"I am the Rolling Stone."
Had I been a small and weak man, I should have been crushed and
suffocated by the embraces of my mother and sister--so demonstrative
were they in their expressions of surprise and joy!
As soon as our excitement had, to some extent, subsided; and we were
able to converse a rational manner, I inquired after my brother William.
"I left him apprenticed to a harness-maker in Liverpool," answered my
mother.
"But where is he now?" I asked; "that was long ago."
My mother began to weep; and Martha made answer for her.
"William ran away from his master; and we have never heard of him
since."
I requested to be informed what efforts had been made to find him. I
was then told that my mother had written two or three times to the
harness-maker; and from him had learnt that he had used every exertion,
to discover the whereabouts of his runaway apprentice, but without
success.
It appeared that my mother never liked to hear any one speak of William:
for she had some unpleasant regrets at having left him behind her in
Liverpool.
I consoled her, by saying that I had plenty of money, that William
should be advertised for, and found; and that we should all again live
happily together--as we had in years long gone by.
In all my life I was never more happy than on that evening. The future
was full of hope.
It was true that much had yet to be done before my purposes could be
fully accomplished. But a man with nothing to do, cannot be contented.
We must ever have something to attain, or life is not worth the having.
I had yet something to live for. I had still a task to perform that
might require much time and toil. I had yet to win Lenore!
Volume Two, Chapter XVI.