33. CHAPTER XXXIII.
INTO THE LIGHT.
FOR two weeks longer Ralph taught at the Flat
Creek school-house. He was everybody's hero.
And he was Bud's idol. He did what he could to
get Bud and Martha together, and though Bud always
“saw her safe home” after this, and called on her
every Sunday evening, yet, to save his life, he could not forget
his big fists and his big feet long enough to say what he most
wanted to say, and what Martha most wanted him to say.
At the end of two weeks Ralph found himself exceedingly
weary of Flat Creek, and exceedingly glad to hear from Mr. Means
that the school-money had “gin aout.” It gave him a good
excuse to return to Lewisburg, where his heart and his treasure
were. A certain sense of delicacy had kept him from writing to
Hannah just yet.
When he got to Lewisburg he had good news. His uncle,
ashamed of his previous neglect, and perhaps with an eye to his
nephew's growing popularity, had gotten him the charge of the
grammar department in the new graded school in the village. So
he quietly arranged to board at a boarding-house. His aunt could
not have him about, of which fact he was very glad. She could
not but feel, she said, that he might have taken better care of
Walter than he did, when they were only four miles apart.
He did not hasten to call on Hannah. Why should he? He
sent her a message, of no consequence in itself, by Nancy Sawyer.
Then he took possession of his school; and then, on the evening
of the first day of school, he went, as he had appointed to himself,
to see Hannah Thomson.
And she, with some sweet presentiment, had gotten things ready
by fixing up the scantily-furnished room as well as she could.
And Miss Nancy Sawyer, who had seen Ralph that afternoon, had
guessed that he was going to see Hannah. It's wonderful how
much enjoyment a generous heart can get out of the happiness of
others. Is not that what He meant when he said of such as Miss
Sawyer that they should have a hundred-fold in this life for all
their sacrifices? Did not Miss Nancy enjoy a hundred weddings,
and love and have the love of five hundred children? And so Miss
Nancy just happened over at Mrs. Thomson's humble home, and,
just in the most matter-of-course way, asked that lady and Shocky
to come over to her house. Shocky wanted Hannah to come too.
But Hannah blushed a little, and said that she would rather not.
And when she was left alone, Hannah fixed her hair two or
three times, and swept the hearth, and moved the chairs first one
way and then another, and did a good many other needless things.
Needless: for a lover, if he be lover, does not see furniture
or dress.
And then she sat down by the fire, and tried to sew, and tried to
look unconcerned, and tried to feel unconcerned, and tried not to
expect anybody, and tried to make her heart keep still. And tried
in vain. For a gentle rap at the door sent her pulse up twenty
beats a minute and made her face burn. And Hartsook was, for
the first time, abashed in the presence of Hannah. For the
oppressed girl had, in two weeks, blossomed out into the full-blown
woman.
And Ralph sat down by the fire, and talked of his school and
her school, and everything else but what he wanted to talk about.
And then the conversation drifted back to Flat Creek, and to the
walk through the pasture, and to the box-alder tree, and to the
painful talk in the lane. And Hannah begged to be forgiven, and
Ralph laughed at the idea that she had done anything wrong.
And she praised his goodness to Shocky, and he drew her little
note out of— But I agreed not tell you where he kept it. And
then she blushed, and he told how the note had sustained him, and
how her white face kept up his courage in his flight down the
bed of Clifty Creek. And he sat a little nearer, to show her the
note that he had carried in his bosom— I have told it!
And—but I must not proceed. A love-scene, ever so beautiful
in itself, will not bear telling. And so I shall leave a little gap
just here, which you may fill up as you please........
Somehow, they never knew how, they got to talking about the
future instead of the past, after that, and to planning their two
lives as one life. And....... And when Miss
Nancy and Mrs. Thomson returned later in the evening, Ralph
was standing by the mantel-piece, but Shocky noticed that his
chair was close to Hannah's. And good Miss Nancy Sawyer
looked in Hannah's face and was happy.
