"Well, it's a comfort it's the boy. I expect Washington is a fine lad by now!"
"Washington!"—the name slipped out involuntarily, it sounded so strange.
"Yes, Washington; that's the lad's name, and the one I mean to call him by. You can fetch me up the books now."
Going downstairs she caught sight of Jack.
"Mummy," exclaimed the lad, rushing towards her, "I'm so sorry I disappointed you! I couldn't stop away from you. I'll do what you want me to do, and I'll stand by you through thick and thin, that I will. You'll see if I won't," and the bargain was sealed with a hug and a kiss.
He was received back without one word of reproach. "Jack, if your father calls you by your other name you must not express any surprise. I can get along fine now you are with me."
This little rift in the home-music had puzzled as well as troubled Phebe, but all at once it struck her that God perhaps meant her to see a parable in it, and that was how it was to work good for her. "Perhaps Ralph got away from God as Jack went away from me, because things weren't as he wanted them. But he'll get back again to God, as Jack has got back to me." And the parable comforted her, and inspired her. For God can take even the wayward doings of a petted child to teach His lessons and do His work.
Jack made his way upstairs at once. "Good-morning, father," he said in his cheeriest tone, "it must be nice for you to be home again."
"Yes, nicer for me than you, I suppose"—the words were snappish, but Ralph looked at the boy with a kind of look which plainly said: "You will do."
The business books were brought, but he was far too weak to master them: "I'll attend to them when I'm stronger," he said.