What further conversation Novak had with grandfather is of no consequence, but so much as this is certain, that when he departed grandfather shook hands with him, as if he was his best friend, and promised himself the pleasure of more frequent intercourse.
When Novak inquired for grandmother she shut herself in the kitchen and would not even see him.
Uncle John did not trouble him to wait. The candle still burnt on the table, and grandmother was still stewing something at the hearth.
Grandfather told grandmother that he should like her to leave them alone, and that she should soon hear all about it. But he said this with an air of affability and grandmother obeyed at once.
In this affability of his there lay something very engaging so that in that moment grandfather was again like himself, and what he formerly used to be.
Uncle John was struck by it.
And he began like a diplomatist.
First about the work that had been done that day, then about what was to be done to-morrow, until he approached to the very threshold of what he had in mind.
“You see, John dear,” he said, “when you reflect upon your life it has always been something sacred to me. Thou wert yet a little child when we two grey-headed folk wept over thee for joy to see what a merry little thing thou wert; so ready, too, to take hold of anything good. And thou wast worthy of the pride we felt in thee. Thou didst prosper in every thing and wert everywhere well-spoken-of. I well believed that I was sowing good seed in thy heart. If it was not all good, forgive me, my will was good, and if all did not turn out as I expected, who is to blame for that? We always sow in hope that the harvest will succeed, but also it does not always depend upon ourselves. Sometimes the sky grows overcast, and when I ponder everthing from thy young days it does not yet come into my head that thou deliberately desirest my affliction. Tears of joy and tears of affliction are two quite different things, and a father is hardly reconciled to weep in affliction over his son. What I have instilled into thee, impart again to thy children, but recollect that it is very sickening to be no longer obeyed by a son, on whom one has lavished every attention, and, indeed, I should not wish that thou shouldst ever experience it in thy children.”
