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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:40:31 -0700 |
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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:40:31 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/12662-0.txt b/12662-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0212d25 --- /dev/null +++ b/12662-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9322 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12662 *** + +Transcriber's note: The original text contained typographical errors + and spelling inconsistencies. Where possible these + have been corrected; many could not be resolved + and remain as they appeared in the source text. + + + + + +FOUR GIRLS AT CHAUTAUQUA + +BY + +PANSY + +Author of "Chautauqua Girls at Home," "Ruth Erskine's Crosses," "Judge +Burnham's Daughters," "The Hall in The Grove," "Eighty-Seven," etc. + +1876 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER I. INTRODUCED. + CHAPTER II. THE QUESTION DISCUSSED. + CHAPTER III. ENTERING THE CURRENT. + CHAPTER IV. FAIRPOINT. + CHAPTER V. UNREST. + CHAPTER VI. FEASTS. + CHAPTER VII. TABLE TALK. + CHAPTER VIII. "AT EVENING TIME IT SHALL BE BRIGHT." + CHAPTER IX. FLEEING. + CHAPTER X. HOW THE "FLITTING" ENDED. + CHAPTER XI. HEART TOUCHES. + CHAPTER XII. FLOSSY AT SCHOOL. + CHAPTER XIII. "CROSS PURPOSES." + CHAPTER XIV. THE NEW LESSON. + CHAPTER XV. GREAT MEN. + CHAPTER XVI. WAR OF WORDS. + CHAPTER XVII. GETTING READY TO LIVE. + CHAPTER XVIII. THE SILENT WITNESS. + CHAPTER XIX. AN OLD STORY. + CHAPTER XX. PEOPLE WHO, "HAVING EYES, SEE NOT." + CHAPTER XXI. A "SENSE OF DUTY." + CHAPTER XXII. ONE MINUTE'S WORK. + CHAPTER XXIII. "I'VE BEEN REDEEMED." + CHAPTER XXIV. SWORD THRUSTS. + CHAPTER XXV. SERMONS IN CHALK. + CHAPTER XXVI. "THEIR WORKS DO FOLLOW THEM." + CHAPTER XXVII. UNFINISHED MUSIC. + CHAPTER XXVIII. MENTAL PROBLEMS. + CHAPTER XXIX. WAITING. + CHAPTER XXX. SETTLED QUESTIONS. + CHAPTER XXXI. THE BEGINNING OF THE END. + CHAPTER XXXII. THE END OF THE BEGINNING. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +INTRODUCED. + + +Eurie Mitchell shut the door with a bang and ran up the stairs two steps +at a time. She nearly always banged doors, and was always in a hurry. +She tapped firmly at the door just at the head of the stairs; then she +pushed it open and entered. + +"Are you going?" she said, and her face was all in a glow of excitement +and pleasure. + +The young lady to whom she spoke measured the velvet to see if it was +long enough for the hat she was binding, raised her eyes for just an +instant to the eager face before her, and said "Good-morning." + +"Ruth Erskine! what are you trimming your hat for? Didn't it suit? Say, +are you going? Why in the world don't you tell me? I have been half wild +all the morning." + +Ruth Erskine smiled. "Which question shall I answer first? What a +perfect interrogation point you are, Eurie. My hats never suit, you +know; this one was worse than usual. This velvet is a pretty shade, +isn't it? Am I going to Chautauqua, do you mean? I am sure I don't know. +I haven't thought much about it. Do you really suppose it will be worth +while?" + +Eurie stamped her foot impatiently. "How provoking you are! Haven't +thought of it, and here I have been talking and coaxing all the morning. +Father thinks it is a wild scheme, of course, and sees no sense in +spending so much money; but I'm going for all that. I don't have a +frolic once in an age, and I have set my heart on this. Just think of +living in the woods for two whole weeks! camping out, and doing all +sorts of wild things. I'm just delighted." + +Miss Erskine sewed thoughtfully for some seconds, then she said: + +"Why, there is nothing in the world to hinder my going if I want to. As +to the money, I suppose one could hardly spend as much there as at Long +Branch or Saratoga, and of course I should go somewhere. But the point +is, what do I want to go for?" + +"Why, just to be together, and be in the woods, and live in a tent, and +do nothing civilized for a fortnight. It is the nicest idea that ever +was." + +"And should we go to the meetings?" Miss Erskine asked, still speaking +thoughtfully, and as if she were undecided. + +"Why, yes, of course, now and then. Though for that matter I suppose +father is right enough when he says that precious few people go for the +sake of the meetings. He says it is a grand jollification, with a bit of +religion for the background. But for that matter the less religion they +have the better, and so I told him." + +At this point there was a faint little knock at the door, and Eurie +sprang to open it, saying as she went: "That is Flossy, I know; she +always gives just such little pussy knocks as that." The little lady who +entered fitted her name perfectly. She was small and fair, blue-eyed, +flossy yellow curls lying on her shoulders, her voice was small and +sweet, almost too sweet or too soft, that sort of voice that could +change when slight occasion offered into a whine or positive +tearfulness. She was greeted with great glee by Eurie, and in her more +quiet way by Miss Erskine. + +"_I'm_ going," she said, with a soft little laugh, and she sank down +among the cushions of the sofa, while her white morning dress floated +around her like a cloud. "Charlie thinks it is silly, and Kit thinks it +is sillier, and mamma thinks it is the very silliest thing I ever did +yet; but for all that I am going--that is, if the rest of you are." +Which, by the way, was always this little Flossy's manner of speech. She +was going to do or not to do, speak or keep silent, approve or condemn, +exactly as the mind which was for the time being nearest to her chose to +sway her. + +"Good!" said Eurie, softly clapping her hands. "I didn't think it of +you, Flossy; I thought you were too much of a mouse. Now, Ruth, you will +go, won't you? As for Marion, there is no knowing whether she will go +or not. I don't see now she can afford it myself any more than I can; +but, of course, that is her own concern. We can go anyway, whether she +does or not--only I don't want to, I want her along. Suppose we all go +down and see her; it is Saturday, she will be at home, and then we can +begin to make our preparations. It is really quite time we were sure of +what we are going to do." + +By dint of much coaxing and argument Ruth was prevailed upon to leave +her fascinating brown hat with its brown velvet trimmings, and in the +course of the next half hour the trio were on their way down Park +Street, intent on a call on Miss Marion Wilbur. Park Street was a +simple, quiet, unpretending street, narrow and short; the houses were +two-storied and severely plain. In one of the plainest of these, wearing +an unmistakable boarding-house look, in a back room on the second floor, +the object of their search, in a dark calico dress, with her sleeves +rolled above her elbows, had her hands immersed in a wash-bowl of suds, +and was doing up linen collars. She was one of those miserable creatures +in this weary world, a teacher in a graded school, and her one day of +rest was filled with all sorts of washing, ironing and mending work, +until she had fairly come to groan over the prospect of Saturday because +of the burden of work which it brought. She welcomed her callers without +taking her hands from the suds; she was as quiet in her way as Ruth +Erskine was in hers. + +This time it was Flossy who asked the important question: "Are you +going?" + +Marion answered as promptly as though the question had been decided for +a week. + +"Yes, certainly I am going. I thought I told you that when we talked it +over before. I am washing out my collars to have them ready. Ruth, are +you going to take a trunk?" + +Ruth roused herself from the contemplation of her brown gloves to say +with a little start: + +"How you girls do rush things. Why, I haven't decided yet that I am +going." + +"Oh, you'll go," Marion Wilbur said. "The question is, are we to take +trunks--or, rather, are you to? because I know _I_ shall not. I'm going +to wear my black suit. Put it on on Tuesday morning, or Monday is it +that we start? and wear it until we return. I may take it off, to be +sure, while I sleep, but even that is uncertain, as we may not get a +place to sleep in; but for once in my life I am not going to be bored +with baggage." + +"I shall take mine," Ruth Erskine said with determination. "I don't +intend to be bored by being without baggage. It is horrid, I think, to +go away with only one dress, and feel obliged to wear it whether it is +suited to the weather or not, or whatever happens to it. Eurie, what are +you laughing at?" + +"I am interested in the phenomena of Marion Wilbur being the first to +introduce the dress question. I venture to say not one of us has thought +of that phase of the matter up to this present moment." + +While the talk went on the collars and cuffs were carefully washed and +rinsed, and presently Marion, with her hands only a trifle pinker for +the operation, was ready to lean against a chair and discuss ways and +means. Her long apprenticeship in school-rooms had given her the habit +of standing instead of sitting, even when there was no occasion for the +former. + +If these four young ladies had been creatures of the brain, gotten up +expressly for the purpose of illustrating extremes of character, instead +of being flesh and blood creations, I doubt whether they could have +better illustrated the different types of young ladyhood. There was Ruth +Erskine, dwelling in solitary grandeur in her royal home, as American +royalty goes, the sole daughter, the sole child indeed of the house, a +girl who had no idea of life except as a place in which to have a +serenely good time, and teach everybody to do as she desired them to. +Money was a commonplace matter-of-course article, neither to be +particularly prized nor despised; it was convenient, of course, and must +be an annoyance when one had to do without it; but of that, by practical +experience, she knew nothing. Yet Ruth was by no means a +"pink-and-white" girl without character; on the contrary, she had plenty +of character, but hitherto it had been frittered away on nothings, until +it looked as much like nothing as it could. She was the sort of person +whom education and circumstances of the right sort would have developed +into splendor, but the development had not taken place. Now you are not +to suppose that she was uneducated; that would be a libel on Madame La +Fonte and her fashionable seminary. She had graduated with honor; taken +the first prizes in everything. She knew all about seminaries; so do I; +and if you do, you are ready to admit that the development had not come. +There is constantly occurring something to take back. While I write I +have in mind an institution where the earnest desire sought after and +prayed for is the higher development, not alone of the intellect, but of +the heart: where the wonderful woman who is at its head said to me a few +years ago: + +"If a lady has spent three years under my care, and graduated, and gone +out from me not a Christian, I feel like going down on my knees in +bitterness of soul, and crying, 'Lord, I have failed in the trust thou +didst give me." But the very fact that the word "wonderful" fits that +woman's name is proof enough that such institutions as hers are rare, +and it was not at that seminary that Ruth Erskine graduated. She was +spending her life in elegant pursuits that meant nothing, those of them +which did not mean worse than nothing, and the only difference between +her and a hundred others around her was that she knew perfectly well +that they all amounted to nothing, and didn't hesitate to say so, +therefore she earned the title of "queer." At the same time she did not +hesitate to lead the whirl around this continuous nothing, therefore she +occupied that perilous position of being liked and admired and envied, +all in one. Very few people loved her, and queerly enough she knew that +too, and instead of resenting it realized that she could not see why +they should. She was, moreover, remarkably careful as to her leading +after all, and those who followed were sure of being led in an eminently +respectable and fashionable way. Her most intimate friend was Eurie +Mitchell, which was not strange when one considered what remarkable +opposites in character they were. Eureka J. Mitchell was the respectable +sounding name that the young lady bore, but the full name would have +sounded utterly strange to her ears, the wild little word "Eurie" +seeming to have been made on purpose for her. She was the eldest +daughter of a large, good-natured, hard-working, much-bewildered family. +They never knew just where they belonged. They went to the First +Church, which for itself should have settled their position, since it +was the opinion of most of its members that it was organized especially +that the "first families" might have a church-home. But they occupied a +very front seat, by reason of their inability to pay for a middle one, +which was bad for "position," as First Church gentility went. What was +surprising to them was how they ever happened to have the money to pay +for that seat; but, let me record it to their honor, they always +happened to have it. They were honest. They ought to have been called +"the happen family," by reason of their inability to tell how much or +how little they might happen to have to live on, whether they could +afford three new dresses apiece or none at all. The fact being that it +depended on the amount of sickness there was in Dr. Mitchell's beat +whether there were to be luxuries or simple bare necessities, with some +wonderment as to how even those were to be paid. + +Eurie was the most light-hearted and indifferent of this free-and-easy +family, who always had roast turkey when it was to be had, and who +could laugh and chat merrily over warmed-up meat and johnny-cake, or +even no meat at all, when such days came. How she ever came to think +that she could go to Chautauqua was a matter of surprise to herself; but +it happened to have been a sickly summer among the wealthy people, and +large bills had come in--the next thing was to spend them. Chautauqua +was a silly place to do it in, to be sure; that was Dr. Mitchell's idea, +and the family laughed together over Eurie's last wild notion; but for +all that they good-naturedly prepared to let her carry it out. Just how +full of fun and mischief and actual wildness Eurie was, a two-weeks +sojourn at Chautauqua will be likely to develop; for before that +conversation at Marion's was concluded they decided that they were +really going. Why Marion went, puzzled the girls very much, puzzled +herself somewhat. She was her own mistress, had neither father to direct +nor sister to consult. She had an uncle and aunt who lived where she +called "home," and with whom she spent her vacations, but they were the +poorest of hard-working country people, who stood in awe of Marion and +her education, and by no means ventured to interfere with her plans. +Marion was as independent in her way as Ruth was in hers, but they were +very different ways. Ruth, for instance, indulged her independence in +the matter of dress, by spending a small fortune in looking elegantly +unlike everybody else, and straightway created a frantic desire in her +set to look as nearly like her as possible. But no one cared to look +like Marion, in her severely plain black or brown suits, with almost and +sometimes quite no trimmings at all on them. It was agreed that she +looked remarkably well, but so unlike any one else they didn't see how +she could bring herself to dressing so. She laughed when this was hinted +to her, and got what comfort she could out of the fact that she was +considered "odd." In a certain way she ruled them all, Ruth Erskine +included, though that young lady never suspected it. The queerest one of +this company was little Flossy Shipley--queer to be found in just such +company, I mean. She was the petted darling of a wealthy home, a younger +daughter, a baby in their eyes, to be loved and cherished, and allowed +to have her own sweet and precious way even when it included such a +strange proceeding as a two weeks in the woods, all because that strange +girl in the ward school that Flossy had taken such an unaccountable +fancy for was going. This family were First Church people, too, and +capable of buying a seat very near the centre, in fact but a few removes +from the Erskine pew, which was, of course, the wealthy one of the +church. The Shipley pew was rarely honored by all the members of the +family, and indeed the pastor had no special cause for alarm if several +Sundays went by without an appearance from one of them. A variety of +trifles might happen to cause such a state of things, from which you +will infer that they were not a church-going family. Another strange +representative for Chautauqua! + +Now how did those four girls come to be friends? Oh, dreadful! You don't +expect me to be able to account for human friendships I hope, especially +for school-girl friendships? There is no known rule that will apply to +such idiosyncracies. They had been in school together, even Marion +Wilbur, with the indomitable energy which characterized her, had managed +one term of Madame La Fonte's enormous bills, and with the close of the +term found herself strangely enough drawn into this strange medley of +character that moved in such different circles, and yet called +themselves friends. You are to understand that though the same church +received these girls on Sunday, yet the actual circle in which their +lives whirled was as unlike as possible. The Erskines were the cream, +cultured, traveled, wealthy, aristocratic as to blood and as to manners, +literary in the sense that they bought rare books, and knew why they +were rare. The Mitchells had a calling acquaintance with their family +because Dr. Mitchell was their chosen physician, but that came to pass +through an accident, and not many of the doctor's patrons were of just +the same stamp. This family never went to the Erskine entertainments, +never were invited to go to the other entertainments starting from the +same circle, yet they had their friends and many of them. The Shipleys +were free-and-easy, cordial, social, friendly people, who bought many +books and pictures, and were prominent in fairs and festivals, and were +popular everywhere, but were not, after all, of the Erskine stamp. +Finally came Marion, alone, no position any where, save as she ruled in +the most difficult room in the most difficult ward in the city. A +worker, known to be such; a manager, recognized as one who could make +incongruous elements meet and marshal into working order. In that +capacity she found her place even in the First Church, for they had +fairs and festivals, and oyster suppers, and other trials even in the +First Church; and there was much work to be done, and Marion Wilbur +could work. + +And these four girls were going to Chautauqua--were to start on Monday +morning, August 2, 1875. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE QUESTION DISCUSSED. + + +Rev. Dr. Dennis and Rev. Mr. Harrison met just at the corner of Howard +and Clinton Streets, and stopped for a chat. Dr. Dennis was pastor of +the First Church, and Mr. Harrison was pastor of the Fourth, and some of +the sheep belonging to these respective flocks supposed the two churches +to be rivals, but the pastors thereof never thought of such a thing. On +the contrary, they were always getting up excuses for coming in contact +with each other; and woe to the work that was waiting for each when they +chanced to meet of a morning on some shady corner. + +"You are to be represented, I hear, at the coming assembly," said Mr. +Harrison, as they shook hands in that hearty way which says, as plainly +as words, "How _very_ glad I am to see you!" + +Dr. Dennis shrugged his shoulders. + +"Such a representation!" he said. "If the entire congregation had been +canvassed, it would have been impossible to have made more curious +selections. I do wish we could have some real workers from the different +churches." + +"Miss Erskine isn't a member of the church, is she?" + +"None of them are members, nor Christians; nor have they an atom of +interest in any such matters. They are going for pure fun, and nothing +else." + +"Now perhaps they will happily disappoint you by coming back with a +wholesome interest aroused in Sunday-school work, and will really go +into the work for themselves." + +"I don't want them," Dr. Dennis said, stoutly. "I wouldn't give a dime +for a hundred such workers; they are an injury to the cause. I want +Sunday-school workers who have a personal, vital sense of the worth of +souls, and a consuming desire to see them converted. All other +Sunday-school teaching is aimless." + +Mr. Harrison looked thoughtful. + +"We haven't many such, I am afraid," he said, gravely; but I agree with +you in thinking that they should at least be Christians. Still, I +suppose that it is not impossible that some one of these ladies may be +converted." + +"Not at Chautauqua," Dr. Dennis said, as one who had looked into the +matter and knew all about it. "I am not entirely in sympathy with that +meeting, anyway; or, that is, I am and I am not, all at once. I think it +would be a grand place for you and me. I haven't the least doubt but +that we would be refreshed, bodily and mentally, and, for that matter, +spiritually. If the whole world were converted I should vote for +Chautauqua with a loud voice; but I am more than fearful as to the +influence of such meetings on the masses--the unconverted world. _They_ +will go there for recreation. Their whole aim will be to have a glorious +frolic away from the restraints of ordinary home-life. They will have no +interest in the meetings, no sympathy with the central thought that has +drawn the workers together, and the tendency will be to frolic through +it all. + +"The truth is, there will be such a mixing of things that I actually +fear the effect will be wholesale demoralization. At the same time I am +interested in the idea, and am watching it with anxiety. Since I have +heard of the delegation from my own church I have been more convinced +still of the evil influences. It makes me gloomy to think of the +fruitful field such a place will be for the fertile brain of that little +Eurie Mitchell. She is too wild now for civilized life The four walls of +the church and the sacred associations connected with the building serve +to keep her only half controlled when she is actually attending Sabbath +service. There will be nothing to control her in the woods, and she will +lose what little reverence she possesses. I tell you, the more I think +of it, the more certain I am that for such people these great religious +jubilees, holding over the Sabbath, do harm." + +"You put it more gently than our friend Mr. Archer," Mr. Harrison said, +smiling. "He is in a condition of absolute scorn. He gives none of them +credit for honesty or genuine interest. He says it is a running away +from work, a regular shirking of what they ought to be doing, and going +off into the woods to have a good time, and, by way of gulling the +public, they pretend to season it with religion." + +Dr. Dennis laughed. + +"That sounds precisely like him, and is quite as logical as one could +expect, coming from that source," he said, indifferently. "Why doesn't +it occur to his dull brain, that thinks itself such a sharp one, that +the leaders thereof are men responsible to no one save God and their own +consciences for the way in which they spend their time? There is nothing +earthly to hinder their going to the woods, and staying three months if +they please to do so." + +"Oh, but I have left out one of the important reasons for the meeting. +It is to make money; a grand speculation, whereby the fortunes of these +same leaders are to be made at the expense of the poor victims whom they +gather about them." + +Again Dr. Dennis' shoulders went upward in that peculiar but expressive +shrug. + +"Of all the precarious and dangerous ways of making a fortune, I should +think that went ahead," he said, still laughing. "What an idea now! +Shouldn't you suppose people with common sense would have some faint +idea of the immense expenses to be involved in such an undertaking, and +the tremendous risks to be run? If they succeed in meeting their +expenses this year I think they will have cause for rejoicing." + +"The point that puzzles me," Mr. Harrison said, "is what particular +commandment would they be breaking if they should actually happen to +have twenty-five cents to put in their pockets when the meeting closed; +though, as you say, I doubt the probability. But they force no one to +come; it is a matter for individual decision, and they render a fair +equivalent for every cent of money spent; at least, if the spender +thinks it is not a fair equivalent he is foolish to go; so why should +they not make enough to justify them in giving their time to this work?" + +"Of course, of course," assented Dr. Dennis, heartily; "they ought to; +none but an idiot would think otherwise." + +It is to be presumed that both these gentlemen had gotten so far away +from the name that was quoted as holding these views as to forget all +about him, else they certainly would not have been guilty of calling a +brother minister an idiot, however much his arguments might suggest the +thought. + +"But," continued Dr. Dennis, "my trouble lies, as I said, in the +results. I have no sort of doubt that great good will be done, and I +have the same feeling of certainty that harm will be done. Take it in my +own church. We are so situated, or we think ourselves so situated, that +not a single one of the earnest, hearty workers who would come back to +us with a blessing for themselves and us, is able to go; instead, we +have four representatives who will turn the whole thing into ridicule, +and dish it up for the entertainment of their friends during the coming +winter. + +"That Miss Erskine seems to have a special talent for getting up +Thursday evening entertainments, to invite our people who are supposed +to be interested in the prayer-meeting, but who rarely fail to make it +convenient to go to the party. I imagine a bevy of them being +entertained by Eurie Mitchell. She can do it, and she is looking forward +to just that sort of thing, for I heard her rejoicing over it. That +girl will be injured by Chautauqua; I know it as well as though I +already saw it; and the question with me is, whether the amount of evil +done will not overbalance the good. At the same time I am inconsistent +enough to wish with all my heart that I could be there." + +"What about Miss Shipley? Perhaps relief will come to you from that +quarter." + +Those shoulders again. + +"She is nothing in the world but a little pink feather, and she blows +precisely in the direction of the strongest current; and Satan looks out +for her with untiring patience that the wind shall blow in the exact +direction where it can do her the most harm. Going to Chautauqua with +the influences that will surround her, with Miss Erskine and Miss Wilbur +on the one side, and Eurie Mitchell on the other, will be the very best +thing that Satan can do next for her, and he doubtless knows it." + +"I do not know Miss Wilbur at all. Is she also one of your flock?" + +Dr. Dennis' face was dark and sad. + +"She is an infidel," he said, decidedly. "She does not call herself +such; she wouldn't like to be known as such, because it would be likely +to affect her position in the school. But the name is rightly hers, and +she would do less harm in the world if she owned it." + +"It is an extraordinary representation, I declare," Mr. Harrison said, a +little startled. "I have been half inclined to be envious of you because +you were to hear so directly from the meeting, but I believe on the +whole I shall be quite as well off without any delegates as you will +with them." + +"Better, decidedly. I am distressed at the whole thing. It will result +disastrously for them all, you mark my words." + +And having settled the affairs at Chautauqua, apparently beyond all +repeal, the brethren shook hands again and went to their studies. + +Meantime the express train was giving occasional premonitory snorts, and +the four young ladies who had been so thoroughly discussed were in +various stages of unrest, waiting for the moment of departure. A +looker-on would have been able to come to marked conclusions concerning +the different characters of these young ladies, simply from their +manner of dress. Flossy Shipley was the one to look at first. That was a +very good description of her usual style--something to look at. She had +chosen for her traveling dress a pale, lavender cashmere, of that +delightful shade that resents a drop of water as promptly as a drop of +oil. It was trimmed with a contrasting shade of silk, and trimmed +profusely; yards of gathered trimming, headed by yards of flat pleating, +and that in turn headed by yards of folds. The dainty sack and hat, and +the four-buttoned gloves, were as faultless as to fit and as delicate in +color as the dress. In short, Miss Flossy looked as though she might be +ready for an evening concert. Moreover, she felt as if she were, or at +least she had an uncomfortable consciousness as to clothes. She kept a +nervous lookout for the lower flounce whenever the crowd of people +surged her way, and brushed vigorously at the arm of the seat she had +chosen ere she dared to rest _her_ arm on it. Evidently she had given +herself over to the martyrdom of thinking of and caring for clothes +during this journey, and I don't know whether there is a greater +martyrdom made out of a trifle than that. It was one of Flossy's +besetting sins, this arraying herself in glory, and making wrinkles in +her face in the vain attempt to keep so. Not that she was particularly +anxious to save the wear and tear, only she hated to look spotted and +wrinkled, and she could never seem to learn the simple lesson of wearing +the things best suited to the occasion. + +Standing near her, toying carelessly with her traveling fan, and looking +as though the thought of dress was something that had passed utterly by +her, was Miss Erskine. She looked like one of those ladies whom +gentlemen in their wisdom are always selecting, pointing them out as +models. "So tasteful and appropriate, and withal so simple in their +dress." + +Let me tell you about her dress. It was plain dark brown, precisely the +shade of brown that the fashion of the season required. It was of soft, +lusterless silk. It was very simply made, almost severely plain, as Miss +Erskine knew became a traveler. In fact, elegant simplicity marked her +entire toilet, everything matched, everything was fresh and spotless, +and arranged with an eye to remaining so. I am willing to concede that +she was faultlessly dressed, and it was a real pleasure to see her +thus. But I am also anxious to have the gentlemen understand that that +same simple attire represented more money than two wardrobes like Flossy +Shipley's. It is often so with those delightfully plain and simple +dresses that attract so many people. In fact, it might as well be +admitted, since we are on that subject, that elegant simplicity is +sometimes a very expensive article. + +Eurie Mitchell was neither particularly elegant nor noted for +simplicity, yet her dress was not without character. We see enough of +that sort to become familiar with what it means. Its language is simply +a straightened purse, necessitating the putting together of shades that +do not quite harmonize, and trimming in a way that will cover the most +spots and take the least material. That was Eurie's dress. Skirt of one +kind and overdress of another. A very economical fashion, and one not +destined to last long, because of its economy, and the fact that very +elegant ladies rather curl their lips at it, and call it the "patchwork +style." Eurie from necessity rather than choice adopted it, and it was +also her misfortune rather than her taste that the colors were too +light to be really according to the mode. Her gloves were of an entirely +different shade from the rest of the attire, and were mended with a +shade of silk that did not quite match Altogether, Eurie's dress did not +suit Miss Erskine. But, for that matter, neither did it suit herself, +with this difference, that it was, after all, a matter of minor +importance to her. + +Miss Wilbur's dress can be disposed of in a single sentence: It was a +black alpaca skirt, not too long, and severely plain, covered to within +three inches with a plain brown linen polonaise; her black hat with a +band of velvet about it, fastened by a single heavy knot, and her +somewhat worn black gloves completed her toilet, and she looked every +inch a lady. The very people who would have curled their aristocratic +lips at Eurie's attempt at style, turned and gave Miss Wilbur a second +thoughtful respectful look. + +There was a Mr. Wayne who deserves attention. He possessed himself of +Miss Erskine's fan, and played with it carelessly, while he said: + +"You are a queer set. What are you all going off there for, to bury +yourselves in the woods? I don't believe one of you has an idea what you +are about. And it is the very height of the season, too." + +"That is the trouble," Miss Erskine said, with a little toss of her +handsome head. "We are sick of the season, and want to get away from it. +I want something new. That is precisely what I am going for." + +"I have no doubt you will find it," and the gentleman gave a disdainful +shrug to his shoulders. "Out in the backwoods attending a hallelujah +meeting! I am sure I envy you." + +"You don't know what we will find," Eurie Mitchell said, with a defiant +air. "Nor what may happen to us before we return. We may meet our +destinies. I have no doubt they are lurking for us behind some of the +trees. Just you meet the evening train of Wednesday, two weeks hence, +and see if you can not discover the finger of fate having been busy with +us. Wonderful things can happen in two weeks." + +Just then the train gave its last warning howl, and Mr. Wayne made rapid +good-bys, a trifle more lingering in the case of Miss Erskine than the +others, and with that prophetic sentence still ringing in his ears he +departed. And the four girls were actually _en route_ for Chautauqua. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ENTERING THE CURRENT. + + +It is a queer thought, not to say a startling one, what very trifles +about us are constantly giving object lessons on our characters. Those +four girls, as they arranged themselves in the cars for their all-day +journey conveyed four different impressions to the critical looker-on. +In the first place they each selected and took possession of an entire +seat, though the cars were filling rapidly, and many an anxious woman +and heavily laden man looked reproachfully at them. They took these +whole seats from entirely different stand-points--Miss Erskine because +she was a finished and selfish traveler; and although she did not belong +to that absolutely unendurable class, who occupy room that is not +theirs until a conductor interferes, she yet regularly appropriated and +kept the extra seat engaged with her flounces until she was asked +outright to vacate it by one more determined than the rest. She hated +company and avoided it when possible. Flossy Shipley was willing, nay, +ready, to give up her extra seat the moment a person of the right sort +appeared; not simply a cleanly, respectable individual--they might pass +by the dozens--but one who attracted her, who was elegantly dressed and +stylish looking. Flossy would endure being crowded if only the person +who did it was stylish. Miss Wilbur was indifferent to the whole race of +human beings; she cared as little as possible whether a well-dressed +lady stood or sat; so far as she was concerned they were apt to do the +former. She neither frowned nor smiled when the time came that she was +obliged to move; she simply _moved_, with as unconcerned and indifferent +a face as she had worn all the due. As for Eurie Mitchell, she took an +entire seat, as she did most other things, from pure heedlessness; any +one was welcome who wanted to sit with her, and whether it was a servant +girl or a princess was a matter of no moment. These various shades of +feeling were nearly as fully expressed in their faces as though they had +spoken; and yet they did not in the least comprehend their own actions. +This is only an illustration; it was so in a hundred little nothings +during the day. Not a window was raised or closed for their benefit, not +a turn of a blind made, that a close student of human nature could not +have seen the distinct and ruling differences in their temperaments, no +matter from what point of the compass they started. In the course of +time they reached East Buffalo. + +"Now for our dinners!" Eurie said, as the whistle shrieked a warning +that the station was being neared. "What are we going to do?" + +"We are going to eat them, I presume, as usual," Miss Erskine said in +her most indifferent tone. I should explain that long before this the +girls had grown weary of the separate seats, and by dint of much +planning and the good-natured removal of two fellow passengers to other +seats had accomplished an arrangement that should naturally have been +enjoyed from the beginning: that of a turned seat, and being their own +seat-mates. + +"But I mean," Eurie said, in no wise quenched by what was a common +enough manner in Miss Erskine, "are we to get a lunch, or are we to go +in to a regular dinner?" + +"If you mean what I am going to do, I shall most assuredly have a +'regular' dinner, as you call it. I have no fancy for eating things +thrown together in a bag." + +"The bag will be the most economical process for all that," Eurie said, +laughing at Miss Erskine's disdainful face. + +"I presume very likely; but as I did not start on this trip for the +purpose of studying social economy, I shall vote for the dinner." + +"And I shall take to the bag method," Eurie said, decidedly. Opposition +always decided her. So it did Flossy, though in a different way; she was +sure to side with the stronger party. + +"It would be pleasanter for us all to keep together," she began in a +doubtful tone, looking first at Miss Erskine and then at Eurie. + +"But since, according to Eurie's and my decided differences, it is +impossible for us to do the 'better' thing, which of the two _worse_ +things are you going to do?" This Miss Erskine said with utmost good +nature, but with utmost determination--as much as it would have taken to +carry out a good idea in the face of opposition. + +"Oh, I think I'll go with you." Flossy said it hastily, as if she feared +that she might appear foolish in the eyes of this young lady by having +fancied anything else. + +"Very well--then it remains for Marion to choose her company," Eurie +said, composedly. + +Marion held up a paper bundle. + +"It is already chosen," she said, promptly. "It is a slice of bread and +butter, with a very thin slice of fat ham, which I never eat, and a +greasy doughnut, the whole done up in a brown paper. This is decidedly +an improvement on the bag dinner (which you think of going after) in an +economical point of view; and as I am a student of social and all other +sorts of economy, not only on this trip but on every other trip of mine +in this mortal life, I recommend it to you; at least I would have done +so if you had asked me this morning before you left home." + +Eurie made a grimace. + +"I might have brought a splendid lunch from home if I had only thought +of such a thing," she said, regretfully. "My thoughts always come +afterward." + +"And it is quite the mode to take lunches with you when they are +elegantly put up," Flossy said, regretfully, as she prepared to follow +Ruth. "I wonder we never thought of it." + +This last remark of Flossy's set the two girls left behind into a hearty +laugh. + +"Do you suppose that when Flossy has to die she will be troubled lest it +may not be the fashion for young ladies to die that season?" Eurie said, +looking after the pretty little doll as she gathered her skirts about +her anxiously; for, whatever other qualifications East Buffalo may have, +cleanliness is not one of them. + +"No," Marion answered, gravely, "not the least danger of it, because it +happens to be the fashion for ladies to die at all seasons; it is the +one thing that never seems to go out. I am heartily glad that we have +one thing that remains absolute in this fashionable world." + +Eurie looked at her thoughtfully. + +"Marion, one would think you were religious--sometimes," she said, +gravely. "You make such strange remarks." + +Marion laughed immoderately. + +"You ridiculous little infidel!" she said, as soon as she could speak. +"You do not even know enough about religion to detect the difference +between goodness and wickedness. Why, that was one of my wickedest +remarks, and here you are mistaking it for goodness. My dear child, run +and get your paper bag before it is time to go; or will you have my +slice of ham and half this doughnut? The bread and butter I want +myself." + +The freshness and novelty of this journey wore away before the long +summer afternoon began to wane; the cars were crowded and uncomfortable, +and the cinders flew about in as trying a way as cinders can. + +None of the girls had the least idea where they were going. They knew, +in a general way, that there must be such a place as Chautauqua Lake, as +the papers that they chanced to come in contact with had been full of +the delights of that region for many months; and, indeed, a young man, +earnest, enthusiastic and sensible, who stopped over night at Dr. +Mitchell's, and had been a delighted guest at the Chautauqua Assembly a +year before, had sown the first seeds that resulted in this trip. + +He of course could tell the exact route and the necessary steps to be +taken; but it had been no part of Eurie's wisdom to ask about the +journey thither; she knew how many boats were on the lake, and what kind +of fish could be caught in it, but the most direct way to reach it was a +minor matter. So there they were, simply blundering along, in the belief +that the railroad officials knew their business, and would get them +somewhere sometime. + +As the day waned, and the road became more unknown to them, and their +weariness grew upon them, they fell to indulging in those stale jokes +that young ladies will perpetrate when they don't know what else to do. +As they declared, with much laughter, and many smart ways of saying it, +that Chautauqua was a myth of Eurie's brain, or that she had been the +dupe of the fine young theological student who had chanced her way and +that the search for paradise would come to naught, perhaps it was not +all joking; for, as the hours passed and they journeyed on, hearing +nothing about the place of which for the last few weeks they had +thought so much, a queer feeling began to steal over them that there +really was no such spot, and that they were all a set of idiots. + +"I thought we should have been there by this time, and regularly +established at housekeeping," Marion said, as they picked up baskets and +bundles and prepared to change cars; "and here we are making another +change. This is the third this afternoon, or is it the thirteenth? and +who knows where Brocton is or what it is? Is anybody sure that it is in +this hemisphere? Eurie, you are certain that your theological student +did not cross the Atlantic in order to reach his elysium?" + +"Brocton is _here_," Eurie said, as they climbed the steps of the car. +"I see the name on that building yonder; though whether 'here' is +America or Asia I am unable to say. I think we have come overland, but +it is so long since we started I may have forgotten." + +But at this point they checked their nonsense and began to get up a new +interest in existence. They were among a different class of +people--earnest, eager people, who seemed to have no thought of yawns +or weariness. Camp-stools abounded, with here and there a bundle looking +like quilts and pillows. Every lady had a waterproof and every man an +umbrella, and the talk was of "tents," and "division meetings," and "the +morning boats," with stray words like "Fairpoint" and "Mayville" coming +in every now and then. These two words, the girls knew had to do with +_their_ hopes; so they began to feel revived. + +"I actually begin to think there is some foundation for Eurie's wild +fancies after all," Marion whispered, "or else this is another party of +lunatics as wild as ourselves; but they are a large and respectable +party; I'm rather hopeful." + +In two minutes more the railroad official who speaks in the unknown +tongue yelped something at either door, and thereupon everybody got up +and began to prepare for an exit. + +"Do you think he said Mayville?" questioned Eurie with a shade of +anxiety in her voice. She had been the leader of this scheme, and she +felt just a trifle of responsibility. + +"Haven't the least idea," Marion said, composedly gathering her +wrappings; "it sounded as much like any other word you happen to think +of as it did like that, but everybody is going, and Flossy and I are +determined to be in the fashion so we go too." + +At the door dismay seized upon Flossy. A light drizzly rain was falling. +Oh, the lavender suit! and her waterproof tucked away in her trunk, and +everybody pushing and trying to pass her. + +"Never mind," Marion said, with utmost good nature, "here is mine; I +haven't any trunk, so it is handy; and it has rained on my old alpaca +for ages; can't hurt that, so wrap yourself up and come along, for I +believe in my heart that this is Mayville." + +"This way to the Mayville House," said the gentlemanly official, +touching his hat as politely as though they had been princesses. Why +can't hotel subordinates more often show a little common politeness? +This act decided the location of these four girls in a twinkling; they +knew nothing about any of the hotels, and, other things being equal, +anybody would rather go to a place to which they had been decently +invited than to be elbowed and yelled at and forced. Water and rest and +tea did much to restore them to comfort, and as they discussed matters +in their rooms afterward they assured each other that the Mayville House +was just the place to stop at. A discussion was in progress as to the +evening meeting. Miss Erskine had taken down her hair and donned a +becoming wrapper, and reposed serenely in the rocking-chair, offering no +remark beyond the composed and decided, "I am not going over in the +woods to-night by any manner of means; that would be enough if I were +actually one of the lunatics instead of a mild looker-on." + +"I haven't the least idea of going, either," Eurie said, sitting on a +stool, balancing her stockinged feet against Ruth's rocker. "Not that I +mind the rain, or that it wouldn't be fun enough if I were not so dead +tired. But I tell you, girls, I have had to work like a soldier to get +ready, and having the care of such a set as you have been all day has +been too much for me. A religious meeting would just finish me. I'm +going to save myself up for morning. You are a goosie to go, Marion. It +is as dark as ink, and is raining. What can you see to-night?" + +"I tell you I've _got_ to go," Marion said, as she quietly unstrapped +her shawl. "I earn my bread, as you are very well aware, by teaching +school; but my butter, and a few such delicacies, I get by writing up +folks and things. I've promised to give a melting account of this first +meeting, and I have no idea of losing the chance. Flossy Shipley, you +may wear my waterproof every minute if you will go with me. It is long +enough to drag a quarter of a yard, and a rain drop can not get near +enough to think of you. + +"But it is so damp," shivered Flossy, looking drearily out into the +night, "and so dark, Marion, I am afraid to go." + +"Plenty of people going. What is there to be afraid of? We go down from +here in a carriage." + +"I wouldn't go, Flossy," chimed in a voice from the rocker and one from +the ottoman. + +"It will be very damp there," pleaded Flossy, who _did_ like to be +accommodating. + +"You may have ten thicknesses of my shawl to sit on," urged Marion. +"Come, now, Flossy Shipley. I didn't have the least idea of coaxing +those other girls to go, for every one knows they are selfish and will +do as they please; but I did think you would keep me company. It really +isn't pleasant to think of going alone." + +The end of it was that Flossy, done up in a cloak twice too large for +her, went off looking like the martyr that she was, and Eurie and Ruth +staid in their room and laughed over the ridiculousness of Flossy +Shipley going out in the night and the rain, in a lavender cashmere, to +attend a religious meeting! + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +FAIRPOINT. + + +It was not so very dark after all, nor so disagreeable as she had +imagined. She sat curled up in a heap on the deck of the Col. Phillips, +looking with interested eyes on the groups of people, who, despite the +rain and darkness, were evidently on their way to Chautauqua. Marion had +gone to the other side of the boat and was looking over into the water, +rested and interested in spite of herself by the novelty of the scene +around her. The fellow-passengers seemed not to be novices like +themselves, for as their talk floated to the girls it had sentences like +these: + +"Last year we stopped in the village, but this time we are going to be +right on the ground." + +"Last year it rained, too; but rain makes no difference at Chautauqua." + +"They are all last year's people," said Marion, coming over to Flossy's +side. "That speaks well for the interest, or the fun, doesn't it? Now +what do you suppose takes all these people to this place?" + +"I don't know," Flossy said thoughtfully, "I never thought much about +it. Perhaps some of them came just as I did, because the girls were +coming and asked me to. I'm sure I haven't the least idea what else I +came for." + +Marion looked down on the little creature done up in water-proof, with a +half-pitying laugh. + +"You are a good little mouse," she said patronizingly. "I never remember +doing _anything_ without a motive somewhere. It must be refreshing to +forget that important individual now and then." + +"Oh, I don't," Flossy said, simply. "Of course I came for the good time +I would have. But then, you know, I would never have thought of coming +if the rest of you hadn't." + +Another laugh from Marion. + +"You let others do your thinking for you," she said, with just a touch +of contempt, covered by the gayety of the tone. "Well, it is much the +easier way. If I could find anyone to undertake the task, I should like +to try it for myself." + +Flossy's answer was a little scream of delight, for they were coming +upon fairy-land; the lights of Fairpoint were gleaming in the soft +distance, and very fairy-like they looked shining among the trees. The +sound of music on the steamer mingled charmingly with the peal of the +bells from the shore. Marion looked on the scene with quiet interest. +Flossy's face took a pink glow; she liked pretty things. As for those +who had been at Chautauqua the year before, they gathered at the +vessel's side as those gather who, after a long and tiresome journey, +realize that they are nearing home. They were eager and excited. + +"The dock is better," said one. + +"Yes, and the passage way is larger," chimed in his nearest neighbor. + +"Oh, everything is on an improved scale this year," said still a third, +speaking confidently. + +"The _meeting_ can't be any better," spoke a quiet-faced woman, with a +decided voice, "that is simply impossible." + +Marion laughed softly. + +"Hear the lunatics!" she said, bending to give Flossy the benefit of her +words. "They are just infatuated; they think this is the original Garden +of Eden, with that wretched Eve left out. If she were here I would choke +her with a relish." This last in a muttered undertone, too low for even +Flossy, and with a darkening face. + +Meantime the boat rounded the point, the plank was laid, and the feet of +the eager passengers touched the shores of Chautauqua. Some detention +about tickets, arising from a misunderstanding of terms, made our girls +lose sight and sound of the rest of the boat-load, and when they passed +within the railing they found themselves suddenly and strangely alone. A +few lights glimmered in the trees, enough to point the way, and from the +cottages near at hand streams of light shot out into the darkness; but +no sound of footsteps, no sight of human being appeared + + "Over the river, on the hill, + Another village lieth still," + +quoted Marion, gravely. Then: + +"I say, Flossy, what does it all mean? Are we among a party of witches, +do you suppose? Where could those congenial spirits so suddenly have +conveyed themselves away, I wonder? The road isn't broad, but it most +decidedly isn't straight. Only behold that long, long, _long_ array of +damp and empty seats! Where are the faithful now, do you suppose?" + +"There isn't any meeting here to-night, and we might have known there +wouldn't be," Flossy said, peevishly, beginning to grow not only +disenchanted but half frightened. "I was never in such a queer place in +my life! Those white seats all look like ghosts. What could have +possessed you to come to-night? Of course they wouldn't have meeting in +the rain! Marion, do let us go back; I am frightened out of my wits!" + +"You blessed little simpleton!" said Marion, gaily. "What on earth is +there to be frightened over? Not pine seats and lamplight, surely, and +there is nothing more formidable than that so far." + +"I wish with all my heart that I were safely back in the hotel, where I +would have been if you had not coaxed me away," sighed, or rather +whined, poor Flossy, shivering with chilliness or nervousness, and +added: "Come, Marion, do let us go back with that boat. It can't have +started yet." + +Marion grasped her hand firmly, and spoke like a commander: + +"Flossy Shipley, don't you go to getting nervous and acting like a +simpleton, for I won't have it. As for that boat, it is half way to +Mayville by this time, and I am glad of it. Do you suppose I am going to +make an ignominious retreat now, when we have got so far advanced? Not a +bit of it. If there is no meeting, we will go where there ought to be +one, since it was advertised, and not a word said about rain. It isn't +likely they stay out-doors when it actually pours. Very likely they go +in somewhere and have a prayer-meeting. So now compose your nerves and +walk fast, for if the spot is within walking distance I am going to find +it. I tell you I am to get ten dollars at least for writing up this +meeting, and I am going to write it if there is one to write about. If +there isn't I shall have to make up one. I dare say I could make it +interesting. I'll put you in if I do, and you shall be Mrs. Fearful--in +Pilgrim's Progress, you know--if you don't stop shivering and walk +faster." + +During this time they had really been making as rapid progress as the +up-hill way and their doubt of the road would allow. Flossy made no +reply to this harangue, for the reason that a sudden turn in the path +brought them into bright light and the sound of a ringing voice. + +"There!" whispered Marion as the mammoth tent came in view. "What did I +tell you? What do you think of _that_ for a prayer-meeting?" And then +she, too, relapsed into silence, for the ringing tones of the speaker's +voice were distinct and clear. They made their way rapidly and silently +under the tent, down the aisle--half way down--then a gentleman beckoned +them, and by dint of some pushing and moving secured them seats. Then +both girls looked about them in astonishment. Who would have supposed +that it rained! Why, there were rows and rows and rows of heads, men and +women, and even children. A tent larger than they had imagined could be +built and packed with people. + +Marion's tongue was uncontrollable. She was barely seated before she +began her whispered comments: + +"That man who is speaking is Dr. Vincent. Hasn't he a ringing voice? It +reminds me of a trumpet. He likes to use it, I know he does; he has +learned to manage it so nicely, and with an eye to the effect. You will +hear his voice often enough, and you just watch and see if you don't +learn to know the first echo of it from any other." + +"Perhaps he won't be here all the time to use his voice," whispered back +Flossy, without much idea what she was saying. The novelty of the scene +had stolen her senses. + +Marion laughed softly. + +"You blessed little idiot!" she said, "don't you know that he +manufactured Chautauqua, root and branch? Or if he didn't quite +manufacture the trees he looked after their growth, I dare say. Why, +this meeting is his darling, his idol, his best beloved. 'Hear him +speak?' I guess you will. I should like to see a meeting of this kind +that didn't hear from him. It will have to be when he is out of the +body." + +"How do you know about him?" whispered Flossy, struck with sudden +curiosity. + +"I've written him up," Marion said, briefly. "I've had to do it several +times. Oh, I'm a veteran at Sunday-school meetings. But he is the +hardest man to write about that there is among them, because you can +never tell what he may happen to say or do next. It will never do to +jump at his conclusions, and slip in a neat little sentence of your own +as coming from him if you don't happen to have taken very profuse notes, +because as sure as you do he will spring up in some tiresome meeting in +less than a week and unsay every single word that you said. He said--" + +At this point a poor martyr, who had the misery to sit directly in front +of these two whisperers, turned and gave them such a look as only a man +can under like circumstances, and awed them into five minutes of quiet. +It lasted until Dr. Eggleston was announced. Then Marion's tongue broke +loose again: + +"He is the 'Hoosier Schoolmaster.' Don't you know we read his book aloud +at the seminary? Looks as though he might have written it, doesn't he? +Let's listen to what he says. He always says a word or two that a body +can report; very few of them do." + +This is a fair specimen of the way in which Miss Wilbur buzzed through +that meeting--that _wonderful_ meeting, that Flossy Shipley will +remember all her life. She made no answer to Marion's comments after a +little, and the pink flush glowed deeper on her face. She was +wonderfully interested--indeed she was more than interested. There was a +strange feeling of pain at her heart, a sort of sick, longing feeling +that she had never felt before, to understand what all these people +meant, to feel as they seemed to feel. + +The Christian world is more to blame for the unspoken infidelity that +thrives in its circles than is generally supposed. Flossy Shipley had +been in many religious meetings, but she had really never in her life +before been among a large gathering of cultured people, who were eager +and excited and happy, and the cause for that eagerness and that +happiness been found in the religion of Jesus Christ. I do not say that +there had never been such meetings before, nor that there have not been +many of them. I simply say that it was a new revelation to Flossy, and +she had been to the church prayer-meeting at home several times. Whether +that church may have been peculiar or not I do not say, but Flossy had +certainly failed to get the idea that prayer-meetings were blessed +places; that the people who went there from week to week found their joy +and their rest and their comfort there. She began to have an unutterable +sense of want and longing creeping over her; she stole shy glances at +Marion to see if she felt this, but Marion was absorbed just then in +catching the speaker's last sentence and writing it down. Her face +expressed nothing but business earnestness. Speech-making concluded, +there came the "covenant service." + +"I wonder what that is supposed to be?" whispered Marion. "It sounds +like something dreadfully solemn. I hope they are not going to have any +scenes. Revivals are not fashionable except in the winter." + +"Marion, _don't_!" Flossy said, in an earnest undertone. The gay, and +what for the first time struck her as the sacrilegious words, chilled +her. And for almost the first time in her life she uttered an +unhesitating remonstrance. Something in the tone surprised Marion, and +she looked curiously down at her little companion, but said not another +word. + +The covenant service was the simplest of all services; in fact, only the +singing of a familiar hymn and the offering of a prayer. But the hymn +was read first, in such solemn, tender, pleading tones as it seemed to +Flossy she had never heard before; and the singing rolled around that +great tent like the voices of the ten thousand who sing before the +throne--at least to Flossy's heart it seemed like that. The prayer that +followed was the simplest of all prayers as to words, and the briefest +public prayer she ever remembered to have heard, and it made her feel as +nothing in life had ever done before. She did not understand the cause +for her emotion; she was not acquainted with the Spirit of God; she did +not know that he was speaking to her softened heart, and calling her +gently to himself, so she felt ashamed of the emotion that she could not +help. She wiped the tears away secretly, and was glad that the night was +dark and the need for haste great, for the steamer's warning whistle +could already be beard. Marion talked on as they went down the hill, not +alone now but accompanied by hundreds, talked precisely as she had +before the singing of those words and the prayer. "How could she?" +Flossy wondered. "How could anything look the same to her?" The Spirit +had found no softened heart in which to leave a message, and so had +passed by. This, if Flossy had known it, was the reason that Marion was +gay and indifferent. If either of them had fully realized the reason for +the different effect of the meeting upon them, how startled they would +have been! It is not strange after all that a service is not the same to +one soul that it is to another, when we remember that God speaks to one +and passes another. + +The night was still heavy with clouds, not a star to lighten the gloom; +a fine mist was falling. It was Marion who shivered this time, and said: + +"It is a horrible night, that is a fact; but I am not sorry we went. +That meeting will write up splendidly, though it was too long; I will +say that in print about it. You must find some fault, you know, when +you are writing for the public; it is the fashion." + +"Was it long?" said Flossy, in an absent tone. She had not thought of it +in that way. Then she went to the side of the boat again and sat down in +a tumult. What was the matter with her? Where had her complacent, pretty +little content gone? Would she _always_ feel so sad and anxious and +unhappy, have such a longing as she did now? If she had been wiser she +could have told herself that the trouble of heart was caused by an +unhealthy excitement upon this question, and that this was the great +fault with religious meetings; but she was not wise, she did not think +of such a reason. If it had been suggested to her it is doubtful if, in +her ignorance, she would not have said: "Why, she had been more excited +at an evening party a hundred times than she had thought of being then!" +She actually did not know that eagerness and zeal are proper enough at +parties, but utterly out of place in religion. Just in front of her sat +a young man who hummed in undertone the closing words of the covenant +song. It brought the tears again to Flossy's eyes. He turned suddenly +toward her. + +"It was a pleasant service," he said. "Don't you think so?" + +It was rather startling to be addressed by a strange young gentleman, or +would have been it his voice had not been so quiet and dignified, as if +it were the most natural thing in the world to compare notes with one +who had just come out from the great meeting. + +"I don't know whether it was or not," she said, hurriedly. She could not +seem to decide whether she enjoyed it or hated it. + +"It was blessed to me," the young man said, in quiet voice; and added in +undertone, as if speaking to himself only: "God was there." + +"Do you feel that?" said Flossy, suddenly. "Then I wonder that you were +not afraid." + +He turned toward her a pleasant face and said, earnestly: + +"You would not be afraid of your father, would you? Well, God is my +Father, my reconciled Father;" And then, after a moment, he added: "It I +were not at peace with him, and had reason to think that he was angry +with me, then it would be different. Then I suppose I should be afraid; +at least I think it would be reasonable to be." + +Flossy spoke out of the fullness of a troubled heart: + +"I don't understand it at all. I never wanted to, either, until just +to-night; but now I want to feel as those people did when they sang that +hymn." + +Marion came quickly up from the other side. + +"Flossy," she said, with sudden sharpness, "come over here and watch the +track of the boat through the water." And as Flossy mechanically obeyed, +she added: "What a foolish, heedless little mouse you are! I wonder that +your mother let you go from her sight. Don't you know that you mustn't +get up conversations with strange young men in that fashion?" + +Flossy had not thought of it at all: but now she said a little drearily, +as if the subject did not interest her: + +"But I have often held conversations with strange young men at the +dancing-hall, you know, and danced with them, too, when _everything_ I +knew about them was their names, and generally I forgot that." + +Marion gave a light laugh. + +"That is different," she said, letting her lip curl in the darkness +over the folly of her own words. "What its proper at a dance in very +improper coming home from prayer-meeting, don't you see?" + +"What do you think!" she said the minute they were in their rooms. +"There was I, leaning meditatively over the boat, thinking solemnly on +the truths I had heard, and that absurd little water-proof morsel was +having a flirtation with a nice young man. Here is one of the fruits of +the system! What on earth was he saying to you, Flossy?" + +"Don't!" said Flossy, for the second time that evening. "He wasn't +saying any harm." + +The whole thing jarred on her with an inexpressible and to her +bewildering pain. She had always been ready for fun before. + +"That girl is homesick or something," Marion said, as she and Eurie went +to their rooms, leaving Flossy with Ruth, who prefered her as a +room-mate to either of the others because she _could_ keep from talking. + +"I haven't the least idea what is the matter, but she has been as unlike +herself as possible. I hope she isn't going to get sick and spoil our +fun. How silly we were to bring her, anyway. The baby hasn't life +enough to see the frolic of the thing, and the intellectual is miles +beyond her. I suspect she was dreadfully bored this evening. But, Eurie, +there is going to be some splendid speaking done here. I shouldn't +wonder if we attended a good many of the meetings." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +UNREST. + + +Flossy went to the window and stood looking out into the starless night. +The pain in her heart deepened with every moment. + +"If there was only some one to ask, some one to say a word to me," she +sighed to herself. "It seems as though I could never go to sleep with +this feeling clinging to me. I wonder what can be the matter? Perhaps I +am sick and am going to die. It feels almost like that, and I am not fit +to die--I am afraid. I wonder if Ruth Erskine is afraid to die? I have +almost a mind to ask her. I wonder if she ever prays? People who are not +afraid of death are always those who pray. Perhaps she will to-night. I +feel as though I wanted to pray: I think if I only knew how it would be +just the thing to do. If she kneels down I mean to go and kneel beside +her." + +These were some of the thoughts that whirled through her brain as she +stood with her nose pressed to the glass. But Ruth did not pray. She +went around with the composed air of one who was at peace with all the +world; and when her elaborate preparations for rest were concluded she +laid her head on her pillow without one thought of prayer. + +"Why in the name of sense don't you come to bed?" she presently asked, +surveying with curious glance the quiet little creature whose face was +hidden from her, and who was acting entirely out of accordance with +anything she had ever seen in her before. "What can you possibly find to +keep you gazing out of that window? It can't be called star-gazing, for +to my certain knowledge there isn't a single star visible; in fact, I +should say nothing could be visible but the darkness." + +For a minute Flossy made no answer. She did not move nor turn her head; +but presently she said, in a low and gentle voice: + +"Ruth, should you be afraid to die?" + +"To die!" said Ruth; and I have no means of telling you what an +astonished face and voice she had. "Flossy Shipley, what do you mean?" + +"Why, I mean _that_," said Flossy, in the same quiet tone. "Of course we +have got to die, and everybody knows it; and what I say is, should you +be afraid if it were to-night, you know?" + +"Humph!" said Ruth, turning her pillow and waiting to beat it into shape +before she spoke further. "I haven't the least idea of dying to-night." + +"But how can you be _sure_ of that? You might _have_ to die to-night, +you know people do sometimes." + +"I know one thing, am perfectly certain of it, and that is, that you +will take cold standing there and making yourself dismal. You are +shivering like a leaf, I can see you from here. If that is all the good +to be gotten from the 'religious impressions' that they harp about being +so great here, the less religion they have the better, and there is +quite little enough you may be sure." Saying which, Ruth turned her +pillow again and her head, so that she could not see the small creature +at the window. She was unaccountably rasped, not to say startled, by +her question, and she did not like to be startled; she liked to have her +current of life run smoothly. + +As for Flossy, she gave a great sigh of disappointment and unrest, and +turned slowly from the window. She had vaguely hoped for help of some +sort from Ruth, and as she lay down on her prayerless pillow she said to +herself, "If she had only knelt down I should certainly have done so, +too; and perhaps I might have been helped out of this dreadful feeling." +Yet so ignorant was she of the way that it never once occurred to her to +kneel alone and pray. + +No more words were spoken by those two girls that night, but each lay +awake for a long time and tossed about restlessly. Ruth had been most +effectually disturbed, and try as best she could it was impossible to +banish the memory of those quiet words: "You might _have_ to die +to-night; people do, you know." To actually _have_ to do something that +she had not planned to do and was not quite ready for, would be a new +experience to this girl. Yet when would she be ready to plan for dying? +At last she grew thoroughly vexed, and vented her disgust on the +"religionists" who got up camp-meeting excitements for the purpose of +turning weak brains like Flossy Shipley's. After that she went to sleep. + +"Flossy Shipley, for pity's sake _don't_ rig your self up in that awful +cashmere! It rains yet and you will just be going around with five +wrinkles on your forehead all day, besides spoiling your dress." + +It was morning, and the door of communication between the two +sleeping-rooms being thrown open the four girls were in full tide of +talk and preparation for Fairpoint. Flossy, though kept her strangely +quiet face and manner; the night had not brought her peace; she had +tossed restlessly for hours, and when at last she slept it was only to +be haunted with troubled dreams. With the first breath of morning she +opened her eyes and felt that the weight of yesterday was still pressing +on her heart. + +"What _shall_ I wear?" she asked, in an absent, bewildered way of Eurie, +who had objected to the cashmere. + +"I'm sure I don't know. Didn't you bring anything suited to the rain? +Let me go fishing in that ponderous trunk and see if I can't find +something." + +The "fishing" produced nothing more suitable than a heavy black silk, +elaborately trimmed, and looking, as Eurie phrased it, "elegantly out of +place." + +Through much confusion and frolicking the four were at last entering the +grounds at Chautauqua. By reason of their superior knowledge Marion and +Flossy led the way, while the others followed eagerly, looking and +exclaiming. + +"I'll tell you what it is, girls," Eurie said, eagerly. "Let's come over +here and board. We'll have a tent or a cottage. A tent will be jollier, +and it will be twice as much fun as to stay at the hotel." + +There being no dissenting voice to this proposal, they started in much +glee to look up a home; only Flossy demurred timidly. + +"Can't we go to the meeting, girls, and look for the tent afterward? The +meeting has commenced; I hear them singing." + +"It's nothing in the world but a Bible service," Eurie said. "That man +at the gate handed me a programme. Who wants to go to a Bible service? +We have Bibles enough at home. We want to be on hand at eleven o'clock, +because Edward Eggleston is to speak on 'The Paradise of Childhood.' My +childhood was anything but paradise, but I am anxious to know what he +will make of it." + +Flossy succumbed, of course, as every one expected she would; and the +party went in search of tents and accommodations. It was no easy matter +to suit them, as the patient and courteous President found. + +"I don't like the location of any one of them," Ruth Erskine said. Of +course she was the hardest to suit. "Why can't we have one of those in +that row on the hill?" + +"Those are the guest tents, ma'am." + +"The guest tents?" Eurie exclaimed, in surprise. "I wonder if they +entertain guests here! Who are they?" + +"Why, those who have been invited to take part in the exercises, of +course. You did not suppose that they paid their own expenses and did +the work besides, did you?" + +This explanation was given by Marion, who, by virtue of her experience +as reporter was better versed in the ways of these great gatherings +than the others. + +"What an idea!" Eurie said. "Fancy being a guest and speaking at this +great meeting. Being a person of distinction, you know; so that people +would be pointing you out, and telling their neighbors who you were. + +"There goes Miss Mitchell. She is the leading speaker on Sunday-school +books. How does that sound? Only, on the whole, I should choose some +other department than Sunday-school books; they are all so horridly +good--the people in them, I mean--that one can't get through with more +than two in a season. I tried to read one last week for Sunday, but I +abandoned it in despair." + +This was an aside, while Ruth was questioning the President. She was +looking dismayed. + +"Can't we have one of the tents on that side near the stand?" + +"Those were taken months ago. This is a large gathering, you know." + +"I should think it was! Then, it seems, we must go back to the hotel. I +thought you would be glad to let us have accommodations at any price." + +The gentlemanly President here carefully repressed an amused smile. +Here were people who had evidently misunderstood Chautauqua. + +"Oh, yes," he said, "we can give you accommodations, only not the very +best, I am sorry to say. Our best tents were secured many months ago. +Still, we will do the best we can for you, and I think we can make you +entirely comfortable." + +"People have different ideas as to the meaning of that word," Miss Eurie +said, loftily. + +Then she moved to another tent, over which she exclaimed in dismay: + +"Why, the bed isn't made up! Pray, are we to sleep on the slats?" + +"Oh, no. But you have to hire all those things, you know. Have you seen +our bulletin? There are parties on the ground prepared to fit up +everything that you need, and to do it very reasonably. Of course we can +not know what degree of expense those requiring tents care to incur, so +we leave that matter for them to decide for themselves. You can have as +many or as few comforts as you choose, and pay accordingly." + +"And are all four of us expected to occupy this one room?" There was an +expression of decided disgust on Miss Erskine's face. + +"Why, you see," explained the amused President, "this tent is designed +for four; two good-sized bedsteads set up in it; and the necessity seems +to be upon us to crowd as much as we can conveniently. There will be no +danger of impure air, you know, for you have all out-doors to breathe." + +"And you really don't have toilet stands or toilet accommodations! What +a way to live!" + +Another voice chimed in now, which was the very embodiment of refined +horror. + +"And you don't have pianos nor sofas, and the room isn't lighted with +gas! I'm sure I don't see how we can live! It is not what we have been +accustomed to." + +This was Marion, with the most dancing eyes in the world, and the +President completed the scene by laughing outright. Suddenly Ruth +discovered that she was acting the part of a simpleton, and with flushed +face she turned from them, and walked to a vacant seat, in the opposite +direction from where they were standing. + +"We will take this one," she said, haughtily, without vouchsafing it a +look. "I presume it is as good as any of them, and, since we are fairly +into this absurd scrape we must make the best of it." + +"Or the worst of it," Marion said, still laughing. "You are bent on +doing that, I think, Ruthie." + +By a violent effort and rare good sense Ruth controlled herself +sufficiently to laugh, and the embarrassment vanished. There were +splendid points about this girl's character, not the least among them +being the ability to laugh at a joke that had been turned toward +herself. At least the effect was splendid. The reasons, therefore, might +have been better. It was because her sharp brain saw the better effect +that her ability to do this thing immediately produced on the people +around her. But I shall have to confess that a poise of character strong +enough to gracefully avert unpleasant effects arising from causes of her +own making ought to have been strong enough to have suppressed the +causes. + +The question of an abiding-place being thus summarily disposed of, the +party set themselves to work with great energy to get settled, Marion +and Eurie taking the lead. Both were used to both planning and working, +and Marion at least had so much of it to do as to have lost all desire +to lead unnecessarily, and therefore everything grew harmonious. + +There was a good deal of genuine disgust in Ruth's part of it, though, +her eyes having been opened, she bravely tried to hide the feeling from +the rest. But you will remember that she had lived and breathed in an +atmosphere of elegant refinement all her life, accepting the luxuries of +life as common necessities until they had really become such to her, and +the idea of doing without many things that people during camp life +necessarily find themselves _obliged_ to do without was not only strange +to her but exceedingly disagreeable. The two leaders being less used to +the extremes of luxury, and more indifferent to them by nature, could +not understand and had little sympathy with her feeling. + +"We shall have to go back after all to the hotel," Eurie said, as she +dived both hands into the straw tick and tried to level the bed. "We +have too fine a lady among us; she cannot sleep on a bedstead that +doesn't rest its aristocratic legs on a velvet carpet. She doesn't see +the fun at all. I thought Flossy would be the silly one, but Flossy is +in a fit of the dumps. I never saw her so indifferent to her dress +before. See her now, bringing that three-legged stand, without regard to +rain! There is one comfort in this perpetual rain, we shall have less +dust. After all, though, I don't know as that is any improvement, so +long as it goes and makes itself up into mud. Look at the mud on my +dress! That tent we were looking at first would have been ever so much +the best, but after Ruth's silliness I really hadn't the face to suggest +a change--I thought we had given trouble enough. She makes a mistake; +she thinks this is a great hotel, where people are bound to get all the +money they can and give as little return, instead of its being a place +where people are striving to be as accommodating as they can, and give +everybody as good a time as possible." + +In the midst of all this talk and work they left and ran up the hill to +the Tabernacle, where the crowds were gathering to hear Dr. Eggleston. +It was a novel sight to these four girls; the great army of eager, +strong, expectant faces; the ladies, almost without an exception, +dressed to match the rain and the woods, looking neither tired nor +annoyed about anything--looking only in earnest. To Ruth, especially, it +came like a revelation. She looked around her with surprised eyes. There +were intellectual faces on every hand. There was the hum of conversation +all about her, for the meeting was not yet opened, and the tone of their +words was different from any with which her life had been familiar; they +seemed lifted up, enthused; they seemed to have found something worthy +of enthusiasm. As a rule Ruth had not enjoyed enthusiastic people; they +had seemed silly to her; and you will admit that there is a silly side +to the consuming of a great deal of that trait on the dress for an +evening party, or the arrangement of programmes for a fancy concert. +Just now she had a glimmering fancy that there might be something worthy +of arresting and holding one's eager attention. + +"They look alive," she said, turning from right to left among the rows +and rows of faces. "They look as though they had a good deal to do, and +they thought it was worth doing." + +Then, curiously enough, there came suddenly to her mind that question +which she had banished the night before, and she wondered if these +people had all really answered it to their satisfaction. + +Flossy took a seat immediately in front of the speaker. She was hungry +for something, and she did not know what to call it--something that +would set her fevered heart at rest. As for Marion and Eurie, they hoped +with all their hearts that the "Hoosier Schoolmaster" would give them a +rich intellectual treat, at least Marion was after the intellectual. +Eurie would be contented if she got the fun, and a man like Dr. +Eggleston has enough of both those elements to make sure of satisfying +their hopes. But would he bring something to help Flossy? + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +FEASTS. + + +"He doesn't look in the least as I thought he did." It was Eurie who +whispered this, and she nudged Marion's arm by way of emphasis as she +did it. + +Marion laughed. + +"How did you think he looked?" + +"Oh, I don't know--rough, rather." + +Whereupon Marion laughed again. + +"That is the way some people discriminate," she whispered back. "You +think because he wrote about rough people he must be rough; and when one +writes about people of culture and elegance you think straightway that +he is the personification of those ideas. You forget, you see, that the +world is full to the brim with hypocrisy; and it is easier to be perfect +on paper than it is anywhere else in this world." + +"Or to be a sinner either, according to that view of it." + +"It is easy enough to be a sinner anywhere. Hush, I want to listen." + +For which want the people all about her must have been very thankful. +Our young ladies gave Dr. Eggleston their attention at the moment when +he was drawling out in his most nasal and ludicrous tones the hymn that +used to be a favorite in Sunday-schools ninety years ago: + + "Broad is the road that leads to death, + And thousands walk together there, + But wisdom shows a narrow path, + With here and there a traveler." + +The manner in which part of these lines were repeated was irresistibly +funny. To Eurie it was explosively so; she laughed until the seat shook +with mirth. To be sure, she knew nothing about modern Sunday-schools; +for aught that she was certain of, they might have sung that very hymn +in the First Church Sunday-school the Sabbath before; and it made not +the least atom of difference whether they did or not; the way in which +Dr. Eggleston was putting it was funny, and Eurie never spoiled fun for +the sake of sentiment. Presently she looked up at Marion for sympathy. +That young lady's eyes were in a blaze of indignation. What in the world +was the matter with her? Surely she, with her hearty and unquestioning +belief in _nothing_, could not have been disturbed by any jar! Let me +tell you a word about Marion. Away back in her childhood there was a +memory of a little dingy, old-fashioned kitchen, one of the oldest and +dreariest of its kind, where the chimney smoked and the winter wind +crawled in through endless cracks and crannies; where it was not always +possible to get enough to eat during the hardest times; but there was a +large, old-fashioned arm-chair, covered with frayed and faded calico, +and in this chair sat often of a winter evening a clean-faced old man, +with thin and many-patched clothes, with a worn and sickly face, with a +few gray hairs straggling sadly about on his smooth crown: and that old +man used often and often to drone out in a cracked voice and in a tune +pitched too low by half an octave the very words which had just been +repeated in Marion's hearing. What of all that? Why, that little gloomy +kitchen was Marion's memory of home; that old, tired man was her father, +and he used to sing those words while his hand wandered tenderly through +the curls of her brown head, and patted softly the white forehead over +which they fell; and all of love that there was in life, all that the +word "tenderness" meant, all that was dear, or sweet or to be +reverenced, was embodied in that one memory to Marion. Now you +understand the flashing eyes. She did not believe it at all; she +believed, or thought she did, that the "broad" and "narrow" roads were +all nonsense; that go where you would, or do what you would, all the +roads led to _death_; and that was the end. But the father who had +quavered through those lines so many times had staked his hopes forever +on that belief, and the assurance of it had clothed his face in a grand +smile as he lay dying--a smile that she liked to think of, that she did +not like to hear ridiculed, and to her excited imagination Dr. Eggleston +seemed to be ridiculing the faith on which the hymn was built. "They +are more thorough hypocrites than I supposed," she said, in scorn, and +hardly in undertone, in answer to Eurie's inquiring look. "I don't +believe the stuff myself, but I always supposed the ministers did. I +gave some of them at least credit for sincerity, but it seems it is +nothing but a fable to be laughed to scorn." + +"Why, Marion!" Eurie said, and her look expressed surprise and dismay. +"He is not making fun of religion, you know; he is simply referring to +the inappropriateness of such hymns for children." + +"What is so glaringly inappropriate about it if they really believe the +Bible? I'm sure it says there that there are two roads, one broad and +the other narrow; and that many people are on one and but few on the +other. Why shouldn't it be put into a hymn if it is desirable to impress +it?" + +"I'm sure I don't know," Eurie said, unaccustomed to being put through a +course of logic. "Only, you know, I suppose he simply means that it is +beyond their comprehensions." + +"They must have remarkably limited comprehensions then if they are +incapable of understanding so simple a figure of speech, as that there +are two ways to go, and one is harder and safer than the other. I +understood it when it was sung to me--and I was a very little child--and +believed it, too, until I saw the lives of people contradict it; but if +I believed, it still I would not make public sport of it." + +At this point Ruth leaned forward from the seat behind and whispered: + +"Girls, do keep still; you are drawing the attention of all the people +around you and disturbing everybody." + +After that they kept still; but the good doctor had effectually sealed +one heart to whatever that was tender and earnest he might have to say. +She sat erect, with scornful eyes and glowing cheeks, and when the first +flush of excitement passed off was simply harder and gayer than before. +Who imagined such a result as that? Nobody, of course. But how perfectly +foolish and illogical! Couldn't she see that Dr. Eggleston only meant to +refer to the fact that literature, both of prose and poetry, had been +improved by being brought to the level of childish minds, and to reprove +that way of teaching religious truth, that leaves a somber, dismal +impression on youthful hearts? Apparently she could not, since she did +not. As for being absurd and illogical, I _did_ not say that she wasn't. +I am simply giving you facts as they occurred. I think myself that she +was dishonoring the memory of her father ten thousand times more than +any chance and unmeant word of the speakers could possibly have done. +The only trouble was, that she was such an idiot she did not see it; and +she prided herself on her powers of reasoning, too! But the world is +full of idiots. She sat like a stone during the rest of the brilliant +lecture. Many things she heard because she could not help hearing; many +she admired, because it was in her to admire a brilliant and charming +thing, and she could not help that, either; but she could shut her +_heart_ to all tenderness of feeling and all softening influences, and +that she did with much satisfaction, deliberately steeling herself +against the words of a man because he had quoted a chance line that her +father used to sing, while she lived every day of her life in defiance +of the principles by which her father shaped his life and his death! +Verily, the ways of girls are beyond understanding. + +Eurie enjoyed it all. When Dr. Eggleston told of the men that, as soon +as their children grew a little too restless, had business down town, +she clapped her hands softly and whispered: + +"That is for all the world like father. Neddie and Puss were never in a +whining fit in their lives that father didn't at once think of a patient +he had neglected to visit that day, and rush off." + +She laughed over the thought that women were shut in with little steam +engines, and said: + +"That's a capital name for them; we have three at home that are always +just at the very point of explosion. I mean to write to mother and tell +her I have found a new name for them." + +When he suggested the blunt-end scissors, and the colored crayons with +which they could make wonderful yellow dogs, with green tails and blue +eyes, her delight became so great that she looked around to Ruth to help +her enjoy it, and said: + +"You see if I don't invest in a ton of colored crayons the very first +thing I do when I get home; it is just capital! So strange I never +thought of it before." + +"You did not think of it now," Ruth said, in her quiet cooling way. +"Give the speaker credit for his own ideas, please. Half the world have +to do the thinking for the other half always." + +"That is the reason so much is left undone, then," retorted Eurie, with +unfailing good humor, and turned back to the speaker in time to hear his +description of the superintendent that was so long in finding the place +to sing that the boys before him went around the world while he was +giving the number. + +"Slow people," said she, going down the hill afterward. "I never could +endure them, and I shall have less patience with them in future than +ever. Wasn't he splendid? Ruth, you liked the part about Dickens, of +course." + +"A valuable help the lecture will be to your after-life if all you have +got is an added feeling of impatience toward slow people. Unfortunately +for you they are in the world, and will be very likely to stay in it, +and a very good sort of people they are, too." + +It was Marion who said this, and her tone was dry and unsympathetic. + +Eurie turned to her curiously. + +"You didn't like him," she said, "did you? I am so surprised; I thought +you would think him splendid. On your favorite hobby, too. I said to +myself this will be just in Marion's line. She has so much to say about +teaching children by rote in a dull and uninteresting way. You couldn't +forgive him for reciting that horrid old hymn in such a funny way. +Flossy, do you suppose you can ever hear that hymn read again without +laughing? What was the matter, Marion? Who imagined you had any +sentimental drawings toward Watts' hymns?" + +"I didn't even know it was Watts' hymn," Marion said, indifferently. +"But I hate to hear any one go back on his own belief. If he honestly +believes in the sentiments of that verse, and they certainly are Bible +sentiments, he shouldn't make fun of it. But I'm sure it is of no +consequence to me. He may make fun of the whole Bible if he chooses, +verse by verse, and preach a melting sermon from it the very next +Sabbath; it will be all the same to me. Let us go in search of some +dinner, and not talk any more about him." + +"But that isn't fair. You are unjust, isn't she, Ruth? I say he didn't +make fun of religion, as Marion persists in saying that he did." + +"Of course not," Ruth said. "A minister would hardly be guilty of doing +that. He was simply comparing the advanced methods of the present with +the stupidity of the past." + +And obstinate Marion said then he ought to get a new Bible, for the very +same notions were in it that were when she was a child and learned +verses. And that was all that this discussion amounted to. Nobody had +appealed to Flossy. She had stood looking with an indifferent air around +her, until Marion turned suddenly and said: + +"What did the lecture say to you, Flossy? Eurie seems very anxious to +get out of it something for our 'special needs,' as they say in church. +What was yours?" + +Flossy hesitated like a timid child, flushed and then paled, and finally +said, simply: + +"I have been thinking ever since he spoke it of that one sentence, +'Rock-firm, God-trust, has died out of the world.' I was wondering if it +were true, and I was wishing that it wasn't." + +All the girls looked at each other in astonished silence; such a +strange thing for Flossy to say. + +"What of it?" said Marion, presently. "What if it has? or, rather, what +if it were never in the world?" + +"It wasn't that side of it that I thought about. It was what if it +were." + +"And what then?" + +"Why, then, I should like to see the person who had it, just to see how +he would seem." + +Marion laughed somewhat scornfully. + +"Curiosity is at the bottom of your wise thought, is it? Well, my little +mousie, I am amazingly afraid you are destined never to discover how it +will seem. So I wouldn't puzzle my brains about it. It might be too much +for them. Shall we go to dinner?" + +You should have seen our four young ladies taking their first meal at +Chautauqua! It was an experience not to be forgotten. They went to the +"hotel." This was a long board building, improvised for the occasion, +and filled with as many comforts as the _necessities_ of the occasion +could furnish. To Miss Erskine the word "hotel" had only one sort of +association. She had been a traveler in her own country only, and it +had been her fortune to be intimate only with the hotels in large +cities, and only with those where people go whose purses are full to +overflowing. So she had come to associate with the name all that was +elegant or refined or luxurious. + +When the President of the grounds inquired whether they would have +tickets for the hotel or one of the boarding-houses, Miss Erskine had +answered without hesitation: + +"For the hotel, of course. I never have anything to do with +boarding-houses. They are almost certain to be second rate." + +Said President kept his own counsel, thinking, I fancy, that here was a +girl who needed some lessons in the practical things of this life, and +Chautauqua hotels were good places in which to take lessons. + +Imagine now, if you can, the look of this lady's face, as they made +their way with much difficulty down the long room, and looked about them +on either side for seats. + +"A hotel, indeed!" she said, in utter contempt and disgust, as one of +the attendants signaled them and politely drew back the long board seat +that did duty in the place of chairs, and answered for five, or, if you +were good natured and crowded, for six people. He was just as polite in +his attentions as if the unplaned seat had been a carved chair of +graceful shape and pattern. One would suppose that Ruth might have taken +a hint from his example. But the truth is, she belonged to that class of +people who are so accustomed to polite attentions that it is only their +absence which calls forth remark. + +"The idea of naming this horrid, dirty old lumber-room a hotel!" and she +carefully and disdainfully spread her waterproof cloak on the seat +before she took it. + +Eurie's merry laugh rang out until others looked and smiled in sympathy +with her fun, whatever it was. + +"What in the world did you expect, Ruthie? I declare, you are too +comical! I verily believe you expected Brussels carpets, and mirrors in +which you could admire yourself all the while you were eating." + +"I expected a _hotel_," Ruth said, in no wise diminishing her lofty +tone. "That is what is advertised, and people naturally do not look for +so much deception in a religious gathering. This is nothing in the world +but a shanty." + +Chautauqua was doing one thing for this young lady which surprised and +annoyed her. It was helping her to get acquainted with herself. Up to +this time she had looked upon herself as a person of smooth and even +temperament, not by any means easily ruffled or turned from her quiet +poise. She had prided herself on her composed, gracefully dignified way +of receiving things. She never hurried, she never was breathless and +flushed, and apologetic over something that she ought or ought not to +have done, which was a chronic state with Eurie. She never was in a +thorough and undisguised rage, as Marion was quite likely to be. She +was, in her own estimation, a model of propriety. All this until she +came to Chautauqua. Now, great was her surprise to discover in herself a +disposition to be utterly disgusted with things that to Marion were of +so little consequences as to be unnoticed, and that to Eurie were +positive sources of fun. + +Doubtless you understand her better than she did herself. The truth is, +it is a comparatively easy matter to be gracious and courteous and +unruffled when everything about you is moving exactly according to your +mind, and when you can think of nothing earthly to be annoyed about. +There are some natures that are deceiving their own hearts in just such +an atmosphere as this. They are not the lowest type of nature by any +means. The small, petty trials that come to every life are beneath them. +If it rains when they want to walk they can go in a handsome carriage, +and keep their tempers. If their elegant new robes prove to be badly +made they can have them remodeled and made more elegant with a superior +composure. In just so far are they above the class who can endure +nothing in the shape of annoyances or disappointment, however small. The +fact is, however, that there are petty annoyance, _not_ coming in their +line of life, that would be altogether too much for them. But of this +they remain in graceful ignorance until some Chautauqua brings the +sleeping shadows to the surface. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +TABLE TALK. + + +"What is your private explanation of the word 'hotel'?" Marion asked. +She was in an argumentative mood, and it made almost no difference to +her which side of the question she argued. "Webster says it is a place +to entertain strangers, but you seem to attach some special importance +to the term." + +"Is that all that Webster says?" + +The questioner was not Ruth, but a man who sat just opposite to them at +the table, and while he waited for his order to be filled watched with +amused eyes the four gills who were evidently in a new element. He was +not a young man, and his gray hairs would have arrested the pertness of +the reply on Marion's tongue at any other time than this, but you +remember that she was not in a good mood. She answered promptly; "Yes, +sir, he says ever so many things. In fact, he is the most voluminous +author I ever read." + +The gentleman laughed. The pertness seemed to amuse him. + +"Didn't I limit my question?" he said, pleasantly. "He is voluminous, +and what a sensible book he has written. I wish all authors had given us +so much information. But I meant, is that all he says about hotels? +Doesn't he justify your friend just a little bit in her expectations?" + +"I'm sure I don't know," Marion said, amused in turn at the good-natured +interest which the elderly gentleman took in the question. "He has said +so much that I haven't had time to digest it all. If you have, won't you +please enlighten me as to his wisdom on this subject?" "'Especially one +of some style or pretensions,'" quoted the old gentleman, "so Webster +adds. You see I am interested in the subject," and he laughed +pleasantly. "I have been looking it up, which must be my apology for +addressing you young ladies, if so old a man as I must apologize for +being interested in girls. The fact is, I had occasion to talk with a +young man yesterday who took the people to task most roundly for that +very name, on the ground that they had no right to it--that it was a +misnomer. I have been struck with the thought that nothing is trivial, +not even the name that happens to be chosen for a house where one +_waits_ for his dinner," with a strong emphasis on the word "wait," +which Eurie understood and laughed over. + +"Except the remarks that people make about such things," Marion said, +answering the first part of the sentence and bestowing a wicked glance +on Ruth. "They are trivial enough. Did you agree with the young +gentleman?" + +"No. I thought it all over and consulted Webster, as I said, and came to +the conclusion that in view of this being a more pretentious house than +either of the others they had a right to the word. Webster doesn't say +what degree of pretension is necessary, you know." + +The lifting of Ruth's eyebrows at this point was so expressive that all +the party laughed. But the old gentleman grew grave again in a moment, +as he said: + +"But the thought that impressed me most was what a very perfect system +of faith the religion of Jesus Christ is; how completely it commends +itself to the human heart, since the very slightest departure from what +is regarded as strictly true and right, when it is done by a Christian +(society or individual), is noticed and commented upon by lookers-on; +they seem to know of a certainty that it is not according to the Spirit +of Christ." + +This last sentence struck Marion dumb. How fond she was of caviling at +Christian lives! Was she really thus giving all the time an unconscious +tribute to the truth and purity of the Christian faith? + +It was a merry dinner, after all, eaten with steel forks and without +napkins, and with plated spoons, if you were so fortunate as to secure +one. The rush of people was very great, and, with their inconvenient +accommodations, the process of serving was slow. + +Marion, her eyes being opened, went to studying the people about her. +She found that courteous good-humor was the rule, and selfishness and +ungraciousness the exception. Inconveniences were put up with and +merrily laughed over by people who, from their dress and manners, could +be accustomed to only the best. + +Marion took mental notes. + +"They do not act in the least like the mass of people who stop at +railroad eating-houses for their dinner; they are patient and courteous +under difficulties; they did not come here for the purpose of being +entertained; if they did the accommodations wouldn't satisfy." + +There was another little thing that interested Marion. As the tables +kept filling, and those who had been served made room for those who had +not, she found herself watching curiously what proportion of the guests +observed that instant of silent thanks with covered eyes. It was so +brief, so slight a thing, I venture that scarcely a person there noticed +it, much less imagined that there was a pair of keen gray eyes over in +the corner looking and calculating concerning them. + +"What if they all had to wear badges," she said to herself, "badges that +read 'I am a Christian,' I wonder how many of them it would influence +to different words than they are speaking, or to different acts? I +wonder if they _do_ all wear them? I wonder if the distinction is really +marked, so one looking on could detect the difference, though all of +them are strangers? I mean to watch during these two weeks. 'The proper +study of mankind is man.' Very well, Brother Pope, a convenient place +for the study of man is Chautauqua. I'll take it up. Who knows but I may +learn a new branch to teach the graded infants in Ward No. 4." + +Ruth did not recover her equanimity. She was rasped on every side. Those +two-tined steel forks were a positive sting to her. She shuddered as the +steel touched her lips. She had no spoon at all, and she looked on in +utter disgust while Eurie merrily stirred her tea with her fork. When +the waiter came at last, with hearty apologies for keeping them waiting +for their spoons, and the old gentleman said cordially, "All in good +time. We shall not starve even if we get no spoons," she curled her lip +disdainfully, and murmured that she had always been accustomed to the +conveniences of life, and found it somewhat difficult to do without +them. + +When one is in the mood for grumbling there is no easier thing in the +world than to find food for that spirit, and Ruth continued her pastime, +waxing louder and more decided after the genial old man had left their +neighborhood. + +"What is the use in fault-finding?" Eurie said at last, half petulantly. +She was growing very tired of this exhibition. "What did you expect? +They are doing as well as they can, without any doubt. Just imagine what +it must be to get conveniences together for this vast crowd. They did +not expect anything like such a large attendance at first; I heard them +say so and that makes it harder to wait upon them. But of course they +are doing just as well as they can, and we fare as well as any of them." + +"Don't you be so foolish as to believe that," Ruth said, with a curling +lip. "If you could see behind the scenes you would soon discover +something very different. That is why it is so provoking to me. Let +people who cannot afford to pay any better take such as they can get. +But what right had they to suppose that we had not the money to pay for +what we wish? I'm sure _I'm_ not a pauper! You will find that there is +a place where the select few can get what they want, and have it served +in a respectable manner, and I say I don't like it; I have been +accustomed to the decencies of life." + +Just behind them the talk was going on unceasingly, and one voice, at +this point, rising higher than the others, caught the attention of our +girls. Eurie turned suddenly and tried to catch a glimpse of the +speaker. Something in the voice sounded natural. A sudden movement on +the part of the gentleman between them and she caught a glimpse of the +face. She turned back eagerly. + +"Girls, that is Mrs. Schuyler Germain!" + +"Where?" Ruth asked, with sudden interest in her voice. + +"Over at that table, in a water-proof cloak and black straw hat, and +eating boiled potatoes with a steel fork. What about being behind the +scenes now, Ruthie?" + +To fully appreciate this you must understand that even among the +Erskines to get as high as Mrs. Schulyer Germain was to get as high as +the aristocracy of this world reached; not that she lived in any grander +style than the Erskines, or showed that she had more money, but every +one knew that her bank accounts were very heavy, and, besides, she was +the daughter of Gen. Wadsworth Hillyer, of Washington, and the +great-granddaughter, by direct descent, of one of England's noblemen. +She was traveled and cultivated, and all but titled through her youngest +daughter. + +Could American ambition reach higher? And there she sat, at a table made +of pine boards, eating boiled potatoes with a two-tined steel fork! +Could English nobility sink lower! Ruth looked over at her in quiet +surprise for a moment, and then gave her head its haughty toss as she +met Eurie's mischievous eyes, and said: + +"It is not an aristocracy of position here, then. The leaders keep all +their nice things and places for themselves. That is smaller than I +supposed them to be." + +At this particular moment there was an uprising from the table just +behind them. Half a dozen gentlemen leaving their empty plates, and in +full tide of talk, making their way down the hall. The girls looked and +nudged each other as they recognized them. The younger of the two +foremost had a face that can not easily be mistaken, and Eurie, having +seen it once, did not need Marion's low-toned, "That is Mr. Vincent." +And Ruth herself, thrown off her guard, recognized and exclaimed over +Dr. Hodge. + +This climax was too much for Eurie. She threw down her fork to clap her +hands in softly glee. + +"Oh, Ruthie, Ruthie! How has your dismal castle of favoritism faded! +Yonder is the Queen of American society eating pie at this very instant +with the very fork which did duty on her potato, and here goes the King +of the feast, wiping his lips on his own handkerchief instead of a +damask napkin." + +It was at this moment, when Ruth's follies and ill humors were rising to +an almost unbearable height, that her higher nature asserted itself, and +shone forth in a rich, full laugh. Then, in much glee and good feeling, +they followed the crowd down the hill to the auditorium. + +For the benefit of such poor benighted beings as have never seen +Chautauqua, let me explain that the auditorium was the great temple +where the congregation assembled for united service. Such a grand +temple as it was! The pillars thereof were great solemn trees, with +their green leaves arching overhead in festoons of beauty. I don't know +how many seats there were, nor how many could be accommodated at the +auditorium. Eurie set out to walk up and down the long aisles one day +and count the seats, but she found that which so arrested her attention +before she was half-way down the central aisle that she forgot all about +it, and there was never any time afterward for that work. I mean to tell +you about that day when I get to it. The grand stand was down here in +front of all these seats, spacious and convenient, the pillars thereof +festooned with flags from many nations. The large piano occupied a +central point; the speaker's desk at its feet, in the central of the +stand; the reporters' tables and chairs just below. + +"I ought to have one of those chairs," Marion said, as they passed the +convenient little space railed off from the rest of the audience. "Just +as if I were not a real reporter because I write in plain good English, +instead of racing over the paper and making queer little tracks that +only one person in five thousand can read. If I were not the most +modest and retiring of mortals I would go boldly up and claim a seat." + +"What is to be next?" Ruth asked. "Are we supposed to be devoted to all +these meetings? I thought we were only going to one now and then. We +won't be alive in two weeks from now if we pin ourselves down here." + +"In the way that we have been doing," chimed in Eurie. "Just think here +we have been to every single meeting they have had yet, except the one +last night and one this morning." + +"We are going to skip every one that we possibly can," said Marion. "But +the one that is to come just now is decidedly the one that we can't. The +speaker is Dr. Calkins, of Buffalo. I heard him four years ago, and it +is one of the few sermons that I remember to this day. I always said if +I ever had another chance I should certainly hear him again. I like his +subject this afternoon, too. It is appropriate to my condition." + +"What is the subject?" Flossy asked, with a sudden glow of interest. + +"It is what a Christian can learn from a heathen. I'm the heathen, and +I presume Dr Calkins is the Christian. So he is to see what he can learn +from me, I take it, and naturally I am anxious to know. Flossy isn't +interested in that; I can see it from her face. She knows she isn't a +heathen--she is a good proper little Christian. But it is your duty, my +dear, to find what you can learn from me." + +"What can he possibly make of such a subject as that?" Ruth asked, +curiously. "I don't believe I want to hear him. Is he so very talented, +Marion?" + +"I don't know. Haven't the least idea whether he is what you call +talented or not. He says things exactly as though he knew they were so, +and for the time being he makes you feel as though you were a perfect +simpleton for not knowing it, too." + +"And you like to be made to feel like a 'perfect simpleton?' Is that the +reason you resolved to hear him again?" + +"I like to meet a man once in a while who knows how to do it, and for +the matter of that I wouldn't mind being made to feel the truth of the +things that he says, if one could only _stay_ made. It isn't the fault +of the preaching that it all feels like a pretty story and nothing else; +it is the fault of the wretched practicing that the sheep go home and +do. It makes one feel like being an out-and-out goat, and done with it, +instead of being such a perfect idiot of a sheep." + +At this point the talk suddenly ceased, for the leaders began to +assemble, and the service commenced. Ruth and Marion exchanged comic +glances when they discovered the "heathen" of the afternoon to be +Socrates. And Marion presently whispered that she was evidently to play +the character of the old fellow's wife, and Eurie whispered to them +both: + +"Now I want to know if that horrid Zantippe was Socrates' wife! Upon my +word I never knew it before. She wasn't to blame, after all, for being +such a wretch." + +"What do you mean?" Marion whispered back, with scornful eyes. "Socrates +was the grandest old man that ever lived." + +"Pooh! He wasn't. He didn't know any more than little mites of +Sunday-school children do nowdays. I never could understand why his +philosophy was so remarkable, only that he lived in a heathen country +and got ahead of all the rest, but if he were living now he would be a +pigmy." + +"I wish he were," Marion said, with her eyes still flashing. "I would +like to see such a life as he lived." + +This girl was a hero worshiper. Her cheeks could burn and her eyes glow +over the grand stories of old heathen characters, and she could melt to +tears over their trials and wrongs. And yet she passed by in haughty +silence the sublime life that of all others is the only perfect one on +record, and she had no tears to shed over the shameful and pitiful story +of the cross. What a strange girl she was! I wonder if it be possible +that there are any others like her? + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +"AT EVENING TIME IT SHALL BE BRIGHT." + + +Meantime Flossy Shipley came to no place where her heart could rest. She +went through that first day at Chautauqua in a sort of maze, hearing and +yet not hearing, and longing in her very soul for something that she did +not hear--that is, she did not hear it distinctly and fairly stated, so +that she could grasp it and act upon it; and yet it was shadowed all +around her, and hinted at in every word that was uttered, so that it was +impossible to forget that there was a great something in which the most +of these people were eagerly interested, and which was sealed to her. + +She felt it dimly all the while that Dr. Eggleston was speaking; she +felt it sensibly when they sang; she felt it in the chance words that +caught her ear on every side as the meeting closed--bright, fresh words +of greeting, of gladness, of satisfaction, but every one of them +containing a ring that she could hear but not copy. What did it mean? +And, above all, why did she care what it meant, when she had been happy +all her life before without knowing or thinking anything about it? + +As they went down the hill to dinner, she loitered somewhat behind the +others, thinking while they talked. As the throng pressed down around +them there came one whose face she instantly recognized; it belonged to +the young man who had spoken to her on the boat the evening before. The +face recalled the earnest words that he had spoken, and the tone of +restful satisfaction in which they were spoken. His face wore the same +look now--interested, alert, but _at rest_. She coveted rest. It was +clear that he also recognized her, and something in her wistful eyes +recalled the words _she_ had spoken. + +"Have you found the Father's presence yet?" he asked, with a reverent +tone to his voice when he said "the Father," and yet with such evident +trust and love that the tears started to her eyes. + +She answered quickly: + +"No, I haven't. I cannot feel that he is my Father." + +They went down the steps just then, and the crowd rushed in between +them, so that neither knew what had become of the other; only that +chance meeting; he might never see her again. Chautauqua was peculiarly +a place where people met for a moment, then lost each other, perhaps for +all the rest of the time. + +"I may never see her again," Evan Roberts thought, "but I am glad that I +said a word to her. I hope in my soul that she will let Him find her." + +If Flossy could have heard this unspoken sentence she would have +marveled. "Let Him find her!" Why, she was dimly conscious that she was +seeking for Him, but no such thought had presented itself as that God +was really seeking after her. + +She went on, still falling behind, and trying to hide the rush of +feeling that the simple question had called forth. She was very quiet +at the dinner table; she was oblivious to steel forks or the want of +spoons; these things that had hitherto filled her life and looked of +importance to her had strangely dwindled; she was miserably +disappointed; she had looked forward to Chautauqua as a place where she +could have such a "nice" time. That word "nice" was a favorite with her, +and surely no one could be having a more wretched time than this; and it +was not the rain, either, over which she had been miserable all day +yesterday, nor her cashmere dress; she didn't care in the least now +whether it cleared or not; and as to her dress, she had torn her silk +twice, and it was sadly drabbled, but she did not even care for that; +she wanted--what? Alas for the daughter of nominally Christian parents, +living among all the privileges of a cultured Christian society, she +_did not know what the wanted_. + +Dr. Calkins had one eager listener. If he could have picked out her +earnest, wistful eyes among that crowd of upturned faces he would have +let old Socrates go, and given himself heart and soul to the leading of +this groping soul into the light. As it was he hovered around it, +touching the subject here and there, thrilling her with the +possibilities stretching out before her; but he was thinking of and +talking all the while to those who had reached after and secured this +"something" that to her was still a shadow. Now and then the speaker +brought the quick tears to her eyes as he referred to those who had +followed the teaching of his lips with sympathetic faces and answered +the appeal to their hearts with tears; but her tears were different from +those--they were the tears of a sick soul, longing for light and help. + +The entire party ignored the evening meeting. Marion declared that her +brain whirled now, so great had been the mental strain; Ruth was loftily +indifferent to any plan that could be gotten up, and Eurie's wits were +ripe for mischief; Flossy's opinion, of course, was not asked, nobody +deeming it possible that she could have the slightest desire to go to +meeting. In fact, Eurie put their desertion on the ground that Flossy +had been exhausted by the mental effort of the day, and needed to be +cheered and petted. She on her part was silent and wearily indifferent; +she did not know what to do with her heavy heart, and felt that she +might as soon walk down by the lake shore as do anything else; so down +to the shore they went, and gave themselves up to the full enjoyment of +the novel scene--an evening in the woods, great, glowing lights on every +side, great companies of people passing to and fro, boats touching at +the wharves and sending up group after group to the central attraction, +the grand stand; singing, music by thousands of voices ringing down to +them as they loitered under the trees on the rustic seats. + +"I declare, it must be nice in heaven for a little while." + +It was Eurie who made this somewhat startling discovery and announcement +after a lull had fallen upon their mirth. + +"Have you been there to see?" illogically asked Marion, as she threw a +tiny stone into the water and watched the waves quiver and ripple. + +Eurie laughed. + +"Not quite, but this must be a little piece of it--this music, I mean. I +am almost tempted to make an effort after the real thing. How +exquisitely those voices sound! I'm very certain I should enjoy the +music, whether I should be able to get along with the rest of the +programme or not. What on earth do you suppose they do there all the +time, anyway?" + +"Where?" + +"Why, in heaven, of course; that is what I was talking about. I believe +you are half asleep, Flossy Shipley; you mustn't go to sleep out here; +it isn't quite heaven yet, and you will take cold. Honestly, girls, +isn't it a sort of wonderment to you how the people up there can employ +their time? In spite of me I cannot help feeling that it must be rather +stupid; think of never being able to lie down and take a nap!" + +"Or read a novel," added Marion. "Isn't that your favorite employment +when you are awake, Eurie? I'm sure I don't know much about the +occupations of the place; I'm not posted; there is nothing about it laid +down in our geography; and, in fact, the people who seem to be expecting +to spend their lives there are unaccountably mum about it. I don't at +this moment remember hearing any one ever express a downright opinion, +and I have always thought it rather queer. I asked Nellie Wheden about +it one day when she was going on about her expected tour in Europe. She +had bored me to death, making me produce all my geographic and historic +lore for her benefit; and suddenly I thought of an expedient for giving +myself a little peace and a chance to talk about something else. 'Come, +Nellie,' I said, 'one good turn deserves another. I have told you +everything I can think of that can possibly be of interest to you about +Europe; now give me some information about the other place where you are +going. You must have laid up a large stock of information in all these +years.'" + +"What on earth did she say?" Ruth asked, curiously, while Eurie was in +great glee over the story. + +"She was as puzzled as if I had spoken to her in Greek. 'What in the +world can you be talking about?' she said. 'I'm not going anywhere else +that I know of. My head has been full of Europe for the last year, and I +haven't talked nor thought about any other journey.' Well, I enlightened +her as to her expectations, and what do you think she said? You wouldn't +be able to guess, so I'll tell you. She said I was irreverent, and that +no one who respected religion would ask such questions as that, and she +actually went off in a huff over my wickedness. So, naturally, I have +been chary of trying to get information on such 'reverent' subjects ever +since." + +Whereupon all these silly young ladies laughed long and heartily over +this silly talk. Flossy laughed with the rest, partly from the force of +habit and partly because this recital struck her as very foolish. Every +one of them saw its inconsistent side as plainly as though they had been +Christians for years; more plainly, perhaps, for it is very strange what +blinded eyes we can get under certain systems of living the religious +faith. + +Presently the society of these young ladies palled upon themselves, and +they agreed one with another that they had been very silly not to go to +meeting, and that another evening they would at least discover what was +being said before they lost the opportunity for getting seats. + +"Stupid set!" said Eurie "who imagined that the crowd would do such a +silly thing as to rush to that meeting, as if there were nothing else +to do but to go flying off for a seat the moment the bell rings? I +thought there would be crowds out here, and we would make some pleasant +acquaintances, and perhaps get a chance to take a boat ride." + +And so, in some disgust, they voted to bring the first day at Chautauqua +to a sudden close and try tent life. + +Silence and darkness reigned in the tent where our girls had disposed of +themselves. It was two hours since they had come in. It took more than +an hour, and much talking and more laughter, not to mention considerable +grumbling on Ruth's part, before everything was arranged to their +satisfaction--or, as Ruth expressed it, "to their endurance" for the +night. + +Three of the girls were sleeping quietly, their fun and their +discontents alike forgotten, but Flossy tossed wearily on her bed, +turned her pillow and turned it back again, and sought in vain for a +quiet spot. With the silence and the darkness her unrest had come upon +her again with tenfold force. She felt no nearer a solution of her +trouble than she had in the morning; in fact, the pain had deepened all +day, and the only definite feeling she had about it now was that she +could not live so; that something must be done; that she must get back +to her home and her old life, where she might hope to forged it all and +be at peace again. + +Into the quiet of the night came a firm, manly step, and the movement of +chairs right by her side, so at least it seemed to her. All unused to +tent life as she was a good deal startled she raised herself on one +elbow and looked about her in a frightened way before she realized that +the sounds came from the tent next to theirs. Before her thoughts were +fairly composed they were startled anew; this time with the voice of +prayer. + +Very distinct the words were on this still night air; every sentence as +clear as though it had really been spoken in the same tent. Now, there +was something peculiar in the voice; clearly cut and rounded the words +were, like that of a man very decided, very positive in his views, and +very earnest in his life. There was also a modulation to the syllables +that Flossy could not describe, but that she felt And she knew that she +had heard that voice twice before, once on the boat the evening before +and once as they jostled together in the crowd on their way to dinner. + +She felt sorry to be unwittingly a listener to a prayer that the maker +evidently thought was being heard only by his Savior. But she could not +shut out the low and yet wonderfully distinct sentences, and presently +she ceased to wish to, for it became certain that he was praying for +her. He made it very plain. He called her "that young girl who said +to-day that she could not think of thee as her Father; who seems to want +to be led by the hand to thee." + +Did you ever hear yourself prayed for by an earnest, reverent, pleading +voice? Then perhaps you know something of Flossy's feelings as she lay +there in the darkness. She had never heard any one pray for her before. +So destitute was she of real friends that she doubted much whether there +were one person living who had ever before earnestly asked God to make +her his child. + +That was what this prayer was asking. She lifted the white sleeve of her +gown, and wiped away tear after tear as the pleading voice went on. +Very still she was. It seemed to her that she must not lose a syllable +of the prayer, for here at last was the help she had been seeking, +blindly, and without knowing that she sought, all this long, heavy day. +Help? Yes, plain, clear, simple help. How small a thing it seemed to do! +"Show her her need of thee, blessed Jesus," thus the prayer ran. And oh! +_hadn't_ he showed her that? It flashed over her troubled brain then and +there: "It is Jesus that I need. It is he who can help me. I believe he +can. I believe he is the only one who can." This was her confession of +faith. "Then lead her to ask the help of thee that she needs. Just to +come to thee as the little child would go to her mother, and say, +'Jesus, take me; make me thy child.'" Only that? Was it such a little, +_little_ thing to do? How wonderful! + +The praying ceased, and the young man who had remembered the stranger to +whom God had given him a chance to speak during the day, all unconscious +that other ear than God's had heard his words of prayer, laid himself +down to quiet sleep. Flossy lay very still. The rain had ceased during +the afternoon, and now some solemn stars were peeping in through the +chinks in the tent and the earth was moon-lighted. She raised herself on +one elbow and looked around on her companions. How soundly asleep they +were! + +Another few minutes of stillness and irresolution. Then a white-robed +figure slipped softly and quietly to the floor and on her knees, and a +low-whispered voice repeated again and again these words: + +"Jesus, take me; make me thy child." + +It wasn't very long afterward that she lay quietly down on her pillow, +and earth went on exactly as if nothing at all had happened--knew +nothing at all about it--even the sleeper by her side was totally +ignorant of the wonderful tableau that had been acted all about her that +evening. But if Eurie Mitchell could have had one little peep into +heaven just then what _would_ her entranced soul have thought of the +music and the enjoyment there? For what _must_ it be like when there is +"joy in the presence of the angels in heaven"? + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +FLEEING. + + +The next morning every one of them ran away from the meeting. The way of +it was this: as they came up from breakfast and stood at the tent-door +discussing the question whether they would go to the early meeting, Mrs. +Duane Smithe passed, glanced up at them carelessly, then looked back +curiously, and at last turned and came back to them. + +"I beg pardon," she said, "but isn't this Miss Erskine? It surely is! I +thought I recognized your face, but couldn't be sure in these strange +surroundings. And you have a party with you? How delightful! We were +just wishing for more ladies. I really don't think it is going to rain +much to-day, and we have a lovely prospect in view. You must certainly +join us." + +Then followed introductions and explanations, Mrs. Duane Smithe was a +Saratoga acquaintance of Ruth Erskine, and was _en route_ for Jamestown +for the day. + +"Where is Jamestown?" queried Eurie, who was a very useful member of +society, in that she never pretended knowledge that she did not possess, +so that you had only to keep still and listen to the answers that were +made to her questions in order to know a good deal. + +"It is at the head of this lovely little lake, or at the foot, I'm sure +I don't know which way to call it, and it is nothing of consequence, of +course, but the ride thither is said to be charming, and we are going to +take a lunch, and picnic in a private way, just for the fun of getting +together, you know, in a more social manner than one can accomplish in +this wilderness of people. Isn't it a queer place, Miss Erskine? I am +dying to know how you happened to come here." + +Ruth arched her eyebrows. + +"I confess it is almost as strange as what brought _you_ here," she +said, smiling. + +"I can answer that in an instant. I have a ridiculous nephew here, who +thought that a week of meetings from morning to night would be just a +trifle short of paradise, so what did he do but smuggle us all off this +way. I shall find it a bore, of course, and the only way to get through +with it is to have little pleasure excursions like the one we propose +to-day." + +Now you know as much about Mrs. Duane Smithe as though I should write +about her for a week. It is strange how little we have to say before we +have explained to people not only our intellectual but our moral status. +Our girls, you will remember, had as little regard for the meetings as +girls could have, and they had by this time begun to feel themselves in +a strange atmosphere, without acquaintances or gentlemanly attentions, +so it took almost no persuasion at all to induce them to join Mrs. +Smithe's party, composed of two young ladies and four young gentlemen. +It would be difficult to explain to you what a disappointment the +decision to spend the day in frolic, instead of going to the meetings, +was to Flossy. All the morning her heart had been in a great flutter of +happiness over the beautiful day that stretched out before her. To meet +those earnest, eager people again, to hear those hymns, to hear the +voice of prayer all about her, to hear the constant allusions that were +so strange and so saddening to her yesterday, and that now she +understood, how blessed it would be! She had gone about the +bewilderments of her toilet in a tent with a serenely happy face, and +almost unawares had hummed the refrain of a tune that had already shown +itself a favorite at Chautauqua. + +"Flossy is like herself this morning," Eurie said, as she heard the +happy little song. "I think she has recovered from her home-sickness." + +Tents are not convenient places in which to make private remarks. Flossy +overheard this one and smiled to herself. Yes, she had gotten over her +home-sickness--she had found home. She gave a little exclamation of +dismay as she heard the plannings for the day, and said: + +"But, Ruth, what about the meetings?" + +"Well," Ruth had said, with her most provokingly nonchalant air, "I +haven't made any inquiry, but I presume they will continue them all day +just the same as if we were here. I don't _think_ they will change the +programme on our account." + +And Eurie had added, mischievously: + +"Flossy is afraid it is not the aristocratic thing to do, not to stay to +all the meetings." + +"Oh, as to that," Mrs. Smithe had said (she was one of those interesting +people who always take remarks seriously), "I assure you it is what the +first people on the ground are doing. Of course none of them would be so +absurd as to think of attending meetings all the time. The brain +wouldn't endure such a strain." + +"Of course not," Marion had answered with gravity, "My brain is already +very tired. I think yours must be exhausted." + +Flossy meditated a daring resolution to stay behind and take her "rest" +in the way she coveted; but the impossibility of explaining what would +appear to the others as merely an ill-natured freak, and occasion no end +of talk, deterred her, and with slow, reluctant steps she followed the +merry group down to the wharf. + +If those people had stopped long enough to think of it, this disposal of +themselves would have had its ludicrous side. Certainly it was a +strange fancy to run away twenty miles with lunches done up in paper in +search of a picnic, when Chautauqua was one great picnic ground, +stretching out before them in beauty and convenience. But the entire +group belonged to that class of people for whom the fancy of the moment, +whatever it may be, has infinite charms. + +There was plenty of room on the Colonel Phillips. Very few people were +traveling in that direction. + +"It is really queer," the Captain was overheard to say, "to take a party +_away_ from the grounds at this hour of the day." + +"What an enthusiastic set of people they are about here," Eurie said to +Mr. Rawson, one of Mrs. Smithe's party, as they paced the deck together. +"The people all talk and act as though there was nowhere to go and +nothing to do but attend those meetings. For my part it is a real relief +to have a change in the programme." + +"Do you find it so?" he asked. "Well, now, I don't agree with you. I +think this proceeding is a real bore. My respected aunt is always +getting up absurd freaks, and this is one of them, and the worst one, in +my opinion, that she has had for some time. I wanted to go to those +meetings to-day--some of them, at least. One isn't obliged to be there +every minute. But it looks badly to run away." + +Eurie eyed him closely. + +"Are you the 'good nephew' that your aunt said thought these meetings +only a step below paradise?" she asked, at last. "I wonder you would +consent to come." + +Mr. Rawson flushed deeply. + +"I am not the 'good nephew' at all," he said, trying to laugh. "The +'good one' wouldn't come. My aunt tried all her powers of persuasion on +him in vain. But the truth is her eloquence, or her persistence, proved +too much for me, though I don't like the looks of it, and I don't feel +the pleasure of it, and I am afraid I shall make anything but an +agreeable addition to the party. Now that is being frank, isn't it, when +I am walking the deck with a young lady?" + +"I don't see why that circumstance should make it a surprising thing +that you are frank. But I am very sorry for you; perhaps you might +prevail on the Captain to put you off now, and let you swim back; you +could get there in time for the sermon. Is there to be a sermon? What +_is_ it you are so anxious to hear?" + +"All of it," he said gloomily. "I beg your pardon for being in so +disagreeable a mood; it is defrauding you out of some of your expected +pleasure to have a dismal companion. But as I have commenced by being +frank I may as well continue. I am dissatisfied with myself. I ought not +to have come on this excursion. The truth is, I meant to make Chautauqua +a help to me. I need the help badly enough. I am in the rush and whirl +of business all the time at home. This is the only two weeks in the year +that I am free, and I wanted to make it a great spiritual help to me. I +know very well that merely hovering around in such an atmosphere as that +at Chautauqua is a help to the Christian, and I came with the full +intention of taking in all that I could get of this sort of inspiration, +and it chafes me that so early in the meeting I have been led away +against my inclinations by a little pressure that I might have resisted, +and done no harm to any one. My cousin had the same sort of influence +brought to bear on him, and it had no more effect on him than it would +on a stone." + +He stopped, and seemed to give Eurie a chance to answer, but she was not +inclined, and he added, as if he had just thought his words an implied +reproach: "I can understand how, to you young ladies of comparative +leisure, with plenty of time to cultivate the spiritual side of your +natures, it should seem an unnecessary and perhaps a wearisome thing to +attend all these meetings; but you can not understand what it is to be +in the whirl of business life, never having time to think, hardly having +time to pray, and to get away from it all and go to heaven, as it were, +for a fortnight, is something to be coveted by us as a great help." + +Once more he waited for Eurie's answer, but it was very different from +what he had seemed to expect. + +"You might just as well talk to me in the Greek language; I should +understand quite as well what you have been saying; I don't think _I +have_ any spiritual side to my nature; at least it has never been +cultivated if I have; and Chautauqua to me is just the place in which +to have a good free easy time; go where I like and stay as long as I +like; and for once in my life not be bound by conventional forms. If +heaven is anything like that I shouldn't object to it; but I'm sure your +and my idea of it would differ. There, I've been frank now, and shocked +you, I know. I see it in every line of your face. Poor fellow! I don't +know what you will do, for there isn't a single one of us who has the +least idea what you mean by that sort of talk, unless you have some +young ladies of a different type in your party, and from their manner I +rather doubt it." + +She had shocked him. He looked not only pained but puzzled. + +"I am very sorry," he stammered. "I mean surprised. Yes, and +disappointed. Of course I am that. I think I had imagined that it was +only Christians who could be attracted to Chautauqua at all; I meant to +come to stay through all the services." + +"Your aunt, for instance?" Eurie said, inquiringly. + +"My aunt is a Christian," he answered, "and a sincere one, too, though I +see for some reason you don't think so. There are degrees in +Christianity, Miss Mitchell, just as there are in amiability, or +culture, or beauty." + +"Mr. Rawson!" called a voice from the other end at this moment, and he +in obedience to the call found Eurie a seat near some of her party and +went away, only stopping to say, in low tones: + +"I am sorry it is all 'Greek' to you; you would enjoy understanding it, +I am sure." + +It so happened that those two people did not exchange another word +together that day, but Eurie had got her thrust when and where she least +expected it. She had taken it for granted that not a single fanatic was +of their party. In the secret of her wise heart she denominated all the +earnest people at Chautauqua fanatics, and all the half-hearted people +hypocrites. Only she, who stood outside and felt nothing, was sincere +and wise. + +Meantime Marion had undertaken a strange task. Mr. Charlie Flint was the +gentleman who had drawn his chair near her, and said, as he drew a long +breath: + +"It is exceedingly pleasant to breathe air once more that isn't heavy +with psalm singing I think they are running that thing a little too +steep over there. Who imagined that they were going to have meeting +every minute in the day and evening, and give nobody a chance to +breathe?" + +"Have they exhausted you already?" Marion asked. "Let me see, this is +the morning of the second day, is it not?" + +"Oh, as to myself, I was exhausted before I commenced it. I am only +speaking a word for the lunatics who think they enjoy it. I am one of +the victims to our cousin's whim. He expects to get me converted here, I +think, or something of that sort." + +"I wouldn't be afraid of it," Marion said, in disgust. "I don't believe +there is the least danger." + +Mr. Charlie chose to consider this as a compliment, and bowed and +smiled, and said: + +"Thanks. Now tell me why, please." + +"You don't look like that class of people who are affected in that way." + +He was wonderfully interested, and begged at once to know why. Marion +had it in her heart to say, "Because they all look as though they had +some degree of brain as well as body," but even she had a little regard +left for feelings; so she contented herself with saying, savagely: + +"Oh, they, as a rule, are the sort of people who think there is +something in life worth doing and planning for, and you look as though +that would be too much trouble." + +Now, Mr. Charlie by no means liked to be considered devoid of energy, so +he said: + +"Oh, you mistake. I think there are several things worth doing. But this +eternal going to meeting, and whining over one's soul, is not to my +taste." + +"You think that it is more worth your while to take ladies out to ride +and walk, and carry their parasols and muffs for them, and things of +that sort. Since we are made for the purpose of staying here and showing +our fine clothes for all eternity, of course it is foolish to have +anything to do with one's soul, that can only last for a few years or +so!" + +She hardly realized herself the intense scorn there was in her voice, +and as for Charlie Flint he muttered to himself: + +"Upon my word, she is one of them; of the bitterest sort, too! What in +creation is she doing here? Why didn't she stay there and preach?" + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +HOW THE "FLITTING" ENDED. + + +As for Ruth Erskine, if she had been asked whether she was enjoying the +day, she would hardly have known what answer to make; she could not even +tell why the excursion was not in every respect all that it had promised +in the morning. She had no realization of how much the atmosphere of the +day before lingered around her, and made her notice the contrast between +the people of yesterday and the people of to-day. Mrs. Smithe, if she +were a Christian, as her nephew insisted, was one of the most +unfortunate specimens of that class for Ruth Erskine to meet; because +she was a woman who entered into pleasure and fashion, and +entertainments of all sorts, with zest and energy and only in matters +of religious interest seemed to lose all life and zeal. + +Now Ruth Erskine, calm as a summer morning herself over all matters +pertaining to the souls of people in general, and her own in particular, +was yet exceedingly fond of seeing other people act in a manner that she +chose to consider consistent with their belief; therefore she despised +Mrs. Smithe for what she was pleased to term her "hypocrisy." At the +same time, while at Saratoga, she had quite enjoyed her society. They +rode together on fine mornings, sipped their "Congress" together before +lunch, and attended hops together in the evenings. Now the reason why +Mrs. Smithe's society had so suddenly palled upon her, and the words +that she was pleased to call "conversation" become such vapid things, +Ruth did not know, and did not for one instant attribute to Chautauqua; +and yet that meeting had already stamped its impression upon her. From +serene, indifferent heights she liked to look down upon and admire +earnestness; therefore Chautauqua, despite all her disgust over the +common surroundings and awkward accommodations, had pleased her fancy +and arrested her attention more than she herself realized. It was her +fate to be thrown almost constantly with Mrs. Smithe during the day, and +before the afternoon closed she was surfeited. She heartily wished +herself back to the grounds, and found herself wondering what they were +singing, and whether the service of song was really very interesting. + +One episode in her day had interested her, and she could not tell +whether it had most amused or annoyed her. One of their party was +conversing with a gentleman as she came up. She had just time to observe +that he was young and fine-looking, when the two turned to her, and she +was introduced to the stranger. + +"You are from Chautauqua?" he said, speaking rapidly and earnestly. +"Grand meeting, isn't it? Going to be better than last year, I think. +Were you there? No? Then you don't know what a treat you are to have. +I'm very sorry to lose to-day. It has been a good day, I know. The +programme was rich; but a matter of business made it necessary to be +away. It is unfortunate for me that I am so near home. If I were two or +three hundred miles away where the business couldn't reach me, I should +get more benefit. Miss Erskine, what is your opinion of the direct +spiritual results of this gathering? I do not mean upon Christians. No +one, of course, can doubt its happy influence upon our hearts and lives. +But I mean, are you hopeful as to the reaching of many of the +unconverted, or do you consider its work chiefly among us?" + +Such a volley of words? They fairly poured forth! And the speaker was so +intensely in earnest, and so assured in his use of that word "we," as if +it were a matter that was entirely beyond question that she was one of +the magic "we." She did not know how to set out to work to enlighten +him. In fact, she gave little thought to that part of the matter, but, +instead, fell to wondering what _was_ her idea--whether she did expect +to see results of any sort from the great gathering, and that being the +case, what she expected? "Spiritual results," she said to herself, and a +smile hovered over her face--what _were_ "spiritual results?" She knew +nothing about them. _Were_ there any such things? Eurie Mitchell, had +such a question occurred to her, would have asked it aloud at once and +enjoyed the sense of shocking her auditor. But Ruth did not like to +shock people; she was too much of a lady for that. + +"What proportion of that class of people are here, do you think?" she +said, at last. "Are not the most of them professing Christians?" + +"Precisely the question that interests me. I should really like to know. +I wonder if there is no way of coming at it? We might call for a rising +vote of all who loved the Lord; could we not? Wouldn't it be a beautiful +sight?--a great army standing up for him! I incline to your opinion that +the most of them are Christians, or at least a large proportion. But I +should very much like to know just how far this idea had touched the +popular heart, so as to call out those who are not on the Lord's side." + +"They would simply have come for the fun of the thing, or the novelty of +it," she said, feeling amused again that almost of necessity she was +speaking of herself and using the pronoun "they." What would this +gentleman think if he should bring about that vote of which he spoke and +happen to see her among the seated ones? + +"'A wolf in sheep's clothing' he would suppose me to be," she said to +herself. "But I am sure I have not told him that I belong to the 'we' at +all. If he chooses to assume things in that way, it is not my fault." + +Apparently he answered both her expressed sentence and her thought: + +"I do not think so," he said, earnestly. "I doubt if any have come +simply for fun or for novelty. There are better places in which to +gratify both tastes. I believe there is more actual interest in this +subject, even among the unconverted, than many seem to think. They are +reasonable beings. They must think, and many of them, no doubt, think to +good purpose. It may not be clear even to themselves for what they have +come; But I believe in some instances, to say the least, it will prove +to have been the call of the Spirit." + +Again Ruth felt herself forced to smile, not at the earnestness--she +liked that, but there was her party, and she rapidly reviewed +them--Marion, with her calm, composed, skeptical views, indifferent +alike to the Christian or unchristian way of doing things; Eurie, who +lived and breathed for the purpose of having what in wild moments she +called "a high time;" Flossy with her dainty wardrobe, and her dainty +ways, and her indifference to everything that demanded thought or care. +Which of them had been "called by the Spirit"? There was herself, and +for the time she gave a little start. What had _she_ come to Chautauqua +for? After all she was the only one who seemed to be absolutely without +a reason for being there. Marion's avowed intention had been to make +some money; Eurie's to have a free and easy time; Flossy had come as she +did everything else, because "they" did. But now, what about Ruth +Erskine? She was not wont to do as others did, unless it happened to +please her. What had been her motive? It was strange to feel that she +really did not know. What if this strange speaking young man were right, +and she had been singled out by the Spirit of God! The thought gave her +a thrill, not of pleasure, but of absolute, nervous fear. What did she +know of that gracious Spirit? What did she know of Christ? To her there +was no beauty in him. She desired simply to be left alone. She was +silent so long that her companion gave her a very searching review from +under his heavy eyebrows, and then his face suddenly lighted as if he +had solved a problem. + +"May I venture to prophesy that you have some friend here whom you would +give much to feel had been drawn here by the very Spirit of God?" He +spoke the words eagerly and with earnestness, but with utmost respect, +and added, "If I am right I will add the name to my list for special +prayer. Do not think me rude, please. I know how pleasant it is to feel +there is a union of desire in prayer. I have enjoyed that help often. We +do not always need to know who those are for whom we pray. God knows +them, and that is the needful thing. Good-evening. I am glad to have met +you. It is pleasant to have additions to our list of fellow-heirs." + +How bright his smile was as he said those words! And how thoroughly +manly and yet how strikingly childlike had been his words and his trust! +Ruth watched him as he walked rapidly away to overtake a friend who had +just passed them. Do you remember a certain gentleman, Harold Wayne by +name, who had walked with them, walked especially with Ruth, down to +the depot on the morning of departure, who had toyed with her fan and +complained that he could not imagine what they were going to bury +themselves out there for? Ruth thought of him now, and the contrast +between his lazily exquisite air and drawling words and the fresh, +earnest life that glowed in this young man's veins brought a positive +quiver of disgust over her handsome face. There was no shadow of a smile +upon it now. Instead, she felt a nameless dread. How strange the talk +had been! To what had she committed herself by her silence and his +blunders? _She_ pray for any one! What a queer thing that would be to +do. _She_ anxious that any one should be led by the spirit of God! The +spirit of God frightened her. For whom would this young man pray? Not +certainly for any friend of hers; yet he would put the name of some +stranger in his prayers. He was thoroughly in earnest, and he was the +sort of a man to do just what he said. God, he had said, would +understand whom he meant. For whom would God count those prayers? For +her? And that thought also frightened her. + +"They are all lunatics, I verily believe, from the leaders to the +followers," she said in irritation, and then she wished herself at home. +During the remainder of the day she was engaged in trying to shake off +the impression that the stranger had left upon her. Go where she would, +say what she might, and she really exerted herself to be brilliant and +entertaining, there followed her around the memory of those great, +earnest eyes when he said, "I will add the name to my list for special +prayer." What name? He knew hers. He would say, doubtless, "Her friend +for whom she was anxious." But the one to whom he prayed would know +there was no such person. What would _He_ do with that earnest prayer? +For she knew it would be earnest. She was not used to theological mazes, +and if ever a girl was heartily glad when a day of pleasuring was over, +and the boat had touched again at the Chautauqua wharf, it was Ruth +Erskine. + +As for Flossy, it so happened that Charlie Flint, after Marion had +startled and disgusted him, sought refuge with her. She was pretty and +dainty, and did not look strong-minded; not in the least as if her +forte was to preach, so he made ready to have a running fire of small +talk with her. + +This had been Flossy's power in conversation for several years. He had +judged her rightly there. But do you remember with whom her morning had +commenced? Do you know that all the day thus far she had seemed to +herself to be shadowed by a glorious presence, who walked steadily +beside her, before her, on either hand, to shield, and help and bless? + +It was very sweet to Flossy, and she was very happy; happier than she +had ever been in her life. She smiled to herself as the others chatted, +she hummed in undertone the refrain of a hymn that she had caught in a +near tent that morning: + + "I am so glad that Jesus loves me." + +_Wasn't_ she glad! Was there anything better to find in all this world +than the assurance of this truth? She felt that the thought was large +enough to fill heaven itself. After that, what hope was there for +Charlie Flint and his small talk? Still, he tried it, and if ever he did +hard work it was during that talk. Flossy was sweet and cheery, but +preoccupied. There was a tantalizingly pleasant smile on her face, as if +her thoughts might be full of beauty, but none of them seemed to appear +in her words. She did not flush over his compliments, nor was she +disturbed at his bantering. + +He got out of all patience. + +"I beg pardon," he said, in his flippantly gallant way, "but I'm +inclined to think you are very selfish; you are having your enjoyment +all to yourself. To judge by the face which you have worn all day your +heart is bubbling over with it, and yet you think about it instead of +giving me a bit." + +Flossy looked up with a shy, sweet smile that was very pleasant to see, +and the first blush he had been able to call forth that day glowed on +her cheeks. Was it true? she questioned within herself. Was she being +selfish in this, her new joy? Ought she to try to tell him about it? +Would he understand? and could she speak about such things, anyway? She +didn't know how. She shrank from it, and yet perhaps it would be so +pleasant to him to know. No, on the whole, she did not think it would be +pleasant. They had not talked of the meetings nor of religious matters +at all; but for all that the subtle magnetism that there is about some +people had told her that Charlie Flint would not sympathize in her new +hopes and joys. + +Well, if that were so, ought she not all the more to tell him, so that +he might know that to one more person Christ had proved himself a +reality, and not the spiritual fancy that he used to seem to her? +Flossy, you see, was taking long strides that first day of her Christian +experience, and was reaching farther than some Christians reach who have +been practicing for years. Something told her that here was a chance of +witnessing for the one who had just saved her. She thought these +thoughts much more quickly than it has taken me to write them, and then +she spoke: + +"Have I been selfish? I do not know but I have. It is all so utterly new +that I hardly know how I am acting; but it is true that my heart has +been as light as a bird's all day. The truth is, I have found a friend +here at Chautauqua who has just satisfied me." + +"Have you indeed!" said Mr. Charlie, giving, in spite of his well-bred +effort to quell it, an amused little laugh. And in his heart he said, +"What a ridiculous little mouse she is! I wonder if they have the +wedding day set already, and if she will announce it to me?" Then aloud: +"How very fortunate you have been! I wish I could find a friend so +easily as that! I wonder if I am acquainted with him? Would you mind +telling me his name?" + +And then Flossy answered just one word in a low voice that was tremulous +with feeling, and at the same time wonderfully clear, and with a touch +of joy in it that would not be suppressed, "Jesus." + +Then it was that the exquisite young fop at her side was utterly +dumbfounded. He could not remember ever before in his life being so +completely taken by surprise and dismay that he had not a word to +answer. But this time he said not a single word. He did not even attempt +an answer, but paced the length of the deck beside her in utter and +confused silence, then abruptly seated her, still in silence, and went +hurriedly away. Flossy, occupied with the rush of feeling that this +first witnessing for the new name called forth, gave little heed to his +manner, and was indifferent to his departure. He was right as to one +thing. Her love was still selfish: it was so new and sweet to her that +it occupied all her heart, and left no room as yet for the outside world +who knew not this friend of hers. They were almost at the dock now, and +the glimmer of the Chautauqua lights was growing into a steady +brightness. As she stood leaning over the boat's side and watching the +play of the silver waves, there brushed past her one who seemed to be +very quietly busy. One hand was full of little leaflets, and he was +dropping one on each chair and stool as he passed. She glanced at the +one nearest her and read the title: "The True Friend," and it brought an +instant flush of brightness to her face to understand those words and +feel that the Friend was hers. Then she glanced at the worker and +recognized his face. He had prayed for her. She could not forget _that_ +face. It was plain also that his eyes fell on her. He knew her, and +something in her face prompted the low-toned sentence as he paused +before her: "You have found the Father, I think." + +And Flossy, with brightening eyes, answered, quickly, "Yes, I have." + +And then the boat touched at the wharf, and the crowd elbowed their way +out. + +There were two opinions expressed about that excursion by two gentlemen +as they made their way up the avenue. One of the gentleman was clerical, +and spectacled, and solemn. + +"There go a boat-load of excursionists," he said to his companion. + +"They come, as likely as not delegates, from some church or +Sabbath-school, and the way they do their work is to go off for a frolic +and be gone all day. I saw them when I left this morning. That is a +specimen of a good deal of the dissipation that is going on here under +the guise of religion. I don't know about it; sometimes I am afraid more +harm than good will be done." + +The other speaker was Mr. Charlie Flint, and as he rushed past these two +he said to _his_ companion, "Confound it all! Talk about getting away +from these meetings! It's no use; it can't be done. A fellow might just +as well stay here and run every time the bell rings. I heard more +preaching to-day on this excursion than I did yesterday; and a good deal +more astonishing preaching, too." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +HEART TOUCHES. + + +Marion gave her hair an energetic twist as she made her toilet the next +morning, and announced her determination. + +"This day is to be devoted conscientiously to the legitimate business +that brought me to this region. Yesterday's report will have to be +copied from the Buffalo papers, or made out of my own brain. But I'm +going to work to-day. I have a special interest in the programme for +this morning. The subject for the lecture just suits me." + +"What is it?" Eurie asked, yawning, and wishing there was another +picnic in progress. Neither heart nor brain were particularly interested +in Chautauqua. + +"Why, it is 'The Press and the Sunday-school.' Of course the press +attracts me, as I intend to belong to the staff when I get through +teaching young ideas." + +"But what about the Sunday-school?" Ruth questioned, with a calm voice. +"You can not be expected to have any special interest in that. You never +go to such an institution, do you?" + +"I was born and brought up in one. But that isn't the point. The subject +to-day is Sunday-school literature, I take it. The subject is strung +together, 'The Press and the Sunday-school,' without any periods between +them, and I'm exceedingly interested in that, for just as soon as I get +time I'm going to write a Sunday-school book." + +This announcement called forth bursts of laughter from all the girls. + +"Why not?" Marion said, answering the laugh. "I hope you don't intimate +that I can't do it. I don't know anything easier to do. You just have +to gather together the most improbable set of girls and boys, and rack +your brains for things that they never _did_ do, or _could_ do, or +_ought_ to do, and paste them all together with a little 'good talk,' +and you have your book, as orthodox as possible. Do any of you know +anything about Dr. Walden? He is the speaker. I presume he is as dry as +a stick, and won't give me a single idea that I can weave into my book. +I'm going to begin it right away. Girls, I'm going to put you all in, +only I can't decide which shall be the good one. Flossy, do you suppose +there is enough imagination in me to make you into a book saint? They +always have a saint, you know." + +There was a pretty flush on Flossy's cheek, but she answered, brightly: + +"You might try, Marion, and I'll engage to practice on the character, if +it is really and truly a good one." + +"I had a glimpse of Dr. Walden," Eurie said, answering the question. "He +was pointed out to me yesterday. He looked dignified enough to write a +theological review. _I'm_ not going to hear him. What's the use? I came +for fun, and I'm going in search of it all this day. I have studied the +programme, and there is just one thing that I'm going to attend, and +that is Frank Beard's 'chalk talk.' I know that will be capital, and he +won't bore one with a sermon poked in every two minutes." + +So the party divided for the day. Marion and Ruth went to the stand, and +Flossy strayed to a side tent, and what happened to her you shall +presently hear. Eurie wandered at her fancy, and enjoyed a "stupid +time," so she reported. + +Marion's pencil moved rapidly over the paper almost as soon as Dr. +Walden commenced, until presently she whispered in dismay to Ruth: + +"I do wish he would say something to leave out! This letter will be +fearfully long. How sharp he is, isn't he?" + +Then she scribbled again. Ruth had the benefit of many side remarks. + +"My!" Marion said, with an accompanying grimace. "What an army of books! +All for Sunday-schools. Three millions given out every Sunday! Does that +seem possible! Brother Hart, I'm afraid you are mistaken. Didn't he say +that was Dr. Hart's estimate, Ruthie? There is certainly a good chance +for mine, if so many are needed every week. I shall have to go right to +work at it. What if I _should_ write one, Ruth, and what if it should +_take_, and all the millions of Sunday-schools want it at once! Just as +likely as not. I am a genius. They never know it until afterward. I +shall certainly put you in, Ruthie, in some form. So you are destined to +immortality, remember." + +"I wish you wouldn't whisper so much," whispered back Ruth. "People are +looking at us in an annoyed way. What is the matter with you, Marion? I +never knew you to run on in such an absurd way. That is bad enough for +Eurie!" + +"I'm developing," whispered Marion. "It is the 'reflex influence of +Chautauqua' that you hear so much about." + +Then she wrote this sentence from Dr. Walden's lips: + +"Every author whose books go into the Sabbath-school is as much a +teacher in that school as though he had classes there. A good book is a +book that will aid the teacher in his work of bringing souls to Christ. +I have known the earnest teaching of months to be defeated by one +single volume of the wrong kind being placed in the hands of the +scholar." + +Suddenly Marion sat upright, slipped her pencil and note-book into her +pocket, and wrote no more. A sentence in that address had struck home. +This determination to enter the lists as a writer was not all talk. She +had long ago decided to turn her talents in that direction as the +easiest thing in the line of literature, whither her taste ran. She had +read many of the standard Sunday-school books; read them with amused +eyes and curling lips, and felt entirely conscious that she could match +them in intellectual power and interest, and do nothing remarkable then. +But there rang before her this sentence: + +"Every author whose books go into the Sabbath-school is as much a +teacher in that school as though he had classes there." A teacher in the +Sabbath-school! Actually a _teacher_. She had never intended that. She +had no desire to be a hypocrite. She had no desire to lead astray. +_Could_ she write a book that young people ought to bring from the +Sabbath-school with them, and have it say nothing about Christ and +heaven and the Christian life? Surely she could not be a teacher +without teaching of these things. _Must_ she teach them incidentally? +Was saying nothing about them speaking against them? Dr. Walden more +than intimated this. + +"After all," she said, speaking to Ruth as the address closed, "I don't +think I shall commence my book yet." + +"Why?" + +"Oh, because I am sacred." Then, impatiently, after a moment's silence, +during which they changed their seats, "I'm disgusted with Chautauqua! +It is going to spoil me. I feel my ambition oozing out at the ends of my +toes, instead of my fingers as I had designed. Everybody is so awfully +solemn, and has so much to say about eternity, it seems we can't whisper +to each other without starting something that doesn't even end in +eternity. But, wasn't he logical and eloquent?" + +"I don't know," Ruth said, absently. And she wondered if Marion knew how +true her words were. Ruth had heard scarcely a word of Dr. Walden's +address since that last whisper, "So you are destined to immortality, +remember." Words spoken in jest, and yet thrilling her through and +through with a solemn meaning. She had always known and always believed +this. She was no skeptic, yet her heart had never taken it in, with a +great throb of anxiety, as it did at that moment. _Was_ she being led of +the Spirit of God? + +The two merely changed their positions and looked about them a little, +and then prepared to give attention to the next entertainment, which was +a story from Emily Huntington Miller. Marion was the only one who was in +the least familiar with her, she being the only one who had felt that +absorbing interest in juvenile literature that had led her to keep pace +with the times. + +"I'm disposed to listen to _her_ with all due respect and attention," +she said, as she rearranged herself and got out her note-book. "She is +one of the few people who seem not to have bidden a solemn farewell to +their common sense when they set out to entertain the children. I have +read everything she ever wrote, and liked it, too. I set out to make an +idol of her in my more juvenile days. I used to think that the height of +my ambition would be attained if I could have a long look at her. I'm +going to try it to-day, and see if it satisfies me; though we are such +aspiring and unsatisfied creatures that I strongly suspect I shall go on +reaching out for something else even after _this_ experience." + +Very little whispering was done after that for some time. Although +Marion made light of her youthful dreams, there was a strong feeling of +excitement and interest clustering around this first sight of the woman +whose name she had known so long; and something in the fair, sweet face +and cultured voice fascinated and held her, much as she had fancied in +her earlier days would be the case. She frowned when she heard the +request to reporters to "lay aside their pencils." She had meant to earn +laurels by reporting this delicious bit of imagery, set in between the +graver sermons and lectures; but, after all, it was a rest to give +herself up to the uninterrupted enjoyment of taking in every word and +tone--taking it in for her own private benefit. "The Parish of Fair +Haven." How heartily she enjoyed it. The refined and delicate, and yet +keen and intense satire underlying the whole quaint original story, was +of just the nature to hold and captivate her. She was just in the mood +to enjoy it, too. For was it not aimed at that class of people who +awakened her own keenest sense of satire--the so-called "Christian +world"? She did not belong to it, you know; in her own estimation was +entirely without the pale of its sarcasm; stranded on a high and +majestic rock of unbelief in everything, and in a condition to be amused +at the follies of people who played at belief; and treated what they +_played_ was solemn realities as if they were cradle stories or nicely +woven fiction. There was no listener in all that crowd who so enjoyed +the keen play of wit and the sharp home thrusts as did Marion Wilbur. +Ruth was a little undecided what to think; she did not belong to the +class who were hit, to be sure, but her father always gave largely to +missions whenever the solicitor called on him: she had heard his name +mentioned with respect as one of the most benevolent men of the day; she +did not quite like the very low and matter-of-course place which Mrs. +Miller's view of the mission question gave him. According to the people +of Fair Haven, to give one's thousands to the cause was the most +commonplace thing in the world--not to do so was to be an inhuman +wretch. Ruth didn't quite like it--in truth she was just enough within +the circle of modern Christianity to feel herself slightly grazed by the +satire. + +"It is absurd," she said to Marion as they went up the hill. "What is +the sense in a woman talking in that way? As if people, were they ever +so good and benevolent, could get themselves up in that ridiculous +manner! If we live in the world at all we have to have a little regard +for propriety. I wonder if she thinks one's entire time and money should +be devoted to the heathen?" + +Marion answered her with spirit. + +"Oh, don't try to apologize for the folly that is going on in this world +in the name of religion! It can't be done, and sensible people only make +fools of themselves if they attempt it. There is nothing plainer or more +impossible to deny than that church-members give and work and pray for +the heathen as though they were a miserable and abominable set of +brutes, who ought to be exterminated from the face of the earth, but +for whom some ridiculous fanatics called 'missionaries' had projected a +wild scheme to do something; and _they_, forsooth, must be kept from +starving somehow, even though they had been unmitigated fools; so the +paltry collections are doled out, with sarcastic undertones about the +'waste of money,' and the sin of missionaries wearing clothes, and +expecting to have things to eat after throwing themselves away. Don't +talk to me! I've been to missionary societies; I know all about it. The +whole system is one that is exactly calculated to make infidels. I +believe Satan got it up, because he knew in just what an abominable way +the dear Christians would go at it, and what a horrid farce they would +make of it all." + +"It is a great pity you are not a Christian, Marion. I never come in +contact with any one who understands their duty so thoroughly as you +appear to, and I think you ought to be practicing." + +Ruth said this calmly enough. She was not particularly disturbed; she +did not belong to them, you know; but for all that she was remotely +connected with those who did, and was just enough jarred to make her +give this quiet home thrust. Oddly enough it struck Marion as it never +had before, although the same idea had been suggested to her by other +nettled mortals. It was true that she had realized how the practicing +ought to be done, and a vague wish that she _did_ believe in it all, and +could work by their professed standard with _all her soul_, flitted over +her. + +Meantime Flossy was being educated. The morning work had touched her +from a different standpoint. She had not heard Dr. Walden; instead she +had wandered into a bit of holy ground. She began by losing her way. It +is one of the easiest things to do at Chautauqua. The avenues cross and +recross in an altogether bewildering manner to one not accustomed to +newly laid-out cities; and just when one imagines himself at the goal +for which he started, lo! there is woods, and nothing else anywhere. +Another attempt patiently followed for an hour has the exasperating +effect of bringing him to the very point from which he started. Such an +experience had Flossy, when by reason of her loitering propensities she +became detached from her party, and tried to find her own way to the +stand. A whole hour of wandering, then a turn into perfect chaos. She +had no more idea where she was than if she had been in the by-ways of +London. Clearly she must inquire the way. She looked about her. It was +queer to be lost in the woods, and yet be surrounded by tents and +people. She stooped and peeped timidly into a tent, the corner of which +was raised to admit air, and from which the sound of voices issued. + +"Come in," said a pleasant voice, and the bright-faced hostess arose +from the foot of her bed and came forward with greeting, exactly as +though they had been waiting for Flossy all the morning. "Would you like +to rest? Come right in, we have plenty of room and the most lovely +accommodations," and a silvery laugh accompanied the words, while the +little lady whisked a tin basin from a low stool, and dusting it rapidly +with her handkerchief proffered her guest a seat, with as graceful an +air as though the stool had been an easy-chair upholstered in velvet. +The only other sitting-place, the low bed, was full, there being three +ladies tucked about on it in various stages of restful work, for they +had books and papers strewn about, and each held a pencil poised as if +ready for action at a moment. + +"I'm afraid I intrude," Flossy said, sweetly; "but the truth is, I have +lost my friends and my way, and I really am an object of pity, for I +have been wandering up hill and down, till my strength is less than it +was." + +"Poor child!" came sympathetically from the bed, spoken by the eldest of +the ladies, while another rapidly improvised a fan out of the +_Sunday-School Times_, and passed it to her. + +Meantime Flossy looked about her in secret delight. Something about the +air of the tent and the surroundings, and an indefinite something about +every one of the ladies, told her as plainly as words could have done +that she was among the workers; that she had unwittingly and gracefully +slipped behind the scenes, and had been cordially admitted to one of the +work-shops of Chautauqua; and there were _so_ many things she wanted to +know! + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +FLOSSY AT SCHOOL. + + +She hadn't the least idea who they were, but, like an earnest little +diplomatist, she set to work to find out. + +"I started for the auditorium," she said. "I wanted to hear Dr. Walden, +but he has had time to make a long speech and get through since I first +started. I think it must be nearly eleven." + +"No," they said laughing, "it is only half past ten." Her wanderings had +not been so long as they seemed; but it was hardly worth while to try to +hear anything from him now, she would not be at all likely to get a +seat; and, besides, his time was nearly over. She would better wait and +go down with them in time for Mrs. Miller. + +"We were obliged to miss Dr. Walden," the elder lady explained. "We +disliked to very much; probably it was as instructive as anything we +shall get; but we had work that had to be done, so we ran away." + +"Do you have to bring work to Chautauqua with you?" Flossy asked, with +insinuating sweetness. "How very busy you must be! I would have tried to +run away from my work for two weeks if I had been you." + +The bright little hostess laughed. + +"Chautauqua _makes_ work," she said, "and somebody has to get ready for +it. This lady beside me expects an overwhelming Sabbath class here, and +much time has to be given to the lesson. We lesser mortals are +ostensibly going to help her, but in reality we are going to look and +see how she does it." + +"Have you found out?" Flossy asked in a little tremor of delight. This +was what she wanted, to know how to do it all. + +The lady who had been pointed out as teacher answered her quickly, so +far as her words could be said to be an answer: + +"Are you a Sabbath-school teacher?" + +"No," Flossy said, flushing and feeling like a naughty child whose +curiosity had led her into mischief. "No, I am not _anything_, but I +want to be; I don't know how to work at all in any way, but I want to +learn." + +"Are you looking for work to do for the Master?" the same lady asked, +with a sweet cheery voice and smile, not at all as if this were a +subject which she must touch cautiously. + +"Yes," Flossy said, her cheeks all in a glow. "She did not know how to +work, she had but just found out that she wanted to; indeed she had but +yesterday known anything of Him." + +Then this unusual company of ladies came with one consent and eager eyes +and voices and took her hand, and said how glad they were to welcome her +to the ranks. They knew she would love the work, and the rewards were so +sure and so precious. All this was new and strange and delightful to +Flossy. Then they began each eagerly to tell about their work; they were +all infant or primary class teachers, and all enthusiasts. Who that has +to do with the teaching of little children and attains to any measure of +success but is largely gifted with this same element? They had been +talking over and preparing their lesson together, and they talked it +over again before the bewildered Flossy, who had no idea that there was +such a wonderful story in all the Bible as they were developing out of a +few bare details. + +"We had just reached the vital point of the entire lesson," explained +the leader, "the place where every true teacher needs most help; where, +having arranged all her facts and got them in martial order in her +brain, she wants to know the best way of making those facts of practical +_present_ service to the little children who will be before her, and at +this point I think every teacher needs to go to the fountain head for +help. We were just going to pray; you would like, perhaps, to join us +for just a few moments." + +"If she wouldn't intrude," Flossy said, timidly, in a tremor of +satisfaction; and then for the first time in her life she bowed with a +company of her own sex, and heard the simple earnest voice of prayer. +The words were startlingly direct and simple, and Flossy, who had been +full of mysterious awe on this question, and who much doubted whether +her timid whispers alone in her tent could have been called prayer, was +reassured and comforted. + +If _this_ were prayer, it was simply talking in a sweet, natural voice, +and in the most simple and natural language, with a dear and wise +friend. It was the most quiet and yet the most confident way of asking +for just what one wanted, and nothing more. It was what Flossy needed. + +She took long strides in her religious education there on her knees; and +as they went out from that tent and down the hill to the meeting, there +was born in her heart an eager determination to enter the lists as a +Sabbath-school teacher the very first opportunity, and to pray her +lesson into her heart, having done what she could to get it into her +head. If her anxious and well-nigh discouraged pastor could have been +gifted with supernatural and prophetic vision, and could have seen that +resolve, and, looking ahead, the fruit that was to be borne from it, how +would his anxious soul have thanked God and taken courage! + +In this mood came Flossy to listen to the story of "The Parish of Fair +Haven," as it flowed down to her in Mrs. Miller's smooth-toned musical +voice. One who comes from her knees to listen is sure to find the seed +if it has been put in. Flossy found hers. + +Often in the course of her young life she had been at church and sat in +the attitude of listener while a missionary sermon was preached. She had +heard, perhaps, ten sentences from those sermons, not ten consecutive +sentences, but words scattered here and there through the whole; from +these she had gathered that there was to be a collection taken for the +cause of Missions. Just where the money was to go, and just what was to +be done with it when it arrived, what had been accomplished by +missionary effort, what the Christian world was hoping for in that +direction--all these things Flossy Shipley knew no more about than her +kitten did. + +Perhaps it was not strange then, that although abundantly supplied with +pin-money, she had never in her life given anything to the work of +Missions. Not that she would not willingly have deposited some of her +money in the box for whatever use the authorities chose to make of it +had she happened to have any; but young ladies as a rule have been +educated to imagine that there is one day in the week in which their +portmonnaies can be off duty. There being no shopping to be done, no +worsteds to match, no confectionary to tempt what earthly use for money? +So it was locked up at home. This, at least, is the way in which Flossy +Shipley had argued, without knowing that she argued at all. + +Now she was looking at things with new eyes; the same things that she +had heard of hundreds of times, but how different they were! What a +remarkable scheme it was, this carrying the story of Jesus to those +miserable ignorant ones, getting them ready for the heaven that had been +made ready for them! The people of "Fair Haven" did not appear to her +like lunatics, as they did to Ruth Erskine. She was not, you will +remember, of the class who had argued this question in their ignorance, +and quieted their consciences with the foolish assertion that the church +collections went to pay secretaries and treasurers and erect splendid +public buildings. She belonged, rather, to that less hopeless class who +had never thought at all. Now, as she listened, her eyes brightened with +feeling and her cheeks glowed. The whole sublime _romance_ of Missions +was being mapped out to her on the face of that quaint allegory, and her +heart responded warmly. + +Curiously enough, her first throbs of conscience were not for herself +but for her father. The portly gentleman who occasionally sat at the +head of the Shipley pew, and who certainly never parted company with his +pocket-book on Sabbath or on any other day, did _he_ give liberally to +Foreign Missions? + +She could not determine as to the probabilities of the case. He was +counted a liberal man--people liked to come to him to start +subscriptions; but Flossy felt instinctively that a subscription paper +with her father's name leading it was different, someway, from a quiet, +baize-lined box, and no noise nor words. She doubted whether the cause +had been materially helped by him. + +She lost some sentences of the story while she planned ways for +interesting her father and securing liberal donations from him; and then +she was suddenly startled back to personality by hearing some astounding +statements from the reader. + +"It would be _so_ easy to drop into a household box the price of an +apple, or a paper, or a glass of peanuts, and yet who does it? Why, +there are young ladies who will actually not give two cents a week from +the money that they waste!" + +The rich blood mounted in waves to Flossy's forehead. Apples and papers +were not in her line, but _peanuts_! wasn't there a certain stand which +she passed almost daily on her way down town, and did she ever pass it +without indulging in a glass of peanuts? Neither was that the end. Why, +once started on that list, and her wastes were almost numberless. How +fond she was of cream dates, and how expensive they were; and oranges, +the tempting yellow globes were always shining at her from certain +windows as she passed. + +Oh, they were just endless, her temptations and her falls in that +direction--only who had ever supposed that there was any harm in this +lavish treatment of herself and of any friends whom she happened to +meet? Yet it was true that she had never given any money at all to the +work of sending the Bible to those who are without it. + +"They will not give two cents a week," said Mrs. Miller. It was true: +she had not given "two cents a week," or even two cents a year--she had +simply ignored the existence of such a need for money. True, she had not +been a Christian; but she was surprised to see how little this refuge +served her. + +"I have been a human being," she told herself, with a flush on her face, +"and I ought to have had sufficient interest in humanity to have wanted +those poor creatures civilized." + +But there was another thrust preparing for Flossy. The reader presently +touched upon one item of expenditure common to ladies, namely, kid +gloves; and made the bewildering statement that economy in this matter, +to the degree that needless purchases should be avoided, would treble +the fund in the missionary treasury! It could not be that from among +that sea of faces the speaker had singled out Flossy Shipley, and yet +that is the way it seemed to her. If there was any one expense which +stood out glaringly above another in her list of luxuries it was kid +gloves. They must be absolutely immaculate as to quality, shade and fit, +and she remorselessly consigned them to the waste-bag at the first hint +of rip or change of color. How strange that Mrs. Miller should have +pitched upon just that item, and what an amazing declaration to make +concerning it! + +It was very strange, had any one been looking on to observe it, the +manner in which this young girl was being educated. It is doubtful if a +whole year of church work in the regular home routine, listening to the +stated, statistical sermon of her pastor, that sermon which presupposes +so much more knowledge than people possess, would have _begun_ to do for +Flossy what the strange, fanciful, pungent story of "Fair Haven" did. + + * * * * * + +Before that hour was closed she had settled within her resolute little +heart a plan that should henceforth put her in close communion and +sympathy with mission work--not exactly the plans of operation, except +that kid gloves and peanuts took stern places in the background, but +this was simply the foundation for a resolute system of education, +carried all through her future life. + +What a pity it seems sometimes that people cannot read the hearts and +watch the springs of action of those around them. If Mrs. Miller, as +she closed her paper and moved away from the platform, could have seen +the earnest purpose glowing and throbbing in Flossy's heart, and have +known that it was born of words of hers, what a glad and thankful heart +would she have carried back to her tent! + +Also, if the much troubled pastor at home could have taken peeps into +the future and seen what Flossy Shipley's resolves would do for +Missions, how glad he would have been! + +Perhaps it would be better to lay all the troubles and the tangles down +in the Hand that overrules it all, and say, in peace and restfulness, +"He knoweth the end from the beginning." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +"CROSS PURPOSES." + + +When people start out with the express design of having a good time, +irrespective of other people's plans or feelings--in short, with a +general forgetfulness of the existence of others--they are very likely +to find at the close of the day that a failure has been made. + +It did not take the entire day to convince Eurie Mitchell that +Chautauqua was not the synonym for absolute, unalloyed _pleasure_. You +will remember that she detached herself from her party in the early +morning, and set out to find pleasure, or, as she phrased it, "fun." She +imagined them to be interchangeable terms. She had not meant to be +deserted, but had hoped to secure Ruth for her companion, she not +having the excuse of wishing to report the meetings to call her to them. +Failing in her, in case she should have a fit of obstinacy, and choose +to attend the meetings, Eurie counted fully upon Flossy as an ally. Much +to her surprise, and no little to her chagrin, Flossy proved decidedly +the more determined of the two. No amount of coaxing--and Eurie even +descended to the employment of that weapon--had the least effect. To be +sure, Flossy presented no more powerful argument than that it did not +look well to come to the meeting and then not attend it. But she carried +her point and left the young searcher for fun with a clear field. + +Now fun rarely comes for the searching; it is more likely to spring upon +one unawares. So, though Eurie walked up and down, and stared about her, +and lost herself in the labyrinths of the intersecting paths, and tore +her dress in a thicket, and caught her foot in a bog, to the great +detriment of shoe and temper, she still found not what she was searching +for. Several times she came in sight of the stand; once or twice in +sound of the speaker's voice; but having so determinately carried her +point in the morning, she did not choose to abandon her position and +appear among the listeners, though sorely tempted to do so. She wandered +into several side tents in hope of finding something to distract her +attention; but she only found that which provoked her. + +In one of them a young lady and gentleman were bending eagerly over a +book and talking earnestly. They were interesting looking people, and +she hovered near, hoping that she had at last found the "children" who +would "play" with her--a remembrance of one of her nursery stories +coming to her just then, and a ludicrous sense of her resemblance to the +truant boy who spent the long, bright day in the woods searching for one +not too busy to play. + +But these two were discussing nothing of more importance than the lesson +for the coming Sabbath; and though she hovered in their vicinity for +some time, she caught only stray words--names of places in the far away +Judean land, that seemed to her like a name in the Arabian Nights; or an +eager dissertation on the different views of eminent commentators on +this or that knotty point; and so engrossed were they in their work +that they bestowed on her only the slightest passing glance, and then +bent over their books. + +She went away in disgust. At the next tent half a dozen ladies were +sitting. She halted there. Here at last were some people who, like +herself, were bored with this everlasting meeting, and had escaped to +have a bit of gossip. Who knew but she might creep into the circle and +find pleasant acquaintances? So she drew nearer and listened a moment to +catch the subject under discussion. She heard the voice of prayer; and a +nearer peep showed her that every head was bowed on the seat in front, +and one of the ladies, in a low voice, was asking for enlightenment _on +the lesson for the coming Sabbath_! + +"What wonderful lesson can it be that is so fearfully important?" she +muttered, as she plunged recklessly into the mud and made her way in all +haste up the hill without attempting any more tents. "Who ever heard +such an ado made about a Sunday-school lesson? These people all act as +though there was nothing of any consequence anywhere but +Sunday-schools. I guess it is the first time that such a _furor_ was +ever gotten up over teaching a dozen verses to a parcel of children. I +wonder if the people at home ever make such a uproar about the lesson? I +know some teachers who own up, on the way to church, that they don't +know where the lesson is. This must be a peculiar one. I wonder how I +shall contrive to discover where it is? The girls won't know, of course. +With all their boasted going to meeting they know no more about lessons +than I do myself. I would really like to find out. I mean to ask the +next person I meet. It will be in accordance with the fashion of the +place. Think of my walking down Broadway of a sunny morning and stopping +a stranger with the query, 'Will you tell me where the lesson is, +please?'" And at this point Eurie burst into a laugh over the absurdity +of the picture she had conjured. + +"But this is not Broadway," she said a moment afterward, "and I mean to +try it. Here comes a man who looks as if he ought to know everything. I +wonder who he is? I've seen his face a dozen times since I have been +here. He led the singing yesterday. Perhaps he knows nothing but sing. +They are not apt to; but his face looks as though he might have a few +other ideas. Anyway, I'll try him, and if he knows nothing about it, he +will go away with a confused impression that I am a very virtuous young +lady, and that he ought to have known all about it; and who knows what +good seed may be sown by my own wicked hand?" + +Whereupon she halted before the gentleman who was going with rapid +strides down the hill, and said, in her clearest and most respectful +tone: + +"Will you be so kind as to tell me where the lesson for next Sabbath +commences? I have forgotten just where it is." + +There was no hesitation, no query in his face as to what she was talking +about, or uncertainty as to the answer. + +"It is the fifth chapter, from the fifth to the fifteenth verse," he +said, glibly. "All fives, you see. Easy to remember. It is a grand +lesson. Hard to teach, though, because it is all there. Are you a +teacher for next Sunday? You must come to the teachers' meeting +to-morrow morning; you will get good help there. Glorious meeting, +isn't it? I'm so glad you are enjoying it." And away he went. + +Every trace of ill-humor had vanished from Eurie's face. Instead, it was +twinkling with laughter. + +"The fifth chapter and fifteenth verse" of what? Certainly she had no +more idea than the birds had who twittered above her head. How entirely +certain he had been that of course she knew the general locality of the +lesson. _She_ a teacher and coming to the teachers' meeting for +enlightenment as to how to teach the lesson! + +"I wonder who he is?" she said again, as these thoughts flashed through +her brain, and, following out the next impulse that came to her, she +stopped an old gentleman who was walking leisurely down, and said, as +she pointed out her late informant: + +"What is that man's name, please? I can't recall it." + +"That," said the old gentleman, "is Prof. Sherwin, of Newark. Have you +heard him sing?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, that is worth hearing; and have you heard him talk?" + +"No." + +"Well, he can talk; you will hear him, and enjoy it, too; see if you +don't. But I'll tell you what it is, young lady, to know him thoroughly +you ought to hear him pray! There is the real power in a man. Let me +know how a man can pray and I'll risk his talking." + +Eurie had got much more information now than she had asked for. She +ventured on no more questions, but made all haste to her tent, where, +seated upon a corner of the bed, one foot tucked under her while the +unfortunate shoe tried to dry, she sewed industriously on the zig-zag +tear in her dress, and tried to imagine what she could do next. +Certainly they had long days at Chautauqua. "I shall go to meeting this +afternoon," she said, resolutely, "if they have three sermons, each an +hour long; and what is more, I shall find out where that Sunday-school +lesson is." + +The next thing she did was to write a letter to her brother Nellis, a +dashing boy two years her senior and her favorite companion in her +search for pleasure. Here is a copy of the letter: + + + +"DEAR NEL: I wish you were here. Chautauqua isn't so funny as it might +be. There are some things that are done here continually. In the first +place, it rains. Why, you never saw anything like it! It just can't help +it. The sun puts on a bland face and looks glowing intentions, and while +you are congratulating your next neighbor on the prospect, she is +engaged in clutching frantically after her umbrella to save her hat from +the first drops of the new shower. Next, they have meetings, and there +is literally no postponement on account of the weather. It is really +funny to see the way in which the people rush when the bell rings, rain +or shine. Nel, only think of Flossy Shipley going in the rain to hear a +man preach of the 'Influence of the Press,' or something of that sort! +It was good though, worth hearing. I went myself, because, of course, +one must do something, and the frantic fashion of the place is to go to +meeting. At the same time I don't understand Flossy: she is different +from what she ever was at home. I suppose it is the force of the many +shining examples all around her. You know she always was a good little +sheep about following somebody's lead. + +"Marion is reporting, and has to be industrious. She is queer, Nel; she +professes infidelity, you know; and you have no idea how mad she gets +over anything that seems to be casting reproach on Christianity (unless +indeed she says it herself, which is often enough, but then she seems to +think it is all right). + +"Ruth keeps on the even tenor of her way. It would take an earthquake to +move that girl. + +"I have had the greatest fun this morning. I have been mistaken for a +Sabbath-school teacher who had the misfortune to forget at what verse +her lesson commenced! You see I was cultivating new acquaintances, and a +Prof. Sherwin gave me good advice. That and some other things aroused my +curiosity concerning that same lesson, and I am going to find out where +it is. + +"Did you know that Sunday-school lessons were such remarkable affairs? +The one for next Sunday must comprise the most wonderful portion of +Scripture that there is, for hundreds of people on these grounds are +talking about it, and I stumbled upon a party of ladies this morning who +were actually praying over it! + +"Another thing I overheard this morning, which is news to me, that all +the world was at work on the same lesson. That is rather fascinating, +isn't it, to think of so many hundreds and thousands of people all +pitching into the same verses on Sunday morning? It is quite +sentimental, too, or capable of being made so, for instance, by a great +stretch of your imagination. Suppose you and me to be very dear friends, +separated by miles of ocean we will say, and both devoted Sabbath-school +teachers, isn't that a stretch now? Such being the astonishing case, +wouldn't it be pleasant to be at work on the same lesson? Don't you see? +Lets play do it. You look up the lesson for next Sabbath and so will I. +Won't that have all the charm of novelty? Then give me the benefit of +your ideas acquired on that important subject, and I'll do the same to +you. Really, the more I think of it the more the plan delights me. I +wonder how you will carry it out? Shall you go to Sunday-school? What +will the dear Doctor say if he sees you walk into his Bible-class? I +really wish I were there to enjoy the sensation. Meantime I'm going to +look up an altogether wonderful teacher for myself, and then for +comparing notes. My spirits begin to rise, they have been rather damp +all the morning, but I see fun in the distance. + +"We are to have a sensation this afternoon in the shape of a troupe of +singers called the Tennesseeans--negroes, you know, and they are to give +slave-cabin songs and the like. I expect to enjoy it thoroughly, but you +ought to see Ruth curl her aristocratic nose at the thought. + +"'Such a vulgar idea! and altogether inappropriate to the occasion. She +likes to see things in keeping. If it is a religious gathering let them +keep it such, and not introduce negro minstrels for the sake of calling +a low crowd together, and making a little more money.' + +"Marion, too, shoots arrows from her sharp tongue at it, but she rather +enjoys the idea, just as she does every other thing that she chooses to +call inconsistent when she happens to be the one to discover it; but woe +to the one who comments on it further than she chooses to go. + +"Flossy and I now look with utmost toleration on the dark element that +is to be introduced. I tell Ruth that I am really grateful to the +authorities for introducing something that a person of my limited +capacities can appreciate, and Flossy, with her sweet little charitable +voice, has 'no doubt they will choose proper things to sing.' That +little mouse is really more agreeable than she ever was in her life; and +I am amazed at it, too. I expected the dear baby would make us all +uncomfortable with her finified whims; but don't you think it is our +lofty Ruth who is decidedly the most disagreeable of our party, save and +except myself!" + + + +This interesting epistle was brought to a sudden close by an +interruption. A gentleman came with rapid steps, and halted before her +tent door, which was tied hospitably back. + +"I beg pardon," he said, speaking rapidly, "but this is Miss Rider?" + +"It is not," Eurie answered, with promptness at which information he +looked surprised and bewildered. + +"Isn't this her tent? I am sorry to trouble you, but I have been sent +in haste for her. She is wanted for a consultation, and I was told I +would find her here. Perhaps I might leave a message with you for her?" + +"It certainly isn't her tent," Eurie said, trying to keep down the +desire to laugh, "and I haven't the least idea where she is. I should be +glad to give her your message if I could, but I never saw the lady in my +life, and have no reason to expect that pleasure." + +Whereupon her questioner laughed outright. + +"That is a dilemma," he said. "I appreciate your feelings, for I am +precisely in the same position; but the lady was described minutely to +me, and I certainly thought I had found her. I am sorry to have +interrupted you," and he bowed himself away. + +A new curiosity seized upon Eurie--the desire to see Miss Rider. "She +must be one of them," she soliloquized, falling into Flossy's way of +speaking of the workers at Chautauqua. "He said she was wanted for a +consultation. I wonder if she can be one of those who are to take part +in the primary exercises? She must be young for such prominent work if +she looks like me; but how could he know that since he never saw her? +It is very evident that I am to go to Sunday-school next Sabbath anyhow, +if I never did before, for now I have two items of interest to look +up--a lesson that is in the 'fifth chapter, from the fifth to the +fifteenth verse of _something_,' and a being called 'Miss Rider.'" So +thinking she hastily concluded and folded her letter, ready for the +afternoon mail, without a thought or care as to the seed that she had +been sending away in it, or as to the fruit it might bear; without the +slightest insight into the way she was being led through seeming +mistakes and accidents up to a point that was to influence all her +future. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE NEW LESSON. + + +Eurie turned her pillow, thumped the scant feathers into little heaps, +and gave a dismal groan as she laid her head back on it. + +"It is very queer," she said, "that as soon as ever I make up my mind to +be orthodox, and go to meeting every time the bell rings, I should be +dumped into a heap on this hard bed with the headache. I haven't had a +touch of it before." + +"'The way of transgressors is hard,'" quoted Marion, going on calmly +with her writing. "If you hadn't taken that horrid tramp yesterday +instead of going to meeting like a Christian, you would have been all +right to-day." + +"I believe you sit up nights to read your Bible, so as to have verses +to fling at people who are overtaken in any possible trial or +inconvenience. You always have them ready. Didn't you bring it with you, +and don't you prepare a list for each day's use?" This was Eurie's half +merry, half petulant reply to the Bible verse that had been "flung" at +her. + +Marion carefully erased a word that seemed to her fastidious taste too +inexpressive before she answered: + +"I don't own such an article as a Bible, my child; so your suspicions +are entirely unfounded. My early education was not defective in that +respect, however, and I confess that I find many verses that seem to +very aptly describe the ways of sinful mortals like yourself." + +Eurie raised herself on one elbow, regardless of headache and the cloth +wet in vinegar that straightway fell off. + +"You don't own a Bible!" she said, in utter surprise, and with a touch +of actual dismay in her voice. + +"I am depraved to that degree, my dear little saint. I conclude that you +are more devoutly inclined, and have one of your own. Pray how many +chapters a day do you read in it?" + +Eurie lay down again, and Flossy came with the vinegar cloth and bound +it securely on her forehead. + +"I don't read in it very often, to be sure," Eurie murmured. "In fact I +suppose I may as well say that I never do. But then I own one, and +always have. I am not a heathen; and really and truly it seems almost +queer not to have a Bible of one's own. It is a sort of mark of +civilization, you know." + +Marion laughed good-naturedly. + +"I never make a great deal of pretense in that line," she said, gayly. +"As for being a heathen, that is only a relative term. According to Dr. +Calkins, they were more or less in advance of us. I am one of the +'advanced' sort. Ruth, your toilet ought to be nearly completed; I hear +that indefatigable bell." + +"You are very foolish not to go this morning and let your writing wait. +We shall be certain to have something worth listening to; it is a +strange time to select for absence." This was Ruth's quiet answer, as +she pinned her lace ruffle with a gleaming little diamond. + +"'Diligent in business.' There is another verse for you, my heathen," +Marion said, with a merry glance toward Eurie. "When you get home and +get the dust of years swept off from your Bible, you take a look at it, +and see if I have not quoted correctly. And a good, sensible verse it +is. I have found it the only way in which to keep my head above water. +Ruthie, the trouble is not with me, it lies with those selfish and +obstinate newspaper men. If they would have the sense to let their +papers wait over another day I could go to the lecture this morning. As +it is, I am a victim to their indifference. If I miss a blessing the sin +will be at _their_ door, not mine." + +Eurie opened her heavy eyes and looked at Flossy. + +"Come," she said, "don't stand there mopping me in vinegar any longer. +Are you ready? I am really disappointed. I've always wanted to hear that +man. I want to tell Nel about him." + +Flossy washed her hands, shook back the yellow curls with an indifferent +and preoccupied air, and went to the door to wait for Ruth. She had +taken no part in the war of words that had been passing between Marion +and Eurie, but she had heard. And like almost everything else that she +heard during these days, it had awakened a new thought and desire. +Flossy was growing amazed at herself. It seemed to her that she must +have spent her seventeen years of life taking long naps, and this +Chautauqua was a stiff breeze from the ocean that was going to shake her +awake. The special thought that had dashed itself at her this morning +was that she, too, had no Bible. Not that she did not own one, elegantly +done in velvet and clasped in gold, so effectually clasped that it had +been sealed to her all her life. She positively had no recollection of +having ever sat down deliberately to read the Bible. She had "looked +over" occasionally in school, but even this service of her eyes had been +fitful and indifferent; and as for her head paying any sort of attention +to the reading, it might as well have been done in Greek instead of +French, which language she but dimly comprehended even when she tried. +But now she ought to have a Bible. She ought not to wait for that velvet +covered one. A whole week in which to find what some of her orders +were, and no way in which to find them. Of course she could buy one, but +how queer it would seem to be going to the museum to make a purchase of +a Bible! "They will wonder why I did not bring my own," she murmured, +with that life-long deference that she had educated herself to pay to +the "they" who composed her world. And in another instance the new-born +feeling of respect and independence asserted itself. "I can't help +that," she said, positively, shaking her curls with a determined air; +"and it really makes no difference what anybody thinks. Of course I must +have a Bible, and I only wish I had it for this morning, I shall +certainly get one the first opportunity." Then she turned and said +"good-morning" to the pretty little lady who occupied the tent next +door, and between whom and herself a pleasant acquaintance was springing +up. + +"Are you going to the lecture?" Flossy, asked and the small lady shook +her head, with a wistful air. + +"Dear me, no! My young tyrant wouldn't consent to that. I meant to take +him down with me and try him, but he has gone to sleep; and it is just +as well, for he would have been certain to want to do all the talking. +He has no idea that there is any one in the country who knows quite as +much as he does." It was said in a half complaining tone, but underneath +it was the foundation of tender pride, that showed her to be the vain +mother of the handsome tyrant. Still it seemed to be Flossy's duty to +condole with her. + +"You miss most of the meetings, do you not?" + +"Three-fourths of them. You see it is inconvenient to have a husband who +is reporter for the press, and who must be there to hear. It is only +when he must write up his notes for publication that I can get a chance; +and even then, unless it is baby's sleepy time, it does me no good. I am +especially sorry this morning, for Dr. Cuyler used to be my pastor. He +married me one summer morning just like this, and I haven't laid eyes on +him since. I should like to hear his voice again, but it can't be done." + +Now who would have imagined that, with all the powers that were +bestirring themselves to come to Flossy's education, it would have been +a rosy, crowing baby, in the unconsciousness of a morning nap, that +should have given her her first lesson in unselfishness? Yet he was the +very one. It flashed over Flossy in an instant from some source. Who was +so likely to have suggested it as the sweet angel who hovered over the +sleeping darling? + +"Oh, Mrs. Adams, let me stay with baby, and you go to hear Cuyler. It is +a real pity that you should miss him, when he is associated with your +life in this way. I never saw him, and though, of course, I should like +to, yet I presume there will be opportunities enough. I will be as +careful of baby as if he were my grandson; and if he wakens I will charm +him out of his wits, so that it will never occur to him to cry." + +Of course there was demurring, and profuse expressions of thanks and +declinatures all in a breath. But Flossy was so winning, so eager, so +thoroughly in earnest; and the little Mrs. Adams did so love her old +pastor, and did feel so anxious to see him again, that in a very short +time she was beguiled into going in all haste to her tent to make a +"go-to-meeting" toilet; and a blessed thing it was that that sentence +does not mean at Chautauqua what it does in Buffalo, or Albany, or a +few other places, else Dr. Cuyler might have slipped from them before +the necessary articles were all in array. It involved simply the +twitching off of a white apron, the settling of a pretty sun hat--for +the sun actually shone!--and the seizure of a waterproof, needed, if she +found a seat, to protect her from the damp boards--needed in any case, +because in five minutes it might rain--and she was ready. + +Ruth came to the door. + +"Come, Flossy," she said; "where in the world are you? We shall be +late." And said it precisely as though she had been waiting for that +young person for half an hour. + +Flossy emerged from the adjoining tent. + +"I am not going." she said. "I have turned nurse-girl, and have the +sweetest little baby in here that ever grew. Mrs. Adams is going in my +place. Mrs. Adams, Miss Erskine." + +And as those two ladies walked away together Mrs. Adams might have been +heard to say: + +"What a lovely, unselfish disposition your friend has! It was so +beautiful in her to take me so by storm this morning! I am afraid I was +very selfish; which is apt to be the case, I think, when one comes in +contact with actual unselfishness. It is one of the Christian graces +that is very hard to cultivate, anyway; don't you think so?" + +Ruth was silent; not from discourtesy, but from astonishment. It was +such a strange experience to hear any one speak of Flossy Shipley as +"unselfish." In truth she had grown up under influences that had combined +to foster the most complete and tyrannical selfishness--exercised +in a pretty, winning sort of way, but rooted and grounded in her very +life. So indeed was Ruth's; but _she_, of course, did not know that, +though she had clear vision for the mote in Flossy's eyes. + +Meantime Marion had staid her busy pen and was biting the end of it +thoughtfully. The two tents were such near neighbors that the latter +conversation and introduction had been distinctly heard. She glanced +around to the girl on the bed. + +"Eurie," she said, "are you asleep, or are you enjoying Flossy's last +new departure?" + +Eurie giggled. + +"I heard," she said. "The lazy little mouse has slipped out of a +tedious hour, and has a chance to lounge and read a pleasant novel. I +dare say the mother is provided with them." + +Then Marion, after another thoughtful pause: + +"But, my child, how do you account for the necessity of going to the +neighbors and taking the supervision of a baby in order to do that? +Flossy need not have gone to church if she didn't choose." + +"Yes she need. Don't you suppose the child can see that it is the +fashion of the place? She is afraid that it wouldn't look well to stay +in the tent and lounge, without an excuse for doing so. If that girl +could only go to a place where it was the fashion for all the people to +be good, she would be a saint, just because 'they' were." + +"She would have to go to heaven," muttered Marion, going on with her +writing. + +"And, according to you, there is no such place; so there is no hope for +her, after all. Oh, dear! I wonder if you are right, and nothing is of +any consequence, anyhow?" And the weary girl turned on her pillow and +tried not to think, an effort that was hard to accomplish after a week's +experience at Chautauqua. + +Flossy sat herself down beside the sleeping darling, and cast about her +for something to amuse or interest, her eyes brightening into beauty as +she recognized a worn and torn copy of the Bible. Eurie would have been +surprised to see the eagerness with which she seized upon the book that +was to afford her entertainment. She turned the leaves tenderly, with a +new sense of possession about her. This Bible was a copy of letters that +had been written to her--words spoken, many of them, by Jesus himself. +Strange that she had so little idea what they were! Marion, with her +boasted infidel notions, knew much more about "The Book" than Flossy +with her nominal Christian education and belief. She had no idea where +to turn or what to look for to help her. Yet she turned the leaves +slowly, with a delicious sense of having found a prize a--book of +instructions, a guide book for her on this journey that she was just +beginning to realize that she was taking. Somewhere within it she would +find light and help. The book was one that had been much used, and had a +fashion of opening of itself at certain places that might have been +favorites with the little mother. At one of those places Flossy halted +and read: "'After this there was a feast of the Jews.' After what, I +wonder?" she said within herself. She knew nothing about it. "Never +mind, I will see pretty soon. This is about a feast where Jesus was. And +Jesus went up to Jerusalem." "Oh, how nice to have been there, wherever +that was." The ignorant little thing had not the least idea where +Jerusalem was, except that it was in that far away, misty Holy Land, +that had seemed as vague and indefinite to her as the grave or as +heaven. But there came suddenly to her heart a certain blessed analogy. + +"If I were going to write an account of my recent experiences to some +dear friend that I wanted to tell it to," she said, talking still to +herself, or to the sleeping baby, "I would write it something like this: +'After this'--That would mean; let me see what it _would_ mean. Why, +after that party at home, when I danced all night and was sick. 'After +this there was a feast of the Christian people at Chautauqua, and Jesus +went there.' I could certainly write that, for I have seen him and heard +him speak in my very heart." Then she went on, through the second verse +to the third. "'In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of +blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water,'" and here a +great swell of tears literally blinded her eyes. It came to her so +suddenly, so forcibly. The great multitude here at Chautauqua--blind. +Yes, some of them. Was not she? How many more might there be? Many of +whom she knew, others that she did not know, but that Jesus did. Waiting +without knowing that they were waiting. With tears and smiles, and with +a new great happiness throbbing at her heart, she read through the +sweet, simple, wonderful story; how the poor man met Jesus; how he +questioned; how the man complained; and how Jesus was greater than his +infirmity. Through the whole of it, until suddenly she closed the book, +her tears dried, and a solemn, wondering, almost awe-struck look on her +face. She had got her lesson, her directions, her example. She could +bear no more, even of the Bible, just then. She said it over, that +startling verse that came to her with a whole volume of suggestion: +"'_And the man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had +made him whole._'" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +GREAT MEN. + + +Ruth Erskine, with her skirts gathered daintily around her, to avoid +contact with the unclean earth, made her way skill fully through the +crowd, and with the aid of a determined spirit and a camp-chair secured +a place and a seat very near the stand. The little lady who timidly +followed in her lead was not quite so fortunate, inasmuch as she had no +camp-chair, and was less resolved in her determination to get ahead of +those who had arrived earlier; so she contented herself with a damp seat +on the end of a board, which was vacated for her use by a courteous +gentleman. + +Ruth, you must understand, was not selfish in this matter because she +had planned to be, but simply because it had never occurred to her to be +otherwise, which is one of the misfortunes that come to people who are +educated in a selfish atmosphere. Ruth Erskine had come to this meeting +fully prepared to enjoy it. Dr. Cuyler was a star of sufficient +magnitude to attract her. During her frequent visits to New York she had +heard much of but had never seen him. The people whom she visited were +too elegant in their views and practices to have much in common with the +church which was so pronounced on the two great questions of religion +and temperance. Yet, even with them, Dr. Cuyler and Dr. Cuyler's great +church were eccentricities to be tolerated, not ignored. Therefore Ruth +had had it in her heart to enjoy listening to him sometime. The sometime +had arrived. She had dressed herself with unusual care, a ceremony which +seemed to be quite in the background among the people who were at home +at Chautauqua. But someway it seemed to Ruth that the great Brooklyn +pastor should receive this mark of respect at her hands; so she had +spent the morning at her toilet and was now a fashionable lady, +fashionably attired for church. + +If the people who vouchsafed her a glance as she crowded past indulged, +some of them, in a smile at her expense, and thought the simple temple +made of trees and grasses an inappropriate surrounding to her silken +robes and costly lace mantle, she was none the wiser for that, you know, +and took her seat, indifferent to them all, except that presently there +stole over her the sense of disagreeable incongruity with her outdoor +surroundings; so Satan had the pleasure of ruffling her spirits and +occupying her thoughts with her rich brown silk dress instead of letting +her heart be touched with the solemnity and beauty of the grand hymn +which rolled down those long aisles. Satan has that everlasting weapon, +"What to wear, and what not to wear," everlastingly at command and +wonderfully under his control. But Ruth, in her way, was strong-minded +and could control her thoughts when she chose; so she presently shook +off the feeling of annoyance and decided to give herself up to the +influences of the hour. + +By this time Dr. Cuyler appeared and was introduced, Ruth gave him the +benefit of a very searching gaze, and decided that he was the very last +man of all those on the platform whom she would have selected as the +speaker. Probably if Dr. Cuyler had known this, and known also that his +personal presence entirely disappointed her, he would not have been +greatly disconcerted thereby. But his subject was one that found an +answering thrill in this young lady's heart--"Some Talks I Have Had With +Great Men." Ruth liked greatness. In her calm, composed way she bowed +before it. She would have enjoyed being great. Celebrity in a majestic, +dignified form would have been her delight. She by no means admitted +this, as Eurie Mitchell so often did. She by no means sought after it in +the small ways within her reach. Small ways did not suit her; they +disgusted her. But if she could have flashed into splendid greatness, if +by any amount of laborious study, or work, or suffering, she could have +seen the way to world-wide renown she would have grasped for it in an +instant. + +The next best thing to being renowned one's self was to have renowned +people for friends. This was another thing that Ruth coveted in silence. +She wanted no one to know how earnestly she aspired to, sometime, +making the acquaintance of some of the great people not--the vulgarly +great, those who were in a sense, and in the eyes of a few, great +because of the accidents of fortune and travel. She knew such by the +scores. Indeed, she had been in circles many a time where _she_ shone +with that sort of greatness herself. Perhaps it was for that reason that +it was such a despised height to her. But she meant the _really_ great +people of this world--people of power, people who moved the masses by +the force of their brains. Not one such had she ever met to look upon as +an acquaintance; and here was this man telling off the honored names by +the score, and saying, "My friend, Dr. Guthrie"--"My good friend, Thomas +Carlyle"--"My dear brother, Newman Hall." How would it seem to stand in +intimate relationship with one single gifted mind like these, and was +she destined ever to know by actual experience? + +There was another reason why Ruth had desired to choose Dr. Cuyler to +listen to rather than some other names on the programme, because, from +the nature of his subject she had judged it most unlikely that he +should have about him any arrows that would touch home to her. Not that +she put it in that language; she did not admit even to herself that any +of the solemn words that had been spoken at Chautauqua had reference to +her; and yet in a vague, fitful way she was ill at ease. + +She had moments of feeling that there was a reach of happiness possessed +by these people of which she knew nothing. Little side thrusts had come +to her from time to time in places where she least expected them. That +question, asked by Flossy during her night of unrest, "Should you be +afraid to die?" hovered around this quietly poised young lady in a most +unaccountable manner. All the more persistently did it cling because she +could not shake it off with the thought that it was silly. Common sense +told her that the strange, solemn shadow, which came so steadily after +men, and so surely enveloped one after another among the grandest +intellects that the world owned, was not a thing to pass over lightly. + +After all, why should she _not_ be afraid of death? Then that strange +gentleman who had persisted in ranking her among the praying people! he +had left his shadow. Why did she not pray? She wondered over this in a +vague sort of way; wondered how it seemed to kneel down alone, and speak +to an invisible presence; wondered if those who so knelt always felt as +though they were really speaking to God. + +There were times when Ruth was exceedingly disgusted with these +perplexing thoughts, and wanted nothing so much as to get away from +them. She resented this intrusion upon her quiet. This day was one of +those in which she was impatient of all these things, and she had made +her toilet with great satisfaction, and said within herself +complacently: "We are to have one hour at last devoted to this mundane +sphere and the mortals who inhabit it; most of the time these +Chautauquans talk and act as though earth was only a railroad station, +where people changed cars and went on to heaven. Dr. Cuyler is going to +refresh us with some actual living specimens of humanity. He can't make +a sermon out of that subject if he tries." + +But Ruth Erskine had not measured the power of the earnest preachers of +Jesus Christ. As if Dr. Cuyler could talk for an hour to thousands of +immortal souls, and leave Christ and heaven and immortality out. + +To Ruth these three words constituted a sermon, and she got them that +day. Not that he had an idea that he was preaching Christ, except +incidentally, as a man refers almost unconsciously to the one whom he +loves best in all the world but Ruth knew he was. It came in little +sudden touches when she least expected it, when heart and soul were +wrought upon with some strong enthusiasm by the splendid picture of a +splendid man--as when he told of Spurgeon. It was a glowing description, +such as thrilled Ruth, and made her feel that to have just one glimpse +of that great man, with his great marvelous power over humanity, would +be worth a lifetime. + +Suddenly the speaker said: "The secret of that man's power lies, first, +in his study of the Bible." Ruth started and came down like a bomb-shell +from her wondrous height. The Bible! copies of which lay carelessly on +every table of her father's elegantly furnished house unstudied and +unthought of. How very strange to ascribe the power of the great +intellect to the study of one book that was more or less familiar to +every Sunday-school boy. "Second, in short, simple, homely language." +Ruth smiled now. Dr. Cuyler was growing absurd, as if it were not the +most common thing in the world to use simple, homely language! No +Spurgeons could be manufactured in that way, she was sure. "Third, +mighty earnestness to save souls." Here was a point concerning which +Ruth knew nothing. + +Dr. Cuyler's manner put tremendous force into the forceful words, and +carried conviction with them. She wondered how a really _mighty_ +earnestness to save souls made a man appear? She wondered whether she +had ever seen such a one; she went rapidly over the list of her +acquaintances in the church. She smiled to herself a sarcastic, +contemptuous smile; she had met them all at parties, concerts, +festivals, and the like; she had seen them on occasions when _nothing_ +seemed to possess them but to have a good time like the rest of the +world. + +Like the rest of the world, Ruth reasoned and decided from her chance +meetings with the outside life of these Christians, forgetting that she +had never seen one of them in their closets before God; rather, she +knew nothing about these closets, nor the experiences learned there, and +could only reason from outside life. This being the case, what a pity +that her verdict of those lives should have called forth only that +contemptuous smile! Wandering off in this train of thought, she lost the +speaker's next point, but was called back by his solemn, ringing close. + +"Put these together, melt them down with the love of Christ, and you +have a Spurgeon. God be thanked for such a piece of hand work as he!" + +Another start and another retrospect. _Did_ she know any people who put +these together; who made a real, earnest, constant study of the Bible as +school girls studied their Latin grammars, and who were really eager to +save souls because they had the love of Christ in their hearts, and who +said so in plain simple language? "Does he, I wonder?" she said to +herself. "I wonder if his sermons sound like that? I should like to hear +him preach just once. Oh, dear! if he isn't running off to Moody and +Sankey. It _is_ a sermon after all!" + +On the whole, Ruth was disgusted. Her brain was in a whirl; she was +being compelled to hear _sermons_ on every hand. She was sick of it. +They had been great men of whom she had heard, and she admired them all; +she wanted the secret of their power, but she didn't want it to be made +out of such commonplace material as was in the hands of every child. She +did not know what she wanted--only that she had come out to be +entertained and to revel in her love of heroes, and she had been pinned +down to the one thought that _real_ men were made of those who found +their power in their Bible and on their knees. + +The solemn, earnest, tender closing to this address did not lessen her +sense of discomfort. Then just beside her was carried on a conversation +that added to her annoyance. + +"They are big men," a man said. He was dressed in a common business +suit; his linen had not the exquisite freshness about it that her +fastidious eyes delighted in; his hands looked as though they might have +been used to work that was rough and hard; his straggling hair was +sprinkled with gray, and there was not a striking feature about him. + +"They are big men," he said, "and I've no doubt it is a big thing to +know them, and talk with them, and have a friendly feeling for each, as +if they belonged to him, but he knows a bigger one than them, and the +best of it is, so do we. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Elder Brother, is +not to be compared to common men like these." + +And now Ruth's lips curled utterly. She was an aristocrat without +knowing it. She believed in Christianity, and in its power to save the +poor and the commonest, but this insufferable assumption of dignity and +superiority over the rest of the world, as she called it, was hateful to +her in the extreme. It would have startled her exceedingly to have been +told that she was angry with the man for presuming to place _his_ Friend +higher in the list of great ones than any of those given that day; and +yet such was actually her feeling. She swept her skirts angrily away +from contact with the man, and spoke so crustily to the little lady who +had come in her wake that she moved timidly away. + +Just at her left were two gentlemen shaking hands. Both had been on the +stand together, she knew the faces of both, and _one_ ranked just a +trifle higher in her estimation than any one at Chautauqua. She edged a +little nearer. She lived in the hope of making the acquaintance of some +of these lights, just enough acquaintance to receive a bow and a clasp +of the hand, though how one could accomplish it who was determined that +her interest in them should neither be seen nor suspected, it would be +hard to say; but they were talking in eager, hearty tones, not at all as +if their words were confidential--at least she might have the benefit of +them. + +"That was a capital lecture," the elder of the two was saying. "Cuyler +has had great advantages in his life in meeting on a familiar footing so +many of our great men. When you get thinking of these things, and of the +many men whom you would like to know intimately, what is the thought +that strikes you most forcibly?" + +"That I am glad I belong to the 'royal family,' and have the opportunity +of knowing intimately and holding close personal relations with Him who +'spake as never man spake.'" + +The other answered in a rare, rich tone of suppressed jubilance of +feeling. + +"Exactly!" his friend said; "and when you can leave the fullness of +that thought long enough to take another, there is the looking forward +to actual fellowship and communion not only with him, but with all these +glorious men who are living here, and who have gone up yonder." + +Ruth turned abruptly away. The very thought that possessed the heart of +the plain-looking man and that so annoyed her; and these two, whom to +know was an honor, were looking forward to that consummation as the +height of it all! + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +A WAR OF WORDS. + + +"Well, why not?" she said, as she went slowly down the aisle. Of course +all these people would be in heaven together, and why should they not +look forward to a companionship untrameled by earthly forms and +conventionalities, and uncumbered by the body in its present dull and +ponderous state? What a chance to get into the best society! the highest +circle! real best, too, not made up of money, or blood, or dress, or any +of the flimsy and silly barriers that fenced people in and out now. Then +at once she felt her own inconsistency in growing disgusted with the +plainly-dressed, common-looking man. If he did really belong to that +"royal family," why not rejoice over it? Wasn't _she_ the foolish one? +She by no means liked these reflections, but she could not get away from +them. + +"How do you do?" said a clear, round voice behind her; not speaking to +her, but to some one whom he was very glad to see, judging from his +tone. And the voice was peculiar; she had been listening to it for an +hour, and could not be mistaken; it belonged to Dr. Cuyler himself. She +turned herself suddenly. Here was a chance for a nearer view, and to see +who was being greeted so heartily. It was the little lady whose society +had been thrust upon her that morning by Flossy. And they were shaking +hands as though they were old and familiar acquaintances! + +"It is good to see your face again," that same hearty voice which seemed +to have so much good fellowship in it was saying. "I didn't know you +were to be here; I'm real glad to see you again, and what about the +husband and the dear boy?" + +At which point it occurred to Miss Ruth Erskine that she was listening +to conversation not designed for her ears. She moved away suddenly, in +no way comforted or sweetened as to her temper by this episode. Why +should that little bit of an insignificant woman have the honor of such +a cordial greeting from the great man, while he did not even know of +_her_ existence? + +To be sure, Dr. Cuyler had baptized and received into church fellowship +and united in marriage the little woman with whom he was talking; but +Ruth, even if she had known these circumstances, was in no mood to +attach much importance to them. + +She wandered away from the crowd down by the lake-side. She stopped at +Jerusalem on her way, and poked her parasol listlessly into the sand of +which the hills lying about that city were composed, and thought: + +"What silly child's play all this was! How absurd to suppose that people +were going to get new ideas by _playing_ at cities with bits of painted +board and piles of sand! Even if they _could_ get a more distinct notion +of its surroundings, what difference did it make how Jerusalem looked, +or where it stood, or what had become of the buildings?" + +This last, as it began dimly to dawn upon her, that it was useless to +deny the fact that even such listless and disdainful staring as she had +vouchsafed to this make-believe city had located it, as it had not been +located before, in her brain. + +When she produced the flimsy question, "What difference does it make?" +you can see at once the absurd mood that had gotten possession of her, +and you lose all your desire to argue with any one who feels as foolish +as that. Neither had Ruth any desire to argue with herself; she was +disgusted with her mind for insisting on keeping her up to a strain of +thought. + +"A lovely place to rest!" she said, aloud, and indignantly, giving a +more emphatic poke with her parasol, and quite dislodging one of the +buildings in Jerusalem. "One's brain is just kept at high pressure all +the time." + +Now, why this young lady's brain should have been in need of rest she +did not take the trouble to explain, even to herself. She sat herself +down presently under one of the trees by the lake-side and gave herself +up to plans. She was tired of Chautauqua; of that she was certain. It +stirred her up, and the process was uncomfortable. Her former composed +life suited her taste better. She must get away. There was no earthly +reason why she should not go at once to Saratoga. A host of friends were +already there, and certain other friends would be only too glad to +follow as soon as ever they heard of her advent in that region. Before +she left that rustic settee under the trees she had the programme all +arranged. + +"We will get through to-morrow as we best can," she said, sighing over +the thought that to-morrow being the Sabbath would perforce be spent +there, "and then on Monday morning Flossy and I will just run away to +Saratoga and leave those two absurd girls to finish their absurd scheme +in the best way they can." + +And having disposed of Flossy as though she were a bit of fashionable +merchandise without any volition of her own, Ruth felt more composed and +went at once to dinner. + +There came an astonishing interference to this planning, from no other +than Flossy herself. To the utter amazement of each of the girls, she +quietly refused to be taken to Saratoga; nor did she offer any other +excuse for this astonishing piece of self-assertion than that she was +having a good time and meant to finish it. And to this she adhered with +a pertinacity that was very bewildering, because it was so very new. +Marion laughed over her writing, to which she had returned the moment +dinner was concluded. + +"That is right, Flossy," she said, "I'm glad to see Chautauqua is having +an effect of some sort on one of us. You are growing strong-minded; mind +isn't a bad thing to have; keep to yours. Ruth, I am astonished at +_you_; I shall have to confess that you are disappointing me, my child. +Now, I rather expected this dear little bit of lace and velvet to give +up, conquered, in less than a week, but I said to myself, 'Ruth Erskine +has pluck enough to carry her through a _month_ of camp-life,' and here +you are quenched at the end of four days." + +"It isn't the camp-life," Ruth said, irritably. "I am not so much a baby +as to care about those things to such a degree that I can't endure them, +though everything is disagreeable enough; but that isn't the point at +all." + +Marion turned and looked at her curiously. + +"What on earth is the point then? What has happened to so disgust you +with Chautauqua?" + +"The point is, that I am tired of it all. It is unutterably stupid! I +suppose I have a right to be tired of a silly scheme that ought never to +have been undertaken, if I choose to be, have I not, without being +called in question by any one?" + +And feeling more thoroughly vexed, not only with the girls, but with +herself, than ever she remembered feeling before, Ruth arose suddenly +and sought refuge under the trees outside the tent. + +Marion maintained a puzzled silence. This was a new phase in Ruth's +character, and one hard to manage. + +Flossy looked on the point of crying. She was not used to crossing the +wills of those who had influence over her, but she was very determined +as to one thing: she was not going to leave Chautauqua. + +"Nothing could tempt me to go to Saratoga just now," she said, +earnestly. + +"Why?" asked Marion, and receiving no answer at all felt that Flossy +puzzled her as much as Ruth had done. However, she set herself to work +to restore peace. + +"This letter is done," she said, gayly, folding her manuscript. "It is a +perfectly gushing account of yesterday's meeting, for some of which I am +indebted to the Buffalo reporters; for I have given the most thrilling +parts where I wasn't present. Now I'm going to celebrate. Come in, Ruth, +we are of the same mind precisely. I would gladly accompany you on the +afternoon train to Saratoga with the greatest pleasure, were it not for +certain inconveniences connected with my pocket-book, and a desire to +replenish it by writing up this enterprise. But since we can't go to +Saratoga, let's you and I go to Mayville. It is a city of several +hundred inhabitants, six or eight, certainly, I should think; and we can +have an immense amount of fun out of the people and the sights this +afternoon, and escape the preaching. I haven't got to write another +letter until Monday. Come, shall we take the three o'clock boat?" + +Neither of these young ladies could have told what possible object there +could be in leaving the lovely woods in which they were camped and +going off to the singularly quiet, uninteresting little village of +Mayville, except that it was, as they said, a getting away from the +preaching--though why two young ladies, with first-class modern +educations, should find it so important to get themselves away from some +of the first speakers in the country they did not stop to explain even +to themselves. However, the plan came to Ruth as a relief, and she +unhesitatingly agreed to it; so they went their ways--Flossy to the +afternoon meeting (since Eurie declared herself so far convalescent as +to be entirely able to remain alone) and the two of the party who had +prided themselves up to this time on their superiority of intellect down +to the wharf to take the boat for Mayville. + +The ride thither on the lovely lake was almost enough to excuse them for +their folly. But the question what to do with themselves afterward was +one that burdened them during all that long summer afternoon. They went +to the Mayville House and took a walk on the piazza, and the boarders +looked at them in curiosity, and wondered if it were really a pleasanter +walk than the green fields over at Chautauqua. + +They ordered dinner and ate it at the general table with great relish, +Ruth rejoicing over this return to civilized life. One episode of the +table must be noted. Opposite them sat a gentleman who, either from +something in their appearance, or more probably from the reasonable +conclusion that all the strangers who had gathered at the quiet little +village were in some way associated with the great gathering, addressed +them as being part of that great whole. + +"You people are going to reap a fine harvest, pecuniarily, to-morrow; +but how about the fourth commandment? You Christians lay great stress on +that document whenever a Sunday reading-room or something of that sort +is being contemplated, don't you?" + +The remark was addressed to both of them, but Ruth was too much occupied +with the strangeness of the thought that she was again being counted +among "Christian people" to make any answer. Not so Marion. Her eyes +danced with merriment, but she answered with great gravity: + +"We believe in keeping holy the Sabbath day, of course. What has that to +do with Chautauqua. Haven't you consulted the programme and read: 'No +admission at the gates or docks'?" + +The gentleman smiled incredulously. + +"I have read it," he said, significantly, "and doubtless many believe it +implicitly. I hope their faith won't be shaken by hearing the returns +from tickets counted over in the evening." + +There was a genuine flush of feeling on Marion's face now. + +"Do you mean to say," she asked, haughtily, "that you have no faith in +the published statement that the gates will be closed, or do you mean +that the association have changed their minds? Because if you have heard +the latter, I can assure you it is a mistake, as I heard the matter +discussed by those in authority this very morning; and they determined +to adhere rigidly to the rules." + +"I have no doubt they will, so far as lies in their power," the +gentleman said, with an attempt at courtesy in his manner. "But the +trouble is, the thing is absurd on the face of it. If I hold a ticket +for an entertainment, which the Association have sold to me, it is none +of their business on what day I present it, provided the entertainment +is in progress. They have no right to keep me out, and they are +swindling me out of so much money if they do it." + +"You have changed your argument," Marion said, with a flash of humor in +her eyes. "You were talking about the amount of money that the +Association were to earn to-morrow, not the amount which you were to +lose by not being allowed to come in. However, I am willing to talk from +that standpoint. If you hold the _season_ ticket of the Association, and +are stopping outside, you will be admitted, of course. It is held to be +as reasonable a way to go to church as though you harnessed your horses +at home and drove, on the Sabbath, to your regular place of worship. But +you buy no ticket _for_ the Sabbath, and none is received from you; and +if you choose not to go, the Association neither makes nor loses by the +operation, and, so far as money is concerned, is entirely indifferent +which you decide to do. What fault can possibly be found with such an +arrangement?" + +"Well," said the gentleman, with a quiet positiveness of tone, "I +haven't a season ticket, and I don't mean to buy one, and I mean to go +down there to meeting to-morrow, and I expect to get in." + +"I dare say," Marion answered, with glowing cheeks. "The grounds are +extensive, you know, and they are not walled in. I haven't the least +doubt but that hundreds can creep through the brush, and so have the +gospel free. There is something about 'he that climbeth up some other +way being a thief and a robber;' but, of course, the writer could not +have had Chautauqua in mind; and even if it applies, it would be only +stealing from an Association, which is not stealing at all, you know." + +"You are hard on me," the gentleman said, flushing in his turn, and the +listeners, of whom there were many, laughed and seemed to enjoy the +flashing of words. "I have no intention of creeping or climbing in. I +shall present the same sort of ticket which took me in to-day, and if it +doesn't pass me I will send you a dispatch to let you know, if you will +give me your address." + +"And if you _do_ get in, and will let me know, I will report at once to +the proper authorities that the gate-keepers have been unfaithful to +their trust," said Marion, triumphantly. + +"But, my dear madam, what justice is there in that? I have paid my +money, and what business is it to them when I present my ticket? That is +keeping me out of my just dues." + +"Oh, not a bit of it; that is, if you can read, and have, as you admit, +read their printed statement that you are not invited to the ground on +Sunday. Your fifty-cent ticket will admit you on Monday. And you surely +will not argue that the Association has not a right to limit the number +of guests that it will entertain over the Sabbath?" + +"Yes, I argue that it is their business to let me in whenever I present +their ticket." + +Marion laughed outright. + +"That is marvelous!" she said. "It is wicked for them to receive payment +for your coming in on the Sabbath, and it is wicked for them not to let +you in on your ticket. Really, I don't see what the Association are to +do. They are committing sin either way it is put. I see no way out of it +but to have refused to sell you any tickets at all. Would that have +made it right?" + +The laugh that was raised over this innocently put question seemed to +irritate her new acquaintance. He spoke hastily. + +"It is a Sabbath-breaking concern, viewed in any light that you choose +to put it. There is no sense in holding camp-meetings over the Sabbath, +and every one agrees that they have a demoralizing effect." + +"Do you mean me to understand you to think that the several thousand +people who are now stopping at Chautauqua will be breaking the Sabbath +by going out of their tents to-morrow and walking down to the public +service?" + +The bit of sophistry in this meekly put question was overlooked, or at +least not answered, and the logical young gentleman asked: + +"If they think Sabbath services in the woods so helpful, why are they +not consistent? Let them throw the meeting open for all who wish to +come, making the gospel without money and without price, as they pretend +it is. Why isn't that done?" + +"Well, there are at least half a dozen reasons. I wonder you have not +thought of one of them. In the first place, that, of course, would tempt +to a great deal of Sabbath traveling, a thing which they carefully guard +against now by refusing to admit all travelers. And in the second place, +it would give the Chautauqua people a great deal to do in the way of +entertaining so large a class of people. As it is, they have quite as +much as they care to do to make comfortable the large company who belong +to their family. And in the third place--But perhaps you do not care to +hear all the reasons?" + +He ignored this question also, and went back to one of her arguments. + +"They don't keep travelers away at all, even by your own admission. What +is to hinder hundreds of them from coming here to-day and buying season +tickets in order to get in to-morrow?" + +He had the benefit of a most quizzical glance then from Marion's shining +eyes before she answered. + +"Oh, well, if the people are really so hungering and thirsting for the +gospel, as it is dispensed at Chautauqua, that they are willing to act +a lie, by pretending that they are members _who have been and are to be +in regular attendance_, and then are willing to pay two dollars and a +half for the Sunday meeting, I don't know but I think they ought to be +allowed to _creep_ in. Don't you?" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +GETTING READY TO LIVE. + + +Amid the laughter that followed this retort the company rose up from the +table and went their various ways, to meet, perhaps, again. + +"How on earth do you manage to keep so thoroughly posted in regard to +Chautauqua affairs? One would think you were the wife of the private +secretary. _I_ shouldn't have known whether the gates were to be opened +or closed to-morrow." + +This from Ruth as the two girls paced the long piazza while waiting for +the carriage which was to take them to the boat; for, having exhausted +the resources of Mayville for entertainment, they were about to return +to Chautauqua. + +Marion laughed. + +"I'm here in the capacity of a newspaper writer, please remember," she +answered promptly, "and what I don't know I can imagine, like the rest +of that brilliant fraternity. I am not really positive about a great +many of the statements that I made, except on the general principle that +these people belong to the class who are very much given to doing +according to their printed word. It says on the circulars that the gates +will be closed on the Sabbath, and I dare say they will be. At least, we +have a right to assume such to be the case until it is proven false." + +"What class of people do you mean who are given to doing as they have +agreed? Christian people, do you refer to?" + +"Well, yes; the sort of Christians that one meets at such a gathering as +this. As a rule, the namby-pamby Christians stay away from such places; +or, if they come, they float off to Saratoga or some more kindred +climate. I beg your pardon, Ruthie, that doesn't mean you, you know, +because you are not one of any sort." + +"Then do you take it to be their religion which inclines you to trust +to their word, without having an individual acquaintance with them?" + +Marion shrugged her shoulders. + +"Oh, bother!" she said, gayly, "you are not turning theologian, or +police detective in search of suspicious characters, are you? I never +pretend to pry into my notions for and against people and things; if I +was betrayed into anything that sounded like common sense I beg your +pardon. I am out on a frolic, and mean to have it if there is any such +thing." + +"Well, before you go back into absolute nonsense let me ask you one more +question. Do you really feel as deeply as you pretended to that man, on +all these questions of the Chautauqua conscience? I mean, is it a vital +point in your estimation whether people go there to church on Sunday or +not?" + +Marion hesitated, and a fine glow deepened on her face as she said, +after a little, speaking with grave dignity: + +"I do not know that I can explain myself to you, Ruth, and I dare say +that I seem to you like a bundle of contradictions; but it is a real +pleasure to me to come in contact with people who have earnest faith +and eager enthusiasm over _anything_, and principle enough to stand by +their views through evil and good report. In this way, and to a great +degree, this meeting is a positive delight to me, though I know +personally as little about the feeling from which they think their +actions take rise as any mortal can. Does that answer satisfy you, my +blessed mother confessor? or are you more muddled than ever over what I +do, and especially over what I do _not_ believe?" + +"If I believed as much as you do I should look further." + +Ruth said this with emphasis; and there was that in it which, despite +her attempts to throw it off, set Marion to thinking, and kept her +wonderfully quiet during their return trip. + +On the whole, the flight to Mayville was not viewed entirely in the +light of a success. Ruth had been quiet and grave for some time, when +she suddenly spoke in her most composed and decided voice: + +"I shall go to Saratoga on Monday, whether any one else will or not; I +shall find plenty of friends to welcome me, and I shall take the +morning train from here." + +But she didn't. + +Meantime Flossy's afternoon had been an uninterrupted satisfaction to +her. She attended the children's meeting, and it was perfectly amazing +to her newly awakened brain how many of the stories, used to point +truths for the children, touched home to her. + +Dr. Hurlbut, of Plainfield, seemed to have especially planned his +address for the purpose of hitting at some of the markedly weak points +in her character, though no doubt the good man would have been utterly +amazed had he known her thoughts. + +She listened and laughed with the rest over the story of the poor tailor +who promised a coat to a customer for one, two and three weeks, heaping +up his promises one on the other until he had a perfect pyramid of them, +only to topple about his ears. She heard with the rest the magnificent +voice ring out the solemn conclusion: + +"Children, he did not mean to lie. He did not even think he was a liar. +He only _broke his promises_." + +They all heard, and I don't know how many shivered over it, but I _do_ +know that to Flossy Shipley it seemed as if some one had struck her an +actual blow. Was it possible that the easy sentences, the easy promises, +to "write," to "come," to "bring this," to "tell that," made so +gracefully, sounding so kindly, costing so little because forgotten +almost as soon as her head was turned away, actually belonged in that +list described by the ugly word "lie." Flossy had been a special sinner +in this department of polite wickedness because it just accorded with +her nature; such promises were so easy to make, and seemed to please +people, and were so easy to forget. Like the tailor, she hadn't meant to +be a liar, nor dreamed that she was one. + +But her wide-open ears took it all in, and her roused brain turned the +thought over and over, until, be it known to you, that that girl's happy +pastor, when he receives from her a decided, "Yes, sir, I will do it," +may rest assured that unless something beyond her control intervenes she +will be at her post. + +So much did Dr. Hurlbut accomplish that afternoon without ever knowing +it. There were many things done that afternoon, I suspect, that only +the light of the judgement day will reveal. Over the story of the two +workmen, who each resolved to stick to a certain effort for six months, +and did it, the one earning thereby a patent right worth thousands of +dollars, and the other teaching a little dog how to dance to the +whistling of a certain tune, Flossy looked unutterably sober, while the +laughter swelled to a perfect roar around her. It was hard to feel that +not "six months" only, but a dozen years of intelligent life, were gone +from her, and she had not even taught a dog to dance a jig! That was the +very way she put it in her humility; and I do not say that she placed it +too low, because really I don't know that Flossy Shipley had _ever had_ +even so settled a purpose in life as that! She had simply fluttered +around the edge of this solemn business that we call living. + +But along with the sober thought glowed the earnest purpose: given +another dozen years to my young lady's life and they will bear a +different record; and whatever they bear, Dr. Hurlburt will be in a +sense responsible for, though he never saw her and probably never will. +Verily this living is a complicated bewildering thing Well for us that +_all_ the weight of the responsibility is not ours to bear. + +There was still another story, and over it Flossy's lips parted, and her +eyes glowed with feeling. That wonderful machine that the most skillful +workmen tried in vain to repair, that was useless and worthless, until +the name of the owner was found on it, and he was sent for, then indeed +it found the master-hand, the only one who could right it; she did not +need Dr. Hurlbut's glowing application. "So He who made us, and engraved +his name, his image, on our bodies, can alone take our hearts and make +them right." + +Flossy listened to this and the sentences that followed, thrilling her +heart with their power and beauty--thrilling as they would not have done +one week ago, for did she not know by actual experience just how blessed +a worker the great Maker was? Had she not carried her heart to him, and +had he not left his indelible impression there? Oh, this was a wonderful +meeting to Flossy--one that she will never forget--one that many others +will have reason to remember, because of the way in which she listened. +But was it not strange, the way in which her education was being cared +for? + +After tea she stood at the entrance of the tent, looking out for the +girls--looking out, also, on the cool, quiet sunset and the glory spread +everywhere, for there had been sunshine that day, part of the time, and +there was a clear sun setting. Under her arm she held the treasure which +she had in the morning determined to possess--a good, plain, large-print +Bible, not at all like the velvet-covered one that lay on her +toilet-stand at home, but such as the needs of Bible students at +Chautauqua had demanded, and therefore much better fitted for actual +service than the velvet. + +Among the many passers-by came Mrs. Smythe. She halted before Flossy. + +"Good-evening. I thought your party must have left. I haven't seen you +since Thursday. Haven't you been fearfully bored? We are going to leave +on Monday morning--going to Saratoga. Don't some of you want to join us? + +"I don't know," Flossy said, thoughtfully mindful of Ruth and her plan +that had not worked. "It is possible that Miss Erskine may. Do your +entire party go?" + +"Oh, not my nephew, of course! Nothing could tear him away. He is +perfectly charmed with all this singing and praying and preaching, but I +confess it is too much of a good thing for me. I am not intellectually +inclined, I like the music very well, and some of the addresses are +fine; but there is such a thing as carrying meetings to excess." + +At this point she turned quickly at the sound of a firm step behind her, +and greeted a young man. + +"Speak of angels and you hear their wings, or the squeak of their +boots," she said. "We were just talking about you, Evan. My nephew, Mr. +Roberts, Miss Shipley. I believe you have never met before." + +Had they not! There was a heightened flush on the cheek of each as they +shook hands. It was clear that each recognized the other. + +"Are we strangers?" he asked, with a bright smile, speaking so low that +Mrs. Smythe, whose attention had already wandered from them to a group +who were passing, did not hear the words, "On the contrary, I think we +are related, though I do not know that we have happened to hear each +other's names before." + +Flossy understood the relationship--sons and daughters of one +Father--for she knew this was the young man who had twice questioned her +concerning her allegiance to that Father. Also, she remembered him as +the only one whom she had ever heard pray for her. + +Mrs. Smythe called out a gay good-evening to them, and joined a party of +friends, and Mr. Roberts leaned against a tree and prepared to cultivate +the acquaintance of his newly-found relative. + +"You have one of those large, sensible-looking Bibles, I see," he said. +"I have been very much tempted, but I could not make myself feel that I +really needed one." + +"I really needed mine," Flossy said, smiling. "I left my Bible at home. +I had not such a thought as bringing it along. I feel now as if I had a +treasure that I didn't know how to use. It is quite new to me. I don't +know where to read first, but I suppose it makes no difference." + +"Indeed it does make great difference," he said, smiling, "and you will +enjoy finding out how to read it. Chautauqua is a good place for such a +study, and the Bible reading this evening is an excellent place to +commence. Are you going?" + +"Yes, indeed!" Flossy said, with brightening eyes. "I have been looking +forward to it all day. I can't think what a Bible reading is. Do they +just read verses in the Bible?" + +"Yes," he said, smiling. "It is just Bible verses, with a word of +explanation now and then and a little singing. But the Bible verses are +something remarkable, as you will see. It is nearly time for service. +Are you ready? Shall we walk down and secure seats?" + +So they went down together it the early twilight, and took seats under +the trees amid the glowing of brilliant lights and the soft sound of +music coming from the piano on the stand. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE SILENT WITNESS. + + +That Bible reading! I wish I could make it appear to you as it did to +Flossy Shipley. Not that either, because I trust that the sound of the +Bible verses is not so utterly new to you as it was to her--rather, that +it might sound to you as it did to the earnest-souled young man who sat +beside her, taking in ever; word with as much eagerness as if some of +the verses had not been his dear and long-cherished friends; nay, with +more eagerness on that account. + +Do you know Dr. Parsons, of Boston? It was he who conducted that +reading, and his theme was, "The Coming of the Lord." + +Let me give you just a few of the groupings as he called them forth +from his congregation under the trees, and which he called "the Lord's +own testimonies to his coming:" + +"Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." +"Therefore, be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not the +Son of man cometh." "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor +the hour wherein the Son of man cometh." "Take ye heed, watch and pray: +for ye know not when the time is." + +Four solemn warnings from the Head of the vineyard. They reached to +Flossy's very soul, and she had that old well-known thrill of feeling +that almost every Christian has some time experienced. + +"If _I_ had only been there; if He had spoken such words to _me_, I +could never, never have forgotten, or been neglectful. If I could only +have heard Him speak!" And as if in answer to this longing cry Dr. +Parsons himself read the next solemn sentence, read it in such a way +that it almost seemed as if this might be the sacred garden, and +_Himself_ standing among the olive-trees speaking even to _her_: + +"And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch." Here, then, was her +direction from His own lips. Though centuries had passed since He spoke +them they echoed down to her. She was not overwhelmed; she was not +crushed by the new and solemn sense of her calling that flowed over her. +The Lord himself was there in every deed, and whispered in her ear, "It +is I, be not afraid." And her heart responded solemnly, "Aye, Lord, I +feel thy presence; I have been sleeping, but I am awake, and from +henceforth I _will_ watch." + +That Bible reading was like a whole week of theological study to Flossy. +It was not that she learned simply about the blessed assurance, the +weight of testimony amounting to an absolute certainty, concerning the +coming of the Lord. But there were so many truths growing out from that, +so many incentives to be up and doing; for she found before the reading +closed that one must not only watch, but in the watching work; and there +were so many reasons why she should, and so many hints as to the way and +the time. Then there was, also, the most blessed discovery that the +Bible was not a book to treat like an arithmetic. That one must read +through the Book of Genesis, and then go on to Exodus, a chapter to-day, +two chapters to-morrow, and perhaps some days, when one was not in too +great a hurry and could read very fast, take half a dozen chapters, and +so get through it. But she learned that there were little connecting +links of sweetness all the way through the book; that she had a right to +look over in Revelation for an explanation of something that was stated +in Deuteronomy. She did not learn all this, either, at this one time; +but she got a vivid hint of it, strong enough to keep her hunting and +pulling at the lovely golden thread of the Bible for long years to come. + +There were special points about the closing verses that throbbed in her +heart, and awakened purposes that never slept again. It was the +gentleman who sat beside her who read the solemn words of the verse: + +"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the +heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt +with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall +be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, +what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and +godliness?" + +His voice was very earnest, and his face had an eager look of solemn +joy. + +From it she felt the truth that while the words which he had been +reading were full of solemnity, and while he felt the sense of +responsibility, there was also that in them which filled his heart with +great joy, for when that time should come would not he be with his Lord? + +Again, when a little later he gave the closing verses of this wonderful +lesson, reading them from her Bible, because in the dimness the print +was larger and clearer than his own, they made the conclusion of the +whole matter: + +"Ye are the children of light, and the children of the day; we are not +of the night, nor of the darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do +others, but let us watch and be sober." + +He marked it with his pencil as he finished reading, and as he returned +the book to her keeping he said with a smile: + +"We will, shall we not?" + +And it felt to Flossy like a convenant, witnessed by the Lord himself. +But Dr. Parsons, you know, knew nothing of all this. Chautauqua was the +place for sowing the seed; they could only hope that the Lord of the +vineyard was looking on and watching over the coming harvest; it was not +for their eyes to see the fruits. + +Sunday morning at Chautauqua! None of all the many hundreds who spent +the day within the shadow of that sweet and leafy place have surely +forgotten how the quaint and quiet beauty of the place and its +surroundings fell upon them; they know just how the birds sang among +those tall old trees; they know just how still and blue and clear the +lake looked as they caught glimpses of it through the quivering green of +myriad leaves; they know just how clearly the Chautauqua bells cut the +air and called to the worship. It needs not even these few words to +recall the place in its beauty to the hearts of those who worshiped +there that day; and for you who did not see it nor feel its power there +is no use to try to describe Chautauqua. Only this, it is a place to +love and look back to with a sort of sweet and tender longing all your +lives. + +Our girls felt somewhat of the sacredness of the place; at least they +went around with a more decided feeling that it was Sunday than they had +ever realized before. Three of them did. + +To Flossy this day was like the revelation of a new heaven and a new +earth. Her first Sunday in Christ! + +There was no sunshine, neither was there rain. Just a hush of all +things, and sweetness everywhere. + +After breakfast Ruth and Marion lolled on their cots and studied the +programme, while the other two made hasty toilets, and announced their +intention of going to Sunday-school. + +"What in the name of sense takes you?" queried Marion, rising on one +elbow, the better to view this strange phenomena. + +"Why I have a mission," Eurie said. "About three thousand people have +been talking all this week about teaching a few Bible verses to some +children to-day, and I am going to find out what they are, and what is +so wonderful about them. Besides, I was taken for a being named Miss +Rider, and on inquiry I find her to be what they call an infant-class +teacher, so I am going to hunt her up and see if we look alike and are +affinities." + +Flossy chose to make no answer at all, and presently the two departed +together to attend their first Sabbath-school since they were known as +children. As they passed a certain tent Eurie's ready ears gained +information from other passers-by: + +"This is where the little children are; Miss Rider is going to teach +them." + +Eurie halted. + +"_I'm_ going in here," she said, decidedly, to Flossy. "That is the very +lady I am in search of." And seeing Flossy hesitate, she added: "Oh, you +may go on, it is just as well to divide our forces; we may each have +some wonderful adventure. You go your way and I will go mine, and we'll +see what will come of it." + +The tent was full apparently; but that spirit which was rife at +Chautauqua, and which prompted everybody to try to look out a little for +the comfort of everybody else, made a seat full of ladies crowd a little +and make room for her. Rows and rows of little people with smiling faces +and shining eyes! It was a pretty sight. Eurie gave eager attention to +the lady who was talking to them, and laughed a little to herself over +the dissimilarity of their appearance. + +"Hair and eyes and height, and everything else, totally unlike me!" she +said. "She is older than I, too, ever so much. She doesn't look as I +thought Miss Rider would." + +But what she was saying proved to be very interesting, not only to the +little people, but to Eurie. She listened eagerly. It was important to +discover what had been so stirring the Sunday-school world all the week. +She was not left in doubt; the story was plainly, clearly, fascinatingly +told; it was that tender one of the sick man so long waiting, waiting to +be helped into the pool; disappointed year after year, until one blessed +day Jesus came that way and asked one simple question, and received an +eager answer, and gave one brief command, and, lo! the work was done! +The long, long years of pain and trial were over! Do you think this +seemed like a wonderful story to Eurie? Do you think her cheeks glowed +with joy over the thought of the great love and the great power of +Jesus? + +Alas, alas! to her there was no beauty in him. This simple tender story +did not move her as the commonplace account of a common sickness and +common recovery given in a village paper would have done. The very most +that she thought of it was this: "That Miss Rider has a good deal of +dramatic power. How well she tells the story! But dear me! how stupid it +must be. What is the use of taking so much trouble for these little +midgets? They don't understand the story, and of what use would it be to +them if they did? Something that happened to somebody hundreds of years +ago." + +But now her attention was arrested by the sound of a very loud whisper +just behind her, given in a childish voice. "Miss Rider, Miss Rider," +the child was saying, and emphasizing her whisper by a pull at a lady's +dress. Eurie turned quickly; the dress belonged to a young, fair girl, +with fresh glowing face and large bright eyes, that shone now with +feeling as she listened eagerly to this story, and to the comments of +the children concerning it. Then she in turn whispered to the lady +nearest her: "Is it Miss Rider who is teaching?" "No, it is Mrs. Clark, +of Newark. That is Miss Rider leaning against a post." + +Then Eurie looked back to her. "She is no older than I," she murmured; +"indeed not so old, I should think. Her hair must be exactly the color +of mine, and we are about the same height. I wonder if we _do_ look in +the least alike? What do I care!" Yet still she looked; the bright face +fascinated her. The little child had won the lady's attention; and the +lips and eyes, and indeed the whole face, were vivid with animation as +she bent low and answered some troubled question, appealing to the +diagram on the board, and making clear her answer by rapid gestures with +her fingers. The lady beside Eurie volunteered some more information. + +"Miss Rider was to have taught this class, I heard. I wonder why she +didn't?" + +"I don't know," Eurie answered, briefly. Then she looked back at her +again. "She is jealous," she said to herself. "She was to have taught +this class this morning, and by some blundering she was left out, and +she is disgusted. She will say that such teaching as this amounts to +nothing; she could have done it five times as well; or, if she doesn't +_say_ that last, she will think it and act it. I have no doubt these +rival teachers cordially hate each other, like politicians." + +Nevertheless that fresh young face, with its glow of feeling, fascinated +her. She kept looking at her; she gave no more attention to the lesson. +What was it, after all, but an old story that had nothing to do with +her; the fact that it was taken from the Bible was proof enough of that. +But she watched Miss Rider. The session closed and that lady pressed +forward to assist in giving out papers. The crowd pushed the willing +Eurie nearer to her, so near that she could catch the sentence that she +was eagerly saying to the lady near her. + +"Isn't Mrs. Clark delightful? It was such a beautiful lesson this +morning. I think it is such a treat and such a privilege to be allowed +to listen to her. Yes, darling," this last to another little one +claiming a word, "of course Jesus can hear you now, just as well as +though He stood here. He often says to people, 'Wilt thou be made +whole?' He has said so to you this morning." + +Eurie turned away quickly. She had had her lesson. It wasn't from the +Bible, nor yet did she find it in those hundred little faces so eager +to know the story in all its details. It was just in that young face not +so old as hers, so bright, so strong, so thoroughly alert, and so +thoroughly enlisted in this matter. The vivid contrast between that life +and hers struck Eurie with the force of a new revelation. + +She went to the general service under the trees; she heard a sermon from +Dr. Pierce, so full of power and eloquence that to many who heard it +there came new resolves, new purposes, new plans. I beg her pardon, she +did not listen; she simply occupied a seat and looked as though she was +a listener. + +But the truth was, she had not learned yet to listen to sermons. The +very fact that it was a sermon made it clear to her mind that there was +to be nothing in it for her; this had been her education. In reality, +during that hour of worship she was engaged in watching the changeful +play of expression on Miss Rider's face, as her eyes brightened and +glowed with enthusiasm or trembled with tears, according as the +preacher's words roused or subdued her. + +Well, Eurie had her lesson. It was not from the Bible, it was not from +the preacher's lips except incidentally, but it was from a living +epistle. "Ye shall be witnesses of me," was the promise of Christ in the +long ago, just before the cloud received him out of sight. Is not that +promise verified to us often and often when we know it not? + +Miss Rider had no means of knowing as she sat a listener that Sabbath +morning that she was witnessing for Christ. But she was just as surely +speaking for him as though she had stood up amid that throng and said: +"I love Jesus." "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord." And the poet has +said: "They also serve who only stand and wait." Blessed are those in +whom the waiting and the service go together. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +AN OLD STORY. + + +Meantime Flossy, deserted by her companion, made her way somewhat +timidly down to the stand, amazed by the great congregation of people +who had formed themselves into a Sunday-school. With all their haste the +girls had gotten a very late start. The opening exercises were all over, +and the numerous teachers were turning to their work. Strangely enough, +the first person whom Flossy's eye took in distinctly enough for +recognition was Mr. Roberts. He had recognized her, also, and was coming +toward her. + +"How do you do this morning?" he said, holding out his hand. "Do you +know I have a mission for you? There are two boys who seem to belong to +nobody, and to have nothing in common with this gathering, except +curiosity. The superintendent has twice tried to charm them in, but +without success--they will come no further than that tree. I think they +have slipped in from the village, probably in a most unorthodox fashion, +and what I am coming at is, will you go out under the tree to them and +beguile them into attending a Sabbath-school for once in their lives? +They look to me as though it was probably a rare occurrence." + +Now you are not to suppose that this invitation came to Flossy with the +same sound that it would have had to you, if Mr. Roberts had come to you +that Sabbath morning and asked you to tell those two boys a Bible story. +It is something that you have probably been doing a good deal of, all +your grown-up life, and two boys at Chautauqua are no more to you than +two boys anywhere else, except that there is a delightful sensation +connected with having a class-room out in the open air. But imagine +yourself suddenly confronted by Dr. Vincent, and asked if you would be +so kind as to step on the platform and preach to five thousand people, +from a text that he would select for you! Now you have something of an +idea as to how this request felt to Flossy. A rare glow spread all over +her face, and she looked up at her questioner with eyes that were +quivering in tears. + +"You do not know what you are saying," she said, in low and trembling +voice. "I have not been to a Sabbath-school in seven years, and I never +taught anybody anything in my life." + +It was true that he did not know. It seemed to him such a very little +thing that he had asked. However, he spoke gently enough as one who was +courteous, even when he could not quite comprehend. + +"Then is not to-day a good time to commence? You will surely never have +a better opportunity." + +But she shook her head, and turned quite away from him, walking down +among the trees where no people were. Her joy was all gone, and her +pleasant time. She had meant to go to Sabbath-school; to sit down +quietly in some body's class and learn, oh! a very great deal during the +next hour. Now she was all stirred up, and could not go anywhere. + +As for Mr. Roberts, he went back to the large class who were waiting +for him. And those two boys hovered around the edge of that feast like +hungry creatures who yet had never learned to come to the table and take +their places. Flossy looked at them; at first indignantly, as at +miserable beings who had spoiled her pleasure; then she became +fascinated by their bright, dirty faces and roguish ways. She edged a +little nearer to them. Boys she was afraid of; she knew nothing about +them. Had they been a little older, and been dressed well, and been of +the stamp of boys who knew how to bring her handkerchief to her when she +dropped it, she would have known what to say to them. But boys who were +not more than twelve or fourteen, and who were both ragged and dirty, +were new phases of life to her. + +"Why don't you go to Sunday-school?" she questioned at last, with a +timid air. She could at least ask that. They were not the least timid as +to answering; the older and the dirtier of the two turned his roguish +eyes on her and surveyed her from head to foot before he said: + +"Why don't you?" + +Flossy was unprepared for this question, but she answered quickly and +truthfully: + +"Because I am afraid to go." + +Both boys stared, and then laughed, and the other younger one said: + +"So be we." + +"I suppose we are both very silly," Flossy said. "But I have not been to +Sunday-school for so long that I have forgotten all about it. Let's have +one of our own that we are not afraid to go to." + +And she sat bravely down on the stump at her feet; her mood had changed +very suddenly; only yesterday she had read a verse in that Bible, and it +thrilled her then, and came to her now: + +"The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him +whole." + +Suppose she were the man, and these were the Jews, could she not say to +them, "He has made me whole"? She could tell them about that pool, and +about the sick man. It wouldn't be teaching in Sunday-school, but it +would be doing the best thing that she could. + +It suddenly occurred to her to wonder where the lesson was that was +being taught this morning, and she consulted the lesson leaf that Mr. +Roberts had left in her hand. The glow on her face deepened and spread +as she recognized the very story which had so filled her heart the day +before! What if the great Physician had actually selected her to tell of +that miracle of healing to these two neglected ones! Surely they were +not so formidable as the Jews! But how in the world to begin was a +bewilderment. Clearly she must decide at once if she was to have any +class, for her two boys began to look about them, and show signs of +flight. + +"Did you ever hear about a wonderful spring that used to cure people?" + +"Lots of 'em. I used to live right by one that cured the rheumatiz." + +"But this one would cure other things, only it wouldn't cure people all +the time. There was just one time in the year when it would do it; and +then the one that got in first was the only one cured." + +Her listeners looked skeptical. + +"What was that for?" queried the bolder of the two. "Why didn't it cure +but one?" + +"I don't know," Flossy said. "There are ever so many things that I know +that I can't tell why they are so. For instance, I don't know why that +spring you have been telling me about cures the rheumatism, but I know +it does, for you told me so." + +"No more do I," the boy said, promptly, having in his heart a rising +respect for the young teacher and her story. + +Then this new beginner, with the air of a diplomatist, told all the +details of this wonderful cure, without once mentioning the name of +either person or place. An innate sense of the human heart told her that +"Jerusalem" and "Jesus" were both probably connected in the minds of +these two with the Bible, and their appearance told her that they were +likely to be skeptical as to the interest of Bible stories. But, like +all ignorant persons, there was a credulous side to their nature. It is +surprising what marvelous stories people are prepared to receive and +credit, provided only that they do not come from the Bible, with a "Thus +saith the Lord" to vouch for them. Then, indeed, they are apt to become +"unreasonable" and "improbable." Presently her boys volunteered some +remarks and asked some questions. + +"Jolly! that fellow must have felt good: I guess he wanted to run all +around the country and tell about it. Where was this spring, and what +was the man's name that cured him?" + +The other chimed in: "Yes, and how did he do it? That's what I'm after. +And is he dead? 'cause I don't hear of no such cures now-days." + +Then was Flossy tremulous of heart. She had become eagerly interested in +her story and her boys. Would the charm that she had woven be broken the +moment they knew the story's origin? But of course she must tell them, +for what good else would the story do? + +"He is dead," she said, slowly, answering the last question first. "That +is, he is what _you_ call dead. But, of course, you know as well as I do +that that doesn't mean what it seems to; it means simply that he doesn't +live in the same place that he once did. He went to heaven to live ever +so many years ago." + +She waited to feel the effect of this announcement. The boys were silent +and grave. They had evidently heard of heaven, and had some measure of +respect for the name. The new teacher did not know what to say next. The +boys helped her. The younger one drew a heavy sigh. + +"Well, all I've got to say is, I wish he was alive now," he said, in a +regretful tone, "'cause my mother has been sick longer than thirty-eight +years; she has been sick about all her life, and she is real bad now, so +she can't walk at all. I s'pose he could cure her if he was here." + +"I suppose he could cure her now." Flossy said this slowly, reverently, +looking earnestly at the boy, hoping to convey to him a sense of her +meaning. He looked utterly puzzled. Light began to dawn on the face of +the older boy. + +"She's been tellin' us one of them Bible stories," he said, speaking not +to Flossy, but to his companion, and assuming an injured air, as if a +wrong had been done them. + +Flossy spoke quickly: + +"Of course I have. I thought you wanted to hear something that really +happened, and not a made up story." This seemed to be an appeal to their +dignity, and they eyed her reflectively. + +"How do you know it happened?" ventured the younger one. + +Flossy gave a rapid and animated answer. + +"There are about a hundred reasons why I know it; it would take me all +day to tell you half of them. But one is, that I read it in a book which +good men who know a great deal, and who have been studying all their +lives to find out about it, say they know is true; and I believe what +they tell me about Washington and Lincoln and other men whom I never +saw, so I ought to believe them when they tell me about this man." + +"But there's _one_ thing you don't know. You don't know that he can cure +folks now, and he don't do it." This was spoken with a quiet +positiveness, and with the air that said, "_That_ can't be disputed, and +you know it can't." + +Flossy hesitated just a moment; the glow on her face deepened and +spread. Then she answered in much the same tone that the boy had used: + +"I know he _can_, and I have good reason for knowing. I'll tell you a +secret; you are the very first persons I have told about it, but he has +cured me. I have been sick all my life, when I came here to Chautauqua I +was sick. I could not do anything that I was made to do, and I kept +doing things all the time that were not meant for me to do, but he has +cured me." + +The boys looked at her in absolute incredulous wonder. + +"Was you sick in bed when you came?" ventured one of them at last. + +"No; it is not that kind of sickness that I mean. That is when the body +is sick, the body that when the soul goes away looks like nothing but +marble, can not move, nor feel, nor speak; that isn't of much +consequence, you know, because we are sure that the soul will go away +from it after awhile. It is this soul of mine that is going to live +forever that was cured." + +"How do you know it was?" came again from these wondering boys. Flossy +smiled a rare, bright smile that charmed them. + +"If _yours_ had been cured you would not ask me that question," she +said; "you would _know_ how I know it. But I can't tell you how it is: +don't you know there are some things that you are sure of that you can't +explain? You are sure you can think, aren't you? but how would you set +to work to explain to me that you are sure? The only way that you can +know how is by going to this doctor and getting cured; then you will +understand." + +"I'd like him if he would cure folks' _bodies_," began the boy who had a +sick mother, speaking in a doubtful, somewhat dissatisfied tone. + +"He does," Flossy said, quickly. "Don't people's bodies get well +sometimes? and who can cure bodies except the one who made them? If you +want your mother cured you ought to try him. If she is to be made well +you may be sure that he can do it; but why should he so long as you do +not care enough about it to ask him?" + +There was a rush and a bustle among the crowds in the distance. +Sunday-school session was over, and the great company were moving for +seats for the morning service. The boys took the alarm and fled, each +glancing back to nod and smile at the bright apparition who had told +them a story. Flossy picked up her Bible; she had not needed to use it +during this talk. The story of Bethesda had burned itself so into her +heart with that morning reading that she had no need to look at it +again. She gave a thoughtful little sigh. + +"I don't know about that being teaching," she said within her heart, +"but I certainly told them about Jesus, and I told them it was Jesus who +had 'made me whole.' I made my own experience 'witness' for me to that +degree. If that is what they mean by teaching I like to do it. I mean to +go to Sunday-school just as soon as I get home, and if I find out that +they just tell about things as they are in the Bible I can do it. I can +make the boys listen to me, I know." + +Bright little fairy that she was! There was a new glow about her face. +She was waking to the thought that there was such a thing as power over +people's brains. No danger but she will use her knowledge. Let me tell +you another thing that Chautauqua did for her. It planted the seed that +shall blossom into splendid teaching. There was one teacher who gave +many glances that morning to the little group around that old tree +stump. Mr. Roberts, from his point of observation, not far away, watched +this scene from beginning to end. It fascinated him. He saw the timid +beginning and the ever-increasing interest, until, when Flossy closed +her Bible and arose, he turned his eyes from her with a quiet smile in +them, and to himself he said: "Unless I am very greatly mistaken she has +found something that she can do." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +PEOPLE WHO, "HAVING EYES, SEE NOT." + + +"Girls!" said Eurie, as she munched a doughnut, which she had brought +from the lunch-table with her, and lounged on a camp-chair, waiting for +the afternoon service, "do you know that Flossy taught a class in +Sunday-school this morning?" + +"Taught a class!" repeated both Marion and Ruth in one voice, and with +about equal degrees of amazement. + +"She did, as true as the world. That is, she must have been teaching. +The way of it was this: I went to see the little midgets exhibit +themselves, and when I came out of the tent and walked over toward the +stand, there sat Flossy on that old stump just back of the stand, and +before her were two of the roughest-looking boys that ever emerged from +the backwoods. They were ragged and dirty and wild; and as wicked little +imps as one could find, I am sure. Flossy was talking to them, and she +had a large Bible in her lap and one of those Lesson Leaves that they +flutter about here so much; and--well, altogether it was an amazing +sight! She was certainly talking to them with all her might, and they +were listening; and it is my opinion that she was trying to play +Sunday-school teacher, and give them a lesson. You know she is an +imitative little sheep, and always was." + +"Nonsense!" Ruth said, and she seemed to speak more sharply than the +occasion warranted. "Just as if Flossy Shipley couldn't have anything to +say to two boys but what she found in the Bible! Little she knows what +is in it, for that matter. I suppose she wandered out that way because +she did not know what else to do with herself, and talked to the boys by +way of amusement. She has often amused herself in that way, I am sure." + +"Ah, yes; but these specimens were rather too youthful and dirty for +that sort of amusement, and she had a Bible in her lap." + +"What of that! Bibles are as common as leaves here. I found two lying on +the seat which I took this morning. People seem to think the art of +stealing has not found its way here." + +"Flossy is changed," interrupted Marion. "The mouse is certainly +different from what _I_ ever saw her before; she seems so quiet and +self-sustained. I thought she was bored. Why, I expected her to hail a +trip to her dear Saratoga with absolute delight! She belongs to just the +class of people who would find the intellectual element here too strong +for her, and would have to flutter off in that direction in +self-defense. Ruthie, you have the temper of an angel not to fly out at +me for bringing in Saratoga every few minutes. It isn't with 'malice +aforethought,' I assure you. I forget your projected scheme whenever I +speak of it; but you must allow me to be astonished over Flossy's +refusal to go with you. Something has come over the mousie that is not +explainable by any of the laws of science with which I am acquainted." + +"Don't trouble yourself to apologize, I beg. I hope you do not think I +am so foolish as to care anything about your hints as to Saratoga. Of +course I recognize my right in this world to be governed by my own +tastes and inclinations. I have enjoyed that privilege too long to be +disturbed by trifles." This from Ruth; but I shall have to admit that it +was very stiffly spoken, and if she had but known it, indicated that she +_did_ care a great deal. In truth she was very sore over her position +and her plans. She who had prided herself on her intellectuality bored +to the very point of leaving, and Flossy, who had been remarkable for +nothing but flutter and fashion, actually so interested that she could +not be coaxed into going away! What _was_ it that interested her? That +was the question which interested and puzzled Ruth. She studied over it +during all the time that Marion and Eurie were chatting about the +morning service. + +Flossy _was_ different; there was no shutting one's eyes to that fact. +The truth was that she had suddenly seemed to have little in common +with her own party. She certainly said little to them; she made no +complaints as to inconveniences, even when they amounted to positive +annoyances with the rest of the party; she had given up afternoon +toilets altogether, and in fact the subject of dress seemed to be one +that had suddenly sunken into such insignificance as to cease to claim +her thoughts at all. + +Grave changes these to be found in Flossy Shipley. Then, too, she had +taken to wandering away alone in the twilight; during the short spaces +between services she was nowhere to be found, but the Chautauqua bell +brought her back invariably in time to make ready for the next service. +"There is certainly more to the little mouse than I ever expected +before. If Chautauqua wakes _our_ wits as it has Flossy's we shall have +reason to bless the day that Dr. Vincent invented it." This Ruth heard +from Marion as she roused herself from her reverie to give attention to +what the girls were saying. They had got back to a discussion of Flossy +again. It was a subject that someway annoyed Ruth, so she dismissed it, +and made ready for the afternoon meeting, whither they all went. + +To Marion the morning sermon had been an intellectual treat. She had a +way of listening to sermons that would have been very disheartening to +the preacher if he had known of it. She had learned how to divest +herself of all personality. The subject was one that had nothing to do +with her; the application of solemn truths were for the people around +her who believed in these things, but never for her; so she listened and +enjoyed, just as she enjoyed a book or a picture, just as if she had no +soul at all, nothing but an intellect. + +It was very rare indeed that an arrow from any one's quiver touched her. +But there was one single sentence in Dr. Pierce's sermon that was +destined to haunt her. Said he: "When the blind man was questioned he +couldn't argue, he didn't try to; but he could stand up there before +them and say, 'Whereas I was blind, now I see; make the most of that.' +And wasn't it an unanswerable argument? There is no argument like it. +When men are honest and earnest and spiritual in Wall Street, it tells." + +Now that was just the kind of sentence to delight Marion's heart. The +inconsistencies of Christians was one of her very strong points, she +saw them bristling out everywhere, and she looked about her with a +satisfied smile on her face that so large a company of them were getting +so sharp a thrust as this. + +And suddenly there flashed across her brain an utterly new thought. +"Whereas I was _blind_, now I see." "Perhaps," she said to +herself--"_perhaps_ I am blind. What if that should be the only reason +why these things are not to me as they are to others. How do I know, +after all, but there may really be a spiritual blindness, and that it +may be holding me? How do I know but that the reason some of these poor +ignorant people whom I meet are so firm in their belief of Christ and +heaven is because they have had just this experience? + +"'Whereas I _was_ blind, now I see!' How can I possibly tell but that +this may be the case? I wonder what I _do_ think anyway? Do I really +think that all these men gathered here are either deceived or deceivers? +One or the other they must be--and either position is too silly to +sustain--or else I must be blind. If there should be such a thing as +seeing, and I discover it too late! If there is a too late to this +thing, and I do not find it out simply because I am blind, what then? +The sun shines, of course, though I dare say an entirely blind man +doesn't believe it. Doesn't have an idea anyway what it is--how can he?" + +Over and over did she revolve this sentence, and look at it from every +attainable standpoint. No use to try to shut it off, back it came. All +the clatter with which she had amused herself during the interval +between meetings had not banished it. No sooner was she seated under +those trees waiting for the afternoon service than the thought presented +itself for her to consider. + +"I wonder if there are different degrees of moral blindness?" she said, +suddenly. "People who can see just enough to enable them to keep +constantly going the wrong way, so that they are no better off than the +blind, except that they admit that there is such a thing as seeing. The +thing is possible, I suppose." + +Ruth turned and looked at her wonderingly. + +"What _are_ you talking about?" she asked at last. + +"I'm moralizing," Marion said, laughing. "You yourself suggested that +train of thought. I was wondering which of us was right in our notions, +you or I; and, for all practical purposes, what difference it made." + +"You are too high up for me to follow. I haven't the least idea what you +mean." + +"Why, I tell you I was contrasting our conditions. Let me see if I have +a right view of them. Don't you honestly think that there is a God, and +a heaven, and a hell, and that to escape the one place and secure the +other certain efforts upon your part are necessary?" + +"Why, of course I think so. I have never made any pretense of +disbelieving all these things. I think it is foolish to do so." + +"Exactly. Now for one question more: Have you made the effort that you +believe to be necessary?" + +"Have you been hired as an exhorter?" Ruth said, trying to laugh. "Why, +no, I can not say that I have." + +"Well, then, suppose you and I should both die to-night. _I_ don't +believe any of these things; you do, but you don't practice on your +belief. Then, according to your own view, you will be lost forever; +and, according to that same view, so shall I. Now, practically, what +difference is there between us? So if it is really blindness, why may +not one be totally blind as well as to have a little sight that keeps +one all the time in the wrong way?" + +"I dare say we are quite as well off," Ruth said, composedly; "only I +think there is this point of difference between us. I think your +position is silly. I don't see how any one who has studied Paley and +Butler, and in fact any of the sciences, can think so foolish a thing as +you pretend to. One doesn't like to be foolish, even if one doesn't +happen to be a Christian." + +"Foolish?" Marion repeated, and there was a fine glow on her face. +"Don't you go and talk anything so wild as that! If there is any class +of people in this world who profess to be simpletons, and act up to +their professions, it is you people who believe _everything_ and _do_ +nothing. Now just look at the thing for a minute. Suppose you say, +'There is a precipice over there, and every whiff of wind blows us +nearer to it; we will surely go over if we sit here; we ought to go up +on that hill; I know that is a safe place,' and yet you sit perfectly +still. And suppose I say, 'I don't believe there is any such thing as a +precipice, and I believe this is just as safe a place as there is +anywhere,' and _I_ sit still. Now I should like to know which of us was +acting the sillier?" + +"You would be," Ruth said, stoutly, "if you persisted in disbelieving +what could be proved to you so clearly that no person with common sense +would think of denying it." + +"Humph!" said Marion, settling back; "in that case I think there would +be very little chance for each to accuse the other of folly; only I +confess to you just this, Ruth Erskine, if you could _prove_ to me that +there was a precipice over there, and that we were being carried toward +it, and that the hill was safe, I know in my very soul that I should get +up and go to that hill. I would not be such a fool as to delay, I know I +wouldn't." + +"You are frank," Ruth said, and her face was flushed. "I am sure I don't +see why you don't make the attempt and decide for yourself, if you feel +this thing so deeply. _I_ think there ought to be a prayer-meeting on +your account. If I knew Dr. Vincent I would try to have this thing +turned into a regular camp-meeting time, then you would doubtless get +all the help you need." + +Marion laughed good-humoredly. + +"Don't waste your sarcasm on me," she said, cheerily; "keep your weapons +for more impressible subjects. You know I am not in the least afraid of +any such arguments. I have been talking downright truth and common +sense, and you know it, and are hit; that is what makes you sarcastic. +Did you know that was at the bottom of most sarcasm, my dear?" + +"Do hush, please. These people before us are trying hard to hear what +the speaker is saying." + +This was Ruth's answer; but she had had her sermon; and of all the +preachers at Chautauqua, the one who had preached to _her_ was Marion +Wilbur, the infidel school-teacher! It was her use of Dr. Pierce's arrow +that had thrust Ruth. She gave herself up to the thought of it all +during that wonderful afternoon meeting. Very little did she hear of the +speeches, save now and then a sentence more vivid than the rest; her +brain was busy with new thoughts. _Was_ it all so very queer? Did it +look to others than Marion a strange way to live? Did she actually +believe these things for which she had been contending? If she did, was +she in very deed an idiot? It actually began to look as though she might +be. She was not wild like Eurie, nor intense and emotional, like Marion; +she was still and cold, and, in her way, slow; given to weighing +thoughts, and acting calmly from decisions rather than from impulse. It +struck her oddly enough now that, having so stoutly defended the +cardinal doctrines of Christian faith, she should have no weapons except +sarcasm with which to meet a bold appeal to her inconsistency. + +"When I get home from Saratoga," she said, at last, turning uneasily in +her seat, annoyed at the persistency of her thoughts, "I really mean to +look into this thing. I am not sure but a sense of propriety should lead +one to make a profession of religion. It is, as Marion says, strange to +believe as we do and not indicate it by our professions. I am not sure +but the right thing for me to do would be to unite with the church. +There is certainly some ground for the thrusts that Marion has been +giving. My position must seem inconsistent to her. I certainly believe +these things. What harm in my saying so to everybody? Rather, is it not +the right thing to do? I will unite with the church from a sense of +duty, not because my feelings happen to be wrought upon by some strong +excitement. I wonder just what is required of people when they join the +church? A sense of their own dependence on Christ for salvation I +suppose. I certainly feel that. I am not an unbeliever in any sense of +the word. I respect Christian people, and always did. Mother used to be +a church-member; I suppose she would be now if she were not an invalid. +Most of the married ladies in our set are church-members. I don't see +why it isn't quite as proper for young ladies to be. I certainly mean to +give some attention to this matter just as soon as the season is over at +Saratoga. In the meantime I wonder when there is a train I can get, and +if I couldn't telegraph to mother to send my trunks on and have them +there when I arrived." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +A "SENSE OF DUTY." + + +It is not so easy to get away from ones self as you might think, if you +never had occasion to try it. Ruth Erskine--who honestly thought herself +on the high road to heaven because she had decided to offer herself for +church-membership as soon as she returned from Saratoga--did not find +the comfort and rest of heart that so heroic a resolution ought to have +brought. + +It was in vain that she endeavored to dismiss the subject and try to +decide just what new costume the Saratoga trip would demand. If she +could only have gotten away from the crowd of people and out of that +meeting back to the quiet of her tent, she might have succeeded in +arranging her wardrobe to her satisfaction; but she was completely +hedged in from any way of escape, and the inconsiderate speakers +constantly made allusions that thrust the arrow further into her brain; +I am not sure that it could have been said to have reached her heart. + +"Who is to blame that you can not all be addressed as _workers_ for +Christ? Who is _your_ Master? Why do you not serve him?" + +These were sentences that struck in upon her just as she was deciding to +have a new summer silk, trimmed with shirrings of the same material a +shade darker. + +"_Workers_!" + +She did not know whether the speaker gave a peculiar emphasis to that +word, or whether it only sounded so to her ears. Did this resolution +that she had made put her among the _workers_? What was she ready to do? +Teach in the Sabbath-school? Involuntarily she shrugged her shoulders; +she did not like children; tract distributing, too, was hateful work, +and out of style she had heard some one say. What wonderful work was to +be done? She was sure _she_ didn't know. Sewing certainly wasn't in her +line; she couldn't make clothes for the poor; but, then, she could give +money to buy them with. Oh, yes, she was perfectly willing to do that. +And then she tried to determine whether it would be well to get a new +black grenadine, or whether a black silk would suit her better. She had +got it trimmed with four rows of knife pleating, headed with puffs, when +she was suddenly returned to the meeting. + +Somebody was telling a story; she had not been giving sufficient +attention to know who the speaker was, but he told his story remarkably +well. It must have been about a miserable little street boy who was +sick, and another miserable street boy seemed to be visiting him. + +This was where her ears took it up: + +"It was up a ricketty pair of stairs, and another, and another, to a +filthy garret. There lay the sick boy burning with a fever, mother and +father both drunk, and no one to do anything or care anything for the +boy who was fighting with death. 'Ben,' said his dirty-faced visitor, +bending over him, 'you're pretty bad ain't you? Ben, do you ever pray?' +'No,' says Ben, turning fevered eyes on the questioner: 'I don't know +what that is.' 'Did you know there was a man once named Jesus Christ? He +come to this world on purpose to save people who are going to die. Did +you ever be told about him?' 'No; who is he?' 'Why, he is God; you have +to believe on him.' 'I don't know what you mean.' 'Why, ask him to save +you. When you die you ask him to take you and save you. I heard about +him at school.' 'Will he do it?' 'Yes, he will _sure_. Them says so as +have tried him.' Silence in the garret, Ben with his face turned to the +wall the fever growing less, the pulse growing fainter; suddenly he +turns back. 'I've asked him,' he said; 'I've asked him, and he said he +would.'" + +Ruth looked about her nervously. People were weeping softly all around +her. Marion brushed two great tears from her glowing cheeks, and Ruth, +with her heart beating with such a quickened motion that it made her +faint, wondered what was the matter with every one, and wished this +dreadful meeting was over, or that she had gone to Saratoga on Saturday. + +It was hard to go back to the puffs on that grenadine dress in the +midst of all this, but with a resolute struggle she threw herself back +into an argument as to whether she would stop on her way to make +purchases, or run down to Albany as soon as she was comfortably settled +at her hotel. Mr. Bliss was the next one who roused her. + +You have never heard him sing? Then I am sorry for you. How can I tell +you anything about it? You should hear Ruth tell it! How his voice +rolled out and up from under those grand old trees; how distinctly every +word fell on your ear, as distinctly as though you and he had been +together in a little room alone, and he had song it for you. + + "This loving Savior stands patiently-- + Though oft rejected, + Calls again for thee. + Calling now for thee, prodigal, + Calling now for thee; + Thou hast wandered far away, + But he's calling now for thee." + +What _was_ the matter with everybody? Was this an army of prodigals who +had gathered under the trees this Sabbath afternoon? Turn where she +would they were wiping away the tears; she felt herself as if she could +hardly keep back her own; and yet why should she weep? What had that +song to do with her? _She_ certainly was not a prodigal: she had never +wandered, for she had never professed to be a Christian. + +What strange logic, that because I have never owned my Father's love and +care, therefore I am not a wanderer from him! + +Ruth did not understand it; she felt almost provoked; had she not +decided this very afternoon and for the first time in her life that it +was fitting and eminently the proper thing to do to unite with the +church, and had she not determined upon doing it just as soon as the +season was over? What more could she do? Why could she not now have a +little peace? If this was the "comfort" and "rest" that the Christians +at Chautauqua had been talking about for a week, she was sure the less +she had of them the better, for she never felt so uncomfortable in her +life. Nevertheless, she adhered to her resolution. + +So settled was she that it was the next proper thing to do that she +staid at home from the meeting that evening to write a letter to Mr. +Wayne, the gentleman who you will perhaps remember, accompanied the +girls to the depot on the morning of their departure, and expressed his +disgust with the whole plan. + +As this is the first _religious_ letter Miss Ruth Erskine ever wrote, +you shall be gratified with a copy of it: + + + +"DEAR HAROLD: + +"I am alone in the tent this evening--the girls have all gone to +meeting; but I, finding it exhaustive, not to say tiresome, to be so +constantly listening to sermons, have staid at home to write to you. I +have something to tell you which I know will please you. I am going to +start for Saratoga to-morrow morning. I think I shall take the 10:50 +train. Now don't you make up your mind to laugh at me and say that I +have grown tired of Chautauqua sooner than any of the rest. It is true +enough. + +"You know my mode of life and my enjoyments are necessarily very +different from Eurie's and Marion's. Those two naturally look upon this +place as an escape from every-day drudgery; in short, as an economical +place in which to enjoy a vacation and see a good deal of first-class +society; for there are a great many first-class people here, there is no +denying that. Not many from our set, you know, but a great many +celebreties in the literary world that it is really very pleasant to +see. + +"I am not sorry that I came; if for nothing else I am glad to have come +on the girls' account; they would hardly have ventured without me, and +it is a real treat to them. + +"You will wonder what has become of poor little Flossy, and want to know +whether she is going to follow me to Saratoga as usual, but the little +sprite refuses to go! I fancy Marion has been teasing her; you know she +is very susceptible to ridicule, and it suits Marion's fancy to amuse +herself at the expense of those people who weary of Chautauqua. She has +attempted something of the kind on me, but, of course I am indifferent +to any such shafts, having been in the habit of leading, rather than +following, all my life. It seems natural, I suppose, to do so still. I +think well of Chautauqua. It is a good place for people to come who have +not much money to spend, and who like to be in a pleasant place among +pleasant people; and who enjoy fine music, and fine lectures, and all +that sort of thing, and are so trammelled by work and small means at +home that they cannot cultivate these tastes. But, of course, all these +things are no treat to _me_, and I do not hesitate to tell you that I am +bored. There is too much preaching to suit my fancy--not real preaching, +either, for we haven't had what you could call a sermon until to-day, +but _lectures_, which constantly bring the same theme before you. + +"Now you are not to conclude from this that I do not believe in +preaching, and Sunday, and all that sort of thing; on the contrary, I +believe more fully in them all than I did before I came. In fact I have +this very afternoon come to a determination which may surprise you, and +which is partly the occasion of my writing this letter, in order that +you may know at once what to expect. Harold, as soon as the season is +over, and I get back home, I am going to unite with the church? Have I +astonished you! I am going to do this from a conviction of duty. You +need not imagine that I have been wrought up to such a pitch of +excitement that I don't know what I am about. I assure you there is +nothing of the kind. I have simply concluded that it is an eminently +proper thing to do. So long as I believe fully in the church and in +religion, and wish to sustain both by my money and my influence, why +should I not say so? That is a very simple and altogether proper way of +saying it, and saves a good deal of troublesome explanation. I wonder +that I haven't thought of it before. + +"I do not mind telling you that it was some remarks of Marion's that +first suggested the propriety of this thing to me. You know she is an +infidel and I am not; and she intimated what is true enough, that I +lived exactly as though I thought just as she did; so in thinking it +over I concluded it was true, and that my influence ought to be with the +church in this matter. Now you know, Harold, that with me to decide is +to do; so this is as good as done. I should like it very well if you +choose to come to the same conclusion and unite at the same time that I +do. I am sure Dr. Dennis would be gratified. I don't know why we +shouldn't be willing to have it known where we stand; and I know you +respect the church and trust her as well as I do myself. + +"I told Marion to-day 'I did not see how a person with brains could be +an infidel,' or something to that effect--and I _don't_. I think that is +such a silly view to take of life. Just as if everything _could_ come by +chance! And if God did not make everything, who did? I have no patience +with that sort of thing, and I am glad to remember that you have no such +tastes. + +"By the way, are the Arnotts in Saratoga? I hope not, for they are such +fanatics there is no comfort in meeting them, and yet one has to be +civil. + +"Seems to me you do not enjoy the opera as well as usual, nor the hops +either. What is the matter? Do you really miss me? If there is any such +foolish fancy in your heart as that, prepare to enjoy yourself next +week, for I shall be with you at every one of them after Tuesday. It +will take me until then to get something decent to wear. + +"I hear the girls coming up the hill, and I must leave you. + +"_Au revoir_, + +"RUTH." + + + +Folding and addressing this epistle with a satisfied air, and still full +of the spirit which had prompted her to write a _religious_ letter, +Ruth, finding that Marion had come in alone, and that Flossy and Eurie +were still loitering up the hill, gave herself the satisfaction of +communicating her change of views. + +"I have been thinking a good deal about what you said this afternoon, +Marion, and there is truth in it. I do not think as you do, and I ought +to take some measures to let people know it. I have the most perfect +respect for and confidence in religion, and I mean to prove it by +uniting with the church. I have decided to attend to that matter as soon +as I get home again after the season is over. I am surprised at myself +for not doing so before, for I certainly consider it eminently proper, +in fact a duty." + +Now, it was very provoking to have so religious a sentence as this +received in the manner that it was. Marion tilted her stool back against +the bed, and gave herself up to the luxury of a ringing laugh. + +"Really," Ruth said, "you have returned from church in a very hilarious +mood; something very funny must have happened; it can not be that +anything in my sentence had to do with your amusement." + +"Yes, but it has," squealed Marion, holding her sides and laughing +still. "Oh, Ruthie, Ruthie, you will be the death of me! And so you +think that this is religion! You honestly suppose that standing up in +church and having your name read off constitutes Christianity! Don't do +it, Ruthie; you have never been a hypocrite, and I have always honored +you because you were not. If this is all the religion you can find, go +without it forever and ever, for I tell you there is not a single bit in +it." + +Her laughter had utterly ceased, and her voice was solemn in its +intensity. + +"I don't know what you mean in the least," Ruth said, testily. "You are +talking about something of which you know nothing." + +"So are you. Oh, Ruthie, so are you! Yes, I know something about it; I +know that you haven't reached the A, B, C, of it. Why, Ruthie, do you +remember that story this afternoon? Do you remember that little boy in +the garret, how he turned his face to the wall and asked God to save +him? Have you done that? Do you honestly think that _you_, Ruth Erskine, +have anything to be saved from? Don't you know the little fellow said, +'_He answered_.' Has He answered you? Why, Ruth, do you never listen to +the church covenant? How does it read: 'That it is eminently fit and +proper for those who believe that God made them to join the church?' +Ruth Erskine, you can never take more solemn vows upon you than you will +have to take if you unite with the church, and I beg you not to do it. I +tell you it means more than that. I had a father who was a member of the +church and he prayed--oh, how he prayed! He was the best man who ever +lived on earth! Every one knew he was good; every one thought he was a +saint; and it seems to me as though I could never love any God who did +not give him a happier lot than he had as a reward for his holy life. +But do you think he thought himself good? I tell you he felt that no one +could be more weak and sinful and in need of saving than he was. Oh, I +know the people who make up churches have more than this in them. _I_ +think it is all a deception, but it is a blessed one to have. I know +these people at Chautauqua have it, hundreds of them. I see the same +look in their faces that my father had in his, and if I could only get +the same delusion into my heart I would hug it for my blessed father's +sake; but don't you ever go into the church and subscribe to these +things that they will ask of you until you have felt the same need of +help and the same sense of being helped that they have. If you do, and +there is a God, I would rather stand my chance with him than to have +yours." + +And Marion seized her hat and rushed out into the night, leaving Ruth +utterly dumbfounded. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +ONE MINUTE'S WORK. + + +Marion struck out into the darkness, caring little which way she went; +she had rarely been so wrought upon; her veins seemed to glow with fire. +What difference did it make? she asked herself. If there was nothing at +all in it, why not let Ruth amuse herself by joining the church and +playing at religion? It would add to her sense of dignity, and who would +be hurt by it? + +There was a difficulty in the way. Turn where she would, it confronted +Marion during these days. There was a solemn haunting "if" that would +not be put down. What _if_ all these things were true? She by no means +felt so assured as she had once done: indeed, the foundations for her +disbelief seemed to have been shaken from under her during the last +week. + +Remember, she had never spent a week with Christians before in her life; +not, at least, a week during which she was made to realize all the time +that they were Christians; that they stood on a different platform from +herself. + +Now, as she tramped about through the darkening woods, meeting +constantly groups of people on their way home from the meeting, hearing +from them snatches of what had been said and sung, she suddenly paused, +and so vivid was the impression that for long afterward she could not +think of it without feeling that a voice must certainly have spoken the +words in her ear. Yet she recognized them as a sentence which had struck +her from Dr. Pierce's sermon in the morning. + +"God honors his gospel, even though preached by a bad man; honors it +sometimes to the saving of a soul. But think of a meeting between the +two! the sinner saved and the sinner lost, who was the means of the +other's salvation." It had thrilled Marion at the time, with her old +questioning thrill: What if such a thing were possible! Now it came +again. + +She stood perfectly still, all the blood seeming to recede from and +leave her faint with the strange solemnity of the thought! What if she +had this evening been preaching the gospel to Ruth! What if the words of +hers should lead Ruth to think, and to hunt, and to find this light that +those who were not blind--if there were any such--succeeded in finding! +What if, as a result of this, she should go to heaven! and what if it +were true that there was to be a judgment, and they two should meet, and +then and there she should realize that it was because of this evening's +talk that Ruth stood in glory on the other side of the great gulf of +separation! What kind of a feeling would that be? + +"Oh, if I only knew," she said aloud, sitting suddenly down on a fallen +log, "if I _only_ knew that any of these things were so! or if I could +only get to imagining that they were, I would take them up and have the +comfort out of them that some of these people seem to get, for I have so +little comfort in my life. It can not be that it is all a farce, such as +Ruth's horrid resolve would lead one to think; that is not the way that +Dr. Vincent feels about it; it is not the way that Dr. Pierce preached +about it this morning; it is not the way that man Bliss sings about it. +There is more to it than that. My father had more than that. If he could +only look down to-night and tell me whether it is so, whether he is safe +and well and perfectly happy. Oh, it seems to me if I could only be +sure, _sure_ beyond a doubt that God did give an eternal heaven to my +father, I could love him forever for doing that, even though there is a +hell and I go to it." + +Within the tent they were having talk that would seem to amount to very +little. Even Eurie appeared to be subdued, and to have almost nothing to +say. Ruth was roused from the half stupor of astonishment into which +Marion's unexpected words had thrown her by hearing Flossy say, "Oh, +Ruth, I forgot to tell you something; Mrs. Smythe stopped at the door on +Saturday evening before you came home; her party leave for Saratoga +to-morrow morning, and she wanted to know whether any of us would go +with them." + +"Did you tell her I was going?" Ruth asked, quickly. It was utterly +distasteful to her to think of having Mrs. Smythe's company. She did not +stop to analyze her feelings; she simply shrank from contact with Mrs. +Smythe and from others who were sure to be of her stamp. + +"No," Flossy said, "I did not know what you had decided upon; I said it +was possible that you might want to go, but some one joined us just then +and the conversation changed: I did not think of it again." + +"I am glad you didn't," Ruth said, emphatically. "I don't want her +society. I won't go in the morning if I am to be bored with that party; +I would rather wait a week." + +"They are going in the morning train," Eurie said; "I heard that tall +man who sometimes leads the singing say so. He said there was quite a +little party to go, among them a party from Clyde, who were _en route_ +for Saratoga. That is them, you know; nearly all of them are from Clyde. +'Oh, yes,' the other man said; 'we must expect that. Of course there is +a froth to all these things that must evaporate toward Saratoga, or some +other resort. There is a class of mind that Chautauqua is too much for.' +Think of that, Ruthie, to be considered nothing but froth that is to +evaporate!" + +"Nonsense!" Ruth said, sharply. She seemed to consider that an +unanswerable argument, and in a sense it is. Nevertheless Eurie's words +had their effect; she began to wish that letter unwritten, and to wish +that she had not said so much about Saratoga, and to wish that there was +some quiet way of changing her plans. + +In fact, an utter distaste for Saratoga seemed suddenly to have come +upon her. Conversation palled after this; Marion came in, and the four +made ready for the night in almost absolute silence. The next thing that +occurred was sufficiently startling in its nature to arouse them all. It +was one of those sudden, careless movements that this life of ours is +full of, taking only a moment of time, and involving consequences that +reached away beyond time, and death, and resurrection. + +"Eurie," Ruth had said, "where is your head ache bottle that you boast +so much of? I believe I am going to have a sick headache." + +"In my satchel," Eurie answered, sleepily. She was already in bed. +"There is a spoon on that box in the corner; take a tea-spoonful." +Another minute of silence, then Eurie suddenly raised her head from the +pillow and looked about her wildly. The dim light of the lamp showed +Ruth, slowly pulling the pins from her hair. + +"Did you take it?" she asked, and her voice was full of eager, intense +fright. "Ruth, you didn't _take_ it!" + +"Yes, I did, of course. What is the matter with you?" + +"It was the wrong bottle. It was the liniment bottle in my satchel. I +forgot. Oh, Ruth, Ruth, what will we do? It is a deadly poison." + +Then to have realized the scene that followed you should have been there +to sea. Ruth gave one loud shriek that seemed to re-echo through the +trees, and Eurie's moan was hardly less terrible. Marion sprang out of +bed, and was alert and alive in a moment. + +"Ruth, lie down; Eurie, stop groaning and act. What was it? Tell me this +instant." + +"Oh, I don't _know_ what it was, only he said that ten drops would kill +a person, and she took a tea-spoonful." + +"I know where the doctor's cottage is," said Flossy, dressing rapidly. +"I can go for him." And almost as soon as the words were spoken she had +slipped out into the darkness. + +Ruth had obeyed the imperative command of Marion and laid herself on the +bed. She was deadly pale, and Eurie, who felt eagerly for her pulse, +felt in vain. Whether it was gone, or whether her excitement was too +great to find it, she did not know. Meantime, Marion fumbled in Flossy's +trunk and came toward them with a bottle. + +"Hold the light, Eurie; this is Flossy's hair-oil. I happen to know that +it is harmless, and oil is an antidote for half the poisons in the +world. Ruth, swallow this and keep up courage; we will save you." + +Down went the horrid spoonful, and Marion was eagerly at work chafing +her limbs and rubbing her hands, hurrying Eurie meantime who had started +for the hotel in search of help and hot water. + +That dreadful fifteen minutes! Not one of them but that thought it was +hours. They never forgot the time when they fought so courageously, and +yet so hopelessly, with death. Ruth did not seem to grow worse, but she +looked ghastly enough for death to have claimed her for his victim; and +Flossy did not return. Eurie came back to report a fire made and water +heating, and seizing a pail was about to start again, when her eye +caught the open satchel, and a bottle quietly reposing there, closely +corked and tied over the top with a bit of kid; she gave a scream as +loud as the first had been. + +"What _is_ the matter now?" Marion said. "Eurie, do have a little common +sense." + +"She didn't take it!" burst forth Eurie. "It is all a mistake. It _was_ +the right bottle. Here is the other, corked, just as I put it." + +Before this sentence was half concluded Ruth was sitting up in bed, and +Marion, utterly overcome by this sudden revulsion of feeling, was crying +hysterically. There is no use in trying to picture the rest of that +excitement. Suffice it to say that the events of the next hour are not +likely to be forgotten by those who were connected with them. Eurie came +back to her senses first, and met and explained to the people who had +heard the alarm, and were eagerly gathering with offers of help. There +was much talk, and many exclamations of thankfulness and much laughter, +and at last everything was growing quiet again. + +"I can not find the doctor," Flossy had reported in despair. "He has +gone to Mayville, but Mr. Roberts will be here in a minute with a +remedy, and he is going right over to Mayville for the doctor." + +"Don't let him, I beg," said Marion, who was herself again. "There is +nothing more formidable than a spoonful of your hair-oil. I don't know +but the poor child needs an emetic to get rid of that. Eurie, my dear, +can't you impress it on those dear people that we _don't want_ any hot +water? I hear the fourth pail coming." + +It was midnight before this excited group settled down into anything +like quiet. But the strain had been so great, and the relief so +complete, that a sleep so heavy that it was almost a stupor at last held +the tired workers. + +Now, what of it all? Why did this foolish mistake of bottles, which +might have been a tragedy, and was nothing but a causeless excitement, +reach so far with its results? + +Let me tell you of one to whom sleep did not come. That was the one who +but half an hour before had believed herself face to face with death! +What mattered it to her that it was a mistake, and death no nearer to +her, so far as she knew, than to the rest of the sleeping world? + +Death was not annihilated--he was only held at bay. She knew that he +_would_ come, and that there would be no slipping away when his hand +actually grasped hers. She believed in death; she had supposed herself +being drawn into his remorseless grasp. To her the experience, so far as +it had led her, was just as real as though there had been no mistake. + +And the result? _She had been afraid_! All her proper resolutions, so +fresh in her mind, made only that very afternoon, had been of no more +help to her than so much foam. She had not so much as remembered in her +hour of terror whether there _was_ a church to join. But that there was +a God, and a judgment, and a Savior, who was not hers, had been as real +and vivid as she thinks it ever can be, even when she stands on the very +brink. + +Oh, that long night of agony! when she tossed and turned and sought in +vain for an hour of rest. She was afraid to sleep. How like death this +sleeping was! Who could know, when they gave themselves up to the grasp +of this power, that he was not the very death angel himself in disguise, +and would give them no earthly awakening forever? + +What should she do? Believe in religion? Yes. She knew it was true. What +then? What had Marion said? Was that all true? Aye, verily it was; she +knew that, too. Had she not stood side by side with death? + +The hours went by and the conflict went on. There was a conflict. Her +conscience knew much more than her tongue had given it credit for +knowing that afternoon. Oh, she had seen Christians who had done more +than join the church! She had imagined that that act might have a +mysterious and gradual change on her tastes and feelings, so that some +time in her life, when she was old, and the seasons for her were over, +she might feel differently about a good many things. + +But that hour of waiting for the messenger of death, who, she thought, +had called her, had swept away this film. "It is not teaching in +Sunday-school," said her brain. "It is not tract distributing; it is not +sewing societies for the poor; it is not giving or going. It is _none_ +of these things, or _any_ of them, or _all_ of them, as the case may be, +and as they come afterward. But _first_ it is this question: Am I my own +mistress? do I belong to myself or to God? will I do as I please or as +he pleases? will I submit my soul to him, and ask him to keep it and to +show me what to do, or when and where to step?" + +The night was utterly spent, and the gray dawn of the early sweet summer +morning was breaking into the grove, and still Ruth lay with wide-open +eyes, and thought. A struggle? Oh dear, yes! Such an one as she had +never imagined. That strong will of hers, which had led not only herself +but others, yield it, submit to other leadership, always to question: Is +this right? can I go here? ought I to say that? What a thing to do! But +it involved that; she knew it, felt it. She might have been blind during +the week past, but she was not deaf. + +How they surged over her, the sentences from one and another to whom +she had listened! They were not at play, these great men. What did it +mean but that there was a life hidden away, belonging to Christ? She +felt no love in her heart, no longing for love, such as poor little +Flossy had yearned for. She felt instead that she was equal to life; +that the world was sufficient for her; that she wanted the world; but +that the world was at conflict with God, and that she belonged to God, +and that she _should_ give herself utterly into his hands. + +Moreover, she knew there was coming a time when the world, and Saratoga, +and the season, with its pleasures, would not do. There was grim +death!--he would come. She could not always get away. He was coming +every hour for somebody around her. She must--yes, she _must_ get ready +for him. It would not do to be surprised again as she had been surprised +last night. It was not becoming in Ruth Erskine to live so that the +sound of death could palsy her limbs and blanch her cheek and make her +shudder with fear. She must get where she could say calmly: "Oh, are +_you_ here? Well, I am ready." + +It was just as the sun which was rising in glory forced its smiles in +between the thick leaves of the Chautauqua birds' nests, and set all the +little birds in a twitter of delight, that Ruth raised herself on her +elbow and said aloud, and with the force that comes from a determined +will that has decided something in which there has been a struggle: + +"I _will_ do it." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +"I'VE BEEN REDEEMED." + + +"What about Saratoga?" was Eurie's first query as she awoke to life and +talk again on that summer morning. "Do you think you will take the 10:50 +train, Ruth?" + +Ruth gave nothing more decided than a wan smile in answer, and in her +heart a wonder as to what Eurie would think of her if she could have +known the way in which her night was passed. + +"She is more likely to stay in bed," Marion said, looking at her +critically. "You will never think of trying to travel to-day, will you, +Ruth? Dear me! how you look! I have always heard that hair oil was +weakening, but I did not know its effects were so sudden and +disastrous!" And then every one of these silly girls laughed. The +disaster of the night before had reached its irresistibly comic side--to +them. Only Ruth shivered visibly; it was not funny to her. + +It was a very eventful day. She by no means relished the character of +invalid that the girls seemed determined ought to be forced upon her and +at the same time she had not the least idea of going to Saratoga. +Strangely enough, that desire seemed to have utterly gone from her. She +had not slept at all, but she arose and dressed herself as usual, with +only one feeling strong upon her, and that was a determination to carry +out the decision to which she had so recently come, and she had not the +least idea how to set to work to carry it out. She went with the rest to +the large tent to hear Mrs. Clark's address to primary class teachers. + +"I'm not a primary class teacher, and not likely to be, but I am a +woman, and gifted with the natural curiosity of that sex to know what a +woman may have to say in so big a place as this. I don't see how she +dares to peep." This was Eurie's explanation of her desire to go to the +reception. + +Ruth went because to go to meeting seemed to be the wisest way that she +knew of for carrying out her decision, and a good time she had. She had +not imagined that teaching primary classes was such an art, and involved +so much time and brain as it did. She listened eagerly to all Mrs. Clark +had to say; she followed her through the blackboard lessons with +surprise and delight, and she awoke at the close of the hour to the +memory that, although she had been interested as she had not imagined it +possible for her to be on such a theme, she had done nothing toward her +determination to make a Christian of herself, and that she knew no more +how to go to work than before. + +"When I _do_ find out how to be one I know I will go to work in the +Sabbath-school; I have changed my mind on that point." This she told +herself softly as they went back to dinner. + +It was a strange afternoon to her. She became unable to interest herself +heartily in the public services; her own heart claimed her thought. It +was noticeable also that for the first time Chautauqua chose this day in +which to be metaphysical and scientific, to the exclusion of personal +religion. Not that they were irreligious, not that they for a moment +forgot their position as a great religious gathering; but there was an +absence of that intense personal element in the talk which had so +offended Ruth's taste heretofore, and she missed it. + +She wandered aimlessly up and down the aisles, listening to sentences +now and then, and sighing a little. They were eloquent, they were +helpful; she could imagine herself as being in a state to enjoy them +heartily, but just now she wanted nothing so much as to know what to do +in order to give herself a right to membership with that great religious +world. Why should Chautauqua suddenly desert her now when she so much +needed its help? + +"If I knew a single one of these Christian people I would certainly ask +them what to do." This she said talking still to herself. She had come +quite away from the meeting, and was down in one of the rustic seats by +the lake side. It struck her as very strange that she had not intimate +acquaintance with a single Christian. She even traveled home and tried +to imagine herself in conversation on this subject with some of her +friends. To whom could she go? Mr. Wayne? Why, he wouldn't understand +her in the least. What a strange letter that was which she wrote him! +Could it be possible that it was written only yesterday? How strange +that she should have suggested to him to unite with the church! How +strange that she should have thought of it herself! + +There came a quick step behind her, and a voice said, "Good-evening, +Miss Erskine." She turned and tried to recall the name that belonged to +the face of the young man before her. + +"You do not remember me?" he said, inquiringly. "I was of the party who +went to Jamestown on the excursion." + +"Oh, Mr. Flint," she said, smiling, and holding out her hand. "I beg +pardon for forgetting; that seems about a month ago." + +"So it does to me; we live fast here. Miss Erskine, I have been looking +for your party; I couldn't find them. Isn't Miss Shipley in your tent? +Yes, I thought so. Well, I want to see her very much. I have something +to tell her that I know will give her pleasure. Perhaps you would take a +message for me. I want her to know that since last week, when she told +me of her Friend who had become so dear to her, I have found the truth +of it. He is my Friend now, and I want to thank her for so impressing me +with a desire to know him that I could not give it up." + +Ruth looked utterly puzzled. Something in the young man's reverent tone, +when he used the word "Friend," suggested that he could mean only the +Friend for whom she herself was in looking; and yet--Flossy Shipley! +What had _she_ to do with him? + +"Do you mean," she said, hesitatingly, and yet eagerly, for if he indeed +meant that here was one for whom she had been looking; "do you mean that +you have become a Christian?" + +"It is such a new experience," he said, his face flushing, "that I have +hardly dared to call myself by that name; but if to be a Christian means +to love the Lord Jesus Christ, and to have given one's self, body and +soul, to his service, why then I am assuredly a Christian." + +This was it. There was no time to be lost. She had spent one night of +horror, she could not endure another, and the day was drawing to its +end. To be sure she felt no terror now, but the night might bring it +back. + +"How did you do it?" she asked, simply. "How?" The very simplicity of +the question puzzled him. "Why, I just gave myself up to his keeping; I +resolved to take a new road and follow only where he led. Miss Shipley +was the one who first made me think seriously about this matter; and +then I went to the service that evening, and everything that was said +and sung, was said and sung right at me. I was just forced into the +belief that I had been a fool, and I wanted to be something else." + +"Miss Shipley!" Ruth said, brought back by that name to the wonderment. +"You are mistaken. You can not mean Flossy. She isn't a Christian at +all. She never so much as thinks of such things." + +"Oh, _you_ are mistaken." He said it eagerly and positively. "On the +contrary, she is the most earnest and straightforward little Christian +that I ever met in my life. Why, I never had anything so come to my soul +as that little sentence that she said about having found a _Friend_.' I +know it is the same one. I have seen her with you since, but not near +enough to address. Her name is Flossy; I heard her called so that day on +the boat." + +"Flossy!" Ruth said it again, in a bewildering tone, and rising as she +spoke. "I am going to find her; I want to understand this mystery. I +will give her your message, Mr. Flint, but I think there is a mistake." +Saying which she bade him a hasty good-afternoon, for the flutter of a +scarlet shawl had reached her eyes. No one but Flossy wore such a wrap +as that. She wanted to see her at once, and she _didn't_ want Mr. +Charlie Flint to be along. She went forward with rapid steps to meet +her, and slipping an arm within hers, they turned and went slowly back +over the mossy path. + +"Flossy, I want you to tell me something. I have heard something so +strange; I think it is not so, but you can tell me. I want to know if +you think you are a Christian?" + +I wonder if Flossy has any idea, even now, how strangely Ruth's heart +beat as she asked that simple question. It seemed to involve a great +deal to her. She waited for the answer. + +There was no hesitation and no indecision about Flossy's answer. Her +cheeks took a pink tint, but her voice was clear. + +"I _know_ I am, Ruth. I do not even have to speak with hesitancy. I am +so sure that Christ is my Friend, and I grow so much surer of it every +day, that I can not doubt it any more than I can doubt that I am walking +down this path with you." + +And then, again, Ruth's astonishment was in part lost in that absorbing +question: + +"How did you get to be one?" + +"It is a simple little story," Flossy said. And then she began at the +beginning and told her little bit of experience, fresh in her heart, +dating only a few days back, and full to the brim with peace and +gladness to her. + +"But I don't see," Ruth said, perplexed. "I don't find out what to _do_. +I want to be told how to do it, and none of you tell me; you seem to +have just resolved about it, and not _done_ anything. I have gone so far +myself. Such a night as last night was, Flossy! Oh, you can never +imagine it!" + +And then she told her story, as much of it as _could_ be told; of the +horror and the thick darkness that had enveloped her she could only +hint. + +What an eager flash there was in Flossy's bright eyes as she listened. + +"When you said that!" she began, eagerly, as Ruth paused. "When you +said, 'I will do it.' What then? Did you feel just as you did before?" + +"No," Ruth said, "not at all. The night had gone by that time. As I +looked about me I realized that it was daylight, and I fancied that my +feelings were the result of a highly excited state of nerves. But the +resolve was not to be accounted for in any such way. I meant that. The +horror, though, of which I had been telling you was quite gone. It was +as if there had been a fearful storm, with the constant roll of thunder, +and suddenly a calm. I hadn't the least feeling of fear or dread, and I +haven't had all day; but to-night I may have the very same experience." + +"No, you will not," Flossy said, her voice aglow with feeling and with +joy. "Oh, Ruthie, Ruthie! There _is_ no night! You have got beyond it. I +tell you, you have come into God's light! And isn't it blessed? You are +a Christian now." + +"But," protested Ruth, utterly bewildered, "I do not understand you, +and I don't think you understand yourself. In what way am I different +from what I was yesterday? How can I be lost in God's sight one moment +and accepted the next?" + +"Easily; oh, _so_ easily! Don't you see? Why, if I had been coaxing you +for a year to give me something, and you had steadily refused, but if +suddenly you had said to me, 'Yes. I will; I have changed my mind; I +will give it to you,' wouldn't there be a difference? Wouldn't I know +that I was to have it? And couldn't I thank you then, and tell you how +glad I was, just the same as though I had it in my hand? It is a poor +little illustration, Ruthie, but it is true that God has been calling +you all your life, and if you have all the time been saying 'No,' up to +that moment when you said solemnly, meaning it with all your heart, 'I +will,' I tell you it makes a difference." + +I can not describe to you how strangely all this sounded to Ruthie. Up +to this moment she had not realized in the least that the Lord was +asking her simply for a decision, and that having solemnly given it, +the work, so far as _she_ was concerned, was done, and the new relations +instantly commenced. She thought it over--that sudden calming of +heart--that sense of resolve--of determination, so strong, and yet so +quiet. She remembered what a strange day it had been. How she had tried +to keep before her mind the horror of the night, and had not been able. + +She went on talking with Flossy, telling her about Charlie Flint, +noticing the happy tears that glistened in Flossy's eyes as she received +her message, taking in the murmured words, "To think that Christ would +honor such a feeble little witnessing as that!" and realizing even then +that it would be very blessed to have one say to her, "You have been the +means of leading me to think about this thing." Why should _she_ care, +though, whether people thought about this thing or not? Yesterday she +didn't. During all the talk she kept up this little undertone of +thought, this running commentary on her sudden change of views and +feelings, and wondered, and _wondered_, could it be possible that she +was utterly changed? And yet, when she came to think of it, wasn't she? +Didn't she love Christ? And then it struck her as the strangest thing +in the world _not_ to love him. How could any one be so devoid of heart +as that? Why, a mere man, to have done one-half of what Christ had done +for her, would have received undying love and service. + +As they walked they neared the stand, and there came just at that moment +a burst of music, one of those strange, thrilling tunes such as none but +the African race ever sing. The words were familiar, and yet to Ruth +they were new: + + "There is a fountain filled with blood, + Drawn from Immanuel's veins, + And sinners, plunged beneath that flood. + Lose all their guilty stains." + +A sinner! Was _she_, Ruth Erskine, a sinner? Yesterday she had not liked +it to be called a prodigal. But to-day, oh yes. Was there a greater +sinner to be found than she? How long she had known this story! How long +she had known and believed of a certainty that Jesus Christ lived and +died that she might have salvation, and yet she had never in her life +thanked him for it! Nay, she had spurned and scorned his gift! So much +worse than though she had not believed it at all! For then at least she +could not have been said to have met him with the insult of +indifference. + +Then the chorus swelled out on the still air. Only those who heard it +under the trees at Chautauqua have the least idea how it sounded; only +those who hear it, as Ruth Erskine did, can have the least idea how it +sounded to her. + + "I've been redeemed, I've been redeemed!" + +Over and over the strain repeated. Now in clear soprano tones, and anon +rolled out from the grand bass voices. And then the swelling unison: + + "I've been redeemed-- + Been washed in the blood of the Lamb." + +The girls had stopped, and almost held their breaths to listen. They +stood in silence while verse after verse with its triumphant swell of +chorus rolled out to them. The great tears gathered slowly in Ruth's +eyes, until, as the last echo died away, she turned to Flossy, and her +voice was clear and triumphant: + +"I believe I _have_. Flossy, I believe I have. It is a glorious +thought, and a wonderful one. It almost frightens me. And yet it thrills +me with perfect delight. The fountain is deep enough for us all--for +them and for me. I have 'been redeemed,' and if God will help me I will +never forget it again." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +SWORD THRUSTS. + + +By the next morning it became clear to our girls that a change of +programme was a necessity. Ruth had by no means recovered from her shock +and the sleepless night that followed, and some of the comforts of +invalidism must be found for her. At the same time she utterly +repudiated the idea of Saratoga, which was now urged upon her; it had +lost its charms; neither would she go home. + +"I have decided to stay until the _very_ last meeting," she said, with +quiet determination. + +Flossy laughed softly; she knew what charms Chautauqua had taken on, +but the others supposed it to be a whim, resulting from the ridicule she +had suffered because of the Saratoga scheme. + +After many plans were discussed it was finally decided that Flossy and +Ruth should seek quarters at the hotel in Mayville, Ruth coming over to +the meetings only when her strength and her fancy dictated, and having +some of the luxuries of home about her. It seemed to fall naturally to +Flossy's lot to accompany her; indeed, a barrier was in the way of +either of the others being chosen. The hotel arrangement, when one took +into consideration the numerous boat-rides to and from the ground, was +by no means an economical proceeding, and as Flossy and Ruth were the +only ones who were entirely indifferent to the demands of their purses, +it must of necessity be them. + +Neither of them was disposed to demur; there had never been much +congeniality between these two, but they had been friendly, and now +there was a subtle bond of sympathy which made them long to be together. +So, during the next morning hours, those two were engaged in packing +their effects and preparing for a flitting to the Mayville House. +Meantime Marion and Eurie, having stood around and looked on until they +were tired, departed in search of something to interest them. + +"It is too early for meeting," Marion said. "There is nothing of +interest until 11 o'clock. I'm sorry we missed Mrs. Clark. I like to +look at her and listen to her; she is just bubbling over with +enthusiasm. One can see that she thinks she means it. If I were a +Sunday-school teacher I should be glad I was here, to hear her. I think +it has been about the most helpful thing I have heard thus far; helpful +to those who indulge in that sort of work, I mean." + +"I wonder what those normal classes are like?" Eurie said, studying her +programme. "We haven't been to one of those, have we? What do you +suppose they do?" + +Marion shrugged her shoulders. + +"They are like work," she said. "'Working hours,' they are named; and I +suppose some hard thinking is done. If I didn't have to teach school six +hours out of every day at home I might be tempted to go in and listen to +them; but I came here to play, you see, and to make money; they are not +good to report about. People who stay at home and read the reported +letters don't want to hear anything about the actual _work_; they want +to know who the speaker was and how he looked, and whether his gestures +were graceful, and--if it is a lady--above all, how she was dressed; if +they say anything remarkably sarcastic or irresistibly funny you may +venture to report it, but not otherwise, consequently reporting is easy +work, if you have not too much conscience, because what you didn't see +you can make up." + +At the end of this harangue she paused suddenly before a tent, whence +came the sound of a firm and distinct voice. + +"What is this?" she said, and then she lifted a bit of the canvas and +peeped in. "I'm going in here, after all," she said, withdrawing her +head and explaining. "This is a normal class, I guess. That man from +Philadelphia--what is his name? Tyler? Yes, that is it--J. Bennet +Tyler--is leading. I like him; I like his voice ever so much; he makes +you hear, whether you want to or not. Then, someway, you get a kind of +a notion that he not only believes what he says but that he _knows_ it +is so, and that is all there is about it. I like to meet such people now +and then, because they are so rare. Generally people act as though you +could coax them out of their notions in about twenty minutes if you +tried--when they are talking about religious subjects, I mean. Obstinacy +is not so rare a trait where other matters are concerned. Let's go in." + +"What is the subject this morning?" Eurie asked, following her guide +around to the entrance, somewhat reluctantly. She was in no mood for +shutting herself inside a tent, and being obliged to listen whether she +wanted to or not. But Marion was in one of her positive moods this +morning, and must either be followed or deserted altogether. + +Mr. Tyler was reading from a slip of paper as they entered. This was the +sentence he read: + +"Difficulties in interpretation which arise from certain mental +peculiarities of the student. Some minds, and not by any means the +strongest or noblest, must always see the _reason_ for everything." + +Marion gave Eurie a sagacious nod of the head. + +"Don't you see?" she said. "Now, by the peculiar way in which he read +that, he made believe it was _me_ he meant. And, by the way, I'm not +sure but he is correct. I must say that I like a reason for things. But +what right has he to say that _that_ is an indication of a weak mind?" + +"He didn't say so," whispered Eurie. + +"Oh, yes he did; it amounted to that. There is where his peculiar use of +words comes in. That man has _studied_ words until he handles them as if +they were foot-balls, and were to go exactly where he sent them." + +"He is looking this way. The next thing you know he will throw some at +us for whispering." + +This was Ernie's attempt to quiet Marion's tongue. That or some other +influence had the desired effect. She whispered no more, and it was +apparent in a very few minutes that she had become intensely interested +in the theme and in the way it was being handled. An eager examination +of the programme disclosed what she began to suspect, that the subject +was, "Difficulties in the Bible." Her intellectual knowledge of the +Bible was considerable; and having read it ever since she could +remember, with the express purpose of finding difficulties, it was not +surprising that she had found them. + +Something, either in the leader's manner of drawing out answers, or the +peculiar emphasis with which he contrived to invest certain words, had +the effect to cause Marion to feel as though she had been very +superficial in her reasoning and childish in her objections. She grew +eager; her brain, accustomed to work rapidly and follow trains of thought +closely, enjoyed the keen play of thought that was being drawn forth. + +But there was more than that; almost unconsciously to herself this +subject was assuming vital proportions to her; she did not even herself +realize the intensity of the cry in her heart, "If I only _knew_ whether +these were so!" Presently the voice which had once before struck her as +being so peculiar in its personality sounded distinctly down the long +tent. + +"Remember the conditions under which the Bible promise clear +apprehension of the truth." + +It chanced--at least that is the way in which we use language--it +chanced that Mr. Tyler's eyes as he repeated these words rested on +Marion. Speaking of it afterward she said: + +"So far as the impression made on me was concerned, it was the same as +though he had said: 'Do you understand what an idiot you have been not +to take that cardinal point into consideration at all? Open your Bible +and read, and see how like a weak-minded babe you are.'" + +Beside her lay a Bible just dropped by some one who had been called out. +Following out the impulse of the moment she turned to the reference, and +her clear voice gave it distinctly: + +"If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it +be of God or whether I speak of myself." + +The effect of this simple, straightforward and reasonable proposition, +on sounding back to her spoken by her own voice, was tremendous. Very +little more of the talk did she hear. A thrust, from God's own sword had +reached her. What a fool she had been! What right had she to presume to +give an opinion before applying the test? Had not the most common-place +statements a right to be tried by their own tests? Yet she had never +given this simple direction a thought. + +So this was the Bible promise? "He _shall_ know." Not that these things +are so, but a more logical, more satisfactory statement to the natural +heart. He shall judge for himself whether these things be so; follow the +directions, and then judge by your experiences after that whether these +things be true or false. Could anything be more reasonable? + +"I shall never dare to say that I don't believe the Bible again, for +fear some one will ask me whether I have applied the test, and if I have +not what business have I to judge. That man now, if I should come in +contact with him, which I shall endeavor not to do, would be sure to ask +me. He has almost the same as asked it now, before all these people. He +has a mysterious way of making me feel as though he was talking for my +confusion and for nobody else." + +This Marion told to herself as she eyed the leader, half sullenly. He +had strangely disturbed her logic and set her refuge in ruins. + +"Let's go," she said suddenly to Eurie. "I am tired of this; I have had +enough, and more than enough." But the hour was over, and she had had +all that was to be secured from that source. + +All the younger portion of the congregation seemed to be rushing back up +the hill again, and inquiry developed the fact that Mrs. Clark was to +meet the primary workers in the large tent. It was wonderful how many +people chose to consider themselves primary workers? At least they +rushed to this meeting, a great army of them, as though their one object +in life, was to learn how successfully to teach the little ones. Our +girls all met together in the tent. Ruth and Flossy had finished their +preparations, but had concluded to wait until afternoon service. + +"I declare if _you_ are not armed with a pencil and paper. Have you been +seized with a mania for taking notes?" This Eurie said to Ruth. "Now I'm +going to get out _my_ note book too. Here is a card--it will hold all I +care to write I dare say. Let me see, who knows but I shall go to +teaching in Sabbath-school one of these days! I am going to make a list +of the things which according to Mrs. Clark, we shall need." + +True to her new fancy, she scribbled industriously during the session, +and showed her card with glee as they left the tent. + +"I've a complete list," she said. "If any of you go into the business I +can supply you with the names of the necessary tools. Look! + +"A blackboard. + +"A picture roll. + +"A punch! + +"Cards. + +"Brains! + +"Blank book. + +"Children. + +"More brains! + +"That last item," she said, reflectively, "is the hardest to find. I had +no idea so much of that material was necessary. Now let me see what is +on your papers." This even Marion stoutly resisted. And Flossy quietly +hid hers in her pocket, saying with a smile: + +"Mine is simply a list of things needful for such work." + +If she had shown her paper it would have astonished Eurie, and it might +have done her good. This was what she had written: + +"What I need in order to be a successful teacher. + +"Such a forgetfulness of self as shall lead me to think only of the +little ones and their needs. + +"Such a love for Christ as shall lead me to long after every little soul +to lead it to him." + +As for Marion her paper contained simply this sentence, carefully +written out in German text as if she had deliberated over each letter; + +"If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it +be of God." + +They went in a body to hear Dr. Hatfield. + +"I want that lecture," Marion said, "'Perils of the Hour.' I'm very +anxious to know what my peril is. I know just what is hovering over +every one of you, but I can't quite make up my mind as to my own state. +Perhaps the distinguished gentleman can help me." + +And he did. He had selected for one of the perils that which was +embodied in the following ringing sentence: + +"The third peril is the prevelancy of skepticism. A class of scientists +have discovered that there is no God! What the fool said in his _heart_ +they proclaimed on the house-top!" + +Eurie looked over at her, smiling and mischievous, and said in anything +but a softly whisper, "That means you, my dear." + +But Marion did not hear her; she was absorbed in the intense scathing +sentences that followed. Of one thing she presently felt assured, that +whoever was right or whoever was wrong in this matter, Dr. Hatfield +believed with all the intensity of an intense educated intellect that +God ruled. Was it probable that he had met the condition, done his will, +and so _knew_ of the doctrine? That was an hour to be remembered. Eurie +ceased to whisper or to frolic; there was too much intensity, about the +speaker's manner not to claim her attention. She listened as she was not +in the habit of listening. She could give you a detailed account even +now of that hour of thought; so could I, and I am awfully tempted; but, +you see, it is only Tuesday, and the girls have six more days to spend +at Chautauqua. + +Both Ruth and Flossy got their crumb to think over. They discussed it at +the hotel that evening. + +"I tell you, Flossy, if Dr. Hatfield is correct you and I have +tremendous changes to make in our way of spending the Sabbath; and I +have actually prided myself on the way in which I respected the day!" + +And Ruth laughed as if that were so strange a thought, now that it was +hardly possible to think that she could have entertained it. + +"I know," Flossy said; "and he can not but be right, for he proved his +position. I am glad I heard that address. But for him, I know I should +never have thought of my influence in some places where I now see I can +use it. Ruth you will be struck with one thing. Now, Chautauqua is like +what Madame C's school might have been, so far as study is concerned. +Every day I have a new lesson, one that startles me so! I feel that +there must be some mistake, or I would have heard of or thought of some +of these things before. And yet they sound so reasonable when you come +to think them over, that presently I am surprised that I have not felt +them before. Ruthie, do you think Eurie and Marion have any interest at +all?" + +"No," said Ruth, positively, "I know Marion hasn't. It was only the +other evening that she talked more wildly if anything than before." + +About this time Marion, alone in her tent, said again, as she had said a +dozen times during the last few days: "If I _only knew_!" And this time +she added, "If I only knew _how_ to know!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +SERMONS IN CHALK. + + +Now, see here, Marion Wilbur, wake up and give me your attention. I want +to make a speech; I've caught the infection. It's queer in a place where +there is so much speech-making done that I can't have a chance to +express my views." + +"I'm all attention," Marion answered, turning on her pillow, and giving +Eurie a sleepy stare. "What has moved you to be eloquent? Give me the +subject." + +"The subject is the reflex influence of preaching! It may have +different effects on different natures. Its effect on mine has been +marked enough. I'm thoroughly surfeited. I don't want to hear another +sermon while I am here, and I don't _mean_ to. They are all sermons. The +subject may be scientific, literary or artistic, and it amounts to the +same thing; they contrive to row around to the same spot from whatever +point they start. Now, I came here for fun, and I'm being literally +cheated out of it. So the application of my remark is, I've learned +since I have been here always to have an application to everything, and +this time it is that I won't go any more. I've studied the programme +carefully, and I have selected just what I am going to do. That Mrs. +Knox has a reception this morning. I've heard about her before; she is +awfully in earnest, and awfully good. Oh, I haven't the least doubt of +it; but, you see, I don't want to be good, nor to have such an +uncomfortable amount of goodness about me." + +"She is said to be one of the most successful Sabbath-school teachers +here; and I heard a gentleman say last night that her primary class was +a regular training school for young ladies in Christian work. You know +she has ever so many teachers under her." + +"I can't help that. I am not one of them, I am thankful to say. What do +I care whether she is successful or not? That won't help me any. I know +all about her. They say the young ladies in her classes are invariably +converted before they have been under her influence long. So if you want +to be converted you have only to go to Elmira and join her class; but as +for me, I am not in the mood for that experience yet, and I am not going +near her." + +"What _are_ you going to do then?" + +"Just what I please! That is what I came for. Just think of the +absurdity of we four girls rushing to meeting at the rate we have been +doing for the last week. What do you suppose the people at home would +think of us? Why, I didn't expect to hear any of their sermons when I +came. I as good as promised Flossy that I would frolic about with her +all the time, and now the absurd little dunce acts as if she were under +a wager to be on the ground every time the bell rings! I've declared +off. I can tell you to an item just what I am going to hear. There is a +performance to come off this afternoon some time that I shall be ready +for. I loitered behind the King tent last night, and heard him say so. +That Frank Beard is going to give his chalk talk--caricatures: that I +shall hear, and especially _see_. It will be hard work to poke a sermon +into that. I guess that is to be this afternoon; it is to be some time +soon, anyway, and I shall watch for it. Then there is to be another +extra. Mrs. Miller is going to read a story. I can give you the title of +it. I didn't sit on that horrid stump in the dark listening to Dr. +Vincent for nothing. It is to be 'Three Blind Mice.' Now it stands to +reason that a story with such a title will not be very far above my +intellectual capacity, and it _can't_ very well develop into a sermon, +or close with a prayer-meeting. Then I'm going to the concert by the +Tennesseeans;' their jargon won't hurt me; and, of course, I shall +attend the President's reception. I must have a stare at him--and that +is every solitary meeting I am going to attend. I've heard the last +preaching that I mean to for some time." + +Now this was what Eurie Mitchell _said_. Let me tell you a little bit +about what she _thought_. She was by no means so indifferent, nor so +bored as she would have Marion understand. She was by no means in the +state of mind that Ruth had been, or that Marion was. No doubts as to +the general truth of all the vital doctrines of Christianity had ever +troubled her. She accepted without question the belief of the so-called +Christian World. Neither was she bewildered as to what constituted +Christian life. No vague notion that to unite herself with some church +would let her into the charmed circle had ever befogged her brain. + +On the contrary, she knew better than many a Christian does just what +the Christian profession involved, and just how narrow a path ought to +be walked by those professing to follow Christ. In proportion to the +keenness of her sarcasm over blundering, stumbling Christians, had her +eyes been open to what they ought to be. + +There was just this the matter with Eurie. She knew so well what +religious professions involved that she wanted to make none. She hated +the thought of self-abnegation, of bridling her eager tongue, of going +only where her enlightened conscience said a Christian should go, of +looking out for and calling after others to go with her. She wished +deliberately to ignore it all. Not forever, she would have been shocked +at the thought. Some time she meant to give intense heed to these +things, and then indeed the church should see what a Christian _could_ +be! But not now. + +There were a hundred things laid down in her programme for the coming +winter that she knew perfectly well were not the things to do or say, +provided she were a Christian, and she deliberately wished to avoid the +fear of becoming one. Just here she was afraid of the influence of +Chautauqua. + +How was it possible to attend these meetings, to listen to these daily, +hourly addresses, teeming either directly or indirectly with the same +thought, personal consecration, without feeling herself drawn within the +circle? She would _not_ be drawn. This was her deliberate conclusion, +therefore her determination. + +It was almost well for her that she could not realize on what fearfully +dangerous ground she was treading! I wonder if those over whom the Lord +says, "Let them alone," are ever conscious at the time that the order +has gone forth, and that they are to feel their consciences pressing +home this matter no more? + +"Well," said Marion, after turning this resolution over in her mind for +a few minutes, "I dare say you will lose a good many things worth +hearing; but I have nothing to do with that--only I want you to go with +me up to hear Mrs. Knox this morning. I've _got_ to go, for I promised +especially to report her for the teachers at home, and it is stupid to +go alone. _She_ won't preach, and she won't bore you, and I want you to +help me remember items." + +So, much against her will, Eurie was coaxed into this departure from her +programme, and came back from the meeting in intense disgust. + +"Talk about _her_ not preaching," she said, venting her annoyance on +Marion while she energetically brushed her hair. "Every fold of her +dress preached a sermon! She makes me ache all over, she is so +powerfully in earnest; and didn't she hint what angels of goodness those +girls of hers were--those teachers! I'd like to know how they could be +anything else but good with such an example at hand. Just think, Marion, +of having the brains that that woman has, and the energy and tact and +the skill of a general, and then forcing it into a Sunday-school class +room for the teaching of a hundred little dots that have just tumbled +out of their cradles!" + +"Well, if she teaches them to tumble out on the right side so that they +will come up grand men and women, what then? Isn't that an ambition +worthy of her?" + +"Stuff and nonsense! Don't you go to preaching. I shall go and drown +myself in the lake if I hear any more of it, and then one worthless +person will be out of the way. But don't you dare to ask me to go and +hear that woman again! I won't give up my plans in life for hers, and +she needn't hint it to me. And, Marion Wilbur, I am not going to listen +to another man or woman who has the least chance to fire words right at +me--now mark my words." + +Full of this determination she carried it out during the afternoon, +until the hour for Frank Beard's caricatures; then, secure from fear of +a sermon, she came gayly down and considered herself fortunate to +secure a seat directly in front of the stand and in full view of the +blackboard. If you have never seen Frank Beard make pictures you know +nothing about what a good time she had. They were such funny pictures! +--just a few strokes of the magic crayon and the character described +would seem to start into life before you, and you would feel that you +could almost know what thoughts were passing in the heart of the +creature made of chalk. Eurie looked, and listened, and laughed. The old +deacon who thought the Sunday-school was being glorified too much had +his exact counterpart among her acquaintances, so far as his looks were +concerned. The three troublesome Sunday-school scholars fairly convulsed +her by their life-like appearance. There was the little scamp of a boy +who was revealed by the dozen to any one who took a walk down town +toward the close of the day; the argumentative old man, with his nose +pointing out a flaw in your reasoning or on the keen scent for a +mistake; and the pert fourteen-year-old girl whose very nose, as it +slightly turned upward, showed that she knew more than all the +logicians and theologians in the world. + +This entertainment was exactly in Eurie's line. If there was anything in +the world that she was an adept at it was looking up weak points in the +characters of other people; and when the silly girl with but two +ideas--one of them bows and the other beaux--lived and breathed before +her on the blackboard her delight reached its climax. + +"She is the very picture of Nettie Arnold!" she whispered to Marion. +"When I go home I mean to tell her that her photograph was displayed at +Chautauqua. She is just vain enough to believe it!" + +Still the fun went on. Just a few bold, rapid strokes, and some +caricature breathed before them, so real that the character was guessed +before the explanation was given, and the ground rang with continued and +overpowering roars of laughter. + +Into the midst of this entertainment came Dr. Vincent, his face aglow +with the exertion of hearty laughter, every feature of it expressive of +his hearty appreciation of this hour of recreation and yet every +feature alive and alert with a higher and more enduring feeling. + +"Frank," he said, laying a friendly hand on the artist's arm, "our time +is almost up. Give us the symbol of the teacher's work." + +There was an instant of rapid motion, a few skillful lines, and it +needed no word of explanation to recognize the great family Bible. "Now +the symbol of the teacher's hope," and on one page of the open Bible +there flashed an anchor. + +"Now the symbol of his reward," and lo, there rose up before them the +solid wall, built brick by brick. Dr. Vincent's voice was almost husky +with feeling, so suddenly had the play of his emotions changed, as he +said: "Now we want the foundation." + +How did Frank Beard do it with a dull colored crayon and a half-dozen +movements of his skillful arm? How can I tell, except that God has given +to the arm wondrous skill; but there appeared before that astonished +multitude a foundation as of granite, and there rose from it, as if +suddenly hewed out before them, a clean-cut solid shaft of gray, +imperishable granite. One more dash of the wondrous crayon and the +shaft was done--a solid cross! + +Prof. Sherwin was sitting, for want of a better position, on the floor +of the stand. It was the only available space. He had been looking and +enjoying as only men like Prof. Sherwin can; and now, as he watched the +outgrowth of this wonderful cross, as the last stroke was given that +made it complete, and a sound like a subdued shout of joy and triumph +murmured through the crowd, moved as by a sudden mighty impulse that he +could not control, his splendid voice burst forth in the glorious words: + + "Rock of Ages, cleft for me, + Let me _hide_ myself in Thee." + +And that great multitude took it up and rolled the tribute of praise +down those resounding aisles until people bowed themselves, and some of +them wept softly in the very excess of their joy and thanksgiving. It +was all so sudden, so unexpected; yet it was so surely the key-note to +the Chautauqua heart, and fitted in so aptly with their professions and +intentions. They could play for a few minutes--none could do it with +better hearts or more utter enjoyment than these same splendid +leaders--but how surely their hearts turned back to the main thought, +the main work, the main hope, in life and in death. + +As for Eurie, she will not be likely to forget that sermon. It almost +overpowered her. There came over her such a sudden and eager longing to +understand the depths from whence such feeling sprung, to rest her feet +on the same foundation, that for the moment her heart gave a great bound +and said: "It is worth all the self-denial and all the change of life +and plans which it would involve. I almost think I want that rather than +anything else." That miserable "almost!" I wonder how many souls it has +shipwrecked? The old story. If Eurie had been familiar with her Bible it +would surely have reminded her of the foolish listener who said, while +he trembled under the truth, "_Almost_ thou persuadest me to be a +Christian." + +Shall I tell you what came in, just then and there, to influence her +decision? It was such a miserable little thing--nothing more than the +remembrance of certain private parties that were a standing institution +among "their set" at home, to meet fortnightly in each other's parlors +for a social dance. Not a ball! oh, no, not at all. These young ladies +did not attend _balls_, unless occasionally a charity ball, when a very +select party was made up. Simply quiet evenings among _special_ friends, +where the special amusement was dancing. + +"Dear me!" you say, "I am a Christian, and I don't see anything wrong in +_dancing_. Why, I dance at private parties very often. What was there in +that thought that needed to influence her?" + +Oh, well, we are not arguing, you know. This is simply a record of +matters and things as they occurred at Chautauqua. It can hardly be said +to be a story, except as records of real lives of course make stories. + +But Eurie was _not_ a Christian, you see; and however foolish it may +have been in her she had picked out dancing as one of the amusements not +fitting to a Christian profession. It is a queer fact, for the cause of +which I do not pretend to account, but if you are curious, and will +investigate this subject, you will find that four fifths of the people +in this world who are not Christiana have tacitly agreed among +themselves that dancing is not an amusement that seems entirely suited +to church-members. If you want to get at the reason for this strange +prejudice, question some of them. Meantime the fact exists that Eurie +felt herself utterly unwilling to give up the leadership of those +fortnightly parties, and that the trivial question actually came in then +and there, while she stood looking at that picture of the cross; and in +proportion as her sudden conviction of desire lost itself in this whirl +of intended amusement did her disgust arise at the thought that she had +been actually betrayed into listening to another sermon! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +"THEIR WORKS DO FOLLOW THEM." + + +Marion went alone to the services the next morning. It was in vain that +she assured Eurie that Miss Morris was going to conduct one of the +normal classes, and that she had heard her spoken of as unusually +sparkling. Eurie shook her head. + +"Go and hear her sparkle, then, by all means I won't. Now that's a very +inelegant word to use, but it is expressive, and when _I_ use it you may +know that I mean it; I am tired of the whole story, and I have been +cheated times enough. Look at yesterday! It was a dozen prayer-meetings +combined. No, I don't get caught this morning." + +"But the subject is one that will not admit of sermonizing and +prayer-meetings this morning," Marion pleaded; "I am specially +interested in it. It is 'How to win and hold attention.' If there is +anything earthly that a ward school-teacher needs to know it is those +two items. I expect to get practical help." + +"You needn't expect anything _earthly_; this crowd have nothing to do +with matters this side of eternity. As for the subject not admitting of +sermonizing, look at the subject of blackboard caricatures. What came of +that?" + +So she went her way, and Marion, who had seen Miss Morris and had been +attracted, looked her up with earnest work in view. She had an ambition +to be a power in her school-room. Why should not this subject help +_her_? + +The tent was quite full, but she made her way to a corner and secured a +seat. Miss Morris was apparently engaged in introducing herself and +apologizing for her subject. + +"I tried to beg off," she said; "I told them that the subject and I had +nothing in common; that I was a primary class teacher, and in that line +lay my work. But there is no sort of use in trying to change Dr. +Vincent's mind about anything, so I had to submit. But for once in my +life I remind myself of Gough. I once overheard him in conversation with +a committee on lectures. They were objecting to having him lecture on +temperance, and pressing him to name some other subject. 'Choose what +subject you please, gentlemen,' he said at last, 'and I'll lecture on +it, but remember what I _say_ will be on temperance.' So they have given +me this subject and I have engaged to take it, but I want you to +remember that what I _say_ will be on primary class-teaching." + +By this time Miss Morris had the sympathy of her audience, and had +awakened an interest to see how she would follow out her programme, and +from first to last she held their attention. Certain thoughts glowed +vividly. I don't know who else they influenced, but I knew they roused +and startled Marion, and will have much to do with her future methods of +teaching. + +"Remember," said the speaker, "that you can not live on skim-milk and +teach cream!" The thought embodied in that brief and telling sentence +was as old as time, and Marion had heard it as long ago as she +remembered anything, but it never flashed before her until that moment. + +What an illustration! She saw herself teaching her class in botany to +analyze the flowers, to classify them, to tell every minute item +concerning them, and she taught them nothing to say concerning the +Creator. Was this "skim-milk" teaching? She knew so many ways in which, +did she but have this belief concerning heaven, and Christ, and the +judgment, in her heart, she could impress it upon her scholars. She had +aimed to be the very _cream_ of teachers. Was she? She came back from +her reverie, or, rather, her self-questioning, to hear Miss Morris say: + +"Why, one move of your hand moves all creation! and as surely does one +thought of your soul grow and spread and roll through the universe. Why, +you can't sit in your room alone, and think a mean thought, or a false +thought, or an unchristian thought, without its influencing not only all +people around you, not only all people in all the universe, but nations +yet unborn must live under the shadow or the glory that the thought +involves." + +Bold statements these! But Marion could follow her. Intellectually she +was thoroughly posted. Had she not herself used the illustration of the +tiny stream that simpered through the home meadow and went on, and on, +and on, until it helped to surge the beaches of the ocean? But here was +a principle involved that reached beyond the ocean, that ignored time, +that sought after eternity. Was she following the stream? Could she +honestly tell that it might not lead to a judgment that should call her +to account for her non-religious influence over her scholars? Marion was +growing heavy-hearted; she wanted at least to do no harm in the world if +she could do no good. But if all this mountain weight of evidence at +Chautauqua proved anything, it proved that she was living a life of +infidelity, for the influence of which she was to be called into +judgment. + +No sort of use to comfort herself with the thought that she talked of +her peculiar views to no one; it began to be evident that the things +which she did _not_ do were more startling than the things which she +did. + +On the whole, no comfort came to her troubled soul through this morning +session. To herself she seemed precisely where she was when she went +into that tent, only perhaps a trifle more impressed with the solemnity +of all things. + +But, without knowing it, a great stride had been taken in her education. +She was not again to be able to say: "I injure no one with my belief; I +keep it to myself." "No Man liveth to himself." + +The verse came solemnly to her as she went out, as though other than +human voice were reminding her of it, and life began to feel like an +overwhelming responsibility that she could not assume. When one begins +to _feel_ that thought in all its force the next step is to find one who +will assume the responsibility for us. She met Ruth on her way up the +hill. + +"Flossy has deserted me," Ruth explained as they met; "Eurie carried her +away to take a walk. Are you going to hear about John Knox? I am +interested in him chiefly because of the voice that is to tell of him +to-day; I like Dr. Hurlburt." + +Marion's only reply was: "I don't see but you come to meeting quite as +regularly, now that you are at the hotel, as you did when on the +grounds." + +Then they went to secure their seats. I am not to attempt to tell you +anything about the John Knox lecture; indeed I have given over telling +more about the Chautauqua addresses. It is of no sort of use. One only +feels like bemoaning a failure after any attempt to repeat such lectures +as we heard there. Besides, I am chiefly interested at present in their +effect on our girls. + +They listened--these two, and enjoyed as people with brains must +necessarily have done. But there was more than that to it; there were +consequences that will surely be met again at the last great day. + +Ruth, as she walked thoughtfully away, said to herself: "That is the +way. _Live_ the truth. It is a different day, and the trials and +experiences are different, but _life_ must be the same. It is not the +day for half-way Christianity nor for idling; I will be an earnest +Christian, or I will not dishonor the name and disgrace the memory of +such men as Knox by claiming to be of their faith." + +While Marion, as she turned her flushed cheeks hastily away from Ruth, +not willing to show one who knew nothing about this matter, save that +it was expedient to join a church, had gotten one foot set firmly toward +the rock. + +"The power that enabled _that_ man to live _that_ life was certainly of +God," she thought. "It _must_ be true. God must be in communication with +some of the souls that have lived. Is he now, and can I be one of them? +Oh, I wonder if there are a favored few who have shone out as grand +lights in the world and have gone up from the world to their reward? And +I wonder if there is no such thing now? If the blundering creatures who +call themselves by his name are nothing but miserable imitations of what +was _once_ real? + +"Such lives as that one can understand; but how can I ever believe that +Deacon Cole's life is molded by the same influence, or, indeed, that +mine can be? Must I be a Deacon Cole Christian if I am one at all?" + +The afternoon clouded over, and a mincing little rain began to fall. +Marion stood in the tent door and grumbled over it. + +"I wanted to hear that Mr. Hazard," she said; "I rather fancy his face, +and I fancy the name of his subject. I had a curiosity to see what he +would do with it, and here is this rain to hinder." + +Ruth and Flossy had come over for the day, and were waiting in the tent. + +"Haven't you been at Chautauqua long enough to catch one of its cardinal +rules, never to stay at home for rain?" Flossy said. + +Marion looked around at her. She was putting on her rubbers. + +"Are you really going?" She asked the question in great surprise. "Why, +Flossy, it is going to rain hard!" + +"What of it?" said Flossy, lightly. "I have waterproof, and rubbers, and +umbrella, and if it gets to be too wet I can run to a tent." + +"If you were at home you wouldn't think of going to church. Why, Flossy +Shipley, I never knew you to go out in the rain! I thought you were +always afraid you would spoil your clothes." + +"That was because I had none already spoiled to wear," Flossy answered, +cheerily; "but that difficulty is obviated; I have spoiled two dresses +since I have been here. This one now is indifferent to the rain, and +will be for the future. I have an improvement on that plan, though; I +mean to have a rainy-day dress as soon as I get home. Come, it is time +we were off." + +"I believe I am a dunce," Marion said, slowly. "I think it is going to +rain hard; but as I have to go, at home, whether it rains or shines, I +suppose I can do it here. But if this were a congregation of respectable +city Christians, instead of a set of lunatics, there wouldn't be a dozen +out." + +They found hundreds out, however. Indeed, it proved to be difficult to +secure seats. That address was heard under difficulties. In the first +place it _would_ rain; not an out-and-out hearty shower, that would at +once set at rest the attempt to hold an out-door meeting, but an +exasperating little drizzle, enlivened occasionally by a few smart drops +that seemed to hint business. There was a constant putting up of +umbrellas and putting them down again. There was a constant fidgeting +about, and getting up and sitting down again, to let some of the more +nervous ones who had resolved upon a decided rain escape to safer +quarters. Half of the people had their heads twisted around to get a +peep at the sky, to see what the clouds really _did_ mean, anyway. + +Our girls had one of the uncomfortable posts. Arrived late, they had to +take what they could get, and it was some distance from the speaker, and +their sight and sound were so marred by the constant changes and the +whirl of umbrellas that Marion presently lost all patience and gave up +the attempt to listen. She would have deserted altogether but for the +look of eager attention on Flossy's face. Despite the annoyances, _she_ +was evidently hearing and enjoying. It seemed a pity to disturb her and +suggest a return to the tent; besides, Marion felt half ashamed to do +so. + +It was not pleasant to give tacit acknowledgment to the fact that poor +little, unintellectual Flossy was much more interested than herself. She +gave herself up to an old and favorite employment of hers, that of +looking at faces and studying them, when a sudden hush that seemed to be +settling over the hither to fidgety audience arrested her attention. + +The speaker's voice was full of pathos, and so quiet had the place +become that every word of his could be distinctly heard. He was +evidently in the midst of a story, the first of which she had not heard. +This was the sentence, as her ears took it up: + +"Don't cry, father, don't cry! To-night I shall be with Jesus, and I +will tell him that you did all you could to bring me there!" + +What a tribute for a child to give to a father's love! Flossy, with her +cheeks glowing and her eyes shining like stars, quietly wiped away the +tears, and in her heart the resolve grew strong to live so that some +one, dying, could say of her: "I will tell Jesus that you did all you +could to bring me there!" + +Do you think that was what the sentence said to Marion? Quick as thought +her life flashed back to that old dingy, weather-beaten house, to that +pale-faced man, with his patched clothing and his gray hairs straggling +over on the coarse pillow. _Her_ father, dying--her one friend, who had +been her memory of love and care all these long years, dying--and these +were the last words his lips had said: + +"Don't cry, little girl--father's dear little girl. I am going to Jesus. +I shall be there in a little while. I shall tell him that I tried to +have you come!" + +Oh, blessed father! How hard he had tried in his feebleness and weakness +to teach her the way! How sure he had seemed to feel that she would +follow him! And how had she wandered! How far away she was! Oh, blessed +Spirit of God, to seek after her all these years, through all the weak +and foolish mazes of doubt, and indifference, and declared +unbelief--still coming with her down to this afternoon at Chautauqua, +and there renewing to her her father's parting word. + +She had often and often thought of these words of her father's. In a +sense, they had been ever present with her. Just why they should come at +this time, bringing such a sense of certainty about them to her very +soul that all this was truth, God's solemn, _real_, unchangeable truth, +and force this conviction upon her in such a way that she was moved to +say, "Whereas I _was_ blind, now I see," I can not tell. + +Why Mr. Hazard was used as the instrument of such a revelation of God to +her I can not tell. Perhaps he had prayed that his work at Chautauqua +that rainy afternoon might, in some way, be blessed to the help of some +struggling soul. Perhaps this was the answer to his prayer--unheard, +unseen by him, as many an answer to our pleading is, and yet the answer +as surely comes. Who can tell how this may be. I do not know. I know +this, that Marion's heart gave a great sobbing cry, as it said: + +"Oh, father, father! if your God, if your Christ, will help me, I +will--I will _try_ to come." + +It was her way of repeating the old cry, "Lord, I believe, help thou +mine unbelief." And I do know that it is written, "Blessed are the dead +which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they +may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them." It was +fifteen years that the weary father had been resting from his labors, +and here were his works following him. + +I have heard that Mr. Hazard said, as he folded his papers and came down +from the stand that afternoon, "It was useless to try to talk in such a +rain, with the prospect of more every minute. The people could not +listen. It would have been better to have adjourned. Nothing was +accomplished." Much _he_ knew about it, or will know until the day when +the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +UNFINISHED MUSIC. + + +Meantime, this day, which was to be so fraught with consequences to +Marion, was on Eurie's hands to dispose of as best she could. To be at +Chautauqua, and to be bent on having nothing whatever to do with any of +the Chautauqua life, was in itself a novel position. The more so as she +felt herself quite deserted. The necessity for reporting served Marion +as an excuse for attending even those meetings which she did not report; +and the others having gone to Mayville to live, this foolish sheep, who +was within the fold, and who would not be _of_ it, went wandering +whither she would in search of amusement. + +After Marion left her she made her way to the museum, and a pleasant +hour she spent; one could certainly not desire a more attractive spot. +She went hither and thither, handling and admiring the books, the +pictures, the maps, the profusion of curiosities, and, at the end of the +hour, when the press of visitors became too great to make a longer stay +agreeable, she departed well pleased with herself that she had had the +wisdom to choose such a pleasant resort instead of a seat in some +crowded tent as a listener. + +Coming out, she walked down the hill, and on and on, watching the crowds +of people who were gathering, and wishing she had a programme that she +might see what the special attraction was that seemed to be drawing so +many. + +At last she reached the wharf. The Assembly steamer was lying at her +dock, her jaunty flags flying, and the commotion upon her decks +betokening that she was making ready for a voyage. The crowd seemed +greater there than at any other point. It would appear that the special +attraction was here, after all. She understood it, and pushed nearer, as +the ringing notes of song suddenly rose on the air, and she recognized +the voices of the Tennesseeans. + +This was a great treat; she delighted in hearing them. She allowed +herself to be elbowed and jostled by the throng, reaching every moment +by judicious pushing a place where she could not only hear but see, and +where escape was impossible. The jubilant chorus ceased and one of those +weird minor wails, such as their music abounds in, floated tenderly +around her. + +It was a farewell song, so full of genuine pathos, and so tenderly sung, +that it was in vain to try to listen without a swelling of the throat +and a sense of sadness. Something in the way that the people pressed +nearer to listen suggested to Eurie that it must be designed as a +farewell tribute to somebody, and presently Prof. Sherwin mounted a seat +that served as a platform and gave them a tender informal farewell +address. In every sentence his great, warm heart shone. + +"I am going away," he said, "before the blessed season at Chautauqua is +concluded. I am going with a sad heart, for I feel that opportunities +here for work for the Master have been great, and some of them I have +lost. And yet there is light in the sadness, for the work that I can not +do will yet be done. I once sat before my organ improvising a thought +that was in my heart, trying to give expression to it, and I could not. +I knew what I wanted, and I knew it was in my heart, but how to give it +expression I did not know. A celebrated organist came up the stairs and +stood beside me. I looked around to him. 'Can't you take this tune,' I +said, 'just where I leave it, and finish it for me as I have it in my +heart to do? I can't give it utterance. Don't you see what I want?'" + +"'Perhaps I do,' he said, and he placed his fingers over my fingers, on +the same keys that mine were touching, and I slipped out of the seat and +back into the shadow, and he slipped into my place, and then the music +rolled forth. My tune, only I could not play it. He was doing it for me. +So, though I may have failed in my work that I have tried to do here, +the great Master is here, and I pray and I hope and I believe that he +will put his grand hand upon my unfinished work and in heaven I shall +meet it completed.'" + +What was there in this to move Eurie to tears? She did not know Prof. +Sherwin--that is, she had never been introduced to him--but she had +heard him sing, she had heard him pray, she had met him in the walk and +asked where the Sunday-school lesson was, and he had in part directed +her--directed her in such a way that she had been led to seek further, +and in doing so had met Miss Ryder, and in meeting her had been +interested ever since in studying a Christian life. Was this one of +Prof. Sherwin's unfinished tunes? Would he meet it again in heaven? + +A very tender spirit took possession of Eurie--an almost irresistible +longing to know more of this influence, or presence, or whatever name it +should be called, that so moved hearts, and made the friends of a week +say farewell with tears, and yet with hopeful smiles as they spoke in +joy and assurance of a future meeting. + +Prof. Sherwin and his friends embarked, and the dainty little steamer +turned her graceful head toward Mayville, and slipped away over the +silver water. Eurie made no attempt to get away from the throng who +pressed to the edge of the dock to get the last bow, the last flutter of +his handkerchief. She even drew out her own handkerchief and fluttered +it after him, and received from him a special bow, and was almost +decided to resolve to be present in joy at that other meeting, and to +make sure this very day of her title to an inheritance there. Almost! + +Going back she met Ruth and Flossy. She seized eagerly upon the latter. + +"Come," she said, "you have been to meetings enough, and you haven't +taken a single walk with me since we have been here, and think of the +promises we made to entertain each other." + +Flossy laughed cheerfully. + +"We have been entertained, without any effort on our part," she said. +Nevertheless she suffered herself to be persuaded to go for a walk, +provided Eurie would go to Palestine. + +"What nonsense!" Eurie said, disdainfully, when Flossy had explained to +her that she had a consuming desire to wander along the banks of the +Jordan, and view those ancient cities, historic now. "However, I would +just as soon walk in that direction as any other." + +There was one other person who, it transpired, would as soon take a walk +as do anything else just then. He joined the girls as they turned toward +the Palestine road. That was Mr. Evan Roberts. + +"Are you going to visit the Holy Land this morning, and may I be of your +party?" he asked. + +"Yes," Flossy answered, whether to the first question, or to both in +one, she did not say. Then she introduced Eurie, and the three walked on +together, discussing the morning and the meetings with zest. + +"Here we are, on 'Jordan's stormy banks,'" Mr. Roberts said, at last, +halting beside the grassy bank. "I suppose there was never a more +perfect geographical representation than this." + +"Do you really think it has any practical value?" Eurie asked, +skeptically. Mr. Roberts looked at her curiously. + +"Hasn't it to you?" he said. "Now, to me, it is just brimful of +interest and value; that is, as much value as geographical knowledge +ever is. I take two views of it. If I never have an actual sight of the +sacred land, by studying this miniature of it, I have as full a +knowledge as it is possible to get without the actual view, and if I at +some future day am permitted to travel there, why--well, you know of +course how pleasant it is to be thoroughly posted in regard to the +places of interest that you are about to visit; every European traveler +understands that." + +"But do you suppose it is really an accurate outline?" Eurie said, +again, quoting opinions that she had read until she fancied they were +her own. + +Again Mr. Roberts favored her with that peculiar look from under heavy +eyebrows--a look half satirical, half amused. + +"Some of the most skilled surveyors and traveled scholars have so +reported," he said, carelessly. "And when you add to that the fact that +they are Christian men, who have no special reason for getting up a +wholesale deception for us, and are supposed to be tolerably reliable +on all other subjects, I see no reason to doubt the statement." + +On the whole, Eurie had the satisfaction of realizing that she had +appeared like a simpleton. + +Flossy, meantime, was wandering delightedly along the banks, stopping +here and there to read the words on the little white tablets that marked +the places of special interest. + +"Do you see," she said, turning eagerly, "that these are Bible +references on each tablet? Wouldn't it be interesting to know what they +selected as the scene to especially mark this place?" + +Mr. Roberts swung a camp-chair from his arm, planted it firmly in the +ground, and drew a Bible from his pocket. + +"Miss Mitchell," he said, "suppose you sit down here in this road, +leading from Jerusalem to Bethany, and tell us what is going on just now +in Bethany, while Miss Shipley and I supply you with chapter and verse." + +"I am not very familiar with the text-book," Eurie said. "If you are +really in the village yourselves you might possibly inquire of the +inhabitants before I could find the account." But she took the chair +and the Bible. + +"Look at Matthew xxi. 17, Eurie," Flossy said, stooping over the tablet, +and Eurie read: + +"'And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged +there.'" + +"That was Jesus, wasn't it? Then he went this way, this very road, +Eurie, where you are sitting!" It was certainly very fascinating. + +"And stopped at the house on which you have your hand, perhaps," Mr. +Roberts said, smiling at her eager face. + +"That might have been Simon's house, for instance." + +"Did _he_ live in Bethany? I don't know anything about these things." + +"Eurie, look if you can find anything about him. The next reference is +Matthew xxvi." + +And again Eurie read: + +"'Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper.'" + +"The very place!" Flossy said, again. "Oh, I want so much to know what +happened then!" + +"Won't Miss Mitchell read it to us?" Mr. Roberts said, and he arranged +his shawl along the ground for seats. "Since we have really come to +Bethany, let us have the full benefit of it. Now, Miss Shipley, take a +seat, and we will give ourselves up to the pleasure of being with Jesus +in Simon's house, and looking on at the scene." + +So they disposed of themselves on the grass, and Eurie, hardly able to +restrain a laugh over the novelty of the situation, and yet wonderfully +fascinated by the whole scene, read to them the tender story of the +loving woman with her sweet-smelling ointment, growing more and more +interested, until in the closing verse her voice was full of feeling. + +"'Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in +the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done be +told as a memorial of her.'" + +"Think of that!" said Mr. Roberts. "And here are we, eighteen hundred +years afterward, sitting here in Bethany and talking of that same woman +still! Miss Mitchell, are you going to do something for Christ that +shall be talked over a thousand years from now? There is a chance for +undying fame." + +"Doubtful!" Eurie said, but she did not smile; her face was grave. + +"Or, better still, are you going to do such work for Christ that, +hundreds of years after, your influence will be silently living and +working out its fruit in human hearts?" + +"It is altogether more likely that I shall do nothing at all." + +"Out of the question," he said, with a grave smile. "Either for or +against, every life must be, whether we will it or not. 'He that is not +with me is against me,' was the word of the Master himself, and as long +as eternity lasts the fruit of the sowing will last." + +"That is a fearfully solemn thought," Flossy said, earnestly. + +Mr. Roberts turned toward her a face aglow with smiles now. + +"And a wondrously precious one," he said, and Flossy answered him in a +low tone: + +"Yes, I can see that it might be." + +Now, the actual fact is, that those three people wandered around that +far-away land until the morning vanished and the loud peal of the +Chautauqua bells announced the fact that the feast of intellect was +over, and it was time for dinner They went from Bethany to Bethel, and +from Bethel to Shechem, and they even climbed Mount Hermon's snowy peak, +and looked about on the lovely plain below. In every place there was +Bible reading, and Eurie was the reader, and it was such a morning that +she will remember for all time. + +"Pray, who is this Mr. Roberts?" she asked, as they parted company at +the foot of the hill. "Where did you make his acquaintance?" + +"He is Mrs. Smythe's nephew," Flossy said. "She introduced me to him the +other evening." + +"The other evening! You seemed to be as well acquainted as though you +had spent the summer together." + +"Some people have a way of seeming like friends on short acquaintance," +Flossy said, with grave face and smiling eyes. + +"You two missed a good deal by your folly this morning," Ruth said, as +they met at dinner. "We had a grand lecture." + +"So had we," answered Eurie, significantly, and that was every word she +vouchsafed concerning the trip to Palestine. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +MENTAL PROBLEMS. + + +"Dr. Deems," said Ruth, looking up from her programme with a thoughtful +air. "I wonder if he is a man whom I have any special desire to hear?" + +You must constantly remember the entire ignorance of these girls on all +names and topics that pertained to the religious world. Ruth knew indeed +that the gentleman in question was a New York clergyman; that was as far +as her knowledge extended. + +"His subject is interesting," Flossy said. + +"I don't think it is," said Eurie. "Not to me, anyhow. Nature and I +have nothing in common, except to have a good time together if we can +get it. She is a miserably disappointed jade, I know. What has she done +for us since we have been here except to arrange rainy weather? I'm +going to visit his honor the mummy this morning, and from there I am +going to the old pyramid; and I advise you to go with me, all of you. +Talk about nature when there is an old fellow to see who was acquainted +with it thousands of years ago. Nature is too common an affair to be +interested in." + +"Oh, are you going to the museum?" said Flossy. "Then please get me one +of the 'Bliss' singing books, will you? I want to secure one before they +are all gone. Girls, don't you each want one of them to take home? The +hymns are lovely." + +"I don't," said Eurie, "unless he is for sale to go along and sing them. +I can't imagine anything tamer than to hear some commonplace voice +trying to do those songs that he roars out without any effort at all. +What has become of the man?" + +"He has gone," said Marion. "Called home suddenly, some one told me. +His singing is splendid, isn't it? I don't know but I feel much as you +do about the book. Think of having Deacon Miller try to sing, 'Only an +armor-bearer!' I don't mind telling you that I felt very much as if I +were being lifted right off my feet and carried up somewhere, I hardly +know where, when I heard him sing that. I was coming down the hill, away +off, you know, by the post-office--no, away above the post-office, and +he suddenly burst forth. I stopped to listen, and I could hear every +single word as distinctly as I can hear you in this tent." + +"Hear!" said Eurie, "I guess you could. I shouldn't be surprised if they +heard him over at Mayville, and that is what brings such crowds here +every day. Did you ever _see_ anything like the way the people come +here, anyhow?" + +"I don't feel at all as you do," said Flossy, going back to the question +of singing-books. "After we get let down a little, 'Only an +armor-bearer' will sound very well even from common singers. It has in +it what can't be taken out because a certain voice is lost; and the +book is full of other and simpler pieces, and lovely choruses, that +people can catch after one hearing." + +"Flossy is going home to introduce it into the First Church," Eurie +said, gravely. + +Flossy's cheeks flushed. + +"I had not thought of that," she said, simply; "perhaps we can. In any +case get me a couple, Eurie." + +The discussion on the morning service ended in a division of the party. +Ruth, who had come over early on purpose to attend, was obliged to +succumb to a feeling of utter weariness and lie down. + +Eurie steadily refused to go to the platform meeting, assuring them that +she knew Dr. Deems would be "as dry as a stick; all New York ministers +were." + +So Flossy and Marion went away together, Marion with her note-book in +the hope of getting an item for a newspaper letter that must be written +that afternoon. + +They were late, and almost abandoned in despair the hope of getting +within hearing, until a happy thought suggested a seat on the platform +stair at the speaker's back. There was a "crack" there, Marion said, +into which they presently crept. + +The address was already commenced. Marion listened at first with that +indifferent air that a face wears when its owner perforce commences in +the middle of a thing, and has to _wait_ his way to a tangible idea of +what is being said. + +There was not long waiting, however. Her eyes began to dilate and her +face to glow; she was almost a worshiper of eloquence, and surely no one +ever sat for two hours and listened to a more unbroken flow of rich, +glowing words, shining like diamonds, than fell lavishly around the +listeners that Friday morning at Chautauqua. But a few minutes and +Marion's pencil began to move with speed. This was the thought that had +thrilled her: + +"First, light; then liberation from chaos; then grass; and then God +stopped his work and gazed with delight on the picture he had drawn. +Think what a picture it must have been! There was nothing but rocks +ground down when God said, 'Earth, grow!' Then straightway the mother +power fell down upon the earth, life pulsed in her veins, and the baby +shoot of grass sprang up, and the rocky earth wrapped herself in her +garment of emerald, and God, stopping his work said, 'Useful, +beautiful!'" + +When the speaker touched upon the doctrine of the resurrection Marion's +pencil paused, and she leaned eagerly forward to get a glimpse of his +face. That doctrine had seemed to her doubting heart the strangest, +wildest, most hopeless of the Christian theories. If clear light could +shine on that, could there not on _anything_? Her face was aglow with +interest not only, but with anxiety. + +This morning, for the first time in her life, she could be called an +honest doubter. She had fancied herself able to believe any thing of +which her reason had been convinced; but she found, to her surprise and +dismay, that so fixed had the habit of unbelief become, it seemed +impossible to shake it off, and that she needed to be convinced and +reconvinced; that her questionings came in on every hand, seized upon +the smallest point, and tormented her without mercy. What about this +strange story of the resurrection? + +As she listened a subdued smile broke over her face--a smile of +sarcasm. How very absurdly simple the argument from nature was, how +utterly unanswerable! And after the sentence, "Tell me how that +wonderful field of waving grain came from the bare kernels of corn, and +I will tell you how my blessed baby shall rise an angel," Marion said in +tone so distinct that it struck on Flossy's ear like a knell, "What a +fool!" Not the speaker, as the dismayed and disappointed Flossy +supposed, but _herself_. + +"The measure of every man is his faith," said Dr. Deems. "The greatest +thing a human being can do is not to perceive, nor to _compare_, not to +_reason_, but to _believe_." And again Marion smiled. If this were true +what a pigmy she must be! She began to more than suspect that she was. + +"Don't waste time," said the Doctor, "in trying to reconcile science and +the Bible. Science wasn't intended to teach religion. The Bible wasn't +intended to teach science; but wherever they touch they agree. God sends +his servants--scientific men--all abroad through nature to gather facts +with which to illustrate the Bible." + +Marion began to write again, but it was only in snatches here and +there; not that there was not that which she longed to catch, but she +could not write it--the sentences just poured forth; and how perfectly +aglow with light and beauty they were! This one sentence she presently +wrote: + +"In the black ink of his power God wrote the Book of nature; in the red +ink of his love he wrote the Bible; and all this _power_ is to bring us +all to this _love_. Oh, to rest in arms like these! Are they not strong +enough?" + +Suddenly Marion closed her book and slipped her pencil into her pocket; +she could not write. And although she thrilled through every nerve over +the majestic sentences that followed and was carried to a pitch of +enthusiasm almost beyond her control, when the jubilant thunder of +thousands of voices rang together in the matchless closing words, +"Blessing, and glory, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, +be unto our God, forever and ever. Amen." She made no further attempt to +write; her heart was full; there rang in it this eager cry, "Oh, to rest +in arms like these!" Strong enough? Aye, indeed! Doubts were forever set +at rest. The Maker of all nature could be none other than God, and the +God of nature was the God of the Bible. It was as clear as the sunlight. +Reason was forever satisfied, but there lingered yet the hungering cry, +"Oh, to rest in arms like these!" + +And Flossy said not a word to her of the resting place. Not because she +had not found it strong and safe; not because she did not long to have +her friend rest there, but because of that despairing murmur in her +heart. "What is the use in saying anything? Had she not heard with her +own ears Marion's sneering sentence in the face of the unanswerable +arguments that had been presented?" I wonder how often we turn away from +harvest fields that are ready for the reader because we mistake for a +sneer that which is the admission of a convicted soul? + +By afternoon Ruth was rested and ready for meeting; if the truth be +known it was her troubled brain which had tired her body and obliged her +to rest. She had begun to take up that problem of "Christian work." The +platform meeting of the evening before, and, more than anything else, +Dr. Niles' address, had fanned her heart into a flame of desire to do +something for the Master. But what could she do? She and Flossy had +talked it over together after they reached their room at the hotel; in +fact they talked away into the night. + +"I don't know," Flossy said, with a little laugh, "but I shall have to +depend on the 'unconscious influence' which I exert to do my work for +me. I don't know of anything which I can actually _do_. Dr. Niles made a +great deal of that." + +"Yes," Ruth, said, "but you see, Flossy, the people whose unconscious +influence does any good are the ones after all who are moving around +_trying_ to do something. I don't feel sure that he lets the unconscious +influence of the drones amount to much, unless it is in the wrong scale. +Dr. Niles made a good deal of _that_, you remember." + +"Don't you like him ever so much, Ruth?" + +"Why, yes," Ruth said again, turning her pillow wearily. "I liked him of +course; how could I help it? But, after all, he made me very +uncomfortable. I seem to feel as though I _must_ find something to do. I +have a great deal of time to make up. I tell you what it is, Flossy, I +wish you and I could do something for those two girls. Isn't it strange +that they are not interested?" + +"But they are not." Flossy said it as positively as if she could see +right into their hearts. "I think Marion is worse than ever; and as for +Eurie, she won't even go to the meetings, you know." + +"I know. Perhaps we would only do harm to try. But what _can_ we do? I +am sure I don't see anything. And don't you know how clearly Dr. Niles +made it appear that there was a special work for each one?" + +So they discussed the question, turning it over and over, and getting +almost no light, coming to feel themselves very useless and worthless +specks on the sea of life, until late in the night Flossy said: + +"I'll tell you what it is, Ruth, we must just ask for work--little bits +of work, you know--and then keep our eyes open until it comes. I know of +things I can do when I get home." + +"So do I," said Ruth, "but I want to begin now." + +Silence for a few minutes, and then Flossy asked: + +"Ruthie, have you written to Mr. Wayne?" + +"No," said Ruth, her cheeks flushing even in the darkness. "I wrote a +long letter just before this came to me, but I burned it, and I am glad +of it." + +Then they went to sleep. But the desire for the work did not fade with +the daylight. Flossy had even been tempted to say a humble little word +to Marion, but had been deterred by the sound of that sneer of which I +told you; and Ruth, lying on her bed, had revolved the subject and sent +up many an earnest prayer, and went out to afternoon service resolved +upon keeping her eyes very wide open. + +The special attraction for the afternoon was a conference of primary +class teachers. They were out in full force, and were ready for any +questions that might fill the hearts and the mouths of eager learners. +Our girls had each their special favorites among these leaders. Ruth +found herself attracted and deeply interested in every word that Mrs. +Clark uttered. Marion was making a study of both Mrs. Knox and Miss +Morris, and found it difficult to tell which attracted her most. Even +Eurie was ready for this meeting. She had never been able to shake off +the thought of Miss Rider, and her eager enthusiasm in this work, while +Flossy had been fascinated and carried away captive by the magnetic +voice and manner of Mrs. Partridge. + +"She makes me glow," Flossy said, in trying to explain the feeling to +the calmer Ruth. "Her life seems to quiver all through me, and make me +long to reach after it; to have the same power which she has over the +hearts of wild uncared-for children." + +And Ruth looked down on the exquisite bit of flesh and blood beside her, +and thought of her elegant home and her elegant mother, and of all the +softening and enervating influences of her city life, and laughed. How +little had she in common with such a work as that to which Mrs. +Partridge had given her soul! + +Keeping her eyes open, as she had planned to do, this same Flossy saw as +she was passing down the aisle the hungry face of one of her boys, as +she had mentally called the Arabs with whom her life had brushed on the +Sunday morning The word just described it still, a hungry face like one +hanging wistfully around the outskirts of a feast in which he had no +share. Flossy let go her hold of Ruth's arm and darted toward him. + +"How do you do?" she said, in winning voice, before he had even seen +her. "I am real glad to see you again. If you will come with me I will +get a seat for you. A lady is going to speak this afternoon who has five +hundred boys in her class in Sunday-school." + +Now the Flossy of two weeks ago, if she could have imagined herself in +any such business, would have been utterly disgusted with the result, +and gone away with her pretty nose very high. + +The boy turned his dirty face toward her and said, calmly: + +"What a whopper!" + +The experience of a lifetime could not have answered more deftly: + +"You come and see. I am almost certain she will tell us about some of +them." + +Still he stared, and Flossy waited with her pretty face very near to +his, and her pretty hand held coaxingly out. + +"Come," she said again. And it could not have been more to the boy's +surprise than it was to hers that he presently said: + +"Well, go ahead. I can send if I don't like it. I'll follow." + +And he did. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +WAITING. + + +It required Flossy's eyes and heart both to keep watch of her boy during +the progress of that meeting. The novelty of the scene, the strangeness +of seeing ladies occupying the speaker's stand, kept him quiet and +alert, until Mrs. Partridge, that woman with wonderful power over the +forgotten, neglected portion of the world, arrested all his bewildering +thoughts and centered them on the strange stories she had to tell. + +Did you ever hear her tell that remarkable story of her first attempt at +controlling that remarkable class which came under her care, many years +ago, in St. Louis? It is full of wonder and pathos and terror and +fascination, even to those who are somewhat familiar with such +experiences. But Flossy and her boy had never heard, or dreamed of its +like. No, I am wrong; the boy had dreamed of scenes just so wild and +daring, but even he had not fancied that such people ever found their +way to Sunday-schools. + +Peanuts, cigars, a pack of cards, and a bowie-knife! Imagine yourself, +teacher, to be seated before your orderly and courteous class of boys +next Sunday morning and find them transformed into beings represented by +such surroundings as these! It was Mrs. Partridge's experience. How +fascinating that story is! That one incorrigible boy, the one with the +bowie-knife, the one who would make no answer to her questions, show no +interest in her stories, ignore her very presence and go on with his +horrible mischief, until it even came to a stabbing affray right there +in the class-room! + +Imagine her meeting that boy ten years afterward, when he was not only a +man, but a gentleman; not only that, but a Christian and not only that, +but a working Christian, superintending a mission Sunday-school, giving +his best energies and his best time to work like that! Think of being +told by him that the determination to amount to something was taken that +morning, ten years before, when he seemed not to be listening nor +caring! What is ten years of Christian work when we can hope for such +results as that! + +Flossy had forgotten her charge; her face was all aglow; so was her +heart. She knew more about Christian work than she did an hour before. +She had learned that we must take the step that plainly comes next to be +taken, no matter for the darkness of the day and the apparent gloom of +the future. _Work_ is ours; _results_ are God's. This life business is +divided. Partnership with God. Nothing but _the work_ to do; so that it +is done to the utmost limit of our best, the responsibility is the +Lord's. That was blessed! She could dare to try. + +Meantime the boy. He had listened in utmost silence, and with eyes that +never for an instant left the speaker's face! When the spell was broken +he drew a long sigh, and this was his mighty conclusion. + +"That chap was enough sight meaner than I'd ever be, and yet he got to +be _some_! I'll be blamed if I don't see what can be done in that line!" + +A small beginning; so small that on Flossy's face it excited only +smiles. She was ignorant, you know. To Mrs. Partridge that sentence +would have been worth a wedge of gold. But it is possible that Flossy's +first simple little reach after work may have fruit to bear. + +It is difficult to begin to tell about that next day at Chautauqua. +There was so much crowded into it that it would almost make a little +book of itself. The morning was spent by a large class of people in a +state of excited unrest and expectancy. The sensible ones by the +hundreds, and indeed I suppose I may say by the thousands, went to the +morning service, as usual, and heard the children's sermon, delivered by +Dr. Newton; and those who did not, and who afterward had the misfortune +to fall in with those who did, bemoaned their folly in not doing +likewise. On the whole, the children, and those who had brains enough to +become children for the time being, were the only comfortable ones at +Chautauqua that Saturday morning. + +The president was coming! So, apparently, was the rest of the world! +Oh, the throngs and throngs that continually arrived! It of itself was a +rare and never-to-be-forgotten novelty to those who had never in their +lives before seen such a vast army of human beings gathered into a small +space, and all perfectly quiet and correct, and even courteous in their +deportment. + +"Where are the drunken men?" said Marion, looking around curiously on +the constantly increasing throng. "We always read of them as being in +great crowds." + +"Yes, and the people who swear," added Eurie. "I haven't heard an oath +this morning, and I have roamed around everywhere. I must say Chautauqua +will bear off the palm for getting together a most respectable-looking, +well-behaved 'rabble!' That is what I overheard a sour-looking old +gentleman, who doesn't approve of having a president--or of letting him +come to a religious meeting, I don't know which--say would rush in +to-day. It certainly is a remarkably orderly 'rush.' Girls, look at Dr. +Vincent! I declare, Chautauqua has paid, just to watch him! He ought to +be the president himself. I mean to vote for him when female suffrage +comes in. Or a king! Wouldn't he make a grand king? How he would enjoy +ordering the subjects and enforcing his laws!" + +"All of which he seems able to do now," Marion said. "I don't believe he +would thank you for a vote. His realm is large enough, and he seems to +have willing subjects." + +"He has go-ahead-a-tive-ness." Eurie said. "What is the proper word for +that, school-ma'am? Executive ability, that's it. Those are splendid +words, and they ought to be added to his name. I tell you what, girls, I +wish we could cut him up into seven men, and take him home with us. +Seven first-class men made out of him and distributed through the towns +about us would make a new order of things." + +All this was being said while they were scrambling with the rest of the +world down to the auditorium to secure seats, for the grand afternoon +had arrived, and people had been advised to be "in their seats as soon +after one o'clock as they could make it convenient." + +"How soon will that be, I wonder?" Marion said, quoting this sentence +from Dr. Vincent's advice given in the morning, and holding up her +watch to show that it was five minutes of one. + +"It looks to me as though those deluded beings who arrive here at one +o'clock will have several hours of patient waiting before they will make +it convenient to secure seats. Just stand a minute, girls, and look! It +is worth seeing. Away back, just as far as I can see, there is nothing +but heads! The aisles are full, and space between the seats, and the +office is full, and the people are just pouring down from the hill in a +continuous stream. To look that way you wouldn't think that any had got +down here yet!" + +Now I really wish I had a photograph of that gathering of people to put +right in here, on this page! Many of them would have looked much better +at this point than they did after four hours of patient waiting. How +that crowd did fidget and fix and change position, as far as it was +possible to change, when there was not an inch of unoccupied space. How +they talked and laughed and sang and grumbled and yawned, and sang +again! + +It _was_ a tedious waiting. It had its irresistibly comic side. There +were those among the Chautauqua girls who could see the comic side of +things with very little trouble. The material out of which they made +some of their fun might have appeared very meager to orderly, decorous +people. But they made it. + +What infinite sport they got out of the fidgety lady before them, who +could not get herself and her three children seated to her mind! Those +ladies who labored so industriously in order that the nation's flags, +draping the stand, should float gracefully over the nation's chief, were +an almost inexhaustible source of amusement to our girls. + +"Look!" said Eurie, "that arrangement doesn't suit; some of the stars +are hidden; see them twitch it; it will be down! Now that one has it +looped just to her fancy. No! I declare, there it comes down again! The +other one twitched it this time; they are not of the same mind. Girls, +do look! It is fun to watch them; they work as though the interests of +this meeting all turned on a right arrangement of that flag." + +By this time the attention of the girls was engaged, and the number of +witty remarks that were made at the expense of those flags would no +doubt have disconcerted the earnest workers thereat could they have +heard them. + +The hours waned, and the president did not arrive. The waiters essayed +to sing, but to lead such an army of people was a difficult task, +especially when there was no one to lead. Such singing! + +"We came out ahead, anyhow!" said Flossy, stopping to laugh. + +Five or six thousand people had finished their verse, while five or six +thousand in the rear were in the third line of it. + +"We need Mr. Bliss or Mr. Sherwin or _somebody_," said Ruth. "What a +pity that they have all gone, and Dr. Tourjée hasn't come! I thought he +was to be here." + +Presently came a singer to their rescue. The girls did not know who he +was, but he led well, and the singing became decidedly enjoyable. +Suddenly he disappeared, and they went back again into utter confusion. +They stopped singing and began to grumble. + +"Queer arrangements, anyhow," said a surly-looking man in front. "Why +didn't they have a speaker ready to address this throng, instead of +keeping us waiting here with nothing to entertain us?" + +"I know it," said Marion, briskly addressing herself to her party. "Dr. +Vincent has not used his accustomed foresight. He ought to have known +that the presidential party would be three hours late, and filled up the +programme with speeches, especially since there has been such a dearth +of speech-making during the past two weeks. We are really hungry for an +address! I don't know who would have undertaken the task, however, +unless they sent for Gabriel or some other celestial. I know _I_ have no +desire to listen to a common mortal." + +Before them sat a lady absorbed in a book. During the singing she joined +heartily, and when Dr. Vincent came, on one of his numerous journeys to +try to encourage the crowd with the information that the party waited +for had not yet arrived, she looked and listened with the rest, but +always with her finger between the leaves, as if the place was too +interesting to be lost. + +Eurie's curiosity rose to such a pitch that she leaned forward for a +peep at the title-page, and drew back suddenly. It was a copy of the +Teacher's Bible! + +A silence fell upon the company near the front, broken suddenly by an +old lady who leaned lovingly toward her chubby-faced grandson, and said: + +"Frankie, you must look in a few minutes and you will see the President +of the United States." + +"That is good news, anyhow," spoke forth a rough-looking, good-natured +man near by, and the listeners, who were in that excited state of +weariness and waiting that they were ready to laugh or cry as the +slightest occasion offered, burst forth into roars of laughter, which +rang back among the crowds behind and enticed them to join, though I +suppose not twenty of the laughers knew what the joke was, if indeed +there _was_ one. + +A sudden rush. Some one occupied the stand. A notice. + +"A telegram!" said a ringing voice. "For Mrs. C.G. Hammond. +Marked--'Death!'" + +A sympathetic murmur ran through the great company, as they moved and +wedged and fell back, and did almost impossible things, to make a road +out of that dense throng of humanity for the one to whom the president +had suddenly become an insignificance. + +Just then came the "Wyoming Trio." Blessings on them, whoever they are. +Nothing ever could have fitted in more splendidly than they did just +there and then. And the singing rested and helped them all. + +Now a sensation came in the shape of a poem that had been written for +the occasion, and was to be learned to sing in greeting to the +president. How they rang those jubilant words through those old trees! +Tender, touching words, with the Chautauqua key-note quivering all +through them. + + "Greet him! Let the air around him + Benedictions bear; + Let the hearts of all the people + Circle him with prayer.' + +"I wonder if he realizes what a blessed thing it is to be circled with +prayer?" said she of the Teacher's Bible, turning a thoughtful face upon +the four girls who had attracted her attention. + +"I wonder who Mary A. Lathbury is?" said Eurie, reading from the poem. +"She is a poet, whoever she is. There isn't a line in this that is +simply _rhyme_. I doubt if the president ever had such a rhythmical +tribute as that." + +"She is the lady with blue eyes and curls who designs the pictures in +that charming child's paper which flutters around here. I have forgotten +the name of it, but the pictures are little poems themselves." + +This was Flossy's bit of information. + +"Which designs them, the blue eyes or the curls?" Marion asked, gravely. +And then these four simpletons burst into a merry laugh. + +Still the president did not appear. The audience had exhausted their +resources and their good humor. Ominous grumblings and cross faces began +to predominate. Some darkly hinted that he was not coming at all, and +that this was a design to draw the immense crowd together. Nobody +believed it, but many were in a mood to pretend that they did. + +"I never believed in this thing," said a tall, dark-faced, +solemn-featured man, speaking in a voice loud enough to interest the +crowd in front "This sensation business I don't believe in. What do we +want of the president here! Who cares to see him? I don't like it; I +believe it is all wrong, turning a religious meeting upside down for a +sensation, and I told them so." + +Our friend Marion, you will remember, was gifted with a clear voice and +a saucy tongue. + +"If he doesn't like it," she said, quickly, "and doesn't want to see the +president, why do you suppose he has kept one of the best chairs for +four mortal hours? Don't you think that is selfish?" + +Which sentence caused ripples of laughter all about them, and quenched +the solemn-visaged man. + +But it was growing serious, this waiting. It was a great army of people +to be kept at rest, and though they had been quiet and decorous enough +thus far, it was not to be presumed that they were all people governed +by nice shades of propriety. Would the disappointment break forth into +any disagreeable demonstrations? Dr. Vincent had done what he could; he +had appeared promptly on the arrival of dispatches, and given the +latest news that the telegraph and the telescope would send. But what +can any mortal man do who has arranged for people to come who do not +come, except wait for them with what patience he can command. + +At this ominous moment he appeared before them again. Not a notice this +time; something which shone in his eyes and quivered in every vein and +rang in his trumpet-like voice. This was what he said. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +SETTLED QUESTIONS. + + +Dear Friends: I should bear a burden on my conscience, if I did not come +to you to-day with the 'old, old story.' + +"Over the tent which has been prepared for the President of the United +States there glows, done in evergreen, this single word, '_rest_.' + +"As I pass it, I am reminded of another and a different rest: the rest +from every burden, every anxiety, every pain, every sin; who has rested +in those everlasting arms? There is coming a day when all this throng of +human life gathered here shall wait for the coming of the King. Yea, +even the 'King of kings.' Should that time be to-day, who is ready? Do +you know his power? Do you know his grace? Do you know his love? Through +the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, every one of you may have that +King for your father; I am commissioned, this day, to bring this +invitation to each one of you; 'Come unto me all ye that are heavy +laden, and I will give you rest.' Will you come?------Pardon this +interruption--no, I will not ask your pardon: it is never an +interruption to bring good news from the King to his subjects. I will +not weary you with a long presentation; I have only this message: you +are all invited to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, and be saved from +every possible calamity; you are all invited to come now. I am going to +ask the Tennesseeans to sing one of my favorites: + + "'Brother, don't stay away; + For my Lord says there's room enough, + Room enough in the heaven for you.'" + +Never were tender words more tenderly sung! Never did they steal out +upon the hearts of a more hushed and solemn audience. That matchless +word of gospel had touched home. There were those in the crowd who had +never realized before that the invitation was for them. + +Following the hymn came another, suggested also by Dr. Vincent: "Steal +away to Jesus." It is one of the sweetest as well as one of the +strangest of African melodies; and as the tender message floated up +among the trees, a strange hush settled over the listeners; many tears +were quietly wiped away from eyes unused to weeping. + +"Now sing 'Almost persuaded,'" said Dr. Vincent, his own voice tremulous +with his highly wrought feeling. Many voices took that up. Even the +Chautauqua girls sang, all but Eurie. With the sentence: + + "Seems now some soul to say, + Go, spirit, go thy way; + Some more convenient day + On thee I'll call." + +Flossy tamed her anxious, appealing eyes on Eurie, but she was laughing +merrily over the attempt of a feeble old man near her to join in the +song, and Flossy whispered sadly to Ruth: "Eurie has not even as much +interest as that." + +The spell of the message and the music lingered, even after Dr. Vincent +had gone again. There was no more grumbling; there was very little +laughing; a subdued spirit seemed to brood over the great company. + +"We could almost have a revival, right here," said one thoughtful man, +looking with searching eyes, up and down the sea of faces. + +"I tell you, no grander opportunity was ever more grandly improved than +by those few words of Dr. Vincent's. They touched bottom. He will meet +those words again with joy, or I am mistaken." + +But the waiting was over; suddenly the Chautauqua bells began to peal; +strains of martial music, and the roll of drums, mingled with the +booming of cannon; and almost before they were aware, even after all +their waiting, twenty thousand people stood face to face with their +nation's chief. + +"When the president's head appears above this platform, I hope it will +thunder here," had been Dr. Vincent's suggestion several hours before. + +Thunder! That was no comparison! I hope even _he_ was satisfied. Then +how that song of greeting rung out; tender still, even in its power: +"Let the hearts of all the people circle him with prayer." No better +gift for him than that. + +After the cheering and the singing, and the very brief speech from the +president himself, came the address of welcome by Dr. Fowler of Chicago. +His first sentence sent the multitude into another storm of cheers. Said +he: "The work that I thought to do, has been done by twenty thousand +people." How could they help doing it again after that? Chautauqua had +not dropped her colors in this plan of an afternoon given to the +president. + +The address of welcome from first to last rang with the gospel +invitation, "come;" no better word than that even for their chief; +"honor to whom honor is due," quoted the speaker, and then followed his +graceful tribute, but it closed with a tender, dignified, earnest appeal +to the President of the United States to 'rest' in the same refuge, to +enlist under the same flag, to be loyal to the same Chief, whom they +were met to serve. + +"Out of my heart," said he: "as a man who recognizes God as the supreme +ruler of us all, I bid you come with us, and we will do you good, for +the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel." + +Poor Eurie! What a place she had chosen if she desired to hear no more +preaching. What were all these exercises, but sermons, one after the +other, strong warm unanswerable appeals to be loyal to the Great Chief? +Certainly Dr. Deems was not the man to forget the Greater in his +greeting to the under ruler; nor did he. + +"Let me speak to you in closing," said he, "to you and to this assembly, +out of my heart. We shall never all stand together again, until that +great white throne shall stop in mid heavens, and we shall stand to meet +the Chiefest of all chiefs. O men and brethren, shall we not all prepare +to meet there? Mr. President, every day prayer is made for you; we are +hoping to meet with you in heaven. Brave men who stood beside you in the +late war, and have gone on ahead, are hoping to greet you there. May you +have a good life, a happy life, a blessed life; and may other tongues +more eloquent than mine, more eloquent than even my brother's who +preceded me, bid you welcome one day to the general assembly of the +first born. Amen and amen." + +What could better close the matchless greetings than to have the +Tennesseeans circle round their president and sing again that ringing +chorus: + + "I've been redeemed, + Been washed in the blood of the Lamb." + +"I don't know what will become of the grumblers," Marion said as they +rested in various stages of dishabille, and talked the exciting scenes +over. "They have been shamefully left in the lurch; they were going to +have this affair a demoralizing dissipation from first to last, unworthy +of the spirit of Chautauqua. And if more solemn, or more searching, or +more effective preaching could be crowded into an afternoon than has +been done here, I should like to be shown how. What do you think of your +choice of entertainments, Eurie? You thought it would be safe to attend +the president's reception, you remember." + +"I don't tell all I think," Eurie answered, and then she went out among +the trees. + +Truth to tell, Eurie had heard that from which she could not get away. +Dr. Vincent's words were still sounding, "you are invited to come to +Jesus and be saved; you are invited to come _now_." There had been +nothing to dissipate that impression, everything to deepen it, and the +thought that clung and repeated itself to her heart was that plaintive +wail: + + "Almost persuaded, now to believe." + +That was certainly herself; she felt it, knew it; in the face of that +knowledge think how solemn the words grew: + + "Almost will not prevail, + Almost is but to fail; + Sad, sad that bitter wail, + Almost,--but lost!" + +Was that for her, too? In short, Eurie out there alone, among the silent +trees, felt and admitted this fact: that the time had actually come to +her when this question must be decided, either for or against, and +decided forever. + +Sunday morning at Chautauqua! A white day. There can be none of all +that throng who spent the 15th day of August, 1875, in that sacred +place, who remember it without a thrill. A perfect day! Glorious and +glowing sunshine everywhere; and beauty, such perfect beauty of lake and +grove! The God of nature smiled lovingly on Chautauqua that morning. + +Our girls seemed to think that the perfect day required perfection of +attire, and it was noticeable that the taste of each settled on spotless +white, without color or ornament, other than a spray of leaves and +grasses, which one and another of them gathered almost without knowing +it, and placed in belt or hair. Outward calm, but inward unrest, at +least so far as some were concerned; Marion Wilbur among the number. + +It was a very heavy heart that she carried that day. There was no +unbelief; that demon was conquered. Instead there was an overpowering, +terrible _certainty_. And now came Satan with the whole of her past life +which had turned to sin before her, and hurled it on her poor shrinking +shoulders, until she felt almost to faint beneath the load; she lay +miserably on her bed, and thought that she would not add to her burden +by going to the service, that she knew already too much. But an appeal +from Flossy to keep her company, as the others had gone, had the effect +of changing her mind. + +Armed each with a camp-chair, they made their way to the stand, after +the great congregation were seated. A fortunate thought those +camp-chairs had been; there was not a vacant seat anywhere. + +Marion placed her chair out of sight both of stand and speaker, but +within hearing, and gave herself up to her own troubled thoughts, until +the opening exercises were concluded and the preacher announced his +text: "The place that is called Calvary." + +She roused a little and tried to determine whose voice it was, it had a +familiar sound, but she could not be sure, and she tried to go back to +the useless questionings of her own heart; but she could not. She could +never be deaf to eloquence; whoever the speaker was, there was that in +his very opening sentences which roused and held her. Whatever he had to +say, whether or not it was anything that had to do with her, she _must_ +listen. Still the wonderment existed as to which voice it was. + +But when he reached the sentences: "Jump the ages! Come down here to +Chautauqua Lake to-day, O Son of God! O Son of Man! O Son of Mary! When +the prophet of old said, 'He shall see of the travail of his soul and +shall be satisfied,' did he look along the centuries and see the +gathered thousands here, who have just sung, 'Tell me the old, old +story'? What story? Why, the story of the place that is called +Calvary!"--Marion leaned forward and addressed the person next to her. + +"Isn't that Dr. Deems?" she said. + +"Yes indeed!" was the answer, spoken with enthusiasm. + +And Marion drew back, and listened. That sermon! Marion tried to report +it, but it was like trying to report the roll of the waves on the +Atlantic; she could only listen with beating heart and flushing cheek. +Presently she listened with a new interest, for the divisions of the +subject were: "God's thought of sin," and "God's thought of mercy." +Though the morning was warm, she shivered and drew her wrap closer +about her. "God's thought of sin! She was in a mood to comprehend in a +measure what a fearful thought it might be. + +"Some men," said the speaker, "make light of sin." Yes, she had done it +herself. "Where shall we learn what God thinks of it? On Sinai? No. God +spoke there in thunder and lightning, till the very _hills_ shook and +trembled. + +"And what were they doing down below? Dancing around a golden calf! I +tell you it is only at Calvary that we can learn God's idea of sin. For +at Calvary, because of sin, God the Father surrendered his communion +with God the Son, and on Calvary God _died_! Will God ever forgive sin? +Many a one has carried that question around in his soul until it burned +there." + +Now you can imagine how Marion tried no more to write; thought no more +about eloquence; this question, which had become to her the one terrible +question of life, was being looked into. + +"How will we find out? Go by science into nature, and there's no proof +of it; God never forgives what seems to be the mistake of even a +reptile!" + +I cannot tell you about the rest of that sermon. I took no notes of it; +my notes ended abruptly in the middle of a sentence; one cannot write +out words that are piercing to their hearts. I doubt if even Marion +Wilbur can give you any satisfactory account of the wording of the +sentences. And yet Marion Wilbur rose up at its close, with cheeks aglow +not only with tears, but smiles; and the question, "Will God ever +forgive sin?" she could answer. + +There was a place where the burden would roll away. "At the place called +Calvary." She knew it, believed it, felt it,--why should she not? She +had been there in very deed, that summer morning. He had seen again of +the travail of his soul, he was one soul nearer to being satisfied. + +There were other matters of interest: those two Bibles, symbol of the +Chautauqua pulse,--that were presented to the nation's highest officer; +the address which accompanied them--simple, earnest gospel; the hymn +they sang,--_everything_ was full of interest. But Marion let it pass by +her like the sound of music, and the words in her heart that kept time +to it all were the closing words of that sermon: + + "Here I could forever stay, + Sit and _sing_ my life away. + This is more than life to me, + Lovely, mournful Calvary." + +It was so, all day. She went to the afternoon service; she listened to +Dr. Fowler's sermon, not as she had ever listened to one before; the +sermon for the first time was for her. When people listen for +_themselves_, there is a difference. She felt fed and strengthened; she +joined in the singing as her voice had never joined before; they were +singing about _her_ Saviour. Then she went back to her tent. + +"I am not going to-night," she said to the girls. "I am full, I want +nothing more to-day." + +"Preached out, I declare!" said Eurie. "Are you going to write out your +report for the paper? I wouldn't, Marion. I would go to the meeting. I +am going." + +"No," said Marion in answer to the question, and smiling at the thought. +How strange it would seem to her to spend _this_ Sabbath evening thus. +How many had she so spent! + +"I am glad to-morrow is the last day," she said, sinking into a chair; +"I want to go home." + +And Flossy and Ruth looked at each other, and sighed. How well these +girls understood one another! Why can't people be frank and speak so +that they can be understood? + +Suppose Marion had said: "No, I am _not_ going to write my report, I am +going to pray." Suppose she had said; "Yes, I want to go home to +_practice_." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +THE BEGINNING OF THE END. + + +It is a troublesome fact that, even when people are very much +interested, and very eager over important themes, commonplace and +comparatively trivial duties, will intrude, and insist upon being done +at that moment. For instance, our girls were obliged to spend the whole +of Monday morning in packing their trunks and satchels, returning their +furniture, settling for their tents, and the like; in short, breaking up +housekeeping and getting ready to go back to the civilized world. Flossy +and Ruth dispatched their part at the hotel promptly and came over to +the grounds to help the others. They discussed the meeting while they +worked. + +"If we hadn't been idiots," Marion said, "we should have attended that +normal class and been graduating, this morning, instead of being down +here, at work at our trunks and unknown to fame." + +"Well, you wouldn't go," Ruth answered. "Don't you know you declared +that was too much like work, and you hadn't an idea of learning +anything?" + +"Oh, yes," said Marion. "I remember a great many things I have said, +that I would quite as soon forget." + +By dint of eager bustling from one point to another, the work was +accomplished by noon, and all the girls were ready for the afternoon +service, which all seemed equally eager to attend. When they reached the +stand they looked about them in surprise and dismay. + +"Everybody is gone!" said Flossy, "only look! There are ever so many +unoccupied seats!" + +Marion laughed. + +"And ever so many that are occupied," she said. "My child, you have +been so used to counting audiences by the thousands, that sixteen or +seventeen hundred people look rather commonplace to you. However, there +are more than that number here, I think." + +It soon became a matter of small importance, whether there were few or +many, so long as they had the good fortune to be there themselves, and +to have the company of Dr. Eben Tourjée. + +Now it so happened that among these four girls there were two to whom +God had given special gifts: though neither of them had ever considered +that there were such things as gifts from God, which they were bound to +use in his service. + +There was Ruth Erskine, who had capabilities for music in the ends of +her fingers, that would have almost entranced the angels. What did she +do with her talent? Almost nothing. She hated the sickly +sentimentalities which, set to music, find their way into fashionable +parlors by the score. She was not in the society that knew of, or +craved, the higher, grander kind of music; and because she did, and did +not know it, she simply palled of the kind within her reach and let her +gift lie waste. + +Then there was Marion, whose voice was simply grand, both in power and +tone. What had she done with her voice? Sung by the hour to the old +father whose tender memory lingered with her to-day; less than nothing +with it since; no one knew she could sing; she hated singing in school, +she never went anywhere else; so only occasionally could the four walls +of her upper back room have testified that there was a talent buried +there. + +Did Dr. Tourjée travel from Boston to Chautauqua for the purpose of +inspiring and educating these two girls. I don't suppose he knew of +their existence, but that makes no difference, they are working out his +lecture all the same; in fact it is nearly a year since these Chautauqua +girls came home, and if you have any sort of desire to know what +Chautauqua theories develop into, when put to the test, please keep a +sharp lookout for "_The Chautauqua Girls at Home_." + +As the familiar talk on music went on, Ruth, with her eyes aglow, began +to plan in her own heart, first what she _might_ do, and presently what +she _would_ do. And Marion, at the other end of the seat, went through +the same process neither imagining that these same 'doings' would bring +them together, and lead to endless other doings. But that is just the +way in which life is going on every where, who imagined that what you +did yesterday, would lead your neighbor to do what he _has_ done to-day? + +"Luther said: 'Next to theology, I place sacred music.'" This was the +sentence that started a train of thought for Ruth. After that, she +listened in order that she might work. + +"Never use an interlude in church, I pray God that I may be forgiven for +the fiddle-faddle that I have strummed on organs, in the name of +interludes." + +This, delighted Marion, she hated interludes. She hated quartette +choirs. She had steadily refused to be beguiled into one, by the few who +knew that she could sing, so, when Dr. Tourjée said: "Think of the grand +old hymn, 'From all that dwell below the skies, let the Creator's praise +arise,' being warbled by one voice, a grand chorus of four coming in on +the third line!" + +Marion was entirely in sympathy with him, and eager for work in the way +in which he pointed out. It was an enjoyable afternoon in every respect. +But to "our girls" it was much more than that, it was an education. +Every one of them got ideas which they were eager to put in practice; +and they saw their ways clear to practise them to some purpose. When the +service was over, and the audience moved away, a sense of sadness and +lonliness began to creep over many, snatches of remark could be heard on +all sides. + +"Where is Dr. Fowler?" + +"Gone: went this morning." + +"Where is the Miller party?" + +"Oh, they went some time ago." + +"When did the president leave?" + +"It's all about 'go,'" Eurie said: "Look! How they are crowding down to +the boat; and only a stray one now and then coming up from there. Who +would have supposed it could make us feel so forlorn? I am glad we are +not to be at the morning meeting. I am not sure but I should cry of +homesickness. I say, girls, let's go to Palestine." + +Which suggestion was greeted with delight, and they immediately went. A +great many were of the same mind. Mr. Vanlennep in full Turkish dress, +was leading the way, and giving his familiar lecture on the--to +him--familiar spots. The girls stood near him by the sea of Galilee, and +heard his tender farewell words, and his hope that they would all meet +on the other side of Jordon. It was hard to keep back the quiet tears +from falling. + +They climbed Mount Hermon in silence, and looked over at Mount Lebanon, +they came back by the way of Cesarea, and turned aside to take a last +look at Joppa, down by the sea. In almost total silence this walk back +was accomplished. What was the matter with them all? + +Mr. Roberts had joined them, and he and Flossy walked on ahead. But +their voices were subdued and their subject--to judge from their faces, +_quieting_, to say the least. Then they all went to take their last +supper at Chautauqua. Not one of them grumbled over anything. Indeed, +they all agreed that the board had certainly improved very much during +the last few days, and that it was really remarkable that such a throng +of people could have been served so promptly and courteously, and on +the whole, so well, as had been done there. Still, it was strange to +have plenty of elbow room, and to see the waiters moving leisurely up +and down the long halls; no one in haste, no one kept waiting. + +As they rose from table, a gentleman passed through; they had passed +each other every day for a week; they had no idea what his name was, and +I suppose he knew as little about them. But he paused before them: + +"Good-bye," he said. And held out his hand, "I hope we shall all meet at +the assembly up there!" + +"Good-bye," they answered, and they shook hands. None of them smiled, +none of them thought it strange; though they had never been introduced! +It was the Chautauqua brotherhood of feeling. But after two weeks of +experience and much practice in that line, it was impossible to rid +onesself of the feeling that one must hurry down to the stand in order +to secure seats; so they hurried, and had a new experience; they were +among the first twenty on the ground. + +"The audience will be utterly lost to-night in this immense array of +seats;" Flossy said in dismay. "Doesn't it feel forlorn?" But they took +their seats, and presently came Miss Ryder and seated herself at the +piano in the twilight, and the tunes she played were soft and tender and +weird. + +"Every note says 'goodbye,'" said Ruth, and she gave a little sigh. +Presently, the calcium lights began to glow, as usual, and meantime +though everybody was supposed to have left; still, the people came from +somewhere; and at last, dismayed voices began to say: + +"Why! Did you ever see the like! I thought we should surely get good +seats to-night? Where _do_ all the people come from." + +"Look! Marion," said Eurie. "What would Dr. Harris think of such a +congregation as this! They could not get into our church, could they?" +But just then the hymn claimed attention: + +"My days are gliding swiftly by." + +How swiftly these days had glided away. How full they had been! During +the prayer that followed, all heads bowed, and the silence that fell +upon them made it seem that all hearts joined. Dr. Vincent was the +first speaker. His manner and voice had changed. Both were subdued; he +looked like a man who had been lifted up for a great mental strain and +was gradually letting down again to earth. + +"We are coming toward the close," he said. "We are more quiet than we +have been here before. Familiar faces and forms that have moved in and +out among these trees, for two weeks past, have gone. Only a few hours +and we are going; only a few hours and utter silence will fall upon +Chautauqua." + +"Oh dear!" murmured Eurie, "why _will_ he be so forlorn! I don't see why +I need care so much! Who would have supposed I could!" + +"Hush!" said Marion, and she surreptitiously wiped away a tear. "A love +feast," Dr. Vincent said they were going to have, for that last evening; +it was very much like that. The farewell from Canada came next; the +speaker said he had been "thawed out," meant to have America annexed to +Canada! Indeed they had already been annexed; in heart and soul! "Who's +who?" said he, and "what's what? Who knows?" There was just enough of +the comical mixed with the pathetic in this address to steady many a +tremulous heart. + +Dr. Presbry followed in much the same strain, closing, though, with such +a tender tribute to some who had been at the assembly the year before, +and had since gone to join the assembly that never breaks up, that the +tears came to the surface again. But those blessed Tennesseeans just at +that point made the grounds ring with the chorus, "Oh jubilee! jubilee! +the Christian religion is jubilee!" and followed it with: "I've been a +long time in the house of God, and I ain't got weary yet." + +By that time our girls looked at each other with faces on which tears +and smiles struggled for the mastery. + +"Shall we laugh, or cry?" whispered Eurie, and then they giggled +outright. But they sobered instantly and sat upright, ready to listen, +for the next one who appeared on the platform was Dr. Deems. + +He, too, commenced as if the spell of the parting was upon him. "He was +too tired," he said, "to make a short speech. Some one asked Walter +Scott why he didn't put a certain book of his into one volume instead +of five. And he said he hadn't time. It took five weeks to prepare a +speech three minutes long. And then he warmed, and grew with his subject +until the beautiful thoughts fell around them like pearls. Not only +beautiful, but searching. + +"No man," said he, "_dares_ to make a careless speech at Chautauqua, +there are too many to treasure it up, to plant it again." Of course he +knew nothing about those girls, and how much seed they were gathering +which they meant to plant; but they gathered it, all the same. He +dropped his seeds with lavish hand. This was one that took root in +Marion's brain and heart: + +"There are so many side influences that are unconscious, that the only +safe way for one to do is to let no part of himself ravel, but to keep +himself round and thorough, and healthy to the core." + +After that, Marion's pencil, on which I have to depend for my notes, +gave up in despair. "I _couldn't_ keep track of that man!" she said, +when I complained. "There was no more use to try than there would be to +count these apple blossoms," for it was this spring, and we were +standing in an apple orchard, and a perfect shower of the white, +sweet-smelling things came fluttering round our heads. But after he +'calmed down a little,' as she called it, she tried to write again; and +I copy this: + +"Brethren: This meeting will convert some of the most thoughtful people +of this generation: men who come here not knowing by personal experience +the power of this thing, men who walk thoughtfully up and down these +aisles, looking on, will say: 'There are scholars here, there are men of +genius, of great brain power, there are men and women here of every +variety of temperament, and attainment, held together for fourteen days +by one common bond,' and the perseverance, the solemnity, the hilarity, +the freedom, the naturalness, the earnestness of this meeting will so +impress them that they will know that there is a miracle holding us, a +supernatural strength. + +"May I give you to-night one word more of gospel invitation? Come, go +with us, you who do not understand this matter for yourselves, go with +us, and we _will_ do you good. Will you go to your rooms to-night and +make the resolve that shall write your names in God's book of life? The +recording angel has a trembling hand this minute, waiting for your +answer. Weary one, _so_ young and yet so tired, come, come, come now." + +Marion, with cheeks burning, and eyes very bright and earnest, looked +around her: Eurie sat next to her, she seemed unmoved, there was no sign +of tears to her bright eyes, but she was looking steadily at the +speaker. + +"Never mind!" Marion said within herself, and there came to her an eager +desire to begin her practice, to do something; what if it were utter +failure, would the fault be hers? + +Following the sudden leading that she had learned no better than to call +'impulse' she said in a quick low whisper: "Eurie, _won't you_?" And she +held her breath for the answer, and could distinctly feel the beating of +her own heart. Eurie turned great gray astonished eyes on her friend, +and said in a firm quiet voice: "I have. I settled that matter on +Saturday. Have you?" + +And then those two girls, each with the wonderful surprise ringing music +in her heart, were willing to have that meeting over. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +THE END OF THE BEGINNING. + + +It was almost over. Dr. Deems sat down amid the hush of hearts, and all +the people seemed to feel that no more words were needed. Yet, the next +moment, they greeted Frank Beard with joy, and prepared themselves with +great satisfaction to listen to what he had to say. Frank Beard was one +of Chautauqua's favorites. + +People had not the least idea that they could be beguiled into laughter; +hearts were too tender for that; yet you should have heard the bursts of +mirth that rang there for the next five minutes! Frank Beard was so +quaint, so original, so innocent in his originality, so pure and +high-toned, even in his fun, and they liked him so much that every +heart there responded to his mirth. The roars of laughter reached as +high as the music had done, but a little while before. + +Yet, when people's hearts are tender, and full, it is strange how near +laughter is to tears! Just a sentence from the same lips and the hush +fell on them again. + +Frank Beard had brought his heart with him to Chautauqua, and he was +evidently leaving some of it there. The touching little story of his +dream about his mother brought out a flutter of handkerchiefs, and made +tear-stained faces. And when he, simply as a child, tenderly as a +large-souled man, trustfully as only a Christian can, said his farewell, +and told of his joyful hope of meeting them all in the eternal morning, +absolute stillness settled over them. + +So many last words--one and another came--just a word, just "good-bye," +until we meet again; maybe here, next year, maybe there, where good-byes +are never heard. Finally came Dr. Vincent, his strong decided voice +breaking the spell, and helping them to realize that they ware men and +women with work to do: + +"Now, my friends," he said, "we really _must_ go home; it is hard to +close; I know that, no one knows it better: we _have_ closed a good many +times, and it won't _stay_ closed. The last word has been said over and +over again. I said it myself, some time ago, and here I am again: we +must just _stop_, never mind the closing; we will ring a hymn, and go +away, and next year we will begin right here, where we left it." + +But he didn't "stop," and no one wanted him to. His voice grew tender, +and his words were solemn. The last words that he would ever speak to +many a soul within sound of his voice; it could not be otherwise. You +can imagine better than I could tell you what Dr. Vincent's message +would be at such a time as that. + +Breaking into it, came the shrill sound of the whistle. The Col. +Phillips--the last boat for the night--was giving out its warning. The +Chautauqua bells began their parting peal. Not even for his own +convenience would that marvel of punctuality have the bells tarry a +moment behind the hour appointed. + +Our girls looked at each other and made signs, and nodded, and began to +slip quietly out. They had arranged to spend the night at the Mayville +House, and take an early train. Many others were softly and reluctantly +moving away. They were very quiet during that last walk down to the +wharf. Glorious moonlight was abroad, and the water shone like a sheet +of silver. + +As they walked, the evening wind brought to them the notes of the last +song which the throng at the stand were singing. A clear, ringing, yet +tender farewell. It floated sweetly down to them, growing fainter and +fainter as the distance lengthened, until, as they stepped on board the +boat, they lost its sound. There were many people going the same way, +but there was little talking. There are times when people, though they +may be very far from unhappiness, have no desire to talk. Once on deck, +Marion turned and clasped both of Eurie's hands. + +"I have had such a blessed surprise to-night!" she said, with glowing +face. "I did not think of such a thing! O Eurie, why didn't you tell +me?" + +"You cannot begin to be as surprised as I am," Eurie said. "I thought +you were miles away from such a thing. Why didn't you tell _me_?" + +Ruth and Flossy were leaning over, watching the play of the water +against the boat's side. + +"What about those two?" Eurie said, nodding her head toward them. + +Marion sighed. + +"Ruth is very far from understanding anything about it," she said; "at +least the last time I talked with her she knew as little about the +Christian life as the veriest heathen so far at least as personal duty +was concerned." + +"When was that?" + +"Why, a week ago; more than a week." + +"How long is it since you settled this question for yourself?" + +"Since yesterday," Marion said, blushing and laughing. "Eurie, you would +do for a cross-questioner." + +"And I have been on this side since Saturday,'" Eurie answered, +significantly. "A great many things can happen in a week." + +At this point, Ruth turned and came towards them. She looked quiet and +grave. + +"It is a year, isn't it? since we stood here together for the first +time," she said. "At least I seem to have had a year of life and +experience. Do you know, girls, I have something to tell you: I thought +to wait until we reached home, but I have decided to-night that I will +not. I am sorry that I have not told you before. Marion, don't you know +how like a simpleton I talked, a week ago last Saturday night? I want to +tell you that I was a fool; and was talking about that of which I knew +nothing at all. I want to assure you that there is a safe place, that I +know it now by actual experience, I have gone to the mountain and it is +sure and safe; and, oh, girls, I want you both to come so much." + +"I know the mountain;" Marion said, reaching out, and clasping Ruth's +hand. "The name of it is Calvary, it _is_ safe, and it is sufficient for +us all. Ruthie, we three are together in this thing." + +What those girls said to each other then and there is sacred to them. +But if I could, I would tell you something of the joy they felt. + +Flossy still leaned over the railing, a small quiet speck in the +moonlight. Marion kept turning her head in her direction. "Our poor +little Flossy would not understand much about this experience, I +suppose," she said at last; "she is such a child, and yet, I don't +know--sometimes I have fancied that she thinks more than we give her +credit for. That at least she has lately." + +"Let us tell her, anyway," Eurie, said, "we can't know what good it may +do. If we had not been so dreadfully afraid of each other, during the +last few days, we might have helped each other a good deal; for my part, +I have learned a lesson on which I mean to practice." + +Ruth looked up quickly, a rare smile in her eyes; she opened her lips to +speak to them, then seemed to change her mind and raised her voice: +"Flossy!" And Flossy came at her call. + +"Come here," Ruth said, withdrawing her hand from Marion's, and winding +her arm around the small figure beside her. + +"Flossy, the girls have had our very experience all by themselves, and +they want to know how long it is since you began to think about this +matter for yourself." + +Flossy turned her soft blue eyes on Marion. + +"The very night we came, Marion, and you made me come to the meeting in +the rain, you remember? I heard that which I knew would never let me +rest again, until I understood it and had it for my own. But I was very +ignorant, and foolish, and I blundered along in the dark for three +mortal days! After that Jesus found me, and I have known since what it +is to live in the light." + +"A Christian experience of ten whole days!" Eurie said. Of course she +was the first one to rise from her surprise and get possession of her +tongue. + +"Flossy, you have had a chance to get a good way ahead instead of being +behind, as we thought. You will have to show us the way." + +"Isn't this just wonderful!" broke forth Marion, suddenly, an +overwhelming sense coming over her, of the new relations that they four +would henceforth bear to each other. "Why, girls, what would they say up +there at the stand, if they could know what has come to each of us! I +almost feel like going back and telling them all. Just think what a +delight it would be to Dr. Vincent, and Dr. Deems, and, oh, to all of +them. Isn't it queer to think how well we know them all, and they are +not aware of our existence?" + +"I don't believe people will have to wait to be introduced to each +other when they get to heaven," Eurie said; "that is one of the first +things I am going to do when I get there; hunt up some of these +Chautauqua people and cultivate their acquaintance." + +This sentence gave Flossy a new thought: + +"We are really _all_ going to heaven!" + +She said it precisely as you might speak of a trip to Europe on which +your heart had long been set. + +"We are just as sure of it as though we were there this minute! Girls, +don't you know how nice we thought it would be to be together at +Chautauqua for two whole weeks? Now think of being together, there, for +a million years!" But the thought which filled Flossy's heart with a +sweet song of melody, and wreathed her face in glad smiles, was such an +overwhelming one to Marion, so immense with power and possibility, that +it seemed to her to take her very breath; she turned abruptly from the +rest and walked to the Teasel's side to still the throbbing of her +heart. + +Meantime the boat had been filling with passengers, and now she was +getting under way. Still the hush continued; the people stood closely +around the railing, on the Chautauqua side, and looked lovingly back at +the fair point of land that lay before them in glowing moonlight. +Presently a leading voice began to sing: + + "There's a land that is fairer than day, + And by faith we can see it afar; + For the Father waits over the way + To prepare us a dwelling-place there. + We shall meet in the sweet by and by, + On that beautiful shore in the sweet by and by, + We shall meet on that beautiful shore." + +Before the chorus was reached, every voice that could sing at all must +have taken up the strain. Marion, for the first time in years gave a +hint of the full compass of her powers, making Ruth turn suddenly +towards her, with a brightening face, for she saw how the singing and +the playing could fit into each other, and do good service. + +On and on stole the vessel through the silver water. The courteous +captain came around quietly for his tickets, and to one and another +with whose faces he had grown familiar he said: "We shall miss you; the +Col. Phillips has been proud of carrying you all safely back and forth." + +One said to him in return: "I hope, captain, we shall all land at last +safe in the harbor." And the captain bowed his answer in silence. It +would have been hard to speak words just then. + +But ever and anon that leading voice took up words of song. + +Still the song that best seemed to suit all hearts was that tender "By +and by," and as the lights along the Chautauqua shore grew dim it rose +again in swelling volume: + + "We shall meet, we shall sing, we shall reign, + In the land where the saved never die; + We shall rest free from sorrow and pain, + Safe at home in the sweet by and by." + +Then the refrain, repeated and re-repeated, until, as the last lingering +note of it died away, the boat touched at the wharf, and looking back, +they saw that the Chautauqua lights were out, and silence and darkness +had Fairpoint. + +"Good-bye," Marion said, and she bowed towards the distant shore; she +was smiling, but her lips were quivering. + +"We shall meet in the sweet by and by," Flossy quoted, but her voice +trembled. + +"There is a chance to do grand work first, that the final meeting may be +infinitely larger, because of us." + +This the leading voice in the singing said, as he held out his hand to +say good-bye. And as they took it some of the girls noticed for the +first time that it was Mr. Roberts; as for Flossy, she had known it all +the time. + +"We are going to try to do some of the work, Mr. Roberts," Eurie said; +"I have found the road to Bethany since I saw you, the _real_ road, and +we are going to try and keep it well trodden." + +He was shaking hands with Flossy, as Eurie spoke, and he still held her +hand while he answered: "Good news! There is plenty of work to do. It is +well that Chautauqua has gathered in new reapers. I am coming to your +city, next winter; I shall want to help you. Good-bye." + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 12662 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0d9733c --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #12662 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12662) diff --git a/old/12662-8.txt b/old/12662-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ddea7c3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12662-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9712 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Four Girls at Chautauqua, by Pansy + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Four Girls at Chautauqua + +Author: Pansy + +Release Date: June 19, 2004 [eBook #12662] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOUR GIRLS AT CHAUTAUQUA*** + + +E-text prepared by Joel Erickson, Dave Morgan, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + +Transcriber's note: The original text contained typographical errors + and spelling inconsistencies. Where possible these + have been corrected; many could not be resolved + and remain as they appeared in the source text. + + + + + +FOUR GIRLS AT CHAUTAUQUA + +BY + +PANSY + +Author of "Chautauqua Girls at Home," "Ruth Erskine's Crosses," "Judge +Burnham's Daughters," "The Hall in The Grove," "Eighty-Seven," etc. + +1876 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER I. INTRODUCED. + CHAPTER II. THE QUESTION DISCUSSED. + CHAPTER III. ENTERING THE CURRENT. + CHAPTER IV. FAIRPOINT. + CHAPTER V. UNREST. + CHAPTER VI. FEASTS. + CHAPTER VII. TABLE TALK. + CHAPTER VIII. "AT EVENING TIME IT SHALL BE BRIGHT." + CHAPTER IX. FLEEING. + CHAPTER X. HOW THE "FLITTING" ENDED. + CHAPTER XI. HEART TOUCHES. + CHAPTER XII. FLOSSY AT SCHOOL. + CHAPTER XIII. "CROSS PURPOSES." + CHAPTER XIV. THE NEW LESSON. + CHAPTER XV. GREAT MEN. + CHAPTER XVI. WAR OF WORDS. + CHAPTER XVII. GETTING READY TO LIVE. + CHAPTER XVIII. THE SILENT WITNESS. + CHAPTER XIX. AN OLD STORY. + CHAPTER XX. PEOPLE WHO, "HAVING EYES, SEE NOT." + CHAPTER XXI. A "SENSE OF DUTY." + CHAPTER XXII. ONE MINUTE'S WORK. + CHAPTER XXIII. "I'VE BEEN REDEEMED." + CHAPTER XXIV. SWORD THRUSTS. + CHAPTER XXV. SERMONS IN CHALK. + CHAPTER XXVI. "THEIR WORKS DO FOLLOW THEM." + CHAPTER XXVII. UNFINISHED MUSIC. + CHAPTER XXVIII. MENTAL PROBLEMS. + CHAPTER XXIX. WAITING. + CHAPTER XXX. SETTLED QUESTIONS. + CHAPTER XXXI. THE BEGINNING OF THE END. + CHAPTER XXXII. THE END OF THE BEGINNING. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +INTRODUCED. + + +Eurie Mitchell shut the door with a bang and ran up the stairs two steps +at a time. She nearly always banged doors, and was always in a hurry. +She tapped firmly at the door just at the head of the stairs; then she +pushed it open and entered. + +"Are you going?" she said, and her face was all in a glow of excitement +and pleasure. + +The young lady to whom she spoke measured the velvet to see if it was +long enough for the hat she was binding, raised her eyes for just an +instant to the eager face before her, and said "Good-morning." + +"Ruth Erskine! what are you trimming your hat for? Didn't it suit? Say, +are you going? Why in the world don't you tell me? I have been half wild +all the morning." + +Ruth Erskine smiled. "Which question shall I answer first? What a +perfect interrogation point you are, Eurie. My hats never suit, you +know; this one was worse than usual. This velvet is a pretty shade, +isn't it? Am I going to Chautauqua, do you mean? I am sure I don't know. +I haven't thought much about it. Do you really suppose it will be worth +while?" + +Eurie stamped her foot impatiently. "How provoking you are! Haven't +thought of it, and here I have been talking and coaxing all the morning. +Father thinks it is a wild scheme, of course, and sees no sense in +spending so much money; but I'm going for all that. I don't have a +frolic once in an age, and I have set my heart on this. Just think of +living in the woods for two whole weeks! camping out, and doing all +sorts of wild things. I'm just delighted." + +Miss Erskine sewed thoughtfully for some seconds, then she said: + +"Why, there is nothing in the world to hinder my going if I want to. As +to the money, I suppose one could hardly spend as much there as at Long +Branch or Saratoga, and of course I should go somewhere. But the point +is, what do I want to go for?" + +"Why, just to be together, and be in the woods, and live in a tent, and +do nothing civilized for a fortnight. It is the nicest idea that ever +was." + +"And should we go to the meetings?" Miss Erskine asked, still speaking +thoughtfully, and as if she were undecided. + +"Why, yes, of course, now and then. Though for that matter I suppose +father is right enough when he says that precious few people go for the +sake of the meetings. He says it is a grand jollification, with a bit of +religion for the background. But for that matter the less religion they +have the better, and so I told him." + +At this point there was a faint little knock at the door, and Eurie +sprang to open it, saying as she went: "That is Flossy, I know; she +always gives just such little pussy knocks as that." The little lady who +entered fitted her name perfectly. She was small and fair, blue-eyed, +flossy yellow curls lying on her shoulders, her voice was small and +sweet, almost too sweet or too soft, that sort of voice that could +change when slight occasion offered into a whine or positive +tearfulness. She was greeted with great glee by Eurie, and in her more +quiet way by Miss Erskine. + +"_I'm_ going," she said, with a soft little laugh, and she sank down +among the cushions of the sofa, while her white morning dress floated +around her like a cloud. "Charlie thinks it is silly, and Kit thinks it +is sillier, and mamma thinks it is the very silliest thing I ever did +yet; but for all that I am going--that is, if the rest of you are." +Which, by the way, was always this little Flossy's manner of speech. She +was going to do or not to do, speak or keep silent, approve or condemn, +exactly as the mind which was for the time being nearest to her chose to +sway her. + +"Good!" said Eurie, softly clapping her hands. "I didn't think it of +you, Flossy; I thought you were too much of a mouse. Now, Ruth, you will +go, won't you? As for Marion, there is no knowing whether she will go +or not. I don't see now she can afford it myself any more than I can; +but, of course, that is her own concern. We can go anyway, whether she +does or not--only I don't want to, I want her along. Suppose we all go +down and see her; it is Saturday, she will be at home, and then we can +begin to make our preparations. It is really quite time we were sure of +what we are going to do." + +By dint of much coaxing and argument Ruth was prevailed upon to leave +her fascinating brown hat with its brown velvet trimmings, and in the +course of the next half hour the trio were on their way down Park +Street, intent on a call on Miss Marion Wilbur. Park Street was a +simple, quiet, unpretending street, narrow and short; the houses were +two-storied and severely plain. In one of the plainest of these, wearing +an unmistakable boarding-house look, in a back room on the second floor, +the object of their search, in a dark calico dress, with her sleeves +rolled above her elbows, had her hands immersed in a wash-bowl of suds, +and was doing up linen collars. She was one of those miserable creatures +in this weary world, a teacher in a graded school, and her one day of +rest was filled with all sorts of washing, ironing and mending work, +until she had fairly come to groan over the prospect of Saturday because +of the burden of work which it brought. She welcomed her callers without +taking her hands from the suds; she was as quiet in her way as Ruth +Erskine was in hers. + +This time it was Flossy who asked the important question: "Are you +going?" + +Marion answered as promptly as though the question had been decided for +a week. + +"Yes, certainly I am going. I thought I told you that when we talked it +over before. I am washing out my collars to have them ready. Ruth, are +you going to take a trunk?" + +Ruth roused herself from the contemplation of her brown gloves to say +with a little start: + +"How you girls do rush things. Why, I haven't decided yet that I am +going." + +"Oh, you'll go," Marion Wilbur said. "The question is, are we to take +trunks--or, rather, are you to? because I know _I_ shall not. I'm going +to wear my black suit. Put it on on Tuesday morning, or Monday is it +that we start? and wear it until we return. I may take it off, to be +sure, while I sleep, but even that is uncertain, as we may not get a +place to sleep in; but for once in my life I am not going to be bored +with baggage." + +"I shall take mine," Ruth Erskine said with determination. "I don't +intend to be bored by being without baggage. It is horrid, I think, to +go away with only one dress, and feel obliged to wear it whether it is +suited to the weather or not, or whatever happens to it. Eurie, what are +you laughing at?" + +"I am interested in the phenomena of Marion Wilbur being the first to +introduce the dress question. I venture to say not one of us has thought +of that phase of the matter up to this present moment." + +While the talk went on the collars and cuffs were carefully washed and +rinsed, and presently Marion, with her hands only a trifle pinker for +the operation, was ready to lean against a chair and discuss ways and +means. Her long apprenticeship in school-rooms had given her the habit +of standing instead of sitting, even when there was no occasion for the +former. + +If these four young ladies had been creatures of the brain, gotten up +expressly for the purpose of illustrating extremes of character, instead +of being flesh and blood creations, I doubt whether they could have +better illustrated the different types of young ladyhood. There was Ruth +Erskine, dwelling in solitary grandeur in her royal home, as American +royalty goes, the sole daughter, the sole child indeed of the house, a +girl who had no idea of life except as a place in which to have a +serenely good time, and teach everybody to do as she desired them to. +Money was a commonplace matter-of-course article, neither to be +particularly prized nor despised; it was convenient, of course, and must +be an annoyance when one had to do without it; but of that, by practical +experience, she knew nothing. Yet Ruth was by no means a +"pink-and-white" girl without character; on the contrary, she had plenty +of character, but hitherto it had been frittered away on nothings, until +it looked as much like nothing as it could. She was the sort of person +whom education and circumstances of the right sort would have developed +into splendor, but the development had not taken place. Now you are not +to suppose that she was uneducated; that would be a libel on Madame La +Fonte and her fashionable seminary. She had graduated with honor; taken +the first prizes in everything. She knew all about seminaries; so do I; +and if you do, you are ready to admit that the development had not come. +There is constantly occurring something to take back. While I write I +have in mind an institution where the earnest desire sought after and +prayed for is the higher development, not alone of the intellect, but of +the heart: where the wonderful woman who is at its head said to me a few +years ago: + +"If a lady has spent three years under my care, and graduated, and gone +out from me not a Christian, I feel like going down on my knees in +bitterness of soul, and crying, 'Lord, I have failed in the trust thou +didst give me." But the very fact that the word "wonderful" fits that +woman's name is proof enough that such institutions as hers are rare, +and it was not at that seminary that Ruth Erskine graduated. She was +spending her life in elegant pursuits that meant nothing, those of them +which did not mean worse than nothing, and the only difference between +her and a hundred others around her was that she knew perfectly well +that they all amounted to nothing, and didn't hesitate to say so, +therefore she earned the title of "queer." At the same time she did not +hesitate to lead the whirl around this continuous nothing, therefore she +occupied that perilous position of being liked and admired and envied, +all in one. Very few people loved her, and queerly enough she knew that +too, and instead of resenting it realized that she could not see why +they should. She was, moreover, remarkably careful as to her leading +after all, and those who followed were sure of being led in an eminently +respectable and fashionable way. Her most intimate friend was Eurie +Mitchell, which was not strange when one considered what remarkable +opposites in character they were. Eureka J. Mitchell was the respectable +sounding name that the young lady bore, but the full name would have +sounded utterly strange to her ears, the wild little word "Eurie" +seeming to have been made on purpose for her. She was the eldest +daughter of a large, good-natured, hard-working, much-bewildered family. +They never knew just where they belonged. They went to the First +Church, which for itself should have settled their position, since it +was the opinion of most of its members that it was organized especially +that the "first families" might have a church-home. But they occupied a +very front seat, by reason of their inability to pay for a middle one, +which was bad for "position," as First Church gentility went. What was +surprising to them was how they ever happened to have the money to pay +for that seat; but, let me record it to their honor, they always +happened to have it. They were honest. They ought to have been called +"the happen family," by reason of their inability to tell how much or +how little they might happen to have to live on, whether they could +afford three new dresses apiece or none at all. The fact being that it +depended on the amount of sickness there was in Dr. Mitchell's beat +whether there were to be luxuries or simple bare necessities, with some +wonderment as to how even those were to be paid. + +Eurie was the most light-hearted and indifferent of this free-and-easy +family, who always had roast turkey when it was to be had, and who +could laugh and chat merrily over warmed-up meat and johnny-cake, or +even no meat at all, when such days came. How she ever came to think +that she could go to Chautauqua was a matter of surprise to herself; but +it happened to have been a sickly summer among the wealthy people, and +large bills had come in--the next thing was to spend them. Chautauqua +was a silly place to do it in, to be sure; that was Dr. Mitchell's idea, +and the family laughed together over Eurie's last wild notion; but for +all that they good-naturedly prepared to let her carry it out. Just how +full of fun and mischief and actual wildness Eurie was, a two-weeks +sojourn at Chautauqua will be likely to develop; for before that +conversation at Marion's was concluded they decided that they were +really going. Why Marion went, puzzled the girls very much, puzzled +herself somewhat. She was her own mistress, had neither father to direct +nor sister to consult. She had an uncle and aunt who lived where she +called "home," and with whom she spent her vacations, but they were the +poorest of hard-working country people, who stood in awe of Marion and +her education, and by no means ventured to interfere with her plans. +Marion was as independent in her way as Ruth was in hers, but they were +very different ways. Ruth, for instance, indulged her independence in +the matter of dress, by spending a small fortune in looking elegantly +unlike everybody else, and straightway created a frantic desire in her +set to look as nearly like her as possible. But no one cared to look +like Marion, in her severely plain black or brown suits, with almost and +sometimes quite no trimmings at all on them. It was agreed that she +looked remarkably well, but so unlike any one else they didn't see how +she could bring herself to dressing so. She laughed when this was hinted +to her, and got what comfort she could out of the fact that she was +considered "odd." In a certain way she ruled them all, Ruth Erskine +included, though that young lady never suspected it. The queerest one of +this company was little Flossy Shipley--queer to be found in just such +company, I mean. She was the petted darling of a wealthy home, a younger +daughter, a baby in their eyes, to be loved and cherished, and allowed +to have her own sweet and precious way even when it included such a +strange proceeding as a two weeks in the woods, all because that strange +girl in the ward school that Flossy had taken such an unaccountable +fancy for was going. This family were First Church people, too, and +capable of buying a seat very near the centre, in fact but a few removes +from the Erskine pew, which was, of course, the wealthy one of the +church. The Shipley pew was rarely honored by all the members of the +family, and indeed the pastor had no special cause for alarm if several +Sundays went by without an appearance from one of them. A variety of +trifles might happen to cause such a state of things, from which you +will infer that they were not a church-going family. Another strange +representative for Chautauqua! + +Now how did those four girls come to be friends? Oh, dreadful! You don't +expect me to be able to account for human friendships I hope, especially +for school-girl friendships? There is no known rule that will apply to +such idiosyncracies. They had been in school together, even Marion +Wilbur, with the indomitable energy which characterized her, had managed +one term of Madame La Fonte's enormous bills, and with the close of the +term found herself strangely enough drawn into this strange medley of +character that moved in such different circles, and yet called +themselves friends. You are to understand that though the same church +received these girls on Sunday, yet the actual circle in which their +lives whirled was as unlike as possible. The Erskines were the cream, +cultured, traveled, wealthy, aristocratic as to blood and as to manners, +literary in the sense that they bought rare books, and knew why they +were rare. The Mitchells had a calling acquaintance with their family +because Dr. Mitchell was their chosen physician, but that came to pass +through an accident, and not many of the doctor's patrons were of just +the same stamp. This family never went to the Erskine entertainments, +never were invited to go to the other entertainments starting from the +same circle, yet they had their friends and many of them. The Shipleys +were free-and-easy, cordial, social, friendly people, who bought many +books and pictures, and were prominent in fairs and festivals, and were +popular everywhere, but were not, after all, of the Erskine stamp. +Finally came Marion, alone, no position any where, save as she ruled in +the most difficult room in the most difficult ward in the city. A +worker, known to be such; a manager, recognized as one who could make +incongruous elements meet and marshal into working order. In that +capacity she found her place even in the First Church, for they had +fairs and festivals, and oyster suppers, and other trials even in the +First Church; and there was much work to be done, and Marion Wilbur +could work. + +And these four girls were going to Chautauqua--were to start on Monday +morning, August 2, 1875. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE QUESTION DISCUSSED. + + +Rev. Dr. Dennis and Rev. Mr. Harrison met just at the corner of Howard +and Clinton Streets, and stopped for a chat. Dr. Dennis was pastor of +the First Church, and Mr. Harrison was pastor of the Fourth, and some of +the sheep belonging to these respective flocks supposed the two churches +to be rivals, but the pastors thereof never thought of such a thing. On +the contrary, they were always getting up excuses for coming in contact +with each other; and woe to the work that was waiting for each when they +chanced to meet of a morning on some shady corner. + +"You are to be represented, I hear, at the coming assembly," said Mr. +Harrison, as they shook hands in that hearty way which says, as plainly +as words, "How _very_ glad I am to see you!" + +Dr. Dennis shrugged his shoulders. + +"Such a representation!" he said. "If the entire congregation had been +canvassed, it would have been impossible to have made more curious +selections. I do wish we could have some real workers from the different +churches." + +"Miss Erskine isn't a member of the church, is she?" + +"None of them are members, nor Christians; nor have they an atom of +interest in any such matters. They are going for pure fun, and nothing +else." + +"Now perhaps they will happily disappoint you by coming back with a +wholesome interest aroused in Sunday-school work, and will really go +into the work for themselves." + +"I don't want them," Dr. Dennis said, stoutly. "I wouldn't give a dime +for a hundred such workers; they are an injury to the cause. I want +Sunday-school workers who have a personal, vital sense of the worth of +souls, and a consuming desire to see them converted. All other +Sunday-school teaching is aimless." + +Mr. Harrison looked thoughtful. + +"We haven't many such, I am afraid," he said, gravely; but I agree with +you in thinking that they should at least be Christians. Still, I +suppose that it is not impossible that some one of these ladies may be +converted." + +"Not at Chautauqua," Dr. Dennis said, as one who had looked into the +matter and knew all about it. "I am not entirely in sympathy with that +meeting, anyway; or, that is, I am and I am not, all at once. I think it +would be a grand place for you and me. I haven't the least doubt but +that we would be refreshed, bodily and mentally, and, for that matter, +spiritually. If the whole world were converted I should vote for +Chautauqua with a loud voice; but I am more than fearful as to the +influence of such meetings on the masses--the unconverted world. _They_ +will go there for recreation. Their whole aim will be to have a glorious +frolic away from the restraints of ordinary home-life. They will have no +interest in the meetings, no sympathy with the central thought that has +drawn the workers together, and the tendency will be to frolic through +it all. + +"The truth is, there will be such a mixing of things that I actually +fear the effect will be wholesale demoralization. At the same time I am +interested in the idea, and am watching it with anxiety. Since I have +heard of the delegation from my own church I have been more convinced +still of the evil influences. It makes me gloomy to think of the +fruitful field such a place will be for the fertile brain of that little +Eurie Mitchell. She is too wild now for civilized life The four walls of +the church and the sacred associations connected with the building serve +to keep her only half controlled when she is actually attending Sabbath +service. There will be nothing to control her in the woods, and she will +lose what little reverence she possesses. I tell you, the more I think +of it, the more certain I am that for such people these great religious +jubilees, holding over the Sabbath, do harm." + +"You put it more gently than our friend Mr. Archer," Mr. Harrison said, +smiling. "He is in a condition of absolute scorn. He gives none of them +credit for honesty or genuine interest. He says it is a running away +from work, a regular shirking of what they ought to be doing, and going +off into the woods to have a good time, and, by way of gulling the +public, they pretend to season it with religion." + +Dr. Dennis laughed. + +"That sounds precisely like him, and is quite as logical as one could +expect, coming from that source," he said, indifferently. "Why doesn't +it occur to his dull brain, that thinks itself such a sharp one, that +the leaders thereof are men responsible to no one save God and their own +consciences for the way in which they spend their time? There is nothing +earthly to hinder their going to the woods, and staying three months if +they please to do so." + +"Oh, but I have left out one of the important reasons for the meeting. +It is to make money; a grand speculation, whereby the fortunes of these +same leaders are to be made at the expense of the poor victims whom they +gather about them." + +Again Dr. Dennis' shoulders went upward in that peculiar but expressive +shrug. + +"Of all the precarious and dangerous ways of making a fortune, I should +think that went ahead," he said, still laughing. "What an idea now! +Shouldn't you suppose people with common sense would have some faint +idea of the immense expenses to be involved in such an undertaking, and +the tremendous risks to be run? If they succeed in meeting their +expenses this year I think they will have cause for rejoicing." + +"The point that puzzles me," Mr. Harrison said, "is what particular +commandment would they be breaking if they should actually happen to +have twenty-five cents to put in their pockets when the meeting closed; +though, as you say, I doubt the probability. But they force no one to +come; it is a matter for individual decision, and they render a fair +equivalent for every cent of money spent; at least, if the spender +thinks it is not a fair equivalent he is foolish to go; so why should +they not make enough to justify them in giving their time to this work?" + +"Of course, of course," assented Dr. Dennis, heartily; "they ought to; +none but an idiot would think otherwise." + +It is to be presumed that both these gentlemen had gotten so far away +from the name that was quoted as holding these views as to forget all +about him, else they certainly would not have been guilty of calling a +brother minister an idiot, however much his arguments might suggest the +thought. + +"But," continued Dr. Dennis, "my trouble lies, as I said, in the +results. I have no sort of doubt that great good will be done, and I +have the same feeling of certainty that harm will be done. Take it in my +own church. We are so situated, or we think ourselves so situated, that +not a single one of the earnest, hearty workers who would come back to +us with a blessing for themselves and us, is able to go; instead, we +have four representatives who will turn the whole thing into ridicule, +and dish it up for the entertainment of their friends during the coming +winter. + +"That Miss Erskine seems to have a special talent for getting up +Thursday evening entertainments, to invite our people who are supposed +to be interested in the prayer-meeting, but who rarely fail to make it +convenient to go to the party. I imagine a bevy of them being +entertained by Eurie Mitchell. She can do it, and she is looking forward +to just that sort of thing, for I heard her rejoicing over it. That +girl will be injured by Chautauqua; I know it as well as though I +already saw it; and the question with me is, whether the amount of evil +done will not overbalance the good. At the same time I am inconsistent +enough to wish with all my heart that I could be there." + +"What about Miss Shipley? Perhaps relief will come to you from that +quarter." + +Those shoulders again. + +"She is nothing in the world but a little pink feather, and she blows +precisely in the direction of the strongest current; and Satan looks out +for her with untiring patience that the wind shall blow in the exact +direction where it can do her the most harm. Going to Chautauqua with +the influences that will surround her, with Miss Erskine and Miss Wilbur +on the one side, and Eurie Mitchell on the other, will be the very best +thing that Satan can do next for her, and he doubtless knows it." + +"I do not know Miss Wilbur at all. Is she also one of your flock?" + +Dr. Dennis' face was dark and sad. + +"She is an infidel," he said, decidedly. "She does not call herself +such; she wouldn't like to be known as such, because it would be likely +to affect her position in the school. But the name is rightly hers, and +she would do less harm in the world if she owned it." + +"It is an extraordinary representation, I declare," Mr. Harrison said, a +little startled. "I have been half inclined to be envious of you because +you were to hear so directly from the meeting, but I believe on the +whole I shall be quite as well off without any delegates as you will +with them." + +"Better, decidedly. I am distressed at the whole thing. It will result +disastrously for them all, you mark my words." + +And having settled the affairs at Chautauqua, apparently beyond all +repeal, the brethren shook hands again and went to their studies. + +Meantime the express train was giving occasional premonitory snorts, and +the four young ladies who had been so thoroughly discussed were in +various stages of unrest, waiting for the moment of departure. A +looker-on would have been able to come to marked conclusions concerning +the different characters of these young ladies, simply from their +manner of dress. Flossy Shipley was the one to look at first. That was a +very good description of her usual style--something to look at. She had +chosen for her traveling dress a pale, lavender cashmere, of that +delightful shade that resents a drop of water as promptly as a drop of +oil. It was trimmed with a contrasting shade of silk, and trimmed +profusely; yards of gathered trimming, headed by yards of flat pleating, +and that in turn headed by yards of folds. The dainty sack and hat, and +the four-buttoned gloves, were as faultless as to fit and as delicate in +color as the dress. In short, Miss Flossy looked as though she might be +ready for an evening concert. Moreover, she felt as if she were, or at +least she had an uncomfortable consciousness as to clothes. She kept a +nervous lookout for the lower flounce whenever the crowd of people +surged her way, and brushed vigorously at the arm of the seat she had +chosen ere she dared to rest _her_ arm on it. Evidently she had given +herself over to the martyrdom of thinking of and caring for clothes +during this journey, and I don't know whether there is a greater +martyrdom made out of a trifle than that. It was one of Flossy's +besetting sins, this arraying herself in glory, and making wrinkles in +her face in the vain attempt to keep so. Not that she was particularly +anxious to save the wear and tear, only she hated to look spotted and +wrinkled, and she could never seem to learn the simple lesson of wearing +the things best suited to the occasion. + +Standing near her, toying carelessly with her traveling fan, and looking +as though the thought of dress was something that had passed utterly by +her, was Miss Erskine. She looked like one of those ladies whom +gentlemen in their wisdom are always selecting, pointing them out as +models. "So tasteful and appropriate, and withal so simple in their +dress." + +Let me tell you about her dress. It was plain dark brown, precisely the +shade of brown that the fashion of the season required. It was of soft, +lusterless silk. It was very simply made, almost severely plain, as Miss +Erskine knew became a traveler. In fact, elegant simplicity marked her +entire toilet, everything matched, everything was fresh and spotless, +and arranged with an eye to remaining so. I am willing to concede that +she was faultlessly dressed, and it was a real pleasure to see her +thus. But I am also anxious to have the gentlemen understand that that +same simple attire represented more money than two wardrobes like Flossy +Shipley's. It is often so with those delightfully plain and simple +dresses that attract so many people. In fact, it might as well be +admitted, since we are on that subject, that elegant simplicity is +sometimes a very expensive article. + +Eurie Mitchell was neither particularly elegant nor noted for +simplicity, yet her dress was not without character. We see enough of +that sort to become familiar with what it means. Its language is simply +a straightened purse, necessitating the putting together of shades that +do not quite harmonize, and trimming in a way that will cover the most +spots and take the least material. That was Eurie's dress. Skirt of one +kind and overdress of another. A very economical fashion, and one not +destined to last long, because of its economy, and the fact that very +elegant ladies rather curl their lips at it, and call it the "patchwork +style." Eurie from necessity rather than choice adopted it, and it was +also her misfortune rather than her taste that the colors were too +light to be really according to the mode. Her gloves were of an entirely +different shade from the rest of the attire, and were mended with a +shade of silk that did not quite match Altogether, Eurie's dress did not +suit Miss Erskine. But, for that matter, neither did it suit herself, +with this difference, that it was, after all, a matter of minor +importance to her. + +Miss Wilbur's dress can be disposed of in a single sentence: It was a +black alpaca skirt, not too long, and severely plain, covered to within +three inches with a plain brown linen polonaise; her black hat with a +band of velvet about it, fastened by a single heavy knot, and her +somewhat worn black gloves completed her toilet, and she looked every +inch a lady. The very people who would have curled their aristocratic +lips at Eurie's attempt at style, turned and gave Miss Wilbur a second +thoughtful respectful look. + +There was a Mr. Wayne who deserves attention. He possessed himself of +Miss Erskine's fan, and played with it carelessly, while he said: + +"You are a queer set. What are you all going off there for, to bury +yourselves in the woods? I don't believe one of you has an idea what you +are about. And it is the very height of the season, too." + +"That is the trouble," Miss Erskine said, with a little toss of her +handsome head. "We are sick of the season, and want to get away from it. +I want something new. That is precisely what I am going for." + +"I have no doubt you will find it," and the gentleman gave a disdainful +shrug to his shoulders. "Out in the backwoods attending a hallelujah +meeting! I am sure I envy you." + +"You don't know what we will find," Eurie Mitchell said, with a defiant +air. "Nor what may happen to us before we return. We may meet our +destinies. I have no doubt they are lurking for us behind some of the +trees. Just you meet the evening train of Wednesday, two weeks hence, +and see if you can not discover the finger of fate having been busy with +us. Wonderful things can happen in two weeks." + +Just then the train gave its last warning howl, and Mr. Wayne made rapid +good-bys, a trifle more lingering in the case of Miss Erskine than the +others, and with that prophetic sentence still ringing in his ears he +departed. And the four girls were actually _en route_ for Chautauqua. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ENTERING THE CURRENT. + + +It is a queer thought, not to say a startling one, what very trifles +about us are constantly giving object lessons on our characters. Those +four girls, as they arranged themselves in the cars for their all-day +journey conveyed four different impressions to the critical looker-on. +In the first place they each selected and took possession of an entire +seat, though the cars were filling rapidly, and many an anxious woman +and heavily laden man looked reproachfully at them. They took these +whole seats from entirely different stand-points--Miss Erskine because +she was a finished and selfish traveler; and although she did not belong +to that absolutely unendurable class, who occupy room that is not +theirs until a conductor interferes, she yet regularly appropriated and +kept the extra seat engaged with her flounces until she was asked +outright to vacate it by one more determined than the rest. She hated +company and avoided it when possible. Flossy Shipley was willing, nay, +ready, to give up her extra seat the moment a person of the right sort +appeared; not simply a cleanly, respectable individual--they might pass +by the dozens--but one who attracted her, who was elegantly dressed and +stylish looking. Flossy would endure being crowded if only the person +who did it was stylish. Miss Wilbur was indifferent to the whole race of +human beings; she cared as little as possible whether a well-dressed +lady stood or sat; so far as she was concerned they were apt to do the +former. She neither frowned nor smiled when the time came that she was +obliged to move; she simply _moved_, with as unconcerned and indifferent +a face as she had worn all the due. As for Eurie Mitchell, she took an +entire seat, as she did most other things, from pure heedlessness; any +one was welcome who wanted to sit with her, and whether it was a servant +girl or a princess was a matter of no moment. These various shades of +feeling were nearly as fully expressed in their faces as though they had +spoken; and yet they did not in the least comprehend their own actions. +This is only an illustration; it was so in a hundred little nothings +during the day. Not a window was raised or closed for their benefit, not +a turn of a blind made, that a close student of human nature could not +have seen the distinct and ruling differences in their temperaments, no +matter from what point of the compass they started. In the course of +time they reached East Buffalo. + +"Now for our dinners!" Eurie said, as the whistle shrieked a warning +that the station was being neared. "What are we going to do?" + +"We are going to eat them, I presume, as usual," Miss Erskine said in +her most indifferent tone. I should explain that long before this the +girls had grown weary of the separate seats, and by dint of much +planning and the good-natured removal of two fellow passengers to other +seats had accomplished an arrangement that should naturally have been +enjoyed from the beginning: that of a turned seat, and being their own +seat-mates. + +"But I mean," Eurie said, in no wise quenched by what was a common +enough manner in Miss Erskine, "are we to get a lunch, or are we to go +in to a regular dinner?" + +"If you mean what I am going to do, I shall most assuredly have a +'regular' dinner, as you call it. I have no fancy for eating things +thrown together in a bag." + +"The bag will be the most economical process for all that," Eurie said, +laughing at Miss Erskine's disdainful face. + +"I presume very likely; but as I did not start on this trip for the +purpose of studying social economy, I shall vote for the dinner." + +"And I shall take to the bag method," Eurie said, decidedly. Opposition +always decided her. So it did Flossy, though in a different way; she was +sure to side with the stronger party. + +"It would be pleasanter for us all to keep together," she began in a +doubtful tone, looking first at Miss Erskine and then at Eurie. + +"But since, according to Eurie's and my decided differences, it is +impossible for us to do the 'better' thing, which of the two _worse_ +things are you going to do?" This Miss Erskine said with utmost good +nature, but with utmost determination--as much as it would have taken to +carry out a good idea in the face of opposition. + +"Oh, I think I'll go with you." Flossy said it hastily, as if she feared +that she might appear foolish in the eyes of this young lady by having +fancied anything else. + +"Very well--then it remains for Marion to choose her company," Eurie +said, composedly. + +Marion held up a paper bundle. + +"It is already chosen," she said, promptly. "It is a slice of bread and +butter, with a very thin slice of fat ham, which I never eat, and a +greasy doughnut, the whole done up in a brown paper. This is decidedly +an improvement on the bag dinner (which you think of going after) in an +economical point of view; and as I am a student of social and all other +sorts of economy, not only on this trip but on every other trip of mine +in this mortal life, I recommend it to you; at least I would have done +so if you had asked me this morning before you left home." + +Eurie made a grimace. + +"I might have brought a splendid lunch from home if I had only thought +of such a thing," she said, regretfully. "My thoughts always come +afterward." + +"And it is quite the mode to take lunches with you when they are +elegantly put up," Flossy said, regretfully, as she prepared to follow +Ruth. "I wonder we never thought of it." + +This last remark of Flossy's set the two girls left behind into a hearty +laugh. + +"Do you suppose that when Flossy has to die she will be troubled lest it +may not be the fashion for young ladies to die that season?" Eurie said, +looking after the pretty little doll as she gathered her skirts about +her anxiously; for, whatever other qualifications East Buffalo may have, +cleanliness is not one of them. + +"No," Marion answered, gravely, "not the least danger of it, because it +happens to be the fashion for ladies to die at all seasons; it is the +one thing that never seems to go out. I am heartily glad that we have +one thing that remains absolute in this fashionable world." + +Eurie looked at her thoughtfully. + +"Marion, one would think you were religious--sometimes," she said, +gravely. "You make such strange remarks." + +Marion laughed immoderately. + +"You ridiculous little infidel!" she said, as soon as she could speak. +"You do not even know enough about religion to detect the difference +between goodness and wickedness. Why, that was one of my wickedest +remarks, and here you are mistaking it for goodness. My dear child, run +and get your paper bag before it is time to go; or will you have my +slice of ham and half this doughnut? The bread and butter I want +myself." + +The freshness and novelty of this journey wore away before the long +summer afternoon began to wane; the cars were crowded and uncomfortable, +and the cinders flew about in as trying a way as cinders can. + +None of the girls had the least idea where they were going. They knew, +in a general way, that there must be such a place as Chautauqua Lake, as +the papers that they chanced to come in contact with had been full of +the delights of that region for many months; and, indeed, a young man, +earnest, enthusiastic and sensible, who stopped over night at Dr. +Mitchell's, and had been a delighted guest at the Chautauqua Assembly a +year before, had sown the first seeds that resulted in this trip. + +He of course could tell the exact route and the necessary steps to be +taken; but it had been no part of Eurie's wisdom to ask about the +journey thither; she knew how many boats were on the lake, and what kind +of fish could be caught in it, but the most direct way to reach it was a +minor matter. So there they were, simply blundering along, in the belief +that the railroad officials knew their business, and would get them +somewhere sometime. + +As the day waned, and the road became more unknown to them, and their +weariness grew upon them, they fell to indulging in those stale jokes +that young ladies will perpetrate when they don't know what else to do. +As they declared, with much laughter, and many smart ways of saying it, +that Chautauqua was a myth of Eurie's brain, or that she had been the +dupe of the fine young theological student who had chanced her way and +that the search for paradise would come to naught, perhaps it was not +all joking; for, as the hours passed and they journeyed on, hearing +nothing about the place of which for the last few weeks they had +thought so much, a queer feeling began to steal over them that there +really was no such spot, and that they were all a set of idiots. + +"I thought we should have been there by this time, and regularly +established at housekeeping," Marion said, as they picked up baskets and +bundles and prepared to change cars; "and here we are making another +change. This is the third this afternoon, or is it the thirteenth? and +who knows where Brocton is or what it is? Is anybody sure that it is in +this hemisphere? Eurie, you are certain that your theological student +did not cross the Atlantic in order to reach his elysium?" + +"Brocton is _here_," Eurie said, as they climbed the steps of the car. +"I see the name on that building yonder; though whether 'here' is +America or Asia I am unable to say. I think we have come overland, but +it is so long since we started I may have forgotten." + +But at this point they checked their nonsense and began to get up a new +interest in existence. They were among a different class of +people--earnest, eager people, who seemed to have no thought of yawns +or weariness. Camp-stools abounded, with here and there a bundle looking +like quilts and pillows. Every lady had a waterproof and every man an +umbrella, and the talk was of "tents," and "division meetings," and "the +morning boats," with stray words like "Fairpoint" and "Mayville" coming +in every now and then. These two words, the girls knew had to do with +_their_ hopes; so they began to feel revived. + +"I actually begin to think there is some foundation for Eurie's wild +fancies after all," Marion whispered, "or else this is another party of +lunatics as wild as ourselves; but they are a large and respectable +party; I'm rather hopeful." + +In two minutes more the railroad official who speaks in the unknown +tongue yelped something at either door, and thereupon everybody got up +and began to prepare for an exit. + +"Do you think he said Mayville?" questioned Eurie with a shade of +anxiety in her voice. She had been the leader of this scheme, and she +felt just a trifle of responsibility. + +"Haven't the least idea," Marion said, composedly gathering her +wrappings; "it sounded as much like any other word you happen to think +of as it did like that, but everybody is going, and Flossy and I are +determined to be in the fashion so we go too." + +At the door dismay seized upon Flossy. A light drizzly rain was falling. +Oh, the lavender suit! and her waterproof tucked away in her trunk, and +everybody pushing and trying to pass her. + +"Never mind," Marion said, with utmost good nature, "here is mine; I +haven't any trunk, so it is handy; and it has rained on my old alpaca +for ages; can't hurt that, so wrap yourself up and come along, for I +believe in my heart that this is Mayville." + +"This way to the Mayville House," said the gentlemanly official, +touching his hat as politely as though they had been princesses. Why +can't hotel subordinates more often show a little common politeness? +This act decided the location of these four girls in a twinkling; they +knew nothing about any of the hotels, and, other things being equal, +anybody would rather go to a place to which they had been decently +invited than to be elbowed and yelled at and forced. Water and rest and +tea did much to restore them to comfort, and as they discussed matters +in their rooms afterward they assured each other that the Mayville House +was just the place to stop at. A discussion was in progress as to the +evening meeting. Miss Erskine had taken down her hair and donned a +becoming wrapper, and reposed serenely in the rocking-chair, offering no +remark beyond the composed and decided, "I am not going over in the +woods to-night by any manner of means; that would be enough if I were +actually one of the lunatics instead of a mild looker-on." + +"I haven't the least idea of going, either," Eurie said, sitting on a +stool, balancing her stockinged feet against Ruth's rocker. "Not that I +mind the rain, or that it wouldn't be fun enough if I were not so dead +tired. But I tell you, girls, I have had to work like a soldier to get +ready, and having the care of such a set as you have been all day has +been too much for me. A religious meeting would just finish me. I'm +going to save myself up for morning. You are a goosie to go, Marion. It +is as dark as ink, and is raining. What can you see to-night?" + +"I tell you I've _got_ to go," Marion said, as she quietly unstrapped +her shawl. "I earn my bread, as you are very well aware, by teaching +school; but my butter, and a few such delicacies, I get by writing up +folks and things. I've promised to give a melting account of this first +meeting, and I have no idea of losing the chance. Flossy Shipley, you +may wear my waterproof every minute if you will go with me. It is long +enough to drag a quarter of a yard, and a rain drop can not get near +enough to think of you. + +"But it is so damp," shivered Flossy, looking drearily out into the +night, "and so dark, Marion, I am afraid to go." + +"Plenty of people going. What is there to be afraid of? We go down from +here in a carriage." + +"I wouldn't go, Flossy," chimed in a voice from the rocker and one from +the ottoman. + +"It will be very damp there," pleaded Flossy, who _did_ like to be +accommodating. + +"You may have ten thicknesses of my shawl to sit on," urged Marion. +"Come, now, Flossy Shipley. I didn't have the least idea of coaxing +those other girls to go, for every one knows they are selfish and will +do as they please; but I did think you would keep me company. It really +isn't pleasant to think of going alone." + +The end of it was that Flossy, done up in a cloak twice too large for +her, went off looking like the martyr that she was, and Eurie and Ruth +staid in their room and laughed over the ridiculousness of Flossy +Shipley going out in the night and the rain, in a lavender cashmere, to +attend a religious meeting! + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +FAIRPOINT. + + +It was not so very dark after all, nor so disagreeable as she had +imagined. She sat curled up in a heap on the deck of the Col. Phillips, +looking with interested eyes on the groups of people, who, despite the +rain and darkness, were evidently on their way to Chautauqua. Marion had +gone to the other side of the boat and was looking over into the water, +rested and interested in spite of herself by the novelty of the scene +around her. The fellow-passengers seemed not to be novices like +themselves, for as their talk floated to the girls it had sentences like +these: + +"Last year we stopped in the village, but this time we are going to be +right on the ground." + +"Last year it rained, too; but rain makes no difference at Chautauqua." + +"They are all last year's people," said Marion, coming over to Flossy's +side. "That speaks well for the interest, or the fun, doesn't it? Now +what do you suppose takes all these people to this place?" + +"I don't know," Flossy said thoughtfully, "I never thought much about +it. Perhaps some of them came just as I did, because the girls were +coming and asked me to. I'm sure I haven't the least idea what else I +came for." + +Marion looked down on the little creature done up in water-proof, with a +half-pitying laugh. + +"You are a good little mouse," she said patronizingly. "I never remember +doing _anything_ without a motive somewhere. It must be refreshing to +forget that important individual now and then." + +"Oh, I don't," Flossy said, simply. "Of course I came for the good time +I would have. But then, you know, I would never have thought of coming +if the rest of you hadn't." + +Another laugh from Marion. + +"You let others do your thinking for you," she said, with just a touch +of contempt, covered by the gayety of the tone. "Well, it is much the +easier way. If I could find anyone to undertake the task, I should like +to try it for myself." + +Flossy's answer was a little scream of delight, for they were coming +upon fairy-land; the lights of Fairpoint were gleaming in the soft +distance, and very fairy-like they looked shining among the trees. The +sound of music on the steamer mingled charmingly with the peal of the +bells from the shore. Marion looked on the scene with quiet interest. +Flossy's face took a pink glow; she liked pretty things. As for those +who had been at Chautauqua the year before, they gathered at the +vessel's side as those gather who, after a long and tiresome journey, +realize that they are nearing home. They were eager and excited. + +"The dock is better," said one. + +"Yes, and the passage way is larger," chimed in his nearest neighbor. + +"Oh, everything is on an improved scale this year," said still a third, +speaking confidently. + +"The _meeting_ can't be any better," spoke a quiet-faced woman, with a +decided voice, "that is simply impossible." + +Marion laughed softly. + +"Hear the lunatics!" she said, bending to give Flossy the benefit of her +words. "They are just infatuated; they think this is the original Garden +of Eden, with that wretched Eve left out. If she were here I would choke +her with a relish." This last in a muttered undertone, too low for even +Flossy, and with a darkening face. + +Meantime the boat rounded the point, the plank was laid, and the feet of +the eager passengers touched the shores of Chautauqua. Some detention +about tickets, arising from a misunderstanding of terms, made our girls +lose sight and sound of the rest of the boat-load, and when they passed +within the railing they found themselves suddenly and strangely alone. A +few lights glimmered in the trees, enough to point the way, and from the +cottages near at hand streams of light shot out into the darkness; but +no sound of footsteps, no sight of human being appeared + + "Over the river, on the hill, + Another village lieth still," + +quoted Marion, gravely. Then: + +"I say, Flossy, what does it all mean? Are we among a party of witches, +do you suppose? Where could those congenial spirits so suddenly have +conveyed themselves away, I wonder? The road isn't broad, but it most +decidedly isn't straight. Only behold that long, long, _long_ array of +damp and empty seats! Where are the faithful now, do you suppose?" + +"There isn't any meeting here to-night, and we might have known there +wouldn't be," Flossy said, peevishly, beginning to grow not only +disenchanted but half frightened. "I was never in such a queer place in +my life! Those white seats all look like ghosts. What could have +possessed you to come to-night? Of course they wouldn't have meeting in +the rain! Marion, do let us go back; I am frightened out of my wits!" + +"You blessed little simpleton!" said Marion, gaily. "What on earth is +there to be frightened over? Not pine seats and lamplight, surely, and +there is nothing more formidable than that so far." + +"I wish with all my heart that I were safely back in the hotel, where I +would have been if you had not coaxed me away," sighed, or rather +whined, poor Flossy, shivering with chilliness or nervousness, and +added: "Come, Marion, do let us go back with that boat. It can't have +started yet." + +Marion grasped her hand firmly, and spoke like a commander: + +"Flossy Shipley, don't you go to getting nervous and acting like a +simpleton, for I won't have it. As for that boat, it is half way to +Mayville by this time, and I am glad of it. Do you suppose I am going to +make an ignominious retreat now, when we have got so far advanced? Not a +bit of it. If there is no meeting, we will go where there ought to be +one, since it was advertised, and not a word said about rain. It isn't +likely they stay out-doors when it actually pours. Very likely they go +in somewhere and have a prayer-meeting. So now compose your nerves and +walk fast, for if the spot is within walking distance I am going to find +it. I tell you I am to get ten dollars at least for writing up this +meeting, and I am going to write it if there is one to write about. If +there isn't I shall have to make up one. I dare say I could make it +interesting. I'll put you in if I do, and you shall be Mrs. Fearful--in +Pilgrim's Progress, you know--if you don't stop shivering and walk +faster." + +During this time they had really been making as rapid progress as the +up-hill way and their doubt of the road would allow. Flossy made no +reply to this harangue, for the reason that a sudden turn in the path +brought them into bright light and the sound of a ringing voice. + +"There!" whispered Marion as the mammoth tent came in view. "What did I +tell you? What do you think of _that_ for a prayer-meeting?" And then +she, too, relapsed into silence, for the ringing tones of the speaker's +voice were distinct and clear. They made their way rapidly and silently +under the tent, down the aisle--half way down--then a gentleman beckoned +them, and by dint of some pushing and moving secured them seats. Then +both girls looked about them in astonishment. Who would have supposed +that it rained! Why, there were rows and rows and rows of heads, men and +women, and even children. A tent larger than they had imagined could be +built and packed with people. + +Marion's tongue was uncontrollable. She was barely seated before she +began her whispered comments: + +"That man who is speaking is Dr. Vincent. Hasn't he a ringing voice? It +reminds me of a trumpet. He likes to use it, I know he does; he has +learned to manage it so nicely, and with an eye to the effect. You will +hear his voice often enough, and you just watch and see if you don't +learn to know the first echo of it from any other." + +"Perhaps he won't be here all the time to use his voice," whispered back +Flossy, without much idea what she was saying. The novelty of the scene +had stolen her senses. + +Marion laughed softly. + +"You blessed little idiot!" she said, "don't you know that he +manufactured Chautauqua, root and branch? Or if he didn't quite +manufacture the trees he looked after their growth, I dare say. Why, +this meeting is his darling, his idol, his best beloved. 'Hear him +speak?' I guess you will. I should like to see a meeting of this kind +that didn't hear from him. It will have to be when he is out of the +body." + +"How do you know about him?" whispered Flossy, struck with sudden +curiosity. + +"I've written him up," Marion said, briefly. "I've had to do it several +times. Oh, I'm a veteran at Sunday-school meetings. But he is the +hardest man to write about that there is among them, because you can +never tell what he may happen to say or do next. It will never do to +jump at his conclusions, and slip in a neat little sentence of your own +as coming from him if you don't happen to have taken very profuse notes, +because as sure as you do he will spring up in some tiresome meeting in +less than a week and unsay every single word that you said. He said--" + +At this point a poor martyr, who had the misery to sit directly in front +of these two whisperers, turned and gave them such a look as only a man +can under like circumstances, and awed them into five minutes of quiet. +It lasted until Dr. Eggleston was announced. Then Marion's tongue broke +loose again: + +"He is the 'Hoosier Schoolmaster.' Don't you know we read his book aloud +at the seminary? Looks as though he might have written it, doesn't he? +Let's listen to what he says. He always says a word or two that a body +can report; very few of them do." + +This is a fair specimen of the way in which Miss Wilbur buzzed through +that meeting--that _wonderful_ meeting, that Flossy Shipley will +remember all her life. She made no answer to Marion's comments after a +little, and the pink flush glowed deeper on her face. She was +wonderfully interested--indeed she was more than interested. There was a +strange feeling of pain at her heart, a sort of sick, longing feeling +that she had never felt before, to understand what all these people +meant, to feel as they seemed to feel. + +The Christian world is more to blame for the unspoken infidelity that +thrives in its circles than is generally supposed. Flossy Shipley had +been in many religious meetings, but she had really never in her life +before been among a large gathering of cultured people, who were eager +and excited and happy, and the cause for that eagerness and that +happiness been found in the religion of Jesus Christ. I do not say that +there had never been such meetings before, nor that there have not been +many of them. I simply say that it was a new revelation to Flossy, and +she had been to the church prayer-meeting at home several times. Whether +that church may have been peculiar or not I do not say, but Flossy had +certainly failed to get the idea that prayer-meetings were blessed +places; that the people who went there from week to week found their joy +and their rest and their comfort there. She began to have an unutterable +sense of want and longing creeping over her; she stole shy glances at +Marion to see if she felt this, but Marion was absorbed just then in +catching the speaker's last sentence and writing it down. Her face +expressed nothing but business earnestness. Speech-making concluded, +there came the "covenant service." + +"I wonder what that is supposed to be?" whispered Marion. "It sounds +like something dreadfully solemn. I hope they are not going to have any +scenes. Revivals are not fashionable except in the winter." + +"Marion, _don't_!" Flossy said, in an earnest undertone. The gay, and +what for the first time struck her as the sacrilegious words, chilled +her. And for almost the first time in her life she uttered an +unhesitating remonstrance. Something in the tone surprised Marion, and +she looked curiously down at her little companion, but said not another +word. + +The covenant service was the simplest of all services; in fact, only the +singing of a familiar hymn and the offering of a prayer. But the hymn +was read first, in such solemn, tender, pleading tones as it seemed to +Flossy she had never heard before; and the singing rolled around that +great tent like the voices of the ten thousand who sing before the +throne--at least to Flossy's heart it seemed like that. The prayer that +followed was the simplest of all prayers as to words, and the briefest +public prayer she ever remembered to have heard, and it made her feel as +nothing in life had ever done before. She did not understand the cause +for her emotion; she was not acquainted with the Spirit of God; she did +not know that he was speaking to her softened heart, and calling her +gently to himself, so she felt ashamed of the emotion that she could not +help. She wiped the tears away secretly, and was glad that the night was +dark and the need for haste great, for the steamer's warning whistle +could already be beard. Marion talked on as they went down the hill, not +alone now but accompanied by hundreds, talked precisely as she had +before the singing of those words and the prayer. "How could she?" +Flossy wondered. "How could anything look the same to her?" The Spirit +had found no softened heart in which to leave a message, and so had +passed by. This, if Flossy had known it, was the reason that Marion was +gay and indifferent. If either of them had fully realized the reason for +the different effect of the meeting upon them, how startled they would +have been! It is not strange after all that a service is not the same to +one soul that it is to another, when we remember that God speaks to one +and passes another. + +The night was still heavy with clouds, not a star to lighten the gloom; +a fine mist was falling. It was Marion who shivered this time, and said: + +"It is a horrible night, that is a fact; but I am not sorry we went. +That meeting will write up splendidly, though it was too long; I will +say that in print about it. You must find some fault, you know, when +you are writing for the public; it is the fashion." + +"Was it long?" said Flossy, in an absent tone. She had not thought of it +in that way. Then she went to the side of the boat again and sat down in +a tumult. What was the matter with her? Where had her complacent, pretty +little content gone? Would she _always_ feel so sad and anxious and +unhappy, have such a longing as she did now? If she had been wiser she +could have told herself that the trouble of heart was caused by an +unhealthy excitement upon this question, and that this was the great +fault with religious meetings; but she was not wise, she did not think +of such a reason. If it had been suggested to her it is doubtful if, in +her ignorance, she would not have said: "Why, she had been more excited +at an evening party a hundred times than she had thought of being then!" +She actually did not know that eagerness and zeal are proper enough at +parties, but utterly out of place in religion. Just in front of her sat +a young man who hummed in undertone the closing words of the covenant +song. It brought the tears again to Flossy's eyes. He turned suddenly +toward her. + +"It was a pleasant service," he said. "Don't you think so?" + +It was rather startling to be addressed by a strange young gentleman, or +would have been it his voice had not been so quiet and dignified, as if +it were the most natural thing in the world to compare notes with one +who had just come out from the great meeting. + +"I don't know whether it was or not," she said, hurriedly. She could not +seem to decide whether she enjoyed it or hated it. + +"It was blessed to me," the young man said, in quiet voice; and added in +undertone, as if speaking to himself only: "God was there." + +"Do you feel that?" said Flossy, suddenly. "Then I wonder that you were +not afraid." + +He turned toward her a pleasant face and said, earnestly: + +"You would not be afraid of your father, would you? Well, God is my +Father, my reconciled Father;" And then, after a moment, he added: "It I +were not at peace with him, and had reason to think that he was angry +with me, then it would be different. Then I suppose I should be afraid; +at least I think it would be reasonable to be." + +Flossy spoke out of the fullness of a troubled heart: + +"I don't understand it at all. I never wanted to, either, until just +to-night; but now I want to feel as those people did when they sang that +hymn." + +Marion came quickly up from the other side. + +"Flossy," she said, with sudden sharpness, "come over here and watch the +track of the boat through the water." And as Flossy mechanically obeyed, +she added: "What a foolish, heedless little mouse you are! I wonder that +your mother let you go from her sight. Don't you know that you mustn't +get up conversations with strange young men in that fashion?" + +Flossy had not thought of it at all: but now she said a little drearily, +as if the subject did not interest her: + +"But I have often held conversations with strange young men at the +dancing-hall, you know, and danced with them, too, when _everything_ I +knew about them was their names, and generally I forgot that." + +Marion gave a light laugh. + +"That is different," she said, letting her lip curl in the darkness +over the folly of her own words. "What its proper at a dance in very +improper coming home from prayer-meeting, don't you see?" + +"What do you think!" she said the minute they were in their rooms. +"There was I, leaning meditatively over the boat, thinking solemnly on +the truths I had heard, and that absurd little water-proof morsel was +having a flirtation with a nice young man. Here is one of the fruits of +the system! What on earth was he saying to you, Flossy?" + +"Don't!" said Flossy, for the second time that evening. "He wasn't +saying any harm." + +The whole thing jarred on her with an inexpressible and to her +bewildering pain. She had always been ready for fun before. + +"That girl is homesick or something," Marion said, as she and Eurie went +to their rooms, leaving Flossy with Ruth, who prefered her as a +room-mate to either of the others because she _could_ keep from talking. + +"I haven't the least idea what is the matter, but she has been as unlike +herself as possible. I hope she isn't going to get sick and spoil our +fun. How silly we were to bring her, anyway. The baby hasn't life +enough to see the frolic of the thing, and the intellectual is miles +beyond her. I suspect she was dreadfully bored this evening. But, Eurie, +there is going to be some splendid speaking done here. I shouldn't +wonder if we attended a good many of the meetings." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +UNREST. + + +Flossy went to the window and stood looking out into the starless night. +The pain in her heart deepened with every moment. + +"If there was only some one to ask, some one to say a word to me," she +sighed to herself. "It seems as though I could never go to sleep with +this feeling clinging to me. I wonder what can be the matter? Perhaps I +am sick and am going to die. It feels almost like that, and I am not fit +to die--I am afraid. I wonder if Ruth Erskine is afraid to die? I have +almost a mind to ask her. I wonder if she ever prays? People who are not +afraid of death are always those who pray. Perhaps she will to-night. I +feel as though I wanted to pray: I think if I only knew how it would be +just the thing to do. If she kneels down I mean to go and kneel beside +her." + +These were some of the thoughts that whirled through her brain as she +stood with her nose pressed to the glass. But Ruth did not pray. She +went around with the composed air of one who was at peace with all the +world; and when her elaborate preparations for rest were concluded she +laid her head on her pillow without one thought of prayer. + +"Why in the name of sense don't you come to bed?" she presently asked, +surveying with curious glance the quiet little creature whose face was +hidden from her, and who was acting entirely out of accordance with +anything she had ever seen in her before. "What can you possibly find to +keep you gazing out of that window? It can't be called star-gazing, for +to my certain knowledge there isn't a single star visible; in fact, I +should say nothing could be visible but the darkness." + +For a minute Flossy made no answer. She did not move nor turn her head; +but presently she said, in a low and gentle voice: + +"Ruth, should you be afraid to die?" + +"To die!" said Ruth; and I have no means of telling you what an +astonished face and voice she had. "Flossy Shipley, what do you mean?" + +"Why, I mean _that_," said Flossy, in the same quiet tone. "Of course we +have got to die, and everybody knows it; and what I say is, should you +be afraid if it were to-night, you know?" + +"Humph!" said Ruth, turning her pillow and waiting to beat it into shape +before she spoke further. "I haven't the least idea of dying to-night." + +"But how can you be _sure_ of that? You might _have_ to die to-night, +you know people do sometimes." + +"I know one thing, am perfectly certain of it, and that is, that you +will take cold standing there and making yourself dismal. You are +shivering like a leaf, I can see you from here. If that is all the good +to be gotten from the 'religious impressions' that they harp about being +so great here, the less religion they have the better, and there is +quite little enough you may be sure." Saying which, Ruth turned her +pillow again and her head, so that she could not see the small creature +at the window. She was unaccountably rasped, not to say startled, by +her question, and she did not like to be startled; she liked to have her +current of life run smoothly. + +As for Flossy, she gave a great sigh of disappointment and unrest, and +turned slowly from the window. She had vaguely hoped for help of some +sort from Ruth, and as she lay down on her prayerless pillow she said to +herself, "If she had only knelt down I should certainly have done so, +too; and perhaps I might have been helped out of this dreadful feeling." +Yet so ignorant was she of the way that it never once occurred to her to +kneel alone and pray. + +No more words were spoken by those two girls that night, but each lay +awake for a long time and tossed about restlessly. Ruth had been most +effectually disturbed, and try as best she could it was impossible to +banish the memory of those quiet words: "You might _have_ to die +to-night; people do, you know." To actually _have_ to do something that +she had not planned to do and was not quite ready for, would be a new +experience to this girl. Yet when would she be ready to plan for dying? +At last she grew thoroughly vexed, and vented her disgust on the +"religionists" who got up camp-meeting excitements for the purpose of +turning weak brains like Flossy Shipley's. After that she went to sleep. + +"Flossy Shipley, for pity's sake _don't_ rig your self up in that awful +cashmere! It rains yet and you will just be going around with five +wrinkles on your forehead all day, besides spoiling your dress." + +It was morning, and the door of communication between the two +sleeping-rooms being thrown open the four girls were in full tide of +talk and preparation for Fairpoint. Flossy, though kept her strangely +quiet face and manner; the night had not brought her peace; she had +tossed restlessly for hours, and when at last she slept it was only to +be haunted with troubled dreams. With the first breath of morning she +opened her eyes and felt that the weight of yesterday was still pressing +on her heart. + +"What _shall_ I wear?" she asked, in an absent, bewildered way of Eurie, +who had objected to the cashmere. + +"I'm sure I don't know. Didn't you bring anything suited to the rain? +Let me go fishing in that ponderous trunk and see if I can't find +something." + +The "fishing" produced nothing more suitable than a heavy black silk, +elaborately trimmed, and looking, as Eurie phrased it, "elegantly out of +place." + +Through much confusion and frolicking the four were at last entering the +grounds at Chautauqua. By reason of their superior knowledge Marion and +Flossy led the way, while the others followed eagerly, looking and +exclaiming. + +"I'll tell you what it is, girls," Eurie said, eagerly. "Let's come over +here and board. We'll have a tent or a cottage. A tent will be jollier, +and it will be twice as much fun as to stay at the hotel." + +There being no dissenting voice to this proposal, they started in much +glee to look up a home; only Flossy demurred timidly. + +"Can't we go to the meeting, girls, and look for the tent afterward? The +meeting has commenced; I hear them singing." + +"It's nothing in the world but a Bible service," Eurie said. "That man +at the gate handed me a programme. Who wants to go to a Bible service? +We have Bibles enough at home. We want to be on hand at eleven o'clock, +because Edward Eggleston is to speak on 'The Paradise of Childhood.' My +childhood was anything but paradise, but I am anxious to know what he +will make of it." + +Flossy succumbed, of course, as every one expected she would; and the +party went in search of tents and accommodations. It was no easy matter +to suit them, as the patient and courteous President found. + +"I don't like the location of any one of them," Ruth Erskine said. Of +course she was the hardest to suit. "Why can't we have one of those in +that row on the hill?" + +"Those are the guest tents, ma'am." + +"The guest tents?" Eurie exclaimed, in surprise. "I wonder if they +entertain guests here! Who are they?" + +"Why, those who have been invited to take part in the exercises, of +course. You did not suppose that they paid their own expenses and did +the work besides, did you?" + +This explanation was given by Marion, who, by virtue of her experience +as reporter was better versed in the ways of these great gatherings +than the others. + +"What an idea!" Eurie said. "Fancy being a guest and speaking at this +great meeting. Being a person of distinction, you know; so that people +would be pointing you out, and telling their neighbors who you were. + +"There goes Miss Mitchell. She is the leading speaker on Sunday-school +books. How does that sound? Only, on the whole, I should choose some +other department than Sunday-school books; they are all so horridly +good--the people in them, I mean--that one can't get through with more +than two in a season. I tried to read one last week for Sunday, but I +abandoned it in despair." + +This was an aside, while Ruth was questioning the President. She was +looking dismayed. + +"Can't we have one of the tents on that side near the stand?" + +"Those were taken months ago. This is a large gathering, you know." + +"I should think it was! Then, it seems, we must go back to the hotel. I +thought you would be glad to let us have accommodations at any price." + +The gentlemanly President here carefully repressed an amused smile. +Here were people who had evidently misunderstood Chautauqua. + +"Oh, yes," he said, "we can give you accommodations, only not the very +best, I am sorry to say. Our best tents were secured many months ago. +Still, we will do the best we can for you, and I think we can make you +entirely comfortable." + +"People have different ideas as to the meaning of that word," Miss Eurie +said, loftily. + +Then she moved to another tent, over which she exclaimed in dismay: + +"Why, the bed isn't made up! Pray, are we to sleep on the slats?" + +"Oh, no. But you have to hire all those things, you know. Have you seen +our bulletin? There are parties on the ground prepared to fit up +everything that you need, and to do it very reasonably. Of course we can +not know what degree of expense those requiring tents care to incur, so +we leave that matter for them to decide for themselves. You can have as +many or as few comforts as you choose, and pay accordingly." + +"And are all four of us expected to occupy this one room?" There was an +expression of decided disgust on Miss Erskine's face. + +"Why, you see," explained the amused President, "this tent is designed +for four; two good-sized bedsteads set up in it; and the necessity seems +to be upon us to crowd as much as we can conveniently. There will be no +danger of impure air, you know, for you have all out-doors to breathe." + +"And you really don't have toilet stands or toilet accommodations! What +a way to live!" + +Another voice chimed in now, which was the very embodiment of refined +horror. + +"And you don't have pianos nor sofas, and the room isn't lighted with +gas! I'm sure I don't see how we can live! It is not what we have been +accustomed to." + +This was Marion, with the most dancing eyes in the world, and the +President completed the scene by laughing outright. Suddenly Ruth +discovered that she was acting the part of a simpleton, and with flushed +face she turned from them, and walked to a vacant seat, in the opposite +direction from where they were standing. + +"We will take this one," she said, haughtily, without vouchsafing it a +look. "I presume it is as good as any of them, and, since we are fairly +into this absurd scrape we must make the best of it." + +"Or the worst of it," Marion said, still laughing. "You are bent on +doing that, I think, Ruthie." + +By a violent effort and rare good sense Ruth controlled herself +sufficiently to laugh, and the embarrassment vanished. There were +splendid points about this girl's character, not the least among them +being the ability to laugh at a joke that had been turned toward +herself. At least the effect was splendid. The reasons, therefore, might +have been better. It was because her sharp brain saw the better effect +that her ability to do this thing immediately produced on the people +around her. But I shall have to confess that a poise of character strong +enough to gracefully avert unpleasant effects arising from causes of her +own making ought to have been strong enough to have suppressed the +causes. + +The question of an abiding-place being thus summarily disposed of, the +party set themselves to work with great energy to get settled, Marion +and Eurie taking the lead. Both were used to both planning and working, +and Marion at least had so much of it to do as to have lost all desire +to lead unnecessarily, and therefore everything grew harmonious. + +There was a good deal of genuine disgust in Ruth's part of it, though, +her eyes having been opened, she bravely tried to hide the feeling from +the rest. But you will remember that she had lived and breathed in an +atmosphere of elegant refinement all her life, accepting the luxuries of +life as common necessities until they had really become such to her, and +the idea of doing without many things that people during camp life +necessarily find themselves _obliged_ to do without was not only strange +to her but exceedingly disagreeable. The two leaders being less used to +the extremes of luxury, and more indifferent to them by nature, could +not understand and had little sympathy with her feeling. + +"We shall have to go back after all to the hotel," Eurie said, as she +dived both hands into the straw tick and tried to level the bed. "We +have too fine a lady among us; she cannot sleep on a bedstead that +doesn't rest its aristocratic legs on a velvet carpet. She doesn't see +the fun at all. I thought Flossy would be the silly one, but Flossy is +in a fit of the dumps. I never saw her so indifferent to her dress +before. See her now, bringing that three-legged stand, without regard to +rain! There is one comfort in this perpetual rain, we shall have less +dust. After all, though, I don't know as that is any improvement, so +long as it goes and makes itself up into mud. Look at the mud on my +dress! That tent we were looking at first would have been ever so much +the best, but after Ruth's silliness I really hadn't the face to suggest +a change--I thought we had given trouble enough. She makes a mistake; +she thinks this is a great hotel, where people are bound to get all the +money they can and give as little return, instead of its being a place +where people are striving to be as accommodating as they can, and give +everybody as good a time as possible." + +In the midst of all this talk and work they left and ran up the hill to +the Tabernacle, where the crowds were gathering to hear Dr. Eggleston. +It was a novel sight to these four girls; the great army of eager, +strong, expectant faces; the ladies, almost without an exception, +dressed to match the rain and the woods, looking neither tired nor +annoyed about anything--looking only in earnest. To Ruth, especially, it +came like a revelation. She looked around her with surprised eyes. There +were intellectual faces on every hand. There was the hum of conversation +all about her, for the meeting was not yet opened, and the tone of their +words was different from any with which her life had been familiar; they +seemed lifted up, enthused; they seemed to have found something worthy +of enthusiasm. As a rule Ruth had not enjoyed enthusiastic people; they +had seemed silly to her; and you will admit that there is a silly side +to the consuming of a great deal of that trait on the dress for an +evening party, or the arrangement of programmes for a fancy concert. +Just now she had a glimmering fancy that there might be something worthy +of arresting and holding one's eager attention. + +"They look alive," she said, turning from right to left among the rows +and rows of faces. "They look as though they had a good deal to do, and +they thought it was worth doing." + +Then, curiously enough, there came suddenly to her mind that question +which she had banished the night before, and she wondered if these +people had all really answered it to their satisfaction. + +Flossy took a seat immediately in front of the speaker. She was hungry +for something, and she did not know what to call it--something that +would set her fevered heart at rest. As for Marion and Eurie, they hoped +with all their hearts that the "Hoosier Schoolmaster" would give them a +rich intellectual treat, at least Marion was after the intellectual. +Eurie would be contented if she got the fun, and a man like Dr. +Eggleston has enough of both those elements to make sure of satisfying +their hopes. But would he bring something to help Flossy? + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +FEASTS. + + +"He doesn't look in the least as I thought he did." It was Eurie who +whispered this, and she nudged Marion's arm by way of emphasis as she +did it. + +Marion laughed. + +"How did you think he looked?" + +"Oh, I don't know--rough, rather." + +Whereupon Marion laughed again. + +"That is the way some people discriminate," she whispered back. "You +think because he wrote about rough people he must be rough; and when one +writes about people of culture and elegance you think straightway that +he is the personification of those ideas. You forget, you see, that the +world is full to the brim with hypocrisy; and it is easier to be perfect +on paper than it is anywhere else in this world." + +"Or to be a sinner either, according to that view of it." + +"It is easy enough to be a sinner anywhere. Hush, I want to listen." + +For which want the people all about her must have been very thankful. +Our young ladies gave Dr. Eggleston their attention at the moment when +he was drawling out in his most nasal and ludicrous tones the hymn that +used to be a favorite in Sunday-schools ninety years ago: + + "Broad is the road that leads to death, + And thousands walk together there, + But wisdom shows a narrow path, + With here and there a traveler." + +The manner in which part of these lines were repeated was irresistibly +funny. To Eurie it was explosively so; she laughed until the seat shook +with mirth. To be sure, she knew nothing about modern Sunday-schools; +for aught that she was certain of, they might have sung that very hymn +in the First Church Sunday-school the Sabbath before; and it made not +the least atom of difference whether they did or not; the way in which +Dr. Eggleston was putting it was funny, and Eurie never spoiled fun for +the sake of sentiment. Presently she looked up at Marion for sympathy. +That young lady's eyes were in a blaze of indignation. What in the world +was the matter with her? Surely she, with her hearty and unquestioning +belief in _nothing_, could not have been disturbed by any jar! Let me +tell you a word about Marion. Away back in her childhood there was a +memory of a little dingy, old-fashioned kitchen, one of the oldest and +dreariest of its kind, where the chimney smoked and the winter wind +crawled in through endless cracks and crannies; where it was not always +possible to get enough to eat during the hardest times; but there was a +large, old-fashioned arm-chair, covered with frayed and faded calico, +and in this chair sat often of a winter evening a clean-faced old man, +with thin and many-patched clothes, with a worn and sickly face, with a +few gray hairs straggling sadly about on his smooth crown: and that old +man used often and often to drone out in a cracked voice and in a tune +pitched too low by half an octave the very words which had just been +repeated in Marion's hearing. What of all that? Why, that little gloomy +kitchen was Marion's memory of home; that old, tired man was her father, +and he used to sing those words while his hand wandered tenderly through +the curls of her brown head, and patted softly the white forehead over +which they fell; and all of love that there was in life, all that the +word "tenderness" meant, all that was dear, or sweet or to be +reverenced, was embodied in that one memory to Marion. Now you +understand the flashing eyes. She did not believe it at all; she +believed, or thought she did, that the "broad" and "narrow" roads were +all nonsense; that go where you would, or do what you would, all the +roads led to _death_; and that was the end. But the father who had +quavered through those lines so many times had staked his hopes forever +on that belief, and the assurance of it had clothed his face in a grand +smile as he lay dying--a smile that she liked to think of, that she did +not like to hear ridiculed, and to her excited imagination Dr. Eggleston +seemed to be ridiculing the faith on which the hymn was built. "They +are more thorough hypocrites than I supposed," she said, in scorn, and +hardly in undertone, in answer to Eurie's inquiring look. "I don't +believe the stuff myself, but I always supposed the ministers did. I +gave some of them at least credit for sincerity, but it seems it is +nothing but a fable to be laughed to scorn." + +"Why, Marion!" Eurie said, and her look expressed surprise and dismay. +"He is not making fun of religion, you know; he is simply referring to +the inappropriateness of such hymns for children." + +"What is so glaringly inappropriate about it if they really believe the +Bible? I'm sure it says there that there are two roads, one broad and +the other narrow; and that many people are on one and but few on the +other. Why shouldn't it be put into a hymn if it is desirable to impress +it?" + +"I'm sure I don't know," Eurie said, unaccustomed to being put through a +course of logic. "Only, you know, I suppose he simply means that it is +beyond their comprehensions." + +"They must have remarkably limited comprehensions then if they are +incapable of understanding so simple a figure of speech, as that there +are two ways to go, and one is harder and safer than the other. I +understood it when it was sung to me--and I was a very little child--and +believed it, too, until I saw the lives of people contradict it; but if +I believed, it still I would not make public sport of it." + +At this point Ruth leaned forward from the seat behind and whispered: + +"Girls, do keep still; you are drawing the attention of all the people +around you and disturbing everybody." + +After that they kept still; but the good doctor had effectually sealed +one heart to whatever that was tender and earnest he might have to say. +She sat erect, with scornful eyes and glowing cheeks, and when the first +flush of excitement passed off was simply harder and gayer than before. +Who imagined such a result as that? Nobody, of course. But how perfectly +foolish and illogical! Couldn't she see that Dr. Eggleston only meant to +refer to the fact that literature, both of prose and poetry, had been +improved by being brought to the level of childish minds, and to reprove +that way of teaching religious truth, that leaves a somber, dismal +impression on youthful hearts? Apparently she could not, since she did +not. As for being absurd and illogical, I _did_ not say that she wasn't. +I am simply giving you facts as they occurred. I think myself that she +was dishonoring the memory of her father ten thousand times more than +any chance and unmeant word of the speakers could possibly have done. +The only trouble was, that she was such an idiot she did not see it; and +she prided herself on her powers of reasoning, too! But the world is +full of idiots. She sat like a stone during the rest of the brilliant +lecture. Many things she heard because she could not help hearing; many +she admired, because it was in her to admire a brilliant and charming +thing, and she could not help that, either; but she could shut her +_heart_ to all tenderness of feeling and all softening influences, and +that she did with much satisfaction, deliberately steeling herself +against the words of a man because he had quoted a chance line that her +father used to sing, while she lived every day of her life in defiance +of the principles by which her father shaped his life and his death! +Verily, the ways of girls are beyond understanding. + +Eurie enjoyed it all. When Dr. Eggleston told of the men that, as soon +as their children grew a little too restless, had business down town, +she clapped her hands softly and whispered: + +"That is for all the world like father. Neddie and Puss were never in a +whining fit in their lives that father didn't at once think of a patient +he had neglected to visit that day, and rush off." + +She laughed over the thought that women were shut in with little steam +engines, and said: + +"That's a capital name for them; we have three at home that are always +just at the very point of explosion. I mean to write to mother and tell +her I have found a new name for them." + +When he suggested the blunt-end scissors, and the colored crayons with +which they could make wonderful yellow dogs, with green tails and blue +eyes, her delight became so great that she looked around to Ruth to help +her enjoy it, and said: + +"You see if I don't invest in a ton of colored crayons the very first +thing I do when I get home; it is just capital! So strange I never +thought of it before." + +"You did not think of it now," Ruth said, in her quiet cooling way. +"Give the speaker credit for his own ideas, please. Half the world have +to do the thinking for the other half always." + +"That is the reason so much is left undone, then," retorted Eurie, with +unfailing good humor, and turned back to the speaker in time to hear his +description of the superintendent that was so long in finding the place +to sing that the boys before him went around the world while he was +giving the number. + +"Slow people," said she, going down the hill afterward. "I never could +endure them, and I shall have less patience with them in future than +ever. Wasn't he splendid? Ruth, you liked the part about Dickens, of +course." + +"A valuable help the lecture will be to your after-life if all you have +got is an added feeling of impatience toward slow people. Unfortunately +for you they are in the world, and will be very likely to stay in it, +and a very good sort of people they are, too." + +It was Marion who said this, and her tone was dry and unsympathetic. + +Eurie turned to her curiously. + +"You didn't like him," she said, "did you? I am so surprised; I thought +you would think him splendid. On your favorite hobby, too. I said to +myself this will be just in Marion's line. She has so much to say about +teaching children by rote in a dull and uninteresting way. You couldn't +forgive him for reciting that horrid old hymn in such a funny way. +Flossy, do you suppose you can ever hear that hymn read again without +laughing? What was the matter, Marion? Who imagined you had any +sentimental drawings toward Watts' hymns?" + +"I didn't even know it was Watts' hymn," Marion said, indifferently. +"But I hate to hear any one go back on his own belief. If he honestly +believes in the sentiments of that verse, and they certainly are Bible +sentiments, he shouldn't make fun of it. But I'm sure it is of no +consequence to me. He may make fun of the whole Bible if he chooses, +verse by verse, and preach a melting sermon from it the very next +Sabbath; it will be all the same to me. Let us go in search of some +dinner, and not talk any more about him." + +"But that isn't fair. You are unjust, isn't she, Ruth? I say he didn't +make fun of religion, as Marion persists in saying that he did." + +"Of course not," Ruth said. "A minister would hardly be guilty of doing +that. He was simply comparing the advanced methods of the present with +the stupidity of the past." + +And obstinate Marion said then he ought to get a new Bible, for the very +same notions were in it that were when she was a child and learned +verses. And that was all that this discussion amounted to. Nobody had +appealed to Flossy. She had stood looking with an indifferent air around +her, until Marion turned suddenly and said: + +"What did the lecture say to you, Flossy? Eurie seems very anxious to +get out of it something for our 'special needs,' as they say in church. +What was yours?" + +Flossy hesitated like a timid child, flushed and then paled, and finally +said, simply: + +"I have been thinking ever since he spoke it of that one sentence, +'Rock-firm, God-trust, has died out of the world.' I was wondering if it +were true, and I was wishing that it wasn't." + +All the girls looked at each other in astonished silence; such a +strange thing for Flossy to say. + +"What of it?" said Marion, presently. "What if it has? or, rather, what +if it were never in the world?" + +"It wasn't that side of it that I thought about. It was what if it +were." + +"And what then?" + +"Why, then, I should like to see the person who had it, just to see how +he would seem." + +Marion laughed somewhat scornfully. + +"Curiosity is at the bottom of your wise thought, is it? Well, my little +mousie, I am amazingly afraid you are destined never to discover how it +will seem. So I wouldn't puzzle my brains about it. It might be too much +for them. Shall we go to dinner?" + +You should have seen our four young ladies taking their first meal at +Chautauqua! It was an experience not to be forgotten. They went to the +"hotel." This was a long board building, improvised for the occasion, +and filled with as many comforts as the _necessities_ of the occasion +could furnish. To Miss Erskine the word "hotel" had only one sort of +association. She had been a traveler in her own country only, and it +had been her fortune to be intimate only with the hotels in large +cities, and only with those where people go whose purses are full to +overflowing. So she had come to associate with the name all that was +elegant or refined or luxurious. + +When the President of the grounds inquired whether they would have +tickets for the hotel or one of the boarding-houses, Miss Erskine had +answered without hesitation: + +"For the hotel, of course. I never have anything to do with +boarding-houses. They are almost certain to be second rate." + +Said President kept his own counsel, thinking, I fancy, that here was a +girl who needed some lessons in the practical things of this life, and +Chautauqua hotels were good places in which to take lessons. + +Imagine now, if you can, the look of this lady's face, as they made +their way with much difficulty down the long room, and looked about them +on either side for seats. + +"A hotel, indeed!" she said, in utter contempt and disgust, as one of +the attendants signaled them and politely drew back the long board seat +that did duty in the place of chairs, and answered for five, or, if you +were good natured and crowded, for six people. He was just as polite in +his attentions as if the unplaned seat had been a carved chair of +graceful shape and pattern. One would suppose that Ruth might have taken +a hint from his example. But the truth is, she belonged to that class of +people who are so accustomed to polite attentions that it is only their +absence which calls forth remark. + +"The idea of naming this horrid, dirty old lumber-room a hotel!" and she +carefully and disdainfully spread her waterproof cloak on the seat +before she took it. + +Eurie's merry laugh rang out until others looked and smiled in sympathy +with her fun, whatever it was. + +"What in the world did you expect, Ruthie? I declare, you are too +comical! I verily believe you expected Brussels carpets, and mirrors in +which you could admire yourself all the while you were eating." + +"I expected a _hotel_," Ruth said, in no wise diminishing her lofty +tone. "That is what is advertised, and people naturally do not look for +so much deception in a religious gathering. This is nothing in the world +but a shanty." + +Chautauqua was doing one thing for this young lady which surprised and +annoyed her. It was helping her to get acquainted with herself. Up to +this time she had looked upon herself as a person of smooth and even +temperament, not by any means easily ruffled or turned from her quiet +poise. She had prided herself on her composed, gracefully dignified way +of receiving things. She never hurried, she never was breathless and +flushed, and apologetic over something that she ought or ought not to +have done, which was a chronic state with Eurie. She never was in a +thorough and undisguised rage, as Marion was quite likely to be. She +was, in her own estimation, a model of propriety. All this until she +came to Chautauqua. Now, great was her surprise to discover in herself a +disposition to be utterly disgusted with things that to Marion were of +so little consequences as to be unnoticed, and that to Eurie were +positive sources of fun. + +Doubtless you understand her better than she did herself. The truth is, +it is a comparatively easy matter to be gracious and courteous and +unruffled when everything about you is moving exactly according to your +mind, and when you can think of nothing earthly to be annoyed about. +There are some natures that are deceiving their own hearts in just such +an atmosphere as this. They are not the lowest type of nature by any +means. The small, petty trials that come to every life are beneath them. +If it rains when they want to walk they can go in a handsome carriage, +and keep their tempers. If their elegant new robes prove to be badly +made they can have them remodeled and made more elegant with a superior +composure. In just so far are they above the class who can endure +nothing in the shape of annoyances or disappointment, however small. The +fact is, however, that there are petty annoyance, _not_ coming in their +line of life, that would be altogether too much for them. But of this +they remain in graceful ignorance until some Chautauqua brings the +sleeping shadows to the surface. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +TABLE TALK. + + +"What is your private explanation of the word 'hotel'?" Marion asked. +She was in an argumentative mood, and it made almost no difference to +her which side of the question she argued. "Webster says it is a place +to entertain strangers, but you seem to attach some special importance +to the term." + +"Is that all that Webster says?" + +The questioner was not Ruth, but a man who sat just opposite to them at +the table, and while he waited for his order to be filled watched with +amused eyes the four gills who were evidently in a new element. He was +not a young man, and his gray hairs would have arrested the pertness of +the reply on Marion's tongue at any other time than this, but you +remember that she was not in a good mood. She answered promptly; "Yes, +sir, he says ever so many things. In fact, he is the most voluminous +author I ever read." + +The gentleman laughed. The pertness seemed to amuse him. + +"Didn't I limit my question?" he said, pleasantly. "He is voluminous, +and what a sensible book he has written. I wish all authors had given us +so much information. But I meant, is that all he says about hotels? +Doesn't he justify your friend just a little bit in her expectations?" + +"I'm sure I don't know," Marion said, amused in turn at the good-natured +interest which the elderly gentleman took in the question. "He has said +so much that I haven't had time to digest it all. If you have, won't you +please enlighten me as to his wisdom on this subject?" "'Especially one +of some style or pretensions,'" quoted the old gentleman, "so Webster +adds. You see I am interested in the subject," and he laughed +pleasantly. "I have been looking it up, which must be my apology for +addressing you young ladies, if so old a man as I must apologize for +being interested in girls. The fact is, I had occasion to talk with a +young man yesterday who took the people to task most roundly for that +very name, on the ground that they had no right to it--that it was a +misnomer. I have been struck with the thought that nothing is trivial, +not even the name that happens to be chosen for a house where one +_waits_ for his dinner," with a strong emphasis on the word "wait," +which Eurie understood and laughed over. + +"Except the remarks that people make about such things," Marion said, +answering the first part of the sentence and bestowing a wicked glance +on Ruth. "They are trivial enough. Did you agree with the young +gentleman?" + +"No. I thought it all over and consulted Webster, as I said, and came to +the conclusion that in view of this being a more pretentious house than +either of the others they had a right to the word. Webster doesn't say +what degree of pretension is necessary, you know." + +The lifting of Ruth's eyebrows at this point was so expressive that all +the party laughed. But the old gentleman grew grave again in a moment, +as he said: + +"But the thought that impressed me most was what a very perfect system +of faith the religion of Jesus Christ is; how completely it commends +itself to the human heart, since the very slightest departure from what +is regarded as strictly true and right, when it is done by a Christian +(society or individual), is noticed and commented upon by lookers-on; +they seem to know of a certainty that it is not according to the Spirit +of Christ." + +This last sentence struck Marion dumb. How fond she was of caviling at +Christian lives! Was she really thus giving all the time an unconscious +tribute to the truth and purity of the Christian faith? + +It was a merry dinner, after all, eaten with steel forks and without +napkins, and with plated spoons, if you were so fortunate as to secure +one. The rush of people was very great, and, with their inconvenient +accommodations, the process of serving was slow. + +Marion, her eyes being opened, went to studying the people about her. +She found that courteous good-humor was the rule, and selfishness and +ungraciousness the exception. Inconveniences were put up with and +merrily laughed over by people who, from their dress and manners, could +be accustomed to only the best. + +Marion took mental notes. + +"They do not act in the least like the mass of people who stop at +railroad eating-houses for their dinner; they are patient and courteous +under difficulties; they did not come here for the purpose of being +entertained; if they did the accommodations wouldn't satisfy." + +There was another little thing that interested Marion. As the tables +kept filling, and those who had been served made room for those who had +not, she found herself watching curiously what proportion of the guests +observed that instant of silent thanks with covered eyes. It was so +brief, so slight a thing, I venture that scarcely a person there noticed +it, much less imagined that there was a pair of keen gray eyes over in +the corner looking and calculating concerning them. + +"What if they all had to wear badges," she said to herself, "badges that +read 'I am a Christian,' I wonder how many of them it would influence +to different words than they are speaking, or to different acts? I +wonder if they _do_ all wear them? I wonder if the distinction is really +marked, so one looking on could detect the difference, though all of +them are strangers? I mean to watch during these two weeks. 'The proper +study of mankind is man.' Very well, Brother Pope, a convenient place +for the study of man is Chautauqua. I'll take it up. Who knows but I may +learn a new branch to teach the graded infants in Ward No. 4." + +Ruth did not recover her equanimity. She was rasped on every side. Those +two-tined steel forks were a positive sting to her. She shuddered as the +steel touched her lips. She had no spoon at all, and she looked on in +utter disgust while Eurie merrily stirred her tea with her fork. When +the waiter came at last, with hearty apologies for keeping them waiting +for their spoons, and the old gentleman said cordially, "All in good +time. We shall not starve even if we get no spoons," she curled her lip +disdainfully, and murmured that she had always been accustomed to the +conveniences of life, and found it somewhat difficult to do without +them. + +When one is in the mood for grumbling there is no easier thing in the +world than to find food for that spirit, and Ruth continued her pastime, +waxing louder and more decided after the genial old man had left their +neighborhood. + +"What is the use in fault-finding?" Eurie said at last, half petulantly. +She was growing very tired of this exhibition. "What did you expect? +They are doing as well as they can, without any doubt. Just imagine what +it must be to get conveniences together for this vast crowd. They did +not expect anything like such a large attendance at first; I heard them +say so and that makes it harder to wait upon them. But of course they +are doing just as well as they can, and we fare as well as any of them." + +"Don't you be so foolish as to believe that," Ruth said, with a curling +lip. "If you could see behind the scenes you would soon discover +something very different. That is why it is so provoking to me. Let +people who cannot afford to pay any better take such as they can get. +But what right had they to suppose that we had not the money to pay for +what we wish? I'm sure _I'm_ not a pauper! You will find that there is +a place where the select few can get what they want, and have it served +in a respectable manner, and I say I don't like it; I have been +accustomed to the decencies of life." + +Just behind them the talk was going on unceasingly, and one voice, at +this point, rising higher than the others, caught the attention of our +girls. Eurie turned suddenly and tried to catch a glimpse of the +speaker. Something in the voice sounded natural. A sudden movement on +the part of the gentleman between them and she caught a glimpse of the +face. She turned back eagerly. + +"Girls, that is Mrs. Schuyler Germain!" + +"Where?" Ruth asked, with sudden interest in her voice. + +"Over at that table, in a water-proof cloak and black straw hat, and +eating boiled potatoes with a steel fork. What about being behind the +scenes now, Ruthie?" + +To fully appreciate this you must understand that even among the +Erskines to get as high as Mrs. Schulyer Germain was to get as high as +the aristocracy of this world reached; not that she lived in any grander +style than the Erskines, or showed that she had more money, but every +one knew that her bank accounts were very heavy, and, besides, she was +the daughter of Gen. Wadsworth Hillyer, of Washington, and the +great-granddaughter, by direct descent, of one of England's noblemen. +She was traveled and cultivated, and all but titled through her youngest +daughter. + +Could American ambition reach higher? And there she sat, at a table made +of pine boards, eating boiled potatoes with a two-tined steel fork! +Could English nobility sink lower! Ruth looked over at her in quiet +surprise for a moment, and then gave her head its haughty toss as she +met Eurie's mischievous eyes, and said: + +"It is not an aristocracy of position here, then. The leaders keep all +their nice things and places for themselves. That is smaller than I +supposed them to be." + +At this particular moment there was an uprising from the table just +behind them. Half a dozen gentlemen leaving their empty plates, and in +full tide of talk, making their way down the hall. The girls looked and +nudged each other as they recognized them. The younger of the two +foremost had a face that can not easily be mistaken, and Eurie, having +seen it once, did not need Marion's low-toned, "That is Mr. Vincent." +And Ruth herself, thrown off her guard, recognized and exclaimed over +Dr. Hodge. + +This climax was too much for Eurie. She threw down her fork to clap her +hands in softly glee. + +"Oh, Ruthie, Ruthie! How has your dismal castle of favoritism faded! +Yonder is the Queen of American society eating pie at this very instant +with the very fork which did duty on her potato, and here goes the King +of the feast, wiping his lips on his own handkerchief instead of a +damask napkin." + +It was at this moment, when Ruth's follies and ill humors were rising to +an almost unbearable height, that her higher nature asserted itself, and +shone forth in a rich, full laugh. Then, in much glee and good feeling, +they followed the crowd down the hill to the auditorium. + +For the benefit of such poor benighted beings as have never seen +Chautauqua, let me explain that the auditorium was the great temple +where the congregation assembled for united service. Such a grand +temple as it was! The pillars thereof were great solemn trees, with +their green leaves arching overhead in festoons of beauty. I don't know +how many seats there were, nor how many could be accommodated at the +auditorium. Eurie set out to walk up and down the long aisles one day +and count the seats, but she found that which so arrested her attention +before she was half-way down the central aisle that she forgot all about +it, and there was never any time afterward for that work. I mean to tell +you about that day when I get to it. The grand stand was down here in +front of all these seats, spacious and convenient, the pillars thereof +festooned with flags from many nations. The large piano occupied a +central point; the speaker's desk at its feet, in the central of the +stand; the reporters' tables and chairs just below. + +"I ought to have one of those chairs," Marion said, as they passed the +convenient little space railed off from the rest of the audience. "Just +as if I were not a real reporter because I write in plain good English, +instead of racing over the paper and making queer little tracks that +only one person in five thousand can read. If I were not the most +modest and retiring of mortals I would go boldly up and claim a seat." + +"What is to be next?" Ruth asked. "Are we supposed to be devoted to all +these meetings? I thought we were only going to one now and then. We +won't be alive in two weeks from now if we pin ourselves down here." + +"In the way that we have been doing," chimed in Eurie. "Just think here +we have been to every single meeting they have had yet, except the one +last night and one this morning." + +"We are going to skip every one that we possibly can," said Marion. "But +the one that is to come just now is decidedly the one that we can't. The +speaker is Dr. Calkins, of Buffalo. I heard him four years ago, and it +is one of the few sermons that I remember to this day. I always said if +I ever had another chance I should certainly hear him again. I like his +subject this afternoon, too. It is appropriate to my condition." + +"What is the subject?" Flossy asked, with a sudden glow of interest. + +"It is what a Christian can learn from a heathen. I'm the heathen, and +I presume Dr Calkins is the Christian. So he is to see what he can learn +from me, I take it, and naturally I am anxious to know. Flossy isn't +interested in that; I can see it from her face. She knows she isn't a +heathen--she is a good proper little Christian. But it is your duty, my +dear, to find what you can learn from me." + +"What can he possibly make of such a subject as that?" Ruth asked, +curiously. "I don't believe I want to hear him. Is he so very talented, +Marion?" + +"I don't know. Haven't the least idea whether he is what you call +talented or not. He says things exactly as though he knew they were so, +and for the time being he makes you feel as though you were a perfect +simpleton for not knowing it, too." + +"And you like to be made to feel like a 'perfect simpleton?' Is that the +reason you resolved to hear him again?" + +"I like to meet a man once in a while who knows how to do it, and for +the matter of that I wouldn't mind being made to feel the truth of the +things that he says, if one could only _stay_ made. It isn't the fault +of the preaching that it all feels like a pretty story and nothing else; +it is the fault of the wretched practicing that the sheep go home and +do. It makes one feel like being an out-and-out goat, and done with it, +instead of being such a perfect idiot of a sheep." + +At this point the talk suddenly ceased, for the leaders began to +assemble, and the service commenced. Ruth and Marion exchanged comic +glances when they discovered the "heathen" of the afternoon to be +Socrates. And Marion presently whispered that she was evidently to play +the character of the old fellow's wife, and Eurie whispered to them +both: + +"Now I want to know if that horrid Zantippe was Socrates' wife! Upon my +word I never knew it before. She wasn't to blame, after all, for being +such a wretch." + +"What do you mean?" Marion whispered back, with scornful eyes. "Socrates +was the grandest old man that ever lived." + +"Pooh! He wasn't. He didn't know any more than little mites of +Sunday-school children do nowdays. I never could understand why his +philosophy was so remarkable, only that he lived in a heathen country +and got ahead of all the rest, but if he were living now he would be a +pigmy." + +"I wish he were," Marion said, with her eyes still flashing. "I would +like to see such a life as he lived." + +This girl was a hero worshiper. Her cheeks could burn and her eyes glow +over the grand stories of old heathen characters, and she could melt to +tears over their trials and wrongs. And yet she passed by in haughty +silence the sublime life that of all others is the only perfect one on +record, and she had no tears to shed over the shameful and pitiful story +of the cross. What a strange girl she was! I wonder if it be possible +that there are any others like her? + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +"AT EVENING TIME IT SHALL BE BRIGHT." + + +Meantime Flossy Shipley came to no place where her heart could rest. She +went through that first day at Chautauqua in a sort of maze, hearing and +yet not hearing, and longing in her very soul for something that she did +not hear--that is, she did not hear it distinctly and fairly stated, so +that she could grasp it and act upon it; and yet it was shadowed all +around her, and hinted at in every word that was uttered, so that it was +impossible to forget that there was a great something in which the most +of these people were eagerly interested, and which was sealed to her. + +She felt it dimly all the while that Dr. Eggleston was speaking; she +felt it sensibly when they sang; she felt it in the chance words that +caught her ear on every side as the meeting closed--bright, fresh words +of greeting, of gladness, of satisfaction, but every one of them +containing a ring that she could hear but not copy. What did it mean? +And, above all, why did she care what it meant, when she had been happy +all her life before without knowing or thinking anything about it? + +As they went down the hill to dinner, she loitered somewhat behind the +others, thinking while they talked. As the throng pressed down around +them there came one whose face she instantly recognized; it belonged to +the young man who had spoken to her on the boat the evening before. The +face recalled the earnest words that he had spoken, and the tone of +restful satisfaction in which they were spoken. His face wore the same +look now--interested, alert, but _at rest_. She coveted rest. It was +clear that he also recognized her, and something in her wistful eyes +recalled the words _she_ had spoken. + +"Have you found the Father's presence yet?" he asked, with a reverent +tone to his voice when he said "the Father," and yet with such evident +trust and love that the tears started to her eyes. + +She answered quickly: + +"No, I haven't. I cannot feel that he is my Father." + +They went down the steps just then, and the crowd rushed in between +them, so that neither knew what had become of the other; only that +chance meeting; he might never see her again. Chautauqua was peculiarly +a place where people met for a moment, then lost each other, perhaps for +all the rest of the time. + +"I may never see her again," Evan Roberts thought, "but I am glad that I +said a word to her. I hope in my soul that she will let Him find her." + +If Flossy could have heard this unspoken sentence she would have +marveled. "Let Him find her!" Why, she was dimly conscious that she was +seeking for Him, but no such thought had presented itself as that God +was really seeking after her. + +She went on, still falling behind, and trying to hide the rush of +feeling that the simple question had called forth. She was very quiet +at the dinner table; she was oblivious to steel forks or the want of +spoons; these things that had hitherto filled her life and looked of +importance to her had strangely dwindled; she was miserably +disappointed; she had looked forward to Chautauqua as a place where she +could have such a "nice" time. That word "nice" was a favorite with her, +and surely no one could be having a more wretched time than this; and it +was not the rain, either, over which she had been miserable all day +yesterday, nor her cashmere dress; she didn't care in the least now +whether it cleared or not; and as to her dress, she had torn her silk +twice, and it was sadly drabbled, but she did not even care for that; +she wanted--what? Alas for the daughter of nominally Christian parents, +living among all the privileges of a cultured Christian society, she +_did not know what the wanted_. + +Dr. Calkins had one eager listener. If he could have picked out her +earnest, wistful eyes among that crowd of upturned faces he would have +let old Socrates go, and given himself heart and soul to the leading of +this groping soul into the light. As it was he hovered around it, +touching the subject here and there, thrilling her with the +possibilities stretching out before her; but he was thinking of and +talking all the while to those who had reached after and secured this +"something" that to her was still a shadow. Now and then the speaker +brought the quick tears to her eyes as he referred to those who had +followed the teaching of his lips with sympathetic faces and answered +the appeal to their hearts with tears; but her tears were different from +those--they were the tears of a sick soul, longing for light and help. + +The entire party ignored the evening meeting. Marion declared that her +brain whirled now, so great had been the mental strain; Ruth was loftily +indifferent to any plan that could be gotten up, and Eurie's wits were +ripe for mischief; Flossy's opinion, of course, was not asked, nobody +deeming it possible that she could have the slightest desire to go to +meeting. In fact, Eurie put their desertion on the ground that Flossy +had been exhausted by the mental effort of the day, and needed to be +cheered and petted. She on her part was silent and wearily indifferent; +she did not know what to do with her heavy heart, and felt that she +might as soon walk down by the lake shore as do anything else; so down +to the shore they went, and gave themselves up to the full enjoyment of +the novel scene--an evening in the woods, great, glowing lights on every +side, great companies of people passing to and fro, boats touching at +the wharves and sending up group after group to the central attraction, +the grand stand; singing, music by thousands of voices ringing down to +them as they loitered under the trees on the rustic seats. + +"I declare, it must be nice in heaven for a little while." + +It was Eurie who made this somewhat startling discovery and announcement +after a lull had fallen upon their mirth. + +"Have you been there to see?" illogically asked Marion, as she threw a +tiny stone into the water and watched the waves quiver and ripple. + +Eurie laughed. + +"Not quite, but this must be a little piece of it--this music, I mean. I +am almost tempted to make an effort after the real thing. How +exquisitely those voices sound! I'm very certain I should enjoy the +music, whether I should be able to get along with the rest of the +programme or not. What on earth do you suppose they do there all the +time, anyway?" + +"Where?" + +"Why, in heaven, of course; that is what I was talking about. I believe +you are half asleep, Flossy Shipley; you mustn't go to sleep out here; +it isn't quite heaven yet, and you will take cold. Honestly, girls, +isn't it a sort of wonderment to you how the people up there can employ +their time? In spite of me I cannot help feeling that it must be rather +stupid; think of never being able to lie down and take a nap!" + +"Or read a novel," added Marion. "Isn't that your favorite employment +when you are awake, Eurie? I'm sure I don't know much about the +occupations of the place; I'm not posted; there is nothing about it laid +down in our geography; and, in fact, the people who seem to be expecting +to spend their lives there are unaccountably mum about it. I don't at +this moment remember hearing any one ever express a downright opinion, +and I have always thought it rather queer. I asked Nellie Wheden about +it one day when she was going on about her expected tour in Europe. She +had bored me to death, making me produce all my geographic and historic +lore for her benefit; and suddenly I thought of an expedient for giving +myself a little peace and a chance to talk about something else. 'Come, +Nellie,' I said, 'one good turn deserves another. I have told you +everything I can think of that can possibly be of interest to you about +Europe; now give me some information about the other place where you are +going. You must have laid up a large stock of information in all these +years.'" + +"What on earth did she say?" Ruth asked, curiously, while Eurie was in +great glee over the story. + +"She was as puzzled as if I had spoken to her in Greek. 'What in the +world can you be talking about?' she said. 'I'm not going anywhere else +that I know of. My head has been full of Europe for the last year, and I +haven't talked nor thought about any other journey.' Well, I enlightened +her as to her expectations, and what do you think she said? You wouldn't +be able to guess, so I'll tell you. She said I was irreverent, and that +no one who respected religion would ask such questions as that, and she +actually went off in a huff over my wickedness. So, naturally, I have +been chary of trying to get information on such 'reverent' subjects ever +since." + +Whereupon all these silly young ladies laughed long and heartily over +this silly talk. Flossy laughed with the rest, partly from the force of +habit and partly because this recital struck her as very foolish. Every +one of them saw its inconsistent side as plainly as though they had been +Christians for years; more plainly, perhaps, for it is very strange what +blinded eyes we can get under certain systems of living the religious +faith. + +Presently the society of these young ladies palled upon themselves, and +they agreed one with another that they had been very silly not to go to +meeting, and that another evening they would at least discover what was +being said before they lost the opportunity for getting seats. + +"Stupid set!" said Eurie "who imagined that the crowd would do such a +silly thing as to rush to that meeting, as if there were nothing else +to do but to go flying off for a seat the moment the bell rings? I +thought there would be crowds out here, and we would make some pleasant +acquaintances, and perhaps get a chance to take a boat ride." + +And so, in some disgust, they voted to bring the first day at Chautauqua +to a sudden close and try tent life. + +Silence and darkness reigned in the tent where our girls had disposed of +themselves. It was two hours since they had come in. It took more than +an hour, and much talking and more laughter, not to mention considerable +grumbling on Ruth's part, before everything was arranged to their +satisfaction--or, as Ruth expressed it, "to their endurance" for the +night. + +Three of the girls were sleeping quietly, their fun and their +discontents alike forgotten, but Flossy tossed wearily on her bed, +turned her pillow and turned it back again, and sought in vain for a +quiet spot. With the silence and the darkness her unrest had come upon +her again with tenfold force. She felt no nearer a solution of her +trouble than she had in the morning; in fact, the pain had deepened all +day, and the only definite feeling she had about it now was that she +could not live so; that something must be done; that she must get back +to her home and her old life, where she might hope to forged it all and +be at peace again. + +Into the quiet of the night came a firm, manly step, and the movement of +chairs right by her side, so at least it seemed to her. All unused to +tent life as she was a good deal startled she raised herself on one +elbow and looked about her in a frightened way before she realized that +the sounds came from the tent next to theirs. Before her thoughts were +fairly composed they were startled anew; this time with the voice of +prayer. + +Very distinct the words were on this still night air; every sentence as +clear as though it had really been spoken in the same tent. Now, there +was something peculiar in the voice; clearly cut and rounded the words +were, like that of a man very decided, very positive in his views, and +very earnest in his life. There was also a modulation to the syllables +that Flossy could not describe, but that she felt And she knew that she +had heard that voice twice before, once on the boat the evening before +and once as they jostled together in the crowd on their way to dinner. + +She felt sorry to be unwittingly a listener to a prayer that the maker +evidently thought was being heard only by his Savior. But she could not +shut out the low and yet wonderfully distinct sentences, and presently +she ceased to wish to, for it became certain that he was praying for +her. He made it very plain. He called her "that young girl who said +to-day that she could not think of thee as her Father; who seems to want +to be led by the hand to thee." + +Did you ever hear yourself prayed for by an earnest, reverent, pleading +voice? Then perhaps you know something of Flossy's feelings as she lay +there in the darkness. She had never heard any one pray for her before. +So destitute was she of real friends that she doubted much whether there +were one person living who had ever before earnestly asked God to make +her his child. + +That was what this prayer was asking. She lifted the white sleeve of her +gown, and wiped away tear after tear as the pleading voice went on. +Very still she was. It seemed to her that she must not lose a syllable +of the prayer, for here at last was the help she had been seeking, +blindly, and without knowing that she sought, all this long, heavy day. +Help? Yes, plain, clear, simple help. How small a thing it seemed to do! +"Show her her need of thee, blessed Jesus," thus the prayer ran. And oh! +_hadn't_ he showed her that? It flashed over her troubled brain then and +there: "It is Jesus that I need. It is he who can help me. I believe he +can. I believe he is the only one who can." This was her confession of +faith. "Then lead her to ask the help of thee that she needs. Just to +come to thee as the little child would go to her mother, and say, +'Jesus, take me; make me thy child.'" Only that? Was it such a little, +_little_ thing to do? How wonderful! + +The praying ceased, and the young man who had remembered the stranger to +whom God had given him a chance to speak during the day, all unconscious +that other ear than God's had heard his words of prayer, laid himself +down to quiet sleep. Flossy lay very still. The rain had ceased during +the afternoon, and now some solemn stars were peeping in through the +chinks in the tent and the earth was moon-lighted. She raised herself on +one elbow and looked around on her companions. How soundly asleep they +were! + +Another few minutes of stillness and irresolution. Then a white-robed +figure slipped softly and quietly to the floor and on her knees, and a +low-whispered voice repeated again and again these words: + +"Jesus, take me; make me thy child." + +It wasn't very long afterward that she lay quietly down on her pillow, +and earth went on exactly as if nothing at all had happened--knew +nothing at all about it--even the sleeper by her side was totally +ignorant of the wonderful tableau that had been acted all about her that +evening. But if Eurie Mitchell could have had one little peep into +heaven just then what _would_ her entranced soul have thought of the +music and the enjoyment there? For what _must_ it be like when there is +"joy in the presence of the angels in heaven"? + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +FLEEING. + + +The next morning every one of them ran away from the meeting. The way of +it was this: as they came up from breakfast and stood at the tent-door +discussing the question whether they would go to the early meeting, Mrs. +Duane Smithe passed, glanced up at them carelessly, then looked back +curiously, and at last turned and came back to them. + +"I beg pardon," she said, "but isn't this Miss Erskine? It surely is! I +thought I recognized your face, but couldn't be sure in these strange +surroundings. And you have a party with you? How delightful! We were +just wishing for more ladies. I really don't think it is going to rain +much to-day, and we have a lovely prospect in view. You must certainly +join us." + +Then followed introductions and explanations, Mrs. Duane Smithe was a +Saratoga acquaintance of Ruth Erskine, and was _en route_ for Jamestown +for the day. + +"Where is Jamestown?" queried Eurie, who was a very useful member of +society, in that she never pretended knowledge that she did not possess, +so that you had only to keep still and listen to the answers that were +made to her questions in order to know a good deal. + +"It is at the head of this lovely little lake, or at the foot, I'm sure +I don't know which way to call it, and it is nothing of consequence, of +course, but the ride thither is said to be charming, and we are going to +take a lunch, and picnic in a private way, just for the fun of getting +together, you know, in a more social manner than one can accomplish in +this wilderness of people. Isn't it a queer place, Miss Erskine? I am +dying to know how you happened to come here." + +Ruth arched her eyebrows. + +"I confess it is almost as strange as what brought _you_ here," she +said, smiling. + +"I can answer that in an instant. I have a ridiculous nephew here, who +thought that a week of meetings from morning to night would be just a +trifle short of paradise, so what did he do but smuggle us all off this +way. I shall find it a bore, of course, and the only way to get through +with it is to have little pleasure excursions like the one we propose +to-day." + +Now you know as much about Mrs. Duane Smithe as though I should write +about her for a week. It is strange how little we have to say before we +have explained to people not only our intellectual but our moral status. +Our girls, you will remember, had as little regard for the meetings as +girls could have, and they had by this time begun to feel themselves in +a strange atmosphere, without acquaintances or gentlemanly attentions, +so it took almost no persuasion at all to induce them to join Mrs. +Smithe's party, composed of two young ladies and four young gentlemen. +It would be difficult to explain to you what a disappointment the +decision to spend the day in frolic, instead of going to the meetings, +was to Flossy. All the morning her heart had been in a great flutter of +happiness over the beautiful day that stretched out before her. To meet +those earnest, eager people again, to hear those hymns, to hear the +voice of prayer all about her, to hear the constant allusions that were +so strange and so saddening to her yesterday, and that now she +understood, how blessed it would be! She had gone about the +bewilderments of her toilet in a tent with a serenely happy face, and +almost unawares had hummed the refrain of a tune that had already shown +itself a favorite at Chautauqua. + +"Flossy is like herself this morning," Eurie said, as she heard the +happy little song. "I think she has recovered from her home-sickness." + +Tents are not convenient places in which to make private remarks. Flossy +overheard this one and smiled to herself. Yes, she had gotten over her +home-sickness--she had found home. She gave a little exclamation of +dismay as she heard the plannings for the day, and said: + +"But, Ruth, what about the meetings?" + +"Well," Ruth had said, with her most provokingly nonchalant air, "I +haven't made any inquiry, but I presume they will continue them all day +just the same as if we were here. I don't _think_ they will change the +programme on our account." + +And Eurie had added, mischievously: + +"Flossy is afraid it is not the aristocratic thing to do, not to stay to +all the meetings." + +"Oh, as to that," Mrs. Smithe had said (she was one of those interesting +people who always take remarks seriously), "I assure you it is what the +first people on the ground are doing. Of course none of them would be so +absurd as to think of attending meetings all the time. The brain +wouldn't endure such a strain." + +"Of course not," Marion had answered with gravity, "My brain is already +very tired. I think yours must be exhausted." + +Flossy meditated a daring resolution to stay behind and take her "rest" +in the way she coveted; but the impossibility of explaining what would +appear to the others as merely an ill-natured freak, and occasion no end +of talk, deterred her, and with slow, reluctant steps she followed the +merry group down to the wharf. + +If those people had stopped long enough to think of it, this disposal of +themselves would have had its ludicrous side. Certainly it was a +strange fancy to run away twenty miles with lunches done up in paper in +search of a picnic, when Chautauqua was one great picnic ground, +stretching out before them in beauty and convenience. But the entire +group belonged to that class of people for whom the fancy of the moment, +whatever it may be, has infinite charms. + +There was plenty of room on the Colonel Phillips. Very few people were +traveling in that direction. + +"It is really queer," the Captain was overheard to say, "to take a party +_away_ from the grounds at this hour of the day." + +"What an enthusiastic set of people they are about here," Eurie said to +Mr. Rawson, one of Mrs. Smithe's party, as they paced the deck together. +"The people all talk and act as though there was nowhere to go and +nothing to do but attend those meetings. For my part it is a real relief +to have a change in the programme." + +"Do you find it so?" he asked. "Well, now, I don't agree with you. I +think this proceeding is a real bore. My respected aunt is always +getting up absurd freaks, and this is one of them, and the worst one, in +my opinion, that she has had for some time. I wanted to go to those +meetings to-day--some of them, at least. One isn't obliged to be there +every minute. But it looks badly to run away." + +Eurie eyed him closely. + +"Are you the 'good nephew' that your aunt said thought these meetings +only a step below paradise?" she asked, at last. "I wonder you would +consent to come." + +Mr. Rawson flushed deeply. + +"I am not the 'good nephew' at all," he said, trying to laugh. "The +'good one' wouldn't come. My aunt tried all her powers of persuasion on +him in vain. But the truth is her eloquence, or her persistence, proved +too much for me, though I don't like the looks of it, and I don't feel +the pleasure of it, and I am afraid I shall make anything but an +agreeable addition to the party. Now that is being frank, isn't it, when +I am walking the deck with a young lady?" + +"I don't see why that circumstance should make it a surprising thing +that you are frank. But I am very sorry for you; perhaps you might +prevail on the Captain to put you off now, and let you swim back; you +could get there in time for the sermon. Is there to be a sermon? What +_is_ it you are so anxious to hear?" + +"All of it," he said gloomily. "I beg your pardon for being in so +disagreeable a mood; it is defrauding you out of some of your expected +pleasure to have a dismal companion. But as I have commenced by being +frank I may as well continue. I am dissatisfied with myself. I ought not +to have come on this excursion. The truth is, I meant to make Chautauqua +a help to me. I need the help badly enough. I am in the rush and whirl +of business all the time at home. This is the only two weeks in the year +that I am free, and I wanted to make it a great spiritual help to me. I +know very well that merely hovering around in such an atmosphere as that +at Chautauqua is a help to the Christian, and I came with the full +intention of taking in all that I could get of this sort of inspiration, +and it chafes me that so early in the meeting I have been led away +against my inclinations by a little pressure that I might have resisted, +and done no harm to any one. My cousin had the same sort of influence +brought to bear on him, and it had no more effect on him than it would +on a stone." + +He stopped, and seemed to give Eurie a chance to answer, but she was not +inclined, and he added, as if he had just thought his words an implied +reproach: "I can understand how, to you young ladies of comparative +leisure, with plenty of time to cultivate the spiritual side of your +natures, it should seem an unnecessary and perhaps a wearisome thing to +attend all these meetings; but you can not understand what it is to be +in the whirl of business life, never having time to think, hardly having +time to pray, and to get away from it all and go to heaven, as it were, +for a fortnight, is something to be coveted by us as a great help." + +Once more he waited for Eurie's answer, but it was very different from +what he had seemed to expect. + +"You might just as well talk to me in the Greek language; I should +understand quite as well what you have been saying; I don't think _I +have_ any spiritual side to my nature; at least it has never been +cultivated if I have; and Chautauqua to me is just the place in which +to have a good free easy time; go where I like and stay as long as I +like; and for once in my life not be bound by conventional forms. If +heaven is anything like that I shouldn't object to it; but I'm sure your +and my idea of it would differ. There, I've been frank now, and shocked +you, I know. I see it in every line of your face. Poor fellow! I don't +know what you will do, for there isn't a single one of us who has the +least idea what you mean by that sort of talk, unless you have some +young ladies of a different type in your party, and from their manner I +rather doubt it." + +She had shocked him. He looked not only pained but puzzled. + +"I am very sorry," he stammered. "I mean surprised. Yes, and +disappointed. Of course I am that. I think I had imagined that it was +only Christians who could be attracted to Chautauqua at all; I meant to +come to stay through all the services." + +"Your aunt, for instance?" Eurie said, inquiringly. + +"My aunt is a Christian," he answered, "and a sincere one, too, though I +see for some reason you don't think so. There are degrees in +Christianity, Miss Mitchell, just as there are in amiability, or +culture, or beauty." + +"Mr. Rawson!" called a voice from the other end at this moment, and he +in obedience to the call found Eurie a seat near some of her party and +went away, only stopping to say, in low tones: + +"I am sorry it is all 'Greek' to you; you would enjoy understanding it, +I am sure." + +It so happened that those two people did not exchange another word +together that day, but Eurie had got her thrust when and where she least +expected it. She had taken it for granted that not a single fanatic was +of their party. In the secret of her wise heart she denominated all the +earnest people at Chautauqua fanatics, and all the half-hearted people +hypocrites. Only she, who stood outside and felt nothing, was sincere +and wise. + +Meantime Marion had undertaken a strange task. Mr. Charlie Flint was the +gentleman who had drawn his chair near her, and said, as he drew a long +breath: + +"It is exceedingly pleasant to breathe air once more that isn't heavy +with psalm singing I think they are running that thing a little too +steep over there. Who imagined that they were going to have meeting +every minute in the day and evening, and give nobody a chance to +breathe?" + +"Have they exhausted you already?" Marion asked. "Let me see, this is +the morning of the second day, is it not?" + +"Oh, as to myself, I was exhausted before I commenced it. I am only +speaking a word for the lunatics who think they enjoy it. I am one of +the victims to our cousin's whim. He expects to get me converted here, I +think, or something of that sort." + +"I wouldn't be afraid of it," Marion said, in disgust. "I don't believe +there is the least danger." + +Mr. Charlie chose to consider this as a compliment, and bowed and +smiled, and said: + +"Thanks. Now tell me why, please." + +"You don't look like that class of people who are affected in that way." + +He was wonderfully interested, and begged at once to know why. Marion +had it in her heart to say, "Because they all look as though they had +some degree of brain as well as body," but even she had a little regard +left for feelings; so she contented herself with saying, savagely: + +"Oh, they, as a rule, are the sort of people who think there is +something in life worth doing and planning for, and you look as though +that would be too much trouble." + +Now, Mr. Charlie by no means liked to be considered devoid of energy, so +he said: + +"Oh, you mistake. I think there are several things worth doing. But this +eternal going to meeting, and whining over one's soul, is not to my +taste." + +"You think that it is more worth your while to take ladies out to ride +and walk, and carry their parasols and muffs for them, and things of +that sort. Since we are made for the purpose of staying here and showing +our fine clothes for all eternity, of course it is foolish to have +anything to do with one's soul, that can only last for a few years or +so!" + +She hardly realized herself the intense scorn there was in her voice, +and as for Charlie Flint he muttered to himself: + +"Upon my word, she is one of them; of the bitterest sort, too! What in +creation is she doing here? Why didn't she stay there and preach?" + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +HOW THE "FLITTING" ENDED. + + +As for Ruth Erskine, if she had been asked whether she was enjoying the +day, she would hardly have known what answer to make; she could not even +tell why the excursion was not in every respect all that it had promised +in the morning. She had no realization of how much the atmosphere of the +day before lingered around her, and made her notice the contrast between +the people of yesterday and the people of to-day. Mrs. Smithe, if she +were a Christian, as her nephew insisted, was one of the most +unfortunate specimens of that class for Ruth Erskine to meet; because +she was a woman who entered into pleasure and fashion, and +entertainments of all sorts, with zest and energy and only in matters +of religious interest seemed to lose all life and zeal. + +Now Ruth Erskine, calm as a summer morning herself over all matters +pertaining to the souls of people in general, and her own in particular, +was yet exceedingly fond of seeing other people act in a manner that she +chose to consider consistent with their belief; therefore she despised +Mrs. Smithe for what she was pleased to term her "hypocrisy." At the +same time, while at Saratoga, she had quite enjoyed her society. They +rode together on fine mornings, sipped their "Congress" together before +lunch, and attended hops together in the evenings. Now the reason why +Mrs. Smithe's society had so suddenly palled upon her, and the words +that she was pleased to call "conversation" become such vapid things, +Ruth did not know, and did not for one instant attribute to Chautauqua; +and yet that meeting had already stamped its impression upon her. From +serene, indifferent heights she liked to look down upon and admire +earnestness; therefore Chautauqua, despite all her disgust over the +common surroundings and awkward accommodations, had pleased her fancy +and arrested her attention more than she herself realized. It was her +fate to be thrown almost constantly with Mrs. Smithe during the day, and +before the afternoon closed she was surfeited. She heartily wished +herself back to the grounds, and found herself wondering what they were +singing, and whether the service of song was really very interesting. + +One episode in her day had interested her, and she could not tell +whether it had most amused or annoyed her. One of their party was +conversing with a gentleman as she came up. She had just time to observe +that he was young and fine-looking, when the two turned to her, and she +was introduced to the stranger. + +"You are from Chautauqua?" he said, speaking rapidly and earnestly. +"Grand meeting, isn't it? Going to be better than last year, I think. +Were you there? No? Then you don't know what a treat you are to have. +I'm very sorry to lose to-day. It has been a good day, I know. The +programme was rich; but a matter of business made it necessary to be +away. It is unfortunate for me that I am so near home. If I were two or +three hundred miles away where the business couldn't reach me, I should +get more benefit. Miss Erskine, what is your opinion of the direct +spiritual results of this gathering? I do not mean upon Christians. No +one, of course, can doubt its happy influence upon our hearts and lives. +But I mean, are you hopeful as to the reaching of many of the +unconverted, or do you consider its work chiefly among us?" + +Such a volley of words? They fairly poured forth! And the speaker was so +intensely in earnest, and so assured in his use of that word "we," as if +it were a matter that was entirely beyond question that she was one of +the magic "we." She did not know how to set out to work to enlighten +him. In fact, she gave little thought to that part of the matter, but, +instead, fell to wondering what _was_ her idea--whether she did expect +to see results of any sort from the great gathering, and that being the +case, what she expected? "Spiritual results," she said to herself, and a +smile hovered over her face--what _were_ "spiritual results?" She knew +nothing about them. _Were_ there any such things? Eurie Mitchell, had +such a question occurred to her, would have asked it aloud at once and +enjoyed the sense of shocking her auditor. But Ruth did not like to +shock people; she was too much of a lady for that. + +"What proportion of that class of people are here, do you think?" she +said, at last. "Are not the most of them professing Christians?" + +"Precisely the question that interests me. I should really like to know. +I wonder if there is no way of coming at it? We might call for a rising +vote of all who loved the Lord; could we not? Wouldn't it be a beautiful +sight?--a great army standing up for him! I incline to your opinion that +the most of them are Christians, or at least a large proportion. But I +should very much like to know just how far this idea had touched the +popular heart, so as to call out those who are not on the Lord's side." + +"They would simply have come for the fun of the thing, or the novelty of +it," she said, feeling amused again that almost of necessity she was +speaking of herself and using the pronoun "they." What would this +gentleman think if he should bring about that vote of which he spoke and +happen to see her among the seated ones? + +"'A wolf in sheep's clothing' he would suppose me to be," she said to +herself. "But I am sure I have not told him that I belong to the 'we' at +all. If he chooses to assume things in that way, it is not my fault." + +Apparently he answered both her expressed sentence and her thought: + +"I do not think so," he said, earnestly. "I doubt if any have come +simply for fun or for novelty. There are better places in which to +gratify both tastes. I believe there is more actual interest in this +subject, even among the unconverted, than many seem to think. They are +reasonable beings. They must think, and many of them, no doubt, think to +good purpose. It may not be clear even to themselves for what they have +come; But I believe in some instances, to say the least, it will prove +to have been the call of the Spirit." + +Again Ruth felt herself forced to smile, not at the earnestness--she +liked that, but there was her party, and she rapidly reviewed +them--Marion, with her calm, composed, skeptical views, indifferent +alike to the Christian or unchristian way of doing things; Eurie, who +lived and breathed for the purpose of having what in wild moments she +called "a high time;" Flossy with her dainty wardrobe, and her dainty +ways, and her indifference to everything that demanded thought or care. +Which of them had been "called by the Spirit"? There was herself, and +for the time she gave a little start. What had _she_ come to Chautauqua +for? After all she was the only one who seemed to be absolutely without +a reason for being there. Marion's avowed intention had been to make +some money; Eurie's to have a free and easy time; Flossy had come as she +did everything else, because "they" did. But now, what about Ruth +Erskine? She was not wont to do as others did, unless it happened to +please her. What had been her motive? It was strange to feel that she +really did not know. What if this strange speaking young man were right, +and she had been singled out by the Spirit of God! The thought gave her +a thrill, not of pleasure, but of absolute, nervous fear. What did she +know of that gracious Spirit? What did she know of Christ? To her there +was no beauty in him. She desired simply to be left alone. She was +silent so long that her companion gave her a very searching review from +under his heavy eyebrows, and then his face suddenly lighted as if he +had solved a problem. + +"May I venture to prophesy that you have some friend here whom you would +give much to feel had been drawn here by the very Spirit of God?" He +spoke the words eagerly and with earnestness, but with utmost respect, +and added, "If I am right I will add the name to my list for special +prayer. Do not think me rude, please. I know how pleasant it is to feel +there is a union of desire in prayer. I have enjoyed that help often. We +do not always need to know who those are for whom we pray. God knows +them, and that is the needful thing. Good-evening. I am glad to have met +you. It is pleasant to have additions to our list of fellow-heirs." + +How bright his smile was as he said those words! And how thoroughly +manly and yet how strikingly childlike had been his words and his trust! +Ruth watched him as he walked rapidly away to overtake a friend who had +just passed them. Do you remember a certain gentleman, Harold Wayne by +name, who had walked with them, walked especially with Ruth, down to +the depot on the morning of departure, who had toyed with her fan and +complained that he could not imagine what they were going to bury +themselves out there for? Ruth thought of him now, and the contrast +between his lazily exquisite air and drawling words and the fresh, +earnest life that glowed in this young man's veins brought a positive +quiver of disgust over her handsome face. There was no shadow of a smile +upon it now. Instead, she felt a nameless dread. How strange the talk +had been! To what had she committed herself by her silence and his +blunders? _She_ pray for any one! What a queer thing that would be to +do. _She_ anxious that any one should be led by the spirit of God! The +spirit of God frightened her. For whom would this young man pray? Not +certainly for any friend of hers; yet he would put the name of some +stranger in his prayers. He was thoroughly in earnest, and he was the +sort of a man to do just what he said. God, he had said, would +understand whom he meant. For whom would God count those prayers? For +her? And that thought also frightened her. + +"They are all lunatics, I verily believe, from the leaders to the +followers," she said in irritation, and then she wished herself at home. +During the remainder of the day she was engaged in trying to shake off +the impression that the stranger had left upon her. Go where she would, +say what she might, and she really exerted herself to be brilliant and +entertaining, there followed her around the memory of those great, +earnest eyes when he said, "I will add the name to my list for special +prayer." What name? He knew hers. He would say, doubtless, "Her friend +for whom she was anxious." But the one to whom he prayed would know +there was no such person. What would _He_ do with that earnest prayer? +For she knew it would be earnest. She was not used to theological mazes, +and if ever a girl was heartily glad when a day of pleasuring was over, +and the boat had touched again at the Chautauqua wharf, it was Ruth +Erskine. + +As for Flossy, it so happened that Charlie Flint, after Marion had +startled and disgusted him, sought refuge with her. She was pretty and +dainty, and did not look strong-minded; not in the least as if her +forte was to preach, so he made ready to have a running fire of small +talk with her. + +This had been Flossy's power in conversation for several years. He had +judged her rightly there. But do you remember with whom her morning had +commenced? Do you know that all the day thus far she had seemed to +herself to be shadowed by a glorious presence, who walked steadily +beside her, before her, on either hand, to shield, and help and bless? + +It was very sweet to Flossy, and she was very happy; happier than she +had ever been in her life. She smiled to herself as the others chatted, +she hummed in undertone the refrain of a hymn that she had caught in a +near tent that morning: + + "I am so glad that Jesus loves me." + +_Wasn't_ she glad! Was there anything better to find in all this world +than the assurance of this truth? She felt that the thought was large +enough to fill heaven itself. After that, what hope was there for +Charlie Flint and his small talk? Still, he tried it, and if ever he did +hard work it was during that talk. Flossy was sweet and cheery, but +preoccupied. There was a tantalizingly pleasant smile on her face, as if +her thoughts might be full of beauty, but none of them seemed to appear +in her words. She did not flush over his compliments, nor was she +disturbed at his bantering. + +He got out of all patience. + +"I beg pardon," he said, in his flippantly gallant way, "but I'm +inclined to think you are very selfish; you are having your enjoyment +all to yourself. To judge by the face which you have worn all day your +heart is bubbling over with it, and yet you think about it instead of +giving me a bit." + +Flossy looked up with a shy, sweet smile that was very pleasant to see, +and the first blush he had been able to call forth that day glowed on +her cheeks. Was it true? she questioned within herself. Was she being +selfish in this, her new joy? Ought she to try to tell him about it? +Would he understand? and could she speak about such things, anyway? She +didn't know how. She shrank from it, and yet perhaps it would be so +pleasant to him to know. No, on the whole, she did not think it would be +pleasant. They had not talked of the meetings nor of religious matters +at all; but for all that the subtle magnetism that there is about some +people had told her that Charlie Flint would not sympathize in her new +hopes and joys. + +Well, if that were so, ought she not all the more to tell him, so that +he might know that to one more person Christ had proved himself a +reality, and not the spiritual fancy that he used to seem to her? +Flossy, you see, was taking long strides that first day of her Christian +experience, and was reaching farther than some Christians reach who have +been practicing for years. Something told her that here was a chance of +witnessing for the one who had just saved her. She thought these +thoughts much more quickly than it has taken me to write them, and then +she spoke: + +"Have I been selfish? I do not know but I have. It is all so utterly new +that I hardly know how I am acting; but it is true that my heart has +been as light as a bird's all day. The truth is, I have found a friend +here at Chautauqua who has just satisfied me." + +"Have you indeed!" said Mr. Charlie, giving, in spite of his well-bred +effort to quell it, an amused little laugh. And in his heart he said, +"What a ridiculous little mouse she is! I wonder if they have the +wedding day set already, and if she will announce it to me?" Then aloud: +"How very fortunate you have been! I wish I could find a friend so +easily as that! I wonder if I am acquainted with him? Would you mind +telling me his name?" + +And then Flossy answered just one word in a low voice that was tremulous +with feeling, and at the same time wonderfully clear, and with a touch +of joy in it that would not be suppressed, "Jesus." + +Then it was that the exquisite young fop at her side was utterly +dumbfounded. He could not remember ever before in his life being so +completely taken by surprise and dismay that he had not a word to +answer. But this time he said not a single word. He did not even attempt +an answer, but paced the length of the deck beside her in utter and +confused silence, then abruptly seated her, still in silence, and went +hurriedly away. Flossy, occupied with the rush of feeling that this +first witnessing for the new name called forth, gave little heed to his +manner, and was indifferent to his departure. He was right as to one +thing. Her love was still selfish: it was so new and sweet to her that +it occupied all her heart, and left no room as yet for the outside world +who knew not this friend of hers. They were almost at the dock now, and +the glimmer of the Chautauqua lights was growing into a steady +brightness. As she stood leaning over the boat's side and watching the +play of the silver waves, there brushed past her one who seemed to be +very quietly busy. One hand was full of little leaflets, and he was +dropping one on each chair and stool as he passed. She glanced at the +one nearest her and read the title: "The True Friend," and it brought an +instant flush of brightness to her face to understand those words and +feel that the Friend was hers. Then she glanced at the worker and +recognized his face. He had prayed for her. She could not forget _that_ +face. It was plain also that his eyes fell on her. He knew her, and +something in her face prompted the low-toned sentence as he paused +before her: "You have found the Father, I think." + +And Flossy, with brightening eyes, answered, quickly, "Yes, I have." + +And then the boat touched at the wharf, and the crowd elbowed their way +out. + +There were two opinions expressed about that excursion by two gentlemen +as they made their way up the avenue. One of the gentleman was clerical, +and spectacled, and solemn. + +"There go a boat-load of excursionists," he said to his companion. + +"They come, as likely as not delegates, from some church or +Sabbath-school, and the way they do their work is to go off for a frolic +and be gone all day. I saw them when I left this morning. That is a +specimen of a good deal of the dissipation that is going on here under +the guise of religion. I don't know about it; sometimes I am afraid more +harm than good will be done." + +The other speaker was Mr. Charlie Flint, and as he rushed past these two +he said to _his_ companion, "Confound it all! Talk about getting away +from these meetings! It's no use; it can't be done. A fellow might just +as well stay here and run every time the bell rings. I heard more +preaching to-day on this excursion than I did yesterday; and a good deal +more astonishing preaching, too." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +HEART TOUCHES. + + +Marion gave her hair an energetic twist as she made her toilet the next +morning, and announced her determination. + +"This day is to be devoted conscientiously to the legitimate business +that brought me to this region. Yesterday's report will have to be +copied from the Buffalo papers, or made out of my own brain. But I'm +going to work to-day. I have a special interest in the programme for +this morning. The subject for the lecture just suits me." + +"What is it?" Eurie asked, yawning, and wishing there was another +picnic in progress. Neither heart nor brain were particularly interested +in Chautauqua. + +"Why, it is 'The Press and the Sunday-school.' Of course the press +attracts me, as I intend to belong to the staff when I get through +teaching young ideas." + +"But what about the Sunday-school?" Ruth questioned, with a calm voice. +"You can not be expected to have any special interest in that. You never +go to such an institution, do you?" + +"I was born and brought up in one. But that isn't the point. The subject +to-day is Sunday-school literature, I take it. The subject is strung +together, 'The Press and the Sunday-school,' without any periods between +them, and I'm exceedingly interested in that, for just as soon as I get +time I'm going to write a Sunday-school book." + +This announcement called forth bursts of laughter from all the girls. + +"Why not?" Marion said, answering the laugh. "I hope you don't intimate +that I can't do it. I don't know anything easier to do. You just have +to gather together the most improbable set of girls and boys, and rack +your brains for things that they never _did_ do, or _could_ do, or +_ought_ to do, and paste them all together with a little 'good talk,' +and you have your book, as orthodox as possible. Do any of you know +anything about Dr. Walden? He is the speaker. I presume he is as dry as +a stick, and won't give me a single idea that I can weave into my book. +I'm going to begin it right away. Girls, I'm going to put you all in, +only I can't decide which shall be the good one. Flossy, do you suppose +there is enough imagination in me to make you into a book saint? They +always have a saint, you know." + +There was a pretty flush on Flossy's cheek, but she answered, brightly: + +"You might try, Marion, and I'll engage to practice on the character, if +it is really and truly a good one." + +"I had a glimpse of Dr. Walden," Eurie said, answering the question. "He +was pointed out to me yesterday. He looked dignified enough to write a +theological review. _I'm_ not going to hear him. What's the use? I came +for fun, and I'm going in search of it all this day. I have studied the +programme, and there is just one thing that I'm going to attend, and +that is Frank Beard's 'chalk talk.' I know that will be capital, and he +won't bore one with a sermon poked in every two minutes." + +So the party divided for the day. Marion and Ruth went to the stand, and +Flossy strayed to a side tent, and what happened to her you shall +presently hear. Eurie wandered at her fancy, and enjoyed a "stupid +time," so she reported. + +Marion's pencil moved rapidly over the paper almost as soon as Dr. +Walden commenced, until presently she whispered in dismay to Ruth: + +"I do wish he would say something to leave out! This letter will be +fearfully long. How sharp he is, isn't he?" + +Then she scribbled again. Ruth had the benefit of many side remarks. + +"My!" Marion said, with an accompanying grimace. "What an army of books! +All for Sunday-schools. Three millions given out every Sunday! Does that +seem possible! Brother Hart, I'm afraid you are mistaken. Didn't he say +that was Dr. Hart's estimate, Ruthie? There is certainly a good chance +for mine, if so many are needed every week. I shall have to go right to +work at it. What if I _should_ write one, Ruth, and what if it should +_take_, and all the millions of Sunday-schools want it at once! Just as +likely as not. I am a genius. They never know it until afterward. I +shall certainly put you in, Ruthie, in some form. So you are destined to +immortality, remember." + +"I wish you wouldn't whisper so much," whispered back Ruth. "People are +looking at us in an annoyed way. What is the matter with you, Marion? I +never knew you to run on in such an absurd way. That is bad enough for +Eurie!" + +"I'm developing," whispered Marion. "It is the 'reflex influence of +Chautauqua' that you hear so much about." + +Then she wrote this sentence from Dr. Walden's lips: + +"Every author whose books go into the Sabbath-school is as much a +teacher in that school as though he had classes there. A good book is a +book that will aid the teacher in his work of bringing souls to Christ. +I have known the earnest teaching of months to be defeated by one +single volume of the wrong kind being placed in the hands of the +scholar." + +Suddenly Marion sat upright, slipped her pencil and note-book into her +pocket, and wrote no more. A sentence in that address had struck home. +This determination to enter the lists as a writer was not all talk. She +had long ago decided to turn her talents in that direction as the +easiest thing in the line of literature, whither her taste ran. She had +read many of the standard Sunday-school books; read them with amused +eyes and curling lips, and felt entirely conscious that she could match +them in intellectual power and interest, and do nothing remarkable then. +But there rang before her this sentence: + +"Every author whose books go into the Sabbath-school is as much a +teacher in that school as though he had classes there." A teacher in the +Sabbath-school! Actually a _teacher_. She had never intended that. She +had no desire to be a hypocrite. She had no desire to lead astray. +_Could_ she write a book that young people ought to bring from the +Sabbath-school with them, and have it say nothing about Christ and +heaven and the Christian life? Surely she could not be a teacher +without teaching of these things. _Must_ she teach them incidentally? +Was saying nothing about them speaking against them? Dr. Walden more +than intimated this. + +"After all," she said, speaking to Ruth as the address closed, "I don't +think I shall commence my book yet." + +"Why?" + +"Oh, because I am sacred." Then, impatiently, after a moment's silence, +during which they changed their seats, "I'm disgusted with Chautauqua! +It is going to spoil me. I feel my ambition oozing out at the ends of my +toes, instead of my fingers as I had designed. Everybody is so awfully +solemn, and has so much to say about eternity, it seems we can't whisper +to each other without starting something that doesn't even end in +eternity. But, wasn't he logical and eloquent?" + +"I don't know," Ruth said, absently. And she wondered if Marion knew how +true her words were. Ruth had heard scarcely a word of Dr. Walden's +address since that last whisper, "So you are destined to immortality, +remember." Words spoken in jest, and yet thrilling her through and +through with a solemn meaning. She had always known and always believed +this. She was no skeptic, yet her heart had never taken it in, with a +great throb of anxiety, as it did at that moment. _Was_ she being led of +the Spirit of God? + +The two merely changed their positions and looked about them a little, +and then prepared to give attention to the next entertainment, which was +a story from Emily Huntington Miller. Marion was the only one who was in +the least familiar with her, she being the only one who had felt that +absorbing interest in juvenile literature that had led her to keep pace +with the times. + +"I'm disposed to listen to _her_ with all due respect and attention," +she said, as she rearranged herself and got out her note-book. "She is +one of the few people who seem not to have bidden a solemn farewell to +their common sense when they set out to entertain the children. I have +read everything she ever wrote, and liked it, too. I set out to make an +idol of her in my more juvenile days. I used to think that the height of +my ambition would be attained if I could have a long look at her. I'm +going to try it to-day, and see if it satisfies me; though we are such +aspiring and unsatisfied creatures that I strongly suspect I shall go on +reaching out for something else even after _this_ experience." + +Very little whispering was done after that for some time. Although +Marion made light of her youthful dreams, there was a strong feeling of +excitement and interest clustering around this first sight of the woman +whose name she had known so long; and something in the fair, sweet face +and cultured voice fascinated and held her, much as she had fancied in +her earlier days would be the case. She frowned when she heard the +request to reporters to "lay aside their pencils." She had meant to earn +laurels by reporting this delicious bit of imagery, set in between the +graver sermons and lectures; but, after all, it was a rest to give +herself up to the uninterrupted enjoyment of taking in every word and +tone--taking it in for her own private benefit. "The Parish of Fair +Haven." How heartily she enjoyed it. The refined and delicate, and yet +keen and intense satire underlying the whole quaint original story, was +of just the nature to hold and captivate her. She was just in the mood +to enjoy it, too. For was it not aimed at that class of people who +awakened her own keenest sense of satire--the so-called "Christian +world"? She did not belong to it, you know; in her own estimation was +entirely without the pale of its sarcasm; stranded on a high and +majestic rock of unbelief in everything, and in a condition to be amused +at the follies of people who played at belief; and treated what they +_played_ was solemn realities as if they were cradle stories or nicely +woven fiction. There was no listener in all that crowd who so enjoyed +the keen play of wit and the sharp home thrusts as did Marion Wilbur. +Ruth was a little undecided what to think; she did not belong to the +class who were hit, to be sure, but her father always gave largely to +missions whenever the solicitor called on him: she had heard his name +mentioned with respect as one of the most benevolent men of the day; she +did not quite like the very low and matter-of-course place which Mrs. +Miller's view of the mission question gave him. According to the people +of Fair Haven, to give one's thousands to the cause was the most +commonplace thing in the world--not to do so was to be an inhuman +wretch. Ruth didn't quite like it--in truth she was just enough within +the circle of modern Christianity to feel herself slightly grazed by the +satire. + +"It is absurd," she said to Marion as they went up the hill. "What is +the sense in a woman talking in that way? As if people, were they ever +so good and benevolent, could get themselves up in that ridiculous +manner! If we live in the world at all we have to have a little regard +for propriety. I wonder if she thinks one's entire time and money should +be devoted to the heathen?" + +Marion answered her with spirit. + +"Oh, don't try to apologize for the folly that is going on in this world +in the name of religion! It can't be done, and sensible people only make +fools of themselves if they attempt it. There is nothing plainer or more +impossible to deny than that church-members give and work and pray for +the heathen as though they were a miserable and abominable set of +brutes, who ought to be exterminated from the face of the earth, but +for whom some ridiculous fanatics called 'missionaries' had projected a +wild scheme to do something; and _they_, forsooth, must be kept from +starving somehow, even though they had been unmitigated fools; so the +paltry collections are doled out, with sarcastic undertones about the +'waste of money,' and the sin of missionaries wearing clothes, and +expecting to have things to eat after throwing themselves away. Don't +talk to me! I've been to missionary societies; I know all about it. The +whole system is one that is exactly calculated to make infidels. I +believe Satan got it up, because he knew in just what an abominable way +the dear Christians would go at it, and what a horrid farce they would +make of it all." + +"It is a great pity you are not a Christian, Marion. I never come in +contact with any one who understands their duty so thoroughly as you +appear to, and I think you ought to be practicing." + +Ruth said this calmly enough. She was not particularly disturbed; she +did not belong to them, you know; but for all that she was remotely +connected with those who did, and was just enough jarred to make her +give this quiet home thrust. Oddly enough it struck Marion as it never +had before, although the same idea had been suggested to her by other +nettled mortals. It was true that she had realized how the practicing +ought to be done, and a vague wish that she _did_ believe in it all, and +could work by their professed standard with _all her soul_, flitted over +her. + +Meantime Flossy was being educated. The morning work had touched her +from a different standpoint. She had not heard Dr. Walden; instead she +had wandered into a bit of holy ground. She began by losing her way. It +is one of the easiest things to do at Chautauqua. The avenues cross and +recross in an altogether bewildering manner to one not accustomed to +newly laid-out cities; and just when one imagines himself at the goal +for which he started, lo! there is woods, and nothing else anywhere. +Another attempt patiently followed for an hour has the exasperating +effect of bringing him to the very point from which he started. Such an +experience had Flossy, when by reason of her loitering propensities she +became detached from her party, and tried to find her own way to the +stand. A whole hour of wandering, then a turn into perfect chaos. She +had no more idea where she was than if she had been in the by-ways of +London. Clearly she must inquire the way. She looked about her. It was +queer to be lost in the woods, and yet be surrounded by tents and +people. She stooped and peeped timidly into a tent, the corner of which +was raised to admit air, and from which the sound of voices issued. + +"Come in," said a pleasant voice, and the bright-faced hostess arose +from the foot of her bed and came forward with greeting, exactly as +though they had been waiting for Flossy all the morning. "Would you like +to rest? Come right in, we have plenty of room and the most lovely +accommodations," and a silvery laugh accompanied the words, while the +little lady whisked a tin basin from a low stool, and dusting it rapidly +with her handkerchief proffered her guest a seat, with as graceful an +air as though the stool had been an easy-chair upholstered in velvet. +The only other sitting-place, the low bed, was full, there being three +ladies tucked about on it in various stages of restful work, for they +had books and papers strewn about, and each held a pencil poised as if +ready for action at a moment. + +"I'm afraid I intrude," Flossy said, sweetly; "but the truth is, I have +lost my friends and my way, and I really am an object of pity, for I +have been wandering up hill and down, till my strength is less than it +was." + +"Poor child!" came sympathetically from the bed, spoken by the eldest of +the ladies, while another rapidly improvised a fan out of the +_Sunday-School Times_, and passed it to her. + +Meantime Flossy looked about her in secret delight. Something about the +air of the tent and the surroundings, and an indefinite something about +every one of the ladies, told her as plainly as words could have done +that she was among the workers; that she had unwittingly and gracefully +slipped behind the scenes, and had been cordially admitted to one of the +work-shops of Chautauqua; and there were _so_ many things she wanted to +know! + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +FLOSSY AT SCHOOL. + + +She hadn't the least idea who they were, but, like an earnest little +diplomatist, she set to work to find out. + +"I started for the auditorium," she said. "I wanted to hear Dr. Walden, +but he has had time to make a long speech and get through since I first +started. I think it must be nearly eleven." + +"No," they said laughing, "it is only half past ten." Her wanderings had +not been so long as they seemed; but it was hardly worth while to try to +hear anything from him now, she would not be at all likely to get a +seat; and, besides, his time was nearly over. She would better wait and +go down with them in time for Mrs. Miller. + +"We were obliged to miss Dr. Walden," the elder lady explained. "We +disliked to very much; probably it was as instructive as anything we +shall get; but we had work that had to be done, so we ran away." + +"Do you have to bring work to Chautauqua with you?" Flossy asked, with +insinuating sweetness. "How very busy you must be! I would have tried to +run away from my work for two weeks if I had been you." + +The bright little hostess laughed. + +"Chautauqua _makes_ work," she said, "and somebody has to get ready for +it. This lady beside me expects an overwhelming Sabbath class here, and +much time has to be given to the lesson. We lesser mortals are +ostensibly going to help her, but in reality we are going to look and +see how she does it." + +"Have you found out?" Flossy asked in a little tremor of delight. This +was what she wanted, to know how to do it all. + +The lady who had been pointed out as teacher answered her quickly, so +far as her words could be said to be an answer: + +"Are you a Sabbath-school teacher?" + +"No," Flossy said, flushing and feeling like a naughty child whose +curiosity had led her into mischief. "No, I am not _anything_, but I +want to be; I don't know how to work at all in any way, but I want to +learn." + +"Are you looking for work to do for the Master?" the same lady asked, +with a sweet cheery voice and smile, not at all as if this were a +subject which she must touch cautiously. + +"Yes," Flossy said, her cheeks all in a glow. "She did not know how to +work, she had but just found out that she wanted to; indeed she had but +yesterday known anything of Him." + +Then this unusual company of ladies came with one consent and eager eyes +and voices and took her hand, and said how glad they were to welcome her +to the ranks. They knew she would love the work, and the rewards were so +sure and so precious. All this was new and strange and delightful to +Flossy. Then they began each eagerly to tell about their work; they were +all infant or primary class teachers, and all enthusiasts. Who that has +to do with the teaching of little children and attains to any measure of +success but is largely gifted with this same element? They had been +talking over and preparing their lesson together, and they talked it +over again before the bewildered Flossy, who had no idea that there was +such a wonderful story in all the Bible as they were developing out of a +few bare details. + +"We had just reached the vital point of the entire lesson," explained +the leader, "the place where every true teacher needs most help; where, +having arranged all her facts and got them in martial order in her +brain, she wants to know the best way of making those facts of practical +_present_ service to the little children who will be before her, and at +this point I think every teacher needs to go to the fountain head for +help. We were just going to pray; you would like, perhaps, to join us +for just a few moments." + +"If she wouldn't intrude," Flossy said, timidly, in a tremor of +satisfaction; and then for the first time in her life she bowed with a +company of her own sex, and heard the simple earnest voice of prayer. +The words were startlingly direct and simple, and Flossy, who had been +full of mysterious awe on this question, and who much doubted whether +her timid whispers alone in her tent could have been called prayer, was +reassured and comforted. + +If _this_ were prayer, it was simply talking in a sweet, natural voice, +and in the most simple and natural language, with a dear and wise +friend. It was the most quiet and yet the most confident way of asking +for just what one wanted, and nothing more. It was what Flossy needed. + +She took long strides in her religious education there on her knees; and +as they went out from that tent and down the hill to the meeting, there +was born in her heart an eager determination to enter the lists as a +Sabbath-school teacher the very first opportunity, and to pray her +lesson into her heart, having done what she could to get it into her +head. If her anxious and well-nigh discouraged pastor could have been +gifted with supernatural and prophetic vision, and could have seen that +resolve, and, looking ahead, the fruit that was to be borne from it, how +would his anxious soul have thanked God and taken courage! + +In this mood came Flossy to listen to the story of "The Parish of Fair +Haven," as it flowed down to her in Mrs. Miller's smooth-toned musical +voice. One who comes from her knees to listen is sure to find the seed +if it has been put in. Flossy found hers. + +Often in the course of her young life she had been at church and sat in +the attitude of listener while a missionary sermon was preached. She had +heard, perhaps, ten sentences from those sermons, not ten consecutive +sentences, but words scattered here and there through the whole; from +these she had gathered that there was to be a collection taken for the +cause of Missions. Just where the money was to go, and just what was to +be done with it when it arrived, what had been accomplished by +missionary effort, what the Christian world was hoping for in that +direction--all these things Flossy Shipley knew no more about than her +kitten did. + +Perhaps it was not strange then, that although abundantly supplied with +pin-money, she had never in her life given anything to the work of +Missions. Not that she would not willingly have deposited some of her +money in the box for whatever use the authorities chose to make of it +had she happened to have any; but young ladies as a rule have been +educated to imagine that there is one day in the week in which their +portmonnaies can be off duty. There being no shopping to be done, no +worsteds to match, no confectionary to tempt what earthly use for money? +So it was locked up at home. This, at least, is the way in which Flossy +Shipley had argued, without knowing that she argued at all. + +Now she was looking at things with new eyes; the same things that she +had heard of hundreds of times, but how different they were! What a +remarkable scheme it was, this carrying the story of Jesus to those +miserable ignorant ones, getting them ready for the heaven that had been +made ready for them! The people of "Fair Haven" did not appear to her +like lunatics, as they did to Ruth Erskine. She was not, you will +remember, of the class who had argued this question in their ignorance, +and quieted their consciences with the foolish assertion that the church +collections went to pay secretaries and treasurers and erect splendid +public buildings. She belonged, rather, to that less hopeless class who +had never thought at all. Now, as she listened, her eyes brightened with +feeling and her cheeks glowed. The whole sublime _romance_ of Missions +was being mapped out to her on the face of that quaint allegory, and her +heart responded warmly. + +Curiously enough, her first throbs of conscience were not for herself +but for her father. The portly gentleman who occasionally sat at the +head of the Shipley pew, and who certainly never parted company with his +pocket-book on Sabbath or on any other day, did _he_ give liberally to +Foreign Missions? + +She could not determine as to the probabilities of the case. He was +counted a liberal man--people liked to come to him to start +subscriptions; but Flossy felt instinctively that a subscription paper +with her father's name leading it was different, someway, from a quiet, +baize-lined box, and no noise nor words. She doubted whether the cause +had been materially helped by him. + +She lost some sentences of the story while she planned ways for +interesting her father and securing liberal donations from him; and then +she was suddenly startled back to personality by hearing some astounding +statements from the reader. + +"It would be _so_ easy to drop into a household box the price of an +apple, or a paper, or a glass of peanuts, and yet who does it? Why, +there are young ladies who will actually not give two cents a week from +the money that they waste!" + +The rich blood mounted in waves to Flossy's forehead. Apples and papers +were not in her line, but _peanuts_! wasn't there a certain stand which +she passed almost daily on her way down town, and did she ever pass it +without indulging in a glass of peanuts? Neither was that the end. Why, +once started on that list, and her wastes were almost numberless. How +fond she was of cream dates, and how expensive they were; and oranges, +the tempting yellow globes were always shining at her from certain +windows as she passed. + +Oh, they were just endless, her temptations and her falls in that +direction--only who had ever supposed that there was any harm in this +lavish treatment of herself and of any friends whom she happened to +meet? Yet it was true that she had never given any money at all to the +work of sending the Bible to those who are without it. + +"They will not give two cents a week," said Mrs. Miller. It was true: +she had not given "two cents a week," or even two cents a year--she had +simply ignored the existence of such a need for money. True, she had not +been a Christian; but she was surprised to see how little this refuge +served her. + +"I have been a human being," she told herself, with a flush on her face, +"and I ought to have had sufficient interest in humanity to have wanted +those poor creatures civilized." + +But there was another thrust preparing for Flossy. The reader presently +touched upon one item of expenditure common to ladies, namely, kid +gloves; and made the bewildering statement that economy in this matter, +to the degree that needless purchases should be avoided, would treble +the fund in the missionary treasury! It could not be that from among +that sea of faces the speaker had singled out Flossy Shipley, and yet +that is the way it seemed to her. If there was any one expense which +stood out glaringly above another in her list of luxuries it was kid +gloves. They must be absolutely immaculate as to quality, shade and fit, +and she remorselessly consigned them to the waste-bag at the first hint +of rip or change of color. How strange that Mrs. Miller should have +pitched upon just that item, and what an amazing declaration to make +concerning it! + +It was very strange, had any one been looking on to observe it, the +manner in which this young girl was being educated. It is doubtful if a +whole year of church work in the regular home routine, listening to the +stated, statistical sermon of her pastor, that sermon which presupposes +so much more knowledge than people possess, would have _begun_ to do for +Flossy what the strange, fanciful, pungent story of "Fair Haven" did. + + * * * * * + +Before that hour was closed she had settled within her resolute little +heart a plan that should henceforth put her in close communion and +sympathy with mission work--not exactly the plans of operation, except +that kid gloves and peanuts took stern places in the background, but +this was simply the foundation for a resolute system of education, +carried all through her future life. + +What a pity it seems sometimes that people cannot read the hearts and +watch the springs of action of those around them. If Mrs. Miller, as +she closed her paper and moved away from the platform, could have seen +the earnest purpose glowing and throbbing in Flossy's heart, and have +known that it was born of words of hers, what a glad and thankful heart +would she have carried back to her tent! + +Also, if the much troubled pastor at home could have taken peeps into +the future and seen what Flossy Shipley's resolves would do for +Missions, how glad he would have been! + +Perhaps it would be better to lay all the troubles and the tangles down +in the Hand that overrules it all, and say, in peace and restfulness, +"He knoweth the end from the beginning." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +"CROSS PURPOSES." + + +When people start out with the express design of having a good time, +irrespective of other people's plans or feelings--in short, with a +general forgetfulness of the existence of others--they are very likely +to find at the close of the day that a failure has been made. + +It did not take the entire day to convince Eurie Mitchell that +Chautauqua was not the synonym for absolute, unalloyed _pleasure_. You +will remember that she detached herself from her party in the early +morning, and set out to find pleasure, or, as she phrased it, "fun." She +imagined them to be interchangeable terms. She had not meant to be +deserted, but had hoped to secure Ruth for her companion, she not +having the excuse of wishing to report the meetings to call her to them. +Failing in her, in case she should have a fit of obstinacy, and choose +to attend the meetings, Eurie counted fully upon Flossy as an ally. Much +to her surprise, and no little to her chagrin, Flossy proved decidedly +the more determined of the two. No amount of coaxing--and Eurie even +descended to the employment of that weapon--had the least effect. To be +sure, Flossy presented no more powerful argument than that it did not +look well to come to the meeting and then not attend it. But she carried +her point and left the young searcher for fun with a clear field. + +Now fun rarely comes for the searching; it is more likely to spring upon +one unawares. So, though Eurie walked up and down, and stared about her, +and lost herself in the labyrinths of the intersecting paths, and tore +her dress in a thicket, and caught her foot in a bog, to the great +detriment of shoe and temper, she still found not what she was searching +for. Several times she came in sight of the stand; once or twice in +sound of the speaker's voice; but having so determinately carried her +point in the morning, she did not choose to abandon her position and +appear among the listeners, though sorely tempted to do so. She wandered +into several side tents in hope of finding something to distract her +attention; but she only found that which provoked her. + +In one of them a young lady and gentleman were bending eagerly over a +book and talking earnestly. They were interesting looking people, and +she hovered near, hoping that she had at last found the "children" who +would "play" with her--a remembrance of one of her nursery stories +coming to her just then, and a ludicrous sense of her resemblance to the +truant boy who spent the long, bright day in the woods searching for one +not too busy to play. + +But these two were discussing nothing of more importance than the lesson +for the coming Sabbath; and though she hovered in their vicinity for +some time, she caught only stray words--names of places in the far away +Judean land, that seemed to her like a name in the Arabian Nights; or an +eager dissertation on the different views of eminent commentators on +this or that knotty point; and so engrossed were they in their work +that they bestowed on her only the slightest passing glance, and then +bent over their books. + +She went away in disgust. At the next tent half a dozen ladies were +sitting. She halted there. Here at last were some people who, like +herself, were bored with this everlasting meeting, and had escaped to +have a bit of gossip. Who knew but she might creep into the circle and +find pleasant acquaintances? So she drew nearer and listened a moment to +catch the subject under discussion. She heard the voice of prayer; and a +nearer peep showed her that every head was bowed on the seat in front, +and one of the ladies, in a low voice, was asking for enlightenment _on +the lesson for the coming Sabbath_! + +"What wonderful lesson can it be that is so fearfully important?" she +muttered, as she plunged recklessly into the mud and made her way in all +haste up the hill without attempting any more tents. "Who ever heard +such an ado made about a Sunday-school lesson? These people all act as +though there was nothing of any consequence anywhere but +Sunday-schools. I guess it is the first time that such a _furor_ was +ever gotten up over teaching a dozen verses to a parcel of children. I +wonder if the people at home ever make such a uproar about the lesson? I +know some teachers who own up, on the way to church, that they don't +know where the lesson is. This must be a peculiar one. I wonder how I +shall contrive to discover where it is? The girls won't know, of course. +With all their boasted going to meeting they know no more about lessons +than I do myself. I would really like to find out. I mean to ask the +next person I meet. It will be in accordance with the fashion of the +place. Think of my walking down Broadway of a sunny morning and stopping +a stranger with the query, 'Will you tell me where the lesson is, +please?'" And at this point Eurie burst into a laugh over the absurdity +of the picture she had conjured. + +"But this is not Broadway," she said a moment afterward, "and I mean to +try it. Here comes a man who looks as if he ought to know everything. I +wonder who he is? I've seen his face a dozen times since I have been +here. He led the singing yesterday. Perhaps he knows nothing but sing. +They are not apt to; but his face looks as though he might have a few +other ideas. Anyway, I'll try him, and if he knows nothing about it, he +will go away with a confused impression that I am a very virtuous young +lady, and that he ought to have known all about it; and who knows what +good seed may be sown by my own wicked hand?" + +Whereupon she halted before the gentleman who was going with rapid +strides down the hill, and said, in her clearest and most respectful +tone: + +"Will you be so kind as to tell me where the lesson for next Sabbath +commences? I have forgotten just where it is." + +There was no hesitation, no query in his face as to what she was talking +about, or uncertainty as to the answer. + +"It is the fifth chapter, from the fifth to the fifteenth verse," he +said, glibly. "All fives, you see. Easy to remember. It is a grand +lesson. Hard to teach, though, because it is all there. Are you a +teacher for next Sunday? You must come to the teachers' meeting +to-morrow morning; you will get good help there. Glorious meeting, +isn't it? I'm so glad you are enjoying it." And away he went. + +Every trace of ill-humor had vanished from Eurie's face. Instead, it was +twinkling with laughter. + +"The fifth chapter and fifteenth verse" of what? Certainly she had no +more idea than the birds had who twittered above her head. How entirely +certain he had been that of course she knew the general locality of the +lesson. _She_ a teacher and coming to the teachers' meeting for +enlightenment as to how to teach the lesson! + +"I wonder who he is?" she said again, as these thoughts flashed through +her brain, and, following out the next impulse that came to her, she +stopped an old gentleman who was walking leisurely down, and said, as +she pointed out her late informant: + +"What is that man's name, please? I can't recall it." + +"That," said the old gentleman, "is Prof. Sherwin, of Newark. Have you +heard him sing?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, that is worth hearing; and have you heard him talk?" + +"No." + +"Well, he can talk; you will hear him, and enjoy it, too; see if you +don't. But I'll tell you what it is, young lady, to know him thoroughly +you ought to hear him pray! There is the real power in a man. Let me +know how a man can pray and I'll risk his talking." + +Eurie had got much more information now than she had asked for. She +ventured on no more questions, but made all haste to her tent, where, +seated upon a corner of the bed, one foot tucked under her while the +unfortunate shoe tried to dry, she sewed industriously on the zig-zag +tear in her dress, and tried to imagine what she could do next. +Certainly they had long days at Chautauqua. "I shall go to meeting this +afternoon," she said, resolutely, "if they have three sermons, each an +hour long; and what is more, I shall find out where that Sunday-school +lesson is." + +The next thing she did was to write a letter to her brother Nellis, a +dashing boy two years her senior and her favorite companion in her +search for pleasure. Here is a copy of the letter: + + + +"DEAR NEL: I wish you were here. Chautauqua isn't so funny as it might +be. There are some things that are done here continually. In the first +place, it rains. Why, you never saw anything like it! It just can't help +it. The sun puts on a bland face and looks glowing intentions, and while +you are congratulating your next neighbor on the prospect, she is +engaged in clutching frantically after her umbrella to save her hat from +the first drops of the new shower. Next, they have meetings, and there +is literally no postponement on account of the weather. It is really +funny to see the way in which the people rush when the bell rings, rain +or shine. Nel, only think of Flossy Shipley going in the rain to hear a +man preach of the 'Influence of the Press,' or something of that sort! +It was good though, worth hearing. I went myself, because, of course, +one must do something, and the frantic fashion of the place is to go to +meeting. At the same time I don't understand Flossy: she is different +from what she ever was at home. I suppose it is the force of the many +shining examples all around her. You know she always was a good little +sheep about following somebody's lead. + +"Marion is reporting, and has to be industrious. She is queer, Nel; she +professes infidelity, you know; and you have no idea how mad she gets +over anything that seems to be casting reproach on Christianity (unless +indeed she says it herself, which is often enough, but then she seems to +think it is all right). + +"Ruth keeps on the even tenor of her way. It would take an earthquake to +move that girl. + +"I have had the greatest fun this morning. I have been mistaken for a +Sabbath-school teacher who had the misfortune to forget at what verse +her lesson commenced! You see I was cultivating new acquaintances, and a +Prof. Sherwin gave me good advice. That and some other things aroused my +curiosity concerning that same lesson, and I am going to find out where +it is. + +"Did you know that Sunday-school lessons were such remarkable affairs? +The one for next Sunday must comprise the most wonderful portion of +Scripture that there is, for hundreds of people on these grounds are +talking about it, and I stumbled upon a party of ladies this morning who +were actually praying over it! + +"Another thing I overheard this morning, which is news to me, that all +the world was at work on the same lesson. That is rather fascinating, +isn't it, to think of so many hundreds and thousands of people all +pitching into the same verses on Sunday morning? It is quite +sentimental, too, or capable of being made so, for instance, by a great +stretch of your imagination. Suppose you and me to be very dear friends, +separated by miles of ocean we will say, and both devoted Sabbath-school +teachers, isn't that a stretch now? Such being the astonishing case, +wouldn't it be pleasant to be at work on the same lesson? Don't you see? +Lets play do it. You look up the lesson for next Sabbath and so will I. +Won't that have all the charm of novelty? Then give me the benefit of +your ideas acquired on that important subject, and I'll do the same to +you. Really, the more I think of it the more the plan delights me. I +wonder how you will carry it out? Shall you go to Sunday-school? What +will the dear Doctor say if he sees you walk into his Bible-class? I +really wish I were there to enjoy the sensation. Meantime I'm going to +look up an altogether wonderful teacher for myself, and then for +comparing notes. My spirits begin to rise, they have been rather damp +all the morning, but I see fun in the distance. + +"We are to have a sensation this afternoon in the shape of a troupe of +singers called the Tennesseeans--negroes, you know, and they are to give +slave-cabin songs and the like. I expect to enjoy it thoroughly, but you +ought to see Ruth curl her aristocratic nose at the thought. + +"'Such a vulgar idea! and altogether inappropriate to the occasion. She +likes to see things in keeping. If it is a religious gathering let them +keep it such, and not introduce negro minstrels for the sake of calling +a low crowd together, and making a little more money.' + +"Marion, too, shoots arrows from her sharp tongue at it, but she rather +enjoys the idea, just as she does every other thing that she chooses to +call inconsistent when she happens to be the one to discover it; but woe +to the one who comments on it further than she chooses to go. + +"Flossy and I now look with utmost toleration on the dark element that +is to be introduced. I tell Ruth that I am really grateful to the +authorities for introducing something that a person of my limited +capacities can appreciate, and Flossy, with her sweet little charitable +voice, has 'no doubt they will choose proper things to sing.' That +little mouse is really more agreeable than she ever was in her life; and +I am amazed at it, too. I expected the dear baby would make us all +uncomfortable with her finified whims; but don't you think it is our +lofty Ruth who is decidedly the most disagreeable of our party, save and +except myself!" + + + +This interesting epistle was brought to a sudden close by an +interruption. A gentleman came with rapid steps, and halted before her +tent door, which was tied hospitably back. + +"I beg pardon," he said, speaking rapidly, "but this is Miss Rider?" + +"It is not," Eurie answered, with promptness at which information he +looked surprised and bewildered. + +"Isn't this her tent? I am sorry to trouble you, but I have been sent +in haste for her. She is wanted for a consultation, and I was told I +would find her here. Perhaps I might leave a message with you for her?" + +"It certainly isn't her tent," Eurie said, trying to keep down the +desire to laugh, "and I haven't the least idea where she is. I should be +glad to give her your message if I could, but I never saw the lady in my +life, and have no reason to expect that pleasure." + +Whereupon her questioner laughed outright. + +"That is a dilemma," he said. "I appreciate your feelings, for I am +precisely in the same position; but the lady was described minutely to +me, and I certainly thought I had found her. I am sorry to have +interrupted you," and he bowed himself away. + +A new curiosity seized upon Eurie--the desire to see Miss Rider. "She +must be one of them," she soliloquized, falling into Flossy's way of +speaking of the workers at Chautauqua. "He said she was wanted for a +consultation. I wonder if she can be one of those who are to take part +in the primary exercises? She must be young for such prominent work if +she looks like me; but how could he know that since he never saw her? +It is very evident that I am to go to Sunday-school next Sabbath anyhow, +if I never did before, for now I have two items of interest to look +up--a lesson that is in the 'fifth chapter, from the fifth to the +fifteenth verse of _something_,' and a being called 'Miss Rider.'" So +thinking she hastily concluded and folded her letter, ready for the +afternoon mail, without a thought or care as to the seed that she had +been sending away in it, or as to the fruit it might bear; without the +slightest insight into the way she was being led through seeming +mistakes and accidents up to a point that was to influence all her +future. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE NEW LESSON. + + +Eurie turned her pillow, thumped the scant feathers into little heaps, +and gave a dismal groan as she laid her head back on it. + +"It is very queer," she said, "that as soon as ever I make up my mind to +be orthodox, and go to meeting every time the bell rings, I should be +dumped into a heap on this hard bed with the headache. I haven't had a +touch of it before." + +"'The way of transgressors is hard,'" quoted Marion, going on calmly +with her writing. "If you hadn't taken that horrid tramp yesterday +instead of going to meeting like a Christian, you would have been all +right to-day." + +"I believe you sit up nights to read your Bible, so as to have verses +to fling at people who are overtaken in any possible trial or +inconvenience. You always have them ready. Didn't you bring it with you, +and don't you prepare a list for each day's use?" This was Eurie's half +merry, half petulant reply to the Bible verse that had been "flung" at +her. + +Marion carefully erased a word that seemed to her fastidious taste too +inexpressive before she answered: + +"I don't own such an article as a Bible, my child; so your suspicions +are entirely unfounded. My early education was not defective in that +respect, however, and I confess that I find many verses that seem to +very aptly describe the ways of sinful mortals like yourself." + +Eurie raised herself on one elbow, regardless of headache and the cloth +wet in vinegar that straightway fell off. + +"You don't own a Bible!" she said, in utter surprise, and with a touch +of actual dismay in her voice. + +"I am depraved to that degree, my dear little saint. I conclude that you +are more devoutly inclined, and have one of your own. Pray how many +chapters a day do you read in it?" + +Eurie lay down again, and Flossy came with the vinegar cloth and bound +it securely on her forehead. + +"I don't read in it very often, to be sure," Eurie murmured. "In fact I +suppose I may as well say that I never do. But then I own one, and +always have. I am not a heathen; and really and truly it seems almost +queer not to have a Bible of one's own. It is a sort of mark of +civilization, you know." + +Marion laughed good-naturedly. + +"I never make a great deal of pretense in that line," she said, gayly. +"As for being a heathen, that is only a relative term. According to Dr. +Calkins, they were more or less in advance of us. I am one of the +'advanced' sort. Ruth, your toilet ought to be nearly completed; I hear +that indefatigable bell." + +"You are very foolish not to go this morning and let your writing wait. +We shall be certain to have something worth listening to; it is a +strange time to select for absence." This was Ruth's quiet answer, as +she pinned her lace ruffle with a gleaming little diamond. + +"'Diligent in business.' There is another verse for you, my heathen," +Marion said, with a merry glance toward Eurie. "When you get home and +get the dust of years swept off from your Bible, you take a look at it, +and see if I have not quoted correctly. And a good, sensible verse it +is. I have found it the only way in which to keep my head above water. +Ruthie, the trouble is not with me, it lies with those selfish and +obstinate newspaper men. If they would have the sense to let their +papers wait over another day I could go to the lecture this morning. As +it is, I am a victim to their indifference. If I miss a blessing the sin +will be at _their_ door, not mine." + +Eurie opened her heavy eyes and looked at Flossy. + +"Come," she said, "don't stand there mopping me in vinegar any longer. +Are you ready? I am really disappointed. I've always wanted to hear that +man. I want to tell Nel about him." + +Flossy washed her hands, shook back the yellow curls with an indifferent +and preoccupied air, and went to the door to wait for Ruth. She had +taken no part in the war of words that had been passing between Marion +and Eurie, but she had heard. And like almost everything else that she +heard during these days, it had awakened a new thought and desire. +Flossy was growing amazed at herself. It seemed to her that she must +have spent her seventeen years of life taking long naps, and this +Chautauqua was a stiff breeze from the ocean that was going to shake her +awake. The special thought that had dashed itself at her this morning +was that she, too, had no Bible. Not that she did not own one, elegantly +done in velvet and clasped in gold, so effectually clasped that it had +been sealed to her all her life. She positively had no recollection of +having ever sat down deliberately to read the Bible. She had "looked +over" occasionally in school, but even this service of her eyes had been +fitful and indifferent; and as for her head paying any sort of attention +to the reading, it might as well have been done in Greek instead of +French, which language she but dimly comprehended even when she tried. +But now she ought to have a Bible. She ought not to wait for that velvet +covered one. A whole week in which to find what some of her orders +were, and no way in which to find them. Of course she could buy one, but +how queer it would seem to be going to the museum to make a purchase of +a Bible! "They will wonder why I did not bring my own," she murmured, +with that life-long deference that she had educated herself to pay to +the "they" who composed her world. And in another instance the new-born +feeling of respect and independence asserted itself. "I can't help +that," she said, positively, shaking her curls with a determined air; +"and it really makes no difference what anybody thinks. Of course I must +have a Bible, and I only wish I had it for this morning, I shall +certainly get one the first opportunity." Then she turned and said +"good-morning" to the pretty little lady who occupied the tent next +door, and between whom and herself a pleasant acquaintance was springing +up. + +"Are you going to the lecture?" Flossy, asked and the small lady shook +her head, with a wistful air. + +"Dear me, no! My young tyrant wouldn't consent to that. I meant to take +him down with me and try him, but he has gone to sleep; and it is just +as well, for he would have been certain to want to do all the talking. +He has no idea that there is any one in the country who knows quite as +much as he does." It was said in a half complaining tone, but underneath +it was the foundation of tender pride, that showed her to be the vain +mother of the handsome tyrant. Still it seemed to be Flossy's duty to +condole with her. + +"You miss most of the meetings, do you not?" + +"Three-fourths of them. You see it is inconvenient to have a husband who +is reporter for the press, and who must be there to hear. It is only +when he must write up his notes for publication that I can get a chance; +and even then, unless it is baby's sleepy time, it does me no good. I am +especially sorry this morning, for Dr. Cuyler used to be my pastor. He +married me one summer morning just like this, and I haven't laid eyes on +him since. I should like to hear his voice again, but it can't be done." + +Now who would have imagined that, with all the powers that were +bestirring themselves to come to Flossy's education, it would have been +a rosy, crowing baby, in the unconsciousness of a morning nap, that +should have given her her first lesson in unselfishness? Yet he was the +very one. It flashed over Flossy in an instant from some source. Who was +so likely to have suggested it as the sweet angel who hovered over the +sleeping darling? + +"Oh, Mrs. Adams, let me stay with baby, and you go to hear Cuyler. It is +a real pity that you should miss him, when he is associated with your +life in this way. I never saw him, and though, of course, I should like +to, yet I presume there will be opportunities enough. I will be as +careful of baby as if he were my grandson; and if he wakens I will charm +him out of his wits, so that it will never occur to him to cry." + +Of course there was demurring, and profuse expressions of thanks and +declinatures all in a breath. But Flossy was so winning, so eager, so +thoroughly in earnest; and the little Mrs. Adams did so love her old +pastor, and did feel so anxious to see him again, that in a very short +time she was beguiled into going in all haste to her tent to make a +"go-to-meeting" toilet; and a blessed thing it was that that sentence +does not mean at Chautauqua what it does in Buffalo, or Albany, or a +few other places, else Dr. Cuyler might have slipped from them before +the necessary articles were all in array. It involved simply the +twitching off of a white apron, the settling of a pretty sun hat--for +the sun actually shone!--and the seizure of a waterproof, needed, if she +found a seat, to protect her from the damp boards--needed in any case, +because in five minutes it might rain--and she was ready. + +Ruth came to the door. + +"Come, Flossy," she said; "where in the world are you? We shall be +late." And said it precisely as though she had been waiting for that +young person for half an hour. + +Flossy emerged from the adjoining tent. + +"I am not going." she said. "I have turned nurse-girl, and have the +sweetest little baby in here that ever grew. Mrs. Adams is going in my +place. Mrs. Adams, Miss Erskine." + +And as those two ladies walked away together Mrs. Adams might have been +heard to say: + +"What a lovely, unselfish disposition your friend has! It was so +beautiful in her to take me so by storm this morning! I am afraid I was +very selfish; which is apt to be the case, I think, when one comes in +contact with actual unselfishness. It is one of the Christian graces +that is very hard to cultivate, anyway; don't you think so?" + +Ruth was silent; not from discourtesy, but from astonishment. It was +such a strange experience to hear any one speak of Flossy Shipley as +"unselfish." In truth she had grown up under influences that had combined +to foster the most complete and tyrannical selfishness--exercised +in a pretty, winning sort of way, but rooted and grounded in her very +life. So indeed was Ruth's; but _she_, of course, did not know that, +though she had clear vision for the mote in Flossy's eyes. + +Meantime Marion had staid her busy pen and was biting the end of it +thoughtfully. The two tents were such near neighbors that the latter +conversation and introduction had been distinctly heard. She glanced +around to the girl on the bed. + +"Eurie," she said, "are you asleep, or are you enjoying Flossy's last +new departure?" + +Eurie giggled. + +"I heard," she said. "The lazy little mouse has slipped out of a +tedious hour, and has a chance to lounge and read a pleasant novel. I +dare say the mother is provided with them." + +Then Marion, after another thoughtful pause: + +"But, my child, how do you account for the necessity of going to the +neighbors and taking the supervision of a baby in order to do that? +Flossy need not have gone to church if she didn't choose." + +"Yes she need. Don't you suppose the child can see that it is the +fashion of the place? She is afraid that it wouldn't look well to stay +in the tent and lounge, without an excuse for doing so. If that girl +could only go to a place where it was the fashion for all the people to +be good, she would be a saint, just because 'they' were." + +"She would have to go to heaven," muttered Marion, going on with her +writing. + +"And, according to you, there is no such place; so there is no hope for +her, after all. Oh, dear! I wonder if you are right, and nothing is of +any consequence, anyhow?" And the weary girl turned on her pillow and +tried not to think, an effort that was hard to accomplish after a week's +experience at Chautauqua. + +Flossy sat herself down beside the sleeping darling, and cast about her +for something to amuse or interest, her eyes brightening into beauty as +she recognized a worn and torn copy of the Bible. Eurie would have been +surprised to see the eagerness with which she seized upon the book that +was to afford her entertainment. She turned the leaves tenderly, with a +new sense of possession about her. This Bible was a copy of letters that +had been written to her--words spoken, many of them, by Jesus himself. +Strange that she had so little idea what they were! Marion, with her +boasted infidel notions, knew much more about "The Book" than Flossy +with her nominal Christian education and belief. She had no idea where +to turn or what to look for to help her. Yet she turned the leaves +slowly, with a delicious sense of having found a prize a--book of +instructions, a guide book for her on this journey that she was just +beginning to realize that she was taking. Somewhere within it she would +find light and help. The book was one that had been much used, and had a +fashion of opening of itself at certain places that might have been +favorites with the little mother. At one of those places Flossy halted +and read: "'After this there was a feast of the Jews.' After what, I +wonder?" she said within herself. She knew nothing about it. "Never +mind, I will see pretty soon. This is about a feast where Jesus was. And +Jesus went up to Jerusalem." "Oh, how nice to have been there, wherever +that was." The ignorant little thing had not the least idea where +Jerusalem was, except that it was in that far away, misty Holy Land, +that had seemed as vague and indefinite to her as the grave or as +heaven. But there came suddenly to her heart a certain blessed analogy. + +"If I were going to write an account of my recent experiences to some +dear friend that I wanted to tell it to," she said, talking still to +herself, or to the sleeping baby, "I would write it something like this: +'After this'--That would mean; let me see what it _would_ mean. Why, +after that party at home, when I danced all night and was sick. 'After +this there was a feast of the Christian people at Chautauqua, and Jesus +went there.' I could certainly write that, for I have seen him and heard +him speak in my very heart." Then she went on, through the second verse +to the third. "'In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of +blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water,'" and here a +great swell of tears literally blinded her eyes. It came to her so +suddenly, so forcibly. The great multitude here at Chautauqua--blind. +Yes, some of them. Was not she? How many more might there be? Many of +whom she knew, others that she did not know, but that Jesus did. Waiting +without knowing that they were waiting. With tears and smiles, and with +a new great happiness throbbing at her heart, she read through the +sweet, simple, wonderful story; how the poor man met Jesus; how he +questioned; how the man complained; and how Jesus was greater than his +infirmity. Through the whole of it, until suddenly she closed the book, +her tears dried, and a solemn, wondering, almost awe-struck look on her +face. She had got her lesson, her directions, her example. She could +bear no more, even of the Bible, just then. She said it over, that +startling verse that came to her with a whole volume of suggestion: +"'_And the man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had +made him whole._'" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +GREAT MEN. + + +Ruth Erskine, with her skirts gathered daintily around her, to avoid +contact with the unclean earth, made her way skill fully through the +crowd, and with the aid of a determined spirit and a camp-chair secured +a place and a seat very near the stand. The little lady who timidly +followed in her lead was not quite so fortunate, inasmuch as she had no +camp-chair, and was less resolved in her determination to get ahead of +those who had arrived earlier; so she contented herself with a damp seat +on the end of a board, which was vacated for her use by a courteous +gentleman. + +Ruth, you must understand, was not selfish in this matter because she +had planned to be, but simply because it had never occurred to her to be +otherwise, which is one of the misfortunes that come to people who are +educated in a selfish atmosphere. Ruth Erskine had come to this meeting +fully prepared to enjoy it. Dr. Cuyler was a star of sufficient +magnitude to attract her. During her frequent visits to New York she had +heard much of but had never seen him. The people whom she visited were +too elegant in their views and practices to have much in common with the +church which was so pronounced on the two great questions of religion +and temperance. Yet, even with them, Dr. Cuyler and Dr. Cuyler's great +church were eccentricities to be tolerated, not ignored. Therefore Ruth +had had it in her heart to enjoy listening to him sometime. The sometime +had arrived. She had dressed herself with unusual care, a ceremony which +seemed to be quite in the background among the people who were at home +at Chautauqua. But someway it seemed to Ruth that the great Brooklyn +pastor should receive this mark of respect at her hands; so she had +spent the morning at her toilet and was now a fashionable lady, +fashionably attired for church. + +If the people who vouchsafed her a glance as she crowded past indulged, +some of them, in a smile at her expense, and thought the simple temple +made of trees and grasses an inappropriate surrounding to her silken +robes and costly lace mantle, she was none the wiser for that, you know, +and took her seat, indifferent to them all, except that presently there +stole over her the sense of disagreeable incongruity with her outdoor +surroundings; so Satan had the pleasure of ruffling her spirits and +occupying her thoughts with her rich brown silk dress instead of letting +her heart be touched with the solemnity and beauty of the grand hymn +which rolled down those long aisles. Satan has that everlasting weapon, +"What to wear, and what not to wear," everlastingly at command and +wonderfully under his control. But Ruth, in her way, was strong-minded +and could control her thoughts when she chose; so she presently shook +off the feeling of annoyance and decided to give herself up to the +influences of the hour. + +By this time Dr. Cuyler appeared and was introduced, Ruth gave him the +benefit of a very searching gaze, and decided that he was the very last +man of all those on the platform whom she would have selected as the +speaker. Probably if Dr. Cuyler had known this, and known also that his +personal presence entirely disappointed her, he would not have been +greatly disconcerted thereby. But his subject was one that found an +answering thrill in this young lady's heart--"Some Talks I Have Had With +Great Men." Ruth liked greatness. In her calm, composed way she bowed +before it. She would have enjoyed being great. Celebrity in a majestic, +dignified form would have been her delight. She by no means admitted +this, as Eurie Mitchell so often did. She by no means sought after it in +the small ways within her reach. Small ways did not suit her; they +disgusted her. But if she could have flashed into splendid greatness, if +by any amount of laborious study, or work, or suffering, she could have +seen the way to world-wide renown she would have grasped for it in an +instant. + +The next best thing to being renowned one's self was to have renowned +people for friends. This was another thing that Ruth coveted in silence. +She wanted no one to know how earnestly she aspired to, sometime, +making the acquaintance of some of the great people not--the vulgarly +great, those who were in a sense, and in the eyes of a few, great +because of the accidents of fortune and travel. She knew such by the +scores. Indeed, she had been in circles many a time where _she_ shone +with that sort of greatness herself. Perhaps it was for that reason that +it was such a despised height to her. But she meant the _really_ great +people of this world--people of power, people who moved the masses by +the force of their brains. Not one such had she ever met to look upon as +an acquaintance; and here was this man telling off the honored names by +the score, and saying, "My friend, Dr. Guthrie"--"My good friend, Thomas +Carlyle"--"My dear brother, Newman Hall." How would it seem to stand in +intimate relationship with one single gifted mind like these, and was +she destined ever to know by actual experience? + +There was another reason why Ruth had desired to choose Dr. Cuyler to +listen to rather than some other names on the programme, because, from +the nature of his subject she had judged it most unlikely that he +should have about him any arrows that would touch home to her. Not that +she put it in that language; she did not admit even to herself that any +of the solemn words that had been spoken at Chautauqua had reference to +her; and yet in a vague, fitful way she was ill at ease. + +She had moments of feeling that there was a reach of happiness possessed +by these people of which she knew nothing. Little side thrusts had come +to her from time to time in places where she least expected them. That +question, asked by Flossy during her night of unrest, "Should you be +afraid to die?" hovered around this quietly poised young lady in a most +unaccountable manner. All the more persistently did it cling because she +could not shake it off with the thought that it was silly. Common sense +told her that the strange, solemn shadow, which came so steadily after +men, and so surely enveloped one after another among the grandest +intellects that the world owned, was not a thing to pass over lightly. + +After all, why should she _not_ be afraid of death? Then that strange +gentleman who had persisted in ranking her among the praying people! he +had left his shadow. Why did she not pray? She wondered over this in a +vague sort of way; wondered how it seemed to kneel down alone, and speak +to an invisible presence; wondered if those who so knelt always felt as +though they were really speaking to God. + +There were times when Ruth was exceedingly disgusted with these +perplexing thoughts, and wanted nothing so much as to get away from +them. She resented this intrusion upon her quiet. This day was one of +those in which she was impatient of all these things, and she had made +her toilet with great satisfaction, and said within herself +complacently: "We are to have one hour at last devoted to this mundane +sphere and the mortals who inhabit it; most of the time these +Chautauquans talk and act as though earth was only a railroad station, +where people changed cars and went on to heaven. Dr. Cuyler is going to +refresh us with some actual living specimens of humanity. He can't make +a sermon out of that subject if he tries." + +But Ruth Erskine had not measured the power of the earnest preachers of +Jesus Christ. As if Dr. Cuyler could talk for an hour to thousands of +immortal souls, and leave Christ and heaven and immortality out. + +To Ruth these three words constituted a sermon, and she got them that +day. Not that he had an idea that he was preaching Christ, except +incidentally, as a man refers almost unconsciously to the one whom he +loves best in all the world but Ruth knew he was. It came in little +sudden touches when she least expected it, when heart and soul were +wrought upon with some strong enthusiasm by the splendid picture of a +splendid man--as when he told of Spurgeon. It was a glowing description, +such as thrilled Ruth, and made her feel that to have just one glimpse +of that great man, with his great marvelous power over humanity, would +be worth a lifetime. + +Suddenly the speaker said: "The secret of that man's power lies, first, +in his study of the Bible." Ruth started and came down like a bomb-shell +from her wondrous height. The Bible! copies of which lay carelessly on +every table of her father's elegantly furnished house unstudied and +unthought of. How very strange to ascribe the power of the great +intellect to the study of one book that was more or less familiar to +every Sunday-school boy. "Second, in short, simple, homely language." +Ruth smiled now. Dr. Cuyler was growing absurd, as if it were not the +most common thing in the world to use simple, homely language! No +Spurgeons could be manufactured in that way, she was sure. "Third, +mighty earnestness to save souls." Here was a point concerning which +Ruth knew nothing. + +Dr. Cuyler's manner put tremendous force into the forceful words, and +carried conviction with them. She wondered how a really _mighty_ +earnestness to save souls made a man appear? She wondered whether she +had ever seen such a one; she went rapidly over the list of her +acquaintances in the church. She smiled to herself a sarcastic, +contemptuous smile; she had met them all at parties, concerts, +festivals, and the like; she had seen them on occasions when _nothing_ +seemed to possess them but to have a good time like the rest of the +world. + +Like the rest of the world, Ruth reasoned and decided from her chance +meetings with the outside life of these Christians, forgetting that she +had never seen one of them in their closets before God; rather, she +knew nothing about these closets, nor the experiences learned there, and +could only reason from outside life. This being the case, what a pity +that her verdict of those lives should have called forth only that +contemptuous smile! Wandering off in this train of thought, she lost the +speaker's next point, but was called back by his solemn, ringing close. + +"Put these together, melt them down with the love of Christ, and you +have a Spurgeon. God be thanked for such a piece of hand work as he!" + +Another start and another retrospect. _Did_ she know any people who put +these together; who made a real, earnest, constant study of the Bible as +school girls studied their Latin grammars, and who were really eager to +save souls because they had the love of Christ in their hearts, and who +said so in plain simple language? "Does he, I wonder?" she said to +herself. "I wonder if his sermons sound like that? I should like to hear +him preach just once. Oh, dear! if he isn't running off to Moody and +Sankey. It _is_ a sermon after all!" + +On the whole, Ruth was disgusted. Her brain was in a whirl; she was +being compelled to hear _sermons_ on every hand. She was sick of it. +They had been great men of whom she had heard, and she admired them all; +she wanted the secret of their power, but she didn't want it to be made +out of such commonplace material as was in the hands of every child. She +did not know what she wanted--only that she had come out to be +entertained and to revel in her love of heroes, and she had been pinned +down to the one thought that _real_ men were made of those who found +their power in their Bible and on their knees. + +The solemn, earnest, tender closing to this address did not lessen her +sense of discomfort. Then just beside her was carried on a conversation +that added to her annoyance. + +"They are big men," a man said. He was dressed in a common business +suit; his linen had not the exquisite freshness about it that her +fastidious eyes delighted in; his hands looked as though they might have +been used to work that was rough and hard; his straggling hair was +sprinkled with gray, and there was not a striking feature about him. + +"They are big men," he said, "and I've no doubt it is a big thing to +know them, and talk with them, and have a friendly feeling for each, as +if they belonged to him, but he knows a bigger one than them, and the +best of it is, so do we. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Elder Brother, is +not to be compared to common men like these." + +And now Ruth's lips curled utterly. She was an aristocrat without +knowing it. She believed in Christianity, and in its power to save the +poor and the commonest, but this insufferable assumption of dignity and +superiority over the rest of the world, as she called it, was hateful to +her in the extreme. It would have startled her exceedingly to have been +told that she was angry with the man for presuming to place _his_ Friend +higher in the list of great ones than any of those given that day; and +yet such was actually her feeling. She swept her skirts angrily away +from contact with the man, and spoke so crustily to the little lady who +had come in her wake that she moved timidly away. + +Just at her left were two gentlemen shaking hands. Both had been on the +stand together, she knew the faces of both, and _one_ ranked just a +trifle higher in her estimation than any one at Chautauqua. She edged a +little nearer. She lived in the hope of making the acquaintance of some +of these lights, just enough acquaintance to receive a bow and a clasp +of the hand, though how one could accomplish it who was determined that +her interest in them should neither be seen nor suspected, it would be +hard to say; but they were talking in eager, hearty tones, not at all as +if their words were confidential--at least she might have the benefit of +them. + +"That was a capital lecture," the elder of the two was saying. "Cuyler +has had great advantages in his life in meeting on a familiar footing so +many of our great men. When you get thinking of these things, and of the +many men whom you would like to know intimately, what is the thought +that strikes you most forcibly?" + +"That I am glad I belong to the 'royal family,' and have the opportunity +of knowing intimately and holding close personal relations with Him who +'spake as never man spake.'" + +The other answered in a rare, rich tone of suppressed jubilance of +feeling. + +"Exactly!" his friend said; "and when you can leave the fullness of +that thought long enough to take another, there is the looking forward +to actual fellowship and communion not only with him, but with all these +glorious men who are living here, and who have gone up yonder." + +Ruth turned abruptly away. The very thought that possessed the heart of +the plain-looking man and that so annoyed her; and these two, whom to +know was an honor, were looking forward to that consummation as the +height of it all! + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +A WAR OF WORDS. + + +"Well, why not?" she said, as she went slowly down the aisle. Of course +all these people would be in heaven together, and why should they not +look forward to a companionship untrameled by earthly forms and +conventionalities, and uncumbered by the body in its present dull and +ponderous state? What a chance to get into the best society! the highest +circle! real best, too, not made up of money, or blood, or dress, or any +of the flimsy and silly barriers that fenced people in and out now. Then +at once she felt her own inconsistency in growing disgusted with the +plainly-dressed, common-looking man. If he did really belong to that +"royal family," why not rejoice over it? Wasn't _she_ the foolish one? +She by no means liked these reflections, but she could not get away from +them. + +"How do you do?" said a clear, round voice behind her; not speaking to +her, but to some one whom he was very glad to see, judging from his +tone. And the voice was peculiar; she had been listening to it for an +hour, and could not be mistaken; it belonged to Dr. Cuyler himself. She +turned herself suddenly. Here was a chance for a nearer view, and to see +who was being greeted so heartily. It was the little lady whose society +had been thrust upon her that morning by Flossy. And they were shaking +hands as though they were old and familiar acquaintances! + +"It is good to see your face again," that same hearty voice which seemed +to have so much good fellowship in it was saying. "I didn't know you +were to be here; I'm real glad to see you again, and what about the +husband and the dear boy?" + +At which point it occurred to Miss Ruth Erskine that she was listening +to conversation not designed for her ears. She moved away suddenly, in +no way comforted or sweetened as to her temper by this episode. Why +should that little bit of an insignificant woman have the honor of such +a cordial greeting from the great man, while he did not even know of +_her_ existence? + +To be sure, Dr. Cuyler had baptized and received into church fellowship +and united in marriage the little woman with whom he was talking; but +Ruth, even if she had known these circumstances, was in no mood to +attach much importance to them. + +She wandered away from the crowd down by the lake-side. She stopped at +Jerusalem on her way, and poked her parasol listlessly into the sand of +which the hills lying about that city were composed, and thought: + +"What silly child's play all this was! How absurd to suppose that people +were going to get new ideas by _playing_ at cities with bits of painted +board and piles of sand! Even if they _could_ get a more distinct notion +of its surroundings, what difference did it make how Jerusalem looked, +or where it stood, or what had become of the buildings?" + +This last, as it began dimly to dawn upon her, that it was useless to +deny the fact that even such listless and disdainful staring as she had +vouchsafed to this make-believe city had located it, as it had not been +located before, in her brain. + +When she produced the flimsy question, "What difference does it make?" +you can see at once the absurd mood that had gotten possession of her, +and you lose all your desire to argue with any one who feels as foolish +as that. Neither had Ruth any desire to argue with herself; she was +disgusted with her mind for insisting on keeping her up to a strain of +thought. + +"A lovely place to rest!" she said, aloud, and indignantly, giving a +more emphatic poke with her parasol, and quite dislodging one of the +buildings in Jerusalem. "One's brain is just kept at high pressure all +the time." + +Now, why this young lady's brain should have been in need of rest she +did not take the trouble to explain, even to herself. She sat herself +down presently under one of the trees by the lake-side and gave herself +up to plans. She was tired of Chautauqua; of that she was certain. It +stirred her up, and the process was uncomfortable. Her former composed +life suited her taste better. She must get away. There was no earthly +reason why she should not go at once to Saratoga. A host of friends were +already there, and certain other friends would be only too glad to +follow as soon as ever they heard of her advent in that region. Before +she left that rustic settee under the trees she had the programme all +arranged. + +"We will get through to-morrow as we best can," she said, sighing over +the thought that to-morrow being the Sabbath would perforce be spent +there, "and then on Monday morning Flossy and I will just run away to +Saratoga and leave those two absurd girls to finish their absurd scheme +in the best way they can." + +And having disposed of Flossy as though she were a bit of fashionable +merchandise without any volition of her own, Ruth felt more composed and +went at once to dinner. + +There came an astonishing interference to this planning, from no other +than Flossy herself. To the utter amazement of each of the girls, she +quietly refused to be taken to Saratoga; nor did she offer any other +excuse for this astonishing piece of self-assertion than that she was +having a good time and meant to finish it. And to this she adhered with +a pertinacity that was very bewildering, because it was so very new. +Marion laughed over her writing, to which she had returned the moment +dinner was concluded. + +"That is right, Flossy," she said, "I'm glad to see Chautauqua is having +an effect of some sort on one of us. You are growing strong-minded; mind +isn't a bad thing to have; keep to yours. Ruth, I am astonished at +_you_; I shall have to confess that you are disappointing me, my child. +Now, I rather expected this dear little bit of lace and velvet to give +up, conquered, in less than a week, but I said to myself, 'Ruth Erskine +has pluck enough to carry her through a _month_ of camp-life,' and here +you are quenched at the end of four days." + +"It isn't the camp-life," Ruth said, irritably. "I am not so much a baby +as to care about those things to such a degree that I can't endure them, +though everything is disagreeable enough; but that isn't the point at +all." + +Marion turned and looked at her curiously. + +"What on earth is the point then? What has happened to so disgust you +with Chautauqua?" + +"The point is, that I am tired of it all. It is unutterably stupid! I +suppose I have a right to be tired of a silly scheme that ought never to +have been undertaken, if I choose to be, have I not, without being +called in question by any one?" + +And feeling more thoroughly vexed, not only with the girls, but with +herself, than ever she remembered feeling before, Ruth arose suddenly +and sought refuge under the trees outside the tent. + +Marion maintained a puzzled silence. This was a new phase in Ruth's +character, and one hard to manage. + +Flossy looked on the point of crying. She was not used to crossing the +wills of those who had influence over her, but she was very determined +as to one thing: she was not going to leave Chautauqua. + +"Nothing could tempt me to go to Saratoga just now," she said, +earnestly. + +"Why?" asked Marion, and receiving no answer at all felt that Flossy +puzzled her as much as Ruth had done. However, she set herself to work +to restore peace. + +"This letter is done," she said, gayly, folding her manuscript. "It is a +perfectly gushing account of yesterday's meeting, for some of which I am +indebted to the Buffalo reporters; for I have given the most thrilling +parts where I wasn't present. Now I'm going to celebrate. Come in, Ruth, +we are of the same mind precisely. I would gladly accompany you on the +afternoon train to Saratoga with the greatest pleasure, were it not for +certain inconveniences connected with my pocket-book, and a desire to +replenish it by writing up this enterprise. But since we can't go to +Saratoga, let's you and I go to Mayville. It is a city of several +hundred inhabitants, six or eight, certainly, I should think; and we can +have an immense amount of fun out of the people and the sights this +afternoon, and escape the preaching. I haven't got to write another +letter until Monday. Come, shall we take the three o'clock boat?" + +Neither of these young ladies could have told what possible object there +could be in leaving the lovely woods in which they were camped and +going off to the singularly quiet, uninteresting little village of +Mayville, except that it was, as they said, a getting away from the +preaching--though why two young ladies, with first-class modern +educations, should find it so important to get themselves away from some +of the first speakers in the country they did not stop to explain even +to themselves. However, the plan came to Ruth as a relief, and she +unhesitatingly agreed to it; so they went their ways--Flossy to the +afternoon meeting (since Eurie declared herself so far convalescent as +to be entirely able to remain alone) and the two of the party who had +prided themselves up to this time on their superiority of intellect down +to the wharf to take the boat for Mayville. + +The ride thither on the lovely lake was almost enough to excuse them for +their folly. But the question what to do with themselves afterward was +one that burdened them during all that long summer afternoon. They went +to the Mayville House and took a walk on the piazza, and the boarders +looked at them in curiosity, and wondered if it were really a pleasanter +walk than the green fields over at Chautauqua. + +They ordered dinner and ate it at the general table with great relish, +Ruth rejoicing over this return to civilized life. One episode of the +table must be noted. Opposite them sat a gentleman who, either from +something in their appearance, or more probably from the reasonable +conclusion that all the strangers who had gathered at the quiet little +village were in some way associated with the great gathering, addressed +them as being part of that great whole. + +"You people are going to reap a fine harvest, pecuniarily, to-morrow; +but how about the fourth commandment? You Christians lay great stress on +that document whenever a Sunday reading-room or something of that sort +is being contemplated, don't you?" + +The remark was addressed to both of them, but Ruth was too much occupied +with the strangeness of the thought that she was again being counted +among "Christian people" to make any answer. Not so Marion. Her eyes +danced with merriment, but she answered with great gravity: + +"We believe in keeping holy the Sabbath day, of course. What has that to +do with Chautauqua. Haven't you consulted the programme and read: 'No +admission at the gates or docks'?" + +The gentleman smiled incredulously. + +"I have read it," he said, significantly, "and doubtless many believe it +implicitly. I hope their faith won't be shaken by hearing the returns +from tickets counted over in the evening." + +There was a genuine flush of feeling on Marion's face now. + +"Do you mean to say," she asked, haughtily, "that you have no faith in +the published statement that the gates will be closed, or do you mean +that the association have changed their minds? Because if you have heard +the latter, I can assure you it is a mistake, as I heard the matter +discussed by those in authority this very morning; and they determined +to adhere rigidly to the rules." + +"I have no doubt they will, so far as lies in their power," the +gentleman said, with an attempt at courtesy in his manner. "But the +trouble is, the thing is absurd on the face of it. If I hold a ticket +for an entertainment, which the Association have sold to me, it is none +of their business on what day I present it, provided the entertainment +is in progress. They have no right to keep me out, and they are +swindling me out of so much money if they do it." + +"You have changed your argument," Marion said, with a flash of humor in +her eyes. "You were talking about the amount of money that the +Association were to earn to-morrow, not the amount which you were to +lose by not being allowed to come in. However, I am willing to talk from +that standpoint. If you hold the _season_ ticket of the Association, and +are stopping outside, you will be admitted, of course. It is held to be +as reasonable a way to go to church as though you harnessed your horses +at home and drove, on the Sabbath, to your regular place of worship. But +you buy no ticket _for_ the Sabbath, and none is received from you; and +if you choose not to go, the Association neither makes nor loses by the +operation, and, so far as money is concerned, is entirely indifferent +which you decide to do. What fault can possibly be found with such an +arrangement?" + +"Well," said the gentleman, with a quiet positiveness of tone, "I +haven't a season ticket, and I don't mean to buy one, and I mean to go +down there to meeting to-morrow, and I expect to get in." + +"I dare say," Marion answered, with glowing cheeks. "The grounds are +extensive, you know, and they are not walled in. I haven't the least +doubt but that hundreds can creep through the brush, and so have the +gospel free. There is something about 'he that climbeth up some other +way being a thief and a robber;' but, of course, the writer could not +have had Chautauqua in mind; and even if it applies, it would be only +stealing from an Association, which is not stealing at all, you know." + +"You are hard on me," the gentleman said, flushing in his turn, and the +listeners, of whom there were many, laughed and seemed to enjoy the +flashing of words. "I have no intention of creeping or climbing in. I +shall present the same sort of ticket which took me in to-day, and if it +doesn't pass me I will send you a dispatch to let you know, if you will +give me your address." + +"And if you _do_ get in, and will let me know, I will report at once to +the proper authorities that the gate-keepers have been unfaithful to +their trust," said Marion, triumphantly. + +"But, my dear madam, what justice is there in that? I have paid my +money, and what business is it to them when I present my ticket? That is +keeping me out of my just dues." + +"Oh, not a bit of it; that is, if you can read, and have, as you admit, +read their printed statement that you are not invited to the ground on +Sunday. Your fifty-cent ticket will admit you on Monday. And you surely +will not argue that the Association has not a right to limit the number +of guests that it will entertain over the Sabbath?" + +"Yes, I argue that it is their business to let me in whenever I present +their ticket." + +Marion laughed outright. + +"That is marvelous!" she said. "It is wicked for them to receive payment +for your coming in on the Sabbath, and it is wicked for them not to let +you in on your ticket. Really, I don't see what the Association are to +do. They are committing sin either way it is put. I see no way out of it +but to have refused to sell you any tickets at all. Would that have +made it right?" + +The laugh that was raised over this innocently put question seemed to +irritate her new acquaintance. He spoke hastily. + +"It is a Sabbath-breaking concern, viewed in any light that you choose +to put it. There is no sense in holding camp-meetings over the Sabbath, +and every one agrees that they have a demoralizing effect." + +"Do you mean me to understand you to think that the several thousand +people who are now stopping at Chautauqua will be breaking the Sabbath +by going out of their tents to-morrow and walking down to the public +service?" + +The bit of sophistry in this meekly put question was overlooked, or at +least not answered, and the logical young gentleman asked: + +"If they think Sabbath services in the woods so helpful, why are they +not consistent? Let them throw the meeting open for all who wish to +come, making the gospel without money and without price, as they pretend +it is. Why isn't that done?" + +"Well, there are at least half a dozen reasons. I wonder you have not +thought of one of them. In the first place, that, of course, would tempt +to a great deal of Sabbath traveling, a thing which they carefully guard +against now by refusing to admit all travelers. And in the second place, +it would give the Chautauqua people a great deal to do in the way of +entertaining so large a class of people. As it is, they have quite as +much as they care to do to make comfortable the large company who belong +to their family. And in the third place--But perhaps you do not care to +hear all the reasons?" + +He ignored this question also, and went back to one of her arguments. + +"They don't keep travelers away at all, even by your own admission. What +is to hinder hundreds of them from coming here to-day and buying season +tickets in order to get in to-morrow?" + +He had the benefit of a most quizzical glance then from Marion's shining +eyes before she answered. + +"Oh, well, if the people are really so hungering and thirsting for the +gospel, as it is dispensed at Chautauqua, that they are willing to act +a lie, by pretending that they are members _who have been and are to be +in regular attendance_, and then are willing to pay two dollars and a +half for the Sunday meeting, I don't know but I think they ought to be +allowed to _creep_ in. Don't you?" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +GETTING READY TO LIVE. + + +Amid the laughter that followed this retort the company rose up from the +table and went their various ways, to meet, perhaps, again. + +"How on earth do you manage to keep so thoroughly posted in regard to +Chautauqua affairs? One would think you were the wife of the private +secretary. _I_ shouldn't have known whether the gates were to be opened +or closed to-morrow." + +This from Ruth as the two girls paced the long piazza while waiting for +the carriage which was to take them to the boat; for, having exhausted +the resources of Mayville for entertainment, they were about to return +to Chautauqua. + +Marion laughed. + +"I'm here in the capacity of a newspaper writer, please remember," she +answered promptly, "and what I don't know I can imagine, like the rest +of that brilliant fraternity. I am not really positive about a great +many of the statements that I made, except on the general principle that +these people belong to the class who are very much given to doing +according to their printed word. It says on the circulars that the gates +will be closed on the Sabbath, and I dare say they will be. At least, we +have a right to assume such to be the case until it is proven false." + +"What class of people do you mean who are given to doing as they have +agreed? Christian people, do you refer to?" + +"Well, yes; the sort of Christians that one meets at such a gathering as +this. As a rule, the namby-pamby Christians stay away from such places; +or, if they come, they float off to Saratoga or some more kindred +climate. I beg your pardon, Ruthie, that doesn't mean you, you know, +because you are not one of any sort." + +"Then do you take it to be their religion which inclines you to trust +to their word, without having an individual acquaintance with them?" + +Marion shrugged her shoulders. + +"Oh, bother!" she said, gayly, "you are not turning theologian, or +police detective in search of suspicious characters, are you? I never +pretend to pry into my notions for and against people and things; if I +was betrayed into anything that sounded like common sense I beg your +pardon. I am out on a frolic, and mean to have it if there is any such +thing." + +"Well, before you go back into absolute nonsense let me ask you one more +question. Do you really feel as deeply as you pretended to that man, on +all these questions of the Chautauqua conscience? I mean, is it a vital +point in your estimation whether people go there to church on Sunday or +not?" + +Marion hesitated, and a fine glow deepened on her face as she said, +after a little, speaking with grave dignity: + +"I do not know that I can explain myself to you, Ruth, and I dare say +that I seem to you like a bundle of contradictions; but it is a real +pleasure to me to come in contact with people who have earnest faith +and eager enthusiasm over _anything_, and principle enough to stand by +their views through evil and good report. In this way, and to a great +degree, this meeting is a positive delight to me, though I know +personally as little about the feeling from which they think their +actions take rise as any mortal can. Does that answer satisfy you, my +blessed mother confessor? or are you more muddled than ever over what I +do, and especially over what I do _not_ believe?" + +"If I believed as much as you do I should look further." + +Ruth said this with emphasis; and there was that in it which, despite +her attempts to throw it off, set Marion to thinking, and kept her +wonderfully quiet during their return trip. + +On the whole, the flight to Mayville was not viewed entirely in the +light of a success. Ruth had been quiet and grave for some time, when +she suddenly spoke in her most composed and decided voice: + +"I shall go to Saratoga on Monday, whether any one else will or not; I +shall find plenty of friends to welcome me, and I shall take the +morning train from here." + +But she didn't. + +Meantime Flossy's afternoon had been an uninterrupted satisfaction to +her. She attended the children's meeting, and it was perfectly amazing +to her newly awakened brain how many of the stories, used to point +truths for the children, touched home to her. + +Dr. Hurlbut, of Plainfield, seemed to have especially planned his +address for the purpose of hitting at some of the markedly weak points +in her character, though no doubt the good man would have been utterly +amazed had he known her thoughts. + +She listened and laughed with the rest over the story of the poor tailor +who promised a coat to a customer for one, two and three weeks, heaping +up his promises one on the other until he had a perfect pyramid of them, +only to topple about his ears. She heard with the rest the magnificent +voice ring out the solemn conclusion: + +"Children, he did not mean to lie. He did not even think he was a liar. +He only _broke his promises_." + +They all heard, and I don't know how many shivered over it, but I _do_ +know that to Flossy Shipley it seemed as if some one had struck her an +actual blow. Was it possible that the easy sentences, the easy promises, +to "write," to "come," to "bring this," to "tell that," made so +gracefully, sounding so kindly, costing so little because forgotten +almost as soon as her head was turned away, actually belonged in that +list described by the ugly word "lie." Flossy had been a special sinner +in this department of polite wickedness because it just accorded with +her nature; such promises were so easy to make, and seemed to please +people, and were so easy to forget. Like the tailor, she hadn't meant to +be a liar, nor dreamed that she was one. + +But her wide-open ears took it all in, and her roused brain turned the +thought over and over, until, be it known to you, that that girl's happy +pastor, when he receives from her a decided, "Yes, sir, I will do it," +may rest assured that unless something beyond her control intervenes she +will be at her post. + +So much did Dr. Hurlbut accomplish that afternoon without ever knowing +it. There were many things done that afternoon, I suspect, that only +the light of the judgement day will reveal. Over the story of the two +workmen, who each resolved to stick to a certain effort for six months, +and did it, the one earning thereby a patent right worth thousands of +dollars, and the other teaching a little dog how to dance to the +whistling of a certain tune, Flossy looked unutterably sober, while the +laughter swelled to a perfect roar around her. It was hard to feel that +not "six months" only, but a dozen years of intelligent life, were gone +from her, and she had not even taught a dog to dance a jig! That was the +very way she put it in her humility; and I do not say that she placed it +too low, because really I don't know that Flossy Shipley had _ever had_ +even so settled a purpose in life as that! She had simply fluttered +around the edge of this solemn business that we call living. + +But along with the sober thought glowed the earnest purpose: given +another dozen years to my young lady's life and they will bear a +different record; and whatever they bear, Dr. Hurlburt will be in a +sense responsible for, though he never saw her and probably never will. +Verily this living is a complicated bewildering thing Well for us that +_all_ the weight of the responsibility is not ours to bear. + +There was still another story, and over it Flossy's lips parted, and her +eyes glowed with feeling. That wonderful machine that the most skillful +workmen tried in vain to repair, that was useless and worthless, until +the name of the owner was found on it, and he was sent for, then indeed +it found the master-hand, the only one who could right it; she did not +need Dr. Hurlbut's glowing application. "So He who made us, and engraved +his name, his image, on our bodies, can alone take our hearts and make +them right." + +Flossy listened to this and the sentences that followed, thrilling her +heart with their power and beauty--thrilling as they would not have done +one week ago, for did she not know by actual experience just how blessed +a worker the great Maker was? Had she not carried her heart to him, and +had he not left his indelible impression there? Oh, this was a wonderful +meeting to Flossy--one that she will never forget--one that many others +will have reason to remember, because of the way in which she listened. +But was it not strange, the way in which her education was being cared +for? + +After tea she stood at the entrance of the tent, looking out for the +girls--looking out, also, on the cool, quiet sunset and the glory spread +everywhere, for there had been sunshine that day, part of the time, and +there was a clear sun setting. Under her arm she held the treasure which +she had in the morning determined to possess--a good, plain, large-print +Bible, not at all like the velvet-covered one that lay on her +toilet-stand at home, but such as the needs of Bible students at +Chautauqua had demanded, and therefore much better fitted for actual +service than the velvet. + +Among the many passers-by came Mrs. Smythe. She halted before Flossy. + +"Good-evening. I thought your party must have left. I haven't seen you +since Thursday. Haven't you been fearfully bored? We are going to leave +on Monday morning--going to Saratoga. Don't some of you want to join us? + +"I don't know," Flossy said, thoughtfully mindful of Ruth and her plan +that had not worked. "It is possible that Miss Erskine may. Do your +entire party go?" + +"Oh, not my nephew, of course! Nothing could tear him away. He is +perfectly charmed with all this singing and praying and preaching, but I +confess it is too much of a good thing for me. I am not intellectually +inclined, I like the music very well, and some of the addresses are +fine; but there is such a thing as carrying meetings to excess." + +At this point she turned quickly at the sound of a firm step behind her, +and greeted a young man. + +"Speak of angels and you hear their wings, or the squeak of their +boots," she said. "We were just talking about you, Evan. My nephew, Mr. +Roberts, Miss Shipley. I believe you have never met before." + +Had they not! There was a heightened flush on the cheek of each as they +shook hands. It was clear that each recognized the other. + +"Are we strangers?" he asked, with a bright smile, speaking so low that +Mrs. Smythe, whose attention had already wandered from them to a group +who were passing, did not hear the words, "On the contrary, I think we +are related, though I do not know that we have happened to hear each +other's names before." + +Flossy understood the relationship--sons and daughters of one +Father--for she knew this was the young man who had twice questioned her +concerning her allegiance to that Father. Also, she remembered him as +the only one whom she had ever heard pray for her. + +Mrs. Smythe called out a gay good-evening to them, and joined a party of +friends, and Mr. Roberts leaned against a tree and prepared to cultivate +the acquaintance of his newly-found relative. + +"You have one of those large, sensible-looking Bibles, I see," he said. +"I have been very much tempted, but I could not make myself feel that I +really needed one." + +"I really needed mine," Flossy said, smiling. "I left my Bible at home. +I had not such a thought as bringing it along. I feel now as if I had a +treasure that I didn't know how to use. It is quite new to me. I don't +know where to read first, but I suppose it makes no difference." + +"Indeed it does make great difference," he said, smiling, "and you will +enjoy finding out how to read it. Chautauqua is a good place for such a +study, and the Bible reading this evening is an excellent place to +commence. Are you going?" + +"Yes, indeed!" Flossy said, with brightening eyes. "I have been looking +forward to it all day. I can't think what a Bible reading is. Do they +just read verses in the Bible?" + +"Yes," he said, smiling. "It is just Bible verses, with a word of +explanation now and then and a little singing. But the Bible verses are +something remarkable, as you will see. It is nearly time for service. +Are you ready? Shall we walk down and secure seats?" + +So they went down together it the early twilight, and took seats under +the trees amid the glowing of brilliant lights and the soft sound of +music coming from the piano on the stand. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE SILENT WITNESS. + + +That Bible reading! I wish I could make it appear to you as it did to +Flossy Shipley. Not that either, because I trust that the sound of the +Bible verses is not so utterly new to you as it was to her--rather, that +it might sound to you as it did to the earnest-souled young man who sat +beside her, taking in ever; word with as much eagerness as if some of +the verses had not been his dear and long-cherished friends; nay, with +more eagerness on that account. + +Do you know Dr. Parsons, of Boston? It was he who conducted that +reading, and his theme was, "The Coming of the Lord." + +Let me give you just a few of the groupings as he called them forth +from his congregation under the trees, and which he called "the Lord's +own testimonies to his coming:" + +"Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." +"Therefore, be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not the +Son of man cometh." "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor +the hour wherein the Son of man cometh." "Take ye heed, watch and pray: +for ye know not when the time is." + +Four solemn warnings from the Head of the vineyard. They reached to +Flossy's very soul, and she had that old well-known thrill of feeling +that almost every Christian has some time experienced. + +"If _I_ had only been there; if He had spoken such words to _me_, I +could never, never have forgotten, or been neglectful. If I could only +have heard Him speak!" And as if in answer to this longing cry Dr. +Parsons himself read the next solemn sentence, read it in such a way +that it almost seemed as if this might be the sacred garden, and +_Himself_ standing among the olive-trees speaking even to _her_: + +"And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch." Here, then, was her +direction from His own lips. Though centuries had passed since He spoke +them they echoed down to her. She was not overwhelmed; she was not +crushed by the new and solemn sense of her calling that flowed over her. +The Lord himself was there in every deed, and whispered in her ear, "It +is I, be not afraid." And her heart responded solemnly, "Aye, Lord, I +feel thy presence; I have been sleeping, but I am awake, and from +henceforth I _will_ watch." + +That Bible reading was like a whole week of theological study to Flossy. +It was not that she learned simply about the blessed assurance, the +weight of testimony amounting to an absolute certainty, concerning the +coming of the Lord. But there were so many truths growing out from that, +so many incentives to be up and doing; for she found before the reading +closed that one must not only watch, but in the watching work; and there +were so many reasons why she should, and so many hints as to the way and +the time. Then there was, also, the most blessed discovery that the +Bible was not a book to treat like an arithmetic. That one must read +through the Book of Genesis, and then go on to Exodus, a chapter to-day, +two chapters to-morrow, and perhaps some days, when one was not in too +great a hurry and could read very fast, take half a dozen chapters, and +so get through it. But she learned that there were little connecting +links of sweetness all the way through the book; that she had a right to +look over in Revelation for an explanation of something that was stated +in Deuteronomy. She did not learn all this, either, at this one time; +but she got a vivid hint of it, strong enough to keep her hunting and +pulling at the lovely golden thread of the Bible for long years to come. + +There were special points about the closing verses that throbbed in her +heart, and awakened purposes that never slept again. It was the +gentleman who sat beside her who read the solemn words of the verse: + +"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the +heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt +with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall +be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, +what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and +godliness?" + +His voice was very earnest, and his face had an eager look of solemn +joy. + +From it she felt the truth that while the words which he had been +reading were full of solemnity, and while he felt the sense of +responsibility, there was also that in them which filled his heart with +great joy, for when that time should come would not he be with his Lord? + +Again, when a little later he gave the closing verses of this wonderful +lesson, reading them from her Bible, because in the dimness the print +was larger and clearer than his own, they made the conclusion of the +whole matter: + +"Ye are the children of light, and the children of the day; we are not +of the night, nor of the darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do +others, but let us watch and be sober." + +He marked it with his pencil as he finished reading, and as he returned +the book to her keeping he said with a smile: + +"We will, shall we not?" + +And it felt to Flossy like a convenant, witnessed by the Lord himself. +But Dr. Parsons, you know, knew nothing of all this. Chautauqua was the +place for sowing the seed; they could only hope that the Lord of the +vineyard was looking on and watching over the coming harvest; it was not +for their eyes to see the fruits. + +Sunday morning at Chautauqua! None of all the many hundreds who spent +the day within the shadow of that sweet and leafy place have surely +forgotten how the quaint and quiet beauty of the place and its +surroundings fell upon them; they know just how the birds sang among +those tall old trees; they know just how still and blue and clear the +lake looked as they caught glimpses of it through the quivering green of +myriad leaves; they know just how clearly the Chautauqua bells cut the +air and called to the worship. It needs not even these few words to +recall the place in its beauty to the hearts of those who worshiped +there that day; and for you who did not see it nor feel its power there +is no use to try to describe Chautauqua. Only this, it is a place to +love and look back to with a sort of sweet and tender longing all your +lives. + +Our girls felt somewhat of the sacredness of the place; at least they +went around with a more decided feeling that it was Sunday than they had +ever realized before. Three of them did. + +To Flossy this day was like the revelation of a new heaven and a new +earth. Her first Sunday in Christ! + +There was no sunshine, neither was there rain. Just a hush of all +things, and sweetness everywhere. + +After breakfast Ruth and Marion lolled on their cots and studied the +programme, while the other two made hasty toilets, and announced their +intention of going to Sunday-school. + +"What in the name of sense takes you?" queried Marion, rising on one +elbow, the better to view this strange phenomena. + +"Why I have a mission," Eurie said. "About three thousand people have +been talking all this week about teaching a few Bible verses to some +children to-day, and I am going to find out what they are, and what is +so wonderful about them. Besides, I was taken for a being named Miss +Rider, and on inquiry I find her to be what they call an infant-class +teacher, so I am going to hunt her up and see if we look alike and are +affinities." + +Flossy chose to make no answer at all, and presently the two departed +together to attend their first Sabbath-school since they were known as +children. As they passed a certain tent Eurie's ready ears gained +information from other passers-by: + +"This is where the little children are; Miss Rider is going to teach +them." + +Eurie halted. + +"_I'm_ going in here," she said, decidedly, to Flossy. "That is the very +lady I am in search of." And seeing Flossy hesitate, she added: "Oh, you +may go on, it is just as well to divide our forces; we may each have +some wonderful adventure. You go your way and I will go mine, and we'll +see what will come of it." + +The tent was full apparently; but that spirit which was rife at +Chautauqua, and which prompted everybody to try to look out a little for +the comfort of everybody else, made a seat full of ladies crowd a little +and make room for her. Rows and rows of little people with smiling faces +and shining eyes! It was a pretty sight. Eurie gave eager attention to +the lady who was talking to them, and laughed a little to herself over +the dissimilarity of their appearance. + +"Hair and eyes and height, and everything else, totally unlike me!" she +said. "She is older than I, too, ever so much. She doesn't look as I +thought Miss Rider would." + +But what she was saying proved to be very interesting, not only to the +little people, but to Eurie. She listened eagerly. It was important to +discover what had been so stirring the Sunday-school world all the week. +She was not left in doubt; the story was plainly, clearly, fascinatingly +told; it was that tender one of the sick man so long waiting, waiting to +be helped into the pool; disappointed year after year, until one blessed +day Jesus came that way and asked one simple question, and received an +eager answer, and gave one brief command, and, lo! the work was done! +The long, long years of pain and trial were over! Do you think this +seemed like a wonderful story to Eurie? Do you think her cheeks glowed +with joy over the thought of the great love and the great power of +Jesus? + +Alas, alas! to her there was no beauty in him. This simple tender story +did not move her as the commonplace account of a common sickness and +common recovery given in a village paper would have done. The very most +that she thought of it was this: "That Miss Rider has a good deal of +dramatic power. How well she tells the story! But dear me! how stupid it +must be. What is the use of taking so much trouble for these little +midgets? They don't understand the story, and of what use would it be to +them if they did? Something that happened to somebody hundreds of years +ago." + +But now her attention was arrested by the sound of a very loud whisper +just behind her, given in a childish voice. "Miss Rider, Miss Rider," +the child was saying, and emphasizing her whisper by a pull at a lady's +dress. Eurie turned quickly; the dress belonged to a young, fair girl, +with fresh glowing face and large bright eyes, that shone now with +feeling as she listened eagerly to this story, and to the comments of +the children concerning it. Then she in turn whispered to the lady +nearest her: "Is it Miss Rider who is teaching?" "No, it is Mrs. Clark, +of Newark. That is Miss Rider leaning against a post." + +Then Eurie looked back to her. "She is no older than I," she murmured; +"indeed not so old, I should think. Her hair must be exactly the color +of mine, and we are about the same height. I wonder if we _do_ look in +the least alike? What do I care!" Yet still she looked; the bright face +fascinated her. The little child had won the lady's attention; and the +lips and eyes, and indeed the whole face, were vivid with animation as +she bent low and answered some troubled question, appealing to the +diagram on the board, and making clear her answer by rapid gestures with +her fingers. The lady beside Eurie volunteered some more information. + +"Miss Rider was to have taught this class, I heard. I wonder why she +didn't?" + +"I don't know," Eurie answered, briefly. Then she looked back at her +again. "She is jealous," she said to herself. "She was to have taught +this class this morning, and by some blundering she was left out, and +she is disgusted. She will say that such teaching as this amounts to +nothing; she could have done it five times as well; or, if she doesn't +_say_ that last, she will think it and act it. I have no doubt these +rival teachers cordially hate each other, like politicians." + +Nevertheless that fresh young face, with its glow of feeling, fascinated +her. She kept looking at her; she gave no more attention to the lesson. +What was it, after all, but an old story that had nothing to do with +her; the fact that it was taken from the Bible was proof enough of that. +But she watched Miss Rider. The session closed and that lady pressed +forward to assist in giving out papers. The crowd pushed the willing +Eurie nearer to her, so near that she could catch the sentence that she +was eagerly saying to the lady near her. + +"Isn't Mrs. Clark delightful? It was such a beautiful lesson this +morning. I think it is such a treat and such a privilege to be allowed +to listen to her. Yes, darling," this last to another little one +claiming a word, "of course Jesus can hear you now, just as well as +though He stood here. He often says to people, 'Wilt thou be made +whole?' He has said so to you this morning." + +Eurie turned away quickly. She had had her lesson. It wasn't from the +Bible, nor yet did she find it in those hundred little faces so eager +to know the story in all its details. It was just in that young face not +so old as hers, so bright, so strong, so thoroughly alert, and so +thoroughly enlisted in this matter. The vivid contrast between that life +and hers struck Eurie with the force of a new revelation. + +She went to the general service under the trees; she heard a sermon from +Dr. Pierce, so full of power and eloquence that to many who heard it +there came new resolves, new purposes, new plans. I beg her pardon, she +did not listen; she simply occupied a seat and looked as though she was +a listener. + +But the truth was, she had not learned yet to listen to sermons. The +very fact that it was a sermon made it clear to her mind that there was +to be nothing in it for her; this had been her education. In reality, +during that hour of worship she was engaged in watching the changeful +play of expression on Miss Rider's face, as her eyes brightened and +glowed with enthusiasm or trembled with tears, according as the +preacher's words roused or subdued her. + +Well, Eurie had her lesson. It was not from the Bible, it was not from +the preacher's lips except incidentally, but it was from a living +epistle. "Ye shall be witnesses of me," was the promise of Christ in the +long ago, just before the cloud received him out of sight. Is not that +promise verified to us often and often when we know it not? + +Miss Rider had no means of knowing as she sat a listener that Sabbath +morning that she was witnessing for Christ. But she was just as surely +speaking for him as though she had stood up amid that throng and said: +"I love Jesus." "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord." And the poet has +said: "They also serve who only stand and wait." Blessed are those in +whom the waiting and the service go together. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +AN OLD STORY. + + +Meantime Flossy, deserted by her companion, made her way somewhat +timidly down to the stand, amazed by the great congregation of people +who had formed themselves into a Sunday-school. With all their haste the +girls had gotten a very late start. The opening exercises were all over, +and the numerous teachers were turning to their work. Strangely enough, +the first person whom Flossy's eye took in distinctly enough for +recognition was Mr. Roberts. He had recognized her, also, and was coming +toward her. + +"How do you do this morning?" he said, holding out his hand. "Do you +know I have a mission for you? There are two boys who seem to belong to +nobody, and to have nothing in common with this gathering, except +curiosity. The superintendent has twice tried to charm them in, but +without success--they will come no further than that tree. I think they +have slipped in from the village, probably in a most unorthodox fashion, +and what I am coming at is, will you go out under the tree to them and +beguile them into attending a Sabbath-school for once in their lives? +They look to me as though it was probably a rare occurrence." + +Now you are not to suppose that this invitation came to Flossy with the +same sound that it would have had to you, if Mr. Roberts had come to you +that Sabbath morning and asked you to tell those two boys a Bible story. +It is something that you have probably been doing a good deal of, all +your grown-up life, and two boys at Chautauqua are no more to you than +two boys anywhere else, except that there is a delightful sensation +connected with having a class-room out in the open air. But imagine +yourself suddenly confronted by Dr. Vincent, and asked if you would be +so kind as to step on the platform and preach to five thousand people, +from a text that he would select for you! Now you have something of an +idea as to how this request felt to Flossy. A rare glow spread all over +her face, and she looked up at her questioner with eyes that were +quivering in tears. + +"You do not know what you are saying," she said, in low and trembling +voice. "I have not been to a Sabbath-school in seven years, and I never +taught anybody anything in my life." + +It was true that he did not know. It seemed to him such a very little +thing that he had asked. However, he spoke gently enough as one who was +courteous, even when he could not quite comprehend. + +"Then is not to-day a good time to commence? You will surely never have +a better opportunity." + +But she shook her head, and turned quite away from him, walking down +among the trees where no people were. Her joy was all gone, and her +pleasant time. She had meant to go to Sabbath-school; to sit down +quietly in some body's class and learn, oh! a very great deal during the +next hour. Now she was all stirred up, and could not go anywhere. + +As for Mr. Roberts, he went back to the large class who were waiting +for him. And those two boys hovered around the edge of that feast like +hungry creatures who yet had never learned to come to the table and take +their places. Flossy looked at them; at first indignantly, as at +miserable beings who had spoiled her pleasure; then she became +fascinated by their bright, dirty faces and roguish ways. She edged a +little nearer to them. Boys she was afraid of; she knew nothing about +them. Had they been a little older, and been dressed well, and been of +the stamp of boys who knew how to bring her handkerchief to her when she +dropped it, she would have known what to say to them. But boys who were +not more than twelve or fourteen, and who were both ragged and dirty, +were new phases of life to her. + +"Why don't you go to Sunday-school?" she questioned at last, with a +timid air. She could at least ask that. They were not the least timid as +to answering; the older and the dirtier of the two turned his roguish +eyes on her and surveyed her from head to foot before he said: + +"Why don't you?" + +Flossy was unprepared for this question, but she answered quickly and +truthfully: + +"Because I am afraid to go." + +Both boys stared, and then laughed, and the other younger one said: + +"So be we." + +"I suppose we are both very silly," Flossy said. "But I have not been to +Sunday-school for so long that I have forgotten all about it. Let's have +one of our own that we are not afraid to go to." + +And she sat bravely down on the stump at her feet; her mood had changed +very suddenly; only yesterday she had read a verse in that Bible, and it +thrilled her then, and came to her now: + +"The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him +whole." + +Suppose she were the man, and these were the Jews, could she not say to +them, "He has made me whole"? She could tell them about that pool, and +about the sick man. It wouldn't be teaching in Sunday-school, but it +would be doing the best thing that she could. + +It suddenly occurred to her to wonder where the lesson was that was +being taught this morning, and she consulted the lesson leaf that Mr. +Roberts had left in her hand. The glow on her face deepened and spread +as she recognized the very story which had so filled her heart the day +before! What if the great Physician had actually selected her to tell of +that miracle of healing to these two neglected ones! Surely they were +not so formidable as the Jews! But how in the world to begin was a +bewilderment. Clearly she must decide at once if she was to have any +class, for her two boys began to look about them, and show signs of +flight. + +"Did you ever hear about a wonderful spring that used to cure people?" + +"Lots of 'em. I used to live right by one that cured the rheumatiz." + +"But this one would cure other things, only it wouldn't cure people all +the time. There was just one time in the year when it would do it; and +then the one that got in first was the only one cured." + +Her listeners looked skeptical. + +"What was that for?" queried the bolder of the two. "Why didn't it cure +but one?" + +"I don't know," Flossy said. "There are ever so many things that I know +that I can't tell why they are so. For instance, I don't know why that +spring you have been telling me about cures the rheumatism, but I know +it does, for you told me so." + +"No more do I," the boy said, promptly, having in his heart a rising +respect for the young teacher and her story. + +Then this new beginner, with the air of a diplomatist, told all the +details of this wonderful cure, without once mentioning the name of +either person or place. An innate sense of the human heart told her that +"Jerusalem" and "Jesus" were both probably connected in the minds of +these two with the Bible, and their appearance told her that they were +likely to be skeptical as to the interest of Bible stories. But, like +all ignorant persons, there was a credulous side to their nature. It is +surprising what marvelous stories people are prepared to receive and +credit, provided only that they do not come from the Bible, with a "Thus +saith the Lord" to vouch for them. Then, indeed, they are apt to become +"unreasonable" and "improbable." Presently her boys volunteered some +remarks and asked some questions. + +"Jolly! that fellow must have felt good: I guess he wanted to run all +around the country and tell about it. Where was this spring, and what +was the man's name that cured him?" + +The other chimed in: "Yes, and how did he do it? That's what I'm after. +And is he dead? 'cause I don't hear of no such cures now-days." + +Then was Flossy tremulous of heart. She had become eagerly interested in +her story and her boys. Would the charm that she had woven be broken the +moment they knew the story's origin? But of course she must tell them, +for what good else would the story do? + +"He is dead," she said, slowly, answering the last question first. "That +is, he is what _you_ call dead. But, of course, you know as well as I do +that that doesn't mean what it seems to; it means simply that he doesn't +live in the same place that he once did. He went to heaven to live ever +so many years ago." + +She waited to feel the effect of this announcement. The boys were silent +and grave. They had evidently heard of heaven, and had some measure of +respect for the name. The new teacher did not know what to say next. The +boys helped her. The younger one drew a heavy sigh. + +"Well, all I've got to say is, I wish he was alive now," he said, in a +regretful tone, "'cause my mother has been sick longer than thirty-eight +years; she has been sick about all her life, and she is real bad now, so +she can't walk at all. I s'pose he could cure her if he was here." + +"I suppose he could cure her now." Flossy said this slowly, reverently, +looking earnestly at the boy, hoping to convey to him a sense of her +meaning. He looked utterly puzzled. Light began to dawn on the face of +the older boy. + +"She's been tellin' us one of them Bible stories," he said, speaking not +to Flossy, but to his companion, and assuming an injured air, as if a +wrong had been done them. + +Flossy spoke quickly: + +"Of course I have. I thought you wanted to hear something that really +happened, and not a made up story." This seemed to be an appeal to their +dignity, and they eyed her reflectively. + +"How do you know it happened?" ventured the younger one. + +Flossy gave a rapid and animated answer. + +"There are about a hundred reasons why I know it; it would take me all +day to tell you half of them. But one is, that I read it in a book which +good men who know a great deal, and who have been studying all their +lives to find out about it, say they know is true; and I believe what +they tell me about Washington and Lincoln and other men whom I never +saw, so I ought to believe them when they tell me about this man." + +"But there's _one_ thing you don't know. You don't know that he can cure +folks now, and he don't do it." This was spoken with a quiet +positiveness, and with the air that said, "_That_ can't be disputed, and +you know it can't." + +Flossy hesitated just a moment; the glow on her face deepened and +spread. Then she answered in much the same tone that the boy had used: + +"I know he _can_, and I have good reason for knowing. I'll tell you a +secret; you are the very first persons I have told about it, but he has +cured me. I have been sick all my life, when I came here to Chautauqua I +was sick. I could not do anything that I was made to do, and I kept +doing things all the time that were not meant for me to do, but he has +cured me." + +The boys looked at her in absolute incredulous wonder. + +"Was you sick in bed when you came?" ventured one of them at last. + +"No; it is not that kind of sickness that I mean. That is when the body +is sick, the body that when the soul goes away looks like nothing but +marble, can not move, nor feel, nor speak; that isn't of much +consequence, you know, because we are sure that the soul will go away +from it after awhile. It is this soul of mine that is going to live +forever that was cured." + +"How do you know it was?" came again from these wondering boys. Flossy +smiled a rare, bright smile that charmed them. + +"If _yours_ had been cured you would not ask me that question," she +said; "you would _know_ how I know it. But I can't tell you how it is: +don't you know there are some things that you are sure of that you can't +explain? You are sure you can think, aren't you? but how would you set +to work to explain to me that you are sure? The only way that you can +know how is by going to this doctor and getting cured; then you will +understand." + +"I'd like him if he would cure folks' _bodies_," began the boy who had a +sick mother, speaking in a doubtful, somewhat dissatisfied tone. + +"He does," Flossy said, quickly. "Don't people's bodies get well +sometimes? and who can cure bodies except the one who made them? If you +want your mother cured you ought to try him. If she is to be made well +you may be sure that he can do it; but why should he so long as you do +not care enough about it to ask him?" + +There was a rush and a bustle among the crowds in the distance. +Sunday-school session was over, and the great company were moving for +seats for the morning service. The boys took the alarm and fled, each +glancing back to nod and smile at the bright apparition who had told +them a story. Flossy picked up her Bible; she had not needed to use it +during this talk. The story of Bethesda had burned itself so into her +heart with that morning reading that she had no need to look at it +again. She gave a thoughtful little sigh. + +"I don't know about that being teaching," she said within her heart, +"but I certainly told them about Jesus, and I told them it was Jesus who +had 'made me whole.' I made my own experience 'witness' for me to that +degree. If that is what they mean by teaching I like to do it. I mean to +go to Sunday-school just as soon as I get home, and if I find out that +they just tell about things as they are in the Bible I can do it. I can +make the boys listen to me, I know." + +Bright little fairy that she was! There was a new glow about her face. +She was waking to the thought that there was such a thing as power over +people's brains. No danger but she will use her knowledge. Let me tell +you another thing that Chautauqua did for her. It planted the seed that +shall blossom into splendid teaching. There was one teacher who gave +many glances that morning to the little group around that old tree +stump. Mr. Roberts, from his point of observation, not far away, watched +this scene from beginning to end. It fascinated him. He saw the timid +beginning and the ever-increasing interest, until, when Flossy closed +her Bible and arose, he turned his eyes from her with a quiet smile in +them, and to himself he said: "Unless I am very greatly mistaken she has +found something that she can do." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +PEOPLE WHO, "HAVING EYES, SEE NOT." + + +"Girls!" said Eurie, as she munched a doughnut, which she had brought +from the lunch-table with her, and lounged on a camp-chair, waiting for +the afternoon service, "do you know that Flossy taught a class in +Sunday-school this morning?" + +"Taught a class!" repeated both Marion and Ruth in one voice, and with +about equal degrees of amazement. + +"She did, as true as the world. That is, she must have been teaching. +The way of it was this: I went to see the little midgets exhibit +themselves, and when I came out of the tent and walked over toward the +stand, there sat Flossy on that old stump just back of the stand, and +before her were two of the roughest-looking boys that ever emerged from +the backwoods. They were ragged and dirty and wild; and as wicked little +imps as one could find, I am sure. Flossy was talking to them, and she +had a large Bible in her lap and one of those Lesson Leaves that they +flutter about here so much; and--well, altogether it was an amazing +sight! She was certainly talking to them with all her might, and they +were listening; and it is my opinion that she was trying to play +Sunday-school teacher, and give them a lesson. You know she is an +imitative little sheep, and always was." + +"Nonsense!" Ruth said, and she seemed to speak more sharply than the +occasion warranted. "Just as if Flossy Shipley couldn't have anything to +say to two boys but what she found in the Bible! Little she knows what +is in it, for that matter. I suppose she wandered out that way because +she did not know what else to do with herself, and talked to the boys by +way of amusement. She has often amused herself in that way, I am sure." + +"Ah, yes; but these specimens were rather too youthful and dirty for +that sort of amusement, and she had a Bible in her lap." + +"What of that! Bibles are as common as leaves here. I found two lying on +the seat which I took this morning. People seem to think the art of +stealing has not found its way here." + +"Flossy is changed," interrupted Marion. "The mouse is certainly +different from what _I_ ever saw her before; she seems so quiet and +self-sustained. I thought she was bored. Why, I expected her to hail a +trip to her dear Saratoga with absolute delight! She belongs to just the +class of people who would find the intellectual element here too strong +for her, and would have to flutter off in that direction in +self-defense. Ruthie, you have the temper of an angel not to fly out at +me for bringing in Saratoga every few minutes. It isn't with 'malice +aforethought,' I assure you. I forget your projected scheme whenever I +speak of it; but you must allow me to be astonished over Flossy's +refusal to go with you. Something has come over the mousie that is not +explainable by any of the laws of science with which I am acquainted." + +"Don't trouble yourself to apologize, I beg. I hope you do not think I +am so foolish as to care anything about your hints as to Saratoga. Of +course I recognize my right in this world to be governed by my own +tastes and inclinations. I have enjoyed that privilege too long to be +disturbed by trifles." This from Ruth; but I shall have to admit that it +was very stiffly spoken, and if she had but known it, indicated that she +_did_ care a great deal. In truth she was very sore over her position +and her plans. She who had prided herself on her intellectuality bored +to the very point of leaving, and Flossy, who had been remarkable for +nothing but flutter and fashion, actually so interested that she could +not be coaxed into going away! What _was_ it that interested her? That +was the question which interested and puzzled Ruth. She studied over it +during all the time that Marion and Eurie were chatting about the +morning service. + +Flossy _was_ different; there was no shutting one's eyes to that fact. +The truth was that she had suddenly seemed to have little in common +with her own party. She certainly said little to them; she made no +complaints as to inconveniences, even when they amounted to positive +annoyances with the rest of the party; she had given up afternoon +toilets altogether, and in fact the subject of dress seemed to be one +that had suddenly sunken into such insignificance as to cease to claim +her thoughts at all. + +Grave changes these to be found in Flossy Shipley. Then, too, she had +taken to wandering away alone in the twilight; during the short spaces +between services she was nowhere to be found, but the Chautauqua bell +brought her back invariably in time to make ready for the next service. +"There is certainly more to the little mouse than I ever expected +before. If Chautauqua wakes _our_ wits as it has Flossy's we shall have +reason to bless the day that Dr. Vincent invented it." This Ruth heard +from Marion as she roused herself from her reverie to give attention to +what the girls were saying. They had got back to a discussion of Flossy +again. It was a subject that someway annoyed Ruth, so she dismissed it, +and made ready for the afternoon meeting, whither they all went. + +To Marion the morning sermon had been an intellectual treat. She had a +way of listening to sermons that would have been very disheartening to +the preacher if he had known of it. She had learned how to divest +herself of all personality. The subject was one that had nothing to do +with her; the application of solemn truths were for the people around +her who believed in these things, but never for her; so she listened and +enjoyed, just as she enjoyed a book or a picture, just as if she had no +soul at all, nothing but an intellect. + +It was very rare indeed that an arrow from any one's quiver touched her. +But there was one single sentence in Dr. Pierce's sermon that was +destined to haunt her. Said he: "When the blind man was questioned he +couldn't argue, he didn't try to; but he could stand up there before +them and say, 'Whereas I was blind, now I see; make the most of that.' +And wasn't it an unanswerable argument? There is no argument like it. +When men are honest and earnest and spiritual in Wall Street, it tells." + +Now that was just the kind of sentence to delight Marion's heart. The +inconsistencies of Christians was one of her very strong points, she +saw them bristling out everywhere, and she looked about her with a +satisfied smile on her face that so large a company of them were getting +so sharp a thrust as this. + +And suddenly there flashed across her brain an utterly new thought. +"Whereas I was _blind_, now I see." "Perhaps," she said to +herself--"_perhaps_ I am blind. What if that should be the only reason +why these things are not to me as they are to others. How do I know, +after all, but there may really be a spiritual blindness, and that it +may be holding me? How do I know but that the reason some of these poor +ignorant people whom I meet are so firm in their belief of Christ and +heaven is because they have had just this experience? + +"'Whereas I _was_ blind, now I see!' How can I possibly tell but that +this may be the case? I wonder what I _do_ think anyway? Do I really +think that all these men gathered here are either deceived or deceivers? +One or the other they must be--and either position is too silly to +sustain--or else I must be blind. If there should be such a thing as +seeing, and I discover it too late! If there is a too late to this +thing, and I do not find it out simply because I am blind, what then? +The sun shines, of course, though I dare say an entirely blind man +doesn't believe it. Doesn't have an idea anyway what it is--how can he?" + +Over and over did she revolve this sentence, and look at it from every +attainable standpoint. No use to try to shut it off, back it came. All +the clatter with which she had amused herself during the interval +between meetings had not banished it. No sooner was she seated under +those trees waiting for the afternoon service than the thought presented +itself for her to consider. + +"I wonder if there are different degrees of moral blindness?" she said, +suddenly. "People who can see just enough to enable them to keep +constantly going the wrong way, so that they are no better off than the +blind, except that they admit that there is such a thing as seeing. The +thing is possible, I suppose." + +Ruth turned and looked at her wonderingly. + +"What _are_ you talking about?" she asked at last. + +"I'm moralizing," Marion said, laughing. "You yourself suggested that +train of thought. I was wondering which of us was right in our notions, +you or I; and, for all practical purposes, what difference it made." + +"You are too high up for me to follow. I haven't the least idea what you +mean." + +"Why, I tell you I was contrasting our conditions. Let me see if I have +a right view of them. Don't you honestly think that there is a God, and +a heaven, and a hell, and that to escape the one place and secure the +other certain efforts upon your part are necessary?" + +"Why, of course I think so. I have never made any pretense of +disbelieving all these things. I think it is foolish to do so." + +"Exactly. Now for one question more: Have you made the effort that you +believe to be necessary?" + +"Have you been hired as an exhorter?" Ruth said, trying to laugh. "Why, +no, I can not say that I have." + +"Well, then, suppose you and I should both die to-night. _I_ don't +believe any of these things; you do, but you don't practice on your +belief. Then, according to your own view, you will be lost forever; +and, according to that same view, so shall I. Now, practically, what +difference is there between us? So if it is really blindness, why may +not one be totally blind as well as to have a little sight that keeps +one all the time in the wrong way?" + +"I dare say we are quite as well off," Ruth said, composedly; "only I +think there is this point of difference between us. I think your +position is silly. I don't see how any one who has studied Paley and +Butler, and in fact any of the sciences, can think so foolish a thing as +you pretend to. One doesn't like to be foolish, even if one doesn't +happen to be a Christian." + +"Foolish?" Marion repeated, and there was a fine glow on her face. +"Don't you go and talk anything so wild as that! If there is any class +of people in this world who profess to be simpletons, and act up to +their professions, it is you people who believe _everything_ and _do_ +nothing. Now just look at the thing for a minute. Suppose you say, +'There is a precipice over there, and every whiff of wind blows us +nearer to it; we will surely go over if we sit here; we ought to go up +on that hill; I know that is a safe place,' and yet you sit perfectly +still. And suppose I say, 'I don't believe there is any such thing as a +precipice, and I believe this is just as safe a place as there is +anywhere,' and _I_ sit still. Now I should like to know which of us was +acting the sillier?" + +"You would be," Ruth said, stoutly, "if you persisted in disbelieving +what could be proved to you so clearly that no person with common sense +would think of denying it." + +"Humph!" said Marion, settling back; "in that case I think there would +be very little chance for each to accuse the other of folly; only I +confess to you just this, Ruth Erskine, if you could _prove_ to me that +there was a precipice over there, and that we were being carried toward +it, and that the hill was safe, I know in my very soul that I should get +up and go to that hill. I would not be such a fool as to delay, I know I +wouldn't." + +"You are frank," Ruth said, and her face was flushed. "I am sure I don't +see why you don't make the attempt and decide for yourself, if you feel +this thing so deeply. _I_ think there ought to be a prayer-meeting on +your account. If I knew Dr. Vincent I would try to have this thing +turned into a regular camp-meeting time, then you would doubtless get +all the help you need." + +Marion laughed good-humoredly. + +"Don't waste your sarcasm on me," she said, cheerily; "keep your weapons +for more impressible subjects. You know I am not in the least afraid of +any such arguments. I have been talking downright truth and common +sense, and you know it, and are hit; that is what makes you sarcastic. +Did you know that was at the bottom of most sarcasm, my dear?" + +"Do hush, please. These people before us are trying hard to hear what +the speaker is saying." + +This was Ruth's answer; but she had had her sermon; and of all the +preachers at Chautauqua, the one who had preached to _her_ was Marion +Wilbur, the infidel school-teacher! It was her use of Dr. Pierce's arrow +that had thrust Ruth. She gave herself up to the thought of it all +during that wonderful afternoon meeting. Very little did she hear of the +speeches, save now and then a sentence more vivid than the rest; her +brain was busy with new thoughts. _Was_ it all so very queer? Did it +look to others than Marion a strange way to live? Did she actually +believe these things for which she had been contending? If she did, was +she in very deed an idiot? It actually began to look as though she might +be. She was not wild like Eurie, nor intense and emotional, like Marion; +she was still and cold, and, in her way, slow; given to weighing +thoughts, and acting calmly from decisions rather than from impulse. It +struck her oddly enough now that, having so stoutly defended the +cardinal doctrines of Christian faith, she should have no weapons except +sarcasm with which to meet a bold appeal to her inconsistency. + +"When I get home from Saratoga," she said, at last, turning uneasily in +her seat, annoyed at the persistency of her thoughts, "I really mean to +look into this thing. I am not sure but a sense of propriety should lead +one to make a profession of religion. It is, as Marion says, strange to +believe as we do and not indicate it by our professions. I am not sure +but the right thing for me to do would be to unite with the church. +There is certainly some ground for the thrusts that Marion has been +giving. My position must seem inconsistent to her. I certainly believe +these things. What harm in my saying so to everybody? Rather, is it not +the right thing to do? I will unite with the church from a sense of +duty, not because my feelings happen to be wrought upon by some strong +excitement. I wonder just what is required of people when they join the +church? A sense of their own dependence on Christ for salvation I +suppose. I certainly feel that. I am not an unbeliever in any sense of +the word. I respect Christian people, and always did. Mother used to be +a church-member; I suppose she would be now if she were not an invalid. +Most of the married ladies in our set are church-members. I don't see +why it isn't quite as proper for young ladies to be. I certainly mean to +give some attention to this matter just as soon as the season is over at +Saratoga. In the meantime I wonder when there is a train I can get, and +if I couldn't telegraph to mother to send my trunks on and have them +there when I arrived." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +A "SENSE OF DUTY." + + +It is not so easy to get away from ones self as you might think, if you +never had occasion to try it. Ruth Erskine--who honestly thought herself +on the high road to heaven because she had decided to offer herself for +church-membership as soon as she returned from Saratoga--did not find +the comfort and rest of heart that so heroic a resolution ought to have +brought. + +It was in vain that she endeavored to dismiss the subject and try to +decide just what new costume the Saratoga trip would demand. If she +could only have gotten away from the crowd of people and out of that +meeting back to the quiet of her tent, she might have succeeded in +arranging her wardrobe to her satisfaction; but she was completely +hedged in from any way of escape, and the inconsiderate speakers +constantly made allusions that thrust the arrow further into her brain; +I am not sure that it could have been said to have reached her heart. + +"Who is to blame that you can not all be addressed as _workers_ for +Christ? Who is _your_ Master? Why do you not serve him?" + +These were sentences that struck in upon her just as she was deciding to +have a new summer silk, trimmed with shirrings of the same material a +shade darker. + +"_Workers_!" + +She did not know whether the speaker gave a peculiar emphasis to that +word, or whether it only sounded so to her ears. Did this resolution +that she had made put her among the _workers_? What was she ready to do? +Teach in the Sabbath-school? Involuntarily she shrugged her shoulders; +she did not like children; tract distributing, too, was hateful work, +and out of style she had heard some one say. What wonderful work was to +be done? She was sure _she_ didn't know. Sewing certainly wasn't in her +line; she couldn't make clothes for the poor; but, then, she could give +money to buy them with. Oh, yes, she was perfectly willing to do that. +And then she tried to determine whether it would be well to get a new +black grenadine, or whether a black silk would suit her better. She had +got it trimmed with four rows of knife pleating, headed with puffs, when +she was suddenly returned to the meeting. + +Somebody was telling a story; she had not been giving sufficient +attention to know who the speaker was, but he told his story remarkably +well. It must have been about a miserable little street boy who was +sick, and another miserable street boy seemed to be visiting him. + +This was where her ears took it up: + +"It was up a ricketty pair of stairs, and another, and another, to a +filthy garret. There lay the sick boy burning with a fever, mother and +father both drunk, and no one to do anything or care anything for the +boy who was fighting with death. 'Ben,' said his dirty-faced visitor, +bending over him, 'you're pretty bad ain't you? Ben, do you ever pray?' +'No,' says Ben, turning fevered eyes on the questioner: 'I don't know +what that is.' 'Did you know there was a man once named Jesus Christ? He +come to this world on purpose to save people who are going to die. Did +you ever be told about him?' 'No; who is he?' 'Why, he is God; you have +to believe on him.' 'I don't know what you mean.' 'Why, ask him to save +you. When you die you ask him to take you and save you. I heard about +him at school.' 'Will he do it?' 'Yes, he will _sure_. Them says so as +have tried him.' Silence in the garret, Ben with his face turned to the +wall the fever growing less, the pulse growing fainter; suddenly he +turns back. 'I've asked him,' he said; 'I've asked him, and he said he +would.'" + +Ruth looked about her nervously. People were weeping softly all around +her. Marion brushed two great tears from her glowing cheeks, and Ruth, +with her heart beating with such a quickened motion that it made her +faint, wondered what was the matter with every one, and wished this +dreadful meeting was over, or that she had gone to Saratoga on Saturday. + +It was hard to go back to the puffs on that grenadine dress in the +midst of all this, but with a resolute struggle she threw herself back +into an argument as to whether she would stop on her way to make +purchases, or run down to Albany as soon as she was comfortably settled +at her hotel. Mr. Bliss was the next one who roused her. + +You have never heard him sing? Then I am sorry for you. How can I tell +you anything about it? You should hear Ruth tell it! How his voice +rolled out and up from under those grand old trees; how distinctly every +word fell on your ear, as distinctly as though you and he had been +together in a little room alone, and he had song it for you. + + "This loving Savior stands patiently-- + Though oft rejected, + Calls again for thee. + Calling now for thee, prodigal, + Calling now for thee; + Thou hast wandered far away, + But he's calling now for thee." + +What _was_ the matter with everybody? Was this an army of prodigals who +had gathered under the trees this Sabbath afternoon? Turn where she +would they were wiping away the tears; she felt herself as if she could +hardly keep back her own; and yet why should she weep? What had that +song to do with her? _She_ certainly was not a prodigal: she had never +wandered, for she had never professed to be a Christian. + +What strange logic, that because I have never owned my Father's love and +care, therefore I am not a wanderer from him! + +Ruth did not understand it; she felt almost provoked; had she not +decided this very afternoon and for the first time in her life that it +was fitting and eminently the proper thing to do to unite with the +church, and had she not determined upon doing it just as soon as the +season was over? What more could she do? Why could she not now have a +little peace? If this was the "comfort" and "rest" that the Christians +at Chautauqua had been talking about for a week, she was sure the less +she had of them the better, for she never felt so uncomfortable in her +life. Nevertheless, she adhered to her resolution. + +So settled was she that it was the next proper thing to do that she +staid at home from the meeting that evening to write a letter to Mr. +Wayne, the gentleman who you will perhaps remember, accompanied the +girls to the depot on the morning of their departure, and expressed his +disgust with the whole plan. + +As this is the first _religious_ letter Miss Ruth Erskine ever wrote, +you shall be gratified with a copy of it: + + + +"DEAR HAROLD: + +"I am alone in the tent this evening--the girls have all gone to +meeting; but I, finding it exhaustive, not to say tiresome, to be so +constantly listening to sermons, have staid at home to write to you. I +have something to tell you which I know will please you. I am going to +start for Saratoga to-morrow morning. I think I shall take the 10:50 +train. Now don't you make up your mind to laugh at me and say that I +have grown tired of Chautauqua sooner than any of the rest. It is true +enough. + +"You know my mode of life and my enjoyments are necessarily very +different from Eurie's and Marion's. Those two naturally look upon this +place as an escape from every-day drudgery; in short, as an economical +place in which to enjoy a vacation and see a good deal of first-class +society; for there are a great many first-class people here, there is no +denying that. Not many from our set, you know, but a great many +celebreties in the literary world that it is really very pleasant to +see. + +"I am not sorry that I came; if for nothing else I am glad to have come +on the girls' account; they would hardly have ventured without me, and +it is a real treat to them. + +"You will wonder what has become of poor little Flossy, and want to know +whether she is going to follow me to Saratoga as usual, but the little +sprite refuses to go! I fancy Marion has been teasing her; you know she +is very susceptible to ridicule, and it suits Marion's fancy to amuse +herself at the expense of those people who weary of Chautauqua. She has +attempted something of the kind on me, but, of course I am indifferent +to any such shafts, having been in the habit of leading, rather than +following, all my life. It seems natural, I suppose, to do so still. I +think well of Chautauqua. It is a good place for people to come who have +not much money to spend, and who like to be in a pleasant place among +pleasant people; and who enjoy fine music, and fine lectures, and all +that sort of thing, and are so trammelled by work and small means at +home that they cannot cultivate these tastes. But, of course, all these +things are no treat to _me_, and I do not hesitate to tell you that I am +bored. There is too much preaching to suit my fancy--not real preaching, +either, for we haven't had what you could call a sermon until to-day, +but _lectures_, which constantly bring the same theme before you. + +"Now you are not to conclude from this that I do not believe in +preaching, and Sunday, and all that sort of thing; on the contrary, I +believe more fully in them all than I did before I came. In fact I have +this very afternoon come to a determination which may surprise you, and +which is partly the occasion of my writing this letter, in order that +you may know at once what to expect. Harold, as soon as the season is +over, and I get back home, I am going to unite with the church? Have I +astonished you! I am going to do this from a conviction of duty. You +need not imagine that I have been wrought up to such a pitch of +excitement that I don't know what I am about. I assure you there is +nothing of the kind. I have simply concluded that it is an eminently +proper thing to do. So long as I believe fully in the church and in +religion, and wish to sustain both by my money and my influence, why +should I not say so? That is a very simple and altogether proper way of +saying it, and saves a good deal of troublesome explanation. I wonder +that I haven't thought of it before. + +"I do not mind telling you that it was some remarks of Marion's that +first suggested the propriety of this thing to me. You know she is an +infidel and I am not; and she intimated what is true enough, that I +lived exactly as though I thought just as she did; so in thinking it +over I concluded it was true, and that my influence ought to be with the +church in this matter. Now you know, Harold, that with me to decide is +to do; so this is as good as done. I should like it very well if you +choose to come to the same conclusion and unite at the same time that I +do. I am sure Dr. Dennis would be gratified. I don't know why we +shouldn't be willing to have it known where we stand; and I know you +respect the church and trust her as well as I do myself. + +"I told Marion to-day 'I did not see how a person with brains could be +an infidel,' or something to that effect--and I _don't_. I think that is +such a silly view to take of life. Just as if everything _could_ come by +chance! And if God did not make everything, who did? I have no patience +with that sort of thing, and I am glad to remember that you have no such +tastes. + +"By the way, are the Arnotts in Saratoga? I hope not, for they are such +fanatics there is no comfort in meeting them, and yet one has to be +civil. + +"Seems to me you do not enjoy the opera as well as usual, nor the hops +either. What is the matter? Do you really miss me? If there is any such +foolish fancy in your heart as that, prepare to enjoy yourself next +week, for I shall be with you at every one of them after Tuesday. It +will take me until then to get something decent to wear. + +"I hear the girls coming up the hill, and I must leave you. + +"_Au revoir_, + +"RUTH." + + + +Folding and addressing this epistle with a satisfied air, and still full +of the spirit which had prompted her to write a _religious_ letter, +Ruth, finding that Marion had come in alone, and that Flossy and Eurie +were still loitering up the hill, gave herself the satisfaction of +communicating her change of views. + +"I have been thinking a good deal about what you said this afternoon, +Marion, and there is truth in it. I do not think as you do, and I ought +to take some measures to let people know it. I have the most perfect +respect for and confidence in religion, and I mean to prove it by +uniting with the church. I have decided to attend to that matter as soon +as I get home again after the season is over. I am surprised at myself +for not doing so before, for I certainly consider it eminently proper, +in fact a duty." + +Now, it was very provoking to have so religious a sentence as this +received in the manner that it was. Marion tilted her stool back against +the bed, and gave herself up to the luxury of a ringing laugh. + +"Really," Ruth said, "you have returned from church in a very hilarious +mood; something very funny must have happened; it can not be that +anything in my sentence had to do with your amusement." + +"Yes, but it has," squealed Marion, holding her sides and laughing +still. "Oh, Ruthie, Ruthie, you will be the death of me! And so you +think that this is religion! You honestly suppose that standing up in +church and having your name read off constitutes Christianity! Don't do +it, Ruthie; you have never been a hypocrite, and I have always honored +you because you were not. If this is all the religion you can find, go +without it forever and ever, for I tell you there is not a single bit in +it." + +Her laughter had utterly ceased, and her voice was solemn in its +intensity. + +"I don't know what you mean in the least," Ruth said, testily. "You are +talking about something of which you know nothing." + +"So are you. Oh, Ruthie, so are you! Yes, I know something about it; I +know that you haven't reached the A, B, C, of it. Why, Ruthie, do you +remember that story this afternoon? Do you remember that little boy in +the garret, how he turned his face to the wall and asked God to save +him? Have you done that? Do you honestly think that _you_, Ruth Erskine, +have anything to be saved from? Don't you know the little fellow said, +'_He answered_.' Has He answered you? Why, Ruth, do you never listen to +the church covenant? How does it read: 'That it is eminently fit and +proper for those who believe that God made them to join the church?' +Ruth Erskine, you can never take more solemn vows upon you than you will +have to take if you unite with the church, and I beg you not to do it. I +tell you it means more than that. I had a father who was a member of the +church and he prayed--oh, how he prayed! He was the best man who ever +lived on earth! Every one knew he was good; every one thought he was a +saint; and it seems to me as though I could never love any God who did +not give him a happier lot than he had as a reward for his holy life. +But do you think he thought himself good? I tell you he felt that no one +could be more weak and sinful and in need of saving than he was. Oh, I +know the people who make up churches have more than this in them. _I_ +think it is all a deception, but it is a blessed one to have. I know +these people at Chautauqua have it, hundreds of them. I see the same +look in their faces that my father had in his, and if I could only get +the same delusion into my heart I would hug it for my blessed father's +sake; but don't you ever go into the church and subscribe to these +things that they will ask of you until you have felt the same need of +help and the same sense of being helped that they have. If you do, and +there is a God, I would rather stand my chance with him than to have +yours." + +And Marion seized her hat and rushed out into the night, leaving Ruth +utterly dumbfounded. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +ONE MINUTE'S WORK. + + +Marion struck out into the darkness, caring little which way she went; +she had rarely been so wrought upon; her veins seemed to glow with fire. +What difference did it make? she asked herself. If there was nothing at +all in it, why not let Ruth amuse herself by joining the church and +playing at religion? It would add to her sense of dignity, and who would +be hurt by it? + +There was a difficulty in the way. Turn where she would, it confronted +Marion during these days. There was a solemn haunting "if" that would +not be put down. What _if_ all these things were true? She by no means +felt so assured as she had once done: indeed, the foundations for her +disbelief seemed to have been shaken from under her during the last +week. + +Remember, she had never spent a week with Christians before in her life; +not, at least, a week during which she was made to realize all the time +that they were Christians; that they stood on a different platform from +herself. + +Now, as she tramped about through the darkening woods, meeting +constantly groups of people on their way home from the meeting, hearing +from them snatches of what had been said and sung, she suddenly paused, +and so vivid was the impression that for long afterward she could not +think of it without feeling that a voice must certainly have spoken the +words in her ear. Yet she recognized them as a sentence which had struck +her from Dr. Pierce's sermon in the morning. + +"God honors his gospel, even though preached by a bad man; honors it +sometimes to the saving of a soul. But think of a meeting between the +two! the sinner saved and the sinner lost, who was the means of the +other's salvation." It had thrilled Marion at the time, with her old +questioning thrill: What if such a thing were possible! Now it came +again. + +She stood perfectly still, all the blood seeming to recede from and +leave her faint with the strange solemnity of the thought! What if she +had this evening been preaching the gospel to Ruth! What if the words of +hers should lead Ruth to think, and to hunt, and to find this light that +those who were not blind--if there were any such--succeeded in finding! +What if, as a result of this, she should go to heaven! and what if it +were true that there was to be a judgment, and they two should meet, and +then and there she should realize that it was because of this evening's +talk that Ruth stood in glory on the other side of the great gulf of +separation! What kind of a feeling would that be? + +"Oh, if I only knew," she said aloud, sitting suddenly down on a fallen +log, "if I _only_ knew that any of these things were so! or if I could +only get to imagining that they were, I would take them up and have the +comfort out of them that some of these people seem to get, for I have so +little comfort in my life. It can not be that it is all a farce, such as +Ruth's horrid resolve would lead one to think; that is not the way that +Dr. Vincent feels about it; it is not the way that Dr. Pierce preached +about it this morning; it is not the way that man Bliss sings about it. +There is more to it than that. My father had more than that. If he could +only look down to-night and tell me whether it is so, whether he is safe +and well and perfectly happy. Oh, it seems to me if I could only be +sure, _sure_ beyond a doubt that God did give an eternal heaven to my +father, I could love him forever for doing that, even though there is a +hell and I go to it." + +Within the tent they were having talk that would seem to amount to very +little. Even Eurie appeared to be subdued, and to have almost nothing to +say. Ruth was roused from the half stupor of astonishment into which +Marion's unexpected words had thrown her by hearing Flossy say, "Oh, +Ruth, I forgot to tell you something; Mrs. Smythe stopped at the door on +Saturday evening before you came home; her party leave for Saratoga +to-morrow morning, and she wanted to know whether any of us would go +with them." + +"Did you tell her I was going?" Ruth asked, quickly. It was utterly +distasteful to her to think of having Mrs. Smythe's company. She did not +stop to analyze her feelings; she simply shrank from contact with Mrs. +Smythe and from others who were sure to be of her stamp. + +"No," Flossy said, "I did not know what you had decided upon; I said it +was possible that you might want to go, but some one joined us just then +and the conversation changed: I did not think of it again." + +"I am glad you didn't," Ruth said, emphatically. "I don't want her +society. I won't go in the morning if I am to be bored with that party; +I would rather wait a week." + +"They are going in the morning train," Eurie said; "I heard that tall +man who sometimes leads the singing say so. He said there was quite a +little party to go, among them a party from Clyde, who were _en route_ +for Saratoga. That is them, you know; nearly all of them are from Clyde. +'Oh, yes,' the other man said; 'we must expect that. Of course there is +a froth to all these things that must evaporate toward Saratoga, or some +other resort. There is a class of mind that Chautauqua is too much for.' +Think of that, Ruthie, to be considered nothing but froth that is to +evaporate!" + +"Nonsense!" Ruth said, sharply. She seemed to consider that an +unanswerable argument, and in a sense it is. Nevertheless Eurie's words +had their effect; she began to wish that letter unwritten, and to wish +that she had not said so much about Saratoga, and to wish that there was +some quiet way of changing her plans. + +In fact, an utter distaste for Saratoga seemed suddenly to have come +upon her. Conversation palled after this; Marion came in, and the four +made ready for the night in almost absolute silence. The next thing that +occurred was sufficiently startling in its nature to arouse them all. It +was one of those sudden, careless movements that this life of ours is +full of, taking only a moment of time, and involving consequences that +reached away beyond time, and death, and resurrection. + +"Eurie," Ruth had said, "where is your head ache bottle that you boast +so much of? I believe I am going to have a sick headache." + +"In my satchel," Eurie answered, sleepily. She was already in bed. +"There is a spoon on that box in the corner; take a tea-spoonful." +Another minute of silence, then Eurie suddenly raised her head from the +pillow and looked about her wildly. The dim light of the lamp showed +Ruth, slowly pulling the pins from her hair. + +"Did you take it?" she asked, and her voice was full of eager, intense +fright. "Ruth, you didn't _take_ it!" + +"Yes, I did, of course. What is the matter with you?" + +"It was the wrong bottle. It was the liniment bottle in my satchel. I +forgot. Oh, Ruth, Ruth, what will we do? It is a deadly poison." + +Then to have realized the scene that followed you should have been there +to sea. Ruth gave one loud shriek that seemed to re-echo through the +trees, and Eurie's moan was hardly less terrible. Marion sprang out of +bed, and was alert and alive in a moment. + +"Ruth, lie down; Eurie, stop groaning and act. What was it? Tell me this +instant." + +"Oh, I don't _know_ what it was, only he said that ten drops would kill +a person, and she took a tea-spoonful." + +"I know where the doctor's cottage is," said Flossy, dressing rapidly. +"I can go for him." And almost as soon as the words were spoken she had +slipped out into the darkness. + +Ruth had obeyed the imperative command of Marion and laid herself on the +bed. She was deadly pale, and Eurie, who felt eagerly for her pulse, +felt in vain. Whether it was gone, or whether her excitement was too +great to find it, she did not know. Meantime, Marion fumbled in Flossy's +trunk and came toward them with a bottle. + +"Hold the light, Eurie; this is Flossy's hair-oil. I happen to know that +it is harmless, and oil is an antidote for half the poisons in the +world. Ruth, swallow this and keep up courage; we will save you." + +Down went the horrid spoonful, and Marion was eagerly at work chafing +her limbs and rubbing her hands, hurrying Eurie meantime who had started +for the hotel in search of help and hot water. + +That dreadful fifteen minutes! Not one of them but that thought it was +hours. They never forgot the time when they fought so courageously, and +yet so hopelessly, with death. Ruth did not seem to grow worse, but she +looked ghastly enough for death to have claimed her for his victim; and +Flossy did not return. Eurie came back to report a fire made and water +heating, and seizing a pail was about to start again, when her eye +caught the open satchel, and a bottle quietly reposing there, closely +corked and tied over the top with a bit of kid; she gave a scream as +loud as the first had been. + +"What _is_ the matter now?" Marion said. "Eurie, do have a little common +sense." + +"She didn't take it!" burst forth Eurie. "It is all a mistake. It _was_ +the right bottle. Here is the other, corked, just as I put it." + +Before this sentence was half concluded Ruth was sitting up in bed, and +Marion, utterly overcome by this sudden revulsion of feeling, was crying +hysterically. There is no use in trying to picture the rest of that +excitement. Suffice it to say that the events of the next hour are not +likely to be forgotten by those who were connected with them. Eurie came +back to her senses first, and met and explained to the people who had +heard the alarm, and were eagerly gathering with offers of help. There +was much talk, and many exclamations of thankfulness and much laughter, +and at last everything was growing quiet again. + +"I can not find the doctor," Flossy had reported in despair. "He has +gone to Mayville, but Mr. Roberts will be here in a minute with a +remedy, and he is going right over to Mayville for the doctor." + +"Don't let him, I beg," said Marion, who was herself again. "There is +nothing more formidable than a spoonful of your hair-oil. I don't know +but the poor child needs an emetic to get rid of that. Eurie, my dear, +can't you impress it on those dear people that we _don't want_ any hot +water? I hear the fourth pail coming." + +It was midnight before this excited group settled down into anything +like quiet. But the strain had been so great, and the relief so +complete, that a sleep so heavy that it was almost a stupor at last held +the tired workers. + +Now, what of it all? Why did this foolish mistake of bottles, which +might have been a tragedy, and was nothing but a causeless excitement, +reach so far with its results? + +Let me tell you of one to whom sleep did not come. That was the one who +but half an hour before had believed herself face to face with death! +What mattered it to her that it was a mistake, and death no nearer to +her, so far as she knew, than to the rest of the sleeping world? + +Death was not annihilated--he was only held at bay. She knew that he +_would_ come, and that there would be no slipping away when his hand +actually grasped hers. She believed in death; she had supposed herself +being drawn into his remorseless grasp. To her the experience, so far as +it had led her, was just as real as though there had been no mistake. + +And the result? _She had been afraid_! All her proper resolutions, so +fresh in her mind, made only that very afternoon, had been of no more +help to her than so much foam. She had not so much as remembered in her +hour of terror whether there _was_ a church to join. But that there was +a God, and a judgment, and a Savior, who was not hers, had been as real +and vivid as she thinks it ever can be, even when she stands on the very +brink. + +Oh, that long night of agony! when she tossed and turned and sought in +vain for an hour of rest. She was afraid to sleep. How like death this +sleeping was! Who could know, when they gave themselves up to the grasp +of this power, that he was not the very death angel himself in disguise, +and would give them no earthly awakening forever? + +What should she do? Believe in religion? Yes. She knew it was true. What +then? What had Marion said? Was that all true? Aye, verily it was; she +knew that, too. Had she not stood side by side with death? + +The hours went by and the conflict went on. There was a conflict. Her +conscience knew much more than her tongue had given it credit for +knowing that afternoon. Oh, she had seen Christians who had done more +than join the church! She had imagined that that act might have a +mysterious and gradual change on her tastes and feelings, so that some +time in her life, when she was old, and the seasons for her were over, +she might feel differently about a good many things. + +But that hour of waiting for the messenger of death, who, she thought, +had called her, had swept away this film. "It is not teaching in +Sunday-school," said her brain. "It is not tract distributing; it is not +sewing societies for the poor; it is not giving or going. It is _none_ +of these things, or _any_ of them, or _all_ of them, as the case may be, +and as they come afterward. But _first_ it is this question: Am I my own +mistress? do I belong to myself or to God? will I do as I please or as +he pleases? will I submit my soul to him, and ask him to keep it and to +show me what to do, or when and where to step?" + +The night was utterly spent, and the gray dawn of the early sweet summer +morning was breaking into the grove, and still Ruth lay with wide-open +eyes, and thought. A struggle? Oh dear, yes! Such an one as she had +never imagined. That strong will of hers, which had led not only herself +but others, yield it, submit to other leadership, always to question: Is +this right? can I go here? ought I to say that? What a thing to do! But +it involved that; she knew it, felt it. She might have been blind during +the week past, but she was not deaf. + +How they surged over her, the sentences from one and another to whom +she had listened! They were not at play, these great men. What did it +mean but that there was a life hidden away, belonging to Christ? She +felt no love in her heart, no longing for love, such as poor little +Flossy had yearned for. She felt instead that she was equal to life; +that the world was sufficient for her; that she wanted the world; but +that the world was at conflict with God, and that she belonged to God, +and that she _should_ give herself utterly into his hands. + +Moreover, she knew there was coming a time when the world, and Saratoga, +and the season, with its pleasures, would not do. There was grim +death!--he would come. She could not always get away. He was coming +every hour for somebody around her. She must--yes, she _must_ get ready +for him. It would not do to be surprised again as she had been surprised +last night. It was not becoming in Ruth Erskine to live so that the +sound of death could palsy her limbs and blanch her cheek and make her +shudder with fear. She must get where she could say calmly: "Oh, are +_you_ here? Well, I am ready." + +It was just as the sun which was rising in glory forced its smiles in +between the thick leaves of the Chautauqua birds' nests, and set all the +little birds in a twitter of delight, that Ruth raised herself on her +elbow and said aloud, and with the force that comes from a determined +will that has decided something in which there has been a struggle: + +"I _will_ do it." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +"I'VE BEEN REDEEMED." + + +"What about Saratoga?" was Eurie's first query as she awoke to life and +talk again on that summer morning. "Do you think you will take the 10:50 +train, Ruth?" + +Ruth gave nothing more decided than a wan smile in answer, and in her +heart a wonder as to what Eurie would think of her if she could have +known the way in which her night was passed. + +"She is more likely to stay in bed," Marion said, looking at her +critically. "You will never think of trying to travel to-day, will you, +Ruth? Dear me! how you look! I have always heard that hair oil was +weakening, but I did not know its effects were so sudden and +disastrous!" And then every one of these silly girls laughed. The +disaster of the night before had reached its irresistibly comic side--to +them. Only Ruth shivered visibly; it was not funny to her. + +It was a very eventful day. She by no means relished the character of +invalid that the girls seemed determined ought to be forced upon her and +at the same time she had not the least idea of going to Saratoga. +Strangely enough, that desire seemed to have utterly gone from her. She +had not slept at all, but she arose and dressed herself as usual, with +only one feeling strong upon her, and that was a determination to carry +out the decision to which she had so recently come, and she had not the +least idea how to set to work to carry it out. She went with the rest to +the large tent to hear Mrs. Clark's address to primary class teachers. + +"I'm not a primary class teacher, and not likely to be, but I am a +woman, and gifted with the natural curiosity of that sex to know what a +woman may have to say in so big a place as this. I don't see how she +dares to peep." This was Eurie's explanation of her desire to go to the +reception. + +Ruth went because to go to meeting seemed to be the wisest way that she +knew of for carrying out her decision, and a good time she had. She had +not imagined that teaching primary classes was such an art, and involved +so much time and brain as it did. She listened eagerly to all Mrs. Clark +had to say; she followed her through the blackboard lessons with +surprise and delight, and she awoke at the close of the hour to the +memory that, although she had been interested as she had not imagined it +possible for her to be on such a theme, she had done nothing toward her +determination to make a Christian of herself, and that she knew no more +how to go to work than before. + +"When I _do_ find out how to be one I know I will go to work in the +Sabbath-school; I have changed my mind on that point." This she told +herself softly as they went back to dinner. + +It was a strange afternoon to her. She became unable to interest herself +heartily in the public services; her own heart claimed her thought. It +was noticeable also that for the first time Chautauqua chose this day in +which to be metaphysical and scientific, to the exclusion of personal +religion. Not that they were irreligious, not that they for a moment +forgot their position as a great religious gathering; but there was an +absence of that intense personal element in the talk which had so +offended Ruth's taste heretofore, and she missed it. + +She wandered aimlessly up and down the aisles, listening to sentences +now and then, and sighing a little. They were eloquent, they were +helpful; she could imagine herself as being in a state to enjoy them +heartily, but just now she wanted nothing so much as to know what to do +in order to give herself a right to membership with that great religious +world. Why should Chautauqua suddenly desert her now when she so much +needed its help? + +"If I knew a single one of these Christian people I would certainly ask +them what to do." This she said talking still to herself. She had come +quite away from the meeting, and was down in one of the rustic seats by +the lake side. It struck her as very strange that she had not intimate +acquaintance with a single Christian. She even traveled home and tried +to imagine herself in conversation on this subject with some of her +friends. To whom could she go? Mr. Wayne? Why, he wouldn't understand +her in the least. What a strange letter that was which she wrote him! +Could it be possible that it was written only yesterday? How strange +that she should have suggested to him to unite with the church! How +strange that she should have thought of it herself! + +There came a quick step behind her, and a voice said, "Good-evening, +Miss Erskine." She turned and tried to recall the name that belonged to +the face of the young man before her. + +"You do not remember me?" he said, inquiringly. "I was of the party who +went to Jamestown on the excursion." + +"Oh, Mr. Flint," she said, smiling, and holding out her hand. "I beg +pardon for forgetting; that seems about a month ago." + +"So it does to me; we live fast here. Miss Erskine, I have been looking +for your party; I couldn't find them. Isn't Miss Shipley in your tent? +Yes, I thought so. Well, I want to see her very much. I have something +to tell her that I know will give her pleasure. Perhaps you would take a +message for me. I want her to know that since last week, when she told +me of her Friend who had become so dear to her, I have found the truth +of it. He is my Friend now, and I want to thank her for so impressing me +with a desire to know him that I could not give it up." + +Ruth looked utterly puzzled. Something in the young man's reverent tone, +when he used the word "Friend," suggested that he could mean only the +Friend for whom she herself was in looking; and yet--Flossy Shipley! +What had _she_ to do with him? + +"Do you mean," she said, hesitatingly, and yet eagerly, for if he indeed +meant that here was one for whom she had been looking; "do you mean that +you have become a Christian?" + +"It is such a new experience," he said, his face flushing, "that I have +hardly dared to call myself by that name; but if to be a Christian means +to love the Lord Jesus Christ, and to have given one's self, body and +soul, to his service, why then I am assuredly a Christian." + +This was it. There was no time to be lost. She had spent one night of +horror, she could not endure another, and the day was drawing to its +end. To be sure she felt no terror now, but the night might bring it +back. + +"How did you do it?" she asked, simply. "How?" The very simplicity of +the question puzzled him. "Why, I just gave myself up to his keeping; I +resolved to take a new road and follow only where he led. Miss Shipley +was the one who first made me think seriously about this matter; and +then I went to the service that evening, and everything that was said +and sung, was said and sung right at me. I was just forced into the +belief that I had been a fool, and I wanted to be something else." + +"Miss Shipley!" Ruth said, brought back by that name to the wonderment. +"You are mistaken. You can not mean Flossy. She isn't a Christian at +all. She never so much as thinks of such things." + +"Oh, _you_ are mistaken." He said it eagerly and positively. "On the +contrary, she is the most earnest and straightforward little Christian +that I ever met in my life. Why, I never had anything so come to my soul +as that little sentence that she said about having found a _Friend_.' I +know it is the same one. I have seen her with you since, but not near +enough to address. Her name is Flossy; I heard her called so that day on +the boat." + +"Flossy!" Ruth said it again, in a bewildering tone, and rising as she +spoke. "I am going to find her; I want to understand this mystery. I +will give her your message, Mr. Flint, but I think there is a mistake." +Saying which she bade him a hasty good-afternoon, for the flutter of a +scarlet shawl had reached her eyes. No one but Flossy wore such a wrap +as that. She wanted to see her at once, and she _didn't_ want Mr. +Charlie Flint to be along. She went forward with rapid steps to meet +her, and slipping an arm within hers, they turned and went slowly back +over the mossy path. + +"Flossy, I want you to tell me something. I have heard something so +strange; I think it is not so, but you can tell me. I want to know if +you think you are a Christian?" + +I wonder if Flossy has any idea, even now, how strangely Ruth's heart +beat as she asked that simple question. It seemed to involve a great +deal to her. She waited for the answer. + +There was no hesitation and no indecision about Flossy's answer. Her +cheeks took a pink tint, but her voice was clear. + +"I _know_ I am, Ruth. I do not even have to speak with hesitancy. I am +so sure that Christ is my Friend, and I grow so much surer of it every +day, that I can not doubt it any more than I can doubt that I am walking +down this path with you." + +And then, again, Ruth's astonishment was in part lost in that absorbing +question: + +"How did you get to be one?" + +"It is a simple little story," Flossy said. And then she began at the +beginning and told her little bit of experience, fresh in her heart, +dating only a few days back, and full to the brim with peace and +gladness to her. + +"But I don't see," Ruth said, perplexed. "I don't find out what to _do_. +I want to be told how to do it, and none of you tell me; you seem to +have just resolved about it, and not _done_ anything. I have gone so far +myself. Such a night as last night was, Flossy! Oh, you can never +imagine it!" + +And then she told her story, as much of it as _could_ be told; of the +horror and the thick darkness that had enveloped her she could only +hint. + +What an eager flash there was in Flossy's bright eyes as she listened. + +"When you said that!" she began, eagerly, as Ruth paused. "When you +said, 'I will do it.' What then? Did you feel just as you did before?" + +"No," Ruth said, "not at all. The night had gone by that time. As I +looked about me I realized that it was daylight, and I fancied that my +feelings were the result of a highly excited state of nerves. But the +resolve was not to be accounted for in any such way. I meant that. The +horror, though, of which I had been telling you was quite gone. It was +as if there had been a fearful storm, with the constant roll of thunder, +and suddenly a calm. I hadn't the least feeling of fear or dread, and I +haven't had all day; but to-night I may have the very same experience." + +"No, you will not," Flossy said, her voice aglow with feeling and with +joy. "Oh, Ruthie, Ruthie! There _is_ no night! You have got beyond it. I +tell you, you have come into God's light! And isn't it blessed? You are +a Christian now." + +"But," protested Ruth, utterly bewildered, "I do not understand you, +and I don't think you understand yourself. In what way am I different +from what I was yesterday? How can I be lost in God's sight one moment +and accepted the next?" + +"Easily; oh, _so_ easily! Don't you see? Why, if I had been coaxing you +for a year to give me something, and you had steadily refused, but if +suddenly you had said to me, 'Yes. I will; I have changed my mind; I +will give it to you,' wouldn't there be a difference? Wouldn't I know +that I was to have it? And couldn't I thank you then, and tell you how +glad I was, just the same as though I had it in my hand? It is a poor +little illustration, Ruthie, but it is true that God has been calling +you all your life, and if you have all the time been saying 'No,' up to +that moment when you said solemnly, meaning it with all your heart, 'I +will,' I tell you it makes a difference." + +I can not describe to you how strangely all this sounded to Ruthie. Up +to this moment she had not realized in the least that the Lord was +asking her simply for a decision, and that having solemnly given it, +the work, so far as _she_ was concerned, was done, and the new relations +instantly commenced. She thought it over--that sudden calming of +heart--that sense of resolve--of determination, so strong, and yet so +quiet. She remembered what a strange day it had been. How she had tried +to keep before her mind the horror of the night, and had not been able. + +She went on talking with Flossy, telling her about Charlie Flint, +noticing the happy tears that glistened in Flossy's eyes as she received +her message, taking in the murmured words, "To think that Christ would +honor such a feeble little witnessing as that!" and realizing even then +that it would be very blessed to have one say to her, "You have been the +means of leading me to think about this thing." Why should _she_ care, +though, whether people thought about this thing or not? Yesterday she +didn't. During all the talk she kept up this little undertone of +thought, this running commentary on her sudden change of views and +feelings, and wondered, and _wondered_, could it be possible that she +was utterly changed? And yet, when she came to think of it, wasn't she? +Didn't she love Christ? And then it struck her as the strangest thing +in the world _not_ to love him. How could any one be so devoid of heart +as that? Why, a mere man, to have done one-half of what Christ had done +for her, would have received undying love and service. + +As they walked they neared the stand, and there came just at that moment +a burst of music, one of those strange, thrilling tunes such as none but +the African race ever sing. The words were familiar, and yet to Ruth +they were new: + + "There is a fountain filled with blood, + Drawn from Immanuel's veins, + And sinners, plunged beneath that flood. + Lose all their guilty stains." + +A sinner! Was _she_, Ruth Erskine, a sinner? Yesterday she had not liked +it to be called a prodigal. But to-day, oh yes. Was there a greater +sinner to be found than she? How long she had known this story! How long +she had known and believed of a certainty that Jesus Christ lived and +died that she might have salvation, and yet she had never in her life +thanked him for it! Nay, she had spurned and scorned his gift! So much +worse than though she had not believed it at all! For then at least she +could not have been said to have met him with the insult of +indifference. + +Then the chorus swelled out on the still air. Only those who heard it +under the trees at Chautauqua have the least idea how it sounded; only +those who hear it, as Ruth Erskine did, can have the least idea how it +sounded to her. + + "I've been redeemed, I've been redeemed!" + +Over and over the strain repeated. Now in clear soprano tones, and anon +rolled out from the grand bass voices. And then the swelling unison: + + "I've been redeemed-- + Been washed in the blood of the Lamb." + +The girls had stopped, and almost held their breaths to listen. They +stood in silence while verse after verse with its triumphant swell of +chorus rolled out to them. The great tears gathered slowly in Ruth's +eyes, until, as the last echo died away, she turned to Flossy, and her +voice was clear and triumphant: + +"I believe I _have_. Flossy, I believe I have. It is a glorious +thought, and a wonderful one. It almost frightens me. And yet it thrills +me with perfect delight. The fountain is deep enough for us all--for +them and for me. I have 'been redeemed,' and if God will help me I will +never forget it again." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +SWORD THRUSTS. + + +By the next morning it became clear to our girls that a change of +programme was a necessity. Ruth had by no means recovered from her shock +and the sleepless night that followed, and some of the comforts of +invalidism must be found for her. At the same time she utterly +repudiated the idea of Saratoga, which was now urged upon her; it had +lost its charms; neither would she go home. + +"I have decided to stay until the _very_ last meeting," she said, with +quiet determination. + +Flossy laughed softly; she knew what charms Chautauqua had taken on, +but the others supposed it to be a whim, resulting from the ridicule she +had suffered because of the Saratoga scheme. + +After many plans were discussed it was finally decided that Flossy and +Ruth should seek quarters at the hotel in Mayville, Ruth coming over to +the meetings only when her strength and her fancy dictated, and having +some of the luxuries of home about her. It seemed to fall naturally to +Flossy's lot to accompany her; indeed, a barrier was in the way of +either of the others being chosen. The hotel arrangement, when one took +into consideration the numerous boat-rides to and from the ground, was +by no means an economical proceeding, and as Flossy and Ruth were the +only ones who were entirely indifferent to the demands of their purses, +it must of necessity be them. + +Neither of them was disposed to demur; there had never been much +congeniality between these two, but they had been friendly, and now +there was a subtle bond of sympathy which made them long to be together. +So, during the next morning hours, those two were engaged in packing +their effects and preparing for a flitting to the Mayville House. +Meantime Marion and Eurie, having stood around and looked on until they +were tired, departed in search of something to interest them. + +"It is too early for meeting," Marion said. "There is nothing of +interest until 11 o'clock. I'm sorry we missed Mrs. Clark. I like to +look at her and listen to her; she is just bubbling over with +enthusiasm. One can see that she thinks she means it. If I were a +Sunday-school teacher I should be glad I was here, to hear her. I think +it has been about the most helpful thing I have heard thus far; helpful +to those who indulge in that sort of work, I mean." + +"I wonder what those normal classes are like?" Eurie said, studying her +programme. "We haven't been to one of those, have we? What do you +suppose they do?" + +Marion shrugged her shoulders. + +"They are like work," she said. "'Working hours,' they are named; and I +suppose some hard thinking is done. If I didn't have to teach school six +hours out of every day at home I might be tempted to go in and listen to +them; but I came here to play, you see, and to make money; they are not +good to report about. People who stay at home and read the reported +letters don't want to hear anything about the actual _work_; they want +to know who the speaker was and how he looked, and whether his gestures +were graceful, and--if it is a lady--above all, how she was dressed; if +they say anything remarkably sarcastic or irresistibly funny you may +venture to report it, but not otherwise, consequently reporting is easy +work, if you have not too much conscience, because what you didn't see +you can make up." + +At the end of this harangue she paused suddenly before a tent, whence +came the sound of a firm and distinct voice. + +"What is this?" she said, and then she lifted a bit of the canvas and +peeped in. "I'm going in here, after all," she said, withdrawing her +head and explaining. "This is a normal class, I guess. That man from +Philadelphia--what is his name? Tyler? Yes, that is it--J. Bennet +Tyler--is leading. I like him; I like his voice ever so much; he makes +you hear, whether you want to or not. Then, someway, you get a kind of +a notion that he not only believes what he says but that he _knows_ it +is so, and that is all there is about it. I like to meet such people now +and then, because they are so rare. Generally people act as though you +could coax them out of their notions in about twenty minutes if you +tried--when they are talking about religious subjects, I mean. Obstinacy +is not so rare a trait where other matters are concerned. Let's go in." + +"What is the subject this morning?" Eurie asked, following her guide +around to the entrance, somewhat reluctantly. She was in no mood for +shutting herself inside a tent, and being obliged to listen whether she +wanted to or not. But Marion was in one of her positive moods this +morning, and must either be followed or deserted altogether. + +Mr. Tyler was reading from a slip of paper as they entered. This was the +sentence he read: + +"Difficulties in interpretation which arise from certain mental +peculiarities of the student. Some minds, and not by any means the +strongest or noblest, must always see the _reason_ for everything." + +Marion gave Eurie a sagacious nod of the head. + +"Don't you see?" she said. "Now, by the peculiar way in which he read +that, he made believe it was _me_ he meant. And, by the way, I'm not +sure but he is correct. I must say that I like a reason for things. But +what right has he to say that _that_ is an indication of a weak mind?" + +"He didn't say so," whispered Eurie. + +"Oh, yes he did; it amounted to that. There is where his peculiar use of +words comes in. That man has _studied_ words until he handles them as if +they were foot-balls, and were to go exactly where he sent them." + +"He is looking this way. The next thing you know he will throw some at +us for whispering." + +This was Ernie's attempt to quiet Marion's tongue. That or some other +influence had the desired effect. She whispered no more, and it was +apparent in a very few minutes that she had become intensely interested +in the theme and in the way it was being handled. An eager examination +of the programme disclosed what she began to suspect, that the subject +was, "Difficulties in the Bible." Her intellectual knowledge of the +Bible was considerable; and having read it ever since she could +remember, with the express purpose of finding difficulties, it was not +surprising that she had found them. + +Something, either in the leader's manner of drawing out answers, or the +peculiar emphasis with which he contrived to invest certain words, had +the effect to cause Marion to feel as though she had been very +superficial in her reasoning and childish in her objections. She grew +eager; her brain, accustomed to work rapidly and follow trains of thought +closely, enjoyed the keen play of thought that was being drawn forth. + +But there was more than that; almost unconsciously to herself this +subject was assuming vital proportions to her; she did not even herself +realize the intensity of the cry in her heart, "If I only _knew_ whether +these were so!" Presently the voice which had once before struck her as +being so peculiar in its personality sounded distinctly down the long +tent. + +"Remember the conditions under which the Bible promise clear +apprehension of the truth." + +It chanced--at least that is the way in which we use language--it +chanced that Mr. Tyler's eyes as he repeated these words rested on +Marion. Speaking of it afterward she said: + +"So far as the impression made on me was concerned, it was the same as +though he had said: 'Do you understand what an idiot you have been not +to take that cardinal point into consideration at all? Open your Bible +and read, and see how like a weak-minded babe you are.'" + +Beside her lay a Bible just dropped by some one who had been called out. +Following out the impulse of the moment she turned to the reference, and +her clear voice gave it distinctly: + +"If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it +be of God or whether I speak of myself." + +The effect of this simple, straightforward and reasonable proposition, +on sounding back to her spoken by her own voice, was tremendous. Very +little more of the talk did she hear. A thrust, from God's own sword had +reached her. What a fool she had been! What right had she to presume to +give an opinion before applying the test? Had not the most common-place +statements a right to be tried by their own tests? Yet she had never +given this simple direction a thought. + +So this was the Bible promise? "He _shall_ know." Not that these things +are so, but a more logical, more satisfactory statement to the natural +heart. He shall judge for himself whether these things be so; follow the +directions, and then judge by your experiences after that whether these +things be true or false. Could anything be more reasonable? + +"I shall never dare to say that I don't believe the Bible again, for +fear some one will ask me whether I have applied the test, and if I have +not what business have I to judge. That man now, if I should come in +contact with him, which I shall endeavor not to do, would be sure to ask +me. He has almost the same as asked it now, before all these people. He +has a mysterious way of making me feel as though he was talking for my +confusion and for nobody else." + +This Marion told to herself as she eyed the leader, half sullenly. He +had strangely disturbed her logic and set her refuge in ruins. + +"Let's go," she said suddenly to Eurie. "I am tired of this; I have had +enough, and more than enough." But the hour was over, and she had had +all that was to be secured from that source. + +All the younger portion of the congregation seemed to be rushing back up +the hill again, and inquiry developed the fact that Mrs. Clark was to +meet the primary workers in the large tent. It was wonderful how many +people chose to consider themselves primary workers? At least they +rushed to this meeting, a great army of them, as though their one object +in life, was to learn how successfully to teach the little ones. Our +girls all met together in the tent. Ruth and Flossy had finished their +preparations, but had concluded to wait until afternoon service. + +"I declare if _you_ are not armed with a pencil and paper. Have you been +seized with a mania for taking notes?" This Eurie said to Ruth. "Now I'm +going to get out _my_ note book too. Here is a card--it will hold all I +care to write I dare say. Let me see, who knows but I shall go to +teaching in Sabbath-school one of these days! I am going to make a list +of the things which according to Mrs. Clark, we shall need." + +True to her new fancy, she scribbled industriously during the session, +and showed her card with glee as they left the tent. + +"I've a complete list," she said. "If any of you go into the business I +can supply you with the names of the necessary tools. Look! + +"A blackboard. + +"A picture roll. + +"A punch! + +"Cards. + +"Brains! + +"Blank book. + +"Children. + +"More brains! + +"That last item," she said, reflectively, "is the hardest to find. I had +no idea so much of that material was necessary. Now let me see what is +on your papers." This even Marion stoutly resisted. And Flossy quietly +hid hers in her pocket, saying with a smile: + +"Mine is simply a list of things needful for such work." + +If she had shown her paper it would have astonished Eurie, and it might +have done her good. This was what she had written: + +"What I need in order to be a successful teacher. + +"Such a forgetfulness of self as shall lead me to think only of the +little ones and their needs. + +"Such a love for Christ as shall lead me to long after every little soul +to lead it to him." + +As for Marion her paper contained simply this sentence, carefully +written out in German text as if she had deliberated over each letter; + +"If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it +be of God." + +They went in a body to hear Dr. Hatfield. + +"I want that lecture," Marion said, "'Perils of the Hour.' I'm very +anxious to know what my peril is. I know just what is hovering over +every one of you, but I can't quite make up my mind as to my own state. +Perhaps the distinguished gentleman can help me." + +And he did. He had selected for one of the perils that which was +embodied in the following ringing sentence: + +"The third peril is the prevelancy of skepticism. A class of scientists +have discovered that there is no God! What the fool said in his _heart_ +they proclaimed on the house-top!" + +Eurie looked over at her, smiling and mischievous, and said in anything +but a softly whisper, "That means you, my dear." + +But Marion did not hear her; she was absorbed in the intense scathing +sentences that followed. Of one thing she presently felt assured, that +whoever was right or whoever was wrong in this matter, Dr. Hatfield +believed with all the intensity of an intense educated intellect that +God ruled. Was it probable that he had met the condition, done his will, +and so _knew_ of the doctrine? That was an hour to be remembered. Eurie +ceased to whisper or to frolic; there was too much intensity, about the +speaker's manner not to claim her attention. She listened as she was not +in the habit of listening. She could give you a detailed account even +now of that hour of thought; so could I, and I am awfully tempted; but, +you see, it is only Tuesday, and the girls have six more days to spend +at Chautauqua. + +Both Ruth and Flossy got their crumb to think over. They discussed it at +the hotel that evening. + +"I tell you, Flossy, if Dr. Hatfield is correct you and I have +tremendous changes to make in our way of spending the Sabbath; and I +have actually prided myself on the way in which I respected the day!" + +And Ruth laughed as if that were so strange a thought, now that it was +hardly possible to think that she could have entertained it. + +"I know," Flossy said; "and he can not but be right, for he proved his +position. I am glad I heard that address. But for him, I know I should +never have thought of my influence in some places where I now see I can +use it. Ruth you will be struck with one thing. Now, Chautauqua is like +what Madame C's school might have been, so far as study is concerned. +Every day I have a new lesson, one that startles me so! I feel that +there must be some mistake, or I would have heard of or thought of some +of these things before. And yet they sound so reasonable when you come +to think them over, that presently I am surprised that I have not felt +them before. Ruthie, do you think Eurie and Marion have any interest at +all?" + +"No," said Ruth, positively, "I know Marion hasn't. It was only the +other evening that she talked more wildly if anything than before." + +About this time Marion, alone in her tent, said again, as she had said a +dozen times during the last few days: "If I _only knew_!" And this time +she added, "If I only knew _how_ to know!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +SERMONS IN CHALK. + + +Now, see here, Marion Wilbur, wake up and give me your attention. I want +to make a speech; I've caught the infection. It's queer in a place where +there is so much speech-making done that I can't have a chance to +express my views." + +"I'm all attention," Marion answered, turning on her pillow, and giving +Eurie a sleepy stare. "What has moved you to be eloquent? Give me the +subject." + +"The subject is the reflex influence of preaching! It may have +different effects on different natures. Its effect on mine has been +marked enough. I'm thoroughly surfeited. I don't want to hear another +sermon while I am here, and I don't _mean_ to. They are all sermons. The +subject may be scientific, literary or artistic, and it amounts to the +same thing; they contrive to row around to the same spot from whatever +point they start. Now, I came here for fun, and I'm being literally +cheated out of it. So the application of my remark is, I've learned +since I have been here always to have an application to everything, and +this time it is that I won't go any more. I've studied the programme +carefully, and I have selected just what I am going to do. That Mrs. +Knox has a reception this morning. I've heard about her before; she is +awfully in earnest, and awfully good. Oh, I haven't the least doubt of +it; but, you see, I don't want to be good, nor to have such an +uncomfortable amount of goodness about me." + +"She is said to be one of the most successful Sabbath-school teachers +here; and I heard a gentleman say last night that her primary class was +a regular training school for young ladies in Christian work. You know +she has ever so many teachers under her." + +"I can't help that. I am not one of them, I am thankful to say. What do +I care whether she is successful or not? That won't help me any. I know +all about her. They say the young ladies in her classes are invariably +converted before they have been under her influence long. So if you want +to be converted you have only to go to Elmira and join her class; but as +for me, I am not in the mood for that experience yet, and I am not going +near her." + +"What _are_ you going to do then?" + +"Just what I please! That is what I came for. Just think of the +absurdity of we four girls rushing to meeting at the rate we have been +doing for the last week. What do you suppose the people at home would +think of us? Why, I didn't expect to hear any of their sermons when I +came. I as good as promised Flossy that I would frolic about with her +all the time, and now the absurd little dunce acts as if she were under +a wager to be on the ground every time the bell rings! I've declared +off. I can tell you to an item just what I am going to hear. There is a +performance to come off this afternoon some time that I shall be ready +for. I loitered behind the King tent last night, and heard him say so. +That Frank Beard is going to give his chalk talk--caricatures: that I +shall hear, and especially _see_. It will be hard work to poke a sermon +into that. I guess that is to be this afternoon; it is to be some time +soon, anyway, and I shall watch for it. Then there is to be another +extra. Mrs. Miller is going to read a story. I can give you the title of +it. I didn't sit on that horrid stump in the dark listening to Dr. +Vincent for nothing. It is to be 'Three Blind Mice.' Now it stands to +reason that a story with such a title will not be very far above my +intellectual capacity, and it _can't_ very well develop into a sermon, +or close with a prayer-meeting. Then I'm going to the concert by the +Tennesseeans;' their jargon won't hurt me; and, of course, I shall +attend the President's reception. I must have a stare at him--and that +is every solitary meeting I am going to attend. I've heard the last +preaching that I mean to for some time." + +Now this was what Eurie Mitchell _said_. Let me tell you a little bit +about what she _thought_. She was by no means so indifferent, nor so +bored as she would have Marion understand. She was by no means in the +state of mind that Ruth had been, or that Marion was. No doubts as to +the general truth of all the vital doctrines of Christianity had ever +troubled her. She accepted without question the belief of the so-called +Christian World. Neither was she bewildered as to what constituted +Christian life. No vague notion that to unite herself with some church +would let her into the charmed circle had ever befogged her brain. + +On the contrary, she knew better than many a Christian does just what +the Christian profession involved, and just how narrow a path ought to +be walked by those professing to follow Christ. In proportion to the +keenness of her sarcasm over blundering, stumbling Christians, had her +eyes been open to what they ought to be. + +There was just this the matter with Eurie. She knew so well what +religious professions involved that she wanted to make none. She hated +the thought of self-abnegation, of bridling her eager tongue, of going +only where her enlightened conscience said a Christian should go, of +looking out for and calling after others to go with her. She wished +deliberately to ignore it all. Not forever, she would have been shocked +at the thought. Some time she meant to give intense heed to these +things, and then indeed the church should see what a Christian _could_ +be! But not now. + +There were a hundred things laid down in her programme for the coming +winter that she knew perfectly well were not the things to do or say, +provided she were a Christian, and she deliberately wished to avoid the +fear of becoming one. Just here she was afraid of the influence of +Chautauqua. + +How was it possible to attend these meetings, to listen to these daily, +hourly addresses, teeming either directly or indirectly with the same +thought, personal consecration, without feeling herself drawn within the +circle? She would _not_ be drawn. This was her deliberate conclusion, +therefore her determination. + +It was almost well for her that she could not realize on what fearfully +dangerous ground she was treading! I wonder if those over whom the Lord +says, "Let them alone," are ever conscious at the time that the order +has gone forth, and that they are to feel their consciences pressing +home this matter no more? + +"Well," said Marion, after turning this resolution over in her mind for +a few minutes, "I dare say you will lose a good many things worth +hearing; but I have nothing to do with that--only I want you to go with +me up to hear Mrs. Knox this morning. I've _got_ to go, for I promised +especially to report her for the teachers at home, and it is stupid to +go alone. _She_ won't preach, and she won't bore you, and I want you to +help me remember items." + +So, much against her will, Eurie was coaxed into this departure from her +programme, and came back from the meeting in intense disgust. + +"Talk about _her_ not preaching," she said, venting her annoyance on +Marion while she energetically brushed her hair. "Every fold of her +dress preached a sermon! She makes me ache all over, she is so +powerfully in earnest; and didn't she hint what angels of goodness those +girls of hers were--those teachers! I'd like to know how they could be +anything else but good with such an example at hand. Just think, Marion, +of having the brains that that woman has, and the energy and tact and +the skill of a general, and then forcing it into a Sunday-school class +room for the teaching of a hundred little dots that have just tumbled +out of their cradles!" + +"Well, if she teaches them to tumble out on the right side so that they +will come up grand men and women, what then? Isn't that an ambition +worthy of her?" + +"Stuff and nonsense! Don't you go to preaching. I shall go and drown +myself in the lake if I hear any more of it, and then one worthless +person will be out of the way. But don't you dare to ask me to go and +hear that woman again! I won't give up my plans in life for hers, and +she needn't hint it to me. And, Marion Wilbur, I am not going to listen +to another man or woman who has the least chance to fire words right at +me--now mark my words." + +Full of this determination she carried it out during the afternoon, +until the hour for Frank Beard's caricatures; then, secure from fear of +a sermon, she came gayly down and considered herself fortunate to +secure a seat directly in front of the stand and in full view of the +blackboard. If you have never seen Frank Beard make pictures you know +nothing about what a good time she had. They were such funny pictures! +--just a few strokes of the magic crayon and the character described +would seem to start into life before you, and you would feel that you +could almost know what thoughts were passing in the heart of the +creature made of chalk. Eurie looked, and listened, and laughed. The old +deacon who thought the Sunday-school was being glorified too much had +his exact counterpart among her acquaintances, so far as his looks were +concerned. The three troublesome Sunday-school scholars fairly convulsed +her by their life-like appearance. There was the little scamp of a boy +who was revealed by the dozen to any one who took a walk down town +toward the close of the day; the argumentative old man, with his nose +pointing out a flaw in your reasoning or on the keen scent for a +mistake; and the pert fourteen-year-old girl whose very nose, as it +slightly turned upward, showed that she knew more than all the +logicians and theologians in the world. + +This entertainment was exactly in Eurie's line. If there was anything in +the world that she was an adept at it was looking up weak points in the +characters of other people; and when the silly girl with but two +ideas--one of them bows and the other beaux--lived and breathed before +her on the blackboard her delight reached its climax. + +"She is the very picture of Nettie Arnold!" she whispered to Marion. +"When I go home I mean to tell her that her photograph was displayed at +Chautauqua. She is just vain enough to believe it!" + +Still the fun went on. Just a few bold, rapid strokes, and some +caricature breathed before them, so real that the character was guessed +before the explanation was given, and the ground rang with continued and +overpowering roars of laughter. + +Into the midst of this entertainment came Dr. Vincent, his face aglow +with the exertion of hearty laughter, every feature of it expressive of +his hearty appreciation of this hour of recreation and yet every +feature alive and alert with a higher and more enduring feeling. + +"Frank," he said, laying a friendly hand on the artist's arm, "our time +is almost up. Give us the symbol of the teacher's work." + +There was an instant of rapid motion, a few skillful lines, and it +needed no word of explanation to recognize the great family Bible. "Now +the symbol of the teacher's hope," and on one page of the open Bible +there flashed an anchor. + +"Now the symbol of his reward," and lo, there rose up before them the +solid wall, built brick by brick. Dr. Vincent's voice was almost husky +with feeling, so suddenly had the play of his emotions changed, as he +said: "Now we want the foundation." + +How did Frank Beard do it with a dull colored crayon and a half-dozen +movements of his skillful arm? How can I tell, except that God has given +to the arm wondrous skill; but there appeared before that astonished +multitude a foundation as of granite, and there rose from it, as if +suddenly hewed out before them, a clean-cut solid shaft of gray, +imperishable granite. One more dash of the wondrous crayon and the +shaft was done--a solid cross! + +Prof. Sherwin was sitting, for want of a better position, on the floor +of the stand. It was the only available space. He had been looking and +enjoying as only men like Prof. Sherwin can; and now, as he watched the +outgrowth of this wonderful cross, as the last stroke was given that +made it complete, and a sound like a subdued shout of joy and triumph +murmured through the crowd, moved as by a sudden mighty impulse that he +could not control, his splendid voice burst forth in the glorious words: + + "Rock of Ages, cleft for me, + Let me _hide_ myself in Thee." + +And that great multitude took it up and rolled the tribute of praise +down those resounding aisles until people bowed themselves, and some of +them wept softly in the very excess of their joy and thanksgiving. It +was all so sudden, so unexpected; yet it was so surely the key-note to +the Chautauqua heart, and fitted in so aptly with their professions and +intentions. They could play for a few minutes--none could do it with +better hearts or more utter enjoyment than these same splendid +leaders--but how surely their hearts turned back to the main thought, +the main work, the main hope, in life and in death. + +As for Eurie, she will not be likely to forget that sermon. It almost +overpowered her. There came over her such a sudden and eager longing to +understand the depths from whence such feeling sprung, to rest her feet +on the same foundation, that for the moment her heart gave a great bound +and said: "It is worth all the self-denial and all the change of life +and plans which it would involve. I almost think I want that rather than +anything else." That miserable "almost!" I wonder how many souls it has +shipwrecked? The old story. If Eurie had been familiar with her Bible it +would surely have reminded her of the foolish listener who said, while +he trembled under the truth, "_Almost_ thou persuadest me to be a +Christian." + +Shall I tell you what came in, just then and there, to influence her +decision? It was such a miserable little thing--nothing more than the +remembrance of certain private parties that were a standing institution +among "their set" at home, to meet fortnightly in each other's parlors +for a social dance. Not a ball! oh, no, not at all. These young ladies +did not attend _balls_, unless occasionally a charity ball, when a very +select party was made up. Simply quiet evenings among _special_ friends, +where the special amusement was dancing. + +"Dear me!" you say, "I am a Christian, and I don't see anything wrong in +_dancing_. Why, I dance at private parties very often. What was there in +that thought that needed to influence her?" + +Oh, well, we are not arguing, you know. This is simply a record of +matters and things as they occurred at Chautauqua. It can hardly be said +to be a story, except as records of real lives of course make stories. + +But Eurie was _not_ a Christian, you see; and however foolish it may +have been in her she had picked out dancing as one of the amusements not +fitting to a Christian profession. It is a queer fact, for the cause of +which I do not pretend to account, but if you are curious, and will +investigate this subject, you will find that four fifths of the people +in this world who are not Christiana have tacitly agreed among +themselves that dancing is not an amusement that seems entirely suited +to church-members. If you want to get at the reason for this strange +prejudice, question some of them. Meantime the fact exists that Eurie +felt herself utterly unwilling to give up the leadership of those +fortnightly parties, and that the trivial question actually came in then +and there, while she stood looking at that picture of the cross; and in +proportion as her sudden conviction of desire lost itself in this whirl +of intended amusement did her disgust arise at the thought that she had +been actually betrayed into listening to another sermon! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +"THEIR WORKS DO FOLLOW THEM." + + +Marion went alone to the services the next morning. It was in vain that +she assured Eurie that Miss Morris was going to conduct one of the +normal classes, and that she had heard her spoken of as unusually +sparkling. Eurie shook her head. + +"Go and hear her sparkle, then, by all means I won't. Now that's a very +inelegant word to use, but it is expressive, and when _I_ use it you may +know that I mean it; I am tired of the whole story, and I have been +cheated times enough. Look at yesterday! It was a dozen prayer-meetings +combined. No, I don't get caught this morning." + +"But the subject is one that will not admit of sermonizing and +prayer-meetings this morning," Marion pleaded; "I am specially +interested in it. It is 'How to win and hold attention.' If there is +anything earthly that a ward school-teacher needs to know it is those +two items. I expect to get practical help." + +"You needn't expect anything _earthly_; this crowd have nothing to do +with matters this side of eternity. As for the subject not admitting of +sermonizing, look at the subject of blackboard caricatures. What came of +that?" + +So she went her way, and Marion, who had seen Miss Morris and had been +attracted, looked her up with earnest work in view. She had an ambition +to be a power in her school-room. Why should not this subject help +_her_? + +The tent was quite full, but she made her way to a corner and secured a +seat. Miss Morris was apparently engaged in introducing herself and +apologizing for her subject. + +"I tried to beg off," she said; "I told them that the subject and I had +nothing in common; that I was a primary class teacher, and in that line +lay my work. But there is no sort of use in trying to change Dr. +Vincent's mind about anything, so I had to submit. But for once in my +life I remind myself of Gough. I once overheard him in conversation with +a committee on lectures. They were objecting to having him lecture on +temperance, and pressing him to name some other subject. 'Choose what +subject you please, gentlemen,' he said at last, 'and I'll lecture on +it, but remember what I _say_ will be on temperance.' So they have given +me this subject and I have engaged to take it, but I want you to +remember that what I _say_ will be on primary class-teaching." + +By this time Miss Morris had the sympathy of her audience, and had +awakened an interest to see how she would follow out her programme, and +from first to last she held their attention. Certain thoughts glowed +vividly. I don't know who else they influenced, but I knew they roused +and startled Marion, and will have much to do with her future methods of +teaching. + +"Remember," said the speaker, "that you can not live on skim-milk and +teach cream!" The thought embodied in that brief and telling sentence +was as old as time, and Marion had heard it as long ago as she +remembered anything, but it never flashed before her until that moment. + +What an illustration! She saw herself teaching her class in botany to +analyze the flowers, to classify them, to tell every minute item +concerning them, and she taught them nothing to say concerning the +Creator. Was this "skim-milk" teaching? She knew so many ways in which, +did she but have this belief concerning heaven, and Christ, and the +judgment, in her heart, she could impress it upon her scholars. She had +aimed to be the very _cream_ of teachers. Was she? She came back from +her reverie, or, rather, her self-questioning, to hear Miss Morris say: + +"Why, one move of your hand moves all creation! and as surely does one +thought of your soul grow and spread and roll through the universe. Why, +you can't sit in your room alone, and think a mean thought, or a false +thought, or an unchristian thought, without its influencing not only all +people around you, not only all people in all the universe, but nations +yet unborn must live under the shadow or the glory that the thought +involves." + +Bold statements these! But Marion could follow her. Intellectually she +was thoroughly posted. Had she not herself used the illustration of the +tiny stream that simpered through the home meadow and went on, and on, +and on, until it helped to surge the beaches of the ocean? But here was +a principle involved that reached beyond the ocean, that ignored time, +that sought after eternity. Was she following the stream? Could she +honestly tell that it might not lead to a judgment that should call her +to account for her non-religious influence over her scholars? Marion was +growing heavy-hearted; she wanted at least to do no harm in the world if +she could do no good. But if all this mountain weight of evidence at +Chautauqua proved anything, it proved that she was living a life of +infidelity, for the influence of which she was to be called into +judgment. + +No sort of use to comfort herself with the thought that she talked of +her peculiar views to no one; it began to be evident that the things +which she did _not_ do were more startling than the things which she +did. + +On the whole, no comfort came to her troubled soul through this morning +session. To herself she seemed precisely where she was when she went +into that tent, only perhaps a trifle more impressed with the solemnity +of all things. + +But, without knowing it, a great stride had been taken in her education. +She was not again to be able to say: "I injure no one with my belief; I +keep it to myself." "No Man liveth to himself." + +The verse came solemnly to her as she went out, as though other than +human voice were reminding her of it, and life began to feel like an +overwhelming responsibility that she could not assume. When one begins +to _feel_ that thought in all its force the next step is to find one who +will assume the responsibility for us. She met Ruth on her way up the +hill. + +"Flossy has deserted me," Ruth explained as they met; "Eurie carried her +away to take a walk. Are you going to hear about John Knox? I am +interested in him chiefly because of the voice that is to tell of him +to-day; I like Dr. Hurlburt." + +Marion's only reply was: "I don't see but you come to meeting quite as +regularly, now that you are at the hotel, as you did when on the +grounds." + +Then they went to secure their seats. I am not to attempt to tell you +anything about the John Knox lecture; indeed I have given over telling +more about the Chautauqua addresses. It is of no sort of use. One only +feels like bemoaning a failure after any attempt to repeat such lectures +as we heard there. Besides, I am chiefly interested at present in their +effect on our girls. + +They listened--these two, and enjoyed as people with brains must +necessarily have done. But there was more than that to it; there were +consequences that will surely be met again at the last great day. + +Ruth, as she walked thoughtfully away, said to herself: "That is the +way. _Live_ the truth. It is a different day, and the trials and +experiences are different, but _life_ must be the same. It is not the +day for half-way Christianity nor for idling; I will be an earnest +Christian, or I will not dishonor the name and disgrace the memory of +such men as Knox by claiming to be of their faith." + +While Marion, as she turned her flushed cheeks hastily away from Ruth, +not willing to show one who knew nothing about this matter, save that +it was expedient to join a church, had gotten one foot set firmly toward +the rock. + +"The power that enabled _that_ man to live _that_ life was certainly of +God," she thought. "It _must_ be true. God must be in communication with +some of the souls that have lived. Is he now, and can I be one of them? +Oh, I wonder if there are a favored few who have shone out as grand +lights in the world and have gone up from the world to their reward? And +I wonder if there is no such thing now? If the blundering creatures who +call themselves by his name are nothing but miserable imitations of what +was _once_ real? + +"Such lives as that one can understand; but how can I ever believe that +Deacon Cole's life is molded by the same influence, or, indeed, that +mine can be? Must I be a Deacon Cole Christian if I am one at all?" + +The afternoon clouded over, and a mincing little rain began to fall. +Marion stood in the tent door and grumbled over it. + +"I wanted to hear that Mr. Hazard," she said; "I rather fancy his face, +and I fancy the name of his subject. I had a curiosity to see what he +would do with it, and here is this rain to hinder." + +Ruth and Flossy had come over for the day, and were waiting in the tent. + +"Haven't you been at Chautauqua long enough to catch one of its cardinal +rules, never to stay at home for rain?" Flossy said. + +Marion looked around at her. She was putting on her rubbers. + +"Are you really going?" She asked the question in great surprise. "Why, +Flossy, it is going to rain hard!" + +"What of it?" said Flossy, lightly. "I have waterproof, and rubbers, and +umbrella, and if it gets to be too wet I can run to a tent." + +"If you were at home you wouldn't think of going to church. Why, Flossy +Shipley, I never knew you to go out in the rain! I thought you were +always afraid you would spoil your clothes." + +"That was because I had none already spoiled to wear," Flossy answered, +cheerily; "but that difficulty is obviated; I have spoiled two dresses +since I have been here. This one now is indifferent to the rain, and +will be for the future. I have an improvement on that plan, though; I +mean to have a rainy-day dress as soon as I get home. Come, it is time +we were off." + +"I believe I am a dunce," Marion said, slowly. "I think it is going to +rain hard; but as I have to go, at home, whether it rains or shines, I +suppose I can do it here. But if this were a congregation of respectable +city Christians, instead of a set of lunatics, there wouldn't be a dozen +out." + +They found hundreds out, however. Indeed, it proved to be difficult to +secure seats. That address was heard under difficulties. In the first +place it _would_ rain; not an out-and-out hearty shower, that would at +once set at rest the attempt to hold an out-door meeting, but an +exasperating little drizzle, enlivened occasionally by a few smart drops +that seemed to hint business. There was a constant putting up of +umbrellas and putting them down again. There was a constant fidgeting +about, and getting up and sitting down again, to let some of the more +nervous ones who had resolved upon a decided rain escape to safer +quarters. Half of the people had their heads twisted around to get a +peep at the sky, to see what the clouds really _did_ mean, anyway. + +Our girls had one of the uncomfortable posts. Arrived late, they had to +take what they could get, and it was some distance from the speaker, and +their sight and sound were so marred by the constant changes and the +whirl of umbrellas that Marion presently lost all patience and gave up +the attempt to listen. She would have deserted altogether but for the +look of eager attention on Flossy's face. Despite the annoyances, _she_ +was evidently hearing and enjoying. It seemed a pity to disturb her and +suggest a return to the tent; besides, Marion felt half ashamed to do +so. + +It was not pleasant to give tacit acknowledgment to the fact that poor +little, unintellectual Flossy was much more interested than herself. She +gave herself up to an old and favorite employment of hers, that of +looking at faces and studying them, when a sudden hush that seemed to be +settling over the hither to fidgety audience arrested her attention. + +The speaker's voice was full of pathos, and so quiet had the place +become that every word of his could be distinctly heard. He was +evidently in the midst of a story, the first of which she had not heard. +This was the sentence, as her ears took it up: + +"Don't cry, father, don't cry! To-night I shall be with Jesus, and I +will tell him that you did all you could to bring me there!" + +What a tribute for a child to give to a father's love! Flossy, with her +cheeks glowing and her eyes shining like stars, quietly wiped away the +tears, and in her heart the resolve grew strong to live so that some +one, dying, could say of her: "I will tell Jesus that you did all you +could to bring me there!" + +Do you think that was what the sentence said to Marion? Quick as thought +her life flashed back to that old dingy, weather-beaten house, to that +pale-faced man, with his patched clothing and his gray hairs straggling +over on the coarse pillow. _Her_ father, dying--her one friend, who had +been her memory of love and care all these long years, dying--and these +were the last words his lips had said: + +"Don't cry, little girl--father's dear little girl. I am going to Jesus. +I shall be there in a little while. I shall tell him that I tried to +have you come!" + +Oh, blessed father! How hard he had tried in his feebleness and weakness +to teach her the way! How sure he had seemed to feel that she would +follow him! And how had she wandered! How far away she was! Oh, blessed +Spirit of God, to seek after her all these years, through all the weak +and foolish mazes of doubt, and indifference, and declared +unbelief--still coming with her down to this afternoon at Chautauqua, +and there renewing to her her father's parting word. + +She had often and often thought of these words of her father's. In a +sense, they had been ever present with her. Just why they should come at +this time, bringing such a sense of certainty about them to her very +soul that all this was truth, God's solemn, _real_, unchangeable truth, +and force this conviction upon her in such a way that she was moved to +say, "Whereas I _was_ blind, now I see," I can not tell. + +Why Mr. Hazard was used as the instrument of such a revelation of God to +her I can not tell. Perhaps he had prayed that his work at Chautauqua +that rainy afternoon might, in some way, be blessed to the help of some +struggling soul. Perhaps this was the answer to his prayer--unheard, +unseen by him, as many an answer to our pleading is, and yet the answer +as surely comes. Who can tell how this may be. I do not know. I know +this, that Marion's heart gave a great sobbing cry, as it said: + +"Oh, father, father! if your God, if your Christ, will help me, I +will--I will _try_ to come." + +It was her way of repeating the old cry, "Lord, I believe, help thou +mine unbelief." And I do know that it is written, "Blessed are the dead +which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they +may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them." It was +fifteen years that the weary father had been resting from his labors, +and here were his works following him. + +I have heard that Mr. Hazard said, as he folded his papers and came down +from the stand that afternoon, "It was useless to try to talk in such a +rain, with the prospect of more every minute. The people could not +listen. It would have been better to have adjourned. Nothing was +accomplished." Much _he_ knew about it, or will know until the day when +the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +UNFINISHED MUSIC. + + +Meantime, this day, which was to be so fraught with consequences to +Marion, was on Eurie's hands to dispose of as best she could. To be at +Chautauqua, and to be bent on having nothing whatever to do with any of +the Chautauqua life, was in itself a novel position. The more so as she +felt herself quite deserted. The necessity for reporting served Marion +as an excuse for attending even those meetings which she did not report; +and the others having gone to Mayville to live, this foolish sheep, who +was within the fold, and who would not be _of_ it, went wandering +whither she would in search of amusement. + +After Marion left her she made her way to the museum, and a pleasant +hour she spent; one could certainly not desire a more attractive spot. +She went hither and thither, handling and admiring the books, the +pictures, the maps, the profusion of curiosities, and, at the end of the +hour, when the press of visitors became too great to make a longer stay +agreeable, she departed well pleased with herself that she had had the +wisdom to choose such a pleasant resort instead of a seat in some +crowded tent as a listener. + +Coming out, she walked down the hill, and on and on, watching the crowds +of people who were gathering, and wishing she had a programme that she +might see what the special attraction was that seemed to be drawing so +many. + +At last she reached the wharf. The Assembly steamer was lying at her +dock, her jaunty flags flying, and the commotion upon her decks +betokening that she was making ready for a voyage. The crowd seemed +greater there than at any other point. It would appear that the special +attraction was here, after all. She understood it, and pushed nearer, as +the ringing notes of song suddenly rose on the air, and she recognized +the voices of the Tennesseeans. + +This was a great treat; she delighted in hearing them. She allowed +herself to be elbowed and jostled by the throng, reaching every moment +by judicious pushing a place where she could not only hear but see, and +where escape was impossible. The jubilant chorus ceased and one of those +weird minor wails, such as their music abounds in, floated tenderly +around her. + +It was a farewell song, so full of genuine pathos, and so tenderly sung, +that it was in vain to try to listen without a swelling of the throat +and a sense of sadness. Something in the way that the people pressed +nearer to listen suggested to Eurie that it must be designed as a +farewell tribute to somebody, and presently Prof. Sherwin mounted a seat +that served as a platform and gave them a tender informal farewell +address. In every sentence his great, warm heart shone. + +"I am going away," he said, "before the blessed season at Chautauqua is +concluded. I am going with a sad heart, for I feel that opportunities +here for work for the Master have been great, and some of them I have +lost. And yet there is light in the sadness, for the work that I can not +do will yet be done. I once sat before my organ improvising a thought +that was in my heart, trying to give expression to it, and I could not. +I knew what I wanted, and I knew it was in my heart, but how to give it +expression I did not know. A celebrated organist came up the stairs and +stood beside me. I looked around to him. 'Can't you take this tune,' I +said, 'just where I leave it, and finish it for me as I have it in my +heart to do? I can't give it utterance. Don't you see what I want?'" + +"'Perhaps I do,' he said, and he placed his fingers over my fingers, on +the same keys that mine were touching, and I slipped out of the seat and +back into the shadow, and he slipped into my place, and then the music +rolled forth. My tune, only I could not play it. He was doing it for me. +So, though I may have failed in my work that I have tried to do here, +the great Master is here, and I pray and I hope and I believe that he +will put his grand hand upon my unfinished work and in heaven I shall +meet it completed.'" + +What was there in this to move Eurie to tears? She did not know Prof. +Sherwin--that is, she had never been introduced to him--but she had +heard him sing, she had heard him pray, she had met him in the walk and +asked where the Sunday-school lesson was, and he had in part directed +her--directed her in such a way that she had been led to seek further, +and in doing so had met Miss Ryder, and in meeting her had been +interested ever since in studying a Christian life. Was this one of +Prof. Sherwin's unfinished tunes? Would he meet it again in heaven? + +A very tender spirit took possession of Eurie--an almost irresistible +longing to know more of this influence, or presence, or whatever name it +should be called, that so moved hearts, and made the friends of a week +say farewell with tears, and yet with hopeful smiles as they spoke in +joy and assurance of a future meeting. + +Prof. Sherwin and his friends embarked, and the dainty little steamer +turned her graceful head toward Mayville, and slipped away over the +silver water. Eurie made no attempt to get away from the throng who +pressed to the edge of the dock to get the last bow, the last flutter of +his handkerchief. She even drew out her own handkerchief and fluttered +it after him, and received from him a special bow, and was almost +decided to resolve to be present in joy at that other meeting, and to +make sure this very day of her title to an inheritance there. Almost! + +Going back she met Ruth and Flossy. She seized eagerly upon the latter. + +"Come," she said, "you have been to meetings enough, and you haven't +taken a single walk with me since we have been here, and think of the +promises we made to entertain each other." + +Flossy laughed cheerfully. + +"We have been entertained, without any effort on our part," she said. +Nevertheless she suffered herself to be persuaded to go for a walk, +provided Eurie would go to Palestine. + +"What nonsense!" Eurie said, disdainfully, when Flossy had explained to +her that she had a consuming desire to wander along the banks of the +Jordan, and view those ancient cities, historic now. "However, I would +just as soon walk in that direction as any other." + +There was one other person who, it transpired, would as soon take a walk +as do anything else just then. He joined the girls as they turned toward +the Palestine road. That was Mr. Evan Roberts. + +"Are you going to visit the Holy Land this morning, and may I be of your +party?" he asked. + +"Yes," Flossy answered, whether to the first question, or to both in +one, she did not say. Then she introduced Eurie, and the three walked on +together, discussing the morning and the meetings with zest. + +"Here we are, on 'Jordan's stormy banks,'" Mr. Roberts said, at last, +halting beside the grassy bank. "I suppose there was never a more +perfect geographical representation than this." + +"Do you really think it has any practical value?" Eurie asked, +skeptically. Mr. Roberts looked at her curiously. + +"Hasn't it to you?" he said. "Now, to me, it is just brimful of +interest and value; that is, as much value as geographical knowledge +ever is. I take two views of it. If I never have an actual sight of the +sacred land, by studying this miniature of it, I have as full a +knowledge as it is possible to get without the actual view, and if I at +some future day am permitted to travel there, why--well, you know of +course how pleasant it is to be thoroughly posted in regard to the +places of interest that you are about to visit; every European traveler +understands that." + +"But do you suppose it is really an accurate outline?" Eurie said, +again, quoting opinions that she had read until she fancied they were +her own. + +Again Mr. Roberts favored her with that peculiar look from under heavy +eyebrows--a look half satirical, half amused. + +"Some of the most skilled surveyors and traveled scholars have so +reported," he said, carelessly. "And when you add to that the fact that +they are Christian men, who have no special reason for getting up a +wholesale deception for us, and are supposed to be tolerably reliable +on all other subjects, I see no reason to doubt the statement." + +On the whole, Eurie had the satisfaction of realizing that she had +appeared like a simpleton. + +Flossy, meantime, was wandering delightedly along the banks, stopping +here and there to read the words on the little white tablets that marked +the places of special interest. + +"Do you see," she said, turning eagerly, "that these are Bible +references on each tablet? Wouldn't it be interesting to know what they +selected as the scene to especially mark this place?" + +Mr. Roberts swung a camp-chair from his arm, planted it firmly in the +ground, and drew a Bible from his pocket. + +"Miss Mitchell," he said, "suppose you sit down here in this road, +leading from Jerusalem to Bethany, and tell us what is going on just now +in Bethany, while Miss Shipley and I supply you with chapter and verse." + +"I am not very familiar with the text-book," Eurie said. "If you are +really in the village yourselves you might possibly inquire of the +inhabitants before I could find the account." But she took the chair +and the Bible. + +"Look at Matthew xxi. 17, Eurie," Flossy said, stooping over the tablet, +and Eurie read: + +"'And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged +there.'" + +"That was Jesus, wasn't it? Then he went this way, this very road, +Eurie, where you are sitting!" It was certainly very fascinating. + +"And stopped at the house on which you have your hand, perhaps," Mr. +Roberts said, smiling at her eager face. + +"That might have been Simon's house, for instance." + +"Did _he_ live in Bethany? I don't know anything about these things." + +"Eurie, look if you can find anything about him. The next reference is +Matthew xxvi." + +And again Eurie read: + +"'Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper.'" + +"The very place!" Flossy said, again. "Oh, I want so much to know what +happened then!" + +"Won't Miss Mitchell read it to us?" Mr. Roberts said, and he arranged +his shawl along the ground for seats. "Since we have really come to +Bethany, let us have the full benefit of it. Now, Miss Shipley, take a +seat, and we will give ourselves up to the pleasure of being with Jesus +in Simon's house, and looking on at the scene." + +So they disposed of themselves on the grass, and Eurie, hardly able to +restrain a laugh over the novelty of the situation, and yet wonderfully +fascinated by the whole scene, read to them the tender story of the +loving woman with her sweet-smelling ointment, growing more and more +interested, until in the closing verse her voice was full of feeling. + +"'Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in +the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done be +told as a memorial of her.'" + +"Think of that!" said Mr. Roberts. "And here are we, eighteen hundred +years afterward, sitting here in Bethany and talking of that same woman +still! Miss Mitchell, are you going to do something for Christ that +shall be talked over a thousand years from now? There is a chance for +undying fame." + +"Doubtful!" Eurie said, but she did not smile; her face was grave. + +"Or, better still, are you going to do such work for Christ that, +hundreds of years after, your influence will be silently living and +working out its fruit in human hearts?" + +"It is altogether more likely that I shall do nothing at all." + +"Out of the question," he said, with a grave smile. "Either for or +against, every life must be, whether we will it or not. 'He that is not +with me is against me,' was the word of the Master himself, and as long +as eternity lasts the fruit of the sowing will last." + +"That is a fearfully solemn thought," Flossy said, earnestly. + +Mr. Roberts turned toward her a face aglow with smiles now. + +"And a wondrously precious one," he said, and Flossy answered him in a +low tone: + +"Yes, I can see that it might be." + +Now, the actual fact is, that those three people wandered around that +far-away land until the morning vanished and the loud peal of the +Chautauqua bells announced the fact that the feast of intellect was +over, and it was time for dinner They went from Bethany to Bethel, and +from Bethel to Shechem, and they even climbed Mount Hermon's snowy peak, +and looked about on the lovely plain below. In every place there was +Bible reading, and Eurie was the reader, and it was such a morning that +she will remember for all time. + +"Pray, who is this Mr. Roberts?" she asked, as they parted company at +the foot of the hill. "Where did you make his acquaintance?" + +"He is Mrs. Smythe's nephew," Flossy said. "She introduced me to him the +other evening." + +"The other evening! You seemed to be as well acquainted as though you +had spent the summer together." + +"Some people have a way of seeming like friends on short acquaintance," +Flossy said, with grave face and smiling eyes. + +"You two missed a good deal by your folly this morning," Ruth said, as +they met at dinner. "We had a grand lecture." + +"So had we," answered Eurie, significantly, and that was every word she +vouchsafed concerning the trip to Palestine. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +MENTAL PROBLEMS. + + +"Dr. Deems," said Ruth, looking up from her programme with a thoughtful +air. "I wonder if he is a man whom I have any special desire to hear?" + +You must constantly remember the entire ignorance of these girls on all +names and topics that pertained to the religious world. Ruth knew indeed +that the gentleman in question was a New York clergyman; that was as far +as her knowledge extended. + +"His subject is interesting," Flossy said. + +"I don't think it is," said Eurie. "Not to me, anyhow. Nature and I +have nothing in common, except to have a good time together if we can +get it. She is a miserably disappointed jade, I know. What has she done +for us since we have been here except to arrange rainy weather? I'm +going to visit his honor the mummy this morning, and from there I am +going to the old pyramid; and I advise you to go with me, all of you. +Talk about nature when there is an old fellow to see who was acquainted +with it thousands of years ago. Nature is too common an affair to be +interested in." + +"Oh, are you going to the museum?" said Flossy. "Then please get me one +of the 'Bliss' singing books, will you? I want to secure one before they +are all gone. Girls, don't you each want one of them to take home? The +hymns are lovely." + +"I don't," said Eurie, "unless he is for sale to go along and sing them. +I can't imagine anything tamer than to hear some commonplace voice +trying to do those songs that he roars out without any effort at all. +What has become of the man?" + +"He has gone," said Marion. "Called home suddenly, some one told me. +His singing is splendid, isn't it? I don't know but I feel much as you +do about the book. Think of having Deacon Miller try to sing, 'Only an +armor-bearer!' I don't mind telling you that I felt very much as if I +were being lifted right off my feet and carried up somewhere, I hardly +know where, when I heard him sing that. I was coming down the hill, away +off, you know, by the post-office--no, away above the post-office, and +he suddenly burst forth. I stopped to listen, and I could hear every +single word as distinctly as I can hear you in this tent." + +"Hear!" said Eurie, "I guess you could. I shouldn't be surprised if they +heard him over at Mayville, and that is what brings such crowds here +every day. Did you ever _see_ anything like the way the people come +here, anyhow?" + +"I don't feel at all as you do," said Flossy, going back to the question +of singing-books. "After we get let down a little, 'Only an +armor-bearer' will sound very well even from common singers. It has in +it what can't be taken out because a certain voice is lost; and the +book is full of other and simpler pieces, and lovely choruses, that +people can catch after one hearing." + +"Flossy is going home to introduce it into the First Church," Eurie +said, gravely. + +Flossy's cheeks flushed. + +"I had not thought of that," she said, simply; "perhaps we can. In any +case get me a couple, Eurie." + +The discussion on the morning service ended in a division of the party. +Ruth, who had come over early on purpose to attend, was obliged to +succumb to a feeling of utter weariness and lie down. + +Eurie steadily refused to go to the platform meeting, assuring them that +she knew Dr. Deems would be "as dry as a stick; all New York ministers +were." + +So Flossy and Marion went away together, Marion with her note-book in +the hope of getting an item for a newspaper letter that must be written +that afternoon. + +They were late, and almost abandoned in despair the hope of getting +within hearing, until a happy thought suggested a seat on the platform +stair at the speaker's back. There was a "crack" there, Marion said, +into which they presently crept. + +The address was already commenced. Marion listened at first with that +indifferent air that a face wears when its owner perforce commences in +the middle of a thing, and has to _wait_ his way to a tangible idea of +what is being said. + +There was not long waiting, however. Her eyes began to dilate and her +face to glow; she was almost a worshiper of eloquence, and surely no one +ever sat for two hours and listened to a more unbroken flow of rich, +glowing words, shining like diamonds, than fell lavishly around the +listeners that Friday morning at Chautauqua. But a few minutes and +Marion's pencil began to move with speed. This was the thought that had +thrilled her: + +"First, light; then liberation from chaos; then grass; and then God +stopped his work and gazed with delight on the picture he had drawn. +Think what a picture it must have been! There was nothing but rocks +ground down when God said, 'Earth, grow!' Then straightway the mother +power fell down upon the earth, life pulsed in her veins, and the baby +shoot of grass sprang up, and the rocky earth wrapped herself in her +garment of emerald, and God, stopping his work said, 'Useful, +beautiful!'" + +When the speaker touched upon the doctrine of the resurrection Marion's +pencil paused, and she leaned eagerly forward to get a glimpse of his +face. That doctrine had seemed to her doubting heart the strangest, +wildest, most hopeless of the Christian theories. If clear light could +shine on that, could there not on _anything_? Her face was aglow with +interest not only, but with anxiety. + +This morning, for the first time in her life, she could be called an +honest doubter. She had fancied herself able to believe any thing of +which her reason had been convinced; but she found, to her surprise and +dismay, that so fixed had the habit of unbelief become, it seemed +impossible to shake it off, and that she needed to be convinced and +reconvinced; that her questionings came in on every hand, seized upon +the smallest point, and tormented her without mercy. What about this +strange story of the resurrection? + +As she listened a subdued smile broke over her face--a smile of +sarcasm. How very absurdly simple the argument from nature was, how +utterly unanswerable! And after the sentence, "Tell me how that +wonderful field of waving grain came from the bare kernels of corn, and +I will tell you how my blessed baby shall rise an angel," Marion said in +tone so distinct that it struck on Flossy's ear like a knell, "What a +fool!" Not the speaker, as the dismayed and disappointed Flossy +supposed, but _herself_. + +"The measure of every man is his faith," said Dr. Deems. "The greatest +thing a human being can do is not to perceive, nor to _compare_, not to +_reason_, but to _believe_." And again Marion smiled. If this were true +what a pigmy she must be! She began to more than suspect that she was. + +"Don't waste time," said the Doctor, "in trying to reconcile science and +the Bible. Science wasn't intended to teach religion. The Bible wasn't +intended to teach science; but wherever they touch they agree. God sends +his servants--scientific men--all abroad through nature to gather facts +with which to illustrate the Bible." + +Marion began to write again, but it was only in snatches here and +there; not that there was not that which she longed to catch, but she +could not write it--the sentences just poured forth; and how perfectly +aglow with light and beauty they were! This one sentence she presently +wrote: + +"In the black ink of his power God wrote the Book of nature; in the red +ink of his love he wrote the Bible; and all this _power_ is to bring us +all to this _love_. Oh, to rest in arms like these! Are they not strong +enough?" + +Suddenly Marion closed her book and slipped her pencil into her pocket; +she could not write. And although she thrilled through every nerve over +the majestic sentences that followed and was carried to a pitch of +enthusiasm almost beyond her control, when the jubilant thunder of +thousands of voices rang together in the matchless closing words, +"Blessing, and glory, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, +be unto our God, forever and ever. Amen." She made no further attempt to +write; her heart was full; there rang in it this eager cry, "Oh, to rest +in arms like these!" Strong enough? Aye, indeed! Doubts were forever set +at rest. The Maker of all nature could be none other than God, and the +God of nature was the God of the Bible. It was as clear as the sunlight. +Reason was forever satisfied, but there lingered yet the hungering cry, +"Oh, to rest in arms like these!" + +And Flossy said not a word to her of the resting place. Not because she +had not found it strong and safe; not because she did not long to have +her friend rest there, but because of that despairing murmur in her +heart. "What is the use in saying anything? Had she not heard with her +own ears Marion's sneering sentence in the face of the unanswerable +arguments that had been presented?" I wonder how often we turn away from +harvest fields that are ready for the reader because we mistake for a +sneer that which is the admission of a convicted soul? + +By afternoon Ruth was rested and ready for meeting; if the truth be +known it was her troubled brain which had tired her body and obliged her +to rest. She had begun to take up that problem of "Christian work." The +platform meeting of the evening before, and, more than anything else, +Dr. Niles' address, had fanned her heart into a flame of desire to do +something for the Master. But what could she do? She and Flossy had +talked it over together after they reached their room at the hotel; in +fact they talked away into the night. + +"I don't know," Flossy said, with a little laugh, "but I shall have to +depend on the 'unconscious influence' which I exert to do my work for +me. I don't know of anything which I can actually _do_. Dr. Niles made a +great deal of that." + +"Yes," Ruth, said, "but you see, Flossy, the people whose unconscious +influence does any good are the ones after all who are moving around +_trying_ to do something. I don't feel sure that he lets the unconscious +influence of the drones amount to much, unless it is in the wrong scale. +Dr. Niles made a good deal of _that_, you remember." + +"Don't you like him ever so much, Ruth?" + +"Why, yes," Ruth said again, turning her pillow wearily. "I liked him of +course; how could I help it? But, after all, he made me very +uncomfortable. I seem to feel as though I _must_ find something to do. I +have a great deal of time to make up. I tell you what it is, Flossy, I +wish you and I could do something for those two girls. Isn't it strange +that they are not interested?" + +"But they are not." Flossy said it as positively as if she could see +right into their hearts. "I think Marion is worse than ever; and as for +Eurie, she won't even go to the meetings, you know." + +"I know. Perhaps we would only do harm to try. But what _can_ we do? I +am sure I don't see anything. And don't you know how clearly Dr. Niles +made it appear that there was a special work for each one?" + +So they discussed the question, turning it over and over, and getting +almost no light, coming to feel themselves very useless and worthless +specks on the sea of life, until late in the night Flossy said: + +"I'll tell you what it is, Ruth, we must just ask for work--little bits +of work, you know--and then keep our eyes open until it comes. I know of +things I can do when I get home." + +"So do I," said Ruth, "but I want to begin now." + +Silence for a few minutes, and then Flossy asked: + +"Ruthie, have you written to Mr. Wayne?" + +"No," said Ruth, her cheeks flushing even in the darkness. "I wrote a +long letter just before this came to me, but I burned it, and I am glad +of it." + +Then they went to sleep. But the desire for the work did not fade with +the daylight. Flossy had even been tempted to say a humble little word +to Marion, but had been deterred by the sound of that sneer of which I +told you; and Ruth, lying on her bed, had revolved the subject and sent +up many an earnest prayer, and went out to afternoon service resolved +upon keeping her eyes very wide open. + +The special attraction for the afternoon was a conference of primary +class teachers. They were out in full force, and were ready for any +questions that might fill the hearts and the mouths of eager learners. +Our girls had each their special favorites among these leaders. Ruth +found herself attracted and deeply interested in every word that Mrs. +Clark uttered. Marion was making a study of both Mrs. Knox and Miss +Morris, and found it difficult to tell which attracted her most. Even +Eurie was ready for this meeting. She had never been able to shake off +the thought of Miss Rider, and her eager enthusiasm in this work, while +Flossy had been fascinated and carried away captive by the magnetic +voice and manner of Mrs. Partridge. + +"She makes me glow," Flossy said, in trying to explain the feeling to +the calmer Ruth. "Her life seems to quiver all through me, and make me +long to reach after it; to have the same power which she has over the +hearts of wild uncared-for children." + +And Ruth looked down on the exquisite bit of flesh and blood beside her, +and thought of her elegant home and her elegant mother, and of all the +softening and enervating influences of her city life, and laughed. How +little had she in common with such a work as that to which Mrs. +Partridge had given her soul! + +Keeping her eyes open, as she had planned to do, this same Flossy saw as +she was passing down the aisle the hungry face of one of her boys, as +she had mentally called the Arabs with whom her life had brushed on the +Sunday morning The word just described it still, a hungry face like one +hanging wistfully around the outskirts of a feast in which he had no +share. Flossy let go her hold of Ruth's arm and darted toward him. + +"How do you do?" she said, in winning voice, before he had even seen +her. "I am real glad to see you again. If you will come with me I will +get a seat for you. A lady is going to speak this afternoon who has five +hundred boys in her class in Sunday-school." + +Now the Flossy of two weeks ago, if she could have imagined herself in +any such business, would have been utterly disgusted with the result, +and gone away with her pretty nose very high. + +The boy turned his dirty face toward her and said, calmly: + +"What a whopper!" + +The experience of a lifetime could not have answered more deftly: + +"You come and see. I am almost certain she will tell us about some of +them." + +Still he stared, and Flossy waited with her pretty face very near to +his, and her pretty hand held coaxingly out. + +"Come," she said again. And it could not have been more to the boy's +surprise than it was to hers that he presently said: + +"Well, go ahead. I can send if I don't like it. I'll follow." + +And he did. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +WAITING. + + +It required Flossy's eyes and heart both to keep watch of her boy during +the progress of that meeting. The novelty of the scene, the strangeness +of seeing ladies occupying the speaker's stand, kept him quiet and +alert, until Mrs. Partridge, that woman with wonderful power over the +forgotten, neglected portion of the world, arrested all his bewildering +thoughts and centered them on the strange stories she had to tell. + +Did you ever hear her tell that remarkable story of her first attempt at +controlling that remarkable class which came under her care, many years +ago, in St. Louis? It is full of wonder and pathos and terror and +fascination, even to those who are somewhat familiar with such +experiences. But Flossy and her boy had never heard, or dreamed of its +like. No, I am wrong; the boy had dreamed of scenes just so wild and +daring, but even he had not fancied that such people ever found their +way to Sunday-schools. + +Peanuts, cigars, a pack of cards, and a bowie-knife! Imagine yourself, +teacher, to be seated before your orderly and courteous class of boys +next Sunday morning and find them transformed into beings represented by +such surroundings as these! It was Mrs. Partridge's experience. How +fascinating that story is! That one incorrigible boy, the one with the +bowie-knife, the one who would make no answer to her questions, show no +interest in her stories, ignore her very presence and go on with his +horrible mischief, until it even came to a stabbing affray right there +in the class-room! + +Imagine her meeting that boy ten years afterward, when he was not only a +man, but a gentleman; not only that, but a Christian and not only that, +but a working Christian, superintending a mission Sunday-school, giving +his best energies and his best time to work like that! Think of being +told by him that the determination to amount to something was taken that +morning, ten years before, when he seemed not to be listening nor +caring! What is ten years of Christian work when we can hope for such +results as that! + +Flossy had forgotten her charge; her face was all aglow; so was her +heart. She knew more about Christian work than she did an hour before. +She had learned that we must take the step that plainly comes next to be +taken, no matter for the darkness of the day and the apparent gloom of +the future. _Work_ is ours; _results_ are God's. This life business is +divided. Partnership with God. Nothing but _the work_ to do; so that it +is done to the utmost limit of our best, the responsibility is the +Lord's. That was blessed! She could dare to try. + +Meantime the boy. He had listened in utmost silence, and with eyes that +never for an instant left the speaker's face! When the spell was broken +he drew a long sigh, and this was his mighty conclusion. + +"That chap was enough sight meaner than I'd ever be, and yet he got to +be _some_! I'll be blamed if I don't see what can be done in that line!" + +A small beginning; so small that on Flossy's face it excited only +smiles. She was ignorant, you know. To Mrs. Partridge that sentence +would have been worth a wedge of gold. But it is possible that Flossy's +first simple little reach after work may have fruit to bear. + +It is difficult to begin to tell about that next day at Chautauqua. +There was so much crowded into it that it would almost make a little +book of itself. The morning was spent by a large class of people in a +state of excited unrest and expectancy. The sensible ones by the +hundreds, and indeed I suppose I may say by the thousands, went to the +morning service, as usual, and heard the children's sermon, delivered by +Dr. Newton; and those who did not, and who afterward had the misfortune +to fall in with those who did, bemoaned their folly in not doing +likewise. On the whole, the children, and those who had brains enough to +become children for the time being, were the only comfortable ones at +Chautauqua that Saturday morning. + +The president was coming! So, apparently, was the rest of the world! +Oh, the throngs and throngs that continually arrived! It of itself was a +rare and never-to-be-forgotten novelty to those who had never in their +lives before seen such a vast army of human beings gathered into a small +space, and all perfectly quiet and correct, and even courteous in their +deportment. + +"Where are the drunken men?" said Marion, looking around curiously on +the constantly increasing throng. "We always read of them as being in +great crowds." + +"Yes, and the people who swear," added Eurie. "I haven't heard an oath +this morning, and I have roamed around everywhere. I must say Chautauqua +will bear off the palm for getting together a most respectable-looking, +well-behaved 'rabble!' That is what I overheard a sour-looking old +gentleman, who doesn't approve of having a president--or of letting him +come to a religious meeting, I don't know which--say would rush in +to-day. It certainly is a remarkably orderly 'rush.' Girls, look at Dr. +Vincent! I declare, Chautauqua has paid, just to watch him! He ought to +be the president himself. I mean to vote for him when female suffrage +comes in. Or a king! Wouldn't he make a grand king? How he would enjoy +ordering the subjects and enforcing his laws!" + +"All of which he seems able to do now," Marion said. "I don't believe he +would thank you for a vote. His realm is large enough, and he seems to +have willing subjects." + +"He has go-ahead-a-tive-ness." Eurie said. "What is the proper word for +that, school-ma'am? Executive ability, that's it. Those are splendid +words, and they ought to be added to his name. I tell you what, girls, I +wish we could cut him up into seven men, and take him home with us. +Seven first-class men made out of him and distributed through the towns +about us would make a new order of things." + +All this was being said while they were scrambling with the rest of the +world down to the auditorium to secure seats, for the grand afternoon +had arrived, and people had been advised to be "in their seats as soon +after one o'clock as they could make it convenient." + +"How soon will that be, I wonder?" Marion said, quoting this sentence +from Dr. Vincent's advice given in the morning, and holding up her +watch to show that it was five minutes of one. + +"It looks to me as though those deluded beings who arrive here at one +o'clock will have several hours of patient waiting before they will make +it convenient to secure seats. Just stand a minute, girls, and look! It +is worth seeing. Away back, just as far as I can see, there is nothing +but heads! The aisles are full, and space between the seats, and the +office is full, and the people are just pouring down from the hill in a +continuous stream. To look that way you wouldn't think that any had got +down here yet!" + +Now I really wish I had a photograph of that gathering of people to put +right in here, on this page! Many of them would have looked much better +at this point than they did after four hours of patient waiting. How +that crowd did fidget and fix and change position, as far as it was +possible to change, when there was not an inch of unoccupied space. How +they talked and laughed and sang and grumbled and yawned, and sang +again! + +It _was_ a tedious waiting. It had its irresistibly comic side. There +were those among the Chautauqua girls who could see the comic side of +things with very little trouble. The material out of which they made +some of their fun might have appeared very meager to orderly, decorous +people. But they made it. + +What infinite sport they got out of the fidgety lady before them, who +could not get herself and her three children seated to her mind! Those +ladies who labored so industriously in order that the nation's flags, +draping the stand, should float gracefully over the nation's chief, were +an almost inexhaustible source of amusement to our girls. + +"Look!" said Eurie, "that arrangement doesn't suit; some of the stars +are hidden; see them twitch it; it will be down! Now that one has it +looped just to her fancy. No! I declare, there it comes down again! The +other one twitched it this time; they are not of the same mind. Girls, +do look! It is fun to watch them; they work as though the interests of +this meeting all turned on a right arrangement of that flag." + +By this time the attention of the girls was engaged, and the number of +witty remarks that were made at the expense of those flags would no +doubt have disconcerted the earnest workers thereat could they have +heard them. + +The hours waned, and the president did not arrive. The waiters essayed +to sing, but to lead such an army of people was a difficult task, +especially when there was no one to lead. Such singing! + +"We came out ahead, anyhow!" said Flossy, stopping to laugh. + +Five or six thousand people had finished their verse, while five or six +thousand in the rear were in the third line of it. + +"We need Mr. Bliss or Mr. Sherwin or _somebody_," said Ruth. "What a +pity that they have all gone, and Dr. Tourjée hasn't come! I thought he +was to be here." + +Presently came a singer to their rescue. The girls did not know who he +was, but he led well, and the singing became decidedly enjoyable. +Suddenly he disappeared, and they went back again into utter confusion. +They stopped singing and began to grumble. + +"Queer arrangements, anyhow," said a surly-looking man in front. "Why +didn't they have a speaker ready to address this throng, instead of +keeping us waiting here with nothing to entertain us?" + +"I know it," said Marion, briskly addressing herself to her party. "Dr. +Vincent has not used his accustomed foresight. He ought to have known +that the presidential party would be three hours late, and filled up the +programme with speeches, especially since there has been such a dearth +of speech-making during the past two weeks. We are really hungry for an +address! I don't know who would have undertaken the task, however, +unless they sent for Gabriel or some other celestial. I know _I_ have no +desire to listen to a common mortal." + +Before them sat a lady absorbed in a book. During the singing she joined +heartily, and when Dr. Vincent came, on one of his numerous journeys to +try to encourage the crowd with the information that the party waited +for had not yet arrived, she looked and listened with the rest, but +always with her finger between the leaves, as if the place was too +interesting to be lost. + +Eurie's curiosity rose to such a pitch that she leaned forward for a +peep at the title-page, and drew back suddenly. It was a copy of the +Teacher's Bible! + +A silence fell upon the company near the front, broken suddenly by an +old lady who leaned lovingly toward her chubby-faced grandson, and said: + +"Frankie, you must look in a few minutes and you will see the President +of the United States." + +"That is good news, anyhow," spoke forth a rough-looking, good-natured +man near by, and the listeners, who were in that excited state of +weariness and waiting that they were ready to laugh or cry as the +slightest occasion offered, burst forth into roars of laughter, which +rang back among the crowds behind and enticed them to join, though I +suppose not twenty of the laughers knew what the joke was, if indeed +there _was_ one. + +A sudden rush. Some one occupied the stand. A notice. + +"A telegram!" said a ringing voice. "For Mrs. C.G. Hammond. +Marked--'Death!'" + +A sympathetic murmur ran through the great company, as they moved and +wedged and fell back, and did almost impossible things, to make a road +out of that dense throng of humanity for the one to whom the president +had suddenly become an insignificance. + +Just then came the "Wyoming Trio." Blessings on them, whoever they are. +Nothing ever could have fitted in more splendidly than they did just +there and then. And the singing rested and helped them all. + +Now a sensation came in the shape of a poem that had been written for +the occasion, and was to be learned to sing in greeting to the +president. How they rang those jubilant words through those old trees! +Tender, touching words, with the Chautauqua key-note quivering all +through them. + + "Greet him! Let the air around him + Benedictions bear; + Let the hearts of all the people + Circle him with prayer.' + +"I wonder if he realizes what a blessed thing it is to be circled with +prayer?" said she of the Teacher's Bible, turning a thoughtful face upon +the four girls who had attracted her attention. + +"I wonder who Mary A. Lathbury is?" said Eurie, reading from the poem. +"She is a poet, whoever she is. There isn't a line in this that is +simply _rhyme_. I doubt if the president ever had such a rhythmical +tribute as that." + +"She is the lady with blue eyes and curls who designs the pictures in +that charming child's paper which flutters around here. I have forgotten +the name of it, but the pictures are little poems themselves." + +This was Flossy's bit of information. + +"Which designs them, the blue eyes or the curls?" Marion asked, gravely. +And then these four simpletons burst into a merry laugh. + +Still the president did not appear. The audience had exhausted their +resources and their good humor. Ominous grumblings and cross faces began +to predominate. Some darkly hinted that he was not coming at all, and +that this was a design to draw the immense crowd together. Nobody +believed it, but many were in a mood to pretend that they did. + +"I never believed in this thing," said a tall, dark-faced, +solemn-featured man, speaking in a voice loud enough to interest the +crowd in front "This sensation business I don't believe in. What do we +want of the president here! Who cares to see him? I don't like it; I +believe it is all wrong, turning a religious meeting upside down for a +sensation, and I told them so." + +Our friend Marion, you will remember, was gifted with a clear voice and +a saucy tongue. + +"If he doesn't like it," she said, quickly, "and doesn't want to see the +president, why do you suppose he has kept one of the best chairs for +four mortal hours? Don't you think that is selfish?" + +Which sentence caused ripples of laughter all about them, and quenched +the solemn-visaged man. + +But it was growing serious, this waiting. It was a great army of people +to be kept at rest, and though they had been quiet and decorous enough +thus far, it was not to be presumed that they were all people governed +by nice shades of propriety. Would the disappointment break forth into +any disagreeable demonstrations? Dr. Vincent had done what he could; he +had appeared promptly on the arrival of dispatches, and given the +latest news that the telegraph and the telescope would send. But what +can any mortal man do who has arranged for people to come who do not +come, except wait for them with what patience he can command. + +At this ominous moment he appeared before them again. Not a notice this +time; something which shone in his eyes and quivered in every vein and +rang in his trumpet-like voice. This was what he said. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +SETTLED QUESTIONS. + + +Dear Friends: I should bear a burden on my conscience, if I did not come +to you to-day with the 'old, old story.' + +"Over the tent which has been prepared for the President of the United +States there glows, done in evergreen, this single word, '_rest_.' + +"As I pass it, I am reminded of another and a different rest: the rest +from every burden, every anxiety, every pain, every sin; who has rested +in those everlasting arms? There is coming a day when all this throng of +human life gathered here shall wait for the coming of the King. Yea, +even the 'King of kings.' Should that time be to-day, who is ready? Do +you know his power? Do you know his grace? Do you know his love? Through +the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, every one of you may have that +King for your father; I am commissioned, this day, to bring this +invitation to each one of you; 'Come unto me all ye that are heavy +laden, and I will give you rest.' Will you come?------Pardon this +interruption--no, I will not ask your pardon: it is never an +interruption to bring good news from the King to his subjects. I will +not weary you with a long presentation; I have only this message: you +are all invited to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, and be saved from +every possible calamity; you are all invited to come now. I am going to +ask the Tennesseeans to sing one of my favorites: + + "'Brother, don't stay away; + For my Lord says there's room enough, + Room enough in the heaven for you.'" + +Never were tender words more tenderly sung! Never did they steal out +upon the hearts of a more hushed and solemn audience. That matchless +word of gospel had touched home. There were those in the crowd who had +never realized before that the invitation was for them. + +Following the hymn came another, suggested also by Dr. Vincent: "Steal +away to Jesus." It is one of the sweetest as well as one of the +strangest of African melodies; and as the tender message floated up +among the trees, a strange hush settled over the listeners; many tears +were quietly wiped away from eyes unused to weeping. + +"Now sing 'Almost persuaded,'" said Dr. Vincent, his own voice tremulous +with his highly wrought feeling. Many voices took that up. Even the +Chautauqua girls sang, all but Eurie. With the sentence: + + "Seems now some soul to say, + Go, spirit, go thy way; + Some more convenient day + On thee I'll call." + +Flossy tamed her anxious, appealing eyes on Eurie, but she was laughing +merrily over the attempt of a feeble old man near her to join in the +song, and Flossy whispered sadly to Ruth: "Eurie has not even as much +interest as that." + +The spell of the message and the music lingered, even after Dr. Vincent +had gone again. There was no more grumbling; there was very little +laughing; a subdued spirit seemed to brood over the great company. + +"We could almost have a revival, right here," said one thoughtful man, +looking with searching eyes, up and down the sea of faces. + +"I tell you, no grander opportunity was ever more grandly improved than +by those few words of Dr. Vincent's. They touched bottom. He will meet +those words again with joy, or I am mistaken." + +But the waiting was over; suddenly the Chautauqua bells began to peal; +strains of martial music, and the roll of drums, mingled with the +booming of cannon; and almost before they were aware, even after all +their waiting, twenty thousand people stood face to face with their +nation's chief. + +"When the president's head appears above this platform, I hope it will +thunder here," had been Dr. Vincent's suggestion several hours before. + +Thunder! That was no comparison! I hope even _he_ was satisfied. Then +how that song of greeting rung out; tender still, even in its power: +"Let the hearts of all the people circle him with prayer." No better +gift for him than that. + +After the cheering and the singing, and the very brief speech from the +president himself, came the address of welcome by Dr. Fowler of Chicago. +His first sentence sent the multitude into another storm of cheers. Said +he: "The work that I thought to do, has been done by twenty thousand +people." How could they help doing it again after that? Chautauqua had +not dropped her colors in this plan of an afternoon given to the +president. + +The address of welcome from first to last rang with the gospel +invitation, "come;" no better word than that even for their chief; +"honor to whom honor is due," quoted the speaker, and then followed his +graceful tribute, but it closed with a tender, dignified, earnest appeal +to the President of the United States to 'rest' in the same refuge, to +enlist under the same flag, to be loyal to the same Chief, whom they +were met to serve. + +"Out of my heart," said he: "as a man who recognizes God as the supreme +ruler of us all, I bid you come with us, and we will do you good, for +the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel." + +Poor Eurie! What a place she had chosen if she desired to hear no more +preaching. What were all these exercises, but sermons, one after the +other, strong warm unanswerable appeals to be loyal to the Great Chief? +Certainly Dr. Deems was not the man to forget the Greater in his +greeting to the under ruler; nor did he. + +"Let me speak to you in closing," said he, "to you and to this assembly, +out of my heart. We shall never all stand together again, until that +great white throne shall stop in mid heavens, and we shall stand to meet +the Chiefest of all chiefs. O men and brethren, shall we not all prepare +to meet there? Mr. President, every day prayer is made for you; we are +hoping to meet with you in heaven. Brave men who stood beside you in the +late war, and have gone on ahead, are hoping to greet you there. May you +have a good life, a happy life, a blessed life; and may other tongues +more eloquent than mine, more eloquent than even my brother's who +preceded me, bid you welcome one day to the general assembly of the +first born. Amen and amen." + +What could better close the matchless greetings than to have the +Tennesseeans circle round their president and sing again that ringing +chorus: + + "I've been redeemed, + Been washed in the blood of the Lamb." + +"I don't know what will become of the grumblers," Marion said as they +rested in various stages of dishabille, and talked the exciting scenes +over. "They have been shamefully left in the lurch; they were going to +have this affair a demoralizing dissipation from first to last, unworthy +of the spirit of Chautauqua. And if more solemn, or more searching, or +more effective preaching could be crowded into an afternoon than has +been done here, I should like to be shown how. What do you think of your +choice of entertainments, Eurie? You thought it would be safe to attend +the president's reception, you remember." + +"I don't tell all I think," Eurie answered, and then she went out among +the trees. + +Truth to tell, Eurie had heard that from which she could not get away. +Dr. Vincent's words were still sounding, "you are invited to come to +Jesus and be saved; you are invited to come _now_." There had been +nothing to dissipate that impression, everything to deepen it, and the +thought that clung and repeated itself to her heart was that plaintive +wail: + + "Almost persuaded, now to believe." + +That was certainly herself; she felt it, knew it; in the face of that +knowledge think how solemn the words grew: + + "Almost will not prevail, + Almost is but to fail; + Sad, sad that bitter wail, + Almost,--but lost!" + +Was that for her, too? In short, Eurie out there alone, among the silent +trees, felt and admitted this fact: that the time had actually come to +her when this question must be decided, either for or against, and +decided forever. + +Sunday morning at Chautauqua! A white day. There can be none of all +that throng who spent the 15th day of August, 1875, in that sacred +place, who remember it without a thrill. A perfect day! Glorious and +glowing sunshine everywhere; and beauty, such perfect beauty of lake and +grove! The God of nature smiled lovingly on Chautauqua that morning. + +Our girls seemed to think that the perfect day required perfection of +attire, and it was noticeable that the taste of each settled on spotless +white, without color or ornament, other than a spray of leaves and +grasses, which one and another of them gathered almost without knowing +it, and placed in belt or hair. Outward calm, but inward unrest, at +least so far as some were concerned; Marion Wilbur among the number. + +It was a very heavy heart that she carried that day. There was no +unbelief; that demon was conquered. Instead there was an overpowering, +terrible _certainty_. And now came Satan with the whole of her past life +which had turned to sin before her, and hurled it on her poor shrinking +shoulders, until she felt almost to faint beneath the load; she lay +miserably on her bed, and thought that she would not add to her burden +by going to the service, that she knew already too much. But an appeal +from Flossy to keep her company, as the others had gone, had the effect +of changing her mind. + +Armed each with a camp-chair, they made their way to the stand, after +the great congregation were seated. A fortunate thought those +camp-chairs had been; there was not a vacant seat anywhere. + +Marion placed her chair out of sight both of stand and speaker, but +within hearing, and gave herself up to her own troubled thoughts, until +the opening exercises were concluded and the preacher announced his +text: "The place that is called Calvary." + +She roused a little and tried to determine whose voice it was, it had a +familiar sound, but she could not be sure, and she tried to go back to +the useless questionings of her own heart; but she could not. She could +never be deaf to eloquence; whoever the speaker was, there was that in +his very opening sentences which roused and held her. Whatever he had to +say, whether or not it was anything that had to do with her, she _must_ +listen. Still the wonderment existed as to which voice it was. + +But when he reached the sentences: "Jump the ages! Come down here to +Chautauqua Lake to-day, O Son of God! O Son of Man! O Son of Mary! When +the prophet of old said, 'He shall see of the travail of his soul and +shall be satisfied,' did he look along the centuries and see the +gathered thousands here, who have just sung, 'Tell me the old, old +story'? What story? Why, the story of the place that is called +Calvary!"--Marion leaned forward and addressed the person next to her. + +"Isn't that Dr. Deems?" she said. + +"Yes indeed!" was the answer, spoken with enthusiasm. + +And Marion drew back, and listened. That sermon! Marion tried to report +it, but it was like trying to report the roll of the waves on the +Atlantic; she could only listen with beating heart and flushing cheek. +Presently she listened with a new interest, for the divisions of the +subject were: "God's thought of sin," and "God's thought of mercy." +Though the morning was warm, she shivered and drew her wrap closer +about her. "God's thought of sin! She was in a mood to comprehend in a +measure what a fearful thought it might be. + +"Some men," said the speaker, "make light of sin." Yes, she had done it +herself. "Where shall we learn what God thinks of it? On Sinai? No. God +spoke there in thunder and lightning, till the very _hills_ shook and +trembled. + +"And what were they doing down below? Dancing around a golden calf! I +tell you it is only at Calvary that we can learn God's idea of sin. For +at Calvary, because of sin, God the Father surrendered his communion +with God the Son, and on Calvary God _died_! Will God ever forgive sin? +Many a one has carried that question around in his soul until it burned +there." + +Now you can imagine how Marion tried no more to write; thought no more +about eloquence; this question, which had become to her the one terrible +question of life, was being looked into. + +"How will we find out? Go by science into nature, and there's no proof +of it; God never forgives what seems to be the mistake of even a +reptile!" + +I cannot tell you about the rest of that sermon. I took no notes of it; +my notes ended abruptly in the middle of a sentence; one cannot write +out words that are piercing to their hearts. I doubt if even Marion +Wilbur can give you any satisfactory account of the wording of the +sentences. And yet Marion Wilbur rose up at its close, with cheeks aglow +not only with tears, but smiles; and the question, "Will God ever +forgive sin?" she could answer. + +There was a place where the burden would roll away. "At the place called +Calvary." She knew it, believed it, felt it,--why should she not? She +had been there in very deed, that summer morning. He had seen again of +the travail of his soul, he was one soul nearer to being satisfied. + +There were other matters of interest: those two Bibles, symbol of the +Chautauqua pulse,--that were presented to the nation's highest officer; +the address which accompanied them--simple, earnest gospel; the hymn +they sang,--_everything_ was full of interest. But Marion let it pass by +her like the sound of music, and the words in her heart that kept time +to it all were the closing words of that sermon: + + "Here I could forever stay, + Sit and _sing_ my life away. + This is more than life to me, + Lovely, mournful Calvary." + +It was so, all day. She went to the afternoon service; she listened to +Dr. Fowler's sermon, not as she had ever listened to one before; the +sermon for the first time was for her. When people listen for +_themselves_, there is a difference. She felt fed and strengthened; she +joined in the singing as her voice had never joined before; they were +singing about _her_ Saviour. Then she went back to her tent. + +"I am not going to-night," she said to the girls. "I am full, I want +nothing more to-day." + +"Preached out, I declare!" said Eurie. "Are you going to write out your +report for the paper? I wouldn't, Marion. I would go to the meeting. I +am going." + +"No," said Marion in answer to the question, and smiling at the thought. +How strange it would seem to her to spend _this_ Sabbath evening thus. +How many had she so spent! + +"I am glad to-morrow is the last day," she said, sinking into a chair; +"I want to go home." + +And Flossy and Ruth looked at each other, and sighed. How well these +girls understood one another! Why can't people be frank and speak so +that they can be understood? + +Suppose Marion had said: "No, I am _not_ going to write my report, I am +going to pray." Suppose she had said; "Yes, I want to go home to +_practice_." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +THE BEGINNING OF THE END. + + +It is a troublesome fact that, even when people are very much +interested, and very eager over important themes, commonplace and +comparatively trivial duties, will intrude, and insist upon being done +at that moment. For instance, our girls were obliged to spend the whole +of Monday morning in packing their trunks and satchels, returning their +furniture, settling for their tents, and the like; in short, breaking up +housekeeping and getting ready to go back to the civilized world. Flossy +and Ruth dispatched their part at the hotel promptly and came over to +the grounds to help the others. They discussed the meeting while they +worked. + +"If we hadn't been idiots," Marion said, "we should have attended that +normal class and been graduating, this morning, instead of being down +here, at work at our trunks and unknown to fame." + +"Well, you wouldn't go," Ruth answered. "Don't you know you declared +that was too much like work, and you hadn't an idea of learning +anything?" + +"Oh, yes," said Marion. "I remember a great many things I have said, +that I would quite as soon forget." + +By dint of eager bustling from one point to another, the work was +accomplished by noon, and all the girls were ready for the afternoon +service, which all seemed equally eager to attend. When they reached the +stand they looked about them in surprise and dismay. + +"Everybody is gone!" said Flossy, "only look! There are ever so many +unoccupied seats!" + +Marion laughed. + +"And ever so many that are occupied," she said. "My child, you have +been so used to counting audiences by the thousands, that sixteen or +seventeen hundred people look rather commonplace to you. However, there +are more than that number here, I think." + +It soon became a matter of small importance, whether there were few or +many, so long as they had the good fortune to be there themselves, and +to have the company of Dr. Eben Tourjée. + +Now it so happened that among these four girls there were two to whom +God had given special gifts: though neither of them had ever considered +that there were such things as gifts from God, which they were bound to +use in his service. + +There was Ruth Erskine, who had capabilities for music in the ends of +her fingers, that would have almost entranced the angels. What did she +do with her talent? Almost nothing. She hated the sickly +sentimentalities which, set to music, find their way into fashionable +parlors by the score. She was not in the society that knew of, or +craved, the higher, grander kind of music; and because she did, and did +not know it, she simply palled of the kind within her reach and let her +gift lie waste. + +Then there was Marion, whose voice was simply grand, both in power and +tone. What had she done with her voice? Sung by the hour to the old +father whose tender memory lingered with her to-day; less than nothing +with it since; no one knew she could sing; she hated singing in school, +she never went anywhere else; so only occasionally could the four walls +of her upper back room have testified that there was a talent buried +there. + +Did Dr. Tourjée travel from Boston to Chautauqua for the purpose of +inspiring and educating these two girls. I don't suppose he knew of +their existence, but that makes no difference, they are working out his +lecture all the same; in fact it is nearly a year since these Chautauqua +girls came home, and if you have any sort of desire to know what +Chautauqua theories develop into, when put to the test, please keep a +sharp lookout for "_The Chautauqua Girls at Home_." + +As the familiar talk on music went on, Ruth, with her eyes aglow, began +to plan in her own heart, first what she _might_ do, and presently what +she _would_ do. And Marion, at the other end of the seat, went through +the same process neither imagining that these same 'doings' would bring +them together, and lead to endless other doings. But that is just the +way in which life is going on every where, who imagined that what you +did yesterday, would lead your neighbor to do what he _has_ done to-day? + +"Luther said: 'Next to theology, I place sacred music.'" This was the +sentence that started a train of thought for Ruth. After that, she +listened in order that she might work. + +"Never use an interlude in church, I pray God that I may be forgiven for +the fiddle-faddle that I have strummed on organs, in the name of +interludes." + +This, delighted Marion, she hated interludes. She hated quartette +choirs. She had steadily refused to be beguiled into one, by the few who +knew that she could sing, so, when Dr. Tourjée said: "Think of the grand +old hymn, 'From all that dwell below the skies, let the Creator's praise +arise,' being warbled by one voice, a grand chorus of four coming in on +the third line!" + +Marion was entirely in sympathy with him, and eager for work in the way +in which he pointed out. It was an enjoyable afternoon in every respect. +But to "our girls" it was much more than that, it was an education. +Every one of them got ideas which they were eager to put in practice; +and they saw their ways clear to practise them to some purpose. When the +service was over, and the audience moved away, a sense of sadness and +lonliness began to creep over many, snatches of remark could be heard on +all sides. + +"Where is Dr. Fowler?" + +"Gone: went this morning." + +"Where is the Miller party?" + +"Oh, they went some time ago." + +"When did the president leave?" + +"It's all about 'go,'" Eurie said: "Look! How they are crowding down to +the boat; and only a stray one now and then coming up from there. Who +would have supposed it could make us feel so forlorn? I am glad we are +not to be at the morning meeting. I am not sure but I should cry of +homesickness. I say, girls, let's go to Palestine." + +Which suggestion was greeted with delight, and they immediately went. A +great many were of the same mind. Mr. Vanlennep in full Turkish dress, +was leading the way, and giving his familiar lecture on the--to +him--familiar spots. The girls stood near him by the sea of Galilee, and +heard his tender farewell words, and his hope that they would all meet +on the other side of Jordon. It was hard to keep back the quiet tears +from falling. + +They climbed Mount Hermon in silence, and looked over at Mount Lebanon, +they came back by the way of Cesarea, and turned aside to take a last +look at Joppa, down by the sea. In almost total silence this walk back +was accomplished. What was the matter with them all? + +Mr. Roberts had joined them, and he and Flossy walked on ahead. But +their voices were subdued and their subject--to judge from their faces, +_quieting_, to say the least. Then they all went to take their last +supper at Chautauqua. Not one of them grumbled over anything. Indeed, +they all agreed that the board had certainly improved very much during +the last few days, and that it was really remarkable that such a throng +of people could have been served so promptly and courteously, and on +the whole, so well, as had been done there. Still, it was strange to +have plenty of elbow room, and to see the waiters moving leisurely up +and down the long halls; no one in haste, no one kept waiting. + +As they rose from table, a gentleman passed through; they had passed +each other every day for a week; they had no idea what his name was, and +I suppose he knew as little about them. But he paused before them: + +"Good-bye," he said. And held out his hand, "I hope we shall all meet at +the assembly up there!" + +"Good-bye," they answered, and they shook hands. None of them smiled, +none of them thought it strange; though they had never been introduced! +It was the Chautauqua brotherhood of feeling. But after two weeks of +experience and much practice in that line, it was impossible to rid +onesself of the feeling that one must hurry down to the stand in order +to secure seats; so they hurried, and had a new experience; they were +among the first twenty on the ground. + +"The audience will be utterly lost to-night in this immense array of +seats;" Flossy said in dismay. "Doesn't it feel forlorn?" But they took +their seats, and presently came Miss Ryder and seated herself at the +piano in the twilight, and the tunes she played were soft and tender and +weird. + +"Every note says 'goodbye,'" said Ruth, and she gave a little sigh. +Presently, the calcium lights began to glow, as usual, and meantime +though everybody was supposed to have left; still, the people came from +somewhere; and at last, dismayed voices began to say: + +"Why! Did you ever see the like! I thought we should surely get good +seats to-night? Where _do_ all the people come from." + +"Look! Marion," said Eurie. "What would Dr. Harris think of such a +congregation as this! They could not get into our church, could they?" +But just then the hymn claimed attention: + +"My days are gliding swiftly by." + +How swiftly these days had glided away. How full they had been! During +the prayer that followed, all heads bowed, and the silence that fell +upon them made it seem that all hearts joined. Dr. Vincent was the +first speaker. His manner and voice had changed. Both were subdued; he +looked like a man who had been lifted up for a great mental strain and +was gradually letting down again to earth. + +"We are coming toward the close," he said. "We are more quiet than we +have been here before. Familiar faces and forms that have moved in and +out among these trees, for two weeks past, have gone. Only a few hours +and we are going; only a few hours and utter silence will fall upon +Chautauqua." + +"Oh dear!" murmured Eurie, "why _will_ he be so forlorn! I don't see why +I need care so much! Who would have supposed I could!" + +"Hush!" said Marion, and she surreptitiously wiped away a tear. "A love +feast," Dr. Vincent said they were going to have, for that last evening; +it was very much like that. The farewell from Canada came next; the +speaker said he had been "thawed out," meant to have America annexed to +Canada! Indeed they had already been annexed; in heart and soul! "Who's +who?" said he, and "what's what? Who knows?" There was just enough of +the comical mixed with the pathetic in this address to steady many a +tremulous heart. + +Dr. Presbry followed in much the same strain, closing, though, with such +a tender tribute to some who had been at the assembly the year before, +and had since gone to join the assembly that never breaks up, that the +tears came to the surface again. But those blessed Tennesseeans just at +that point made the grounds ring with the chorus, "Oh jubilee! jubilee! +the Christian religion is jubilee!" and followed it with: "I've been a +long time in the house of God, and I ain't got weary yet." + +By that time our girls looked at each other with faces on which tears +and smiles struggled for the mastery. + +"Shall we laugh, or cry?" whispered Eurie, and then they giggled +outright. But they sobered instantly and sat upright, ready to listen, +for the next one who appeared on the platform was Dr. Deems. + +He, too, commenced as if the spell of the parting was upon him. "He was +too tired," he said, "to make a short speech. Some one asked Walter +Scott why he didn't put a certain book of his into one volume instead +of five. And he said he hadn't time. It took five weeks to prepare a +speech three minutes long. And then he warmed, and grew with his subject +until the beautiful thoughts fell around them like pearls. Not only +beautiful, but searching. + +"No man," said he, "_dares_ to make a careless speech at Chautauqua, +there are too many to treasure it up, to plant it again." Of course he +knew nothing about those girls, and how much seed they were gathering +which they meant to plant; but they gathered it, all the same. He +dropped his seeds with lavish hand. This was one that took root in +Marion's brain and heart: + +"There are so many side influences that are unconscious, that the only +safe way for one to do is to let no part of himself ravel, but to keep +himself round and thorough, and healthy to the core." + +After that, Marion's pencil, on which I have to depend for my notes, +gave up in despair. "I _couldn't_ keep track of that man!" she said, +when I complained. "There was no more use to try than there would be to +count these apple blossoms," for it was this spring, and we were +standing in an apple orchard, and a perfect shower of the white, +sweet-smelling things came fluttering round our heads. But after he +'calmed down a little,' as she called it, she tried to write again; and +I copy this: + +"Brethren: This meeting will convert some of the most thoughtful people +of this generation: men who come here not knowing by personal experience +the power of this thing, men who walk thoughtfully up and down these +aisles, looking on, will say: 'There are scholars here, there are men of +genius, of great brain power, there are men and women here of every +variety of temperament, and attainment, held together for fourteen days +by one common bond,' and the perseverance, the solemnity, the hilarity, +the freedom, the naturalness, the earnestness of this meeting will so +impress them that they will know that there is a miracle holding us, a +supernatural strength. + +"May I give you to-night one word more of gospel invitation? Come, go +with us, you who do not understand this matter for yourselves, go with +us, and we _will_ do you good. Will you go to your rooms to-night and +make the resolve that shall write your names in God's book of life? The +recording angel has a trembling hand this minute, waiting for your +answer. Weary one, _so_ young and yet so tired, come, come, come now." + +Marion, with cheeks burning, and eyes very bright and earnest, looked +around her: Eurie sat next to her, she seemed unmoved, there was no sign +of tears to her bright eyes, but she was looking steadily at the +speaker. + +"Never mind!" Marion said within herself, and there came to her an eager +desire to begin her practice, to do something; what if it were utter +failure, would the fault be hers? + +Following the sudden leading that she had learned no better than to call +'impulse' she said in a quick low whisper: "Eurie, _won't you_?" And she +held her breath for the answer, and could distinctly feel the beating of +her own heart. Eurie turned great gray astonished eyes on her friend, +and said in a firm quiet voice: "I have. I settled that matter on +Saturday. Have you?" + +And then those two girls, each with the wonderful surprise ringing music +in her heart, were willing to have that meeting over. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +THE END OF THE BEGINNING. + + +It was almost over. Dr. Deems sat down amid the hush of hearts, and all +the people seemed to feel that no more words were needed. Yet, the next +moment, they greeted Frank Beard with joy, and prepared themselves with +great satisfaction to listen to what he had to say. Frank Beard was one +of Chautauqua's favorites. + +People had not the least idea that they could be beguiled into laughter; +hearts were too tender for that; yet you should have heard the bursts of +mirth that rang there for the next five minutes! Frank Beard was so +quaint, so original, so innocent in his originality, so pure and +high-toned, even in his fun, and they liked him so much that every +heart there responded to his mirth. The roars of laughter reached as +high as the music had done, but a little while before. + +Yet, when people's hearts are tender, and full, it is strange how near +laughter is to tears! Just a sentence from the same lips and the hush +fell on them again. + +Frank Beard had brought his heart with him to Chautauqua, and he was +evidently leaving some of it there. The touching little story of his +dream about his mother brought out a flutter of handkerchiefs, and made +tear-stained faces. And when he, simply as a child, tenderly as a +large-souled man, trustfully as only a Christian can, said his farewell, +and told of his joyful hope of meeting them all in the eternal morning, +absolute stillness settled over them. + +So many last words--one and another came--just a word, just "good-bye," +until we meet again; maybe here, next year, maybe there, where good-byes +are never heard. Finally came Dr. Vincent, his strong decided voice +breaking the spell, and helping them to realize that they ware men and +women with work to do: + +"Now, my friends," he said, "we really _must_ go home; it is hard to +close; I know that, no one knows it better: we _have_ closed a good many +times, and it won't _stay_ closed. The last word has been said over and +over again. I said it myself, some time ago, and here I am again: we +must just _stop_, never mind the closing; we will ring a hymn, and go +away, and next year we will begin right here, where we left it." + +But he didn't "stop," and no one wanted him to. His voice grew tender, +and his words were solemn. The last words that he would ever speak to +many a soul within sound of his voice; it could not be otherwise. You +can imagine better than I could tell you what Dr. Vincent's message +would be at such a time as that. + +Breaking into it, came the shrill sound of the whistle. The Col. +Phillips--the last boat for the night--was giving out its warning. The +Chautauqua bells began their parting peal. Not even for his own +convenience would that marvel of punctuality have the bells tarry a +moment behind the hour appointed. + +Our girls looked at each other and made signs, and nodded, and began to +slip quietly out. They had arranged to spend the night at the Mayville +House, and take an early train. Many others were softly and reluctantly +moving away. They were very quiet during that last walk down to the +wharf. Glorious moonlight was abroad, and the water shone like a sheet +of silver. + +As they walked, the evening wind brought to them the notes of the last +song which the throng at the stand were singing. A clear, ringing, yet +tender farewell. It floated sweetly down to them, growing fainter and +fainter as the distance lengthened, until, as they stepped on board the +boat, they lost its sound. There were many people going the same way, +but there was little talking. There are times when people, though they +may be very far from unhappiness, have no desire to talk. Once on deck, +Marion turned and clasped both of Eurie's hands. + +"I have had such a blessed surprise to-night!" she said, with glowing +face. "I did not think of such a thing! O Eurie, why didn't you tell +me?" + +"You cannot begin to be as surprised as I am," Eurie said. "I thought +you were miles away from such a thing. Why didn't you tell _me_?" + +Ruth and Flossy were leaning over, watching the play of the water +against the boat's side. + +"What about those two?" Eurie said, nodding her head toward them. + +Marion sighed. + +"Ruth is very far from understanding anything about it," she said; "at +least the last time I talked with her she knew as little about the +Christian life as the veriest heathen so far at least as personal duty +was concerned." + +"When was that?" + +"Why, a week ago; more than a week." + +"How long is it since you settled this question for yourself?" + +"Since yesterday," Marion said, blushing and laughing. "Eurie, you would +do for a cross-questioner." + +"And I have been on this side since Saturday,'" Eurie answered, +significantly. "A great many things can happen in a week." + +At this point, Ruth turned and came towards them. She looked quiet and +grave. + +"It is a year, isn't it? since we stood here together for the first +time," she said. "At least I seem to have had a year of life and +experience. Do you know, girls, I have something to tell you: I thought +to wait until we reached home, but I have decided to-night that I will +not. I am sorry that I have not told you before. Marion, don't you know +how like a simpleton I talked, a week ago last Saturday night? I want to +tell you that I was a fool; and was talking about that of which I knew +nothing at all. I want to assure you that there is a safe place, that I +know it now by actual experience, I have gone to the mountain and it is +sure and safe; and, oh, girls, I want you both to come so much." + +"I know the mountain;" Marion said, reaching out, and clasping Ruth's +hand. "The name of it is Calvary, it _is_ safe, and it is sufficient for +us all. Ruthie, we three are together in this thing." + +What those girls said to each other then and there is sacred to them. +But if I could, I would tell you something of the joy they felt. + +Flossy still leaned over the railing, a small quiet speck in the +moonlight. Marion kept turning her head in her direction. "Our poor +little Flossy would not understand much about this experience, I +suppose," she said at last; "she is such a child, and yet, I don't +know--sometimes I have fancied that she thinks more than we give her +credit for. That at least she has lately." + +"Let us tell her, anyway," Eurie, said, "we can't know what good it may +do. If we had not been so dreadfully afraid of each other, during the +last few days, we might have helped each other a good deal; for my part, +I have learned a lesson on which I mean to practice." + +Ruth looked up quickly, a rare smile in her eyes; she opened her lips to +speak to them, then seemed to change her mind and raised her voice: +"Flossy!" And Flossy came at her call. + +"Come here," Ruth said, withdrawing her hand from Marion's, and winding +her arm around the small figure beside her. + +"Flossy, the girls have had our very experience all by themselves, and +they want to know how long it is since you began to think about this +matter for yourself." + +Flossy turned her soft blue eyes on Marion. + +"The very night we came, Marion, and you made me come to the meeting in +the rain, you remember? I heard that which I knew would never let me +rest again, until I understood it and had it for my own. But I was very +ignorant, and foolish, and I blundered along in the dark for three +mortal days! After that Jesus found me, and I have known since what it +is to live in the light." + +"A Christian experience of ten whole days!" Eurie said. Of course she +was the first one to rise from her surprise and get possession of her +tongue. + +"Flossy, you have had a chance to get a good way ahead instead of being +behind, as we thought. You will have to show us the way." + +"Isn't this just wonderful!" broke forth Marion, suddenly, an +overwhelming sense coming over her, of the new relations that they four +would henceforth bear to each other. "Why, girls, what would they say up +there at the stand, if they could know what has come to each of us! I +almost feel like going back and telling them all. Just think what a +delight it would be to Dr. Vincent, and Dr. Deems, and, oh, to all of +them. Isn't it queer to think how well we know them all, and they are +not aware of our existence?" + +"I don't believe people will have to wait to be introduced to each +other when they get to heaven," Eurie said; "that is one of the first +things I am going to do when I get there; hunt up some of these +Chautauqua people and cultivate their acquaintance." + +This sentence gave Flossy a new thought: + +"We are really _all_ going to heaven!" + +She said it precisely as you might speak of a trip to Europe on which +your heart had long been set. + +"We are just as sure of it as though we were there this minute! Girls, +don't you know how nice we thought it would be to be together at +Chautauqua for two whole weeks? Now think of being together, there, for +a million years!" But the thought which filled Flossy's heart with a +sweet song of melody, and wreathed her face in glad smiles, was such an +overwhelming one to Marion, so immense with power and possibility, that +it seemed to her to take her very breath; she turned abruptly from the +rest and walked to the Teasel's side to still the throbbing of her +heart. + +Meantime the boat had been filling with passengers, and now she was +getting under way. Still the hush continued; the people stood closely +around the railing, on the Chautauqua side, and looked lovingly back at +the fair point of land that lay before them in glowing moonlight. +Presently a leading voice began to sing: + + "There's a land that is fairer than day, + And by faith we can see it afar; + For the Father waits over the way + To prepare us a dwelling-place there. + We shall meet in the sweet by and by, + On that beautiful shore in the sweet by and by, + We shall meet on that beautiful shore." + +Before the chorus was reached, every voice that could sing at all must +have taken up the strain. Marion, for the first time in years gave a +hint of the full compass of her powers, making Ruth turn suddenly +towards her, with a brightening face, for she saw how the singing and +the playing could fit into each other, and do good service. + +On and on stole the vessel through the silver water. The courteous +captain came around quietly for his tickets, and to one and another +with whose faces he had grown familiar he said: "We shall miss you; the +Col. Phillips has been proud of carrying you all safely back and forth." + +One said to him in return: "I hope, captain, we shall all land at last +safe in the harbor." And the captain bowed his answer in silence. It +would have been hard to speak words just then. + +But ever and anon that leading voice took up words of song. + +Still the song that best seemed to suit all hearts was that tender "By +and by," and as the lights along the Chautauqua shore grew dim it rose +again in swelling volume: + + "We shall meet, we shall sing, we shall reign, + In the land where the saved never die; + We shall rest free from sorrow and pain, + Safe at home in the sweet by and by." + +Then the refrain, repeated and re-repeated, until, as the last lingering +note of it died away, the boat touched at the wharf, and looking back, +they saw that the Chautauqua lights were out, and silence and darkness +had Fairpoint. + +"Good-bye," Marion said, and she bowed towards the distant shore; she +was smiling, but her lips were quivering. + +"We shall meet in the sweet by and by," Flossy quoted, but her voice +trembled. + +"There is a chance to do grand work first, that the final meeting may be +infinitely larger, because of us." + +This the leading voice in the singing said, as he held out his hand to +say good-bye. And as they took it some of the girls noticed for the +first time that it was Mr. Roberts; as for Flossy, she had known it all +the time. + +"We are going to try to do some of the work, Mr. Roberts," Eurie said; +"I have found the road to Bethany since I saw you, the _real_ road, and +we are going to try and keep it well trodden." + +He was shaking hands with Flossy, as Eurie spoke, and he still held her +hand while he answered: "Good news! There is plenty of work to do. It is +well that Chautauqua has gathered in new reapers. I am coming to your +city, next winter; I shall want to help you. Good-bye." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOUR GIRLS AT CHAUTAUQUA*** + + +******* This file should be named 12662-8.txt or 12662-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/6/6/12662 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/old/12662-8.zip b/old/12662-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0234e5e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12662-8.zip diff --git a/old/12662.txt b/old/12662.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e92d50c --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12662.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9712 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Four Girls at Chautauqua, by Pansy + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Four Girls at Chautauqua + +Author: Pansy + +Release Date: June 19, 2004 [eBook #12662] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOUR GIRLS AT CHAUTAUQUA*** + + +E-text prepared by Joel Erickson, Dave Morgan, and Project Gutenberg +Distributed Proofreaders + + + +Transcriber's note: The original text contained typographical errors + and spelling inconsistencies. Where possible these + have been corrected; many could not be resolved + and remain as they appeared in the source text. + + + + + +FOUR GIRLS AT CHAUTAUQUA + +BY + +PANSY + +Author of "Chautauqua Girls at Home," "Ruth Erskine's Crosses," "Judge +Burnham's Daughters," "The Hall in The Grove," "Eighty-Seven," etc. + +1876 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAPTER I. INTRODUCED. + CHAPTER II. THE QUESTION DISCUSSED. + CHAPTER III. ENTERING THE CURRENT. + CHAPTER IV. FAIRPOINT. + CHAPTER V. UNREST. + CHAPTER VI. FEASTS. + CHAPTER VII. TABLE TALK. + CHAPTER VIII. "AT EVENING TIME IT SHALL BE BRIGHT." + CHAPTER IX. FLEEING. + CHAPTER X. HOW THE "FLITTING" ENDED. + CHAPTER XI. HEART TOUCHES. + CHAPTER XII. FLOSSY AT SCHOOL. + CHAPTER XIII. "CROSS PURPOSES." + CHAPTER XIV. THE NEW LESSON. + CHAPTER XV. GREAT MEN. + CHAPTER XVI. WAR OF WORDS. + CHAPTER XVII. GETTING READY TO LIVE. + CHAPTER XVIII. THE SILENT WITNESS. + CHAPTER XIX. AN OLD STORY. + CHAPTER XX. PEOPLE WHO, "HAVING EYES, SEE NOT." + CHAPTER XXI. A "SENSE OF DUTY." + CHAPTER XXII. ONE MINUTE'S WORK. + CHAPTER XXIII. "I'VE BEEN REDEEMED." + CHAPTER XXIV. SWORD THRUSTS. + CHAPTER XXV. SERMONS IN CHALK. + CHAPTER XXVI. "THEIR WORKS DO FOLLOW THEM." + CHAPTER XXVII. UNFINISHED MUSIC. + CHAPTER XXVIII. MENTAL PROBLEMS. + CHAPTER XXIX. WAITING. + CHAPTER XXX. SETTLED QUESTIONS. + CHAPTER XXXI. THE BEGINNING OF THE END. + CHAPTER XXXII. THE END OF THE BEGINNING. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +INTRODUCED. + + +Eurie Mitchell shut the door with a bang and ran up the stairs two steps +at a time. She nearly always banged doors, and was always in a hurry. +She tapped firmly at the door just at the head of the stairs; then she +pushed it open and entered. + +"Are you going?" she said, and her face was all in a glow of excitement +and pleasure. + +The young lady to whom she spoke measured the velvet to see if it was +long enough for the hat she was binding, raised her eyes for just an +instant to the eager face before her, and said "Good-morning." + +"Ruth Erskine! what are you trimming your hat for? Didn't it suit? Say, +are you going? Why in the world don't you tell me? I have been half wild +all the morning." + +Ruth Erskine smiled. "Which question shall I answer first? What a +perfect interrogation point you are, Eurie. My hats never suit, you +know; this one was worse than usual. This velvet is a pretty shade, +isn't it? Am I going to Chautauqua, do you mean? I am sure I don't know. +I haven't thought much about it. Do you really suppose it will be worth +while?" + +Eurie stamped her foot impatiently. "How provoking you are! Haven't +thought of it, and here I have been talking and coaxing all the morning. +Father thinks it is a wild scheme, of course, and sees no sense in +spending so much money; but I'm going for all that. I don't have a +frolic once in an age, and I have set my heart on this. Just think of +living in the woods for two whole weeks! camping out, and doing all +sorts of wild things. I'm just delighted." + +Miss Erskine sewed thoughtfully for some seconds, then she said: + +"Why, there is nothing in the world to hinder my going if I want to. As +to the money, I suppose one could hardly spend as much there as at Long +Branch or Saratoga, and of course I should go somewhere. But the point +is, what do I want to go for?" + +"Why, just to be together, and be in the woods, and live in a tent, and +do nothing civilized for a fortnight. It is the nicest idea that ever +was." + +"And should we go to the meetings?" Miss Erskine asked, still speaking +thoughtfully, and as if she were undecided. + +"Why, yes, of course, now and then. Though for that matter I suppose +father is right enough when he says that precious few people go for the +sake of the meetings. He says it is a grand jollification, with a bit of +religion for the background. But for that matter the less religion they +have the better, and so I told him." + +At this point there was a faint little knock at the door, and Eurie +sprang to open it, saying as she went: "That is Flossy, I know; she +always gives just such little pussy knocks as that." The little lady who +entered fitted her name perfectly. She was small and fair, blue-eyed, +flossy yellow curls lying on her shoulders, her voice was small and +sweet, almost too sweet or too soft, that sort of voice that could +change when slight occasion offered into a whine or positive +tearfulness. She was greeted with great glee by Eurie, and in her more +quiet way by Miss Erskine. + +"_I'm_ going," she said, with a soft little laugh, and she sank down +among the cushions of the sofa, while her white morning dress floated +around her like a cloud. "Charlie thinks it is silly, and Kit thinks it +is sillier, and mamma thinks it is the very silliest thing I ever did +yet; but for all that I am going--that is, if the rest of you are." +Which, by the way, was always this little Flossy's manner of speech. She +was going to do or not to do, speak or keep silent, approve or condemn, +exactly as the mind which was for the time being nearest to her chose to +sway her. + +"Good!" said Eurie, softly clapping her hands. "I didn't think it of +you, Flossy; I thought you were too much of a mouse. Now, Ruth, you will +go, won't you? As for Marion, there is no knowing whether she will go +or not. I don't see now she can afford it myself any more than I can; +but, of course, that is her own concern. We can go anyway, whether she +does or not--only I don't want to, I want her along. Suppose we all go +down and see her; it is Saturday, she will be at home, and then we can +begin to make our preparations. It is really quite time we were sure of +what we are going to do." + +By dint of much coaxing and argument Ruth was prevailed upon to leave +her fascinating brown hat with its brown velvet trimmings, and in the +course of the next half hour the trio were on their way down Park +Street, intent on a call on Miss Marion Wilbur. Park Street was a +simple, quiet, unpretending street, narrow and short; the houses were +two-storied and severely plain. In one of the plainest of these, wearing +an unmistakable boarding-house look, in a back room on the second floor, +the object of their search, in a dark calico dress, with her sleeves +rolled above her elbows, had her hands immersed in a wash-bowl of suds, +and was doing up linen collars. She was one of those miserable creatures +in this weary world, a teacher in a graded school, and her one day of +rest was filled with all sorts of washing, ironing and mending work, +until she had fairly come to groan over the prospect of Saturday because +of the burden of work which it brought. She welcomed her callers without +taking her hands from the suds; she was as quiet in her way as Ruth +Erskine was in hers. + +This time it was Flossy who asked the important question: "Are you +going?" + +Marion answered as promptly as though the question had been decided for +a week. + +"Yes, certainly I am going. I thought I told you that when we talked it +over before. I am washing out my collars to have them ready. Ruth, are +you going to take a trunk?" + +Ruth roused herself from the contemplation of her brown gloves to say +with a little start: + +"How you girls do rush things. Why, I haven't decided yet that I am +going." + +"Oh, you'll go," Marion Wilbur said. "The question is, are we to take +trunks--or, rather, are you to? because I know _I_ shall not. I'm going +to wear my black suit. Put it on on Tuesday morning, or Monday is it +that we start? and wear it until we return. I may take it off, to be +sure, while I sleep, but even that is uncertain, as we may not get a +place to sleep in; but for once in my life I am not going to be bored +with baggage." + +"I shall take mine," Ruth Erskine said with determination. "I don't +intend to be bored by being without baggage. It is horrid, I think, to +go away with only one dress, and feel obliged to wear it whether it is +suited to the weather or not, or whatever happens to it. Eurie, what are +you laughing at?" + +"I am interested in the phenomena of Marion Wilbur being the first to +introduce the dress question. I venture to say not one of us has thought +of that phase of the matter up to this present moment." + +While the talk went on the collars and cuffs were carefully washed and +rinsed, and presently Marion, with her hands only a trifle pinker for +the operation, was ready to lean against a chair and discuss ways and +means. Her long apprenticeship in school-rooms had given her the habit +of standing instead of sitting, even when there was no occasion for the +former. + +If these four young ladies had been creatures of the brain, gotten up +expressly for the purpose of illustrating extremes of character, instead +of being flesh and blood creations, I doubt whether they could have +better illustrated the different types of young ladyhood. There was Ruth +Erskine, dwelling in solitary grandeur in her royal home, as American +royalty goes, the sole daughter, the sole child indeed of the house, a +girl who had no idea of life except as a place in which to have a +serenely good time, and teach everybody to do as she desired them to. +Money was a commonplace matter-of-course article, neither to be +particularly prized nor despised; it was convenient, of course, and must +be an annoyance when one had to do without it; but of that, by practical +experience, she knew nothing. Yet Ruth was by no means a +"pink-and-white" girl without character; on the contrary, she had plenty +of character, but hitherto it had been frittered away on nothings, until +it looked as much like nothing as it could. She was the sort of person +whom education and circumstances of the right sort would have developed +into splendor, but the development had not taken place. Now you are not +to suppose that she was uneducated; that would be a libel on Madame La +Fonte and her fashionable seminary. She had graduated with honor; taken +the first prizes in everything. She knew all about seminaries; so do I; +and if you do, you are ready to admit that the development had not come. +There is constantly occurring something to take back. While I write I +have in mind an institution where the earnest desire sought after and +prayed for is the higher development, not alone of the intellect, but of +the heart: where the wonderful woman who is at its head said to me a few +years ago: + +"If a lady has spent three years under my care, and graduated, and gone +out from me not a Christian, I feel like going down on my knees in +bitterness of soul, and crying, 'Lord, I have failed in the trust thou +didst give me." But the very fact that the word "wonderful" fits that +woman's name is proof enough that such institutions as hers are rare, +and it was not at that seminary that Ruth Erskine graduated. She was +spending her life in elegant pursuits that meant nothing, those of them +which did not mean worse than nothing, and the only difference between +her and a hundred others around her was that she knew perfectly well +that they all amounted to nothing, and didn't hesitate to say so, +therefore she earned the title of "queer." At the same time she did not +hesitate to lead the whirl around this continuous nothing, therefore she +occupied that perilous position of being liked and admired and envied, +all in one. Very few people loved her, and queerly enough she knew that +too, and instead of resenting it realized that she could not see why +they should. She was, moreover, remarkably careful as to her leading +after all, and those who followed were sure of being led in an eminently +respectable and fashionable way. Her most intimate friend was Eurie +Mitchell, which was not strange when one considered what remarkable +opposites in character they were. Eureka J. Mitchell was the respectable +sounding name that the young lady bore, but the full name would have +sounded utterly strange to her ears, the wild little word "Eurie" +seeming to have been made on purpose for her. She was the eldest +daughter of a large, good-natured, hard-working, much-bewildered family. +They never knew just where they belonged. They went to the First +Church, which for itself should have settled their position, since it +was the opinion of most of its members that it was organized especially +that the "first families" might have a church-home. But they occupied a +very front seat, by reason of their inability to pay for a middle one, +which was bad for "position," as First Church gentility went. What was +surprising to them was how they ever happened to have the money to pay +for that seat; but, let me record it to their honor, they always +happened to have it. They were honest. They ought to have been called +"the happen family," by reason of their inability to tell how much or +how little they might happen to have to live on, whether they could +afford three new dresses apiece or none at all. The fact being that it +depended on the amount of sickness there was in Dr. Mitchell's beat +whether there were to be luxuries or simple bare necessities, with some +wonderment as to how even those were to be paid. + +Eurie was the most light-hearted and indifferent of this free-and-easy +family, who always had roast turkey when it was to be had, and who +could laugh and chat merrily over warmed-up meat and johnny-cake, or +even no meat at all, when such days came. How she ever came to think +that she could go to Chautauqua was a matter of surprise to herself; but +it happened to have been a sickly summer among the wealthy people, and +large bills had come in--the next thing was to spend them. Chautauqua +was a silly place to do it in, to be sure; that was Dr. Mitchell's idea, +and the family laughed together over Eurie's last wild notion; but for +all that they good-naturedly prepared to let her carry it out. Just how +full of fun and mischief and actual wildness Eurie was, a two-weeks +sojourn at Chautauqua will be likely to develop; for before that +conversation at Marion's was concluded they decided that they were +really going. Why Marion went, puzzled the girls very much, puzzled +herself somewhat. She was her own mistress, had neither father to direct +nor sister to consult. She had an uncle and aunt who lived where she +called "home," and with whom she spent her vacations, but they were the +poorest of hard-working country people, who stood in awe of Marion and +her education, and by no means ventured to interfere with her plans. +Marion was as independent in her way as Ruth was in hers, but they were +very different ways. Ruth, for instance, indulged her independence in +the matter of dress, by spending a small fortune in looking elegantly +unlike everybody else, and straightway created a frantic desire in her +set to look as nearly like her as possible. But no one cared to look +like Marion, in her severely plain black or brown suits, with almost and +sometimes quite no trimmings at all on them. It was agreed that she +looked remarkably well, but so unlike any one else they didn't see how +she could bring herself to dressing so. She laughed when this was hinted +to her, and got what comfort she could out of the fact that she was +considered "odd." In a certain way she ruled them all, Ruth Erskine +included, though that young lady never suspected it. The queerest one of +this company was little Flossy Shipley--queer to be found in just such +company, I mean. She was the petted darling of a wealthy home, a younger +daughter, a baby in their eyes, to be loved and cherished, and allowed +to have her own sweet and precious way even when it included such a +strange proceeding as a two weeks in the woods, all because that strange +girl in the ward school that Flossy had taken such an unaccountable +fancy for was going. This family were First Church people, too, and +capable of buying a seat very near the centre, in fact but a few removes +from the Erskine pew, which was, of course, the wealthy one of the +church. The Shipley pew was rarely honored by all the members of the +family, and indeed the pastor had no special cause for alarm if several +Sundays went by without an appearance from one of them. A variety of +trifles might happen to cause such a state of things, from which you +will infer that they were not a church-going family. Another strange +representative for Chautauqua! + +Now how did those four girls come to be friends? Oh, dreadful! You don't +expect me to be able to account for human friendships I hope, especially +for school-girl friendships? There is no known rule that will apply to +such idiosyncracies. They had been in school together, even Marion +Wilbur, with the indomitable energy which characterized her, had managed +one term of Madame La Fonte's enormous bills, and with the close of the +term found herself strangely enough drawn into this strange medley of +character that moved in such different circles, and yet called +themselves friends. You are to understand that though the same church +received these girls on Sunday, yet the actual circle in which their +lives whirled was as unlike as possible. The Erskines were the cream, +cultured, traveled, wealthy, aristocratic as to blood and as to manners, +literary in the sense that they bought rare books, and knew why they +were rare. The Mitchells had a calling acquaintance with their family +because Dr. Mitchell was their chosen physician, but that came to pass +through an accident, and not many of the doctor's patrons were of just +the same stamp. This family never went to the Erskine entertainments, +never were invited to go to the other entertainments starting from the +same circle, yet they had their friends and many of them. The Shipleys +were free-and-easy, cordial, social, friendly people, who bought many +books and pictures, and were prominent in fairs and festivals, and were +popular everywhere, but were not, after all, of the Erskine stamp. +Finally came Marion, alone, no position any where, save as she ruled in +the most difficult room in the most difficult ward in the city. A +worker, known to be such; a manager, recognized as one who could make +incongruous elements meet and marshal into working order. In that +capacity she found her place even in the First Church, for they had +fairs and festivals, and oyster suppers, and other trials even in the +First Church; and there was much work to be done, and Marion Wilbur +could work. + +And these four girls were going to Chautauqua--were to start on Monday +morning, August 2, 1875. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE QUESTION DISCUSSED. + + +Rev. Dr. Dennis and Rev. Mr. Harrison met just at the corner of Howard +and Clinton Streets, and stopped for a chat. Dr. Dennis was pastor of +the First Church, and Mr. Harrison was pastor of the Fourth, and some of +the sheep belonging to these respective flocks supposed the two churches +to be rivals, but the pastors thereof never thought of such a thing. On +the contrary, they were always getting up excuses for coming in contact +with each other; and woe to the work that was waiting for each when they +chanced to meet of a morning on some shady corner. + +"You are to be represented, I hear, at the coming assembly," said Mr. +Harrison, as they shook hands in that hearty way which says, as plainly +as words, "How _very_ glad I am to see you!" + +Dr. Dennis shrugged his shoulders. + +"Such a representation!" he said. "If the entire congregation had been +canvassed, it would have been impossible to have made more curious +selections. I do wish we could have some real workers from the different +churches." + +"Miss Erskine isn't a member of the church, is she?" + +"None of them are members, nor Christians; nor have they an atom of +interest in any such matters. They are going for pure fun, and nothing +else." + +"Now perhaps they will happily disappoint you by coming back with a +wholesome interest aroused in Sunday-school work, and will really go +into the work for themselves." + +"I don't want them," Dr. Dennis said, stoutly. "I wouldn't give a dime +for a hundred such workers; they are an injury to the cause. I want +Sunday-school workers who have a personal, vital sense of the worth of +souls, and a consuming desire to see them converted. All other +Sunday-school teaching is aimless." + +Mr. Harrison looked thoughtful. + +"We haven't many such, I am afraid," he said, gravely; but I agree with +you in thinking that they should at least be Christians. Still, I +suppose that it is not impossible that some one of these ladies may be +converted." + +"Not at Chautauqua," Dr. Dennis said, as one who had looked into the +matter and knew all about it. "I am not entirely in sympathy with that +meeting, anyway; or, that is, I am and I am not, all at once. I think it +would be a grand place for you and me. I haven't the least doubt but +that we would be refreshed, bodily and mentally, and, for that matter, +spiritually. If the whole world were converted I should vote for +Chautauqua with a loud voice; but I am more than fearful as to the +influence of such meetings on the masses--the unconverted world. _They_ +will go there for recreation. Their whole aim will be to have a glorious +frolic away from the restraints of ordinary home-life. They will have no +interest in the meetings, no sympathy with the central thought that has +drawn the workers together, and the tendency will be to frolic through +it all. + +"The truth is, there will be such a mixing of things that I actually +fear the effect will be wholesale demoralization. At the same time I am +interested in the idea, and am watching it with anxiety. Since I have +heard of the delegation from my own church I have been more convinced +still of the evil influences. It makes me gloomy to think of the +fruitful field such a place will be for the fertile brain of that little +Eurie Mitchell. She is too wild now for civilized life The four walls of +the church and the sacred associations connected with the building serve +to keep her only half controlled when she is actually attending Sabbath +service. There will be nothing to control her in the woods, and she will +lose what little reverence she possesses. I tell you, the more I think +of it, the more certain I am that for such people these great religious +jubilees, holding over the Sabbath, do harm." + +"You put it more gently than our friend Mr. Archer," Mr. Harrison said, +smiling. "He is in a condition of absolute scorn. He gives none of them +credit for honesty or genuine interest. He says it is a running away +from work, a regular shirking of what they ought to be doing, and going +off into the woods to have a good time, and, by way of gulling the +public, they pretend to season it with religion." + +Dr. Dennis laughed. + +"That sounds precisely like him, and is quite as logical as one could +expect, coming from that source," he said, indifferently. "Why doesn't +it occur to his dull brain, that thinks itself such a sharp one, that +the leaders thereof are men responsible to no one save God and their own +consciences for the way in which they spend their time? There is nothing +earthly to hinder their going to the woods, and staying three months if +they please to do so." + +"Oh, but I have left out one of the important reasons for the meeting. +It is to make money; a grand speculation, whereby the fortunes of these +same leaders are to be made at the expense of the poor victims whom they +gather about them." + +Again Dr. Dennis' shoulders went upward in that peculiar but expressive +shrug. + +"Of all the precarious and dangerous ways of making a fortune, I should +think that went ahead," he said, still laughing. "What an idea now! +Shouldn't you suppose people with common sense would have some faint +idea of the immense expenses to be involved in such an undertaking, and +the tremendous risks to be run? If they succeed in meeting their +expenses this year I think they will have cause for rejoicing." + +"The point that puzzles me," Mr. Harrison said, "is what particular +commandment would they be breaking if they should actually happen to +have twenty-five cents to put in their pockets when the meeting closed; +though, as you say, I doubt the probability. But they force no one to +come; it is a matter for individual decision, and they render a fair +equivalent for every cent of money spent; at least, if the spender +thinks it is not a fair equivalent he is foolish to go; so why should +they not make enough to justify them in giving their time to this work?" + +"Of course, of course," assented Dr. Dennis, heartily; "they ought to; +none but an idiot would think otherwise." + +It is to be presumed that both these gentlemen had gotten so far away +from the name that was quoted as holding these views as to forget all +about him, else they certainly would not have been guilty of calling a +brother minister an idiot, however much his arguments might suggest the +thought. + +"But," continued Dr. Dennis, "my trouble lies, as I said, in the +results. I have no sort of doubt that great good will be done, and I +have the same feeling of certainty that harm will be done. Take it in my +own church. We are so situated, or we think ourselves so situated, that +not a single one of the earnest, hearty workers who would come back to +us with a blessing for themselves and us, is able to go; instead, we +have four representatives who will turn the whole thing into ridicule, +and dish it up for the entertainment of their friends during the coming +winter. + +"That Miss Erskine seems to have a special talent for getting up +Thursday evening entertainments, to invite our people who are supposed +to be interested in the prayer-meeting, but who rarely fail to make it +convenient to go to the party. I imagine a bevy of them being +entertained by Eurie Mitchell. She can do it, and she is looking forward +to just that sort of thing, for I heard her rejoicing over it. That +girl will be injured by Chautauqua; I know it as well as though I +already saw it; and the question with me is, whether the amount of evil +done will not overbalance the good. At the same time I am inconsistent +enough to wish with all my heart that I could be there." + +"What about Miss Shipley? Perhaps relief will come to you from that +quarter." + +Those shoulders again. + +"She is nothing in the world but a little pink feather, and she blows +precisely in the direction of the strongest current; and Satan looks out +for her with untiring patience that the wind shall blow in the exact +direction where it can do her the most harm. Going to Chautauqua with +the influences that will surround her, with Miss Erskine and Miss Wilbur +on the one side, and Eurie Mitchell on the other, will be the very best +thing that Satan can do next for her, and he doubtless knows it." + +"I do not know Miss Wilbur at all. Is she also one of your flock?" + +Dr. Dennis' face was dark and sad. + +"She is an infidel," he said, decidedly. "She does not call herself +such; she wouldn't like to be known as such, because it would be likely +to affect her position in the school. But the name is rightly hers, and +she would do less harm in the world if she owned it." + +"It is an extraordinary representation, I declare," Mr. Harrison said, a +little startled. "I have been half inclined to be envious of you because +you were to hear so directly from the meeting, but I believe on the +whole I shall be quite as well off without any delegates as you will +with them." + +"Better, decidedly. I am distressed at the whole thing. It will result +disastrously for them all, you mark my words." + +And having settled the affairs at Chautauqua, apparently beyond all +repeal, the brethren shook hands again and went to their studies. + +Meantime the express train was giving occasional premonitory snorts, and +the four young ladies who had been so thoroughly discussed were in +various stages of unrest, waiting for the moment of departure. A +looker-on would have been able to come to marked conclusions concerning +the different characters of these young ladies, simply from their +manner of dress. Flossy Shipley was the one to look at first. That was a +very good description of her usual style--something to look at. She had +chosen for her traveling dress a pale, lavender cashmere, of that +delightful shade that resents a drop of water as promptly as a drop of +oil. It was trimmed with a contrasting shade of silk, and trimmed +profusely; yards of gathered trimming, headed by yards of flat pleating, +and that in turn headed by yards of folds. The dainty sack and hat, and +the four-buttoned gloves, were as faultless as to fit and as delicate in +color as the dress. In short, Miss Flossy looked as though she might be +ready for an evening concert. Moreover, she felt as if she were, or at +least she had an uncomfortable consciousness as to clothes. She kept a +nervous lookout for the lower flounce whenever the crowd of people +surged her way, and brushed vigorously at the arm of the seat she had +chosen ere she dared to rest _her_ arm on it. Evidently she had given +herself over to the martyrdom of thinking of and caring for clothes +during this journey, and I don't know whether there is a greater +martyrdom made out of a trifle than that. It was one of Flossy's +besetting sins, this arraying herself in glory, and making wrinkles in +her face in the vain attempt to keep so. Not that she was particularly +anxious to save the wear and tear, only she hated to look spotted and +wrinkled, and she could never seem to learn the simple lesson of wearing +the things best suited to the occasion. + +Standing near her, toying carelessly with her traveling fan, and looking +as though the thought of dress was something that had passed utterly by +her, was Miss Erskine. She looked like one of those ladies whom +gentlemen in their wisdom are always selecting, pointing them out as +models. "So tasteful and appropriate, and withal so simple in their +dress." + +Let me tell you about her dress. It was plain dark brown, precisely the +shade of brown that the fashion of the season required. It was of soft, +lusterless silk. It was very simply made, almost severely plain, as Miss +Erskine knew became a traveler. In fact, elegant simplicity marked her +entire toilet, everything matched, everything was fresh and spotless, +and arranged with an eye to remaining so. I am willing to concede that +she was faultlessly dressed, and it was a real pleasure to see her +thus. But I am also anxious to have the gentlemen understand that that +same simple attire represented more money than two wardrobes like Flossy +Shipley's. It is often so with those delightfully plain and simple +dresses that attract so many people. In fact, it might as well be +admitted, since we are on that subject, that elegant simplicity is +sometimes a very expensive article. + +Eurie Mitchell was neither particularly elegant nor noted for +simplicity, yet her dress was not without character. We see enough of +that sort to become familiar with what it means. Its language is simply +a straightened purse, necessitating the putting together of shades that +do not quite harmonize, and trimming in a way that will cover the most +spots and take the least material. That was Eurie's dress. Skirt of one +kind and overdress of another. A very economical fashion, and one not +destined to last long, because of its economy, and the fact that very +elegant ladies rather curl their lips at it, and call it the "patchwork +style." Eurie from necessity rather than choice adopted it, and it was +also her misfortune rather than her taste that the colors were too +light to be really according to the mode. Her gloves were of an entirely +different shade from the rest of the attire, and were mended with a +shade of silk that did not quite match Altogether, Eurie's dress did not +suit Miss Erskine. But, for that matter, neither did it suit herself, +with this difference, that it was, after all, a matter of minor +importance to her. + +Miss Wilbur's dress can be disposed of in a single sentence: It was a +black alpaca skirt, not too long, and severely plain, covered to within +three inches with a plain brown linen polonaise; her black hat with a +band of velvet about it, fastened by a single heavy knot, and her +somewhat worn black gloves completed her toilet, and she looked every +inch a lady. The very people who would have curled their aristocratic +lips at Eurie's attempt at style, turned and gave Miss Wilbur a second +thoughtful respectful look. + +There was a Mr. Wayne who deserves attention. He possessed himself of +Miss Erskine's fan, and played with it carelessly, while he said: + +"You are a queer set. What are you all going off there for, to bury +yourselves in the woods? I don't believe one of you has an idea what you +are about. And it is the very height of the season, too." + +"That is the trouble," Miss Erskine said, with a little toss of her +handsome head. "We are sick of the season, and want to get away from it. +I want something new. That is precisely what I am going for." + +"I have no doubt you will find it," and the gentleman gave a disdainful +shrug to his shoulders. "Out in the backwoods attending a hallelujah +meeting! I am sure I envy you." + +"You don't know what we will find," Eurie Mitchell said, with a defiant +air. "Nor what may happen to us before we return. We may meet our +destinies. I have no doubt they are lurking for us behind some of the +trees. Just you meet the evening train of Wednesday, two weeks hence, +and see if you can not discover the finger of fate having been busy with +us. Wonderful things can happen in two weeks." + +Just then the train gave its last warning howl, and Mr. Wayne made rapid +good-bys, a trifle more lingering in the case of Miss Erskine than the +others, and with that prophetic sentence still ringing in his ears he +departed. And the four girls were actually _en route_ for Chautauqua. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ENTERING THE CURRENT. + + +It is a queer thought, not to say a startling one, what very trifles +about us are constantly giving object lessons on our characters. Those +four girls, as they arranged themselves in the cars for their all-day +journey conveyed four different impressions to the critical looker-on. +In the first place they each selected and took possession of an entire +seat, though the cars were filling rapidly, and many an anxious woman +and heavily laden man looked reproachfully at them. They took these +whole seats from entirely different stand-points--Miss Erskine because +she was a finished and selfish traveler; and although she did not belong +to that absolutely unendurable class, who occupy room that is not +theirs until a conductor interferes, she yet regularly appropriated and +kept the extra seat engaged with her flounces until she was asked +outright to vacate it by one more determined than the rest. She hated +company and avoided it when possible. Flossy Shipley was willing, nay, +ready, to give up her extra seat the moment a person of the right sort +appeared; not simply a cleanly, respectable individual--they might pass +by the dozens--but one who attracted her, who was elegantly dressed and +stylish looking. Flossy would endure being crowded if only the person +who did it was stylish. Miss Wilbur was indifferent to the whole race of +human beings; she cared as little as possible whether a well-dressed +lady stood or sat; so far as she was concerned they were apt to do the +former. She neither frowned nor smiled when the time came that she was +obliged to move; she simply _moved_, with as unconcerned and indifferent +a face as she had worn all the due. As for Eurie Mitchell, she took an +entire seat, as she did most other things, from pure heedlessness; any +one was welcome who wanted to sit with her, and whether it was a servant +girl or a princess was a matter of no moment. These various shades of +feeling were nearly as fully expressed in their faces as though they had +spoken; and yet they did not in the least comprehend their own actions. +This is only an illustration; it was so in a hundred little nothings +during the day. Not a window was raised or closed for their benefit, not +a turn of a blind made, that a close student of human nature could not +have seen the distinct and ruling differences in their temperaments, no +matter from what point of the compass they started. In the course of +time they reached East Buffalo. + +"Now for our dinners!" Eurie said, as the whistle shrieked a warning +that the station was being neared. "What are we going to do?" + +"We are going to eat them, I presume, as usual," Miss Erskine said in +her most indifferent tone. I should explain that long before this the +girls had grown weary of the separate seats, and by dint of much +planning and the good-natured removal of two fellow passengers to other +seats had accomplished an arrangement that should naturally have been +enjoyed from the beginning: that of a turned seat, and being their own +seat-mates. + +"But I mean," Eurie said, in no wise quenched by what was a common +enough manner in Miss Erskine, "are we to get a lunch, or are we to go +in to a regular dinner?" + +"If you mean what I am going to do, I shall most assuredly have a +'regular' dinner, as you call it. I have no fancy for eating things +thrown together in a bag." + +"The bag will be the most economical process for all that," Eurie said, +laughing at Miss Erskine's disdainful face. + +"I presume very likely; but as I did not start on this trip for the +purpose of studying social economy, I shall vote for the dinner." + +"And I shall take to the bag method," Eurie said, decidedly. Opposition +always decided her. So it did Flossy, though in a different way; she was +sure to side with the stronger party. + +"It would be pleasanter for us all to keep together," she began in a +doubtful tone, looking first at Miss Erskine and then at Eurie. + +"But since, according to Eurie's and my decided differences, it is +impossible for us to do the 'better' thing, which of the two _worse_ +things are you going to do?" This Miss Erskine said with utmost good +nature, but with utmost determination--as much as it would have taken to +carry out a good idea in the face of opposition. + +"Oh, I think I'll go with you." Flossy said it hastily, as if she feared +that she might appear foolish in the eyes of this young lady by having +fancied anything else. + +"Very well--then it remains for Marion to choose her company," Eurie +said, composedly. + +Marion held up a paper bundle. + +"It is already chosen," she said, promptly. "It is a slice of bread and +butter, with a very thin slice of fat ham, which I never eat, and a +greasy doughnut, the whole done up in a brown paper. This is decidedly +an improvement on the bag dinner (which you think of going after) in an +economical point of view; and as I am a student of social and all other +sorts of economy, not only on this trip but on every other trip of mine +in this mortal life, I recommend it to you; at least I would have done +so if you had asked me this morning before you left home." + +Eurie made a grimace. + +"I might have brought a splendid lunch from home if I had only thought +of such a thing," she said, regretfully. "My thoughts always come +afterward." + +"And it is quite the mode to take lunches with you when they are +elegantly put up," Flossy said, regretfully, as she prepared to follow +Ruth. "I wonder we never thought of it." + +This last remark of Flossy's set the two girls left behind into a hearty +laugh. + +"Do you suppose that when Flossy has to die she will be troubled lest it +may not be the fashion for young ladies to die that season?" Eurie said, +looking after the pretty little doll as she gathered her skirts about +her anxiously; for, whatever other qualifications East Buffalo may have, +cleanliness is not one of them. + +"No," Marion answered, gravely, "not the least danger of it, because it +happens to be the fashion for ladies to die at all seasons; it is the +one thing that never seems to go out. I am heartily glad that we have +one thing that remains absolute in this fashionable world." + +Eurie looked at her thoughtfully. + +"Marion, one would think you were religious--sometimes," she said, +gravely. "You make such strange remarks." + +Marion laughed immoderately. + +"You ridiculous little infidel!" she said, as soon as she could speak. +"You do not even know enough about religion to detect the difference +between goodness and wickedness. Why, that was one of my wickedest +remarks, and here you are mistaking it for goodness. My dear child, run +and get your paper bag before it is time to go; or will you have my +slice of ham and half this doughnut? The bread and butter I want +myself." + +The freshness and novelty of this journey wore away before the long +summer afternoon began to wane; the cars were crowded and uncomfortable, +and the cinders flew about in as trying a way as cinders can. + +None of the girls had the least idea where they were going. They knew, +in a general way, that there must be such a place as Chautauqua Lake, as +the papers that they chanced to come in contact with had been full of +the delights of that region for many months; and, indeed, a young man, +earnest, enthusiastic and sensible, who stopped over night at Dr. +Mitchell's, and had been a delighted guest at the Chautauqua Assembly a +year before, had sown the first seeds that resulted in this trip. + +He of course could tell the exact route and the necessary steps to be +taken; but it had been no part of Eurie's wisdom to ask about the +journey thither; she knew how many boats were on the lake, and what kind +of fish could be caught in it, but the most direct way to reach it was a +minor matter. So there they were, simply blundering along, in the belief +that the railroad officials knew their business, and would get them +somewhere sometime. + +As the day waned, and the road became more unknown to them, and their +weariness grew upon them, they fell to indulging in those stale jokes +that young ladies will perpetrate when they don't know what else to do. +As they declared, with much laughter, and many smart ways of saying it, +that Chautauqua was a myth of Eurie's brain, or that she had been the +dupe of the fine young theological student who had chanced her way and +that the search for paradise would come to naught, perhaps it was not +all joking; for, as the hours passed and they journeyed on, hearing +nothing about the place of which for the last few weeks they had +thought so much, a queer feeling began to steal over them that there +really was no such spot, and that they were all a set of idiots. + +"I thought we should have been there by this time, and regularly +established at housekeeping," Marion said, as they picked up baskets and +bundles and prepared to change cars; "and here we are making another +change. This is the third this afternoon, or is it the thirteenth? and +who knows where Brocton is or what it is? Is anybody sure that it is in +this hemisphere? Eurie, you are certain that your theological student +did not cross the Atlantic in order to reach his elysium?" + +"Brocton is _here_," Eurie said, as they climbed the steps of the car. +"I see the name on that building yonder; though whether 'here' is +America or Asia I am unable to say. I think we have come overland, but +it is so long since we started I may have forgotten." + +But at this point they checked their nonsense and began to get up a new +interest in existence. They were among a different class of +people--earnest, eager people, who seemed to have no thought of yawns +or weariness. Camp-stools abounded, with here and there a bundle looking +like quilts and pillows. Every lady had a waterproof and every man an +umbrella, and the talk was of "tents," and "division meetings," and "the +morning boats," with stray words like "Fairpoint" and "Mayville" coming +in every now and then. These two words, the girls knew had to do with +_their_ hopes; so they began to feel revived. + +"I actually begin to think there is some foundation for Eurie's wild +fancies after all," Marion whispered, "or else this is another party of +lunatics as wild as ourselves; but they are a large and respectable +party; I'm rather hopeful." + +In two minutes more the railroad official who speaks in the unknown +tongue yelped something at either door, and thereupon everybody got up +and began to prepare for an exit. + +"Do you think he said Mayville?" questioned Eurie with a shade of +anxiety in her voice. She had been the leader of this scheme, and she +felt just a trifle of responsibility. + +"Haven't the least idea," Marion said, composedly gathering her +wrappings; "it sounded as much like any other word you happen to think +of as it did like that, but everybody is going, and Flossy and I are +determined to be in the fashion so we go too." + +At the door dismay seized upon Flossy. A light drizzly rain was falling. +Oh, the lavender suit! and her waterproof tucked away in her trunk, and +everybody pushing and trying to pass her. + +"Never mind," Marion said, with utmost good nature, "here is mine; I +haven't any trunk, so it is handy; and it has rained on my old alpaca +for ages; can't hurt that, so wrap yourself up and come along, for I +believe in my heart that this is Mayville." + +"This way to the Mayville House," said the gentlemanly official, +touching his hat as politely as though they had been princesses. Why +can't hotel subordinates more often show a little common politeness? +This act decided the location of these four girls in a twinkling; they +knew nothing about any of the hotels, and, other things being equal, +anybody would rather go to a place to which they had been decently +invited than to be elbowed and yelled at and forced. Water and rest and +tea did much to restore them to comfort, and as they discussed matters +in their rooms afterward they assured each other that the Mayville House +was just the place to stop at. A discussion was in progress as to the +evening meeting. Miss Erskine had taken down her hair and donned a +becoming wrapper, and reposed serenely in the rocking-chair, offering no +remark beyond the composed and decided, "I am not going over in the +woods to-night by any manner of means; that would be enough if I were +actually one of the lunatics instead of a mild looker-on." + +"I haven't the least idea of going, either," Eurie said, sitting on a +stool, balancing her stockinged feet against Ruth's rocker. "Not that I +mind the rain, or that it wouldn't be fun enough if I were not so dead +tired. But I tell you, girls, I have had to work like a soldier to get +ready, and having the care of such a set as you have been all day has +been too much for me. A religious meeting would just finish me. I'm +going to save myself up for morning. You are a goosie to go, Marion. It +is as dark as ink, and is raining. What can you see to-night?" + +"I tell you I've _got_ to go," Marion said, as she quietly unstrapped +her shawl. "I earn my bread, as you are very well aware, by teaching +school; but my butter, and a few such delicacies, I get by writing up +folks and things. I've promised to give a melting account of this first +meeting, and I have no idea of losing the chance. Flossy Shipley, you +may wear my waterproof every minute if you will go with me. It is long +enough to drag a quarter of a yard, and a rain drop can not get near +enough to think of you. + +"But it is so damp," shivered Flossy, looking drearily out into the +night, "and so dark, Marion, I am afraid to go." + +"Plenty of people going. What is there to be afraid of? We go down from +here in a carriage." + +"I wouldn't go, Flossy," chimed in a voice from the rocker and one from +the ottoman. + +"It will be very damp there," pleaded Flossy, who _did_ like to be +accommodating. + +"You may have ten thicknesses of my shawl to sit on," urged Marion. +"Come, now, Flossy Shipley. I didn't have the least idea of coaxing +those other girls to go, for every one knows they are selfish and will +do as they please; but I did think you would keep me company. It really +isn't pleasant to think of going alone." + +The end of it was that Flossy, done up in a cloak twice too large for +her, went off looking like the martyr that she was, and Eurie and Ruth +staid in their room and laughed over the ridiculousness of Flossy +Shipley going out in the night and the rain, in a lavender cashmere, to +attend a religious meeting! + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +FAIRPOINT. + + +It was not so very dark after all, nor so disagreeable as she had +imagined. She sat curled up in a heap on the deck of the Col. Phillips, +looking with interested eyes on the groups of people, who, despite the +rain and darkness, were evidently on their way to Chautauqua. Marion had +gone to the other side of the boat and was looking over into the water, +rested and interested in spite of herself by the novelty of the scene +around her. The fellow-passengers seemed not to be novices like +themselves, for as their talk floated to the girls it had sentences like +these: + +"Last year we stopped in the village, but this time we are going to be +right on the ground." + +"Last year it rained, too; but rain makes no difference at Chautauqua." + +"They are all last year's people," said Marion, coming over to Flossy's +side. "That speaks well for the interest, or the fun, doesn't it? Now +what do you suppose takes all these people to this place?" + +"I don't know," Flossy said thoughtfully, "I never thought much about +it. Perhaps some of them came just as I did, because the girls were +coming and asked me to. I'm sure I haven't the least idea what else I +came for." + +Marion looked down on the little creature done up in water-proof, with a +half-pitying laugh. + +"You are a good little mouse," she said patronizingly. "I never remember +doing _anything_ without a motive somewhere. It must be refreshing to +forget that important individual now and then." + +"Oh, I don't," Flossy said, simply. "Of course I came for the good time +I would have. But then, you know, I would never have thought of coming +if the rest of you hadn't." + +Another laugh from Marion. + +"You let others do your thinking for you," she said, with just a touch +of contempt, covered by the gayety of the tone. "Well, it is much the +easier way. If I could find anyone to undertake the task, I should like +to try it for myself." + +Flossy's answer was a little scream of delight, for they were coming +upon fairy-land; the lights of Fairpoint were gleaming in the soft +distance, and very fairy-like they looked shining among the trees. The +sound of music on the steamer mingled charmingly with the peal of the +bells from the shore. Marion looked on the scene with quiet interest. +Flossy's face took a pink glow; she liked pretty things. As for those +who had been at Chautauqua the year before, they gathered at the +vessel's side as those gather who, after a long and tiresome journey, +realize that they are nearing home. They were eager and excited. + +"The dock is better," said one. + +"Yes, and the passage way is larger," chimed in his nearest neighbor. + +"Oh, everything is on an improved scale this year," said still a third, +speaking confidently. + +"The _meeting_ can't be any better," spoke a quiet-faced woman, with a +decided voice, "that is simply impossible." + +Marion laughed softly. + +"Hear the lunatics!" she said, bending to give Flossy the benefit of her +words. "They are just infatuated; they think this is the original Garden +of Eden, with that wretched Eve left out. If she were here I would choke +her with a relish." This last in a muttered undertone, too low for even +Flossy, and with a darkening face. + +Meantime the boat rounded the point, the plank was laid, and the feet of +the eager passengers touched the shores of Chautauqua. Some detention +about tickets, arising from a misunderstanding of terms, made our girls +lose sight and sound of the rest of the boat-load, and when they passed +within the railing they found themselves suddenly and strangely alone. A +few lights glimmered in the trees, enough to point the way, and from the +cottages near at hand streams of light shot out into the darkness; but +no sound of footsteps, no sight of human being appeared + + "Over the river, on the hill, + Another village lieth still," + +quoted Marion, gravely. Then: + +"I say, Flossy, what does it all mean? Are we among a party of witches, +do you suppose? Where could those congenial spirits so suddenly have +conveyed themselves away, I wonder? The road isn't broad, but it most +decidedly isn't straight. Only behold that long, long, _long_ array of +damp and empty seats! Where are the faithful now, do you suppose?" + +"There isn't any meeting here to-night, and we might have known there +wouldn't be," Flossy said, peevishly, beginning to grow not only +disenchanted but half frightened. "I was never in such a queer place in +my life! Those white seats all look like ghosts. What could have +possessed you to come to-night? Of course they wouldn't have meeting in +the rain! Marion, do let us go back; I am frightened out of my wits!" + +"You blessed little simpleton!" said Marion, gaily. "What on earth is +there to be frightened over? Not pine seats and lamplight, surely, and +there is nothing more formidable than that so far." + +"I wish with all my heart that I were safely back in the hotel, where I +would have been if you had not coaxed me away," sighed, or rather +whined, poor Flossy, shivering with chilliness or nervousness, and +added: "Come, Marion, do let us go back with that boat. It can't have +started yet." + +Marion grasped her hand firmly, and spoke like a commander: + +"Flossy Shipley, don't you go to getting nervous and acting like a +simpleton, for I won't have it. As for that boat, it is half way to +Mayville by this time, and I am glad of it. Do you suppose I am going to +make an ignominious retreat now, when we have got so far advanced? Not a +bit of it. If there is no meeting, we will go where there ought to be +one, since it was advertised, and not a word said about rain. It isn't +likely they stay out-doors when it actually pours. Very likely they go +in somewhere and have a prayer-meeting. So now compose your nerves and +walk fast, for if the spot is within walking distance I am going to find +it. I tell you I am to get ten dollars at least for writing up this +meeting, and I am going to write it if there is one to write about. If +there isn't I shall have to make up one. I dare say I could make it +interesting. I'll put you in if I do, and you shall be Mrs. Fearful--in +Pilgrim's Progress, you know--if you don't stop shivering and walk +faster." + +During this time they had really been making as rapid progress as the +up-hill way and their doubt of the road would allow. Flossy made no +reply to this harangue, for the reason that a sudden turn in the path +brought them into bright light and the sound of a ringing voice. + +"There!" whispered Marion as the mammoth tent came in view. "What did I +tell you? What do you think of _that_ for a prayer-meeting?" And then +she, too, relapsed into silence, for the ringing tones of the speaker's +voice were distinct and clear. They made their way rapidly and silently +under the tent, down the aisle--half way down--then a gentleman beckoned +them, and by dint of some pushing and moving secured them seats. Then +both girls looked about them in astonishment. Who would have supposed +that it rained! Why, there were rows and rows and rows of heads, men and +women, and even children. A tent larger than they had imagined could be +built and packed with people. + +Marion's tongue was uncontrollable. She was barely seated before she +began her whispered comments: + +"That man who is speaking is Dr. Vincent. Hasn't he a ringing voice? It +reminds me of a trumpet. He likes to use it, I know he does; he has +learned to manage it so nicely, and with an eye to the effect. You will +hear his voice often enough, and you just watch and see if you don't +learn to know the first echo of it from any other." + +"Perhaps he won't be here all the time to use his voice," whispered back +Flossy, without much idea what she was saying. The novelty of the scene +had stolen her senses. + +Marion laughed softly. + +"You blessed little idiot!" she said, "don't you know that he +manufactured Chautauqua, root and branch? Or if he didn't quite +manufacture the trees he looked after their growth, I dare say. Why, +this meeting is his darling, his idol, his best beloved. 'Hear him +speak?' I guess you will. I should like to see a meeting of this kind +that didn't hear from him. It will have to be when he is out of the +body." + +"How do you know about him?" whispered Flossy, struck with sudden +curiosity. + +"I've written him up," Marion said, briefly. "I've had to do it several +times. Oh, I'm a veteran at Sunday-school meetings. But he is the +hardest man to write about that there is among them, because you can +never tell what he may happen to say or do next. It will never do to +jump at his conclusions, and slip in a neat little sentence of your own +as coming from him if you don't happen to have taken very profuse notes, +because as sure as you do he will spring up in some tiresome meeting in +less than a week and unsay every single word that you said. He said--" + +At this point a poor martyr, who had the misery to sit directly in front +of these two whisperers, turned and gave them such a look as only a man +can under like circumstances, and awed them into five minutes of quiet. +It lasted until Dr. Eggleston was announced. Then Marion's tongue broke +loose again: + +"He is the 'Hoosier Schoolmaster.' Don't you know we read his book aloud +at the seminary? Looks as though he might have written it, doesn't he? +Let's listen to what he says. He always says a word or two that a body +can report; very few of them do." + +This is a fair specimen of the way in which Miss Wilbur buzzed through +that meeting--that _wonderful_ meeting, that Flossy Shipley will +remember all her life. She made no answer to Marion's comments after a +little, and the pink flush glowed deeper on her face. She was +wonderfully interested--indeed she was more than interested. There was a +strange feeling of pain at her heart, a sort of sick, longing feeling +that she had never felt before, to understand what all these people +meant, to feel as they seemed to feel. + +The Christian world is more to blame for the unspoken infidelity that +thrives in its circles than is generally supposed. Flossy Shipley had +been in many religious meetings, but she had really never in her life +before been among a large gathering of cultured people, who were eager +and excited and happy, and the cause for that eagerness and that +happiness been found in the religion of Jesus Christ. I do not say that +there had never been such meetings before, nor that there have not been +many of them. I simply say that it was a new revelation to Flossy, and +she had been to the church prayer-meeting at home several times. Whether +that church may have been peculiar or not I do not say, but Flossy had +certainly failed to get the idea that prayer-meetings were blessed +places; that the people who went there from week to week found their joy +and their rest and their comfort there. She began to have an unutterable +sense of want and longing creeping over her; she stole shy glances at +Marion to see if she felt this, but Marion was absorbed just then in +catching the speaker's last sentence and writing it down. Her face +expressed nothing but business earnestness. Speech-making concluded, +there came the "covenant service." + +"I wonder what that is supposed to be?" whispered Marion. "It sounds +like something dreadfully solemn. I hope they are not going to have any +scenes. Revivals are not fashionable except in the winter." + +"Marion, _don't_!" Flossy said, in an earnest undertone. The gay, and +what for the first time struck her as the sacrilegious words, chilled +her. And for almost the first time in her life she uttered an +unhesitating remonstrance. Something in the tone surprised Marion, and +she looked curiously down at her little companion, but said not another +word. + +The covenant service was the simplest of all services; in fact, only the +singing of a familiar hymn and the offering of a prayer. But the hymn +was read first, in such solemn, tender, pleading tones as it seemed to +Flossy she had never heard before; and the singing rolled around that +great tent like the voices of the ten thousand who sing before the +throne--at least to Flossy's heart it seemed like that. The prayer that +followed was the simplest of all prayers as to words, and the briefest +public prayer she ever remembered to have heard, and it made her feel as +nothing in life had ever done before. She did not understand the cause +for her emotion; she was not acquainted with the Spirit of God; she did +not know that he was speaking to her softened heart, and calling her +gently to himself, so she felt ashamed of the emotion that she could not +help. She wiped the tears away secretly, and was glad that the night was +dark and the need for haste great, for the steamer's warning whistle +could already be beard. Marion talked on as they went down the hill, not +alone now but accompanied by hundreds, talked precisely as she had +before the singing of those words and the prayer. "How could she?" +Flossy wondered. "How could anything look the same to her?" The Spirit +had found no softened heart in which to leave a message, and so had +passed by. This, if Flossy had known it, was the reason that Marion was +gay and indifferent. If either of them had fully realized the reason for +the different effect of the meeting upon them, how startled they would +have been! It is not strange after all that a service is not the same to +one soul that it is to another, when we remember that God speaks to one +and passes another. + +The night was still heavy with clouds, not a star to lighten the gloom; +a fine mist was falling. It was Marion who shivered this time, and said: + +"It is a horrible night, that is a fact; but I am not sorry we went. +That meeting will write up splendidly, though it was too long; I will +say that in print about it. You must find some fault, you know, when +you are writing for the public; it is the fashion." + +"Was it long?" said Flossy, in an absent tone. She had not thought of it +in that way. Then she went to the side of the boat again and sat down in +a tumult. What was the matter with her? Where had her complacent, pretty +little content gone? Would she _always_ feel so sad and anxious and +unhappy, have such a longing as she did now? If she had been wiser she +could have told herself that the trouble of heart was caused by an +unhealthy excitement upon this question, and that this was the great +fault with religious meetings; but she was not wise, she did not think +of such a reason. If it had been suggested to her it is doubtful if, in +her ignorance, she would not have said: "Why, she had been more excited +at an evening party a hundred times than she had thought of being then!" +She actually did not know that eagerness and zeal are proper enough at +parties, but utterly out of place in religion. Just in front of her sat +a young man who hummed in undertone the closing words of the covenant +song. It brought the tears again to Flossy's eyes. He turned suddenly +toward her. + +"It was a pleasant service," he said. "Don't you think so?" + +It was rather startling to be addressed by a strange young gentleman, or +would have been it his voice had not been so quiet and dignified, as if +it were the most natural thing in the world to compare notes with one +who had just come out from the great meeting. + +"I don't know whether it was or not," she said, hurriedly. She could not +seem to decide whether she enjoyed it or hated it. + +"It was blessed to me," the young man said, in quiet voice; and added in +undertone, as if speaking to himself only: "God was there." + +"Do you feel that?" said Flossy, suddenly. "Then I wonder that you were +not afraid." + +He turned toward her a pleasant face and said, earnestly: + +"You would not be afraid of your father, would you? Well, God is my +Father, my reconciled Father;" And then, after a moment, he added: "It I +were not at peace with him, and had reason to think that he was angry +with me, then it would be different. Then I suppose I should be afraid; +at least I think it would be reasonable to be." + +Flossy spoke out of the fullness of a troubled heart: + +"I don't understand it at all. I never wanted to, either, until just +to-night; but now I want to feel as those people did when they sang that +hymn." + +Marion came quickly up from the other side. + +"Flossy," she said, with sudden sharpness, "come over here and watch the +track of the boat through the water." And as Flossy mechanically obeyed, +she added: "What a foolish, heedless little mouse you are! I wonder that +your mother let you go from her sight. Don't you know that you mustn't +get up conversations with strange young men in that fashion?" + +Flossy had not thought of it at all: but now she said a little drearily, +as if the subject did not interest her: + +"But I have often held conversations with strange young men at the +dancing-hall, you know, and danced with them, too, when _everything_ I +knew about them was their names, and generally I forgot that." + +Marion gave a light laugh. + +"That is different," she said, letting her lip curl in the darkness +over the folly of her own words. "What its proper at a dance in very +improper coming home from prayer-meeting, don't you see?" + +"What do you think!" she said the minute they were in their rooms. +"There was I, leaning meditatively over the boat, thinking solemnly on +the truths I had heard, and that absurd little water-proof morsel was +having a flirtation with a nice young man. Here is one of the fruits of +the system! What on earth was he saying to you, Flossy?" + +"Don't!" said Flossy, for the second time that evening. "He wasn't +saying any harm." + +The whole thing jarred on her with an inexpressible and to her +bewildering pain. She had always been ready for fun before. + +"That girl is homesick or something," Marion said, as she and Eurie went +to their rooms, leaving Flossy with Ruth, who prefered her as a +room-mate to either of the others because she _could_ keep from talking. + +"I haven't the least idea what is the matter, but she has been as unlike +herself as possible. I hope she isn't going to get sick and spoil our +fun. How silly we were to bring her, anyway. The baby hasn't life +enough to see the frolic of the thing, and the intellectual is miles +beyond her. I suspect she was dreadfully bored this evening. But, Eurie, +there is going to be some splendid speaking done here. I shouldn't +wonder if we attended a good many of the meetings." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +UNREST. + + +Flossy went to the window and stood looking out into the starless night. +The pain in her heart deepened with every moment. + +"If there was only some one to ask, some one to say a word to me," she +sighed to herself. "It seems as though I could never go to sleep with +this feeling clinging to me. I wonder what can be the matter? Perhaps I +am sick and am going to die. It feels almost like that, and I am not fit +to die--I am afraid. I wonder if Ruth Erskine is afraid to die? I have +almost a mind to ask her. I wonder if she ever prays? People who are not +afraid of death are always those who pray. Perhaps she will to-night. I +feel as though I wanted to pray: I think if I only knew how it would be +just the thing to do. If she kneels down I mean to go and kneel beside +her." + +These were some of the thoughts that whirled through her brain as she +stood with her nose pressed to the glass. But Ruth did not pray. She +went around with the composed air of one who was at peace with all the +world; and when her elaborate preparations for rest were concluded she +laid her head on her pillow without one thought of prayer. + +"Why in the name of sense don't you come to bed?" she presently asked, +surveying with curious glance the quiet little creature whose face was +hidden from her, and who was acting entirely out of accordance with +anything she had ever seen in her before. "What can you possibly find to +keep you gazing out of that window? It can't be called star-gazing, for +to my certain knowledge there isn't a single star visible; in fact, I +should say nothing could be visible but the darkness." + +For a minute Flossy made no answer. She did not move nor turn her head; +but presently she said, in a low and gentle voice: + +"Ruth, should you be afraid to die?" + +"To die!" said Ruth; and I have no means of telling you what an +astonished face and voice she had. "Flossy Shipley, what do you mean?" + +"Why, I mean _that_," said Flossy, in the same quiet tone. "Of course we +have got to die, and everybody knows it; and what I say is, should you +be afraid if it were to-night, you know?" + +"Humph!" said Ruth, turning her pillow and waiting to beat it into shape +before she spoke further. "I haven't the least idea of dying to-night." + +"But how can you be _sure_ of that? You might _have_ to die to-night, +you know people do sometimes." + +"I know one thing, am perfectly certain of it, and that is, that you +will take cold standing there and making yourself dismal. You are +shivering like a leaf, I can see you from here. If that is all the good +to be gotten from the 'religious impressions' that they harp about being +so great here, the less religion they have the better, and there is +quite little enough you may be sure." Saying which, Ruth turned her +pillow again and her head, so that she could not see the small creature +at the window. She was unaccountably rasped, not to say startled, by +her question, and she did not like to be startled; she liked to have her +current of life run smoothly. + +As for Flossy, she gave a great sigh of disappointment and unrest, and +turned slowly from the window. She had vaguely hoped for help of some +sort from Ruth, and as she lay down on her prayerless pillow she said to +herself, "If she had only knelt down I should certainly have done so, +too; and perhaps I might have been helped out of this dreadful feeling." +Yet so ignorant was she of the way that it never once occurred to her to +kneel alone and pray. + +No more words were spoken by those two girls that night, but each lay +awake for a long time and tossed about restlessly. Ruth had been most +effectually disturbed, and try as best she could it was impossible to +banish the memory of those quiet words: "You might _have_ to die +to-night; people do, you know." To actually _have_ to do something that +she had not planned to do and was not quite ready for, would be a new +experience to this girl. Yet when would she be ready to plan for dying? +At last she grew thoroughly vexed, and vented her disgust on the +"religionists" who got up camp-meeting excitements for the purpose of +turning weak brains like Flossy Shipley's. After that she went to sleep. + +"Flossy Shipley, for pity's sake _don't_ rig your self up in that awful +cashmere! It rains yet and you will just be going around with five +wrinkles on your forehead all day, besides spoiling your dress." + +It was morning, and the door of communication between the two +sleeping-rooms being thrown open the four girls were in full tide of +talk and preparation for Fairpoint. Flossy, though kept her strangely +quiet face and manner; the night had not brought her peace; she had +tossed restlessly for hours, and when at last she slept it was only to +be haunted with troubled dreams. With the first breath of morning she +opened her eyes and felt that the weight of yesterday was still pressing +on her heart. + +"What _shall_ I wear?" she asked, in an absent, bewildered way of Eurie, +who had objected to the cashmere. + +"I'm sure I don't know. Didn't you bring anything suited to the rain? +Let me go fishing in that ponderous trunk and see if I can't find +something." + +The "fishing" produced nothing more suitable than a heavy black silk, +elaborately trimmed, and looking, as Eurie phrased it, "elegantly out of +place." + +Through much confusion and frolicking the four were at last entering the +grounds at Chautauqua. By reason of their superior knowledge Marion and +Flossy led the way, while the others followed eagerly, looking and +exclaiming. + +"I'll tell you what it is, girls," Eurie said, eagerly. "Let's come over +here and board. We'll have a tent or a cottage. A tent will be jollier, +and it will be twice as much fun as to stay at the hotel." + +There being no dissenting voice to this proposal, they started in much +glee to look up a home; only Flossy demurred timidly. + +"Can't we go to the meeting, girls, and look for the tent afterward? The +meeting has commenced; I hear them singing." + +"It's nothing in the world but a Bible service," Eurie said. "That man +at the gate handed me a programme. Who wants to go to a Bible service? +We have Bibles enough at home. We want to be on hand at eleven o'clock, +because Edward Eggleston is to speak on 'The Paradise of Childhood.' My +childhood was anything but paradise, but I am anxious to know what he +will make of it." + +Flossy succumbed, of course, as every one expected she would; and the +party went in search of tents and accommodations. It was no easy matter +to suit them, as the patient and courteous President found. + +"I don't like the location of any one of them," Ruth Erskine said. Of +course she was the hardest to suit. "Why can't we have one of those in +that row on the hill?" + +"Those are the guest tents, ma'am." + +"The guest tents?" Eurie exclaimed, in surprise. "I wonder if they +entertain guests here! Who are they?" + +"Why, those who have been invited to take part in the exercises, of +course. You did not suppose that they paid their own expenses and did +the work besides, did you?" + +This explanation was given by Marion, who, by virtue of her experience +as reporter was better versed in the ways of these great gatherings +than the others. + +"What an idea!" Eurie said. "Fancy being a guest and speaking at this +great meeting. Being a person of distinction, you know; so that people +would be pointing you out, and telling their neighbors who you were. + +"There goes Miss Mitchell. She is the leading speaker on Sunday-school +books. How does that sound? Only, on the whole, I should choose some +other department than Sunday-school books; they are all so horridly +good--the people in them, I mean--that one can't get through with more +than two in a season. I tried to read one last week for Sunday, but I +abandoned it in despair." + +This was an aside, while Ruth was questioning the President. She was +looking dismayed. + +"Can't we have one of the tents on that side near the stand?" + +"Those were taken months ago. This is a large gathering, you know." + +"I should think it was! Then, it seems, we must go back to the hotel. I +thought you would be glad to let us have accommodations at any price." + +The gentlemanly President here carefully repressed an amused smile. +Here were people who had evidently misunderstood Chautauqua. + +"Oh, yes," he said, "we can give you accommodations, only not the very +best, I am sorry to say. Our best tents were secured many months ago. +Still, we will do the best we can for you, and I think we can make you +entirely comfortable." + +"People have different ideas as to the meaning of that word," Miss Eurie +said, loftily. + +Then she moved to another tent, over which she exclaimed in dismay: + +"Why, the bed isn't made up! Pray, are we to sleep on the slats?" + +"Oh, no. But you have to hire all those things, you know. Have you seen +our bulletin? There are parties on the ground prepared to fit up +everything that you need, and to do it very reasonably. Of course we can +not know what degree of expense those requiring tents care to incur, so +we leave that matter for them to decide for themselves. You can have as +many or as few comforts as you choose, and pay accordingly." + +"And are all four of us expected to occupy this one room?" There was an +expression of decided disgust on Miss Erskine's face. + +"Way, you see," explained the amused President, "this tent is designed +for four; two good-sized bedsteads set up in it; and the necessity seems +to be upon us to crowd as much as we can conveniently. There will be no +danger of impure air, you know, for you have all out-doors to breathe." + +"And you really don't have toilet stands or toilet accommodations! What +a way to live!" + +Another voice chimed in now, which was the very embodiment of refined +horror. + +"And you don't have pianos nor sofas, and the room isn't lighted with +gas! I'm sure I don't see how we can live! It is not what we have been +accustomed to." + +This was Marion, with the most dancing eyes in the world, and the +President completed the scene by laughing outright. Suddenly Ruth +discovered that she was acting the part of a simpleton, and with flushed +face she turned from them, and walked to a vacant seat, in the opposite +direction from where they were standing. + +"We will take this one," she said, haughtily, without vouchsafing it a +look. "I presume it is as good as any of them, and, since we are fairly +into this absurd scrape we must make the best of it." + +"Or the worst of it," Marion said, still laughing. "You are bent on +doing that, I think, Ruthie." + +By a violent effort and rare good sense Ruth controlled herself +sufficiently to laugh, and the embarrassment vanished. There were +splendid points about this girl's character, not the least among them +being the ability to laugh at a joke that had been turned toward +herself. At least the effect was splendid. The reasons, therefore, might +have been better. It was because her sharp brain saw the better effect +that her ability to do this thing immediately produced on the people +around her. But I shall have to confess that a poise of character strong +enough to gracefully avert unpleasant effects arising from causes of her +own making ought to have been strong enough to have suppressed the +causes. + +The question of an abiding-place being thus summarily disposed of, the +party set themselves to work with great energy to get settled, Marion +and Eurie taking the lead. Both were used to both planning and working, +and Marion at least had so much of it to do as to have lost all desire +to lead unnecessarily, and therefore everything grew harmonious. + +There was a good deal of genuine disgust in Ruth's part of it, though, +her eyes having been opened, she bravely tried to hide the feeling from +the rest. But you will remember that she had lived and breathed in an +atmosphere of elegant refinement all her life, accepting the luxuries of +life as common necessities until they had really become such to her, and +the idea of doing without many things that people during camp life +necessarily find themselves _obliged_ to do without was not only strange +to her but exceedingly disagreeable. The two leaders being less used to +the extremes of luxury, and more indifferent to them by nature, could +not understand and had little sympathy with her feeling. + +"We shall have to go back after all to the hotel," Eurie said, as she +dived both hands into the straw tick and tried to level the bed. "We +have too fine a lady among us; she cannot sleep on a bedstead that +doesn't rest its aristocratic legs on a velvet carpet. She doesn't see +the fun at all. I thought Flossy would be the silly one, but Flossy is +in a fit of the dumps. I never saw her so indifferent to her dress +before. See her now, bringing that three-legged stand, without regard to +rain! There is one comfort in this perpetual rain, we shall have less +dust. After all, though, I don't know as that is any improvement, so +long as it goes and makes itself up into mud. Look at the mud on my +dress! That tent we were looking at first would have been ever so much +the best, but after Ruth's silliness I really hadn't the face to suggest +a change--I thought we had given trouble enough. She makes a mistake; +she thinks this is a great hotel, where people are bound to get all the +money they can and give as little return, instead of its being a place +where people are striving to be as accommodating as they can, and give +everybody as good a time as possible." + +In the midst of all this talk and work they left and ran up the hill to +the Tabernacle, where the crowds were gathering to hear Dr. Eggleston. +It was a novel sight to these four girls; the great army of eager, +strong, expectant faces; the ladies, almost without an exception, +dressed to match the rain and the woods, looking neither tired nor +annoyed about anything--looking only in earnest. To Ruth, especially, it +came like a revelation. She looked around her with surprised eyes. There +were intellectual faces on every hand. There was the hum of conversation +all about her, for the meeting was not yet opened, and the tone of their +words was different from any with which her life had been familiar; they +seemed lifted up, enthused; they seemed to have found something worthy +of enthusiasm. As a rule Ruth had not enjoyed enthusiastic people; they +had seemed silly to her; and you will admit that there is a silly side +to the consuming of a great deal of that trait on the dress for an +evening party, or the arrangement of programmes for a fancy concert. +Just now she had a glimmering fancy that there might be something worthy +of arresting and holding one's eager attention. + +"They look alive," she said, turning from right to left among the rows +and rows of faces. "They look as though they had a good deal to do, and +they thought it was worth doing." + +Then, curiously enough, there came suddenly to her mind that question +which she had banished the night before, and she wondered if these +people had all really answered it to their satisfaction. + +Flossy took a seat immediately in front of the speaker. She was hungry +for something, and she did not know what to call it--something that +would set her fevered heart at rest. As for Marion and Eurie, they hoped +with all their hearts that the "Hoosier Schoolmaster" would give them a +rich intellectual treat, at least Marion was after the intellectual. +Eurie would be contented if she got the fun, and a man like Dr. +Eggleston has enough of both those elements to make sure of satisfying +their hopes. But would he bring something to help Flossy? + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +FEASTS. + + +"He doesn't look in the least as I thought he did." It was Eurie who +whispered this, and she nudged Marion's arm by way of emphasis as she +did it. + +Marion laughed. + +"How did you think he looked?" + +"Oh, I don't know--rough, rather." + +Whereupon Marion laughed again. + +"That is the way some people discriminate," she whispered back. "You +think because he wrote about rough people he must be rough; and when one +writes about people of culture and elegance you think straightway that +he is the personification of those ideas. You forget, you see, that the +world is full to the brim with hypocrisy; and it is easier to be perfect +on paper than it is anywhere else in this world." + +"Or to be a sinner either, according to that view of it." + +"It is easy enough to be a sinner anywhere. Hush, I want to listen." + +For which want the people all about her must have been very thankful. +Our young ladies gave Dr. Eggleston their attention at the moment when +he was drawling out in his most nasal and ludicrous tones the hymn that +used to be a favorite in Sunday-schools ninety years ago: + + "Broad is the road that leads to death, + And thousands walk together there, + But wisdom shows a narrow path, + With here and there a traveler." + +The manner in which part of these lines were repeated was irresistibly +funny. To Eurie it was explosively so; she laughed until the seat shook +with mirth. To be sure, she knew nothing about modern Sunday-schools; +for aught that she was certain of, they might have sung that very hymn +in the First Church Sunday-school the Sabbath before; and it made not +the least atom of difference whether they did or not; the way in which +Dr. Eggleston was putting it was funny, and Eurie never spoiled fun for +the sake of sentiment. Presently she looked up at Marion for sympathy. +That young lady's eyes were in a blaze of indignation. What in the world +was the matter with her? Surely she, with her hearty and unquestioning +belief in _nothing_, could not have been disturbed by any jar! Let me +tell you a word about Marion. Away back in her childhood there was a +memory of a little dingy, old-fashioned kitchen, one of the oldest and +dreariest of its kind, where the chimney smoked and the winter wind +crawled in through endless cracks and crannies; where it was not always +possible to get enough to eat during the hardest times; but there was a +large, old-fashioned arm-chair, covered with frayed and faded calico, +and in this chair sat often of a winter evening a clean-faced old man, +with thin and many-patched clothes, with a worn and sickly face, with a +few gray hairs straggling sadly about on his smooth crown: and that old +man used often and often to drone out in a cracked voice and in a tune +pitched too low by half an octave the very words which had just been +repeated in Marion's hearing. What of all that? Why, that little gloomy +kitchen was Marion's memory of home; that old, tired man was her father, +and he used to sing those words while his hand wandered tenderly through +the curls of her brown head, and patted softly the white forehead over +which they fell; and all of love that there was in life, all that the +word "tenderness" meant, all that was dear, or sweet or to be +reverenced, was embodied in that one memory to Marion. Now you +understand the flashing eyes. She did not believe it at all; she +believed, or thought she did, that the "broad" and "narrow" roads were +all nonsense; that go where you would, or do what you would, all the +roads led to _death_; and that was the end. But the father who had +quavered through those lines so many times had staked his hopes forever +on that belief, and the assurance of it had clothed his face in a grand +smile as he lay dying--a smile that she liked to think of, that she did +not like to hear ridiculed, and to her excited imagination Dr. Eggleston +seemed to be ridiculing the faith on which the hymn was built. "They +are more thorough hypocrites than I supposed," she said, in scorn, and +hardly in undertone, in answer to Eurie's inquiring look. "I don't +believe the stuff myself, but I always supposed the ministers did. I +gave some of them at least credit for sincerity, but it seems it is +nothing but a fable to be laughed to scorn." + +"Why, Marion!" Eurie said, and her look expressed surprise and dismay. +"He is not making fun of religion, you know; he is simply referring to +the inappropriateness of such hymns for children." + +"What is so glaringly inappropriate about it if they really believe the +Bible? I'm sure it says there that there are two roads, one broad and +the other narrow; and that many people are on one and but few on the +other. Why shouldn't it be put into a hymn if it is desirable to impress +it?" + +"I'm sure I don't know," Eurie said, unaccustomed to being put through a +course of logic. "Only, you know, I suppose he simply means that it is +beyond their comprehensions." + +"They must have remarkably limited comprehensions then if they are +incapable of understanding so simple a figure of speech, as that there +are two ways to go, and one is harder and safer than the other. I +understood it when it was sung to me--and I was a very little child--and +believed it, too, until I saw the lives of people contradict it; but if +I believed, it still I would not make public sport of it." + +At this point Ruth leaned forward from the seat behind and whispered: + +"Girls, do keep still; you are drawing the attention of all the people +around you and disturbing everybody." + +After that they kept still; but the good doctor had effectually sealed +one heart to whatever that was tender and earnest he might have to say. +She sat erect, with scornful eyes and glowing cheeks, and when the first +flush of excitement passed off was simply harder and gayer than before. +Who imagined such a result as that? Nobody, of course. But how perfectly +foolish and illogical! Couldn't she see that Dr. Eggleston only meant to +refer to the fact that literature, both of prose and poetry, had been +improved by being brought to the level of childish minds, and to reprove +that way of teaching religious truth, that leaves a somber, dismal +impression on youthful hearts? Apparently she could not, since she did +not. As for being absurd and illogical, I _did_ not say that she wasn't. +I am simply giving you facts as they occurred. I think myself that she +was dishonoring the memory of her father ten thousand times more than +any chance and unmeant word of the speakers could possibly have done. +The only trouble was, that she was such an idiot she did not see it; and +she prided herself on her powers of reasoning, too! But the world is +full of idiots. She sat like a stone during the rest of the brilliant +lecture. Many things she heard because she could not help hearing; many +she admired, because it was in her to admire a brilliant and charming +thing, and she could not help that, either; but she could shut her +_heart_ to all tenderness of feeling and all softening influences, and +that she did with much satisfaction, deliberately steeling herself +against the words of a man because he had quoted a chance line that her +father used to sing, while she lived every day of her life in defiance +of the principles by which her father shaped his life and his death! +Verily, the ways of girls are beyond understanding. + +Eurie enjoyed it all. When Dr. Eggleston told of the men that, as soon +as their children grew a little too restless, had business down town, +she clapped her hands softly and whispered: + +"That is for all the world like father. Neddie and Puss were never in a +whining fit in their lives that father didn't at once think of a patient +he had neglected to visit that day, and rush off." + +She laughed over the thought that women were shut in with little steam +engines, and said: + +"That's a capital name for them; we have three at home that are always +just at the very point of explosion. I mean to write to mother and tell +her I have found a new name for them." + +When he suggested the blunt-end scissors, and the colored crayons with +which they could make wonderful yellow dogs, with green tails and blue +eyes, her delight became so great that she looked around to Ruth to help +her enjoy it, and said: + +"You see if I don't invest in a ton of colored crayons the very first +thing I do when I get home; it is just capital! So strange I never +thought of it before." + +"You did not think of it now," Ruth said, in her quiet cooling way. +"Give the speaker credit for his own ideas, please. Half the world have +to do the thinking for the other half always." + +"That is the reason so much is left undone, then," retorted Eurie, with +unfailing good humor, and turned back to the speaker in time to hear his +description of the superintendent that was so long in finding the place +to sing that the boys before him went around the world while he was +giving the number. + +"Slow people," said she, going down the hill afterward. "I never could +endure them, and I shall have less patience with them in future than +ever. Wasn't he splendid? Ruth, you liked the part about Dickens, of +course." + +"A valuable help the lecture will be to your after-life if all you have +got is an added feeling of impatience toward slow people. Unfortunately +for you they are in the world, and will be very likely to stay in it, +and a very good sort of people they are, too." + +It was Marion who said this, and her tone was dry and unsympathetic. + +Eurie turned to her curiously. + +"You didn't like him," she said, "did you? I am so surprised; I thought +you would think him splendid. On your favorite hobby, too. I said to +myself this will be just in Marion's line. She has so much to say about +teaching children by rote in a dull and uninteresting way. You couldn't +forgive him for reciting that horrid old hymn in such a funny way. +Flossy, do you suppose you can ever hear that hymn read again without +laughing? What was the matter, Marion? Who imagined you had any +sentimental drawings toward Watts' hymns?" + +"I didn't even know it was Watts' hymn," Marion said, indifferently. +"But I hate to hear any one go back on his own belief. If he honestly +believes in the sentiments of that verse, and they certainly are Bible +sentiments, he shouldn't make fun of it. But I'm sure it is of no +consequence to me. He may make fun of the whole Bible if he chooses, +verse by verse, and preach a melting sermon from it the very next +Sabbath; it will be all the same to me. Let us go in search of some +dinner, and not talk any more about him." + +"But that isn't fair. You are unjust, isn't she, Ruth? I say he didn't +make fun of religion, as Marion persists in saying that he did." + +"Of course not," Ruth said. "A minister would hardly be guilty of doing +that. He was simply comparing the advanced methods of the present with +the stupidity of the past." + +And obstinate Marion said then he ought to get a new Bible, for the very +same notions were in it that were when she was a child and learned +verses. And that was all that this discussion amounted to. Nobody had +appealed to Flossy. She had stood looking with an indifferent air around +her, until Marion turned suddenly and said: + +"What did the lecture say to you, Flossy? Eurie seems very anxious to +get out of it something for our 'special needs,' as they say in church. +What was yours?" + +Flossy hesitated like a timid child, flushed and then paled, and finally +said, simply: + +"I have been thinking ever since he spoke it of that one sentence, +'Rock-firm, God-trust, has died out of the world.' I was wondering if it +were true, and I was wishing that it wasn't." + +All the girls looked at each other in astonished silence; such a +strange thing for Flossy to say. + +"What of it?" said Marion, presently. "What if it has? or, rather, what +if it were never in the world?" + +"It wasn't that side of it that I thought about. It was what if it +were." + +"And what then?" + +"Why, then, I should like to see the person who had it, just to see how +he would seem." + +Marion laughed somewhat scornfully. + +"Curiosity is at the bottom of your wise thought, is it? Well, my little +mousie, I am amazingly afraid you are destined never to discover how it +will seem. So I wouldn't puzzle my brains about it. It might be too much +for them. Shall we go to dinner?" + +You should have seen our four young ladies taking their first meal at +Chautauqua! It was an experience not to be forgotten. They went to the +"hotel." This was a long board building, improvised for the occasion, +and filled with as many comforts as the _necessities_ of the occasion +could furnish. To Miss Erskine the word "hotel" had only one sort of +association. She had been a traveler in her own country only, and it +had been her fortune to be intimate only with the hotels in large +cities, and only with those where people go whose purses are full to +overflowing. So she had come to associate with the name all that was +elegant or refined or luxurious. + +When the President of the grounds inquired whether they would have +tickets for the hotel or one of the boarding-houses, Miss Erskine had +answered without hesitation: + +"For the hotel, of course. I never have anything to do with +boarding-houses. They are almost certain to be second rate." + +Said President kept his own counsel, thinking, I fancy, that here was a +girl who needed some lessons in the practical things of this life, and +Chautauqua hotels were good places in which to take lessons. + +Imagine now, if you can, the look of this lady's face, as they made +their way with much difficulty down the long room, and looked about them +on either side for seats. + +"A hotel, indeed!" she said, in utter contempt and disgust, as one of +the attendants signaled them and politely drew back the long board seat +that did duty in the place of chairs, and answered for five, or, if you +were good natured and crowded, for six people. He was just as polite in +his attentions as if the unplaned seat had been a carved chair of +graceful shape and pattern. One would suppose that Ruth might have taken +a hint from his example. But the truth is, she belonged to that class of +people who are so accustomed to polite attentions that it is only their +absence which calls forth remark. + +"The idea of naming this horrid, dirty old lumber-room a hotel!" and she +carefully and disdainfully spread her waterproof cloak on the seat +before she took it. + +Eurie's merry laugh rang out until others looked and smiled in sympathy +with her fun, whatever it was. + +"What in the world did you expect, Ruthie? I declare, you are too +comical! I verily believe you expected Brussels carpets, and mirrors in +which you could admire yourself all the while you were eating." + +"I expected a _hotel_," Ruth said, in no wise diminishing her lofty +tone. "That is what is advertised, and people naturally do not look for +so much deception in a religious gathering. This is nothing in the world +but a shanty." + +Chautauqua was doing one thing for this young lady which surprised and +annoyed her. It was helping her to get acquainted with herself. Up to +this time she had looked upon herself as a person of smooth and even +temperament, not by any means easily ruffled or turned from her quiet +poise. She had prided herself on her composed, gracefully dignified way +of receiving things. She never hurried, she never was breathless and +flushed, and apologetic over something that she ought or ought not to +have done, which was a chronic state with Eurie. She never was in a +thorough and undisguised rage, as Marion was quite likely to be. She +was, in her own estimation, a model of propriety. All this until she +came to Chautauqua. Now, great was her surprise to discover in herself a +disposition to be utterly disgusted with things that to Marion were of +so little consequences as to be unnoticed, and that to Eurie were +positive sources of fun. + +Doubtless you understand her better than she did herself. The truth is, +it is a comparatively easy matter to be gracious and courteous and +unruffled when everything about you is moving exactly according to your +mind, and when you can think of nothing earthly to be annoyed about. +There are some natures that are deceiving their own hearts in just such +an atmosphere as this. They are not the lowest type of nature by any +means. The small, petty trials that come to every life are beneath them. +If it rains when they want to walk they can go in a handsome carriage, +and keep their tempers. If their elegant new robes prove to be badly +made they can have them remodeled and made more elegant with a superior +composure. In just so far are they above the class who can endure +nothing in the shape of annoyances or disappointment, however small. The +fact is, however, that there are petty annoyance, _not_ coming in their +line of life, that would be altogether too much for them. But of this +they remain in graceful ignorance until some Chautauqua brings the +sleeping shadows to the surface. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +TABLE TALK. + + +"What is your private explanation of the word 'hotel'?" Marion asked. +She was in an argumentative mood, and it made almost no difference to +her which side of the question she argued. "Webster says it is a place +to entertain strangers, but you seem to attach some special importance +to the term." + +"Is that all that Webster says?" + +The questioner was not Ruth, but a man who sat just opposite to them at +the table, and while he waited for his order to be filled watched with +amused eyes the four gills who were evidently in a new element. He was +not a young man, and his gray hairs would have arrested the pertness of +the reply on Marion's tongue at any other time than this, but you +remember that she was not in a good mood. She answered promptly; "Yes, +sir, he says ever so many things. In fact, he is the most voluminous +author I ever read." + +The gentleman laughed. The pertness seemed to amuse him. + +"Didn't I limit my question?" he said, pleasantly. "He is voluminous, +and what a sensible book he has written. I wish all authors had given us +so much information. But I meant, is that all he says about hotels? +Doesn't he justify your friend just a little bit in her expectations?" + +"I'm sure I don't know," Marion said, amused in turn at the good-natured +interest which the elderly gentleman took in the question. "He has said +so much that I haven't had time to digest it all. If you have, won't you +please enlighten me as to his wisdom on this subject?" "'Especially one +of some style or pretensions,'" quoted the old gentleman, "so Webster +adds. You see I am interested in the subject," and he laughed +pleasantly. "I have been looking it up, which must be my apology for +addressing you young ladies, if so old a man as I must apologize for +being interested in girls. The fact is, I had occasion to talk with a +young man yesterday who took the people to task most roundly for that +very name, on the ground that they had no right to it--that it was a +misnomer. I have been struck with the thought that nothing is trivial, +not even the name that happens to be chosen for a house where one +_waits_ for his dinner," with a strong emphasis on the word "wait," +which Eurie understood and laughed over. + +"Except the remarks that people make about such things," Marion said, +answering the first part of the sentence and bestowing a wicked glance +on Ruth. "They are trivial enough. Did you agree with the young +gentleman?" + +"No. I thought it all over and consulted Webster, as I said, and came to +the conclusion that in view of this being a more pretentious house than +either of the others they had a right to the word. Webster doesn't say +what degree of pretension is necessary, you know." + +The lifting of Ruth's eyebrows at this point was so expressive that all +the party laughed. But the old gentleman grew grave again in a moment, +as he said: + +"But the thought that impressed me most was what a very perfect system +of faith the religion of Jesus Christ is; how completely it commends +itself to the human heart, since the very slightest departure from what +is regarded as strictly true and right, when it is done by a Christian +(society or individual), is noticed and commented upon by lookers-on; +they seem to know of a certainty that it is not according to the Spirit +of Christ." + +This last sentence struck Marion dumb. How fond she was of caviling at +Christian lives! Was she really thus giving all the time an unconscious +tribute to the truth and purity of the Christian faith? + +It was a merry dinner, after all, eaten with steel forks and without +napkins, and with plated spoons, if you were so fortunate as to secure +one. The rush of people was very great, and, with their inconvenient +accommodations, the process of serving was slow. + +Marion, her eyes being opened, went to studying the people about her. +She found that courteous good-humor was the rule, and selfishness and +ungraciousness the exception. Inconveniences were put up with and +merrily laughed over by people who, from their dress and manners, could +be accustomed to only the best. + +Marion took mental notes. + +"They do not act in the least like the mass of people who stop at +railroad eating-houses for their dinner; they are patient and courteous +under difficulties; they did not come here for the purpose of being +entertained; if they did the accommodations wouldn't satisfy." + +There was another little thing that interested Marion. As the tables +kept filling, and those who had been served made room for those who had +not, she found herself watching curiously what proportion of the guests +observed that instant of silent thanks with covered eyes. It was so +brief, so slight a thing, I venture that scarcely a person there noticed +it, much less imagined that there was a pair of keen gray eyes over in +the corner looking and calculating concerning them. + +"What if they all had to wear badges," she said to herself, "badges that +read 'I am a Christian,' I wonder how many of them it would influence +to different words than they are speaking, or to different acts? I +wonder if they _do_ all wear them? I wonder if the distinction is really +marked, so one looking on could detect the difference, though all of +them are strangers? I mean to watch during these two weeks. 'The proper +study of mankind is man.' Very well, Brother Pope, a convenient place +for the study of man is Chautauqua. I'll take it up. Who knows but I may +learn a new branch to teach the graded infants in Ward No. 4." + +Ruth did not recover her equanimity. She was rasped on every side. Those +two-tined steel forks were a positive sting to her. She shuddered as the +steel touched her lips. She had no spoon at all, and she looked on in +utter disgust while Eurie merrily stirred her tea with her fork. When +the waiter came at last, with hearty apologies for keeping them waiting +for their spoons, and the old gentleman said cordially, "All in good +time. We shall not starve even if we get no spoons," she curled her lip +disdainfully, and murmured that she had always been accustomed to the +conveniences of life, and found it somewhat difficult to do without +them. + +When one is in the mood for grumbling there is no easier thing in the +world than to find food for that spirit, and Ruth continued her pastime, +waxing louder and more decided after the genial old man had left their +neighborhood. + +"What is the use in fault-finding?" Eurie said at last, half petulantly. +She was growing very tired of this exhibition. "What did you expect? +They are doing as well as they can, without any doubt. Just imagine what +it must be to get conveniences together for this vast crowd. They did +not expect anything like such a large attendance at first; I heard them +say so and that makes it harder to wait upon them. But of course they +are doing just as well as they can, and we fare as well as any of them." + +"Don't you be so foolish as to believe that," Ruth said, with a curling +lip. "If you could see behind the scenes you would soon discover +something very different. That is why it is so provoking to me. Let +people who cannot afford to pay any better take such as they can get. +But what right had they to suppose that we had not the money to pay for +what we wish? I'm sure _I'm_ not a pauper! You will find that there is +a place where the select few can get what they want, and have it served +in a respectable manner, and I say I don't like it; I have been +accustomed to the decencies of life." + +Just behind them the talk was going on unceasingly, and one voice, at +this point, rising higher than the others, caught the attention of our +girls. Eurie turned suddenly and tried to catch a glimpse of the +speaker. Something in the voice sounded natural. A sudden movement on +the part of the gentleman between them and she caught a glimpse of the +face. She turned back eagerly. + +"Girls, that is Mrs. Schuyler Germain!" + +"Where?" Ruth asked, with sudden interest in her voice. + +"Over at that table, in a water-proof cloak and black straw hat, and +eating boiled potatoes with a steel fork. What about being behind the +scenes now, Ruthie?" + +To fully appreciate this you must understand that even among the +Erskines to get as high as Mrs. Schulyer Germain was to get as high as +the aristocracy of this world reached; not that she lived in any grander +style than the Erskines, or showed that she had more money, but every +one knew that her bank accounts were very heavy, and, besides, she was +the daughter of Gen. Wadsworth Hillyer, of Washington, and the +great-granddaughter, by direct descent, of one of England's noblemen. +She was traveled and cultivated, and all but titled through her youngest +daughter. + +Could American ambition reach higher? And there she sat, at a table made +of pine boards, eating boiled potatoes with a two-tined steel fork! +Could English nobility sink lower! Ruth looked over at her in quiet +surprise for a moment, and then gave her head its haughty toss as she +met Eurie's mischievous eyes, and said: + +"It is not an aristocracy of position here, then. The leaders keep all +their nice things and places for themselves. That is smaller than I +supposed them to be." + +At this particular moment there was an uprising from the table just +behind them. Half a dozen gentlemen leaving their empty plates, and in +full tide of talk, making their way down the hall. The girls looked and +nudged each other as they recognized them. The younger of the two +foremost had a face that can not easily be mistaken, and Eurie, having +seen it once, did not need Marion's low-toned, "That is Mr. Vincent." +And Ruth herself, thrown off her guard, recognized and exclaimed over +Dr. Hodge. + +This climax was too much for Eurie. She threw down her fork to clap her +hands in softly glee. + +"Oh, Ruthie, Ruthie! How has your dismal castle of favoritism faded! +Yonder is the Queen of American society eating pie at this very instant +with the very fork which did duty on her potato, and here goes the King +of the feast, wiping his lips on his own handkerchief instead of a +damask napkin." + +It was at this moment, when Ruth's follies and ill humors were rising to +an almost unbearable height, that her higher nature asserted itself, and +shone forth in a rich, full laugh. Then, in much glee and good feeling, +they followed the crowd down the hill to the auditorium. + +For the benefit of such poor benighted beings as have never seen +Chautauqua, let me explain that the auditorium was the great temple +where the congregation assembled for united service. Such a grand +temple as it was! The pillars thereof were great solemn trees, with +their green leaves arching overhead in festoons of beauty. I don't know +how many seats there were, nor how many could be accommodated at the +auditorium. Eurie set out to walk up and down the long aisles one day +and count the seats, but she found that which so arrested her attention +before she was half-way down the central aisle that she forgot all about +it, and there was never any time afterward for that work. I mean to tell +you about that day when I get to it. The grand stand was down here in +front of all these seats, spacious and convenient, the pillars thereof +festooned with flags from many nations. The large piano occupied a +central point; the speaker's desk at its feet, in the central of the +stand; the reporters' tables and chairs just below. + +"I ought to have one of those chairs," Marion said, as they passed the +convenient little space railed off from the rest of the audience. "Just +as if I were not a real reporter because I write in plain good English, +instead of racing over the paper and making queer little tracks that +only one person in five thousand can read. If I were not the most +modest and retiring of mortals I would go boldly up and claim a seat." + +"What is to be next?" Ruth asked. "Are we supposed to be devoted to all +these meetings? I thought we were only going to one now and then. We +won't be alive in two weeks from now if we pin ourselves down here." + +"In the way that we have been doing," chimed in Eurie. "Just think here +we have been to every single meeting they have had yet, except the one +last night and one this morning." + +"We are going to skip every one that we possibly can," said Marion. "But +the one that is to come just now is decidedly the one that we can't. The +speaker is Dr. Calkins, of Buffalo. I heard him four years ago, and it +is one of the few sermons that I remember to this day. I always said if +I ever had another chance I should certainly hear him again. I like his +subject this afternoon, too. It is appropriate to my condition." + +"What is the subject?" Flossy asked, with a sudden glow of interest. + +"It is what a Christian can learn from a heathen. I'm the heathen, and +I presume Dr Calkins is the Christian. So he is to see what he can learn +from me, I take it, and naturally I am anxious to know. Flossy isn't +interested in that; I can see it from her face. She knows she isn't a +heathen--she is a good proper little Christian. But it is your duty, my +dear, to find what you can learn from me." + +"What can he possibly make of such a subject as that?" Ruth asked, +curiously. "I don't believe I want to hear him. Is he so very talented, +Marion?" + +"I don't know. Haven't the least idea whether he is what you call +talented or not. He says things exactly as though he knew they were so, +and for the time being he makes you feel as though you were a perfect +simpleton for not knowing it, too." + +"And you like to be made to feel like a 'perfect simpleton?' Is that the +reason you resolved to hear him again?" + +"I like to meet a man once in a while who knows how to do it, and for +the matter of that I wouldn't mind being made to feel the truth of the +things that he says, if one could only _stay_ made. It isn't the fault +of the preaching that it all feels like a pretty story and nothing else; +it is the fault of the wretched practicing that the sheep go home and +do. It makes one feel like being an out-and-out goat, and done with it, +instead of being such a perfect idiot of a sheep." + +At this point the talk suddenly ceased, for the leaders began to +assemble, and the service commenced. Ruth and Marion exchanged comic +glances when they discovered the "heathen" of the afternoon to be +Socrates. And Marion presently whispered that she was evidently to play +the character of the old fellow's wife, and Eurie whispered to them +both: + +"Now I want to know if that horrid Zantippe was Socrates' wife! Upon my +word I never knew it before. She wasn't to blame, after all, for being +such a wretch." + +"What do you mean?" Marion whispered back, with scornful eyes. "Socrates +was the grandest old man that ever lived." + +"Pooh! He wasn't. He didn't know any more than little mites of +Sunday-school children do nowdays. I never could understand why his +philosophy was so remarkable, only that he lived in a heathen country +and got ahead of all the rest, but if he were living now he would be a +pigmy." + +"I wish he were," Marion said, with her eyes still flashing. "I would +like to see such a life as he lived." + +This girl was a hero worshiper. Her cheeks could burn and her eyes glow +over the grand stories of old heathen characters, and she could melt to +tears over their trials and wrongs. And yet she passed by in haughty +silence the sublime life that of all others is the only perfect one on +record, and she had no tears to shed over the shameful and pitiful story +of the cross. What a strange girl she was! I wonder if it be possible +that there are any others like her? + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +"AT EVENING TIME IT SHALL BE BRIGHT." + + +Meantime Flossy Shipley came to no place where her heart could rest. She +went through that first day at Chautauqua in a sort of maze, hearing and +yet not hearing, and longing in her very soul for something that she did +not hear--that is, she did not hear it distinctly and fairly stated, so +that she could grasp it and act upon it; and yet it was shadowed all +around her, and hinted at in every word that was uttered, so that it was +impossible to forget that there was a great something in which the most +of these people were eagerly interested, and which was sealed to her. + +She felt it dimly all the while that Dr. Eggleston was speaking; she +felt it sensibly when they sang; she felt it in the chance words that +caught her ear on every side as the meeting closed--bright, fresh words +of greeting, of gladness, of satisfaction, but every one of them +containing a ring that she could hear but not copy. What did it mean? +And, above all, why did she care what it meant, when she had been happy +all her life before without knowing or thinking anything about it? + +As they went down the hill to dinner, she loitered somewhat behind the +others, thinking while they talked. As the throng pressed down around +them there came one whose face she instantly recognized; it belonged to +the young man who had spoken to her on the boat the evening before. The +face recalled the earnest words that he had spoken, and the tone of +restful satisfaction in which they were spoken. His face wore the same +look now--interested, alert, but _at rest_. She coveted rest. It was +clear that he also recognized her, and something in her wistful eyes +recalled the words _she_ had spoken. + +"Have you found the Father's presence yet?" he asked, with a reverent +tone to his voice when he said "the Father," and yet with such evident +trust and love that the tears started to her eyes. + +She answered quickly: + +"No, I haven't. I cannot feel that he is my Father." + +They went down the steps just then, and the crowd rushed in between +them, so that neither knew what had become of the other; only that +chance meeting; he might never see her again. Chautauqua was peculiarly +a place where people met for a moment, then lost each other, perhaps for +all the rest of the time. + +"I may never see her again," Evan Roberts thought, "but I am glad that I +said a word to her. I hope in my soul that she will let Him find her." + +If Flossy could have heard this unspoken sentence she would have +marveled. "Let Him find her!" Why, she was dimly conscious that she was +seeking for Him, but no such thought had presented itself as that God +was really seeking after her. + +She went on, still falling behind, and trying to hide the rush of +feeling that the simple question had called forth. She was very quiet +at the dinner table; she was oblivious to steel forks or the want of +spoons; these things that had hitherto filled her life and looked of +importance to her had strangely dwindled; she was miserably +disappointed; she had looked forward to Chautauqua as a place where she +could have such a "nice" time. That word "nice" was a favorite with her, +and surely no one could be having a more wretched time than this; and it +was not the rain, either, over which she had been miserable all day +yesterday, nor her cashmere dress; she didn't care in the least now +whether it cleared or not; and as to her dress, she had torn her silk +twice, and it was sadly drabbled, but she did not even care for that; +she wanted--what? Alas for the daughter of nominally Christian parents, +living among all the privileges of a cultured Christian society, she +_did not know what she wanted_. + +Dr. Calkins had one eager listener. If he could have picked out her +earnest, wistful eyes among that crowd of upturned faces he would have +let old Socrates go, and given himself heart and soul to the leading of +this groping soul into the light. As it was he hovered around it, +touching the subject here and there, thrilling her with the +possibilities stretching out before her; but he was thinking of and +talking all the while to those who had reached after and secured this +"something" that to her was still a shadow. Now and then the speaker +brought the quick tears to her eyes as he referred to those who had +followed the teaching of his lips with sympathetic faces and answered +the appeal to their hearts with tears; but her tears were different from +those--they were the tears of a sick soul, longing for light and help. + +The entire party ignored the evening meeting. Marion declared that her +brain whirled now, so great had been the mental strain; Ruth was loftily +indifferent to any plan that could be gotten up, and Eurie's wits were +ripe for mischief; Flossy's opinion, of course, was not asked, nobody +deeming it possible that she could have the slightest desire to go to +meeting. In fact, Eurie put their desertion on the ground that Flossy +had been exhausted by the mental effort of the day, and needed to be +cheered and petted. She on her part was silent and wearily indifferent; +she did not know what to do with her heavy heart, and felt that she +might as soon walk down by the lake shore as do anything else; so down +to the shore they went, and gave themselves up to the full enjoyment of +the novel scene--an evening in the woods, great, glowing lights on every +side, great companies of people passing to and fro, boats touching at +the wharves and sending up group after group to the central attraction, +the grand stand; singing, music by thousands of voices ringing down to +them as they loitered under the trees on the rustic seats. + +"I declare, it must be nice in heaven for a little while." + +It was Eurie who made this somewhat startling discovery and announcement +after a lull had fallen upon their mirth. + +"Have you been there to see?" illogically asked Marion, as she threw a +tiny stone into the water and watched the waves quiver and ripple. + +Eurie laughed. + +"Not quite, but this must be a little piece of it--this music, I mean. I +am almost tempted to make an effort after the real thing. How +exquisitely those voices sound! I'm very certain I should enjoy the +music, whether I should be able to get along with the rest of the +programme or not. What on earth do you suppose they do there all the +time, anyway?" + +"Where?" + +"Why, in heaven, of course; that is what I was talking about. I believe +you are half asleep, Flossy Shipley; you mustn't go to sleep out here; +it isn't quite heaven yet, and you will take cold. Honestly, girls, +isn't it a sort of wonderment to you how the people up there can employ +their time? In spite of me I cannot help feeling that it must be rather +stupid; think of never being able to lie down and take a nap!" + +"Or read a novel," added Marion. "Isn't that your favorite employment +when you are awake, Eurie? I'm sure I don't know much about the +occupations of the place; I'm not posted; there is nothing about it laid +down in our geography; and, in fact, the people who seem to be expecting +to spend their lives there are unaccountably mum about it. I don't at +this moment remember hearing any one ever express a downright opinion, +and I have always thought it rather queer. I asked Nellie Wheden about +it one day when she was going on about her expected tour in Europe. She +had bored me to death, making me produce all my geographic and historic +lore for her benefit; and suddenly I thought of an expedient for giving +myself a little peace and a chance to talk about something else. 'Come, +Nellie,' I said, 'one good turn deserves another. I have told you +everything I can think of that can possibly be of interest to you about +Europe; now give me some information about the other place where you are +going. You must have laid up a large stock of information in all these +years.'" + +"What on earth did she say?" Ruth asked, curiously, while Eurie was in +great glee over the story. + +"She was as puzzled as if I had spoken to her in Greek. 'What in the +world can you be talking about?' she said. 'I'm not going anywhere else +that I know of. My head has been full of Europe for the last year, and I +haven't talked nor thought about any other journey.' Well, I enlightened +her as to her expectations, and what do you think she said? You wouldn't +be able to guess, so I'll tell you. She said I was irreverent, and that +no one who respected religion would ask such questions as that, and she +actually went off in a huff over my wickedness. So, naturally, I have +been chary of trying to get information on such 'reverent' subjects ever +since." + +Whereupon all these silly young ladies laughed long and heartily over +this silly talk. Flossy laughed with the rest, partly from the force of +habit and partly because this recital struck her as very foolish. Every +one of them saw its inconsistent side as plainly as though they had been +Christians for years; more plainly, perhaps, for it is very strange what +blinded eyes we can get under certain systems of living the religious +faith. + +Presently the society of these young ladies palled upon themselves, and +they agreed one with another that they had been very silly not to go to +meeting, and that another evening they would at least discover what was +being said before they lost the opportunity for getting seats. + +"Stupid set!" said Eurie "who imagined that the crowd would do such a +silly thing as to rush to that meeting, as if there were nothing else +to do but to go flying off for a seat the moment the bell rings? I +thought there would be crowds out here, and we would make some pleasant +acquaintances, and perhaps get a chance to take a boat ride." + +And so, in some disgust, they voted to bring the first day at Chautauqua +to a sudden close and try tent life. + +Silence and darkness reigned in the tent where our girls had disposed of +themselves. It was two hours since they had come in. It took more than +an hour, and much talking and more laughter, not to mention considerable +grumbling on Ruth's part, before everything was arranged to their +satisfaction--or, as Ruth expressed it, "to their endurance" for the +night. + +Three of the girls were sleeping quietly, their fun and their +discontents alike forgotten, but Flossy tossed wearily on her bed, +turned her pillow and turned it back again, and sought in vain for a +quiet spot. With the silence and the darkness her unrest had come upon +her again with tenfold force. She felt no nearer a solution of her +trouble than she had in the morning; in fact, the pain had deepened all +day, and the only definite feeling she had about it now was that she +could not live so; that something must be done; that she must get back +to her home and her old life, where she might hope to forged it all and +be at peace again. + +Into the quiet of the night came a firm, manly step, and the movement of +chairs right by her side, so at least it seemed to her. All unused to +tent life as she was a good deal startled she raised herself on one +elbow and looked about her in a frightened way before she realized that +the sounds came from the tent next to theirs. Before her thoughts were +fairly composed they were startled anew; this time with the voice of +prayer. + +Very distinct the words were on this still night air; every sentence as +clear as though it had really been spoken in the same tent. Now, there +was something peculiar in the voice; clearly cut and rounded the words +were, like that of a man very decided, very positive in his views, and +very earnest in his life. There was also a modulation to the syllables +that Flossy could not describe, but that she felt And she knew that she +had heard that voice twice before, once on the boat the evening before +and once as they jostled together in the crowd on their way to dinner. + +She felt sorry to be unwittingly a listener to a prayer that the maker +evidently thought was being heard only by his Savior. But she could not +shut out the low and yet wonderfully distinct sentences, and presently +she ceased to wish to, for it became certain that he was praying for +her. He made it very plain. He called her "that young girl who said +to-day that she could not think of thee as her Father; who seems to want +to be led by the hand to thee." + +Did you ever hear yourself prayed for by an earnest, reverent, pleading +voice? Then perhaps you know something of Flossy's feelings as she lay +there in the darkness. She had never heard any one pray for her before. +So destitute was she of real friends that she doubted much whether there +were one person living who had ever before earnestly asked God to make +her his child. + +That was what this prayer was asking. She lifted the white sleeve of her +gown, and wiped away tear after tear as the pleading voice went on. +Very still she was. It seemed to her that she must not lose a syllable +of the prayer, for here at last was the help she had been seeking, +blindly, and without knowing that she sought, all this long, heavy day. +Help? Yes, plain, clear, simple help. How small a thing it seemed to do! +"Show her her need of thee, blessed Jesus," thus the prayer ran. And oh! +_hadn't_ he showed her that? It flashed over her troubled brain then and +there: "It is Jesus that I need. It is he who can help me. I believe he +can. I believe he is the only one who can." This was her confession of +faith. "Then lead her to ask the help of thee that she needs. Just to +come to thee as the little child would go to her mother, and say, +'Jesus, take me; make me thy child.'" Only that? Was it such a little, +_little_ thing to do? How wonderful! + +The praying ceased, and the young man who had remembered the stranger to +whom God had given him a chance to speak during the day, all unconscious +that other ear than God's had heard his words of prayer, laid himself +down to quiet sleep. Flossy lay very still. The rain had ceased during +the afternoon, and now some solemn stars were peeping in through the +chinks in the tent and the earth was moon-lighted. She raised herself on +one elbow and looked around on her companions. How soundly asleep they +were! + +Another few minutes of stillness and irresolution. Then a white-robed +figure slipped softly and quietly to the floor and on her knees, and a +low-whispered voice repeated again and again these words: + +"Jesus, take me; make me thy child." + +It wasn't very long afterward that she lay quietly down on her pillow, +and earth went on exactly as if nothing at all had happened--knew +nothing at all about it--even the sleeper by her side was totally +ignorant of the wonderful tableau that had been acted all about her that +evening. But if Eurie Mitchell could have had one little peep into +heaven just then what _would_ her entranced soul have thought of the +music and the enjoyment there? For what _must_ it be like when there is +"joy in the presence of the angels in heaven"? + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +FLEEING. + + +The next morning every one of them ran away from the meeting. The way of +it was this: as they came up from breakfast and stood at the tent-door +discussing the question whether they would go to the early meeting, Mrs. +Duane Smithe passed, glanced up at them carelessly, then looked back +curiously, and at last turned and came back to them. + +"I beg pardon," she said, "but isn't this Miss Erskine? It surely is! I +thought I recognized your face, but couldn't be sure in these strange +surroundings. And you have a party with you? How delightful! We were +just wishing for more ladies. I really don't think it is going to rain +much to-day, and we have a lovely prospect in view. You must certainly +join us." + +Then followed introductions and explanations, Mrs. Duane Smithe was a +Saratoga acquaintance of Ruth Erskine, and was _en route_ for Jamestown +for the day. + +"Where is Jamestown?" queried Eurie, who was a very useful member of +society, in that she never pretended knowledge that she did not possess, +so that you had only to keep still and listen to the answers that were +made to her questions in order to know a good deal. + +"It is at the head of this lovely little lake, or at the foot, I'm sure +I don't know which way to call it, and it is nothing of consequence, of +course, but the ride thither is said to be charming, and we are going to +take a lunch, and picnic in a private way, just for the fun of getting +together, you know, in a more social manner than one can accomplish in +this wilderness of people. Isn't it a queer place, Miss Erskine? I am +dying to know how you happened to come here." + +Ruth arched her eyebrows. + +"I confess it is almost as strange as what brought _you_ here," she +said, smiling. + +"I can answer that in an instant. I have a ridiculous nephew here, who +thought that a week of meetings from morning to night would be just a +trifle short of paradise, so what did he do but smuggle us all off this +way. I shall find it a bore, of course, and the only way to get through +with it is to have little pleasure excursions like the one we propose +to-day." + +Now you know as much about Mrs. Duane Smithe as though I should write +about her for a week. It is strange how little we have to say before we +have explained to people not only our intellectual but our moral status. +Our girls, you will remember, had as little regard for the meetings as +girls could have, and they had by this time begun to feel themselves in +a strange atmosphere, without acquaintances or gentlemanly attentions, +so it took almost no persuasion at all to induce them to join Mrs. +Smithe's party, composed of two young ladies and four young gentlemen. +It would be difficult to explain to you what a disappointment the +decision to spend the day in frolic, instead of going to the meetings, +was to Flossy. All the morning her heart had been in a great flutter of +happiness over the beautiful day that stretched out before her. To meet +those earnest, eager people again, to hear those hymns, to hear the +voice of prayer all about her, to hear the constant allusions that were +so strange and so saddening to her yesterday, and that now she +understood, how blessed it would be! She had gone about the +bewilderments of her toilet in a tent with a serenely happy face, and +almost unawares had hummed the refrain of a tune that had already shown +itself a favorite at Chautauqua. + +"Flossy is like herself this morning," Eurie said, as she heard the +happy little song. "I think she has recovered from her home-sickness." + +Tents are not convenient places in which to make private remarks. Flossy +overheard this one and smiled to herself. Yes, she had gotten over her +home-sickness--she had found home. She gave a little exclamation of +dismay as she heard the plannings for the day, and said: + +"But, Ruth, what about the meetings?" + +"Well," Ruth had said, with her most provokingly nonchalant air, "I +haven't made any inquiry, but I presume they will continue them all day +just the same as if we were here. I don't _think_ they will change the +programme on our account." + +And Eurie had added, mischievously: + +"Flossy is afraid it is not the aristocratic thing to do, not to stay to +all the meetings." + +"Oh, as to that," Mrs. Smithe had said (she was one of those interesting +people who always take remarks seriously), "I assure you it is what the +first people on the ground are doing. Of course none of them would be so +absurd as to think of attending meetings all the time. The brain +wouldn't endure such a strain." + +"Of course not," Marion had answered with gravity, "My brain is already +very tired. I think yours must be exhausted." + +Flossy meditated a daring resolution to stay behind and take her "rest" +in the way she coveted; but the impossibility of explaining what would +appear to the others as merely an ill-natured freak, and occasion no end +of talk, deterred her, and with slow, reluctant steps she followed the +merry group down to the wharf. + +If those people had stopped long enough to think of it, this disposal of +themselves would have had its ludicrous side. Certainly it was a +strange fancy to run away twenty miles with lunches done up in paper in +search of a picnic, when Chautauqua was one great picnic ground, +stretching out before them in beauty and convenience. But the entire +group belonged to that class of people for whom the fancy of the moment, +whatever it may be, has infinite charms. + +There was plenty of room on the Colonel Phillips. Very few people were +traveling in that direction. + +"It is really queer," the Captain was overheard to say, "to take a party +_away_ from the grounds at this hour of the day." + +"What an enthusiastic set of people they are about here," Eurie said to +Mr. Rawson, one of Mrs. Smithe's party, as they paced the deck together. +"The people all talk and act as though there was nowhere to go and +nothing to do but attend those meetings. For my part it is a real relief +to have a change in the programme." + +"Do you find it so?" he asked. "Well, now, I don't agree with you. I +think this proceeding is a real bore. My respected aunt is always +getting up absurd freaks, and this is one of them, and the worst one, in +my opinion, that she has had for some time. I wanted to go to those +meetings to-day--some of them, at least. One isn't obliged to be there +every minute. But it looks badly to run away." + +Eurie eyed him closely. + +"Are you the 'good nephew' that your aunt said thought these meetings +only a step below paradise?" she asked, at last. "I wonder you would +consent to come." + +Mr. Rawson flushed deeply. + +"I am not the 'good nephew' at all," he said, trying to laugh. "The +'good one' wouldn't come. My aunt tried all her powers of persuasion on +him in vain. But the truth is her eloquence, or her persistence, proved +too much for me, though I don't like the looks of it, and I don't feel +the pleasure of it, and I am afraid I shall make anything but an +agreeable addition to the party. Now that is being frank, isn't it, when +I am walking the deck with a young lady?" + +"I don't see why that circumstance should make it a surprising thing +that you are frank. But I am very sorry for you; perhaps you might +prevail on the Captain to put you off now, and let you swim back; you +could get there in time for the sermon. Is there to be a sermon? What +_is_ it you are so anxious to hear?" + +"All of it," he said gloomily. "I beg your pardon for being in so +disagreeable a mood; it is defrauding you out of some of your expected +pleasure to have a dismal companion. But as I have commenced by being +frank I may as well continue. I am dissatisfied with myself. I ought not +to have come on this excursion. The truth is, I meant to make Chautauqua +a help to me. I need the help badly enough. I am in the rush and whirl +of business all the time at home. This is the only two weeks in the year +that I am free, and I wanted to make it a great spiritual help to me. I +know very well that merely hovering around in such an atmosphere as that +at Chautauqua is a help to the Christian, and I came with the full +intention of taking in all that I could get of this sort of inspiration, +and it chafes me that so early in the meeting I have been led away +against my inclinations by a little pressure that I might have resisted, +and done no harm to any one. My cousin had the same sort of influence +brought to bear on him, and it had no more effect on him than it would +on a stone." + +He stopped, and seemed to give Eurie a chance to answer, but she was not +inclined, and he added, as if he had just thought his words an implied +reproach: "I can understand how, to you young ladies of comparative +leisure, with plenty of time to cultivate the spiritual side of your +natures, it should seem an unnecessary and perhaps a wearisome thing to +attend all these meetings; but you can not understand what it is to be +in the whirl of business life, never having time to think, hardly having +time to pray, and to get away from it all and go to heaven, as it were, +for a fortnight, is something to be coveted by us as a great help." + +Once more he waited for Eurie's answer, but it was very different from +what he had seemed to expect. + +"You might just as well talk to me in the Greek language; I should +understand quite as well what you have been saying; I don't think _I +have_ any spiritual side to my nature; at least it has never been +cultivated if I have; and Chautauqua to me is just the place in which +to have a good free easy time; go where I like and stay as long as I +like; and for once in my life not be bound by conventional forms. If +heaven is anything like that I shouldn't object to it; but I'm sure your +and my idea of it would differ. There, I've been frank now, and shocked +you, I know. I see it in every line of your face. Poor fellow! I don't +know what you will do, for there isn't a single one of us who has the +least idea what you mean by that sort of talk, unless you have some +young ladies of a different type in your party, and from their manner I +rather doubt it." + +She had shocked him. He looked not only pained but puzzled. + +"I am very sorry," he stammered. "I mean surprised. Yes, and +disappointed. Of course I am that. I think I had imagined that it was +only Christians who could be attracted to Chautauqua at all; I meant to +come to stay through all the services." + +"Your aunt, for instance?" Eurie said, inquiringly. + +"My aunt is a Christian," he answered, "and a sincere one, too, though I +see for some reason you don't think so. There are degrees in +Christianity, Miss Mitchell, just as there are in amiability, or +culture, or beauty." + +"Mr. Rawson!" called a voice from the other end at this moment, and he +in obedience to the call found Eurie a seat near some of her party and +went away, only stopping to say, in low tones: + +"I am sorry it is all 'Greek' to you; you would enjoy understanding it, +I am sure." + +It so happened that those two people did not exchange another word +together that day, but Eurie had got her thrust when and where she least +expected it. She had taken it for granted that not a single fanatic was +of their party. In the secret of her wise heart she denominated all the +earnest people at Chautauqua fanatics, and all the half-hearted people +hypocrites. Only she, who stood outside and felt nothing, was sincere +and wise. + +Meantime Marion had undertaken a strange task. Mr. Charlie Flint was the +gentleman who had drawn his chair near her, and said, as he drew a long +breath: + +"It is exceedingly pleasant to breathe air once more that isn't heavy +with psalm singing I think they are running that thing a little too +steep over there. Who imagined that they were going to have meeting +every minute in the day and evening, and give nobody a chance to +breathe?" + +"Have they exhausted you already?" Marion asked. "Let me see, this is +the morning of the second day, is it not?" + +"Oh, as to myself, I was exhausted before I commenced it. I am only +speaking a word for the lunatics who think they enjoy it. I am one of +the victims to our cousin's whim. He expects to get me converted here, I +think, or something of that sort." + +"I wouldn't be afraid of it," Marion said, in disgust. "I don't believe +there is the least danger." + +Mr. Charlie chose to consider this as a compliment, and bowed and +smiled, and said: + +"Thanks. Now tell me why, please." + +"You don't look like that class of people who are affected in that way." + +He was wonderfully interested, and begged at once to know why. Marion +had it in her heart to say, "Because they all look as though they had +some degree of brain as well as body," but even she had a little regard +left for feelings; so she contented herself with saying, savagely: + +"Oh, they, as a rule, are the sort of people who think there is +something in life worth doing and planning for, and you look as though +that would be too much trouble." + +Now, Mr. Charlie by no means liked to be considered devoid of energy, so +he said: + +"Oh, you mistake. I think there are several things worth doing. But this +eternal going to meeting, and whining over one's soul, is not to my +taste." + +"You think that it is more worth your while to take ladies out to ride +and walk, and carry their parasols and muffs for them, and things of +that sort. Since we are made for the purpose of staying here and showing +our fine clothes for all eternity, of course it is foolish to have +anything to do with one's soul, that can only last for a few years or +so!" + +She hardly realized herself the intense scorn there was in her voice, +and as for Charlie Flint he muttered to himself: + +"Upon my word, she is one of them; of the bitterest sort, too! What in +creation is she doing here? Why didn't she stay there and preach?" + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +HOW THE "FLITTING" ENDED. + + +As for Ruth Erskine, if she had been asked whether she was enjoying the +day, she would hardly have known what answer to make; she could not even +tell why the excursion was not in every respect all that it had promised +in the morning. She had no realization of how much the atmosphere of the +day before lingered around her, and made her notice the contrast between +the people of yesterday and the people of to-day. Mrs. Smithe, if she +were a Christian, as her nephew insisted, was one of the most +unfortunate specimens of that class for Ruth Erskine to meet; because +she was a woman who entered into pleasure and fashion, and +entertainments of all sorts, with zest and energy and only in matters +of religious interest seemed to lose all life and zeal. + +Now Ruth Erskine, calm as a summer morning herself over all matters +pertaining to the souls of people in general, and her own in particular, +was yet exceedingly fond of seeing other people act in a manner that she +chose to consider consistent with their belief; therefore she despised +Mrs. Smithe for what she was pleased to term her "hypocrisy." At the +same time, while at Saratoga, she had quite enjoyed her society. They +rode together on fine mornings, sipped their "Congress" together before +lunch, and attended hops together in the evenings. Now the reason why +Mrs. Smithe's society had so suddenly palled upon her, and the words +that she was pleased to call "conversation" become such vapid things, +Ruth did not know, and did not for one instant attribute to Chautauqua; +and yet that meeting had already stamped its impression upon her. From +serene, indifferent heights she liked to look down upon and admire +earnestness; therefore Chautauqua, despite all her disgust over the +common surroundings and awkward accommodations, had pleased her fancy +and arrested her attention more than she herself realized. It was her +fate to be thrown almost constantly with Mrs. Smithe during the day, and +before the afternoon closed she was surfeited. She heartily wished +herself back to the grounds, and found herself wondering what they were +singing, and whether the service of song was really very interesting. + +One episode in her day had interested her, and she could not tell +whether it had most amused or annoyed her. One of their party was +conversing with a gentleman as she came up. She had just time to observe +that he was young and fine-looking, when the two turned to her, and she +was introduced to the stranger. + +"You are from Chautauqua?" he said, speaking rapidly and earnestly. +"Grand meeting, isn't it? Going to be better than last year, I think. +Were you there? No? Then you don't know what a treat you are to have. +I'm very sorry to lose to-day. It has been a good day, I know. The +programme was rich; but a matter of business made it necessary to be +away. It is unfortunate for me that I am so near home. If I were two or +three hundred miles away where the business couldn't reach me, I should +get more benefit. Miss Erskine, what is your opinion of the direct +spiritual results of this gathering? I do not mean upon Christians. No +one, of course, can doubt its happy influence upon our hearts and lives. +But I mean, are you hopeful as to the reaching of many of the +unconverted, or do you consider its work chiefly among us?" + +Such a volley of words? They fairly poured forth! And the speaker was so +intensely in earnest, and so assured in his use of that word "we," as if +it were a matter that was entirely beyond question that she was one of +the magic "we." She did not know how to set out to work to enlighten +him. In fact, she gave little thought to that part of the matter, but, +instead, fell to wondering what _was_ her idea--whether she did expect +to see results of any sort from the great gathering, and that being the +case, what she expected? "Spiritual results," she said to herself, and a +smile hovered over her face--what _were_ "spiritual results?" She knew +nothing about them. _Were_ there any such things? Eurie Mitchell, had +such a question occurred to her, would have asked it aloud at once and +enjoyed the sense of shocking her auditor. But Ruth did not like to +shock people; she was too much of a lady for that. + +"What proportion of that class of people are here, do you think?" she +said, at last. "Are not the most of them professing Christians?" + +"Precisely the question that interests me. I should really like to know. +I wonder if there is no way of coming at it? We might call for a rising +vote of all who loved the Lord; could we not? Wouldn't it be a beautiful +sight?--a great army standing up for him! I incline to your opinion that +the most of them are Christians, or at least a large proportion. But I +should very much like to know just how far this idea had touched the +popular heart, so as to call out those who are not on the Lord's side." + +"They would simply have come for the fun of the thing, or the novelty of +it," she said, feeling amused again that almost of necessity she was +speaking of herself and using the pronoun "they." What would this +gentleman think if he should bring about that vote of which he spoke and +happen to see her among the seated ones? + +"'A wolf in sheep's clothing' he would suppose me to be," she said to +herself. "But I am sure I have not told him that I belong to the 'we' at +all. If he chooses to assume things in that way, it is not my fault." + +Apparently he answered both her expressed sentence and her thought: + +"I do not think so," he said, earnestly. "I doubt if any have come +simply for fun or for novelty. There are better places in which to +gratify both tastes. I believe there is more actual interest in this +subject, even among the unconverted, than many seem to think. They are +reasonable beings. They must think, and many of them, no doubt, think to +good purpose. It may not be clear even to themselves for what they have +come; But I believe in some instances, to say the least, it will prove +to have been the call of the Spirit." + +Again Ruth felt herself forced to smile, not at the earnestness--she +liked that, but there was her party, and she rapidly reviewed +them--Marion, with her calm, composed, skeptical views, indifferent +alike to the Christian or unchristian way of doing things; Eurie, who +lived and breathed for the purpose of having what in wild moments she +called "a high time;" Flossy with her dainty wardrobe, and her dainty +ways, and her indifference to everything that demanded thought or care. +Which of them had been "called by the Spirit"? There was herself, and +for the time she gave a little start. What had _she_ come to Chautauqua +for? After all she was the only one who seemed to be absolutely without +a reason for being there. Marion's avowed intention had been to make +some money; Eurie's to have a free and easy time; Flossy had come as she +did everything else, because "they" did. But now, what about Ruth +Erskine? She was not wont to do as others did, unless it happened to +please her. What had been her motive? It was strange to feel that she +really did not know. What if this strange speaking young man were right, +and she had been singled out by the Spirit of God! The thought gave her +a thrill, not of pleasure, but of absolute, nervous fear. What did she +know of that gracious Spirit? What did she know of Christ? To her there +was no beauty in him. She desired simply to be left alone. She was +silent so long that her companion gave her a very searching review from +under his heavy eyebrows, and then his face suddenly lighted as if he +had solved a problem. + +"May I venture to prophesy that you have some friend here whom you would +give much to feel had been drawn here by the very Spirit of God?" He +spoke the words eagerly and with earnestness, but with utmost respect, +and added, "If I am right I will add the name to my list for special +prayer. Do not think me rude, please. I know how pleasant it is to feel +there is a union of desire in prayer. I have enjoyed that help often. We +do not always need to know who those are for whom we pray. God knows +them, and that is the needful thing. Good-evening. I am glad to have met +you. It is pleasant to have additions to our list of fellow-heirs." + +How bright his smile was as he said those words! And how thoroughly +manly and yet how strikingly childlike had been his words and his trust! +Ruth watched him as he walked rapidly away to overtake a friend who had +just passed them. Do you remember a certain gentleman, Harold Wayne by +name, who had walked with them, walked especially with Ruth, down to +the depot on the morning of departure, who had toyed with her fan and +complained that he could not imagine what they were going to bury +themselves out there for? Ruth thought of him now, and the contrast +between his lazily exquisite air and drawling words and the fresh, +earnest life that glowed in this young man's veins brought a positive +quiver of disgust over her handsome face. There was no shadow of a smile +upon it now. Instead, she felt a nameless dread. How strange the talk +had been! To what had she committed herself by her silence and his +blunders? _She_ pray for any one! What a queer thing that would be to +do. _She_ anxious that any one should be led by the spirit of God! The +spirit of God frightened her. For whom would this young man pray? Not +certainly for any friend of hers; yet he would put the name of some +stranger in his prayers. He was thoroughly in earnest, and he was the +sort of a man to do just what he said. God, he had said, would +understand whom he meant. For whom would God count those prayers? For +her? And that thought also frightened her. + +"They are all lunatics, I verily believe, from the leaders to the +followers," she said in irritation, and then she wished herself at home. +During the remainder of the day she was engaged in trying to shake off +the impression that the stranger had left upon her. Go where she would, +say what she might, and she really exerted herself to be brilliant and +entertaining, there followed her around the memory of those great, +earnest eyes when he said, "I will add the name to my list for special +prayer." What name? He knew hers. He would say, doubtless, "Her friend +for whom she was anxious." But the one to whom he prayed would know +there was no such person. What would _He_ do with that earnest prayer? +For she knew it would be earnest. She was not used to theological mazes, +and if ever a girl was heartily glad when a day of pleasuring was over, +and the boat had touched again at the Chautauqua wharf, it was Ruth +Erskine. + +As for Flossy, it so happened that Charlie Flint, after Marion had +startled and disgusted him, sought refuge with her. She was pretty and +dainty, and did not look strong-minded; not in the least as if her +forte was to preach, so he made ready to have a running fire of small +talk with her. + +This had been Flossy's power in conversation for several years. He had +judged her rightly there. But do you remember with whom her morning had +commenced? Do you know that all the day thus far she had seemed to +herself to be shadowed by a glorious presence, who walked steadily +beside her, before her, on either hand, to shield, and help and bless? + +It was very sweet to Flossy, and she was very happy; happier than she +had ever been in her life. She smiled to herself as the others chatted, +she hummed in undertone the refrain of a hymn that she had caught in a +near tent that morning: + + "I am so glad that Jesus loves me." + +_Wasn't_ she glad! Was there anything better to find in all this world +than the assurance of this truth? She felt that the thought was large +enough to fill heaven itself. After that, what hope was there for +Charlie Flint and his small talk? Still, he tried it, and if ever he did +hard work it was during that talk. Flossy was sweet and cheery, but +preoccupied. There was a tantalizingly pleasant smile on her face, as if +her thoughts might be full of beauty, but none of them seemed to appear +in her words. She did not flush over his compliments, nor was she +disturbed at his bantering. + +He got out of all patience. + +"I beg pardon," he said, in his flippantly gallant way, "but I'm +inclined to think you are very selfish; you are having your enjoyment +all to yourself. To judge by the face which you have worn all day your +heart is bubbling over with it, and yet you think about it instead of +giving me a bit." + +Flossy looked up with a shy, sweet smile that was very pleasant to see, +and the first blush he had been able to call forth that day glowed on +her cheeks. Was it true? she questioned within herself. Was she being +selfish in this, her new joy? Ought she to try to tell him about it? +Would he understand? and could she speak about such things, anyway? She +didn't know how. She shrank from it, and yet perhaps it would be so +pleasant to him to know. No, on the whole, she did not think it would be +pleasant. They had not talked of the meetings nor of religious matters +at all; but for all that the subtle magnetism that there is about some +people had told her that Charlie Flint would not sympathize in her new +hopes and joys. + +Well, if that were so, ought she not all the more to tell him, so that +he might know that to one more person Christ had proved himself a +reality, and not the spiritual fancy that he used to seem to her? +Flossy, you see, was taking long strides that first day of her Christian +experience, and was reaching farther than some Christians reach who have +been practicing for years. Something told her that here was a chance of +witnessing for the one who had just saved her. She thought these +thoughts much more quickly than it has taken me to write them, and then +she spoke: + +"Have I been selfish? I do not know but I have. It is all so utterly new +that I hardly know how I am acting; but it is true that my heart has +been as light as a bird's all day. The truth is, I have found a friend +here at Chautauqua who has just satisfied me." + +"Have you indeed!" said Mr. Charlie, giving, in spite of his well-bred +effort to quell it, an amused little laugh. And in his heart he said, +"What a ridiculous little mouse she is! I wonder if they have the +wedding day set already, and if she will announce it to me?" Then aloud: +"How very fortunate you have been! I wish I could find a friend so +easily as that! I wonder if I am acquainted with him? Would you mind +telling me his name?" + +And then Flossy answered just one word in a low voice that was tremulous +with feeling, and at the same time wonderfully clear, and with a touch +of joy in it that would not be suppressed, "Jesus." + +Then it was that the exquisite young fop at her side was utterly +dumbfounded. He could not remember ever before in his life being so +completely taken by surprise and dismay that he had not a word to +answer. But this time he said not a single word. He did not even attempt +an answer, but paced the length of the deck beside her in utter and +confused silence, then abruptly seated her, still in silence, and went +hurriedly away. Flossy, occupied with the rush of feeling that this +first witnessing for the new name called forth, gave little heed to his +manner, and was indifferent to his departure. He was right as to one +thing. Her love was still selfish: it was so new and sweet to her that +it occupied all her heart, and left no room as yet for the outside world +who knew not this friend of hers. They were almost at the dock now, and +the glimmer of the Chautauqua lights was growing into a steady +brightness. As she stood leaning over the boat's side and watching the +play of the silver waves, there brushed past her one who seemed to be +very quietly busy. One hand was full of little leaflets, and he was +dropping one on each chair and stool as he passed. She glanced at the +one nearest her and read the title: "The True Friend," and it brought an +instant flush of brightness to her face to understand those words and +feel that the Friend was hers. Then she glanced at the worker and +recognized his face. He had prayed for her. She could not forget _that_ +face. It was plain also that his eyes fell on her. He knew her, and +something in her face prompted the low-toned sentence as he paused +before her: "You have found the Father, I think." + +And Flossy, with brightening eyes, answered, quickly, "Yes, I have." + +And then the boat touched at the wharf, and the crowd elbowed their way +out. + +There were two opinions expressed about that excursion by two gentlemen +as they made their way up the avenue. One of the gentleman was clerical, +and spectacled, and solemn. + +"There go a boat-load of excursionists," he said to his companion. + +"They come, as likely as not delegates, from some church or +Sabbath-school, and the way they do their work is to go off for a frolic +and be gone all day. I saw them when I left this morning. That is a +specimen of a good deal of the dissipation that is going on here under +the guise of religion. I don't know about it; sometimes I am afraid more +harm than good will be done." + +The other speaker was Mr. Charlie Flint, and as he rushed past these two +he said to _his_ companion, "Confound it all! Talk about getting away +from these meetings! It's no use; it can't be done. A fellow might just +as well stay here and run every time the bell rings. I heard more +preaching to-day on this excursion than I did yesterday; and a good deal +more astonishing preaching, too." + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +HEART TOUCHES. + + +Marion gave her hair an energetic twist as she made her toilet the next +morning, and announced her determination. + +"This day is to be devoted conscientiously to the legitimate business +that brought me to this region. Yesterday's report will have to be +copied from the Buffalo papers, or made out of my own brain. But I'm +going to work to-day. I have a special interest in the programme for +this morning. The subject for the lecture just suits me." + +"What is it?" Eurie asked, yawning, and wishing there was another +picnic in progress. Neither heart nor brain were particularly interested +in Chautauqua. + +"Why, it is 'The Press and the Sunday-school.' Of course the press +attracts me, as I intend to belong to the staff when I get through +teaching young ideas." + +"But what about the Sunday-school?" Ruth questioned, with a calm voice. +"You can not be expected to have any special interest in that. You never +go to such an institution, do you?" + +"I was born and brought up in one. But that isn't the point. The subject +to-day is Sunday-school literature, I take it. The subject is strung +together, 'The Press and the Sunday-school,' without any periods between +them, and I'm exceedingly interested in that, for just as soon as I get +time I'm going to write a Sunday-school book." + +This announcement called forth bursts of laughter from all the girls. + +"Why not?" Marion said, answering the laugh. "I hope you don't intimate +that I can't do it. I don't know anything easier to do. You just have +to gather together the most improbable set of girls and boys, and rack +your brains for things that they never _did_ do, or _could_ do, or +_ought_ to do, and paste them all together with a little 'good talk,' +and you have your book, as orthodox as possible. Do any of you know +anything about Dr. Walden? He is the speaker. I presume he is as dry as +a stick, and won't give me a single idea that I can weave into my book. +I'm going to begin it right away. Girls, I'm going to put you all in, +only I can't decide which shall be the good one. Flossy, do you suppose +there is enough imagination in me to make you into a book saint? They +always have a saint, you know." + +There was a pretty flush on Flossy's cheek, but she answered, brightly: + +"You might try, Marion, and I'll engage to practice on the character, if +it is really and truly a good one." + +"I had a glimpse of Dr. Walden," Eurie said, answering the question. "He +was pointed out to me yesterday. He looked dignified enough to write a +theological review. _I'm_ not going to hear him. What's the use? I came +for fun, and I'm going in search of it all this day. I have studied the +programme, and there is just one thing that I'm going to attend, and +that is Frank Beard's 'chalk talk.' I know that will be capital, and he +won't bore one with a sermon poked in every two minutes." + +So the party divided for the day. Marion and Ruth went to the stand, and +Flossy strayed to a side tent, and what happened to her you shall +presently hear. Eurie wandered at her fancy, and enjoyed a "stupid +time," so she reported. + +Marion's pencil moved rapidly over the paper almost as soon as Dr. +Walden commenced, until presently she whispered in dismay to Ruth: + +"I do wish he would say something to leave out! This letter will be +fearfully long. How sharp he is, isn't he?" + +Then she scribbled again. Ruth had the benefit of many side remarks. + +"My!" Marion said, with an accompanying grimace. "What an army of books! +All for Sunday-schools. Three millions given out every Sunday! Does that +seem possible! Brother Hart, I'm afraid you are mistaken. Didn't he say +that was Dr. Hart's estimate, Ruthie? There is certainly a good chance +for mine, if so many are needed every week. I shall have to go right to +work at it. What if I _should_ write one, Ruth, and what if it should +_take_, and all the millions of Sunday-schools want it at once! Just as +likely as not. I am a genius. They never know it until afterward. I +shall certainly put you in, Ruthie, in some form. So you are destined to +immortality, remember." + +"I wish you wouldn't whisper so much," whispered back Ruth. "People are +looking at us in an annoyed way. What is the matter with you, Marion? I +never knew you to run on in such an absurd way. That is bad enough for +Eurie!" + +"I'm developing," whispered Marion. "It is the 'reflex influence of +Chautauqua' that you hear so much about." + +Then she wrote this sentence from Dr. Walden's lips: + +"Every author whose books go into the Sabbath-school is as much a +teacher in that school as though he had classes there. A good book is a +book that will aid the teacher in his work of bringing souls to Christ. +I have known the earnest teaching of months to be defeated by one +single volume of the wrong kind being placed in the hands of the +scholar." + +Suddenly Marion sat upright, slipped her pencil and note-book into her +pocket, and wrote no more. A sentence in that address had struck home. +This determination to enter the lists as a writer was not all talk. She +had long ago decided to turn her talents in that direction as the +easiest thing in the line of literature, whither her taste ran. She had +read many of the standard Sunday-school books; read them with amused +eyes and curling lips, and felt entirely conscious that she could match +them in intellectual power and interest, and do nothing remarkable then. +But there rang before her this sentence: + +"Every author whose books go into the Sabbath-school is as much a +teacher in that school as though he had classes there." A teacher in the +Sabbath-school! Actually a _teacher_. She had never intended that. She +had no desire to be a hypocrite. She had no desire to lead astray. +_Could_ she write a book that young people ought to bring from the +Sabbath-school with them, and have it say nothing about Christ and +heaven and the Christian life? Surely she could not be a teacher +without teaching of these things. _Must_ she teach them incidentally? +Was saying nothing about them speaking against them? Dr. Walden more +than intimated this. + +"After all," she said, speaking to Ruth as the address closed, "I don't +think I shall commence my book yet." + +"Why?" + +"Oh, because I am sacred." Then, impatiently, after a moment's silence, +during which they changed their seats, "I'm disgusted with Chautauqua! +It is going to spoil me. I feel my ambition oozing out at the ends of my +toes, instead of my fingers as I had designed. Everybody is so awfully +solemn, and has so much to say about eternity, it seems we can't whisper +to each other without starting something that doesn't even end in +eternity. But, wasn't he logical and eloquent?" + +"I don't know," Ruth said, absently. And she wondered if Marion knew how +true her words were. Ruth had heard scarcely a word of Dr. Walden's +address since that last whisper, "So you are destined to immortality, +remember." Words spoken in jest, and yet thrilling her through and +through with a solemn meaning. She had always known and always believed +this. She was no skeptic, yet her heart had never taken it in, with a +great throb of anxiety, as it did at that moment. _Was_ she being led of +the Spirit of God? + +The two merely changed their positions and looked about them a little, +and then prepared to give attention to the next entertainment, which was +a story from Emily Huntington Miller. Marion was the only one who was in +the least familiar with her, she being the only one who had felt that +absorbing interest in juvenile literature that had led her to keep pace +with the times. + +"I'm disposed to listen to _her_ with all due respect and attention," +she said, as she rearranged herself and got out her note-book. "She is +one of the few people who seem not to have bidden a solemn farewell to +their common sense when they set out to entertain the children. I have +read everything she ever wrote, and liked it, too. I set out to make an +idol of her in my more juvenile days. I used to think that the height of +my ambition would be attained if I could have a long look at her. I'm +going to try it to-day, and see if it satisfies me; though we are such +aspiring and unsatisfied creatures that I strongly suspect I shall go on +reaching out for something else even after _this_ experience." + +Very little whispering was done after that for some time. Although +Marion made light of her youthful dreams, there was a strong feeling of +excitement and interest clustering around this first sight of the woman +whose name she had known so long; and something in the fair, sweet face +and cultured voice fascinated and held her, much as she had fancied in +her earlier days would be the case. She frowned when she heard the +request to reporters to "lay aside their pencils." She had meant to earn +laurels by reporting this delicious bit of imagery, set in between the +graver sermons and lectures; but, after all, it was a rest to give +herself up to the uninterrupted enjoyment of taking in every word and +tone--taking it in for her own private benefit. "The Parish of Fair +Haven." How heartily she enjoyed it. The refined and delicate, and yet +keen and intense satire underlying the whole quaint original story, was +of just the nature to hold and captivate her. She was just in the mood +to enjoy it, too. For was it not aimed at that class of people who +awakened her own keenest sense of satire--the so-called "Christian +world"? She did not belong to it, you know; in her own estimation was +entirely without the pale of its sarcasm; stranded on a high and +majestic rock of unbelief in everything, and in a condition to be amused +at the follies of people who played at belief; and treated what they +_played_ was solemn realities as if they were cradle stories or nicely +woven fiction. There was no listener in all that crowd who so enjoyed +the keen play of wit and the sharp home thrusts as did Marion Wilbur. +Ruth was a little undecided what to think; she did not belong to the +class who were hit, to be sure, but her father always gave largely to +missions whenever the solicitor called on him: she had heard his name +mentioned with respect as one of the most benevolent men of the day; she +did not quite like the very low and matter-of-course place which Mrs. +Miller's view of the mission question gave him. According to the people +of Fair Haven, to give one's thousands to the cause was the most +commonplace thing in the world--not to do so was to be an inhuman +wretch. Ruth didn't quite like it--in truth she was just enough within +the circle of modern Christianity to feel herself slightly grazed by the +satire. + +"It is absurd," she said to Marion as they went up the hill. "What is +the sense in a woman talking in that way? As if people, were they ever +so good and benevolent, could get themselves up in that ridiculous +manner! If we live in the world at all we have to have a little regard +for propriety. I wonder if she thinks one's entire time and money should +be devoted to the heathen?" + +Marion answered her with spirit. + +"Oh, don't try to apologize for the folly that is going on in this world +in the name of religion! It can't be done, and sensible people only make +fools of themselves if they attempt it. There is nothing plainer or more +impossible to deny than that church-members give and work and pray for +the heathen as though they were a miserable and abominable set of +brutes, who ought to be exterminated from the face of the earth, but +for whom some ridiculous fanatics called 'missionaries' had projected a +wild scheme to do something; and _they_, forsooth, must be kept from +starving somehow, even though they had been unmitigated fools; so the +paltry collections are doled out, with sarcastic undertones about the +'waste of money,' and the sin of missionaries wearing clothes, and +expecting to have things to eat after throwing themselves away. Don't +talk to me! I've been to missionary societies; I know all about it. The +whole system is one that is exactly calculated to make infidels. I +believe Satan got it up, because he knew in just what an abominable way +the dear Christians would go at it, and what a horrid farce they would +make of it all." + +"It is a great pity you are not a Christian, Marion. I never come in +contact with any one who understands their duty so thoroughly as you +appear to, and I think you ought to be practicing." + +Ruth said this calmly enough. She was not particularly disturbed; she +did not belong to them, you know; but for all that she was remotely +connected with those who did, and was just enough jarred to make her +give this quiet home thrust. Oddly enough it struck Marion as it never +had before, although the same idea had been suggested to her by other +nettled mortals. It was true that she had realized how the practicing +ought to be done, and a vague wish that she _did_ believe in it all, and +could work by their professed standard with _all her soul_, flitted over +her. + +Meantime Flossy was being educated. The morning work had touched her +from a different standpoint. She had not heard Dr. Walden; instead she +had wandered into a bit of holy ground. She began by losing her way. It +is one of the easiest things to do at Chautauqua. The avenues cross and +recross in an altogether bewildering manner to one not accustomed to +newly laid-out cities; and just when one imagines himself at the goal +for which he started, lo! there is woods, and nothing else anywhere. +Another attempt patiently followed for an hour has the exasperating +effect of bringing him to the very point from which he started. Such an +experience had Flossy, when by reason of her loitering propensities she +became detached from her party, and tried to find her own way to the +stand. A whole hour of wandering, then a turn into perfect chaos. She +had no more idea where she was than if she had been in the by-ways of +London. Clearly she must inquire the way. She looked about her. It was +queer to be lost in the woods, and yet be surrounded by tents and +people. She stooped and peeped timidly into a tent, the corner of which +was raised to admit air, and from which the sound of voices issued. + +"Come in," said a pleasant voice, and the bright-faced hostess arose +from the foot of her bed and came forward with greeting, exactly as +though they had been waiting for Flossy all the morning. "Would you like +to rest? Come right in, we have plenty of room and the most lovely +accommodations," and a silvery laugh accompanied the words, while the +little lady whisked a tin basin from a low stool, and dusting it rapidly +with her handkerchief proffered her guest a seat, with as graceful an +air as though the stool had been an easy-chair upholstered in velvet. +The only other sitting-place, the low bed, was full, there being three +ladies tucked about on it in various stages of restful work, for they +had books and papers strewn about, and each held a pencil poised as if +ready for action at a moment. + +"I'm afraid I intrude," Flossy said, sweetly; "but the truth is, I have +lost my friends and my way, and I really am an object of pity, for I +have been wandering up hill and down, till my strength is less than it +was." + +"Poor child!" came sympathetically from the bed, spoken by the eldest of +the ladies, while another rapidly improvised a fan out of the +_Sunday-School Times_, and passed it to her. + +Meantime Flossy looked about her in secret delight. Something about the +air of the tent and the surroundings, and an indefinite something about +every one of the ladies, told her as plainly as words could have done +that she was among the workers; that she had unwittingly and gracefully +slipped behind the scenes, and had been cordially admitted to one of the +work-shops of Chautauqua; and there were _so_ many things she wanted to +know! + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +FLOSSY AT SCHOOL. + + +She hadn't the least idea who they were, but, like an earnest little +diplomatist, she set to work to find out. + +"I started for the auditorium," she said. "I wanted to hear Dr. Walden, +but he has had time to make a long speech and get through since I first +started. I think it must be nearly eleven." + +"No," they said laughing, "it is only half past ten." Her wanderings had +not been so long as they seemed; but it was hardly worth while to try to +hear anything from him now, she would not be at all likely to get a +seat; and, besides, his time was nearly over. She would better wait and +go down with them in time for Mrs. Miller. + +"We were obliged to miss Dr. Walden," the elder lady explained. "We +disliked to very much; probably it was as instructive as anything we +shall get; but we had work that had to be done, so we ran away." + +"Do you have to bring work to Chautauqua with you?" Flossy asked, with +insinuating sweetness. "How very busy you must be! I would have tried to +run away from my work for two weeks if I had been you." + +The bright little hostess laughed. + +"Chautauqua _makes_ work," she said, "and somebody has to get ready for +it. This lady beside me expects an overwhelming Sabbath class here, and +much time has to be given to the lesson. We lesser mortals are +ostensibly going to help her, but in reality we are going to look and +see how she does it." + +"Have you found out?" Flossy asked in a little tremor of delight. This +was what she wanted, to know how to do it all. + +The lady who had been pointed out as teacher answered her quickly, so +far as her words could be said to be an answer: + +"Are you a Sabbath-school teacher?" + +"No," Flossy said, flushing and feeling like a naughty child whose +curiosity had led her into mischief. "No, I am not _anything_, but I +want to be; I don't know how to work at all in any way, but I want to +learn." + +"Are you looking for work to do for the Master?" the same lady asked, +with a sweet cheery voice and smile, not at all as if this were a +subject which she must touch cautiously. + +"Yes," Flossy said, her cheeks all in a glow. "She did not know how to +work, she had but just found out that she wanted to; indeed she had but +yesterday known anything of Him." + +Then this unusual company of ladies came with one consent and eager eyes +and voices and took her hand, and said how glad they were to welcome her +to the ranks. They knew she would love the work, and the rewards were so +sure and so precious. All this was new and strange and delightful to +Flossy. Then they began each eagerly to tell about their work; they were +all infant or primary class teachers, and all enthusiasts. Who that has +to do with the teaching of little children and attains to any measure of +success but is largely gifted with this same element? They had been +talking over and preparing their lesson together, and they talked it +over again before the bewildered Flossy, who had no idea that there was +such a wonderful story in all the Bible as they were developing out of a +few bare details. + +"We had just reached the vital point of the entire lesson," explained +the leader, "the place where every true teacher needs most help; where, +having arranged all her facts and got them in martial order in her +brain, she wants to know the best way of making those facts of practical +_present_ service to the little children who will be before her, and at +this point I think every teacher needs to go to the fountain head for +help. We were just going to pray; you would like, perhaps, to join us +for just a few moments." + +"If she wouldn't intrude," Flossy said, timidly, in a tremor of +satisfaction; and then for the first time in her life she bowed with a +company of her own sex, and heard the simple earnest voice of prayer. +The words were startlingly direct and simple, and Flossy, who had been +full of mysterious awe on this question, and who much doubted whether +her timid whispers alone in her tent could have been called prayer, was +reassured and comforted. + +If _this_ were prayer, it was simply talking in a sweet, natural voice, +and in the most simple and natural language, with a dear and wise +friend. It was the most quiet and yet the most confident way of asking +for just what one wanted, and nothing more. It was what Flossy needed. + +She took long strides in her religious education there on her knees; and +as they went out from that tent and down the hill to the meeting, there +was born in her heart an eager determination to enter the lists as a +Sabbath-school teacher the very first opportunity, and to pray her +lesson into her heart, having done what she could to get it into her +head. If her anxious and well-nigh discouraged pastor could have been +gifted with supernatural and prophetic vision, and could have seen that +resolve, and, looking ahead, the fruit that was to be borne from it, how +would his anxious soul have thanked God and taken courage! + +In this mood came Flossy to listen to the story of "The Parish of Fair +Haven," as it flowed down to her in Mrs. Miller's smooth-toned musical +voice. One who comes from her knees to listen is sure to find the seed +if it has been put in. Flossy found hers. + +Often in the course of her young life she had been at church and sat in +the attitude of listener while a missionary sermon was preached. She had +heard, perhaps, ten sentences from those sermons, not ten consecutive +sentences, but words scattered here and there through the whole; from +these she had gathered that there was to be a collection taken for the +cause of Missions. Just where the money was to go, and just what was to +be done with it when it arrived, what had been accomplished by +missionary effort, what the Christian world was hoping for in that +direction--all these things Flossy Shipley knew no more about than her +kitten did. + +Perhaps it was not strange then, that although abundantly supplied with +pin-money, she had never in her life given anything to the work of +Missions. Not that she would not willingly have deposited some of her +money in the box for whatever use the authorities chose to make of it +had she happened to have any; but young ladies as a rule have been +educated to imagine that there is one day in the week in which their +portmonnaies can be off duty. There being no shopping to be done, no +worsteds to match, no confectionary to tempt what earthly use for money? +So it was locked up at home. This, at least, is the way in which Flossy +Shipley had argued, without knowing that she argued at all. + +Now she was looking at things with new eyes; the same things that she +had heard of hundreds of times, but how different they were! What a +remarkable scheme it was, this carrying the story of Jesus to those +miserable ignorant ones, getting them ready for the heaven that had been +made ready for them! The people of "Fair Haven" did not appear to her +like lunatics, as they did to Ruth Erskine. She was not, you will +remember, of the class who had argued this question in their ignorance, +and quieted their consciences with the foolish assertion that the church +collections went to pay secretaries and treasurers and erect splendid +public buildings. She belonged, rather, to that less hopeless class who +had never thought at all. Now, as she listened, her eyes brightened with +feeling and her cheeks glowed. The whole sublime _romance_ of Missions +was being mapped out to her on the face of that quaint allegory, and her +heart responded warmly. + +Curiously enough, her first throbs of conscience were not for herself +but for her father. The portly gentleman who occasionally sat at the +head of the Shipley pew, and who certainly never parted company with his +pocket-book on Sabbath or on any other day, did _he_ give liberally to +Foreign Missions? + +She could not determine as to the probabilities of the case. He was +counted a liberal man--people liked to come to him to start +subscriptions; but Flossy felt instinctively that a subscription paper +with her father's name leading it was different, someway, from a quiet, +baize-lined box, and no noise nor words. She doubted whether the cause +had been materially helped by him. + +She lost some sentences of the story while she planned ways for +interesting her father and securing liberal donations from him; and then +she was suddenly startled back to personality by hearing some astounding +statements from the reader. + +"It would be _so_ easy to drop into a household box the price of an +apple, or a paper, or a glass of peanuts, and yet who does it? Why, +there are young ladies who will actually not give two cents a week from +the money that they waste!" + +The rich blood mounted in waves to Flossy's forehead. Apples and papers +were not in her line, but _peanuts_! wasn't there a certain stand which +she passed almost daily on her way down town, and did she ever pass it +without indulging in a glass of peanuts? Neither was that the end. Why, +once started on that list, and her wastes were almost numberless. How +fond she was of cream dates, and how expensive they were; and oranges, +the tempting yellow globes were always shining at her from certain +windows as she passed. + +Oh, they were just endless, her temptations and her falls in that +direction--only who had ever supposed that there was any harm in this +lavish treatment of herself and of any friends whom she happened to +meet? Yet it was true that she had never given any money at all to the +work of sending the Bible to those who are without it. + +"They will not give two cents a week," said Mrs. Miller. It was true: +she had not given "two cents a week," or even two cents a year--she had +simply ignored the existence of such a need for money. True, she had not +been a Christian; but she was surprised to see how little this refuge +served her. + +"I have been a human being," she told herself, with a flush on her face, +"and I ought to have had sufficient interest in humanity to have wanted +those poor creatures civilized." + +But there was another thrust preparing for Flossy. The reader presently +touched upon one item of expenditure common to ladies, namely, kid +gloves; and made the bewildering statement that economy in this matter, +to the degree that needless purchases should be avoided, would treble +the fund in the missionary treasury! It could not be that from among +that sea of faces the speaker had singled out Flossy Shipley, and yet +that is the way it seemed to her. If there was any one expense which +stood out glaringly above another in her list of luxuries it was kid +gloves. They must be absolutely immaculate as to quality, shade and fit, +and she remorselessly consigned them to the waste-bag at the first hint +of rip or change of color. How strange that Mrs. Miller should have +pitched upon just that item, and what an amazing declaration to make +concerning it! + +It was very strange, had any one been looking on to observe it, the +manner in which this young girl was being educated. It is doubtful if a +whole year of church work in the regular home routine, listening to the +stated, statistical sermon of her pastor, that sermon which presupposes +so much more knowledge than people possess, would have _begun_ to do for +Flossy what the strange, fanciful, pungent story of "Fair Haven" did. + + * * * * * + +Before that hour was closed she had settled within her resolute little +heart a plan that should henceforth put her in close communion and +sympathy with mission work--not exactly the plans of operation, except +that kid gloves and peanuts took stern places in the background, but +this was simply the foundation for a resolute system of education, +carried all through her future life. + +What a pity it seems sometimes that people cannot read the hearts and +watch the springs of action of those around them. If Mrs. Miller, as +she closed her paper and moved away from the platform, could have seen +the earnest purpose glowing and throbbing in Flossy's heart, and have +known that it was born of words of hers, what a glad and thankful heart +would she have carried back to her tent! + +Also, if the much troubled pastor at home could have taken peeps into +the future and seen what Flossy Shipley's resolves would do for +Missions, how glad he would have been! + +Perhaps it would be better to lay all the troubles and the tangles down +in the Hand that overrules it all, and say, in peace and restfulness, +"He knoweth the end from the beginning." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +"CROSS PURPOSES." + + +When people start out with the express design of having a good time, +irrespective of other people's plans or feelings--in short, with a +general forgetfulness of the existence of others--they are very likely +to find at the close of the day that a failure has been made. + +It did not take the entire day to convince Eurie Mitchell that +Chautauqua was not the synonym for absolute, unalloyed _pleasure_. You +will remember that she detached herself from her party in the early +morning, and set out to find pleasure, or, as she phrased it, "fun." She +imagined them to be interchangeable terms. She had not meant to be +deserted, but had hoped to secure Ruth for her companion, she not +having the excuse of wishing to report the meetings to call her to them. +Failing in her, in case she should have a fit of obstinacy, and choose +to attend the meetings, Eurie counted fully upon Flossy as an ally. Much +to her surprise, and no little to her chagrin, Flossy proved decidedly +the more determined of the two. No amount of coaxing--and Eurie even +descended to the employment of that weapon--had the least effect. To be +sure, Flossy presented no more powerful argument than that it did not +look well to come to the meeting and then not attend it. But she carried +her point and left the young searcher for fun with a clear field. + +Now fun rarely comes for the searching; it is more likely to spring upon +one unawares. So, though Eurie walked up and down, and stared about her, +and lost herself in the labyrinths of the intersecting paths, and tore +her dress in a thicket, and caught her foot in a bog, to the great +detriment of shoe and temper, she still found not what she was searching +for. Several times she came in sight of the stand; once or twice in +sound of the speaker's voice; but having so determinately carried her +point in the morning, she did not choose to abandon her position and +appear among the listeners, though sorely tempted to do so. She wandered +into several side tents in hope of finding something to distract her +attention; but she only found that which provoked her. + +In one of them a young lady and gentleman were bending eagerly over a +book and talking earnestly. They were interesting looking people, and +she hovered near, hoping that she had at last found the "children" who +would "play" with her--a remembrance of one of her nursery stories +coming to her just then, and a ludicrous sense of her resemblance to the +truant boy who spent the long, bright day in the woods searching for one +not too busy to play. + +But these two were discussing nothing of more importance than the lesson +for the coming Sabbath; and though she hovered in their vicinity for +some time, she caught only stray words--names of places in the far away +Judean land, that seemed to her like a name in the Arabian Nights; or an +eager dissertation on the different views of eminent commentators on +this or that knotty point; and so engrossed were they in their work +that they bestowed on her only the slightest passing glance, and then +bent over their books. + +She went away in disgust. At the next tent half a dozen ladies were +sitting. She halted there. Here at last were some people who, like +herself, were bored with this everlasting meeting, and had escaped to +have a bit of gossip. Who knew but she might creep into the circle and +find pleasant acquaintances? So she drew nearer and listened a moment to +catch the subject under discussion. She heard the voice of prayer; and a +nearer peep showed her that every head was bowed on the seat in front, +and one of the ladies, in a low voice, was asking for enlightenment _on +the lesson for the coming Sabbath_! + +"What wonderful lesson can it be that is so fearfully important?" she +muttered, as she plunged recklessly into the mud and made her way in all +haste up the hill without attempting any more tents. "Who ever heard +such an ado made about a Sunday-school lesson? These people all act as +though there was nothing of any consequence anywhere but +Sunday-schools. I guess it is the first time that such a _furor_ was +ever gotten up over teaching a dozen verses to a parcel of children. I +wonder if the people at home ever make such a uproar about the lesson? I +know some teachers who own up, on the way to church, that they don't +know where the lesson is. This must be a peculiar one. I wonder how I +shall contrive to discover where it is? The girls won't know, of course. +With all their boasted going to meeting they know no more about lessons +than I do myself. I would really like to find out. I mean to ask the +next person I meet. It will be in accordance with the fashion of the +place. Think of my walking down Broadway of a sunny morning and stopping +a stranger with the query, 'Will you tell me where the lesson is, +please?'" And at this point Eurie burst into a laugh over the absurdity +of the picture she had conjured. + +"But this is not Broadway," she said a moment afterward, "and I mean to +try it. Here comes a man who looks as if he ought to know everything. I +wonder who he is? I've seen his face a dozen times since I have been +here. He led the singing yesterday. Perhaps he knows nothing but sing. +They are not apt to; but his face looks as though he might have a few +other ideas. Anyway, I'll try him, and if he knows nothing about it, he +will go away with a confused impression that I am a very virtuous young +lady, and that he ought to have known all about it; and who knows what +good seed may be sown by my own wicked hand?" + +Whereupon she halted before the gentleman who was going with rapid +strides down the hill, and said, in her clearest and most respectful +tone: + +"Will you be so kind as to tell me where the lesson for next Sabbath +commences? I have forgotten just where it is." + +There was no hesitation, no query in his face as to what she was talking +about, or uncertainty as to the answer. + +"It is the fifth chapter, from the fifth to the fifteenth verse," he +said, glibly. "All fives, you see. Easy to remember. It is a grand +lesson. Hard to teach, though, because it is all there. Are you a +teacher for next Sunday? You must come to the teachers' meeting +to-morrow morning; you will get good help there. Glorious meeting, +isn't it? I'm so glad you are enjoying it." And away he went. + +Every trace of ill-humor had vanished from Eurie's face. Instead, it was +twinkling with laughter. + +"The fifth chapter and fifteenth verse" of what? Certainly she had no +more idea than the birds had who twittered above her head. How entirely +certain he had been that of course she knew the general locality of the +lesson. _She_ a teacher and coming to the teachers' meeting for +enlightenment as to how to teach the lesson! + +"I wonder who he is?" she said again, as these thoughts flashed through +her brain, and, following out the next impulse that came to her, she +stopped an old gentleman who was walking leisurely down, and said, as +she pointed out her late informant: + +"What is that man's name, please? I can't recall it." + +"That," said the old gentleman, "is Prof. Sherwin, of Newark. Have you +heard him sing?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, that is worth hearing; and have you heard him talk?" + +"No." + +"Well, he can talk; you will hear him, and enjoy it, too; see if you +don't. But I'll tell you what it is, young lady, to know him thoroughly +you ought to hear him pray! There is the real power in a man. Let me +know how a man can pray and I'll risk his talking." + +Eurie had got much more information now than she had asked for. She +ventured on no more questions, but made all haste to her tent, where, +seated upon a corner of the bed, one foot tucked under her while the +unfortunate shoe tried to dry, she sewed industriously on the zig-zag +tear in her dress, and tried to imagine what she could do next. +Certainly they had long days at Chautauqua. "I shall go to meeting this +afternoon," she said, resolutely, "if they have three sermons, each an +hour long; and what is more, I shall find out where that Sunday-school +lesson is." + +The next thing she did was to write a letter to her brother Nellis, a +dashing boy two years her senior and her favorite companion in her +search for pleasure. Here is a copy of the letter: + + + +"DEAR NEL: I wish you were here. Chautauqua isn't so funny as it might +be. There are some things that are done here continually. In the first +place, it rains. Why, you never saw anything like it! It just can't help +it. The sun puts on a bland face and looks glowing intentions, and while +you are congratulating your next neighbor on the prospect, she is +engaged in clutching frantically after her umbrella to save her hat from +the first drops of the new shower. Next, they have meetings, and there +is literally no postponement on account of the weather. It is really +funny to see the way in which the people rush when the bell rings, rain +or shine. Nel, only think of Flossy Shipley going in the rain to hear a +man preach of the 'Influence of the Press,' or something of that sort! +It was good though, worth hearing. I went myself, because, of course, +one must do something, and the frantic fashion of the place is to go to +meeting. At the same time I don't understand Flossy: she is different +from what she ever was at home. I suppose it is the force of the many +shining examples all around her. You know she always was a good little +sheep about following somebody's lead. + +"Marion is reporting, and has to be industrious. She is queer, Nel; she +professes infidelity, you know; and you have no idea how mad she gets +over anything that seems to be casting reproach on Christianity (unless +indeed she says it herself, which is often enough, but then she seems to +think it is all right). + +"Ruth keeps on the even tenor of her way. It would take an earthquake to +move that girl. + +"I have had the greatest fun this morning. I have been mistaken for a +Sabbath-school teacher who had the misfortune to forget at what verse +her lesson commenced! You see I was cultivating new acquaintances, and a +Prof. Sherwin gave me good advice. That and some other things aroused my +curiosity concerning that same lesson, and I am going to find out where +it is. + +"Did you know that Sunday-school lessons were such remarkable affairs? +The one for next Sunday must comprise the most wonderful portion of +Scripture that there is, for hundreds of people on these grounds are +talking about it, and I stumbled upon a party of ladies this morning who +were actually praying over it! + +"Another thing I overheard this morning, which is news to me, that all +the world was at work on the same lesson. That is rather fascinating, +isn't it, to think of so many hundreds and thousands of people all +pitching into the same verses on Sunday morning? It is quite +sentimental, too, or capable of being made so, for instance, by a great +stretch of your imagination. Suppose you and me to be very dear friends, +separated by miles of ocean we will say, and both devoted Sabbath-school +teachers, isn't that a stretch now? Such being the astonishing case, +wouldn't it be pleasant to be at work on the same lesson? Don't you see? +Lets play do it. You look up the lesson for next Sabbath and so will I. +Won't that have all the charm of novelty? Then give me the benefit of +your ideas acquired on that important subject, and I'll do the same to +you. Really, the more I think of it the more the plan delights me. I +wonder how you will carry it out? Shall you go to Sunday-school? What +will the dear Doctor say if he sees you walk into his Bible-class? I +really wish I were there to enjoy the sensation. Meantime I'm going to +look up an altogether wonderful teacher for myself, and then for +comparing notes. My spirits begin to rise, they have been rather damp +all the morning, but I see fun in the distance. + +"We are to have a sensation this afternoon in the shape of a troupe of +singers called the Tennesseeans--negroes, you know, and they are to give +slave-cabin songs and the like. I expect to enjoy it thoroughly, but you +ought to see Ruth curl her aristocratic nose at the thought. + +"'Such a vulgar idea! and altogether inappropriate to the occasion. She +likes to see things in keeping. If it is a religious gathering let them +keep it such, and not introduce negro minstrels for the sake of calling +a low crowd together, and making a little more money.' + +"Marion, too, shoots arrows from her sharp tongue at it, but she rather +enjoys the idea, just as she does every other thing that she chooses to +call inconsistent when she happens to be the one to discover it; but woe +to the one who comments on it further than she chooses to go. + +"Flossy and I now look with utmost toleration on the dark element that +is to be introduced. I tell Ruth that I am really grateful to the +authorities for introducing something that a person of my limited +capacities can appreciate, and Flossy, with her sweet little charitable +voice, has 'no doubt they will choose proper things to sing.' That +little mouse is really more agreeable than she ever was in her life; and +I am amazed at it, too. I expected the dear baby would make us all +uncomfortable with her finified whims; but don't you think it is our +lofty Ruth who is decidedly the most disagreeable of our party, save and +except myself!" + + + +This interesting epistle was brought to a sudden close by an +interruption. A gentleman came with rapid steps, and halted before her +tent door, which was tied hospitably back. + +"I beg pardon," he said, speaking rapidly, "but this is Miss Rider?" + +"It is not," Eurie answered, with promptness at which information he +looked surprised and bewildered. + +"Isn't this her tent? I am sorry to trouble you, but I have been sent +in haste for her. She is wanted for a consultation, and I was told I +would find her here. Perhaps I might leave a message with you for her?" + +"It certainly isn't her tent," Eurie said, trying to keep down the +desire to laugh, "and I haven't the least idea where she is. I should be +glad to give her your message if I could, but I never saw the lady in my +life, and have no reason to expect that pleasure." + +Whereupon her questioner laughed outright. + +"That is a dilemma," he said. "I appreciate your feelings, for I am +precisely in the same position; but the lady was described minutely to +me, and I certainly thought I had found her. I am sorry to have +interrupted you," and he bowed himself away. + +A new curiosity seized upon Eurie--the desire to see Miss Rider. "She +must be one of them," she soliloquized, falling into Flossy's way of +speaking of the workers at Chautauqua. "He said she was wanted for a +consultation. I wonder if she can be one of those who are to take part +in the primary exercises? She must be young for such prominent work if +she looks like me; but how could he know that since he never saw her? +It is very evident that I am to go to Sunday-school next Sabbath anyhow, +if I never did before, for now I have two items of interest to look +up--a lesson that is in the 'fifth chapter, from the fifth to the +fifteenth verse of _something_,' and a being called 'Miss Rider.'" So +thinking she hastily concluded and folded her letter, ready for the +afternoon mail, without a thought or care as to the seed that she had +been sending away in it, or as to the fruit it might bear; without the +slightest insight into the way she was being led through seeming +mistakes and accidents up to a point that was to influence all her +future. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE NEW LESSON. + + +Eurie turned her pillow, thumped the scant feathers into little heaps, +and gave a dismal groan as she laid her head back on it. + +"It is very queer," she said, "that as soon as ever I make up my mind to +be orthodox, and go to meeting every time the bell rings, I should be +dumped into a heap on this hard bed with the headache. I haven't had a +touch of it before." + +"'The way of transgressors is hard,'" quoted Marion, going on calmly +with her writing. "If you hadn't taken that horrid tramp yesterday +instead of going to meeting like a Christian, you would have been all +right to-day." + +"I believe you sit up nights to read your Bible, so as to have verses +to fling at people who are overtaken in any possible trial or +inconvenience. You always have them ready. Didn't you bring it with you, +and don't you prepare a list for each day's use?" This was Eurie's half +merry, half petulant reply to the Bible verse that had been "flung" at +her. + +Marion carefully erased a word that seemed to her fastidious taste too +inexpressive before she answered: + +"I don't own such an article as a Bible, my child; so your suspicions +are entirely unfounded. My early education was not defective in that +respect, however, and I confess that I find many verses that seem to +very aptly describe the ways of sinful mortals like yourself." + +Eurie raised herself on one elbow, regardless of headache and the cloth +wet in vinegar that straightway fell off. + +"You don't own a Bible!" she said, in utter surprise, and with a touch +of actual dismay in her voice. + +"I am depraved to that degree, my dear little saint. I conclude that you +are more devoutly inclined, and have one of your own. Pray how many +chapters a day do you read in it?" + +Eurie lay down again, and Flossy came with the vinegar cloth and bound +it securely on her forehead. + +"I don't read in it very often, to be sure," Eurie murmured. "In fact I +suppose I may as well say that I never do. But then I own one, and +always have. I am not a heathen; and really and truly it seems almost +queer not to have a Bible of one's own. It is a sort of mark of +civilization, you know." + +Marion laughed good-naturedly. + +"I never make a great deal of pretense in that line," she said, gayly. +"As for being a heathen, that is only a relative term. According to Dr. +Calkins, they were more or less in advance of us. I am one of the +'advanced' sort. Ruth, your toilet ought to be nearly completed; I hear +that indefatigable bell." + +"You are very foolish not to go this morning and let your writing wait. +We shall be certain to have something worth listening to; it is a +strange time to select for absence." This was Ruth's quiet answer, as +she pinned her lace ruffle with a gleaming little diamond. + +"'Diligent in business.' There is another verse for you, my heathen," +Marion said, with a merry glance toward Eurie. "When you get home and +get the dust of years swept off from your Bible, you take a look at it, +and see if I have not quoted correctly. And a good, sensible verse it +is. I have found it the only way in which to keep my head above water. +Ruthie, the trouble is not with me, it lies with those selfish and +obstinate newspaper men. If they would have the sense to let their +papers wait over another day I could go to the lecture this morning. As +it is, I am a victim to their indifference. If I miss a blessing the sin +will be at _their_ door, not mine." + +Eurie opened her heavy eyes and looked at Flossy. + +"Come," she said, "don't stand there mopping me in vinegar any longer. +Are you ready? I am really disappointed. I've always wanted to hear that +man. I want to tell Nel about him." + +Flossy washed her hands, shook back the yellow curls with an indifferent +and preoccupied air, and went to the door to wait for Ruth. She had +taken no part in the war of words that had been passing between Marion +and Eurie, but she had heard. And like almost everything else that she +heard during these days, it had awakened a new thought and desire. +Flossy was growing amazed at herself. It seemed to her that she must +have spent her seventeen years of life taking long naps, and this +Chautauqua was a stiff breeze from the ocean that was going to shake her +awake. The special thought that had dashed itself at her this morning +was that she, too, had no Bible. Not that she did not own one, elegantly +done in velvet and clasped in gold, so effectually clasped that it had +been sealed to her all her life. She positively had no recollection of +having ever sat down deliberately to read the Bible. She had "looked +over" occasionally in school, but even this service of her eyes had been +fitful and indifferent; and as for her head paying any sort of attention +to the reading, it might as well have been done in Greek instead of +French, which language she but dimly comprehended even when she tried. +But now she ought to have a Bible. She ought not to wait for that velvet +covered one. A whole week in which to find what some of her orders +were, and no way in which to find them. Of course she could buy one, but +how queer it would seem to be going to the museum to make a purchase of +a Bible! "They will wonder why I did not bring my own," she murmured, +with that life-long deference that she had educated herself to pay to +the "they" who composed her world. And in another instance the new-born +feeling of respect and independence asserted itself. "I can't help +that," she said, positively, shaking her curls with a determined air; +"and it really makes no difference what anybody thinks. Of course I must +have a Bible, and I only wish I had it for this morning, I shall +certainly get one the first opportunity." Then she turned and said +"good-morning" to the pretty little lady who occupied the tent next +door, and between whom and herself a pleasant acquaintance was springing +up. + +"Are you going to the lecture?" Flossy, asked and the small lady shook +her head, with a wistful air. + +"Dear me, no! My young tyrant wouldn't consent to that. I meant to take +him down with me and try him, but he has gone to sleep; and it is just +as well, for he would have been certain to want to do all the talking. +He has no idea that there is any one in the country who knows quite as +much as he does." It was said in a half complaining tone, but underneath +it was the foundation of tender pride, that showed her to be the vain +mother of the handsome tyrant. Still it seemed to be Flossy's duty to +condole with her. + +"You miss most of the meetings, do you not?" + +"Three-fourths of them. You see it is inconvenient to have a husband who +is reporter for the press, and who must be there to hear. It is only +when he must write up his notes for publication that I can get a chance; +and even then, unless it is baby's sleepy time, it does me no good. I am +especially sorry this morning, for Dr. Cuyler used to be my pastor. He +married me one summer morning just like this, and I haven't laid eyes on +him since. I should like to hear his voice again, but it can't be done." + +Now who would have imagined that, with all the powers that were +bestirring themselves to come to Flossy's education, it would have been +a rosy, crowing baby, in the unconsciousness of a morning nap, that +should have given her her first lesson in unselfishness? Yet he was the +very one. It flashed over Flossy in an instant from some source. Who was +so likely to have suggested it as the sweet angel who hovered over the +sleeping darling? + +"Oh, Mrs. Adams, let me stay with baby, and you go to hear Cuyler. It is +a real pity that you should miss him, when he is associated with your +life in this way. I never saw him, and though, of course, I should like +to, yet I presume there will be opportunities enough. I will be as +careful of baby as if he were my grandson; and if he wakens I will charm +him out of his wits, so that it will never occur to him to cry." + +Of course there was demurring, and profuse expressions of thanks and +declinatures all in a breath. But Flossy was so winning, so eager, so +thoroughly in earnest; and the little Mrs. Adams did so love her old +pastor, and did feel so anxious to see him again, that in a very short +time she was beguiled into going in all haste to her tent to make a +"go-to-meeting" toilet; and a blessed thing it was that that sentence +does not mean at Chautauqua what it does in Buffalo, or Albany, or a +few other places, else Dr. Cuyler might have slipped from them before +the necessary articles were all in array. It involved simply the +twitching off of a white apron, the settling of a pretty sun hat--for +the sun actually shone!--and the seizure of a waterproof, needed, if she +found a seat, to protect her from the damp boards--needed in any case, +because in five minutes it might rain--and she was ready. + +Ruth came to the door. + +"Come, Flossy," she said; "where in the world are you? We shall be +late." And said it precisely as though she had been waiting for that +young person for half an hour. + +Flossy emerged from the adjoining tent. + +"I am not going." she said. "I have turned nurse-girl, and have the +sweetest little baby in here that ever grew. Mrs. Adams is going in my +place. Mrs. Adams, Miss Erskine." + +And as those two ladies walked away together Mrs. Adams might have been +heard to say: + +"What a lovely, unselfish disposition your friend has! It was so +beautiful in her to take me so by storm this morning! I am afraid I was +very selfish; which is apt to be the case, I think, when one comes in +contact with actual unselfishness. It is one of the Christian graces +that is very hard to cultivate, anyway; don't you think so?" + +Ruth was silent; not from discourtesy, but from astonishment. It was +such a strange experience to hear any one speak of Flossy Shipley as +"unselfish." In truth she had grown up under influences that had combined +to foster the most complete and tyrannical selfishness--exercised +in a pretty, winning sort of way, but rooted and grounded in her very +life. So indeed was Ruth's; but _she_, of course, did not know that, +though she had clear vision for the mote in Flossy's eyes. + +Meantime Marion had staid her busy pen and was biting the end of it +thoughtfully. The two tents were such near neighbors that the latter +conversation and introduction had been distinctly heard. She glanced +around to the girl on the bed. + +"Eurie," she said, "are you asleep, or are you enjoying Flossy's last +new departure?" + +Eurie giggled. + +"I heard," she said. "The lazy little mouse has slipped out of a +tedious hour, and has a chance to lounge and read a pleasant novel. I +dare say the mother is provided with them." + +Then Marion, after another thoughtful pause: + +"But, my child, how do you account for the necessity of going to the +neighbors and taking the supervision of a baby in order to do that? +Flossy need not have gone to church if she didn't choose." + +"Yes she need. Don't you suppose the child can see that it is the +fashion of the place? She is afraid that it wouldn't look well to stay +in the tent and lounge, without an excuse for doing so. If that girl +could only go to a place where it was the fashion for all the people to +be good, she would be a saint, just because 'they' were." + +"She would have to go to heaven," muttered Marion, going on with her +writing. + +"And, according to you, there is no such place; so there is no hope for +her, after all. Oh, dear! I wonder if you are right, and nothing is of +any consequence, anyhow?" And the weary girl turned on her pillow and +tried not to think, an effort that was hard to accomplish after a week's +experience at Chautauqua. + +Flossy sat herself down beside the sleeping darling, and cast about her +for something to amuse or interest, her eyes brightening into beauty as +she recognized a worn and torn copy of the Bible. Eurie would have been +surprised to see the eagerness with which she seized upon the book that +was to afford her entertainment. She turned the leaves tenderly, with a +new sense of possession about her. This Bible was a copy of letters that +had been written to her--words spoken, many of them, by Jesus himself. +Strange that she had so little idea what they were! Marion, with her +boasted infidel notions, knew much more about "The Book" than Flossy +with her nominal Christian education and belief. She had no idea where +to turn or what to look for to help her. Yet she turned the leaves +slowly, with a delicious sense of having found a prize a--book of +instructions, a guide book for her on this journey that she was just +beginning to realize that she was taking. Somewhere within it she would +find light and help. The book was one that had been much used, and had a +fashion of opening of itself at certain places that might have been +favorites with the little mother. At one of those places Flossy halted +and read: "'After this there was a feast of the Jews.' After what, I +wonder?" she said within herself. She knew nothing about it. "Never +mind, I will see pretty soon. This is about a feast where Jesus was. And +Jesus went up to Jerusalem." "Oh, how nice to have been there, wherever +that was." The ignorant little thing had not the least idea where +Jerusalem was, except that it was in that far away, misty Holy Land, +that had seemed as vague and indefinite to her as the grave or as +heaven. But there came suddenly to her heart a certain blessed analogy. + +"If I were going to write an account of my recent experiences to some +dear friend that I wanted to tell it to," she said, talking still to +herself, or to the sleeping baby, "I would write it something like this: +'After this'--That would mean; let me see what it _would_ mean. Why, +after that party at home, when I danced all night and was sick. 'After +this there was a feast of the Christian people at Chautauqua, and Jesus +went there.' I could certainly write that, for I have seen him and heard +him speak in my very heart." Then she went on, through the second verse +to the third. "'In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of +blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water,'" and here a +great swell of tears literally blinded her eyes. It came to her so +suddenly, so forcibly. The great multitude here at Chautauqua--blind. +Yes, some of them. Was not she? How many more might there be? Many of +whom she knew, others that she did not know, but that Jesus did. Waiting +without knowing that they were waiting. With tears and smiles, and with +a new great happiness throbbing at her heart, she read through the +sweet, simple, wonderful story; how the poor man met Jesus; how he +questioned; how the man complained; and how Jesus was greater than his +infirmity. Through the whole of it, until suddenly she closed the book, +her tears dried, and a solemn, wondering, almost awe-struck look on her +face. She had got her lesson, her directions, her example. She could +bear no more, even of the Bible, just then. She said it over, that +startling verse that came to her with a whole volume of suggestion: +"'_And the man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had +made him whole._'" + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +GREAT MEN. + + +Ruth Erskine, with her skirts gathered daintily around her, to avoid +contact with the unclean earth, made her way skill fully through the +crowd, and with the aid of a determined spirit and a camp-chair secured +a place and a seat very near the stand. The little lady who timidly +followed in her lead was not quite so fortunate, inasmuch as she had no +camp-chair, and was less resolved in her determination to get ahead of +those who had arrived earlier; so she contented herself with a damp seat +on the end of a board, which was vacated for her use by a courteous +gentleman. + +Ruth, you must understand, was not selfish in this matter because she +had planned to be, but simply because it had never occurred to her to be +otherwise, which is one of the misfortunes that come to people who are +educated in a selfish atmosphere. Ruth Erskine had come to this meeting +fully prepared to enjoy it. Dr. Cuyler was a star of sufficient +magnitude to attract her. During her frequent visits to New York she had +heard much of but had never seen him. The people whom she visited were +too elegant in their views and practices to have much in common with the +church which was so pronounced on the two great questions of religion +and temperance. Yet, even with them, Dr. Cuyler and Dr. Cuyler's great +church were eccentricities to be tolerated, not ignored. Therefore Ruth +had had it in her heart to enjoy listening to him sometime. The sometime +had arrived. She had dressed herself with unusual care, a ceremony which +seemed to be quite in the background among the people who were at home +at Chautauqua. But someway it seemed to Ruth that the great Brooklyn +pastor should receive this mark of respect at her hands; so she had +spent the morning at her toilet and was now a fashionable lady, +fashionably attired for church. + +If the people who vouchsafed her a glance as she crowded past indulged, +some of them, in a smile at her expense, and thought the simple temple +made of trees and grasses an inappropriate surrounding to her silken +robes and costly lace mantle, she was none the wiser for that, you know, +and took her seat, indifferent to them all, except that presently there +stole over her the sense of disagreeable incongruity with her outdoor +surroundings; so Satan had the pleasure of ruffling her spirits and +occupying her thoughts with her rich brown silk dress instead of letting +her heart be touched with the solemnity and beauty of the grand hymn +which rolled down those long aisles. Satan has that everlasting weapon, +"What to wear, and what not to wear," everlastingly at command and +wonderfully under his control. But Ruth, in her way, was strong-minded +and could control her thoughts when she chose; so she presently shook +off the feeling of annoyance and decided to give herself up to the +influences of the hour. + +By this time Dr. Cuyler appeared and was introduced, Ruth gave him the +benefit of a very searching gaze, and decided that he was the very last +man of all those on the platform whom she would have selected as the +speaker. Probably if Dr. Cuyler had known this, and known also that his +personal presence entirely disappointed her, he would not have been +greatly disconcerted thereby. But his subject was one that found an +answering thrill in this young lady's heart--"Some Talks I Have Had With +Great Men." Ruth liked greatness. In her calm, composed way she bowed +before it. She would have enjoyed being great. Celebrity in a majestic, +dignified form would have been her delight. She by no means admitted +this, as Eurie Mitchell so often did. She by no means sought after it in +the small ways within her reach. Small ways did not suit her; they +disgusted her. But if she could have flashed into splendid greatness, if +by any amount of laborious study, or work, or suffering, she could have +seen the way to world-wide renown she would have grasped for it in an +instant. + +The next best thing to being renowned one's self was to have renowned +people for friends. This was another thing that Ruth coveted in silence. +She wanted no one to know how earnestly she aspired to, sometime, +making the acquaintance of some of the great people not--the vulgarly +great, those who were in a sense, and in the eyes of a few, great +because of the accidents of fortune and travel. She knew such by the +scores. Indeed, she had been in circles many a time where _she_ shone +with that sort of greatness herself. Perhaps it was for that reason that +it was such a despised height to her. But she meant the _really_ great +people of this world--people of power, people who moved the masses by +the force of their brains. Not one such had she ever met to look upon as +an acquaintance; and here was this man telling off the honored names by +the score, and saying, "My friend, Dr. Guthrie"--"My good friend, Thomas +Carlyle"--"My dear brother, Newman Hall." How would it seem to stand in +intimate relationship with one single gifted mind like these, and was +she destined ever to know by actual experience? + +There was another reason why Ruth had desired to choose Dr. Cuyler to +listen to rather than some other names on the programme, because, from +the nature of his subject she had judged it most unlikely that he +should have about him any arrows that would touch home to her. Not that +she put it in that language; she did not admit even to herself that any +of the solemn words that had been spoken at Chautauqua had reference to +her; and yet in a vague, fitful way she was ill at ease. + +She had moments of feeling that there was a reach of happiness possessed +by these people of which she knew nothing. Little side thrusts had come +to her from time to time in places where she least expected them. That +question, asked by Flossy during her night of unrest, "Should you be +afraid to die?" hovered around this quietly poised young lady in a most +unaccountable manner. All the more persistently did it cling because she +could not shake it off with the thought that it was silly. Common sense +told her that the strange, solemn shadow, which came so steadily after +men, and so surely enveloped one after another among the grandest +intellects that the world owned, was not a thing to pass over lightly. + +After all, why should she _not_ be afraid of death? Then that strange +gentleman who had persisted in ranking her among the praying people! he +had left his shadow. Why did she not pray? She wondered over this in a +vague sort of way; wondered how it seemed to kneel down alone, and speak +to an invisible presence; wondered if those who so knelt always felt as +though they were really speaking to God. + +There were times when Ruth was exceedingly disgusted with these +perplexing thoughts, and wanted nothing so much as to get away from +them. She resented this intrusion upon her quiet. This day was one of +those in which she was impatient of all these things, and she had made +her toilet with great satisfaction, and said within herself +complacently: "We are to have one hour at last devoted to this mundane +sphere and the mortals who inhabit it; most of the time these +Chautauquans talk and act as though earth was only a railroad station, +where people changed cars and went on to heaven. Dr. Cuyler is going to +refresh us with some actual living specimens of humanity. He can't make +a sermon out of that subject if he tries." + +But Ruth Erskine had not measured the power of the earnest preachers of +Jesus Christ. As if Dr. Cuyler could talk for an hour to thousands of +immortal souls, and leave Christ and heaven and immortality out. + +To Ruth these three words constituted a sermon, and she got them that +day. Not that he had an idea that he was preaching Christ, except +incidentally, as a man refers almost unconsciously to the one whom he +loves best in all the world but Ruth knew he was. It came in little +sudden touches when she least expected it, when heart and soul were +wrought upon with some strong enthusiasm by the splendid picture of a +splendid man--as when he told of Spurgeon. It was a glowing description, +such as thrilled Ruth, and made her feel that to have just one glimpse +of that great man, with his great marvelous power over humanity, would +be worth a lifetime. + +Suddenly the speaker said: "The secret of that man's power lies, first, +in his study of the Bible." Ruth started and came down like a bomb-shell +from her wondrous height. The Bible! copies of which lay carelessly on +every table of her father's elegantly furnished house unstudied and +unthought of. How very strange to ascribe the power of the great +intellect to the study of one book that was more or less familiar to +every Sunday-school boy. "Second, in short, simple, homely language." +Ruth smiled now. Dr. Cuyler was growing absurd, as if it were not the +most common thing in the world to use simple, homely language! No +Spurgeons could be manufactured in that way, she was sure. "Third, +mighty earnestness to save souls." Here was a point concerning which +Ruth knew nothing. + +Dr. Cuyler's manner put tremendous force into the forceful words, and +carried conviction with them. She wondered how a really _mighty_ +earnestness to save souls made a man appear? She wondered whether she +had ever seen such a one; she went rapidly over the list of her +acquaintances in the church. She smiled to herself a sarcastic, +contemptuous smile; she had met them all at parties, concerts, +festivals, and the like; she had seen them on occasions when _nothing_ +seemed to possess them but to have a good time like the rest of the +world. + +Like the rest of the world, Ruth reasoned and decided from her chance +meetings with the outside life of these Christians, forgetting that she +had never seen one of them in their closets before God; rather, she +knew nothing about these closets, nor the experiences learned there, and +could only reason from outside life. This being the case, what a pity +that her verdict of those lives should have called forth only that +contemptuous smile! Wandering off in this train of thought, she lost the +speaker's next point, but was called back by his solemn, ringing close. + +"Put these together, melt them down with the love of Christ, and you +have a Spurgeon. God be thanked for such a piece of hand work as he!" + +Another start and another retrospect. _Did_ she know any people who put +these together; who made a real, earnest, constant study of the Bible as +school girls studied their Latin grammars, and who were really eager to +save souls because they had the love of Christ in their hearts, and who +said so in plain simple language? "Does he, I wonder?" she said to +herself. "I wonder if his sermons sound like that? I should like to hear +him preach just once. Oh, dear! if he isn't running off to Moody and +Sankey. It _is_ a sermon after all!" + +On the whole, Ruth was disgusted. Her brain was in a whirl; she was +being compelled to hear _sermons_ on every hand. She was sick of it. +They had been great men of whom she had heard, and she admired them all; +she wanted the secret of their power, but she didn't want it to be made +out of such commonplace material as was in the hands of every child. She +did not know what she wanted--only that she had come out to be +entertained and to revel in her love of heroes, and she had been pinned +down to the one thought that _real_ men were made of those who found +their power in their Bible and on their knees. + +The solemn, earnest, tender closing to this address did not lessen her +sense of discomfort. Then just beside her was carried on a conversation +that added to her annoyance. + +"They are big men," a man said. He was dressed in a common business +suit; his linen had not the exquisite freshness about it that her +fastidious eyes delighted in; his hands looked as though they might have +been used to work that was rough and hard; his straggling hair was +sprinkled with gray, and there was not a striking feature about him. + +"They are big men," he said, "and I've no doubt it is a big thing to +know them, and talk with them, and have a friendly feeling for each, as +if they belonged to him, but he knows a bigger one than them, and the +best of it is, so do we. The Lord Jesus Christ, our Elder Brother, is +not to be compared to common men like these." + +And now Ruth's lips curled utterly. She was an aristocrat without +knowing it. She believed in Christianity, and in its power to save the +poor and the commonest, but this insufferable assumption of dignity and +superiority over the rest of the world, as she called it, was hateful to +her in the extreme. It would have startled her exceedingly to have been +told that she was angry with the man for presuming to place _his_ Friend +higher in the list of great ones than any of those given that day; and +yet such was actually her feeling. She swept her skirts angrily away +from contact with the man, and spoke so crustily to the little lady who +had come in her wake that she moved timidly away. + +Just at her left were two gentlemen shaking hands. Both had been on the +stand together, she knew the faces of both, and _one_ ranked just a +trifle higher in her estimation than any one at Chautauqua. She edged a +little nearer. She lived in the hope of making the acquaintance of some +of these lights, just enough acquaintance to receive a bow and a clasp +of the hand, though how one could accomplish it who was determined that +her interest in them should neither be seen nor suspected, it would be +hard to say; but they were talking in eager, hearty tones, not at all as +if their words were confidential--at least she might have the benefit of +them. + +"That was a capital lecture," the elder of the two was saying. "Cuyler +has had great advantages in his life in meeting on a familiar footing so +many of our great men. When you get thinking of these things, and of the +many men whom you would like to know intimately, what is the thought +that strikes you most forcibly?" + +"That I am glad I belong to the 'royal family,' and have the opportunity +of knowing intimately and holding close personal relations with Him who +'spake as never man spake.'" + +The other answered in a rare, rich tone of suppressed jubilance of +feeling. + +"Exactly!" his friend said; "and when you can leave the fullness of +that thought long enough to take another, there is the looking forward +to actual fellowship and communion not only with him, but with all these +glorious men who are living here, and who have gone up yonder." + +Ruth turned abruptly away. The very thought that possessed the heart of +the plain-looking man and that so annoyed her; and these two, whom to +know was an honor, were looking forward to that consummation as the +height of it all! + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +A WAR OF WORDS. + + +"Well, why not?" she said, as she went slowly down the aisle. Of course +all these people would be in heaven together, and why should they not +look forward to a companionship untrameled by earthly forms and +conventionalities, and uncumbered by the body in its present dull and +ponderous state? What a chance to get into the best society! the highest +circle! real best, too, not made up of money, or blood, or dress, or any +of the flimsy and silly barriers that fenced people in and out now. Then +at once she felt her own inconsistency in growing disgusted with the +plainly-dressed, common-looking man. If he did really belong to that +"royal family," why not rejoice over it? Wasn't _she_ the foolish one? +She by no means liked these reflections, but she could not get away from +them. + +"How do you do?" said a clear, round voice behind her; not speaking to +her, but to some one whom he was very glad to see, judging from his +tone. And the voice was peculiar; she had been listening to it for an +hour, and could not be mistaken; it belonged to Dr. Cuyler himself. She +turned herself suddenly. Here was a chance for a nearer view, and to see +who was being greeted so heartily. It was the little lady whose society +had been thrust upon her that morning by Flossy. And they were shaking +hands as though they were old and familiar acquaintances! + +"It is good to see your face again," that same hearty voice which seemed +to have so much good fellowship in it was saying. "I didn't know you +were to be here; I'm real glad to see you again, and what about the +husband and the dear boy?" + +At which point it occurred to Miss Ruth Erskine that she was listening +to conversation not designed for her ears. She moved away suddenly, in +no way comforted or sweetened as to her temper by this episode. Why +should that little bit of an insignificant woman have the honor of such +a cordial greeting from the great man, while he did not even know of +_her_ existence? + +To be sure, Dr. Cuyler had baptized and received into church fellowship +and united in marriage the little woman with whom he was talking; but +Ruth, even if she had known these circumstances, was in no mood to +attach much importance to them. + +She wandered away from the crowd down by the lake-side. She stopped at +Jerusalem on her way, and poked her parasol listlessly into the sand of +which the hills lying about that city were composed, and thought: + +"What silly child's play all this was! How absurd to suppose that people +were going to get new ideas by _playing_ at cities with bits of painted +board and piles of sand! Even if they _could_ get a more distinct notion +of its surroundings, what difference did it make how Jerusalem looked, +or where it stood, or what had become of the buildings?" + +This last, as it began dimly to dawn upon her, that it was useless to +deny the fact that even such listless and disdainful staring as she had +vouchsafed to this make-believe city had located it, as it had not been +located before, in her brain. + +When she produced the flimsy question, "What difference does it make?" +you can see at once the absurd mood that had gotten possession of her, +and you lose all your desire to argue with any one who feels as foolish +as that. Neither had Ruth any desire to argue with herself; she was +disgusted with her mind for insisting on keeping her up to a strain of +thought. + +"A lovely place to rest!" she said, aloud, and indignantly, giving a +more emphatic poke with her parasol, and quite dislodging one of the +buildings in Jerusalem. "One's brain is just kept at high pressure all +the time." + +Now, why this young lady's brain should have been in need of rest she +did not take the trouble to explain, even to herself. She sat herself +down presently under one of the trees by the lake-side and gave herself +up to plans. She was tired of Chautauqua; of that she was certain. It +stirred her up, and the process was uncomfortable. Her former composed +life suited her taste better. She must get away. There was no earthly +reason why she should not go at once to Saratoga. A host of friends were +already there, and certain other friends would be only too glad to +follow as soon as ever they heard of her advent in that region. Before +she left that rustic settee under the trees she had the programme all +arranged. + +"We will get through to-morrow as we best can," she said, sighing over +the thought that to-morrow being the Sabbath would perforce be spent +there, "and then on Monday morning Flossy and I will just run away to +Saratoga and leave those two absurd girls to finish their absurd scheme +in the best way they can." + +And having disposed of Flossy as though she were a bit of fashionable +merchandise without any volition of her own, Ruth felt more composed and +went at once to dinner. + +There came an astonishing interference to this planning, from no other +than Flossy herself. To the utter amazement of each of the girls, she +quietly refused to be taken to Saratoga; nor did she offer any other +excuse for this astonishing piece of self-assertion than that she was +having a good time and meant to finish it. And to this she adhered with +a pertinacity that was very bewildering, because it was so very new. +Marion laughed over her writing, to which she had returned the moment +dinner was concluded. + +"That is right, Flossy," she said, "I'm glad to see Chautauqua is having +an effect of some sort on one of us. You are growing strong-minded; mind +isn't a bad thing to have; keep to yours. Ruth, I am astonished at +_you_; I shall have to confess that you are disappointing me, my child. +Now, I rather expected this dear little bit of lace and velvet to give +up, conquered, in less than a week, but I said to myself, 'Ruth Erskine +has pluck enough to carry her through a _month_ of camp-life,' and here +you are quenched at the end of four days." + +"It isn't the camp-life," Ruth said, irritably. "I am not so much a baby +as to care about those things to such a degree that I can't endure them, +though everything is disagreeable enough; but that isn't the point at +all." + +Marion turned and looked at her curiously. + +"What on earth is the point then? What has happened to so disgust you +with Chautauqua?" + +"The point is, that I am tired of it all. It is unutterably stupid! I +suppose I have a right to be tired of a silly scheme that ought never to +have been undertaken, if I choose to be, have I not, without being +called in question by any one?" + +And feeling more thoroughly vexed, not only with the girls, but with +herself, than ever she remembered feeling before, Ruth arose suddenly +and sought refuge under the trees outside the tent. + +Marion maintained a puzzled silence. This was a new phase in Ruth's +character, and one hard to manage. + +Flossy looked on the point of crying. She was not used to crossing the +wills of those who had influence over her, but she was very determined +as to one thing: she was not going to leave Chautauqua. + +"Nothing could tempt me to go to Saratoga just now," she said, +earnestly. + +"Why?" asked Marion, and receiving no answer at all felt that Flossy +puzzled her as much as Ruth had done. However, she set herself to work +to restore peace. + +"This letter is done," she said, gayly, folding her manuscript. "It is a +perfectly gushing account of yesterday's meeting, for some of which I am +indebted to the Buffalo reporters; for I have given the most thrilling +parts where I wasn't present. Now I'm going to celebrate. Come in, Ruth, +we are of the same mind precisely. I would gladly accompany you on the +afternoon train to Saratoga with the greatest pleasure, were it not for +certain inconveniences connected with my pocket-book, and a desire to +replenish it by writing up this enterprise. But since we can't go to +Saratoga, let's you and I go to Mayville. It is a city of several +hundred inhabitants, six or eight, certainly, I should think; and we can +have an immense amount of fun out of the people and the sights this +afternoon, and escape the preaching. I haven't got to write another +letter until Monday. Come, shall we take the three o'clock boat?" + +Neither of these young ladies could have told what possible object there +could be in leaving the lovely woods in which they were camped and +going off to the singularly quiet, uninteresting little village of +Mayville, except that it was, as they said, a getting away from the +preaching--though why two young ladies, with first-class modern +educations, should find it so important to get themselves away from some +of the first speakers in the country they did not stop to explain even +to themselves. However, the plan came to Ruth as a relief, and she +unhesitatingly agreed to it; so they went their ways--Flossy to the +afternoon meeting (since Eurie declared herself so far convalescent as +to be entirely able to remain alone) and the two of the party who had +prided themselves up to this time on their superiority of intellect down +to the wharf to take the boat for Mayville. + +The ride thither on the lovely lake was almost enough to excuse them for +their folly. But the question what to do with themselves afterward was +one that burdened them during all that long summer afternoon. They went +to the Mayville House and took a walk on the piazza, and the boarders +looked at them in curiosity, and wondered if it were really a pleasanter +walk than the green fields over at Chautauqua. + +They ordered dinner and ate it at the general table with great relish, +Ruth rejoicing over this return to civilized life. One episode of the +table must be noted. Opposite them sat a gentleman who, either from +something in their appearance, or more probably from the reasonable +conclusion that all the strangers who had gathered at the quiet little +village were in some way associated with the great gathering, addressed +them as being part of that great whole. + +"You people are going to reap a fine harvest, pecuniarily, to-morrow; +but how about the fourth commandment? You Christians lay great stress on +that document whenever a Sunday reading-room or something of that sort +is being contemplated, don't you?" + +The remark was addressed to both of them, but Ruth was too much occupied +with the strangeness of the thought that she was again being counted +among "Christian people" to make any answer. Not so Marion. Her eyes +danced with merriment, but she answered with great gravity: + +"We believe in keeping holy the Sabbath day, of course. What has that to +do with Chautauqua. Haven't you consulted the programme and read: 'No +admission at the gates or docks'?" + +The gentleman smiled incredulously. + +"I have read it," he said, significantly, "and doubtless many believe it +implicitly. I hope their faith won't be shaken by hearing the returns +from tickets counted over in the evening." + +There was a genuine flush of feeling on Marion's face now. + +"Do you mean to say," she asked, haughtily, "that you have no faith in +the published statement that the gates will be closed, or do you mean +that the association have changed their minds? Because if you have heard +the latter, I can assure you it is a mistake, as I heard the matter +discussed by those in authority this very morning; and they determined +to adhere rigidly to the rules." + +"I have no doubt they will, so far as lies in their power," the +gentleman said, with an attempt at courtesy in his manner. "But the +trouble is, the thing is absurd on the face of it. If I hold a ticket +for an entertainment, which the Association have sold to me, it is none +of their business on what day I present it, provided the entertainment +is in progress. They have no right to keep me out, and they are +swindling me out of so much money if they do it." + +"You have changed your argument," Marion said, with a flash of humor in +her eyes. "You were talking about the amount of money that the +Association were to earn to-morrow, not the amount which you were to +lose by not being allowed to come in. However, I am willing to talk from +that standpoint. If you hold the _season_ ticket of the Association, and +are stopping outside, you will be admitted, of course. It is held to be +as reasonable a way to go to church as though you harnessed your horses +at home and drove, on the Sabbath, to your regular place of worship. But +you buy no ticket _for_ the Sabbath, and none is received from you; and +if you choose not to go, the Association neither makes nor loses by the +operation, and, so far as money is concerned, is entirely indifferent +which you decide to do. What fault can possibly be found with such an +arrangement?" + +"Well," said the gentleman, with a quiet positiveness of tone, "I +haven't a season ticket, and I don't mean to buy one, and I mean to go +down there to meeting to-morrow, and I expect to get in." + +"I dare say," Marion answered, with glowing cheeks. "The grounds are +extensive, you know, and they are not walled in. I haven't the least +doubt but that hundreds can creep through the brush, and so have the +gospel free. There is something about 'he that climbeth up some other +way being a thief and a robber;' but, of course, the writer could not +have had Chautauqua in mind; and even if it applies, it would be only +stealing from an Association, which is not stealing at all, you know." + +"You are hard on me," the gentleman said, flushing in his turn, and the +listeners, of whom there were many, laughed and seemed to enjoy the +flashing of words. "I have no intention of creeping or climbing in. I +shall present the same sort of ticket which took me in to-day, and if it +doesn't pass me I will send you a dispatch to let you know, if you will +give me your address." + +"And if you _do_ get in, and will let me know, I will report at once to +the proper authorities that the gate-keepers have been unfaithful to +their trust," said Marion, triumphantly. + +"But, my dear madam, what justice is there in that? I have paid my +money, and what business is it to them when I present my ticket? That is +keeping me out of my just dues." + +"Oh, not a bit of it; that is, if you can read, and have, as you admit, +read their printed statement that you are not invited to the ground on +Sunday. Your fifty-cent ticket will admit you on Monday. And you surely +will not argue that the Association has not a right to limit the number +of guests that it will entertain over the Sabbath?" + +"Yes, I argue that it is their business to let me in whenever I present +their ticket." + +Marion laughed outright. + +"That is marvelous!" she said. "It is wicked for them to receive payment +for your coming in on the Sabbath, and it is wicked for them not to let +you in on your ticket. Really, I don't see what the Association are to +do. They are committing sin either way it is put. I see no way out of it +but to have refused to sell you any tickets at all. Would that have +made it right?" + +The laugh that was raised over this innocently put question seemed to +irritate her new acquaintance. He spoke hastily. + +"It is a Sabbath-breaking concern, viewed in any light that you choose +to put it. There is no sense in holding camp-meetings over the Sabbath, +and every one agrees that they have a demoralizing effect." + +"Do you mean me to understand you to think that the several thousand +people who are now stopping at Chautauqua will be breaking the Sabbath +by going out of their tents to-morrow and walking down to the public +service?" + +The bit of sophistry in this meekly put question was overlooked, or at +least not answered, and the logical young gentleman asked: + +"If they think Sabbath services in the woods so helpful, why are they +not consistent? Let them throw the meeting open for all who wish to +come, making the gospel without money and without price, as they pretend +it is. Why isn't that done?" + +"Well, there are at least half a dozen reasons. I wonder you have not +thought of one of them. In the first place, that, of course, would tempt +to a great deal of Sabbath traveling, a thing which they carefully guard +against now by refusing to admit all travelers. And in the second place, +it would give the Chautauqua people a great deal to do in the way of +entertaining so large a class of people. As it is, they have quite as +much as they care to do to make comfortable the large company who belong +to their family. And in the third place--But perhaps you do not care to +hear all the reasons?" + +He ignored this question also, and went back to one of her arguments. + +"They don't keep travelers away at all, even by your own admission. What +is to hinder hundreds of them from coming here to-day and buying season +tickets in order to get in to-morrow?" + +He had the benefit of a most quizzical glance then from Marion's shining +eyes before she answered. + +"Oh, well, if the people are really so hungering and thirsting for the +gospel, as it is dispensed at Chautauqua, that they are willing to act +a lie, by pretending that they are members _who have been and are to be +in regular attendance_, and then are willing to pay two dollars and a +half for the Sunday meeting, I don't know but I think they ought to be +allowed to _creep_ in. Don't you?" + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +GETTING READY TO LIVE. + + +Amid the laughter that followed this retort the company rose up from the +table and went their various ways, to meet, perhaps, again. + +"How on earth do you manage to keep so thoroughly posted in regard to +Chautauqua affairs? One would think you were the wife of the private +secretary. _I_ shouldn't have known whether the gates were to be opened +or closed to-morrow." + +This from Ruth as the two girls paced the long piazza while waiting for +the carriage which was to take them to the boat; for, having exhausted +the resources of Mayville for entertainment, they were about to return +to Chautauqua. + +Marion laughed. + +"I'm here in the capacity of a newspaper writer, please remember," she +answered promptly, "and what I don't know I can imagine, like the rest +of that brilliant fraternity. I am not really positive about a great +many of the statements that I made, except on the general principle that +these people belong to the class who are very much given to doing +according to their printed word. It says on the circulars that the gates +will be closed on the Sabbath, and I dare say they will be. At least, we +have a right to assume such to be the case until it is proven false." + +"What class of people do you mean who are given to doing as they have +agreed? Christian people, do you refer to?" + +"Well, yes; the sort of Christians that one meets at such a gathering as +this. As a rule, the namby-pamby Christians stay away from such places; +or, if they come, they float off to Saratoga or some more kindred +climate. I beg your pardon, Ruthie, that doesn't mean you, you know, +because you are not one of any sort." + +"Then do you take it to be their religion which inclines you to trust +to their word, without having an individual acquaintance with them?" + +Marion shrugged her shoulders. + +"Oh, bother!" she said, gayly, "you are not turning theologian, or +police detective in search of suspicious characters, are you? I never +pretend to pry into my notions for and against people and things; if I +was betrayed into anything that sounded like common sense I beg your +pardon. I am out on a frolic, and mean to have it if there is any such +thing." + +"Well, before you go back into absolute nonsense let me ask you one more +question. Do you really feel as deeply as you pretended to that man, on +all these questions of the Chautauqua conscience? I mean, is it a vital +point in your estimation whether people go there to church on Sunday or +not?" + +Marion hesitated, and a fine glow deepened on her face as she said, +after a little, speaking with grave dignity: + +"I do not know that I can explain myself to you, Ruth, and I dare say +that I seem to you like a bundle of contradictions; but it is a real +pleasure to me to come in contact with people who have earnest faith +and eager enthusiasm over _anything_, and principle enough to stand by +their views through evil and good report. In this way, and to a great +degree, this meeting is a positive delight to me, though I know +personally as little about the feeling from which they think their +actions take rise as any mortal can. Does that answer satisfy you, my +blessed mother confessor? or are you more muddled than ever over what I +do, and especially over what I do _not_ believe?" + +"If I believed as much as you do I should look further." + +Ruth said this with emphasis; and there was that in it which, despite +her attempts to throw it off, set Marion to thinking, and kept her +wonderfully quiet during their return trip. + +On the whole, the flight to Mayville was not viewed entirely in the +light of a success. Ruth had been quiet and grave for some time, when +she suddenly spoke in her most composed and decided voice: + +"I shall go to Saratoga on Monday, whether any one else will or not; I +shall find plenty of friends to welcome me, and I shall take the +morning train from here." + +But she didn't. + +Meantime Flossy's afternoon had been an uninterrupted satisfaction to +her. She attended the children's meeting, and it was perfectly amazing +to her newly awakened brain how many of the stories, used to point +truths for the children, touched home to her. + +Dr. Hurlbut, of Plainfield, seemed to have especially planned his +address for the purpose of hitting at some of the markedly weak points +in her character, though no doubt the good man would have been utterly +amazed had he known her thoughts. + +She listened and laughed with the rest over the story of the poor tailor +who promised a coat to a customer for one, two and three weeks, heaping +up his promises one on the other until he had a perfect pyramid of them, +only to topple about his ears. She heard with the rest the magnificent +voice ring out the solemn conclusion: + +"Children, he did not mean to lie. He did not even think he was a liar. +He only _broke his promises_." + +They all heard, and I don't know how many shivered over it, but I _do_ +know that to Flossy Shipley it seemed as if some one had struck her an +actual blow. Was it possible that the easy sentences, the easy promises, +to "write," to "come," to "bring this," to "tell that," made so +gracefully, sounding so kindly, costing so little because forgotten +almost as soon as her head was turned away, actually belonged in that +list described by the ugly word "lie." Flossy had been a special sinner +in this department of polite wickedness because it just accorded with +her nature; such promises were so easy to make, and seemed to please +people, and were so easy to forget. Like the tailor, she hadn't meant to +be a liar, nor dreamed that she was one. + +But her wide-open ears took it all in, and her roused brain turned the +thought over and over, until, be it known to you, that that girl's happy +pastor, when he receives from her a decided, "Yes, sir, I will do it," +may rest assured that unless something beyond her control intervenes she +will be at her post. + +So much did Dr. Hurlbut accomplish that afternoon without ever knowing +it. There were many things done that afternoon, I suspect, that only +the light of the judgement day will reveal. Over the story of the two +workmen, who each resolved to stick to a certain effort for six months, +and did it, the one earning thereby a patent right worth thousands of +dollars, and the other teaching a little dog how to dance to the +whistling of a certain tune, Flossy looked unutterably sober, while the +laughter swelled to a perfect roar around her. It was hard to feel that +not "six months" only, but a dozen years of intelligent life, were gone +from her, and she had not even taught a dog to dance a jig! That was the +very way she put it in her humility; and I do not say that she placed it +too low, because really I don't know that Flossy Shipley had _ever had_ +even so settled a purpose in life as that! She had simply fluttered +around the edge of this solemn business that we call living. + +But along with the sober thought glowed the earnest purpose: given +another dozen years to my young lady's life and they will bear a +different record; and whatever they bear, Dr. Hurlburt will be in a +sense responsible for, though he never saw her and probably never will. +Verily this living is a complicated bewildering thing Well for us that +_all_ the weight of the responsibility is not ours to bear. + +There was still another story, and over it Flossy's lips parted, and her +eyes glowed with feeling. That wonderful machine that the most skillful +workmen tried in vain to repair, that was useless and worthless, until +the name of the owner was found on it, and he was sent for, then indeed +it found the master-hand, the only one who could right it; she did not +need Dr. Hurlbut's glowing application. "So He who made us, and engraved +his name, his image, on our bodies, can alone take our hearts and make +them right." + +Flossy listened to this and the sentences that followed, thrilling her +heart with their power and beauty--thrilling as they would not have done +one week ago, for did she not know by actual experience just how blessed +a worker the great Maker was? Had she not carried her heart to him, and +had he not left his indelible impression there? Oh, this was a wonderful +meeting to Flossy--one that she will never forget--one that many others +will have reason to remember, because of the way in which she listened. +But was it not strange, the way in which her education was being cared +for? + +After tea she stood at the entrance of the tent, looking out for the +girls--looking out, also, on the cool, quiet sunset and the glory spread +everywhere, for there had been sunshine that day, part of the time, and +there was a clear sun setting. Under her arm she held the treasure which +she had in the morning determined to possess--a good, plain, large-print +Bible, not at all like the velvet-covered one that lay on her +toilet-stand at home, but such as the needs of Bible students at +Chautauqua had demanded, and therefore much better fitted for actual +service than the velvet. + +Among the many passers-by came Mrs. Smythe. She halted before Flossy. + +"Good-evening. I thought your party must have left. I haven't seen you +since Thursday. Haven't you been fearfully bored? We are going to leave +on Monday morning--going to Saratoga. Don't some of you want to join us? + +"I don't know," Flossy said, thoughtfully mindful of Ruth and her plan +that had not worked. "It is possible that Miss Erskine may. Do your +entire party go?" + +"Oh, not my nephew, of course! Nothing could tear him away. He is +perfectly charmed with all this singing and praying and preaching, but I +confess it is too much of a good thing for me. I am not intellectually +inclined, I like the music very well, and some of the addresses are +fine; but there is such a thing as carrying meetings to excess." + +At this point she turned quickly at the sound of a firm step behind her, +and greeted a young man. + +"Speak of angels and you hear their wings, or the squeak of their +boots," she said. "We were just talking about you, Evan. My nephew, Mr. +Roberts, Miss Shipley. I believe you have never met before." + +Had they not! There was a heightened flush on the cheek of each as they +shook hands. It was clear that each recognized the other. + +"Are we strangers?" he asked, with a bright smile, speaking so low that +Mrs. Smythe, whose attention had already wandered from them to a group +who were passing, did not hear the words, "On the contrary, I think we +are related, though I do not know that we have happened to hear each +other's names before." + +Flossy understood the relationship--sons and daughters of one +Father--for she knew this was the young man who had twice questioned her +concerning her allegiance to that Father. Also, she remembered him as +the only one whom she had ever heard pray for her. + +Mrs. Smythe called out a gay good-evening to them, and joined a party of +friends, and Mr. Roberts leaned against a tree and prepared to cultivate +the acquaintance of his newly-found relative. + +"You have one of those large, sensible-looking Bibles, I see," he said. +"I have been very much tempted, but I could not make myself feel that I +really needed one." + +"I really needed mine," Flossy said, smiling. "I left my Bible at home. +I had not such a thought as bringing it along. I feel now as if I had a +treasure that I didn't know how to use. It is quite new to me. I don't +know where to read first, but I suppose it makes no difference." + +"Indeed it does make great difference," he said, smiling, "and you will +enjoy finding out how to read it. Chautauqua is a good place for such a +study, and the Bible reading this evening is an excellent place to +commence. Are you going?" + +"Yes, indeed!" Flossy said, with brightening eyes. "I have been looking +forward to it all day. I can't think what a Bible reading is. Do they +just read verses in the Bible?" + +"Yes," he said, smiling. "It is just Bible verses, with a word of +explanation now and then and a little singing. But the Bible verses are +something remarkable, as you will see. It is nearly time for service. +Are you ready? Shall we walk down and secure seats?" + +So they went down together it the early twilight, and took seats under +the trees amid the glowing of brilliant lights and the soft sound of +music coming from the piano on the stand. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +THE SILENT WITNESS. + + +That Bible reading! I wish I could make it appear to you as it did to +Flossy Shipley. Not that either, because I trust that the sound of the +Bible verses is not so utterly new to you as it was to her--rather, that +it might sound to you as it did to the earnest-souled young man who sat +beside her, taking in ever; word with as much eagerness as if some of +the verses had not been his dear and long-cherished friends; nay, with +more eagerness on that account. + +Do you know Dr. Parsons, of Boston? It was he who conducted that +reading, and his theme was, "The Coming of the Lord." + +Let me give you just a few of the groupings as he called them forth +from his congregation under the trees, and which he called "the Lord's +own testimonies to his coming:" + +"Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." +"Therefore, be ye also ready; for in such an hour as ye think not the +Son of man cometh." "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor +the hour wherein the Son of man cometh." "Take ye heed, watch and pray: +for ye know not when the time is." + +Four solemn warnings from the Head of the vineyard. They reached to +Flossy's very soul, and she had that old well-known thrill of feeling +that almost every Christian has some time experienced. + +"If _I_ had only been there; if He had spoken such words to _me_, I +could never, never have forgotten, or been neglectful. If I could only +have heard Him speak!" And as if in answer to this longing cry Dr. +Parsons himself read the next solemn sentence, read it in such a way +that it almost seemed as if this might be the sacred garden, and +_Himself_ standing among the olive-trees speaking even to _her_: + +"And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch." Here, then, was her +direction from His own lips. Though centuries had passed since He spoke +them they echoed down to her. She was not overwhelmed; she was not +crushed by the new and solemn sense of her calling that flowed over her. +The Lord himself was there in every deed, and whispered in her ear, "It +is I, be not afraid." And her heart responded solemnly, "Aye, Lord, I +feel thy presence; I have been sleeping, but I am awake, and from +henceforth I _will_ watch." + +That Bible reading was like a whole week of theological study to Flossy. +It was not that she learned simply about the blessed assurance, the +weight of testimony amounting to an absolute certainty, concerning the +coming of the Lord. But there were so many truths growing out from that, +so many incentives to be up and doing; for she found before the reading +closed that one must not only watch, but in the watching work; and there +were so many reasons why she should, and so many hints as to the way and +the time. Then there was, also, the most blessed discovery that the +Bible was not a book to treat like an arithmetic. That one must read +through the Book of Genesis, and then go on to Exodus, a chapter to-day, +two chapters to-morrow, and perhaps some days, when one was not in too +great a hurry and could read very fast, take half a dozen chapters, and +so get through it. But she learned that there were little connecting +links of sweetness all the way through the book; that she had a right to +look over in Revelation for an explanation of something that was stated +in Deuteronomy. She did not learn all this, either, at this one time; +but she got a vivid hint of it, strong enough to keep her hunting and +pulling at the lovely golden thread of the Bible for long years to come. + +There were special points about the closing verses that throbbed in her +heart, and awakened purposes that never slept again. It was the +gentleman who sat beside her who read the solemn words of the verse: + +"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in which the +heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt +with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall +be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, +what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and +godliness?" + +His voice was very earnest, and his face had an eager look of solemn +joy. + +From it she felt the truth that while the words which he had been +reading were full of solemnity, and while he felt the sense of +responsibility, there was also that in them which filled his heart with +great joy, for when that time should come would not he be with his Lord? + +Again, when a little later he gave the closing verses of this wonderful +lesson, reading them from her Bible, because in the dimness the print +was larger and clearer than his own, they made the conclusion of the +whole matter: + +"Ye are the children of light, and the children of the day; we are not +of the night, nor of the darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as do +others, but let us watch and be sober." + +He marked it with his pencil as he finished reading, and as he returned +the book to her keeping he said with a smile: + +"We will, shall we not?" + +And it felt to Flossy like a convenant, witnessed by the Lord himself. +But Dr. Parsons, you know, knew nothing of all this. Chautauqua was the +place for sowing the seed; they could only hope that the Lord of the +vineyard was looking on and watching over the coming harvest; it was not +for their eyes to see the fruits. + +Sunday morning at Chautauqua! None of all the many hundreds who spent +the day within the shadow of that sweet and leafy place have surely +forgotten how the quaint and quiet beauty of the place and its +surroundings fell upon them; they know just how the birds sang among +those tall old trees; they know just how still and blue and clear the +lake looked as they caught glimpses of it through the quivering green of +myriad leaves; they know just how clearly the Chautauqua bells cut the +air and called to the worship. It needs not even these few words to +recall the place in its beauty to the hearts of those who worshiped +there that day; and for you who did not see it nor feel its power there +is no use to try to describe Chautauqua. Only this, it is a place to +love and look back to with a sort of sweet and tender longing all your +lives. + +Our girls felt somewhat of the sacredness of the place; at least they +went around with a more decided feeling that it was Sunday than they had +ever realized before. Three of them did. + +To Flossy this day was like the revelation of a new heaven and a new +earth. Her first Sunday in Christ! + +There was no sunshine, neither was there rain. Just a hush of all +things, and sweetness everywhere. + +After breakfast Ruth and Marion lolled on their cots and studied the +programme, while the other two made hasty toilets, and announced their +intention of going to Sunday-school. + +"What in the name of sense takes you?" queried Marion, rising on one +elbow, the better to view this strange phenomena. + +"Why I have a mission," Eurie said. "About three thousand people have +been talking all this week about teaching a few Bible verses to some +children to-day, and I am going to find out what they are, and what is +so wonderful about them. Besides, I was taken for a being named Miss +Rider, and on inquiry I find her to be what they call an infant-class +teacher, so I am going to hunt her up and see if we look alike and are +affinities." + +Flossy chose to make no answer at all, and presently the two departed +together to attend their first Sabbath-school since they were known as +children. As they passed a certain tent Eurie's ready ears gained +information from other passers-by: + +"This is where the little children are; Miss Rider is going to teach +them." + +Eurie halted. + +"_I'm_ going in here," she said, decidedly, to Flossy. "That is the very +lady I am in search of." And seeing Flossy hesitate, she added: "Oh, you +may go on, it is just as well to divide our forces; we may each have +some wonderful adventure. You go your way and I will go mine, and we'll +see what will come of it." + +The tent was full apparently; but that spirit which was rife at +Chautauqua, and which prompted everybody to try to look out a little for +the comfort of everybody else, made a seat full of ladies crowd a little +and make room for her. Rows and rows of little people with smiling faces +and shining eyes! It was a pretty sight. Eurie gave eager attention to +the lady who was talking to them, and laughed a little to herself over +the dissimilarity of their appearance. + +"Hair and eyes and height, and everything else, totally unlike me!" she +said. "She is older than I, too, ever so much. She doesn't look as I +thought Miss Rider would." + +But what she was saying proved to be very interesting, not only to the +little people, but to Eurie. She listened eagerly. It was important to +discover what had been so stirring the Sunday-school world all the week. +She was not left in doubt; the story was plainly, clearly, fascinatingly +told; it was that tender one of the sick man so long waiting, waiting to +be helped into the pool; disappointed year after year, until one blessed +day Jesus came that way and asked one simple question, and received an +eager answer, and gave one brief command, and, lo! the work was done! +The long, long years of pain and trial were over! Do you think this +seemed like a wonderful story to Eurie? Do you think her cheeks glowed +with joy over the thought of the great love and the great power of +Jesus? + +Alas, alas! to her there was no beauty in him. This simple tender story +did not move her as the commonplace account of a common sickness and +common recovery given in a village paper would have done. The very most +that she thought of it was this: "That Miss Rider has a good deal of +dramatic power. How well she tells the story! But dear me! how stupid it +must be. What is the use of taking so much trouble for these little +midgets? They don't understand the story, and of what use would it be to +them if they did? Something that happened to somebody hundreds of years +ago." + +But now her attention was arrested by the sound of a very loud whisper +just behind her, given in a childish voice. "Miss Rider, Miss Rider," +the child was saying, and emphasizing her whisper by a pull at a lady's +dress. Eurie turned quickly; the dress belonged to a young, fair girl, +with fresh glowing face and large bright eyes, that shone now with +feeling as she listened eagerly to this story, and to the comments of +the children concerning it. Then she in turn whispered to the lady +nearest her: "Is it Miss Rider who is teaching?" "No, it is Mrs. Clark, +of Newark. That is Miss Rider leaning against a post." + +Then Eurie looked back to her. "She is no older than I," she murmured; +"indeed not so old, I should think. Her hair must be exactly the color +of mine, and we are about the same height. I wonder if we _do_ look in +the least alike? What do I care!" Yet still she looked; the bright face +fascinated her. The little child had won the lady's attention; and the +lips and eyes, and indeed the whole face, were vivid with animation as +she bent low and answered some troubled question, appealing to the +diagram on the board, and making clear her answer by rapid gestures with +her fingers. The lady beside Eurie volunteered some more information. + +"Miss Rider was to have taught this class, I heard. I wonder why she +didn't?" + +"I don't know," Eurie answered, briefly. Then she looked back at her +again. "She is jealous," she said to herself. "She was to have taught +this class this morning, and by some blundering she was left out, and +she is disgusted. She will say that such teaching as this amounts to +nothing; she could have done it five times as well; or, if she doesn't +_say_ that last, she will think it and act it. I have no doubt these +rival teachers cordially hate each other, like politicians." + +Nevertheless that fresh young face, with its glow of feeling, fascinated +her. She kept looking at her; she gave no more attention to the lesson. +What was it, after all, but an old story that had nothing to do with +her; the fact that it was taken from the Bible was proof enough of that. +But she watched Miss Rider. The session closed and that lady pressed +forward to assist in giving out papers. The crowd pushed the willing +Eurie nearer to her, so near that she could catch the sentence that she +was eagerly saying to the lady near her. + +"Isn't Mrs. Clark delightful? It was such a beautiful lesson this +morning. I think it is such a treat and such a privilege to be allowed +to listen to her. Yes, darling," this last to another little one +claiming a word, "of course Jesus can hear you now, just as well as +though He stood here. He often says to people, 'Wilt thou be made +whole?' He has said so to you this morning." + +Eurie turned away quickly. She had had her lesson. It wasn't from the +Bible, nor yet did she find it in those hundred little faces so eager +to know the story in all its details. It was just in that young face not +so old as hers, so bright, so strong, so thoroughly alert, and so +thoroughly enlisted in this matter. The vivid contrast between that life +and hers struck Eurie with the force of a new revelation. + +She went to the general service under the trees; she heard a sermon from +Dr. Pierce, so full of power and eloquence that to many who heard it +there came new resolves, new purposes, new plans. I beg her pardon, she +did not listen; she simply occupied a seat and looked as though she was +a listener. + +But the truth was, she had not learned yet to listen to sermons. The +very fact that it was a sermon made it clear to her mind that there was +to be nothing in it for her; this had been her education. In reality, +during that hour of worship she was engaged in watching the changeful +play of expression on Miss Rider's face, as her eyes brightened and +glowed with enthusiasm or trembled with tears, according as the +preacher's words roused or subdued her. + +Well, Eurie had her lesson. It was not from the Bible, it was not from +the preacher's lips except incidentally, but it was from a living +epistle. "Ye shall be witnesses of me," was the promise of Christ in the +long ago, just before the cloud received him out of sight. Is not that +promise verified to us often and often when we know it not? + +Miss Rider had no means of knowing as she sat a listener that Sabbath +morning that she was witnessing for Christ. But she was just as surely +speaking for him as though she had stood up amid that throng and said: +"I love Jesus." "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord." And the poet has +said: "They also serve who only stand and wait." Blessed are those in +whom the waiting and the service go together. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + +AN OLD STORY. + + +Meantime Flossy, deserted by her companion, made her way somewhat +timidly down to the stand, amazed by the great congregation of people +who had formed themselves into a Sunday-school. With all their haste the +girls had gotten a very late start. The opening exercises were all over, +and the numerous teachers were turning to their work. Strangely enough, +the first person whom Flossy's eye took in distinctly enough for +recognition was Mr. Roberts. He had recognized her, also, and was coming +toward her. + +"How do you do this morning?" he said, holding out his hand. "Do you +know I have a mission for you? There are two boys who seem to belong to +nobody, and to have nothing in common with this gathering, except +curiosity. The superintendent has twice tried to charm them in, but +without success--they will come no further than that tree. I think they +have slipped in from the village, probably in a most unorthodox fashion, +and what I am coming at is, will you go out under the tree to them and +beguile them into attending a Sabbath-school for once in their lives? +They look to me as though it was probably a rare occurrence." + +Now you are not to suppose that this invitation came to Flossy with the +same sound that it would have had to you, if Mr. Roberts had come to you +that Sabbath morning and asked you to tell those two boys a Bible story. +It is something that you have probably been doing a good deal of, all +your grown-up life, and two boys at Chautauqua are no more to you than +two boys anywhere else, except that there is a delightful sensation +connected with having a class-room out in the open air. But imagine +yourself suddenly confronted by Dr. Vincent, and asked if you would be +so kind as to step on the platform and preach to five thousand people, +from a text that he would select for you! Now you have something of an +idea as to how this request felt to Flossy. A rare glow spread all over +her face, and she looked up at her questioner with eyes that were +quivering in tears. + +"You do not know what you are saying," she said, in low and trembling +voice. "I have not been to a Sabbath-school in seven years, and I never +taught anybody anything in my life." + +It was true that he did not know. It seemed to him such a very little +thing that he had asked. However, he spoke gently enough as one who was +courteous, even when he could not quite comprehend. + +"Then is not to-day a good time to commence? You will surely never have +a better opportunity." + +But she shook her head, and turned quite away from him, walking down +among the trees where no people were. Her joy was all gone, and her +pleasant time. She had meant to go to Sabbath-school; to sit down +quietly in some body's class and learn, oh! a very great deal during the +next hour. Now she was all stirred up, and could not go anywhere. + +As for Mr. Roberts, he went back to the large class who were waiting +for him. And those two boys hovered around the edge of that feast like +hungry creatures who yet had never learned to come to the table and take +their places. Flossy looked at them; at first indignantly, as at +miserable beings who had spoiled her pleasure; then she became +fascinated by their bright, dirty faces and roguish ways. She edged a +little nearer to them. Boys she was afraid of; she knew nothing about +them. Had they been a little older, and been dressed well, and been of +the stamp of boys who knew how to bring her handkerchief to her when she +dropped it, she would have known what to say to them. But boys who were +not more than twelve or fourteen, and who were both ragged and dirty, +were new phases of life to her. + +"Why don't you go to Sunday-school?" she questioned at last, with a +timid air. She could at least ask that. They were not the least timid as +to answering; the older and the dirtier of the two turned his roguish +eyes on her and surveyed her from head to foot before he said: + +"Why don't you?" + +Flossy was unprepared for this question, but she answered quickly and +truthfully: + +"Because I am afraid to go." + +Both boys stared, and then laughed, and the other younger one said: + +"So be we." + +"I suppose we are both very silly," Flossy said. "But I have not been to +Sunday-school for so long that I have forgotten all about it. Let's have +one of our own that we are not afraid to go to." + +And she sat bravely down on the stump at her feet; her mood had changed +very suddenly; only yesterday she had read a verse in that Bible, and it +thrilled her then, and came to her now: + +"The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him +whole." + +Suppose she were the man, and these were the Jews, could she not say to +them, "He has made me whole"? She could tell them about that pool, and +about the sick man. It wouldn't be teaching in Sunday-school, but it +would be doing the best thing that she could. + +It suddenly occurred to her to wonder where the lesson was that was +being taught this morning, and she consulted the lesson leaf that Mr. +Roberts had left in her hand. The glow on her face deepened and spread +as she recognized the very story which had so filled her heart the day +before! What if the great Physician had actually selected her to tell of +that miracle of healing to these two neglected ones! Surely they were +not so formidable as the Jews! But how in the world to begin was a +bewilderment. Clearly she must decide at once if she was to have any +class, for her two boys began to look about them, and show signs of +flight. + +"Did you ever hear about a wonderful spring that used to cure people?" + +"Lots of 'em. I used to live right by one that cured the rheumatiz." + +"But this one would cure other things, only it wouldn't cure people all +the time. There was just one time in the year when it would do it; and +then the one that got in first was the only one cured." + +Her listeners looked skeptical. + +"What was that for?" queried the bolder of the two. "Why didn't it cure +but one?" + +"I don't know," Flossy said. "There are ever so many things that I know +that I can't tell why they are so. For instance, I don't know why that +spring you have been telling me about cures the rheumatism, but I know +it does, for you told me so." + +"No more do I," the boy said, promptly, having in his heart a rising +respect for the young teacher and her story. + +Then this new beginner, with the air of a diplomatist, told all the +details of this wonderful cure, without once mentioning the name of +either person or place. An innate sense of the human heart told her that +"Jerusalem" and "Jesus" were both probably connected in the minds of +these two with the Bible, and their appearance told her that they were +likely to be skeptical as to the interest of Bible stories. But, like +all ignorant persons, there was a credulous side to their nature. It is +surprising what marvelous stories people are prepared to receive and +credit, provided only that they do not come from the Bible, with a "Thus +saith the Lord" to vouch for them. Then, indeed, they are apt to become +"unreasonable" and "improbable." Presently her boys volunteered some +remarks and asked some questions. + +"Jolly! that fellow must have felt good: I guess he wanted to run all +around the country and tell about it. Where was this spring, and what +was the man's name that cured him?" + +The other chimed in: "Yes, and how did he do it? That's what I'm after. +And is he dead? 'cause I don't hear of no such cures now-days." + +Then was Flossy tremulous of heart. She had become eagerly interested in +her story and her boys. Would the charm that she had woven be broken the +moment they knew the story's origin? But of course she must tell them, +for what good else would the story do? + +"He is dead," she said, slowly, answering the last question first. "That +is, he is what _you_ call dead. But, of course, you know as well as I do +that that doesn't mean what it seems to; it means simply that he doesn't +live in the same place that he once did. He went to heaven to live ever +so many years ago." + +She waited to feel the effect of this announcement. The boys were silent +and grave. They had evidently heard of heaven, and had some measure of +respect for the name. The new teacher did not know what to say next. The +boys helped her. The younger one drew a heavy sigh. + +"Well, all I've got to say is, I wish he was alive now," he said, in a +regretful tone, "'cause my mother has been sick longer than thirty-eight +years; she has been sick about all her life, and she is real bad now, so +she can't walk at all. I s'pose he could cure her if he was here." + +"I suppose he could cure her now." Flossy said this slowly, reverently, +looking earnestly at the boy, hoping to convey to him a sense of her +meaning. He looked utterly puzzled. Light began to dawn on the face of +the older boy. + +"She's been tellin' us one of them Bible stories," he said, speaking not +to Flossy, but to his companion, and assuming an injured air, as if a +wrong had been done them. + +Flossy spoke quickly: + +"Of course I have. I thought you wanted to hear something that really +happened, and not a made up story." This seemed to be an appeal to their +dignity, and they eyed her reflectively. + +"How do you know it happened?" ventured the younger one. + +Flossy gave a rapid and animated answer. + +"There are about a hundred reasons why I know it; it would take me all +day to tell you half of them. But one is, that I read it in a book which +good men who know a great deal, and who have been studying all their +lives to find out about it, say they know is true; and I believe what +they tell me about Washington and Lincoln and other men whom I never +saw, so I ought to believe them when they tell me about this man." + +"But there's _one_ thing you don't know. You don't know that he can cure +folks now, and he don't do it." This was spoken with a quiet +positiveness, and with the air that said, "_That_ can't be disputed, and +you know it can't." + +Flossy hesitated just a moment; the glow on her face deepened and +spread. Then she answered in much the same tone that the boy had used: + +"I know he _can_, and I have good reason for knowing. I'll tell you a +secret; you are the very first persons I have told about it, but he has +cured me. I have been sick all my life, when I came here to Chautauqua I +was sick. I could not do anything that I was made to do, and I kept +doing things all the time that were not meant for me to do, but he has +cured me." + +The boys looked at her in absolute incredulous wonder. + +"Was you sick in bed when you came?" ventured one of them at last. + +"No; it is not that kind of sickness that I mean. That is when the body +is sick, the body that when the soul goes away looks like nothing but +marble, can not move, nor feel, nor speak; that isn't of much +consequence, you know, because we are sure that the soul will go away +from it after awhile. It is this soul of mine that is going to live +forever that was cured." + +"How do you know it was?" came again from these wondering boys. Flossy +smiled a rare, bright smile that charmed them. + +"If _yours_ had been cured you would not ask me that question," she +said; "you would _know_ how I know it. But I can't tell you how it is: +don't you know there are some things that you are sure of that you can't +explain? You are sure you can think, aren't you? but how would you set +to work to explain to me that you are sure? The only way that you can +know how is by going to this doctor and getting cured; then you will +understand." + +"I'd like him if he would cure folks' _bodies_," began the boy who had a +sick mother, speaking in a doubtful, somewhat dissatisfied tone. + +"He does," Flossy said, quickly. "Don't people's bodies get well +sometimes? and who can cure bodies except the one who made them? If you +want your mother cured you ought to try him. If she is to be made well +you may be sure that he can do it; but why should he so long as you do +not care enough about it to ask him?" + +There was a rush and a bustle among the crowds in the distance. +Sunday-school session was over, and the great company were moving for +seats for the morning service. The boys took the alarm and fled, each +glancing back to nod and smile at the bright apparition who had told +them a story. Flossy picked up her Bible; she had not needed to use it +during this talk. The story of Bethesda had burned itself so into her +heart with that morning reading that she had no need to look at it +again. She gave a thoughtful little sigh. + +"I don't know about that being teaching," she said within her heart, +"but I certainly told them about Jesus, and I told them it was Jesus who +had 'made me whole.' I made my own experience 'witness' for me to that +degree. If that is what they mean by teaching I like to do it. I mean to +go to Sunday-school just as soon as I get home, and if I find out that +they just tell about things as they are in the Bible I can do it. I can +make the boys listen to me, I know." + +Bright little fairy that she was! There was a new glow about her face. +She was waking to the thought that there was such a thing as power over +people's brains. No danger but she will use her knowledge. Let me tell +you another thing that Chautauqua did for her. It planted the seed that +shall blossom into splendid teaching. There was one teacher who gave +many glances that morning to the little group around that old tree +stump. Mr. Roberts, from his point of observation, not far away, watched +this scene from beginning to end. It fascinated him. He saw the timid +beginning and the ever-increasing interest, until, when Flossy closed +her Bible and arose, he turned his eyes from her with a quiet smile in +them, and to himself he said: "Unless I am very greatly mistaken she has +found something that she can do." + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + +PEOPLE WHO, "HAVING EYES, SEE NOT." + + +"Girls!" said Eurie, as she munched a doughnut, which she had brought +from the lunch-table with her, and lounged on a camp-chair, waiting for +the afternoon service, "do you know that Flossy taught a class in +Sunday-school this morning?" + +"Taught a class!" repeated both Marion and Ruth in one voice, and with +about equal degrees of amazement. + +"She did, as true as the world. That is, she must have been teaching. +The way of it was this: I went to see the little midgets exhibit +themselves, and when I came out of the tent and walked over toward the +stand, there sat Flossy on that old stump just back of the stand, and +before her were two of the roughest-looking boys that ever emerged from +the backwoods. They were ragged and dirty and wild; and as wicked little +imps as one could find, I am sure. Flossy was talking to them, and she +had a large Bible in her lap and one of those Lesson Leaves that they +flutter about here so much; and--well, altogether it was an amazing +sight! She was certainly talking to them with all her might, and they +were listening; and it is my opinion that she was trying to play +Sunday-school teacher, and give them a lesson. You know she is an +imitative little sheep, and always was." + +"Nonsense!" Ruth said, and she seemed to speak more sharply than the +occasion warranted. "Just as if Flossy Shipley couldn't have anything to +say to two boys but what she found in the Bible! Little she knows what +is in it, for that matter. I suppose she wandered out that way because +she did not know what else to do with herself, and talked to the boys by +way of amusement. She has often amused herself in that way, I am sure." + +"Ah, yes; but these specimens were rather too youthful and dirty for +that sort of amusement, and she had a Bible in her lap." + +"What of that! Bibles are as common as leaves here. I found two lying on +the seat which I took this morning. People seem to think the art of +stealing has not found its way here." + +"Flossy is changed," interrupted Marion. "The mouse is certainly +different from what _I_ ever saw her before; she seems so quiet and +self-sustained. I thought she was bored. Why, I expected her to hail a +trip to her dear Saratoga with absolute delight! She belongs to just the +class of people who would find the intellectual element here too strong +for her, and would have to flutter off in that direction in +self-defense. Ruthie, you have the temper of an angel not to fly out at +me for bringing in Saratoga every few minutes. It isn't with 'malice +aforethought,' I assure you. I forget your projected scheme whenever I +speak of it; but you must allow me to be astonished over Flossy's +refusal to go with you. Something has come over the mousie that is not +explainable by any of the laws of science with which I am acquainted." + +"Don't trouble yourself to apologize, I beg. I hope you do not think I +am so foolish as to care anything about your hints as to Saratoga. Of +course I recognize my right in this world to be governed by my own +tastes and inclinations. I have enjoyed that privilege too long to be +disturbed by trifles." This from Ruth; but I shall have to admit that it +was very stiffly spoken, and if she had but known it, indicated that she +_did_ care a great deal. In truth she was very sore over her position +and her plans. She who had prided herself on her intellectuality bored +to the very point of leaving, and Flossy, who had been remarkable for +nothing but flutter and fashion, actually so interested that she could +not be coaxed into going away! What _was_ it that interested her? That +was the question which interested and puzzled Ruth. She studied over it +during all the time that Marion and Eurie were chatting about the +morning service. + +Flossy _was_ different; there was no shutting one's eyes to that fact. +The truth was that she had suddenly seemed to have little in common +with her own party. She certainly said little to them; she made no +complaints as to inconveniences, even when they amounted to positive +annoyances with the rest of the party; she had given up afternoon +toilets altogether, and in fact the subject of dress seemed to be one +that had suddenly sunken into such insignificance as to cease to claim +her thoughts at all. + +Grave changes these to be found in Flossy Shipley. Then, too, she had +taken to wandering away alone in the twilight; during the short spaces +between services she was nowhere to be found, but the Chautauqua bell +brought her back invariably in time to make ready for the next service. +"There is certainly more to the little mouse than I ever expected +before. If Chautauqua wakes _our_ wits as it has Flossy's we shall have +reason to bless the day that Dr. Vincent invented it." This Ruth heard +from Marion as she roused herself from her reverie to give attention to +what the girls were saying. They had got back to a discussion of Flossy +again. It was a subject that someway annoyed Ruth, so she dismissed it, +and made ready for the afternoon meeting, whither they all went. + +To Marion the morning sermon had been an intellectual treat. She had a +way of listening to sermons that would have been very disheartening to +the preacher if he had known of it. She had learned how to divest +herself of all personality. The subject was one that had nothing to do +with her; the application of solemn truths were for the people around +her who believed in these things, but never for her; so she listened and +enjoyed, just as she enjoyed a book or a picture, just as if she had no +soul at all, nothing but an intellect. + +It was very rare indeed that an arrow from any one's quiver touched her. +But there was one single sentence in Dr. Pierce's sermon that was +destined to haunt her. Said he: "When the blind man was questioned he +couldn't argue, he didn't try to; but he could stand up there before +them and say, 'Whereas I was blind, now I see; make the most of that.' +And wasn't it an unanswerable argument? There is no argument like it. +When men are honest and earnest and spiritual in Wall Street, it tells." + +Now that was just the kind of sentence to delight Marion's heart. The +inconsistencies of Christians was one of her very strong points, she +saw them bristling out everywhere, and she looked about her with a +satisfied smile on her face that so large a company of them were getting +so sharp a thrust as this. + +And suddenly there flashed across her brain an utterly new thought. +"Whereas I was _blind_, now I see." "Perhaps," she said to +herself--"_perhaps_ I am blind. What if that should be the only reason +why these things are not to me as they are to others. How do I know, +after all, but there may really be a spiritual blindness, and that it +may be holding me? How do I know but that the reason some of these poor +ignorant people whom I meet are so firm in their belief of Christ and +heaven is because they have had just this experience? + +"'Whereas I _was_ blind, now I see!' How can I possibly tell but that +this may be the case? I wonder what I _do_ think anyway? Do I really +think that all these men gathered here are either deceived or deceivers? +One or the other they must be--and either position is too silly to +sustain--or else I must be blind. If there should be such a thing as +seeing, and I discover it too late! If there is a too late to this +thing, and I do not find it out simply because I am blind, what then? +The sun shines, of course, though I dare say an entirely blind man +doesn't believe it. Doesn't have an idea anyway what it is--how can he?" + +Over and over did she revolve this sentence, and look at it from every +attainable standpoint. No use to try to shut it off, back it came. All +the clatter with which she had amused herself during the interval +between meetings had not banished it. No sooner was she seated under +those trees waiting for the afternoon service than the thought presented +itself for her to consider. + +"I wonder if there are different degrees of moral blindness?" she said, +suddenly. "People who can see just enough to enable them to keep +constantly going the wrong way, so that they are no better off than the +blind, except that they admit that there is such a thing as seeing. The +thing is possible, I suppose." + +Ruth turned and looked at her wonderingly. + +"What _are_ you talking about?" she asked at last. + +"I'm moralizing," Marion said, laughing. "You yourself suggested that +train of thought. I was wondering which of us was right in our notions, +you or I; and, for all practical purposes, what difference it made." + +"You are too high up for me to follow. I haven't the least idea what you +mean." + +"Why, I tell you I was contrasting our conditions. Let me see if I have +a right view of them. Don't you honestly think that there is a God, and +a heaven, and a hell, and that to escape the one place and secure the +other certain efforts upon your part are necessary?" + +"Why, of course I think so. I have never made any pretense of +disbelieving all these things. I think it is foolish to do so." + +"Exactly. Now for one question more: Have you made the effort that you +believe to be necessary?" + +"Have you been hired as an exhorter?" Ruth said, trying to laugh. "Why, +no, I can not say that I have." + +"Well, then, suppose you and I should both die to-night. _I_ don't +believe any of these things; you do, but you don't practice on your +belief. Then, according to your own view, you will be lost forever; +and, according to that same view, so shall I. Now, practically, what +difference is there between us? So if it is really blindness, why may +not one be totally blind as well as to have a little sight that keeps +one all the time in the wrong way?" + +"I dare say we are quite as well off," Ruth said, composedly; "only I +think there is this point of difference between us. I think your +position is silly. I don't see how any one who has studied Paley and +Butler, and in fact any of the sciences, can think so foolish a thing as +you pretend to. One doesn't like to be foolish, even if one doesn't +happen to be a Christian." + +"Foolish?" Marion repeated, and there was a fine glow on her face. +"Don't you go and talk anything so wild as that! If there is any class +of people in this world who profess to be simpletons, and act up to +their professions, it is you people who believe _everything_ and _do_ +nothing. Now just look at the thing for a minute. Suppose you say, +'There is a precipice over there, and every whiff of wind blows us +nearer to it; we will surely go over if we sit here; we ought to go up +on that hill; I know that is a safe place,' and yet you sit perfectly +still. And suppose I say, 'I don't believe there is any such thing as a +precipice, and I believe this is just as safe a place as there is +anywhere,' and _I_ sit still. Now I should like to know which of us was +acting the sillier?" + +"You would be," Ruth said, stoutly, "if you persisted in disbelieving +what could be proved to you so clearly that no person with common sense +would think of denying it." + +"Humph!" said Marion, settling back; "in that case I think there would +be very little chance for each to accuse the other of folly; only I +confess to you just this, Ruth Erskine, if you could _prove_ to me that +there was a precipice over there, and that we were being carried toward +it, and that the hill was safe, I know in my very soul that I should get +up and go to that hill. I would not be such a fool as to delay, I know I +wouldn't." + +"You are frank," Ruth said, and her face was flushed. "I am sure I don't +see why you don't make the attempt and decide for yourself, if you feel +this thing so deeply. _I_ think there ought to be a prayer-meeting on +your account. If I knew Dr. Vincent I would try to have this thing +turned into a regular camp-meeting time, then you would doubtless get +all the help you need." + +Marion laughed good-humoredly. + +"Don't waste your sarcasm on me," she said, cheerily; "keep your weapons +for more impressible subjects. You know I am not in the least afraid of +any such arguments. I have been talking downright truth and common +sense, and you know it, and are hit; that is what makes you sarcastic. +Did you know that was at the bottom of most sarcasm, my dear?" + +"Do hush, please. These people before us are trying hard to hear what +the speaker is saying." + +This was Ruth's answer; but she had had her sermon; and of all the +preachers at Chautauqua, the one who had preached to _her_ was Marion +Wilbur, the infidel school-teacher! It was her use of Dr. Pierce's arrow +that had thrust Ruth. She gave herself up to the thought of it all +during that wonderful afternoon meeting. Very little did she hear of the +speeches, save now and then a sentence more vivid than the rest; her +brain was busy with new thoughts. _Was_ it all so very queer? Did it +look to others than Marion a strange way to live? Did she actually +believe these things for which she had been contending? If she did, was +she in very deed an idiot? It actually began to look as though she might +be. She was not wild like Eurie, nor intense and emotional, like Marion; +she was still and cold, and, in her way, slow; given to weighing +thoughts, and acting calmly from decisions rather than from impulse. It +struck her oddly enough now that, having so stoutly defended the +cardinal doctrines of Christian faith, she should have no weapons except +sarcasm with which to meet a bold appeal to her inconsistency. + +"When I get home from Saratoga," she said, at last, turning uneasily in +her seat, annoyed at the persistency of her thoughts, "I really mean to +look into this thing. I am not sure but a sense of propriety should lead +one to make a profession of religion. It is, as Marion says, strange to +believe as we do and not indicate it by our professions. I am not sure +but the right thing for me to do would be to unite with the church. +There is certainly some ground for the thrusts that Marion has been +giving. My position must seem inconsistent to her. I certainly believe +these things. What harm in my saying so to everybody? Rather, is it not +the right thing to do? I will unite with the church from a sense of +duty, not because my feelings happen to be wrought upon by some strong +excitement. I wonder just what is required of people when they join the +church? A sense of their own dependence on Christ for salvation I +suppose. I certainly feel that. I am not an unbeliever in any sense of +the word. I respect Christian people, and always did. Mother used to be +a church-member; I suppose she would be now if she were not an invalid. +Most of the married ladies in our set are church-members. I don't see +why it isn't quite as proper for young ladies to be. I certainly mean to +give some attention to this matter just as soon as the season is over at +Saratoga. In the meantime I wonder when there is a train I can get, and +if I couldn't telegraph to mother to send my trunks on and have them +there when I arrived." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +A "SENSE OF DUTY." + + +It is not so easy to get away from ones self as you might think, if you +never had occasion to try it. Ruth Erskine--who honestly thought herself +on the high road to heaven because she had decided to offer herself for +church-membership as soon as she returned from Saratoga--did not find +the comfort and rest of heart that so heroic a resolution ought to have +brought. + +It was in vain that she endeavored to dismiss the subject and try to +decide just what new costume the Saratoga trip would demand. If she +could only have gotten away from the crowd of people and out of that +meeting back to the quiet of her tent, she might have succeeded in +arranging her wardrobe to her satisfaction; but she was completely +hedged in from any way of escape, and the inconsiderate speakers +constantly made allusions that thrust the arrow further into her brain; +I am not sure that it could have been said to have reached her heart. + +"Who is to blame that you can not all be addressed as _workers_ for +Christ? Who is _your_ Master? Why do you not serve him?" + +These were sentences that struck in upon her just as she was deciding to +have a new summer silk, trimmed with shirrings of the same material a +shade darker. + +"_Workers_!" + +She did not know whether the speaker gave a peculiar emphasis to that +word, or whether it only sounded so to her ears. Did this resolution +that she had made put her among the _workers_? What was she ready to do? +Teach in the Sabbath-school? Involuntarily she shrugged her shoulders; +she did not like children; tract distributing, too, was hateful work, +and out of style she had heard some one say. What wonderful work was to +be done? She was sure _she_ didn't know. Sewing certainly wasn't in her +line; she couldn't make clothes for the poor; but, then, she could give +money to buy them with. Oh, yes, she was perfectly willing to do that. +And then she tried to determine whether it would be well to get a new +black grenadine, or whether a black silk would suit her better. She had +got it trimmed with four rows of knife pleating, headed with puffs, when +she was suddenly returned to the meeting. + +Somebody was telling a story; she had not been giving sufficient +attention to know who the speaker was, but he told his story remarkably +well. It must have been about a miserable little street boy who was +sick, and another miserable street boy seemed to be visiting him. + +This was where her ears took it up: + +"It was up a ricketty pair of stairs, and another, and another, to a +filthy garret. There lay the sick boy burning with a fever, mother and +father both drunk, and no one to do anything or care anything for the +boy who was fighting with death. 'Ben,' said his dirty-faced visitor, +bending over him, 'you're pretty bad ain't you? Ben, do you ever pray?' +'No,' says Ben, turning fevered eyes on the questioner: 'I don't know +what that is.' 'Did you know there was a man once named Jesus Christ? He +come to this world on purpose to save people who are going to die. Did +you ever be told about him?' 'No; who is he?' 'Why, he is God; you have +to believe on him.' 'I don't know what you mean.' 'Why, ask him to save +you. When you die you ask him to take you and save you. I heard about +him at school.' 'Will he do it?' 'Yes, he will _sure_. Them says so as +have tried him.' Silence in the garret, Ben with his face turned to the +wall the fever growing less, the pulse growing fainter; suddenly he +turns back. 'I've asked him,' he said; 'I've asked him, and he said he +would.'" + +Ruth looked about her nervously. People were weeping softly all around +her. Marion brushed two great tears from her glowing cheeks, and Ruth, +with her heart beating with such a quickened motion that it made her +faint, wondered what was the matter with every one, and wished this +dreadful meeting was over, or that she had gone to Saratoga on Saturday. + +It was hard to go back to the puffs on that grenadine dress in the +midst of all this, but with a resolute struggle she threw herself back +into an argument as to whether she would stop on her way to make +purchases, or run down to Albany as soon as she was comfortably settled +at her hotel. Mr. Bliss was the next one who roused her. + +You have never heard him sing? Then I am sorry for you. How can I tell +you anything about it? You should hear Ruth tell it! How his voice +rolled out and up from under those grand old trees; how distinctly every +word fell on your ear, as distinctly as though you and he had been +together in a little room alone, and he had song it for you. + + "This loving Savior stands patiently-- + Though oft rejected, + Calls again for thee. + Calling now for thee, prodigal, + Calling now for thee; + Thou hast wandered far away, + But he's calling now for thee." + +What _was_ the matter with everybody? Was this an army of prodigals who +had gathered under the trees this Sabbath afternoon? Turn where she +would they were wiping away the tears; she felt herself as if she could +hardly keep back her own; and yet why should she weep? What had that +song to do with her? _She_ certainly was not a prodigal: she had never +wandered, for she had never professed to be a Christian. + +What strange logic, that because I have never owned my Father's love and +care, therefore I am not a wanderer from him! + +Ruth did not understand it; she felt almost provoked; had she not +decided this very afternoon and for the first time in her life that it +was fitting and eminently the proper thing to do to unite with the +church, and had she not determined upon doing it just as soon as the +season was over? What more could she do? Why could she not now have a +little peace? If this was the "comfort" and "rest" that the Christians +at Chautauqua had been talking about for a week, she was sure the less +she had of them the better, for she never felt so uncomfortable in her +life. Nevertheless, she adhered to her resolution. + +So settled was she that it was the next proper thing to do that she +staid at home from the meeting that evening to write a letter to Mr. +Wayne, the gentleman who you will perhaps remember, accompanied the +girls to the depot on the morning of their departure, and expressed his +disgust with the whole plan. + +As this is the first _religious_ letter Miss Ruth Erskine ever wrote, +you shall be gratified with a copy of it: + + + +"DEAR HAROLD: + +"I am alone in the tent this evening--the girls have all gone to +meeting; but I, finding it exhaustive, not to say tiresome, to be so +constantly listening to sermons, have staid at home to write to you. I +have something to tell you which I know will please you. I am going to +start for Saratoga to-morrow morning. I think I shall take the 10:50 +train. Now don't you make up your mind to laugh at me and say that I +have grown tired of Chautauqua sooner than any of the rest. It is true +enough. + +"You know my mode of life and my enjoyments are necessarily very +different from Eurie's and Marion's. Those two naturally look upon this +place as an escape from every-day drudgery; in short, as an economical +place in which to enjoy a vacation and see a good deal of first-class +society; for there are a great many first-class people here, there is no +denying that. Not many from our set, you know, but a great many +celebreties in the literary world that it is really very pleasant to +see. + +"I am not sorry that I came; if for nothing else I am glad to have come +on the girls' account; they would hardly have ventured without me, and +it is a real treat to them. + +"You will wonder what has become of poor little Flossy, and want to know +whether she is going to follow me to Saratoga as usual, but the little +sprite refuses to go! I fancy Marion has been teasing her; you know she +is very susceptible to ridicule, and it suits Marion's fancy to amuse +herself at the expense of those people who weary of Chautauqua. She has +attempted something of the kind on me, but, of course I am indifferent +to any such shafts, having been in the habit of leading, rather than +following, all my life. It seems natural, I suppose, to do so still. I +think well of Chautauqua. It is a good place for people to come who have +not much money to spend, and who like to be in a pleasant place among +pleasant people; and who enjoy fine music, and fine lectures, and all +that sort of thing, and are so trammelled by work and small means at +home that they cannot cultivate these tastes. But, of course, all these +things are no treat to _me_, and I do not hesitate to tell you that I am +bored. There is too much preaching to suit my fancy--not real preaching, +either, for we haven't had what you could call a sermon until to-day, +but _lectures_, which constantly bring the same theme before you. + +"Now you are not to conclude from this that I do not believe in +preaching, and Sunday, and all that sort of thing; on the contrary, I +believe more fully in them all than I did before I came. In fact I have +this very afternoon come to a determination which may surprise you, and +which is partly the occasion of my writing this letter, in order that +you may know at once what to expect. Harold, as soon as the season is +over, and I get back home, I am going to unite with the church? Have I +astonished you! I am going to do this from a conviction of duty. You +need not imagine that I have been wrought up to such a pitch of +excitement that I don't know what I am about. I assure you there is +nothing of the kind. I have simply concluded that it is an eminently +proper thing to do. So long as I believe fully in the church and in +religion, and wish to sustain both by my money and my influence, why +should I not say so? That is a very simple and altogether proper way of +saying it, and saves a good deal of troublesome explanation. I wonder +that I haven't thought of it before. + +"I do not mind telling you that it was some remarks of Marion's that +first suggested the propriety of this thing to me. You know she is an +infidel and I am not; and she intimated what is true enough, that I +lived exactly as though I thought just as she did; so in thinking it +over I concluded it was true, and that my influence ought to be with the +church in this matter. Now you know, Harold, that with me to decide is +to do; so this is as good as done. I should like it very well if you +choose to come to the same conclusion and unite at the same time that I +do. I am sure Dr. Dennis would be gratified. I don't know why we +shouldn't be willing to have it known where we stand; and I know you +respect the church and trust her as well as I do myself. + +"I told Marion to-day 'I did not see how a person with brains could be +an infidel,' or something to that effect--and I _don't_. I think that is +such a silly view to take of life. Just as if everything _could_ come by +chance! And if God did not make everything, who did? I have no patience +with that sort of thing, and I am glad to remember that you have no such +tastes. + +"By the way, are the Arnotts in Saratoga? I hope not, for they are such +fanatics there is no comfort in meeting them, and yet one has to be +civil. + +"Seems to me you do not enjoy the opera as well as usual, nor the hops +either. What is the matter? Do you really miss me? If there is any such +foolish fancy in your heart as that, prepare to enjoy yourself next +week, for I shall be with you at every one of them after Tuesday. It +will take me until then to get something decent to wear. + +"I hear the girls coming up the hill, and I must leave you. + +"_Au revoir_, + +"RUTH." + + + +Folding and addressing this epistle with a satisfied air, and still full +of the spirit which had prompted her to write a _religious_ letter, +Ruth, finding that Marion had come in alone, and that Flossy and Eurie +were still loitering up the hill, gave herself the satisfaction of +communicating her change of views. + +"I have been thinking a good deal about what you said this afternoon, +Marion, and there is truth in it. I do not think as you do, and I ought +to take some measures to let people know it. I have the most perfect +respect for and confidence in religion, and I mean to prove it by +uniting with the church. I have decided to attend to that matter as soon +as I get home again after the season is over. I am surprised at myself +for not doing so before, for I certainly consider it eminently proper, +in fact a duty." + +Now, it was very provoking to have so religious a sentence as this +received in the manner that it was. Marion tilted her stool back against +the bed, and gave herself up to the luxury of a ringing laugh. + +"Really," Ruth said, "you have returned from church in a very hilarious +mood; something very funny must have happened; it can not be that +anything in my sentence had to do with your amusement." + +"Yes, but it has," squealed Marion, holding her sides and laughing +still. "Oh, Ruthie, Ruthie, you will be the death of me! And so you +think that this is religion! You honestly suppose that standing up in +church and having your name read off constitutes Christianity! Don't do +it, Ruthie; you have never been a hypocrite, and I have always honored +you because you were not. If this is all the religion you can find, go +without it forever and ever, for I tell you there is not a single bit in +it." + +Her laughter had utterly ceased, and her voice was solemn in its +intensity. + +"I don't know what you mean in the least," Ruth said, testily. "You are +talking about something of which you know nothing." + +"So are you. Oh, Ruthie, so are you! Yes, I know something about it; I +know that you haven't reached the A, B, C, of it. Why, Ruthie, do you +remember that story this afternoon? Do you remember that little boy in +the garret, how he turned his face to the wall and asked God to save +him? Have you done that? Do you honestly think that _you_, Ruth Erskine, +have anything to be saved from? Don't you know the little fellow said, +'_He answered_.' Has He answered you? Why, Ruth, do you never listen to +the church covenant? How does it read: 'That it is eminently fit and +proper for those who believe that God made them to join the church?' +Ruth Erskine, you can never take more solemn vows upon you than you will +have to take if you unite with the church, and I beg you not to do it. I +tell you it means more than that. I had a father who was a member of the +church and he prayed--oh, how he prayed! He was the best man who ever +lived on earth! Every one knew he was good; every one thought he was a +saint; and it seems to me as though I could never love any God who did +not give him a happier lot than he had as a reward for his holy life. +But do you think he thought himself good? I tell you he felt that no one +could be more weak and sinful and in need of saving than he was. Oh, I +know the people who make up churches have more than this in them. _I_ +think it is all a deception, but it is a blessed one to have. I know +these people at Chautauqua have it, hundreds of them. I see the same +look in their faces that my father had in his, and if I could only get +the same delusion into my heart I would hug it for my blessed father's +sake; but don't you ever go into the church and subscribe to these +things that they will ask of you until you have felt the same need of +help and the same sense of being helped that they have. If you do, and +there is a God, I would rather stand my chance with him than to have +yours." + +And Marion seized her hat and rushed out into the night, leaving Ruth +utterly dumbfounded. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + +ONE MINUTE'S WORK. + + +Marion struck out into the darkness, caring little which way she went; +she had rarely been so wrought upon; her veins seemed to glow with fire. +What difference did it make? she asked herself. If there was nothing at +all in it, why not let Ruth amuse herself by joining the church and +playing at religion? It would add to her sense of dignity, and who would +be hurt by it? + +There was a difficulty in the way. Turn where she would, it confronted +Marion during these days. There was a solemn haunting "if" that would +not be put down. What _if_ all these things were true? She by no means +felt so assured as she had once done: indeed, the foundations for her +disbelief seemed to have been shaken from under her during the last +week. + +Remember, she had never spent a week with Christians before in her life; +not, at least, a week during which she was made to realize all the time +that they were Christians; that they stood on a different platform from +herself. + +Now, as she tramped about through the darkening woods, meeting +constantly groups of people on their way home from the meeting, hearing +from them snatches of what had been said and sung, she suddenly paused, +and so vivid was the impression that for long afterward she could not +think of it without feeling that a voice must certainly have spoken the +words in her ear. Yet she recognized them as a sentence which had struck +her from Dr. Pierce's sermon in the morning. + +"God honors his gospel, even though preached by a bad man; honors it +sometimes to the saving of a soul. But think of a meeting between the +two! the sinner saved and the sinner lost, who was the means of the +other's salvation." It had thrilled Marion at the time, with her old +questioning thrill: What if such a thing were possible! Now it came +again. + +She stood perfectly still, all the blood seeming to recede from and +leave her faint with the strange solemnity of the thought! What if she +had this evening been preaching the gospel to Ruth! What if the words of +hers should lead Ruth to think, and to hunt, and to find this light that +those who were not blind--if there were any such--succeeded in finding! +What if, as a result of this, she should go to heaven! and what if it +were true that there was to be a judgment, and they two should meet, and +then and there she should realize that it was because of this evening's +talk that Ruth stood in glory on the other side of the great gulf of +separation! What kind of a feeling would that be? + +"Oh, if I only knew," she said aloud, sitting suddenly down on a fallen +log, "if I _only_ knew that any of these things were so! or if I could +only get to imagining that they were, I would take them up and have the +comfort out of them that some of these people seem to get, for I have so +little comfort in my life. It can not be that it is all a farce, such as +Ruth's horrid resolve would lead one to think; that is not the way that +Dr. Vincent feels about it; it is not the way that Dr. Pierce preached +about it this morning; it is not the way that man Bliss sings about it. +There is more to it than that. My father had more than that. If he could +only look down to-night and tell me whether it is so, whether he is safe +and well and perfectly happy. Oh, it seems to me if I could only be +sure, _sure_ beyond a doubt that God did give an eternal heaven to my +father, I could love him forever for doing that, even though there is a +hell and I go to it." + +Within the tent they were having talk that would seem to amount to very +little. Even Eurie appeared to be subdued, and to have almost nothing to +say. Ruth was roused from the half stupor of astonishment into which +Marion's unexpected words had thrown her by hearing Flossy say, "Oh, +Ruth, I forgot to tell you something; Mrs. Smythe stopped at the door on +Saturday evening before you came home; her party leave for Saratoga +to-morrow morning, and she wanted to know whether any of us would go +with them." + +"Did you tell her I was going?" Ruth asked, quickly. It was utterly +distasteful to her to think of having Mrs. Smythe's company. She did not +stop to analyze her feelings; she simply shrank from contact with Mrs. +Smythe and from others who were sure to be of her stamp. + +"No," Flossy said, "I did not know what you had decided upon; I said it +was possible that you might want to go, but some one joined us just then +and the conversation changed: I did not think of it again." + +"I am glad you didn't," Ruth said, emphatically. "I don't want her +society. I won't go in the morning if I am to be bored with that party; +I would rather wait a week." + +"They are going in the morning train," Eurie said; "I heard that tall +man who sometimes leads the singing say so. He said there was quite a +little party to go, among them a party from Clyde, who were _en route_ +for Saratoga. That is them, you know; nearly all of them are from Clyde. +'Oh, yes,' the other man said; 'we must expect that. Of course there is +a froth to all these things that must evaporate toward Saratoga, or some +other resort. There is a class of mind that Chautauqua is too much for.' +Think of that, Ruthie, to be considered nothing but froth that is to +evaporate!" + +"Nonsense!" Ruth said, sharply. She seemed to consider that an +unanswerable argument, and in a sense it is. Nevertheless Eurie's words +had their effect; she began to wish that letter unwritten, and to wish +that she had not said so much about Saratoga, and to wish that there was +some quiet way of changing her plans. + +In fact, an utter distaste for Saratoga seemed suddenly to have come +upon her. Conversation palled after this; Marion came in, and the four +made ready for the night in almost absolute silence. The next thing that +occurred was sufficiently startling in its nature to arouse them all. It +was one of those sudden, careless movements that this life of ours is +full of, taking only a moment of time, and involving consequences that +reached away beyond time, and death, and resurrection. + +"Eurie," Ruth had said, "where is your head ache bottle that you boast +so much of? I believe I am going to have a sick headache." + +"In my satchel," Eurie answered, sleepily. She was already in bed. +"There is a spoon on that box in the corner; take a tea-spoonful." +Another minute of silence, then Eurie suddenly raised her head from the +pillow and looked about her wildly. The dim light of the lamp showed +Ruth, slowly pulling the pins from her hair. + +"Did you take it?" she asked, and her voice was full of eager, intense +fright. "Ruth, you didn't _take_ it!" + +"Yes, I did, of course. What is the matter with you?" + +"It was the wrong bottle. It was the liniment bottle in my satchel. I +forgot. Oh, Ruth, Ruth, what will we do? It is a deadly poison." + +Then to have realized the scene that followed you should have been there +to sea. Ruth gave one loud shriek that seemed to re-echo through the +trees, and Eurie's moan was hardly less terrible. Marion sprang out of +bed, and was alert and alive in a moment. + +"Ruth, lie down; Eurie, stop groaning and act. What was it? Tell me this +instant." + +"Oh, I don't _know_ what it was, only he said that ten drops would kill +a person, and she took a tea-spoonful." + +"I know where the doctor's cottage is," said Flossy, dressing rapidly. +"I can go for him." And almost as soon as the words were spoken she had +slipped out into the darkness. + +Ruth had obeyed the imperative command of Marion and laid herself on the +bed. She was deadly pale, and Eurie, who felt eagerly for her pulse, +felt in vain. Whether it was gone, or whether her excitement was too +great to find it, she did not know. Meantime, Marion fumbled in Flossy's +trunk and came toward them with a bottle. + +"Hold the light, Eurie; this is Flossy's hair-oil. I happen to know that +it is harmless, and oil is an antidote for half the poisons in the +world. Ruth, swallow this and keep up courage; we will save you." + +Down went the horrid spoonful, and Marion was eagerly at work chafing +her limbs and rubbing her hands, hurrying Eurie meantime who had started +for the hotel in search of help and hot water. + +That dreadful fifteen minutes! Not one of them but that thought it was +hours. They never forgot the time when they fought so courageously, and +yet so hopelessly, with death. Ruth did not seem to grow worse, but she +looked ghastly enough for death to have claimed her for his victim; and +Flossy did not return. Eurie came back to report a fire made and water +heating, and seizing a pail was about to start again, when her eye +caught the open satchel, and a bottle quietly reposing there, closely +corked and tied over the top with a bit of kid; she gave a scream as +loud as the first had been. + +"What _is_ the matter now?" Marion said. "Eurie, do have a little common +sense." + +"She didn't take it!" burst forth Eurie. "It is all a mistake. It _was_ +the right bottle. Here is the other, corked, just as I put it." + +Before this sentence was half concluded Ruth was sitting up in bed, and +Marion, utterly overcome by this sudden revulsion of feeling, was crying +hysterically. There is no use in trying to picture the rest of that +excitement. Suffice it to say that the events of the next hour are not +likely to be forgotten by those who were connected with them. Eurie came +back to her senses first, and met and explained to the people who had +heard the alarm, and were eagerly gathering with offers of help. There +was much talk, and many exclamations of thankfulness and much laughter, +and at last everything was growing quiet again. + +"I can not find the doctor," Flossy had reported in despair. "He has +gone to Mayville, but Mr. Roberts will be here in a minute with a +remedy, and he is going right over to Mayville for the doctor." + +"Don't let him, I beg," said Marion, who was herself again. "There is +nothing more formidable than a spoonful of your hair-oil. I don't know +but the poor child needs an emetic to get rid of that. Eurie, my dear, +can't you impress it on those dear people that we _don't want_ any hot +water? I hear the fourth pail coming." + +It was midnight before this excited group settled down into anything +like quiet. But the strain had been so great, and the relief so +complete, that a sleep so heavy that it was almost a stupor at last held +the tired workers. + +Now, what of it all? Why did this foolish mistake of bottles, which +might have been a tragedy, and was nothing but a causeless excitement, +reach so far with its results? + +Let me tell you of one to whom sleep did not come. That was the one who +but half an hour before had believed herself face to face with death! +What mattered it to her that it was a mistake, and death no nearer to +her, so far as she knew, than to the rest of the sleeping world? + +Death was not annihilated--he was only held at bay. She knew that he +_would_ come, and that there would be no slipping away when his hand +actually grasped hers. She believed in death; she had supposed herself +being drawn into his remorseless grasp. To her the experience, so far as +it had led her, was just as real as though there had been no mistake. + +And the result? _She had been afraid_! All her proper resolutions, so +fresh in her mind, made only that very afternoon, had been of no more +help to her than so much foam. She had not so much as remembered in her +hour of terror whether there _was_ a church to join. But that there was +a God, and a judgment, and a Savior, who was not hers, had been as real +and vivid as she thinks it ever can be, even when she stands on the very +brink. + +Oh, that long night of agony! when she tossed and turned and sought in +vain for an hour of rest. She was afraid to sleep. How like death this +sleeping was! Who could know, when they gave themselves up to the grasp +of this power, that he was not the very death angel himself in disguise, +and would give them no earthly awakening forever? + +What should she do? Believe in religion? Yes. She knew it was true. What +then? What had Marion said? Was that all true? Aye, verily it was; she +knew that, too. Had she not stood side by side with death? + +The hours went by and the conflict went on. There was a conflict. Her +conscience knew much more than her tongue had given it credit for +knowing that afternoon. Oh, she had seen Christians who had done more +than join the church! She had imagined that that act might have a +mysterious and gradual change on her tastes and feelings, so that some +time in her life, when she was old, and the seasons for her were over, +she might feel differently about a good many things. + +But that hour of waiting for the messenger of death, who, she thought, +had called her, had swept away this film. "It is not teaching in +Sunday-school," said her brain. "It is not tract distributing; it is not +sewing societies for the poor; it is not giving or going. It is _none_ +of these things, or _any_ of them, or _all_ of them, as the case may be, +and as they come afterward. But _first_ it is this question: Am I my own +mistress? do I belong to myself or to God? will I do as I please or as +he pleases? will I submit my soul to him, and ask him to keep it and to +show me what to do, or when and where to step?" + +The night was utterly spent, and the gray dawn of the early sweet summer +morning was breaking into the grove, and still Ruth lay with wide-open +eyes, and thought. A struggle? Oh dear, yes! Such an one as she had +never imagined. That strong will of hers, which had led not only herself +but others, yield it, submit to other leadership, always to question: Is +this right? can I go here? ought I to say that? What a thing to do! But +it involved that; she knew it, felt it. She might have been blind during +the week past, but she was not deaf. + +How they surged over her, the sentences from one and another to whom +she had listened! They were not at play, these great men. What did it +mean but that there was a life hidden away, belonging to Christ? She +felt no love in her heart, no longing for love, such as poor little +Flossy had yearned for. She felt instead that she was equal to life; +that the world was sufficient for her; that she wanted the world; but +that the world was at conflict with God, and that she belonged to God, +and that she _should_ give herself utterly into his hands. + +Moreover, she knew there was coming a time when the world, and Saratoga, +and the season, with its pleasures, would not do. There was grim +death!--he would come. She could not always get away. He was coming +every hour for somebody around her. She must--yes, she _must_ get ready +for him. It would not do to be surprised again as she had been surprised +last night. It was not becoming in Ruth Erskine to live so that the +sound of death could palsy her limbs and blanch her cheek and make her +shudder with fear. She must get where she could say calmly: "Oh, are +_you_ here? Well, I am ready." + +It was just as the sun which was rising in glory forced its smiles in +between the thick leaves of the Chautauqua birds' nests, and set all the +little birds in a twitter of delight, that Ruth raised herself on her +elbow and said aloud, and with the force that comes from a determined +will that has decided something in which there has been a struggle: + +"I _will_ do it." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + +"I'VE BEEN REDEEMED." + + +"What about Saratoga?" was Eurie's first query as she awoke to life and +talk again on that summer morning. "Do you think you will take the 10:50 +train, Ruth?" + +Ruth gave nothing more decided than a wan smile in answer, and in her +heart a wonder as to what Eurie would think of her if she could have +known the way in which her night was passed. + +"She is more likely to stay in bed," Marion said, looking at her +critically. "You will never think of trying to travel to-day, will you, +Ruth? Dear me! how you look! I have always heard that hair oil was +weakening, but I did not know its effects were so sudden and +disastrous!" And then every one of these silly girls laughed. The +disaster of the night before had reached its irresistibly comic side--to +them. Only Ruth shivered visibly; it was not funny to her. + +It was a very eventful day. She by no means relished the character of +invalid that the girls seemed determined ought to be forced upon her and +at the same time she had not the least idea of going to Saratoga. +Strangely enough, that desire seemed to have utterly gone from her. She +had not slept at all, but she arose and dressed herself as usual, with +only one feeling strong upon her, and that was a determination to carry +out the decision to which she had so recently come, and she had not the +least idea how to set to work to carry it out. She went with the rest to +the large tent to hear Mrs. Clark's address to primary class teachers. + +"I'm not a primary class teacher, and not likely to be, but I am a +woman, and gifted with the natural curiosity of that sex to know what a +woman may have to say in so big a place as this. I don't see how she +dares to peep." This was Eurie's explanation of her desire to go to the +reception. + +Ruth went because to go to meeting seemed to be the wisest way that she +knew of for carrying out her decision, and a good time she had. She had +not imagined that teaching primary classes was such an art, and involved +so much time and brain as it did. She listened eagerly to all Mrs. Clark +had to say; she followed her through the blackboard lessons with +surprise and delight, and she awoke at the close of the hour to the +memory that, although she had been interested as she had not imagined it +possible for her to be on such a theme, she had done nothing toward her +determination to make a Christian of herself, and that she knew no more +how to go to work than before. + +"When I _do_ find out how to be one I know I will go to work in the +Sabbath-school; I have changed my mind on that point." This she told +herself softly as they went back to dinner. + +It was a strange afternoon to her. She became unable to interest herself +heartily in the public services; her own heart claimed her thought. It +was noticeable also that for the first time Chautauqua chose this day in +which to be metaphysical and scientific, to the exclusion of personal +religion. Not that they were irreligious, not that they for a moment +forgot their position as a great religious gathering; but there was an +absence of that intense personal element in the talk which had so +offended Ruth's taste heretofore, and she missed it. + +She wandered aimlessly up and down the aisles, listening to sentences +now and then, and sighing a little. They were eloquent, they were +helpful; she could imagine herself as being in a state to enjoy them +heartily, but just now she wanted nothing so much as to know what to do +in order to give herself a right to membership with that great religious +world. Why should Chautauqua suddenly desert her now when she so much +needed its help? + +"If I knew a single one of these Christian people I would certainly ask +them what to do." This she said talking still to herself. She had come +quite away from the meeting, and was down in one of the rustic seats by +the lake side. It struck her as very strange that she had not intimate +acquaintance with a single Christian. She even traveled home and tried +to imagine herself in conversation on this subject with some of her +friends. To whom could she go? Mr. Wayne? Why, he wouldn't understand +her in the least. What a strange letter that was which she wrote him! +Could it be possible that it was written only yesterday? How strange +that she should have suggested to him to unite with the church! How +strange that she should have thought of it herself! + +There came a quick step behind her, and a voice said, "Good-evening, +Miss Erskine." She turned and tried to recall the name that belonged to +the face of the young man before her. + +"You do not remember me?" he said, inquiringly. "I was of the party who +went to Jamestown on the excursion." + +"Oh, Mr. Flint," she said, smiling, and holding out her hand. "I beg +pardon for forgetting; that seems about a month ago." + +"So it does to me; we live fast here. Miss Erskine, I have been looking +for your party; I couldn't find them. Isn't Miss Shipley in your tent? +Yes, I thought so. Well, I want to see her very much. I have something +to tell her that I know will give her pleasure. Perhaps you would take a +message for me. I want her to know that since last week, when she told +me of her Friend who had become so dear to her, I have found the truth +of it. He is my Friend now, and I want to thank her for so impressing me +with a desire to know him that I could not give it up." + +Ruth looked utterly puzzled. Something in the young man's reverent tone, +when he used the word "Friend," suggested that he could mean only the +Friend for whom she herself was in looking; and yet--Flossy Shipley! +What had _she_ to do with him? + +"Do you mean," she said, hesitatingly, and yet eagerly, for if he indeed +meant that here was one for whom she had been looking; "do you mean that +you have become a Christian?" + +"It is such a new experience," he said, his face flushing, "that I have +hardly dared to call myself by that name; but if to be a Christian means +to love the Lord Jesus Christ, and to have given one's self, body and +soul, to his service, why then I am assuredly a Christian." + +This was it. There was no time to be lost. She had spent one night of +horror, she could not endure another, and the day was drawing to its +end. To be sure she felt no terror now, but the night might bring it +back. + +"How did you do it?" she asked, simply. "How?" The very simplicity of +the question puzzled him. "Why, I just gave myself up to his keeping; I +resolved to take a new road and follow only where he led. Miss Shipley +was the one who first made me think seriously about this matter; and +then I went to the service that evening, and everything that was said +and sung, was said and sung right at me. I was just forced into the +belief that I had been a fool, and I wanted to be something else." + +"Miss Shipley!" Ruth said, brought back by that name to the wonderment. +"You are mistaken. You can not mean Flossy. She isn't a Christian at +all. She never so much as thinks of such things." + +"Oh, _you_ are mistaken." He said it eagerly and positively. "On the +contrary, she is the most earnest and straightforward little Christian +that I ever met in my life. Why, I never had anything so come to my soul +as that little sentence that she said about having found a _Friend_.' I +know it is the same one. I have seen her with you since, but not near +enough to address. Her name is Flossy; I heard her called so that day on +the boat." + +"Flossy!" Ruth said it again, in a bewildering tone, and rising as she +spoke. "I am going to find her; I want to understand this mystery. I +will give her your message, Mr. Flint, but I think there is a mistake." +Saying which she bade him a hasty good-afternoon, for the flutter of a +scarlet shawl had reached her eyes. No one but Flossy wore such a wrap +as that. She wanted to see her at once, and she _didn't_ want Mr. +Charlie Flint to be along. She went forward with rapid steps to meet +her, and slipping an arm within hers, they turned and went slowly back +over the mossy path. + +"Flossy, I want you to tell me something. I have heard something so +strange; I think it is not so, but you can tell me. I want to know if +you think you are a Christian?" + +I wonder if Flossy has any idea, even now, how strangely Ruth's heart +beat as she asked that simple question. It seemed to involve a great +deal to her. She waited for the answer. + +There was no hesitation and no indecision about Flossy's answer. Her +cheeks took a pink tint, but her voice was clear. + +"I _know_ I am, Ruth. I do not even have to speak with hesitancy. I am +so sure that Christ is my Friend, and I grow so much surer of it every +day, that I can not doubt it any more than I can doubt that I am walking +down this path with you." + +And then, again, Ruth's astonishment was in part lost in that absorbing +question: + +"How did you get to be one?" + +"It is a simple little story," Flossy said. And then she began at the +beginning and told her little bit of experience, fresh in her heart, +dating only a few days back, and full to the brim with peace and +gladness to her. + +"But I don't see," Ruth said, perplexed. "I don't find out what to _do_. +I want to be told how to do it, and none of you tell me; you seem to +have just resolved about it, and not _done_ anything. I have gone so far +myself. Such a night as last night was, Flossy! Oh, you can never +imagine it!" + +And then she told her story, as much of it as _could_ be told; of the +horror and the thick darkness that had enveloped her she could only +hint. + +What an eager flash there was in Flossy's bright eyes as she listened. + +"When you said that!" she began, eagerly, as Ruth paused. "When you +said, 'I will do it.' What then? Did you feel just as you did before?" + +"No," Ruth said, "not at all. The night had gone by that time. As I +looked about me I realized that it was daylight, and I fancied that my +feelings were the result of a highly excited state of nerves. But the +resolve was not to be accounted for in any such way. I meant that. The +horror, though, of which I had been telling you was quite gone. It was +as if there had been a fearful storm, with the constant roll of thunder, +and suddenly a calm. I hadn't the least feeling of fear or dread, and I +haven't had all day; but to-night I may have the very same experience." + +"No, you will not," Flossy said, her voice aglow with feeling and with +joy. "Oh, Ruthie, Ruthie! There _is_ no night! You have got beyond it. I +tell you, you have come into God's light! And isn't it blessed? You are +a Christian now." + +"But," protested Ruth, utterly bewildered, "I do not understand you, +and I don't think you understand yourself. In what way am I different +from what I was yesterday? How can I be lost in God's sight one moment +and accepted the next?" + +"Easily; oh, _so_ easily! Don't you see? Why, if I had been coaxing you +for a year to give me something, and you had steadily refused, but if +suddenly you had said to me, 'Yes. I will; I have changed my mind; I +will give it to you,' wouldn't there be a difference? Wouldn't I know +that I was to have it? And couldn't I thank you then, and tell you how +glad I was, just the same as though I had it in my hand? It is a poor +little illustration, Ruthie, but it is true that God has been calling +you all your life, and if you have all the time been saying 'No,' up to +that moment when you said solemnly, meaning it with all your heart, 'I +will,' I tell you it makes a difference." + +I can not describe to you how strangely all this sounded to Ruthie. Up +to this moment she had not realized in the least that the Lord was +asking her simply for a decision, and that having solemnly given it, +the work, so far as _she_ was concerned, was done, and the new relations +instantly commenced. She thought it over--that sudden calming of +heart--that sense of resolve--of determination, so strong, and yet so +quiet. She remembered what a strange day it had been. How she had tried +to keep before her mind the horror of the night, and had not been able. + +She went on talking with Flossy, telling her about Charlie Flint, +noticing the happy tears that glistened in Flossy's eyes as she received +her message, taking in the murmured words, "To think that Christ would +honor such a feeble little witnessing as that!" and realizing even then +that it would be very blessed to have one say to her, "You have been the +means of leading me to think about this thing." Why should _she_ care, +though, whether people thought about this thing or not? Yesterday she +didn't. During all the talk she kept up this little undertone of +thought, this running commentary on her sudden change of views and +feelings, and wondered, and _wondered_, could it be possible that she +was utterly changed? And yet, when she came to think of it, wasn't she? +Didn't she love Christ? And then it struck her as the strangest thing +in the world _not_ to love him. How could any one be so devoid of heart +as that? Why, a mere man, to have done one-half of what Christ had done +for her, would have received undying love and service. + +As they walked they neared the stand, and there came just at that moment +a burst of music, one of those strange, thrilling tunes such as none but +the African race ever sing. The words were familiar, and yet to Ruth +they were new: + + "There is a fountain filled with blood, + Drawn from Immanuel's veins, + And sinners, plunged beneath that flood. + Lose all their guilty stains." + +A sinner! Was _she_, Ruth Erskine, a sinner? Yesterday she had not liked +it to be called a prodigal. But to-day, oh yes. Was there a greater +sinner to be found than she? How long she had known this story! How long +she had known and believed of a certainty that Jesus Christ lived and +died that she might have salvation, and yet she had never in her life +thanked him for it! Nay, she had spurned and scorned his gift! So much +worse than though she had not believed it at all! For then at least she +could not have been said to have met him with the insult of +indifference. + +Then the chorus swelled out on the still air. Only those who heard it +under the trees at Chautauqua have the least idea how it sounded; only +those who hear it, as Ruth Erskine did, can have the least idea how it +sounded to her. + + "I've been redeemed, I've been redeemed!" + +Over and over the strain repeated. Now in clear soprano tones, and anon +rolled out from the grand bass voices. And then the swelling unison: + + "I've been redeemed-- + Been washed in the blood of the Lamb." + +The girls had stopped, and almost held their breaths to listen. They +stood in silence while verse after verse with its triumphant swell of +chorus rolled out to them. The great tears gathered slowly in Ruth's +eyes, until, as the last echo died away, she turned to Flossy, and her +voice was clear and triumphant: + +"I believe I _have_. Flossy, I believe I have. It is a glorious +thought, and a wonderful one. It almost frightens me. And yet it thrills +me with perfect delight. The fountain is deep enough for us all--for +them and for me. I have 'been redeemed,' and if God will help me I will +never forget it again." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + +SWORD THRUSTS. + + +By the next morning it became clear to our girls that a change of +programme was a necessity. Ruth had by no means recovered from her shock +and the sleepless night that followed, and some of the comforts of +invalidism must be found for her. At the same time she utterly +repudiated the idea of Saratoga, which was now urged upon her; it had +lost its charms; neither would she go home. + +"I have decided to stay until the _very_ last meeting," she said, with +quiet determination. + +Flossy laughed softly; she knew what charms Chautauqua had taken on, +but the others supposed it to be a whim, resulting from the ridicule she +had suffered because of the Saratoga scheme. + +After many plans were discussed it was finally decided that Flossy and +Ruth should seek quarters at the hotel in Mayville, Ruth coming over to +the meetings only when her strength and her fancy dictated, and having +some of the luxuries of home about her. It seemed to fall naturally to +Flossy's lot to accompany her; indeed, a barrier was in the way of +either of the others being chosen. The hotel arrangement, when one took +into consideration the numerous boat-rides to and from the ground, was +by no means an economical proceeding, and as Flossy and Ruth were the +only ones who were entirely indifferent to the demands of their purses, +it must of necessity be them. + +Neither of them was disposed to demur; there had never been much +congeniality between these two, but they had been friendly, and now +there was a subtle bond of sympathy which made them long to be together. +So, during the next morning hours, those two were engaged in packing +their effects and preparing for a flitting to the Mayville House. +Meantime Marion and Eurie, having stood around and looked on until they +were tired, departed in search of something to interest them. + +"It is too early for meeting," Marion said. "There is nothing of +interest until 11 o'clock. I'm sorry we missed Mrs. Clark. I like to +look at her and listen to her; she is just bubbling over with +enthusiasm. One can see that she thinks she means it. If I were a +Sunday-school teacher I should be glad I was here, to hear her. I think +it has been about the most helpful thing I have heard thus far; helpful +to those who indulge in that sort of work, I mean." + +"I wonder what those normal classes are like?" Eurie said, studying her +programme. "We haven't been to one of those, have we? What do you +suppose they do?" + +Marion shrugged her shoulders. + +"They are like work," she said. "'Working hours,' they are named; and I +suppose some hard thinking is done. If I didn't have to teach school six +hours out of every day at home I might be tempted to go in and listen to +them; but I came here to play, you see, and to make money; they are not +good to report about. People who stay at home and read the reported +letters don't want to hear anything about the actual _work_; they want +to know who the speaker was and how he looked, and whether his gestures +were graceful, and--if it is a lady--above all, how she was dressed; if +they say anything remarkably sarcastic or irresistibly funny you may +venture to report it, but not otherwise, consequently reporting is easy +work, if you have not too much conscience, because what you didn't see +you can make up." + +At the end of this harangue she paused suddenly before a tent, whence +came the sound of a firm and distinct voice. + +"What is this?" she said, and then she lifted a bit of the canvas and +peeped in. "I'm going in here, after all," she said, withdrawing her +head and explaining. "This is a normal class, I guess. That man from +Philadelphia--what is his name? Tyler? Yes, that is it--J. Bennet +Tyler--is leading. I like him; I like his voice ever so much; he makes +you hear, whether you want to or not. Then, someway, you get a kind of +a notion that he not only believes what he says but that he _knows_ it +is so, and that is all there is about it. I like to meet such people now +and then, because they are so rare. Generally people act as though you +could coax them out of their notions in about twenty minutes if you +tried--when they are talking about religious subjects, I mean. Obstinacy +is not so rare a trait where other matters are concerned. Let's go in." + +"What is the subject this morning?" Eurie asked, following her guide +around to the entrance, somewhat reluctantly. She was in no mood for +shutting herself inside a tent, and being obliged to listen whether she +wanted to or not. But Marion was in one of her positive moods this +morning, and must either be followed or deserted altogether. + +Mr. Tyler was reading from a slip of paper as they entered. This was the +sentence he read: + +"Difficulties in interpretation which arise from certain mental +peculiarities of the student. Some minds, and not by any means the +strongest or noblest, must always see the _reason_ for everything." + +Marion gave Eurie a sagacious nod of the head. + +"Don't you see?" she said. "Now, by the peculiar way in which he read +that, he made believe it was _me_ he meant. And, by the way, I'm not +sure but he is correct. I must say that I like a reason for things. But +what right has he to say that _that_ is an indication of a weak mind?" + +"He didn't say so," whispered Eurie. + +"Oh, yes he did; it amounted to that. There is where his peculiar use of +words comes in. That man has _studied_ words until he handles them as if +they were foot-balls, and were to go exactly where he sent them." + +"He is looking this way. The next thing you know he will throw some at +us for whispering." + +This was Ernie's attempt to quiet Marion's tongue. That or some other +influence had the desired effect. She whispered no more, and it was +apparent in a very few minutes that she had become intensely interested +in the theme and in the way it was being handled. An eager examination +of the programme disclosed what she began to suspect, that the subject +was, "Difficulties in the Bible." Her intellectual knowledge of the +Bible was considerable; and having read it ever since she could +remember, with the express purpose of finding difficulties, it was not +surprising that she had found them. + +Something, either in the leader's manner of drawing out answers, or the +peculiar emphasis with which he contrived to invest certain words, had +the effect to cause Marion to feel as though she had been very +superficial in her reasoning and childish in her objections. She grew +eager her; brain, accustomed to work rapidly and follow trains of thought +closely, enjoyed the keen play of thought that was being drawn forth. + +But there was more than that; almost unconsciously to herself this +subject was assuming vital proportions to her; she did not even herself +realize the intensity of the cry in her heart, "If I only _knew_ whether +these were so!" Presently the voice which had once before struck her as +being so peculiar in its personality sounded distinctly down the long +tent. + +"Remember the conditions under which the Bible promise clear +apprehension of the truth." + +It chanced--at least that is the way in which we use language--it +chanced that Mr. Tyler's eyes as he repeated these words rested on +Marion. Speaking of it afterward she said: + +"So far as the impression made on me was concerned, it was the same as +though he had said: 'Do you understand what an idiot you have been not +to take that cardinal point into consideration at all? Open your Bible +and read, and see how like a weak-minded babe you are.'" + +Beside her lay a Bible just dropped by some one who had been called out. +Following out the impulse of the moment she turned to the reference, and +her clear voice gave it distinctly: + +"If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it +be of God or whether I speak of myself." + +The effect of this simple, straightforward and reasonable proposition, +on sounding back to her spoken by her own voice, was tremendous. Very +little more of the talk did she hear. A thrust, from God's own sword had +reached her. What a fool she had been! What right had she to presume to +give an opinion before applying the test? Had not the most common-place +statements a right to be tried by their own tests? Yet she had never +given this simple direction a thought. + +So this was the Bible promise? "He _shall_ know." Not that these things +are so, but a more logical, more satisfactory statement to the natural +heart. He shall judge for himself whether these things be so; follow the +directions, and then judge by your experiences after that whether these +things be true or false. Could anything be more reasonable? + +"I shall never dare to say that I don't believe the Bible again, for +fear some one will ask me whether I have applied the test, and if I have +not what business have I to judge. That man now, if I should come in +contact with him, which I shall endeavor not to do, would be sure to ask +me. He has almost the same as asked it now, before all these people. He +has a mysterious way of making me feel as though he was talking for my +confusion and for nobody else." + +This Marion told to herself as she eyed the leader, half sullenly. He +had strangely disturbed her logic and set her refuge in ruins. + +"Let's go," she said suddenly to Eurie. "I am tired of this; I have had +enough, and more than enough." But the hour was over, and she had had +all that was to be secured from that source. + +All the younger portion of the congregation seemed to be rushing back up +the hill again, and inquiry developed the fact that Mrs. Clark was to +meet the primary workers in the large tent. It was wonderful how many +people chose to consider themselves primary workers? At least they +rushed to this meeting, a great army of them, as though their one object +in life, was to learn how successfully to teach the little ones. Our +girls all met together in the tent. Ruth and Flossy had finished their +preparations, but had concluded to wait until afternoon service. + +"I declare if _you_ are not armed with a pencil and paper. Have you been +seized with a mania for taking notes?" This Eurie said to Ruth. "Now I'm +going to get out _my_ note book too. Here is a card--it will hold all I +care to write I dare say. Let me see, who knows but I shall go to +teaching in Sabbath-school one of these days! I am going to make a list +of the things which according to Mrs. Clark, we shall need." + +True to her new fancy, she scribbled industriously during the session, +and showed her card with glee as they left the tent. + +"I've a complete list," she said. "If any of you go into the business I +can supply you with the names of the necessary tools. Look! + +"A blackboard. + +"A picture roll. + +"A punch! + +"Cards. + +"Brains! + +"Blank book. + +"Children. + +"More brains! + +"That last item," she said, reflectively, "is the hardest to find. I had +no idea so much of that material was necessary. Now let me see what is +on your papers." This even Marion stoutly resisted. And Flossy quietly +hid hers in her pocket, saying with a smile: + +"Mine is simply a list of things needful for such work." + +If she had shown her paper it would have astonished Eurie, and it might +have done her good. This was what she had written: + +"What I need in order to be a successful teacher. + +"Such a forgetfulness of self as shall lead me to think only of the +little ones and their needs. + +"Such a love for Christ as shall lead me to long after every little soul +to lead it to him." + +As for Marion her paper contained simply this sentence, carefully +written out in German text as if she had deliberated over each letter; + +"If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it +be of God." + +They went in a body to hear Dr. Hatfield. + +"I want that lecture," Marion said, "'Perils of the Hour.' I'm very +anxious to know what my peril is. I know just what is hovering over +every one of you, but I can't quite make up my mind as to my own state. +Perhaps the distinguished gentleman can help me." + +And he did. He had selected for one of the perils that which was +embodied in the following ringing sentence: + +"The third peril is the prevelancy of skepticism. A class of scientists +have discovered that there is no God! What the fool said in his _heart_ +they proclaimed on the house-top!" + +Eurie looked over at her, smiling and mischievous, and said in anything +but a softly whisper, "That means you, my dear." + +But Marion did not hear her; she was absorbed in the intense scathing +sentences that followed. Of one thing she presently felt assured, that +whoever was right or whoever was wrong in this matter, Dr. Hatfield +believed with all the intensity of an intense educated intellect that +God ruled. Was it probable that he had met the condition, done his will, +and so _knew_ of the doctrine? That was an hour to be remembered. Eurie +ceased to whisper or to frolic; there was too much intensity, about the +speaker's manner not to claim her attention. She listened as she was not +in the habit of listening. She could give you a detailed account even +now of that hour of thought; so could I, and I am awfully tempted; but, +you see, it is only Tuesday, and the girls have six more days to spend +at Chautauqua. + +Both Ruth and Flossy got their crumb to think over. They discussed it at +the hotel that evening. + +"I tell you, Flossy, if Dr. Hatfield is correct you and I have +tremendous changes to make in our way of spending the Sabbath; and I +have actually prided myself on the way in which I respected the day!" + +And Ruth laughed as if that were so strange a thought, now that it was +hardly possible to think that she could have entertained it. + +"I know," Flossy said; "and he can not but be right, for he proved his +position. I am glad I heard that address. But for him, I know I should +never have thought of my influence in some places where I now see I can +use it. Ruth you will be struck with one thing. Now, Chautauqua is like +what Madame C's school might have been, so far as study is concerned. +Every day I have a new lesson, one that startles me so! I feel that +there must be some mistake, or I would have heard of or thought of some +of these things before. And yet they sound so reasonable when you come +to think them over, that presently I am surprised that I have not felt +them before. Ruthie, do you think Eurie and Marion have any interest at +all?" + +"No," said Ruth, positively, "I know Marion hasn't. It was only the +other evening that she talked more wildly if anything than before." + +About this time Marion, alone in her tent, said again, as she had said a +dozen times during the last few days: "If I _only knew_!" And this time +she added, "If I only knew _how_ to know!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + +SERMONS IN CHALK. + + +Now, see here, Marion Wilbur, wake up and give me your attention. I want +to make a speech; I've caught the infection. It's queer in a place where +there is so much speech-making done that I can't have a chance to +express my views." + +"I'm all attention," Marion answered, turning on her pillow, and giving +Eurie a sleepy stare. "What has moved you to be eloquent? Give me the +subject." + +"The subject is the reflex influence of preaching! It may have +different effects on different natures. Its effect on mine has been +marked enough. I'm thoroughly surfeited. I don't want to hear another +sermon while I am here, and I don't _mean_ to. They are all sermons. The +subject may be scientific, literary or artistic, and it amounts to the +same thing; they contrive to row around to the same spot from whatever +point they start. Now, I came here for fun, and I'm being literally +cheated out of it. So the application of my remark is, I've learned +since I have been here always to have an application to everything, and +this time it is that I won't go any more. I've studied the programme +carefully, and I have selected just what I am going to do. That Mrs. +Knox has a reception this morning. I've heard about her before; she is +awfully in earnest, and awfully good. Oh, I haven't the least doubt of +it; but, you see, I don't want to be good, nor to have such an +uncomfortable amount of goodness about me." + +"She is said to be one of the most successful Sabbath-school teachers +here; and I heard a gentleman say last night that her primary class was +a regular training school for young ladies in Christian work. You know +she has ever so many teachers under her." + +"I can't help that. I am not one of them, I am thankful to say. What do +I care whether she is successful or not? That won't help me any. I know +all about her. They say the young ladies in her classes are invariably +converted before they have been under her influence long. So if you want +to be converted you have only to go to Elmira and join her class; but as +for me, I am not in the mood for that experience yet, and I am not going +near her." + +"What _are_ you going to do then?" + +"Just what I please! That is what I came for. Just think of the +absurdity of we four girls rushing to meeting at the rate we have been +doing for the last week. What do you suppose the people at home would +think of us? Why, I didn't expect to hear any of their sermons when I +came. I as good as promised Flossy that I would frolic about with her +all the time, and now the absurd little dunce acts as if she were under +a wager to be on the ground every time the bell rings! I've declared +off. I can tell you to an item just what I am going to hear. There is a +performance to come off this afternoon some time that I shall be ready +for. I loitered behind the King tent last night, and heard him say so. +That Frank Beard is going to give his chalk talk--caricatures: that I +shall hear, and especially _see_. It will be hard work to poke a sermon +into that. I guess that is to be this afternoon; it is to be some time +soon, anyway, and I shall watch for it. Then there is to be another +extra. Mrs. Miller is going to read a story. I can give you the title of +it. I didn't sit on that horrid stump in the dark listening to Dr. +Vincent for nothing. It is to be 'Three Blind Mice.' Now it stands to +reason that a story with such a title will not be very far above my +intellectual capacity, and it _can't_ very well develop into a sermon, +or close with a prayer-meeting. Then I'm going to the concert by the +Tennesseeans;' their jargon won't hurt me; and, of course, I shall +attend the President's reception. I must have a stare at him--and that +is every solitary meeting I am going to attend. I've heard the last +preaching that I mean to for some time." + +Now this was what Eurie Mitchell _said_. Let me tell you a little bit +about what she _thought_. She was by no means so indifferent, nor so +bored as she would have Marion understand. She was by no means in the +state of mind that Ruth had been, or that Marion was. No doubts as to +the general truth of all the vital doctrines of Christianity had ever +troubled her. She accepted without question the belief of the so-called +Christian World. Neither was she bewildered as to what constituted +Christian life. No vague notion that to unite herself with some church +would let her into the charmed circle had ever befogged her brain. + +On the contrary, she knew better than many a Christian does just what +the Christian profession involved, and just how narrow a path ought to +be walked by those professing to follow Christ. In proportion to the +keenness of her sarcasm over blundering, stumbling Christians, had her +eyes been open to what they ought to be. + +There was just this the matter with Eurie. She knew so well what +religious professions involved that she wanted to make none. She hated +the thought of self-abnegation, of bridling her eager tongue, of going +only where her enlightened conscience said a Christian should go, of +looking out for and calling after others to go with her. She wished +deliberately to ignore it all. Not forever, she would have been shocked +at the thought. Some time she meant to give intense heed to these +things, and then indeed the church should see what a Christian _could_ +be! But not now. + +There were a hundred things laid down in her programme for the coming +winter that she knew perfectly well were not the things to do or say, +provided she were a Christian, and she deliberately wished to avoid the +fear of becoming one. Just here she was afraid of the influence of +Chautauqua. + +How was it possible to attend these meetings, to listen to these daily, +hourly addresses, teeming either directly or indirectly with the same +thought, personal consecration, without feeling herself drawn within the +circle? She would _not_ be drawn. This was her deliberate conclusion, +therefore her determination. + +It was almost well for her that she could not realize on what fearfully +dangerous ground she was treading! I wonder if those over whom the Lord +says, "Let them alone," are ever conscious at the time that the order +has gone forth, and that they are to feel their consciences pressing +home this matter no more? + +"Well," said Marion, after turning this resolution over in her mind for +a few minutes, "I dare say you will lose a good many things worth +hearing; but I have nothing to do with that--only I want you to go with +me up to hear Mrs. Knox this morning. I've _got_ to go, for I promised +especially to report her for the teachers at home, and it is stupid to +go alone. _She_ won't preach, and she won't bore you, and I want you to +help me remember items." + +So, much against her will, Eurie was coaxed into this departure from her +programme, and came back from the meeting in intense disgust. + +"Talk about _her_ not preaching," she said, venting her annoyance on +Marion while she energetically brushed her hair. "Every fold of her +dress preached a sermon! She makes me ache all over, she is so +powerfully in earnest; and didn't she hint what angels of goodness those +girls of hers were--those teachers! I'd like to know how they could be +anything else but good with such an example at hand. Just think, Marion, +of having the brains that that woman has, and the energy and tact and +the skill of a general, and then forcing it into a Sunday-school class +room for the teaching of a hundred little dots that have just tumbled +out of their cradles!" + +"Well, if she teaches them to tumble out on the right side so that they +will come up grand men and women, what then? Isn't that an ambition +worthy of her?" + +"Stuff and nonsense! Don't you go to preaching. I shall go and drown +myself in the lake if I hear any more of it, and then one worthless +person will be out of the way. But don't you dare to ask me to go and +hear that woman again! I won't give up my plans in life for hers, and +she needn't hint it to me. And, Marion Wilbur, I am not going to listen +to another man or woman who has the least chance to fire words right at +me--now mark my words." + +Full of this determination she carried it out during the afternoon, +until the hour for Frank Beard's caricatures; then, secure from fear of +a sermon, she came gayly down and considered herself fortunate to +secure a seat directly in front of the stand and in full view of the +blackboard. If you have never seen Frank Beard make pictures you know +nothing about what a good time she had. They were such funny pictures! +--just a few strokes of the magic crayon and the character described +would seem to start into life before you, and you would feel that you +could almost know what thoughts were passing in the heart of the +creature made of chalk. Eurie looked, and listened, and laughed. The old +deacon who thought the Sunday-school was being glorified too much had +his exact counterpart among her acquaintances, so far as his looks were +concerned. The three troublesome Sunday-school scholars fairly convulsed +her by their life-like appearance. There was the little scamp of a boy +who was revealed by the dozen to any one who took a walk down town +toward the close of the day; the argumentative old man, with his nose +pointing out a flaw in your reasoning or on the keen scent for a +mistake; and the pert fourteen-year-old girl whose very nose, as it +slightly turned upward, showed that she knew more than all the +logicians and theologians in the world. + +This entertainment was exactly in Eurie's line. If there was anything in +the world that she was an adept at it was looking up weak points in the +characters of other people; and when the silly girl with but two +ideas--one of them bows and the other beaux--lived and breathed before +her on the blackboard her delight reached its climax. + +"She is the very picture of Nettie Arnold!" she whispered to Marion. +"When I go home I mean to tell her that her photograph was displayed at +Chautauqua. She is just vain enough to believe it!" + +Still the fun went on. Just a few bold, rapid strokes, and some +caricature breathed before them, so real that the character was guessed +before the explanation was given, and the ground rang with continued and +overpowering roars of laughter. + +Into the midst of this entertainment came Dr. Vincent, his face aglow +with the exertion of hearty laughter, every feature of it expressive of +his hearty appreciation of this hour of recreation and yet every +feature alive and alert with a higher and more enduring feeling. + +"Frank," he said, laying a friendly hand on the artist's arm, "our time +is almost up. Give us the symbol of the teacher's work." + +There was an instant of rapid motion, a few skillful lines, and it +needed no word of explanation to recognize the great family Bible. "Now +the symbol of the teacher's hope," and on one page of the open Bible +there flashed an anchor. + +"Now the symbol of his reward," and lo, there rose up before them the +solid wall, built brick by brick. Dr. Vincent's voice was almost husky +with feeling, so suddenly had the play of his emotions changed, as he +said: "Now we want the foundation." + +How did Frank Beard do it with a dull colored crayon and a half-dozen +movements of his skillful arm? How can I tell, except that God has given +to the arm wondrous skill; but there appeared before that astonished +multitude a foundation as of granite, and there rose from it, as if +suddenly hewed out before them, a clean-cut solid shaft of gray, +imperishable granite. One more dash of the wondrous crayon and the +shaft was done--a solid cross! + +Prof. Sherwin was sitting, for want of a better position, on the floor +of the stand. It was the only available space. He had been looking and +enjoying as only men like Prof. Sherwin can; and now, as he watched the +outgrowth of this wonderful cross, as the last stroke was given that +made it complete, and a sound like a subdued shout of joy and triumph +murmured through the crowd, moved as by a sudden mighty impulse that he +could not control, his splendid voice burst forth in the glorious words: + + "Rock of Ages, cleft for me, + Let me _hide_ myself in Thee." + +And that great multitude took it up and rolled the tribute of praise +down those resounding aisles until people bowed themselves, and some of +them wept softly in the very excess of their joy and thanksgiving. It +was all so sudden, so unexpected; yet it was so surely the key-note to +the Chautauqua heart, and fitted in so aptly with their professions and +intentions. They could play for a few minutes--none could do it with +better hearts or more utter enjoyment than these same splendid +leaders--but how surely their hearts turned back to the main thought, +the main work, the main hope, in life and in death. + +As for Eurie, she will not be likely to forget that sermon. It almost +overpowered her. There came over her such a sudden and eager longing to +understand the depths from whence such feeling sprung, to rest her feet +on the same foundation, that for the moment her heart gave a great bound +and said: "It is worth all the self-denial and all the change of life +and plans which it would involve. I almost think I want that rather than +anything else." That miserable "almost!" I wonder how many souls it has +shipwrecked? The old story. If Eurie had been familiar with her Bible it +would surely have reminded her of the foolish listener who said, while +he trembled under the truth, "_Almost_ thou persuadest me to be a +Christian." + +Shall I tell you what came in, just then and there, to influence her +decision? It was such a miserable little thing--nothing more than the +remembrance of certain private parties that were a standing institution +among "their set" at home, to meet fortnightly in each other's parlors +for a social dance. Not a ball! oh, no, not at all. These young ladies +did not attend _balls_, unless occasionally a charity ball, when a very +select party was made up. Simply quiet evenings among _special_ friends, +where the special amusement was dancing. + +"Dear me!" you say, "I am a Christian, and I don't see anything wrong in +_dancing_. Why, I dance at private parties very often. What was there in +that thought that needed to influence her?" + +Oh, well, we are not arguing, you know. This is simply a record of +matters and things as they occurred at Chautauqua. It can hardly be said +to be a story, except as records of real lives of course make stories. + +But Eurie was _not_ a Christian, you see; and however foolish it may +have been in her she had picked out dancing as one of the amusements not +fitting to a Christian profession. It is a queer fact, for the cause of +which I do not pretend to account, but if you are curious, and will +investigate this subject, you will find that four fifths of the people +in this world who are not Christiana have tacitly agreed among +themselves that dancing is not an amusement that seems entirely suited +to church-members. If you want to get at the reason for this strange +prejudice, question some of them. Meantime the fact exists that Eurie +felt herself utterly unwilling to give up the leadership of those +fortnightly parties, and that the trivial question actually came in then +and there, while she stood looking at that picture of the cross; and in +proportion as her sudden conviction of desire lost itself in this whirl +of intended amusement did her disgust arise at the thought that she had +been actually betrayed into listening to another sermon! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + +"THEIR WORKS DO FOLLOW THEM." + + +Marion went alone to the services the next morning. It was in vain that +she assured Eurie that Miss Morris was going to conduct one of the +normal classes, and that she had heard her spoken of as unusually +sparkling. Eurie shook her head. + +"Go and hear her sparkle, then, by all means I won't. Now that's a very +inelegant word to use, but it is expressive, and when _I_ use it you may +know that I mean it; I am tired of the whole story, and I have been +cheated times enough. Look at yesterday! It was a dozen prayer-meetings +combined. No, I don't get caught this morning." + +"But the subject is one that will not admit of sermonizing and +prayer-meetings this morning," Marion pleaded; "I am specially +interested in it. It is 'How to win and hold attention.' If there is +anything earthly that a ward school-teacher needs to know it is those +two items. I expect to get practical help." + +"You needn't expect anything _earthly_; this crowd have nothing to do +with matters this side of eternity. As for the subject not admitting of +sermonizing, look at the subject of blackboard caricatures. What came of +that?" + +So she went her way, and Marion, who had seen Miss Morris and had been +attracted, looked her up with earnest work in view. She had an ambition +to be a power in her school-room. Why should not this subject help +_her_? + +The tent was quite full, but she made her way to a corner and secured a +seat. Miss Morris was apparently engaged in introducing herself and +apologizing for her subject. + +"I tried to beg off," she said; "I told them that the subject and I had +nothing in common; that I was a primary class teacher, and in that line +lay my work. But there is no sort of use in trying to change Dr. +Vincent's mind about anything, so I had to submit. But for once in my +life I remind myself of Gough. I once overheard him in conversation with +a committee on lectures. They were objecting to having him lecture on +temperance, and pressing him to name some other subject. 'Choose what +subject you please, gentlemen,' he said at last, 'and I'll lecture on +it, but remember what I _say_ will be on temperance.' So they have given +me this subject and I have engaged to take it, but I want you to +remember that what I _say_ will be on primary class-teaching." + +By this time Miss Morris had the sympathy of her audience, and had +awakened an interest to see how she would follow out her programme, and +from first to last she held their attention. Certain thoughts glowed +vividly. I don't know who else they influenced, but I knew they roused +and startled Marion, and will have much to do with her future methods of +teaching. + +"Remember," said the speaker, "that you can not live on skim-milk and +teach cream!" The thought embodied in that brief and telling sentence +was as old as time, and Marion had heard it as long ago as she +remembered anything, but it never flashed before her until that moment. + +What an illustration! She saw herself teaching her class in botany to +analyze the flowers, to classify them, to tell every minute item +concerning them, and she taught them nothing to say concerning the +Creator. Was this "skim-milk" teaching? She knew so many ways in which, +did she but have this belief concerning heaven, and Christ, and the +judgment, in her heart, she could impress it upon her scholars. She had +aimed to be the very _cream_ of teachers. Was she? She came back from +her reverie, or, rather, her self-questioning, to hear Miss Morris say: + +"Why, one move of your hand moves all creation! and as surely does one +thought of your soul grow and spread and roll through the universe. Why, +you can't sit in your room alone, and think a mean thought, or a false +thought, or an unchristian thought, without its influencing not only all +people around you, not only all people in all the universe, but nations +yet unborn must live under the shadow or the glory that the thought +involves." + +Bold statements these! But Marion could follow her. Intellectually she +was thoroughly posted. Had she not herself used the illustration of the +tiny stream that simpered through the home meadow and went on, and on, +and on, until it helped to surge the beaches of the ocean? But here was +a principle involved that reached beyond the ocean, that ignored time, +that sought after eternity. Was she following the stream? Could she +honestly tell that it might not lead to a judgment that should call her +to account for her non-religious influence over her scholars? Marion was +growing heavy-hearted; she wanted at least to do no harm in the world if +she could do no good. But if all this mountain weight of evidence at +Chautauqua proved anything, it proved that she was living a life of +infidelity, for the influence of which she was to be called into +judgment. + +No sort of use to comfort herself with the thought that she talked of +her peculiar views to no one; it began to be evident that the things +which she did _not_ do were more startling than the things which she +did. + +On the whole, no comfort came to her troubled soul through this morning +session. To herself she seemed precisely where she was when she went +into that tent, only perhaps a trifle more impressed with the solemnity +of all things. + +But, without knowing it, a great stride had been taken in her education. +She was not again to be able to say: "I injure no one with my belief; I +keep it to myself." "No Man liveth to himself." + +The verse came solemnly to her as she went out, as though other than +human voice were reminding her of it, and life began to feel like an +overwhelming responsibility that she could not assume. When one begins +to _feel_ that thought in all its force the next step is to find one who +will assume the responsibility for us. She met Ruth on her way up the +hill. + +"Flossy has deserted me," Ruth explained as they met; "Eurie carried her +away to take a walk. Are you going to hear about John Knox? I am +interested in him chiefly because of the voice that is to tell of him +to-day; I like Dr. Hurlburt." + +Marion's only reply was: "I don't see but you come to meeting quite as +regularly, now that you are at the hotel, as you did when on the +grounds." + +Then they went to secure their seats. I am not to attempt to tell you +anything about the John Knox lecture; indeed I have given over telling +more about the Chautauqua addresses. It is of no sort of use. One only +feels like bemoaning a failure after any attempt to repeat such lectures +as we heard there. Besides, I am chiefly interested at present in their +effect on our girls. + +They listened--these two, and enjoyed as people with brains must +necessarily have done. But there was more than that to it; there were +consequences that will surely be met again at the last great day. + +Ruth, as she walked thoughtfully away, said to herself: "That is the +way. _Live_ the truth. It is a different day, and the trials and +experiences are different, but _life_ must be the same. It is not the +day for half-way Christianity nor for idling; I will be an earnest +Christian, or I will not dishonor the name and disgrace the memory of +such men as Knox by claiming to be of their faith." + +While Marion, as she turned her flushed cheeks hastily away from Ruth, +not willing to show one who knew nothing about this matter, save that +it was expedient to join a church, had gotten one foot set firmly toward +the rock. + +"The power that enabled _that_ man to live _that_ life was certainly of +God," she thought. "It _must_ be true. God must be in communication with +some of the souls that have lived. Is he now, and can I be one of them? +Oh, I wonder if there are a favored few who have shone out as grand +lights in the world and have gone up from the world to their reward? And +I wonder if there is no such thing now? If the blundering creatures who +call themselves by his name are nothing but miserable imitations of what +was _once_ real? + +"Such lives as that one can understand; but how can I ever believe that +Deacon Cole's life is molded by the same influence, or, indeed, that +mine can be? Must I be a Deacon Cole Christian if I am one at all?" + +The afternoon clouded over, and a mincing little rain began to fall. +Marion stood in the tent door and grumbled over it. + +"I wanted to hear that Mr. Hazard," she said; "I rather fancy his face, +and I fancy the name of his subject. I had a curiosity to see what he +would do with it, and here is this rain to hinder." + +Ruth and Flossy had come over for the day, and were waiting in the tent. + +"Haven't you been at Chautauqua long enough to catch one of its cardinal +rules, never to stay at home for rain?" Flossy said. + +Marion looked around at her. She was putting on her rubbers. + +"Are you really going?" She asked the question in great surprise. "Why, +Flossy, it is going to rain hard!" + +"What of it?" said Flossy, lightly. "I have waterproof, and rubbers, and +umbrella, and if it gets to be too wet I can run to a tent." + +"If you were at home you wouldn't think of going to church. Why, Flossy +Shipley, I never knew you to go out in the rain! I thought you were +always afraid you would spoil your clothes." + +"That was because I had none already spoiled to wear," Flossy answered, +cheerily; "but that difficulty is obviated; I have spoiled two dresses +since I have been here. This one now is indifferent to the rain, and +will be for the future. I have an improvement on that plan, though; I +mean to have a rainy-day dress as soon as I get home. Come, it is time +we were off." + +"I believe I am a dunce," Marion said, slowly. "I think it is going to +rain hard; but as I have to go, at home, whether it rains or shines, I +suppose I can do it here. But if this were a congregation of respectable +city Christians, instead of a set of lunatics, there wouldn't be a dozen +out." + +They found hundreds out, however. Indeed, it proved to be difficult to +secure seats. That address was heard under difficulties. In the first +place it _would_ rain; not an out-and-out hearty shower, that would at +once set at rest the attempt to hold an out-door meeting, but an +exasperating little drizzle, enlivened occasionally by a few smart drops +that seemed to hint business. There was a constant putting up of +umbrellas and putting them down again. There was a constant fidgeting +about, and getting up and sitting down again, to let some of the more +nervous ones who had resolved upon a decided rain escape to safer +quarters. Half of the people had their heads twisted around to get a +peep at the sky, to see what the clouds really _did_ mean, anyway. + +Our girls had one of the uncomfortable posts. Arrived late, they had to +take what they could get, and it was some distance from the speaker, and +their sight and sound were so marred by the constant changes and the +whirl of umbrellas that Marion presently lost all patience and gave up +the attempt to listen. She would have deserted altogether but for the +look of eager attention on Flossy's face. Despite the annoyances, _she_ +was evidently hearing and enjoying. It seemed a pity to disturb her and +suggest a return to the tent; besides, Marion felt half ashamed to do +so. + +It was not pleasant to give tacit acknowledgment to the fact that poor +little, unintellectual Flossy was much more interested than herself. She +gave herself up to an old and favorite employment of hers, that of +looking at faces and studying them, when a sudden hush that seemed to be +settling over the hither to fidgety audience arrested her attention. + +The speaker's voice was full of pathos, and so quiet had the place +become that every word of his could be distinctly heard. He was +evidently in the midst of a story, the first of which she had not heard. +This was the sentence, as her ears took it up: + +"Don't cry, father, don't cry! To-night I shall be with Jesus, and I +will tell him that you did all you could to bring me there!" + +What a tribute for a child to give to a father's love! Flossy, with her +cheeks glowing and her eyes shining like stars, quietly wiped away the +tears, and in her heart the resolve grew strong to live so that some +one, dying, could say of her: "I will tell Jesus that you did all you +could to bring me there!" + +Do you think that was what the sentence said to Marion? Quick as thought +her life flashed back to that old dingy, weather-beaten house, to that +pale-faced man, with his patched clothing and his gray hairs straggling +over on the coarse pillow. _Her_ father, dying--her one friend, who had +been her memory of love and care all these long years, dying--and these +were the last words his lips had said: + +"Don't cry, little girl--father's dear little girl. I am going to Jesus. +I shall be there in a little while. I shall tell him that I tried to +have you come!" + +Oh, blessed father! How hard he had tried in his feebleness and weakness +to teach her the way! How sure he had seemed to feel that she would +follow him! And how had she wandered! How far away she was! Oh, blessed +Spirit of God, to seek after her all these years, through all the weak +and foolish mazes of doubt, and indifference, and declared +unbelief--still coming with her down to this afternoon at Chautauqua, +and there renewing to her her father's parting word. + +She had often and often thought of these words of her father's. In a +sense, they had been ever present with her. Just why they should come at +this time, bringing such a sense of certainty about them to her very +soul that all this was truth, God's solemn, _real_, unchangeable truth, +and force this conviction upon her in such a way that she was moved to +say, "Whereas I _was_ blind, now I see," I can not tell. + +Why Mr. Hazard was used as the instrument of such a revelation of God to +her I can not tell. Perhaps he had prayed that his work at Chautauqua +that rainy afternoon might, in some way, be blessed to the help of some +struggling soul. Perhaps this was the answer to his prayer--unheard, +unseen by him, as many an answer to our pleading is, and yet the answer +as surely comes. Who can tell how this may be. I do not know. I know +this, that Marion's heart gave a great sobbing cry, as it said: + +"Oh, father, father! if your God, if your Christ, will help me, I +will--I will _try_ to come." + +It was her way of repeating the old cry, "Lord, I believe, help thou +mine unbelief." And I do know that it is written, "Blessed are the dead +which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they +may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them." It was +fifteen years that the weary father had been resting from his labors, +and here were his works following him. + +I have heard that Mr. Hazard said, as he folded his papers and came down +from the stand that afternoon, "It was useless to try to talk in such a +rain, with the prospect of more every minute. The people could not +listen. It would have been better to have adjourned. Nothing was +accomplished." Much _he_ knew about it, or will know until the day when +the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + +UNFINISHED MUSIC. + + +Meantime, this day, which was to be so fraught with consequences to +Marion, was on Eurie's hands to dispose of as best she could. To be at +Chautauqua, and to be bent on having nothing whatever to do with any of +the Chautauqua life, was in itself a novel position. The more so as she +felt herself quite deserted. The necessity for reporting served Marion +as an excuse for attending even those meetings which she did not report; +and the others having gone to Mayville to live, this foolish sheep, who +was within the fold, and who would not be _of_ it, went wandering +whither she would in search of amusement. + +After Marion left her she made her way to the museum, and a pleasant +hour she spent; one could certainly not desire a more attractive spot. +She went hither and thither, handling and admiring the books, the +pictures, the maps, the profusion of curiosities, and, at the end of the +hour, when the press of visitors became too great to make a longer stay +agreeable, she departed well pleased with herself that she had had the +wisdom to choose such a pleasant resort instead of a seat in some +crowded tent as a listener. + +Coming out, she walked down the hill, and on and on, watching the crowds +of people who were gathering, and wishing she had a programme that she +might see what the special attraction was that seemed to be drawing so +many. + +At last she reached the wharf. The Assembly steamer was lying at her +dock, her jaunty flags flying, and the commotion upon her decks +betokening that she was making ready for a voyage. The crowd seemed +greater there than at any other point. It would appear that the special +attraction was here, after all. She understood it, and pushed nearer, as +the ringing notes of song suddenly rose on the air, and she recognized +the voices of the Tennesseeans. + +This was a great treat; she delighted in hearing them. She allowed +herself to be elbowed and jostled by the throng, reaching every moment +by judicious pushing a place where she could not only hear but see, and +where escape was impossible. The jubilant chorus ceased and one of those +weird minor wails, such as their music abounds in, floated tenderly +around her. + +It was a farewell song, so full of genuine pathos, and so tenderly sung, +that it was in vain to try to listen without a swelling of the throat +and a sense of sadness. Something in the way that the people pressed +nearer to listen suggested to Eurie that it must be designed as a +farewell tribute to somebody, and presently Prof. Sherwin mounted a seat +that served as a platform and gave them a tender informal farewell +address. In every sentence his great, warm heart shone. + +"I am going away," he said, "before the blessed season at Chautauqua is +concluded. I am going with a sad heart, for I feel that opportunities +here for work for the Master have been great, and some of them I have +lost. And yet there is light in the sadness, for the work that I can not +do will yet be done. I once sat before my organ improvising a thought +that was in my heart, trying to give expression to it, and I could not. +I knew what I wanted, and I knew it was in my heart, but how to give it +expression I did not know. A celebrated organist came up the stairs and +stood beside me. I looked around to him. 'Can't you take this tune,' I +said, 'just where I leave it, and finish it for me as I have it in my +heart to do? I can't give it utterance. Don't you see what I want?'" + +"'Perhaps I do,' he said, and he placed his fingers over my fingers, on +the same keys that mine were touching, and I slipped out of the seat and +back into the shadow, and he slipped into my place, and then the music +rolled forth. My tune, only I could not play it. He was doing it for me. +So, though I may have failed in my work that I have tried to do here, +the great Master is here, and I pray and I hope and I believe that he +will put his grand hand upon my unfinished work and in heaven I shall +meet it completed.'" + +What was there in this to move Eurie to tears? She did not know Prof. +Sherwin--that is, she had never been introduced to him--but she had +heard him sing, she had heard him pray, she had met him in the walk and +asked where the Sunday-school lesson was, and he had in part directed +her--directed her in such a way that she had been led to seek further, +and in doing so had met Miss Ryder, and in meeting her had been +interested ever since in studying a Christian life. Was this one of +Prof. Sherwin's unfinished tunes? Would he meet it again in heaven? + +A very tender spirit took possession of Eurie--an almost irresistible +longing to know more of this influence, or presence, or whatever name it +should be called, that so moved hearts, and made the friends of a week +say farewell with tears, and yet with hopeful smiles as they spoke in +joy and assurance of a future meeting. + +Prof. Sherwin and his friends embarked, and the dainty little steamer +turned her graceful head toward Mayville, and slipped away over the +silver water. Eurie made no attempt to get away from the throng who +pressed to the edge of the dock to get the last bow, the last flutter of +his handkerchief. She even drew out her own handkerchief and fluttered +it after him, and received from him a special bow, and was almost +decided to resolve to be present in joy at that other meeting, and to +make sure this very day of her title to an inheritance there. Almost! + +Going back she met Ruth and Flossy. She seized eagerly upon the latter. + +"Come," she said, "you have been to meetings enough, and you haven't +taken a single walk with me since we have been here, and think of the +promises we made to entertain each other." + +Flossy laughed cheerfully. + +"We have been entertained, without any effort on our part," she said. +Nevertheless she suffered herself to be persuaded to go for a walk, +provided Eurie would go to Palestine. + +"What nonsense!" Eurie said, disdainfully, when Flossy had explained to +her that she had a consuming desire to wander along the banks of the +Jordan, and view those ancient cities, historic now. "However, I would +just as soon walk in that direction as any other." + +There was one other person who, it transpired, would as soon take a walk +as do anything else just then. He joined the girls as they turned toward +the Palestine road. That was Mr. Evan Roberts. + +"Are you going to visit the Holy Land this morning, and may I be of your +party?" he asked. + +"Yes," Flossy answered, whether to the first question, or to both in +one, she did not say. Then she introduced Eurie, and the three walked on +together, discussing the morning and the meetings with zest. + +"Here we are, on 'Jordan's stormy banks,'" Mr. Roberts said, at last, +halting beside the grassy bank. "I suppose there was never a more +perfect geographical representation than this." + +"Do you really think it has any practical value?" Eurie asked, +skeptically. Mr. Roberts looked at her curiously. + +"Hasn't it to you?" he said. "Now, to me, it is just brimful of +interest and value; that is, as much value as geographical knowledge +ever is. I take two views of it. If I never have an actual sight of the +sacred land, by studying this miniature of it, I have as full a +knowledge as it is possible to get without the actual view, and if I at +some future day am permitted to travel there, why--well, you know of +course how pleasant it is to be thoroughly posted in regard to the +places of interest that you are about to visit; every European traveler +understands that." + +"But do you suppose it is really an accurate outline?" Eurie said, +again, quoting opinions that she had read until she fancied they were +her own. + +Again Mr. Roberts favored her with that peculiar look from under heavy +eyebrows--a look half satirical, half amused. + +"Some of the most skilled surveyors and traveled scholars have so +reported," he said, carelessly. "And when you add to that the fact that +they are Christian men, who have no special reason for getting up a +wholesale deception for us, and are supposed to be tolerably reliable +on all other subjects, I see no reason to doubt the statement." + +On the whole, Eurie had the satisfaction of realizing that she had +appeared like a simpleton. + +Flossy, meantime, was wandering delightedly along the banks, stopping +here and there to read the words on the little white tablets that marked +the places of special interest. + +"Do you see," she said, turning eagerly, "that these are Bible +references on each tablet? Wouldn't it be interesting to know what they +selected as the scene to especially mark this place?" + +Mr. Roberts swung a camp-chair from his arm, planted it firmly in the +ground, and drew a Bible from his pocket. + +"Miss Mitchell," he said, "suppose you sit down here in this road, +leading from Jerusalem to Bethany, and tell us what is going on just now +in Bethany, while Miss Shipley and I supply you with chapter and verse." + +"I am not very familiar with the text-book," Eurie said. "If you are +really in the village yourselves you might possibly inquire of the +inhabitants before I could find the account." But she took the chair +and the Bible. + +"Look at Matthew xxi. 17, Eurie," Flossy said, stooping over the tablet, +and Eurie read: + +"'And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged +there.'" + +"That was Jesus, wasn't it? Then he went this way, this very road, +Eurie, where you are sitting!" It was certainly very fascinating. + +"And stopped at the house on which you have your hand, perhaps," Mr. +Roberts said, smiling at her eager face. + +"That might have been Simon's house, for instance." + +"Did _he_ live in Bethany? I don't know anything about these things." + +"Eurie, look if you can find anything about him. The next reference is +Matthew xxvi." + +And again Eurie read: + +"'Now when Jesus was in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper.'" + +"The very place!" Flossy said, again. "Oh, I want so much to know what +happened then!" + +"Won't Miss Mitchell read it to us?" Mr. Roberts said, and he arranged +his shawl along the ground for seats. "Since we have really come to +Bethany, let us have the full benefit of it. Now, Miss Shipley, take a +seat, and we will give ourselves up to the pleasure of being with Jesus +in Simon's house, and looking on at the scene." + +So they disposed of themselves on the grass, and Eurie, hardly able to +restrain a laugh over the novelty of the situation, and yet wonderfully +fascinated by the whole scene, read to them the tender story of the +loving woman with her sweet-smelling ointment, growing more and more +interested, until in the closing verse her voice was full of feeling. + +"'Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in +the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done be +told as a memorial of her.'" + +"Think of that!" said Mr. Roberts. "And here are we, eighteen hundred +years afterward, sitting here in Bethany and talking of that same woman +still! Miss Mitchell, are you going to do something for Christ that +shall be talked over a thousand years from now? There is a chance for +undying fame." + +"Doubtful!" Eurie said, but she did not smile; her face was grave. + +"Or, better still, are you going to do such work for Christ that, +hundreds of years after, your influence will be silently living and +working out its fruit in human hearts?" + +"It is altogether more likely that I shall do nothing at all." + +"Out of the question," he said, with a grave smile. "Either for or +against, every life must be, whether we will it or not. 'He that is not +with me is against me,' was the word of the Master himself, and as long +as eternity lasts the fruit of the sowing will last." + +"That is a fearfully solemn thought," Flossy said, earnestly. + +Mr. Roberts turned toward her a face aglow with smiles now. + +"And a wondrously precious one," he said, and Flossy answered him in a +low tone: + +"Yes, I can see that it might be." + +Now, the actual fact is, that those three people wandered around that +far-away land until the morning vanished and the loud peal of the +Chautauqua bells announced the fact that the feast of intellect was +over, and it was time for dinner They went from Bethany to Bethel, and +from Bethel to Shechem, and they even climbed Mount Hermon's snowy peak, +and looked about on the lovely plain below. In every place there was +Bible reading, and Eurie was the reader, and it was such a morning that +she will remember for all time. + +"Pray, who is this Mr. Roberts?" she asked, as they parted company at +the foot of the hill. "Where did you make his acquaintance?" + +"He is Mrs. Smythe's nephew," Flossy said. "She introduced me to him the +other evening." + +"The other evening! You seemed to be as well acquainted as though you +had spent the summer together." + +"Some people have a way of seeming like friends on short acquaintance," +Flossy said, with grave face and smiling eyes. + +"You two missed a good deal by your folly this morning," Ruth said, as +they met at dinner. "We had a grand lecture." + +"So had we," answered Eurie, significantly, and that was every word she +vouchsafed concerning the trip to Palestine. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + +MENTAL PROBLEMS. + + +"Dr. Deems," said Ruth, looking up from her programme with a thoughtful +air. "I wonder if he is a man whom I have any special desire to hear?" + +You must constantly remember the entire ignorance of these girls on all +names and topics that pertained to the religious world. Ruth knew indeed +that the gentleman in question was a New York clergyman; that was as far +as her knowledge extended. + +"His subject is interesting," Flossy said. + +"I don't think it is," said Eurie. "Not to me, anyhow. Nature and I +have nothing in common, except to have a good time together if we can +get it. She is a miserably disappointed jade, I know. What has she done +for us since we have been here except to arrange rainy weather? I'm +going to visit his honor the mummy this morning, and from there I am +going to the old pyramid; and I advise you to go with me, all of you. +Talk about nature when there is an old fellow to see who was acquainted +with it thousands of years ago. Nature is too common an affair to be +interested in." + +"Oh, are you going to the museum?" said Flossy. "Then please get me one +of the 'Bliss' singing books, will you? I want to secure one before they +are all gone. Girls, don't you each want one of them to take home? The +hymns are lovely." + +"I don't," said Eurie, "unless he is for sale to go along and sing them. +I can't imagine anything tamer than to hear some commonplace voice +trying to do those songs that he roars out without any effort at all. +What has become of the man?" + +"He has gone," said Marion. "Called home suddenly, some one told me. +His singing is splendid, isn't it? I don't know but I feel much as you +do about the book. Think of having Deacon Miller try to sing, 'Only an +armor-bearer!' I don't mind telling you that I felt very much as if I +were being lifted right off my feet and carried up somewhere, I hardly +know where, when I heard him sing that. I was coming down the hill, away +off, you know, by the post-office--no, away above the post-office, and +he suddenly burst forth. I stopped to listen, and I could hear every +single word as distinctly as I can hear you in this tent." + +"Hear!" said Eurie, "I guess you could. I shouldn't be surprised if they +heard him over at Mayville, and that is what brings such crowds here +every day. Did you ever _see_ anything like the way the people come +here, anyhow?" + +"I don't feel at all as you do," said Flossy, going back to the question +of singing-books. "After we get let down a little, 'Only an +armor-bearer' will sound very well even from common singers. It has in +it what can't be taken out because a certain voice is lost; and the +book is full of other and simpler pieces, and lovely choruses, that +people can catch after one hearing." + +"Flossy is going home to introduce it into the First Church," Eurie +said, gravely. + +Flossy's cheeks flushed. + +"I had not thought of that," she said, simply; "perhaps we can. In any +case get me a couple, Eurie." + +The discussion on the morning service ended in a division of the party. +Ruth, who had come over early on purpose to attend, was obliged to +succumb to a feeling of utter weariness and lie down. + +Eurie steadily refused to go to the platform meeting, assuring them that +she knew Dr. Deems would be "as dry as a stick; all New York ministers +were." + +So Flossy and Marion went away together, Marion with her note-book in +the hope of getting an item for a newspaper letter that must be written +that afternoon. + +They were late, and almost abandoned in despair the hope of getting +within hearing, until a happy thought suggested a seat on the platform +stair at the speaker's back. There was a "crack" there, Marion said, +into which they presently crept. + +The address was already commenced. Marion listened at first with that +indifferent air that a face wears when its owner perforce commences in +the middle of a thing, and has to _wait_ his way to a tangible idea of +what is being said. + +There was not long waiting, however. Her eyes began to dilate and her +face to glow; she was almost a worshiper of eloquence, and surely no one +ever sat for two hours and listened to a more unbroken flow of rich, +glowing words, shining like diamonds, than fell lavishly around the +listeners that Friday morning at Chautauqua. But a few minutes and +Marion's pencil began to move with speed. This was the thought that had +thrilled her: + +"First, light; then liberation from chaos; then grass; and then God +stopped his work and gazed with delight on the picture he had drawn. +Think what a picture it must have been! There was nothing but rocks +ground down when God said, 'Earth, grow!' Then straightway the mother +power fell down upon the earth, life pulsed in her veins, and the baby +shoot of grass sprang up, and the rocky earth wrapped herself in her +garment of emerald, and God, stopping his work said, 'Useful, +beautiful!'" + +When the speaker touched upon the doctrine of the resurrection Marion's +pencil paused, and she leaned eagerly forward to get a glimpse of his +face. That doctrine had seemed to her doubting heart the strangest, +wildest, most hopeless of the Christian theories. If clear light could +shine on that, could there not on _anything_? Her face was aglow with +interest not only, but with anxiety. + +This morning, for the first time in her life, she could be called an +honest doubter. She had fancied herself able to believe any thing of +which her reason had been convinced; but she found, to her surprise and +dismay, that so fixed had the habit of unbelief become, it seemed +impossible to shake it off, and that she needed to be convinced and +reconvinced; that her questionings came in on every hand, seized upon +the smallest point, and tormented her without mercy. What about this +strange story of the resurrection? + +As she listened a subdued smile broke over her face--a smile of +sarcasm. How very absurdly simple the argument from nature was, how +utterly unanswerable! And after the sentence, "Tell me how that +wonderful field of waving grain came from the bare kernels of corn, and +I will tell you how my blessed baby shall rise an angel," Marion said in +tone so distinct that it struck on Flossy's ear like a knell, "What a +fool!" Not the speaker, as the dismayed and disappointed Flossy +supposed, but _herself_. + +"The measure of every man is his faith," said Dr. Deems. "The greatest +thing a human being can do is not to perceive, nor to _compare_, not to +_reason_, but to _believe_." And again Marion smiled. If this were true +what a pigmy she must be! She began to more than suspect that she was. + +"Don't waste time," said the Doctor, "in trying to reconcile science and +the Bible. Science wasn't intended to teach religion. The Bible wasn't +intended to teach science; but wherever they touch they agree. God sends +his servants--scientific men--all abroad through nature to gather facts +with which to illustrate the Bible." + +Marion began to write again, but it was only in snatches here and +there; not that there was not that which she longed to catch, but she +could not write it--the sentences just poured forth; and how perfectly +aglow with light and beauty they were! This one sentence she presently +wrote: + +"In the black ink of his power God wrote the Book of nature; in the red +ink of his love he wrote the Bible; and all this _power_ is to bring us +all to this _love_. Oh, to rest in arms like these! Are they not strong +enough?" + +Suddenly Marion closed her book and slipped her pencil into her pocket; +she could not write. And although she thrilled through every nerve over +the majestic sentences that followed and was carried to a pitch of +enthusiasm almost beyond her control, when the jubilant thunder of +thousands of voices rang together in the matchless closing words, +"Blessing, and glory, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, +be unto our God, forever and ever. Amen." She made no further attempt to +write; her heart was full; there rang in it this eager cry, "Oh, to rest +in arms like these!" Strong enough? Aye, indeed! Doubts were forever set +at rest. The Maker of all nature could be none other than God, and the +God of nature was the God of the Bible. It was as clear as the sunlight. +Reason was forever satisfied, but there lingered yet the hungering cry, +"Oh, to rest in arms like these!" + +And Flossy said not a word to her of the resting place. Not because she +had not found it strong and safe; not because she did not long to have +her friend rest there, but because of that despairing murmur in her +heart. "What is the use in saying anything? Had she not heard with her +own ears Marion's sneering sentence in the face of the unanswerable +arguments that had been presented?" I wonder how often we turn away from +harvest fields that are ready for the reader because we mistake for a +sneer that which is the admission of a convicted soul? + +By afternoon Ruth was rested and ready for meeting; if the truth be +known it was her troubled brain which had tired her body and obliged her +to rest. She had begun to take up that problem of "Christian work." The +platform meeting of the evening before, and, more than anything else, +Dr. Niles' address, had fanned her heart into a flame of desire to do +something for the Master. But what could she do? She and Flossy had +talked it over together after they reached their room at the hotel; in +fact they talked away into the night. + +"I don't know," Flossy said, with a little laugh, "but I shall have to +depend on the 'unconscious influence' which I exert to do my work for +me. I don't know of anything which I can actually _do_. Dr. Niles made a +great deal of that." + +"Yes," Ruth, said, "but you see, Flossy, the people whose unconscious +influence does any good are the ones after all who are moving around +_trying_ to do something. I don't feel sure that he lets the unconscious +influence of the drones amount to much, unless it is in the wrong scale. +Dr. Niles made a good deal of _that_, you remember." + +"Don't you like him ever so much, Ruth?" + +"Why, yes," Ruth said again, turning her pillow wearily. "I liked him of +course; how could I help it? But, after all, he made me very +uncomfortable. I seem to feel as though I _must_ find something to do. I +have a great deal of time to make up. I tell you what it is, Flossy, I +wish you and I could do something for those two girls. Isn't it strange +that they are not interested?" + +"But they are not." Flossy said it as positively as if she could see +right into their hearts. "I think Marion is worse than ever; and as for +Eurie, she won't even go to the meetings, you know." + +"I know. Perhaps we would only do harm to try. But what _can_ we do? I +am sure I don't see anything. And don't you know how clearly Dr. Niles +made it appear that there was a special work for each one?" + +So they discussed the question, turning it over and over, and getting +almost no light, coming to feel themselves very useless and worthless +specks on the sea of life, until late in the night Flossy said: + +"I'll tell you what it is, Ruth, we must just ask for work--little bits +of work, you know--and then keep our eyes open until it comes. I know of +things I can do when I get home." + +"So do I," said Ruth, "but I want to begin now." + +Silence for a few minutes, and then Flossy asked: + +"Ruthie, have you written to Mr. Wayne?" + +"No," said Ruth, her cheeks flushing even in the darkness. "I wrote a +long letter just before this came to me, but I burned it, and I am glad +of it." + +Then they went to sleep. But the desire for the work did not fade with +the daylight. Flossy had even been tempted to say a humble little word +to Marion, but had been deterred by the sound of that sneer of which I +told you; and Ruth, lying on her bed, had revolved the subject and sent +up many an earnest prayer, and went out to afternoon service resolved +upon keeping her eyes very wide open. + +The special attraction for the afternoon was a conference of primary +class teachers. They were out in full force, and were ready for any +questions that might fill the hearts and the mouths of eager learners. +Our girls had each their special favorites among these leaders. Ruth +found herself attracted and deeply interested in every word that Mrs. +Clark uttered. Marion was making a study of both Mrs. Knox and Miss +Morris, and found it difficult to tell which attracted her most. Even +Eurie was ready for this meeting. She had never been able to shake off +the thought of Miss Rider, and her eager enthusiasm in this work, while +Flossy had been fascinated and carried away captive by the magnetic +voice and manner of Mrs. Partridge. + +"She makes me glow," Flossy said, in trying to explain the feeling to +the calmer Ruth. "Her life seems to quiver all through me, and make me +long to reach after it; to have the same power which she has over the +hearts of wild uncared-for children." + +And Ruth looked down on the exquisite bit of flesh and blood beside her, +and thought of her elegant home and her elegant mother, and of all the +softening and enervating influences of her city life, and laughed. How +little had she in common with such a work as that to which Mrs. +Partridge had given her soul! + +Keeping her eyes open, as she had planned to do, this same Flossy saw as +she was passing down the aisle the hungry face of one of her boys, as +she had mentally called the Arabs with whom her life had brushed on the +Sunday morning The word just described it still, a hungry face like one +hanging wistfully around the outskirts of a feast in which he had no +share. Flossy let go her hold of Ruth's arm and darted toward him. + +"How do you do?" she said, in winning voice, before he had even seen +her. "I am real glad to see you again. If you will come with me I will +get a seat for you. A lady is going to speak this afternoon who has five +hundred boys in her class in Sunday-school." + +Now the Flossy of two weeks ago, if she could have imagined herself in +any such business, would have been utterly disgusted with the result, +and gone away with her pretty nose very high. + +The boy turned his dirty face toward her and said, calmly: + +"What a whopper!" + +The experience of a lifetime could not have answered more deftly: + +"You come and see. I am almost certain she will tell us about some of +them." + +Still he stared, and Flossy waited with her pretty face very near to +his, and her pretty hand held coaxingly out. + +"Come," she said again. And it could not have been more to the boy's +surprise than it was to hers that he presently said: + +"Well, go ahead. I can send if I don't like it. I'll follow." + +And he did. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +WAITING. + + +It required Flossy's eyes and heart both to keep watch of her boy during +the progress of that meeting. The novelty of the scene, the strangeness +of seeing ladies occupying the speaker's stand, kept him quiet and +alert, until Mrs. Partridge, that woman with wonderful power over the +forgotten, neglected portion of the world, arrested all his bewildering +thoughts and centered them on the strange stories she had to tell. + +Did you ever hear her tell that remarkable story of her first attempt at +controlling that remarkable class which came under her care, many years +ago, in St. Louis? It is full of wonder and pathos and terror and +fascination, even to those who are somewhat familiar with such +experiences. But Flossy and her boy had never heard, or dreamed of its +like. No, I am wrong; the boy had dreamed of scenes just so wild and +daring, but even he had not fancied that such people ever found their +way to Sunday-schools. + +Peanuts, cigars, a pack of cards, and a bowie-knife! Imagine yourself, +teacher, to be seated before your orderly and courteous class of boys +next Sunday morning and find them transformed into beings represented by +such surroundings as these! It was Mrs. Partridge's experience. How +fascinating that story is! That one incorrigible boy, the one with the +bowie-knife, the one who would make no answer to her questions, show no +interest in her stories, ignore her very presence and go on with his +horrible mischief, until it even came to a stabbing affray right there +in the class-room! + +Imagine her meeting that boy ten years afterward, when he was not only a +man, but a gentleman; not only that, but a Christian and not only that, +but a working Christian, superintending a mission Sunday-school, giving +his best energies and his best time to work like that! Think of being +told by him that the determination to amount to something was taken that +morning, ten years before, when he seemed not to be listening nor +caring! What is ten years of Christian work when we can hope for such +results as that! + +Flossy had forgotten her charge; her face was all aglow; so was her +heart. She knew more about Christian work than she did an hour before. +She had learned that we must take the step that plainly comes next to be +taken, no matter for the darkness of the day and the apparent gloom of +the future. _Work_ is ours; _results_ are God's. This life business is +divided. Partnership with God. Nothing but _the work_ to do; so that it +is done to the utmost limit of our best, the responsibility is the +Lord's. That was blessed! She could dare to try. + +Meantime the boy. He had listened in utmost silence, and with eyes that +never for an instant left the speaker's face! When the spell was broken +he drew a long sigh, and this was his mighty conclusion. + +"That chap was enough sight meaner than I'd ever be, and yet he got to +be _some_! I'll be blamed if I don't see what can be done in that line!" + +A small beginning; so small that on Flossy's face it excited only +smiles. She was ignorant, you know. To Mrs. Partridge that sentence +would have been worth a wedge of gold. But it is possible that Flossy's +first simple little reach after work may have fruit to bear. + +It is difficult to begin to tell about that next day at Chautauqua. +There was so much crowded into it that it would almost make a little +book of itself. The morning was spent by a large class of people in a +state of excited unrest and expectancy. The sensible ones by the +hundreds, and indeed I suppose I may say by the thousands, went to the +morning service, as usual, and heard the children's sermon, delivered by +Dr. Newton; and those who did not, and who afterward had the misfortune +to fall in with those who did, bemoaned their folly in not doing +likewise. On the whole, the children, and those who had brains enough to +become children for the time being, were the only comfortable ones at +Chautauqua that Saturday morning. + +The president was coming! So, apparently, was the rest of the world! +Oh, the throngs and throngs that continually arrived! It of itself was a +rare and never-to-be-forgotten novelty to those who had never in their +lives before seen such a vast army of human beings gathered into a small +space, and all perfectly quiet and correct, and even courteous in their +deportment. + +"Where are the drunken men?" said Marion, looking around curiously on +the constantly increasing throng. "We always read of them as being in +great crowds." + +"Yes, and the people who swear," added Eurie. "I haven't heard an oath +this morning, and I have roamed around everywhere. I must say Chautauqua +will bear off the palm for getting together a most respectable-looking, +well-behaved 'rabble!' That is what I overheard a sour-looking old +gentleman, who doesn't approve of having a president--or of letting him +come to a religious meeting, I don't know which--say would rush in +to-day. It certainly is a remarkably orderly 'rush.' Girls, look at Dr. +Vincent! I declare, Chautauqua has paid, just to watch him! He ought to +be the president himself. I mean to vote for him when female suffrage +comes in. Or a king! Wouldn't he make a grand king? How he would enjoy +ordering the subjects and enforcing his laws!" + +"All of which he seems able to do now," Marion said. "I don't believe he +would thank you for a vote. His realm is large enough, and he seems to +have willing subjects." + +"He has go-ahead-a-tive-ness." Eurie said. "What is the proper word for +that, school-ma'am? Executive ability, that's it. Those are splendid +words, and they ought to be added to his name. I tell you what, girls, I +wish we could cut him up into seven men, and take him home with us. +Seven first-class men made out of him and distributed through the towns +about us would make a new order of things." + +All this was being said while they were scrambling with the rest of the +world down to the auditorium to secure seats, for the grand afternoon +had arrived, and people had been advised to be "in their seats as soon +after one o'clock as they could make it convenient." + +"How soon will that be, I wonder?" Marion said, quoting this sentence +from Dr. Vincent's advice given in the morning, and holding up her +watch to show that it was five minutes of one. + +"It looks to me as though those deluded beings who arrive here at one +o'clock will have several hours of patient waiting before they will make +it convenient to secure seats. Just stand a minute, girls, and look! It +is worth seeing. Away back, just as far as I can see, there is nothing +but heads! The aisles are full, and space between the seats, and the +office is full, and the people are just pouring down from the hill in a +continuous stream. To look that way you wouldn't think that any had got +down here yet!" + +Now I really wish I had a photograph of that gathering of people to put +right in here, on this page! Many of them would have looked much better +at this point than they did after four hours of patient waiting. How +that crowd did fidget and fix and change position, as far as it was +possible to change, when there was not an inch of unoccupied space. How +they talked and laughed and sang and grumbled and yawned, and sang +again! + +It _was_ a tedious waiting. It had its irresistibly comic side. There +were those among the Chautauqua girls who could see the comic side of +things with very little trouble. The material out of which they made +some of their fun might have appeared very meager to orderly, decorous +people. But they made it. + +What infinite sport they got out of the fidgety lady before them, who +could not get herself and her three children seated to her mind! Those +ladies who labored so industriously in order that the nation's flags, +draping the stand, should float gracefully over the nation's chief, were +an almost inexhaustible source of amusement to our girls. + +"Look!" said Eurie, "that arrangement doesn't suit; some of the stars +are hidden; see them twitch it; it will be down! Now that one has it +looped just to her fancy. No! I declare, there it comes down again! The +other one twitched it this time; they are not of the same mind. Girls, +do look! It is fun to watch them; they work as though the interests of +this meeting all turned on a right arrangement of that flag." + +By this time the attention of the girls was engaged, and the number of +witty remarks that were made at the expense of those flags would no +doubt have disconcerted the earnest workers thereat could they have +heard them. + +The hours waned, and the president did not arrive. The waiters essayed +to sing, but to lead such an army of people was a difficult task, +especially when there was no one to lead. Such singing! + +"We came out ahead, anyhow!" said Flossy, stopping to laugh. + +Five or six thousand people had finished their verse, while five or six +thousand in the rear were in the third line of it. + +"We need Mr. Bliss or Mr. Sherwin or _somebody_," said Ruth. "What a +pity that they have all gone, and Dr. Tourjee hasn't come! I thought he +was to be here." + +Presently came a singer to their rescue. The girls did not know who he +was, but he led well, and the singing became decidedly enjoyable. +Suddenly he disappeared, and they went back again into utter confusion. +They stopped singing and began to grumble. + +"Queer arrangements, anyhow," said a surly-looking man in front. "Why +didn't they have a speaker ready to address this throng, instead of +keeping us waiting here with nothing to entertain us?" + +"I know it," said Marion, briskly addressing herself to her party. "Dr. +Vincent has not used his accustomed foresight. He ought to have known +that the presidential party would be three hours late, and filled up the +programme with speeches, especially since there has been such a dearth +of speech-making during the past two weeks. We are really hungry for an +address! I don't know who would have undertaken the task, however, +unless they sent for Gabriel or some other celestial. I know _I_ have no +desire to listen to a common mortal." + +Before them sat a lady absorbed in a book. During the singing she joined +heartily, and when Dr. Vincent came, on one of his numerous journeys to +try to encourage the crowd with the information that the party waited +for had not yet arrived, she looked and listened with the rest, but +always with her finger between the leaves, as if the place was too +interesting to be lost. + +Eurie's curiosity rose to such a pitch that she leaned forward for a +peep at the title-page, and drew back suddenly. It was a copy of the +Teacher's Bible! + +A silence fell upon the company near the front, broken suddenly by an +old lady who leaned lovingly toward her chubby-faced grandson, and said: + +"Frankie, you must look in a few minutes and you will see the President +of the United States." + +"That is good news, anyhow," spoke forth a rough-looking, good-natured +man near by, and the listeners, who were in that excited state of +weariness and waiting that they were ready to laugh or cry as the +slightest occasion offered, burst forth into roars of laughter, which +rang back among the crowds behind and enticed them to join, though I +suppose not twenty of the laughers knew what the joke was, if indeed +there _was_ one. + +A sudden rush. Some one occupied the stand. A notice. + +"A telegram!" said a ringing voice. "For Mrs. C.G. Hammond. +Marked--'Death!'" + +A sympathetic murmur ran through the great company, as they moved and +wedged and fell back, and did almost impossible things, to make a road +out of that dense throng of humanity for the one to whom the president +had suddenly become an insignificance. + +Just then came the "Wyoming Trio." Blessings on them, whoever they are. +Nothing ever could have fitted in more splendidly than they did just +there and then. And the singing rested and helped them all. + +Now a sensation came in the shape of a poem that had been written for +the occasion, and was to be learned to sing in greeting to the +president. How they rang those jubilant words through those old trees! +Tender, touching words, with the Chautauqua key-note quivering all +through them. + + "Greet him! Let the air around him + Benedictions bear; + Let the hearts of all the people + Circle him with prayer.' + +"I wonder if he realizes what a blessed thing it is to be circled with +prayer?" said she of the Teacher's Bible, turning a thoughtful face upon +the four girls who had attracted her attention. + +"I wonder who Mary A. Lathbury is?" said Eurie, reading from the poem. +"She is a poet, whoever she is. There isn't a line in this that is +simply _rhyme_. I doubt if the president ever had such a rhythmical +tribute as that." + +"She is the lady with blue eyes and curls who designs the pictures in +that charming child's paper which flutters around here. I have forgotten +the name of it, but the pictures are little poems themselves." + +This was Flossy's bit of information. + +"Which designs them, the blue eyes or the curls?" Marion asked, gravely. +And then these four simpletons burst into a merry laugh. + +Still the president did not appear. The audience had exhausted their +resources and their good humor. Ominous grumblings and cross faces began +to predominate. Some darkly hinted that he was not coming at all, and +that this was a design to draw the immense crowd together. Nobody +believed it, but many were in a mood to pretend that they did. + +"I never believed in this thing," said a tall, dark-faced, +solemn-featured man, speaking in a voice loud enough to interest the +crowd in front "This sensation business I don't believe in. What do we +want of the president here! Who cares to see him? I don't like it; I +believe it is all wrong, turning a religious meeting upside down for a +sensation, and I told them so." + +Our friend Marion, you will remember, was gifted with a clear voice and +a saucy tongue. + +"If he doesn't like it," she said, quickly, "and doesn't want to see the +president, why do you suppose he has kept one of the best chairs for +four mortal hours? Don't you think that is selfish?" + +Which sentence caused ripples of laughter all about them, and quenched +the solemn-visaged man. + +But it was growing serious, this waiting. It was a great army of people +to be kept at rest, and though they had been quiet and decorous enough +thus far, it was not to be presumed that they were all people governed +by nice shades of propriety. Would the disappointment break forth into +any disagreeable demonstrations? Dr. Vincent had done what he could; he +had appeared promptly on the arrival of dispatches, and given the +latest news that the telegraph and the telescope would send. But what +can any mortal man do who has arranged for people to come who do not +come, except wait for them with what patience he can command. + +At this ominous moment he appeared before them again. Not a notice this +time; something which shone in his eyes and quivered in every vein and +rang in his trumpet-like voice. This was what he said. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + +SETTLED QUESTIONS. + + +Dear Friends: I should bear a burden on my conscience, if I did not come +to you to-day with the 'old, old story.' + +"Over the tent which has been prepared for the President of the United +States there glows, done in evergreen, this single word, '_rest_.' + +"As I pass it, I am reminded of another and a different rest: the rest +from every burden, every anxiety, every pain, every sin; who has rested +in those everlasting arms? There is coming a day when all this throng of +human life gathered here shall wait for the coming of the King. Yea, +even the 'King of kings.' Should that time be to-day, who is ready? Do +you know his power? Do you know his grace? Do you know his love? Through +the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, every one of you may have that +King for your father; I am commissioned, this day, to bring this +invitation to each one of you; 'Come unto me all ye that are heavy +laden, and I will give you rest.' Will you come?------Pardon this +interruption--no, I will not ask your pardon: it is never an +interruption to bring good news from the King to his subjects. I will +not weary you with a long presentation; I have only this message: you +are all invited to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, and be saved from +every possible calamity; you are all invited to come now. I am going to +ask the Tennesseeans to sing one of my favorites: + + "'Brother, don't stay away; + For my Lord says there's room enough, + Room enough in the heaven for you.'" + +Never were tender words more tenderly sung! Never did they steal out +upon the hearts of a more hushed and solemn audience. That matchless +word of gospel had touched home. There were those in the crowd who had +never realized before that the invitation was for them. + +Following the hymn came another, suggested also by Dr. Vincent: "Steal +away to Jesus." It is one of the sweetest as well as one of the +strangest of African melodies; and as the tender message floated up +among the trees, a strange hush settled over the listeners; many tears +were quietly wiped away from eyes unused to weeping. + +"Now sing 'Almost persuaded,'" said Dr. Vincent, his own voice tremulous +with his highly wrought feeling. Many voices took that up. Even the +Chautauqua girls sang, all but Eurie. With the sentence: + + "Seems now some soul to say, + Go, spirit, go thy way; + Some more convenient day + On thee I'll call." + +Flossy tamed her anxious, appealing eyes on Eurie, but she was laughing +merrily over the attempt of a feeble old man near her to join in the +song, and Flossy whispered sadly to Ruth: "Eurie has not even as much +interest as that." + +The spell of the message and the music lingered, even after Dr. Vincent +had gone again. There was no more grumbling; there was very little +laughing; a subdued spirit seemed to brood over the great company. + +"We could almost have a revival, right here," said one thoughtful man, +looking with searching eyes, up and down the sea of faces. + +"I tell you, no grander opportunity was ever more grandly improved than +by those few words of Dr. Vincent's. They touched bottom. He will meet +those words again with joy, or I am mistaken." + +But the waiting was over; suddenly the Chautauqua bells began to peal; +strains of martial music, and the roll of drums, mingled with the +booming of cannon; and almost before they were aware, even after all +their waiting, twenty thousand people stood face to face with their +nation's chief. + +"When the president's head appears above this platform, I hope it will +thunder here," had been Dr. Vincent's suggestion several hours before. + +Thunder! That was no comparison! I hope even _he_ was satisfied. Then +how that song of greeting rung out; tender still, even in its power: +"Let the hearts of all the people circle him with prayer." No better +gift for him than that. + +After the cheering and the singing, and the very brief speech from the +president himself, came the address of welcome by Dr. Fowler of Chicago. +His first sentence sent the multitude into another storm of cheers. Said +he: "The work that I thought to do, has been done by twenty thousand +people." How could they help doing it again after that? Chautauqua had +not dropped her colors in this plan of an afternoon given to the +president. + +The address of welcome from first to last rang with the gospel +invitation, "come;" no better word than that even for their chief; +"honor to whom honor is due," quoted the speaker, and then followed his +graceful tribute, but it closed with a tender, dignified, earnest appeal +to the President of the United States to 'rest' in the same refuge, to +enlist under the same flag, to be loyal to the same Chief, whom they +were met to serve. + +"Out of my heart," said he: "as a man who recognizes God as the supreme +ruler of us all, I bid you come with us, and we will do you good, for +the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel." + +Poor Eurie! What a place she had chosen if she desired to hear no more +preaching. What were all these exercises, but sermons, one after the +other, strong warm unanswerable appeals to be loyal to the Great Chief? +Certainly Dr. Deems was not the man to forget the Greater in his +greeting to the under ruler; nor did he. + +"Let me speak to you in closing," said he, "to you and to this assembly, +out of my heart. We shall never all stand together again, until that +great white throne shall stop in mid heavens, and we shall stand to meet +the Chiefest of all chiefs. O men and brethren, shall we not all prepare +to meet there? Mr. President, every day prayer is made for you; we are +hoping to meet with you in heaven. Brave men who stood beside you in the +late war, and have gone on ahead, are hoping to greet you there. May you +have a good life, a happy life, a blessed life; and may other tongues +more eloquent than mine, more eloquent than even my brother's who +preceded me, bid you welcome one day to the general assembly of the +first born. Amen and amen." + +What could better close the matchless greetings than to have the +Tennesseeans circle round their president and sing again that ringing +chorus: + + "I've been redeemed, + Been washed in the blood of the Lamb." + +"I don't know what will become of the grumblers," Marion said as they +rested in various stages of dishabille, and talked the exciting scenes +over. "They have been shamefully left in the lurch; they were going to +have this affair a demoralizing dissipation from first to last, unworthy +of the spirit of Chautauqua. And if more solemn, or more searching, or +more effective preaching could be crowded into an afternoon than has +been done here, I should like to be shown how. What do you think of your +choice of entertainments, Eurie? You thought it would be safe to attend +the president's reception, you remember." + +"I don't tell all I think," Eurie answered, and then she went out among +the trees. + +Truth to tell, Eurie had heard that from which she could not get away. +Dr. Vincent's words were still sounding, "you are invited to come to +Jesus and be saved; you are invited to come _now_." There had been +nothing to dissipate that impression, everything to deepen it, and the +thought that clung and repeated itself to her heart was that plaintive +wail: + + "Almost persuaded, now to believe." + +That was certainly herself; she felt it, knew it; in the face of that +knowledge think how solemn the words grew: + + "Almost will not prevail, + Almost is but to fail; + Sad, sad that bitter wail, + Almost,--but lost!" + +Was that for her, too? In short, Eurie out there alone, among the silent +trees, felt and admitted this fact: that the time had actually come to +her when this question must be decided, either for or against, and +decided forever. + +Sunday morning at Chautauqua! A white day. There can be none of all +that throng who spent the 15th day of August, 1875, in that sacred +place, who remember it without a thrill. A perfect day! Glorious and +glowing sunshine everywhere; and beauty, such perfect beauty of lake and +grove! The God of nature smiled lovingly on Chautauqua that morning. + +Our girls seemed to think that the perfect day required perfection of +attire, and it was noticeable that the taste of each settled on spotless +white, without color or ornament, other than a spray of leaves and +grasses, which one and another of them gathered almost without knowing +it, and placed in belt or hair. Outward calm, but inward unrest, at +least so far as some were concerned; Marion Wilbur among the number. + +It was a very heavy heart that she carried that day. There was no +unbelief; that demon was conquered. Instead there was an overpowering, +terrible _certainty_. And now came Satan with the whole of her past life +which had turned to sin before her, and hurled it on her poor shrinking +shoulders, until she felt almost to faint beneath the load; she lay +miserably on her bed, and thought that she would not add to her burden +by going to the service, that she knew already too much. But an appeal +from Flossy to keep her company, as the others had gone, had the effect +of changing her mind. + +Armed each with a camp-chair, they made their way to the stand, after +the great congregation were seated. A fortunate thought those +camp-chairs had been; there was not a vacant seat anywhere. + +Marion placed her chair out of sight both of stand and speaker, but +within hearing, and gave herself up to her own troubled thoughts, until +the opening exercises were concluded and the preacher announced his +text: "The place that is called Calvary." + +She roused a little and tried to determine whose voice it was, it had a +familiar sound, but she could not be sure, and she tried to go back to +the useless questionings of her own heart; but she could not. She could +never be deaf to eloquence; whoever the speaker was, there was that in +his very opening sentences which roused and held her. Whatever he had to +say, whether or not it was anything that had to do with her, she _must_ +listen. Still the wonderment existed as to which voice it was. + +But when he reached the sentences: "Jump the ages! Come down here to +Chautauqua Lake to-day, O Son of God! O Son of Man! O Son of Mary! When +the prophet of old said, 'He shall see of the travail of his soul and +shall be satisfied,' did he look along the centuries and see the +gathered thousands here, who have just sung, 'Tell me the old, old +story'? What story? Why, the story of the place that is called +Calvary!"--Marion leaned forward and addressed the person next to her. + +"Isn't that Dr. Deems?" she said. + +"Yes indeed!" was the answer, spoken with enthusiasm. + +And Marion drew back, and listened. That sermon! Marion tried to report +it, but it was like trying to report the roll of the waves on the +Atlantic; she could only listen with beating heart and flushing cheek. +Presently she listened with a new interest, for the divisions of the +subject were: "God's thought of sin," and "God's thought of mercy." +Though the morning was warm, she shivered and drew her wrap closer +about her. "God's thought of sin! She was in a mood to comprehend in a +measure what a fearful thought it might be. + +"Some men," said the speaker, "make light of sin." Yes, she had done it +herself. "Where shall we learn what God thinks of it? On Sinai? No. God +spoke there in thunder and lightning, till the very _hills_ shook and +trembled. + +"And what were they doing down below? Dancing around a golden calf! I +tell you it is only at Calvary that we can learn God's idea of sin. For +at Calvary, because of sin, God the Father surrendered his communion +with God the Son, and on Calvary God _died_! Will God ever forgive sin? +Many a one has carried that question around in his soul until it burned +there." + +Now you can imagine how Marion tried no more to write; thought no more +about eloquence; this question, which had become to her the one terrible +question of life, was being looked into. + +"How will we find out? Go by science into nature, and there's no proof +of it; God never forgives what seems to be the mistake of even a +reptile!" + +I cannot tell you about the rest of that sermon. I took no notes of it; +my notes ended abruptly in the middle of a sentence; one cannot write +out words that are piercing to their hearts. I doubt if even Marion +Wilbur can give you any satisfactory account of the wording of the +sentences. And yet Marion Wilbur rose up at its close, with cheeks aglow +not only with tears, but smiles; and the question, "Will God ever +forgive sin?" she could answer. + +There was a place where the burden would roll away. "At the place called +Calvary." She knew it, believed it, felt it,--why should she not? She +had been there in very deed, that summer morning. He had seen again of +the travail of his soul, he was one soul nearer to being satisfied. + +There were other matters of interest: those two Bibles, symbol of the +Chautauqua pulse,--that were presented to the nation's highest officer; +the address which accompanied them--simple, earnest gospel; the hymn +they sang,--_everything_ was full of interest. But Marion let it pass by +her like the sound of music, and the words in her heart that kept time +to it all were the closing words of that sermon: + + "Here I could forever stay, + Sit and _sing_ my life away. + This is more than life to me, + Lovely, mournful Calvary." + +It was so, all day. She went to the afternoon service; she listened to +Dr. Fowler's sermon, not as she had ever listened to one before; the +sermon for the first time was for her. When people listen for +_themselves_, there is a difference. She felt fed and strengthened; she +joined in the singing as her voice had never joined before; they were +singing about _her_ Saviour. Then she went back to her tent. + +"I am not going to-night," she said to the girls. "I am full, I want +nothing more to-day." + +"Preached out, I declare!" said Eurie. "Are you going to write out your +report for the paper? I wouldn't, Marion. I would go to the meeting. I +am going." + +"No," said Marion in answer to the question, and smiling at the thought. +How strange it would seem to her to spend _this_ Sabbath evening thus. +How many had she so spent! + +"I am glad to-morrow is the last day," she said, sinking into a chair; +"I want to go home." + +And Flossy and Ruth looked at each other, and sighed. How well these +girls understood one another! Why can't people be frank and speak so +that they can be understood? + +Suppose Marion had said: "No, I am _not_ going to write my report, I am +going to pray." Suppose she had said; "Yes, I want to go home to +_practice_." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +THE BEGINNING OF THE END. + + +It is a troublesome fact that, even when people are very much +interested, and very eager over important themes, commonplace and +comparatively trivial duties, will intrude, and insist upon being done +at that moment. For instance, our girls were obliged to spend the whole +of Monday morning in packing their trunks and satchels, returning their +furniture, settling for their tents, and the like; in short, breaking up +housekeeping and getting ready to go back to the civilized world. Flossy +and Ruth dispatched their part at the hotel promptly and came over to +the grounds to help the others. They discussed the meeting while they +worked. + +"If we hadn't been idiots," Marion said, "we should have attended that +normal class and been graduating, this morning, instead of being down +here, at work at our trunks and unknown to fame." + +"Well, you wouldn't go," Ruth answered. "Don't you know you declared +that was too much like work, and you hadn't an idea of learning +anything?" + +"Oh, yes," said Marion. "I remember a great many things I have said, +that I would quite as soon forget." + +By dint of eager bustling from one point to another, the work was +accomplished by noon, and all the girls were ready for the afternoon +service, which all seemed equally eager to attend. When they reached the +stand they looked about them in surprise and dismay. + +"Everybody is gone!" said Flossy, "only look! There are ever so many +unoccupied seats!" + +Marion laughed. + +"And ever so many that are occupied," she said. "My child, you have +been so used to counting audiences by the thousands, that sixteen or +seventeen hundred people look rather commonplace to you. However, there +are more than that number here, I think." + +It soon became a matter of small importance, whether there were few or +many, so long as they had the good fortune to be there themselves, and +to have the company of Dr. Eben Tourjee. + +Now it so happened that among these four girls there were two to whom +God had given special gifts: though neither of them had ever considered +that there were such things as gifts from God, which they were bound to +use in his service. + +There was Ruth Erskine, who had capabilities for music in the ends of +her fingers, that would have almost entranced the angels. What did she +do with her talent? Almost nothing. She hated the sickly +sentimentalities which, set to music, find their way into fashionable +parlors by the score. She was not in the society that knew of, or +craved, the higher, grander kind of music; and because she did, and did +not know it, she simply palled of the kind within her reach and let her +gift lie waste. + +Then there was Marion, whose voice was simply grand, both in power and +tone. What had she done with her voice? Sung by the hour to the old +father whose tender memory lingered with her to-day; less than nothing +with it since; no one knew she could sing; she hated singing in school, +she never went anywhere else; so only occasionally could the four walls +of her upper back room have testified that there was a talent buried +there. + +Did Dr. Tourjee travel from Boston to Chautauqua for the purpose of +inspiring and educating these two girls. I don't suppose he knew of +their existence, but that makes no difference, they are working out his +lecture all the same; in fact it is nearly a year since these Chautauqua +girls came home, and if you have any sort of desire to know what +Chautauqua theories develop into, when put to the test, please keep a +sharp lookout for "_The Chautauqua Girls at Home_." + +As the familiar talk on music went on, Ruth, with her eyes aglow, began +to plan in her own heart, first what she _might_ do, and presently what +she _would_ do. And Marion, at the other end of the seat, went through +the same process neither imagining that these same 'doings' would bring +them together, and lead to endless other doings. But that is just the +way in which life is going on every where, who imagined that what you +did yesterday, would lead your neighbor to do what he _has_ done to-day? + +"Luther said: 'Next to theology, I place sacred music.'" This was the +sentence that started a train of thought for Ruth. After that, she +listened in order that she might work. + +"Never use an interlude in church, I pray God that I may be forgiven for +the fiddle-faddle that I have strummed on organs, in the name of +interludes." + +This, delighted Marion, she hated interludes. She hated quartette +choirs. She had steadily refused to be beguiled into one, by the few who +knew that she could sing, so, when Dr. Tourjee said: "Think of the grand +old hymn, 'From all that dwell below the skies, let the Creator's praise +arise,' being warbled by one voice, a grand chorus of four coming in on +the third line!" + +Marion was entirely in sympathy with him, and eager for work in the way +in which he pointed out. It was an enjoyable afternoon in every respect. +But to "our girls" it was much more than that, it was an education. +Every one of them got ideas which they were eager to put in practice; +and they saw their ways clear to practise them to some purpose. When the +service was over, and the audience moved away, a sense of sadness and +lonliness began to creep over many, snatches of remark could be heard on +all sides. + +"Where is Dr. Fowler?" + +"Gone: went this morning." + +"Where is the Miller party?" + +"Oh, they went some time ago." + +"When did the president leave?" + +"It's all about 'go,'" Eurie said: "Look! How they are crowding down to +the boat; and only a stray one now and then coming up from there. Who +would have supposed it could make us feel so forlorn? I am glad we are +not to be at the morning meeting. I am not sure but I should cry of +homesickness. I say, girls, let's go to Palestine." + +Which suggestion was greeted with delight, and they immediately went. A +great many were of the same mind. Mr. Vanlennep in full Turkish dress, +was leading the way, and giving his familiar lecture on the--to +him--familiar spots. The girls stood near him by the sea of Galilee, and +heard his tender farewell words, and his hope that they would all meet +on the other side of Jordon. It was hard to keep back the quiet tears +from falling. + +They climbed Mount Hermon in silence, and looked over at Mount Lebanon, +they came back by the way of Cesarea, and turned aside to take a last +look at Joppa, down by the sea. In almost total silence this walk back +was accomplished. What was the matter with them all? + +Mr. Roberts had joined them, and he and Flossy walked on ahead. But +their voices were subdued and their subject--to judge from their faces, +_quieting_, to say the least. Then they all went to take their last +supper at Chautauqua. Not one of them grumbled over anything. Indeed, +they all agreed that the board had certainly improved very much during +the last few days, and that it was really remarkable that such a throng +of people could have been served so promptly and courteously, and on +the whole, so well, as had been done there. Still, it was strange to +have plenty of elbow room, and to see the waiters moving leisurely up +and down the long halls; no one in haste, no one kept waiting. + +As they rose from table, a gentleman passed through; they had passed +each other every day for a week; they had no idea what his name was, and +I suppose he knew as little about them. But he paused before them: + +"Good-bye," he said. And held out his hand, "I hope we shall all meet at +the assembly up there!" + +"Good-bye," they answered, and they shook hands. None of them smiled, +none of them thought it strange; though they had never been introduced! +It was the Chautauqua brotherhood of feeling. But after two weeks of +experience and much practice in that line, it was impossible to rid +onesself of the feeling that one must hurry down to the stand in order +to secure seats; so they hurried, and had a new experience; they were +among the first twenty on the ground. + +"The audience will be utterly lost to-night in this immense array of +seats;" Flossy said in dismay. "Doesn't it feel forlorn?" But they took +their seats, and presently came Miss Ryder and seated herself at the +piano in the twilight, and the tunes she played were soft and tender and +weird. + +"Every note says 'goodbye,'" said Ruth, and she gave a little sigh. +Presently, the calcium lights began to glow, as usual, and meantime +though everybody was supposed to have left; still, the people came from +somewhere; and at last, dismayed voices began to say: + +"Why! Did you ever see the like! I thought we should surely get good +seats to-night? Where _do_ all the people come from." + +"Look! Marion," said Eurie. "What would Dr. Harris think of such a +congregation as this! They could not get into our church, could they?" +But just then the hymn claimed attention: + +"My days are gliding swiftly by." + +How swiftly these days had glided away. How full they had been! During +the prayer that followed, all heads bowed, and the silence that fell +upon them made it seem that all hearts joined. Dr. Vincent was the +first speaker. His manner and voice had changed. Both were subdued; he +looked like a man who had been lifted up for a great mental strain and +was gradually letting down again to earth. + +"We are coming toward the close," he said. "We are more quiet than we +have been here before. Familiar faces and forms that have moved in and +out among these trees, for two weeks past, have gone. Only a few hours +and we are going; only a few hours and utter silence will fall upon +Chautauqua." + +"Oh dear!" murmured Eurie, "why _will_ he be so forlorn! I don't see why +I need care so much! Who would have supposed I could!" + +"Hush!" said Marion, and she surreptitiously wiped away a tear. "A love +feast," Dr. Vincent said they were going to have, for that last evening; +it was very much like that. The farewell from Canada came next; the +speaker said he had been "thawed out," meant to have America annexed to +Canada! Indeed they had already been annexed; in heart and soul! "Who's +who?" said he, and "what's what? Who knows?" There was just enough of +the comical mixed with the pathetic in this address to steady many a +tremulous heart. + +Dr. Presbry followed in much the same strain, closing, though, with such +a tender tribute to some who had been at the assembly the year before, +and had since gone to join the assembly that never breaks up, that the +tears came to the surface again. But those blessed Tennesseeans just at +that point made the grounds ring with the chorus, "Oh jubilee! jubilee! +the Christian religion is jubilee!" and followed it with: "I've been a +long time in the house of God, and I ain't got weary yet." + +By that time our girls looked at each other with faces on which tears +and smiles struggled for the mastery. + +"Shall we laugh, or cry?" whispered Eurie, and then they giggled +outright. But they sobered instantly and sat upright, ready to listen, +for the next one who appeared on the platform was Dr. Deems. + +He, too, commenced as if the spell of the parting was upon him. "He was +too tired," he said, "to make a short speech. Some one asked Walter +Scott why he didn't put a certain book of his into one volume instead +of five. And he said he hadn't time. It took five weeks to prepare a +speech three minutes long. And then he warmed, and grew with his subject +until the beautiful thoughts fell around them like pearls. Not only +beautiful, but searching. + +"No man," said he, "_dares_ to make a careless speech at Chautauqua, +there are too many to treasure it up, to plant it again." Of course he +knew nothing about those girls, and how much seed they were gathering +which they meant to plant; but they gathered it, all the same. He +dropped his seeds with lavish hand. This was one that took root in +Marion's brain and heart: + +"There are so many side influences that are unconscious, that the only +safe way for one to do is to let no part of himself ravel, but to keep +himself round and thorough, and healthy to the core." + +After that, Marion's pencil, on which I have to depend for my notes, +gave up in despair. "I _couldn't_ keep track of that man!" she said, +when I complained. "There was no more use to try than there would be to +count these apple blossoms," for it was this spring, and we were +standing in an apple orchard, and a perfect shower of the white, +sweet-smelling things came fluttering round our heads. But after he +'calmed down a little,' as she called it, she tried to write again; and +I copy this: + +"Brethren: This meeting will convert some of the most thoughtful people +of this generation: men who come here not knowing by personal experience +the power of this thing, men who walk thoughtfully up and down these +aisles, looking on, will say: 'There are scholars here, there are men of +genius, of great brain power, there are men and women here of every +variety of temperament, and attainment, held together for fourteen days +by one common bond,' and the perseverance, the solemnity, the hilarity, +the freedom, the naturalness, the earnestness of this meeting will so +impress them that they will know that there is a miracle holding us, a +supernatural strength. + +"May I give you to-night one word more of gospel invitation? Come, go +with us, you who do not understand this matter for yourselves, go with +us, and we _will_ do you good. Will you go to your rooms to-night and +make the resolve that shall write your names in God's book of life? The +recording angel has a trembling hand this minute, waiting for your +answer. Weary one, _so_ young and yet so tired, come, come, come now." + +Marion, with cheeks burning, and eyes very bright and earnest, looked +around her: Eurie sat next to her, she seemed unmoved, there was no sign +of tears to her bright eyes, but she was looking steadily at the +speaker. + +"Never mind!" Marion said within herself, and there came to her an eager +desire to begin her practice, to do something; what if it were utter +failure, would the fault be hers? + +Following the sudden leading that she had learned no better than to call +'impulse' she said in a quick low whisper: "Eurie, _won't you_?" And she +held her breath for the answer, and could distinctly feel the beating of +her own heart. Eurie turned great gray astonished eyes on her friend, +and said in a firm quiet voice: "I have. I settled that matter on +Saturday. Have you?" + +And then those two girls, each with the wonderful surprise ringing music +in her heart, were willing to have that meeting over. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +THE END OF THE BEGINNING. + + +It was almost over. Dr. Deems sat down amid the hush of hearts, and all +the people seemed to feel that no more words were needed. Yet, the next +moment, they greeted Frank Beard with joy, and prepared themselves with +great satisfaction to listen to what he had to say. Frank Beard was one +of Chautauqua's favorites. + +People had not the least idea that they could be beguiled into laughter; +hearts were too tender for that; yet you should have heard the bursts of +mirth that rang there for the next five minutes! Frank Beard was so +quaint, so original, so innocent in his originality, so pure and +high-toned, even in his fun, and they liked him so much that every +heart there responded to his mirth. The roars of laughter reached as +high as the music had done, but a little while before. + +Yet, when people's hearts are tender, and full, it is strange how near +laughter is to tears! Just a sentence from the same lips and the hush +fell on them again. + +Frank Beard had brought his heart with him to Chautauqua, and he was +evidently leaving some of it there. The touching little story of his +dream about his mother brought out a flutter of handkerchiefs, and made +tear-stained faces. And when he, simply as a child, tenderly as a +large-souled man, trustfully as only a Christian can, said his farewell, +and told of his joyful hope of meeting them all in the eternal morning, +absolute stillness settled over them. + +So many last words--one and another came--just a word, just "good-bye," +until we meet again; maybe here, next year, maybe there, where good-byes +are never heard. Finally came Dr. Vincent, his strong decided voice +breaking the spell, and helping them to realize that they ware men and +women with work to do: + +"Now, my friends," he said, "we really _must_ go home; it is hard to +close; I know that, no one knows it better: we _have_ closed a good many +times, and it won't _stay_ closed. The last word has been said over and +over again. I said it myself, some time ago, and here I am again: we +must just _stop_, never mind the closing; we will ring a hymn, and go +away, and next year we will begin right here, where we left it." + +But he didn't "stop," and no one wanted him to. His voice grew tender, +and his words were solemn. The last words that he would ever speak to +many a soul within sound of his voice; it could not be otherwise. You +can imagine better than I could tell you what Dr. Vincent's message +would be at such a time as that. + +Breaking into it, came the shrill sound of the whistle. The Col. +Phillips--the last boat for the night--was giving out its warning. The +Chautauqua bells began their parting peal. Not even for his own +convenience would that marvel of punctuality have the bells tarry a +moment behind the hour appointed. + +Our girls looked at each other and made signs, and nodded, and began to +slip quietly out. They had arranged to spend the night at the Mayville +House, and take an early train. Many others were softly and reluctantly +moving away. They were very quiet during that last walk down to the +wharf. Glorious moonlight was abroad, and the water shone like a sheet +of silver. + +As they walked, the evening wind brought to them the notes of the last +song which the throng at the stand were singing. A clear, ringing, yet +tender farewell. It floated sweetly down to them, growing fainter and +fainter as the distance lengthened, until, as they stepped on board the +boat, they lost its sound. There were many people going the same way, +but there was little talking. There are times when people, though they +may be very far from unhappiness, have no desire to talk. Once on deck, +Marion turned and clasped both of Eurie's hands. + +"I have had such a blessed surprise to-night!" she said, with glowing +face. "I did not think of such a thing! O Eurie, why didn't you tell +me?" + +"You cannot begin to be as surprised as I am," Eurie said. "I thought +you were miles away from such a thing. Why didn't you tell _me_?" + +Ruth and Flossy were leaning over, watching the play of the water +against the boat's side. + +"What about those two?" Eurie said, nodding her head toward them. + +Marion sighed. + +"Ruth is very far from understanding anything about it," she said; "at +least the last time I talked with her she knew as little about the +Christian life as the veriest heathen so far at least as personal duty +was concerned." + +"When was that?" + +"Why, a week ago; more than a week." + +"How long is it since you settled this question for yourself?" + +"Since yesterday," Marion said, blushing and laughing. "Eurie, you would +do for a cross-questioner." + +"And I have been on this side since Saturday,'" Eurie answered, +significantly. "A great many things can happen in a week." + +At this point, Ruth turned and came towards them. She looked quiet and +grave. + +"It is a year, isn't it? since we stood here together for the first +time," she said. "At least I seem to have had a year of life and +experience. Do you know, girls, I have something to tell you: I thought +to wait until we reached home, but I have decided to-night that I will +not. I am sorry that I have not told you before. Marion, don't you know +how like a simpleton I talked, a week ago last Saturday night? I want to +tell you that I was a fool; and was talking about that of which I knew +nothing at all. I want to assure you that there is a safe place, that I +know it now by actual experience, I have gone to the mountain and it is +sure and safe; and, oh, girls, I want you both to come so much." + +"I know the mountain;" Marion said, reaching out, and clasping Ruth's +hand. "The name of it is Calvary, it _is_ safe, and it is sufficient for +us all. Ruthie, we three are together in this thing." + +What those girls said to each other then and there is sacred to them. +But if I could, I would tell you something of the joy they felt. + +Flossy still leaned over the railing, a small quiet speck in the +moonlight. Marion kept turning her head in her direction. "Our poor +little Flossy would not understand much about this experience, I +suppose," she said at last; "she is such a child, and yet, I don't +know--sometimes I have fancied that she thinks more than we give her +credit for. That at least she has lately." + +"Let us tell her, anyway," Eurie, said, "we can't know what good it may +do. If we had not been so dreadfully afraid of each other, during the +last few days, we might have helped each other a good deal; for my part, +I have learned a lesson on which I mean to practice." + +Ruth looked up quickly, a rare smile in her eyes; she opened her lips to +speak to them, then seemed to change her mind and raised her voice: +"Flossy!" And Flossy came at her call. + +"Come here," Ruth said, withdrawing her hand from Marion's, and winding +her arm around the small figure beside her. + +"Flossy, the girls have had our very experience all by themselves, and +they want to know how long it is since you began to think about this +matter for yourself." + +Flossy turned her soft blue eyes on Marion. + +"The very night we came, Marion, and you made me come to the meeting in +the rain, you remember? I heard that which I knew would never let me +rest again, until I understood it and had it for my own. But I was very +ignorant, and foolish, and I blundered along in the dark for three +mortal days! After that Jesus found me, and I have known since what it +is to live in the light." + +"A Christian experience of ten whole days!" Eurie said. Of course she +was the first one to rise from her surprise and get possession of her +tongue. + +"Flossy, you have had a chance to get a good way ahead instead of being +behind, as we thought. You will have to show us the way." + +"Isn't this just wonderful!" broke forth Marion, suddenly, an +overwhelming sense coming over her, of the new relations that they four +would henceforth bear to each other. "Why, girls, what would they say up +there at the stand, if they could know what has come to each of us! I +almost feel like going back and telling them all. Just think what a +delight it would be to Dr. Vincent, and Dr. Deems, and, oh, to all of +them. Isn't it queer to think how well we know them all, and they are +not aware of our existence?" + +"I don't believe people will have to wait to be introduced to each +other when they get to heaven," Eurie said; "that is one of the first +things I am going to do when I get there; hunt up some of these +Chautauqua people and cultivate their acquaintance." + +This sentence gave Flossy a new thought: + +"We are really _all_ going to heaven!" + +She said it precisely as you might speak of a trip to Europe on which +your heart had long been set. + +"We are just as sure of it as though we were there this minute! Girls, +don't you know how nice we thought it would be to be together at +Chautauqua for two whole weeks? Now think of being together, there, for +a million years!" But the thought which filled Flossy's heart with a +sweet song of melody, and wreathed her face in glad smiles, was such an +overwhelming one to Marion, so immense with power and possibility, that +it seemed to her to take her very breath; she turned abruptly from the +rest and walked to the Teasel's side to still the throbbing of her +heart. + +Meantime the boat had been filling with passengers, and now she was +getting under way. Still the hush continued; the people stood closely +around the railing, on the Chautauqua side, and looked lovingly back at +the fair point of land that lay before them in glowing moonlight. +Presently a leading voice began to sing: + + "There's a land that is fairer than day, + And by faith we can see it afar; + For the Father waits over the way + To prepare us a dwelling-place there. + We shall meet in the sweet by and by, + On that beautiful shore in the sweet by and by, + We shall meet on that beautiful shore." + +Before the chorus was reached, every voice that could sing at all must +have taken up the strain. Marion, for the first time in years gave a +hint of the full compass of her powers, making Ruth turn suddenly +towards her, with a brightening face, for she saw how the singing and +the playing could fit into each other, and do good service. + +On and on stole the vessel through the silver water. The courteous +captain came around quietly for his tickets, and to one and another +with whose faces he had grown familiar he said: "We shall miss you; the +Col. Phillips has been proud of carrying you all safely back and forth." + +One said to him in return: "I hope, captain, we shall all land at last +safe in the harbor." And the captain bowed his answer in silence. It +would have been hard to speak words just then. + +But ever and anon that leading voice took up words of song. + +Still the song that best seemed to suit all hearts was that tender "By +and by," and as the lights along the Chautauqua shore grew dim it rose +again in swelling volume: + + "We shall meet, we shall sing, we shall reign, + In the land where the saved never die; + We shall rest free from sorrow and pain, + Safe at home in the sweet by and by." + +Then the refrain, repeated and re-repeated, until, as the last lingering +note of it died away, the boat touched at the wharf, and looking back, +they saw that the Chautauqua lights were out, and silence and darkness +had Fairpoint. + +"Good-bye," Marion said, and she bowed towards the distant shore; she +was smiling, but her lips were quivering. + +"We shall meet in the sweet by and by," Flossy quoted, but her voice +trembled. + +"There is a chance to do grand work first, that the final meeting may be +infinitely larger, because of us." + +This the leading voice in the singing said, as he held out his hand to +say good-bye. And as they took it some of the girls noticed for the +first time that it was Mr. Roberts; as for Flossy, she had known it all +the time. + +"We are going to try to do some of the work, Mr. Roberts," Eurie said; +"I have found the road to Bethany since I saw you, the _real_ road, and +we are going to try and keep it well trodden." + +He was shaking hands with Flossy, as Eurie spoke, and he still held her +hand while he answered: "Good news! There is plenty of work to do. It is +well that Chautauqua has gathered in new reapers. I am coming to your +city, next winter; I shall want to help you. Good-bye." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOUR GIRLS AT CHAUTAUQUA*** + + +******* This file should be named 12662.txt or 12662.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/2/6/6/12662 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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