“Oh, it’s all getting just as bright as day, now. Next you said I warn’t bad, only mischeevous and harum-scarum, and not any more responsible than — than — I think it was a colt, or something.”
“And so it was! Well, goodness gracious! Go on, Tom!”
“And then you began to cry.”
“So I did. So I did. Not the first time, neither. And then — ”
“Then Mrs. Harper she began to cry, and said Joe was just the same, and she wished she hadn’t whipped him for taking cream when she’d throwed it out her own self — ”
“Tom! The sperrit was upon you! You was a prophesying — that’s what you was doing! Land alive, go on, Tom!”
“Then Sid he said — he said — ”
“I don’t think I said anything,” said Sid.
“Yes you did, Sid,” said Mary.
“Shut your heads and let Tom go on! What did he say, Tom?”
“He said — I think he said he hoped I was better off where I was gone to, but if I’d been better sometimes — ”
“There, d’you hear that! It was his very words!”
“And you shut him up sharp.”
“I lay I did! There must ‘a’ been an angel there. There was an angel there, somewheres!”
“And Mrs. Harper told about Joe scaring her with a firecracker, and you told about Peter and the Painkiller — ”
“Just as true as I live!”
“And then there was a whole lot of talk ’bout dragging the river for us, and ’bout having the funeral Sunday, and then you and old Miss Harper hugged and cried, and she went.”
“It happened just so! It happened just so, as sure as I’m a-sitting in these very tracks. Tom, you couldn’t told it more like if you’d ‘a’ seen it! And then what? Go on, Tom!”
“Then I thought you prayed for me — and I could see you and hear every word you said. And you went to bed, and I was so sorry that I took and wrote on a piece of sycamore bark, ‘We ain’t dead — we are only off being pirates,’ and put it on the table by the candle; and then you looked so good, laying there asleep, that I thought I went and leaned over and kissed you on the lips.”
“Did you, Tom, did you! I just forgive you everything for that!” And she seized the boy in a crushing embrace that made him feel like the guiltiest of villains.
——————————————————— -183-
“It was very kind, even though it was only a — dream,” Sid soliloquized just audibly.
“Shut up, Sid! A body does just the same in a dream as he’d do if he was awake. Here’s a big Milum apple I’ve been saving for you, Tom, if you was ever found again — now go ‘long to school. I’m thankful to the good God and Father of us all I’ve got you back, that’s long-suffering and merciful to them that believe on Him and keep His word, though goodness knows I’m unworthy of it, but if only the worthy ones got His blessings and had His hand to help them over the rough places, there’s few enough would smile here or ever enter into His rest when the long night comes. Go ‘long Sid, Mary, Tom — take yourselves off — you’ve hendered me long enough.”
The children left for school, and the old lady to call on Mrs. Harper and vanquish her realism with Tom’s marvellous dream. Sid had better judgment than to utter the thought that was in his mind as he left the house. It was this: “Pretty thin — as long a dream as that, without any mistakes in it!”
What a hero Tom was become, now! He did not go skipping and prancing, but moved with a dignified swagger as became a pirate who felt that the public eye was on him. And indeed it was; he tried not to seem to see the looks or hear the remarks as he passed along, but they were food and drink to him. Smaller boys than himself flocked at his heels, as proud to be seen with him, and tolerated by him, as