blows, and it was evident it would if Green struck the first blow. In fact, he 276 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FAKM. rather desired to humble the advocate of rum by a sound whipping. It was plain he had left the praying to Patty, and had as- sumed a little more of the acting than was becoming in a moral reform. "Better not strike an Aldeu," said a voice in the crowd. "Miles will lay you out stifier than a poker." Green thought discretion the better part of valor, and beat a hasty retreat, amidst the jeers of the crowd. His influence with the boys was gone. CHAPTER XVI. A NEW LIFE. GHEAT success crowned the efforts of Pat- ty's scholars, so that she was more than ever esteemed by their parents. Mr. Alden called what had been done among the young, "Pat- ty's work," for she devised the plan of oper- ation, and directed and sustained by her wisdom and courage, the efforts. It became the "town's talk." The sober, thoughtful people, for the most part rejoiced. The Dr. Burt party, aided by the liquor sellers and all the drunkards, talked loud, and with awful solemnity. "What are we coming to?" said the grocery store loafers. "Wo- men and the boys are a-going to take away our rights." The movement among the children had 277 278 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. nowhere done more good than at the Corner. Mr. and Mrs. Crone were greatly benefited by Tom's connection with it. It had en- larged their range of thought with regard to their boy. They had valued their chil- dren by the measure of their usefulness in the work of their hands. Having never felt to any great extent responsibility for the moral good of others, they never thought of such a line of service for their children. Tom's labors had greatly benefited them in this respect. They were conscious of a higher and broader estimate of character. The Spirit whispered through this incident, "Go work in my vineyard!" As to Tom, it was a marked era in his life the most important he had ever seen. He labored on the farm with more heart, for he had greater self-respect. He felt that he was already somebody. He studied easier and with more pleasure, for he had a nobler aim. ***** A NEW LIFE. 279 The summer was now ended. The farmers were in the midst of their harvest work. The pupils of Patty recited good lessons, up to the commencement of the harvesting, ex- cept during a vacation in the warm weeks of dogdays. They now gave their whole time to the farms. They were happy in the thought that no summer had been so full of pleasure and improvement. They were in danger indeed of being too full of self-confi- dence. Miles especially, put on some " airs." His triumph over Green obtained him many compliments. While his conduct towards Tom was full of his characteristic kindness, his bearing was becoming that of a superior. Carver was less vain but more proud. He did not talk as freely of himself as his brother did, nor attempt to "show off," but he entertained the conviction that Carver Alden of Alden Farm, had few equals and no superiors. He thought with great satis- faction of the future day when he should be 280 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. in college, and show the wondering students what he could do ! The private character of the boys' school encouraged these feelings. They measured themselves by themselves, and were not wise. They needed, for a correc- tion of these errors, the healthful competi- tion of a large school, gathered from a wide range of country, some of whose scholars might take the vanity and pride out of them. The harvesting at Alden's and at the Cor- ner was never more abundant for the labor bestowed; and it is certain that "harvest home," was never sung more joyfully. Only one cloud that, a dark, heavy one hung over the now truly Christian home of Ezekiel Crone. The feelings of Mr. Alden, over whose family joy no cloud hung, are well expressed in the following incident. The product of his fields had all been gathered into his barns and granaries. Thanksgiving day, with A NEW LITE. 281 its fullness of occasion to praise the God of harvest, had passed. He had given of his abundance with a liberal hand to the poor. Still, the yearning of the hearts of the pa- rental heads of the Alden family was to do more for the Master. It was when they were just in this state of feeling that their pastor, Mr. Curtis, and his wife, favored them with an evening's visit. Two topics of conversation were of absorb- ing interest, until an unusually late hour. One was joyous, and the other sad. "The signs of the outpourings of God's spirit," said Mr. Curtis, "were never so encourag- ing. The bow of promise is in the parting clouds. The temperance reform has cleared the moral atmosphere by removing in a great degree, an old, scandalous stumbling-block." "I believe you are right," replied Mr. Al- deu, with animation. "The young people were never more seriously disposed. Their attention to the words preached was never 282 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FAliM. better ! " He closed this strain of remark by saying, solemnly, " Oh, that God would add to His great mercies to my family this one : the conversion of my children ! " It was arranged between the pastor and his faithful member, to secure an agreement on the part of all the earnest, spiritual mem- bers, to meet on Thursday afternoon of each week, in the great kitchen of the parsonage, to pray for this one thing, the gift of larger measures of the Spirit. Patience and Mrs. Curtis entered warmly into the pro- posal. They began immediately to stir up the sisters in the good work. The sad topic of conversation was the sick- ness of Deacon Prime, of which Mr. Alden had not heard. He had been repelled from the society and fellowship of this aged office bearer. No "misunderstanding" had ever oc- curred, more than that which came naturally out of great difference both of views on many religious topics, and of Christian experience. A NEW LIFE. 283 The deacon's godliness had been one of un- doubted sincerity, but it was very sour. The law with him was more than the gospel ; he had taken it not as "a schoolmaster to bring him to Christ," but as the bearer of a scourge with which to chastise the "old man" into the image and nature of the "new man." But Mr. Alden resolved to go at once and tender his Christian condolence to his brother. But when calling upon the devout and Christ- like Deacon Turner, he thought best to delay his visit. The pastor and the younger dea- con had been more than once, and found their aged brother in a state of great con- flict of mind. A change, they thought, was coming over him. It would be best to wait. We will visit Deacon Prime's sick room, and he shall speak for himself. The dea- con's sickness assumed, from the first, a se- rious character. He was impressed that his departure was near. He began to listen to the reading of the Bible with a deeper 284 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. interest. He had read it morning and even- ing for many years, but now its utterances seemed clothed with fresh authority. "I have been a great sinner," said the deacon, sighing deeply. His family turned to the precious promises, especially those which fell from Christ's own lips. His bur- dened heart saw only the fact that he was a sinner. There was no comfort in the view, but increasing distress. Good Deacon Tur- ner came in, and pressed upon his attention, and held before his mind the atoning blood. He urged as the sole ground of the sinner's acceptance, "Repentance towards God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ," a doc- trine the despairing deacon had always held and pressed upon others. "To him that be- lieveth" said Deacon Turner fervently, "Christ is precious." A night of spiritual darkness followed. In the morning the deacon was bolstered up, and the Word of God was placed before him. He began with Christ's A NEW LIFE. 285 discourse to his disciples, at the institution of the Supper. He was struck with the ten- derness of the address, "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Ye believe in God, believe also in me." He read these words over again. He took off his glasses, wiped them, re-adjusted them, and read them again. They seemed so new he could hardly persuade himself that they were the same words which he had often read from his youth. The Holy Spirit won- derfully illuminated them; and by his aid his heart took hold of the Redeemer who spoke them for every sin-stained but broken and contrite heart. He was no longer trou- bled. He had always believed in God, whom he saw as "angry with the sinner every day ; " he now believed " also " in him " by whose stripes we are healed." His counte- nance was lighted with holy joy, as he lay breathing a low, tender, fervent utterance of praise. His family felt the change, and 286 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. greatly rejoiced. His brother in office stood at the bedside with thankfulness and wonder. His pastor saw in the change another evi- dence of a coming gracious visitation. "Now," said Deacon Prime, "send for Brother Alden." As he approached his bed s he threw his arms about his neck, and wept freely. "I have been all wrong, Brother Alden. We have held to the same God and the same Saviour, but we have had a different experience. I have wronged you by my words and spirit. I will not ask your forgiveness ; I read it already in your face. I know by your long cherished, lov- ing spirit that I have it. Oh, that I could live to tell all of the precious love of the Saviour to me." The deacon ceased, folded his hands across his breast, and fell asleep in Christ. A heavenly smile, which he had never worn in life, settled upon his face in death. A fresh inspiration was given to the faith A NEW LIFE. 287 of the praying band, -which met at the par- sonage on Thursday afternoon. The prayers at many family altars were quickened ; less formality and more of the spirit of suppli- cation prevailed generally in the parish of Mr. Curtis. " Our children ! May they be gathered into Christ's fold ! " was the devout exclamation of many parents. While others, sincerely distrusting all professed conversions among young people, turned coldly towards efforts in this direction. The earnest pastor was not one of these ; his prayers were never more fervent than when his only child, Jane, was remembered before God. John and Patience Alden had long ago discussed, in their earnest, thoughtful, iude- pendent and prayerful manner, the question of early conversions. It was when their first born was yet a child, that the following talk about this matter occurred. "Patience," said John, who had just re- turned from Carver's sleeping-room, where he 288 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. had tucked him up snugly iu his little trun- dle bed, "Patience, at what age may we rightly expect the conversion of our boy?" "Just as soon as he may be held re- sponsible for what he does," replied Patience, decidedly. "It's a great thing to be a Christian," sug- gested John. "Certainly," said Patience. "Conversion is a great work, and children may easily be deceived in such great mat- ters," further suggested Mr. Aldeu, who was evidently at his well practiced device, of bringing up objections to call -out the thoughts of his wife. "Now, John," said Patience, with an ear- nestness which startled her husband, "I be- lieve that a child, at his first responsible moments, will more easily and more clearly see Christ as a Saviour, and believe on Him unto salvation, more readily, if properly in- structed, than at any later time ! " A NEW LIFE. 289 K Why, Patience ! " exclaimed her husband, really surprised at this bold assertion. "Don't the Spirit strive more earnestly for the child than for the older person who has grieved Him often?" said Patience, with in- creasing warmth. "Does He?" inquired Mr. Alden. "Does a father," said Patience, "ask the acceptance by a child of a favor, more freely after it has been often refused?" "But we have been taught not to encour- age children to expect renewing grace," re- plied Mr. Alden, hesitatingly. "But Christ has said, < Suffer little chil- dren to come unto me,'" answered Patience, in a sad tone. She was thinking of her own little faith in a truth she had so earnestly- advocated. Her husband, having obtained what he sought, his wife's clear statements, added to her arguments others in the same direction, and shortly after, at the family altar, thanked 19 290 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. God for the promise that for the little chil- dren even, was the kingdom of heaven. Years had passed since this incident, but now, when the desire for their children's conversion was burdening them, they were greatly humbled that their prayers, labors and faith had been so little in accordance with their expressed belief. The family altar at Alden Farm never breathed more fervent prayers than were now ascending from it. The place of secret prayer wit- nessed confessions, penitential tears and be- lieving supplications. "Carve," said the unsuspecting Miles, "how good to us everybody seems ! " " What ! " said Carver, looking up from his I book. "How kind everybody is ! " repeated Miles. " How father does pray, too ! " "Hasn't he always prayed," said Carver, affecting an indifference to the subject he did not feel. Both boys commenced study- A NEW LIFE. 291 ing again. They were alone in their pa- rents' sleeping-room, where a fire was occa- sionally made for them when callers were expected in the kitchen. But their minds were not absorbed in their books as usual. Soon Miles commenced again on the subject which was burdening his heart, but of which he had not courage to speak directly. "How very kind Patty is ! " he said, as if talking to himself. "Why, hasn't she always, been kind?" said Carver. "I mean, how loving she is," answered Miles. Carver smiled, and said, "Well, I think she has always been loving." Miles blushed, but said, resolutely, "I think, Carver, that father and mother, and our teacher want us to be Christians, right off! I see it in their faces all the time. They pray too, that we may, I know they do. Yesterday at the recitation, while you 292 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. were looking out a word in the Latin Die- O tionary, Patty rested her elbow on the table and put her face in her hand. She was praying for you, I know she was, for she looked at you so tenderly when you began to translate, and I saw her wipe a tear from one corner of her eye ! But I wonder she never talks to us about being Christians. I wish she would say something about Jesus." Carver made no bluff reply to this. He said nothing, but his brother saw that he was affected, and he followed up his advantage, in the frank expression of a full soul. " Car- ver," he said, with a -choked utterance, "I mean to try to give my heart to God." Both boys bowed their heads upon their study table in silence. Carver had really felt the drawings of God's Spirit longer and more deeply than his brother. But his will was less yielding, and his proud heart warred against the Love which was drawing him to the narrow path of peace and safety. The A NEW LIFE. 293 contention in the heart of Miles was sharper and sooner ended. He wept freely, and finally retired to his own room to weep and pray alone. While Jesus was thus meeting with Patty's students, and preparing their hearts for the message from Him which might be sent, he spake by His Spirit to her that night. In her oft repeated prayer for her pupils, she had prayed for wisdom in winning them to Christ. Suddenly she now cried out, "Jesus, forgive me; that I have not borne to them the message of thy love more faithfully. I will, by thy help, when next I see them." The recitations were ended on the follow- ing Friday, when Patty, with a fluttering heart, said, "My young friends, would you like to tarry a short time, that we may talk about the Saviour? I want you to give Him your hearts." Thomas Crone looked into the faces of his Alden friends. He was glad to read there 294 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. a cordial response to the teacher's request. The words which the faithful teacher uttered dropped like seed into good ground. The Great Sower had been there before her, pre- paring the ground, by the fertilizing warmth of His Spirit, and by the hammer of His Word breaking its stony hardness. At the close of the interview, all kneeled in brokenness of heart, while the teacher asked for a genuine penitence and faith. Very little studying was done for several days. "Carver and Miles told atl their feel- ings, without embarrassment, to their mother. In her simple Christian discipline she had pos- sessed so much of the Christ Spirit, that no barrier was raised between her and their fullest confidence. Even the rougher nature of their father was childlike simplicity here, and both parents and children, as one family in Christ, talked, sang, and prayed together daily. Patience pointed out to them such passages of Scripture as she deemed specially A NEW LIFE. 295 adapted to their case. She warned them of errors which, as she had learned by expe- rience, beset the seeker's path. Under such guidance and prayers, gradually the peace of the believer entered their hearts. About three weeks after these incidents, both Carver and Miles were again in their parents' chamber, before a blazing fire, about to commence an evening's study. Both, with- out concert, had stolen away into their own chamber, for a few moments of secret prayer before commencing. As they were seated at their study table, with books opened before them, Carver looked up and said, seriously, "Miles, we know now what Patty meant when she talked to us about Luther's motto, don't we?" "Yes," said Miles, smiling, "I think I shan't now want to leave the praying before study, to Patty." Lonely Thomas Crone groped more in the dark, and through a longer path, to find the 296 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. Light of Life. His instruction in religious things had been very limited. He had never felt any freedom in talking with his parents about holy things ; and even now, when both were very glad to see his seriousness, and evident desire to love the Saviour, they did not know what to say to him. They saw and felt this, and were greatly humbled. "Ezekiel," said Mrs. Crone, as she looked into Tom's beseeching countenance, "Ezekiel, we ought to be teachers in divine things, but we are only babes. God forgive us, and make our boy a Christian, and a better one, too, than we have been." But Tom found in his teacher and school- mates, willing helpers, and he too, was soon happy in the peace which passes understand- ing, and the joy which is full of the Holy Ghost. CHAPTER XVn. BURDENED HEAETS. THE awakening had reached the home of Joel Organ, the father of Fred. As we have stated, they lived on a by-road several miles from town. Mr. Organ's wife, Mary, never possessed of an amiable disposition, had been more than ever ill-tempered since the mysterious disappearance of Zeke Crone. She manifested strange emotions when the continued mourning of his parents for him was mentioned by a caller. She would at once break out into a noisy talk about it. "Why," she exclaimed, "should Jerusha Crone, or her old. man, care for Zeke's loss?. He can't be worse off than he was at home. They drove him out doors, and so who's to 297 298 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. blame ! They needn't tell me that they do care anything about it ! I know 'em ! For my part, I think they may thank anybody who has given Zeke a shelter." This heat was exciting attention and caus- ing remarks. Mrs. Organ saw this, and shut herself up in her obscure home more than ever. Fred was removed from school soon after his mean conduct towards Thomas Crone. He had been allowed to go to town but little, and even Mr. Organ's visits were jealously restrained by his wife. Thus shut out from society, they were little likely to be partakers of the religious interest of the town. But the Holy Spirit can not be shut out from the by-ways of sin when he is moved towards them by earnest, believing prayer. We will note how it was. Patty 'Vose rejoiced with a cautious, deep interest, in the evidence of a saving change in her pupils. It was not with her as with many Christians when dear friends are con- BURDENED HEARTS. 299 verted. Her solicitude did not cease with their conversion. She knew that their Chris- tian life was but just begun ; that there were conflicts through which they must pass, and work for them to do ; that they needed to be built tip in the faith* of Jesus, and to grow in grace ; and that they needed for all this the counsel of experience, and the guidance of older Christians. So they had been her pupils, not only in Greek and Latin, but in the more important things of holy living. "The luck of Alden Farm" was never more apparent than in the relig- ious growth of its boys, so Patty's work in reference to them, was the comparatively easy one of co-operation. But for Thomas Crone her labor was more responsible and difficult. His parents did little for his Chris- tian culture. How could they impart that of which they had obtained so little ! They felt their lack keenly. "John Aldeu's boys will be sure to hold out," said Mrs. Croue. 300 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. " Everything he and Patience undertake comes out right. They've been always lucky. Our boy has got to stumble along, I suppose, just as his parents have. I do want him, though, to live a sight better ! " Jerusha Crone's tears, at this time, flowed easily. She did feel her own, and her husband's deficiency in force of Christian character, but she had not quite overcome her foolish application of the term " luck " to what su- perior character accomplished. It was still in a measure a blind to a full view of her Christian obligations. So, in God's kind providence, Patty and the Alden boys, sup- ported by their parents, came in to supply to Tom the parental deficiency. The winter school was again in operation. Mr. Everett had consented to become its teacher again, though offered better paying fields of labor. He was drawn to his former pupils by a strong friendship, increased by 'the religious interest among them. Patty's BURDENED HEARTS. 301 pupils were transferred to him, the Alden boys reciting their Latin and Greek private- ly, twice a week. He bore a generous tes- timony to the accuracy of their late teacher's instruction, as well as to the marked prog- ress of the boys during the summer. But Patty retained her watchful care over the religious growth of the boys, especially of Tom. There was quite an unpleasant feeling in the family of Joel Organ during the week before the commencement of the school. "Mary," said Joel to his wife, "I am deter- mined that Fred shall go to school this winter, in spite of your nervous fear that our secret will get out." " Fear ! " retorted Mary, sharply. " You needn't accuse me of being afraid of the Crones, nor anybody who pretends to be their friend. But it's for the boy's good that I would have our secret kept." " The boy's good ! " replied Mr. Organ, sneeringly. 302 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. This remark wounded Mrs. Organ, and she replied, smartly, " You men folks do so ache to tell all you know ! " Joel left the house in anger, slammiug the door as he retired. He found Fred in the barn, whom he addressed in a tone in no- wise fitted to soothe his perplexed and bur- dened feelings. "Fred!" said the father. "What sir?" answered Fred, startled by the excited voice and manner of his father. " Fred ! " repeated Joel, " do you go to school on Monday. And if you tell any person our secret, I'll skin you ! " Fred began to cry. "All the boys," he sobbed, "will be teasing me, and I don't want to go to school ! " "Well," replied his father, in a softened tone, "you can keep your mouth shut about it, can't you?" " Don't know, sir," replied Fred. " If you do tell ! " said his father, again roused to fury, as he shook his fist in the face of his boy. BURDENED HEAETS. 303 When Mr. Organ told his wife that he had " decided " that Fred should attend school, there was another scene*, which ended in a violent fit of crying by Mrs. Organ. Her husband soothed her feelings in his way, by reminding her that she "didn't care who knew the secret. Not she ! It was nothing she was ashamed of ! " Fred did attend the school on Monday. His bearing was that of the Crone boys a year before, but not that of Thomas Crone now. When the first week closed, and Sat- urday night closed, Fred and his parents were sitting by the kitchen fire. But little had been said during the week of the "teas- ing" of the boys. He had grown more cheerful after each day's attendance at school, and now his good spirits appeared in his face. He has rid himself of our vexatious secret, thought his father, and feels better for it; and I don't care if he has, for it must come out some time. His wife did not dare 304 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. to ask Fred, for she dreaded the conse- quences to him and herself of any course he might take. At length Fred broke the pain- ful silence. "Mother!" he exclaimed, "all the boys at school are real kind. They are as good again as they were last winter ! " j "And coaxed out of you all you know, I'll warrant ! " said his mother, waiting with an anxious face for his reply. "No, they have never teased nor coaxed me about our secret," said Fred, cheerfully. "I guess they have forgotten all about that." A pause followed, which Fred broke by say- ing, in a low, thoughtful tone, "I don't know though as they have." He was thinking of Thomas Crone's care-worn look, although he did seem so much smarter, and better be- haved than he did a year, before. Fred continued to report the kind bearing of all the school, and the especial attentiou of the Alden boys, and the "real good sort of way" of "Tom Crone." "Why, mother," BURDENED HEARTS. 305 said Fred, ''Torn is getting real smart, and he seems to love me better than he loves any of the boys ! " "Coaxing round you?" said his mother, in- quiringly. "I'd like to know what reason Tom's got to coax round our Fred!" interposed Mr. Organ." This remark shut off further talk. But an impression had been made upon the parents of which they were not yet ready to speak. Indeed, they did not know what either to think or say of the changed spirit at school. But it led them . to venture to go to town to church, which they had not done for many months. The result was a greater perplexity than ever. Every one was kind and atten- tive. Even the Crones, Ezekiel and his wife, approached them with a cordiality which they could not, or rather, as it was in the pres- ence of others, dared not repel. They went home, pondering upon the altered spirit of 20 306 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. the people of the town. Their visits at the church became constant, when the winter storms did not prevent. While this feeling of interest is growing in the Organ family, we will note more fully the cause which so puzzled them. "Thomas," said Patty, as he was about to commence, study in the winter school, "you must work for the Saviour this win- ter." Thomas hung his head despondingly. Patty had often, in general terms, spoken to her young friends to learn early an active piety, but she had never put the. duty home so directly to him. "What can I do?" was the timid reply. "If any boy has ever injured you, watch for an opportunity to do him a favor; that will be one way to begin to do something to show your love for Christ," replied Patty, with animation. Thomas was much impressed with this re- mark. When he was sitting by the great BURDENED HEARTS. 307 fire-place of the kitchen that evening, around which the whole family were gathered, and felt the change the pleasant change which had come over the spirit of his home, the remark of Patty came to him with new force. ["There's Fred," he mused. "If anybody has injured me it is he. Wonder if he will be at school this winter?" So when these two boys met, a surprise of which we know something was prepared for Fred. Thomas Crone, owing to his summer study, was now among Mr. Everett's best scholars. The re- proach of Crone's Corner was fading out. Energy, industry, and good character were slowly but surely bringing "good luck." So Fred was glad to receive Tom's special attentions, and occasional aid in his studies. At Alden Farm bolder efforts were planned to win the Organs into the pleasant, though narrow paths of true wisdom. While the boys were throwing the silken cords of a Christian love around Fred, their parents 308 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. were praying for and watching a favoring opportunity to speak to Joel and Mary Or- gan. The increasing interest of the Organs in the service of the house of worship en- couraged these efforts. "Patience," said John Alden, on Sabbath evening, after a most joyous day in the courts of the Lord; "Patience, we must go and make Joel and Mary Organ a call. I seem drawn towards them." "They seem much drawn towards the peo- ple of God and His house," remarked Pa- tience. Carver, who had heard this remark, whis- pered to Miles, "Miles, I wish we could go to Fred Organ's. I guess he would be glad to see us." " He is a different boy from what he was last winter," sdid Miles. But John and Patience chose to make the call first alone, which they did, arriving early on a clear, moonlight evening. The level BURDENED HEARTS. 309 snow had made fine sleighing. The shrub- bery along the road sparkled with pearly icicles, and the clear, cold air echoed to the merry bells. Even John Alden's horse seemed inspired by the errand of Christian love of those he bore, for, though he had seen fifteen winters, Patience declared that he " skipped over the road like a colt." The visitors were received cordially. Ear- lier in the winter, Mary Organ's face would have been flushed with suspicion and ill-will towards such callers. But she had been disarmed, as much through the treatment of Fred as by courtesies to herself. No allu- sion was made to the Crones, and the heart of Mrs. Organ was open to the influence of faithful Christian labor to win her to Christ. Her husband was even more within such an influence. As to Fred, though addressed by a few words only, the words and spirit of the visitors fell upon his heart as light and heat upon the opening flower. So swiftly 310 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. did the moments fly, that even the Aldens were beguiled into a later hour than usual. Nor was the pleasure of the occasion aided by even an offer of wine from the sideboard, nor cider from the cellar. Joel had plenty of both, and to most other callers they would have been tendered as a necessary politeness. But John Alden's emphatic "JVb t sir," was known as far as his face or name was rec- ognized. When prayer was offered by Mr. Alden, it melted all hearts by its tender, earnest simplicity and directness. He means me by every word of his prayer, thought Mrs. Organ. He asks a blessing for you, whispered the Spirit in the heart of Mr. Organ. Fred wiped his eyes when the prayer closed, and was truly thankful that the whole of it had been for him. When the visitors had gone, the Organ family sat for some moments around their blazing fire in silence. Though no angels unawares had been entertained, but only the' BUKDENED HEARTS. 311 renewed of the earthly church, a heavenly influence seemed to linger about the room. "Mary," said Mr. Organ, breaking the silence, "have we any better friends than John and Patience?" "None," answered his wife. Another pause followed, which Fred inter- rupted, by saying, timidly, "I haven't any better friends than Carver, Miles, and " He hesitated to add the name he intended, and looked into his mother's face for per- mission. "And who, Fred?" said his mother, in a tone which intimated her willingness to hear even the hated name. "And Tom Crone," said Fred, with a choked utterance. Silence again reigned, but no look evi- denced displeasure at the declaration. "And we are concealing in our own bur- dened hearts a fact which would rejoice the heart of each of them," said Mr. Organ, 312 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. feelingly. Mrs. Organ buried her face iu her hands and began a subdued sobbing, which she tried in vain to suppress. There was a severe conflict going on in her mind between a newly awakened sense of duty, and a long cherished pride and resentment. She began to see that to have peace within, to which she had long been a stranger, she must humble herself before both God and man. Her husband had less pride and re- gard for what others might think or say in reference to a line of conduct which for about a year had been a secret in the family, but he had a strong will, perversely set in the wrong direction. "I won't," struggled violently in his breast, with the Holy Spirit inspired duty of saying, " Nay, but I yield, I yield, I can hold out no more ; I sink, by dying love compelled, And own Christ conqueror." Fred looked into the face of one parent BURDENED HEAETS. 313 and then of the other. He perceived, with joy, in their flushed expression, not the old anger, but an anxious concern. He knew, too, what it meant. He had himself felt it deeply and bitterly. But his contact with better spirits at school, and his more sus- ceptible, youthful feeling, had caused already the yielding. He longed for the permission of his parents to tell the Crones and his Alden friends all he knew concerning the missing boy, and to confess his own part in the guilty transaction. He felt that it would be a luxury of joy to do so. It seemed to him the only bar to the peace which had for so many months been to him unknown. So Fred watched the increasing change in his parents with tearful interest. His mother, seeing his watchful eye ever upon her, said, with a harshness which only increased her own burden, "Fred, it's bed-time! Don't sit there staring at me ! " The boy retired immediately, but not 314 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. to sleep. His pillow was wet with his tears. Mr. Organ walked the floor in silence for a while, his wife, at the same time, crying with great violence. Mr. Organ, growing impatient with his wife's tears and sobs, said, rather sharply, "Mary, what's the use of all this ado ! If we must tell what we have done, let us do it and be done with it ! " "Joel, I wish you'd go to bed and let me alone ! " replied his wife, looking up through her tears and disheveled hair, the victim still of a hateful passion, that the reproving Spirit would displace for one of penitence, confession, love, and the peace that passes understanding. Joel retired to his chamber, where the struggle in his breast went on for some time, when he fell asleep. With Mrs. Or- gan there was no sleep. Her bitterness towards her family had aggravated her sor- row, and for hours the storm within raged BURDENED HEARTS. 315 furiously. "O my God, can such a wretch be forgiven!" she at last exclaimed, aloud. The stillness of the midnight hour gave impressiveness to the utterance. She became more calm, and prayed more deliberately, " Blessed Saviour, pardon my sin I It's dreadful black ! Forgive ! Oh, do forgive me ! " The calm increased. She took the Word of God, dusty and long neglected, and sat down at the stand and spread it out before her. She opened it at the narra- tive of the crucifixion of Jesus. She read, with an interest she had never before felt, the moving story. When she read, " Father, forgive them for they know not what they do," she laid her forehead upon the open page and wept anew. Her tears were not now rebellious and bitter, but penitent and tender. The duty of confession did not seem so difficult as it had done a few hours before. The willingness to do so, as it came stealing in upon her heart, lifted in a measure her 316 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. burden. She fell upon her knees and began her confession to him whom she had most offended Jesus, the Lord and Saviour. When Joel Organ came down from his sleeping-room, a little earlier than common, the breakfast was ready to go on the table. The kitchen glowed with a cheerful warmth, and a serious but pleasant glow rested upon the face of his Mary. "Joel," she said, with a soft, firm voice, "I have made up my mind what to do." " So have I," said Joel, biting his lips to keep from breaking down into a cry as vio- lent as that in which his wife indulged the night before. "I mean," continued Mrs. Organ, "to go this very night and tell John and Patience all about it!" "That is what I want to do," said her husband. "It will be easier to confess to Ezekiel and Jerusha, after that." A slight shadow passed over his wife's BURDENED HEARTS. 317 face at the allusion to the severest test of her penitence. But it was momentary. With recovered self-possession, she said, firmly, "Yes, I know John will go with us, and encourage us in the duty." CHAPTER XVIH. THE COMFORTER. THE family at Alden Farm were not sur- prised at seeing the sleigh of Joel Organ drive into their yard. The penetrating eyes of John and Patience, saw that a burden was resting upon their friends' hearts too heavy to be long borne. They suspected too, the cause of that burden. But they wisely left them to the strivings of Him whose office-work it is to awaken and renew. Fervent and constant prayer was being of- fered by many for them. Ezekiel Crone and his wife were greatly encouraged concerning their conversion when they saw their re- newed attention to the preached Word ; and when they heard of John's and Patience's 818 THE COMFORTER. 319 visit, they became exceeding joyful. Mrs. Crone's customary expression was immedi- ately upon her lips. "Ezekiel!" she ex- claimed, "John and Patience have got hold of our Joel and Mary. He's bound to have good luck with them. He always does, you know. If you and I had gone to their house, the old mad would have shown itself in them right off. But now something will be done." Mrs. Crone dropped her voice into a low, tremulous tone, as she added, "Maybe John will get them to tell if they know anything about our Zeke. I am sure if they really mean to be Christians, they'll confess all." "That they will," replied Mr. Crone, wip- ing the tear from his face ; " and if they can bring Zeke back to us again, we'll all con- fess." Mrs. Crone's heart responded to this last remark. So the line of duty which had been undertaken by the Aldens, in their evening's 320 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. ride, was likely to be attended by rich fruit. Scarcely were Joel and Mary seated by the evening lamp of their friends, when Mrs. Organ exclaimed, as she burst into tears, w We know where Zeke is ! We helped him off ! Can anybody ever forgive us ! " " It was a mean act in us ! " exclaimed Joel, as he rose from his chair in his ex- citement, and walked the floor. "And a wicked thing, as I view it now," he contin- ued, rubbing his hands and quickening his steps. Then, a few moments after, stopping directly in front of Mr. Alden's chair, and looking him full in the face, he asked, earn- estly, "Do you think God can forgive such mean wickedness?" *' He has forgiven me," said Mr. Alden, fervently. " You! you! John, who never did any- thing but good all the days of your life ! such as you" THE COMFORTER. 321 "Hush! Joel," said Mr. Alden, rising and laying his hand gently on his friend's shoul- der, while his lip quivered with emotion, "hush, Joel, the Spirit will be grieved by such talk. You know not what you say ! Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, raised the dead when he gave me a new life ! Say, f This is a faithful saying and worthy of all accep- tation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.'" "Yes, I am the chief of sinners," replied Joel. " I stole a son away from "his parents. I have wickedly concealed the fact, and tried to justify it by many foolish and wicked ar- guments constantly preached to myself. Can I be forgiven?" "I have been much worse than you, Joel," interposed his wife. " You'd never sent Zeke away if it hadn't been for me, and you would have brought him back long ago if 1 had not persisted in keeping up the lying to him and others. 1 am the greatest sinner." 21 322 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. A gleam of joy shot across the face of Patience Alden, at this unusual spirit of contention. "When the Spirit lifts the vail from a sinner's heart, he sees his own sins as the greatest," she said, softly. John Alden's words were few, but they were spoken by divine help, and went di- rectly to the hearts of the inquirers. They then kneeled together before God. John Alden had learned, as he said, to turn all the sin-sick who came inquiring of him, over to the Great Healer. He often sung, "None but Jesus Can do helpless sinners good." So he made short work of their case by bringing them to the Master. It seemed to the penitents that a divine voice spoke in every word of the prayer. It spoke not in wrath, for they had " not come to the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and THE COMFORTER. 323 tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words ; " " but to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh bet- ter things than that of Abel." So their tears .were dried ; their burdens were removed ; their darkness disappeared, and the true light of the believer came pouring into their minds and hearts. "John, will you accompany us to Ezekiel Crone's?" "To-night, Joel?" said Mr. Alden, smil- ing. "Yes, to-night. I now feel just like go- ing." "Patience, you will go too?" inquired Mrs. Organ. Mr. and Mrs. Alden were not reluctant to comply with the request. Though it would be a late hour to make a call, the work to be done was that of Christian duty, which promised the special blessing of the Saviour upon all concerned. 324 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. "Jerusha will bitterly reproach me for my part in getting Zeke off," thought Mrs. .Or- gan, as she mused in silence while they rode to Crone's Corner. " Well," she submissively responded to the thought, "let her reproach me, I deserve it. She caimot say too hard things about me. I will hear it all, and tell her I shall despise myself for it as long as I live." Joel Organ mused thus : " Ezekiel Crone knows I have greatly wronged him ; and / know it. Ezekiel can say hard things when he gets roused, and if anything ever gave him a good reason to be roused, my treat- ment of his family has. So Ezekiel will attack me fiercely with his tongue, and be- fore John and Patience too. Well, I'll let him. It will be good enough for me ; and when he is done, I'll tell him if he will for- give me, I'll be his best friend." With these feelings the party arrived at the Corner. The dog announced their com- ing by loud barking. THE COMFORTER. 325 "Who can be coming at this late hour?" said Mr. Crone, laying down his book, in which he had been deeply interested. Thomas, who had been quite absorbed in his school lesson, ran to the door to call the dog away from the strangers. "It's John Alden's sleigh, I know it by the bells ! " he exclaimed, stepping back to get his cap. " And the sleigh too of our Joel and Mary, as you live ! " exclaimed Mrs. Crone, with a flush of delight, placing a candle in the window to light them up the path, and going to the door to meet them. Mr. Crone and Tom had shouted their hearty welcome when the visiting party had hardly moved to leave the sleigh. Mrs. Crone greeted them cordially in the entry, throwing her arms about Mrs. Organ's neck and kissing her, while both wept freely. "You will loathe me!" sobbed Mrs. Or- gan, "when you know how mean and wicked 326 THE LUCK OF ALUEN FARM. I have been. I sent Zeke off, and kept him away." " It's enough ! My boy will return then ! " said Mrs. Crone, kissing her visitor again as she drew a chair for her, and began at the same time to aid in removing her "muff and tippet," and heavy over-clothes. The meetiug of the men was with more self-con- trol. "I am glad to see you, Joel," Mr. Crone repeated, as he took his hat and heavy overcoat. "Thank you!" said Mr. Organ, with a desperate effort to keep calm. The Aldens divided the attention of the rest of the company for a while, and all sat down around the blazing fire. "Ezekiel," said Mr. Organ, directing his attention to Mr. Crone, "your whole year of suffering for the loss of your boy is owing to me ; getting and keeping him away is all my wicked work." "Joel, say more mine," interposed his wife, breaking down again with the rush of uncontrollable emotion. THE COMFORTER. 327 Joel paused for a moment, awaiting the scourging of Ezekiel's tongue, which he knew so well how to lay on, and which Joel had so keenly felt aforetimes. "Joel, it was all of God," replied Mr. Crone, with a Christian composure, which amazed his relatives. "We needed such a correction of our great faults as parents." " That we did ! " interposed Mrs. Crone. "We have been greatly to blame about Zeke. Joel and Mary needn't think any thing more about it. Only let us have Zeke back again, and we will be loving friends." " There, now, this is what Christ can do when he gets in the heart," said Mr. Alden. "Friends, let us sing, 'All hail the power of Jesus' name!" The hymn was sung as it never was before at Crone's Corner. Je- rusha and Mary kneeled at the same chair, when Mr. Alden offered the sacrifice of praise, and made supplication for continued grace. Their arms were thrown over each 328 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. other in loving embrace, and God's blessing sealed their secret vow of perpetual recon- ciliation. When Joel and Mary arrived at their own home, they found Fred waiting with deep interest. "My son," said his mother, with great animation, "you have kept everything looking nicely. It was never so pleasant here before." The result of the visit was already told, and Fred's heart leaped for joy. He read the good news in the faces of both parents. He would be compelled no longer to carry the burdensome secret on his own heart. He hastened to school the next morn- ing by the way of Crone's Corner. He had already made the confession to God of the wrong of his own part in the guilty affair, and he longed for the opportunity to confess it to Tom and his parents. But the injured ones anticipated his coming with joy, and greeted him with the words of forgiving love. THE COMFOKTER. 329 "Zeke Crone is found and is coming home ! " were words upon every tongue the following morning. The news flew about the to\yn, like the news of peace after the long, dark night of war. "I hope his father will flog him well ! " exclaimed a gruff old lounger at the tavern bar, who had come for his morning dram. "Old Zeke Crone will know how to lay it on," replied the bar-keeper, filling up his customer's glass. "Yes, and Zeke will know how to give it to them Organs too," replied old Gruff, hold- ing for a moment the glass to his lips. A few only of the school children were disposed to taunt Fred with what had oc- curred. Tom's loving intimacy with him, and the genuine undisguised friendship of the Aldens, Carver and Miles, did much to shield him. Besides, his own tears, when the subject was alluded to, were of them- selves a good defense and the best apology for his wrong to all the right minded. CHAPTER XIX. THE* DECEIVERS AND THE DECEIVED. SINCE Joel Organ and his wife, followed by Fred, have told their secret concerning Zeke, we are afforded an opportunity to give the history of his years from home. On that night when the uproar in the Crone kitchen drove him in a tempest of passion out of the house, he had no settled purpose of action. There was that despera- tion of feeling impelling his hurried steps over the parental threshold, which often pushes youth, in a moment of frenzy, be- yond the bounds of restraint, into outbreak- ing sin. Zeke stood for a few moments in the woodshed, a volcano of passion. Before reason had resumed her throne, he thought 330 DECEIVERS AND DECEIVED. 331 he heard the steps of liis father approaching the door. He rushed from the shed, out of the yard into the street, and down the road leading towards the Organ farm. He had then no intention of going there. He found relief in running, and so he ran until out of breath. He then paused, turned round and listened. He thought he heard the faint sound of his father in pursuit, though it was but the echo of his own panting breath. He started again, and hurried forward until he had reached the neighborhood of his hating and hated relatives. When his now slow and hesitating step had brought him to the gate of Joel Organ's house, reason began its unequal contest with passion. "I'll go in, and tell Joel and Mary how they abuse me at home," he muttered, spitefully. "But Joel will abuse me again and turn me out doors," was suggested to himself. "If he does, and won't care where I go nor what I do, I won't care if I freeze to death. I wish I WMS dead ! " 332 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. The cold wind was blowing a piercing breeze upon the unhappy boy. The per- spiration produced by his run was fast sub- siding into a violent chill. The world, it seemed to him, had turned against him, and wherever he turned, he was confronted with misery. He was about to exclaim, "I don't care ! I wish I was dead ! " when the im- ploring, loving countenance of Carver, as he threw himself between the rod of the teacher and Zeke's back, came before him. He seemed to hear again his voice, saying, "Don't strike him, sir! Please, Mr. Ever- ett, don't strike Zeke, he isn't to blame ! " It was the coming and whispering of the good angel, to save from utter ruin the im- periled heart. Passion gave way to reason, and Zeke whispered, "I'll go in, and stay awhile and warm me, and then go home." The clog, as Zeke approached the house, made a noisy outcry, which brought Joel to the door. Zeke rushed in, and was fairjy DECEIVERS AND DECEIVED. 333 in the house before he was recognized. His countenance and shivering limbs spoke for him, and touched even Mary Organ's heart. She immediately set to work to make him comfortable, talking the while most bitterly against the home and its inmates which he had just left. "It's no more than I should have expected!" she exclaimed. "It's just like your father and mother. I have known them always. Turning their child out-door in mid-winter to freeze to death ! That's a pretty kind of business for Christians ! If that's religion, I don't want any of it!" Having thus spoken her mind of the par- ents, she turned to the boy with words of affected sympathy. "You've stood it, Zeke, longer than I would if I'd been you. You're a fool if you ever go back ! " " Ever go back ! " were words which start- led Zeke. He had not thought of not re- turning. In fact, he had been drifting before a tempest of passion, but now that 334 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. reason was getting her hand upon the helm, he would have started back to the port from which he came. To prevent this, Mrs. Or- gan kept a breeze in motion in another di- rection. She placed the boy on the great settle before the fire, drew off his boots and stockings, and rubbed his feet and hands ; she then brought water to wash his soiled face ; and finally, set before him a warm, inviting supper. He had eaten but little since the morning, and the food relished well. Mrs. Organ sat down beside him, and assuming a tender tone, such as was well suited to his wounded feelings, she said, "Ezekiel, I do pity you. You will never be anything while you stay at home ; you know you won't. Nobody could be. You are not a mite to blame for not getting along well in school." "I don't think I am," interposed Zeke, with feeling. "No," continued Mrs. Organ, "you are DECEIVERS AND DECEIVED. 335 not. No one thinks you are. Now, if I was you, I would go off where I could live in peace, and by and by, when your folks get sorry for their bad treatment, you can come back, and show them that you can take care of yourself. It will make a man of you, Zeke, to go away and set up for your- self." Zeke's resentment was still hot enough, and his wounded feelings tender enough, to lead him to listen to this wicked counsel. To deepen his wrong purposes, Mr. Organ put in his bad words just here. "No boy of your spirit," he exclaimed, in a rough way, "will submit to what you have to. Besides, Zeke, your folks will be glad to get rid of you ; so will all the people of the town." This last declaration was spoken with in- tense bitterness. It was the unkindest cut of all. Zeke made no answer, and soon re- tired to bed with angry passions at fever 336 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. heat. Sleep departed from his eyes, so that while his burdened parents and sorrowing brother were watching out the weary hours at the old home, he was full of tossing and tears. " Glad to get rid of me ! " he continually repeated to himself. "Glad to get rid of me ! Well, I guess I will show them that I can take care of myself. I won't go back. I'll die first!" In his heart, he did not stop to inquire whether Joel had spoken the truth. Angry passion is both blind and deaf. It plunges into the surging sea first, and then when helplessly struggling with its waves, considers how escape can be made possible. "Joel," said Mrs. Organ, "we've got a chance at last to pay off the grudge we owe the Crones. They've turned up their noses at us long enough. We'll pay them off well ! " "We'll plague them," echoed Mr. Organ. DECEIVERS AND DECEIVED. 337 "Do you go to town to-morrow, and when you come back tell Zeke that you have seen his folks, and that old Crone and his wife say that they hope they shan't hear from him this ten years, and that then they hope he will come back a decent man. Tell him, too, that his father says if he comes back before that time, he'll horsewhip him, and turn him out of door." Joel Organ looked at his wife with aston- ishment. He was prepared for most any mean thing to spite the Crones, but this au- dacious lying surprised him. But he saw that his wife meant what she said, and he had learned to submit in such cases. "But what shall we do with Zeke?" in- quired Joel. "We don't want him hanging round here." "Of course we don't, and won't have him neither," said Mrs. Organ, emphatically. "But I will manage that, if you will do as I say." 338 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. Joel smiled significantly and nodded assent. "There's your old Uncle Prince," continued Mrs. Organ, "who lives up country. You know he said last fall, that he should want a boy before the spring opened. He's fa- mous, you know, for taming wild colts and making bad boys toe the mark. Zeke will be a deal better off up there, and his ab- sence for a month or two will do good at Crone's Corner. I will fix up some of Fred's old clothes for him, and do you write the old man Prince a letter for Zeke to take along with him. It will be a real blessing for all hands to have him go." The next morning Joel Organ went about the business of carrying out his wife's plan, with a desperate sort of earnestness. He was off to town early, but not be'fore Zeke was astir. The boy stood by the wagon as he was about to start, wavering in his resolution to separate himself from his home. Mrs. Organ's quick eye discerned this. Calling DECEIVERS AND DECEIVED. 339 him into the house, she said, plausibly, "Mr. Organ is going to the town, and he will hear what they say at home about your absence. If they desire you to come back, and he can get any evidence that you won't be beat and turned out of doors, you can return. Other- wise, we will find a real good place for you." With this assurance, Zeke willingly re- mained behind. But the day wore heavily away. He waited uneasily for Mr. Organ's return, for, though so deeply wounded, and so thoroughly excited to bad blood, there was a remaining longing for home espe- cially for re-union with Tom and the sisters. " It's as I expected, Zeke," said Mr. Or- gan, as the homesick boy met him at the gate. "I saw good Deacon Turner to-day. The deacon's word, you know, can be relied upon. He said he had just been to the Corner, and that he was sorry to find your father and mother in such a wicked frame of mind. They declared, said the deacon, that 340 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. their runaway boy should never come into the house again, or never, at least, until he had proved himself somewhere else a differ- ent boy. Your father declared that if you did come, he would horsewhip you and turn yon out again. And the deacon further said that even Tom and the young sisters seemed well satisfied to have their brother gone, and he guessed they would be quite as well off without Zeke, and he hoped it would be best for Zeke himself." Mr. Organ added to these lying words the remark that he had not told any one that he knew anything about the runaway, and as people didn't seem to care what had become of him, he had no difficulty in keeping the secret. Zeke's heart was full to breaking during this statement. When it was finished he cried outright. Mr. and Mrs. Organ scolded and ridiculed him by turns. "There, Zeke," said Mrs. Organ, "I thought you had more spunk than that. I DECEIVEKS AND DECEIVED. 341 wouldn't be - a baby. You see your folks don't care for you ; why should you care ? You can make a man of yourself yet, Zeke. Come, cheer up ! I will fix you up a box of clothes this very day. We have got a good place all ready for you, where you'll have good treatment, better company, and a chance to study and Tead, so that by and by you can come back and show the people that Zeke Crone is somebody." " There, stop that blubbering ! " exclaimed Mr. Organ, in a rough, unfeeling manner. "Do show a little gumption," joined in Mrs. Organ. But Zeke had his cry out. Grief was at length satisfied by the tears, and now re- sentment came in to give him a disposition to assent to, and even to join with some cor- diality in the plans of his relatives. He be- gan to believe what they so boldly assumed, that they were his best friends. He was kept closely in the house for two days, 342 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. while Mrs. Organ mended and* altered some old clothes, "running the heels" of a few pair of new stocking, and putting in, to make the rest more acceptable, a new over- frock, which, as Mrs. Organ remarked, was "as nice as a pink, and would do to wear to meeting." Fred looked upon all these movements with mingled feelings. He hated, yet pitied Zeke. But his fear of his parents was his prevail- ing, daily experience. When he went to school he felt much the restraint in reference to betraying the secret he held, that a sol- dier feels when he fears to desert lest he be shot. So Zeke received only a cold kind of sympathy from Fred. On the morning of the fourth day of his departure from home, long before the tardy winter sunrising sparkled on the snowy hill- tops, Joel Organ and Zeke were on their way' to the "Eagle Tavern," twenty-five miles distant. The sleighing was excellent. The DECEIVERS AND DECEIVED. 343 "turning out" was the only impediment to their rapid progress, for the heavy sleds carrying wood and logs had done most of the breaking out, so that the snow wall on either side was hard and steep. But at this early hour, but few teams were met. Mrs. Oro;an had put Zeke on a stool in the bot- tom of the sleigh, and covered him up with a heavy blanket. "Now, Zeke," she said, emphatically, affecting a tender interest in him, "you will freeze if you show your head outside of the blanket. You may peek out, that's all." Joel gave his wife a knowing wink, as much as to say, / understand, and drove off. He was well out of the vicinity of all who might recognize him, before he allowed Zeke to sit on the seat, and look out upon the country they were passing. It was yet scarcely the early dinner hour when our travelers arrived at the Eagle Tavern. It was on the stage road to the 344 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. 'country home of Capt. James Prince, yet fifty miles away. Joel drove under the horse-sheds, took out the baiting he had brought with him, and fed his horse, and then sat in the sleigh and ate the lunch which his wife had carefully stowed away under the seat. There was enough to eat, and that which was good, but Zeke relished nothing, though urged to help himself. Their drink was a small can of cold coffee, whose lack of warmth was made up by a bottle of rum and molasses, of which both took a sip. Joel despised drunkards, and took his moderate sip of rum every day. He had kept far away from the influence of John Alden's "temperance notions," and so was in the darkness of heathenism as to true temper- ance. The luck of Aldeii Farm in possess- ing light on this subject, had thrown some rays into Zeke's mind. So he took the poi- sonous sip reluctantly, and with some for- biddings of conscience. But his will in this DECEIVERS AND DECEIVED. 345 direction was not up to the " no " point, and he yielded to Joel's gruff, "It will do you good, boy." Mr. Organ now went into the tavern, sat down by the bar-room fire, chatted with the loungers, answered all their questions as to where he came from, what he was there for, where the boy was going, and on to the end of the asking, as readily as a stranger in our modern cars tells the conductor at what depot he wishes to get off. He then introduced the case of Zeke to the bar- tender, had his name, town to which he was to go, and person, Captain James Prince, to whom he was consigned, booked, and paid his fare and night's lodging. This official the bar-tender agreed to see Zeke on the stage in due season, the next morning, and give the driver the proper orders for his delivery. This done, JoeJ turned to Zeke, slipped into his hand, with an air of one doing a deed of becoming generosity, a Span- 346 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. ish "quarter" for contingencies by the way, and said, striking him familiarly on the back, "Good luck to you, Zeke," entered his sleigh and drove homeward. Zeke had been entrusted with his box of clothes, which the bar-tender put among the baggage for the morning stage, and with his box of provisions for board. Besides, Mr. Organ had given him a sealed letter of in- troduction to his Uncle Prince. It read as follows : " DEAR UNCLE : Knowing that you want a boy for all-work ^bout the house and farm, I send you Ezekiel Crone. His parents have cruelly turned him out-doors. He is rather a bad boy, but under your hand I have no doubt he will render you good service. "Your Nephew, " JOEL ORGAN." Zeke was thus starting in the- world for DECEIVERS AND DECEIVED. 347 himself. Wronged at borne by blundering parents ; wronged by those who affected to be his friends, by placing him in a false posi- tion towards his parents ; and to be dispar- aged in the eyes of those to whom he was going, by the very announcement of his com- ing ; and, worst of all, having but little knowledge of the right way, and loving it less. But there was One whose eye was upon the wandering boy ; " whose compas- sions fail not," and whose "mercy is higher than the heavens " ; who saw the tears which were shed for him, in spite of the lying of his professed friends ; who heard the prayers at the Corner, at the Alden Farm, and from many other devout hearts ; One, whose bless- ings are life and peace. Zeke remained in the bar-room, listening to the talk of the loungers, seeing the smoking and drinking, hearing the profanity, until the sights and sounds sickened his mind and heart. He looked into the village store, 348 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. but it was only a little different in its atmos- phere and company, from the tavern. He walked through the village to the side on which stood the church and school-house. The scholars were just coming out with a shout and running towards their home. Zeke wiped a tear from his eye, which was soon dry as he recalled Joel's declaration, "They are glad to get rid of you at home ! " He returned to the bar-room, ate his supper by the fire, drank a few cents' worth of rum and molasses, and went early to bed, with a feeling of reckless disregard of the future. CHAPTER XX. LONELY AND COMFORTLESS. IT was just as the night was coming on, when Zeke was left at the house of Captain James Prince. His box was tossed after, him by the unceremonious stage-driver, who exclaimed, "Here, boy, this is the place where you are to stop ; now behave your- self or " Zeke lost the last sentence, as the driver mounted the stage box, gave his whip a crack and dashed away. He walked up to the front door, letter in hand, and lifted the heavy knocker; the noise, as it rung through the house, struck also to the homesick boy's heart. The captain himself came to the door. He was a tall, well-pro- portioned, strong, rough, but not to those 349 350 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. who knew him, an unkind looking man. He was* well-dressed in a farmer's home-spun suit. He wore spectacles, and looked over the top of them at the stranger-boy, with his large, piercing eyes. If he had been the Czar of all the Russias he would not have more awestruck him as he handed the letter. The captain read it, crushed it in his great brawny hand, took off his glasses, and looked at him for a few moments in silence. They seemed to Zeke snail-creeping moments. "You should have gone to the side door, boy," he said, at length, in a decided tone. Zeke stood statue-like, not knowing whether he should now go to the side door, or come in at that where the master of the house stood, or go away altogether, and have the door shut in his face. Captain Prince saw his confusion, and said, in a softer tone, "Well, never mind, now. Come along." Zeke followed through the parlor, through the sitting-room, where Mrs. Prince was sit- LONELY AND COMFORTLESS. 351 ting, into the kitchen. "There let me see, what is your name?" said the captain, smooth- ing out the letter and adjusting his specta- cles. "Ezekiel, sir; they call me Zeke." "Ezekiel never should be called Zeke," said the captain, sharply. "I never will allow it in my house. There, Ezekiel, sit down on the settle ! " Captain Prince returned to the sitting-room without saying another word. "Pray, husband, who have you there?" said Mrs. Prince. Her husband read the letter, and neither said a word for some min- utes. "Do you wish, husband, a boy who has been turned out-door by his parents?" suggested Mrs. Prince. "Don't know; some parents are indiscreet," replied the captain, with a dignity, which, to a stranger, would have seemed haughty. "But Joel says he is rather a bad boy," remarked Mrs. Prince. "He may not remain so," replied the cap- 352 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FAEM. tain, resuming the examination of the papers in which he had been engaged. Mrs. Prince arose and went into the kitchen. She cast a momentary glance at Zeke, but it seemed to him that she read his thoughts and knew his whole history. The only other persons in the kitchen were an ancient maiden, whom they called Nancy, and John, the hired man. Neither of these important personages -had appeared to take the least notice of the boy'. John was reading, and was evidently pro- foundly indifferent to his case, whether he stayed or left. Nancy had grown up from early womanhood in the family as help. She disliked children, and was fond of saying that she was "glad and thankful" that there had never been " a screaming young one " ill the family. Young people she barely en- dured, especially boys. She would "fidget" immediately if one came to the house, and walked with soiled feet across her spotless white floor. She hoped that Zeke was only LONELY AND COMFORTLESS. 353 a passer-by, whom the captain had admitted to spend a few moments at the fire. "Nancy, get this boy, Ezekiel, some sup- per, and then conduct him to the boy's room, where he will sleep. John, bring his box from the side of the road, where I saw the stage-man drop it. Ezekiel, wash your face and hands before eating, for I see they are soiled by your travel, and then wash them again after supper. There is the sink, and yonder is the 'roller.' The time here for boys to retire is half-past eight, in the win- ter. You see the clock in the corne'r of the kitchen." All these orders were uttered in a matter- of-course way, and obeyed, so far as John and Nancy were concerned, as a matter of course. Nancy felt fidgety at his introduc- tion into the family. But then, what of that ! She understood that it was simply none of her business, which was a short way, at least, of settling the matter. Ezekiel ate his 23 354 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. supper, and, in spite of many strange emo- tions, he ate heartily. He had not eaten a warm meal since leaving Joel's, and Nancy's toast, warmed-over hashed meat, and cup of tea, were relished well. Having finished supper, he went back to his place near the fire, watching the while the clock for the hand to approach eight and a half. When eight o'clock was noted on the dial plate, he arose, saying, "I think I won't wait until half past eight, I'm tired," intimating to Nancy his desire to be shown to his room. Nancy kept on sewing, and the boy stood in the floor looking at her with a puzzled air. He was at a loss to know what next to say or do. } Nancy looked at him a moment, and said, curtly, "Better wash your face and hands, as the mistress bid you, and not be soiling my clean sheets the first thing." The words struck Zeke like a current of electricity. "I don't want you to wipe all LONELY AND COMFORTLESS. 355 the dirt off your hands on my clean roller, neither; wash them clean," added Nancy, without raising her eyes from her work. Seeing this condition fulfilled, she took the light and bid Ezekiel follow her. She led the way to a room over the wood-shed, next to John's. It looked inviting, however; a piece of domestic matting spread before the bed, a stand placed under a small ghiss, and a chair, with the bed and its clean sheets, completed the furnishing. "Remember that four o'clock is the time to get up," said Nancy, setting down the lamp and disappear- ing without wasting breath on any ceremo- nious "I hope you'll like your new quarters," or, "May you sleep well," or even a "Good night." "Seems to me," muttered Zeke, "these folks are amazing short; how shall I know when it's four o'clock ! " Tired and home- sick, yet irritated and discouraged by the past, and reckless of the future, he fell asleep. 356 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. Captain James Prince was a retired ship- master. Having made a number of success- ful voyages, and amassed some wealth, to which his wife had, later in life added still greater by inheritance, he had come back to the home of his youth, thinking to find re- tirement and agreeable rest in farming. He had found the retirement, but not the rest. He was* as restless as the ocean on whose bosom he had sailed. He had altered every- thing about the old homestead, much to the disgust of all the surviving friends in the town, of his father. He experimented with seeds,* with the manner of planting and cul- tivating them, and with tools by which the work was done. He proved himself an ex- perimenting but not an experienced farmer. The old cultivators of the soil shrugged their shoulders and grudged the money he wasted. He kept fine horses, and paid a high price for choice breeds of domestic animals. But, iu spite of money spent, and scheming, of LONELY AND COMFORTLESS. 357 care, and no little real hard work for the captain could lead off in hard work, noth- ing resulted in gains which anything like approached the captain's idea of money-mak- ing. He was becoming disgusted, and more irritable than ever. He often walked his room, looked at the pictures of the ships which he had sailed, and threatened to go to sea again. The captain never had any children, but he had taken many boys to bring up. His mode of managing his domestics and em- ployees was that of the quarter-deck. Of conciliation, and the power of drawing -others' after him by kindness, and a loving exam- ple, he knew nothing. But Captain Prince meant to be just. His word, everywhere, was as good as his note. If anything roused the profane anger of the old sailor more than flat disobedience in one under his authority, it was downright meanness. There was with- al a tender place in the captain's heart, but 358 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. some of his household thought that it was a long and bitter waiting before they found it. Zeke did not wake up at four o'clock ; of course he did not, for he was very tired, and his journey had been a wakeful one. The captain noticed it, and simply said, "Beware, boy, of the second time." Zeke had wondered what there was to be done to require him to rise at four o'clock. But a sight of the long barn, and line of cattle to be cared for, including the milking of twenty cows, enlightened him. John had been at work two hours when Zeke made his appearance, and Nancy had the breakfast ready in the kitchen. The captain and his wife were astir, but took their breakfast later, in the dining-room. Nancy set the food before the new comer, but said nothing, and the " whole meal was eaten without a word, except when something was wanted. John swallowed his food in haste, and re- turned to his work. "You'd better follow LONELY AND COMFORTLESS. 359 John to the barn," said Nancy, before Zeke had swallowed the last mouthful. John pointed to the stalls of the horses, as much as to say, "You can well enough see what there is to be done. Do it." Zeke did know what was to be done, and, impelled by a fear he could not explain, but which burdened his spirits quite as much as it stimulated his hands, he worked with his full strength. He had cleaned out several stalls, and was driving at others, when, looking up, he saw the captain standing over him. His look did not express anger or re- proof, but only inquiry. He .was evidently satisfied for the moment with his new boy. He did not say so, though to have said, simply, "There! that's right, iny boy!" or only, " Well done ! " would have been so easy, cost so little, and done the little stran- ger's heart so much good. We have only .this most miserable of, all excuses for the captain : It was his way ! If the boy had 360 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. been loitering, or had done his work blun- deringly, whew ! how quick he would have opened his mouth, and how sharp the words would have been. Strange that with j^ape people bitter complaints are thoughtt& fee worth more than rightful and timel^com- rnendations ! Zeke cleaned out all the stalls a long, hard job, but one which had to be done every morning. Having done it, he said to himself, "I wonder where the bedding is? Nobody tells me anything." Stepping up to John, who was currying the carriage horse, he asked, "Will you tell, John, where the bedding is?" "Use your eyes, boy, and find it," was the only reply, as John applied the currycomb with increased vigor, acting as if a word spoken was a moment lost. Ezekiel, in looking round, stumbled upon some fine hay which seemed to be lying about loosely. He began to pitch it into the stalls. "Hold on LONELY AND COMFORTLESS. 361 there, you booby ! That's the feed of the young critters ! Don't you know rowen from bedding ! " The boy's face flushed with anger and grief. He looked further through the barn and connected sheds, and found, near the enclosures for the calves, some refuse hay and straw. This he ventured to pitch into the stalls. "That's more like it!" shouted John, iu a softer tone, feeling some self-reproach for his harsh chidings. But he did not apologize for it. That would have been too truly manly for the spirit which pervaded the Prince farm. When Zeke had completed his work on the stalls, he walked again along the front of each of them, feeling an honest self-ap- proval for having done his work so well. John, who had looked through them all, thought the work well done, but seeing Zeke standing in a musing attitude, shouted, "Do you think, boy, you have done all there is to be done ! Clear up the barn floor ! " 362 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. Zeke started, at this rough demand, shocked as a boy on the track, in these days, would be at the sudden scream of a coming engine. "He needn't be so cross about it," muttered Zeke, going about the work immediately. "Everybody here is cross." Thus sharply prompted, the stranger-boy went through his first day's work. The cap- tain exchanged no words with him, except to give some order. When his supper was eaten, the chores being all done, he sat down on the great settle and looked into the fire. There were but few books in those days, and he had not learned to find instruc- tion and amusement in them. It is so dull here, he mused, and he* watched the clock for the welcome time of retiring. When it was eight o'clock, he could wait no longer. John and Nancy seldom spoke to one an- other, and never to him. He recollected, much to Nancy's satisfaction, to wash his face and hands before going to bed. There was LONELY AND COMFORTLESS. 363 no "good night" said, as he retired, for no one encouraged the kind expression. A cer- tain indescribable fear burdened his mind, as he lay down, lest he should not awake at four o'clock. "Beware of the second time," rung in his ears, while the stern, overaweing face of the captain was ever before him, specter-like and distressing. Thus burdened he fell into an uneasy sleep. He had slept about two hours, when he started up in a fright. It must be late he thought. He hastily arose and began to dress himself. At that moment, he heard John in the en- try. He opened the door and said, "Am I late, John? I will be down in a moment." "Guess you need not go down now. I'm just a-going to bed," replied John, gruffly. Zeke gladly returned to bed, and slept until John's heavy tread by his sleeping-room door awoke him. He soon followed him into the kitchen, where a roaring fire already made it look cheerful. "Can you milk?" inquired John. 364 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. "As well as anybody," replied Zeke, smart- ly. John smiled, but it was a cold, selfish kind of a smile, as he replied, ""Well, boy, you may take that pail and follow me ; you can have chance enough to show what you can do in that line." Zeke soon learned the truth of this. He was kept at work milking until his wrists ached, and he was glad to be relieved by the call to breakfast. Thus working, watched by sharp eyes, and reproved with severity for every misstep, without any approving word, .and with sel- dom a suggestion as to how his work should be done, Zeke passed the first six weeks. The spring had begun to displace the winter, and the work of the farm pressed more heav- ily than ever. He yearned for some one to talk to for some vent to his pent up feel- ings. He began to spend his evenings in the grocery store, or in the bar-room of the neighboring tavern, listening to the idle gos- sip, and becoming familiar with their atmos- LONELY AND COMFORTLESS. 365 phero of tobacco smoke, and to the low and profane talk of the half drunken men. The captain, whose watchfulness detected every movement of his domestics, cared nothing for this, so long as he was in bed at the assigned hour, eight and a half. He, of course, became more and more interested in the places and the company. There was in his heart the thought, nobody cares for me ; and it shook the foundation of what little moral principle he had retained. One night the story-telling was unusually exciting, stim- ulated by a generous patronage of the bar. Zeke forgot the hour of returning home, until the bar-tender said, roughly, "Boy, you live with the captain, don't you?" "Yes, sir," said Zeke, starting up. "Well," said the liquor man, with a sig- nificant sneer, "It's ten o'clock, and he'll warm you up when you get home, or he an't Captain Jim Prince." 366 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. The dim light of the fire gleamed faintly in the kitchen, assuring Zeke as he looked through the window, that John and Nancy had gone to bed. I will slip in, he thought, and creep up to bed, and the captain will not know how long I was out. Opening the door softly, he drew off his heavy boots, warmed himself for a moment, and crept towards the stairway door. Suddenly, as a panther upon an unsuspecting deer, the cap- tain, opening the door in the opposite side of the room, pounced upon him. Taking him by the collar, he lifted him easily from his feet, shook him violently, and then threw him his full length upon the floor. As he attempted to rise, the captain, with a sweep of his hand, laid him prostrate again. When he next ventured, a moment after, to stand upon his feet, he was alone. The captain had disappeared. No voice, nor sound, ex- cept that which had come from his violent LONELY AND COMFOETLESS. 3<>7 handling, had Zeke heard. He went sobbing to bed, more crushed in heart than hurt in body. It was no comfort to him, in this state of mind, to hear, as he entered his room, a coarse, heartless laugh from John. CHAPTEE XXI. THE AXGEL HELPER. ZEKE was at the morning work as soon as John, though he had slept but little. The captain was looking round as usual, but neither he, nor any one, alluded to the in- cidents of the evening before. Zeke now spent his evenings at home, which, of course, passed heavily away, as his chafed spirits were fast maturing into a readiness for almost any desperate act. But there was yet a tender recollection, to some extent, of those he had left far away. He thought of them in his silent musings at the evening fireside. He thought, with tender emotions, of the Alden boys, and especially of Carver, and of his last act of kindness at the school. 363 THE ANGEL HELPER. 369 He would have written to his parents at once, and have thrown himself as a prodigal upon their forgiveness, but for Mr. Organ's assurance, "They are glad you are gone." How can the Aldens receive me, he reasoned, if my parents reject me. He would have even started on foot for home, begging his way from door to door, but for the ever- haunting thought, "They are glad you are gone." The letters which came occasionally from Joel and his wife, reported that every- body was satisfied with his absence. "The captain must recommend you after, .at least, a year's trial," added Joel. "He will never say any good of me any way," muttered Zeke, on reading this statement. "It is only what he thinks is wrong that he can talk about. I don't care what becomes of me." Zeke began to seek his old haunts again, and even the fear of the captain restrained him but little. "A shaking up," and even a whip- ping, were defied. There was danger of his 24 370 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. being kicked any day from the home of Captain Prince into the wide, friendless, wicked world, to drift more and -more rap- idly to utter moral ruin. But He who hears prayer, listened to the now humble and be- lieving prayers offered in secret, and at the family altar at Crone's Corner. That watch- ful One cared for the oppressed and wronged, though sinning wanderer ; He knew too what praying hearts at Alden Farm and Hope Cottage were offering loving supplications in his behalf. He had his own faithful ones even in the vicinity of the Prince farm, yet unknown to Zeke, whom He could send to bless with wise counsel and comforting sym- pathy, in answer to these prayers. One night Zeke was, as usual, about to enter the tavern bar, when he felt the pres- sure of a soft hand on his shoulder. Look- ing around, his eyes met those of a Quaker lady of middle life. Her countenance, ex- pressing great intelligence and heartfelt THE ANGEL HELPER. 371 kindness, reminded him of that of Patience Alden. The tears at once started to his eyes, and he was completely under her con- trol. "Ezekiel, thou should'st not enter there ; it leadeth to death. Come with me, and I will do thee good." Ezekiel followed her at once. She led him to a cottage home near by. "Sit down, Ezekiel, and make thyself at home," said Aunt Huldah. Her name was Huldah Doane, but she was sel- dom referred to except as Aunt Huldah. "I have heard of thee often," she continued, "and learn that thee dost not do altogether right. But maybe thy sin is one of igno- rance ; if so, I desire, by the Spirit's help, to instruct thee. Don't thee wish, Ezekiel, to be instructed in the right way?" "Yes, ma'am," said Zeke, feelingly. ""\Vilt thee endeavor, by divine help, to keep in it?" asked Aunt Huldah, with pity and love beaming from every feature of her face, but in a voice more truly commanding 372 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. than the thunder tones of Captain Prince. Zeke's only answer was a flood of tears. He had found a friend whose chiding even fell on his ear like the sweetest music. Though he knew it not, its tones were those for which his soul fainted. "Thee need'st not speak, Ezekiel," said Aunt Huldah. "Thy tears are thy answer." Huldah's husband came in at this moment, whom she called Amos. He was more re- served in speech than his wife, but still his bearing toward the stranger-boy was that of real interest and kindness. Aunt Huldah said a few words concerning the evils of bad company, and invited Zeke to spend his leisure hours with her. "Thee canst sit by our stand, and read, when thee is not spoken to," said Huldah. "Should I have callers, my kitchen is equally pleasant, and thee canst quietly read. I have no child, and there is none to disturb thee." Huldah wiped an unforbidden tear from her eye as THE ANGEL HELPER. 373 she said this. Her loved and only child, a son, died at ten years of age. He would, had he lived, been of Zeke's age. "What is thy master's hour for thy re- turning?" inquired Huldah. "At half past eight," replied Zeke. "It is not quite that time," she replied, "but thee may'st go, so as to be sure of punctuality." It did not seem to Zeke twenty minutes since he passed her thresh- old, so swiftly had the time flown. "Be faithful to thy master," said Aunt Huldah, as Zeke passed out. "Do thy duty well, not with eye-service, as pleasing men, but as in the sight of God." The work of the next day seemed lighter to Zeke than usual. The captain and the domestics noticed his special promptness in it, but they maintained the usual silence. "Hast thee left no required work undone?" said Aunt Huldah, as Zeke entered at an early hour. 374 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FAEM. "No ma'am," said Zeke, honestly, for his lighter heart had made more thorough work at the farm. "Then I bid thee welcome. Sit down, Ezekiel. Thee dost look weary. Amos has gone out on business, so we shall disturb no one by our talk. I will tell thee a tale of the olden times. It may rest thee." Zeke thought he was never so little tired in his life. Huldah's loving words sent his blood coursing with invigorating swiftness through his veins. Huldah worked away, telling her story of the sufferings for con- science sa*ke, of one of her own religious faith, relieving the seriousness of the story by a quiet humor for which she was remark- able. "It's eight o'clock, Ezekiel," said Aunt Huldah, bringing her story to a sudden end. "It's too bad," said Zeke, "to have to go now. I don't see why the captain cannot let me stay until nine. That is early enough to go home." THE ANGEL HELPER. 375 " Thee may'st not be the best judge," said Aunt Huldah, chidingly. "Thee should'st obey without gainsaying." Zeke felt the kind reproof, and retired promptly. The captain noticed the change for the better in Zeke. He learned, too, that he was not now seen at the gatherings of the idlers at the store or bar-room, but did not at once learn what other place of resort he had found. He was satisfied that he had found better company, . so he made no in- quiry. When, after several weeks, he learned that he had become intimate at Amos Doane's, and was under the training of his wife, he said, in his bluff way, "I see how it is that the boy's craft is getting into better trim ; he, will not need so much watching. He was heading for the breakers when she hailed him." A few days after this, the captain said, as Zeke was leaving the house for Hul- dah's, "Boy, you needn't come home these short summer evenings until half past nine, 376 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. unless you have a mind to ! " It was the first word concerning any indulgence which Zeke had ever heard from him. His "Thank you, sir," came from a full heart. Every evening now found Zeke at Aunt Huldah's. He was either alone in her small, homelike and always tidy kitchen, reading some books of her suggestion, or, when she was sewing, sitting near her, listening to her bewitching stories, or ever welcome words of advice. He always felt that the evenings were short. Early in their acquaintance, Hul- dah had asked, "Ezekiel, hast thee a copy of the Word of God?" Zeke blushed, and said, "No ma'am." Aunt Huldah took from her small, but well- selected library, a small copy an English edition, which was much prized by her. "Thee may'st take this for thy present use,' she remarked, placing it in his hand. "Read it daily, and pray much when thee reads. Ezekiel, dost thee pray?" Zeke answered THE ANGEL HELPEE. 377 no, by his confusion of face. "If thoa pray- est aright," continued Aunt Huldah, "it will bring to thee comfort in thy loneliness, and strength in thy weakness." Zeke took the precious little volume to his room, and morning and night, read a few words of its teachings. It prepared the way for another step in the right path. It led to a constant attendance upon the Sun- day services, which Aunt Huldah never neg- lected, though there was no society of Friends in the place. Zek.e had not been often, but now he found that his going made occasion for new friendships, which brought him many kind, encouraging words. He no longer said, "I don't care," "Nobody cares i for me." " I am having good luck since my acquaintance with Aunt Huldah," he said. But the utterance , came from the teachings of Crone's Corner, while he heard at the same time a secret whisper in his heart, saying, " Your improved condition is God's 378 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FAEM. blessing on a better life ; do right and be happy." Captain Prince was becoming tired of farm- ing. The grounds about his house were the admiration of all persons of good taste; his fruit trees were in thrifty order, and of rare kinds ; his great barn, full of hay, his gran- ary full of many kinds of grain, and his cel- lars crowded with vegetables, were his pride. His live stock was large for those days, and made their owner the envy of all his neigh- bors, when they thought how much money they would bring, if sold. But all these things cost largely in hard work, care and cash expenditure. The owner began to fret over his farm. "It costs a mint of money, and is a great bother," he began to say. His purse felt the draft, for farming "with fancy fixings" paid no better then than now. So the captain began "to take in sail." He sold most of his stock in the fall after Zeke came, and after the fall work was done, he THE ANGEL HELPER. 379 lived more quietly in the house, and left the chores, now easily done, to John and Zeke. Both had won his confidence, and now en- joyed its benefits, for the captain was not a man of low suspicions when he had learned to confide. The winter came, that winter which fol- lowed the spiritual harvest at Alden Farm and Crone's Corner, bringing the Spirit's drawing towards Christ of Zeke, while spend- ing his long evenings in the Christian home of Aunt Huldah. He began to feel the in- spiration of that Spirit, who, all unknown to himself, was fitting him for re-union with those whom the same Holy Spirit had made new creatures in Christ. CHAPTER XXII. THE JUBILEE. IT was the next morning after the visit of Joel and Mary Organ to the Crones, when their confession was made, that they were talking over, with ever deepening feeling of sorrow, their agency in Zeke's long absence. "I tell you what I am thinking," said Joel. "I am thinking that it is my duty to go, myself, and get Zeke." "You carried him away," said his wife, sadly. "I suppose," said Joel, smiling, "that if I go and tell Uncle Prince how mean and wicked I have been, he will nearly 'skin me.' But we are commanded to 'confess' as well as 'to forsake' our sins, and I have 380 THE JUBILEE. 381 wronged Uncle Prince in imposing, by false- hood, Zeke upon him." The next morning, Joel was driving over the road to the Eagle Tavern, where he had parted with Zeke. Here he took the stage, and the next evening he reached the door of Captain Prince. The uncle and nephew had always been on friendly terms, and this meeting was cordial. Joel was not long in coming to the immediate business of his visit. He stated the facts concerning Zeke, and frankly and with great tenderness and humility, rehearsed his own part in the bad transaction. The captain heard him through without interruption, but with a contracted brow and a curl of contempt upon his lips. He was not a man to appreciate the peniten- tial tears, which, at the close of Joel's state- ment, stole down his face. "Joel!" he exclaimed, rising and striding across the room, "you have been contemptibly mean! Why didn't you tell me the truth, sir, when 382 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. you sent the boy to me?" A silence fol- lowed for a moment, which appeared to Joel only the brief pause w r hich portended a heav- ier explosion of the storm. "The truth, sir ! " repeated the captain, in a voice of thunder, as he stopped before Joel, and fixed on him his full, fiery eye. "Why didn't you tell the truth, like a man ! " Another pause followed, which the captain broke by saying, in a calmer, but firm tone, "Joel Organ, leave my house at your earliest possible convenience ; and never say, sir, that you are related to Captain James Prince. I will return the boy, sir, to his friends, in my own time and way." Joel was glad, through Zeke's introduction, to breathe the forgiving atmosphere of Aunt Huldah's home, until the return of the stage, two days after the captain's denial to him of the hospitalities of his house. He was not allowed to know anything of his pur- poses concerning Zeke. His return home THE JUBILEE. 383 alone, with this humiliating statement of the results of his well-intended visit, was to him- self and to his wife a severe test of the genuineness of their penitence ; and the test proved profitable, because they bore it well. ***** The one dark spot, in the, of late, silver- lined cloud, which rested upon the home at Crone's Corner, entirely disappeared when Captain James Prince entered, preceded by Zeke. The captain introduced himself with his habitual stateliness, and took the seat cordially offered. He was about to explain with dignity the reasons of his personal coming, speak a good word- for Zeke, and launch his sailor's broad-side at the Organs, when he came to a stand-still, like a ship suddenly struck by a counter current, and held for the moment in the eddy. Zeke had framed most studiously, words of confession and conciliation for the ears of his offended parents. But if his return was in the spirit 384 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FAKM. of the prodigal, his welcome was that of the prodigal's father. His coming had been seen, by hope and love, a great way off. Yearn- ing hearts of tender affection were ready with the kiss and embrace of forgiveness, recog- nition and welcome. The words of Ezekiel and Jerusha Crone were fewer than their tears, and both united to choke back Zeke's intended exclamation, "Father, I have sinned ! " We have sinned, was the spirit of their salutation. "Halloo, Zeke ! " shouted his sisters, Jane and Betsey, as they rushed upon him, throwing their arms around his neck and drawing him down nearly to the floor. Tom looked on and cried. He did not need to speak, or otherwise act his wel- come. It was his lost brother on whom his eyes rested, and he was satisfied. The captain looked upon the scene with surprise. Were these the parents of Zeke, who, he had for a year believed, had turned him out into the cold world ! It was well THE JUBILEE. 385 Joel was not just then present. But this feeling soon gave way to more tender emo- tions, and, at last, he wiped a tear from his face, the first that had moistened it since it became tanned by the sun of many climes ; and, now that his heart was melted, he' en- tered into the occasion with a generous in- terest. He had much to say of Zeke's great improvement the few last months, but gave the credit to his " prim neighbor," Aunt Hul- dah, in words as direct and forcible as those he used in reproving Joel. He closed his commendation, by saying, with a pleasant smile, which was possible to him, "An old sailor can break a colt, but it takes Aunt Huldah to make him trot round at your word, as though he loved to ! " ***** When John Alden learned that Zeke had re- turned, and after having had repeated to him the generous words of Captain Prince, he sprang to his feet, in one of his old, gen- 25 386 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. erous impulses, at which Patience smiled, and in reference to which she usually had some cool, wise word of caution. "Pa- tience!" he exclaimed, bringing his hands together with a sharp crack which startled puss from her dozing on the sunny window- seat, " Patience ! we must have a jubilee ! " "Well, John," said Patience, in a measured tone, but with a merry twinkle of her eye, w I should think your jubilee had begun ! " "Let us have," continued John, in a more subdued tone, "a day of thanksgiving. Let us kill the fatted calf. Many, that were a few months ago lost in sin, are found. The wanderer, for whom we have all mourned, has returned. Joy has come to our own home in the conversion of our boys ! " The last reason given melted Mr.. Alden, and he added, in a low, deep whisper, "Patience, my dear wife, we must have a jubilee ! " The kitchen of Alden Farm was soon jubi- lant with the preparations. It had often been THE JUBILEE. 387 so, hut never with a more sacred joy. The pastor, the good Deacon Turner, Ezekiel Crone, the good friend "William Treat, each with his entire family ; Patty Vose and her mother, with a long list of the young con- verts, and young people friends of Carver and Miles, were already put down among the guests. The younger members of the family discussed the coming festival, with learned wisdom. "Baby Winnie" still the baby, though ranging the house and barn with lordly freedom uttered his " cute " sayings, which, in the estimation of the other children, "beat all that's printed in the books." When Ezekiel Crone learned what was going on at Alden Farm, he exclaimed, "Brother Aldeu is at his old business of beating us all in his good notions. But he's too fast this time ! We, Jerusha, must have the jubilee ! " "That we must!" exclaimed his wife, with THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. all of her old energy, but now it was as the subduing breath of spring, compared with the freezing blast of a winter tempest. "It is our son who was lost and is found," she continued, "and in our home the feast must be made." Alden Farm gave way to this reasonable suggestion, and the notes of preparation be- gan to be heard at Crone's Corner. Since they had sought and found the secret of good luck in carrying out their plans, the preparations went on pleasantly. "VYe have seen that Alden Farm itself could not excel Mrs. Crone in the manner in which she pre- pared her food for the table. Her husband's means had improved of late, and he provided amply for the occasion. Every room of their old house soon smiled in its perfect order and cleanliness. The children dismissed the last of the old feeling, " we are nobody," in an honest self-respect from the thought that the jubilee was at their own home, and THE JUBILEE. 389 that invitations were to go out from there, instead, as in former days, always coming to it. Invitations were extended to all whom the Aldens proposed to invite, and were carried even further in one direction. They included some who had been known only in their opposition to those influences by which the Corner had been saved. It seemed to be Jerusha Crone's thought for the suggestion came from her that the songs of gladness of the saved, might be blessed to those still wandering, though they had repelled other efforts for their good. The evening of the Jubilee at Crone's Cor- ner came. All came quite near the hour suggested by the host. In this " olden time " the guests showed their good manners in punctuality at feasts, as well as at church, and none affected refiuemeut by coming late. When the rooms were filled, Mr. Curtis, in behalf of the host, bid all welcome, and in- 390 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FAEM. vited them to join in singing, " All hail the power of Jesus' name," in "Coronation." While the song was filling the house with the music of the heart, some of the loafers from the tavern looked slyly in. Their ranks had been thinned of late, by death, and still more, by desertions to the company of "Teetotalers." They had prophecied that "oldZeke's party "would be a great "fizzle," and that nobody except John Alden could make a jubilee. So they had come to see the failure. The spirit-stirring song, whose burden was the conquering name of Jesus, a glance at the crowd of happy though sober looking faces, and, to them, not least, Mrs. Crone's richly laden and tastefully arranged table, amazed them. "It beats Alden Farm folks," whispered one. "Old Zeke is awful extravagant," said another. But some lin- gered round, won by the pure joy of the occasion, were invited in, and forsook from that time, the thorny path of sin. THE JUBILEE. 391 Patty Vose was seated in a quiet corner of the parlor. "How do even children pay deference to character" remarked Parson Cur- tis, calling Deacon Turner's attention to the constant gathering of young people and little ones about the serious, but sun-shiny, and ever loving hunchback. They all consulted her in reference to their amusements, or any question of pleasant dispute which occurred. Martha Turner, " bewitched," as the atten- tive eyes of certain "maiden ladies" assured them, all the "young boys." "It was ridic- ulous," they said, "for a deacon's daughter to act so." But it was difficult for even them to tell what wrong thing Mattie said or did. In the good sense of her remarks she was the superior of her accusers. In making the little ones happy, she excelled all others. In making the timid feel at ease, in causing the aged to confess that all re- spect for years on the part of the young did not leave the earth in their childhood, 392 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. in scattering sunshine generally, and, espe- cially, as a result in part of all this, making all except the meanly jealous love her, Mar- tha Turner was a great sinner in the es- timation of the before mentioned ladies of "a certain age." Nor was it her fault that Carver Alden loved her better than he loved these ancient dames, or even that he loved her, as it began to be whispered, better than he loved any other young person. The Organs were present, receiving the special attention of Mr. and Mrs. Crone. Cordial forgiveness of their sin was stamped upon all countenances except their own. Squire True's dignity was subdued by the loving freedom which breathed about him. One of the most pleasant incidents of the evening, was the entering, in the midst of the social interview, of Dr. Burt. "I have come," he said, to his old friends, "to con- fess my past errors, and to give to John Alden, and my pastor, and their faithful THE JUBILEE. 393 helpers, my hand of fellowship in their Christian labors, and moral reforms. I have been wrong, they have been right. My old friend, Deacon Prime, if he were living, would join me in this. The plain man of Alden Farm ' has conquered my prejudices, and shown, by his kind, but independent pursuit of the right, my mistake. Hence- forth I am with you." It was not late when the company broke up and sought their own homes, nor had the feet of any young person attempted to add anything during the gathering, to the enter- tainment. Brains and heart sufficed for all. At the close of the following summer, Car- ver Alden entered college. His preparation was thorough for those days, for teacher and pupil agreed in careful painstaking with every lesson. He carried with him to college no unwise thought, that by "smartness," or some favoring circumstance, (by many, foolishly called "good luck,") he should secure in- 394 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FAUM. fluence and scholarship. The self-relying energy of Alden Farm, united with the cul- tivation of a true Christian heart, gave him a calm, steady assurance that all needed suc- cess was sure. His brother Miles commenced his college course the next year. Less dignified, more lively than Carver, he was no less steady to principle and work. Alden Farm, in the meantime, threw its strong protecting arm around Hope Cottage. * Patty Vose and her mother shall fail for counsel ^2nd help, only when Aldeu Farm fails," said Mr. Alden, and his word was a moral power. Zeke had, with Tom, spent his leisure hours during the summer, studying and re- citing to Patty Vose. They could get up early now to secure an extra hour, and not be driven to bed. The work of the farm under the united, cordial labor of father and sons, proceeded to good results. THE JUBILEE. 395 Just before the winter came, the following letter was received at the Corner : "Mr FRIENDS: I have reduced my farm- ing to a small, snug business. My man, John, leaves me this fall. Your son, Eze- kiel, is just the young man for my work this winter, and I think he can take the charge of my farm next summer, for which he shall have good pay. Mrs. Prince unites with me in requesting him to come. Nancy says she ' don't want no new man fussing round;' she prefers Ezekiel. Finally, Aunt Huldah says, 'Captain, I think thee will do well to employ Ezekiel.' I know she pines for 'her boy.' So let him come. "JAMES PRINCE." Thus young Ezekiel Crone became the trusted foreman of the farm of Captain Prince, and was loved and counseled by the 396 THE LUCK OF ALDEN FARM. ' good Quaker woman, Aunt Huldah, as one taking the place of her lost son. His brother Thomas remained at home, the intelligent, Christian young man, holding out by his steady principle and uniform in- dustry, a good hope to his parents of com- fort and support from him in old age. So Crone's Corner rivaled Alden Farm in the "luck" which comes from a strong will and a good heart. Both families learned that " What most would profit us God knows, And ne'er denies aught good to those Who with their utmost strength pursue The right, and only care to do What pleases Him." THE END. The $1OOO Prize Series, Pronounced by the Examining Committee, Rev. Drs. Lincoln, Rankin and Day, superior to any similar series. STRIKING FOR THE RIGHT, - - $1.75 SILENT TOM, - - 1.75 EVENING REST, - 1.50 THE OLD STONE HOUSE, - - . 1.50 INTO THE LIGHT, - - 1.50 WALTER MCDONALD, - - - 1.50 STORY OF THE BLOUNT FAMILY, - - 1.50 MARGARET WORTHINGTON, - 1.50 THE WADS WORTH BOYS, 1.50 GRACE AVERY'S INFLUENCE, - 1.50 GLIMPSES THROUGH, - - _ 1.50 RALPH'S POSSESSION, - - . 1.50 LUCK OF ALDEN FARM, - 1.50 CHRONICLES OF SUNSET MOUNTAIN, - 1.50 THE MARBLE PREACHER, - 1.50 GOLDEN LINES, - - 1.50 Sold by Booksellers generally, and sent by Mail, postpaid, on receipt of price. BOSTON: D. LOTHROP & CO., PUBLISHERS, NOS. 38 & 40 CORNHILL. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY Los Angeles This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 111V 1959 Form L9-lGOm-9,'52(A3105)444 THE UNIVERSITY OF LOS ANGELES' rudge - The luck of AldaiFarm. JUN4 195! J PZ7 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FAC LITY^ mill Hill inn mil mil inn i AA 000480392 o