Eyes must weep—and eyes must hunger,Love must sleep and life must wonder;
Eyes must weep—and eyes must hunger,Love must sleep and life must wonder;
don't I know?' And with a loud laugh she darted into the thick shades and life was left to 'wonder.' There is a good deal of common sense in her gibberings, and when three years ago she told me to 'go and make omens' I obeyed, and came to Mrs. Gaylord, whose hands were full of cheering 'omens.'"
One week after the northern visit Colonel Hamilton received very decided orders from headquarters to return immediately to his regiment. "Lee must be intercepted."
"You must do it all alone, Lillian," was the quick remark when the telegram was read. "Howe & Brother will furnish all in the upholstery line that will be desired, and be sure thatour home is made fitting the reception of our daughter."
How full the succeeding days were to the hopeful wife and mother! "She will be here at the first tinging of the maple trees." This she had said to her aunt. "Only a little more than two months in which to make all ready."
"Such a dainty bit of precious girlhood must not be allowed to step on the common ingrain that covers your old uncle's floors, I take it." This was a little improvised indignation as the good old uncle listened to the plannings and recountings of the luxuries that were to surround her in the home to be prepared. "But the fisherman's cot shouldn't be forgotten, Lillian, and so sometimes you will let her come to us?"
"What a wicked, naughty uncle you are!" Lillian exclaimed, while she smothered all further ebullitions of assumed anger by placing a little white hand over his mouth. "There! Now to punish you for those words I shall be at the store at five for you to go with me and look over the premises!"
"Want to blacken my fingers with the guilt of spoiling her do you? Well, well! A full half hour lost in palavering; good-bye," and the jovial uncle went out from his home leaving it full of sunshine.
October dawned bright and beautiful. The hazy mist that brooded over the city was tinted with hues of purple and gold as they became tangled with the many colored leaves that fell through the cool shadows in the public squares, and in a week Lily-Pearl Hamilton would arrive! One cloud only was shadowing the path of Mrs. Hamilton,and that the absence and dangers of him to whom her heart had clung through all the gloomy days; but in a few months his "three years" would close and then—how happy they would all be!
"If Pearl can succeed in getting Old Auntie and Lizzy safely here, as he assured me he could do," she had said, "my cup will be full to overflowing!"
"How will your mother bear all this?" queried Mrs. Cheevers.
"With no serious result I imagine. The doctor told me the other day that she was not susceptible of a very severe shock, her brain having become so inactive that no injury would probably come to it through excitement."
Suddenly recollecting that Pearl's mother was to meet her at the new home at ten she hastened away.
"Everything wasperfectin the new home," was Mrs. Hamilton's conclusion, as with Lillian she walked from room to room. "Not massive and oppressive with a superabundance of heavy carvings and marble, but bright and cheerful in its display of luxury and beauty. Your taste is good, my daughter, and I think Pearl will commend it."
While at the tea-table that night a letter was brought in for Lillian. "From George," she said, breaking the seal. "A long one for an invalid certainly," and she unfolded the well-filled sheet and began its perusal. Finishing the first page she laid it upon her lap and folded her hand over it.
"Well," she said at length; then perceiving that her uncle and aunt were gazing quizzingly ather; "wonders are multiplying!" and she recommenced its perusal.
"Do stop her, wife, and make her tell what it is that brings such a queer look into her face! If I were a woman; but pshaw!" The wife laughed.
"In just one moment, Uncle," and Lillian turned the page. "He is nearly well, and—yes—he will accept my invitation to be here in Christmas week with his bride!"
"Hurrah! Another southern aristocrat mixing up with northern plebeianism I reckon! What's that quotation, wife? 'To be seen is to be loved?'"
"No, no! You are talking about vice! 'To be hated needs only to be seen.' Butthisis a wife!"
"O, well I never could remember poetry. George to be married! All right! I will give him welcome to his miseries! But who is the fair one?"
"The daughter of the widow with whom they are staying; one fully worthy to bear the honored name of St. Clair. So he writes."
"The same old silly story; but I am glad of it! Let me see—when is that 'Lily-Pearl' to get here? I cannot wait much longer!"
"And you will not be obliged to do so. I shall expect her now on every train, for there was something in her letter that appeared like surprising. She said 'a week at the farthest, but I am so impatient to get close to my mother once more that I fear I cannot wait much longer for Mrs. Gaylord to smooth down her ruffles.'"
She did wait, however, but the day came when the carriage containing the long lost daughter with her escort and servant stopped before thedoor of Mrs. Hamilton's temporary home and alighted. What a rush of emotion came into the heart of the young girl when she remembered that beneath that roof was the one who had been the cause of all her desolations and roamings! But they were over now, and with a light tread she darted up the marble steps and rang the bell.
"By surprise after all," she remarked, turning to Mrs. Gaylord, who was following. The door flew open and with an exclamation of joy she sprang into her mother's embrace.
"The train is not due for five minutes," Lillian said at last, finding breath to speak. "I was just coming to the door to watch down the street as I have done for many days."
But why attempt to picture the scenes of bliss that followed? All hearts in the broad circle of love save one opened wide to receive its new accessions. Mrs. Cheevers could never tire of eulogizing her pretty ways and simplicity of manners, while the husband reiterated fully twice each day that even his pet, Lillian, never came up to her daughter in good looks or winning ways.
Still Mrs. Belmont utterly refused to see her grandchild. In vain did Lillian assure her that the past had been severed forever, and Lily only waited to tell her this, but her answering wail of agony was truly pitiful to hear.
"No—no!" she would say, "I cannot, O, I cannot! Keep her away! Keep her away! O God! But he will not hear? Don't let her come, Lillian my child. I did it! So cruel! So wicked!" With streaming eyes Lillian would pet and caress her mother with most earnest solicitude.
Day after day passed with no better results. She would not see Lily, neither would she be taken to the beautiful home on Broad street. "Let me die here," she would plead, when told of the pretty room that had been fitted up for her—so nearly like the one at Rosedale. But she shrank at the very recital and settled down in her easy chair like a weary child who desires to be let alone.
"What shall I do!" This from Mrs. Hamilton, one morning coming into the presence of her daughter, after one more fruitless attempt. "She will never consent to leave here, and I cannot go without her. Neither do I like to use compulsion."
"Why not wait for Father? Perhaps he can persuade her."
"For two months, darling?"
"If no better thing can be done."
The mother smiled. "Perhaps you are correct. This may be best. I think we will wait."
The weeks succeeding the incidents of our last chapter sped rapidly by. Winter came with its chilling winds, rifling the waving branches of their many colors, leaving them bare and unsightly; while it spread now and then over the seared lawns a pure white covering of snow, to hide for a time its sad work; and upon all this Mrs. Belmont looked with dreamy listlessness from her window. What was beauty, death, or change to her now, shut out as she was from the past, and in fear of the future? When kind hearts attempted to gain her consent to have the monotony of life broken she would plead: "No, no, let me stay here! It is cold, I cannot go! Lillian, my child, don't let her come! She will look at me with her large eyes, so much like my baby's! It would kill me!"
What was Mrs. Hamilton to do? The elegant home on Broad street was waiting, and Christmas week approaching. She could not leave her mother to be a burden to others, and Lily said, "perhaps Father can persuade her;" and so they lingered for his coming.
"Unless some imperative duties shall arise to prevent I will run home for a Christmas dinner," he had written.
The opening of the holidays came at last, as all bright places in life come and flit past, and Colonel Hamilton returned on leave to his home with buoyant spirits, for he did not come alone. Aunt, Vina, with her broad, good-natured face, followed the gaily dressed officer from the carriage, and close behind her walked Lizzie and little Bobby. "For Miss Lillian, I'se couldn't leave him," was the earnest exclamation preceding the greeting.
"No more could you Lizzie, and we could never have gotten along without little Bobby," and Mrs. Hamilton caught the diminutive mulatto of ten in her arms and kissed his plump yellow cheek.
Never was a mother more heartily welcomed by her child than was 'old Aunt Vina,' by her pet of former years. "Bress de Lord, honey! I thought dese old arms wouldn't neber hold my sweet darlin' no more!" she exclaimed, as tears coursed rapidly over her cheeks. "But de Missus, honey? Old Vina's eyes ache to look on her once more; de poor dear! Massa says she's dreffle bad, but de Lord knows what's bes'!"
"Why did you not tell me about this?" asked Lillian of her husband as soon as the dear old arms had liberated her sufficiently to permit her to do so. "It would have helped in the waiting if I had had the opportunity of anticipating a little?"
"I was not sure of succeeding in my project myself until three days ago," he answered, between the repeated caresses he was lavishing on his beautiful daughter.
"She's just like her mudder," interposed Aunt Vina; "and dis old heart's got her fast!"
"Let it hold her, Vina, and permit her young life to draw as much good from its hidden treasures as my darling wife has received," and Colonel Hamilton placed the hand of his child in the old negress's grasp. "Let your motherly love widen sufficiently to make room for both of my treasures, will you?"
"Dat I will, and place enough for de missus too!" Here a hearty laugh all around, in which Mr. and Mrs. Cheevers joined in merrily.
The day after to-morrow would be Christmas, and a small party was expected in the new home. How much there was to be done before that time! "The first thing of all," said Lillian, emphatically, "is to get Mother to Broad street! We have everything in readiness—a cook and maid of all work secured."
"And nobody wants 'em," chimed in Lizzie. "Reckon Vina an' me knows all dat!"
"Yes, and after our little fete is over you two shall be fully enstalled as advisory committee in our quiet domain, while Bobby can wait on the door and learn to be a man. I suppose you know that you are no longer slaves, and, unless I am very good to you, some day you may take into your kind old heads to leave me."
"Neber, Missus!" chimed in two voices at the same time.
Dinner was now ready for the hungry travelers, but Mrs. Hamilton could not eat. "I will go to Mother," she said, "for she will hear the voices and perhaps recognize them."
Mrs. Belmont was alone, for Mrs. Jackson had been dismissed upon the arrival of the daughter into the household; and Mrs. Gaylord had immediatelygone to visit a relative in another part of the city with a promise to return to them for a few weeks after all were settled. Lillian opened the door of the chamber with some trepidation. As she did so two large eyes were fastened upon her with a speechless wonder lighting up their slumbering fires.
"I came to eat dinner with you, Mother," the daughter said cheerily, coming to her side. "Not tasted it? I am in good time then. It will spoil if you allow it to get cold. This chicken pie is not the way Aunt Vina used to get it up, is it? But I like it quite as well. Let us try it."
"Has she come?"
"Who, Mother?"
"Vina."
"Yes, and Lizzie, with little Bobby."
"And he?"
"Who?"
"Charles."
"No, Mother, but he is at Rosedale, well and hopeful. You know some one is needed there to take care of the place and servants. But Pearl is below stairs and will be here to see you after dinner."
The good things on the small table, however, remained untouched, for the once proud mistress of Rosedale was silently watching the curtain, that had fallen around her world, slowly move one side, as the panorama of the past came laggardly to view. Lillian watched the changing expression on the thin face with interest, unwilling to interrupt the ebbing emotions she was sure were casting their flitting shadows upon it. Not until the sound of feet coming along thehall, and then halting before the door, was a word spoken. "Mother; Pearl has come," and, without permission, Lillian arose and opened the door.
"Just as I left you;" he exclaimed, cheerfully, stepping to the side of the invalid's chair. "Surely you have not been sitting here all the time?"
She did not move or look at him.
"It is too bad to stay in this one room so long, and to-day we will have a change. In an hour, Lillian, there will be a carriage at the door, and we will take Mother to another room, where she will not be obliged to look upon the same wall of brick and stone always."
She started, and her gaze rested on the manly face so near her own.
"Not a word," he responded, playfully, placing his hand over her mouth, "I am going to show you one of the brightest rainbows that has ever spanned your blue sky of life. All the brighter, dear Mother, for the dark clouds behind it. You are looking much better than when I went away; and that scarlet shawl gives quite a healthy glow to your cheeks. How happy we shall be! In a few months my army life will come to an end; then I will throw up my commission and be one among you, and let Rosedale go to its rightful owner,—we can be happier without it."
"Charles?" said the feeble voice.
"Shall be where his mother can enjoy him. In an hour, remember, we will go. Wrap warmly, for it is cold outside;" and, without another word, Colonel Hamilton left the room.
"Now, Mother, you must eat something, for you will want strength for your ride."
She obeyed, and, without speaking, did good justice to the ample meal. The firm will of a strong controlling mind had conquered, and Mrs. Belmont submitted to every suggestion without an opposing gesture.
The servants, immediately after dinner, were taken to their new quarters, with Lily as their mistress, and then the Colonel returned in the carriage for his wife and mother. He found her warmly cloaked and shawled, but every nerve trembled as one shivering with ague. Not apparently noticing it, he said, merrily, "How the boys in blue would envy me," and he placed his arm around the shrinking form to aid the timid feet down the long flight of stairs. "To be a lady's gallant is a luxury not often indulged in by us poor soldiers. The air is delicious out of doors; it will give you new life and strength. There now, you are all right, safe on terra firma!" And slowly he led her on.
Mechanically she moved through the hall to the outer door, down the marble steps, and was lifted into the carriage with many a lively sally from Lillian, who followed full of wonder. As carefully was she assisted out again on arriving at her destination; and entering the splendid drawing-room looked wildly about her.
"Right here, Mother, in this easy chair;" and her tender escort seated her near the register.
"Jus' you let me do dis;" calmly said Vina, coming up to her once stately mistress, and she began removing her wrappings. "Dar's no use ob dese old hands forgettin' how. And Missus,I'se mighty glad de good Lord sent 'way down to Georgy after this ere gal, 'cause He knowed dar was no one like old Vina could do for de missus."
All the time the faithful hands were at work, while the brightening eyes of the invalid were scanning the kindly face of the old slave.
When all wraps were removed and passed to Lizzy to take from the room, she took her thin white hand in her dusky palm, and, kneeling by the chair, said plaintively; "Bress de Lord! Let ebery body bress Him, for He is good! O Missus! Vina's heart is big, 'cause it's so glad! Bress de Lord!"
The other white hand was lifted slowly and placed on the bowed head of the negress as the pale lips muttered, "Bless the Lord! Pray, pray!"
"Glory!" and the old servant sprang to her feet.
"De angels will clap dar hands wid joy! Missus is goin' to de mansions by-and-by!"
A quiet glow of peace stole into the restless eyes, as Mrs. Belmont listened, and settling down in her easy chair, she really looked like the picture of contentment, as the Colonel asserted, entering as Vina went out.
Mr. and Mrs. Cheevers were to take a quiet tea with them, and, as the uncle declared, "would bring along the horse-shoe, as there would be no good luck without it." And soon all were seated in the drawing-room in pleasant conversation, to which Mrs. Belmont apparently gave no heed. An hour passed, when the careful mistress, who was, indeed, troubled about many things, took the arm of her husband and went into the parlor opposite.
"She is so tranquil; how can we disturb her?" was the first ejaculation.
"We will not disturb her my dear."
"But what about Lily?"
"What about her? Why she's the sweetest darling—"
"No, no! How shall we bring them together?"
"In the most natural way possible. When tea is ready I will escort her out to the table and introduce our daughter. She is a child and will submit to be governed and led. But where is Lily? I have not seen her for a long time."
"Gone to her room with a letter from Willie, I imagine, as her cheeks put on an unusual glow when a small package was placed in her hand by the carrier."
"What makes you say that, Lillian? Do you suppose that the heart of our child is in any way entangled with that boy's love?"
"I do not know."
The subject of this conversation came tripping down the broad staircase, and with a buoyant step entered the room where her father and mother were standing by the window.
"See what Willie has sent me for Christmas!" she exclaimed, holding up a finger adorned by a ring set with precious stones.
"An engagement ring my darling?"
"O no! We never thought of such a thing. He is my brother, that is all!" The sweet face could but crimson as she looked into that of her father.
"I believe you, darling; and as a brother he will be loved by us all."
"Is it not beautiful?"
"It has cost him many a day of hard work, without doubt," was the reply, while the mother was carefully examining the costly gift. "Poor Willie! He writes that he is not very well."
"He misses his companion of so many years, and the bestowing of this gift has brightened up his loneliness more than anything else could have done." This from the mother thoughtfully.
The bell announcing tea was heard in the hall, and the colonel, bidding his daughter see that all was ready, went to the drawing-room for the invalid. It was as he had said. Placing his arm tenderly about her shrinking form he led her into the dining-room where she met her granddaughter with only a slight quivering of the hand that was clinging so closely to the arm supporting her.
Lily kissed the pale cheek as she said: "I will take her to the seat where Aunt Vina says she must sit." During this the peaceful glow did not fade from her eyes, or the expression of resignation from her face.
"You are a magician as well as a prophet," whispered Lillian, returning to the head of the table.
They were happy now. The rainbow was spanning the dark clouds, and its cheering colors were reflected in every face.
"Charles," feebly whispered Mrs. Belmont.
"Yes, and Mrs. Gaylord, who ought also to be here," remarked the colonel, "for I have good news of her husband. He will be liberated and sent north in a very short time." How bright the sky can be after the clouds are driven out of it!
Gentle reader, would you like to follow the friends whom you have met in this simple narrative still farther in the histories of their eventful lives? Has your acquaintance thus far been a pleasant one? This is not all. Every thoughtful mind will draw from the characters of history or romance such lessons of hope and faith as cheer the heart in sorrow or beneath the depressions of despondency something that will guide when the soul is perplexed or shrinking. Sad indeed would the writer of this story be, if in the delineations of the history of our little heroine no lonely wayfarer should be comforted, or no friendless waif taught to look up for the hand that safely leads. God is kind and watchful towards his children, assuring them that they are "better than many sparrows," and therefore cannot fall to the ground without his notice; but is also just to punish and chasten those who oppose his little ones.
Have these truths been set impressively before you? If so we will raise the curtain yet a little higher and glance for one moment into the lives and homes of the few in whom you are interested, after the terrible war is over and peace again settles down like a holy benediction over our beautiful land.
Colonel Hamilton could not be spared from the important position he had occupied from the commencement of the struggle, and although his visits home were frequent, the elegant house on Broad street wore an air of desolation as the shadows of realities and uncertainties crept into it. The reports of victories and defeats brought terror and dismay into every heart, for loved ones were in jeopardy and mourning was in the land.
One day there came a letter from the absent husband that thickened the veil of apprehension and spread a new gloom over the hearts of those who read it. "We must expect bad news my dear wife," it went on to say; "and although I would shield my cherished ones from war's disasters I cannot do it. Reports were brought in last night by our scouts that Rosedale was in ashes and your brother, in a desperate hand to hand encounter with some of the boys in blue, received a wound from which he died before reaching the hospital camp. I was hoping to be able to shield him, and for our mother's sake send him north. But now he is beyond our reach."
"My poor, poor brother!" cried Mrs. Hamilton, as the letter dropped from her hands. "I had placed so much hope on his coming! What can I tell Mother? She is so much better, and was asking only this morning when Charles would be here?"
"We cannot break the new sad news to her," replied the daughter; "let us wait for Father. Somehow he is able to do everything without difficulty."
Lillian smiled in spite of her tears. "Yes, darling, we will wait." But it could not be. Thehungry heart of the mother was enduring the agony of famishing, and her cries for her only son were truly pitiful.
"Let the consequences be what they may I cannot longer endure her appeals; she must know the truth," she said to Lily one morning some weeks after. "Mother—Pearl cannot send him to you—how gladly he would do it if he could; but it is too late!"
"Too late?"
"Yes, Mother; the war you know. It has destroyed Rosedale, scattered the servants and—"
"Charles?"
"Charles has fallen into the ruin."
"Charles? Will he not come?"
"Never Mother; he is dead! And we are alone!"
"Dead! Dead! And he will not come! Gone! All, all gone!" and the white fingers linked themselves together, twisting and untwisting with a slow nervous motion as they lay upon her lap, while her large eyes never moved their gaze from the face before her.
"Dead! Dead!" she murmured.
"Pearl will be here by and by, and he will love you and be as true a son as my brother would have been. Let us wait and watch for him now."
"Dead! Dead! My boy—my Charles!" From this one subject nothing could divert her thoughts. The sad, mournful wail bubbled up from her stricken heart as naturally as her breath issued from her lungs, moaning and breathing; yet not a tear moistened the burning eyeballs, until one morning while Vina was arranging her dress for the day and telling her how "de poor heart brokewhen little Shady went out and neber more come back," the unseen hand laid a finger upon the main-spring of human life and it stopped. Mrs. Belmont, the ambitious mistress of Rosedale was also dead! The flickering light of a once massive brain was blown out; the prison door opened, and the pent-up soul was gone! Now indeed were the shadows deepened! The emblems of mourning were upon the door and reflected their sombre shade's over everything within.
Colonel Hamilton could not leave his regiment, as they were engaged in active duty; and so the daughter laid her away in Woodland cemetery under the cool shadows, as the setting sun was scattering its last rays upon the sparkling waters at the base of the hill. As the birds were chanting their good-night songs the solemn cortege turned away—back to life with all of its coming and stirring events, yet with heavy hearts.
"Yes, darling, we will leave Aunt Vina sole mistress of all and go to Kirkham for a few weeks at least," Mrs. Hamilton said a few mornings after, in answer to her daughter's plea.
"Willie is so anxious to tell me something and ask me about it. It has been a whole year since my visit, and two since our separation, he writes. I am so glad you have consented."
Few preparations were needed, and in a week Willie and "Phebe" were once more sitting together in the little parlor, where as a diminutive waif she had entered more than twelve years before, alone and unattended. What power of prescience could have pictured the changes? What vicissitudes and pleasures; what a mixing up of joys and sorrows, of snarls and hair-breadth escapesthere had been crowded into the rolling years.
"I guess I may better read the letter, for I can never tell you what is in it," said Willie, taking the well-worn missive from his pocket. "No, you may have that pleasure, while I will watch your face, reading as well as you."
"How you puzzle me, Willie. I have a good mind to run away alone to read it; you have made me nervous!"
"Not a step shall you go." But her quick eyes were following the page down at a rapid rate, and did not listen.
"O Willie!" she exclaimed as she turned the paper and went on. "Do you believe it? Can it be true?"
"He says so!"
"And he knows. 'I have written Mr. Palmer,' he says, 'and am informed that there will be no difficulty in the operation, but it will require considerable practice on your part to be able to walk firmly as he does.' I know that he has two cork feet or legs, as one day while behind him on Chestnut street a friend pointed him out with the expression, 'who would imagine that his walkers were artificial?' But those poor little feet! O Willie, there is no joy without its gloomy side!"
But Willie did walk; never without his cane, but his creeping days came to an end, and a thankful heart blessed God for its unexpected bliss. Social life now has no horrors for his sensitive nature, and he mingled freely with the refined and intelligent who frequented the parlors of the honored colonel and his lovely family.
Reader, are you curious to see him? If so look for him in one of the largest clothing stores in the city of Philadelphia. Not as clerk or seamster as in former days, but as half owner and proprietor. Be good, pure and noble if you would succeed in reaching the eminence ambition points out to you. "Carve out your niche and place yourself in it," was the advice of a true philosopher to his son, and will answer for the young of all ages. Look up, and if too weak to climb, the hand above you will lend its willing aid.
The war came to a close at last, and Mr. St. Clair with his wife and daughter returned to their southern home. Mrs. Mason received them joyfully, but declared that she could "never,neverforgive George for his silly freak of connecting himself with such plebeianism! My daughter's governess! He may better remain where such follies are tolerated!" But the parents only laughed, and the sister remained silent.
Rosedale would be rebuilt, not in as magnificent style as before, for its owner's long stay in the north had taught him many lessons.
"It may be I shall not care to occupy it," the son had remarked at the parting; "but my sweet sister will make a noble mistress for it."
And so it proved. George St. Clair became a northern man in deed as well as in feelings. He proved a successful tradesman and government officer in New York city in company with Elmore Pierson, who had been spared to his mother.
A happy family gathered in the home circle, blessed with fresh young blossoms of human life who were to adorn the world and bring comfort into the declining years of those whose feet weregoing downward. It is but a short journey between the two great rival cities, and the friends bound together by so many vicissitudes kept up a pleasant intimacy, often reviving past memories by tales of pleasant scenes or strange coincidences that would otherwise fade from sight in the moving panorama of human existence.
"We will have that Christmas dinner we were to have had three years ago," exclaimed Colonel Hamilton a week before the world-famed day. "A regular house warming! Let me see! Can we not get Willie's sister here with her family, and not let the dear boy know anything about it until then? Gaylord and his wife have gone back to their home, and I suppose he would not come with any amount of coaxing! He has grown so sour and ugly during the last six years that I pity that feeble little wife of his! O my letter! I have not even told you what has set me in such a commotion! Just like one of my freaks of forgetfulness!"
"I was wondering," laughed Mrs. Hamilton, for he was skipping around the room with the joyousness of a little boy, while searching in his pockets for the letter that was to make the revelations.
"Where is the thing? Well I declare, if it is not down to the office on the desk, as true as the world! If Willie gets hold of it! But no matter."
"Do, tell me, Pearl! I am glad you have doffed your regimentals. How you would look in a Colonel's uniform at this moment!"
"Honor and glory must pass away, but the St. Clair's will not pass away; they are coming and may be here to-day, Mrs. Mason and all!"
"And remain till after the holidays?"
"Longer, my dear! Christmas dinner, however, is the main subject under consideration. Let me see; Vina is getting pretty old for such an occasion, and if she will keep little Charlie safe in the nursery, it is about all we ought to ask of her. Lizzie is good in her place, and little Bobby is a treasure; but we must have another cook. What makes you look so solemn, my dear wife?"
"O, no—only——."
"Well—only what?"
"Is that Major Belknap to be here?"
"Do you not like him, Lillian? He was one of the bravest and noblest officers in the whole regiment."
"It is not that. But how can I ever spare my darling child?"
"This will have to be done some day; and I know of no one to whom I could more easily transfer our daughter's happiness. It is evident that her heart is not wholly her own, and it would not look well: for you or me to interfere with any arrangement of this kind," he laughed. The sunshine of the husband's cheerfulness fell into the chilly places of the mother's fears, warming them into brightness.
The Christmas festivities were a secured success.
George St. Clair came down from New York, to be clasped in the arms of his devoted mother; and receive the hearty hug from the dear old father, and loving embrace from one sister, and the cold salutations of the second. "If this does not take away my breath," he exclaimed, drawing his hesitating wife towards the stately Mrs. Mason, while disengaging herself from the demonstrative greetings of others.
"Sister," he said, "this is my wife, who has generously consented to add an additional lustre to the St. Clair escutcheon, and, without doubt, would as kindly place you on her list of friends!"
Anna extended her hand, which Mrs. Mason took with a stiff bow of recognition.
This did not escape the quick eye of Colonel Hamilton. "A trifle freezy for so warm a room," he whispered, sotto voce, as he turned to meet Willie, who was approaching, leaning on the arm of his foster-sister.
"This way, my boy. A Merry Christmas," and he opened the door into the family sitting-room, where Mr. and Mrs. Hopkins, with their own small Willie, were waiting his coming.
He drew back. "Am I dreaming! Fanny, my sister! Is this really you?" A tear found its way to the calm blue eyes, whose fountain had been closed for many a happy month by the blessings that had been piled upon it.
"We are all here, my brother! You would not come to us, so we came to you! If Mother could see—and know!"
Her voice choked and she turned to the window.
What a happy circle gathered around that bountifully-loaded table on that Christmas day! Fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, friends and lovers! While the host stood with uplifted hands, asking the Lord to bless and draw all hearts together, an "Amen" found its way out of every answering soul; and the feast went on.
Here we leave them, gentle reader,—bid them all good bye, with a wish and a prayer for their future happiness and success.
[FINIS.]
2. Minor punctuation errors have been corrected without comment and consisted primarily of placing or removing missing or incorrectly placed single and double quote marks, end periods, etc..
3. Throughout the text words denoting family or other close relations, "Mother," "Father," "Aunt," "Auntie," "Old Auntie," "Brother," "Sister," "Uncle," "Massa," "Missus" and "Crazy Dimis" were inconsistently capitalized when appearing immediately before a proper name, (_i.e._ aunt Nell and Aunt Cheevers, aunt Vina,) or when standing unmodified as a substitute for a person's name, (_i.e._ "Poor Old Auntie came out from the kitchen," or; "Take me home Mother." or; "Yes Massa"), and have been correctly capitalized in this e-text.
4. SPELLING CORRECTIONS:
5. TYPOGRAPHICAL CORRECTIONS:
6. WORD VARIATIONS: