CHAPTER XXXIII.

INTO THE LIGHT.

For two weeks longer Ralph taught at the Flat Creek school-house.  He was everybody’s hero.  And he was Bud’s idol.  He did what he could to get Bud and Martha together, and though Bud always “saw her safe home” after this, and called on her every Sunday evening, yet, to save his life, he could not forget his big fists and his big feet long enough to say what he most wanted to say, and what Martha most wanted him to say.

At the end of two weeks Ralph found himself exceedingly weary of Flat Creek, and exceedingly glad to hear from Mr. Means that the school-money had “gin out.”  It gave him a good excuse to return to Lewisburg, where his heart and his treasure were.  A certain sense of delicacy had kept him from writing to Hannah just yet.

When he got to Lewisburg he had good news.  His uncle, ashamed of his previous neglect, and perhaps with an eye to his nephew’s growing popularity, had got him the charge of the grammar department in the new graded school in the village.  So he quietly arranged to board at a boarding-house.  His aunt could not have him about, of which fact he was very glad.  She could not but feel, she said, that he might have taken better care of Walter than he did, when they were only four miles apart.

He did not hasten to call on Hannah.  Why should he?  He sent her a message, of no consequence in itself, by Nancy Sawyer.  Then he took possession of his school; and then, on the evening of the first day of school, he went, as he had appointed to himself, to see Hannah Thomson.

And she, with some sweet presentiment, had got things ready by fixing up the scantily-furnished room as well as she could.  And Miss Nancy Sawyer, who had seen Ralph that afternoon, had guessed that he was going to see Hannah.  It’s wonderful how much enjoyment a generous heart can get out of the happiness of others.  Is not that what He meant when he said of such as Miss Sawyer that they should have a hundred-fold in this life for all their sacrifices?  Did not Miss Nancy enjoy a hundred weddings and have the love of five hundred children?  And so Miss Nancy just happened over at Mrs. Thomson’s humble home, and, just in the most matter-of-course way, asked that lady and Shocky to come over to her house.  Shocky wanted Hannah to come too.  But Hannah blushed a little, and said that she would rather not.

And when she was left alone, Hannah fixed her hair two or three times, and swept the hearth, and moved the chairs first one way and then another, and did a good many other needless things.  Needless:  for a lover, if he be a lover, does not see furniture or dress.

And then she sat down by the fire, and tried to sew, and tried to look unconcerned, and tried to feel unconcerned, and tried not to expect anybody, and tried to make her heart keep still.  And tried in vain.  For a gentle rap at the door sent her pulse up twenty beats a minute and made her face burn.  And Hartsook was for the first time, abashed in the presence of Hannah.  For the oppressed girl had, in two weeks, blossomed out into the full-blown woman.