Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1888-12-13

he would, Mary would always be hopeful
and courageous; and he felt some secret
dea that his own gloomy forebodlngs were
OF ser ice in restricting and SOLDERING what
seemed to h m her too sangune nature.
lie hlndlY reyereneed W thout ability
TO comprehend her exalted religious
fervOr, AMI the Quietude of soul
that it brought. But he did not
know through how many silent conflicts
how many prayers, how many tears, how
many hopes resigned and sorrows welcom-
ed, sh1 had come into that last refuge of
scrrowfu souls, that immovable peace
when all lifes anguish ceases and the
will of God becom S the final rest.
But, unhappily for this present crisis,
there was, as there often is In family life
just enough of the fathers nature in the
son TO bring them into tollsion with each
other. James had the same nervOusly
anxious nature, the same intense feeling
Of respOns bility, the same tendeny to-
wards morbid earnes,ness; and on that
day there had come collision.
His father ad poured fourth up him
his fears and apprehensiOns In manner
which implie a cen ,ure on his son, asbe-
viii ng to accep. life OF S holarly Ease,
while his father and mother were, as he
| expressed it, working their lives away. "
but l tell you, father, as
God is my witness, l mean to pay
all; you shall not su er; interest
and principal-all that my work would
bring-I engage to pay back"
YOU you'll never have anything.
You'll be poor man as long as you live.
Lost the a ademy this faIl-that tells the
story"
"But, father it wasn't my fault l lost
the academy"
ats no matter Whose fault II was
that's neither here nor there-you lost 1t,
and here you are with the vacation Def re
you and nothing t do! There's your
mother, she's working herse I to death;
she never gets any rest. | expect she'll
60 off in a consumption one Of these days"
al here there, father! that's enough!
Please don't say any more. You'll see l
will find something to do,'
There arc words spoken at times in life
that do not sound bitter that come from q
pitiable depth of anguish, and as James
turned from his father he had taken
resolution that convulsed him with pain;
his strong arms ouiyered with the repress-
ed agony and he hastily sought distant
part of the field, and began cutting and
stacking cornstalks with nervous ener-
gy.
"Whr, We work like thunder" was
Biah's comment. took l'arnin' haIn't
spilled ye yet; your arms are good for
suthin'.'
~ es my arms are good for something,
and Ill use them for something" said
jim.
There was a raging tempest in his soul.
For young fello of puri an education in
those days to be angry with his father
was somewhat that seemed to him as aw-
| full sacrilege as 10 lie angry with his GO :,
and yet he felt that his father had been
bitterly, cruelty uni st towards him He
/ had driven economy TO the most stringent
extremes; he had avoided the intimacy of
II S class fellows, lest he should be drawn
into needless eXpen es; he had borne with
shabby clothing and mean fare among bet
ter dressed and richer associates, and been
vii ing bear it. lie had studied faith
fully, unremit ingly, Tor two years. but at
the moment he turned from his father the
thrO5 that Vrung his heart was the giving
up of all.
! He had in his pocket a letter fro Il his
tDwnsman and schoolmate Sam Allen,
rate of an East India ran just fitting out
at Salem, and it said.
I'VE are going TO sail with picked crew,
and we want one just such fellow as you for
third mate. Come along, and you can go
/ right up, and your college math, mates will
/ be all tie better for US. Come right off, and
| your berth will be ready, and away for
| round the world!n
Here, to be sure, was immediate posi-
! tiOn-wages- employment-freed from
! the intolerable burden of dependence
but it was accepted at the sacrifice of all
| his lifes hopes. True, that in those days
th1 c pertinent of a sea-faring life had
often even in instances which he recalled
brought forth fortune and an ability to
settle down in peaceful competence in
after life. But there was Diana. Would
she wait for him Encirced on all sides
with lovers, would she keep faith with an
ADVENTURE gone fog an indefinite quest?
Tie despOnding sclf-disturbing side of
his ma ure said, $50 Why should she?"
Then, TO 60 was to give up J lana to
make up his mind to have her belong 10
some other. Then there was his mother.
An unutterable reverential pathos always
to him encircle the idea of his mother.
Her life to him seemed hard one from
the outside, as he iewed it, it was all
self-sacriiice and remuneration. Yet he
knew That she had set her cart on an
education for HIN, as much as it could b.
set on an thing earthly. He was her
! pIiue, HeI Hope' ana Just HOW lnaJ very
thought was full of bitterness. There
was no help for it.; he must not let her
work her, elf to death for him; he would
make the household vessel lighter by the
throwing him elf into the sea to sink or
swim as III ght happen; and then, perhaps,
he might come back with money to help
them all.
All this was what was surging and
boiling in his mind when he came in from
his work to the supper that night
CHAPTER w.