Young Lives | Page 6

has not of late
been for good, and for her sake, and the sake of your young sisters, it may perhaps be
well that your influence in the home be removed--"
"Oh, James," exclaimed the wife.
"Mary, my dear, you must let me finish. If Henry will go, go he shall; but if he still stays,
he must learn that I am master in this house, and that while I remain so, not he, but I shall
dictate how it is to be carried on."
It was at this point that Esther ventured to lift the girlish tremor of her voice.
"But, father, if you'll forgive my saying so, I think it would be best for another reason for
us to go. There are too many of us. We haven't room to grow. We get in each other's way.
And then it would ease you; it would be less expense--"
"When I complain of having to support my children, it will be time to speak of that--"
"But you have complained," hotly interrupted the son; "you have reproached us many a
time for what we cost you for clothes and food--"
"Yes, when you have shown yourselves ungrateful for them, as you do to-night--"
"Ungrateful! For what should we be grateful? That you do your bare duty of feeding and
clothing us, and even for that, expect, in my case at all events, that I shall prove so much
business capital invested for the future. Was it we who asked to come into the world? Did
you consult us, or did you beget us for anything but your own selfish pleasure, without a

thought--"
Henry got no further. His father had grown white, and, with terrible anger pointed to the
door.
"Leave the room, sir," he said, "and to-morrow leave my house for ever."
The son was not cowed. He stood with an unflinching defiance before the father, in
whom he forgot the father and saw only the tyrant. For a moment it seemed as if some
unnatural blow would be struck; but so much of pain was spared the future memory of
the scene, and saying only, "It is true for all that," he turned and left the room. The sister
followed him in silence, and the door closed.
Mother and father looked at each other. They had brought up children, they had suffered
and toiled for them,--that they should talk to them like this! Mrs. Mesurier came over to
her husband, and put her arm tenderly on his shoulder.
"Never mind, dear. I'm sure he didn't mean to talk like that. He is a good boy at heart, but
you don't understand each other."
"Mary dear, we will talk no more of it to-night," he replied; "I will try and put it from me.
You go to bed. I will finish my diary, and be up in a few minutes."
When he was alone, he sat still a little while, with a great lonely pain on his face, and
almost visibly upon it too the smart of the wounded pride of his haughty nature. Never in
his life had he been spoken to like that,--and by his own son! The pang of it was almost
more than he could bear. But presently he had so far mastered himself as to take up his
pen and continue his writing. When that was finished, he opened his Bible and read his
wonted chapter. It was just the simple twenty-third psalm: "The Lord is my Shepherd, I
shall not want." It was his favourite psalm, and always had a remarkable tranquillising
effect upon him. James Mesurier's faith in God was very great. Then he knelt down and
prayed in silence,--prayed with a great love for his disobedient children; and, when he
rose from his knees, anger and pain had been washed away from his face, and a serenity
that is not of this world was there instead.
CHAPTER II
CONCERNING THOSE "ATLANTIC LINERS" AND AN OLD DESK
Of all battles in this complicated civil warfare of human life, none is more painful than
that being constantly waged from generation to generation between young and old, and
none, it would appear, more inevitable, or indeed necessary. "The good gods sigh for the
cost and pain," and as, growing older ourselves, we become spectators of such a conflict,
with eyes able to see the real goodness and truth of both combatants, how often must we
exclaim: "Oh, just for a little touch of sympathetic comprehension on either side!"
And yet, after all, it is from the older generation that we have a right to expect that. If that
vaunted "experience" with which they are accustomed to extinguish the voice of the

young means anything, it should surely include some knowledge of the needs of
expanding