FullReads

Molly gave one little moan, and buried her face in her hands. The parson and Dilly rose, by one impulse, and went forward to Elvin, who sat upright, trembling from excitement past. Dilly reached him first. She put both her hands on his forehead, and smoothed back his hair.

“Dear heart,” she said, in a voice thrilled through by music,–“dear heart! I was abroad that night, watchin’ the stars, an’ I see it all. I see ye do it. You done it real clever, an’ I come nigh hollerin’ out to ye, I was so pleased, when I see you was determined to save the livestock. An’ that barn-cat, dear, that old black Tom that’s ketched my chickens so long!–you ‘most broke your neck to save him. But I never should ha’ told, dear, never! ‘specially sence you got out the creatur’s.”

“And ‘in Christ shall all be made alive!'” said the parson, wiping his eyes, and then beginning to pat Elvin’s hand with both his own. “Now, what shall we do? What shall we do? Why not come home with me, and stay over night? My dear wife will be glad to see you. And the morning will bring counsel.”

Elvin had regained a fine freedom of carriage, and a decision of tone long lost to him. He was dignified by the exaltation of the moment.

“I’ve got it all fixed,” he said, like a man. “I thought it all out under that elm-tree, today. You drive me over to Sheriff Holmes’s, an’ he’ll tell me what’s right to do,–whether I’m to go to the insurance people, or whether I’m to be clapped into jail. He’ll know. It’s out o’ my hands. I’ll go an’ harness now.”

Parson True drew Molly forward from her corner, and held her hand, while he took Elvin’s, and motioned Dilly to complete the circle.

“Jesus Christ be with us!” he said, solemnly. “God, our Father, help us to love one another more and more tenderly because of our sins!”

While Elvin was harnessing, a dark figure came swiftly through the moonlight.

“Elvin,” whispered Molly, sharply. “O Elvin, I can’t bear it! You take what money you’ve got, an’ go as fur as you can. Then you work, an’ I’ll work, an’ we’ll pay ’em back. What good will it do, for you to go to jail? Oh, what good will it do!”

“Poor little Molly!” said he. “You do care about me, don’t you? I sha’n’t forget that, wherever I am.”

Molly came forward, and threw her arms about him passionately.

“Go! go!” she whispered, fiercely. “Go now! I’ll drive you some’er’s an’ bring the horse back. Don’t wait! I don’t want a hat.”

Elvin smoothed her hair.

“No,” said he, gravely, “you’ll see it different, come mornin’. The things of this world ain’t everything. Even freedom ain’t everything. There’s somethin’ better. Good-by, Molly. I don’t know how long a sentence they give; but when they let me out, I shall come an’ tell you what I think of you for standin’ by. Parson True!”

The parson came out, and Dilly followed. When the two men were seated in the wagon, she bent forward, and laid her hand on Elvin’s, as it held the reins.

“Don’t you be afraid,” she said, lovingly. “If they shet ye up, you remember there ain’t nothin’ to be afraid of but wrong-doin’, an’ that’s only a kind of a sickness we al’ays git well of. An’ God A’mighty’s watchin’ over us all the time. An’ if you’ve sp’iled your chance in this life, don’t you mind. There’s time enough. Plenty o’ time, you says to yourself, plenty!”

She drew back, and they drove on. Molly, in heart-sick sobbing, threw herself forward into the little woman’s arms, and Dilly held her with an unwearied cherishing.

“There, there, dear!” she said, tenderly. “Ain’t it joyful to think he’s got his soul out o’ prison, where he shet it up? He’s all free now. It’s jest as if he was born into a new world, to begin all over.”

“But, Dilly, I love him so! An’ I can’t do anything! not a thing! O Dilly, yes! yes! Oh, it’s little enough, but I could! I could save my shoe-shop money, an’ help him pay his debt, when he’s out o’ jail.”

“Yes,” said Dilly, joyously. “An’ there’s more’n that you can do. You can keep him in your mind, all day long, an’ all night long, an’ your sperit’ll go right through the stone walls, if they put him there, an’ cheer him up.

“He won’t know how, but so it’ll be, dear, so it’ll be. Folks don’t know why they’re uplifted sometimes, when there ain’t no cause; but I say it’s other folks’s love. Now you come in, dear, an’ we’ll make the bed–it’s all aired complete–an’ then we’ll go to sleep, an’ see if we can’t dream us a nice, pleasant dream,–all about green gardins, an’ the folks we love walking in the midst of ’em!”