But Dannie’s dreams were not all of his journey through the storm. He often thought he was with his father. And always some one came between them and forced them apart and compelled him to go away. It was pitiful at these times to look upon his distress. It required all of Aunt Martha’s power of persuasion to induce him to believe that his imaginings were not realities. And if, at last, he was made to realize that his father was not with him, he would turn his head wearily on his pillow and sigh with disappointment. One morning Aunt Martha called the doctor aside and spoke to him very earnestly.
“Yes,” he replied; “yes, certainly. He must do it.”
He went out into the sitting room where Abner Pickett was pacing up and down the floor.
“Abner,” he said, “I’ve been used to expressing my mind to you pretty freely, and I’m going to do it now. I don’t know much about the quarrel between you and Charlie, and I don’t want to know. I don’t know which of you is to blame, and I don’t care. But, granted the fault is all Charlie’s, he has, nevertheless, some rights as a father, which you, as a man, are bound to respect. And one of them is to know that his child is desperately ill, and to have the opportunity to come, if he wants to, and look on the boy’s face while there’s life in it. Now, that’s all. If you don’t know where to find him, Martha does.”
Abner Pickett stopped in his monotonous walk and looked at the doctor for a full minute from out his haggard eyes. In that minute he went over the entire past, he considered the terrible present, he looked into the dark future. Then he said simply:—
“Tell Martha to send for him.”
At midnight Charlie Pickett came home. He entered by the kitchen door, as in the old days, and passed on into the sitting room. His father was there, seated by the fire, gazing steadfastly on the burning coals.
“Father, I’ve come.”
The old man did not answer him. He did not even lift his eyes from the blazing logs. But whether his silence was due to the old feud and stubbornness, or whether he dared not trust himself to reply, Charlie did not know.