How the women kissed their own children and wept, as they saw the lads borne by! How the men grasped one another’s hands, and tried to speak without a tremor in the voice—and failed. And how wild the whole town went over the gallant rescue of the widow’s sons!
But Jack Rennie, poor Jack, brave, misguided Jack! They found his body later on, and gave it tender burial. But it was only when the lips of Tom and Bennie were unsealed, with growing strength, that others knew how this man’s heroic sacrifice had made it possible for these two boys to live.
Under the most watchful and tender care of his mother, Tom soon recovered his usual health. But for Bennie the shock had been more severe. He gained strength very slowly, indeed. He could not free his mind from dreadful memories. Many a winter night he started from his sleep, awakened by dreams of falling mines.
It was not until the warm, south winds of April crept up the valley of Wyoming, that he could leave his easy-chair without a hand to help him; and not until all the sweet roses of June were in blossom that he walked abroad in the sunlight as before.
But then—oh, then what happened? Only this: that Jack Rennie’s gift was put to the use he had bespoken for it; that skilled hands in the great city gave proper treatment to the blind boy’s eyes through many weeks, and then—he saw! Only this; but it was life to him,—new, sweet, joyous life.
One day he stepped upon the train, with sight restored, to ride back to his valley home. Wide-eyed he was; exuberant with hope and fancy, seeing all things, talking to those about him, asking many questions.
The full and perfect beauty of late summer rested on the land. The fields were never more luxuriantly green and golden, nor the trees more richly clothed with verdure. The first faint breath of coming autumn had touched the landscape here and there with spots of glowing color, and the red and yellow fruit hung temptingly among the leaves of all the orchard trees.
The waters of the river, up whose winding course the train ran on and on, were sparkling in the sunlight with a beauty that, in this boy’s eyes, was little less than magical.
And the hills; how high the hills were! Bennie said he never dreamed the hills could be so high.