Paul Clifford sat at his ledger with a perplexed and anxious look. It
was near two o'clock and his note was in bank. If he could not raise
five hundred dollars by three o'clock, that note would be protested.
Money was exceedingly hard to raise, and he was about despairing. Once
he thought of applying to John Anderson, but he said to himself, "No, I
will not touch his money, for it is the price of blood," for he did not
wish to owe gratitude where he did not feel respect. It was now five
minutes past two o'clock and in less than an hour his note would be
protested unless relief came from some unexpected quarter.
"Is Mr. Clifford in?" said a full manly voice. Paul, suddenly roused
from his painful reflections, answered, "Yes, come in. Good morning sir,
what can I do for you this morning?"
"I have come to see you on business."
"I am at your service," said Paul.
"Do you remember," said the young man, "of having aided an unfortunate
friend more than a dozen years since by lending him five hundred
dollars?"
"Yes, I remember he was an old friend of mine, a school-mate of my
father's, Charles Smith."
"Well I am his son, and I have come to liquidate my father's debt. Here
is the money with interest for twelve years."
Paul's heart gave a sudden bound of joy. Strong man as he was a mist
gathered in his eyes as he reached out his hand to receive the thrice
welcome sum. He looked at the clock, it was just fifteen minutes to
three.
"Will you walk with me to the bank or wait till I return?"
"I will wait," said James Smith, taking up the morning paper.
* * * * *
"You are just in time, Mr. Clifford," said the banker smiling and
bowing as Paul entered, "I was afraid your note would be protested; but
it is all right."
"Yes," said Paul, "the money market is very tight, but I think I shall
weather the storm."
"I hope so, you may have to struggle hard for awhile to keep your head
above the water; but you must take it for your motto that there is no
such word as 'fail.'"
"Thank you, good morning."
"Well Mr. Smith," said Paul when he returned, "your father and mine were
boys together. He was several years younger than my father, and a great
favorite in our family among the young folks. About twelve years since
when I had just commenced business, I lent him five hundred dollars, and
when his business troubles became complicated I refused to foreclose a
mortgage which I had on his home. An acquaintance of mine sneered at my
lack of business keenness, and predicted that my money would be totally
lost, when I told him perhaps it was the best investment I ever made."
He smiled incredulously and said, "I would rather see it than hear of
it: but I will say that in all my business career I never received any
money that came so opportune as this. It reminds me of the stories that
I have read in fairy books. People so often fail in paying their own
debts, it seems almost a mystery to me that you should pay a debt
contracted by your father when you were but a boy."
"The clue to this mystery has been the blessed influence of my sainted
mother;" and a flush of satisfaction mantled his cheek as he referred to
her.
"After my father's death my mother was very poor. When she looked into
the drawer there were only sixty cents in money. Of course, he had some
personal property, but it was not immediately available like money, but
through the help of kind friends she was enabled to give him a
respectable funeral. Like many other women in her condition of life,
she had been brought up in entire ignorance of managing any other
business, than that which belonged to her household. For years she had
been shielded in the warm clasp of loving arms, but now she had to bare
her breast to the storm and be father and mother both to her little
ones. My father as you know died in debt, and he was hardly in his grave
when his creditors were upon her track. I have often heard her speak in
the most grateful manner of your forbearance and kindness to her in her
hour of trouble. My mother went to see my father's principal creditor
and asked him only to give her a little time to straighten out the
tangled threads of her business, but he was inexorable, and said that he
had waited and lost by it. Very soon he had an administrator appointed
by the court, who in about two months took the business in his hands;
and my mother was left to struggle along with her little ones, and face
an uncertain future. These were dark days but we managed to live through
them. I have often heard her say that she lived by faith and not sight,
that poverty had its compensations, that there was something very sweet
in a life of simple trust, to her, God was not some far off and
unapproachable force in the universe, the unconscious Creator of all
consciousness, the unperceiving author of all perception, but a Friend
and a Father coming near to her in sorrows, taking cognizance of her
grief, and gently smoothing her path in life. But it was not only by
precept that she taught us; her life was a living epistle. One morning
as the winter was advancing I heard her say she hoped she would be able
to get a nice woolen shawl, as hers was getting worse for wear. Shortly
after I went out into the street and found a roll of money lying at my
feet. Oh I remember it as well as if it had just occurred. How my heart
bounded with joy. 'Here,' I said to myself, 'is money enough to buy
mother a shawl and bonnet. Oh I am so glad,' and hurrying home I laid it
in her lap and said with boyish glee, 'Hurrah for your new shawl; look
what I found in the street.'"
"What is it my son?" she said.
"Why here is money enough to buy you a new shawl and bonnet too." It
seems as if I see her now, as she looked, when she laid it aside, and
said----
"But James, it is not ours?"
"Not ours, mother, why I found it in the street!"
"Still it is not ours."
"Why mother ain`t you going to keep it?"
"No my son, I shall go down to the _Clarion_ office and advertise it."
"But mother why not wait till it is advertised?"
"And what then?"
"If there is no owner for it, then we can keep it."
"James" she said calmly and sadly, "I am very sorry to see you so ready
to use what is not your own. I should not feel that I was dealing
justly, if I kept this money without endeavoring to find the owner."
"I confess that I was rather chopfallen at her decision, but in a few
days after advertising we found the rightful owner. She was a very poor
woman who had saved by dint of hard labor the sum of twenty dollars, and
was on her way to pay the doctor who had attended her during a spell of
rheumatic fever, when she lost the money and had not one dollar left to
pay for advertising and being disheartened, she had given up all hope of
finding it, when she happened to see it advertised in the paper. She was
very grateful to my mother for restoring the money and offered her some
compensation, but she refused to take it, saying she had only done her
duty, and would have been ashamed of herself had she not done so. Her
conduct on this occasion made an impression on my mind that has never
been erased. When I grew older she explained to me about my father's
affairs, and uncancelled debts, and I resolved that I would liquidate
every just claim against him, and take from his memory even the shadow
of a reproach. To this end I have labored late and early; to-day I have
paid the last claim against him, and I am a free man."
"But how came you to find me and pay me to-day?" "I was purchasing in
Jones & Brother's store, when you came in to borrow money, and I heard
Jones tell his younger brother that he was so sorry that he could not
help you, and feared that you would be ruined."
"Who is he?" said I, "for out West I had lost track of you."
"He is Paul Clifford, a friend of your father's. Can you help him? He is
perfectly reliable. We would trust him with ten thousand dollars if we
had it. Can you do anything for him? we will go his security, he is a
fine fellow and we hate to see him go under."
"Yes" said I, "he was one of my father's creditors and I have often
heard my mother speak of his generosity to her little ones, and I am
glad that I have the privilege of helping him. I immediately went to the
bank had a note cashed and I am very glad if I have been of any special
service to you."
"You certainly have been, and I feel that a heavy load had been lifted
from my heart."
Years ago Paul Clifford sowed the seeds of kindness and they were
yielding him a harvest of satisfaction.