Daniel and the others at home.

Some of the boys ventured to predict that Toby would get a jolly good
whipping for running away, and the only reply which the happy Toby made
to that was:

"I hope I will, an' then I'll feel as if I had kinder paid for runnin'
away. If Uncle Dan'l will only let me stay with him again he may whip me
every mornin', an' I won't open my mouth to holler."

The boys were impatient to hear the story of Toby's travels, but he
refused to tell it them, saying:

"I'll go home, an' if Uncle Dan'l forgives me for bein' so wicked I'll
sit down this afternoon an' tell you all you want to know about the
circus."

Then, far more rapidly than he had run away from it, Toby ran toward the
home which he had called his ever since he could remember, and his heart
was full almost to bursting as he thought that perhaps he would be told
that he had forfeited all claim to it, and that he could never more call
it "home" again.

When he entered the old familiar sitting room Uncle Daniel was seated
near the window, alone, looking out wistfully--as Toby thought--across
the fields of yellow waving grain.

Toby crept softly in, and, going up to the old man, knelt down and said,
very humbly, and with his whole soul in the words, "Oh, Uncle Dan'l!
if you'll only forgive me for bein' wicked an' runnin' away, an' let me
stay here again--for it's all the home I ever had--I'll do everything
you tell me to, an never whisper in meetin' or do anything bad."

And then he waited for the words which would seal his fate. They were
not long in coming.

"My poor boy," said Uncle Daniel, softly, as he stroked Toby's
refractory red hair, "my love for you was greater than I knew, and when
you left me I cried aloud to the Lord as if it had been my own flesh and
blood that had gone afar from me. Stay here, Toby, my son, and help to
support this poor old body as it goes down into the dark valley of the
shadow of death; and then, in the bright light of that glorious future,
Uncle Daniel will wait to go with you into the presence of Him who is
ever a father to the fatherless."

And in Uncle Daniel's kindly care we may safely leave Toby Tyler.

THE END

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Toby Tyler, by James Otis

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