Dinner was ready to be put upon the table when the party reached
again their temporary home, and their long drive had given each one
an appetite that made the meal most enjoyable. They rested upon the
porches for a short time after leaving the table, then set out for a
walk to the beach, Walter at his mother's side, Violet, the captain,
and their two little ones near at hand. These were at some distance
in the rear of the young girls, who had started for the beach a few
minutes earlier.
"Mother," said Walter, "I should like very much to see that dear old
lady Cousin Molly talks about; also the old Revolutionary house she
lives in. Do you think we might call there without seeming to intrude?"
"Really I do not know," replied Mrs. Travilla. "If Molly were only here
she could judge better than I."
"Perhaps she is there," suggested Walter. "I noticed that she started a
little ahead of the girls."
"So she did," said Violet, overhearing their talk, "and I think she is
probably there now, for she was telling me last evening that she felt
anxious that you, Walter, should see her dear old lady before leaving
to-night. Ah! and yonder they both are at the gate of the house now."
"Then I would suggest that you three hasten on, leaving me to follow
more slowly with the children. It would hardly do to overwhelm the
old lady with so large a company at once," said the captain, and
they promptly carried out his suggestion. Mrs. Barker and Molly were
standing by the front gate chatting as they came up.
"Ah, here they are, Mrs. Barker!" said Molly; "my cousins, Mrs.
Travilla, her daughter, Mrs. Raymond, and her son Walter. He is the lad
I was telling you of, who starts for college to-night, and was very
desirous to see you and your revolutionary house before going."
"And to hear all you can tell me about its experiences in those days,
Mrs. Barker, if you will be so kind," added Walter, with a polite bow
and his most insinuating smile.
"I shall be happy to tell and show all I can to you and your mother and
sister," replied the old lady, leading the way toward the house, her
guests following.
She took them over the greater part of it, telling them what rooms
had been occupied by the Hessians, and what by the family while the
unwelcome intruders were there. They were much interested in all she
told them, and admired her housekeeping, everything being in beautiful
order. She told them the Mr. Barker of those days was a true patriot,
in fact, a spy working for the American cause, and when their call was
finished and they were taking their departure, she went with them to
the gate, and pointing out a ledge of rock on the farther side of the
valley, beyond the cottages they were occupying, told them that in
revolutionary times that was a part of the large tract of land owned
by Isaac Barker; that, in those days, instead of the stone wall now
running along its edge overlooking the water, there was a rail fence;
and that Isaac Barker was in the habit of signalling the patriot troops
encamped on an island opposite, whenever there was an important item
of news for them, and that he did so by alterations in the fence, made
under his supervision by the unsuspecting Hessians.
"Oh, that was good!" cried Walter; "but did the British never catch him
at it?"
"No, never," she replied. "If they had, his life would not have been
worth much."
"You must think a great deal of this old house," said Walter, turning
and looking it over with admiring eyes. "If it were mine I wouldn't
give it for any of the grand palaces built in these later days."
"Nor would I," she said. "Come and see it again; it and me; if you care
to do so."
"Thank you; I should enjoy doing so, but I leave to-night for college."
"Ah? I am glad for you; for a good education is worth more than money
or almost any other earthly thing."
"So I think, because it will enable me, or anyone who has it, to be
more useful in the world."
"That is a right feeling," she said; then turning to the ladies gave
them a warm invitation to call again any day, as they passed on their
way to the beach.
"Thank you, Mrs. Barker," said Grandma Elsie. "It is quite likely we
may do so, for we have greatly enjoyed our chat with you."
"And will be glad to have you return our call, if you can conveniently
do so, while we linger in your neighborhood," added Violet.
Arrived at the beach, Violet joined her husband and the young folks
there, but her mother and Walter passed on up the cliff, the lad saying
laughingly that he wanted another peep into Purgatory before leaving
the neighborhood; but, as his mother well understood, a bit of private
chat with her was the chief object he had in view.
They took a peep into the chasm, then wandered away a little and sat
down side by side upon a ledge of rock. Looking at him with her own
loving smile, she laid her hand in his. He clasped it tightly, while
unbidden tears sprang to his eyes.
"Mother," he said low and tremulously, "my own dear mother! You are
almost all the world to me. I think no other fellow had so dear and
sweet a mother as mine. I don't know how I shall ever stand it to pass
weeks and months without a sight of your dear face."
"Ah, you will soon learn to do without me," she said, between a sigh
and a smile. "But I do not believe my dear baby boy will ever cease to
love his mother, or to try to make her happy by a faithful attendance
to all his duties. But oh, above all, try to please and honor the God
of your fathers whose servant you profess to be. Begin every day with
an earnest supplication for strength to perform every duty and resist
every temptation."
"It is my fixed purpose to do so, mother dear, and I know you will be
ever helping me with your prayers," he answered earnestly. "Oh, what a
blessing it is to have a praying, Christian mother! And I know that you
will write to me often, and that your dear letters will be a great help
to me in my efforts to resist temptation and keep in the strait and
narrow path."
"I hope so," she said; "also that my dear youngest son will never learn
to conceal things from his mother, but will write me freely of all that
concerns him, never doubting my love or my interest in it all, for his
dear sake."
"Doubt your dear love, mother? No, never for one moment! Oh, it will
be hard to part from you to-day, even though I hope to see you again
before you go home!"
"Yes, I expect to give you a call at the college, to see that my dear
son is made as comfortable as possible, and to take a view of his room
and all his surroundings, that I may be able to picture him in my
mind's eye at his studies, recitations, and sports."
"Just as I can see my loved mother in every room of the dear home at
Ion, or the other one at Viamede, should you go there at any time
without me," he returned, making a determined effort to speak lightly.
"It seems a little hard to start off without you, mother; but as
Cousin Cyril has kindly promised to go with me, I shall do very well,
especially with the knowledge that I am to see you again in a few
days."
"Yes," she said, "and you will like those New Jersey relatives of his,
who are more distantly related to us, when you become acquainted with
them, as I hope you will at some not very distant day."
"The uncle he is expecting to visit there is a brother of Cousin Annis,
is he not?" asked Walter.
"Yes."
"Then I should think she and her husband, Cousin Ronald, would go with
Cousin Cyril."
"I think they will follow a few days hence, when we start for home,"
she answered.
Just at that moment they were startled by a wild shriek, as of one in
great peril or affright, instantly followed by a sound as of a heavy
body plunging into the water. Both started to their feet, Walter
exclaiming, "Oh, mother! someone must have fallen into that dreadful
deep chasm they call Purgatory! Oh, what can we do?"
"Nothing," she answered, with a laugh that sounded slightly hysterical.
"See! Cousin Ronald and several of the others have come up the hill
unnoticed by us."
"Oh! I think it was rather too bad for him to startle you so, mamma
dear!" exclaimed Walter.
"Yes, I must acknowledge that it was," returned Mr. Lilburn, who had
now drawn near enough to overhear the remark. "Pardon me, Cousin Elsie;
I really did not intend to give you such a fright; for I deemed it
likely you would know at once that it was I and none other."
"As I probably should, had I been aware of your vicinity," she
returned, in a pleasant tone; "but my boy and I were so engrossed with
our talk that we did not perceive your approach. I think Walter and I
must now go back to the cottage and see to the packing of his trunk."
"Cannot I do that, mamma?" queried Violet.
"Thank you, daughter, I have no doubt you could, but I have a fancy for
the job myself," was the pleasant-toned reply. "Besides, your place
is with your husband and little ones, who, I think, would find it
agreeable and beneficial to remain here on the beach for another hour
or so."
"I haven't unpacked much since we came here, mother," remarked Walter,
as they walked away together, "so that it will not be a long job to get
my things in my trunk, but I am glad you came away so early with me,
as it gives us time and opportunity for another private chat."
"Yes, my dear boy, that was my principal object in proposing this early
return, but I hope for many another pleasant chat with my dear youngest
son in the years to come," his mother responded cheerfully.
"I haven't seen quite all the places in and about Newport or Middletown
that I should take an interest in examining," remarked Walter. "But I
presume I may hope to come again some day?"
"Oh, yes; possibly a good many times in the course of a few years;
though there are many other places in our great, beautiful country
that are quite as well worth visiting, and far better worth seeing
than some noted resorts in Europe. I want my sons and daughters to
appreciate their own country," she went on, her sweet face lighting
with enthusiasm, "with all that is beautiful and valuable in it, as
well as its free institutions--religious, civil, and political."
"I think I do, mamma," he said, with a smile. "You have brought up all
your children to admire and love their own land, believing it the best
and greatest country in all the wide world."
"Yes, and yet, alas! there is a vast deal of wickedness in it," she
sighed; "wickedness, error, superstition, and vice, which we should
make it our life work to try to root out."
"As I truly intend to, mamma. But are not most of the ignorant and
vicious those who have come in from foreign lands?"
"A very great many--a very large majority no doubt are," she answered;
"and yet there are many ignorant and vicious ones who are native born;
not a few of them being the children of natives. Some of the Tories
of revolutionary times were even worse than savages. 'The heart is
deceitful above all things and desperately wicked,' applies to the
whole of Adam's fallen race, and each one of us needs to pray, 'Create
in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.'"
"I feel that I do, mother, but you have always seemed to me so perfect
that it is difficult to realize that it can be so with you," said the
lad, turning upon her eyes filled with ardent love and admiration.
"That is doubtless because your eyes are blinded by filial love, my
dear boy," she returned, with her sweet and loving smile.
They presently reached the house, and Walter set about his packing,
under his mother's supervision, which made the work seem but a
pleasant pastime. It did not take long and, seated together in one
of the porches, they had time before the return of the others for a
confidential chat, such as Walter dearly loved to have with his mother.
Then came the call to supper, and the meal was scarcely over when the
hack was announced as at the door; there were hasty leave-takings, his
mother's the last for Walter. She strained him to her heart with some
whispered words of love, while he embraced her with ardent affection,
and in a moment more he was in the hack, with Mr. Keith by his side,
and they were driving rapidly away toward the city to take the night
train for New York.