"
"Yes, mother, he was ten yards from the bank; and now tell me, do
you think you ever saw me before?"... She looked at him.
"Oh, it's you! Why we thought you were drowned."
"I was picked up by a bargeman."
"Well, come into the house and tell us what you've been doing."
"I've been seafaring," he said, taking a chair. "But what about
this Ulick?"
"He's your brother, that's all."
His mother asked him of what he was thinking, and Ulick told her
how greatly astonished he had been to find a little boy exactly
like himself, waiting at the same place.
"And father?"
"Your father is away."
"So," he said, "this little boy is my brother. I should like to
see father. When is he coming back?"
"Oh," she said, "he won't be back for another three years. He
enlisted again."
"Mother," said Ulick, "you don't seem very glad to see me."
"I shall never forget the evening we spent when you threw yourself
into the canal. You were a wicked child."
"And why did you think I was drowned?"
"Well, your cap was picked up in the bulrushes."
He thought that whatever wickedness he had been guilty of might
have been forgiven, and he began to feel that if he had known how
his mother would receive him he would not have come home.
"Well, the dinner is nearly ready. You'll stay and have some with
us, and we can make you up a bed in the kitchen."
He could see that his mother wished to welcome him, but her heart
was set against him now as it had always been.
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