Mary would have fallen but for the strong arm of her brother, who gently, tenderly guided her to a great rocking-chair. Then he turned on his father.
"I said thet sister's home agin, and I means it, pap."
Turning the leaves of the Book to a familiar passage, Warwick read aloud:
"'The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but of the world.' This girl has no home here.
She is of the world."
"Father, ef sister hes no home here, I hav'n't none, either. Ef she must go out into the world, I'll go with her."
The man of God gazed sternly at the rebellious youth. Then he turned to the girl.
"The good Book says, 'A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.'"
Joshua stepped between the two and hid the child from her father.
"Pap, thet book says tough things to-night. The text you preached from to-day was a better one. I remember et, and I'll leave et to you ef I am not right. 'I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep my anger forever.' Thet's a better text, and I takes et, God was in a better humor when He wrote et."
"Joshua!" spoke the father, shocked at his son's irreverence.
"Listen, pap. I hate to say et, but I must. You preached one thing this morning, and you acts another thing now. Didn't you say thet God 'retaineth not His anger forever, because He delighteth in mercy?' I may not hev the words right, but I've got the sense."
"My son!"
"Pap, I axes the question on the square. Ain't thet what you preached?"
"That was the text."
"It ain't fair to preach one text in the meetin'-house and act another text at home."
"Joshua!"
"Let's hev the mercy text to-night. Pap, sister's home ag'in. Let's act the fergivin' text out."
Joshua stepped aside and the minister, touched in spite of himself, glanced at his daughter, a softened glance, that spoke of affection, but he made no movement. Then the girl slowly rose and turned toward the door, still keeping her eyes on her father's face. She edged backward step by step toward the door by which she had entered. Her hand grasped the latch; the door moved on its hinges.
"Stop, sister," said Joshua. "Pap, ef sister opens thet door I go with her, and then you will sit alone in this room ferever. You will be the last Warwick of the Knob."
Warwick, with all his coldness and strength, could not stand the ordeal.
"Come back, my children," he said. "It is also written, 'I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.'" And then, as in former times, Mary's head rested on her father's knee.
FOOTNOTE:
[34] Copyright, 1901, by Dodd, Mead and Company.