Little James leaped into them and clung to her neck, covering her face with kisses; then he made a bound into the house, and Ruth saw no more; for his arms were around her, and his voice filled the room with its sobbing gladness.
Directly Eva came in clinging to her mother, who moved up the walk with her usual grave step, and put aside her bonnet and shawl before she said a word. Then she came up to Ruth, knelt by her side, and laid her head upon the cushion like one who throws down a heavy burden and longs to rest herself awhile.
Gentle Ruth drew close to the old woman, and with tearful kisses, softened the stony grayness of her lips, until they began to tremble. Then her whole frame shook, and, clinging to the girl, she cried out, “Oh, God be thanked, I am home again!” in a voice that made every one in the room weep; for feelings so restrained and pent up are terrible in their force when they once break bounds.
Mrs. Smith sat down in the corner of the room and cried piteously as she took in the deep pathos of this reunion. She had begun to soften toward her husband, accepting his sin upon her own shoulders; and thus sat condemned before the family he had so grievously afflicted.
The boy James saw this, and went up to her, wiping away the tears from his radiant eyes.
“Oh, what should we have done if you had not been our friend?” he said; “poor mother would have been there all alone with me; but you did not forget us.”
“Oh, Jimmy, Jimmy! You will never want to live with us again,” said the good woman.
“Won’t I though!” answered the boy, eagerly.
“For a time,” interposed Mr. Ross; “so long as he works for any one, Mrs. Smith; but we must put him to school and through the City College. Don’t you think so, madam?”
“What me, me! You don’t mean it, Mr. Ross?”