should come. I clean up and dress every afternoon at train time, only I
forgot to-day and came fishing."
"It's too cold to fish, sonny."
"It ain't too cold to fish, but it's too cold for 'em to bite,"
corrected Jack.
"Why were you expecting us just now?" asked Susanna. "I didn't write
because, because, I thought ... perhaps ... it would be better to
surprise you."
"Father's expecting you every day, not just this one," said Jack.
Susanna sank down on a stone at the end of the bridge, and leaning her
head against the railing, burst into tears. In that moment the worst of
her fears rolled away from her heart like the stone from the mouth of a
sepulchre. If her husband had looked for her return, he must have missed
her, regretted her, needed her, just a little. His disposition was
sweet, even if it were thoughtless, and he might not meet her with
reproaches after all. There might not be the cold greeting she had often
feared--"_Well, you've concluded to come back, have you? It was about
time!_" If only John were a little penitent, a little anxious to meet
her on some common ground, she felt her task would be an easier one.
"Have you got a pain, Mardie?" cried Sue, anxiously bending over her
mother.
"No, dear," she answered, smiling through her tears and stretching a
hand to both children to help her to her feet. "No, dear, I've lost
one!"
"I cry when anything aches, not when it stops," remarked Jack, as the
three started again on their walk.--"Say, Sukey, you look bigger and
fatter than you did when you went away, and you've got short curls
'stead of long ones.--Do you see how I've grown?--Two inches!"
"I'm inches and inches bigger and taller," Sue boasted, standing on
tiptoe and stretching herself proudly. "And I can knit, and pull maple
candy, and say Yee, and sing 'O Virgin Church, how great thy light.'"
"Pooh," said Jack, "I can sing 'A sailor's life's the life for me, Yo
ho, yo ho!' Step along faster, mummy dear; it's 'most supper time. Aunt
Louisa won't scold if you're with me. There's the house, see? Father'll
be working in the garden covering up the asters, so they won't freeze
before you come."
"There is no garden, Jack. What do you mean?"
"Wait till you see if there's no garden! Hurrah! there's father at the
window, side of Aunt Louisa. Won't he be pleased I met you halfway and
brought you home!"
Oh! it was beautiful, the autumn twilight, the smoke of her own
hearthside rising through the brick chimneys! She thought she had left
the way of peace behind her, but no, the way of peace was here, where
her duty was, and her husband and children.
The sea was deep blue; the home hills rolled softly along the horizon;
the little gate that Susanna had closed behind her in anger and misery
stood wide open; shrubs, borders, young hedge-rows, beds of late autumn
flowers greeted her eyes and touched her heart. A foot sounded on the
threshold; the home door opened and smiled a greeting; and then a voice
choked with feeling, glad with welcome, called her name.
Light-footed Sue ran with a cry of joy into her father's outstretched
arms, and then leaping down darted to Ellen, chattering like a magpie.
Husband and wife looked at each other for one quivering moment, and then
clasped each other close.
"Forgive! O Susanna, forgive!"
John's eyes and lips and arms made mute appeals, and it was then Susanna
said, "Never mind, John! Let's forget, and begin all over again!"
[Illustration]
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Transcriber's Note
Inconsistent punctuation has been retained as-is within the text.
The words, "busy'boutnothin'," "tripanskip," "gropeanwag," and
"Elderess," have been left as-is. Illustrations were interleaved
between pages in the original text. In this version, they have
been moved close to the relevant section of the text.