POLLY.
The lodge stood in a very lovely place, upon a slope of ground, which
rose still higher to where the colonel's grand house was situated.
There was a porch before the door, built of rough logs of pines,
covered with ivy and honeysuckle, and with seats in it, where you
could sit and look out over a wide, rich plain, with little hills and
dales in it, stretching far away towards the sky-line, where some
distant mountains lay, so like to clouds, that you could scarcely
tell which were soft and misty vapours, and which were solid and
everlasting hills. The Severn ran through the beautiful plain with
so many windings, sometimes lying in shadow under deep banks, and
sometimes glistening and sparkling in the sunlight, that it looked
more like many little pools scattered about the meadows than one
long, continuous river. Not very far away, as Raleigh had said,
stood the Wrekin, purple in the evening haze, but by day so plain,
that one could see the great rock on its summit, which in olden times
served as an altar to the god of fire.
Susan was very busy, and had been very busy all day over two
things--preparing the house for the reception of her father, whom she
had not seen for so many years, and in teaching her little girl, who
was now eighteen months old, to say grand-pa. The one work was quite
finished; everything was ready for old Oliver, and now she was
waiting and watching to see the colonel's spring cart arrive from the
station with her husband, who was gone to meet old Oliver and Tony.
For Tony was not on any account to be parted from the old man--so
said the colonel and his lady--but was to be employed about the
garden, and as general errand boy for the house, and to live at the
lodge with old Oliver. Susan's eyes were red, for as she had been
busy about her work, she had several times cried bitterly over her
lost little girl; but she had resolved within herself not to shed a
single tear after her father was come, lest she should spoil the
gladness of his coming home to her. At last the cart came in sight,
and stopped, and Raleigh and Tony sprang out to help Oliver to get
down, while Susan put down Polly in the porch, and ran to throw her
arms round her dear old father's neck.
He was very quiet, poor old Oliver. He had not spoken a word since
he left the station, but had gazed about him as they drove along the
pleasant lane with almost a troubled look upon his tranquil face.
When his dim eyes caught the first glimpse of the Wrekin he lifted
his hat from his white and trembling head, as if to greet it like
some great and dear friend, after so many years of absence. Now he
stood still at the wicket, leaning upon Susan's arm, and looking
round him again with a gentle yet sad smile. The air was so fresh,
after the close streets of London, that to him it seemed even full of
scents of numberless flowers; and the sun was shining everywhere,
upon the blossoms in the garden, and the fine old elm-trees in the
park. and the far-off hills. He grasped Tony's hand in his, and
bade him look well about him.
[Illustration: Oliver, leaning on Susan's arm]
"If only my little love had had a bit of sunshine!" he said, with a
mournful and tender patience in his feeble voice.
But just then--scarcely had he finished speaking--there came a
shrill, merry little scream behind them, so like Dolly's, that both
old Oliver and Tony turned round quickly. It could not be the same,
for this little child was even smaller than Dolly; but as she came
pattering and tottering down the garden-walk towards them, they saw
that she had the same fair curly hair, and blue eyes, and rosy cheeks
that Dolly had had two years before. She ran and hid her face in her
mother's gown; but Susan lifted her into her arms, and held her
towards old Oliver.
"Say grand-pa, and kiss him, Polly," she said, coaxingly.
The little child held back shyly for a minute, for old Oliver's head
was shaking much more than usual now; but at length she put her two
soft little hands to his face, and held it between them, while she
kissed him.
"Gan-pa!" she cried, crowing and chuckling with delight.
They went indoors to the pleasant parlour, where old Oliver's
arm-chair was set ready for him by the side of the fire, for Susan
had kindled a fire, saying that he would feel the fresh air blowing
from the Wrekin; and Polly sat first on his knee, and then upon
Tony's, who could not keep his eyes from following all her movements.
But still it was not their own Dolly who had made the old house in
the close alley in London so happy and so merry for them. She was
gone home to the Father's house, and was watching for them there.
Tony might be a long time before he joined her, but for old Oliver
the parting would be but short. As he sat in the evening dusk, very
peacefully and contentedly, while Susan sang Polly to sleep in the
kitchen, Tony heard him say half aloud, as his custom was, "Yet a
little, and I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that
where I am ye may be also. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!"
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