JIM'S TROUBLE
Left alone with his son, Jim Dennis watched him tenderly, and Sal looked
keenly at him, with dog-like devotion gleaming out of her deep, dull,
liquid eyes.
She understood what the life of this child meant to the man who had been
kind to her when all others had deserted her. Her heart bled for him in
his trouble, and she would willingly have given her life to spare him
pain.
Jim Dennis gazed long at the child's now peaceful face. As his little
head lay pillowed in peaceful slumber on one arm, the features of the
sleeping boy recalled many memories.
It brought back thoughts of a woman he had loved and married, and who
left him when Willie Dennis was but an infant. It was a cruel, heartless
blow she struck him, and he meant some day to 'settle' an account with
the man who had robbed him.
It was the old story. The life at Wanabeen was lonely and Maud Dennis
was city bred. Jim Dennis had deceived her in nothing when he married
her. He told her of the solitary life he led, and painted his home in
anything but glowing colours. He would rather have risked losing her
than deceive her.
Maud fancied she loved him, probably she did then, and said life with
him would be worth living anywhere. Jim Dennis believed her, married her
and took her home to Wanabeen.
For a time all went well. Then the loneliness commenced to tell upon her
somewhat frivolous nature. She pined for the city, the pleasures of
Sydney life, the shops, the gaiety, the dances and picnics, the
admiration of men and the thousand and one other attractions that are
all in all to some women. Jim Dennis saw she felt lonely and it troubled
him. He was absent on the station the greater part of the day, it could
not be otherwise in his life. He thought when the child was born it
would cheer her and render her life more tolerable.
He was grievously mistaken. Maud was not a woman to make a devoted
mother. She was too selfish, and little Willie was rather a 'bore' to
her.
With a great trouble at his heart, Jim Dennis saw this, and he felt he
must do something to relieve the strain. He asked her if she would like
to go to Sydney for a few months for a change. Maud was delighted at the
prospect, but asked, much to her husband's astonishment, what would
become of the child.
'Take him with you,' said Jim. 'You cannot leave him here.'
'Surely you can find someone to mind him. I shall not be able to enjoy
myself in Sydney if he is there,' was her unfeeling reply.
Jim Dennis was a man of few words.
'Leave him with me. I will take care of him,' he said, as he took the
little chap in his arms and kissed him.
'I am sure you will manage all right, Jim,' she said; 'and he will be
far better here than in Sydney. It is a trying journey, and the coach is
such an uncomfortable one. Yes, he will be far better here.'
So Willie remained at Wanabeen, and his mother went to Sydney. It was
with a sad heart, and a feeling of bitter disappointment, that Jim
Dennis watched her wave her hand in farewell from the box seat of Ned
Glenn's coach.
He stood on the verandah with the child in his arms, and remained there
until it was out of sight. He saw her talking gaily to Ned, and she did
not look back after that one farewell.
A presentiment of coming evil oppressed him. Ought he to have allowed
her to go? that was the burden of his thoughts. He hardly knew what he
feared. She was his wife, and he trusted her; then what harm could come
of it?
He had never seen her from that day, but her face and form came vividly
to mind as he looked at his child.
He received letters from her during the first month of her stay in
Sydney. He was pleased with them. She was happy, the change was doing
her an immense amount of good. She inquired lovingly after him and the
child. As the month wore on her letters became shorter, and excuses were
made that she had so much to do, and such a short time to do it in, that
she must make the most of it, and so on.
In the last letter he received no mention was made of Willie, and he
felt it keenly.
Then there was an interval of suspense. He waited a fortnight and no
letter arrived. He could stand it no longer, and he wrote to her father
asking how it was he had not heard from Maud. Was she ill? Then came the
reply that seemed for days and weeks to blot out his life, and he
wandered about in an aimless, half-dazed way, heedless where he went,
not knowing what he was doing.
'Maud left home to return to Wanabeen a week ago,' wrote her father.
'What can have happened?'
Jim Dennis knew what had happened. His heart told him that she had left
him and deserted her child. He did not answer the letter, and another
came.
Maud's father wrote to say his daughter was a disgrace to her family. He
heard she had gone to England, but he did not know with whom. He advised
him to think of her as dead and cast her memory out of his life, as he
meant to do.
'She is not worth a thought from such a man as you, Jim Dennis. You are
worth a hundred times more than she is. I am sorry for you, very sorry.
Can we help you at all with the little one? If so, please say in what
way. I wish to heaven she had never been born to bring this disgrace
upon us all.'
Jim Dennis wanted no help, and wrote to that effect. 'I will find her
out, and the man who has ruined our lives, and then there will be a
heavy settling day between us. As for blotting her out of my memory, I
cannot do that yet, but the day may come when it will be done. If ever
such a day arrives, there will be no mercy for the man or the woman--at
present I have some for her.'
It took him a long time to write this letter. He was not much of a hand
at letter writing, and his thoughts did not flow freely. Living his
lonely life, he did not hear for a long time the story his wife had
circulated in Sydney.
She had not only deserted him, but she had cast aspersions upon his
character. She had blackened his name and accused him of many sins. To
hide her own shame she threw blame for it upon him. Nay, she even went
so far as to repudiate her own son, and say he was not her child. No
outrage to the feelings of such a man as Jim Dennis could have been
worse. He heard faint rumours of such things, but he refused to believe
them. However, the truth was forced home to him by a friend from Sydney,
who thought it better he should know the facts and try to refute them.
But Jim Dennis refused to do so. He bore his second blow as he did the
first, in silence, but he brooded long and deep over his wrongs. He
hardened his heart and cursed the mother of his child.
He clenched his hands and swore a solemn oath the child should never
hear its mother's name. Nay, more, he would, if necessary, uphold what
his wife had said, and make Willie think he had another mother who was
dead.
At all events, the lad should never learn, if he could possibly guard it
from him, of the disgrace that had been put upon them both. Time had
softened the blow to Jim Dennis, but had not healed it, and he was
thinking of the bitter past as he sat by the bedside of his son.
Then old Ned Glenn's words occurred to him.
'What was he to make of the boy?'
Time enough for that, but still it had to be thought about. He had often
mapped out an imaginary career for the little chap, but had never been
able to satisfy himself the conclusions he had arrived at were for the
best.
Ned Glenn's remark:
'I hope I'll live to see him on the back of a cup winner for his dad,'
had sent off his thoughts in another direction.
Jim Dennis was a splendid horseman, no man in the wild district in which
he lived could compare with him.
He had broken-in the most obstinate of buck-jumpers and took a delight
in mastering their stubborn natures. If a neighbour had a particularly
savage, untameable animal, he would send to him and ask him if he could
'make the brute manageable.'
Nothing suited Jim better. He did not think it a trouble, but a
pleasure, and regarded it more as conferring a favour upon himself than
the other way about.
He would ride miles to lend a hand at this 'amusement,' as he called it,
and thought he risked neither life nor limb by undertaking the task.
'You are the rummiest fellow I ever knew,' said Dr Tom to him. 'You
never charge anything for your trouble, and, bless me, if you don't seem
to regard risking your neck as legitimate sport.'
'Is there anything I can do for you in the breaking-in line?' Jim asked
with a smile.
'Yes, there is. I have bought a brute that licks creation,' said the
doctor.
'Ah!' said Jim, expressively. 'Didn't try him before buying?'
'No, not much.'
'How long was the price?'
'Only a fiver.'
'You cannot expect much for that.'
'But I got more than I bargained for. The seller said he was quiet
enough,' said the doctor.
'Have you had him in the buggy?'
'Can't get him to look at the vehicle, and he has kicked down a portion
of the stable already.'
'It wouldn't take long to kick the lot down,' laughed Jim.
'Don't abuse my property, or the next time you are ill I shall decline
to attend you.'
'You mean the first time I am ill. I have never troubled you for any
medicine yet,' said Jim.
'Only for whisky,' said the doctor, with a twinkle in his eyes.
'How about this horse? Must I tackle him for you?' asked Jim, changing
the subject.
'If you will be so obliging.'
Jim Dennis took the doctor's steed in hand, and in the course of a
severe tussle, extending over several hours, completely cowed him.
To such a man as Jim Dennis the thought of his son being a jockey came
natural. With a critical eye he looked him over and thought, 'He is just
cut out for it. He'll never be a heavy weight and he's the exact shape.'
'He'll have to pretty well live in the saddle here,' thought Jim; 'and
he may as well make the most of his skill if he has any in that
direction.'
The lad turned over and, opening his eyes, looked into his father's
face.
'Do you feel better now, Willie?' he asked tenderly.
'Yes, dad, all the pain has gone.'
Sal put her hand on his head and smoothed back his hair. 'You will soon
be well, Willie,' she said.
'Does Dr Tom say so?'
'Yes,' answered his father.
'I'm so glad, dad. I want to be a big man and help you. There's no one
to look after you but Sal and me. We'll take care of you. I mean to be
as good a rider as you are.'
'That's right. I hope you will be even better.'
'I could not be better, because you are the best.'
'You must rest now, and keep quiet. Give him his medicine, Sal.'
The woman measured out the dose and placed the glass to his lips.
'That's not nasty. I like it,' he said.
A low, rumbling sound was heard. 'We are going to have rain,' said Jim,
and his face brightened, for they were sorely in need of it.
'That will do good, dad.'
'Yes, and cool the air for you. You are not frightened at storms, are
you?'
'No, not when you are here. I'm never frightened at anything when you
are near me.'
It was a great consolation in Jim Dennis's life when he heard his child
speak like this. He almost forgave the mother for deserting them,
because it left Willie entirely for himself.
The only thing he was selfish in was the love of his son, and he could
not bear that to be shared with anyone.