Father Brighthopes Part 38

"How provoking you are, Sam Cone!" exclaimed Lizzie. "Why can't you tell? Georgie said it was Deacon Dustan's carriage that stopped."

"So 'twas; I opened the gate for the deacon to drive through; but somebody came with him--you can't guess who."

Sam spit again, and wiped his mouth with his sleeve.

"O!" said Sophronia, with a look of disgust, turning away her face; "he chews tobacco!"

"What of it?" rejoined Sam, who overheard her.

And he rolled the weed in his cheek, with the air of one proud of the accomplishment.

"Do spit out the filthy stuff!" exclaimed Chester.

"It an't no worse than smoking," retorted Sam.

This was a home thrust. Chester, during his last year at school, had become addicted to cigars, which his silly little wife thought delightful in his lips.

"O, there's no comparison!" she cried, indignantly.

Sam was not convinced; but he could not be indifferent to the opinion of so pretty a creature; so, with a sheepish look, he flung the quid on the ground behind him.

"Well, if you can't guess who has come," said he, "I'll tell you. It's the old minister,--Father Brighthopes."

"Father Brighthopes!" echoed the children, in chorus.

"Yes," said Sam; "Deacon Dustan was over to town when he came, and brought him straight here."

There was a general rush for the house. Lizzie--for the first time voluntarily--abandoned the baby to Mr. Kerchey's arms, and ran to greet her old friend. Georgie, who had not forgotten the clergyman, came slipping down the tree, regardless of damage done his clothes.

"What else could have happened, to give us a more delightful surprise?"

cried Chester. "Come, Phronie. Now you will see, and judge for yourself, the glorious old man you have heard me tell so much about."

Hepsy was not the last to start. But she stopped to take Jenny with her.

"Come, dear," said she, "you must have your face washed now. What are you doing?"

The child, seated upon the turf, was absorbed in the anatomy of a gra.s.shopper. It was one of the oldest of its race,--a large, respectable fellow, over an inch long. In pursuing her investigations, however, Jenny had taken its head off; and it had thus fallen a victim to infant science.

"Why, Jenny!" exclaimed Hepsy, "you have killed the poor thing!"

"Are you sorry?" lisped the little girl, with beautiful simplicity. "You needn't be," she added, cheerily. "There's enough more of 'em."

It took Hepsy a good while to explain exactly why children should not indulge a pa.s.sion for decapitating insects; and Jenny was sadly troubled when allusion was made to the gentle removal of her own fair head from her shoulders, in order that she might judge how gra.s.shoppers felt under the circ.u.mstances.

x.x.xIII.

CONCLUSION.

It was a joyful meeting, and that day was one of the happiest in the old clergyman's life. He took the children to his bosom with all the warm affection of his sunny nature, with tears of thankfulness in his eyes.

He had lasted wonderfully. You could hardly discover that he had grown old at all. There was the same serene face,--aged, indeed, but with a spirit eternally young forever shining through.

He had come to pa.s.s only a few days with his friends. And those days--would we had s.p.a.ce to describe them!--flew swiftly by. Once more the time came for his departure.

But he remained long enough to remark, and to rejoice over, the change in Mrs. Royden's household since the day when he first came there to spend his brief vacation. There was sunshine beneath the roof. There was music in the air of the house. There was beauty all around.

"We owe it all to your teaching and example," said Mr. Royden, one afternoon, speaking gratefully of the change. "Before you came, we never really knew what religion was. It seemed something separate from the business and everyday affairs of life, and we thought we could not well afford to try its utility. We learned from you that it was the sweetener of every thought and every act of the day. Wife and I have been practising it as well as we could, and we find that it pours the oil of happiness into the machinery of life, which often creaked so drearily before."

How the good old man poured out his soul in thankfulness, that night, to his Master, inspired with inexpressible joy by this evidence that his Christian labors of love had been blessed in the hearts of his friends!

And so, having been almost worshipped by the Roydens during his stay, and honored with abundant attentions from Mr. Corlis and his society, Father Brighthopes went his way rejoicing and praising the infinite Giver for such abundant blessings.

Chester and his bride, having prolonged their visit on his account, departed at about the same time.

Some months later, this young couple sent for Hepsy to come and live with them, in their new home in Sophronia's native town. The poor girl gladly went. Henceforth she was resolved to devote herself entirely to the happiness of Chester.

He needed her, and he was able to appreciate her self-sacrifice. He would not have had much of a home without her. Sophronia was a sweet girl; but of the art--more valuable than all other arts in a wife--of making a comfortable home she was lamentably ignorant. Having been petted as an heiress, she was a complete child. Wealth can purchase certain luxuries, and insure an outside show; but the talent for making home _home_ lies in the heart of the wife, and transcends in value all the riches of the globe.

Had it not been for the good Hepsy, Chester must have led a miserable life, with his unsatisfied domestic feelings, after all the romance of love was over. She made his fireside, and, with the influence she speedily acquired over Sophronia, drew her within the sphere of peaceful home delights, teaching her a higher, holier love for her husband than had ever entered the heart of the giddy young wife before.

And was Hepsy happy?

There are two kinds of happiness. One consists in the gratification of our wishes and desires, the attachment of friends, the admiration of the world.

Another sort of happiness lies in that n.o.ble and unselfish love, which devotes itself to promote the welfare of others, quite forgetful of all the thorns that pierce it as it treads the path of duty, and never knowing the poison of envy or the gall of hate. This is the highest, purest happiness known on earth; for it approaches the bliss of the immortals, whose home is in the heavens.

Of the former, Hepsy--the poor, sickly, deformed girl--certainly had not much; but the latter was showered upon her in rich abundance, falling like the sweet dew, for want of which the thirsty flowers gasp and wither in the sultry summer day, but which steals softly down, to bathe their rosy cheeks and lily lips, only when they bow their heads under the gloom of night.

J. T. TROWBRIDGE SERIES

Coupon Bonds.

Cudjo's Cave.

Drummer Boy, The.

Martin Merryvale, His X Mark.

Lucy Arlyn.

Father Bright Hopes.

Neighbor Jackwood.

Three Scouts, The.