TAKEN IN FROM THE COLD.
The old couple were in bed, but not sleeping. Since the return of their
son, weary, broken nights and most anxious days had marked the lives of
these blameless people. It had been very hard to part with their son
when he almost seemed domesticated with them. It had been hard to expect
him back, day after day, and always with keen disappointment following
the morning's hope. But more bitter than all was the news that had
reached them within the last few days. Nelson had sailed again--sailed
on a long voyage into those seas which take the youth out of a man
before he returns.
How could they help being wakeful? Were they not worse than childless?
Of the grave they knew something--its length, its depth, and how long it
required for the green turf to spring up and draw the uncouth mound back
into the loving bosom of nature. But what did they know of those far off
waters where ships were lost in immensity, and fishes of monstrous size
tempted men away from their homes. A whaling voyage--that was like a
life banishment to an old couple who had so many gray hairs on their
temples.
They could not sleep, though each kind heart strove to cheat the
other--both were wakeful and miserably anxious.
"Father?"
The old man would not speak, but drew a long, heavy breath, which
smothered a sigh, while it was intended to deceive the good soul into a
belief of his sound slumber.
"Father, I say?"
Still he would not answer, for the poor mother had got a habit of
keeping herself awake with midnight conversations in these days, and he
was determined to put it down with masterly inactivity.
"Dear old man, I'm glad he can sleep so sound," she murmured, rising
softly to her elbow and putting the gray locks back from his forehead,
which she kissed with infinite tenderness. "It's a shame to wake him
up."
The old man turned softly, and said with inward contrition, "I am awake,
wife."
"Father, I think there's some one knocking at the window."
The old man lifted his head, and listened.
"Mrs. Thrasher! oh, Mrs. Thrasher, wont you let me in?"
There was a moan of anguish in the words that struck to the heart at
once. The old man held his breath, while the wife clung to him with her
head lifted from the pillow.
"It's her, it's Katy Allen," she whispered.
The old man slipped out of bed and hurried on his clothes. She, good
soul, followed him, groping for her dress in the dark, but another faint
knock on the glass, and a mournful voice crying, "Wont you let me in?
I'm freezing! I'm freezing," sent her to the window in nothing but her
long night gown and cap, with its double borders shading a very pale and
startled face.
Mrs. Thrasher lifted the sash and looked out. A dark figure sat
crouching on the snow where it had just fallen after losing its hold on
the window sill.
"Katharine, Katharine Allen, is it you?"
The figure struggled to its feet, and clinging to the window-frame with
one hand, put the other through the opening, where it touched Mrs.
Thrasher on the bosom. A lump of snow could not have chilled her more
completely, but nothing cold had power to reach that kind heart. She
lifted her plump little hands and folded the trembling fingers to her
bosom tenderly as if some stray bird had fluttered there. Then the sharp
wind swept over them both, and dropping the hand with a caress, the
woman said, kindly:
"Go round to the door, Katharine. Father is unbolting it now."
Katharine turned away. Mrs. Thrasher closed the window, and hurrying on
a garment or two, went into the next room, where the embers of a noble
hickory wood fire lay smouldering under a bed of ashes. While she was
raking out the fire Mr. Thrasher came in, treading softly in his
stocking feet, and with the suspenders he had forgotten to button,
trailing to the floor behind him. From the darkness beyond came
Katharine Allen; her hood was pushed back, and sparkles of ice shone in
her hair as the ruddy light from two brands thrown hastily together
flashed over her. She had been crying, but the tears had frozen to
pearls on her cheeks, and filled her eyelashes with delicate frostiness.
She entered the room and sat down in Mrs. Thrasher's chair, looking
wistfully at the old woman, and begging pardon with her eyes as she
touched the blue and red patchwork cushion, which, in those days, was
sacred to the mistress of a New England home.
"I am very cold," she said, with a wan smile; "it chilled me through
standing by the gate so long."
"Poor child," said Mrs. Thrasher, gathering the stray brands together
with a pair of heavy tongs. "Father, just hand in a stick or two of wood
from the entry way. There, now, set up close to the andirons. Never mind
us, we're not a-cold."
Katharine drew close to the fire, and held out her hands, that trembled
and fluttered to the heat like half perished birds.
"I ran away," she said, piteously; "crept out of the garret window, and
came off here. They want to kill me, you know."
The old people looked at each other and turned away, with their faces in
shadow.
"You'll not be afraid to hide me a little while?" she questioned,
anxiously.
The old lady bent over her, with tears in her soft eyes.
"Afraid, dear? no; we're not afraid, are we, father?" she said,
lovingly.
A noise outside startled Katharine; she sprang up and fixed her wild
eyes on the window.
"They've seen the light--they're after me."
"It's only an icicle dropping from the eaves," said the old lady,
smiling. "There isn't a soul near but father and I, Katharine, dear, and
you aint going to be afraid of us?"
Katharine looked at her lingeringly and sat down again.
"No; I'm not afraid of you. He told me to come, and not fear any thing."
Mrs. Thrasher drew close to the girl and bent over her.
"He, dear; tell us, father and I, you know, who it is you mean by _he_?"
Katharine looked up, and a strange light came to her face; it was as if
a pearl had been suddenly illuminated at the heart.
"It was Nelson who told me to come," she said, in a tender voice.
"Nelson Thrasher--our son?" interposed the old man, almost sternly.
Katharine shrank together in her chair, and looked at him with a
frightened glance.
"Did I say Nelson?" she questioned, faintly. "Not if it makes you angry
with him."
The old man rose from his chair, and stood up in the fire light.
"Katharine," he said, "tell us the truth--was it our son who brought
this shame and trouble on you?"
The words were stern. The old man trembled in all his limbs, but still
there was strength both in his look and utterance.
"Shame, no; it is not shame for him--you might be sure of me there," she
said, with pathetic simplicity. "I never mentioned him, and never will.
So don't speak of shame and Nelson in one breath. The disgrace is mine,
you know; and the sorrow, he shall never hear of it--never."
The old lady looked imploringly at her husband, and shrank back into the
shadows of the room, wringing her hands.
"And this is my son! He brings ruin on an innocent, thoughtless girl,
and then abandons her for years--her and his parents."
"Ruin! No, not that!" cried Katharine. "Shame! No! no! It is I that
somehow have brought disgrace on him! Only I never told his name--never
will ask for it! Don't be afraid. I didn't come for that--only to beg a
hiding-place for one day. Those men will never know that I have any
right to come here. Let them search. If they tear the house down,
nothing will be found under the rafters. I've got the paper here!"