CHAPTER XIX.
THE MOTHER.
Out of the door he went, happy in spite of all the mistakes he had madeand of all the _contretemps_ of his provoking misadventure; happy inspite of the threat of arrest for burglary. For nearly a minute AugustWehle was happy in that perfect way in which people of quiet tempers arehappy--happy without fluster. But before he had passed the gate, heheard a scream and a wild hysterical laugh; he heard a hurrying of feetand saw a moving of lights. He would fain have turned back to find outwhat the matter was, he had so much of interest in that house, but heremembered that he had been turned out and that he could not go back.The feeling of outlawry mingled its bitterness with the feeling ofanxiety. He feared that something had happened to Julia; he lingered andlistened. Humphreys came out upon the upper porch and looked sharply upand down the road. August felt instinctively that he was the object ofsearch and slunk into a fence-corner, remembering that he was now aburglar and at the mercy of the man whose face was enough to show himunrelenting.
Presently Humphreys turned and went in, and then August came out of theshadow and hurried away. When he had gone a mile, he heard the hoofs ofhorses, and again he concealed himself with a cowardly feeling he hadnever known before. But when he found that it was Jonas, riding onehorse and leading another, on his way to bring Dr. Ketchup, thesteam-doctor, he ran out.
"Jonas! Jonas! what's the matter? Who's sick? Is it Julia?"
"I'll be bound you ax fer Jule first, my much-respected comrade. Butit's only one of the ole woman's conniption fits, and you know she's gotnineteen lives. People of the catamount sort always has. You'd bettergin a thought to yourself now. I got you into this scrape, and I mean tosee you out, as the dog said to the 'possum in its hole. Git up ontothis four-legged quadruped and go as fur as I go on the road to peaceand safety. Now, I tell you what, the hawk's got a mighty good purchaseonto you, my chicken, and he's jest about to light, and when he lights,look out fer feathers! Don't sleep under the paternal shingles, as theysay. Go to Andrew's castle, and he'll help you git acrost the river intothe glorious State of ole Kaintuck afore any warrant can be got out fertakin' you up. Never once thought of your bein' took up. But don'tdelay, as the preachers say. The time is short, and the human heart isdesperately wicked and mighty deceitful and onsartain."
As far as Jonas traveled his way, he carried August upon the gray horse.Then the latter hurried across the fields to his father's cabin. LittleWilhelmina sat with face against the window waiting his return.
"Where did you go, August? Did you see the pretty girl at Anderson's?"
He stooped and kissed her, but, without speaking a word to her, he wentover to where his mother sat darning the last of her basket ofstockings. All the rest were asleep, and having assured himself of this,he drew up a low chair and leaned his elbow on his knee and hi head onhis hand, and told the whole adventure of the evening to his mother, andthen dropped his head on her lap and wept in a still way. And thesweet-eyed, weary Moravian mother laid her two hands upon his head andprayed. And Wilhelmina knelt instinctively by the side of her brother.
THE MOTHER'S BLESSING.]
Perhaps there is no God. Or perhaps He is so great that our praying hasno effect. Perhaps this strong crying of our hearts to Him in ourextremity is no witness of his readiness to hear. Let him live in doubtwho can. Let me believe that the tender mother-heart and the lovingsister-heart in that little cabin _did_ reach up to the great Heart thatis over us all in Fatherly love, did find a real comfort for themselves,and did bring a strength-giving and sanctifying something upon the headof the young man, who straightway rose up refreshed, and departed outinto the night, leaving behind him mother and sister straining theireyes after him in the blackness, and carrying with him thoughts andmemories, and--who shall doubt?--a genuine heavenly inspiration thatsaved him in the trials in which we shall next meet him.
At two o'clock that night August Wehle stood upon the shore of the Ohioin company with Andrew Anderson, the Backwoods Philosopher. Andrew waveda fire-brand at the steamboat "Isaac Shelby," which was coming round thebend. And the captain tapped his bell three times and stopped hisengines. Then the yawl took the two men aboard, and two days afterwardAndrew came back alone.