Tom Tuftons Travels | Page 5

made."
"Oh yes, in a way. I see what you mean. I don't understand scraping
and paring myself; yet, of course, it will be best to get the mortgage
paid off once and for all. I can see that well enough. But I confess it
will be poor fun living at Gablehurst as a little boy tied to his mother's
apron strings. I would rather go away altogether, and see the world for
myself."

"Well, Tom," answered the father in the same low, even tones, "your
mother and I have sometimes asked ourselves seriously whether you
might not do better away from home; whether it might not be the best
thing we could do for you to sever you from your present companions,
and see if you could not find better ones elsewhere."
"I have no fault to find with my friends," said Tom quickly.
"No, my son, I fear not. But we have much to complain of."
"I don't see what!" cried young Tom rather hotly.
"That is the worst of it. Did you see greater harm, our anxieties would
be less. But what are we to think of these cruel sports in which you
indulge, these scenes of vice and drunkenness where you are constantly
found? Even the Sabbath is not sacred to you. What is this story we
hear of you--that no girl may even go to church without paying 'Tom
Tufton's toll' at the lych gate?"
Tom broke into a sudden laugh.
"They like that toll well enough, father, I can tell you; else they could
go round the other way. Why, you yourself salute the farmers' little
wenches on the cheek sometimes--I have seen you do it; and why not I
the older ones?"
The Squire looked at his son with mournful intensity of gaze.
"Tom, Tom, I think sometimes that thou dost err more from
thoughtlessness than from wickedness; but, my son, thoughtlessness, if
carried to excess, may become wickedness, and may breed vice. I
verily believe that in half thy pranks thou dost mean no great harm; but
thou art growing to man's estate, Tom. It is time that thou didst put
away childish things. What is pardoned to youth, may not so easily be
pardoned to manhood. Have a care, Tom, have a care! Oh, my son,
remember that the day will come when thou too must lie face to face
with death, even as I do tonight. Let not the record upon which thou
wilt then look be one of vice and profligacy. It needs must be that in

such a moment our lives seem deeply stained by sin; but strive so to
live that thou mayest at least be able to say, 'I have striven to do my
duty--the Lord pardon all my imperfections!' For, Tom, if thou dost
persevere in careless and evil courses, it may be that the power to ask
the Lord's forgiveness may pass from thee; and if it comes to such a
pass, may the Lord have mercy upon thy wretched soul!"
The dying man stopped short, a spasm of suffering passing over his
face. The thought had been a terrible one to him. Yet he had been bred
up in the somewhat stern Puritan tenets, and it was not in his creed to
speak so much of the everlasting mercy as the everlasting judgment.
Tom put the cup of cordial to his father's lips, himself somewhat
sobered by the words heard and the visions called up. He was neither
callous nor hard-hearted; and his father was dying. In that moment he
really longed to turn over a new leaf, and cut adrift from former
temptations.
"Then, father, let me go," he said; "let me try afresh in a new place. I
could not do it here perhaps; but I think I could elsewhere."
"If that be so, my son, then thou hadst better go," said the dying man. "I
would that thou couldst have remained to be the stay and support of thy
mother; but if not, then it may be thou wilt be better elsewhere. I have
thought often of this. I and thy mother have talked it over many times. I
have even made provision for it, as she will tell thee and show thee. But,
Tom, if thou go hence, linger not in London, where, I fear me, thou
wouldst soon be ruined body and soul. There be stirring things passing
in the great world beyond the seas. Take ship, and go and see some of
these things. Linger not in idleness in the haunts of vice. The world is a
bigger place than thou canst know. Go forth and see it, and learn and
find thy manhood's strength."
Tom's eyes glistened at the thought. It had never occurred to him as
possible