Tiger and Tom and Other Stories for Boys Part 29

"I haven't a doubt of it, Dave, you be still," cried Jack angrily.

"I think we ought to ask, so as to be sure," persisted David.

But Jack whipped up and poor David's words went to the winds, as gust after gust of the coming shower roared through the forest, and Jack urged the horse to all the speed which her heavy load would allow.

The self-willed lad was well pleased with his hasty decision, and the farther he went, the more and more convinced was he that it was the right way.

Presently the roaring of Bounding Brook arose above the noise of the tempest.

"We shall be over the bridge in a jiffy," cried Jack, "and then, old fellow, what will you say?"

"I'd like to feel myself safely over," muttered David, when, before the other could reply, Jack, David, horse, and meal went floundering into the raging waters of the swollen stream. It was pitch dark; the storm was on them, and they were miles from human help.

The first few moments of horrible suspense can scarcely be expressed.

Jack at last found himself anch.o.r.ed on a log of drift-wood, the icy waters breaking over him, and the bridle still fast in his hand.

"David!" he shouted at the top of his voice, "David!"

"The Lord have mercy!" cried David, "I'm somewhere."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "_In the raging waters of the swollen stream._"]

The meal? ah, that was making a pudding in some wild eddy of the Bounding Brook far below.

"No matter what a man believes, provided he's sincere," cried poor Jack, thoroughly drenched and humbled. "It's the biggest lie the devil ever got up."

"It _does_ matter. _Being right_ is the main thing. Sincerity doesn't save a fellow from the tremendous consequences of being wrong. It can't get him out of trouble. He's obliged to endure it, no matter how sincere he had been.

"Didn't I honestly believe I was on the right road, when I was like going to perdition all the time?"

The experience of that night completely and forever cured poor Jack of a common error which has brought many a poor soul into the wild surges of unbelief and irreligion.

SIX THINGS BEHIND

"Rufus," said his mother, "did you mail the letter I gave you last evening?"

"Oh, mother, I forgot it! I meant to, but just then I had to go and get some new shoe strings, so it went out of my mind."

"Didn't I speak of those strings yesterday?"

"Yes; but just then father called me to ask if I had weeded the pansy bed the night before."

"And had you?"

"No, mother, I was just writing the letter you said must go to grandma--"

"I thought you were to write that on Sat.u.r.day."

"I meant to, but I had to do some examples that I didn't do on Friday, so I hadn't time."

"Rufus," called his brother, "didn't you nail the broken slat on the rabbit pen yesterday?"

"Oh!" Rufus sprang up in dismay. "I was just going to, but I hadn't watered the house plants, and I went to do that, and then--"

"The rabbits are all out."

Rufus hastened to join in the hunt for the pets. In the course of his search he came upon two tennis rackets which he had "meant to" bring in the night before, and they were in bad condition.

"There now! It will cost ever so much to get these strung up. Why didn't I take them in, anyway? I remember I hadn't locked the stable door when father called me, and then I hurried to do it before he asked me again."

Later in the day, Rufus, with a penitent face, brought to his mother the letter which should have been mailed. During the rabbit hunt it had slipped out of his pocket, and one of his brothers had found it in the damp clover. It was now a sorry-looking missive.

THE OLD BROWN HAND

The hand that pressed my fevered brow Was withered, wasted, brown, and old; Its work was almost over now, As swollen veins and wrinkles told.

No longer brus.h.i.+ng back my hair, It gently rested on my wrist; Its touch seemed sacred as a prayer By the sweet breath of angels kissed.

I knew 'twas thin, and brown, and old, With many a deep and honored seam, Wearing one little band of gold,-- The only trace of youth's bright dream:

And yet o'er every mark of care, In every wrinkle's mystic line, I fancied jewels gleaming there That wore a beauty all divine!

Another hand my fingers pressed-- 'Twas like the lily dipped in snow; Yet still it gave a wild unrest-- A weariness that none should know.

There pearls with costly diamonds gleamed, And opals showed their changing glow, As moonlight on the ice has beamed, Or trembled on the stainless snow.

I caught again the old, brown hand, And smoothed it fondly in my own,-- A woman's, though so old and tanned-- A woman's--brave and fearless grown.

Aye! it had labored long and well To dry the tear, to soothe the pain; Its own strong nerve to all would tell That life has work which brings no shame.

We love the pretty hand that rests In gentle fondness on our own, With nails like rosy calyx pressed Upon a pearly, stainless cone; But sacred is the healthful palm Which smooths the ills that round us band; The many feel its sacred balm, And holy seems the old brown hand!