The Running Away of Chester Page #8

"The Running Away of Chester" is a charming short story by Lucy Maud Montgomery that follows the adventures of a young boy named Chester who feels misunderstood and trapped in his mundane life. In his quest for freedom and excitement, Chester decides to run away, leading to a series of encounters that help him gain a deeper understanding of himself and the importance of love and belonging. Montgomery's signature lyrical prose and rich character development evoke a sense of nostalgia and highlight the struggles of childhood, making the story resonate with readers of all ages.

• Short story

								


"Clemantiny!" said Miss Salome rebukingly. She put her arms about
Chester and drew him to her. "Then it is all settled, Chester. You are
my boy now, and of course I shall expect you to be a good boy."

If ever a boy was determined to be good, that boy was Chester. That
day was the beginning of a new life for him. He began to go to the
Hopedale school the next week. Miss Salome gave him all Johnny's old
school books and took an eager interest in his studies.

Chester ought to have been very happy, and at first he was; but as the
bright, mellow days of autumn passed by, a shadow came over his
happiness. He could not help thinking that he had really deceived Miss
Salome, and was deceiving her still--Miss Salome, who had such
confidence in him. He was not what he pretended to be. And as for his
running away, he felt sure that Miss Salome would view that with
horror. As the time passed by and he learned more and more what a high
standard of honour and truth she had, he felt more and more ashamed of
himself. When she looked at him with her clear, trustful, blue eyes,
Chester felt as guilty as if he had systematically deceived her with
intent to do harm. He began to wish that he had the courage to tell
her the whole truth about himself.

Moreover, he began to think that perhaps he had not done right, after
all, in running away from Aunt Harriet. In Miss Salome's code nothing
could be right that was underhanded, and Chester was very swiftly
coming to look at things through Miss Salome's eyes. He felt sure that
Johnny would never have acted as he had, and if Chester now had one
dear ambition on earth, it was to be as good and manly a fellow as
Johnny must have been. But he could never be that as long as he kept
the truth about himself from Miss Salome.

"That boy has got something on his mind," said the terrible
Clemantiny, who, Chester felt convinced, could see through a stone
wall.

"Nonsense! What could he have on his mind?" said Miss Salome. But she
said it a little anxiously. She, too, had noticed Chester's absent
ways and abstracted face.

"Goodness me, I don't know! I don't suppose he has robbed a bank or
murdered anybody. But he is worrying over something, as plain as
plain."

"He is getting on very well at school," said Miss Salome. "His teacher
says so, and he is very eager to learn. I don't know what can be
troubling him."

She was fated not to know for a fortnight longer. During that time
Chester fought out his struggle with himself, and conquered. He must
tell Miss Salome, he decided, with a long sigh. He knew that it would
mean going back to Upton and Aunt Harriet and the old, hard life, but
he would not sail under false colours any longer.

       *       *       *       *       *

Chester went into the kitchen one afternoon when he came home from
school, with his lips set and his jaws even squarer than usual. Miss
Salome was making some of her famous taffy, and Clemantiny was
spinning yarn on the big wheel.

"Miss Salome," said Chester desperately, "if you're not too busy,
there is something I'd like to tell you."

"What is it?" asked Miss Salome good-humouredly, turning to him with
her spoon poised in midair over her granite saucepan.

"It's about myself. I--I--oh, Miss Salome, I didn't tell you the
truth about myself. I've got to tell it now. My name isn't
Benson--exactly--and I ran away from home."

"Dear me!" said Miss Salome mildly. She dropped her spoon, handle and
all, into the taffy and never noticed it. "Dear me, Chester!"

"I knew it," said Clemantiny triumphantly. "I knew it--and I always
said it. Run away, did you?"

"Yes'm. My name is Chester Benson Stephens, and I lived at Upton with
Aunt Harriet Elwell. But she ain't any relation to me, really. She's
only father's stepsister. She--she--wasn't kind to me and she wouldn't
let me go to school--so I ran away."

"But, dear me, Chester, didn't you know that was very wrong?" said
Miss Salome in bewilderment.

"No'm--I didn't know it then. I've been thinking lately that maybe it
was. I'm--I'm real sorry."

"What did you say your real name was?" demanded Clemantiny.

"Stephens, ma'am."

"And your mother's name before she was married?"

"Mary Morrow," said Chester, wondering what upon earth Clemantiny
meant.

Clemantiny turned to Miss Salome with an air of surrendering a dearly
cherished opinion.

"Well, ma'am, I guess you must be right about his looking like Johnny.
I must say I never could see the resemblance, but it may well be
there, for he--that very fellow there--and Johnny are first cousins.
Their mothers were sisters!"

"Clemantiny!" exclaimed Miss Salome.

"You may well say 'Clemantiny.' Such a coincidence! It doesn't make
you and him any relation, of course--the cousinship is on the mother's
side. But it's there. Mary Morrow was born and brought up in Hopedale.
She went to Upton when I did, and married Oliver Stephens there. Why,
I knew his father as well as I know you."

"This is wonderful," said Miss Salome. Then she added sorrowfully,
"But it doesn't make your running away right, Chester."

"Tell us all about it," demanded Clemantiny, sitting down on the
wood-box. "Sit down, boy, sit down--don't stand there looking as if
you were on trial for your life. Tell us all about it."

Thus adjured, Chester sat down and told them all about it--his
moonlight flitting and his adventures in Montrose. Miss Salome
exclaimed with horror over the fact of his sleeping in a pile of
lumber for seven nights, but Clemantiny listened in silence, never
taking her eyes from the boy's pale face. When Chester finished, she
nodded.

"We've got it all now. There's nothing more behind, Salome. It would
have been better for you to have told as straight a story at first,
young man."

Chester knew that, but, having no reply to make, made none. Miss
Salome looked at him wistfully.

"But, with it all, you didn't do right to run away, Chester," she said
firmly. "I dare say your aunt was severe with you--but two wrongs
never make a right, you know."

"No'm," said Chester.

"You must go back to your aunt," continued Miss Salome sadly.

Chester nodded. He knew this, but he could not trust himself to speak.
Then did Clemantiny arise in her righteous indignation.

"Well, I never heard of such nonsense, Salome Whitney! What on earth
do you want to send him back for? I knew Harriet Elwell years ago, and
if she's still what she was then, it ain't much wonder Chester ran
away from her. I'd say 'run,' too. Go back, indeed! You keep him right
here, as you should, and let Harriet Elwell look somewhere else for
somebody to scold!"

"Clemantiny!" expostulated Miss Salome.
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