THE LITTLE MOTHER
The next day the harassed tutor bearded the lion in his den.
'I really must have a few words with you, captain!' he began nervously
enough.
'What on earth's the matter, Price? What's wrong now?' testily
demanded the captain, grievously annoyed at being disturbed over his
ponderous literary labours.
'It's the old story,' said Philip dejectedly. 'The fact is, the boys
are getting beyond me, Alick especially so.'
'Well,' said the captain, fidgeting impatiently with his pen as he sat
surrounded by waves of MSS., 'thrash them, can't you?'
'I'd rather try any other means than that!' was the quietly spoken
answer.
'Hasn't the pluck in him for it!' was the thought that passed through
the fiery old sailor's mind. But if he had noted the calm smile of a
self-controlled nature that flitted across the face of the young man
standing opposite him, the captain would have rapidly changed his
opinion as to the lack of pluck in Philip Price.
'Oh, well, what do you want me to do, eh? You really can't expect me
to come into the schoolroom and horsewhip the young scamps for you!
You see for yourself how my time is occupied on a most important
subject.' The captain waved his pen over the closely-written sheets
before him.
'Perhaps not. But I really must ask you to reason with Alick, if not
to punish him. It is imperative that something of the sort must be
done. It comes to this, captain, I don't feel that it's quite honest
to be taking your money for the mockery of teaching the boys,
particularly Alick!' As he forced himself to speak thus, a dark-red
flush rose to Philip Price's brow, for he was one of the over-sensitive
folk.
'Pshaw, man! What a fool you must be!' The blunt captain was at the
end of his patience. He was quivering to get back to his work.
'Besides, boys will be boys all the world over. Alick is no worse than
others, I suppose. You're too conscientious. It's absurd!' ended the
sailor in a more kindly tone, after he had pushed his spectacles up
into the roots of his iron-grey hair, to take a leisurely look at the
earnest, agitated face confronting him.
'Now, I'll tell you what, Price!' he began again--'the best thing you
can do is to go and talk the matter over with Theo. That girl can do
anything with her brothers. She's got a way that some women are born
with--not all women, mind you, but my Theo has it. Just go and consult
her, and let me get on with my work, I beg of you. I am going over my
MSS. for the fifth time, young man! That will give you an idea of my
perseverance with difficulties. Follow the example, and you'll soon
conquer those young limbs. Now, good morning to you, Price, good
morning!' and Philip was hastily bowed out of the stuffy little
sanctum, with its piles of MSS. and its odours of stale tobacco.
'Theo's the one to settle it all!' cheerfully muttered the captain, as
the tutor's footsteps died away. 'She's such a sensible little woman,
and has such a talent for managing and organising; she takes after me!'
he added, with a complacence that would have received a rude shock by a
little plain speaking as to those duties close at hand in his home that
he was daily neglecting, in order to follow a will-o'-the-wisp in the
shape of literary success.
'Miss Carnegy, the captain has referred me to you about a matter I have
been forced to mention to him.'
Philip Price was standing in the doorway of the tea-house, as the
Carnegys called the rustic erection at the end of the long,
unproductive garden, hanging sheer over the little rocky headland on
which the captain had built his bunk, when he came to settle at
Northbourne. A large part of the Carnegys' lives was spent in the
tea-house, for as a family they loved the open air.
It was Queenie's schoolroom, in spring, summer, and autumn. The two
fair heads raised at the sound of Philip's voice belonged to Theo and
her pupil. They were busy over the Monday Bible-lessons, it being a
wise rule of the young teacher to follow up the lessons of Sunday while
they were still fresh in the childish memory of her little charge.
'What a contrast!' inwardly groaned the tutor as he took in the
peaceful scene, and compared it with the one he had so recently
quitted, in despair, where Geoff and Alick had that morning well-nigh
goaded him to frenzy by their rebellious conduct. Alick had been in
one of his worst moods, and Geoff had caught the infection. Books had
been flung up to the ceiling; the ink-bottles deliberately emptied; and
the rebels daringly shouted 'Rule Britannia!' from the top of the table
on which they had leaped, brandishing the fire-irons. The tutor knew
that he could have severely chastised one of the boys, and conquered
him with ease, but he could hardly cope at once, single-handed, with
the two. He therefore felt it to be the most dignified thing to leave
the schoolroom in silence. All this he told, in a few brief words, to
Theo, unwilling as he was to burden her youthful shoulders, already
overweighted with many cares.
'I'm sorry, Mr. Price, so sorry!' Theo spoke humbly, and her sweet
face coloured from chin to brow with vexation. 'It's hard for you to
be subjected to such treatment. The boys are truly unmanageable. But,
indeed, they have good hearts; they will be so repentant for their
shocking behaviour by and by.'
'They must say so, if they are,' said Philip, firmly, his pale face
growing set. 'I must have an apology from them before I can resume the
lessons, whatever may be the cost.'
'Of course! oh, of course!' hurriedly assented Theo, her fingers
working nervously. There were breakers ahead, she foresaw. The idea
of Alick, or Geoff either, apologising! 'I shall go to them, and do my
best to bring them to reason,' she said presently.
'Thank you! I am sorry that the matter should vex _you_!' was the
grave reply; and lifting his hat, the tutor departed home.
'Vex me!' murmured Theo, leaning her head out of one of the open
windows of the tea-house, and staring absently down upon the waves
leaping over the black rocks below. 'Vex me! It's more than that.
Oh, it's too bad that all the burden should fall on me! Father _ought_
to look after the boys. It's too bad!' she repeated.
Then the sea and sky were blurred, and a vision took their place--a
vision of a sweet, fading face; hands outstretched in pleading; and a
loved voice, long since dumb, rang in her ears: 'You will promise,
Theo, to be a little mother to the boys, and help them over the rough
places in life's journey, as I should have tried to do? God will help
you, dear. He will ever be ready with His aid!'
How vividly it all came back to the girl, that dark time in her young
life when the dear, tender mother was called from out their midst.
When all things, in heaven and earth alike, were shrouded in the
pitiless gloom which hid the face of her Heavenly Father from the
despairing daughter. What a chill, empty, rudderless home it was for
the terror-struck children, with no one to look to for guidance!
Father was away at the far ends of the world on his good ship, and
mother--ah, farther off still was the mother, who had slipped out of
the little home. Theo remembered, with a pang, the clinging hands of
the desolate boys and the baby, Queenie, which had stirred her out of
her own stupor of sorrow. It was borne in upon her, then, that she
must step into the dead mother's empty place; and, frail, weak girl
though she was, she had done her brave best to fill it ever since. She
knew well, none better, that God had indeed helped her daily in her
efforts hitherto. Lifting her tear-stained face, Theo told herself
that He would do so still, for 'His mercies never fail.' With a silent
little prayer for strength and patience, she left Queenie in the
tea-house while she went indoors to confront the rebels as courageously
as she could.