The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.1968, Síða 54

52
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Autumn 1968
were done with him he was not done
with them. He had a score to pay off:
and there would be no errors this time.
His mother received him with open
arms—Her Boy—loved long since and
lost awhile. Now he was back—'had
hastened to her. The taper had burned
bright in her one window from the
first, to guide his feet back to her ha-
ven-letters written for her by a friend
(herself, she had never acquired the
art of writing or reading); reminding
him that a home and a welcome await-
ed his return. That he had never
troubled to reply to these letters oc-
casioned her no thought; she, poor
soul, could not have read his messages
had he written.
At the first blush he was heartily
glad and appreciative of his mother’s
tender ministrations, used as he was
to the harshness and even brutality of
his keepers. But the thin edge of his
gratefulness soon dulled, and towards
the end of his second day at home he
was demanding as a right what he had
received with a smile upon his arrival.
By the end of the week he was back
in his old haunts with what remained
of the old gang. Before the last quarter
of the same moon he had enlisted the
necessary accomplices and enough
enthusiasm to attempt the coup of
which he had so fondly dreamed. He
was eager for the revenge, and satis-
faction that he could “beat the ma-
chine”. Things were accordingly made
ready, and according to plans which
“could not fail”.
His mother, however, in the par-
lance of the gang “smelled a rat”.
Whether by intuition or observation
she sensed that something was afoot
of which she would not approve and
of which she was not to be apprised. On
the eve of the night in which the deed
was to be “pulled off” she broached
the matter of her fears to him, charg-
ing him to withold his hand in what-
ever it was, in God’s name and for her
sake; to be a good boy and seek no
evil. Fear for his safety lent her
courage to plead with him. Impassion-
ed words of admonition came to her
tongue with a readiness that surprised
her.
Taken unawares the boy gaped with
a darkening brow. He had looked lor
no meddling from that quarter, he
would brook none. Words designed to
restrain had the effect of soap in a
geyser. His rage welled and gurgled
before breaking out in torrential fury
as of escaping steam. When it broke
it poured over her like sulphurous
Greetings
from
& Jfrienti

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