Paul Ralston by Mary Jane Holmes

This was what Elithe said to Tom, sitting in the Baptist Tabernacle just where she sat when he came asking her to help him liberate Paul, and where he now came to tell her of Paul's fixed determination to go back, as he termed it. No arguments or entreaties had been of any avail to deter him from his purpose. Anything was preferable to the life he was living, he said, and when the court which was to try the firebugs was in session he should give himself up, trusting Providence for the result. From the moment when this was settled Tom appeared like a new man, and his cheery whistle, which had not been heard since Paul's arrest, sounded in the stables and yard again as he busied himself with his work. The second day after Paul's decision he put on the coat and hat he had not worn since the Sunday when Jack was shot and started for a walk in the woods. It was late November, and the dead leaves rustled under his feet with a dreary sound which awoke a mournful feeling in his heart.

"It makes me sorry like to think I shan't be walking here much longer, but I'm going to do it," he said, just as he saw Elithe sitting in the Tabernacle in the distance.