'As Gold in the Furnace' Part 11

A DAY'S ADVENTURE

Mr. Shalford at once told the President of the theft, and what he had arranged for Henning. The head of the college agreed with the prefect in thinking that a day's outing for Roy would be the best distraction he could get. A change of scenery and of faces would be beneficial, and prevent the unfortunate boy's mind from dwelling too morbidly on his misfortune while the event was still fresh.

"Why, why, why! What's this? Boys out of bounds? Where are you going?

Dear me, dear me!"

The President, with a merry twinkle in his eyes, shook his gray locks, and a long finger, at the six boys whom he purposely met on the snow-covered lawn in front of the college.

"Where are you going?" he asked again.

"We hardly know yet, Father," said Jack Beecham. "We have only a few minutes ago obtained permission from Mr. Shalford for a day off."

"A day off! and what do you expect to do with it?"

"Take a good tramp, buy our dinners at a farmhouse, and have a good time, Father."

"H--hm! Have a good time, eh? Well, that's right. You can all be trusted. Hope you will enjoy yourselves. Wait. Where are your skates?

If I were you I would take them with me. In your journeying you may come across a frozen pond, and then you would regret being without them."

"That's a good idea, Father. We will go back and get them," said Jack.

"Do, and meet me here before you start."

The boys turned back into the yard, and the President went to his office. A few minutes later he met the boys. He was carrying a good sized parcel.

"Were you not some of the charitable boys who, out of their abundance, provided the old folks with a feast yesterday?"

Not one of those engaged in that enterprise answered, but Ernest Winters said:

"Yes, Father, these four big fellows were some of them and I think they are all a set of mean fellows."

The four, and the President, too, looked surprised.

"Why do you think that, my child?" he asked.

"Because they didn't give any of us smaller boys a chance to give anything toward the feast."

The four big "mean" fellows burst into a laugh.

"Never mind, Ernie, this time," said Jack Beecham, "we had too much anyway. You shall have a chance for the next spread."

The President smiled at Ernest's vehemence, and at the nature of his charge.

"On your way," he said to Henning, "I want you to call at the Little Sisters and give them this package. I learned last night that although your dinner there was a great success yesterday, still there are many poor creatures, both men and women, who are in the infirmaries and could not attend. Here are a couple of boxes of cigars for these old men, and two boxes of candy for the old women."

The boys were delighted to be given such a mission. A bright smile of welcome spread over the features of the Sister who answered the door, when she saw these college boys again.

"Come into the parlor, young gentlemen, and I will call Mother."

The Superioress soon came. She was profuse in her thanks for what the students had done that week for her charges.

"May G.o.d bless you all," she said. "Our old people, since yesterday's dinner, have done nothing but talk about the kindness of the young gentlemen in remembering them. Many extravagantly funny, and some really comical things were said in your praise," and the nun's eyes twinkled and a smile stole around the corners of her mouth at the remembrance of many a quaint bit of Irish humor from the old men.

"Oh, tell us some of the things, Mother," said the impetuous young Winters.

"I am unable to reproduce any of it. I should only spoil it if I were to attempt it. You must come and hear them yourselves some day."

Henning then told her their mission.

"Please convey my thanks to the President. All of you must visit the infirmaries and distribute the gifts."

Whether this is what the President intended--we are inclined to think it is--that visit was the very best thing that could have happened to Henning in his present frame of mind. There is nothing like witnessing the sorrow and misery of others to make us think less of our own. For the first time in his life Henning was face to face and in close touch with pain and suffering and disease and all the calamities of impoverished old age. What was a misfortune like his to that of being doubled and rendered helpless by rheumatism? Here one was totally blind, but marvelously patient. There another whose distorted hands rendered her powerless to help herself. Another had to be lifted and tended and fed as a little child in the helplessness of old age and years of sickness. Yet all, under the fostering charity of the nuns, were clean, docile, grateful, and as cheerful as their condition would permit. Yes, the visit was very beneficial to Henning.

It is true that Roy's greatest distress was, after all, in the antic.i.p.ation of what was to come. He knew there were many who were by no means kindly disposed toward him. Would these set afloat rumors and reports? Would they attempt to blacken his character? He greatly feared they would.

The chagrin caused by having lost the money entrusted to him through want of a little prudential forethought, or through mere forgetfulness of what he had the intention of doing, was bad enough. The imputations and the innuendos he dreaded far more. He realized that life could be made very bitter for him. But after all, what was all he might have to suffer, even granting the gloomiest view of the future to be the actual one, in comparison to the chronic and hopeless pains of these poor people in the Sisters' infirmaries?

He left the convent in a much more cheerful frame of mind than he had experienced since the discovery of the theft. His companions gladly saw the change. They did their utmost during the long tramp over the hills, by quip and prank and song and jest, to make the time pa.s.s pleasantly.

It was a splendid day for a winter's walk. It is true there was no sun, but neither was there a breath of cold air stirring. There was an even gray sky, a motionless atmosphere, and just sufficient snow to accentuate the beauties of a winter landscape, but not enough to envelop everything in an indiscriminating white pall. It was an ideal winter day in which to be outdoors.

The fresh snow that had fallen during the night and early morning remained on the trees, loading down every branch and twig. The well-known bridle-path through the woods, along which the boys pa.s.sed merrily, had a double carpet, the upper one of snow, and beneath that a spreading of dry autumn leaves.

The great charm of a windless snow-covered forest is the absolute silence that prevails. Nothing was heard by the travelers save the distant occasional bark of a shepherd-dog, or a far-off train whistle, sounding like a dismal appeal for help, and subconsciously regarded by the hearers as an irreverent intrusion upon the silence of the solitude. Once in a while from an overweighted bough the soft snow would fall, but with a m.u.f.fled sound as if fearful of breaking nature's sabbath calm.

As the boys traveled merrily on, here and there they saw the "vestigia"

of birds or rabbits, and once they discovered what they supposed to be deer tracks in the snow. Descending to a pretty hollow they saw a scene which delighted them immensely. In the bottom of the hollow, which in the summer time was a beautiful glade in the forest, there was standing out alone with a clear s.p.a.ce around it, a magnificent snow-laden spruce tree. Each graceful downward curve of the limbs sustained its load of pure white snow. The symmetry of the forest king was unmarred, but appeared glorified by its covering of whiteness.

The six were enraptured. They gazed long at the beautiful sight and would have delayed much longer had not Jack Beecham, who had a.s.sumed a temporary leaders.h.i.+p of the excursion, warned them of the unwisdom of staying too long in one place.

A little farther along they saw an ideal winter scene. A large, comfortable farmhouse, with all the sheds and barns of a well-kept farm, lay at their feet under a mantle of white. From the broad chimney arose a straight column of blue smoke, telling of warmth within. In the barnyard were several head of comfortable-looking sheep and fat cattle were contentedly ruminating in the shelter of a huge straw stack. One of the inmates of this cosy looking farmhouse had, probably unconsciously, added the last touch to complete the artistic effect of this scene of gray and white. In the door yard on a clothesline were three or four brilliantly red woolen s.h.i.+rts which heightened by contrast the more somber colors of the scene.

"That's our Mecca if the fates be propitious," said Tom Shealey, as the boys were viewing the scene here described from an elevated point at least a mile away.

"It is a comfortable looking house and doubtless has a well-stocked larder. I wonder if the Dowsibel of the Kitchen could be induced to turn a spit for us."

"'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished," observed Beecham, "for already I believe I could eat a couple of sheep and a Michaelmas goose."

The boys had already walked a good seven miles. All were beginning to feel tired and to realize the necessity of a good meal.

"Suppose we can not be entertained there?" suggested Ernest Winters.

"Then we shall have to tramp on till we find a place where we can be--perhaps ten miles more," said Roy Henning teasingly.

"O--oh!" groaned Ernest. Roy laughed.

"Well, do not despair, little one. Nine miles from here I know of a wayside hostelry where we may perhaps get some year old crackers and eggs, with an apology for coffee, and have the privilege of paying Delmonico prices."