Part 13 (1/2)

”Time enough! Time enough! Yes, that's the cry,” said the young man.

”That's what has caused more misery in the world than anything else; it's a rope that has lost many a soul forever.”

Harry turned away impatiently. He did not want to hear.

”Of course you don't want to hear me talk that way,” said the lame man bluntly, divining his thought. ”I didn't suppose you did. But, let me tell you, young fellow, there's enough of that rotten rope left for you to lose your soul with. Will you turn your head away when you feel it snap, and find yourself dying, with nothing to hold on to, I wonder?”

Without more ado he grasped his crutches, and painfully hobbled away.

Harry tried to be glad he was gone. He did not succeed as easily, however, in dismissing from his mind the words he had heard. Perhaps it was the odd, abrupt way in which they were spoken, that made them fasten themselves so tenaciously on his memory. Certainly he would have been angry had any one else spoken so plainly and unceremoniously to him. The sight of his body, telling such an eloquent tale of suffering, made it almost impossible for any one to be angry with Joel Piper. Harry presently found himself wondering about him, and wis.h.i.+ng he would come back and talk to him again.

He did not come, and one day Harry found courage to ask the nurse, who was busied near him, to tell him the name of the lame young man who talked to him one day.

”Oh, do you mean Joel Piper?” she asked in return.

”I didn't know that was his name,” replied Harry, looking amused.

”Yes, it is,” replied the nurse. ”It's an odd name, I know, but he is just as nice as he can be. He's had a world of trouble and pain; but he's come out pure gold.”

”Wasn't he always that?” asked Harry, curiously.

”No, indeed, he wasn't. He was one of the wildest young men, and it was that which brought on the sickness--rheumatic fever--which twisted him up so. It was this illness too, that brought about his conversion; and now he likes to visit the hospitals and talk to all the young men he can find, and try to get them to turn about. He says he's trying to make up for lost time. Some think he's crazy, but he isn't--only eccentric.”

”Does he come here often?” asked Harry.

”Well, sometimes he does,” was the answer. ”Would you like to see him again?”

”I wouldn't mind having a little talk with him,” admitted Harry.

”I'll tell him,” said the kind woman.

Joel came; but Harry could not tell from his manner whether he was pleased or not at his having expressed a desire to see him.

Now that he was there, what should he say? Harry asked this question, but no answer came.

But Joel seemed to understand all about the matter, and began right away:

”You've had a rough time, eh? Didn't expect it, now, did you, when you started out? Going to have a good time, enjoy yourself, and all that?

Well, it's all right. You've had about enough of that sort of thing, I guess. You'd like to turn right about face now, and go back to your mother, perhaps?”

”Who told you I had a mother?” asked Harry, sharply.

”n.o.body,” was the calm rejoinder.

”How did you know?”

”I didn't know; I only guessed. Somehow or other, you look as if you had. Have you?”

”Yes, I have,” groaned Harry, ”and a sister too; but I came away and left them, and now I'm ashamed to go back.”

”Well, if you're made of the right kind of stuff you'll go to work as soon as you're out of this, and fix things so you'll not be ashamed to go back,” said Joel. ”Between us,” he went on, bending over and looking at Harry with one eye shut up tightly, ”I've got a mother and sister too. I did pretty much as you did, only worse, I guess. I've been working hard to make a man of myself before I go back to them. I'm going soon too.”