INTO THE LIGHT.
For two weeks longer Ralph taught at the Flat Creek school-house. He was
everybody's hero. And he was Bud's idol. He did what he could to get Bud
and Martha together, and though Bud always "saw her safe home" after
this, and called on her every Sunday evening, yet, to save his life, he
could not forget his big fists and his big feet long enough to say what
he most wanted to say, and what Martha most wanted him to say.
At the end of two weeks Ralph found himself exceedingly weary of Flat
Creek, and exceedingly glad to hear from Mr. Means that the school-money
had "gin out." It gave him a good excuse to return to Lewisburg, where
his heart and his treasure were. A certain sense of delicacy had kept
him from writing to Hannah just yet.
When he got to Lewisburg he had good news. His uncle, ashamed of his
previous neglect, and perhaps with an eye to his nephew's growing
popularity, had got him the charge of the grammar department in the new
graded school in the village. So he quietly arranged to board at a
boarding-house. His aunt could not have him about, of which fact he was
very glad. She could not but feel, she said, that he might have taken
better care of Walter than he did, when they were only four miles apart.
He did not hasten to call on Hannah. Why should he? He sent her a
message, of no consequence in itself, by Nancy Sawyer. Then he took
possession of his school; and then, on the evening of the first day of
school, he went, as he had appointed to himself, to see Hannah Thomson.
And she, with some sweet presentiment, had got things ready by fixing up
the scantily-furnished room as well as she could. And Miss Nancy Sawyer,
who had seen Ralph that afternoon, had guessed that he was going to see
Hannah. It's wonderful how much enjoyment a generous heart can get out
of the happiness of others. Is not that what He meant when he said of
such as Miss Sawyer that they should have a hundred-fold in this life
for all their sacrifices? Did not Miss Nancy enjoy a hundred weddings
and have the love of five hundred children? And so Miss Nancy just
happened over at Mrs. Thomson's humble home, and, just in the most
matter-of-course way, asked that lady and Shocky to come over to her
house. Shocky wanted Hannah to come too. But Hannah blushed a little,
and said that she would rather not.
And when she was left alone, Hannah fixed her hair two or three times,
and swept the hearth, and moved the chairs first one way and then
another, and did a good many other needless things. Needless: for a
lover, if he be a lover, does not see furniture or dress.
And then she sat down by the fire, and tried to sew, and tried to look
unconcerned, and tried to feel unconcerned, and tried not to expect
anybody, and tried to make her heart keep still. And tried in vain. For
a gentle rap at the door sent her pulse up twenty beats a minute and
made her face burn. And Hartsook was for the first time, abashed in the
presence of Hannah. For the oppressed girl had, in two weeks, blossomed
out into the full-blown woman.
And Ralph sat down by the fire, and talked of his school and her school,
and everything else but what he wanted to talk about. And then the
conversation drifted back to Flat Creek, and to the walk through the
pasture, and to the box-elder tree, and to the painful talk in the lane.
And Hannah begged to be forgiven, and Ralph laughed at the idea that she
had done anything wrong. And she praised his goodness to Shocky, and he
drew her little note out of--But I agreed not tell you where he kept it.
And then she blushed, and he told how the note had sustained him, and
how her white face kept up his courage in his flight down the bed of
Clifty Creek. And he sat a little nearer, to show her the note that he
had carried in his bosom--I have told it! And--but I must not proceed. A
love-scene, ever so beautiful in itself, will not bear telling. And so I
shall leave a little gap just here, which you may fill up as you please.
. . . Somehow, they never knew how, they got to talking about the future
instead of the past, after that, and to planning their two lives as one
life. And . . . And when Miss Nancy and Mrs. Thomson returned later in
the evening, Ralph was standing by the mantel-piece, but Shocky noticed
that his chair was close to Hannah's. And good Miss Nancy Sawyer looked
in Hannah's face and was happy.