The Black Forge Mills

by William P. Chipman

"Well, then, we'll book you for that position; but I'll see you again," Mr. Bacon had pleasantly replied, as he drove on.

This had meant more to George than you and I can realize; it would be the best position and the largest pay he had ever received in his life. One of the sisters could stay out of the mill now, and help Betsy with the children and the housework, and it would be so much nicer for them all. So he had built his day dreams for those he loved, and his heart had swelled with gratitude toward God, who was dealing so graciously with him. But this morning all those dreams and hopes had been rudely dashed to the ground. The huge posters instigated by Hyde and his followers had appeared, and it was rumored that now the mills would not start up at all. For the first time, then, in all those weary weeks, George had become despondent, and his despondency fell like a dark cloud over his poor wife's heart. Without a word they had for an hour sat there, she at the window and he at the table. He had not meant that his low sigh should be heard. He had struggled hard to suppress it, but for his life he could not keep it back. Perhaps it was the best thing he could have done, however, for when Betsy looked over at him, and a heavier sigh escaped her lips, he aroused himself. A Bible lay on the table before him. He opened it listlessly. Was it chance that his eye immediately rested upon these words: "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not?"

He read the words aloud, and to Betsy, who had not even noticed that he had raised his head, they came with a suddenness and power that brought back her faith in God with a quick rush that overflowed her heart.

"Oh, George!" she exclaimed, rising and coming hastily over to his side, "how could we doubt God so, just as though he could not even now give us all we need and more?"

"You are right, darling," he said, resolutely. And with her he knelt there, and together they asked God to forgive their lack of faith, and to give them a trust that would leave all things temporal, as well as spiritual, in his hands. They rose from their knees greatly comforted, and walked over to the window together.

"There is Bill Davis' boat!" exclaimed George, suddenly, as his eye fell on the rude dory hitched in the brook near the house. "I believe I will borrow it, and go down the bay clamming. There will be a good tide a little before noon. Then if the girls get some nuts they can exchange them for crackers, and we shall be provided for to-day."

"Why not go down to Long Point—that is a good place for clams; and then you can see Ray?" asked Betsy.

"I'm afraid he will insist on knowing how we are situated here at home," replied her husband, "and will make me take some money. You know when you were sick he made me take ten dollars, and then when here two weeks ago he left five dollars with you. It seems too bad to take his money when he is working so hard to get an education."

"Your going to Long Point won't make any difference about that," said Betsy; "for if he don't see you before long, he will surely come here. He knows well enough that you have hard work to get along, and he said to me when here that he ought to bear his part of the expenses in this crisis just as much as you."

"I know he feels so, and his willingness to do for us forms one of the very reasons why I want to receive as little help from him as possible," replied George. "But Long Point is a good place for clams, and I will go down there, since you have suggested it. It may, perhaps, be the way in which the Lord is going to answer our prayers." And getting his basket and hoe, and putting on a pair of heavy boots, he prepared to go.