‘Lemuel, you mustn’t go, it will kill father!’ and Pauline stretched out her hands to him appealingly.
A mocking laugh was the only reply as he disappeared round a bend of the road.
Pauline went slowly back to the house feeling bruised and stunned.
‘Pawliney,’ piped her father in his shrill voice, ‘where’s Lemuel? I told him to take the horse to the forge, and hoe the potatoes, and weed the onions, and go to the woods for a load. I don’t see how I’m to get through with such a lot of heedless boys around. What hev you done with him? You just spoil them all with your cossetin’.’
‘It will all come right, father,’ said Pauline soothingly. ‘Lemuel has gone away for awhile.’
‘Away!’ echoed the old man suspiciously. ‘Away, Pawliney? Did you know he was going?’
‘Yes, father; he will be back by-and-by, and Stephen will be home next week.’
She paced her room that night with a heavy heart. There was no way to hinder the misguided boy. Before Stephen could follow him he would be on the sea. He had often declared he meant to be a sailor. Suddenly she stopped, thunder-struck. The lid of her strong box had been forced open! With an awful dread at her heart she lifted it and looked in. The money was gone!
With a bitter cry she fell upon her knees. ‘A thief!’ Her Lemuel. The boy that she had borne with and prayed over all these years! And the money was due in a month! What should she do? Stephen must never know—Stephen, with his stalwart honesty and upright soul. His anger would be terrible, and she must shield Lemuel all she could. Poor Lemuel!
All night long she pondered sorrowfully. When the morning came she went to Deacon Croaker.