Mr. Watchem's plumber, as might have been expected, had the good taste
to leave his modest lodgings after the downfall and death of his
landlord, and now the widow was left alone with her two children. She
was a gentle soul, who had always been esteemed by her neighbors, but
since her husband's desertion to the enemy, she had been shamefully
slighted. One would have thought that her present helpless condition
would have shielded her from such slights, but it did not.
A few dollars still remained from the last rent money received from the
plumber, who always paid in advance, and upon this she lived for a week
or more after the death of her husband. She wondered how long it would
be before the Benevolent Building Association would sell the house, and
then how long before they would put her and the children into the
street. Upon visiting the undertaker she was surprised to learn that
all the expenses of her husband's funeral had been paid. It must have
been done by the company, since, having left the Brotherhood, her
husband could have had no claim upon the organization. Well, she was
glad it was paid, for the road that led into the future was rough and
uncertain.
One evening, when the baby had gone to sleep and the lone widow was
striving to entertain little Bennie, and at the same time to hide her
tears from him, for he had been asking strange questions about his
father's death, the bell rang and two of the neighbors came in. They
were striking firemen and she knew them well. One of the men handed her
a large envelope with an enormous seal upon it. She opened the letter
and found a note addressed to her and read it:
_Dear Mrs. Cowels:_
_Although your husband had deserted us, he had not been expelled,
but was still a member in good standing at the moment of his
death, and therefore legally entitled to the benefits of the order.
For your sake I am glad that it is so, and I take pleasure in
handing you a cheque for two thousand dollars, the amount of his
insurance, less the amount paid by the local lodge for funeral
expenses._
_Very truly yours_,
EUGENE V. DEBSON,
_Grand Secretary and Treasurer_.
She thanked them as well as she could and the men tried to say it was
all right, but they were awkward and embarrassed and after a few
commonplace remarks withdrew.
Mrs. Cowels sat for a long while looking at the cheque, turning it over
and reading the figures aloud to Bennie and explaining to him what an
enormous amount of money it was. And what a load had thus been lifted
from the slender shoulders of this lone woman! Now she could pay off the
mortgage and have nearly fourteen hundred dollars left. It seemed to her
that that amount ought to keep them almost for a lifetime. This relief,
coming so unexpectedly, had made her forget for the moment her great
sorrow. She even smiled when telling Bennie how very rich they were, but
when the boy looked up, with tears swimming in his big, blue eyes, and
said, through the sobs that almost choked him: "But I'd ruther have papa
back again," it pierced her heart and made the old wound bleed anew.
Patsy Daly and his friend, the Philosopher, were at that moment
approaching the Cowels's house where they lodged--they were room-mates
now. They had seen the two men leaving the house, and having caught
sight of the lonely woman and her child, stood looking beneath the
window shade upon the pathetic scene. When they saw the official
envelope, with the big, red seal, they readily guessed the errand of the
men, for they knew the rules and ways of the Brotherhood, and that the
dead engineer's family was entitled to the insurance upon his life.
They saw the little mother smiling upon her boy, saw him turn a tearful
face up to hers, and the change that came, and the look of anguish upon
the unhappy woman's face touched them deeply. "O God!" said the
Philosopher, laying a hand upon the shoulder of his friend, "if it be
true that we, who are so wicked, must suffer for our sins, it is
pleasant to feel that these martyrs--the millions of mothers whose
hearts are torn in this world--will have a pleasant place in the world
to come."