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The home-coming loomed brightly before them now, for with such a current the Susquehanna would soon be reached. On the left hand side of the creek stretched a sloping hill, wooded for a distance of two or three hundred yards as it receded from the water, and then merging into open fields. On the right was a rugged cliff full of limestone rocks and scrawly pine trees.
It toughened him, and made the old, easy-going Kirk Winfield seem a stranger at whom he could look with detachment and a certain contempt. As he walked back along the deck the battlements of the city met his gaze once more. But now they seemed less formidable. In the leisurely fashion of the home-coming ship the Santa Barbara slid into her dock. The gangplank was thrust out. Kirk walked ashore.
Slowly that face grew calm and warm color flooded it. "How nicely cleaned the house is!" she exclaimed when at last they went in. For she did not see the tracks on the floor nor the clouded windows. All she saw was that the children had worked there to make it fit for her home-coming. Ivra was proud and glad that she noticed. "I have made you a spring frock too," she said, bringing it out.
How Tom Gordon had informed himself of the precise day and train of their home-coming, Ardea did not think to inquire. But he was on the platform when the train drew in, and was the first to welcome them. She was quick to see and appreciate the changes wrought in him, by time, by the Boston sojourn, by the summer's struggle with adverse men and things though of this last she knew nothing as yet.
The King saw them approach, and rejoiced greatly at his son's prowess; but at this he marvelled much, that he should return with the daughter of the Queen. The self-same day of this home-coming as I have heard tell the King had summoned to Court his barons and vassals because of a certain quarrel betwixt two of his lords.
A thin puff of rain floated against her face as the door opened, and a tall soldier stepped out of the darkness into the glow of the warm kitchen. "Well, this here's a queer home-coming. Why, hullo, 'Lizabeth with a pistol in your hand, too! Do you shoot the fatted calf in these parts now? What's the meaning of it?"
With quick generosity she threw aside the inclination in herself to ask many questions but there was the suggestion of a taunt in the question she did ask. "Have you decided to come back to me and is this your home-coming?" she asked, stepping down into the path and looking not at Sam but at the children. Sam did not answer at once, and little Mary began to cry. That was a help.
And twice again we came down the path burdened with skins, till I thought we had enough to roof the hut. I set the sail, laid one tack out of the cove, and on the other tack made our own little inner cove. "It's just like home-coming," Maud said, as I ran the boat ashore.
The silence was at last broken by Edestone; but, although he spoke, it was more as if he were merely letting his pensive thoughts run on. "How different this has been from the way I had planned it. How different, too, has been your home-coming, old man for the Storm Queen was like home to you in the old days."
You can't guess what a difference that made to one's home-coming not the being in uniform, but the knowing that it wasn't an offence to wear it. On my last leave, some time ago before I went overseas, if I'd tried to cross the border from Canada in uniform I'd have been turned back; if by any chance I'd got across and worn regimentals I'd have been arrested by the first Irish policeman.
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