LIONHEART'S BRAVE STAND.
Paddy's courage and determination were soon put to the test. He had
been a bar favourite so long that his absence was soon noticed, and the
men he had so often entertained and treated were loud in their
complaints and jeers. The ridicule was hard enough to bear, but the
sneers at his stingy ways hurt him most.
For Paddy's warm Irish heart loved to give, and to make pleasure for
others, and many a time he had spent his last coin in treating a
comrade.
The publicans, too, missed his songs and merry stories, that always led
to rounds of applause and renewed treating. The landlord of the "Brown
Bear" stood at his door to watch for Paddy, and offers of free drinks
and boisterous welcome met him almost every night.
But he had learned to distrust his own strength, and to lean upon the
promised help of God. Night and morning he knelt by his chair and
prayed for the victory, and with the thought of Lionheart to help him
he went out to the battle girded with the strength that never fails.
On the first wage night after signing the pledge he went straight to
the Post Office and put a good portion of his money into the Savings
Bank, and then went home by a roundabout way to avoid the
public-houses. "It's no use to pray 'Lead us not into temptation' and
then go right by the Bear's Den when you aren't obloiged to," he said
to himself.
He bought a large print New Testament and spelled out a chapter before
he went to bed--the chapter which told of the Prodigal going home to
the Father's house, and the sweet sense of God's forgiveness for all
his wasted years, made him feel so happy that he could not sleep for a
long while.
"I'll save me money and go after that boy to Ironboro', for shure; it's
to him I owe it all. And maybe we could help one another there, for
something tells me he'll still need a friend."
And truly Dick had not been long in the cleaning shed before his trials
began. The man who had offered him beer on his first day was Jem
Whatman's father, and Dick's quiet refusal had angered him greatly, and
his threat to make him know better had not been an idle one.
"We'll have no Band-of-Hopers amongst us jokers, eh mates?" he said
with rough wit, a few days afterwards.
"So look here, young 'un, the boss is out of the way, and you take this
shilling and nip across to the 'Jolly Founders' and fetch half-a-gallon
of fivepenny in this jar. We'll soon see where your teetotalling will
be." The other workers in the shed applauded loudly at the prospect of
a drink and some fun into the bargain.
But Dick had spent a very serious quarter of an hour on his first day
in reading the Rules posted up conspicuously in every workshop, and one
of them said, "No intoxicating drinks must be fetched during working
hours."
So he looked up bravely and said, "I can't do that, for it would be
breaking the rules to fetch beer. Besides, I can't go inside a
public-house, at any time.
"Rules be hanged!" said Whatman fiercely. "You are here to do as
you're told and not to cheek your betters. Quick! Off with the jar,
or it'll be the worse for you."
But Dick stood still, while the thought of Lionheart gave him courage.
"I'll do anything for you that's right, but I can't do that," he said
bravely. "I'll never go into a public-house, and the rules are up
there as plain as can be." And he pointed to the glazed and somewhat
dingy copy of rules and regulations on the wall.
"You young impudence, I'll teach you!" said Whatman in ungovernable
rage. "If you don't go this minute I'll give you such a hiding as
you'll never forget. I owe you one for interfering with Jem the other
day."
But Dick did not move, and his brown eyes met Whatman's angry scowl
without shrinking.
Suddenly, Hal Smith, one of the other lads, said, "Here, Whatman, I'll
fetch it this time, same as I have before, and we'll make him have a
drink, and that will put a stop to his teetotal whining."
Seizing the jar and looking out cautiously to see that the coast was
clear, he hurried off, while Whatman, muttering angrily, turned away.
Dick went on with his cleaning of some brass fittings, polishing and
rubbing till they shone like gold.
But while his hands worked vigorously his thoughts were away beyond the
grimy shed and the troubles of the hour, seeking One who said, "I will
never leave thee nor forsake thee."
He needed all his faith a few minutes afterwards, when Hal came back
with the foaming jar.
"Now, young sir," said Whatman, with mock politeness, "you'll drink
best respects to us in this here cup of beer. Every drop, mind! What,
you won't have it? Here, Smith and Perkins, hold his head while I pour
it down. He's got to learn manners!"
Dick struggled violently in his captors' hands and almost got free.
But the men were too strong for him, and he was held fast.
Clenching his teeth and resolved to choke rather than swallow it he
waited till the cup was at his lips, and then, with a sudden jerk of
his head, knocked it aside and caused the stream of brown liquid to
fall on the dirty floor.
Whatman's answer to this was a violent blow that made blue and green
stars dance before the boy's eyes and almost stunned him.
"What is going on here?" said a stern voice in the doorway. Instantly
the men closed round the jar, hoping to hide it, but Macleod, the
Scotch foreman, was not easily hoodwinked.
"Drinking and fighting too. What do you mean by it?"
"It's this young rascal here," said Whatman. "Cheeking us and drinking
our beer."
Dick was too dazed to answer, but there was no need. Macleod had seen
the cowardly blow. "Your beer? And how did that jar get here at this
time of day? I shall report you, Whatman and Smith; you've had
warnings enough, I should say, but one of these times will be the last.
And if you put upon this boy again you'll have to reckon with Dainton
and me. He's under Dainton's care, anyhow, and you haven't heard the
last of this, I can tell you."
For the time Whatman and the other men were silenced, but Dick had a
black eye, as the result of the blow, and the reason had to be told
when he went to Mr. Dainton's that evening to tea.
For Teddy had come home from his visit to the country, and Dick was
eager to see the brother of whom little Nellie talked so much.
He was a fun-loving urchin who never spent a minute more over his
lessons than he could possibly help, and was only clever in getting
into mischief and, at Dick's age, was far behind him in learning.
In his frequent visits to his grandmother's farm he had been allowed
too much of his own way, and his father grumbled and threatened to stop
this spoiling, by keeping him at home.
To ride, bare backed, the farm colts and to go fishing and birds'
nesting at all hours was far more pleasant than sitting at a school
desk and bothering one's head with fractions, and over the tea table he
spoke his mind.
"You won't catch me going into the sheds, father, when I leave school.
I'm going to be a farmer and ride on horseback all day long."
"You'll be a poor farmer at that rate, Ted," his mother said quietly.
"What about feeding stock and ploughing and sowing and reaping?"
"Oh, but I should keep men to do all that," was the lofty reply.
"Yes, but you must at least know how it is all done, if you are to make
farming pay. That's why Dick here has to begin at the very bottom and
do all sorts of black work before he can be a great engineer and come
out at the top of the tree."
"And must he have black eyes as well?" asked Nellie pointedly; "and
have his face spoiled?"
"No, little one, that is another matter. Whatman ought to be sent
about his business and should be, if I had the management. But a black
eye is no disgrace when you get it for resisting evil."
"There's a verse that's just meant for you, Dick," said Mrs. Dainton
kindly, "and you ought to learn it by heart. 'Consider Him who endured
such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be weary and
faint in your minds.' I'll show it to you after tea."
"And then, as it is a wet night, you can all have a game with Pat in
the kitchen before Dick goes to school."
"School at night," asked Teddy in amazement. "And after working all
day. Haven't you learned enough?"
"Not half," said Dick, laughing at the comical tone of dismay.
"There's a world-full of things I don't know anything about, especially
drawing and hard sums. I want them because they'll help me to be a
fitter by and by."
But Teddy whistled in a very unbelieving way, and presently went off to
the kitchen, as he explained, to give the poor dog a bone.
And when the others moved a few minutes afterwards, they were startled
by a cry from Nellie, who had gone after Teddy.
All her family of five cherished dolls were hanging by their back hair
from the hooks on the kitchen dresser, while Pat marched about with her
Sunday doll's best velvet hat set rakishly on his head, and a Red
Riding Hood cloak on his back!