“I am going to get me a job, and take care of myself,” she flung at him as she read the decision in his eyes. “I will not be kept under in the way you want to keep me. I am almost as old as you, and able to judge who is fit company for me.”
“No, Amy, you are far from able to choose your own company properly. You need some one over you all the time. You must listen to me. You will bring reproach on yourself and on us. You are not doing well in school, and I will not forbid your getting work; but if you stay at home you must be under the same rules as the rest. I can not have you running around nights in evil company. In this I shall not yield. You must obey me.”
“I will not stay with you if I have to be bossed around,” she said with all the spirit she could master.
“Very well. Nell can keep the house going, with Lila’s help. If you can find a suitable place to stay, and wish to take the responsibility upon yourself, I shall not hinder you, but I can not have you here disobeying the rules I must make for the good of the family,” he said firmly.
Amy had meant what she said, and Austin was just as far from speaking jestingly. So Amy found work that took her out of the home for a while. But her freedom was not all happiness, and she found hardships that were just as trying as Austin’s attitude at home.
There was a meeting in progress in a neighboring town, and there Austin had gone for a day or two. The services had been very refreshing to him, and he longed for his sisters to come under the sweet influence of the people attending. So it was with pleasure that he carried to the girls a hearty invitation to come down and spend the last two days of the assembly. They accepted, glad for the change, and for the opportunity of visiting friends there.
The preaching was convincing, and the Spirit of God was there to talk to the hearts of sinners. Amy and Nell both felt His wooing presence with them, and yielded to the importunity of the good people about them, and took on themselves vows of loyalty and love to God. They were young, but really meant to be true, and came home to Austin with the happy news.
The joy of his heart was almost unbounded. That they would not be like himself, true to God from the beginning of their service, never occurred to him. He felt that his hardest trials were over, and that their home-life would not be any more darkened by contention. It seemed so good to have Amy back with them, and to him their taking part in the family worship seemed very precious.
“Amy,” said Austin one day, “where were you last night?”
“What difference does it make where I was?” she answered evasively.