In her short story “After Many Days,” L.M. Montgomery shows that a beautiful thing about humanity is that, though a person might not start out well, he can always right his ways. Often all a person needs to change is for another to believe in him.
New News
The front room of the Baxter Station Hotel is full of men discussing local news. Gabe Foley, the hotel owner, plays checkers, while inspecting the people in the room. He recognizes everyone but one young stranger.
The stranger keeps to himself and says nothing until the talk turns to news about old Stephen Strong’s upcoming eviction. The stranger suddenly pipes in: “How did Stephen Strong come to get into such a tight place? … When I was in these parts a good many years ago, he was considered a well-to-do man.”
The local men inform him that old Strong has always been too kind for his own good. He always gave more than he should. The men especially disapprove of Strong taking in a young miscreant, Ben Butler, whom Strong caught stealing oats one day. But, rather than giving him up to the law, old Strong took Ben in and raised him.
One of the locals says, “[Ben] was a reg’lar young villain—up to every kind of mischief. Old Stephen … always persisted that Ben wasn’t bad at heart and would come out all right some day.” Ultimately, Ben grew up and left town, so the men no longer have to worry about him. But they still insist that, if old Strong were less generous with others, he might have enough to pay off his $3,000 debt.
Good At Heart
The men head off, leaving the young stranger alone to contemplate old Strong’s unfortunate situation. The young stranger, now revealed as Ben Butler, feels sorry for old Strong, especially since Strong had welcomed him in, even after stealing the oats.
Ben leaves the hotel and makes his way down the Greenvale road until he comes to Strong’s house. He looks through the window and sees Strong reading the Bible. “That’s old Stephen—reading the Bible same as ever,” Ben says to himself, “by all that’s holy! He hasn’t changed much. … It’s a shame to turn an old man like him out of house and home.”
Ben watches his old mentor, recalling all of the kind things he did for him when he was such a disreputable youth. Now that he sees the old man, Ben finds his conscience nagging at him, even though he hadn’t originally planned to help him.
Before he high-tails it out of town the next day, Ben visits Strong. However, meeting the one man who believed in him, had faith in him makes Ben pause and reconsider his course of action.
Through this story, Montgomery emphasizes the need to have faith in humanity, even those who don’t show much promise at a young age. Through his faith in Ben, old Stephen Strong laid the foundation for a brighter future for a lost young boy.
As Anne Frank says in “The Diary of a Young Girl”: “I keep [my ideals], because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” Thus, rather than giving up hope because people don’t live up to ideals right now, it is important to persistently believe that people are good and will do good. For persistent faith in humanity not only brings hope, but it also sheds a light for others, which they sometimes cannot see by themselves.
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