AUSTIN AND AMY
“How would my birds like to find a new nest?” asked Austin one morning not
long after he had received his first month’s pay. “We shall be only too
glad to get out of this little place into a whole house,” answered both the
girls at once. “May we hunt one to suit ourselves?”
“You may, only remembering that we dare not go very high in rent, for the
house has to be furnished also, and we have our winter clothes to buy,”
cautioned Austin. A house was found on a shady street, and was engaged at
once. Before the week was out they were safely settled in their new
quarters, and with a few more articles of furniture than had been possible
at first. Mrs. Bailey had given them a few things to add to the
homelikeness of their living-rooms, and they were quite comfortably
settled, and getting along as happily as could be asked for. “I am going
to quit school and get me a job,” announced Amy with decision one morning
before cold weather had set in. “Winter is coming and I have nothing decent
to wear. I am ashamed to go out, and I am tired of the sneers of the girls
at school.”
“No, Amy, do not do that. I will give you money for clothes just as soon as
I can. You need the schooling more than you can need clothes. Be brave and
do not give up,” urged Austin.
“I have made up my mind, so you need not try to turn me. I shall not go
another day,” she said. “Amy, it was my motive in getting our home started
again, to get all of you children into school. Your clothes are as good as
many of your schoolmates’, and I can not give my consent to your leaving
school now. So put it out of your mind.” Austin said this in a paternal way
particularly provoking to the spirit of the girl.
“Who was asking your consent? I am sure I had no intention of doing so. I
simply announced that I was going to work, and that is what I intend to
do,” she answered hotly.
“Amy, you heard what I said! You can not quit school. I forbid it.”
Amy’s eyes blazed fire, and her slender shoulders shook with rage. “Austin
Hill, you are not my father that you may order me about! Two years do not
give you such authority over me. I am not going to school, and you might as
well understand it!”
Austin’s lips set in two straight lines that meant battle. If the children
were not going to yield obedience to him, he would not be able to keep the
home together. Amy ought to see this. He said no more, and left the house
without a word of good-by.
Amy, angry and rebellious, did not prepare for school nor did she do her
share of the morning work. Nell left the house for school all fretted and
angry that Amy had shirked her part. So all three of them were thoroughly
unhappy all the day long.
Austin’s lips were still in their straight lines when he came home, and Amy
just as defiant. He ignored her the entire evening, though he spoke
pleasantly to Nell, and helped her with the work. Amy was unhappy and
miserable, and the next day ungraciously enough prepared and went to
school. But the battle was not done.
“I have a letter from Papa saying he will be here with the children this
week. We must have everything ready for them,” announced Austin a few days
after his conflict with Amy. And when the day came all three of them were
at the station to welcome them. Lila and Doyle were wild with delight to be
again with their brother and sisters, and wound their little arms about
their necks in the most affectionate manner. Henry Hill looked on with
complacency, for he felt that he was bestowing quite a favor upon his
children in giving them such pleasure.
The children were well pleased with their new home, seeming not to notice
the bareness of it; but their father noted it all, and said to himself,
“Austin has undertaken more than he can handle. I thought he would find out
there is something to supporting a family.” But he did not divide his
summer’s wages.
“Girls, I have had a rise,” said Austin one evening, and sat back to enjoy
the expressions of pleasure from his sisters.
“But there is another side to it. I will have to work nights. I shall have
long hours and be away every night but one each week. How will that suit
you?” he added.
“We shall not be afraid,” said Amy and Nell together.
“But I shall not be here to take you out of evenings. It will not do for
you girls to be running about alone, and I fear the time will hang heavy on
your hands.”
“We shall get along all right. You need not worry about us,” said Amy with
more cheerfulness than was really necessary.
The new arrangement had not been in force long till reports came, in one
way and another, to Austin’s ears. There were fragments of conversations
that floated into his bedchamber as he was trying to coax sleep to his
weary eyes when the children were all home, bits of information that made
him fearful that Amy was taking advantage of his absence at night to follow
out her own plans.
“Amy, where were you last night?” he asked one day after he was certain he
had some facts.
“Minding my own affairs,” was the lofty reply.
“Were you out with Herb Wilson?” he asked again.
“I was out a while in the evening, if you must know, and Herb was in the
crowd,” she answered insolently.
“Do you not know that he and his crowd are not the kind of people you
should be with?” he asked severely.
“Are you their judge that you can so sneeringly speak of them?” she asked
as the angry blood rushed to her face.
“I am not sneering at them, but I do wish to protect the good name of my
sister, and I will have to forbid your going out with them again,” he said
decidedly.
“There you go, ordering me around like a little child. You expect me to
obey you like Lila does. I will not, and I shall go out with whom and when
I please,” was her defiant reply.
Austin’s lips again formed the straight line that meant battle. Amy felt a
shudder of apprehension go through her being; but the same fighting blood
was in her. She thought that he was encroaching on her rights, and she was
set not to submit. He saw the danger she was in, and, besides that, the
baleful influence she would have over the younger children if she so set
his authority aside, and he felt that his home was again in jeopardy. So
far as he was concerned, there would be no giving in.
“I am going to get me a job, and take care of myself,” she flung at him as
she read the decision in his eyes. “I will not be kept under in the way you
want to keep me. I am almost as old as you, and able to judge who is fit
company for me.”
“No, Amy, you are far from able to choose your own company properly. You
need some one over you all the time. You must listen to me. You will bring
reproach on yourself and on us. You are not doing well in school, and I
will not forbid your getting work; but if you stay at home you must be
under the same rules as the rest. I can not have you running around nights
in evil company. In this I shall not yield. You must obey me.”
“I will not stay with you if I have to be bossed around,” she said with all
the spirit she could master.
“Very well. Nell can keep the house going, with Lila’s help. If you can
find a suitable place to stay, and wish to take the responsibility upon
yourself, I shall not hinder you, but I can not have you here disobeying
the rules I must make for the good of the family,” he said firmly.
Amy had meant what she said, and Austin was just as far from speaking
jestingly. So Amy found work that took her out of the home for a while. But
her freedom was not all happiness, and she found hardships that were just
as trying as Austin’s attitude at home.
There was a meeting in progress in a neighboring town, and there Austin had
gone for a day or two. The services had been very refreshing to him, and he
longed for his sisters to come under the sweet influence of the people
attending. So it was with pleasure that he carried to the girls a hearty
invitation to come down and spend the last two days of the assembly. They
accepted, glad for the change, and for the opportunity of visiting friends
there.
The preaching was convincing, and the Spirit of God was there to talk to
the hearts of sinners. Amy and Nell both felt His wooing presence with
them, and yielded to the importunity of the good people about them, and
took on themselves vows of loyalty and love to God. They were young, but
really meant to be true, and came home to Austin with the happy news.
The joy of his heart was almost unbounded. That they would not be like
himself, true to God from the beginning of their service, never occurred to
him. He felt that his hardest trials were over, and that their home-life
would not be any more darkened by contention. It seemed so good to have Amy
back with them, and to him their taking part in the family worship seemed
very precious.
“Amy,” said Austin one day, “where were you last night?”
“What difference does it make where I was?” she answered evasively.
“That is not an answer to my question. I want to know with whom you
spent the evening, and where you were.”
“I went out a while with friends, and did nothing that I need to be called
to account for. You are always forgetting that I am not a child, to be
dictated to. I suppose some one has been running to you with tales,” and
Amy’s face showed all of its old-time defiance.
“Not exactly, Amy,” he answered. “I heard a bit of conversation between a
couple of your acquaintances that made me doubtful, and then some of the
conversation between Nell and you has floated in to me. I wish to know if
you disobeyed and went out again in forbidden company. Is it true, Amy?”
and the pain in his voice should have touched her heart. To him it was the
keenest disappointment that she should fail, not him alone, but her vows to
God.
“Yes, if you must know, I went out with the crowd you are determined to
hate. And I will not have you talking against my friends.”
“But, Amy, what about your influence as a young Christian? Besides, will
their association build up a good reputation for you?”
“I suppose I shall have to leave home to have any liberty. I simply will
not be dictated to. Austin, you are too overbearing for anything, and I
can not stand it,” and angry tears were close.
“Amy, I have not relented in my decision that if I make a home for you
children you must live orderly, quiet lives. It is useless for me to
work and labor for a home, and have it spoiled by evil associates. If
you live with us you must abide by the rules.” That look that meant,
without wavering, he would have his way, was in his eyes; and while the
girl would not relent her decision to choose her own associates, she
knew he meant exactly what he said.
“You will get on very well without me. Nell is your housekeeper anyway.
She wants to boss everything in the house. I can easily make my own way,
and have a good time besides.”
“Amy, this is your home. You are as welcome as any of the children. I
shall require nothing of you that I would not of Nell. But I must have
it understood that you will have to recognize the rules of the home. I
do not want you to feel that I am driving you from home, but that I am
only giving you a reasonable choice.”
“It is not much of a home you offer. Work hard all the time and never go
anywhere. You expect me to be as old-acting and old-feeling as you are. You
never were a boy. I am going to have my good times, and neither you nor
anybody else shall hinder me!”
Austin contended no more, but left her with that set look on his face that
meant war to the end. Too many years he had contended with contrary
elements in the home to now know how to yield a point to what he believed
would be wrong. His integrity of life had depended on his stedfastness, and
in that he would stand.
Most of the time from this on the home consisted of only the four; for Amy,
according to her vow, was seeking her own way.