THE FIRST EVENING.
Richard Trafford, a little startled, unclasped the boy's hands without
a word, and held him off by one arm. Full in the light he held him,
gazing in his face long and keenly. Then he said, "So this is Noll!"
Oh, how coldly the words fell upon the boy's heart! How the stern
voice and the keen gray eyes chilled him! Not a word of welcome,
after all,--only those four chilling words. The boy's disappointment
was so great, his heart so lonely and homesick, that he stood with
downcast eyes, before his uncle, to hide the tears that glittered in
them, and could not answer a word. Trafford released his nephew's arm
with a sigh. The boy was the very counterpart of his father, of
Brother Noll, he thought,--the same fair, high forehead and curling
locks, the same deep blue eyes, the same eager, impetuous manner. This
resemblance touched him somewhat; he noted, also, that the boy's lips
quivered a little, and so said, in a kindlier tone,--
"You're very welcome to Culm, Noll. Are you tired with the journey?"
"No--yes--some, I mean," stammered poor Noll, winking hard to keep
the tears back.
"And you'd like some supper, I dare say," continued his uncle.
"Yes, by and by," the nephew managed to answer.
A silence fell upon them here,--long and deep,--in which the eternal
murmur of the sea stole in. Trafford's eyes did not move from the
boy's face; and at last he said, taking his hand,--
"You're wonderfully like your father, Noll,--in more ways than one, I
hope. Can a lad like you ever be contented in this old house?"
"I--I hope so, Uncle Richard," Noll replied, mocking these words,
however, by a very despairing tone.
Trafford smiled grimly. "He's weary of it already," he thought; "and
who can wonder? Noll and I couldn't have endured it at his age, I
suppose." Then he added aloud, "If you tire of it, Noll, you shall
have liberty to return to Hastings whenever you choose. You're not to
stay against your will, remember. You may find it lonely and dull,
perhaps; if so, I leave you to go or stay, as you choose."
The tone in which this was spoken was so sad that Noll ventured to
look up into his uncle's face. The gray eyes had lost their stern
light, and looked very sorrowful.
"I--I will never want to go back, Uncle Richard, if you would like me
to stay," he said, quickly.
"Ah, you don't know what you say, Noll," Trafford answered, stroking
the boy's hair; "it's a lonely place. For a boy it is horrible. Even
I sometimes find it but a weary resting-place. Ah! wait and see, wait
and see. I've little hope you'll stay longer than a month."
At this Noll's heart gave a leap of joy. "Do you really _hope_ I'll
stay, Uncle Richard?" he cried.
Trafford looked at the boy's eager, searching face for a second, then
answered, "Yes, if you can be contented." This was hardly such an
answer as Noll craved, yet it made his heart lighter. Perhaps it was
only Uncle Richard's way, he thought, which made it seem as though he
was not welcome. The old black housekeeper, he remembered, had warned
him not to mind it. With this thought, his heart grew somewhat more
cheerful, and he began to take a brighter view of things. He noted the
tall cases of books and the open organ, and unconsciously these
evidences of taste and refinement made the thought of dwelling in the
stone house more acceptable. If Uncle Richard would only care for him,
he thought, all the rest would not matter.
Trafford let go his hand, saying, "Go and get your supper, Noll; Hagar
will show you. Then, if you like, you can come back."
The boy took two or three steps toward obeying, then, as if
remembering some duty unperformed, turned and came back.
"I had forgotten the letter,--papa's letter,--Uncle Richard," he said,
drawing the missive from his pocket. "Would you like it now?"
Trafford extended his hand without a word. Noll placed the precious
letter therein, and walked away, looking back at the door to see that
his uncle had broken the seal. Not till the boy's footsteps had died
away did the uncle look upon the hurriedly-traced lines which the note
contained. The letters were feebly made, hinting of the weakness of
the hand which traced them. This was what he found:--
"MY DEAR DICK,--I write this to you from my dying-bed, not knowing
that it will ever reach you, or that you are even upon the face of the
earth. If ever you _do_ return,--if ever you receive this, be kind to
my poor Noll for my sake. Make him your own,--he'll love you,--and
make him such a man, before God, as you know I would have him.
"If he has disappeared, look him up, search for him, and cherish the
boy as my precious legacy. And, dear Dick, look well to yourself. A
man needs much when he lies where I am lying. We ought to have been
more to each other these past years, not living with a great gulf, as
it were, atween us. This and the thought of my boy is all that weighs
upon me now.
"And, dear Dick, till we meet again, farewell, farewell. O. TRAFFORD."
A sudden mist came across the reader's eyes, a sudden throb to his
heart. Brother Noll! the blithe, warm-hearted, once precious brother!
he who had astonished all his friends by studying for a minister, and
who, with all the fervor of youth, had devoted every talent and energy
to the sacred cause. How he had loved him once! How proud and happy
he had been at his success! And here were words, his last thoughts on
earth, breathed from the very depths of his heart, and thrilling with
love for himself and this boy. They stirred the man's heart as it had
not been stirred before since that dreary afternoon when all the joy
and sunshine fled out of his heart and left it so cold and bitter. He
had not realized before that Brother Noll had really ended his
pilgrimage, and passed out of the earth, which, to himself, was such a
weary abiding-place. Now, with the last whispers of that dear heart
before him, the whole bitter sense of his loss came upon him, and he
covered his face, sighing heavily. Back came the remembrance of the
long and happy days of boyhood, with visions of the shining meadows
where they strayed together; with visions of careless, joyful hours,
when they sailed and fished and hunted the woods for purple grapes and
glossy nuts; with visions of those calmer days when they grew up to
manhood together,--Noll always bright and brave and loving, and a
check upon his own wilder spirits. Now he was gone; and all the years
to come could never again bring joy so deep and love so everlasting.
Yet, true and dear to the last, he had breathed his life out in one
sweet message to himself, confiding his love and this boy to him as a
precious legacy. Trafford almost groaned when he thought of his loss.
Oh, what a cruel thing was Death! A fierce, pitiless robber, seeking
for the loveliest and brightest, it had lain in wait, all his life
long, despoiling him of whatever he set his heart upon, he thought,
and leaving him wrecked and desolate. He had thought that no death or
sorrow could ever move him again; yet here was his heart aching as
wretchedly as ever. Was there no place in the wide, wide earth where
such wretchedness could not pursue? He had hoped to find it in this
wild and barren Rock; yet here sorrow had crept in, bitter and
poignant as in the busy city.
Trafford rose from his chair, put away the message from out of his
sight, and sat down at his organ to still the pain in his heart with
the charm of its music.
Noll had had his supper, and was sitting, sad and solitary, by Hagar's
fire in the kitchen. He would wait a little, he thought, before going
back to the library, that Uncle Richard might have time to read his
letter. He wondered what its contents could be, and wished and hoped
that papa had written some message there for himself. Would Uncle
Richard tell him if there were? he wondered. Then his thoughts went
back over the sea to Hastings, and there came up such pictures of the
dear old home there, and the faces of his school friends flocked
before him so vividly,--Ned Thorn's in particular,--that he could look
about him only through tears that he strove in vain to banish.
Hagar had gone out with the candle, so the kitchen was quite dusk,
save where the fire flared scarlet light on the wall and ceiling.
Suddenly, in this silence, there stole in a heavy throbbing, like the
beating of a great, muffled heart, and with a slow and solemn
movement, rolled and swept in long chains of sound through the house,
till, at last, a clear, sweet, flutelike warble broke in and ran up
and down, seeming to wind in and out with the heavy undertone. Hagar
came in just then with her flaming candle, and began to rattle about
among her pots and kettles.
"What is that?" Noll asked, quickly, as the strains kept stealing in
above the clatter which the old negress made. It had startled him at
first, coming so suddenly, and corresponding so well with the gloom
and mystery which seemed to fill the house.
"Bress ye, honey!" said the black old figure, stooping over the
cooking utensils on the stone hearth, "don't ye know? Dat's Mas'r Dick
at his organ. He sits dar mos' times at ebenin', an' 'pears like I ken
jes' tell his feelin's by de music he makes. Sometimes I ken hear it
jes' as sad as nuffin ye ken think ob, an' sometimes it's singin' as
ef 'twas 'live and 'joicin.' It dun make ye homesick?" queried Hagar,
dropping her dishcloth and looking up into the boy's face.
"No," Noll answered, with a sigh, "'tisn't the music. It will all be
gone in the morning, I guess," and tried to look his cheeriest.
"You's tired out, chile," said Hagar, with ready sympathy; "better go
to bed. I's been makin' ye one in de room jes' side o' Mas'r Dick's.
Bes' room in de whole house!"
The music had ceased, and Noll left his seat and went groping his way
along the dark, echoing hall, through the dimly-lighted dining-room to
the library-door. Entering, he found his uncle still seated before the
organ, but with his head bent forward upon the music-rack, and
apparently lost in deep thought, for he did not look up till Noll
stood beside him. Trafford made a faint attempt to smile, and asked,--
"Could Hagar find you anything fit to eat? We can't live here as at
Hastings. The sea brings us our food."
Noll said something about not being hungry, and presently Trafford
asked, with the stem and gloomy look upon his face,--
"Did you know that Brother Noll, your father, did a very unwise thing
when he put you into my hands?"
Noll started at the strangeness of the question, and the bright color
came into his face.
"Do you mean that papa did wrong?" he asked, quickly.
"Yes, so far as your good is concerned. I can be no companion for you.
You would have got more good anywhere else than here."
"Don't say that, Uncle Richard!" Noll pleaded.
"Why not?" Trafford queried, not unkindly; "it is the truth."
"Papa said that you--you--" There was such a choking in Noll's throat
that he could get no further, and stopped, looking very much
distressed. Trafford took the boy's hand in his own.
"My boy," he said, huskily, calling him by that title for the first
time, "I'm but a poor wreck at best. I can teach you no good, and God
knows I wouldn't be the means of putting a shadow of evil in your
heart. Your father says, 'Make him such a man, before God, as you know
I would have him.' He asked too much, Noll. Why, boy, I can't rule
myself." Noll said not a word. Uncle Richard was getting to be more of
a mystery to him than Culm Rock had been. "And," continued Trafford,
"we will leave the matter thus: you shall be at liberty, after the
first month, to go or stay, as you like. If you go, it shall be to
stay away forever; if you stay, it shall be at your own risk. Do you
understand?"
"Yes, Uncle Richard."
Trafford saw the boy's lips quiver again, and turned quickly away; the
face was so much like his dead brother's. Noll came to him pretty
soon, said "Good-night," and went away. Hagar guided the boy up to his
room, bidding him good-night with many assurances that "'tw'u'd be
pleasanter to-morrow, 'nough sight!" and left him to himself. The
stars shone brightly over the sea. Noll could not read his Bible
verses that night, for the familiar, precious gift of mamma was
locked in the trunk away round the shore at Culm; but he prayed with
all the stronger longing for the Saviour's pity and help; and then
from his bed by one of the great windows, lay listening to the moaning
of the tide below, which seemed the saddest, lonesomest sound he had
ever heard. And his heart ached too.