"I wonder if she'll know me," he muttered.
Going up to the window of the kitchen, he shaded his eyes with one hand and looked in.
Jane was setting at supper, her five children about her. The room looked warm and comfortable. A bright fire burned in the stove, the kettle sang merrily, and a big maltese cat dozed among some plants on the broad window seat.
Fred, the eldest son, a muscular young man of twenty-one now, was speaking, and his words came distinctly to the ears of the watcher outside.
"Brooks goes to-morrow," he said, "and we are to have a new superintendent from ——. I hope he'll have a better temper than Brooks, and I wish——Who's that?" as a sudden knock came upon the door.
"The new superintendent," said the tall man, as he walked into the room and threw his overcoat on a chair.
"Jane, don't you know me?"
With a glad cry that was almost a sob, Jane sprang forward, and was folded in the stranger's arms.
"Children," she said, when she could speak, "this is your father, come back to us at last."
"And to stay, please God," said Amos Derby, fervently, as in turn he embraced his children affectionately. "Jane, you shall have no room to complain of me in the future. I mean to make up to you for all I made you suffer before I found out what a fool I was to think more of my appetite than of my wife and children. Do you know what taught me my lesson?—Sillbrook's overcoat; and I've got one just like it. It will be a reminder, you know. And I've something better still—the place of superintendent at the mills here. I've worked hard, Jane, but my reward has come at last. When I left here I resolved never to come back until I could make myself worthy of you and the children. I found a place in the mills at ——, and worked my way up to be superintendent. Where there's a will, there's always a way, you know. I learned that you didn't need my help, so I waited on year after year, and now——"