Part 4 (2/2)
”As well as could be expected, considering the suddenness of the calamity.”
”O, it will kill her,” groaned Paul.
”I hope not; you must be calm, my boy. It is dreadful, I know; but we must not add to the pain of the sufferer by useless lamentation.”
”I will be as calm as I can, sir; but it is awful to have such a thing happen just now.”
”We know not what a day or an hour may bring forth, Paul.”
”Yes, but to have it happen now. If it had been at any other time, I could have borne it better,” continued the penitent boy, wiping away the tears that blinded him.
”We cannot choose the time for such an event to happen.”
”If it had only come before I left home! O, dear.”
”Be calm, Paul; we could not select a time when we should be prepared for such a calamity. You must not suppose one time is better than another for trials and sorrows.”
”You do not understand me, Captain Littleton,” replied Paul, earnestly.
”I disobeyed my mother in going out in the boat. She told me to come ash.o.r.e, and stood on the beach beckoning and calling to me not to go, but I didn't mind her. That's what makes me feel so bad about it.”
”I am sorry you disobeyed her, for you must suffer the more for your disobedience.”
”I was sorry I did so before I came ash.o.r.e, and now I would give all the world if I had minded mother, and let Tom Nettle laugh at me as much as he pleased.”
”Tom is a wild boy, and you must not heed his jeers.”
”I will not, another time. You think my father is not dead?”
”I think not,” replied Captain Littleton, as he increased the speed of the horse.
Paul did not say much more, but wept in silence as the chaise dashed along the road. Every moment seemed like an hour, till he came in sight of the cottage of his father. There were the two sulkies of the doctors, and a crowd of people at the gate, to enable him to realize the dreadful calamity which had overtaken him. The panting horse stopped before the door, and Paul's limbs almost failed him as he dragged himself into the house.
”O Paul,” sobbed his mother, who met him at the door, ”I thought you would never come. I'm afraid you won't have a father a great while longer.”
”Forgive me, mother, for what I did,” cried Paul.
”I do forgive you, my son; but come, your poor father wants to see you very much.”
His mother took him by the hand, and led him into the chamber where his father lay. He was shocked by the change which a few short hours had produced, and he needed not the skill of the physicians to a.s.sure him that Mr. Duncan had but a short time to live.
”Paul,” said his father, faintly, ”I shall soon be no more, and I leave your mother and your brothers and sisters to your care. Take good care of them, Paul, for they will soon have no one else to help them. Be a good boy, and be an honest man, and everything will go well with you. Be true to your G.o.d and true to yourself, and then all the world cannot harm you. May G.o.d keep you in the path of duty as long as you live.”
Mr. Duncan closed his eyes with an audible sigh, and Paul burst into tears, realizing that he was about to lose the kindest and best of fathers.
”Don't cry, my boy,” said the sufferer; ”be a man, and in a little while the struggle will be over with me.”
The whole family were gathered round the bed, and Mr. Duncan gave them his blessing, for the doctors a.s.sured him his hour was at hand. We will not dwell upon the painful scene. In an hour all was still in that room save the sobs of the bereaved widow, who stood gazing in agony upon the silent form which she had seen go out from her that morning in the full vigor of health and strength. The angel of death was there, and had done his work.
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