Alone in London Part 10

"Don't you know me, father?" cried Raleigh, almost unable to utter a word. "It's your poor Susan's husband, and Dolly's father."

"Dolly's father!" repeated old Oliver, rising from his chair, and resting his hand upon Raleigh's shoulder. "Do you know that the dear Lord has taken her to be where he is in glory?"

"Yes, I know it," he said, with a sob.

He put the old man back in his seat, and drew a chair close up to him.

They sat thus together in sorrowful silence for some minutes, until old Oliver laid his hand upon the empty sleeve on Raleigh's breast.

"You've lost your arm," he said, pityingly.

"Ay!" answered Raleigh; "our colonel was set upon by a tiger in the jungle, and I saved him; but the brute tore my arm, and craunched the bone between his teeth till it had to come off. It's spoiled me for a soldier."

"Yes, yes, poor fellow," answered old Oliver, "but the Lord knew all about it."

"That he did," answered Raleigh; "and he's taught me a bit more about himself than I used to know. I'm not spoiled to be His soldier. But I don't know much about the service yet, and I shall want you to teach me, father. You'll let me call you father, for poor Susan's sake, won't you?"

"To be sure--to be sure," said old Oliver, keeping his hand still upon the empty sleeve on Raleigh's breast.

"Well, father," he continued, "as I am not fit for a soldier, and as the colonel was hurt too, we're all come home together. Only Susan's gone straight on with her lady and our little girl, and sent me through London to see after you and Dolly."

"Your little girl?" said Oliver questioningly.

"Yes, the one born in India. Her name's Mary, but we call her Polly.

Susan said it made her think of our little Dolly at home. Dear! dear! I don't know however I shall let her know."

Another fit of silence fell upon them, and Tony left them together, for it was time to put up the shop shutters. It seemed just like the night when he had followed Susan and the little girl, and loitered outside in the doorway opposite, to see what would happen after she had left her in the shop. He fancied he was a ragged, shoeless boy again, n.o.body loving him, or caring for him, and that he saw old Oliver and Dolly standing on the step, looking out for the mother, who had gone away, never, never to see her darling again. Tony's heart was very full; and when he tried to whistle, he was obliged to give it up, lest he should break out into sobs and crying. When he went back into the house Raleigh was talking again.

"So Susan and me are to have one of the lodges of the colonel's park,"

he said, "and I'm to be a sort of bailiff to look after the other outdoor servants about the garden and premises. It's a house with three bedrooms, and a very pleasant sort of little parlour, as well as a kitchen and scullery place downstairs. You can see the Wrekin from the parlour window, and the moon over it; and it's not so far away but what we could get a spring-cart sometimes, and drive over to your old home under the Wrekin. As soon as ever the colonel's lady told Susan where it was, she cried out, 'That's the very place for father!' You'd like to come and live with your own Susan again, in your own country; wouldn't you now?"

"Yes, yes; for a little while," answered old Oliver, with a smile upon his face.

Tony felt a strange and very painful shrinking at his heart. If the old man went away to live with his daughter in the country, his home would be lost to him, and he would have to go out into the great city again alone, with n.o.body to love. He could get his living now in a respectable manner, and there was no fear of his being driven to sleep in Covent Garden, or under the bridges. But he would be alone, and all the links which bound him to Dolly and old Oliver would be snapped asunder. He wondered if the Lord Jesus would let such a thing be.

"But I couldn't leave Tony," cried old Oliver, suddenly; and putting on his spectacles to look for him.

"Come here, Tony. He's like my own son to me, bless him! He calls me grandfather, and kept my heart up when I should have sunk very low without him. My Master gave him to me the very same night he gave me my little love. No, no; Dolly loved Tony, and Susan must come here to see me, but I could never leave my boy."

Old Oliver had put his arm round Tony, drawing him closer and closer to him as he spoke, until his withered cheek pressed fondly against his face. Since Dolly died neither of them had felt such a thrill of happiness as now.

"The colonel and his lady must be told about this," said Raleigh, after he had heard all that Tony had been and done for old Oliver; and when he was obliged to go away for the night, the soldier gave him such a cordial grasp of the hand, as set all his fingers tingling, and his heart throbbing with exultation.

CHAPTER XXI.

POLLY.

The lodge stood in a very lovely place, upon a slope of ground, which rose still higher to where the colonel's grand house was situated. There was a porch before the door, built of rough logs of pines, covered with ivy and honeysuckle, and with seats in it, where you could sit and look out over a wide, rich plain, with little hills and dales in it, stretching far away towards the sky-line, where some distant mountains lay, so like to clouds, that you could scarcely tell which were soft and misty vapours, and which were solid and everlasting hills. The Severn ran through the beautiful plain with so many windings, sometimes lying in shadow under deep banks, and sometimes glistening and sparkling in the sunlight, that it looked more like many little pools scattered about the meadows than one long, continuous river. Not very far away, as Raleigh had said, stood the Wrekin, purple in the evening haze, but by day so plain, that one could see the great rock on its summit, which in olden times served as an altar to the G.o.d of fire.

Susan was very busy, and had been very busy all day over two things--preparing the house for the reception of her father, whom she had not seen for so many years, and in teaching her little girl, who was now eighteen months old, to say grand-pa. The one work was quite finished; everything was ready for old Oliver, and now she was waiting and watching to see the colonel's spring cart arrive from the station with her husband, who was gone to meet old Oliver and Tony. For Tony was not on any account to be parted from the old man--so said the colonel and his lady--but was to be employed about the garden, and as general errand boy for the house, and to live at the lodge with old Oliver. Susan's eyes were red, for as she had been busy about her work, she had several times cried bitterly over her lost little girl; but she had resolved within herself not to shed a single tear after her father was come, lest she should spoil the gladness of his coming home to her. At last the cart came in sight, and stopped, and Raleigh and Tony sprang out to help Oliver to get down, while Susan put down Polly in the porch, and ran to throw her arms round her dear old father's neck.

He was very quiet, poor old Oliver. He had not spoken a word since he left the station, but had gazed about him as they drove along the pleasant lane with almost a troubled look upon his tranquil face. When his dim eyes caught the first glimpse of the Wrekin he lifted his hat from his white and trembling head, as if to greet it like some great and dear friend, after so many years of absence. Now he stood still at the wicket, leaning upon Susan's arm, and looking round him again with a gentle yet sad smile. The air was so fresh, after the close streets of London, that to him it seemed even full of scents of numberless flowers; and the sun was s.h.i.+ning everywhere, upon the blossoms in the garden, and the fine old elm-trees in the park, and the far-off hills. He grasped Tony's hand in his, and bade him look well about him.

"If only my little love had had a bit of suns.h.i.+ne!" he said, with a mournful and tender patience in his feeble voice.

But just then--scarcely had he finished speaking--there came a shrill, merry little scream behind them, so like Dolly's, that both old Oliver and Tony turned round quickly. It could not be the same, for this little child was even smaller than Dolly; but as she came pattering and tottering down the garden-walk towards them, they saw that she had the same fair curly hair, and blue eyes, and rosy cheeks that Dolly had had two years before. She ran and hid her face in her mother's gown; but Susan lifted her into her arms, and held her towards old Oliver.

"Say grand-pa, and kiss him, Polly," she said, coaxingly.

The little child held back shyly for a minute, for old Oliver's head was shaking much more than usual now; but at length she put her two soft little hands to his face, and held it between them, while she kissed him.

"Gan-pa!" she cried, crowing and chuckling with delight.

They went indoors to the pleasant parlour, where old Oliver's arm-chair was set ready for him by the side of the fire, for Susan had kindled a fire, saying that he would feel the fresh air blowing from the Wrekin; and Polly sat first on his knee, and then upon Tony's, who could not keep his eyes from following all her movements. But still it was not their own Dolly who had made the old house in the close alley in London so happy and so merry for them. She was gone home to the Father's house, and was watching for them there. Tony might be a long time before he joined her, but for old Oliver the parting would be but short. As he sat in the evening dusk, very peacefully and contentedly, while Susan sang Polly to sleep in the kitchen, Tony heard him say half aloud, as his custom was, "Yet a little, and I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am ye may be also. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!"