Chapter IV: Dick in Trouble

MANY of the children in Annesley were in the habit of going to school barefoot through the warm weather. Dick had often urged his mother to let him go without shoes. This she had decidedly refused.

The second week in September was extremely warm. One day Richard was going home from school with a companion, when the boy said:

"I wouldn't wear shoes this hot day, for any thing, it's so much cooler without them."

"I'd like to try it," answered Dick.

"Why don't you, then?"

"Perhaps I shall this afternoon."

He intended at the time to make one more plea with his mother; but when the hour came she was busy with household duties; and there was a grave expression on her face which did not look very hopeful. He went out the back door to be by himself.

"I have a good mind to try it," he began. "Mother hasn't said any thing about it this great while, so I shouldn't be disobeying. I'll hide my shoes here and put them on before she knows it."

"If you are not disobeying, why do you hide them?" asked conscience.

Dick knew he was doing wrong; and he did not deceive himself by any more arguing. "Mother don't know how hot my feet are with shoes and stockings," he said to himself, "or she wouldn't make me wear them."

After he had gone, the door bell rang; and Mrs. Stuart answered it. It was a beggar who wanted food and old clothes. When she had supplied his wants to the best of her ability, she saw him take something from beneath the front steps, and hide it under his coat.

"Mother! mother!" cried little Lyman, rushing into the house. "Man has got Dick's shoes."

"Are you sure Dick did not wear shoes to school?"

"I saw him take 'em off under the steps."

Oh, Dick! Could you have seen your mother's face then, not angry; but, so sad, so grieved that you had disobeyed her, you would have been sorry I am sure!

Mrs. Stuart sat down with a sigh to a basket full of mending. She was not fond of mending, and now the holes to be patched were many and large. She felt discouraged but not at the work. She did not even think of that. She was grieving for her boy, who had disobeyed her and displeased his heavenly Father.

"I did hope he was a Christian child," she said half aloud. "I thought he had begun to remember that he was not his own—that he was bought with a price,—that he had pledged himself to obey Christ's commands. What if he had deceived himself?"

Tears rolled down her cheeks and fell on her work. At last she reflected that he was only a child, liable to fall into temptation. "I will wait and see whether he confesses," she said. "If he does, I will freely forgive him, and I will pray God to forgive him."

Her husband looked into the room and was surprised to see instead of her usual bright smile, a clouded face.

"What is it?" he asked.

She told him What had occurred and her own fears about her boy.

"Dick is trying to be like his Master," was his encouraging reply. "I am sure of that; but like all the rest of us, he sometimes yields to the temptations of the arch deceiver. I feel sure his conscience will not let him rest till he has confessed, both to God and to his mother."

"I hope not, husband."

In a few minutes a wagon drove up to the door, and one of their neighbors, a young farmer, sprang to the ground.

"Why there's Dick!" exclaimed Mrs. Stuart growing very pale. "I hope nothing has happened."

Mr. Pond took the boy in his arms and brought him into the kitchen.

"I was going by the school house," he explained, "while the children were out at recess. There was a scream and presently the teacher found that Dick had stepped with his bare feet on some glass. She tried to stop the bleeding and then asked me to bring him home.

"You'd better let me carry him up stairs. He's a pretty good armful."

All this time Dick had avoided his mother's eye; and did not speak a word. Only when his father took off the handkerchief bound around his foot, and pressed the place with his finger the tears ran down his pale cheeks.

"Does it hurt you, dear?" asked his mother.

He bowed his head.

"Was it a large piece of glass, Dick?"

"No, sir, it was window glass. We were playing catch and I stepped on it."

Dick sobbed so much his father could scarcely understand.

"I'm afraid there is glass in his foot now," urged the gentleman. "If so we must have the doctor here, with his forceps."

Dick gasped. "I don't think there's any in it," he sobbed.

"I'll do it up," said Mrs. Stuart. "If he is no better in the morning, we will have the Doctor examine it."