“You have been at hard and weary work of late, John, or shall I say, you have been fighting a battle with a strong foe? and it has gone ill with you.”
John had no words with which to answer him. His lips trembled and the tears rose to his eyes.
That was the beginning. They had enough to say to one another after a little time; but not a word of it all is to be written down. Of some things that passed between them neither ever spoke to the other again. Before all was said, John “had made a clean breast of it” to the minister, and had proved in his experience, that “faithful are the wounds of a friend,” and that “a brother is born for adversity.” They had been friends before that day. Thenceforth they were brothers by a stronger tie than that of blood.
When John was brought home to his mother that night, she could not but be doubtful of the good which their day had done him. But he was rested and cheerful in the morning, and she was not doubtful long. As time passed, she could not but see that he was less impatient of his weakness and his enforced idleness; that he was at peace with himself, as he had not been for many a day, and that he was looking forward to renewed strength with a firmer purpose and a more hopeful heart.
Chapter Twenty Two.
“And so, taking heart, he sailed
Westward, not knowing the end.”
Dr Fleming was by no means satisfied with the progress which his patient was making. He had called at the house with Mr Hume, and had expressed himself very decidedly as to the desirableness of a change for the young man, but he did not approve of Nethermuir, and he startled them all by saying:
“What you need is a sea voyage. It will take time and it will take money, but it is the very thing you need to make a new man of you. And the sooner you go the better.” And then he went away.