REUNION.
The day had come: the eventful day when Mr. Kayll’s case was to be
heard again. The children knew nothing whatever about the law, but they
had gathered from their mother that Tuesday would decide their father’s
fate, and either set him free to come back to them, or--or something
too dreadful even to be imagined would happen. But no one would allow
this last thought a moment’s entrance. He would come back, though there
was no home to come to, except in the sense that any place is home
where all those we love are assembled.
It was all like a strange dream. Who would have thought a week ago
yesterday, when Mr. Kayll went out, promising not to be late, that he
would never stand under that roof again.
Yet Madge, philosophical as ever, felt that it did not matter, that
nothing really mattered since they were all alive and well, so long
as father came back. They would all work hard, and if they could earn
enough to live upon, surely they need not be unhappy. The troubles of
having to pinch, and save, and wear shabby clothes that used once to
look too heavy to be borne, seemed so absurdly light, now that she had
faced the far worse troubles of nearly losing first one, then another
of those she loved more than she herself knew.
Madge had only the two little girls and the baby to share her suspense,
for Bob and Jem knew that they could not do better than go to their
work; and Jack, who had a holiday, as he was to appear as a witness,
had gone with his mother to the police-court. She felt very lonely and
nervous. It had seemed so hard not to be able to go too.
The little girls had been for a long ramble, and had succeeded in
finding a few sickly Londony wild-flowers, which they were putting in a
glass on the table to give a more cheerful look to the bare unfurnished
room. Madge herself had done all she could to brighten it, trying
meanwhile not to think regretfully of the little old parlour with its
shabby furniture and threadbare carpet full of holes.
It was dull work waiting. There was so much depending on the result
of this “hearing.” The question in the balance was, whether an hour
or two would see them a reunited family, able through their love
for each other to bear all hardships while they were together,
or whether the same lapse of time would leave them crushed and
broken by a blow greater than any they had ever felt--temporarily
fatherless--disgraced--ruined, with no idea how or where in future they
were to live.
It was little wonder that quiet stolid Madge was pale and flurried, and
could not talk connectedly to her sisters, but answered their remarks
almost at random.
She busied herself for a while in setting out the tea-things--a very
mixed gathering of cups, mugs, and saucers, that were certainly not
the most distant relations--then looked anxiously from the window.
Next she sent Edie and Bessie up to wash their faces and brush their
untidy hair. Then she cut some bread in readiness, looked at the baby
critically, decided that for such an occasion as this he certainly
ought to wear that clean pinafore which she washed out and “got up” so
carefully this morning, carried him upstairs, put it on, and smoothed
the yellow down that she called his hair.
“Oh, dear, if they would only come!” she sighed, as she coaxed this
yellow down to stand up in a little crest from baby’s forehead to his
crown with a peculiar twist round of the brush which she stroked
upwards from the parting over his ears. “How nice you look, you
darling! I hope they’ll come before you crumple the pinafore and make
yourself untidy again. There, now, don’t put the brush-handle in your
mouth, or you’ll make yourself ill as you did before.”
She stopped and looked at him, then held her breath and listened, for
she thought she heard an exclamation in Bessie’s voice. An instant’s
pause, and this was followed by a rush of feet into the passage, for
the two little girls had been watching from the window, and here were
the expected arrivals at last. Her heart beat fast, but she stood
still, listening. Had they returned with or without father?
_With!_ There was his voice! Madge snatched the baby from the chair on
which she had placed him while she improved his personal appearance,
and, kissing him ecstatically in her delight, she darted down the
stairs as fast as she dared with such a burden.
At last! At last! There was her father, just inside the door, looking
exactly the same as ever, with his old smile, and the shiny bald place
on his head, and the dear shabby old brown coat. There he was, hugging
each child in turn, and then stopping to take her and the baby both
into his arms.
“Well, here’s Madgie, then!” he said. “How are you, old woman? And
here’s the young scamp that’s been frightening you all so much;” and he
took the baby from her, and carried him into the sitting-room. “Looks a
little pale still, the young monkey.”
Close behind, and following him in, came Mrs. Kayll laughing, and
trying to hide the fact that she was crying at the same time. And after
her came Jack, who kept rather in the background, and was very silent
and quiet in the midst of the joyous confusion.
“Well, here I am again,” said Mr. Kayll, when the kissing and shaking
of hands and general embracing were over, as he sat down on a box with
the baby on one knee, Bessie on the other, and Edie with her arms round
his neck from behind. “And time, too, I think. Nice goings-on your
mother’s been telling me about. I see you’re not fit to be trusted
without me. In one week you’ve made the baby very ill, pulled the house
down, and drowned the furniture!”
The children laughed, and poured into his ear a stream of information
about the storm, and one thing and another, until he was nearly
deafened, and announced that he was very hungry and wanted his tea, on
which everyone else was discovered to be hungry too, and they settled
down to that meal while the bustle subsided.
Then Mr. Kayll asked a hundred questions, which everybody answered at
once, so that he found it difficult to understand any of the replies.
After which it became his turn to be questioned, and to tell his
adventures from the very beginning, describing how he had been taken to
the police-cell, while the true thieves got away scot-free.
“And I really think,” he said in conclusion, “that in spite of
everything the owner of that shop still believes me to be the real
burglar, and a most desperate character into the bargain.”
At which they all laughed as though it were the best joke in the world.
And the more they looked at the simple kind-hearted cheery little man,
the more amusing it seemed. Even Mrs. Kayll, who had almost forgotten
how to smile during the past week, laughed till the tears came into
her eyes again, and startled the baby so much by such an unwonted
proceeding, that he puckered up his face for a cry, and had to be
comforted, and kissed, and fed with spoonfuls of tea from his father’s
cup until he recovered his spirits.
Soon after Jem came in, and then Bob, entering nervously, uncertain
whether there was pleasure or sorrow in store, and then hurrahing for
joy. And, of course, everything had to be explained again, so that
there was little pause from talking until it grew late, and the younger
ones had to go to bed.
Before he said good-night, Jack found an opportunity to speak to his
father aside. His voice was rather unsteady as he said:
“Father, it was my fault. I am so sorry I--I--”
He could not get out another word, but turned away his head with a
sob. His father signed to Bob, who was the only other occupant of the
room, to leave them, which he at once did.
“Now, Jack,” said he quietly, “I don’t quite understand.”
“It was that miserable two pounds,” the boy began, and then he could
keep back the tears and sobs no longer, and had a hearty cry. Mr. Kayll
laid his hand on his son’s shoulder, and waited till he was calmer.
“Poor old Jack!” he said then, half smiling, not so much from
amusement, as because he was touched. He had never imagined his
mischievous, laughing, careless Jack, who never seemed to have a softer
side, taking this to heart as his own fault.
“You’re not angry?” the boy whispered, still with his hands over his
face.
Mr. Kayll did not reply, but stooped and kissed him on the forehead.
Jack looked up in astonishment; he had never received such a caress
since he was old enough to wear trousers--then he flung his arm round
his father’s neck, kissed him back again, and dashed out of the room
and out of the house, knowing there would be no solitude for him
upstairs.
Some time after, having walked off all traces of his weakness, he came
back in the best of spirits, and feeling an intense desire to put a
hair-brush in Jem’s bed, or some cobbler’s wax in one of his boots. But
he restrained himself, for he had vowed inwardly never to play another
practical joke, however harmless it might seem, and on the whole he
kept to his resolution thenceforth.
Not that Jem ever again gave him so much provocation to tease him as he
used a short time ago. The younger boy was quite altered, though no one
knew what a shock he had received, for neither then nor later did he
allude to what he had felt when he found himself alone in the flooded
house. Yet it was plain that he was changed, and for the better. He
said less and worked more in the future, and proved so steady and
industrious in his new place, that his employer raised his wages again
and again.
“The darkest hour comes just before the dawn,” Mrs. Kayll used often to
say afterwards, when she looked back upon that week of troubles; for,
though they all had to work hard, to economize, and to deny themselves
many little pleasures for a long time, they were able to keep out of
debt, and by slow degrees to furnish once more a home of their own.
There was hardly one among these seven children, unless it were the
baby, who was too young to understand, who had not learned more in
those few days of disaster than in many months when the course of their
life was smoother. Madge had grown wiser than to think again that those
who talk the most of their affection, will prove to possess more than
those who are less demonstrative, when the trial comes. Bob had learned
not only to be strong, and to act for those younger and weaker than
himself, but also to be tender and patient with the little ones. Jack
had given up amusing himself at the expense of other people. Jem could
not often thenceforward deceive himself into the belief that he was
doing what was best for others, when he was really only gratifying his
own selfish wishes. Edie and Bessie had been taught to make themselves
of use in the house, instead of playing or idling while Madge did all
the drudgery, and scarcely had a moment in which to rest.
With all these lessons learned by heart, the children, big and little,
could not fail to be happier than of old. They understood each other’s
value better, and loved each other more, so that they were more lenient
to one another’s failings.
Mrs. Coleson brought Amy up to London at intervals of a few months to
see them; for the little girl’s plan was realized, and she and her
mother and sisters lived in the most countrified of country places,
where everything was fresh and sweet, and the air was pure, and,
instead of smelling of smoke, was laden with the scent of flowers.
Here the youngest child had learned to walk at last, and was growing
healthier day by day, while little Kitty was becoming a sturdy
brown-cheeked rustic girl, and Amy was acquiring round cheeks, tinged
with rose-colour.
But Mrs. Coleson used always to look with wonder on her cousin’s family.
“How is it,” she would ask, “that, in spite of the London atmosphere
and everything, you all look so healthy, strong, and bright?”
And Mr. Kayll would answer:
“It’s because we all work hard, and don’t make ourselves unhappy about
little troubles, for we know what great ones are like.”
* * * * *
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.