A Waif of the Plains.

Te Aroha News, 15 February 1890, Page 3

A Waif of the Plains.

' BY BRET HARTE. Author of. ‘ The Argonauts,’ ‘ The Lucic of Roaring Camp,’ ‘Cressy,’ Etc. Copyright 1889—By the Author. CHAPTER IX.

When he reached the college the Angelus had long since rung. In the corridor he met one of the Fathers, who, instead of questioning him, returned his salutation with a grave gentleness that struck him. He had turned into Father Sobriente’s quiet study with the intention of reporting himself when he was disturbed bo find him in consultation with three or four of the faculty, who seemed to be thrown into some slight confusion by his entrance. Clarence was about to retire hurriedly when Father Sobriente, breaking up the council with a significant glance at the others, called him back. Confused and embarrassed with the dread of something impending, the boy ‘ tried to avert it by a hurried account of his meeting with Susy, and his hopes of Father Sobriente’s counsel and assistance. Taking upon himself the idea of suggesting Susy’s escapade, ho confessed the iault. The - old man gazed into, his frank eyes with a thoughtful,, halfcompassionate smile.. ‘ I was just thinking of giving you a holiday with—with Don Juan Robinson.’ The unusual substitution of this final title for the habitual ‘ your cousin,’ struck Clarence uneasily. ‘ But we will speak of that later. Sit down, my son, lam nob busy. We shall talk a little. Father Pedeo says you are getting on fluently with your translations. That is excellent, my son, excellent.’ Clarence’s face beamed with relief and pleasure. His vague fears began to dissipate. ‘ And you translate even from dictation ? Good ! We have an hour to spare, and you shall give to me a specimen of your skill. Eh ? Good ! I will walk here and dictate to you in my poor English, and you shall sit there and render it to me in your good Spanish. Eh? So we shall amuse and instruct ourselves.’

Clarencesmiled. Thesesporadic moment a of instruction and admonitions were not unusual to the good father. He cheerfully seated himself at the Padre’s table before a blank sheet of paper, with a pen in his hand. Father Sobriente paced the apartment with his usual heavy but noiseless tread. To his surprise the good priest, after an exhaustive pinch of snuff, blevv his nose, and began, in his most lugubrious stvle of pulpit exhortation ; ‘ It has been written that the sins of the father shall be visited upon the children, and the unthinking and worldly have sought refuge from this law by declaring it harsh and cruel! Miserable and blind ! For do we not see that the wicked man, who in the prid6 of his power and vain glory is willing to risk punishment of himself- and believes it to be courage—must pause before the'awful mandate that condemns an equal suffering to those he loves which he cannot withhold nor suffer for. In the spectacle of these innocents struggling against disgrace, perhaps dis, ease, poverty, or desertions, what avails his haughty all-defying spirit? Let us imagine, Clarence.’ i «Sir,’ said the literal Clarence, pausing in his exercise. ‘I mean,’ continued the priest with a slight cough, , : ‘3Let the thoughtful man picture a father A desperate, self-willed man who scorned the laws of God and soeiety—keeping oply faith with a miserable subterfuge he called “honour”—and relying only on his o)yn courage and his knowledge of human weakness ! Imagine him cruel and bloody—a gambler by profession, an outlaw among men, an outcast from the Church, voluntarily abandoning friends and • family, the wife hf ftlW cherished.

the son he should have reared and educated for the gratification of his deadly passions. Yet imagine that man, suddenly confronted with the thought of that heritage of shame and disgust which he had brought upon his innocent offspring—to whom he cannot give even his own desperate recklessness to sustain its vica-rious suffering. What must be the feeling of a parent ‘ Father Sobriente,’ said Clarence, softly. To the boy’s surprise, scarcely had he spoken when the soft protecting palm of the priest was already upon his shoulder, and the snuffy, but kindly upper lip, trembling with some strange emotion, close beside his cheek. ‘ What is it, Clarence ?’ he said, hurriedly. ‘ Speak, my son, without tear ! You would ask ’ „ ‘I only wanted to know if “padre takes a masculine verb here,’ said Clarence, naivelv.

Father Sobriente blew his nose violently. ‘ Truly though used for either gender, by the context masculine,’ he responded, gravely. ‘And,’ he added, leaning oyer Clarence, and scanning his work hastily, ‘Good, very good ! And now, possibly,’ he continued, passing his hand like a damp sponge over his heated brow; ‘we shall reverse our exercise. .1 shall deliver to you, in Spanish, what you shall render back in English, eh ? And—let us consider —we shall make something more familiar and narrative, eh ?’ To this Clarence, somewhat bored by these present solemn abstractions, assented gladly, took up his pen; and Father Sobriente, resuming his noiseless pacing, began : . ‘On the fertile plains of Guadalajara lived a certain caballero, possessed of flocks and land, and a wife and son. . But being also possessed of a fiery and roving nature, he did not value them as ho did perilous adventure, feats of arms, and sanguinary encounters. To this may be added riotous excesses,gambling, and drunkenness, which in time decreased his patrimony, even as liis rebellious and quarrelsome spirit had alienated his family and neighbours. His wife, borne down by shame and sorrow died while her son was still an infant. In a fit of equal remorse and recklessness the caballero married again within the year. But the new wife was of a temper and bearing as bitter as her consort. Violent quarrels ensued between them, ending in the husband abandoning his wife and son, and leaving St. Louis—l should say Guadalajara—for ever. Joining some adventurers in a foreign land,. under an assumed name, he pursued his reckless course until, by one or two acts of outlawry, he made his return to civilisationimpossible. The deserted wife and stepmother of his child coldly accepted the situation, forbidding his name to be spoken again in her presence, announced that he was dead, and kept the knowledge of his existence from his own son, whom she placed under the charge of her sister. But the sister managed to secretly communicate with the outlawed father, and under a pretext arranged between them of sending the boy to another relation, actually despatched the innocent child to his unworthy parent. Perhaps stirred by remorse the infamous man ’

‘Stop,’ said. Clarence, suddenly. He had thrown down his pen, and was standing erect and rigid before the father. ‘ Yon are trying to tell me something, Father Sobriente,’ he said, with an effort. ‘ Speak out, I implore you. I can stand anything but this mystery. lam no longer a child/ I have a right to know all. This that you are telling me is no fable—l see it in your face, Father Sobriente ; it is the story of-—of —’ ‘Your father, Clarence,’ said the priest, in a trembling voice. The boy drew back with a white face. ‘My father !’ he repeated. ‘ Living or dead ?’

‘ Living—when you first left your home,’ - said the old man hurriedly, seizing Clarence's hand, ‘ for it was he who.ip the name of your cousin sent for you ; living !. ves,while you were here, for it was he who for the past three years stood in the shadow of this assumed cousin Don Juan, and at.lastsent you to this school;: living, Clarence, yes ; but living under a name and reputation that would have blasted you ! .And now dead —dead in Mexico, shot as an insurgent in a still desperate career ! May God have mercy on his soul!’ . ‘ Dead !’ repeated - Clarence, (trembling, ‘ onlv now !’ ‘ The news of ' the insurrection and his fate came only an hour since,’ continued the Padre, quickly ; ‘ his complicity with it and his identity were known only to Don Juan. He would have spared you any knowledge of the truth—even as this, dead man would. But I and my brothers thought otherwise. I have broken it to you badly, my son—but forgive me.’ A hysterical laugh broke from Clarence, and the priest recoiled before him, ‘ Forgive you ! What was this man bo me ?’ he said, .with boyish vehemence. ‘ lie never loved me! He deserted me ; he made my life a lie. He never, .spught me, came near me, or stretched out a hand tome that I could take.'

‘Hush ! hush,!’ said the priest, with a horrified look, laying his huge hand upon the boy’s shouldor and bearing him down bo his seat. ‘ You know not what you say. Think —think, Clarence ! was there none of all those who have befriended you—who were kind to you in your wanderings—to whom your heart turned unconsciously? Think, Clarence, you yourself have spoken to me of such a one. Let your heart speak again for his sake—tor the sake of the dead !’

A gentler light suffused the boy's eyes, and he started. Catching convulsively at his companion’s sleeVe, he said in an eager boyish whisper, ‘ There was one, a wicked, desperate man whom they all feared Flynn, who brought me from the mines. Yes, I thought that he was my cousin’s loyal friend—more than all. the rest, and I told him everything, all that I never told the man that I thought my cousin, or any mm or even you; and -I think, I think, father, I liked him best of all. I thought since it was wrong,’*- he continued with a trembling smile, ‘ for I - was foolishly fond even of the way others feared him—he that I feared not, and who was so kind to me. Yet he too, left me without a word, and when I would have followed him.’—but the boy broke down and buried .hisbface in his hands, -

‘No, no,’ said Father Sobriente, with eager persistence, ‘that was his : foolish pride to spare you the knowledge of your kinship with' one so feared, and part of the blind and mistaken penance he had laid upon himself. For even at that moment of your boyish indignation he never was so fond of you as then. Yes, my poor boy, t'his man, to whom Gqd led your wandering feet at Deadman’s Gulch—the man who brought you here, and by some secret hold —I know nob what—in Don Juan’s past, persuaded him to assume to be your relation —this man Flynn, this Jackson ; Branb, the gambler, this "Hamilton Brant the outlaw—was your father■! .Ah, yes!. Weep on, my son ; each tear of.love and forgiveness from thee hath vicarious power to wash away his sin.’ ‘ " . With a single sweep of his protecting hand he drew Clarence towards his breast, until the boy slowly sank upon his knees at his foot. Then, lifting his eyes towards the ceiling, he said softly in an older

tongue, ‘ And thou too, unhappy and per turbed spirit, rest.'

lb vvas nearly dawn when the good Padre wiped the last tears from Clarence’s clearer eyes. ‘ And now, my son,’ he said, with a gentle smile, as he rose to his feet, ‘ let us not forget the living. Although your stepmother has, through her own act, no legal claim upon you, far be it from me to indicate, your attitude towards her. Enough that you are independent.’ He turned, and, opening a drawer in his secretaire, took out a bank book, and placed it in the hands of the wondering boy. ‘.lt was his wish, Clarence, that even after his death you should never have to prove your kinship to claim your rights. Taking" ad vantage of the boyish deposit yon had left with Mr Carden at the bank, with his connivance and in your name he added to it, month by month and year by year ; Mr Carden cheerfully accepting the trust and management of the fund. The seed thus sown has produced a thousandfold, Clarence, beyond all expectations. You are not only free, my son, but of yourself, and in whatever name you choose —your own master.’ ‘I shall keep his name,’ said the boy simply. ‘He was my father. ‘ Amen,’ said Father Sobriente. And with this discovery closed the strange chronicle of Clarence Brant s boyhood. How he sustained that name and independence in after years, and who, of those already mentioned in these pages, helped him to make or mar it, is a matter for future record. Tiie End.