The Soul of a Child eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 293 pages of information about The Soul of a Child.

The Soul of a Child eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 293 pages of information about The Soul of a Child.

He fell asleep at last with a part of the pillow stuffed into his mouth to keep his sobs from being heard in the next room....

XIV

The thing had him by the throat.  It was stronger than any power he could bring to bear against it.  Fighting it was useless.  Resistance meant merely prolonged torture.  Surrender meant sleep—­and torture of a different kind the next day.

Once more he managed to get hold of the book that had wrought such disastrous change in his entire existence.  He read again the chapters bearing directly on his own case.  They seemed more convincing than ever.  There could be no doubt of his degradation or his doom.

XV

He came running home from some errand one evening not long before Christmas.  His mind was more at ease than it had been for a long time.  That season of the year rarely failed to bring him a little happiness.

The moment he flung open the kitchen door, he knew that something was wrong, and his heart sank within him.

The mother stood in the middle of the floor wringing her hands.  Granny sat on the sofa, stolid-faced as usual, and rolled one of her endless bandages.  On the chair by the window sat the father, his shoulder against the wall, his left elbow on the table, and his head resting in his left hand.

Keith could hardly believe what he saw.

His father’s face was contorted with pain or grief.  Big tears rolled down his cheeks and dropped on the table before him.  Every little while he was shaken by a sob that almost choked him.

“Is he sick,” the boy gasped.

“Something dreadful has happened,” the mother stammered, unable to take her eyes off her husband.

“You had better go into the parlour, Keith,” whispered Granny as she started on a new roll.

Keith turned his glance once more to the father.  He had never seen a man cry before, and until that moment such a lack of control on the part of his father had seemed quite unimaginable.  The strangeness of it frightened him.

“I fear it will kill him,” he heard his mother mutter.

“I wish it would,” the father broke out, raising his head for a moment.  “But it won’t, Anna....  I’ll be over it in a minute.”

His words were forced out between sobs.  Keith saw that he was struggling terribly to get himself in hand.

Then he caught sight of Keith, whose entrance he evidently had not noticed, and as usual the presence of the boy brought back the self-restraint for which he had been striving vainly until then.

“Keith,” he said, speaking much more quietly, “your Uncle Wilhelm has been arrested for using money that didn’t belong to him.  I can’t believe it, but I am sure they will send him to jail....  You must always remember what I have told you about money....”

His own words seemed to bring back to him the full horror of the situation, and he threw himself face downward over the table in another convulsive outburst of grief.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Soul of a Child from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.