Little Abe | Page 5

and
then he set away after him on the same road, never losing sight of him
for one minute. On they went mile after mile along the roads until they
reached Marsden, where he saw his master enter the inn. Now Abe had
to pass in front of this very house, but he didn't want to be discovered,

so he adroitly turned up his coat collar over the side of his face, and
pulled down his cap, and set off running as fast as he could, and just as
he was passing the inn he took one hurried look from under his mask,
and there, in the open window, he saw two men side by side, his master
and his father. Of course he concluded they must have seen him, and
would be out immediately to fetch him back; this idea only lent speed
to his weary feet, so that he ran faster than ever on through the solitary
street of the old village, away out on the road, never turning to look
behind, lest he might see all Marsden coming in pursuit of him.
Exhausted nature however at length compelled him to slacken his pace,
and on turning to look back he found he had only been pursued by his
own fears. The two men sat still in the inn, talking over and settling the
terms of the apprenticeship, fixing the time when the indenture should
be signed and the boy bound to his new master. Each of them took his
journey homeward; neither of them was prepared for what awaited him.
One of them found on arriving home that Abe had gone, and the other
discovered the very opposite, that he had come, and both were alike
vexed.
It is likely that poor Abe would have had to trot back again the next day
if his mother had not taken his part. Dear woman, she had been a whole
month without seeing her boy, and many an anxious thought had she
about him during that period; many a time when her fond heart yearned
for him, she had well nigh said she wished they had never sent him
away; many a time when some foot had been heard at the door her
heart stopped at the thought, that it might be him; and now that he had
come, really come, had run so far to be near her, had come so weary,
footsore, and hungry, had laid his weary head on the end of the table
and wept tears of trouble and pleasure, had fallen asleep there as he sat,
she put her kind arms around him, kissed his hot forehead and said,
"Dear lad, they shall not take him away from his mother any more for
all the masters and trades in the land." So it was of no use that Mr.
Lockwood should argue for his going back; he had to yield inevitably,
for what man can think to contend long against his better half? From
that time all attempt to bring Abraham up as an artificer ended, and he
found employment with his father as a cloth-finisher, at which he
worked most of his lifetime afterwards.

Soon after these stirring little events had gone by, another happened in
that household which brought far more pain and anxiety than anything
that had preceded it. The youth who would not be parted from his
mother, could not prevent his mother from leaving him, and the
separation took place; death stept in, and without regard to the fond
feelings which bound that little household together, bore away the wife
and mother to the spirit land, while her body was laid among the dust
of others in the yard of the old brick chapel in Chapel Hill,
Huddersfield.
What a gap it made in that house! in the hearts of its inmates it left an
open wound which only long months of patient endurance could heal.
When a mother's dust is carried out and laid in the grave, it is the light
of the domestic hearth gone out; it is the sweetest string gone from the
family harp; that bereavement is like the breath of winter among tender
flowers; the live tree around which entwined tender creepers is torn up,
and they lie entangled on the ground, disconsolate and helpless, until
the Great Father of us all shall give them strength to stand alone.
Abraham Lockwood's mother was dead, and a kind restraining hand,
which many a time kept his wild and wayward spirit in subjection, was
thereby withdrawn, and the ill effects in time began to show themselves
in his conduct. As he grew older, and the trouble consequent on the loss
of his mother wore off, Abe gradually associated with evil companions,
fell into their habits, until he became