Then they rushed into the homes to tell the news. Soon the verandas were filled with expectant and happy faces, all wishing to get a glimpse of the dear ones returning to their homes.
Such an army as it takes to attend to this industry! Nearly all are able bodied men and they were waving their handkerchiefs and tossing their hats in the excitement of getting home again. All were brown as berries. There were husbands and brothers, sweethearts, fathers, all to be welcomed and the older women were attending to the dinner for the hungry men and boys. It was a great event to the boys, especially those who had gone away for the first time. So many strangers were there to be entertained also. It was funny to see how shy many of the girls became. The sparkle of their eyes indicated their excitement as the old and the new comers appeared.
All rushed to the balconies to welcome them. Such a happy, jolly lot. Just then the home band that had gone out to meet them struck up the glad strain of “Welcome Home,” while cheer after cheer sounded again and again. A father lifted a little child up on his shoulder after kissing her. She struggled and tried to get down, looking startled at such familiarity. Every one roared, laughing, until some one cried out, “It is a bad case when your own children won’t recognize you.” “This is papa,” you would hear in one direction, or brother, as the case might be, while many were trying to coax the little ones to kiss them. All were so tanned and dusty, yet looking well and strong.
CHAPTER XIX.
Geron Vivian was sitting in his arm chair. It was the day of rest, or should have been, but none had come to him. He was constantly thinking how he could manage to get back to his farm and wondering how he had ever been enticed to leave it.
The salary that he had received had seemed enormous while he lived upon the farm, but now he reasoned, money is like holding water in your hand. It slips through your fingers, no matter how tightly you hold it, or how much you have. I have spent more money in the last four years than in all my lifetime before. First comes rent, gas bills, servants’ wages, and clothing—more needed in three months than in that many years in the country—and shoes! Why, they are a weekly tax for some one of the family; stone pavements scour them to pieces. “Then car fare—well I had better stop or I will have the blues worse than ever. I don’t feel quite myself today and I suppose I am blue from worry over that mortgage. In six months’ time the lease will be up and we shall go back to our home and when once that mortgage is paid I will never place another dollar on anything I own.”
Walking to a large mirror he exclaimed: “Father! is it possible?” and then glanced around to see if any one was within hearing. “I thought it was he, but how old I am looking—as old as he did a short time before he died, and yet he was thirty years older than I. He raised a large family out there on the land and amassed wealth, while I have played the fool by coming to the city. Tom is a brighter man than I, I see now. One comfort I have—that interest was paid on the mortgage yesterday and if I can only sell those stocks, I will get that mortgage paid.”
Just then Lear and Libra Shuman drove up to the door in their carriage. He greeted them cordially, as Grace, his wife, brought them into the room. The conversation became general for a time and then the ladies went off by themselves. Geron and Lear talked of their business affairs.