“Wait,” said the Bishop, “there is more to think of. The railroad, if you serve it well, will, no doubt, buy your farm for much more than it is worth to you. There is your mother to be considered first. And they will, very likely, give you a chance to make a small fortune in your commissions, if you are faithful to them. If you go to fight them, they will probably crush you all in the end, and you will be left with little or nothing. Better go slowly, young man.”
“What?” cried Jeffrey. “Take their bribe! Take their money, for fooling and cheating the other people out of their homes! Why, before I’d do that, I’d leave that farm and everything that’s there and go up into the big woods with only my axe, as my grandfather did. And my mother would follow me! You know that! My mother would be glad to go with me, with nothing, nothing in her hands!”
“And so would I!” said Ruth, springing to her feet. “I would! I would!” she chanted defiantly.
“Well, well, well!” said the Bishop, smiling.
“But you are not going up into the big woods, 62 Jeffrey,” Ruth said demurely. “You are going back home to fight them. If I could help you I would go back with you. I would not be of any use. So, I’m going back, to the convent, to face my fight.”
“But, but,” said Jeffrey, “I thought you were running away.”
“I did. I was,” said Ruth. “Last night I heard the voice of something calling to me. It was such a big thing,” she went on, turning to the Bishop; “it seemed such a pitiless, strong thing that I thought it would crush me. It would take my life and make me do what it wanted, not what I wanted. I was afraid of it. I ran away. It was like a Choir Unseen singing to me to follow, and I didn’t dare follow.
“But I heard it again, just now when Jeffrey spoke that way. Now I know what it was. It was the call of life to everybody to face life, to take our souls in our hands and go forward. I thought I could turn back. I can’t. God, or life won’t let us turn back.”
“I know what you mean, child. Fear nothing,” said the Bishop. “I’m glad you came away, to have it out with yourself. And you will be very glad now to go back.”
“As for you, young man,” he turned to Jeffrey, “I should say that your mother would be proud to go anywhere, empty-handed with you. Remember that, when you are in the worst of this 63 fight that is before you. When you are tempted, as you will be tempted, remember it. When you are hard pressed, as you will be hard pressed, remember it.”