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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Sunshine Jane, by Anne Warner, Illustrated by
+Harriet Roosevelt Richards
+
+
+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: Sunshine Jane
+
+
+Author: Anne Warner
+
+
+
+Release Date: November 10, 2011  [eBook #37972]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUNSHINE JANE***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Ernest Schaal, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images
+generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries
+(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustration.
+      See 37972-h.htm or 37972-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37972/37972-h/37972-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37972/37972-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/sunshinejane00warniala
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
+
+      Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=).
+
+      Small capital letters were replaced by all capitals
+
+
+
+
+
+SUNSHINE JANE
+
+
+[Illustration: "Auntie Susan, it's Aunt Matilda and Mr. Beamer."
+FRONTISPIECE. _See Page 265._]
+
+
+SUNSHINE JANE
+
+by
+
+ANNE WARNER
+
+Author of "The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary," "Susan
+Clegg and Her Friend, Mrs. Lathrop," etc.
+
+With Frontispiece by Harriet Roosevelt Richards
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Boston
+Little, Brown, and Company
+1914
+
+Copyright, 1913, 1914,
+By Little, Brown, and Company.
+
+All rights reserved
+
+Published, February, 1914
+Reprinted, January, 1914
+
+Set up and electrotyped by J. S. Cushing Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
+Presswork by S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, Mass., U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+    CHAPTER                                          PAGE
+
+        I. GENERAL IGNORANCE                            1
+
+       II. EVERYBODY GETS THERE                         6
+
+      III. MATILDA TEACHES                             22
+
+       IV. JANE BEGINS SUNSHINING                      37
+
+        V. A CHANGE IN THE FEEL OF THINGS              61
+
+       VI. LORENZO RATH                                84
+
+      VII. A NEW OUTLOOK ON MATILDA                    98
+
+     VIII. SOUL-UPLIFTING                             127
+
+       IX. MADELEINE'S SECRET                         138
+
+        X. OLD MRS. CROFT                             148
+
+       XI. SHE SLEEPS                                 159
+
+      XII. EMILY'S PROJECT                            169
+
+     XIII. EMILY IS HERSELF FREELY                    191
+
+      XIV. JANE'S CONVERTS                            208
+
+       XV. REAL CONVERSATION                          220
+
+      XVI. THE MOST WONDERFUL THING EVER HAPPENED     233
+
+     XVII. WHY JANE SHOULD HAVE BELIEVED              243
+
+    XVIII. IN A PERFECTLY RIGHT WAY                   256
+
+      XIX. THE RESULTS                                277
+
+
+
+
+SUNSHINE JANE
+
+
+
+
+SUNSHINE JANE
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+GENERAL IGNORANCE
+
+
+THERE was something pathetic in the serene unconsciousness of the little
+village as the stage came lumbering down the hillside, bearing its
+freight of portent. So many things were going to be changed forever
+after,--and no one knew it. Such a vast difference was going speedily to
+make itself felt, and not a soul was aware even of what a bigger soul it
+was so soon to be. Old Mrs. Croft, clear at the other end of town and
+paralyzed for twenty years, hadn't the slightest conception of what a
+leading part was being prepared for her to play. Poor Katie Croft, her
+daughter-in-law and slave, whose one prayer was for freedom, dreamed not
+that the answer was now at last coming near. Mrs. Cowmull, sitting on
+her porch awaiting the "artist who had advertised," knew not who or what
+or how old he might be or the interest that would soon be hers. Poor
+Emily Mead, shelling peas on the bench at the back of her mother's
+house, frowned fretfully and, putting back her great lock of rich
+chestnut hair with an impatient gesture, wished that she might see "just
+one real man before she died,"--and the man was even then jolting
+towards her. Miss Debby Vane, putting last touches to the flowers on her
+guest-room table, where Madeleine would soon see them, was also sweetly
+unaware of the approach of momentous events. She thought but of
+Madeleine, the distant cousin whose parents wanted to see if absence
+would break up an obnoxious love affair, and so were sending her to Miss
+Debby, who was "only too pleased."
+
+"A love affair," she whispered rapturously. "A _real_ love affair in
+this town!" And then she pursed her lips delightfully, never guessing
+that she was to see so much besides.
+
+Meanwhile Miss Matilda Drew stood looking sternly out of her sister
+Susan's window, considering if there were any necessary yet up to now
+forgotten point to be impressed upon Jane the instant that she should
+arrive. Miss Matilda was naturally as ignorant as all the rest,--as
+ignorant even as poor Susan, lying primly straight behind her on the
+bed. Susan was a widow and an invalid, not paralyzed like old Mrs.
+Croft, but pretty helpless. Matilda had lived with her for five years
+and tended her assiduously, as she grew more and more feeble. Now
+Matilda was "about give out," and--"just like a answer out of a clear
+sky," as Matilda said--their niece Jane, whom neither had seen since she
+was a mite in curls fifteen years ago, had written to ask if she might
+spend her holiday with them. They had said "Yes," and Matilda was going
+away for a rest while Jane kept house and waited on her poor old aunt.
+Jane was one of the passengers now rattling along in the stage. She
+differed widely from the others and from every one else in the village,
+but all put together, they formed that mass known to literature as "the
+situation." I think myself that it was the rest that formed "the
+situation" and that Jane formed "the key," but I may be prejudiced.
+Anyway, "key" or not, Miss Matilda's niece was a sweet, brown-skinned,
+bright-haired girl, with a happy face, great, beautiful eyes, and a
+heart that beat every second in truer accord with the great working
+principles of the universe. She was the only one among them now who had
+a foot upon the step that led to the path "higher up." And yet because
+she was the only one, she had seen her way to come gladly and teach them
+what they had never known; not only that, but also to learn of them the
+greatest lesson of her own life. So we see that although conscious of
+both hands overflowing with gifts, Jane really was as ignorant, in God's
+eyes, as all the rest. She had gone far enough beyond the majority to
+know that to give is the divinest joy which one may know, but she had
+not gone far enough to realize that in the greatest outpouring of
+generosity which we can ever give vent to, a vacuum is created which
+receives back from those we benefit gifts way beyond the value of our
+own. "I shall bring so much happiness here," ran the undercurrent of her
+thought; she never imagined that Fate had brought her to this simple
+village to fashion herself unto better things.
+
+So all, alike unaware--those in the stage and those awaiting its advent
+with passengers and post--drew long, relieved breaths as it passed with
+rattle and clatter over the bridge and into the main street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+EVERYBODY GETS THERE
+
+
+JANE sat on the rear seat with old Mr. Cattermole, who was coming home
+to his daughter, Mrs. Mead.
+
+"Ever been here before?" old Mr. Cattermole asked her.
+
+"No, never."
+
+"Hey?"
+
+"No, never."
+
+"Once?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Never!"
+
+"I'll tell you what it is," said Mr. Cattermole, beaming benevolently,
+"it's the jolting. It keeps me from hearing what you say."
+
+Jane nodded, smiling.
+
+But old Mr. Cattermole wasn't long inconvenienced by the jolting.
+
+"Who you going to stop with?" he asked next.
+
+"Mrs. Ralston and Miss Drew."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Mrs. Ralston and Miss Drew."
+
+"Who? I don't hear you."
+
+"Miss Drew."
+
+"The Crews?--There ain't no such people in town."
+
+"Miss Drew!" Jane became slightly crimson.
+
+"I'll tell you," said Mr. Cattermole, "we'll wait. I can't hear. Really
+I can't."
+
+The next minute they arrived at Mrs. Cowmull's, since she lived in the
+first house on the street. Lorenzo Rath, the artist, who had been
+sitting on the middle seat with Madeleine, now pressed her hand, twisted
+about and shook Jane's, nodded to old Mr. Cattermole, leaned forward and
+dragged his suit-case from under the seat, and then wriggled out, over
+two boxes and under a flapping curtain, and down on to the sidewalk.
+Mrs. Cowmull was standing on the porch, trying to look hospitable and
+unconscious at the same time. "Here," said the stage driver, suddenly
+delivering Lorenzo's trunk on to the top of his head,--"and here's the
+lampshade and the codfish,--they get down here, too."
+
+Lorenzo couldn't help laughing. "Au revoir," he cried, waving the
+lampshade as the steps began to move.
+
+"We'll meet again soon," Madeleine cried, her face full of bright color.
+
+"Yes, of course."
+
+Then they were off.
+
+"Seemed a nice young feller," said old Mr. Cattermole to Jane.
+
+"Yes." She tried to speak loudly.
+
+"Hey!"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I'll tell you," said old Mr. Cattermole benevolently, "you come and see
+my granddaughter Emily, and then we'll talk. My granddaughter's a great
+student. You'll like her. She's full of the new ideas and new books and
+all that. We're very proud of her. Only she don't get married."
+
+Then the stage stopped, and Mrs. Mead came running out. "Oh, Father, did
+you buy the new magazines,--on the train, you know?"
+
+Old Mr. Cattermole was descending backwards with the care of a cat in an
+apple-tree. "It's my daughter," he said to Jane. "I can always hear her
+because she speaks so plain. Yes, Emma, it _was_ dusty, very dusty."
+
+"This lawn-sprinkler is your's, ain't it?" said the stage driver,
+jerking it off the roof into Mrs. Mead's arms. "Here's his bag, too."
+
+And then they went on again. Madeleine now had space to turn about.
+"You'll come and see me?" she asked Jane earnestly; "it'll be so nice.
+We're both strangers here."
+
+"I'll try," Jane answered, "but I shall be closely tied to the house.
+Aunt Susan is an invalid, you see. I'll not only have all the work, but
+if I go out, that poor sick woman will be left helpless and alone
+up-stairs."
+
+"Perhaps I can come and see you, then," said Madeleine. "I'll have the
+time to come, if you'll have the time to see me."
+
+"I don't know anything about what my life will be," said Jane. "As I
+told you on the train, I've only seen my aunts once in my life and that
+was fifteen years ago. But I should think that you could come and see
+us. I should think that a little company would do Aunt Susan a lot of
+good. I'm sure that it would, in fact. But she may not like to see
+strangers. I really don't know a thing about it. I'm all in the dark."
+
+"I'll come and ask if I may come," said Madeleine brightly. "If she sees
+me, maybe she'll like me. Most everybody does." She laughed.
+
+"I'm sure of that," Jane said, laughing, too. Then the stage stopped at
+Miss Debby Vane's, and Miss Debby came flying down to embrace her
+cousin. "Thanks be to God that you're here safe, my dear. These awful
+storms at sea have just about frightened me to death."
+
+"But I was on land, Aunt Deborah." Madeleine, in getting down, had
+gotten into a warm embrace at the same time.
+
+"I know, dear, I know. But one can't remember that all the time--can
+one?" Miss Debby was kissing her over and over.
+
+"Your step-ladder. Look out!" cried the stage driver, and they had
+barely time to jump from under.
+
+Then Madeleine reached up and clasped Jane's hand. "We shall be
+friends," she said earnestly; "I've never met any one whom I've liked
+quite in the same way that I like you. Do let us see all that we can of
+one another."
+
+"_I_ want to, I know," Jane answered.
+
+The stage driver was already remounting his seat.
+
+"Au revoir," Madeleine cried, just as Lorenzo had done.
+
+"Just for a little," Jane called back, and then she was alone in the
+stage, rattling down the long, green-arched street to its furthest end.
+
+"There goes the stage," Katie Croft called out to her mother-in-law in
+the next room. "Now Miss Drew'll have her niece and be able to get away
+for a little rest."
+
+"If it was a daughter-in-law, she couldn't, maybe," said a voice from
+the next room; "the rest is going to be poor, sweet Susan Ralston's,
+anyhow. Oh, my Susan Ralston, my dear, sweet Susan Ralston, my loving
+Susan Ralston, where I used to go and call!"
+
+"Why, Mother, you haven't so much as thought of Mrs. Ralston for years."
+Katie's voice was very sharp.
+
+"Nobody knows what I think of," wailed the voice from the other room.
+"My thoughts is music. They fly and sing all night. They sing Caw, Caw,
+and they fly like feathers."
+
+Katie Croft walked over and shut the door with a bang. Katie was almost
+beside herself.
+
+The stage now drew up before the Ralston house.
+
+Miss Matilda quitted the window, where she had stood watching for an
+hour, and went to the gate. Her emotions were quite tumultuous--for her.
+Single-handed she had tended her sister for five years, and now she was
+going to have a rest. She had had very trying symptoms, and the doctor
+had advised a rest,--three weeks of freedom, night and day. She was
+going away on a real holiday, going back to the place where she had
+taught school before the summons had come to cherish, love, and protect
+her only sister, who was not strong and had property. It seemed like a
+dream,--a wild, lively, and joyful dream. She almost smiled as she
+thought of what was at hand.
+
+Jane descended, her small trunk came bang down beside her in the same
+instant, and the driver was paid and drove off. The aunt and niece then
+turned to go into the house.
+
+"Well, and so it's you!" Matilda's tone and glance were slightly
+inquisitorial, and more than slightly dictatorial. "I'm glad to see
+you're strong. You'll need be. She's an awful care. She ain't up much
+now. Isn't up at all sometimes for weeks. Sleeps considerable. Take off
+your hat and coat and hang them there. That's the place where they
+belong."
+
+Jane obeyed without saying anything. But her smile spoke for her.
+
+"Hungry?" inquired Matilda.
+
+"A little."
+
+"I surmised you would be and waited supper. Thought you'd see how I
+fixed hers then. She's eating very little. Less and less all the time.
+There's a garden to weed, too. Awful inconvenient out there across two
+stiles. But she won't give it up. She pays me to tend it, or I'd let the
+dandelions root it out in short order. But I tend it."
+
+They had gone into the kitchen, where a kettle stewed feebly over a
+half-dead fire. "Sit down," said Matilda. "I'll fix her supper first.
+She takes her tea cold, so I save it from morning and heat it up with a
+little boiling water, _so_. Then there's this bit of fish I saved from
+day before yesterday, and I cut a piece of bread. No butter, because her
+stomach's delicate. You'll see that she'll hardly eat this. Watch now."
+
+Jane sat and watched, still smiling.
+
+"Mr. Rath, the artist, came down in the stage with you, didn't he?" Miss
+Matilda went on. "What kind of a young man was he? Somebody'll tell you,
+so it might as well be me, what's brought him here. Mrs. Cowmull's
+trying to marry off her niece, Emily Mead. There aren't any men in town,
+so she advertised. She gave it out that she wanted a boarder, but
+everybody see through that. That's what marriage has come to these days,
+catching men to board 'em and then marrying them when they're thinking
+of something else. I thank Heaven I ain't had nothing to do with any
+marriage. They're a bad business. There, that's your supper."
+
+Jane started slightly. Her own cold fish and lukewarm tea sat before
+her. "Shan't I take Aunt Susan's up first?" she asked, recollecting that
+she still had some lunch in her bag, and that Matilda would be leaving
+early in the morning.
+
+"No need. She likes things cold. You ought to see her face if she gets
+anything boiling in her mouth. It's no use to give her nothing hot.
+You'd think it was a snake. I give it up the third time she burnt her."
+
+"But I ought to go up and see her, I think; she hasn't seen me since I
+was such a little girl."
+
+"No need. You go ahead and enjoy your supper without bothering over her.
+She knows you're here, and she isn't one that's interested in things.
+She'll read an old shelf paper for hours, but carry her up a new paper
+and like as not when you get to the bed with it, you'll find her asleep.
+She sleeps a lot."
+
+Jane--thus urged--picked the chilled fish with a fork and considered.
+
+"I'll show you about the house after you've done eating," the aunt
+continued presently; "it's easy taken care of, for I keep it all shut
+up. Just Susan's room and mine and the kitchen is open. The neighbors
+won't bother you, for I give them to understand long ago as I wasn't one
+with time to waste. There isn't any one in the place that a woman with
+any sense would want to bother with, anyhow."
+
+"I don't fancy that I'll have time to be lonesome," smiled Jane, bravely
+swallowing some tea.
+
+"You'd have if it wasn't for the garden. I don't know whatever in the
+world makes Susan set such store by that garden. She will have it that
+it shall be kept up in memory of her husband, and you never saw such
+weeds. I've often sat down backwards when one come up--often."
+
+"I can't see it at all," with a glance out of the window.
+
+"You can't from here. And it's got to be watered, and she counts every
+pot full of water from her bed. She can hear me pumping. The birds dig
+up the seeds as fast as I can plant 'em, and I never saw no sense in
+slaving in the sun over what you can buy in the shade any day.--Are you
+done?"
+
+"Yes, I'm done."
+
+"Then come on."
+
+"Can I spread the tray?"
+
+"Tray! She doesn't have a tray. What should I fuss with a tray for, when
+I've got two hands?"
+
+Jane rose and stood by the table in silence, watching the cup filled
+from the standing teapot and the plate ornamented with a lonely bit of
+fish and a slice of bread. "Don't you butter the bread?"
+
+"She's in bed so much she mustn't have rich food," Matilda answered;
+"there, now it's ready. Come on."
+
+"Shan't I carry anything?"
+
+"I can take it, I guess. I've carried it alone for five years; I guess I
+can manage it to-night."
+
+Jane followed up the stairs in silence; Matilda marched ahead with a
+firm, heavy tread.
+
+"Shall I knock for you?"
+
+"I don't know what for. She yells anyway, whenever I come in, whether
+she's knocked or not. Just open the door."
+
+Jane opened the door gently, and they went in together. The room was
+half darkened, and only a little sharp nose showed over the top of the
+bedquilt.
+
+"Here's your supper," said the affectionate sister, "and here's Jane."
+
+A shrill cry was followed by two eyes tipping upward beyond the nose.
+"Oh, are you Jane?" There was a lot of pathos in the tone.
+
+The girl moved quickly to the bedside. "I hope that we're going to be
+very happy," she said; "we must love one another very much, you know."
+
+The invalid hoisted herself on to an elbow and looked towards the plate
+which Matilda was holding forth.
+
+"Oh, my! Fish again!" she wailed.
+
+Later--on their way back to the kitchen fire--Matilda said
+significantly: "Most ungrateful person I ever saw, she is. But just
+don't notice what she says. It's the only way to get on. I keep her room
+tidy and I keep her house clean and I keep her garden weeded. I'm
+careful of her money, and she's well fed. I don't know what more any one
+could ask, but she ain't satisfied and she ain't always polite, but
+you'll only have three weeks of what I've had for five years, so I guess
+it won't kill you."
+
+"Oh, I think that I'll be all right," Jane answered cheerfully.
+
+"The stage is ordered for seven in the morning, and I shall get up at
+half-past four," the aunt continued. "You can sleep till five just as
+well. I'm going to bed now, and you'd better do the same thing."
+
+"Yes, I think so," said Jane cheerfully; "good night."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+MATILDA TEACHES
+
+
+MATILDA seated herself bolt upright on one of the kitchen chairs and
+drew a hard, stiff sigh.
+
+"It'll be a great rest to get away," she said, "more of a rest than any
+one but me will ever know. You see, she's left all she's got to me in
+her will, so I'm bound in honor to keep a pretty sharp watch over
+everything. I can't even take a chance at her sinking suddenly away,
+with the room not picked up or a cobweb in some high corner. I've seen
+her will, and she ain't left you a cent, so you won't have the same
+responsibility. It'll be easier for you."
+
+"I'll do my very best," said Jane.
+
+"The trouble is I'm too conscientious," said Matilda. "I was always
+conscientious, and she was always slack. It's an awful failing. It's a
+warning, too, for now there she lays, snug as a bug in a rug, and me
+with New Asthma in my arm from tending her and the house."
+
+"You'll get over all that very soon," said the niece soothingly.
+
+Matilda glanced at her suspiciously. "No, I shan't. I may get better,
+but I shan't get over it. It's a nerve trouble and can't never be
+completely cured. A doctor can alligator it, but he can't cure it. I'll
+have it till I die."
+
+Jane was silent.
+
+"You wrote that you were some kind of a nurse. What kind did you say you
+were?"
+
+"I'm a Sunshine Nurse."
+
+"A Sunshine Nurse! What's that? Some new idea of never pulling down the
+shades?"
+
+Jane laughed. "Not exactly. It's an Order just founded by a doctor. He
+picked out the girls himself, and he sends them where he chooses for
+training."
+
+"What's the training?"
+
+Jane looked at her and hesitated a little. "I expect you'll laugh," she
+said finally; "it does sound funny to any one who isn't used to such
+ideas. We're to see the sun as always shining, and always shine
+ourselves, and our training consists in going where there isn't any
+brightness and being bright, and going where there isn't any happiness
+and teaching happiness."
+
+"Sounds to me like nonsense," said Matilda, rising abruptly;
+"don't you go letting up the sitting-room shades and fading the
+upholstering,--that's all I've got to say. Come now and I'll show you
+about locking up, and then we'll go to bed."
+
+Jane obeyed with promptness and was most observant and attentive.
+Matilda loaded her with behests and instructions and seemed appreciative
+of the intelligence with which they were received.
+
+"I wouldn't go in for nothing fancy," she said, as they completed their
+task; "the less you stir up her and the house, the easier it'll be for
+me when I come back. You don't want to ever forget that I'm coming back,
+and don't put any fancy ideas into her head. There's plenty to do here
+without going out of your way to upset my ways."
+
+"I'll remember," said Jane.
+
+Then they started up-stairs, and a few minutes later the Sunshine Nurse
+was alone in her own room, free to stand quietly by the window and let
+her outward gaze form a bond between the still beauty of a country night
+and the glad vision of work in plenty, and that of a kind which Miss
+Matilda couldn't prohibit, because she knew not the world in which such
+work is done.
+
+"Not--" said Jane to herself with a little whimsical smile--"not but
+what I'm 'most sure that my teaching will be manifest in a lot of
+material changes, too, but by the time that she comes back, her own
+feelings will be sufficiently 'alligatored' so that she'll see life
+differently also. God's plan is just as much for her good in sending her
+away as it is for mine in sending me here, and I mustn't forget that for
+a minute. I'll be busy and she'll be busy, and we'll both be learning
+and we'll both be teaching and we'll both be being necessary."
+
+She drew a chair close and sat down, full of her own bright and helpful
+thoughts. Much of love and wonder came flooding into her through the
+medium of the sweet, calm night without. "It's like being among angels,"
+she fancied, and felt a close companionship with those who had known the
+Great White Messengers face to face.
+
+Long she sat there, praying the prayer that is just one indrawn breath
+of content and uplifted consciousness. Not many girls of twenty-two
+would have seen so much in that not unusual situation, and yet it was to
+her so brimful of fair possibilities that she could hardly wait for
+morning to begin work.
+
+When she rose to undress, when she climbed into the plain, hard bed that
+received her so kindly, when she slept at last, all was with the same
+sense of responsibility mixed with energetic intention. All that she had
+"asked" in the usual sense of "asking in prayer" had been "to be shown
+exactly how," and because she was one of those who know every prayer to
+be answered, in the hour of its making she knew that to be answered,
+too. "I'll be led along," was her last thought before sleeping, and it
+swept the fringe of her consciousness, leaving her to enter dreamland
+with the happy security of a trusting child.
+
+It really seemed no time at all before Matilda rapped loudly on her
+door, bringing her suddenly to the knowledge that the hour to begin all
+the longed-for work was at hand.
+
+"Five o'clock!" Matilda howled gently through the crack.
+
+"Yes, yes," she cried in response.
+
+The door opened a bit wider. "You'd better get right up or you'll go to
+sleep again," Matilda said, putting her head in, "right this minute."
+
+"Yes, I will."
+
+She sat up in bed to prove it.
+
+"All right," said her aunt--and shut the door.
+
+Jane had unpacked her small trunk the night before, and so was able to
+dress quickly and get down-stairs without a minute wasted. She found
+Matilda in the kitchen, very busy with the stove.
+
+"I do hope you'll remember what I said last night," she said, shoveling
+out ashes with an energy that filled the room with dust. "I can't have
+her habits all upset. It'll be no good giving me this change if you go
+and spoil her. Remember that."
+
+"I won't make any trouble," promised Jane. "I'll always remember that
+you're coming back."
+
+As she spoke, she saw again the thin, hopeless face on the pillow
+up-stairs and knew that Matilda herself was to know a glad surprise over
+the change which should welcome her home-coming. It was the learning to
+instantly realize the better side of those who insisted on exhibiting
+their worst that was the leading force in the training of that beaming
+little Order to which she belonged. The Sunshine Nurses were forbidden
+to consider anything or anybody as fixedly wrong either in kind,
+conception, or working out. It would be a very comfortable way of
+looking at things--even for such mere, ordinary, everyday folk as you
+and me.
+
+Matilda now said, "Ugh, ugh!" over the dust and proceeded to dive into
+the wood-box with one hand and get a sliver in her thumb.
+
+"In the morning she has tea," she said, going to the window to put her
+hand to rights. "One cup. Piece of bread. At noon, whatever is handy.
+Night, cup of tea and whatever she fancies. Bread or a cracker usually.
+She eats very little and less all the time. The cat eats more than she
+does. He's a snooper, that cat,--you'll have to watch out."
+
+Jane didn't seem to understand. "A--a snooper?"
+
+"Steals food. Awful thief. Slap him when you catch him at it; it's all
+you can do. Sometimes I throw water over him. He'll make off with what
+would be a meal for a hired man, and he's sly as any other thief."
+
+"Can't I help you with your hand?"
+
+"No, you can't. I get lots of them. They bother me a little because Mrs.
+Croft's cousin died of blood-poison from one. There, it's out. What was
+I saying? Oh, yes, the cat."
+
+"Where is she now?"
+
+"It's a he. Named Alfred for her husband. He's up in her room now.
+Always sleeps on her bed. She will have him, and I humor her. She's my
+only sister and she can't live long and she's left me all her money, and
+I humor her. It's my plain duty."
+
+"Is it healthy for an invalid to sleep with a cat?"
+
+"No, it ain't. But I promised to do whatever she said about the cat and
+the garden, and I do."
+
+"I'm sure it's very good in you," Jane murmured, looking out of the
+window.
+
+"It is. I'm a good woman. I do my whole duty, and there's not many in a
+town this size can say as much."
+
+"Where is the garden?"
+
+"I'll show you, if you don't mind getting your feet wet. I have my
+rubbers on already, to travel, so I can go right there now while the
+fire is kindling."
+
+"Is it wet?"
+
+"Most grass is wet, at five in the morning."
+
+Jane wanted to laugh. "I mean, isn't there a path?"
+
+"Part way, and then you have to climb two fences."
+
+"Climb! Two!" the niece turned in surprise.
+
+"Climb two fences. You never saw such a place. The strip between is
+rented for a cow-pasture. That's why there's two fences."
+
+"But why not have gates?"
+
+"Don't ask me. Find out if you can. I've lived here five years, and I
+ain't found out. You try and see if you'll do better. She's very
+secretive, and so was he before he died. I've just had to get along the
+best I could. She fails and fails steady, but it don't seem to affect
+her health none, and now at last it's affected mine instead and give me
+neophytes in my left arm."
+
+Jane turned her head and looked some more out of the window.
+
+"We'll go now. Might as well. The kettle will get to boiling while we're
+away, and then we'll have breakfast. It boils slow, because I've got the
+eggs in it for my lunch. Come on."
+
+The question of the wet grass seemed to have faded. They went out the
+kitchen door. It was a clear, bright morning. "Weedy weather," commented
+Matilda, and led the way down the path.
+
+"It's a pretty place," said Jane, her eyes roaming happily.
+
+"Yes, I suppose so. But it takes an artist or some one who hasn't lived
+in it for five years to feel that way." She paused to climb the first
+fence. It was three rails high and very awkward. "I'll go over first,"
+she said. "Think of it; I've done this six times a day for five years."
+
+Jane didn't wonder that she was so agile at it. "But how funny to have a
+garden away off here!" she said.
+
+Matilda was now over on the other side. "Yes, and think of keeping it
+up. Folks about here make no bones of telling me that they were both
+half-witted, only as she's my sister, they try to give me to understand
+as she caught it from him. He was a miser, you know."
+
+Jane was just getting her second leg over. "I don't know a thing about
+him," she said.
+
+"Well, you will, soon enough. The neighbors'll come flocking as soon as
+I'm gone, and you'll soon know all there is to know about us all.
+They'll pick me to pieces, too, and tell you I'm starving Susan to
+death, but I don't care. Climbing these fences has hardened me to
+calumny."
+
+They crossed the strip of cow-pasture, and Matilda got over another
+fence, saying as she did so: "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,"
+leaving Jane to make the application and follow her at the same time.
+
+Then they found themselves in a trim little garden.
+
+"How sweet," said the niece.
+
+"You can see I've done my duty by it, too," said Matilda; "that's my
+way. I'm hard and I ain't pretty to look at, but I do my duty, which is
+more'n most handsome women do. Every last bean here is clawed around
+like it ought to be, and the whole thing neat as wax. Same with Susan;
+you'd think from her face I'd murdered her, and yet the Recording Angel
+knows she's had a cold sponge and every last snarl combed out of her
+hair every day since I came. I don't boast, but I do work."
+
+"Dear me, it's a long way from the house," said Jane, forgetting her
+higher philosophy for the minute.
+
+"It's a good ten minutes to get here. A picking of peas is a half-hour's
+job. And ten to one, when I get back, the cat's been at the cream."
+
+Jane had had time to remember. "I can see you've been awfully good," she
+said warmly, "and my, but you've worked hard. Everything shows that."
+
+Matilda's face flushed with pleasure, the sudden pathetic flushing of
+unexpected appreciation. "I just have," she declared. "I've worked hard
+all my life and done a lot of good, and nobody's ever bothered to thank
+me. She don't. She just lays there and lets me run up and down stairs
+and climb fences and dig weeds and scamper back and forth with a extra
+hike, when I hear the bell of the door, till it'll be a mercy if I don't
+get neophytes all over, and the New Asthma in both legs, _I_ think."
+
+After a brief tour of the tiny whole, devoted mainly to instructing the
+novice, Matilda led the way back to the house.
+
+"Does it ever need watering?" Jane asked, lapsing again to a lower
+level.
+
+"Sometimes," said Matilda briefly. Jane hadn't the heart to say another
+word until--several steps further on--it occurred to her that the garden
+also could be only a good factor in God's plan, if she wreathed it and
+shrined it and saw it in her world, as He saw all His world on the day
+when it was first manifest and set. "And God saw everything that He had
+made, and behold, it was very good."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+JANE BEGINS SUNSHINING
+
+
+THE stage came for Matilda at eight o'clock. For half an hour before it
+could possibly be due, the traveler sat ready on a chair in the hall,
+with her umbrella tightly gripped in both hands, delivering bits of
+useful information as they occurred to her.
+
+"Be careful to lock up well every night."
+
+"Remember if she dies sudden, I shall want to know at once."
+
+"Don't look to enjoy yourself, but remember you're doin' a act of
+Christian charity."
+
+Jane sat on a small, hard ottoman in the corner by the whatnot and said:
+"I'll try," or "Yes, indeed," every time.
+
+"You're a good girl," the aunt said finally. "I'm glad to know you.
+Those Rainy-day Cooks or whatever you call yourself--"
+
+"Sunshine Nurse."
+
+"Yes, of course,--well, it's a good idea. I feel perfectly sure you'll
+do everything you know how."
+
+"Yes, I will," said Jane, resolving all over fresh that everything was
+going to come out fine, even to the return of Matilda herself.
+
+"There, I hear the stage on the bridge," said her aunt, jumping to her
+feet suddenly. "I must go and say good-by to Susan."
+
+"Isn't she still asleep?"
+
+"It doesn't matter. She's my only living sister, and it's my duty to
+wake her up."
+
+She rushed up-stairs, and a feeble little yell from above soon announced
+her duty done. Then followed a brief hum and jabber, and then she came
+running down again.
+
+"Feels bad to see me go," she said briefly. "That's natural, as she's
+turned over to you body and soul and ain't the least idea what you're
+like. I told her it was no more chances than every child run just being
+born, and a third of them lived, but she never could see reason,--kind
+of clung to my arm,--she's my only sister, and it makes me feel bad."
+With which hasty statement Matilda gave a brief dab to each eye, put up
+her pocket-handkerchief, and opened the front door. Jane had her bag in
+her hand, and they had carried the trunk to the gate before.
+
+The stage was empty, and the driver was tying the trunk-strap with a
+rope.
+
+"Well, good-by," said Matilda; "remember to lock up well every night."
+
+"Yes, I will," said Jane. "I hope you'll have a good time and a splendid
+change."
+
+"I'm sure of the change," said Matilda, swinging herself up with an
+agility bred of her liberal diet on stiles. "Five years,--will you only
+think of it?"
+
+The driver picked up the reins, gave them a slap, and the expedition was
+off.
+
+Matilda Drew was really "gone off on a visit."
+
+"Think of it," said Katie Croft, who, despite her town-name of "Katie,"
+was a gray-haired woman of fifty. "Think of it! A vacation! What luck
+some folks have. I shall never have a vacation in all--" her voice
+ceased, and she continued sweeping down the steps, the stage passing out
+of sight as she did so.
+
+Meanwhile Jane had re-entered the house and carefully closed the door
+after her. She felt curiously freed in spirit, and that subtly supreme
+joy of seeing a helplessly bad situation delivered bound and gagged into
+one's hands to be mended was hers.
+
+"I'll go straight and ask about auntie's breakfast first," she thought,
+mounting the staircase. To her light tap at the door, a feeble "come in"
+responded. She entered then and observed, with a slight start, that the
+invalid had just been up. The blind was drawn, and a pair of kicked-off
+slippers betrayed a hasty jump back into bed. Her eyes sought Susan's in
+explanation. "I didn't know that you could move about," she said, with a
+pleased look.
+
+Susan's little, sharp nose had an apologetic appearance, as it showed
+over the sheet-fold. "I can get about a little, days when I'm strong,"
+she explained, "and I wanted to see her off. I wanted to see if she
+really did go." She paused, gave a sharp choke and gasp, and then
+waited.
+
+Jane leaned over and kissed her forehead. "I will try very hard to make
+you comfortable and happy," she said gently.
+
+Susan rather shrunk together in the bed. "What kind of a girl are you,
+anyhow?" she asked suddenly and sharply. "Are you really religious, or
+do you only just go to church?"
+
+"I try to do what's right," her niece answered simply.
+
+The invalid contemplated her intently. "It can be pretty hard living
+with any one that tries to do right," she said. "My experience is that
+good people is often more trying than bad ones. Maybe it's just that
+I've had more to do with them, though. I suppose Matilda told you about
+everything and the garden and all?"
+
+"Yes, I think I know what to see to."
+
+"And the cat?--and his stealing?"
+
+"Yes, she told me about him."
+
+"The garden must be weeded," Susan pronounced, sinking down deep into
+the bed. "Don't you ever forget that. And that cat has got to be
+fed--and well fed, too--even if he does steal."
+
+Jane watched her disappear beneath the bedclothes.
+
+"Auntie," she said, "I've got lots of funny ideas, and one of them is
+that it's wicked not to be just as happy as possible every minute. Now
+I'm to be here three weeks, and I think that I ought to be able to make
+them a real change for you as well as for Aunt Matilda. We'll begin with
+your breakfast. You tell me what you like best, and I'll fix it for
+you--"
+
+Susan's head came up out of the bed-clothes with the suddenness of a boy
+rising from a dive. "If I can have anything I want," she cried, "I want
+some hot tea--some boiling hot tea, some tea made with water that's
+boiling as hard as it can boil. And I want the pot hot. Burning hot
+before the tea goes in."
+
+Jane started. "I thought you liked your tea cold."
+
+Susan's eyes fairly snapped. "Well, I don't. I don't like nothing cold.
+I like everything hot."
+
+Jane moved towards the door. "I'll go and make some right away," she
+said.
+
+Susan's small, bright eyes looked after her very hard indeed. "I wonder
+if you really mean what you say about my doing what I please."
+
+"Of course I mean what I say."
+
+"Then I want to go back into my own room."
+
+The niece stopped. "Isn't this your room?" she asked in surprise.
+
+"No, this is the nearest room to the top of the stairs. I'll show you
+which is my room." With a quick leap she was out of bed.
+
+"Barefooted!" cried Jane.
+
+"I'll get into slippers quick enough, and I always wear stockings in
+bed. It's one of my peculiar ways. I'm very peculiar." She was running
+out of the room. Jane followed, astonished at the strength and
+steadiness of the bedridden.
+
+"But I thought that--that you were always in bed," she stammered.
+
+Susan stopped short and turned about. "It was the pleasantest way to get
+along," she said briefly. "I guess that you've a really kind heart, so
+I'll trust you and tell you the truth. Matilda wasn't here very long
+before I see that if her patience wasn't to give out, I'd got to begin
+to fail. I went to bed, and I've failed ever since. I've failed steady.
+It's been the only thing to do. It wasn't easy, but it was that or have
+things a lot harder. So I failed."
+
+Jane stared in amazement, and then suddenly the fun of it all overcame
+her, and she burst out laughing. Susan laughed, too. "It was all I could
+do," she repeated over and over.
+
+"And so you failed," said her niece, still laughing.
+
+"Yes, and so I failed."
+
+"Mercy on us, it's the funniest thing I ever heard in all my life,"
+exclaimed the Sunshine Nurse.
+
+"It ain't always been funny for me," said Susan, "but come, now, I want
+to show you my room."
+
+She opened a door as she spoke and led the way into a dark,
+musty-smelling place. It was the work of only a minute to draw the blind
+and throw up the window. "Right after we've had breakfast, we'll clean
+it," the aunt declared, "and then I'll move right back in. Husband and
+me had this room for twenty long years together. He was a saving man,
+and most of what he was intending to save when I wanted to buy things
+was told me in this room. Whatever I wanted he always said I could have,
+and then when it came night, he said I couldn't. The room is full of
+memories for me--sad memories--but after he was mercifully snatched to
+everlasting blessedness, I grew fond of it. It's a nice room."
+
+"I think I'll get your tea," said Jane, "and then I'll clean this room
+and help you move into it. We'll have you all settled before noon."
+
+She turned and ran down to the kitchen. The kettle was singing, and she
+stuffed more wood in under it and began to hunt for a tray and the other
+concomitants of an up-stairs breakfast. Things were not easily found.
+
+"Well, I declare!" a voice at the window behind her exclaimed, as she
+was down on her knees getting a tray-cloth out of a lower drawer. The
+voice gave her a violent start, being a man's. She sprang to her feet
+and faced about.
+
+"I'm sorry; I thought you'd know me." It was the artist of the day
+before, the young man who had come down in the stage.
+
+"It's so early." She went to the window and shook hands. "But I'm glad
+to see you, anyhow."
+
+"I always get up at six and walk five miles before breakfast when I'm in
+the country," he explained.
+
+"Do you really? What enterprise!"
+
+"And so this is where you've come. Why, it's the quaintest old place
+that I ever saw. A regular tangle of picturesque possibilities. Who are
+you visiting?"
+
+"I'm taking care of my invalid aunt while my other aunt has a little
+rest."
+
+"Is she very ill?"
+
+"Oh, no. But this is her tea that I'm making, and I must take it up to
+her now."
+
+"I'll go, then. But may I come again--and sketch?"
+
+"I can't have company. I'll be too busy."
+
+"Can't I help with the work?"
+
+He was so pleasant and jolly that she couldn't help laughing. "I'm
+afraid not," she said, shaking her head.
+
+He stood with his hand on the window-sash. "Do you know my name?" he
+asked.
+
+"No."
+
+"It's Lorenzo, Lorenzo Rath. I've to grow famous with that name. Think
+of it."
+
+She laughed again.
+
+"I can draw the outside of the house, anyhow--can't I?"
+
+"Dear me, I suppose so,"--she picked up the tray,--"you must go now,
+though. Good-by."
+
+"Good-by," he cried after her.
+
+"Oh, see the steam," was Susan's exultant exclamation, as she entered
+her room. "I ain't seen steam coming out of a teapot's nose for upwards
+of three years. Matilda just couldn't seem to stand my taking my tea
+hot, and she's my only sister, and I humor her. Who was you talking to?"
+
+"A man who came down on the stage yesterday. He was out walking and
+didn't know that I lived here."
+
+"Oh, a love affair!" cried Susan, in high-keyed ecstasy. "He's fallen in
+love with you, and like enough was prowling around all night. Oh! How
+interesting! I ain't seen a love affair close to for years." She was so
+genuinely joyful that Jane felt sorry to dampen the enthusiasm.
+
+"I don't believe you'll see one now," she said, smiling good-humoredly.
+"You see, I don't mean to marry, Auntie. I'm a Sunshine Nurse, and they
+have their hands too full for that kind of thing."
+
+"A nurse! I didn't know you were a nurse."
+
+"A Sunshine Nurse is a person who does what doctors can't always
+do,--who makes folk well."
+
+"Are you going to make me well?"
+
+"Yes," said Jane, resolutely.
+
+Susan stopped eating and looked at her with an expression full of
+contradictory feelings. "I shall like it," she said slowly. "But, oh my!
+Matilda won't. Why, she--" she paused. "Oh, I _do_ wonder if I can trust
+you?"
+
+"Anybody can trust me," said Jane. "It's part of my training to be
+honest."
+
+"Dear me, but that's a good idea," said Susan, with sincerest approval.
+"Well, if I can trust you, I don't mind telling you that it's taken
+considerable care for me to live along with Matilda. I don't mean
+anything against her--not rat-poison nor anything like that, you
+know?--but she hasn't just approved of my living; she's looked upon it
+as a waste of her time. And I've had to manage pretty careful in
+consequence. You see, she's my only sister, and she'd have my property
+anyhow, but if I had to have a nurse or a woman to look out for me long,
+there'd be no property to leave. She's real sensible, and we both know
+just how it is, but it's been pleasantest for me to stay more and more
+in bed and kind of catch at things as I walk, and once in a while I
+don't eat all day, and so it keeps up her hope and keeps things
+pleasant."
+
+Jane looked paralyzed. "How can you go without food all day?"
+
+Susan considered a little. Then she took a big drink of hot tea and
+confessed. "I don't really. I watch till she goes to the garden, and
+then I skip down-stairs and make a good meal and lay it all on the cat."
+
+Jane sank down on the foot of the bed and burst out laughing again.
+Again she just couldn't help it. Susan laughed, too; first softly and
+gingerly, then in a way almost as hearty as her niece's.
+
+"Oh me, oh my," the latter declared, after a minute, wiping her eyes.
+"Well, we'll have a very lively three weeks, I see."
+
+"Oh, yes," Susan exclaimed, "and we'll have liver and bacon, and I'll
+see the neighbors when they come in. I give up seeing them because it
+made so much trouble, and the way I'm made is--'Anything for peace.'
+That's what I always used to say to husband, whatever he said. First
+along I used to say real things, but all the last years I just said
+whatever he said; anything for peace."
+
+"You've finished your tea now," said Jane, rising. "I'll take the tray
+down while you dress a bit, and then we'll move you into the other
+room."
+
+"Oh, and _how_ I will enjoy it," cried Susan, clasping her hands in
+ecstasy. "Oh, you Sunshine Jane, you--how glad I am you've come."
+
+"I'm glad, too," said Jane. "We'll have an awfully nice time."
+
+She ran down-stairs with the tray and found Madeleine sitting in the
+kitchen, waiting. "Why, how long have you been here?" she asked.
+
+Madeleine lifted a rather mournful countenance and tried to smile. "Oh,
+Miss Grey. I'm so blue. I can't stand this place at all, I don't
+believe. My situation is going to be unbearable."
+
+"What's the matter with it?"
+
+"It's so small and petty and spiteful. All last evening I had to sit and
+listen to gossip. I hate personalities. Why, whatever I do is going to
+be seen and talked about the minute I do it."
+
+Jane looked grave. "That nice woman who came out to meet you didn't look
+like a gossip."
+
+"She isn't, but she sits and listens, and every once in a while she
+throws oil on the fire by saying, '_I_ never believed the story.'"
+
+"Who did the talking?"
+
+"The neighbors--a woman named Mrs. Mead, who came in with her daughter.
+The mother was old-fashioned in her ideas, and the daughter was new.
+That old man in the stage stopped there, you know."
+
+"My aunt spoke of them last evening," said Jane; "she said that Emily
+Mead was picked out to marry that young man who came down with us."
+
+Madeleine laughed and then blushed. "I'm afraid not," she said. "I know
+him. He won't marry anybody here."
+
+Jane turned and began to put away the breakfast things.
+
+"Don't be bored," she said gently. "Put on this extra apron, and help me
+wash these dishes; and then I'll set the kitchen to rights and get ready
+to move my aunt into another bedroom. She's an invalid, you know."
+
+"What kind of a person is your aunt?"
+
+"Awfully nice," began Jane, but was stopped by the sudden opening of the
+hall door.
+
+There stood Susan, all dressed.
+
+"It seems good to have clothes on again," she remarked calmly; "I ain't
+been dressed for upwards of three years."
+
+Then she saw Madeleine. "How do you do," she said, holding out her hand.
+"I suppose you're the Miss Mar from Deborah's?"
+
+"Yes, I am," Madeleine admitted, smiling.
+
+"My, but you look good to me," said Susan; "it's so nice to see a
+strange face. You see, I've been in bed for a long time, and I give up
+seeing strangers long before that." She sat down on one of the kitchen
+chairs and beamed on them both, turn and turn about. "Husband always
+thought that strangers was pickpockets," she said, "but I like to look
+at 'em. My, but I will enjoy these next weeks. You see, I live with my
+sister," she explained to Madeleine, "and I've had a pretty hard time.
+My sister's got a good heart, but maybe you know how awful hard it is to
+live with that kind of people. It's been pleasanter to stay in bed."
+
+"But you won't do that any more, Auntie," said Jane, moving busily
+about.
+
+"No, indeed I won't. You see," again to Madeleine, "she was my only
+sister, so I humored her. It's the only way to get on with some people.
+But you can even humor folks too much, and she got a disease they call
+the Euphrates all up and down her ear and her elbow, just from being
+humored too much. So she's gone off for a change."
+
+"What are you doing?" Madeleine asked Jane.
+
+"Making waffles. I thought it would be fun to eat them hot right now."
+
+Susan fairly shrieked with joy. "I ain't so much as smelt one since
+husband died. Waffles in the morning, and I'm so awful hungry, too. Oh,
+Jane, the Lord will surely set a crown of glory on your head the minute
+He sees it. Your feet won't be into heaven when the crown goes on. How
+did you ever think of it?"
+
+Jane brought out the iron, laughing as she did so. "Why, Auntie, it's
+part of my training."
+
+"Cooking waffles in the morning?"
+
+"No. Giving joy. If I think of any way to give pleasure and don't do it,
+I count it a sin. To make more happiness is all the work of a Sunshine
+Nurse."
+
+"Isn't that splendid?" Susan appealed to Madeleine.
+
+Madeleine's great, beautiful eyes were lifted towards the other girl's
+face with an expression mysterious in its longing. "Teach me the gift,"
+she said; "I want to make more happiness, too."
+
+"We'll be her class," exclaimed Susan, "just you and me."
+
+"The first lesson is eating waffles," Jane announced solemnly.
+
+"And me, too," cried a voice in the kitchen window, and there was
+Lorenzo Rath back for his second call that day, and it not yet ten
+o'clock. "I've been to Mrs. Cowmull's and eaten breakfast, and I'm as
+hungry as a wolf." He came in through the window as he spoke.
+
+"Oh, a young man!" cried Susan. "I ain't seen a young man since the last
+time the pump broke. Oh, my! Ain't this jolly? Ain't this fun?"
+
+"You show Madeleine where to find plates and forks and knives, Auntie,"
+said Jane. "Here, Mr. Rath, I'll break two more eggs and you can beat
+them. I haven't made enough batter, if there's a man to eat, too."
+
+"I feel as if I'd leave Mrs. Cowmull's to-morrow and come here to
+board," said Lorenzo. "Could I?" His tone was very earnest.
+
+"No, you couldn't," said Jane firmly.
+
+"Oh, let him," exclaimed Susan, from the pantry, where she was getting
+out plates. "It'll make Mrs. Cowmull so mad, and I ain't made any one
+mad for years and years. I'd so revel to be human again. And it would be
+so nice having a man about, too."
+
+"I couldn't think of it," said Jane, getting very crimson.
+
+Madeleine looked at the artist.
+
+"Then I shall leave Mrs. Cowmull's, anyway," said Lorenzo, decidedly; "I
+shall look up another place at once. Why, that woman would drive me mad.
+She says something ridiculous every time she opens her mouth. She asked
+me this morning if I'd ever climbed to the top of the Kreutzer Sonata."
+
+"What did you say?" Madeleine asked.
+
+"I told her no, but I'd been to the bottom of the Campanile and seen
+them getting out coal from the mine there."
+
+"Well, that showed you'd seen some sights, anyhow," said Susan,
+placidly.
+
+"The waffles are done!" Jane announced. They all drew up round the
+table.
+
+"This is living," the invalid exclaimed. "If my sister would only never
+come back!"
+
+"Maybe she won't!" suggested Lorenzo.
+
+"I wouldn't like her to die," said Susan, gravely. "I'm sensitive over
+feeling people better off dead. But if she'd marry, it would be nice."
+
+"For the man?" queried Lorenzo.
+
+"For us all," said Susan, gravely.
+
+"Just exactly the right thing is going to happen to her and everybody,"
+said Jane, firmly--dividing the waffles as she spoke.
+
+"Are you so sure?" the artist asked, looking a little amused.
+
+Susan noticed the look. "She's a Sunshine Nurse," she explained quickly.
+"It's her religion to be like that. She can't help it. She's promised."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A CHANGE IN THE FEEL OF THINGS
+
+
+IT didn't take long for the town to wake up to the fact that some new
+element had entered into its composition.
+
+"I can't get over it, Susan Ralston's being up and about," Miss Debby
+Vane said distressedly to Mrs. Mead. "Why, she was 'most dead!"
+
+"Matilda ought not to have gone away," Mrs. Mead said sternly. "Sick
+folks in bed can't bear a change. A new face gives them a little spurt
+of strength, and then when they see the old face again, they kind of
+give up hope and drop right off."
+
+"Yes, I know that," said Miss Debby; "my father had a cousin die that
+way. There was a doctor going about in a wagon, pulling teeth and giving
+shocks, and he said he'd give Cousin Hannah a shock and cure her. So
+they took him up-stairs, and there she was dead of heart disease. They
+thought of prosecuting him, but the funeral coming right on they hadn't
+time, and then he was gone to another place, and it seemed too much
+bother."
+
+"That girl is just the same kind, I believe," said Mrs. Mead; "that
+dreadful way of making you feel that after all what she says is pretty
+sensible, maybe. My Emily is awfully took with her, and Father's just
+crazy about her. He come down on the stage with her, and then he went
+out to see her. She knows how to get around men; she was frying
+doughnuts."
+
+"Yes, and Mrs. Cowmull's artist was out there, and they had waffles in
+the middle of the morning. That's a funny kind of new religion."
+
+"Has she got a new religion?" Miss Debby looked frightened. "I hadn't
+heard of it."
+
+"Why, yes; Emily says she's got the funniest religion you ever heard of.
+Whatever she wants to do or don't want to do, she says it's her
+religion."
+
+"Dear me, but I should think that that would be very convenient," said
+Miss Debby, much impressed. "Why, my religion is always just the
+opposite of what I want to do or don't want to do. It says so every
+Sunday, you know,--'we have done those things,' and so forth."
+
+"Hers is different," said Mrs. Mead.
+
+"Well, I declare," repeated Miss Debby; then, suddenly, "I remember now
+that Madeleine said that they had waffles because Jane said that she
+thought waffles would taste good, and it was her religion to do whatever
+you thought of right off. Well, I declare!"
+
+Both ladies stared in solemn amazement at one another.
+
+"This'll be a nice town to live in, if she sets everybody to doing
+whatever you like, because it's right," Mrs. Mead said finally. "Father
+won't put on his coat again this summer."
+
+"It'll make a great difference in the feeling of the town," said Miss
+Debby, mysteriously, "a great difference. Well, I hope it won't change
+Madeleine any way her family won't approve. Madeleine's in love, and I
+suppose it's Mr. Rath. They knew each other before, and her family don't
+want it. I've pieced it all out of scraps."
+
+"Oh, dear!" said Emily Mead's mother, her face falling; "my, I hadn't
+heard but what he was a free man."
+
+"Oh, no," said Miss Debby, "your sister isn't sure. But everybody else
+is. My own view of artists is they're deluders and snares. I give an
+artist a picture and a dollar once to enlarge, and that was the last I
+ever heard of them both--of all three."
+
+"I wonder if Emily knows Mr. Rath's engaged," said Mrs. Mead, sadly.
+"Dear me, I never thought of that."
+
+"Not engaged, but in love," corrected Miss Debby.
+
+"Perhaps he's a real artist and changeable," suggested Mrs. Mead.
+
+"There's no comfort in that for any one, 'cause if he'll change once,
+he'll change right along."
+
+Mrs. Mead sighed very heavily. "Well, I must keep up for Father and
+Emily," she remarked, not tracing any very clear connection between word
+and deed.
+
+"Yes," said Miss Debby, "you must, and we'll all keep a sharp eye on
+these new kind of ways of looking at things, for we don't know where
+they'll end."
+
+The "new way of looking at things" had already been very efficacious in
+the house at the other end of the street. It had assumed an utterly new
+appearance, both outside and in.
+
+"And I never felt nothing like the change in the _feel_ of it," Susan
+exclaimed that afternoon, as she re-arranged her belongings in her own
+room. "Oh, you Sunshine Jane, you, you've just sunshone into every room,
+and I'm so happy turning my things about I don't know what to do.
+Matilda wouldn't never let me turn a china cow other end to, and I've
+lived with some of the ornaments facing wrong for the whole of these
+five long years."
+
+"It isn't me, Auntie," said Jane, washing shelves with the hearty and
+happy energy which she threw into every task in which she engaged; "it's
+the opening of the windows and the letting in of God and His sunshine
+together. I'll soon have time to clean the whole house, and then we'll
+have fun re-arranging every room. You've such pretty things, and they
+must be rubbed up and given a chance to play a part in the world. God
+never meant anything to be idle,--not even a brass andiron. If it can't
+work, it can shine and be cheerful, anyway. What can't smile ought to
+shine, you know."
+
+"I wonder why rubbing things makes 'em bright," said Susan, opening her
+bonnet-box and hitting her bonnet a smart cuff to knock dust out of the
+folds. "I never could understand that."
+
+"It's your individuality that you transfer till the poor dull things get
+enough of it to shine alone, without anybody's help."
+
+"What a good reason," said Susan. "My, to think maybe I'll go to church
+again in this bonnet! Matilda was always wanting to rip it up, but
+something made me cling to it. It's a kind of souvenir. I wore it to
+husband's funeral and my last picnic, and there are lots of other
+pleasant memories inside it."
+
+"I'll freshen it up with a cloth dipped in ammonia," said Jane. "Dear
+me, how I _do_ enjoy washing shelves. I love to sop the soapy water over
+and mop the corners, and dry the whole, and fit a clean newspaper in,
+and then see the closet in perfect order."
+
+"You like to do everything, seems to me," said Susan.
+
+"Yes, I do. I've been led to see that doing things well is about the
+finest way in which one can pass one's time. And I'm crazy over doing
+things _well_. If I fold a towel, I like to fold it just square, and if
+I make a bed, I want the fold in the spread and the fold in the sheet to
+meet even."
+
+"You'll make a fine wife, Jane," said Susan, gravely, "only no man'll
+ever appreciate the folds lying straight."
+
+Jane laughed merrily. "I'm never going to marry; I'm one of the new sex,
+the creatures who are born to live alone and lend a hand anywhere.
+Didn't you know that?"
+
+"That's nonsense," said Susan; "no woman's made so."
+
+"No. It's a big fact. One of the newest facts in the world. The New
+Woman, you know!"
+
+"Mercy on us," said Susan, "don't you go in for any of that nonsense.
+The idea of a girl like you deciding not to marry! I never heard of such
+a thing!"
+
+"It's so, though," said Jane, smiling brightly; "you see, my little
+Order is a kind of Sisterhood. We're taught to want to help in so many
+homes and to never even think of a home of our own. We're taught to love
+all children so dearly that we mustn't limit ourselves to one family of
+little ones. We're trained to be so fond of the best in every man that
+we see more good to be done as sisters to men than as wives."
+
+"I don't believe Mr. Rath will agree with you," said Susan, "nor any
+other real nice fellow."
+
+Jane was cutting paper for the shelves. "Yes, he will," she said,
+nodding confidently; "men are so scarce nowadays that they are ready to
+agree with any one."
+
+"Jane, _I_ think he's in love with you already." Susan's tone was very
+solemn.
+
+Jane merely laughed.
+
+Then the door-bell rang, and she had to run. Presently she was back, a
+little breathless. "It's Mrs. Mead and her daughter. Can you come down?"
+
+"Yes, in a minute. You say, in a minute."
+
+Jane ran down again with the message.
+
+"Most remarkable," said Mrs. Mead, now dressed for calling, with her
+black hair put back in three even crinkles on either side, "about your
+aunt, you know, I mean. Why, we looked upon her as 'most dead. You know,
+Emily, we've always been given to understand she was nearing her end."
+
+"It does an invalid a lot of good to have something new to think about,"
+said Jane. "I'm very enlivening. Aunt Susan just couldn't help getting
+up, when she heard me upsetting her house in all directions."
+
+"Yes, I expect it was enough to make her nervous," said Mrs. Mead,
+sincerely. "How long are you going to stay?"
+
+"Until Aunt Matilda comes back."
+
+"I don't believe she'll like these changes," said Mrs. Mead, gravely. "I
+should think that you'd feel a good deal of responsibility. It's no
+light matter to leave a shut-up house and an invalid in bed to a niece
+and come home to find the house open and the invalid all over it."
+
+"And a man coming in and having waffles in the morning," said Emily
+Mead, with a smile meant to be arch.
+
+Jane laughed. "That was dreadful, wasn't it?" she said, twinkling--"it
+was all so impromptu and funny. And everybody had such a good time. It
+just popped into my head, and you see it's my religion to have to do
+anything that you think will make people happy, if you see a chance."
+
+"Yes, we've heard about your religion," said Mrs. Mead; "dear me, I
+should think you'd get into a lot of trouble! Waffles in the morning
+would upset some folks, except on Sunday."
+
+"Perhaps most people haven't enough religion to manage them week-days,"
+Jane suggested.
+
+"My aunt, Mrs. Cowmull, says Mr. Rath could hardly eat any lunch,"
+observed Emily, smiling some more.
+
+"Oh, dear!" said Jane, "but I'm not surprised. Aunt Susan couldn't,
+either."
+
+Mrs. Mead coughed significantly. "Susan Ralston's pretty delicate to
+stand many new ideas, I should think," she began, but stopped suddenly
+as Susan entered, and viewed her with an expression of shocked surprise.
+
+"Why, Mrs. Ralston, I'd no idea you were so well. Where have you kept
+yourself these last years, if you were so well?"
+
+"In my own room," said Susan, with dignity. "I didn't see no special
+call to come down. Matilda knew where everything was, but Jane doesn't,
+so I've changed my ways for a little."
+
+Jane took her hand and pressed it affectionately. The sunshine seeds
+were sprouting finely. "Don't you want to come out into the garden with
+me?" she asked Emily Mead, and Emily rose at once. "I thought auntie
+would enjoy visiting alone with her old friend," she added, as they
+passed through the hall.
+
+"What are you, anyway?" Emily asked curiously. "I've heard you were a
+trained nurse,--are you?"
+
+"I'm one of the brand-new women," said Jane; "not a Suffragette, nor an
+advanced anything, but just a creature who means to give her life up to
+teaching happiness as an art."
+
+"Yes, I heard that. But how do you do it?" asked Emily Mead.
+
+"By being happy and thinking happy thoughts and doing happy things."
+
+Emily considered. "But don't you ever have hard things to do?"
+
+"Never. I enjoy them all--I love to work."
+
+Emily looked at her wonderingly. "But washing dishes?--We don't keep a
+girl, and I hate washing dishes. What would you say to them?"
+
+Jane laughed. "What, those two lovely tin pans and that nice boiling
+kettle? And all the dirty plates sinking under the soap-suds and then
+piling up under the clean hot water. And the shining dryness and the
+putting them on the shelves all in their own piles. And then the knowing
+that God wanted those dishes washed, and that you've done them just
+exactly as He'd like to see them done. Why, I think dish-washing is
+grand!"
+
+Emily opened her eyes widely. "How funny you are! I never heard such
+talk before! But, then, you've lived in a big city and learned to think
+in a big way. You wouldn't see dish-washing so if you'd done it all your
+life and never been told it was nice. You couldn't."
+
+"But you've been told now," said Jane, "and no work need ever seem
+horrid to you again. Just look at it in my way after this."
+
+"But all work seems horrid to me. I'd like to marry an awfully rich man
+and never see this place again. I hate it."
+
+Jane thought a minute; then said in sweet, low, even tones: "You won't
+evolve any man fit to marry out of that spirit, you know."
+
+The other girl stared at her. "Evolve!"
+
+"Yes. Don't you know that every minute in this world is the result of
+all the minutes that have gone before, and that who we marry is part of
+a result--not just an accident?"
+
+"_What?_"
+
+"Don't you know that? Don't you understand?"
+
+"Not a bit. Tell me what you mean?"
+
+"It's too long to explain right this minute, because one can't tell such
+things quickly, and if you've never studied them, you haven't the
+brain-cells to receive them. You see brain-cells are the houses for
+thoughts, and they have to be built and ready before the thoughts can
+move in. That's what they told me, when I was learning."
+
+Emily looked at her in bewilderment.
+
+"It's very interesting," said Jane. "I think that it's the most
+interesting thing in the whole world. You see, I didn't have any life at
+all; I was an orphan and not very bright. And then I happened to get
+hold of a book that said that all the life there was in the world was
+mine, if I'd just take it. So I wrote to the man who wrote the book--"
+
+"How did you ever dare?"
+
+"Why, I knew that the man who wrote that book would help any one--he
+couldn't have written the book if he hadn't been made to help
+people--and I asked him how I could begin."
+
+"What did he answer?"
+
+"He said: 'Seize every chance to prove your mind the master of your own
+body first, and when you are thoroughly master of yourself, you can
+master all else.'"
+
+"What did he mean?"
+
+"Well, I took it that he meant me to do anything that I thought of,
+right off, and that if I got in the habit of sweeping all work out of my
+small way, I'd soon be given a chance at big work in a big way."
+
+"And were you?"
+
+"Yes. I began to get through so quick--I lived with an uncle and helped
+his wife with the sewing and the children--that I had some spare time,
+and I went into the kitchen and learned to cook. Then one of the
+children was ill, and the doctor thought I'd make a good nurse, so he
+got me into a hospital, and I met a woman there who had all the books
+that I wanted to read and who just took hold and helped me right out. I
+saw that I didn't want to be a sick-nurse, because there's such a lot of
+humbug and such a lot that's silly, and my friend said that I was one
+who would evolve opportunities--"
+
+"What does that mean?"
+
+"Evolve means to sort of develop out of the world and yourself together
+at the same time."
+
+"I don't understand."
+
+"Why, if you want anything, you want it because it's there, and you can
+get it if you've got the strength and perseverance to build a road to
+it."
+
+"_What!_"
+
+"I mean just what I say. We can get anything, if we have sufficient
+will-power to build a way right straight to it."
+
+"Suppose I want to marry a millionaire?"
+
+"It would mean a lot of well-directed effort, and the effort would
+slowly train you to want something much better than to live rich and
+idle." Jane paused a minute, and Emily looked at her curiously. "If you
+want to marry a millionaire bad enough to start in and make yourself all
+over new, you'll have such control over your future that I think you'll
+get something much better than a millionaire."
+
+"I never heard any one like you in all my life," said Emily Mead.
+
+"I'd be so glad to help you straight along," Jane said. "I've got two
+books with me, and you can read one and then the other. Then you'll get
+where you can get the meaning out of the Bible, and then you'll begin to
+see the meaning of everything. The world gets so wonderful. You see
+miracles everywhere. You feel so well. The sun shines so bright. Life
+becomes so lovely."
+
+Emily looked at her with real wonder.
+
+"How did you happen to come here?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, that came long after all the rest of the story. One day I
+remembered that my mother had two sisters, and I wrote to them. My
+letter arrived just as Aunt Matilda's arm began to trouble her, and she
+asked me if I could come for a visit. You see that was another
+opportunity I evolved."
+
+Emily seized her hand impulsively. "I'm so glad that you came. I'm going
+to try, and you'll help me?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, I will. Would you like one of the books right now?"
+
+"Oh, I should."
+
+"I'll get it for you, and then I'll tell you some day about the doctor I
+met and his Sunshine Order."
+
+They went towards the house. "You mustn't expect to understand
+everything right off, you know," Jane said to her gently. "You see this
+is all new to you, and that means that you can't any more understand
+right off than you could paint a picture right off. You have to learn
+gradually."
+
+"But I mean to learn," said Emily.
+
+They went in the door, and Jane ran upstairs and fetched the book.
+"There!" she said, "you read it, and I'll help you all I can. You see
+the thing is to learn with your whole heart to do God's will, and then,
+in some strange, subtle way, you get to feel what is coming and to sort
+of shape all. It's so fascinating and thrilling to realize that what you
+want is marching towards you as fast as you can march towards it."
+
+"What do you want?" Emily asked.
+
+"I want to do exactly what I'm doing," said Jane, very quietly. "I've
+passed wanting anything else. I want lots of chances to teach and
+help,--that's all."
+
+"Don't you want to marry?"
+
+"Oh, no,--I want to be able to teach and help everywhere. I don't want
+things for myself, somehow."
+
+"How strange!"
+
+They went into the sitting-room.
+
+"Oh, Jane," Susan cried, "how I have enjoyed hearing about everybody in
+town! Sister never told me about Eddy King's running off with the store
+cash or Mrs. Wilton's daughter going to cooking-school, or one thing."
+
+"We must be going," said Mrs. Mead, rising; "we'll come again, though.
+It's good to see you up, Mrs. Ralston, and I only hope you may stay up.
+You know Katie Croft's mother-in-law got up just as you have and then
+had a stroke that night."
+
+"Oh, is old Mrs. Croft dead?"
+
+"No, she isn't," said Mrs. Mead; "if she was, she wouldn't be such a
+warning as she is."
+
+"Dear, dear," said Susan, "think of all I've missed. Has she got it just
+in her legs or all over? Matilda never told me."
+
+"Legs," said Mrs. Mead, "and it's affected her temper. Katie has an
+awful time with her."
+
+"Dear, dear," said Susan again,--"and, oh, Jane, a boy I've known since
+he was a baby has had his skull japanned and nearly died. Matilda's
+never told me a thing!"
+
+"Well, she didn't know much, you know," said Mrs. Mead; "she kept
+herself about as close as she kept you. We were given to understand
+pretty plainly that we weren't wanted to call."
+
+"Think of that now," said Susan, "and me up-stairs, feeling all my
+friends had forgot me!"
+
+"Everybody'll come now," said Mrs. Mead; "folks will be glad to see you
+so well. We were told you never got up and hardly ate enough to keep a
+cat."
+
+"An ordinary cat," corrected Emily; "Miss Matilda's always told what a
+lot your cat ate."
+
+"He is an eater," said Susan, crinkling a bit about the eyes; "but I
+eat, too, now, I can tell you."
+
+After they were gone, Jane came back into the sitting-room. Her aunt was
+standing by the window. "It's so beautiful to be down-stairs," she said,
+without turning. "My goodness, and to think that only a week ago I laid
+up-stairs wanting to die."
+
+"You can thank Aunt Matilda that you didn't die," said Jane, going and
+putting her arm around her. "If she had kept you thinking of all the
+illnesses in town, you'd have died long ago. Sick thoughts are more
+catching than diseases. But we don't need to talk of that now."
+
+"No, indeed we don't," said Susan, "for there's Mr. Rath coming."
+
+Jane gave a little start. "I wonder what for," she said.
+
+"What for!" Susan's tone was full of deep meaning; "why, he's fallen
+dead in love with you, Jane, that's what it means, and I don't wonder,
+for you're the nicest girl I ever saw."
+
+"Oh, Auntie!" said Jane, quite red. "The very idea!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+LORENZO RATH
+
+
+IT wasn't to be supposed for a minute that Lorenzo Rath, a real live
+young man and an artist, shouldn't take first place in the town talk.
+Jane's remarkable religion might attract the attention of a few who were
+sufficiently religious themselves to be naturally shocked over the
+waffles and depressed over the invalid's recovery, but Lorenzo was of
+interest to every one.
+
+"If he ain't took already, there's a fine chance for Emily," Mr.
+Cattermole said benevolently to his daughter. Being a man, he naturally
+supposed that Mrs. Mead would never have come by such an idea if she
+hadn't had a bright old father to point it out to her.
+
+"Emily doesn't want to marry," said Mrs. Mead, compressing her lips and
+expanding her dignity simultaneously; "she wouldn't marry an artist,
+anyway."
+
+"Maybe he ain't much of an artist," said Mr. Cattermole, with a tendency
+to look on the bright side. "Why don't Emily want to marry? I thought
+girls always wanted to marry. They did when I was young."
+
+"It's different nowadays," said Mrs. Mead, with condescending reserve.
+"You don't understand, Father, but nothing is like it used to be. The
+world is getting all changed. When Emily was an only child, she was
+looked upon as very odd, but most women have an only child nowadays.
+Life is quite different."
+
+"I'd like to see Emily married," said Mr. Cattermole, thoughtfully.
+
+"Emily has had plenty of chances," said her mother, waving the brave,
+tattered mother-lie that seems to cover over such cruel wounds.
+
+"Has she really?" said Mr. Cattermole, in genuine surprise. "I didn't
+know that. And she wouldn't have 'em! Laws sakes! Who, for instance?"
+
+"No one you knew," said his daughter, telling the truth then.
+
+"Sarah knew 'em, I suppose?" (Sarah was Mrs. Cowmull.)
+
+"No, no one Sarah knew."
+
+"Think of that now! Why, I s'posed there wasn't nothing Sarah didn't
+know."
+
+In voicing this opinion Mr. Cattermole voiced the town opinion, too. It
+was popularly supposed that Sarah Cowmull always knew everything. But
+she didn't know the status of Lorenzo Rath's heart, and Lorenzo Rath
+himself puzzled her not a little.
+
+Lorenzo puzzled everybody, mainly because he was so open and simple that
+even a child must have suspected him of keeping something back. Such
+frankness was unthinkable, such innocence incredible.
+
+"Why, he's gallivanting all over with Madeleine, and yet she's gotten
+another man's picture on her table!" said Miss Debby to Katie Croft.
+
+"And he's skipping in Mrs. Ralston's gate at all hours," said Katie
+Croft--"no kind of ceremony to him. The other day he see mother in the
+window, and he waved his hat at her and give her an awful turn. She
+don't see well, and thought he threw a stone at her. She ain't used to
+city ways; she's used to country ways. I had to let her smell camphor
+for a good hour, and while she was smelling, the kitchen fire went out.
+I wish he'd keep his hat on his head another time. My life's hard enough
+without having a artist suddenly set to, to cheer up mother."
+
+"What do you think of Mrs. Ralston's niece? Think she's nice?"
+
+"Nice! With Susan Ralston about as lively as a cricket! I don't think
+much of such new ways. I don't know whatever Matilda will say. She's
+just got life all systematized, and now here's Susan up and out of bed.
+I'm so scared the girl'll come over and go at mother, I don't know what
+to do."
+
+"My, suppose Mrs. Croft was to be up and about!" said Miss Debby,
+opening her eyes widely. "Whatever would you do?"
+
+"Do! I know what I'd do." Young Mrs. Croft looked dark and mysterious.
+"I know just exactly what I'll do. And I'm all ready to do it, and if
+I'm interfered with, I will do it,--good and quick, too."
+
+"How is old Mrs. Croft now?" Miss Debby asked.
+
+"Oh, she's grabbin' as ever. I never see such a disposition. She's
+always catching at me or the cat or something. Seems to consider it a
+way of attracting attention. Crazy folks has such crazy ideas, and she's
+crazy,--crazy as a loon."
+
+Katie Croft took up her market basket and went on up the street. Miss
+Debby stayed behind to wait for the noon mail. "Katie's so bitter," she
+said to herself, shaking her head; "she ought to be more grateful for
+being supported."
+
+Miss Debby forgot that there are few things so irritating in this world
+as being supported. It is a situation which has become especially
+unpopular lately, particularly with women and political motives.
+
+But no old worn-out aphorism held for one minute in the breezy bloom of
+the House Where Jane Lived.
+
+"Oh, I'm so happy," Susan exclaimed many times daily, "I'm so happy. I
+never felt nothing like your sunshining in all my life before, you
+Sunshine Jane, you! I feel like my own cupboards, all unlocked and aired
+and nice and used again."
+
+Jane stopped caroling as she kneaded bread and laughed--which sounded
+equally pleasant.
+
+"I'm as happy as you are, Auntie; it's so nice to be in heaven."
+
+"I used to think maybe I'd die suddenly and find myself there some day,"
+said Susan. "I'm glad I didn't."
+
+"It's better to live suddenly than to die suddenly," said Jane, merrily;
+"when people are awfully bothered sometimes, I've heard their friends
+say: 'But if you died suddenly, it would work out somehow,' and I wanted
+to say: 'Why not live suddenly instead of dying suddenly, and then
+everything's bound to come out splendidly.'"
+
+"Oh, Jane, what a grand idea,--to live suddenly! That's what I've done,
+surely."
+
+"Yes," said Jane, "that's what I did, too. Instead of fading out of
+life, we just bloomed into life. It's just as easy, and a million times
+more fun."
+
+"And it's all so awfully agreeable," said Susan. "My things look so
+nice, all set different, and it's so pleasant having folks coming in,
+and I like it all, and we haven't to fuss with the garden."
+
+"I attend to the garden!" cried a voice outside, and a mysterious hand
+shoved a basket of peas over the window-ledge.
+
+"I know who that is," said Susan; "it's that boy, and he's smelt
+cinnamon rolls and come to lunch. How do you do?"
+
+Lorenzo, brown and merry, was getting in at the window.
+
+"Why, you've really been weeding!" exclaimed Susan.
+
+"Of course! I've tended the garden ever since you gave it up."
+
+"I declare! Well, I never. Jane, we must give him a bite of something."
+
+"Yes, that's what I came for," said Lorenzo, cheerfully, "cookies,
+jelly-roll,--anything simple and handy. Madeleine and I were out
+walking, discussing our affairs, and when I stopped for the garden, she
+went on for her mail. I'm awfully hungry."
+
+"People say you're engaged to her," said Susan. Jane turned to get the
+tin of cookies.
+
+"Yes, naturally. People say so much. She is a pretty girl, isn't
+she?--but then there's Emily Mead. I must look at myself on all sides
+and consider carefully. Old Mr. Cattermole took me to drive yesterday
+and told me that he was healthy and his dead wife was healthy and that,
+except for what killed him, Mr. Mead was healthy, too; and there was
+Emily, perfectly healthy and the only grandchild, and why didn't I come
+over often,--it wasn't but a step."
+
+"Well, you do beat all," said Susan. Jane offered the tin of cookies.
+Lorenzo took six. They were all laughing.
+
+Later, when he'd gone away, Susan said, almost shyly this time: "Jane, I
+don't want to interfere, but he _is_ in love."
+
+"With Madeleine?"
+
+"With you."
+
+"Auntie," Jane came to her side, "you mustn't speak in that way about
+me. I can't marry,--not possibly. I'm a Sunshine Nurse, and I shall be a
+Sunshine Nurse till I die. I'll make homes happy, but I shall never have
+one of my own."
+
+Susan looked frightened and timid. "But why?"
+
+"For many reasons. And all good ones."
+
+There was that in the young girl's tone that ended the subject for the
+time being.
+
+But Susan thought of it a great deal, and alone in her room that night,
+Jane thought, too. She had made herself ready for bed, and then sat down
+by the window, clasping her hands on the sill. Lorenzo Rath was
+buoyantly dear and jolly, and she realized that he was the nicest man
+that she had ever met. It had all been fun, great fun, and she had
+enjoyed it mightily. But with all her learning Jane was not so very much
+farther along the Highway to Happiness than some others. In many cases
+she was only a holder of keys as yet--the distinct knowledge to be
+gained by unlocking secrets with their aid was as yet not hers. To hold
+the keys and look at the doors is to realize what power means,--but to
+unlock is to use it. Jane was still a novice; she left the doors locked
+and was content to hold the keys, and no more.
+
+The next night Lorenzo appeared again. "I'm half-dead," he said. "I've
+tramped twelve miles, sketching."
+
+"Dear, dear," said Susan, "seems like nobody in this world ever wants
+what's close to."
+
+"Sometimes it's no use to want what's close to," said Lorenzo, "or else
+what's close to is like Emily Mead, and you just ache to run."
+
+"Emily Mead is a very nice girl," said Jane, in a tone clearly
+reproachful.
+
+Lorenzo just laughed. But then Susan made some excuse to slip away. "I
+wonder if you'd help me a little," he said then, hesitating a bit.
+
+"Is it something that I can do? Of course I'll help you if I can."
+
+"It's something very necessary."
+
+"Necessary?"
+
+"To my welfare and happiness."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"I think--I'm--falling in love."
+
+"Oh, dear," Jane was carefully tranquil.
+
+"I've never really been in love in my life, so I can't be sure. But I
+think it's that."
+
+Jane said nothing. The room was getting dark.
+
+"I've never seen any one so pretty in all my life as Miss Mar," said the
+young artist, slowly. "You know we're old friends."
+
+"Oh, she's lovely," said Jane, with sudden fervor.
+
+"I thought that we might make up little picnics and walks and things?"
+hesitated the young man.
+
+"Of course," said Jane, heartily. "And you can come here all you like.
+Auntie likes you both so much."
+
+Lorenzo Rath stood by the door. "Were you ever in love?" he asked
+bluntly.
+
+"No," said Jane. "I've never had the least little touch of it."
+
+"Haven't you ever thought about it?"
+
+"No, I've never had time. I've never seen any man that I could or would
+marry."
+
+"Never?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"That's too bad," said Lorenzo Rath slowly. "Seems to me you'd make such
+a splendid wife."
+
+She laughed a little. Then she had to wink quickly to drive back tears
+which leapt suddenly.
+
+"I won't say any more," said Lorenzo. She thought that he did not care
+to speak of Madeleine to her.
+
+Then she went. And later she found herself sitting in her own room
+again, sitting by the same window, thinking. "Poor Emily Mead and her
+illusory millionaire! I'm about as silly as she is," thought Jane. "And
+yet I know it's higher and more beautiful to make life lovely for others
+than to make it lovely for one's self." She sighed because the
+reflection--all altruistic as it was--was not quite the truth, and she
+was true enough herself to feel jarred by the slightest cross-shadow of
+falsehood. Truth plays as widely and freely as the sunbeams themselves
+and goes as straight to the heart of each and all.
+
+Finally she opened a little book and read aloud a few pages to herself
+in a low tone. "I know I'm on the right path," she said, when she had
+closed the book; "the thing is to stick resolutely to keeping on
+straight ahead. And I must be absolutely content with all that comes.
+You have to be content if you're going to grow in goodness, for you have
+to know that you've been trying and been successful." She sat still a
+while longer and then rose with a deep, long breath. "Well, to-day's
+been something, and to-morrow I'll be something better, I know."
+
+The truth did shine then, and she went to bed calmed, but was hardly
+stretched down between the cool sheets when Susan rapped at the door.
+
+"Come in."
+
+"Oh, Jane, I can't sleep. I've got to thinking of when Matilda comes
+back, and I'm scared blue."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A NEW OUTLOOK ON MATILDA
+
+
+THE next morning Susan looked half-sheepish and half-anxious. "I just
+couldn't help it, Jane. I laid in bed so long, thinking, and then it
+come over me what life was going to be when she was back and you gone
+and--well--I just couldn't help coming. I felt awful."
+
+Jane was busy with breakfast. "I know, Auntie, I know. I ought to have
+thought of Aunt Matilda sooner. Half her stay is over."
+
+"Oh, my, I should say it was," wailed Susan; "that's what scares me so.
+We're so happy, and the time is going so fast. It's about the most awful
+thing I ever knew."
+
+Jane began beating eggs for an omelette.
+
+"We never were one bit alike," Susan intoned mournfully; "we were always
+so different, and then when husband died, there was just nothing to do
+but for us to live together. She's my only sister, and it's right that I
+should humor her, but, oh my, what a scratch-about life she has led me.
+I was getting to feel more like a mouse than a woman--soon as I got a
+bite, I'd begin to tremble and to listen and then how I _did_ run!"
+
+"But it will be all so different when she comes back," Jane said
+cheerily. "She'll be very different, and so will you. It'll be just like
+I told you last night."
+
+"I know,--I know. But somehow I can't see it as you do. I'm all upset.
+And I'm so happy without her. We're so happy. The house looks beautiful.
+You've just made everything over. I declare, Jane, I never saw anything
+like you. All my old things have turned new, and so pretty. I feel like
+a bride. That is, I feel like a bride when I ain't thinking of Matilda."
+
+"It looks very nice, surely," said Jane, smiling. "Your things were so
+pretty, anyhow. But what I was gladdest about was to really get it all
+opened up and fresh. I didn't want any one to come while it was so
+gloomy. The whole town may call now."
+
+"They do, too," said Susan, diverted for the minute; "they certainly do.
+Oh, it is so nice, I so adore to hear all about things again. Matilda
+just shut everybody out. She didn't like company."
+
+"She was pretty busy, you know."
+
+"She hadn't any more to do than you have. She hadn't so much to do as
+you have, because she didn't do a thing you do."
+
+"But you were ill. She was always up and down stairs--"
+
+"No, she wasn't, Jane. No, she wasn't."
+
+"Well, she had your meals to carry upstairs."
+
+"I don't call it meals to run with a teacup. Meals! _Such_ meals! It's a
+wonder I didn't die. She'd turn anything upside down on a plate and
+something else upside down on that, and call it a meal for me. I was
+about sick, just from how she fed me. If I said something was cooked too
+dry, she emptied the tea-kettle into it next time; and if I said
+anything was too wet, she put on fresh coal and left it in the oven over
+night. If I said the room was too light, she shut it up as dark as a
+pickpocket; and if I said it was too dark, she turned the sun into my
+eyes. She's my only sister and I must humor her, but I've had a very
+hard time, Jane, and I don't blame myself for waking up with my teeth
+all of a chatter over the thought of living with her again."
+
+Jane had their breakfast ready now on the table by the window. "Come and
+sit down," she said; "we'll talk while we eat. It's like I told you last
+night,--there must be a hitch somewhere. Of course, God has a good
+reason for you and Aunt Matilda living together. He doesn't allow
+accidents in His world."
+
+"Perhaps He wasn't thinking. I can't believe that anybody would
+deliberately put anybody in the house with Matilda--not if they knew
+Matilda. I didn't know what she'd grown into myself when she first came
+to take care of me, because I was a little poorly. It was to save
+spending on a nurse, you know. They're such trying, prying things,
+nurses are."
+
+"I'm a nurse, you know."
+
+"My goodness, I didn't mean your kind; I meant the regular kind."
+
+Jane was laughing. "But I mustn't laugh," she said, after a minute; "we
+must go to work. Let's see if we can find out how it all began. Didn't
+you and Aunt Matilda get on nicely at first?"
+
+Susan considered. "Well, I don't believe we did. She was always so very
+sparing. Husband was sparing, and of course I'd had a good many years of
+it, but when your husband's gone and you've got the property yourself
+and have left it to an only sister who takes care of you, you don't like
+her being even more sparing,--putting you on skim-milk right from the
+first and chopping the potato peelings in the hash."
+
+"But there must have been some good in the situation, or it wouldn't
+have been. When there's a wrong situation, the cure lies in hunting out
+the good, not in talking over the bad."
+
+"You won't find any good in Matilda and me living together,--not if you
+hunt till Doomsday." Susan took a big sip of coffee and then shook her
+head hard.
+
+"There's good in everything."
+
+"I don't know what it was here, then. I was all ready to die, and the
+doctor said I couldn't live, and when I found out how Matilda was
+counting on it, I just made up my mind to live just to spite her. But
+it's been awful hard work."
+
+Jane turned and seized her hand. "Well, maybe that's the reason for the
+situation, then. You see if she'd been different, you'd have died, but
+being a person who made you mad, you stayed alive."
+
+Susan laughed a little. "I've been mad enough, I know," she went on;
+"it's awful to be up-stairs the way I've been and have to prowl
+down-stairs and run off with your food like a dog in an alley. I was
+always watching till I saw Matilda over that second fence and then
+racing for something to eat. I've been very hungry often and often,
+Jane, very hungry indeed,--and in my own house, too."
+
+The tears came into the girl's eyes. "Poor Auntie!" she said. "Well,
+it's all over now and won't ever come back. You must believe me when I
+say so. Old conditions never return. The wheel can't turn backward. That
+mustn't be."
+
+"But how'll it help it when Matilda's visit gets over?"
+
+Jane rested her chin on her hands and looked out of the window. "I'll
+have to get you on to a plane where you can't live as you did ever
+again," she said.
+
+"On a plane!--" Susan stared.
+
+"A plane is a kind of grade in life. We keep going up them like stairs,
+and the quieter and happier people live, the higher is the plane on
+which they are. It's very simple, when you come to understand it. It's
+sort of like a marble staircase built out of a marsh and on up a
+mountain. You can stand down in the mud, or step higher in the reeds, or
+step higher in the water (generally it's hot water," Jane interrupted
+herself to say with a little smile). "Or out on the dry earth, or higher
+where it's flowers, or higher or higher. But every time you get up a
+step you leave all the mess of all the lower steps behind you forever.
+Do you understand?"
+
+"No, I don't."
+
+"Why, don't you see that if you lift yourself higher than your
+surroundings, of course you'll have other conditions around you and be
+really living another life? We can't possibly be bound by conditions
+lower than our souls. It's a law. I'll help you to understand it, and
+then it will help you to not be at all troubled over Aunt Matilda.
+You'll be above her. Don't you see? One can always get out of a
+disagreeable life by lifting one's self above it."
+
+"But I did stay up-stairs," said Susan, with beautiful literalness. "I
+think it's awful to have to keep a plane above any one, when the whole
+house is yours."
+
+"I didn't mean that," said Jane. "I meant that mentally you must get
+above her. It isn't in words or in thoughts,--you must _be_ above her.
+You must get free. I must help you. You can do it. Anybody can do it.
+And as soon as you are free in your spirit, your life will change. Our
+daily life follows our thoughts. Our thoughts make a pattern, and life
+weaves it. The world of stars that we can't hardly grasp at all is all
+God's thought. The life in this house was your thought and Aunt
+Matilda's."
+
+"It wasn't mine," said Susan quickly; "it was hers."
+
+"Well, it's mine now," said Jane. "That's the true business of the
+Sunshine Nurses. They must get a new thought into a house and get it to
+growing well. Then they'll leave the true sunshine there forever after."
+
+Susan's eyes were very curious--very bright. "I declare I don't see how
+you'll do it here," she said. "I can't look at Matilda any new way, as I
+know of. Whatever she does, she does just exactly as I don't like it."
+
+"I suppose that you try her, too."
+
+"Well, I didn't die; of course she minded that. But I couldn't die. You
+can't die just to order."
+
+"No, of course not; I didn't mean that." Jane was quite serious. "I
+don't blame you at all for not doing that."
+
+Susan had finished and rose from the table. "Let's leave the dishes and
+go out in the yard," she said. "I'm awfully anxious to keep on at this
+till we find a way out, if you think that you can; I go about wild when
+I think of her. I'm ready for anything except staying in bed any more."
+
+"Oh, that's all over," said Jane. "You're off the bed-plane now, and
+don't you see how much higher you've got already? The next step is to
+fix yourself so securely on this happy one that you know that it's yours
+and you can't leave it. You see, you feel able to go back down again,
+and as long as you feel that way, it's possible. One has to bar out the
+wrong kind of life forever, and then of course it's over."
+
+"But she is coming back," said Susan, "and I can't live any more on
+gobbles of milk and cold bits swallowed while I'm getting up-stairs
+three steps to the jump."
+
+Jane looked at her. "I expect that exercise was awfully good for you,
+Auntie," she said seriously. "You've probably gotten a lot of health and
+interest out of it. Don't forget that."
+
+"Well, maybe; but I don't want any more." Susan's tone was terribly
+earnest.
+
+"It's all over then," said Jane, slowly and with emphasis; "if you truly
+and honestly don't want any more, then it must be all over. The thing to
+do now is to build a firm connection between ourselves and it's being
+all over."
+
+"I don't quite understand what you mean," said Susan, "but something's
+got to be done, of course, because otherwise she'll come home, and oh,
+my, her face when she sees me up and around!"
+
+Jane knit her brows. "You see, Auntie," she said slowly, "there's only
+one thing to do. We've got to change ourselves completely; we've to get
+where we want her to come home and where we look forward to it--"
+
+Susan stopped short and lifted up both hands. "Gracious, we can't ever
+do that! It isn't in humanity."
+
+"Yes, we can do it," said Jane firmly; "people can always do anything
+that they can think out, and if we can think this out straight, we can
+do it."
+
+"How?"
+
+"It isn't easy to see in just the first minute, but I understand the
+principle of it and I know that we can work it, for I've seen it done.
+You do it by getting an entirely new atmosphere into the house."
+
+"But you've done that already," interrupted Susan. "It isn't musty
+anywhere any more, and there's such a kind of a happy smell instead."
+
+"I don't mean that kind of an atmosphere. I mean a change of feeling in
+ourselves. We've got to somehow make ourselves all over; we must really
+and truly be different."
+
+"But I am made over, and you were all right, anyhow."
+
+"No, I'm not all right," said Jane firmly. "I'm very wrong. I'm letting
+silly thoughts with which I've no business torment me dreadfully, and
+I'm not driving them out with any kind of resolution. Then we're both
+doing wrong about Aunt Matilda. We're making a narrow little black box
+of our opinion and crowding her into it all the time. There's nothing so
+dreadful as the way families just chain one another to their faults.
+Outsiders see all the nice things, and we have lots of courage to always
+live up to their opinions, but families spend most of their time just
+nailing those they love best into pretty little limits. You and I are so
+happy together, and we're changing ourselves and one another every day,
+but we never think that Aunt Matilda's also having experience and
+changing herself, too. We kind of forbid her to grow better."
+
+"You won't find anything that will change Matilda very quick, Jane.
+She's a dreadful person to stick to habits; she's drunk out of the blue
+cup and give me the green one for these whole five years."
+
+"The change in the atmosphere of the house," said Jane slowly, "must be
+complete. We must never say one more word about her that isn't nice, and
+we mustn't even think unkind thoughts. We must talk about her lots and
+look forward to her coming back--"
+
+"Oh, heavens, I can't," gasped Susan.
+
+"We'll begin to-day on her room--"
+
+"Then you'll make her madder than a hatter, sure; she can't bear to have
+her room touched."
+
+"I'm going to make it the prettiest room in the house," said Jane
+resolutely. "I'm going to brush and clean and mend and fix all those
+clothes she's left hanging up, and I'm going to love her dearly from now
+on."
+
+Susan sat still, her lips moving slightly, but whether with repressed
+feeling or trembling sentiment it would be impossible to say. "She
+looked awful cute when she was little and wore pantalettes," she said
+finally.
+
+"Bravo!" cried Jane, running to her and kissing her. "There's a fine
+victory for you, and now,"--her face brightening suddenly,--"I've got an
+idea of what we can do to lift us right straight up into a new circle of
+life. What do you say to our making the little back parlor over into a
+bedroom, and--"
+
+"--taking Mr. Rath to board?" cried Susan joyfully. "Oh, I am sure that
+he wanted to come all along."
+
+Jane laughed outright. "No, indeed, the very idea! No, what I thought of
+was inviting that poor old Mrs. Croft here for a week and giving her and
+her daughter-in-law a rest from one another."
+
+Susan gave a sharp little yell. "Why, Jane Grey, I never heard the beat!
+Why, she can't even feed herself!"
+
+"It would be a way to change the atmosphere of the house; it's just the
+kind of thing that would change us all--"
+
+"I should think it would change us all," interrupted Susan; "why, she
+threw a cup of tea at Katie's back last week. Katie said she couldn't
+possibly imagine what had come over her,--she was leaning out to hook
+the blinds."
+
+"It would be a Bible-lovely thing to do," Jane went on slowly. "You or I
+could feed her, and I'd take care of her. I'm a nurse, you know!"
+
+"Jane! Well, you beat all! Well, I never did! Old Mrs. Croft. Why, they
+say you might as well be gentle with a hornet."
+
+"Maybe she has her reasons; maybe it's,--Set a hornet to tend a hornet,
+for all we know. Anyway, it's come to me as some good to do, and when I
+think of any good that I can do, I have to do it,--else it's a sin.
+That's my religion."
+
+"That religion of yours'll get you into a lot of hot water along through
+life." Susan's tone was very grave. "And you've never seen old Mrs.
+Croft, or you'd never speak of her and religion in the same breath.
+They've got a cat she caresses, and some days she caresses it for all
+she's worth. I've heard the cat being caressed when it was quiet,
+myself, many's the time. You can't use that religion of yours on old
+Mrs. Croft; she isn't a subject for religion. She's one of that kind
+that the man in the Bible thanked God he wasn't one of them."
+
+"My religion is what brought me here to you," said Jane gently. "You
+aren't really sorry that I learned it, are you, Auntie?"
+
+Susan's eyes moistened quickly. She gasped, then swallowed, then made up
+her mind. "Well, Sunshine Jane," she said resignedly, "when shall we get
+her?"
+
+"We'll put her room in order to-morrow morning, and I'll go and ask her
+in the afternoon."
+
+"Oh, dear!" said Susan, with a world of meaning in the two syllables. "I
+hope she'll enjoy the change."
+
+Jane laughed. "Goodness, Auntie, I never saw any one pick up new ideas
+as quick as you do. I was months learning how to make myself over, and
+you do it in just a few hours. You must have laid a big foundation of
+self-control up there in bed."
+
+Susan sighed, uncheered. "It kept me pretty sharp, I tell you," she
+said; "when you're always hungry and have to get your food on the sly
+and be positively sure of never being found out, it does keep you in
+trim being spry pretty steady."
+
+"May we come in?" asked voices at the gate. It was Lorenzo Rath and
+Madeleine. "We wanted to see how you were getting on to-day," the latter
+called.
+
+"We've been changing the furniture and the atmosphere," said Susan,
+trying bravely to smile. "Jane is turning everything around and bringing
+the bright new side out."
+
+"If you'll come and help me wash the breakfast dishes and then make
+biscuits," Jane said to Madeleine, "I'll ask you both to lunch."
+
+"I want to learn how to do everything, of course," said Madeleine.
+
+"And why shouldn't we go down to the garden?" suggested Lorenzo to
+Susan. "You'll point out the things you want to-day, and I'll pull 'em
+up."
+
+"But there are fences to climb," said Jane.
+
+"Fiddle for fences," said her aunt; "he'll go ahead, and I'll skim over
+'em like a squirrel. I never made anything of fences."
+
+So they divided the labor.
+
+"The house looks so pretty," said Madeleine, as she and Jane went
+through to the kitchen. "How do you ever manage it,--with just the same
+things, too?"
+
+Jane glanced about. "Why, there's a right place for everything, and if
+you just stand back a bit and let the things have time to think, they'll
+tell you where to put them. There was an old blue vase in the
+dining-room that was pretty weak-minded, but I was patient and carried
+it all over the place till finally it was suited on top of the what-not
+in the corner of the hall. The trouble with most things is that we hurry
+them too much at first, and then we don't help them out of their false
+position later."
+
+"Oh, Jane, you are so delightfully quaint. You must tell Mr. Rath that.
+It's the kind of speech that will just charm the soul right out of an
+artist."
+
+Jane was deep in the flour-bin. "But I don't want to charm his soul.
+I'll leave that to you."
+
+"To me! Why, he doesn't care a rap about me."
+
+"Well, then, to Emily Mead."
+
+"Emily Mead! Oh, my dear, you have put a lot of new ideas into her head!
+She says that you told her that any one could get anything that he or
+she wanted."
+
+"And so they can."
+
+"Suppose she wants Mr. Rath?"
+
+"If she wants him in the right way, she'll have him."
+
+"I don't like that way of speaking of men," said Madeleine, dipping her
+white fingers into the flour and beginning to chip the butter through
+it. "Don't you think it's horrid how girls speak of men nowadays? I do."
+
+"Of course I do," said Jane. "But one drops into the habit just because
+everybody does it. I'll never be married myself, and it's partly because
+I think it's all being so dragged down. Instead of two people's knowing
+one another and liking one another better till finally a big, beautiful,
+holy secret sort of dawns on them and makes the world all over new,
+girls just go on and act as if men were wild animals to be hunted and
+caught and talked about, or married and made fun of. I don't think all
+these new ideas and new ways for women have made women a bit more
+womanly. When I had to earn my living, I picked out work that a man
+couldn't do, and that I wouldn't be hurting any man by doing. I'm sorry
+for men nowadays. And I think women lose a lot the way some of them go
+on."
+
+"After all, there can't be anything nicer than to be a woman, can
+there?" said Madeleine, stirring as the other poured in ingredients.
+"I've always been glad that I was a woman. I think that a woman's life
+is so sweet, and it's beautiful to be protected and cared for." The pink
+flew over her cheeks at the words.
+
+Jane's lashes swept downward for a minute, then rose resolutely. "Or to
+protect and care for others. It always seems to me as if a woman was the
+sort of blessed way through which a man's love and strength and care go
+to his children. Men are so helpless with children, but they do such a
+lot for wives, and then the mothers pass it on to the little ones."
+
+"Life's lovely when you think of it rightly, isn't it?" Madeleine said
+thoughtfully. "I'm so pleased over having come here. You see Father and
+Mother wanted me to spend a few weeks quietly where I could rest and
+pick myself up a little, and so they sent me here. I didn't care much
+about coming, but I'm glad now. You're doing me lots of good, Jane; you
+seem to help me to unlock the doors to everything that's just best in
+me."
+
+"It isn't that I do it," said Jane; "it's that it's been done to me, and
+after it got through me, it's bound to shine on. It's like light; every
+window you clean lets it through into another place, where maybe there's
+something else to clean and let it through again."
+
+"I suppose we just live to keep clean and let light through," laughed
+Madeleine, cutting out the biscuits.
+
+"That's all."
+
+"I think that you'd make a good preacher, Jane; you've such nice, plain,
+homely, understandable ways of putting things."
+
+Jane laughed and popped the pan into the oven. "Come and help lay the
+table," she said. "Oh, you never saw anything as sweet as Aunt Susan's
+joy in her own things. She's like a little child at Christmas. It's a
+kind of coming back to life for her."
+
+"They say that her sister was awfully mean to her."
+
+"But she wasn't at all. She thought that she was sicker than she was,
+and she kept her in bed, and the joke of it was that Aunt Susan didn't
+like to hurt her feelings by letting her see what mistaken ideas she
+had, so she hopped up every time the coast was clear and kept lively and
+interested trying to be about and in bed at once."
+
+"How perfectly delightful! I never heard anything so funny. And then you
+came and discovered the truth."
+
+"Well, I didn't want her to stay in bed. I'd never encourage any one in
+a false belief, but she hadn't the belief,--she had only the false
+appearance. She didn't enjoy being an invalid one bit."
+
+"I think it's too droll," said Madeleine. "Didn't you laugh when it
+dawned on you first?"
+
+"It dawned on me rather sadly. But we laugh together now."
+
+"What will she do when her sister comes back?"
+
+"Oh, that will all come out nicely. I don't know just how, but I know
+that it will come out all right."
+
+"Do you always have faith in things coming out rightly?"
+
+"Always. I wouldn't dare not to. I'm one of those people who kind of
+feel the future as it draws near, and so I wouldn't allow myself to feel
+any mean future drawing near, on principle. I always feel that nice
+things are marching straight towards me as fast as ever the band of
+music plays."
+
+"Do you believe that it really makes any difference?"
+
+"Of course it makes a difference. It makes all the difference in the
+world, because hope's a rope by which any good thing can haul you right
+up to it, hand over hand."
+
+"You give me a lot to think about," said Madeleine.
+
+Jane ran out and picked some ivy leaves to place under the vase of
+flowers in the middle of the table. It made a little green mat. "There;
+we're all ready when they come, now," she said.
+
+Presently they did come.
+
+"Oh, what will Mrs. Cowmull say to this!" said Lorenzo, as he pulled out
+Mrs. Ralston's chair. "She's busy marking passages in _The Seven Lamps
+of Architecture_ to read aloud to me while I eat, and now I shan't show
+up at all."
+
+"Have you seen her niece lately?" asked Madeleine.
+
+"Yes, I saw her this morning. She wants to pose for me, only she
+stipulated that she should wear clothes. I told her that my models all
+wore thick wool and only showed a little of their faces. She didn't seem
+to like that."
+
+"But what did you mean? Surely you don't always have them wear thick
+woolen?"
+
+"I just do. If they haven't thick wool on, I won't paint them at all."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Why, I paint sheep."
+
+The mild little joke met with great favor.
+
+"I think you're a very clever young man," Susan said with great
+sincerity. "To think of me having a good time laughing with a sheep
+painter," she added. "Who holds them for you to paint, and do you set
+them afterwards?"
+
+"I paint them right in the fields," said Lorenzo.
+
+"I should think they'd butt you from behind."
+
+"I paint over a fence."
+
+"Well, that's safe," said Jane's aunt. "If you're careful not to be on
+the side where there's a bull."
+
+After supper Madeleine helped Jane wash the dishes.
+
+"What fun you make out of everything," she said.
+
+"It's the only way," Jane answered. "My mission is to make two sunbeams
+shine where only one slanted."
+
+"I'm glad I'm one of the heathen to whom you were sent," said Madeleine
+affectionately.
+
+Jane put her arm around her. "So am I, dear, very glad."
+
+Madeleine laid her face against the other girl's. "Some day I want to
+tell you a secret," she said; "a secret that Lorenzo told me yesterday."
+
+Jane felt her heart sort of skip a beat. "Do tell me," she said in a
+whisper.
+
+"I can't now," said Madeleine. "I want to be all alone with you. It's
+too--too big a secret to bear to be broken in upon."
+
+"Can you come to-morrow afternoon? Auntie's going to Mrs. Mead's to the
+Sewing Society, and I'll be here alone."
+
+"That will be nice," said Madeleine; "yes, I'll come."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+SOUL-UPLIFTING
+
+
+IT was the next morning about eleven o'clock.
+
+"You see," said Jane, sitting in the Crofts' sitting-room opposite Katie
+Croft who, whatever else she might or might not be, was certainly not
+pleasant of expression, "you see, my aunt has been an invalid so much
+that she appreciates what a change means to both the sick one and the
+one who cares for her, and so we thought that it would be so nice if
+you'd let me wheel your mother--"
+
+"She ain't my mother--she's my mother-in-law," broke in Mrs. Katie
+Croft, instantly indignant over so false an imputation. "Good lands, the
+very idea! My mother! And never one single stroke of paralysis nor
+nothing in my family, and all reading the Bible without glasses right up
+till they died."
+
+"You see, it would give you a little rest, too," Jane continued, "and it
+would do Aunt Susan good to feel that she was helping a weaker--"
+
+"She ain't weak," broke in Katie Croft, again; "my lands, she's strong
+as a lady-ox. Anything she makes up her mind to keep she lays hold of
+with a grip as makes you fairly sick all up and down your back. You
+don't know perhaps, Miss Grey, as my husband died in our youth, and I
+come to live with his mother as a sacred duty, and I tell you frankly
+that I wish I'd never been born or that he'd never been born, forty
+times an hour--I do."
+
+"You'll like a week alone, I'm sure," said Jane serenely, "and we'll
+like to have your mother-in-law. Perhaps she'll get a few new ideas--"
+
+"She's stubborn as a mule," interrupted the daughter-in-law.
+
+"But may I see her and ask her? I do so want to help you a little. Life
+must have been so hard for you these last years."
+
+"Hard!" said Katie Croft, with emphasis. "Hard! Well, I'll tell you what
+it is, Miss Grey,--to marry a young man as was meek as Moses and then
+have him just fade right straight out and get a mother-in-law like that
+old--that old--that old--well, I'll tell you frankly she's a siren and
+nothing else." (Young Mrs. Croft probably meant "vixen," but Jane did
+not notice.) "My life ain't really worth a shake-up of mustard and
+vinegar some days. What I have suffered!"
+
+"I know more than you think," said Jane sympathetically; "nurses take
+care of so many kinds of people. But do let me ask her. If she likes to
+come to us, it'll be a great rest to you, and perhaps it'll do her a
+little good, too."
+
+"I can't understand you're wanting her," said Katie. "It's all over town
+how queer you are, but I never thought that anybody could be as queer as
+that!"
+
+"Do let us go to her," Jane urged.
+
+Katie rose and forthwith conducted the caller to old Mrs. Croft's room,
+a large, square place adorned with no end of black daguerreotypes and
+faded photographs.
+
+"Mother, it's Miss Grey. You know?--she's Mrs. Ralston's niece."
+
+Old Mrs. Croft received her visitor with acutely suspicious eyes.
+"Well?" she said tartly.
+
+Jane took her hand, but she jerked it smartly away.
+
+"Sit down anywhere," said Katie; "she hears well."
+
+"Hear!" said old Mrs. Croft. "I should say I did hear. There ain't a pan
+fell in the neighborhood for the last ten years as hasn't woke me out of
+a sound sleep, dreaming of my husband--"
+
+"Miss Grey's come to see you about something," interrupted Katie;
+"she--"
+
+"I had a husband," continued old Mrs. Croft, raising her voice from Do
+to Re, "and such a one! Wednesday he'd go to sleep and Thursdays he'd
+wake, so regular you could tell the days of the week just from his
+habits. He--"
+
+"Miss Grey wants--" interrupted Katie.
+
+"I came to--" said Jane.
+
+"I had a husband," continued old Mrs. Croft, going from Re to Mi now;
+"oh, my, but I did have a husband. In May I had him and in December I
+had him, but he was always the same to me. You can see his picture
+there, Miss Grey; it's all faded out, just from being looked at; but
+I'll tell you where it never fades, Miss Grey--it never so much as turns
+a hair in my heart. My heart is engraved--"
+
+"You'd better go on and say what you've got to say," said Katie to Jane.
+"I often put her to bed talking, and she talks all the night through."
+
+"I want to ask you--" Jane began.
+
+"Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies," sang Mrs. Croft. "Oh, I
+had--"
+
+"--I want you to come and stay with us," Jane said, with forceful
+accents.
+
+There was a sudden tense hush.
+
+"My aunt and I want you to come and make us a little visit," the caller
+added.
+
+The hush grew awful.
+
+"A little change would be so good for you--you've been shut up so long."
+
+Old Mrs. Croft lifted her two hands towards the ceiling.
+
+"What do you want to take me out of my own house for? Going to do
+something to it that I wouldn't approve, I expect. Oh, I see it all.
+There was Macbeth and there was Othello, and now there's my house--What
+are you going to do to it, anyhow?" The question was pitched so high and
+sharp that Jane jumped.
+
+"We just want to give you a little change."
+
+"Change! I had a change once. Went to Cuba with my husband and nearly
+died. I don't want no change of _house_," with deep meaning in the
+emphasis; "the change that I want is another change. Change is a great
+thing to have. My husband never changed. Only his collars. Never no
+other way."
+
+"You and Aunt Susan are old friends--" suggested Jane.
+
+"Never nothing special," broke in old Mrs. Croft. "My goodness, I do
+hope your aunt ain't calling me her friend, because if she is, it's a
+thing I can't allow."
+
+Jane thanked her stars that her powers of mental concentration forbade
+her mind to wander. "I'm sure if you came to us, you'd enjoy it," she
+said persuasively; "we've such a pretty bedroom down-stairs, and I'll
+sleep on the dining-room sofa, so you won't feel lonely."
+
+"Lonely. I never feel lonely. I'd thank Heaven if I could be let alone
+for a little, once in a while. I don't want to come, and that's a fact.
+If that be treason, make the most of it."
+
+"Oh, but you must come," said Jane; "you'll like it. We want you, and
+you must come."
+
+"Well, get me my bonnet then," said old Mrs. Croft. "Run, Katie, I've
+been sitting here waiting for it for over an hour."
+
+Katie and Jane regarded one another in consternation. They hadn't quite
+counted on this.
+
+"I'm going visiting," said Mrs. Croft gaily. "Oh, my, and how I shall
+visit. Years may come and years may go, and still I shall sit there
+visiting away, and when I hear the door-bell, I shall know it's time for
+Christmas dinner."
+
+Katie took Jane's hand and drew her out of the room. "I don't believe
+you'd better take her," she said; "she's so flighty. I know how to
+manage her, and you don't. Just give it up."
+
+"No, I won't," said Jane, smiling. "I know that it's a kind thing to do
+and that I must do it. I'm going to take her."
+
+"Seems so odd you're wanting to," said Katie. "You're very funny, I
+think. People are saying that you think that everything's for the best.
+Do you really believe that?"
+
+"Of course. We can't get outside of God's plan, whatever we may do. If
+we do wrong, we have to bear the consequences because it's as easy to
+_see_ the right thing to do as the wrong, but the great Plan never
+wavers."
+
+"Oh, my," said Katie. "I'm glad to know that."
+
+Jane pressed her hand. "I'll get things all ready, and we'll bring her
+over tomorrow night," she said; "that'll be best. Then she can go right
+to bed and get rested from the effort."
+
+So it was arranged, and the Sunshine Nurse went home to tell Susan that
+Mrs. Croft had consented to come. She felt quite positive that now they
+would both attain unto a higher plane without any difficulty, if they
+kept such a guest in the house for a week.
+
+"It isn't going to be easy, Auntie," she said, a bit later, "but it will
+teach you and me a lot, and if one wants to voyage greatly, one must get
+out into the deep water."
+
+"I'll do anything to get hold of some different way of getting on with
+Matilda," said Susan, "and I begin to see what you mean when you say
+that if I change _me_, I'll change it all. If you could make flour into
+sugar, you'd have cake instead of biscuit, but, oh, my! Old Mrs. Croft!"
+
+"It won't be for so very long," said Jane, "and think of Katie Croft
+through all these years! She's been splendid, I think."
+
+"Well, she didn't have any other place to live, you know," Susan
+promptly reminded her niece.
+
+"Work's work, no matter why you do it," Jane said, "and all the big laws
+work greatly. This having old Mrs. Croft is a pretty big step for you
+and me to take, and you'll see that when Aunt Matilda returns, we'll be
+so strongly settled in our new ways that she can't unsettle us. We'll be
+absolutely different people."
+
+"Y--yes," said Susan, confidence fighting doubt stoutly. "I'm willing to
+try, although left to myself I should never have thought of old Mrs.
+Croft as a way of getting different."
+
+"Anything that we do with earnest purpose is a way of getting better,"
+said Jane. She looked out of the window for a minute, and her lip almost
+quivered. Susan didn't notice. "Everything is always for the best, if
+we're sure of it," she then said firmly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+MADELEINE'S SECRET
+
+
+THE two girls were enjoying a pleasant time in Susan's big, tidy
+kitchen.
+
+"I never knew that a kitchen could be so perfectly lovely," said
+Madeleine, as they took tea by the little table by the window. "Jane,
+you are a genius! One opens the gate here with a bubbling feeling that
+everything in the whole world's all right."
+
+"I'm so glad," said Jane; "it's grand to feel that one is a real channel
+of happiness. I always seem to see people as made to form that kind of
+connection between God and earth, and that happiness is the visible sign
+of success, a good 'getting through,' so to speak."
+
+"Do you know, the English language is awfully indefinite. That sentence
+might mean good flowing like water through people, or people so made
+that good can go through them easily. Do you see?"
+
+"Yes, I see. But either meaning is all right. It isn't what I say that
+matters so much, anyway. It's how you take it."
+
+"I took that two ways."
+
+"Yes, and both were good. That's so fine,--to get two good meanings,
+where I only meant one."
+
+They smiled together.
+
+"Mr. Rath and I were talking about that last evening," said Madeleine,
+the color coming into her face a little. "Do you know, he's really a
+very dear man. He's awfully nice."
+
+Jane jumped up to drive a wasp out of the window. "You know him better
+than I do," she said, very busy.
+
+"I've known him for several years, but never as well as here."
+
+Jane came back and sat down. Madeleine was silent, seeming to search for
+words.
+
+"You were going to tell me a secret," her friend said, after a little.
+
+"I know, but I--I can't."
+
+Jane lifted her eyes almost pitifully. "Why not?"
+
+"I don't feel that I have the right, after all. Secrets are such
+precious things."
+
+"If I can help you--?"
+
+"Oh, no, no.--It isn't any trouble. It's something quite different--I--I
+thought that perhaps I could tell you my thoughts, but--I can't."
+
+There was a silence.
+
+"There are such wonderful feelings in the world," Madeleine went on,
+after a little; "they don't seem to fit into words at all. One feels
+ashamed to have even planned to talk about them. One feels so humble
+when--" she paused--then closed her lips.
+
+Jane put out her hand and took the hand upon the other side of the
+little table, close. "Don't mind me, dear; I understand."
+
+"Do you really?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Madeleine's eyes were anxious. "Do you guess? Did you guess?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And how--what--what do you think?"
+
+"I think that it would be lovely, only, of course, I don't quite know it
+all, for I shall never have anything like it."
+
+Madeleine started. "Oh, Jane, don't say that."
+
+"But it's so, dear."
+
+"Oh, _no_."
+
+"No, dear,--I can guess and sympathize. But I shall never have any such
+happiness. It's--it's quite settled."
+
+Madeleine left her seat, went round by the side of the other girl, flung
+herself down on the floor, and looked as if she were about to cry. "Oh,
+Jane, you mustn't feel so. Why shouldn't you marry?"
+
+"I can't, dear; I've debts of my father's to pay, and I'm pledged to my
+Order."
+
+"But they'll get paid after a while."
+
+"It will take all my youth."
+
+"But a way can be found?"
+
+"No way can ever be. There is no one in the wide world to help me. I'm
+quite alone."
+
+"Why, Jane," said Madeleine, always kneeling and always looking up, "I
+know some one who can manage everything, and you do, too."
+
+Jane stared a little. "My aunt, do you mean?"
+
+"No,--God."
+
+Jane smiled suddenly. "Thank you, dear. I hadn't forgotten, but I just
+didn't think. Still, I think God means me to be brave about my burdens.
+I don't think that He sees them as things from which to be relieved."
+
+Madeleine was still looking up. "But the channel doesn't think; the
+channel just conveys what pours along it," she whispered.
+
+Just at this second the scene altered.
+
+"Oh, there's my aunt!" Jane exclaimed. Susan passed the window, and the
+next minute she came in the door. "I've had the most bee--youtiful
+afternoon," she announced radiantly. "I did Jane lots of credit, for I
+never said a word about anybody, but oh, how splendid it was to just be
+good and silent, and hear all the others talk. They talked about
+everybody, and a good many were of my own opinion, so I had considerable
+satisfaction without doing a thing wrong."
+
+Jane couldn't help laughing or Madeleine, either. "Was young Mrs. Croft
+there?"
+
+"No, and most everybody says that she'll go off to-morrow and never come
+back, and we'll have old Mrs. Croft till she dies. They looked at me
+pretty hard, but I stuck to my soul and never said a word."
+
+"It was noble in you, Auntie," Jane said warmly.
+
+"Yes, it was," assented Susan. Then she turned to Madeleine, who had
+returned to her chair. "Jane's religion's pretty hard on me, but I like
+its results, and I can do anything I set out to do, and I don't mean to
+not get a future if I can help it. You see, my sister Matilda is a very
+peculiar person. You must know that by this time?"
+
+"I have heard a good deal about her," Madeleine admitted.
+
+"Well, I hope it isn't unkind in me to say that I know more than anybody
+else can possibly imagine."
+
+"But she's coming back all right," Jane interrupted firmly; "we mustn't
+forget that."
+
+"No," said Susan, with a quick gasp in her breath; "no, I'm not
+forgetting a thing. I'm only talking a little. And oh, how Mrs. Cowmull
+did talk about you, Madeleine. She says Mr. Rath can't put his nose out
+of the door alone."
+
+"That's dreadful," said Madeleine, trying not to color, "especially as
+we always come straight here."
+
+"Well, I tell you it's pretty hard work being good," said Susan, with a
+cheerful sigh; "it's a relief to get home and take off one's bonnet."
+
+"And don't you want some tea, Auntie? It's all hot under the cozy."
+
+"Yes, I will, you Sunshine Jane, you. I'll never cease to be grateful
+for good tea again as long as I live. I've had five years of the other
+kind to help me remember."
+
+Later, when Madeleine was gone, Susan said: "Do you know, Jane, Katie
+Croft is certainly going to desert that awful old woman when we get her
+here? Everybody says so."
+
+"No, she isn't, Auntie; the expected is never what happens."
+
+"Jane, any one with your religion can't rely on proverbs to help them
+out, because the whole thing puts you right outside of common-sense to
+begin with."
+
+Jane was sitting looking out upon the pretty garden. "I know, Auntie; I
+only quoted that in reference to the Sewing Society gossip. It's never
+the expected that happens in their world; it's the expected that always
+happens in my world. And proverbs don't exist in my world; they're every
+one of them a human limitation."
+
+"Well, Jane, I don't know; some of them are very pretty, and when I've
+seen Matilda over the fence and run down to get a few scraps, I've taken
+considerable comfort in 'No cloud without a silver lining' and 'It never
+rains but it pours.' They were a great help to me."
+
+Jane kissed her tenderly. "Bless you, Auntie,--everything's all right
+and all lovely, and Madeleine made me so happy to-day. I'm sure that
+she's engaged."
+
+"Yes, I've thought that, too."
+
+"Yes, and I'm so glad for her."
+
+"I hope he's good enough for her."
+
+"Oh, I'm sure that he is." Jane thought a minute. "And Madeleine gave me
+a big lesson, too," she added.
+
+"What?"
+
+"She showed me that with all my teaching and preaching, I don't trust
+God half enough yet."
+
+"Well, Jane," said Susan solemnly, "I s'pose trusting God is like being
+grateful for the sunshine,--human beings ain't big enough to hold all
+they ought to feel."
+
+"Perhaps we'd be nothing but trust and gratitude, then," said Jane,
+smiling.
+
+"They're nice feelings to be made of," said Susan serenely, "but I must
+go and put my bonnet away. But, oh, heavens, when I think that to-morrow
+old Mrs. Croft is coming!"
+
+"And that lots of good is coming with her; she is coming to bring
+happiness and happiness only."
+
+"Yes, I know," Susan's air was completely submissive. "I can hardly wait
+for her to get here. They wondered at the Sewing Society if she'd sing
+Captain Jinks all night often. She does sometimes, you know. But I'm
+sure we'll like her. She's a nice woman."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+OLD MRS. CROFT
+
+
+OLD Mrs. Croft arrived the next afternoon about half after four. She was
+rolled up in her chair, and her small trunk followed on a wheelbarrow.
+
+"How old you have grown!" she said to Susan, by way of greeting, as she
+grated up the gravel. "My, to think you ever looked young!"
+
+They wheeled her into the hall. "Same hall," she said, looking about,
+"same paper you had thirty years ago. Oh, my, to think of it. I've
+papered and papered and scraped off, and papered and papered and scraped
+off, and then papered again in those same thirty years."
+
+They got her into the room on the ground floor, which had been prepared
+for her. "I suppose this was the most convenient place to put me," she
+said, "and so you put me in it. Put me where you please, only I do hope
+you haven't beetles. It makes me very nervous to hear 'em chipping about
+all night, and when I'm nervous, I don't sleep, and when I don't sleep,
+I just can't help lying awake. It's a way I've got. I caught it from my
+husband when he was a baby. He'd wake up and give it to me."
+
+Susan went out with Jane to get her some supper. "I never thought much
+about Katie Croft," she said, "but I never doubted she had a hard time."
+
+"Yes," said Jane, "and one of the nicest things in this world is to be
+able to give some one who's had a hard time a rest."
+
+"Wouldn't it be dreadful if she died, though, while she was here?"
+
+"Who? Old Mrs. Croft?"
+
+"Oh, no, she won't ever die. I meant Katie. Everybody says she's going
+to run away, but if she don't do that and dies, we'll be just as badly
+off as if she did it."
+
+"Oh, Auntie!"
+
+"Well, Jane, we'd have to keep old Mrs. Croft till she died."
+
+"I guess there's not much chance of that," Jane said; "she won't die.
+She has come here to do us good and to receive good herself, that's
+all."
+
+Susan looked appalled. "Surely you don't expect to sunshine _her_ up, do
+you?"
+
+"Yes, I do."
+
+Then Susan looked amazed. "Well, I never did! I thought she was just
+here to do us good. I--"
+
+Their conversation was suddenly interrupted by a piercing shriek. Jane
+flew.
+
+"I'm so happy I just had to let it out," Mrs. Croft announced. "I can't
+hold in joy or sorrow. Sorrow I let out in the low of my voice--like a
+cow, you know--but joy I let rise to the skies. You'll hear to-night."
+
+Jane looked at her and smiled. She looked like a story-book witch in a
+nice, white, modern bed. "I thought that perhaps you wanted something,"
+she said, turning to leave the room again.
+
+"No, indeed, I never want anything. I ain't by no means so bad off as is
+give out."
+
+"I guessed as much. You can make a fresh start now, and we shan't remind
+you of the past."
+
+"Oh, then I'm coming to the table," exclaimed Mrs. Croft, "and I'm going
+to be helped like a Christian and feed myself like a human being. This
+being put to bed and just all but tied there with a rope isn't going to
+go on much longer, I can tell you."
+
+"Don't speak of it at all," said Jane; "you just do what you please
+here, and we'll let you. I'm going to get you your supper now."
+
+"Stop!" cried old Mrs. Croft sharply. "Stop! I won't have it! I won't
+stand it. Oh, I've had such a time," she went on, bringing her clenched
+fist down vigorously on her knee under the bedclothes and raising
+her voice very high indeed, "such a time! I had a beautiful son that
+you or any girl might have been proud to marry, and then he must go and
+marry that Katie Croft creature. There ain't many things to cut a
+mother's heart to the quick like seeing her own son marry her own
+daughter-in-law. Such a nice raised boy as he was, so neat, and she
+kicking her clothes under the bed at night to tidy up the room. Oh!"
+cried Mrs. Croft, lifting her voice to a still more surprising pitch,
+"what I have suffered! Nothing ain't been spared me. I lost my son and
+the use of my legs from the shock and--"
+
+"Supper is all ready," Jane interrupted sweetly and calmly.
+
+"What you got?"
+
+"Sardines--"
+
+"I never eat 'em."
+
+"Toast."
+
+"I hate it."
+
+"Plum preserves."
+
+"Lord have mercy on me, I wouldn't swallow one if you gave it to me."
+
+Jane stood still at the door.
+
+Susan, having heard the screams, came running in.
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Ralston," cried Mrs. Croft, "I had"--Jane rose, approached the
+bed, and laid a firm hand on her arm. "What do you want for supper?" she
+asked in a quiet, penetrating tone.
+
+"I don't want nothing," cried Mrs. Croft; "days I eat and days I don't.
+This is a day I don't eat, and on such a day I only take a little ham
+and eggs from time to time. Oh, my husband, how I did love you! It's
+just come over me how I loved him, and I love him so I can't hardly
+stand it--"
+
+"We'll go out and have supper ourselves, then," said Jane.
+
+"Eat, drink, and be merry while you can," fairly yelled Mrs. Croft. "The
+handwriting is on the wall and the Medes and Persians is in the chicken
+yard right now. Oh, what a--"
+
+They slipped out and shut the door after them. Susan turned a scared
+face Jane's way. "Why, she's crazy!" she said. "Katie always said so,
+and folks thought she was just talking. It's awful."
+
+"She's a little excited with the change," said Jane soothingly; "she'll
+be calmer soon. It's very bad to shut one's self off from others. It's
+better to fuss along with disagreeable people than to live altogether
+alone. She's grown flighty through being left alone. It's a wonder that
+you didn't get odd yourself."
+
+When they went back after supper, Mrs. Croft was sound asleep.
+
+"Don't wake her, for goodness' sake," whispered Susan, in the doorway.
+Jane left the room quietly, and her aunt took her by the arm and led her
+up-stairs. "This is pretty serious," she said. "I think Katie Croft
+ought to have told us."
+
+"She didn't want her to come; we insisted," said Jane.
+
+"I tell you what," said Susan, "we were too happy."
+
+Susan's tone was so solemn that Jane had an odd little qualm. But the
+next instant she knew that all was right, because all is always right.
+"Auntie," she said, putting her hand on the older woman's shoulder, "you
+must try to realize that you've moved out of the world where things go
+wrong into the world where things go right. When you go out of the cold,
+dark winter night into a cosy, warm house, you don't fear that the house
+will turn dark and cold any minute."
+
+"But old Mrs. Croft isn't a house; she's moved into us, instead."
+
+Jane smiled her customary smile of tranquil sweetness. "She has come to
+show us ourselves," she said, "and to bring us to some kind of better
+things. I know it."
+
+Susan's eyes altered to confidence. "Well, Sunshine Jane," she said,
+"I'll try to believe that you know. I'll try."
+
+They went to bed early, and Jane slept on the dining-room sofa. In the
+night Mrs. Croft, calling, woke her. She jumped up and went to her at
+once.
+
+"I'm hungry. You didn't ask me here to starve me, did you? Oh, how
+hungry I am. I've never been so hungry before."
+
+"I'll get you anything you like," the girl said. "What shall it be?"
+
+Mrs. Croft shook her head lugubriously. "Whatever I eat is sure to kill
+me. I wish I was home. You don't know how good dear Katie is to me, Miss
+Grey. Nobody could, unless they lived with her year in and year out as I
+do. Something told me never to leave my sweet child, and I disobeyed my
+conscience which won't let me sleep for aching like a serpent's tooth.
+Oh, my little Katie, my pretty little Katie, my loving little Katie that
+I went and left at home! Take me to her."
+
+"But she isn't at home," said Jane. "She's gone away on a little visit.
+She went last evening."
+
+"I shall never see her again," said Mrs. Croft mournfully. "I shall
+never see no one again. Oh, dear; oh, dear. My eyes. My eyes."
+
+"What shall I get you? A glass of milk?"
+
+"It doesn't matter. Whatever you like. I was never one to make trouble.
+Whatever you like."
+
+When Jane returned with the milk and some hastily prepared bread and
+butter, Mrs. Croft was praying rapidly. "I think I've got religion,"
+said she, in a bright, chatty tone; "if you'll sit down, I'll convert
+you. It's never too late to mend, and so get your darning basket and
+come right here." She began to eat and drink very rapidly. "It's going
+to kill me," she said, between bites, "but I don't care a mite. What is
+life after all,--a vain fleeting shadow of vanity,--why, you ain't put
+no jam on this bread!"
+
+"Do you like jam? I'll get you some at once."
+
+"Oh, merciful heavens, waking me up in the dead of night to give me
+plain bread and no jam! I shall never see Katie again, and perhaps it's
+just as well, for she'd not stand such doings. Oh, you idle, thriftless
+girl, take me home, take me home at once."
+
+"In the morning," said Jane gently.
+
+"Oh, my,--why did I ever come! Katie, my Katie, my long-loving Katie; my
+dear little Katie that's gone to New York!"
+
+Then, having swallowed the milk in great gulps and the bread in great
+bites, she shut her eyes and lay back again in bed.
+
+"Shan't I bring you anything else?" Jane asked.
+
+"No," said the invalid, "not by no means, and I'll trouble you to get
+out and keep out and don't make a noise in the morning, for I want my
+last hours to be peaceful, and I'm going to take a screw-driver and fix
+my thoughts firmly to heaven at once."
+
+Jane went softly out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+SHE SLEEPS
+
+
+THE next morning Susan felt perturbed. "She'll take up a whole week of
+our happy visit, and I can't bear to lose a minute. The time's going too
+fast, anyhow."
+
+Lorenzo Rath came in shortly after. He and Madeleine and Emily Mead were
+in and out daily to suit themselves by this time. "Do you know, Mrs.
+Croft has gone off, nobody knows where," he said gravely; "she's left no
+address, and people say she'll never come back."
+
+Susan threw up her hands with a wail. "Oh, Jane, she _has_ left that
+dreadful old woman on us for life; I'll just bet anything folks knew
+exactly that she meant to do it when they talked to me so. What _will_
+Matilda say when she comes back?"
+
+Jane was silent a minute. "It's no use doubting what one really
+believes," she said finally. "I do really believe that I came here for a
+good purpose, and I know that I had a good purpose in inviting Mrs.
+Croft. I'm taught that to doubt is like pouring ink into the pure water
+of one's good intentions, and I won't doubt. I refuse to."
+
+"But if you go back to where you come from and leave me with Matilda and
+old Mrs. Croft, I'll be dead or I'll wish I was dead,--it all comes to
+the same thing," cried poor Susan.
+
+"Auntie," said Jane firmly, "I shan't leave you alone with Aunt Matilda
+and Mrs. Croft, you needn't fear."
+
+"Oh," said Susan, her face undergoing a lightning transformation, "if
+you'll stay here, I'll keep Mrs. Croft or anybody else, with pleasure."
+
+"What, even me?" laughed Lorenzo.
+
+"I'd like to keep you," said Susan warmly. "I think you're one of the
+nicest young men I ever knew."
+
+"I'd like to stay," said Lorenzo, looking at Jane.
+
+She lifted up her eyes and they had a peculiar expression.
+
+Just then Emily Mead came in. "Only think," she said, directly greetings
+were over, "people say Mrs. Croft drew all their money out of the bank
+before she left. Everybody says she's deserted her mother-in-law
+completely."
+
+"Jane, it really is so," said Susan; "she really is gone."
+
+Jane looked steadily into their three faces. "If I begin worrying and
+doubting, of course there'll be a chance to worry and trouble, because
+I'm the strongest of you all," she said gravely, "but I won't go down
+and live in the world of worry and trouble under any circumstances. I
+know that only good can come of Mrs. Croft's being here. I _know_ it!"
+
+"I wish that I could learn how you manage such faith," said the young
+artist. "I'd try it on myself,--yes, I would, for a fact."
+
+"It's not so easy," said Jane, looking earnestly at him. "It means just
+the same mental discipline that physical culture means for the muscles.
+It takes time."
+
+"But I'd like to learn," said Lorenzo.
+
+"So would I!" said Emily Mead.
+
+"I've begun already," said Susan; "every time I think of old Mrs. Croft
+I say: 'She's here for some good purpose, God help us.'"
+
+"Tell me," said Emily Mead, "what possessed you to have her, anyway?
+Everybody's wondering."
+
+"Jane thought that it would be a nice thing to do. And so we did it."
+
+"Do you always do things if you think of them?" Emily asked Jane.
+
+"I'm taught that I must."
+
+"Taught?"
+
+"It's part of my sunshine work."
+
+"That's why she's here," interposed Susan; "she thought of me and came
+right along."
+
+Emily looked thoughtful. "I wonder if I could learn," she said.
+
+"Anybody can learn anything," said Lorenzo.
+
+"Wouldn't it be nice to all learn Jane's religion?"
+
+"I've got it most learned," said Susan, "I'm to where I'm most ready to
+stand Matilda, if only we don't have to keep old Mrs. Croft."
+
+"What is old Mrs. Croft doing now?" Emily asked suddenly.
+
+"She's still asleep. She says that she sleeps late."
+
+Then Emily rose to go. Lorenzo Rath rose and left with her.
+
+"Jane," said Susan solemnly, after they were alone, "I'm afraid that
+religion of yours ain't as practical as it might be, after all. It's got
+us old Mrs. Croft, and I ain't saying a word, but now I'm about positive
+it's going to lose you that young man. You could have him if you'd just
+exert yourself a little, and you don't at all."
+
+"I couldn't have him, Auntie."
+
+"Yes, you could. Don't tell me. I know a young man when I see one, and
+Mr. Rath's a real young man. He loves you, Jane, just because nobody
+could help it, and if you weren't always so busy, he'd get on a good
+deal faster."
+
+"I can't marry, Aunt Susan." Jane, with Madeleine's secret high in her
+heart, was very busy setting the kitchen to rights. "Some people are not
+meant to have homes of their own. It's the century."
+
+"Fiddle for the century," said Susan, with something almost like
+violence. "I'm awful tired of all this hash and talk about the century.
+About the only thing I've had to think of since Matilda made up her mind
+I was too sick to get up, was what I read in newspapers about the
+troubles of the century. Centuries is always in hot water till they're
+well over, and then they get to be called the good old days. I guess
+days ain't so different nor centuries either nor women neither. Fiddle
+for all this kind of rubbish,--it's no use except to upset a nice girl
+like you and keep her from marrying a nice young fellow like Mr. Rath.
+Girls don't know nothing about love no more. Mercy on us, why, it's a
+kind of thing that makes you willing to go right out and hack down trees
+for the man."
+
+Jane looked a little smiling and a little wistful. "I'll tell you what
+it is, Auntie," she said; "when my father died he left a debt that ought
+to be paid, and I promised him I'd pay it. I couldn't marry--it wouldn't
+be honest."
+
+Susan's eyes flew pitifully open. "Good heavens, mercy on us, no; then
+you never can't marry, sure and certain. There never was the man yet so
+good he wouldn't throw a thing like that in a woman's teeth. It's a
+man's way, my dear, and a wife ought not to mind, but one of the
+difficulties of being a wife is that you always do mind."
+
+"I know that I should mind," said Jane quietly, "and, anyway, I don't
+want to marry. I'm much happier going about on my sunbeam mission,
+trying to help others a bit here and a bit there." She smiled bravely as
+she spoke, for all that it takes a deal of training in truth not to
+waver or quaver in such a minute. She had to think steadily along the
+lines which she had worked so hard to build into every brain-cell and
+spirit-fiber of her make-up. "Auntie," she went on then, after a brief
+reflection that he who works in truth's wool works without fear as to
+the breaking of one single thread, "you and I are trying dreadfully
+hard--trying with all our might to do exactly right. We're trying to
+break your chains by the only way in which material chains can be
+broken,--by breaking those of others. We can't go astray. If old Mrs.
+Croft should stay here till she died, and if I should work till I died
+at paying the debts of others, she'd stay for some good purpose, and I'd
+be working in the same way. Be very sure of that."
+
+For a second Susan looked cheered--but only for a second. Then, "That's
+all very well for you and me, who want to be uplifted--at least you want
+to be, and I think maybe I'll like it after I get a little used to it.
+But Matilda doesn't know or care anything about planes, and it's Matilda
+I keep thinking of." There was another pause, and then she added: "And
+it's Matilda I'll have to live with,--along with old Mrs. Croft. Oh,
+Jane, I'd be so much happier if you'd marry Mr. Rath and let me come and
+live with you!"
+
+Jane went and put her arms about her. "Auntie, it isn't easy to learn my
+way of looking at things, because you have to keep at them till they're
+so firm in you that nothing from outside can ever shake or uproot them.
+But what I believe is just so firm with me, and I won't give anything
+up,--not even about Mrs. Croft. We're all right and she's all right and
+everything's all right, and I don't need to marry any one."
+
+Susan winked mournfully. "If there was only some way to meet Matilda on
+her way home and kind of get that through her head before she saw Mrs.
+Croft. You see, she always shuts that room up cold winters and keeps
+cold meat in there. I've had many a good meal out of that room."
+
+"You must not cast about for ways and means," said Jane firmly. "Life is
+like a sunshiny warm day, and our part is to breathe and feel and thank
+God,--not to look for the sun to surely cease shining."
+
+"But it does stop," wailed Susan, "often."
+
+"Yes, thank Heaven," said Jane, "if it didn't, we'd be burnt up alive by
+our own vitality."
+
+"Oh, dear," said Susan briefly, "you've an answer for everything. Well,
+let's get dinner."
+
+They went into the kitchen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+EMILY'S PROJECT
+
+
+AFTER dinner that day Emily Mead came with her work. Emily Mead was one
+of those nondescript girls who seem to spring up more and more thickly
+in these troublous, churned-up times of ours.
+
+Too pretty to be plain, too unattractive to be beautiful. Too well-to-do
+to need to work, too poor to attain to anything for which she longed.
+Too clever to belong to her class, not clever enough to rise above it.
+Altogether a very fit subject for Jane to "sunshine," as her aunt put
+it.
+
+"How do you get along with old Mrs. Croft?" she asked, directly she was
+seated.
+
+"She's asleep yet," Jane said; "she was so restless all night."
+
+"She always sleeps days and is awake all night; didn't you know that
+before?" queried Emily, in surprise. "Some one ought to have told you."
+
+"It doesn't matter," said Jane serenely. There was never any bravado in
+her serenity; it was quite sincere.
+
+"That was what made Katie so mad," Emily continued. "She said it gave
+her her days, to be sure, but, as she couldn't very well sleep, too, all
+day, she never really had any time herself."
+
+"We'll get along all right," said Jane quietly; "old people have ways,
+and then they change and have other ways, and the rest must expect to be
+considerate."
+
+"Mercy on us, I wonder what she'll change to next," said Susan, with
+feeling. She had just returned from listening at the invalid's door.
+
+"Don't worry, Auntie,--just remember!" Jane's smile was at once bright
+and also a bit admonitory.
+
+"I'm trying to believe that everything's all right always, too," said
+Susan to Emily, "but, oh, my!"
+
+They went out on the shady side of the house to where a little table
+stood, which was made out of a board nailed into a cut-off tree stump.
+Jane and Emily carried chairs, and Susan brought her darning basket. It
+was delightfully pleasant. From time to time Jane or her aunt slipped in
+and listened at the door, but old Mrs. Croft slept on like a baby.
+
+"I do wonder if Katie Croft has really gone for good!" Emily said to
+Susan, while Jane was absent on one of these errands.
+
+"I can't trust myself even with my own opinions," said Susan reservedly;
+"I haven't much time to get changed before Matilda comes, you know, and
+I want to believe in Jane's religion if I can. It's so kind of warm and
+comforting. I like it."
+
+"Jane," Emily said, turning towards her when she returned, "I've come
+to-day on an awfully serious errand, and I want you to help me."
+
+"I will certainly, if I can. What is it?"
+
+"Do you really believe that wanting anything shows that one is going to
+get it? You said something like that the other day."
+
+"I know that one can get anything one wants," Jane answered gravely; "of
+course the responsibility of some kinds of wanting is awfully heavy. But
+the law doesn't alter."
+
+"Can you explain it to me?"
+
+"Yes, that's it," said Susan, "you tell us how to manage. I want to get
+something myself. Or I mean it's that I want something I've got to go
+away again. Or I guess I'd better not try to say what I mean."
+
+"But you won't either of you understand what I mean, when I tell you,"
+said Jane. "It's just as I said before, it takes a lot of study to get
+your brain-cells to where they can hold an idea that's really new to
+you. Heads are like empty beehives,--you have to have the comb before
+you can have the honey, and every different kind of study requires a
+different kind of cells just for its use alone. When things don't
+interest us, it's because the brain-cells in regard to that subject have
+never been developed. That's all. That's what they taught me."
+
+"I think it's interesting," said Susan. "I always thought that the
+inside of my head was one thing that I didn't need to bother about.
+Seems it isn't, after all. Go on, you Sunshine Jane, you."
+
+"I'm like your aunt. I thought that what I thought was the last thing
+that mattered," said Emily.
+
+"Everything matters. There's nothing in this world that doesn't matter,
+because this world is all matter. Anything that doesn't matter must be
+spirit. Don't you see that when you say and really mean that a thing
+doesn't matter, you mean that to you it isn't material,--that it's no
+part of your world?"
+
+"Dear me, I never thought of that," said Susan, "then I suppose as long
+as things do matter to us, it means we just hang on to them and hold
+them for all we're worth."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But, Jane, thoughts can't matter much? Or we can forget things."
+
+"There isn't anything that we can think of at all that we are ever free
+not to think about again--that is, if it's a good thought," said Jane.
+"If a thought comes to us at all, it comes with some responsibility
+attached. Either we are meant to gain strength by dismissing it, if it
+seems wrong, or it's our duty to do something with it, if it's right.
+Most people's minds are all littered up with thoughts that they never
+either use or put away. That's what makes them so stupid."
+
+"Goodness!" exclaimed Susan. "Why, I never put a thought away in my
+life,--not as I know of."
+
+"I've never thought anything at all about my thoughts," said Emily,
+looking rather startled.
+
+"Lots of people don't," said Jane; "they act just as a woman would in
+making a dress, if she cut it out a bit now and a bit then without ever
+laying the pattern back even, and then joined it anywhere any time, and
+then was surprised when it didn't even prove fit to wear--not to speak
+of looking all witched."
+
+"Is that what ails some lives?" Emily asked, looking yet more startled.
+
+"It's what ails almost every life. It's what makes 'I didn't think' the
+worst confession in the world. A man driving a motor with his eyes shut
+wouldn't be a bit worse. Life's a great powerful force always rushing
+on, and we swing into the tide and never bother to row or to steer or to
+see that our boat is water-tight."
+
+"You make me feel awful, Jane. As if I'd been lazy, staying in bed so.
+And it was the only way."
+
+"You couldn't do any better, Auntie. At least you weren't doing anything
+wrong. Being moored in a little, quiet cove is better than being adrift
+and slamming into the boats of others."
+
+"I'd really have had to think more about Matilda's thoughts than my own,
+if I'd known. I'd never have had time for much thinking as I pleased in
+the way you say; I was always jumping up and flopping down."
+
+"Jane," said Emily earnestly, "then every thought matters?"
+
+"Yes, or matterates." Jane smiled. "If a thought doesn't produce good,
+it'll surely produce bad,--it's got to do something. You plant your
+thoughts in time just as one plants seed in the ground, and any further
+thoughts of the same kind add to its strength until enough strength
+causes an appearance in this world."
+
+"You really believe that?"
+
+"I know it. I know it so well that I think that every seed that's ever
+fallen was a lesson that we were too stupid to learn. Every time a seed
+fell and germinated, God said: 'There, that's the very plainest teaching
+on earth. Can't you see?' Sometimes I think the world's all a book for
+us to learn heaven in, just as our bodies explain our souls to us."
+
+Susan looked at Emily in an awed way. "I guess I can get to believe it
+all," she said, in a low tone; "it sounds so plain when you stop and
+think of it."
+
+"I'll try to believe it," said Emily, "but what I care most about is to
+learn how to get what you want?"
+
+Jane considered. "That comes ever so far along. You have to learn to get
+what you want out of yourself before you can be upon the plane where you
+naturally get what you want, because you are too far on to want what you
+couldn't get."
+
+Emily didn't understand and didn't care. "Do tell me how it's done,
+anyway," she begged eagerly.
+
+"I don't know whether what I say will have any meaning for you, but I'll
+say it, anyway. You'll have to know that it's what I believe and live
+by, and if you're to believe it and live by it, it will come to you
+quite easily, and if not it's because it isn't for you yet."
+
+"I mean to believe," said Emily firmly. "I want something, and I'll do
+anything to get it."
+
+Jane shook her head. "That's the very hardest road to come by," she
+said, "unless it's some overcoming in yourself that you are wanting. You
+see, the very first step has to be the conquering of ourselves, not the
+asking for material things. You have to open a channel for the spirit,
+and then the material flows through afterwards, as a matter of course.
+But if you've gone on a good ways, you don't think of getting _things_
+at all; you just want opportunities to grow, and you know that what you
+need for life will keep coming."
+
+"But it doesn't with lots of people," said Emily. "Just look at the
+poor--and the suffering."
+
+"They aren't living according to this law," said Jane. "They're living
+on another plane. There are different planes."
+
+"Don't you see," interposed Susan, "we asked Mrs. Croft because it would
+get me on a plane where, when Matilda came back, she wouldn't mind so
+many changes."
+
+Emily looked inquiring. "A different plane?"
+
+"Yes," said Jane, "you can lift yourself straight out of any circle of
+conditions by suddenly altering all your own ideas--if you've strength
+to do so."
+
+"I'd never have asked Mrs. Croft alone by myself, you know," said Susan;
+"nobody that looked at things the way other folks do, would. But Jane
+looks at everything different from everybody else. She said it would be
+a quick way of being different. I guess she's right."
+
+"I never heard any ideas like that."
+
+"But they aren't new," said Jane; "they're older than the hills. God
+made the world and then gave every man dominion over his world. We all
+have the whole of _our_ world to rule. This way of looking at things is
+new to you, but there are thousands and thousands of people proving it
+true every day. All the old religions teach it, and all the new
+religions bid you live it or they won't be for you. They don't kill men
+for not believing now. They just let them live and suffer and go
+blundering on. Why"--Jane grew suddenly pink with fervor--"why,
+everywhere I look, almost, I see just lovely chances being let die,
+because people won't fuss to tend them. People are too careless and too
+thoughtless. The truth is so plain that the very word 'thoughtless'
+fairly screams what's the matter to every one, but hardly any one
+bothers."
+
+"But the people who believe as you do,--do they all get everything that
+they want?" asked Emily.
+
+"Or else they want what they get," said Jane; "it comes to exactly the
+same thing when you begin to understand. The beauty of every step nearer
+God is the new learning of how exactly right his world is managed. All
+my old puzzles have been cleared up, and it's so wonderful. Why, I used
+to think that when beautiful, dear little children died it was awful;
+but now I know that they came to help and teach others, and that when
+they'd spread their lesson to those others, they didn't need lessons
+themselves and just left the school and went back into the beautiful
+world of Better Things. It was such a help to me to know why splendid
+men and women who were needed went so suddenly sometimes; it's because
+they're needed much more elsewhere and respond to that call of duty at
+once. I don't think of death as anything dreadful now; I think of it as
+a door that will open and close very easily for me."
+
+"It's one door that Matilda liked to keep setting open," said
+Susan,--"oh, dear me, Jane, I'm trying to grow brain-cells and be a
+credit to you, and I can't think of anything but old Mrs. Croft. Perhaps
+she's woke up."
+
+Jane rose and went into the house.
+
+"Do you think you can take it all in?" Emily asked, slowly and
+thoughtfully.
+
+"I'm doing my best," said Susan, "she's so happy and so good I think she
+must know what she's talking about."
+
+Jane came back. "She's still sleeping," she said; "don't you worry, dear
+Auntie."
+
+"I can't help it," said Susan. "I've dodged about for so long and played
+things were so that weren't so, that I guess I'm pretty much out of
+tune, and it'll be a little while before I can stop worrying."
+
+"No, you aren't out of tune," said Jane, smiling at her affectionately,
+"or if you are, just say you're in tune and you will be, right off."
+
+"Do you believe that?" Emily asked.
+
+"Why, of course. I know it absolutely for myself, and I know that it's
+equally true for others if they have the strength to declare it."
+
+"But how?"
+
+"How! Why, because every declaration of good is spiritual, and proves
+that you are one with your soul and master over your body, just as false
+declarations make you one with your body and take away all power from
+your soul. That's how mental cures work. When anybody says 'I am well,'
+she declares souls can't be ill, and she makes Truth stronger by adding
+her strength to its strength. But when a man says 'I am ill,' he
+declares a lie, for souls can't be ill, and so he's claiming not to be
+spiritual, but just to be his own body. It's as if a weaver stopped
+weaving and said: 'I've broken several threads, and _I'm_ going to be
+imperfect, and _I_ won't bring any price, and _I'll_ only be fit to cut
+up into cleaning cloths.' What would you think of him? You'd say: 'Why,
+that's only an hour's work in cloth and can be put aside without further
+thought. Just go right on and with your skill and judgment make the next
+piece perfect. It was never any of it _you_; it was the stuff you were
+making.' Bodies are the stuff we are making."
+
+Emily laid down her work. "Jane, that's wonderful," she said solemnly.
+"You put that so that I really got hold of it. I understand exactly what
+you mean, and if only everybody else did!"
+
+"But nobody else really matters to you," said Jane; "all that matters to
+you is that you believe. They have their lives--you have yours."
+
+Emily was looking very earnest. "I'm going to try," she said, rising.
+"I'm going to try. I must go now, but I'm going home to go to work in my
+world."
+
+Jane walked with her to the gate. "I'll help you all I can," she said,
+"I'm so glad you're interested. It makes life so splendid."
+
+Emily stopped and took her hand.
+
+"Jane," she said, "I want to tell you something. I want to
+marry Mr. Rath. I think he's the nicest man I ever saw. Do you
+really--really--believe that I can, if I learn to think as you do?"
+
+Jane turned white beneath the other's eyes. "Why, but don't you
+know--don't you _see_ that he's in love?"
+
+"In love! With you?"
+
+"With me,--oh, _no_. With Madeleine."
+
+"Oh, no, he's not in love with her," said Emily decidedly; "I know that.
+I know that perfectly well."
+
+"They knew one another before they came here, you know."
+
+"Why, I see them round town together all hours," said Emily; "they're
+like brother and sister, they're not one bit in love. I thought that
+perhaps it was you."
+
+"Oh, dear, no--I can't marry. I never even think of it."
+
+"Don't you use any of your ideas with him?"
+
+"No, indeed! I never ask anything for myself any more. I just ask to
+manifest God's will,--to help in any of His work that offers."
+
+"You're awfully good, dear. But, honestly, do you think that I could
+surely get him if I tried?"
+
+"Why, the law is certain, but"--Jane spoke gently--"you're so far from
+understanding it yet. I only told you a little. It takes ever so long to
+get one's mind built to where it will grasp an ideal and hold it without
+wavering once. There's such a lot I didn't tell you; I couldn't in those
+few minutes. I just showed you the picture, and you have to work hard
+till you learn how to paint it. You see, a wish is like blowing a
+bubble, and if you add wishes and more wishes, you gradually change the
+bubble into a solid mold, which is a real thing of spirit but empty of
+material; then, if you keep it solid and firm, the fact of it is real
+spiritually, and a vacuum as to matter makes the matter just _have_ to
+fill it, and it is that filling into the mold shaped by our thoughts
+that makes what we see and live here in this world. The world is all
+matter circulating in thought-molds. Anything that you carefully and
+steadily and consistently think out must become manifest. God
+manifesting His will means that. We are His will. And the nearer we
+approximate to the highest in Him, the more we can manifest ourselves.
+That's why very good people are seldom rich; they want to manifest in
+deeds and not in things. That's why they never keep money--it only
+represents to them the need of others. If you really and truly love Mr.
+Rath, and feel it steadily and steadfastly your mission to make him very
+happy, of course it will be, even though he loved some one else. But to
+want a man who loved some one else wouldn't be possible to any one who
+believed in this teaching. That's where it is, you see. When you get
+power, you never want to do evil with it. Power from God never manifests
+in evil. When you are where you can get whatever you want, it simply
+means that you are living where only good can come, and where you are
+able to see it coming."
+
+Emily stood perfectly still, looking downwards. Then suddenly she burst
+into violent sobs. "Oh, I feel so small, so mean--so wicked. It isn't as
+you feel a bit with me. I just want to get out of this stupid town--and
+he's so good-looking!"
+
+Jane's eyelids fell.
+
+"I feel so mean and petty," Emily went on, pressing her hands over her
+face. "I could never be good like you. I can't understand. I just want
+to be married. I'm so tired of my life."
+
+"Well," said Jane, with steady firmness, "why don't you go to him and
+talk it all over nicely? As you would with Madeleine or me. Perhaps that
+would be best."
+
+"Do you really think so?" said Emily, lifting her eyes; "do you believe
+that a girl can go to a man and be honest with him, just as a man can
+with a woman?"
+
+"I couldn't," said Jane, "because I wouldn't want to, but if you want to
+do it, I don't see why you can't."
+
+"But why wouldn't you?"
+
+"Because I get my things that other way,--simply by asking God to guide
+me towards His will and guide me from mistake."
+
+"Did you do that about asking old Mrs. Croft?"
+
+"Certainly. I do it about everything. I live by that rule now. I've
+absolute faith in God's guidance."
+
+Emily looked at her. "It must be beautiful," she said, "and you really
+think that it would be all right for me to go and talk to him, do you?"
+
+"Yes," said Jane slowly. "I think that it would be best all round."
+
+"After all, this is the woman's century," said Emily, with a sudden
+energy quite unlike her previous interest. "I don't know why I
+shouldn't."
+
+"I think that the best way to handle all our problems is to let them
+flow naturally to their finish," said Jane; "dammed or choked rivers
+always make trouble."
+
+"I should like to say just what I felt to a man just once," said Emily
+thoughtfully. "It would do me a world of good."
+
+"Then say it," said Jane. "Only are you really sure that he's not in
+love with Madeleine?"
+
+"Oh, I'm positive as to that."
+
+"Then go ahead."
+
+They parted, and Jane returned to the house. She was not so entirely
+spiritual that she could repress a very human kind of smile over Emily's
+project.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+EMILY IS HERSELF FREELY
+
+
+AS Emily turned from Mrs. Ralston's gate, she felt more buoyant
+happiness than anything in life had ever hitherto brought her. She felt
+licensed on high authority to revel in the hitherto forbidden. She
+wanted Lorenzo Rath, and she thought that she understood how to get him.
+We may follow her thought and then we will follow where it led her, for
+in all the surge of the new teaching there is no lesson greater to learn
+than this which Emily had failed to grasp,--that the possession of tools
+does not make one a carver; that all things spiritual must be learned
+exactly as all things material. One may have so lived previously that
+the learning is a mere showing how, but without experience nothing,
+either spiritual, mental, or physical, can be efficaciously handled.
+When people declare that something is not true because they tried it and
+it failed to work, remember Emily Mead. Emily had acquired just one idea
+out of Jane's exposition: "That you could get anything that you want."
+It is the idea that hosts of people find most attractive in this world,
+quite irrespective of its correlative esotericism,--that the soul
+growing towards infinite power learns every upward step by resolutely
+liking what it gets. No man can climb a stair by hacking down every step
+passed; he climbs by being so firm upon each step that he can poise his
+whole weight thereon as he mounts. It is part of the supremely beautiful
+logic of the highest teaching that the same effort which Jesus
+made--every great teacher has made--is sure to make, too. We must see
+the Divine embodied in the Present and the Weak and the Humble, before
+in our own spirit we may deal, for the good of all, with the Future and
+Strength and Power. When one seizes upon anything God-given as a means
+of acquiring earth-gifts, one has but seized the empty air; the idea and
+then ideal have never been in the possession of such an one. There is
+nothing shut away from those who really make God's teaching a vital part
+of themselves, but such men and women are no longer keen to selfishly
+possess, and the good which they reach out for flows easily in for their
+further distribution; in other words, they become what we were all
+designed to be,--the outward manifestations of God's purpose, the living
+breathing, blessed servants of His will.
+
+How far this interpretation lay from poor Emily's comprehension the
+reader knows.
+
+She hurried along, her whole being bounding with joy over the simplicity
+of the new lesson. It all seemed almost too story-book-like to be
+happening in her stupid, commonplace life. She had spent so many long
+hours in thinking over how things would never happen for her, that she
+had entirely lost faith in their ever changing their ways and now, all
+of a sudden, here was a complete reversal. Bonds were turned into wings;
+that unattainable being, a live man, was not only at hand, but
+available; she felt herself bidden not to doubt her power; she judged
+herself advised to say frankly all the things that girls may never say.
+This was the day of feminine freedom. To wish was to have. What one
+wanted was the thing that was best for one. Emily--with all of Jane's
+ideas swimming upside down in her head--felt superbly joyous and
+confident. After all, being alive was a pretty good thing.
+
+She turned a corner into the lane that led in a roundabout way to her
+mother's back garden gate and walked swiftly. She was a fine, straight
+girl with a lithe, springy walk. Perhaps Lorenzo Rath could not have
+done better, from most standpoints, than to marry such an one. Many men
+do worse. And there was old Mr. Cattermole's money, too. Some of these
+views float in all human atmosphere to-day--float there securely,
+because the world is a practical world, and an automobile is obvious,
+while love and trust are absolutely unknown to many. "Ye cannot serve
+God and Mammon too," and Mammon is very plain and practical, rolling on
+rubber tires to the best restaurant. Emily could not have reduced her
+roseate visions to any such sordid reasoning, but love to her meant
+leaving town and having a good-looking and lively young man to take her
+about. This was not really love, any more than the means by which she
+expected to acquire it were the religion taught by Jane. We hear much of
+the downfall of love and the downfall of religion in these days, but no
+one even stops to realize that religion and love cannot possibly even
+shake on their thrones. Their counterfeits may crumble and tumble, but
+real truth can never fail. It was the counterfeits at which Emily, like
+many another, grasped eagerly.
+
+So now she was tripping lightly along and, turning the twist by the
+great chestnut tree, her heart gave a sudden flop, for just ahead she
+saw her quarry. He was propped against the fence, using his knees for an
+easel, while he made a rapid water-color sketch. He was good at those
+little impressions of an artistic bit, that nearly always show forth in
+youth a great artist struggling to grow.
+
+Emily started, for she was very close to him before she saw him, and her
+rampant thoughts led her to blush, apologize, and stammer precisely as
+she might have done, had her sex never advanced at all but merely
+remained the dominant note that they have always been.
+
+"Why, Mr. Rath," and then she paused.
+
+Lorenzo--who wanted to finish his sketch--nodded pleasantly without
+looking up. "Grand day for walking," he said, as a supremely polite
+hint, and continued to work rapidly.
+
+Emily went close beside him and looked downward upon the canvas. "How
+pretty! I wish I knew more about pictures. What is that brown hill? You
+can't see a hill from here."
+
+"That's a cow," said Lorenzo, painting very fast indeed, "but don't ask
+me to explain things, for I can't work and talk at the same time."
+
+Emily sank down beside him with a pleasant sense of proprietorship now
+that she could get him by will power alone. "I've just come from Mrs.
+Ralston's. They're in such distress over old Mrs. Croft."
+
+"Is she worse?" The artist forgot to paint all of a sudden, and turned
+quickly towards her.
+
+"Oh, no,--she was asleep when I left. Jane didn't seem a bit troubled,
+but Mrs. Ralston is almost wild over not knowing what to say to her
+sister when she comes back and finds that awful old woman there. It's a
+terrible situation. Everybody knows that young Mrs. Croft has run away.
+She just hated to stay and now she's gone. Isn't it awful?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know," said Lorenzo, suddenly regaining his deep interest
+in work, "I have a distinct feeling that Miss Grey will bring things out
+all right for most people always. It's her way."
+
+"Yes, she's a dear girl," said Emily, and paused to have time to
+consider things a little while, feeling that the conversation should be
+continued by the man. The man didn't continue the conversation, however,
+merely wielding his brush and looking completely absorbed.
+
+Then she remembered her mission. "Mr. Rath, do you believe in frankness
+always?"
+
+"I wish that I did."
+
+"But don't you?"
+
+"Civilization wouldn't stand for it."
+
+"Perhaps not every one could bear it, but some could. I could, I'm
+sure."
+
+"Are you so sure?"
+
+"Yes, I am sure. I was talking with Jane alone just at the gate before I
+left, and she believes that frankness is best always."
+
+"It's easiest, certainly." Lorenzo raised his eyebrows a little
+impatiently, but she paid no attention.
+
+"Do you think so?"
+
+"Why, of course. When one wants to be let alone and blurts out, 'Let me
+alone,' why, one gets let alone."
+
+"Oh, but that would be impolite," said Emily, feeling that for an artist
+he used very crude metaphor. "Of course, Jane and I were not talking
+about that kind of people, or that kind of ways. We were talking of
+people like you and me--nice people, you know. Jane advised me to be
+quite frank with you."
+
+Lorenzo opened his eyes widely. "About what, please?"
+
+"Oh, about all things. You see I meet so few men, and men are so
+interesting, and I enjoy talking with them. I've read a good deal, and I
+don't care for the life in this place. I want to leave it dreadfully."
+
+"So do I," said the artist. "I quite agree with you there."
+
+"You see, Jane has been teaching me to understand life, and I am getting
+the feeling that I am meant for something else than just helping my
+mother, wandering about town, and going to church. I'm very tired and
+restless."
+
+Lorenzo painted fast.
+
+"Mr. Rath, if you--a man--felt as I do, what would you do?"
+
+"Get out."
+
+"But where?"
+
+"Everybody can find a way, if they really want to."
+
+"It isn't as if I had talent, you see."
+
+"A good many people haven't talent and yet do very well, indeed."
+
+"But I don't want to be a shop-girl or anything like that."
+
+"Naturally not."
+
+There was a pause.
+
+"I'm very much interested in the progress women are making," said Emily.
+"I read all I can get hold of about it. Don't you think it remarkable?"
+
+"I don't think much about it, and I skip everything on the subject."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Rath!"
+
+"I'm a jealous brute. I don't like to realize that a woman can do
+everything that is a man's work, even to the verge of driving him to
+starvation, while he can't do any of her work under any circumstances."
+
+"He could wash and cook and sweep."
+
+"Oh, he's invented machines to save her that."
+
+"I see you've no sympathy with the advanced woman."
+
+"Yes, I have. I'm very sorry for her. A nice mess the next generation
+will be."
+
+"Oh, dear."
+
+"My one comfort is that boys take after their mothers, and I'm looking
+to see a future generation of men so strong-minded that they smash
+ladies back to where they belong--in the rear with the tents."
+
+"Goodness, Mr. Rath, then you don't like any of the ways things are
+going?"
+
+"Of course I don't. Once upon a time a busy man's time was sacred; now
+any woman who feels like taking it, appropriates it mercilessly."
+
+"I should lock the door, if I felt that way. But now really, don't you
+think that we might speak quite openly and frankly?"
+
+Lorenzo began to put up his paints.
+
+"I want to get to the bottom of a lot of things."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"You're the first man that I've ever known that I felt could understand
+what I meant, and I do want to know the man's side of things."
+
+"A man hasn't got any side nowadays. He's not allowed one."
+
+Emily looked a little surprised. "You speak bitterly."
+
+"I think I've a right. Men are still observing the rules of the game and
+suffering bitter consequences."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Women with homes have gone into the world to earn some extra pocket
+money until they've knocked the bottom out of all wage systems, and you
+never can make the wildest among them see that women can't expect men's
+pay unless they do men's work. A man's work is only half of it in
+business, the other half is supporting a family. Women want equal pay
+and to spend the result as they please. The man's wages go usually on
+bread and the woman's on bonnets, to speak broadly. He goes to his own
+home at night and has every single bill for four to ten people. She goes
+to somebody else's house and has only her own needs to face, with
+perhaps some contribution towards those off somewhere."
+
+"Dear me," said Emily, "I never thought of that."
+
+"No," said Lorenzo, snapping the lid of his color box shut, "women don't
+think of that. But men do."
+
+"But surely there are loads and loads of women who do support families."
+
+"Yes, and who are dragged down by the injustice of what economists call
+'The Law of Supplemented Earnings'!"
+
+Emily felt that the experience of conversing frankly with a live man was
+not exactly what she had anticipated. It certainly was in no way
+romantic. She felt baffled and a good deal chilled. The conversation had
+taken a horrid twist away from what she had intended.
+
+"You think that women have no right to go out in the world then?" she
+said. "You don't sympathize with the modern trend?"
+
+"I sympathize with nature and human nature," said Lorenzo, "but not with
+civilization." He rose to his feet.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Rath!" she looked upward, expecting to be assisted to rise.
+
+"I believe in life, lived by live things in the way God meant. I loathe
+this modern institution limping along with its burden of carefully fed
+and tended idiots and invalids and babies, better dead. I wish that I
+were a Zulu."
+
+"Good Heavens!"
+
+"Come," said the man, picking up his load, "we can go now."
+
+"Had you finished?" She scrambled to her feet.
+
+"I'd done all that I could under the circumstances."
+
+"I suppose the light changes so fast at this time...." Emily was quite
+unsuspicious and content. The intuition that used to reign supreme in
+women was especially lacking in her. She had not the least idea of what
+her presence meant to the unhappy artist.
+
+"Come, come," he repeated impatiently.
+
+They walked away then through the pretty winding lane.
+
+"It seems to me so awful that we are all so hopeless," Emily went on
+presently. "We are all put here and often see just what should be done
+and can't do it possibly."
+
+"I do exactly what I choose," said Lorenzo,--then he added: "as a usual
+thing."
+
+"You must be very happy." She paused. "I suppose that you have plenty of
+money to live as you please."
+
+"I'm fortunate enough not to have any."
+
+"Goodness!" the exclamation was sincere. The shock to Emily was
+dreadful. "Why do you call that fortunate?" she asked, after a little
+hasty agony of downfall as to rich and generous travel, spaced off by
+going to the theater.
+
+"Because it makes me know that I shall do something in the world. A very
+little money is enough to swamp a man nowadays, when the idea of later
+being supported by a woman is always a possibility. Oh," said Lorenzo,
+with sudden irritation, "if there weren't so many perfectly splendid
+women and girls in the world, I'd go off and become a Trappist.
+Everything's being knocked into a cocked hat. I've had girls practically
+make love to me. Disgusting."
+
+Emily felt her heart hammer hard. "You're very old-fashioned in your
+views," she said, a little faintly.
+
+They came out by her mother's back gate as she spoke.
+
+"Yes, I am," said Lorenzo, "I admit it."
+
+Mrs. Mead came running out of the back door. "Oh, Emily," she cried,
+"old Mrs. Croft is dead. Jane sent for the doctor--she sent a boy
+running--but she's dead. Wherever have you been for so long?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+JANE'S CONVERTS
+
+
+THE feelings which revolved around the dead body of old Mrs. Croft can
+be better imagined than described; everybody had wondered as to every
+contingency except this. In the midst of the confusion Jane moved
+quietly, a little white and with lips truly saddened. "And I meant to do
+such a lot for her,--I meant to help her so much," she murmured from
+time to time.
+
+The doctor, a ponderous gentleman of great weight in all ways, was very
+grave. The doctor said that he had warned the daughter of such a
+possible ending twenty years before. "Heart failure was _always_
+imminent," he declared severely, looking upon Jane, Susan, and Mrs.
+Cowmull, who had driven out with him and thus become instantly a
+privileged person. "She never ought to have been left alone a minute
+during these last forty years. Even if she had lived to be a hundred,
+the danger was always there. Such neglect is awful." He stopped and
+shook his head vigorously. "Awful," he declared again with emphasis,
+"awful!"
+
+"I didn't know that she had heart disease," said Jane.
+
+"No blame attaches to you," said the doctor, veering suddenly about as
+to the point in discussion; "nobody can blame you. I shall exonerate you
+completely. Of course, if you were not aware of the state of the case,
+you couldn't be expected to consider its vital necessities."
+
+"Oh, and it was so vital," sobbed Mrs. Cowmull. "Dear, sweet, old Mrs.
+Croft. Our sunbeam. And to go off like that. What good is life when
+people can die any minute. Oh! Oh!"
+
+There was a brief pause for silent sorrow.
+
+"I never looked for her to die," Mrs. Cowmull went on, shaking her head.
+"I always told Emily she'd outlive even Brother Cattermole. So many
+people will, you know. Dear, kind, loving friend! And now to think she's
+gone. I can't make it seem true. She's been alive so long. Seems only
+yesterday that I was up to see Katie about making a pie for the social,
+and our dear, sweet friend was singing her favorite song, _Captain Jinks
+of the Horse Marines_, all the time. What spirits she did have
+everywhere, except in her legs."
+
+Susan sat perfectly quiet. The doctor took Jane's arm and led her into
+the hall, there to speak of the first few necessary steps to be taken.
+Then he returned to the sitting-room, gathered up Mrs. Cowmull and
+departed, saying that he would send "some practical person at once."
+Mrs. Cowmull, who was widely known as having practical designs on him,
+did not resent the implied slur at her own abilities at all.
+
+After they were gone, there was a slight further pause, and then Susan
+rose slowly and went and laid her hands upon her niece's shoulders. "Oh,
+Jane, that religion of yours is a wonderful thing. I'm converted."
+
+Jane started. "Converted, Auntie?"
+
+"Yes. You were sure that it would come out all right and now see."
+
+Then a little white smile had to cross the young girl's face. "The poor
+old woman," she said gently, "to think of her lying there all alone all
+that day. I thought that she was sleeping so quietly."
+
+"Well, she was," said Susan.
+
+"Yes, of course she was. It's just our little petty way of thinking that
+masks all of what is truly sacred and splendid behind a veil of wrong
+thinking. Of course she was sleeping quietly."
+
+"It'll be sort of awful if they can't find Katie, though," Susan said
+next; "she left no address, and I think it's almost silly to try to hunt
+her up. I'm only too pleased to pay for the funeral, I'm sure, and there
+won't be any real reason for her returning."
+
+"No," said Jane thoughtfully.
+
+"And I really can look forward to Matilda's coming back now," pursued
+Susan. "I shan't mind a bit. Old Mrs. Croft has done that much good,
+anyway,--she's made me feel that Matilda's coming back is just nothing
+at all. You see you knew that everything was coming out all right, but
+I'd never had any experience with that kind of doings up till now, and
+it was all new to me. I was only thinking of when you and me would have
+to face Matilda. Matilda would have looked pretty queer if she'd come
+home to old Mrs. Croft to tend, and me up and lively."
+
+Jane didn't seem to hear. "I never once thought of her dying," she said
+again; "oh, dear, she had so much to learn. I expected to do her such a
+lot of good."
+
+"I wouldn't complain, Jane. I wouldn't find fault with a thing.
+Goodness, think if she'd begun singing _Captain Jinks_ last night. I've
+heard that sometimes she'd sing it six hours at a stretch."
+
+Jane shook her head. "Who is to go down and pack up that house?" she
+wondered.
+
+"Oh, the house can be rented furnished. It's a nice home for anybody,"
+said Susan, "and the rent'll buy her a lovely monument."
+
+The funeral was fixed for the third day, and some effort made to trace
+the daughter-in-law. But that lady evidently didn't care to be found.
+
+"It's hardly any use going to a great deal of expense to hunt her up,"
+Lorenzo said to Jane, "because the house is all there is, and a thorough
+search with detectives would just about eat it up alive."
+
+He probably was not wholly disinterested in his outlook, for the next
+bit of news that shook the community was that Lorenzo Rath had taken
+Mrs. Croft's house and moved in! Naturally Mrs. Cowmull was far from
+pleased. "Of course it means he's going to get married," she said to
+Miss Vane, "but what folly to take a house so soon. Who's to cook for
+him? And who's he going to marry? Not Emily, I know. She wouldn't have
+him."
+
+Miss Vane didn't know and didn't care. "Not my Madeleine," she said
+promptly, for her part; "she gets a letter every day. She'll marry that
+man."
+
+"Then it's Jane Grey," said Mrs. Cowmull. The town was greatly
+exercised, and not as positive as to Emily's state of mind as her aunt.
+
+"It'll be one of those two," Mrs. Ball said to Miss Crining (both very
+superior women and much given to meeting at the grocery store). "They're
+both after him. Emily chases him wherever he's posing woods and cows,
+and the little appetite that Mrs. Cowmull says he has, after going to
+Mrs. Ralston's, shows what they're thinking of."
+
+Miss Crining shook her head. "Once on a time girls were so sweet and
+womanly," she said.
+
+"My," said Mrs. Ball, "I remember when my husband asked me. I almost
+fell flat. I'd never so much as thought of him. I was engaged to a boy
+named Richie Kendall, and Mr. Ball was bald, and had all those children
+older than I was. There was some romance about life then."
+
+"And me," said Miss Crining, with a gentle sigh, "I never told a soul I
+was in love till months after he was drowned. I didn't know I was in
+love myself. Girls used to be like that, modest, timid."
+
+"Mr. Rath's very severe on girls nowadays, Mrs. Cowmull says," said Mrs.
+Ball; "but he's blind like all men are and will get hooked when he ain't
+looking, like they all do."
+
+But Lorenzo Rath didn't care about any of the gossip; he was so happy
+over his home. "I'll have a woman come and cook occasionally," he
+explained blithely to Jane and Susan, "and I'll get all my illustrating
+off my hands in short order."
+
+"Do you illustrate?" Jane asked.
+
+"Yes, that's my bread-and-butter job."
+
+"It'll be nice to have you in the neighborhood," said Susan placidly;
+"to think how it's all come about, too. I'm in heaven, no matter what
+I'm doing. I just sit about and pray to understand more of Jane's
+religion. I'm gasping it down in big swallows. I think it's so beautiful
+how she does right, without having to take the consequences."
+
+Jane laughed a little at that and went out to get supper.
+
+"She's a nice girl," Lorenzo said, looking after her; "when she leaves
+here, what shall we do?"
+
+"Oh, heavens, I don't know," said Susan. "I try never to think of it."
+
+"And what is she going to do?"
+
+"Oh, she's going back to her nursing, and I want to cry when I think
+that other people will have her around and I shan't. I'll be here alone
+with Matilda. Not but what I'm a good deal more reconciled than I was,
+when I thought I'd be alone with Matilda and old Mrs. Croft, too."
+
+"Yes, that would have been bad," said Lorenzo soberly. "Well, I must be
+running along. I've got a lot of work to do and a lot of thinking, too."
+
+Susan contemplated him earnestly. "Well," she said, with fervor, "when
+Jane goes, I'll still have you, anyway."
+
+Lorenzo, who had just risen, stopped short at that. "Do you know an idea
+that I'm just beginning to hold?" he asked suddenly.
+
+"No; how should I?"
+
+"It's this. Why shouldn't you and I try working Jane's Rule of Life a
+little? I'm dreadfully impressed with a lot she says. Suppose you and I
+pulled together and made up our minds that she was going to stay here in
+some perfectly right and pleasant and proper way. How, then? Don't you
+believe maybe we could manage it?"
+
+Susan stared. "But there couldn't be any perfectly right, pleasant,
+proper way," she said sadly, "because she wants to go."
+
+"I'd like to try."
+
+The aunt shook her head, sighing heavily. "It's no use. There isn't a
+way. Nothing could keep her. You see, she's got some family debts to
+pay, and she can't rest till she's paid 'em. I've begged and prayed her
+to stay; I've told her that her own flesh and blood has first claim, but
+she won't hear to any kind of sense."
+
+"I wish that we might try," Lorenzo insisted. "I've listened to her till
+I just about believe she really does know what she's talking about. It
+seems as if it's all so logical and after all, it's the way God made the
+world, surely."
+
+"Yes, I know, but you and I ain't equal to making worlds and won't be
+yet awhile."
+
+"I don't care," said the young man, turning towards the door, "I'm going
+at it alone, then. I don't believe that any one in the world needs her
+as much as I do, and I'm going to have her, and that by her own methods,
+too."
+
+Susan's mouth opened in widest amazement. "Mercy on us, you ain't
+proposing to her by way of me, are you? You don't mean that you really
+do want to marry her, do you?"
+
+"No, I don't mean that I want to marry her. I mean that I'm going to
+marry her."
+
+"Oh! Oh!" the aunt cried faintly. "Oh, goodness me! But I don't know why
+I'm surprised, for I said you was in love with her right from the start.
+I couldn't see how you could help but be."
+
+"Of course I couldn't help but be. Who could? She's one of the few real
+girls that are left in the world these days. The regular girls with
+lectures and diplomas and stiff collars have spoiled the sweetest things
+God ever made. Men don't thank Heaven for any of these late innovations
+wrought in womankind."
+
+"Oh, I know," said Susan; "my husband was old-fashioned, too. I"--she
+stopped short, because just then the door opened, and Jane came in.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+REAL CONVERSATION
+
+
+BOTH Susan and lover jumped rather guiltily, but Jane didn't notice. Or
+if she did notice, it did not impress her as anything worthy
+consideration. Among the little weeds in the rose-garden of life, did
+you ever think of what a common one is that bother over how people act
+when you "come in suddenly"? It is one of the petty tortures of everyday
+existence. "They stopped talking the instant they saw me!" "They both
+turned red, when I opened the door!" Well, what if they did? Is it a
+happening of the slightest moment? Unless one is guilty and in dread of
+discovery, what can it matter who chatters or of what? Stop and realize
+the real, separate, distinct meaning of the phrase "He was above
+suspicion," and see how it applies equally to being safe from the evil
+thoughts _of_ others as well as being safe from the holding of evil
+thoughts _towards_ others. If people change color at your approach and
+it makes you uncomfortable, you are not above suspicion either of or
+from others. Then look to it well that henceforth you manage to root out
+the double evil. There are a whole lot of very uncomfortable family
+happenings founded on the absolutely natural crossings of family
+intercourse, and the only possible way to go smoothly through such
+rapids is--as the Irishman said--to pick up your canoe and port around
+them. Don't go down to the level of anything beneath your own standard,
+because when you go down anywhere for any reason, your standard goes
+down with you. There is that peculiarity about standards that we keep
+them right with us, whether we go up or whether we go down.
+
+"Oh, Jane," said Susan, "we're having such an interesting time talking
+about your religion."
+
+Jane smiled. "I'm glad," she said simply. "Did you decide to absorb some
+of it?"
+
+"Oh, I'm converted, anyhow," said the aunt; "nobody could live in the
+house with you and not be, and Mr. Rath is going to try it for a while,
+too."
+
+Jane looked at Lorenzo a little roguishly. "It's a contagion in the
+town," she said; "I feel like an ancient missionary."
+
+"I know," said Susan, "holding up a cross. I've seen them in pictures."
+
+"Yes, and I hold up the cross, too," said Jane, "only most people
+wouldn't know it. Do you know what the cross meant in the long-ago
+times,--before the Christian era?" she asked Lorenzo quickly.
+
+"No."
+
+"It's the sunbeam transfixing and vivifying the earth-surface. It was
+the holiest symbol of the power of God. It embodied divine life
+descending straight from heaven and making itself a part of earth."
+
+"My!" exclaimed Susan, really amazed.
+
+Jane smiled and laid her hand upon her aunt's affectionately. "I love my
+cross," she said; "it's the greatest emblem that humanity can know, and,
+just because we are human, it will always keep coming back into our
+lives. Only it shouldn't be preached as a burden, it should be preached
+as an opportunity."
+
+Lorenzo sat watching her. A curious white look passed over his face. He
+felt for the moment that he hardly ought to dare hope that this girl who
+was so full of help for all should narrow her field of labor to just
+him.
+
+"You'll end by being like Dinah in _Adam Bede_," he said, trying to
+laugh; "you like to teach and preach, don't you?"
+
+"I don't know," said Jane; "it's always there, right on my heart and
+lips. I feel as if the personal 'I' was only its voice."
+
+"I don't think she's exactly human," said Susan meditatively; "she
+doesn't strike me so."
+
+"Don't say that, Auntie," said the young girl quickly; "I want to be
+human more than anything else. I don't want to make you or anybody feel
+that I'm not. It would be as dreadfully lonely to be looked upon as
+unhuman as to be looked upon as inhuman. I want to work and love and be
+loved."
+
+"But you're so different from everybody else," said her aunt.
+
+"But I don't want to be different. I want to just be a woman--or a
+girl."
+
+Some kindly intuition prompted Susan to change the subject. "Mr. Rath
+and I were talking about girls just now; we both thought what a pity it
+is that there are so few in these days."
+
+"I guess there are just as many girls as ever, only they aren't so
+conspicuous," Jane said, laughing at Lorenzo.
+
+"I think they're more conspicuous," said Lorenzo, "only they're the
+wrong kind."
+
+"I liked the old kind," said Susan, "the kind that stayed at home and
+wasn't wild to get away and be going into business."
+
+Jane laughed again. "You ought not to blame the girls, Auntie. Lots of
+them feel dreadfully over leaving home. But they have to go out and
+work. I had to, I know. It's some kind of big world-change that's
+pushing us all on into different places."
+
+"I wasn't thinking of girls who do something nice and quiet like you. I
+was thinking of the others."
+
+"They have to go, too," said Jane. "There's a fearful pressure that we
+don't understand behind it all. A restlessness and discontent that no
+one can alter."
+
+"Yes, that's true," said Lorenzo; "I never thought of it, but I can see
+that it is so now that you've put it into my head."
+
+"I've seen a lot of it. It's curious that it seems to come equally to
+women who want to work and to women who don't. I'm sure I never wanted
+to earn my living, but I was forced to it. And ever so many others are,
+too. It's rather an awful feeling that you're in the grip of a power
+that sweeps your life beyond your guidance. I'm trying hard to be big
+enough to live in this century, but I'd have liked the last better."
+
+"Don't you consider that there's anything voluntary in the way women are
+acting now?" Lorenzo asked, with real interest.
+
+"No, I'm afraid not. I think that there's something we don't understand,
+or grasp, or--or quite see rightly. I believe that everything is ordered
+and ordered ultimately for the best, and I see the problems of to-day as
+surely here by God's will and to be worked out by learning the conduct
+of the current instead of opposing it. But still I really don't
+understand it all as I wish that I did."
+
+"You really do feel God as a friend," said Lorenzo, watching her
+illuminated face. "He isn't just a religion to you, then?"
+
+"He's _everything_ to me," said Jane reverently, "Help and Sunlight and
+Strength and Daily Bread. That part of Him that is energy manifests in
+us in one way, and that part of Him that is divine right and justice
+manifests in us in another way. My part in this life is to learn to use
+them together, but they and all else are all God."
+
+Susan rose from her seat and stood contemplating her niece and Lorenzo
+by turns. "To think of talking like this in my house," she said; "this
+is what I call real conversation. I tell you, Jane, you certainly did
+lift me into another life when you invited old Mrs. Croft here. Every
+kind of religion sinks right into me now, and I can believe without the
+least bother. It's wonderful, but I'm going to have a short-cake for
+tea, so I'll have to go."
+
+She went away, and Lorenzo turned to the window.
+
+There was a little pause while he wondered about many things. Finally he
+held out his hand abruptly. "You've gone a long way, Jane," he said,
+"you've got a big grip on life and its meaning, and you make me
+understand as I never did before how hopeless it is to wish that the
+wheels of time will turn backward. But whatever you may preach, you only
+prove what I said and what I feel, that the old-fashioned, sweet,
+home-keeping, winning and winnable girl is gone, only she's gone in a
+different way from what most people understand. When she still exists,
+she exists for herself--not for a man."
+
+Jane felt her eyes fill suddenly. "Why do you say that?"
+
+"Because you prove it. A man might adore you, but he couldn't hope to
+get you. Could he?"
+
+Her eyes dropped. "Do you think that it's all any harder on the man than
+it is on the girl?" she asked. "If men feel bad nowadays over the
+changes, how do you suppose it is with the woman, unfitted to fight and
+forced into the battle. A woman isn't built as a man is; she's created
+for another kind of work, much harder and lasting, much longer than any
+man's labor. And she has to leave that work of her own either undone or
+only half-done and do things unsuited to her. Of course there are some
+girls and women who like it,--but most of them don't. Most of them feel
+dreadfully and would give anything to be able to stay in a home and live
+the life God meant to be woman's. There's always a pitiful story behind
+nine out of every ten bread-winning women, whether they go out washing
+or are artists like you. A woman never leaves her home until she's
+forced to do so."
+
+"Are you sure that you know what you're talking about? Aren't you an
+idealist? Look at Emily Mead--" he smiled in spite of his earnestness.
+"If she had a rag of a chance, she'd fly off to-morrow. It wouldn't take
+force."
+
+Jane remained carefully grave. "That's more her mother's fault than
+hers. Her mother has taught her that girls only live to marry."
+
+"And quite right, too. Don't you believe it?"
+
+"It used to be true, but it isn't now. A girl can't marry without a man,
+and the world's all disjointed. It's a part of that strange new leaven
+which causes civilization to drive men and women both to become homeless
+by separating them widely on earth."
+
+"Of course it's a governmental crime to send men by the hundreds of
+thousands to fight it out alone in Canada and leave their sisters to be
+old maids in England, but governments are pretty stupid, nowadays."
+
+"We are all pretty stupid. We build all our difficulties and then hang
+to them and their consequences for dear life. It's too bad in us."
+
+"Do you mean woman?"
+
+"No, I mean everybody."
+
+"It's depressing, isn't it?"
+
+"I don't think so. I think it's grand."
+
+"Grand!"
+
+"Yes, because I like to struggle in a big way. And then, too, if I'm a
+woman forced to work because I'm one part of the problem, I'm also
+gloriously happy in being part of the new upburst of comprehension
+that's balancing and will soon overbalance such a lot of the troubles."
+
+"You mean? Oh, you mean your way of looking at things."
+
+"Of course I do. I'm so blessedly glad of every circumstance in my life,
+because each one led to my getting hold of just what I have got hold of.
+I'm perfectly happy and perfectly content. It's so beautiful to be
+guided by a rule that never fails."
+
+Lorenzo couldn't but laugh. "I tell you what," he said gayly, "I'll let
+you into a little secret. I've made up my mind to go to work and learn
+how to work that game of yours myself. I want to be blessedly glad and
+gloriously happy, too."
+
+"You've got to be in earnest, you know," Jane said. "It's handling live
+wires to amuse oneself with any force of God, and will-power is more of
+a force than electricity."
+
+"Oh, I'm in earnest," said the artist. "I've made my picture--as you
+say--and I hang to it for grim death. Only I can't see, if you feel as
+you do about home and marriage, and all that, why you don't make one,
+too."
+
+"I'm making ever so many homes," said Jane. "I'm teaching home-making.
+That's a Sunshine Nurse's business, and it would be selfish in me to
+desert my task. Besides--" she paused.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE MOST WONDERFUL THING EVER HAPPENED
+
+
+SHE stopped and hesitated.
+
+"Yes," he said impatiently, "besides--?"
+
+"I wonder if it would be right to be quite frank with you?"
+
+"Nothing sincere is ever wrong. Of course you ought to be quite frank
+with me,--aren't you that with every one?"
+
+Still she considered.
+
+"What stops you?" he asked. "Go on. Tell me everything. It's my right."
+
+"Why is it your right?"
+
+"Because I love you, and you know it."
+
+She started violently, then turned very white. "Don't say that. I've
+always thought of you as engaged to Madeleine. She was talking to me,
+and I thought--I--" She stopped, quite shaken.
+
+"You misunderstand her. She's always been in love with one fellow--the
+one that her parents are against. He's even poorer than I am."
+
+Then Jane pressed her lips together and interlocked her fingers. "I can
+never marry. I never think of it. There's money to be paid, nobody to
+pay it but me, and no way to get it except to earn it."
+
+Lorenzo looked almost sternly at her. "What about the book you lent me;
+it would say that that was setting limits. It says that we've not to
+concern ourselves with ways and means. I've only to concern myself with
+loving you. The rest will come along of its own accord."
+
+She shook her head. "No, it won't. This world is all learning, and it's
+part of my lesson not to be able to apply it in absolute faith to
+myself. So many teachers have wisdom to give away which they can't quite
+take unto themselves, you know." She smiled a little tremulously.
+
+"But you ought to take it unto yourself. It ought to be easy and simple
+for you to realize that if conditions are false, they don't exist; that
+if you want a home, it's because you are going to have one; that if I
+love you, it's because it's right that you should be loved."
+
+She put her hands down helplessly on each side of the chair-seat. "I
+never even think of such things," she said, almost in a whisper.
+
+"But why not?"
+
+"I've always been so necessary to others. I've no rights in my own
+life."
+
+"But if life is a thing to guide, why not guide your beneficence as well
+from a basis of home as from one of homelessness?"
+
+"Nothing has ever seemed to be for me, myself. Everything has always
+pointed to me for others."
+
+Lorenzo paced back and forth. "But it is the women like you who should
+show the way out of the wilderness and back to the right, instead of
+attempting to order the chaos while sweeping on with it. If there be a
+real truth in this new teaching which lays hold of all those who are in
+earnest so easily and so quickly, its first care should be to
+demonstrate happiness in the lives of its believers,--not the negative
+happiness of wide-spread devotion to others, but the positive lessons of
+joy in the center from which springs--must spring--the next generation
+of better, wiser men and women, those among whom I expect to live as an
+old man."
+
+Jane turned her face away, her eyes filled with tears. "You make me feel
+very small and petty," she said; "you show me a way beyond what I had
+guessed. But I can't grasp at it; I'm too used to asking nothing for
+myself. I'm always so sure that God is managing for me. And I have so
+much to do."
+
+"Perhaps realization that God is managing is all that you need to set
+right. Perhaps that confidence will bring you all things. Even me." He
+laughed a little.
+
+"It has brought me all that I needed. Daily bread, daily possibilities
+of helpfulness,--I don't ask more, except 'more light.'"
+
+"It sounds a little presumptuous coming from me, but perhaps I can help
+you towards your end, even as to 'more light.' At any rate, I'll try if
+you'll let me."
+
+She sat quite still. Finally she lifted up her eyes--and they were
+beautiful eyes, big and true--and said, the words coming softly forth:
+"It would be so wonderful."
+
+Lorenzo didn't speak. He felt choked and gasping. To him it was also "so
+wonderful," as wonderful as if he hadn't lived with it night and day
+ever since the first minute of knowing her. "I think I'd better go," he
+said very gently, realizing keenly that he must not press her in this
+first blush of the new spring-time. "I've 'made my picture' you know,
+and I won't let it fade, you may be sure. And you must believe in
+happiness for yourself,--you tell us that the first step is all that
+counts. Get the seed into the ground then. I'll do the rest."
+
+She sat quite still. "If I could only try," she whispered. He turned
+quickly away and was gone.
+
+After a dizzy little while she rose and went into the kitchen. Susan was
+moving briskly about.
+
+"Two cups flour, four teaspoonfuls baking powder, one of sugar, one of
+salt, two of butter, two of lard, cup half water, half milk, pour in pan
+greased and bake in hot oven. Scotch scone-bread for lunch," she said,
+almost suiting the deed to the word. "Is Mr. Rath still here?"
+
+"No, he's gone."
+
+"You know, Jane, he's caught your religion. I never heard anything like
+it. He's got the whole thing pat. I'd be almost scared to go round
+teaching a thing like that. Why, folks'll be doing anything they please
+soon. I've been wondering if I could get strong enough to kind of
+dispose of Matilda, in some perfectly right way, you know. I wouldn't
+think of anything that wasn't perfectly right, you know."
+
+Jane seemed a little numb and stood watching the buttering of the
+scone-pan without speaking.
+
+"I keep saying: 'Matilda doesn't want to come back. Matilda's disposed
+of in a perfectly pleasant way.' I've been saying it ever since I began
+on those scones. I guess I've said it twenty times, and I'm beginning to
+make a real impression on myself. I'm beginning to feel sure God is
+fixing things up. It's too beautiful to feel God taking an interest in
+your affairs. Matilda doesn't want to come home. Matilda is completely
+disposed of in a perfectly pleasant way." Susan's accents were very
+emphatic.
+
+"Auntie," said Jane, turning her eyes towards her and rallying her
+attention by a strong effort, "you know your perfect faith is because
+Aunt Matilda really isn't anxious to come home. It's only if you're
+doubting that there's any doubt about it. One doesn't alter Destiny, one
+only apprehends it. Oh, dear," she said though, sitting down suddenly,
+and hiding her face in her hands, "the thing about light is that it
+always keeps bursting over you with a new light, and my own teaching has
+suddenly come to me as if I'd never known what any of it meant before.
+I'm too stunned at seeing how I've limited myself. I'm really too
+stupid."
+
+Susan glanced at her as she poured the batter into the pan, and then
+kept glancing. Her face grew softened, "I wouldn't worry, dear," she
+said finally, "don't you bother over anything. God's taking care of
+everything and everybody. It's every bit of it all right. You must know
+that yourself, or you never could have taught it to me."
+
+"Yes, I do know it,--but in spite of myself I can't see--I can't dare
+think--"
+
+"You told me not to worry over old Mrs. Croft," said Susan, coming
+around by her side and putting her arm about her; "you said worry
+spoiled everything. And I did try so hard."
+
+"Yes, I know, I'll try. I really will--But--" suddenly she turned deep
+crimson, "it seems too awful for me to take one minute to work on myself
+or my life. I need all my time for others."
+
+"But you don't have to," said Susan, "all you've got to do is to know
+things are right. You know they're right because they are right.
+Everything's coming along fine, and you just feel it coming; that's your
+part. My goodness, Jane, isn't this funny? There isn't a blessed thing
+you've preached to me that I ain't having to preach back to you now. You
+don't seem to have sensed hardly any of your own meaning. Talk about
+being a channel; you'd better choke up a little and hold back some for
+yourself."
+
+Jane threw her arms around her and kissed her. "Auntie, you're right,
+you're right. I won't doubt a mite more. I'll try to know as much as I
+seem to have taught."
+
+"Just be yourself, you Sunshine Jane, you," Susan was clinging close to
+the girl she loved so well, "just be yourself. Nothing else is needed."
+
+"Yes," Jane whispered, "I will."
+
+"That's the thing," said Susan; "'cause you've certainly taught us a
+lot. I'll lay the table now," she moved towards the door, "Matilda
+doesn't want to come home. Matilda wants to stay away in some perfectly
+pleasant way," she added with heavy emphasis, passed through, and let
+the door close.
+
+Jane was left alone in the kitchen.
+
+"He said he loved me!" she thought over and over. "It seems so
+wonderful--the most wonderful thing that has ever happened since the
+world was made. He said he loved me!"
+
+She went up-stairs to her own room and shut the door softly. "Of course
+I can never marry him," she whispered aloud, "but he did say he loved
+me. Oh, I know that nothing so wonderful ever was in this world before!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+WHY JANE SHOULD HAVE BELIEVED
+
+
+THE Sunshine Nurse was long in seeking sleep that night and early to
+rise the next morning. She found herself suddenly metamorphosed--facing
+a new world--two worlds in fact. There was the world of Lorenzo's
+actually loving her, which was a dream from which she would surely
+awaken, and then there was that second world of wonder, the world of her
+own teaching, a world in which she started, big-eyed, at all in which
+she had trusted, and wondered if it could be possible that what she
+believed firmly and preached so ardently was really true. "It isn't
+setting limits to face what must be," she said over and over to herself,
+"and I _must_ pay poor father's debts, and there is no possible way for
+me to get the money except to earn it bit by bit." The statement had
+gone to bed with her, and it rose with her when she rose; it looked
+indisputable, incontrovertible, as all fixed statements have a way of
+looking--and yet each time that she made it she felt hot with guilt.
+"It's setting limits," cried her soul, "it's saying that God can't
+possibly do what He pleases," and, as she listened to the strong,
+heaven-sent cry of rebellion against petty earthly laws, she struggled
+in the meshes of her own old earlier learning, the "old garment" which
+clings so close about us all, and which we simply must discard before we
+can don the new robe of Infinite Hope and Radiant Belief in God's law of
+Only Good for Each and Every One.
+
+Jane always rose an hour before her aunt. The hour was spent in opening
+windows, brushing up and building the kitchen fire. It was always a
+pleasant hour, for she usually filled it to the brim with work well done
+and thoughts sent strongly and happily out over the coming time. But
+to-day all this was changed; new thoughts rioted forth on every side,
+and a sort of chaos took the place of her usually sunny calm. This riot
+and chaos is the common, logical outcome of all who feel sure that they
+are wiser than God. You cannot possibly set any border to His Kingdom
+and then be happy in that outer darkness which you have deliberately
+chosen for your own part. As well ask a cow to shut herself out of her
+pasture and rest happy in the waste beyond. "I mustn't think, because it
+is none of it for me--" she repeated over and over, much as if the
+aforesaid cow declared, "I am barred out--I can never get back--I must
+starve contentedly." Jane--who would have laughed at my illustration
+quite as you have laughed yourself--saw only distress in her own, and
+had to wink away so many tears that finally in maddest self-defense she
+rushed out doors and fled to the little garden that had, through so many
+years, been Susan's refuge in such a droll way.
+
+And Lorenzo was there!
+
+He looked very blithe and happy. "Well," he said, "have you thought it
+over and decided that you're right, after all?"
+
+She was panting, and surprise flooded her face with color. "Oh--" she
+gasped, "oh!" and then: "Right--of course I'm right!"
+
+He approached, his hand extended. "Right in believing, or right in
+mistrusting?"
+
+She gave him her hand, and he took it. "Don't put it that way," she
+said; "it isn't that way."
+
+"But, dear Jane, that's the only way to put it. It's the way you've been
+teaching us. Either we can look up and ahead confidently, or you're all
+wrong. I can't believe that you're ever even a little bit wrong, so I'm
+going to believe that it's all true."
+
+"No, no--it isn't--I mean--Oh, in my case, it can't be so. Everything
+that I said was true, only I myself am meant to--to work--not to--to
+marry. It's a kind of pledge I've taken to myself. It doesn't change the
+teaching." Then she dragged her hand free.
+
+Lorenzo smiled. "You can't tell me any of that. I know. I'm the happiest
+man in the world." Then he went on, taking up the rake and scratching a
+little here and there: "Like other pupils, I've surpassed my teacher.
+You've preached, and I practice; you can describe God's thoughts, and I
+think them. You're sure that He can do anything, and I know what He's
+going to do. I've been let straight into one of His secrets. It's been
+revealed to me how the world is run."
+
+Jane stared. "How can you talk so?"
+
+"I talk so because I know so. Everything's coming right for you."
+
+"You're crazy," she tried to laugh.
+
+"I've heard people say that of you. Not that it matters."
+
+She stood watching him and considering his words. "I wouldn't let you
+give me the money to straighten out my father's affairs, even if you
+were ever so rich, you know," she said slowly. "I couldn't."
+
+"I know it."
+
+"And I wouldn't let Auntie pay the debts."
+
+"I know. God doesn't require either your aunt's help or mine in this
+matter."
+
+Jane's eyes moistened slightly. "Please don't make a joke of anything so
+hard and sad."
+
+"I'm not joking; I'm a veritable apostle of joy. I'm as happy as I can
+be."
+
+She looked at him with real wonder because his appearance certainly bore
+out his words. "I wish that I knew what you meant."
+
+He dropped the rake, came to her side, and caught her hand. "Can't you
+trust God--can't you trust me?--won't you try?"
+
+She looked up into his face. "I wish that I could, but how can I?"
+
+"You ought to know. So deep and big and true a nature. Surely you ought
+to be able to understand your own teaching!"
+
+"But I can't see any way."
+
+"Your book says that one must not think of ways; one must just look
+straight to the good end."
+
+"Oh, but there isn't any such end possible for me."
+
+Lorenzo dropped her hand and laughed out loud. And then he caught her in
+his arms and kissed her.
+
+She screamed. To her it was the greatest shock of her life, for no man
+had ever kissed her before. "Oh--oh, mercy!"
+
+Matters were not helped much by Susan's looking over the fence just then
+and crying out abruptly: "Well, I declare!"
+
+"Mrs. Ralston," said Lorenzo, not even blushing, "you're the very person
+we need this minute. I want to marry Jane, and she won't hear to it
+because of her father's debts. The debts are all right and everything's
+all right, only she won't believe it. I wish you'd climb the fence and
+help me persuade her, for although I _know_ she'll end by marrying me,
+I've just set my heart on converting her to her own religion first."
+
+Susan swung easily over the fence. "You're just right, Mr. Rath, you
+ought to marry her. She's the nicest person to have around the house
+that I ever saw; she's far too good to be a nurse. How much did your
+father owe, you Sunshine Jane, you? Maybe I can pay it. I will if I
+can."
+
+"There," said Lorenzo; "see how easy it is to evolve money if you'd only
+trust a little?"
+
+Jane looked at him and then at Susan. "I couldn't take your money,
+Auntie," said she, quite gently, but quite firmly. "And then, too," she
+added, with her roguish smile, "you've left it to Aunt Matilda."
+
+"Yes, but dear," Susan's face became suddenly radiant, "you know I've
+been working your religion on her; maybe she isn't coming back at all;
+maybe something will happen; maybe she's going to be drowned or
+something like that in some perfectly right way."
+
+"No," said Lorenzo soberly. "It isn't necessary to plan as to God's
+business at all. He knows. I don't think that Jane ought to take
+anybody's money; she ought to pay the debts with her own money, but I
+can't see why she can't trust and know it's coming."
+
+"Because there's no place for it to come from," said Jane firmly.
+
+"Unless Matilda--" Susan interposed.
+
+"I believe I'm better at her religion than she is herself," said
+Lorenzo. "I declare, I believe that there's nothing that I can't get
+now. I wanted a house, and I worked just as the book said! I saw myself
+living cosily alone, and in less than a week I was living cosily alone.
+Now I want Jane with me in the house, and I mean to have her, and I
+shall have her, and there's no doubt about that; but I do wish--with all
+my heart--that she could rise to a higher plane."
+
+"If that's all, I know how to manage that easily enough," said Susan.
+"We could get old Mr. Cattermole in for a week and raise Jane's plane
+with him, just like she raised mine with Mrs. Croft."
+
+"Oh, she'll rise," said her lover quietly. "We must give her time and
+help her, that's all."
+
+Jane stood doubting between them. Her aunt regarded her wistfully. "Dear
+me," she said, "I wonder if I could screw myself up to believing she'll
+come in for a fortune. I want to help, but I'm a little like her--I
+can't for the life of me see where it's to come from."
+
+"But that isn't the question at all," said Lorenzo, "the question isn't
+how--the question is just the faith. Why, it's the corner-stone of the
+whole thing! It's the moving into God's world where nothing but good can
+be, and you know you're there because you see only good coming in all
+directions! Just good--nothing but good! I don't see why Jane holds back
+so. I know that she can get that money and get every other thing she
+wants in life, including me, and I'm one of the nicest fellows alive--"
+
+"That's so--" interposed Susan.
+
+"If she'll only put out her hand with confidence. I've studied that book
+till I'm full of it, and I know that I'm going to have her for my wife,
+and I know it absolutely, and I want her to know it, too."
+
+Susan began to get back over the fence. "I'm going in about breakfast,"
+she said; "the trouble with us is we all need hot coffee to brace up our
+souls."
+
+"Keep on declaring the truth," Lorenzo reminded her, as she walked off
+upon the other side.
+
+"I will. I'll say 'Jane is going to get some money' and 'Matilda doesn't
+want to come home to live,' alternately."
+
+When she was out of hearing the two young people remained silent for a
+few seconds. Then the man spoke.
+
+"Dear," his voice was very gentle, "I want to tell you something. I've
+had a very great experience in the last twenty-four hours. It isn't
+loving you--it's that I've been allowed to see a little bit of life from
+God's standpoint. Don't you want to know the real truth about all this?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I'm going to tell you, because you'll see the lesson and learn it with
+me. We don't doubt that God knows all that has been or is to be, do
+we?--or that in our minutes of fiercest pain or trouble He looks calmly
+to the end beyond?"
+
+She shook her head. "No, of course not."
+
+"Well, dearest girl, I was allowed last night to put myself in the
+Deity's place and see one corner of the universe as He must see the
+whole."
+
+Her eyes grew big. "What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean this. I want you, and I understand perfectly about the money. I
+sat down last night and I labored with myself until I made myself _know_
+that it was yours. I can't tell you just how it came to me, but I knew
+it. It is yours and yours absolutely, and now I want you to realize it
+and believe in it without question, before I give it to you. Will you do
+that? I'm asking of you the faith that Jesus preached. Can you believe?"
+
+Jane looked at him wonderingly. "You mean--"
+
+"I mean just what I say."
+
+"I can't receive money from you."
+
+"It isn't my money."
+
+"I don't understand. I only know that there is no way that I can get the
+money."
+
+Lorenzo looked at her a minute, and then said slowly and very gently:
+"I've found Mrs. Croft's will. She left all that she had to whoever took
+care of her the night she died. It appears that she had a good deal more
+than any one supposed. It's all yours, dear. Now you see why you should
+have trusted."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+IN A PERFECTLY RIGHT WAY
+
+
+WHEN Susan, looking out of the window, saw the two whom she had left
+behind coming across the grass, she knew instantly.
+
+"They've settled it somehow," she exclaimed in supremest joy, and
+whirled to whisk the bacon off the stove.
+
+"Auntie," said Jane, from outside the window, the minute after, "I am
+just dumb. I don't believe I'll ever be able to lift up my head in life
+again."
+
+"Auntie," said Lorenzo, over her shoulder, "she's inherited her
+fortune."
+
+Susan gave a scream. "Oh, good mercy!"
+
+"Yes, dear," said her niece, now in the doorway, "only I can't believe
+it. I think that it's a dream."
+
+"You see she still isn't able to rise to the proper heights of trust,"
+laughed her lover, also now in the doorway, "but I have hopes of yet
+teaching her to believe what she believes."
+
+"Come straight in and help me set all this on the table, so that I can
+listen with a free mind." Susan's appeal was pathetic in the extreme.
+"Where _did_ she get it, anyhow?"
+
+"Oh, Auntie, it's the most wonderful thing you ever heard of." Jane took
+up the coffee-pot and led the way.
+
+"I did it all, except I didn't provide the money," said Lorenzo, and the
+next minute they were all seated, and he could tell the whole story.
+
+Susan didn't scream. She sat still, a bit of toast in her hand,
+listening breathlessly. When Lorenzo had finished, "Oh, that new
+religion!" she murmured in an awed voice, and then, "Nothing like this
+ever happened in this town before, I know."
+
+"I'm more bewildered over it's being there for me and my not being able
+to believe than I am by the money," said Jane. "Oh, Auntie, what a
+lesson, what a lesson!"
+
+"You would limit yourself, you see," said Lorenzo; "you wouldn't
+believe."
+
+"How could I ever imagine such a thing?"
+
+"You didn't have to imagine,--you only had to expect."
+
+"You laid limits, you see," said Susan, suddenly beginning to pour out
+the coffee, and pouring with a glad dash that swept over cup and saucer
+together. "I expect if God hadn't been patient--like Mr. Rath--He could
+have very well hid that will forever. There may be a lot of such goings
+on in the world, for all we know. My goodness, suppose I'd been like
+Matilda and not have had old Mrs. Croft around for one minute,--it makes
+me ill to think of it! It's a lesson for me, too."
+
+"Life is all lessons," said Jane. "Dear me, think of Aunt Matilda's
+surprise!"
+
+"Think of it! Good mercy, how can I wait to tell her!" Susan's whole
+face beamed. "I don't mind a bit her coming back now. That shows the
+good of making that declaration about her. Those declarations are a
+great thing. I've told myself Matilda was coming back in a perfectly
+right way so many times that now, however she came back, I'd be positive
+it was perfectly right."
+
+"Ah, Auntie," said Jane, "you've got hold of another great truth. Every
+one seems quicker than me."
+
+"Well, you started us at it, anyhow," said Susan kindly. "Oh my, but I'm
+happy! Why, I believe I'm really in a hurry now for Matilda to come
+back, just so I can tell her. Think of that--me really and truly anxious
+to see Matilda again! My, you Sunshine Jane, you--what a lot of
+difference you've made in me."
+
+"When is your aunt coming?" Lorenzo asked Jane.
+
+"She went for three weeks," said Jane; "it will be three weeks next
+Thursday."
+
+"Goodness, only three weeks, and it seems like three years?" observed
+Susan. "What a lot has happened! There's Jane--and her religion--and me
+up and well--and old Mrs. Croft here and gone--and you, Mr. Rath,--and
+then you and Jane--and now this money."
+
+"I can't believe any of it," said Jane; "I try, but I just can't. I
+guess I'm hopelessly limited. I'm too bewildered, I--"
+
+"I'll tell you what ails you," said her aunt warmly. "It's that you've
+spread yourself too much; you've given such a lot away everywhere that
+you've got to just stop and let the tide run backwards into you yourself
+for a while. It's nature. Nature and the new religion combined."
+
+"I feel overwhelmed by the coming-back tide then," said Jane; "I don't
+deserve it all."
+
+Her aunt started to reply, but was stopped by a sudden loud bang
+outside.
+
+"Goodness, what's that?" she exclaimed.
+
+"Auto tire burst, I think. I'll go and see," said Lorenzo, jumping up
+and going out.
+
+"Jane," said Susan solemnly, "that's a young man in a million. Think of
+his finding that will. My, but he'll make a good husband!"
+
+"I just can't realize any of it," said her niece. She seemed to be
+totally unequal to any other view of her present situation.
+
+"Well, you'd better realize it," said her aunt, "because it's coming
+right along. What will Mrs. Mead say, I wonder! Dear me, how every one
+will wish they'd tried to get up a plane or two by having old Mrs. Croft
+to visit them. If that poor old thing could only come back, the whole
+town would just adore to have her on a visit now, and every one would
+sit up all night and listen to _Captain Jinks_ so cheerfully. She used
+to sing _Rally round the flag, boys_ too,--I forgot that. She used to
+sing it when she heard the roosters begin to crow. But nobody would have
+minded, whatever she sang now."
+
+"Oh, there's--" Jane hesitated and blushed.
+
+Lorenzo stood in the door. "It wasn't a burst tire," he explained
+briefly; "it's a new kind of siren they're using. It's friends from out
+of town, Mr. and Mrs. Beamer."
+
+"They've got the wrong house," said Susan. "I don't know any Beamers."
+
+"They asked for Mrs. Ralston."
+
+"Then they're selling something, grape-wine or hand-knit lace, or
+something. I don't want to see 'em."
+
+"I'll go," said Jane. And went at once. In the pretty, changed
+sitting-room she found the visitors--Mrs. Beamer tall and of large
+build, with a handsome motor-costume. Mr. Beamer also large, very wiry,
+and with rampant gray hair. Mrs. Beamer was Matilda.
+
+But what a changed Matilda! "Well, Jane," coming forward and holding out
+both hands, "did you and Susan feel it?"
+
+Jane staggered and laid hold of a chair. "Feel--" she stammered--"feel
+what? Oh, Aunt Matilda!"
+
+"Did you feel the good I've been doing you? How's my sister?"
+
+"She--oh, she's all right."
+
+"Up and dressed?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"There, you see!" Matilda turned to Mr. Beamer, triumph radiating her
+whole figure. "It worked,--oh, Matthew, it worked." Then she turned back
+to Jane. "Get up right off, didn't she? Same day I left?"
+
+"Y--yes." Jane clung more tightly to the chair. She began to doubt the
+ground beneath her feet.
+
+"Perfectly well, strong, able-bodied,--isn't she?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You see?--" to Mr. Beamer. Then, "Oh, it's too splendid! I s'pose the
+cat's stopped snooping, too, hasn't he?"
+
+"Y--yes."
+
+"House all clean? Garden growing fine?"--
+
+"Yes, indeed."
+
+"And you, Jane, how are you?"
+
+"Oh, I'm all right. I--I've become engaged."
+
+"You hear that, Matthew? And the town?"
+
+"Everybody's well."
+
+"Did you ever in all your life!"
+
+"Oh, old Mrs. Croft died!"
+
+"Did she indeed. Katie happy?--"
+
+"Katie was away. She died here."
+
+"How nice! I expect she enjoyed every minute of it. Oh, Jane, you don't
+know how happy your every word is making me!"
+
+"Shan't I call auntie?"
+
+"No, we'll go out and have breakfast with you. We had one breakfast so
+as to make it easy for you to have us have it with you."
+
+"Do come right out to the table." Jane led the way. "I can't think what
+Aunt Susan will say!"
+
+"Never mind what she says--it'll be just right. Everything always is.
+Come, Matthew;" then Mrs. Matilda Beamer led off, and Mr. Matthew Beamer
+followed, smiling cheerfully. He seemed to be a very cheerful man.
+
+"Perhaps I'd better go first and just prepare auntie," Jane suggested
+hastily.
+
+"No need. She always yelled when she saw me suddenly, and this time it
+will be for joy. Life is going to be all joy for Susan now."
+
+Jane turned the button of the dining-room door. "Auntie Susan, it's Aunt
+Matilda and Mr. Beamer."
+
+Susan justified her sister's views by forthwith giving the yell of her
+whole life. "Ma--tilda!--And Mr. Beamer!--"
+
+Matilda went up to her, seized her, gave her a good hug and a real kiss.
+"I've made lots of mistakes," she said, with a big tear in each eye,
+"but somehow it was written that I should be allowed to make them right.
+Susan, this is Matthew. Sit down, Matthew. Sit down, every one."
+
+Lorenzo hastily pushed up chairs, and they all sat down.
+
+"I'll get some more dishes," Jane exclaimed, hurrying into the pantry.
+
+"Matilda!" Susan looked almost ready to faint. "Are you--are you--"
+
+"I'm married," said Matilda. "I don't know what I've ever done to
+deserve it, but I'm married. It's the most beautiful romance that ever
+was in the world, and we've come to tell you all about it."
+
+"Oh, do!" Susan exclaimed. "Jane, come back! Think of another romance,
+and Matilda, too! Well, what next!"
+
+Matilda smiled quite radiantly. "We met on the train the day I left
+here," she began; "it was right off. He took me out on the back platform
+of the car and opened my eyes to life, and we just suited, didn't we,
+Matthew?"
+
+"Tell it all," said Mr. Beamer; "tell the beginning."
+
+"Yes," said his wife, "I will, I'll tell it all. It's so splendid it
+would be a pity to skip anything. You see, he looked at me and--well,
+really, Matthew, I think you'd better tell the first part."
+
+"No, you tell," said Mr. Beamer.
+
+"No, Matthew, you tell it, and I'll help anywhere I can."
+
+"Well," said her husband, "then I'll begin with saying, Sister Susan,
+Niece Jane, and young man, that I'd better tell you what I am, first of
+all, because I'm the only one of the kind in the world so far as I know.
+You see, one of those Bible miracles, that no one can seem to lay hold
+of any more, got into me, and I'm the result."
+
+"That is all true," interposed Matilda, her plain face quite
+metamorphosed, as she looked at her husband and then at them. "Every
+word he says is true, and it's all miracles."
+
+"You see I was just a plain, ordinary man, with a nice business and a
+good disposition," Mr. Beamer went on, "and I did get so awful tired of
+things as they were going, and I used to wish everything was different,
+and then one day, all of a God-blessed sudden, it came over me, with a
+shock like lightning, that wanting things different is the first step to
+getting 'em different, and that if you've got the brain to see what's
+lacking, you've got the body to turn to and help fill up the hole. I
+didn't get religion out of a book; I got it just like that. I was
+sitting in a rocking-chair with a palm-leaf fan, and I got up and put
+the fan on the shelf and knew I was all made new. The very next day I
+read about a doctor as set up some nurses--"
+
+"Oh, my goodness," Susan cried, "hear that, Jane!"
+
+"--as was to spread sunshine, and I thought that was a good idea, only I
+couldn't see a place in it for me, 'cause I wasn't young and wasn't no
+girl to go 'round spreading nothing. I looked upon it that being a man,
+my business wasn't to spread things--a man's business is to get the
+stuff to spread; so I figured out that being as I was a man, I could
+maybe help make the sunshine, and then any one could slather it on that
+pleased. So I began to look about for some sunshine to make, and the
+handiest field I see was folks with hard lines around their mouths;
+there's a powerful lot of them around, you know,--ain't nothin' so hard
+to break up in life as hard lines around mouths. So I set out to plow
+fields of hard lines." He paused. It was a picture, a picture painted in
+heavenly colors to see his face at the moment, full of its own
+heartfelt, tried, and true enthusiasm, and the faces of those of his
+four listeners, each touched with the spiritual light shed by recent
+events over his or her own individual path.
+
+"Do go on," Jane whispered softly.
+
+"Well, whenever I'd see a hard man sitting alone, I'd go up to him and
+hold out my hand and say, 'Well, I ain't laid eyes on you, I don't know
+when!' That wasn't no lie, and 'most always we'd get a-talking. Then I'd
+say, 'I'm a harmless crank that likes to go round making friends, and I
+took a fancy to you right off.' It was wonderful all I come up against.
+Why, the hardest folks was just aching to sit down and explain that they
+wasn't hard at all. It was the most interesting thing I ever got hold
+of. I got arrested once for a gold-brick man, and it give me a fine
+chance at the jailers and some of the men in prison. Pretty soon
+everything that turned up seemed to just come along to give me a chance
+to make a little sunshine. Pretty soon life was all nothing but sunshine
+chances. I got hold of some books that showed me that lots of others
+were trying some similar games, and all working hard, and I picked out
+one book that 'most anybody could understand, and I used to carry it to
+read from. Would you believe that I wore out that book about a hundred
+times and sold it more'n five hundred times and give it away 'most a
+thousand times. I got where hard lines was just play to me. I've now got
+where they're flowers in my garden. I just fly at 'em. If they don't
+give up to one course, they do to another. I travel about looking for
+'em. I was on my last trip when I see Matilda sittin' across the aisle
+from me, and I said to myself right off, 'What fine lines!' So I went
+right over and shook hands with her--"
+
+"He said he feared maybe he'd made a mistake," interrupted his wife,
+"and I said--God forgive me!--'If you speak to me again, I'll call out
+to the conductors!'"
+
+"And I said: 'Madam, excuse me, I'm only a harmless crank as is trying
+to help folks as is sick or in trouble, and you look like a woman as
+could tell me of some I could help, maybe!'"
+
+"Then I thought of you, Susan," said the sister; "you see, I'd been
+looking out of the window, and the view was so pretty, and it kind of
+come over me how awful hard it was to lie in bed--and--and I felt kind
+of bad, and his face looked kind, and I said: 'Well, sit down. I do know
+somebody sick.'"
+
+"So I set down," went on Mr. Beamer, "and in just a little while she let
+up like everybody does and told me the whole story, and then I took her
+out on the back platform and we was swinging 'round curves of mighty
+lovely scenery, and I got out my book and I begin to read aloud to her."
+
+"And I got hold of the idea like mad," said Matilda. "I said right off:
+'Then Susan's really all well now?' an' he said: 'She's been well
+always,' and I says: 'And my arm's well,' and he said: 'Nothin' ain't
+ever ailed your arm except your own innard feelings, and they're gone
+now,' and then I just put my hands over my face and says: 'Oh, God,
+forgive me for lots and lots and lots of things.'"
+
+There was another little pause, and then Susan said very low: "And God
+did it."
+
+"And then," said Mr. Beamer, "I says to her: 'Now, if you want to see
+how true everything I've been saying is, we'll just put this to a
+practical proof.' I'd noticed a woman with lines back there in the car
+slapping two sleepy children, and I told Matilda we'd each take a child
+for an hour and give her lines a chance to smooth out a little, and then
+we'd come back on the platform and talk it over."
+
+"So we did it," said Matilda, "and when I took the baby back to the
+woman, she burst out crying and said she'd tried to hold in all day and
+just couldn't any longer, cause her mother was sick and had been sick so
+long, and she couldn't leave the children to go to her 'cause the
+children was the neighbor's and left with her to board, and she'd never
+liked children and only took 'em 'cause her mother needed the money."
+
+"Showing," interrupted Mr. Beamer, "how we'd misjudged her and her hard
+lines, which is another feature of my crusade, as lots don't think
+enough about."
+
+"But what come next was just like a story, too," Matilda said. "When I
+got to Mrs. Camp's at last, I found Mrs. Camp so changed that if I
+hadn't met Matthew on the train and got something to hold on to, I
+couldn't have stayed in the house an hour."
+
+"Why, what was the matter with Mrs. Camp?" Susan asked anxiously.
+
+"Why, all Mrs. Camp's family is married now, and it seems she was so
+lonely she's turned into a social settler or some such thing, and her
+nice, quiet house where I'd looked to rest was one swarm of Italians
+learning English and girls learning sewing and women asking advice and
+such a chaos of Bedlam you never dreamed. If it hadn't been for my just
+having got religion that way, I'd have turned around and come straight
+back home. But as it was, I didn't have time to do anything but get into
+my blue print and take hold right with her and get some order into
+things in general."
+
+"Oh, Aunt Matilda!" Jane's face was radiant.
+
+"Afternoons Matthew came with an auto, and he'd take me off with the
+back seat full of children, and we'd hunt hard lines anywhere they
+looked likely."
+
+"And then, of course, we soon got married," said Mr. Beamer.
+
+"Yes, and that's all," said Matilda. "_Now did you ever?_"
+
+There was a sudden hush, until finally Susan said, through tears: "Oh,
+Matilda,--it's like something in heaven's got loose and fell right down
+over us, isn't it?"
+
+"I think it's all too wonderful," said Jane.
+
+"Of course there really is something out of heaven spread over earth
+every day," said Lorenzo, low, and very reverently; "only people don't
+see it."
+
+"But nowadays, everybody's beginning to recognize it," Jane murmured.
+
+"It's like it says in one of my books," said Mr. Beamer. "God's a
+reservoir and we're all pipes, just as soon as we're willing to be
+pipes, and then He pours through us according to how willing we are,
+because you're big or little just according to how willing you are."
+
+"Let us all be very willing," said Jane.
+
+"Oh, Jane," said Susan, "that sounds like a blessing to ask at the
+table. Let's ask a blessing after this and just say: 'Let us all be very
+willing!'"
+
+"Amen," said Lorenzo.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE RESULTS
+
+
+JANE was married in the early autumn.
+
+She didn't have any trousseau or any wedding presents or any bridal
+trip. It was a new kind of wedding, because so much about her and her
+way of looking at life was new to those about her, that even her
+marriage had to match it. "My clothes are always in nice order," she
+said to Susan, slightly appalled over the non-existing preparations,
+"and I love to sew and will make what I need as I need it."
+
+"I don't want any presents," Lorenzo had said decidedly. "I don't want
+any one on earth to groan because I'm marrying Jane."
+
+"I don't think much of bridal trips; Matthew and I didn't have one, so I
+know all about them," said Matilda, who now had her standard and never
+lowered it for one instant; "those bothers are just about over for
+sensible people."
+
+So it all fell out in this way. One lovely bright September day, Mr. and
+Mrs. Beamer and Mrs. Susan Ralston walked quietly into the village
+church and sat down in the front pew. Shortly after the clergyman and
+the bride and the groom came in, and the clergyman married the bride to
+the groom. Then they all went out together, and the clergyman left them
+to go home together. A nice cold luncheon was spread at Susan's, and the
+cat was waiting, scratching hard at his white bow while he did so.
+
+After luncheon Mr. Beamer, his wife, and his wife's sister went off for
+a journey.
+
+"Think of me traveling!" Susan cried ecstatically. "Oh, Jane, may you
+enjoy going abroad this winter as much as I shall going off now."
+
+Jane smiled her pretty smile, and then, after the last wave of adieu,
+she and Lorenzo went back into the house.
+
+"This is really very funny, you know," said Lorenzo; "first we will wash
+all the dishes, and then we will plan our future."
+
+"Yes," Jane said.
+
+But they failed to do either.
+
+Instead, they left the dishes and the future to care for themselves.
+Going straight down into the garden, climbing the two fences, safely
+secluded in the little, growing, blooming inclosure, Lorenzo took his
+wife in his arms, and said: "Oh, my dearest dear, how rightest right
+everything is!"
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+                          Books by Anne Warner
+
+
+=The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary=
+
+    Players' Edition, with illustrations reproduced from photographs
+    of scenes in the play. =$1.50=
+
+Always amusing and ends in a burst of sunshine.--_Philadelphia
+Ledger._
+
+
+=Just Between Themselves=
+
+    Frontispiece in color by Will Grefé. =$1.50=
+
+It is full of apt, pert little take-offs on human nature that provokes
+frequent chuckles.--_Philadelphia Item._
+
+
+=In A Mysterious Way=
+
+    Illustrated by J. V. McFall. =$1.50=
+
+A story of love and sacrifice that teems with the author's original
+humor.--_Baltimore American._
+
+
+=Your Child and Mine=
+
+    Illustrated. =$1.50=
+
+The child-heart, strange and sweet and tender, lies open to this
+sympathetic writer.--_Chicago Record-Herald._
+
+
+=An Original Gentleman=
+
+    Frontispiece by Alice Barber Stephens. =$1.50=
+
+Exhibits her cleverness and sense of humor.--_New York Times._
+
+
+=Susan Clegg, Her Friend and Her Neighbors=
+
+    Illustrated. =$1.50=
+
+Combining all the Susan Clegg stories originally published in "Susan
+Clegg and Her Friend Mrs. Lathrop" and "Susan Clegg and Her
+Neighbors' Affairs."
+
+One of the most genuinely humorous books ever written.--_St.
+Louis Globe-Democrat._
+
+
+=Susan Clegg And a Man in the House=
+
+    Illustrated by Alice Barber Stephens. =$1.50=
+
+Susan is a positive joy, and the reading world owes Anne Warner a
+vote of thanks for her contribution to the list of American humor.--_New
+York Times._
+
+
+=When Woman Proposes=
+
+    Illustrated in color. =$1.25 _net_=
+
+Dainty in form and content. It is printed, bound, and illustrated
+charmingly, and the story, style, and atmosphere correspond.--_New
+York Herald_
+
+
+=A Woman's Will=
+
+    Illustrated. =$1.50=
+
+A deliciously funny book.--_Chicago Tribune._
+
+
+=How Leslie Loved=
+
+    Illustrations in color by A. B. Wenzell. =$1.25 _net_=
+
+The sprightly romance of a young and charming American widow.
+
+
+LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., _Publishers_
+34 BEACON STREET, BOSTON
+
+
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of
+the speakers. Those words were retained as-is.
+
+Errors in punctuations and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected
+unless noted below:
+
+On page 228, "winable" was replaced with "winnable".
+
+On page 242, the comma after "softly" was replaced with a period.
+
+On page 245, the period after "cow declared" was replaced with a comma.
+
+On page 278, "Mr Beamer" was replaced with "Mr. Beamer".
+
+In the advertisements at the end of the book, the duplicate header on
+the last page was removed.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUNSHINE JANE***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 37972-8.txt or 37972-8.zip *******
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+<body>
+<h1 class="pg">The Project Gutenberg eBook, Sunshine Jane, by Anne Warner, Illustrated by
+Harriet Roosevelt Richards</h1>
+<pre>
+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 <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: Sunshine Jane</p>
+<p>Author: Anne Warner</p>
+<p>Release Date: November 10, 2011  [eBook #37972]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUNSHINE JANE***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4 class="center">E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Ernest Schaal,<br />
+    and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br />
+    from page images generously made available by<br />
+    Internet Archive/American Libraries<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.archive.org/details/americana">http://www.archive.org/details/americana</a>)</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 455px;">
+<img class="border" src="images/cover.jpg" width="455" height="700" alt="book cover" title="book cover" />
+</div>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<h1>SUNSHINE JANE</h1>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 466px;">
+ <img class="border" src="images/fronti.jpg" width="466" height="700"
+  alt="" title="" />
+<p class="center">&quot;Auntie Susan, it's Aunt Matilda and Mr. Beamer.&quot;<br />
+<span class="smcap">Frontispiece.</span> <i>See Page 265.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<p class="h1">SUNSHINE JANE</p>
+
+<p class="h2">BY<br />
+ANNE WARNER</p>
+
+<p class="h3">AUTHOR OF &quot;THE REJUVENATION OF AUNT MARY,&quot; &quot;SUSAN
+CLEGG AND HER FRIEND, MRS. LATHROP,&quot; ETC.</p>
+
+<p class="h3">WITH FRONTISPIECE BY<br />
+HARRIET ROOSEVELT RICHARDS</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="h2">BOSTON<br />
+LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY<br />
+1914</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Copyright, 1913, 1914</i>,<br />
+<span class="smcap">By Little, Brown, and Company</span>.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr1"/>
+
+<p class="center"><i>All rights reserved</i></p>
+
+<p class="center">Published, February, 1914</p>
+
+<p class="center">Reprinted, January, 1914</p>
+
+<p class="center">Set up and electrotyped by J. S. Cushing Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.<br />
+Presswork by S. J. Parkhill &amp; Co., Boston, Mass., U.S.A.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;v]</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">CONTENTS</p>
+
+<p class="margin-left8">CHAPTER <span class="ralign">PAGE</span></p>
+
+<ul class="TOCR">
+
+<li><span class="smcap">General Ignorance</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#I">1</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Everybody Gets There</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#II">6</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Matilda Teaches</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#III">22</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Jane Begins Sunshining</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#IV">37</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A Change in the Feel of Things</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#V">61</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Lorenzo Rath</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#VI">84</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">A New Outlook on Matilda</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#VII">98</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Soul-uplifting</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#VIII">127</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Madeleine's Secret</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#IX">138</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Old Mrs. Croft</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#X">148</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">She Sleeps</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#XI">159</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Emily's Project</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#XII">169</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Emily is Herself Freely</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#XIII">191</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Jane's Converts</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#XIV">208</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;vi]</span><span class="smcap">Real Conversation</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#XV">220</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">The Most Wonderful Thing ever Happened</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#XVI">233</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">Why Jane Should have Believed</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#XVII">243</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">In a Perfectly Right Way</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#XVIII">256</a></span></li>
+
+<li><span class="smcap">The Results</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#XIX">277</a></span></li>
+
+</ul>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<p class="h1">SUNSHINE JANE</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;1]</span></p>
+
+<p class="h1">SUNSHINE JANE</p>
+
+<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">GENERAL IGNORANCE</p>
+
+<p class="indent">THERE was something pathetic in the
+serene unconsciousness of the little
+village as the stage came lumbering down
+the hillside, bearing its freight of portent.
+So many things were going to be changed
+forever after,&mdash;and no one knew it. Such
+a vast difference was going speedily to make
+itself felt, and not a soul was aware even
+of what a bigger soul it was so soon to be.
+Old Mrs. Croft, clear at the other end of
+town and paralyzed for twenty years,
+hadn't the slightest conception of what a
+leading part was being prepared for her
+to play. Poor Katie Croft, her daughter-in-law
+and slave, whose one prayer was for
+freedom, dreamed not that the answer was
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;2]</span>
+now at last coming near. Mrs. Cowmull,
+sitting on her porch awaiting the &quot;artist
+who had advertised,&quot; knew not who or
+what or how old he might be or the interest
+that would soon be hers. Poor Emily
+Mead, shelling peas on the bench at the
+back of her mother's house, frowned fretfully
+and, putting back her great lock of
+rich chestnut hair with an impatient gesture,
+wished that she might see &quot;just one real
+man before she died,&quot;&mdash;and the man was
+even then jolting towards her. Miss Debby
+Vane, putting last touches to the flowers
+on her guest-room table, where Madeleine
+would soon see them, was also sweetly
+unaware of the approach of momentous
+events. She thought but of Madeleine,
+the distant cousin whose parents wanted
+to see if absence would break up an obnoxious
+love affair, and so were sending her
+to Miss Debby, who was &quot;only too pleased.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A love affair,&quot; she whispered rapturously.
+&quot;A <i>real</i> love affair in this town!&quot;
+And then she pursed her lips delightfully,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;3]</span>
+never guessing that she was to see so much
+besides.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Meanwhile Miss Matilda Drew stood
+looking sternly out of her sister Susan's
+window, considering if there were any
+necessary yet up to now forgotten point
+to be impressed upon Jane the instant
+that she should arrive. Miss Matilda was
+naturally as ignorant as all the rest,&mdash;as
+ignorant even as poor Susan, lying primly
+straight behind her on the bed. Susan
+was a widow and an invalid, not paralyzed
+like old Mrs. Croft, but pretty helpless.
+Matilda had lived with her for five years
+and tended her assiduously, as she grew
+more and more feeble. Now Matilda was
+&quot;about give out,&quot; and&mdash;&quot;just like a
+answer out of a clear sky,&quot; as Matilda said&mdash;their
+niece Jane, whom neither had seen
+since she was a mite in curls fifteen years
+ago, had written to ask if she might spend
+her holiday with them. They had said
+&quot;Yes,&quot; and Matilda was going away for a
+rest while Jane kept house and waited on
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;4]</span>
+her poor old aunt. Jane was one of the
+passengers now rattling along in the stage.
+She differed widely from the others and
+from every one else in the village, but all
+put together, they formed that mass known
+to literature as &quot;the situation.&quot; I think
+myself that it was the rest that formed
+&quot;the situation&quot; and that Jane formed
+&quot;the key,&quot; but I may be prejudiced.
+Anyway, &quot;key&quot; or not, Miss Matilda's
+niece was a sweet, brown-skinned, bright-haired
+girl, with a happy face, great,
+beautiful eyes, and a heart that beat every
+second in truer accord with the great
+working principles of the universe. She
+was the only one among them now who had
+a foot upon the step that led to the path
+&quot;higher up.&quot; And yet because she was
+the only one, she had seen her way to come
+gladly and teach them what they had never
+known; not only that, but also to learn
+of them the greatest lesson of her own life.
+So we see that although conscious of both
+hands overflowing with gifts, Jane really
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;5]</span>
+was as ignorant, in God's eyes, as all the
+rest. She had gone far enough beyond
+the majority to know that to give is the
+divinest joy which one may know, but she
+had not gone far enough to realize that in
+the greatest outpouring of generosity which
+we can ever give vent to, a vacuum is
+created which receives back from those we
+benefit gifts way beyond the value of our
+own. &quot;I shall bring so much happiness
+here,&quot; ran the undercurrent of her thought;
+she never imagined that Fate had brought
+her to this simple village to fashion herself
+unto better things.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">So all, alike unaware&mdash;those in the
+stage and those awaiting its advent with
+passengers and post&mdash;drew long, relieved
+breaths as it passed with rattle and clatter
+over the bridge and into the main street.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;6]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">EVERYBODY GETS THERE</p>
+
+<p class="indent">JANE sat on the rear seat with old Mr.
+Cattermole, who was coming home
+to his daughter, Mrs. Mead.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ever been here before?&quot; old Mr. Cattermole
+asked her.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, never.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hey?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, never.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Once?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Never.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Never!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll tell you what it is,&quot; said Mr. Cattermole,
+beaming benevolently, &quot;it's the
+jolting. It keeps me from hearing what
+you say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane nodded, smiling.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;7]</span>But old Mr. Cattermole wasn't long
+inconvenienced by the jolting.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Who you going to stop with?&quot; he asked
+next.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Mrs. Ralston and Miss Drew.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Who?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Mrs. Ralston and Miss Drew.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Who? I don't hear you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Miss Drew.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The Crews?&mdash;There ain't no such
+people in town.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Miss Drew!&quot; Jane became slightly
+crimson.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll tell you,&quot; said Mr. Cattermole,
+&quot;we'll wait. I can't hear. Really I can't.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The next minute they arrived at Mrs.
+Cowmull's, since she lived in the first
+house on the street. Lorenzo Rath, the
+artist, who had been sitting on the middle
+seat with Madeleine, now pressed her
+hand, twisted about and shook Jane's,
+nodded to old Mr. Cattermole, leaned
+forward and dragged his suit-case from
+under the seat, and then wriggled out, over
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;8]</span>
+two boxes and under a flapping curtain,
+and down on to the sidewalk. Mrs. Cowmull
+was standing on the porch, trying to
+look hospitable and unconscious at the
+same time. &quot;Here,&quot; said the stage driver,
+suddenly delivering Lorenzo's trunk on to
+the top of his head,&mdash;&quot;and here's the
+lampshade and the codfish,&mdash;they get
+down here, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lorenzo couldn't help laughing. &quot;Au
+revoir,&quot; he cried, waving the lampshade
+as the steps began to move.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We'll meet again soon,&quot; Madeleine
+cried, her face full of bright color.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, of course.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Then they were off.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Seemed a nice young feller,&quot; said old
+Mr. Cattermole to Jane.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes.&quot; She tried to speak loudly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hey!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll tell you,&quot; said old Mr. Cattermole
+benevolently, &quot;you come and see my granddaughter
+Emily, and then we'll talk. My
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;9]</span>
+granddaughter's a great student. You'll
+like her. She's full of the new ideas and
+new books and all that. We're very proud
+of her. Only she don't get married.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Then the stage stopped, and Mrs. Mead
+came running out. &quot;Oh, Father, did you
+buy the new magazines,&mdash;on the train,
+you know?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Old Mr. Cattermole was descending backwards
+with the care of a cat in an apple-tree.
+&quot;It's my daughter,&quot; he said to
+Jane. &quot;I can always hear her because
+she speaks so plain. Yes, Emma, it <i>was</i>
+dusty, very dusty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This lawn-sprinkler is your's, ain't it?&quot;
+said the stage driver, jerking it off the roof
+into Mrs. Mead's arms. &quot;Here's his bag,
+too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And then they went on again. Madeleine
+now had space to turn about. &quot;You'll
+come and see me?&quot; she asked Jane earnestly;
+&quot;it'll be so nice. We're both
+strangers here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll try,&quot; Jane answered, &quot;but I shall
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;10]</span>
+be closely tied to the house. Aunt Susan
+is an invalid, you see. I'll not only have
+all the work, but if I go out, that poor
+sick woman will be left helpless and alone
+up-stairs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Perhaps I can come and see you, then,&quot;
+said Madeleine. &quot;I'll have the time to
+come, if you'll have the time to see me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't know anything about what my
+life will be,&quot; said Jane. &quot;As I told you
+on the train, I've only seen my aunts once
+in my life and that was fifteen years ago.
+But I should think that you could come
+and see us. I should think that a little
+company would do Aunt Susan a lot of
+good. I'm sure that it would, in fact.
+But she may not like to see strangers. I
+really don't know a thing about it. I'm
+all in the dark.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll come and ask if I may come,&quot; said
+Madeleine brightly. &quot;If she sees me,
+maybe she'll like me. Most everybody
+does.&quot; She laughed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm sure of that,&quot; Jane said, laughing,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;11]</span>
+too. Then the stage stopped at Miss
+Debby Vane's, and Miss Debby came
+flying down to embrace her cousin.
+&quot;Thanks be to God that you're here safe,
+my dear. These awful storms at sea have
+just about frightened me to death.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But I was on land, Aunt Deborah.&quot;
+Madeleine, in getting down, had gotten
+into a warm embrace at the same time.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I know, dear, I know. But one can't
+remember that all the time&mdash;can one?&quot;
+Miss Debby was kissing her over and over.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Your step-ladder. Look out!&quot; cried
+the stage driver, and they had barely time
+to jump from under.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Then Madeleine reached up and clasped
+Jane's hand. &quot;We shall be friends,&quot; she
+said earnestly; &quot;I've never met any one
+whom I've liked quite in the same way
+that I like you. Do let us see all that we
+can of one another.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;<i>I</i> want to, I know,&quot; Jane answered.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The stage driver was already remounting
+his seat.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;12]</span>
+&quot;Au revoir,&quot; Madeleine cried, just as
+Lorenzo had done.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Just for a little,&quot; Jane called back,
+and then she was alone in the stage, rattling
+down the long, green-arched street
+to its furthest end.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;There goes the stage,&quot; Katie Croft
+called out to her mother-in-law in the
+next room. &quot;Now Miss Drew'll have her
+niece and be able to get away for a little
+rest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If it was a daughter-in-law, she couldn't,
+maybe,&quot; said a voice from the next room;
+&quot;the rest is going to be poor, sweet Susan
+Ralston's, anyhow. Oh, my Susan Ralston,
+my dear, sweet Susan Ralston, my
+loving Susan Ralston, where I used to go
+and call!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why, Mother, you haven't so much as
+thought of Mrs. Ralston for years.&quot; Katie's
+voice was very sharp.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Nobody knows what I think of,&quot; wailed
+the voice from the other room. &quot;My
+thoughts is music. They fly and sing all
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;13]</span>
+night. They sing Caw, Caw, and they
+fly like feathers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Katie Croft walked over and shut the
+door with a bang. Katie was almost
+beside herself.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The stage now drew up before the Ralston
+house.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Miss Matilda quitted the window, where
+she had stood watching for an hour, and
+went to the gate. Her emotions were
+quite tumultuous&mdash;for her. Single-handed
+she had tended her sister for five years,
+and now she was going to have a rest.
+She had had very trying symptoms, and
+the doctor had advised a rest,&mdash;three
+weeks of freedom, night and day. She was
+going away on a real holiday, going back
+to the place where she had taught school
+before the summons had come to cherish,
+love, and protect her only sister, who was
+not strong and had property. It seemed
+like a dream,&mdash;a wild, lively, and joyful
+dream. She almost smiled as she thought
+of what was at hand.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;14]</span>
+Jane descended, her small trunk came
+bang down beside her in the same instant,
+and the driver was paid and drove off.
+The aunt and niece then turned to go into
+the house.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, and so it's you!&quot; Matilda's
+tone and glance were slightly inquisitorial,
+and more than slightly dictatorial. &quot;I'm
+glad to see you're strong. You'll need be.
+She's an awful care. She ain't up much
+now. Isn't up at all sometimes for weeks.
+Sleeps considerable. Take off your hat
+and coat and hang them there. That's
+the place where they belong.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane obeyed without saying anything.
+But her smile spoke for her.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hungry?&quot; inquired Matilda.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A little.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I surmised you would be and waited
+supper. Thought you'd see how I fixed
+hers then. She's eating very little. Less
+and less all the time. There's a garden to
+weed, too. Awful inconvenient out there
+across two stiles. But she won't give it
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;15]</span>
+up. She pays me to tend it, or I'd let the
+dandelions root it out in short order. But
+I tend it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They had gone into the kitchen, where
+a kettle stewed feebly over a half-dead
+fire. &quot;Sit down,&quot; said Matilda. &quot;I'll fix
+her supper first. She takes her tea cold,
+so I save it from morning and heat it up
+with a little boiling water, <i>so</i>. Then there's
+this bit of fish I saved from day before
+yesterday, and I cut a piece of bread. No
+butter, because her stomach's delicate.
+You'll see that she'll hardly eat this.
+Watch now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane sat and watched, still smiling.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Mr. Rath, the artist, came down in the
+stage with you, didn't he?&quot; Miss Matilda
+went on. &quot;What kind of a young man
+was he? Somebody'll tell you, so it might
+as well be me, what's brought him here.
+Mrs. Cowmull's trying to marry off her
+niece, Emily Mead. There aren't any men
+in town, so she advertised. She gave it out
+that she wanted a boarder, but everybody
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;16]</span>
+see through that. That's what marriage
+has come to these days, catching men to
+board 'em and then marrying them when
+they're thinking of something else. I thank
+Heaven I ain't had nothing to do with any
+marriage. They're a bad business. There,
+that's your supper.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane started slightly. Her own cold
+fish and lukewarm tea sat before her.
+&quot;Shan't I take Aunt Susan's up first?&quot;
+she asked, recollecting that she still had
+some lunch in her bag, and that Matilda
+would be leaving early in the morning.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No need. She likes things cold. You
+ought to see her face if she gets anything
+boiling in her mouth. It's no use to give
+her nothing hot. You'd think it was a
+snake. I give it up the third time she
+burnt her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But I ought to go up and see her, I
+think; she hasn't seen me since I was such
+a little girl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No need. You go ahead and enjoy
+your supper without bothering over her.
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;17]</span>
+She knows you're here, and she isn't one
+that's interested in things. She'll read
+an old shelf paper for hours, but carry
+her up a new paper and like as not when
+you get to the bed with it, you'll find her
+asleep. She sleeps a lot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane&mdash;thus urged&mdash;picked the chilled
+fish with a fork and considered.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll show you about the house after
+you've done eating,&quot; the aunt continued
+presently; &quot;it's easy taken care of, for I
+keep it all shut up. Just Susan's room
+and mine and the kitchen is open. The
+neighbors won't bother you, for I give them
+to understand long ago as I wasn't one with
+time to waste. There isn't any one in the
+place that a woman with any sense would
+want to bother with, anyhow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't fancy that I'll have time to be
+lonesome,&quot; smiled Jane, bravely swallowing
+some tea.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You'd have if it wasn't for the garden.
+I don't know whatever in the world makes
+Susan set such store by that garden. She
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;18]</span>
+will have it that it shall be kept up in memory
+of her husband, and you never saw such
+weeds. I've often sat down backwards
+when one come up&mdash;often.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I can't see it at all,&quot; with a glance out
+of the window.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You can't from here. And it's got to be
+watered, and she counts every pot full of
+water from her bed. She can hear me pumping.
+The birds dig up the seeds as fast as I
+can plant 'em, and I never saw no sense in
+slaving in the sun over what you can buy
+in the shade any day.&mdash;Are you done?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I'm done.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Then come on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Can I spread the tray?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Tray! She doesn't have a tray. What
+should I fuss with a tray for, when I've
+got two hands?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane rose and stood by the table in silence,
+watching the cup filled from the standing
+teapot and the plate ornamented with a
+lonely bit of fish and a slice of bread.
+&quot;Don't you butter the bread?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;19]</span>
+&quot;She's in bed so much she mustn't
+have rich food,&quot; Matilda answered; &quot;there,
+now it's ready. Come on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Shan't I carry anything?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I can take it, I guess. I've carried it
+alone for five years; I guess I can manage
+it to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane followed up the stairs in silence;
+Matilda marched ahead with a firm, heavy
+tread.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Shall I knock for you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't know what for. She yells
+anyway, whenever I come in, whether she's
+knocked or not. Just open the door.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane opened the door gently, and they
+went in together. The room was half
+darkened, and only a little sharp nose
+showed over the top of the bedquilt.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Here's your supper,&quot; said the affectionate
+sister, &quot;and here's Jane.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">A shrill cry was followed by two eyes
+tipping upward beyond the nose. &quot;Oh,
+are you Jane?&quot; There was a lot of pathos
+in the tone.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;20]</span>
+The girl moved quickly to the bedside.
+&quot;I hope that we're going to be very happy,&quot;
+she said; &quot;we must love one another very
+much, you know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The invalid hoisted herself on to an elbow
+and looked towards the plate which Matilda
+was holding forth.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, my! Fish again!&quot; she wailed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Later&mdash;on their way back to the kitchen
+fire&mdash;Matilda said significantly: &quot;Most
+ungrateful person I ever saw, she is. But
+just don't notice what she says. It's the
+only way to get on. I keep her room tidy
+and I keep her house clean and I keep
+her garden weeded. I'm careful of her
+money, and she's well fed. I don't know
+what more any one could ask, but she
+ain't satisfied and she ain't always polite,
+but you'll only have three weeks of what
+I've had for five years, so I guess it won't
+kill you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, I think that I'll be all right,&quot; Jane
+answered cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The stage is ordered for seven in the
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;21]</span>
+morning, and I shall get up at half-past
+four,&quot; the aunt continued. &quot;You can
+sleep till five just as well. I'm going to
+bed now, and you'd better do the same
+thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I think so,&quot; said Jane cheerfully;
+&quot;good night.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;22]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">MATILDA TEACHES</p>
+
+<p class="indent">MATILDA seated herself bolt upright
+on one of the kitchen chairs and
+drew a hard, stiff sigh.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It'll be a great rest to get away,&quot; she
+said, &quot;more of a rest than any one but me
+will ever know. You see, she's left all
+she's got to me in her will, so I'm bound in
+honor to keep a pretty sharp watch over
+everything. I can't even take a chance
+at her sinking suddenly away, with the
+room not picked up or a cobweb in some
+high corner. I've seen her will, and she
+ain't left you a cent, so you won't have the
+same responsibility. It'll be easier for
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll do my very best,&quot; said Jane.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The trouble is I'm too conscientious,&quot;
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;23]</span>
+said Matilda. &quot;I was always conscientious,
+and she was always slack. It's an
+awful failing. It's a warning, too, for now
+there she lays, snug as a bug in a rug, and
+me with New Asthma in my arm from tending
+her and the house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You'll get over all that very soon,&quot; said
+the niece soothingly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Matilda glanced at her suspiciously.
+&quot;No, I shan't. I may get better, but I
+shan't get over it. It's a nerve trouble
+and can't never be completely cured. A
+doctor can alligator it, but he can't cure
+it. I'll have it till I die.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane was silent.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You wrote that you were some kind of
+a nurse. What kind did you say you
+were?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm a Sunshine Nurse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A Sunshine Nurse! What's that?
+Some new idea of never pulling down the
+shades?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane laughed. &quot;Not exactly. It's an
+Order just founded by a doctor. He picked
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;24]</span>
+out the girls himself, and he sends them
+where he chooses for training.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What's the training?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane looked at her and hesitated a little.
+&quot;I expect you'll laugh,&quot; she said finally;
+&quot;it does sound funny to any one who isn't
+used to such ideas. We're to see the sun
+as always shining, and always shine ourselves,
+and our training consists in going
+where there isn't any brightness and being
+bright, and going where there isn't any
+happiness and teaching happiness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Sounds to me like nonsense,&quot; said
+Matilda, rising abruptly; &quot;don't you go
+letting up the sitting-room shades and
+fading the upholstering,&mdash;that's all I've
+got to say. Come now and I'll show you
+about locking up, and then we'll go to
+bed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane obeyed with promptness and was
+most observant and attentive. Matilda
+loaded her with behests and instructions
+and seemed appreciative of the intelligence
+with which they were received.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;25]</span>
+&quot;I wouldn't go in for nothing fancy,&quot;
+she said, as they completed their task;
+&quot;the less you stir up her and the house, the
+easier it'll be for me when I come back.
+You don't want to ever forget that I'm
+coming back, and don't put any fancy ideas
+into her head. There's plenty to do here
+without going out of your way to upset
+my ways.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll remember,&quot; said Jane.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Then they started up-stairs, and a few
+minutes later the Sunshine Nurse was
+alone in her own room, free to stand quietly
+by the window and let her outward gaze
+form a bond between the still beauty of
+a country night and the glad vision of
+work in plenty, and that of a kind which
+Miss Matilda couldn't prohibit, because
+she knew not the world in which such work
+is done.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not&mdash;&quot; said Jane to herself with a
+little whimsical smile&mdash;&quot;not but what
+I'm 'most sure that my teaching will be
+manifest in a lot of material changes, too,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;26]</span>
+but by the time that she comes back, her
+own feelings will be sufficiently 'alligatored'
+so that she'll see life differently
+also. God's plan is just as much for her
+good in sending her away as it is for mine
+in sending me here, and I mustn't forget
+that for a minute. I'll be busy and she'll
+be busy, and we'll both be learning and
+we'll both be teaching and we'll both be
+being necessary.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She drew a chair close and sat down, full
+of her own bright and helpful thoughts.
+Much of love and wonder came flooding
+into her through the medium of the sweet,
+calm night without. &quot;It's like being among
+angels,&quot; she fancied, and felt a close companionship
+with those who had known the
+Great White Messengers face to face.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Long she sat there, praying the prayer
+that is just one indrawn breath of content
+and uplifted consciousness. Not many girls
+of twenty-two would have seen so much
+in that not unusual situation, and yet it
+was to her so brimful of fair possibilities
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;27]</span>
+that she could hardly wait for morning to
+begin work.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">When she rose to undress, when she
+climbed into the plain, hard bed that received
+her so kindly, when she slept at
+last, all was with the same sense of responsibility
+mixed with energetic intention. All
+that she had &quot;asked&quot; in the usual sense of
+&quot;asking in prayer&quot; had been &quot;to be
+shown exactly how,&quot; and because she was
+one of those who know every prayer to be
+answered, in the hour of its making she
+knew that to be answered, too. &quot;I'll be
+led along,&quot; was her last thought before
+sleeping, and it swept the fringe of her consciousness,
+leaving her to enter dreamland
+with the happy security of a trusting child.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">It really seemed no time at all before
+Matilda rapped loudly on her door, bringing
+her suddenly to the knowledge that
+the hour to begin all the longed-for work
+was at hand.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Five o'clock!&quot; Matilda howled gently
+through the crack.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;28]</span>
+&quot;Yes, yes,&quot; she cried in response.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The door opened a bit wider. &quot;You'd
+better get right up or you'll go to sleep
+again,&quot; Matilda said, putting her head in,
+&quot;right this minute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I will.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She sat up in bed to prove it.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;All right,&quot; said her aunt&mdash;and shut
+the door.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane had unpacked her small trunk the
+night before, and so was able to dress
+quickly and get down-stairs without a
+minute wasted. She found Matilda in
+the kitchen, very busy with the stove.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I do hope you'll remember what I said
+last night,&quot; she said, shoveling out ashes
+with an energy that filled the room with
+dust. &quot;I can't have her habits all upset.
+It'll be no good giving me this change if
+you go and spoil her. Remember that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I won't make any trouble,&quot; promised
+Jane. &quot;I'll always remember that you're
+coming back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">As she spoke, she saw again the thin,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;29]</span>
+hopeless face on the pillow up-stairs and
+knew that Matilda herself was to know a
+glad surprise over the change which should
+welcome her home-coming. It was the
+learning to instantly realize the better
+side of those who insisted on exhibiting
+their worst that was the leading force in
+the training of that beaming little Order
+to which she belonged. The Sunshine
+Nurses were forbidden to consider anything
+or anybody as fixedly wrong either in kind,
+conception, or working out. It would be
+a very comfortable way of looking at things&mdash;even
+for such mere, ordinary, everyday
+folk as you and me.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Matilda now said, &quot;Ugh, ugh!&quot; over
+the dust and proceeded to dive into the
+wood-box with one hand and get a sliver
+in her thumb.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;In the morning she has tea,&quot; she said,
+going to the window to put her hand to
+rights. &quot;One cup. Piece of bread. At
+noon, whatever is handy. Night, cup of
+tea and whatever she fancies. Bread or a
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;30]</span>
+cracker usually. She eats very little and
+less all the time. The cat eats more than
+she does. He's a snooper, that cat,&mdash;you'll
+have to watch out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane didn't seem to understand. &quot;A&mdash;a
+snooper?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Steals food. Awful thief. Slap him
+when you catch him at it; it's all you can
+do. Sometimes I throw water over him.
+He'll make off with what would be a meal
+for a hired man, and he's sly as any other
+thief.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Can't I help you with your hand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, you can't. I get lots of them.
+They bother me a little because Mrs.
+Croft's cousin died of blood-poison from
+one. There, it's out. What was I saying?
+Oh, yes, the cat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Where is she now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's a he. Named Alfred for her husband.
+He's up in her room now. Always
+sleeps on her bed. She will have him, and
+I humor her. She's my only sister and
+she can't live long and she's left me all her
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;31]</span>
+money, and I humor her. It's my plain
+duty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Is it healthy for an invalid to sleep with
+a cat?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, it ain't. But I promised to do
+whatever she said about the cat and the
+garden, and I do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm sure it's very good in you,&quot; Jane
+murmured, looking out of the window.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It is. I'm a good woman. I do my
+whole duty, and there's not many in a town
+this size can say as much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Where is the garden?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll show you, if you don't mind getting
+your feet wet. I have my rubbers on
+already, to travel, so I can go right there
+now while the fire is kindling.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Is it wet?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Most grass is wet, at five in the morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane wanted to laugh. &quot;I mean, isn't
+there a path?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Part way, and then you have to climb
+two fences.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;32]</span>
+&quot;Climb! Two!&quot; the niece turned in
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Climb two fences. You never saw
+such a place. The strip between is rented
+for a cow-pasture. That's why there's
+two fences.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But why not have gates?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't ask me. Find out if you can.
+I've lived here five years, and I ain't found
+out. You try and see if you'll do better.
+She's very secretive, and so was he before
+he died. I've just had to get along the
+best I could. She fails and fails steady,
+but it don't seem to affect her health none,
+and now at last it's affected mine instead
+and give me neophytes in my left arm.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane turned her head and looked some
+more out of the window.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We'll go now. Might as well. The
+kettle will get to boiling while we're away,
+and then we'll have breakfast. It boils
+slow, because I've got the eggs in it for
+my lunch. Come on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The question of the wet grass seemed to
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;33]</span>
+have faded. They went out the kitchen
+door. It was a clear, bright morning.
+&quot;Weedy weather,&quot; commented Matilda,
+and led the way down the path.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's a pretty place,&quot; said Jane, her eyes
+roaming happily.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I suppose so. But it takes an
+artist or some one who hasn't lived in it
+for five years to feel that way.&quot; She
+paused to climb the first fence. It was
+three rails high and very awkward. &quot;I'll
+go over first,&quot; she said. &quot;Think of it;
+I've done this six times a day for five
+years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane didn't wonder that she was so agile
+at it. &quot;But how funny to have a garden
+away off here!&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Matilda was now over on the other side.
+&quot;Yes, and think of keeping it up. Folks
+about here make no bones of telling me
+that they were both half-witted, only as
+she's my sister, they try to give me to
+understand as she caught it from him.
+He was a miser, you know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;34]</span>
+Jane was just getting her second leg
+over. &quot;I don't know a thing about him,&quot;
+she said.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, you will, soon enough. The
+neighbors'll come flocking as soon as I'm
+gone, and you'll soon know all there is to
+know about us all. They'll pick me to
+pieces, too, and tell you I'm starving Susan
+to death, but I don't care. Climbing these
+fences has hardened me to calumny.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They crossed the strip of cow-pasture,
+and Matilda got over another fence, saying
+as she did so: &quot;Whom the Lord loveth
+He chasteneth,&quot; leaving Jane to make
+the application and follow her at the same
+time.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Then they found themselves in a trim
+little garden.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;How sweet,&quot; said the niece.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You can see I've done my duty by it,
+too,&quot; said Matilda; &quot;that's my way.
+I'm hard and I ain't pretty to look at, but
+I do my duty, which is more'n most handsome
+women do. Every last bean here is
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;35]</span>
+clawed around like it ought to be, and the
+whole thing neat as wax. Same with
+Susan; you'd think from her face I'd
+murdered her, and yet the Recording Angel
+knows she's had a cold sponge and every
+last snarl combed out of her hair every
+day since I came. I don't boast, but I do
+work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Dear me, it's a long way from the
+house,&quot; said Jane, forgetting her higher
+philosophy for the minute.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's a good ten minutes to get here.
+A picking of peas is a half-hour's job. And
+ten to one, when I get back, the cat's been
+at the cream.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane had had time to remember. &quot;I
+can see you've been awfully good,&quot; she
+said warmly, &quot;and my, but you've worked
+hard. Everything shows that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Matilda's face flushed with pleasure,
+the sudden pathetic flushing of unexpected
+appreciation. &quot;I just have,&quot; she declared.
+&quot;I've worked hard all my life and done a
+lot of good, and nobody's ever bothered
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;36]</span>
+to thank me. She don't. She just lays
+there and lets me run up and down stairs
+and climb fences and dig weeds and scamper
+back and forth with a extra hike, when I
+hear the bell of the door, till it'll be a mercy
+if I don't get neophytes all over, and the
+New Asthma in both legs, <i>I</i> think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">After a brief tour of the tiny whole,
+devoted mainly to instructing the novice,
+Matilda led the way back to the house.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Does it ever need watering?&quot; Jane
+asked, lapsing again to a lower level.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Sometimes,&quot; said Matilda briefly. Jane
+hadn't the heart to say another word until&mdash;several
+steps further on&mdash;it occurred
+to her that the garden also could be only
+a good factor in God's plan, if she wreathed
+it and shrined it and saw it in her world,
+as He saw all His world on the day when it
+was first manifest and set. &quot;And God
+saw everything that He had made, and
+behold, it was very good.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;37]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">JANE BEGINS SUNSHINING</p>
+
+<p class="indent">THE stage came for Matilda at eight
+o'clock. For half an hour before it
+could possibly be due, the traveler sat
+ready on a chair in the hall, with her umbrella
+tightly gripped in both hands, delivering
+bits of useful information as they
+occurred to her.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Be careful to lock up well every night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Remember if she dies sudden, I shall
+want to know at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't look to enjoy yourself, but remember
+you're doin' a act of Christian
+charity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane sat on a small, hard ottoman in
+the corner by the whatnot and said: &quot;I'll
+try,&quot; or &quot;Yes, indeed,&quot; every time.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You're a good girl,&quot; the aunt said
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;38]</span>
+finally. &quot;I'm glad to know you. Those
+Rainy-day Cooks or whatever you call
+yourself&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Sunshine Nurse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, of course,&mdash;well, it's a good idea.
+I feel perfectly sure you'll do everything
+you know how.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I will,&quot; said Jane, resolving all
+over fresh that everything was going to
+come out fine, even to the return of Matilda
+herself.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;There, I hear the stage on the bridge,&quot;
+said her aunt, jumping to her feet suddenly.
+&quot;I must go and say good-by to Susan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Isn't she still asleep?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It doesn't matter. She's my only living
+sister, and it's my duty to wake her up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She rushed up-stairs, and a feeble little
+yell from above soon announced her duty
+done. Then followed a brief hum and
+jabber, and then she came running down
+again.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Feels bad to see me go,&quot; she said briefly.
+&quot;That's natural, as she's turned over to
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;39]</span>
+you body and soul and ain't the least idea
+what you're like. I told her it was no more
+chances than every child run just being
+born, and a third of them lived, but she
+never could see reason,&mdash;kind of clung
+to my arm,&mdash;she's my only sister, and it
+makes me feel bad.&quot; With which hasty
+statement Matilda gave a brief dab to
+each eye, put up her pocket-handkerchief,
+and opened the front door. Jane had her
+bag in her hand, and they had carried the
+trunk to the gate before.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The stage was empty, and the driver was
+tying the trunk-strap with a rope.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, good-by,&quot; said Matilda; &quot;remember
+to lock up well every night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I will,&quot; said Jane. &quot;I hope you'll
+have a good time and a splendid change.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm sure of the change,&quot; said Matilda,
+swinging herself up with an agility bred of
+her liberal diet on stiles. &quot;Five years,&mdash;will
+you only think of it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The driver picked up the reins, gave them
+a slap, and the expedition was off.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;40]</span>
+Matilda Drew was really &quot;gone off on a
+visit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Think of it,&quot; said Katie Croft, who,
+despite her town-name of &quot;Katie,&quot; was a
+gray-haired woman of fifty. &quot;Think of
+it! A vacation! What luck some folks
+have. I shall never have a vacation in
+all&mdash;&quot; her voice ceased, and she continued
+sweeping down the steps, the stage passing
+out of sight as she did so.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Meanwhile Jane had re-entered the house
+and carefully closed the door after her.
+She felt curiously freed in spirit, and that
+subtly supreme joy of seeing a helplessly
+bad situation delivered bound and gagged
+into one's hands to be mended was hers.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll go straight and ask about auntie's
+breakfast first,&quot; she thought, mounting
+the staircase. To her light tap at the
+door, a feeble &quot;come in&quot; responded. She
+entered then and observed, with a slight
+start, that the invalid had just been up.
+The blind was drawn, and a pair of kicked-off
+slippers betrayed a hasty jump back
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;41]</span>
+into bed. Her eyes sought Susan's in
+explanation. &quot;I didn't know that you
+could move about,&quot; she said, with a pleased
+look.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan's little, sharp nose had an apologetic
+appearance, as it showed over the
+sheet-fold. &quot;I can get about a little, days
+when I'm strong,&quot; she explained, &quot;and I
+wanted to see her off. I wanted to see if
+she really did go.&quot; She paused, gave a
+sharp choke and gasp, and then waited.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane leaned over and kissed her forehead.
+&quot;I will try very hard to make you comfortable
+and happy,&quot; she said gently.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan rather shrunk together in the bed.
+&quot;What kind of a girl are you, anyhow?&quot;
+she asked suddenly and sharply. &quot;Are
+you really religious, or do you only just go
+to church?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I try to do what's right,&quot; her niece
+answered simply.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The invalid contemplated her intently.
+&quot;It can be pretty hard living with any
+one that tries to do right,&quot; she said. &quot;My
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;42]</span>
+experience is that good people is often
+more trying than bad ones. Maybe it's
+just that I've had more to do with them,
+though. I suppose Matilda told you about
+everything and the garden and all?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I think I know what to see to.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And the cat?&mdash;and his stealing?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, she told me about him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The garden must be weeded,&quot; Susan
+pronounced, sinking down deep into the
+bed. &quot;Don't you ever forget that. And
+that cat has got to be fed&mdash;and well fed,
+too&mdash;even if he does steal.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane watched her disappear beneath the
+bedclothes.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Auntie,&quot; she said, &quot;I've got lots of
+funny ideas, and one of them is that it's
+wicked not to be just as happy as possible
+every minute. Now I'm to be here three
+weeks, and I think that I ought to be able
+to make them a real change for you as well
+as for Aunt Matilda. We'll begin with
+your breakfast. You tell me what you
+like best, and I'll fix it for you&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;43]</span>
+Susan's head came up out of the bed-clothes
+with the suddenness of a boy rising
+from a dive. &quot;If I can have anything I
+want,&quot; she cried, &quot;I want some hot tea&mdash;some
+boiling hot tea, some tea made with
+water that's boiling as hard as it can boil.
+And I want the pot hot. Burning hot
+before the tea goes in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane started. &quot;I thought you liked your
+tea cold.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan's eyes fairly snapped. &quot;Well, I
+don't. I don't like nothing cold. I like
+everything hot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane moved towards the door. &quot;I'll
+go and make some right away,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan's small, bright eyes looked after
+her very hard indeed. &quot;I wonder if you
+really mean what you say about my doing
+what I please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Of course I mean what I say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Then I want to go back into my own
+room.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The niece stopped. &quot;Isn't this your
+room?&quot; she asked in surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;44]</span>
+&quot;No, this is the nearest room to the top
+of the stairs. I'll show you which is my
+room.&quot; With a quick leap she was out
+of bed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Barefooted!&quot; cried Jane.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll get into slippers quick enough, and
+I always wear stockings in bed. It's one
+of my peculiar ways. I'm very peculiar.&quot;
+She was running out of the room. Jane
+followed, astonished at the strength and
+steadiness of the bedridden.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But I thought that&mdash;that you were
+always in bed,&quot; she stammered.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan stopped short and turned about.
+&quot;It was the pleasantest way to get along,&quot;
+she said briefly. &quot;I guess that you've a
+really kind heart, so I'll trust you and tell
+you the truth. Matilda wasn't here very
+long before I see that if her patience wasn't
+to give out, I'd got to begin to fail. I went
+to bed, and I've failed ever since. I've
+failed steady. It's been the only thing
+to do. It wasn't easy, but it was that or
+have things a lot harder. So I failed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;45]</span>
+Jane stared in amazement, and then
+suddenly the fun of it all overcame her,
+and she burst out laughing. Susan laughed,
+too. &quot;It was all I could do,&quot; she repeated
+over and over.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And so you failed,&quot; said her niece, still
+laughing.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, and so I failed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Mercy on us, it's the funniest thing I
+ever heard in all my life,&quot; exclaimed the
+Sunshine Nurse.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It ain't always been funny for me,&quot;
+said Susan, &quot;but come, now, I want to
+show you my room.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She opened a door as she spoke and led
+the way into a dark, musty-smelling place.
+It was the work of only a minute to draw
+the blind and throw up the window.
+&quot;Right after we've had breakfast, we'll
+clean it,&quot; the aunt declared, &quot;and then
+I'll move right back in. Husband and me
+had this room for twenty long years together.
+He was a saving man, and most
+of what he was intending to save when I
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;46]</span>
+wanted to buy things was told me in this
+room. Whatever I wanted he always said
+I could have, and then when it came night,
+he said I couldn't. The room is full of
+memories for me&mdash;sad memories&mdash;but
+after he was mercifully snatched to everlasting
+blessedness, I grew fond of it. It's
+a nice room.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I think I'll get your tea,&quot; said Jane,
+&quot;and then I'll clean this room and help
+you move into it. We'll have you all
+settled before noon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She turned and ran down to the kitchen.
+The kettle was singing, and she stuffed
+more wood in under it and began to hunt
+for a tray and the other concomitants of
+an up-stairs breakfast. Things were not
+easily found.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, I declare!&quot; a voice at the window
+behind her exclaimed, as she was down on
+her knees getting a tray-cloth out of a
+lower drawer. The voice gave her a violent
+start, being a man's. She sprang to
+her feet and faced about.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;47]</span>
+&quot;I'm sorry; I thought you'd know me.&quot;
+It was the artist of the day before, the
+young man who had come down in the
+stage.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's so early.&quot; She went to the window
+and shook hands. &quot;But I'm glad to see
+you, anyhow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I always get up at six and walk five
+miles before breakfast when I'm in the
+country,&quot; he explained.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do you really? What enterprise!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And so this is where you've come.
+Why, it's the quaintest old place that I
+ever saw. A regular tangle of picturesque
+possibilities. Who are you visiting?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm taking care of my invalid aunt
+while my other aunt has a little rest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Is she very ill?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, no. But this is her tea that I'm
+making, and I must take it up to her now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll go, then. But may I come again&mdash;and
+sketch?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I can't have company. I'll be too
+busy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;48]</span>
+&quot;Can't I help with the work?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He was so pleasant and jolly that she
+couldn't help laughing. &quot;I'm afraid not,&quot;
+she said, shaking her head.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He stood with his hand on the window-sash.
+&quot;Do you know my name?&quot; he
+asked.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's Lorenzo, Lorenzo Rath. I've to
+grow famous with that name. Think of
+it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She laughed again.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I can draw the outside of the house,
+anyhow&mdash;can't I?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Dear me, I suppose so,&quot;&mdash;she picked
+up the tray,&mdash;&quot;you must go now, though.
+Good-by.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Good-by,&quot; he cried after her.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, see the steam,&quot; was Susan's exultant
+exclamation, as she entered her room.
+&quot;I ain't seen steam coming out of a teapot's
+nose for upwards of three years.
+Matilda just couldn't seem to stand my
+taking my tea hot, and she's my only sister,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;49]</span>
+and I humor her. Who was you talking
+to?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A man who came down on the stage
+yesterday. He was out walking and didn't
+know that I lived here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, a love affair!&quot; cried Susan, in
+high-keyed ecstasy. &quot;He's fallen in love
+with you, and like enough was prowling
+around all night. Oh! How interesting!
+I ain't seen a love affair close to for
+years.&quot; She was so genuinely joyful that
+Jane felt sorry to dampen the enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't believe you'll see one now,&quot;
+she said, smiling good-humoredly. &quot;You
+see, I don't mean to marry, Auntie. I'm a
+Sunshine Nurse, and they have their hands
+too full for that kind of thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A nurse! I didn't know you were a
+nurse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A Sunshine Nurse is a person who does
+what doctors can't always do,&mdash;who makes
+folk well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Are you going to make me well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes,&quot; said Jane, resolutely.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;50]</span>
+Susan stopped eating and looked at her
+with an expression full of contradictory
+feelings. &quot;I shall like it,&quot; she said slowly.
+&quot;But, oh my! Matilda won't. Why, she&mdash;&quot;
+she paused. &quot;Oh, I <i>do</i> wonder if I
+can trust you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Anybody can trust me,&quot; said Jane.
+&quot;It's part of my training to be honest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Dear me, but that's a good idea,&quot;
+said Susan, with sincerest approval. &quot;Well,
+if I can trust you, I don't mind telling
+you that it's taken considerable care for
+me to live along with Matilda. I don't
+mean anything against her&mdash;not rat-poison
+nor anything like that, you know?&mdash;but
+she hasn't just approved of my living; she's
+looked upon it as a waste of her time.
+And I've had to manage pretty careful
+in consequence. You see, she's my only
+sister, and she'd have my property anyhow,
+but if I had to have a nurse or a woman to
+look out for me long, there'd be no property
+to leave. She's real sensible, and we
+both know just how it is, but it's been
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;51]</span>
+pleasantest for me to stay more and more
+in bed and kind of catch at things as I walk,
+and once in a while I don't eat all day, and
+so it keeps up her hope and keeps things
+pleasant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane looked paralyzed. &quot;How can you
+go without food all day?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan considered a little. Then she
+took a big drink of hot tea and confessed.
+&quot;I don't really. I watch till she goes
+to the garden, and then I skip down-stairs
+and make a good meal and lay it all on
+the cat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane sank down on the foot of the bed
+and burst out laughing again. Again she
+just couldn't help it. Susan laughed, too;
+first softly and gingerly, then in a way
+almost as hearty as her niece's.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh me, oh my,&quot; the latter declared,
+after a minute, wiping her eyes. &quot;Well,
+we'll have a very lively three weeks, I
+see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, yes,&quot; Susan exclaimed, &quot;and we'll
+have liver and bacon, and I'll see the
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;52]</span>
+neighbors when they come in. I give up
+seeing them because it made so much
+trouble, and the way I'm made is&mdash;'Anything
+for peace.' That's what I always
+used to say to husband, whatever he said.
+First along I used to say real things, but
+all the last years I just said whatever he
+said; anything for peace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You've finished your tea now,&quot; said
+Jane, rising. &quot;I'll take the tray down while
+you dress a bit, and then we'll move you
+into the other room.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, and <i>how</i> I will enjoy it,&quot; cried
+Susan, clasping her hands in ecstasy. &quot;Oh,
+you Sunshine Jane, you&mdash;how glad I am
+you've come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm glad, too,&quot; said Jane. &quot;We'll have
+an awfully nice time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She ran down-stairs with the tray and
+found Madeleine sitting in the kitchen,
+waiting. &quot;Why, how long have you been
+here?&quot; she asked.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Madeleine lifted a rather mournful countenance
+and tried to smile. &quot;Oh, Miss
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;53]</span>
+Grey. I'm so blue. I can't stand this
+place at all, I don't believe. My situation
+is going to be unbearable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What's the matter with it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's so small and petty and spiteful.
+All last evening I had to sit and listen to
+gossip. I hate personalities. Why, whatever
+I do is going to be seen and talked
+about the minute I do it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane looked grave. &quot;That nice woman
+who came out to meet you didn't look like
+a gossip.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;She isn't, but she sits and listens, and
+every once in a while she throws oil on
+the fire by saying, '<i>I</i> never believed the
+story.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Who did the talking?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The neighbors&mdash;a woman named Mrs.
+Mead, who came in with her daughter.
+The mother was old-fashioned in her ideas,
+and the daughter was new. That old
+man in the stage stopped there, you
+know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My aunt spoke of them last evening,&quot;
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;54]</span>
+said Jane; &quot;she said that Emily Mead
+was picked out to marry that young man
+who came down with us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Madeleine laughed and then blushed.
+&quot;I'm afraid not,&quot; she said. &quot;I know him.
+He won't marry anybody here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane turned and began to put away the
+breakfast things.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't be bored,&quot; she said gently. &quot;Put
+on this extra apron, and help me wash
+these dishes; and then I'll set the kitchen
+to rights and get ready to move my aunt
+into another bedroom. She's an invalid,
+you know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What kind of a person is your aunt?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Awfully nice,&quot; began Jane, but was
+stopped by the sudden opening of the hall
+door.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There stood Susan, all dressed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It seems good to have clothes on again,&quot;
+she remarked calmly; &quot;I ain't been dressed
+for upwards of three years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Then she saw Madeleine. &quot;How do
+you do,&quot; she said, holding out her hand.
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;55]</span>
+&quot;I suppose you're the Miss Mar from
+Deborah's?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I am,&quot; Madeleine admitted, smiling.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My, but you look good to me,&quot; said
+Susan; &quot;it's so nice to see a strange face.
+You see, I've been in bed for a long time,
+and I give up seeing strangers long before
+that.&quot; She sat down on one of the
+kitchen chairs and beamed on them both,
+turn and turn about. &quot;Husband always
+thought that strangers was pickpockets,&quot;
+she said, &quot;but I like to look at 'em. My,
+but I will enjoy these next weeks. You
+see, I live with my sister,&quot; she explained to
+Madeleine, &quot;and I've had a pretty hard
+time. My sister's got a good heart, but
+maybe you know how awful hard it is to
+live with that kind of people. It's been
+pleasanter to stay in bed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But you won't do that any more,
+Auntie,&quot; said Jane, moving busily about.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, indeed I won't. You see,&quot; again
+to Madeleine, &quot;she was my only sister, so
+I humored her. It's the only way to get
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;56]</span>
+on with some people. But you can even
+humor folks too much, and she got a disease
+they call the Euphrates all up and down
+her ear and her elbow, just from being
+humored too much. So she's gone off for
+a change.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What are you doing?&quot; Madeleine asked
+Jane.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Making waffles. I thought it would
+be fun to eat them hot right now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan fairly shrieked with joy. &quot;I ain't
+so much as smelt one since husband died.
+Waffles in the morning, and I'm so awful
+hungry, too. Oh, Jane, the Lord will
+surely set a crown of glory on your head
+the minute He sees it. Your feet won't
+be into heaven when the crown goes on.
+How did you ever think of it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane brought out the iron, laughing as
+she did so. &quot;Why, Auntie, it's part of
+my training.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Cooking waffles in the morning?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No. Giving joy. If I think of any
+way to give pleasure and don't do it, I
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;57]</span>
+count it a sin. To make more happiness is
+all the work of a Sunshine Nurse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Isn't that splendid?&quot; Susan appealed to
+Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Madeleine's great, beautiful eyes were
+lifted towards the other girl's face with an
+expression mysterious in its longing.
+&quot;Teach me the gift,&quot; she said; &quot;I want to
+make more happiness, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We'll be her class,&quot; exclaimed Susan,
+&quot;just you and me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The first lesson is eating waffles,&quot; Jane
+announced solemnly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And me, too,&quot; cried a voice in the
+kitchen window, and there was Lorenzo
+Rath back for his second call that day, and
+it not yet ten o'clock. &quot;I've been to Mrs.
+Cowmull's and eaten breakfast, and I'm as
+hungry as a wolf.&quot; He came in through
+the window as he spoke.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, a young man!&quot; cried Susan. &quot;I
+ain't seen a young man since the last time
+the pump broke. Oh, my! Ain't this
+jolly? Ain't this fun?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;58]</span>
+&quot;You show Madeleine where to find
+plates and forks and knives, Auntie,&quot;
+said Jane. &quot;Here, Mr. Rath, I'll break
+two more eggs and you can beat them. I
+haven't made enough batter, if there's a
+man to eat, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I feel as if I'd leave Mrs. Cowmull's
+to-morrow and come here to board,&quot; said
+Lorenzo. &quot;Could I?&quot; His tone was very
+earnest.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, you couldn't,&quot; said Jane firmly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, let him,&quot; exclaimed Susan, from the
+pantry, where she was getting out plates.
+&quot;It'll make Mrs. Cowmull so mad, and I
+ain't made any one mad for years and years.
+I'd so revel to be human again. And it
+would be so nice having a man about, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I couldn't think of it,&quot; said Jane, getting
+very crimson.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Madeleine looked at the artist.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Then I shall leave Mrs. Cowmull's,
+anyway,&quot; said Lorenzo, decidedly; &quot;I shall
+look up another place at once. Why, that
+woman would drive me mad. She says
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;59]</span>
+something ridiculous every time she opens
+her mouth. She asked me this morning
+if I'd ever climbed to the top of the
+Kreutzer Sonata.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What did you say?&quot; Madeleine asked.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I told her no, but I'd been to the bottom
+of the Campanile and seen them getting
+out coal from the mine there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, that showed you'd seen some
+sights, anyhow,&quot; said Susan, placidly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The waffles are done!&quot; Jane announced.
+They all drew up round the table.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This is living,&quot; the invalid exclaimed.
+&quot;If my sister would only never come back!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Maybe she won't!&quot; suggested Lorenzo.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I wouldn't like her to die,&quot; said Susan,
+gravely. &quot;I'm sensitive over feeling people
+better off dead. But if she'd marry, it would
+be nice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;For the man?&quot; queried Lorenzo.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;For us all,&quot; said Susan, gravely.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Just exactly the right thing is going to
+happen to her and everybody,&quot; said Jane,
+firmly&mdash;dividing the waffles as she spoke.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;60]</span>
+&quot;Are you so sure?&quot; the artist asked,
+looking a little amused.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan noticed the look. &quot;She's a Sunshine
+Nurse,&quot; she explained quickly. &quot;It's
+her religion to be like that. She can't
+help it. She's promised.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;61]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">A CHANGE IN THE FEEL OF THINGS</p>
+
+<p class="indent">IT didn't take long for the town to wake up
+to the fact that some new element had
+entered into its composition.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I can't get over it, Susan Ralston's
+being up and about,&quot; Miss Debby Vane
+said distressedly to Mrs. Mead. &quot;Why,
+she was 'most dead!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Matilda ought not to have gone away,&quot;
+Mrs. Mead said sternly. &quot;Sick folks in
+bed can't bear a change. A new face
+gives them a little spurt of strength, and
+then when they see the old face again, they
+kind of give up hope and drop right off.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I know that,&quot; said Miss Debby;
+&quot;my father had a cousin die that way.
+There was a doctor going about in a wagon,
+pulling teeth and giving shocks, and he said
+he'd give Cousin Hannah a shock and cure
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;62]</span>
+her. So they took him up-stairs, and there
+she was dead of heart disease. They
+thought of prosecuting him, but the funeral
+coming right on they hadn't time, and
+then he was gone to another place, and it
+seemed too much bother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That girl is just the same kind, I believe,&quot;
+said Mrs. Mead; &quot;that dreadful
+way of making you feel that after all what
+she says is pretty sensible, maybe. My
+Emily is awfully took with her, and Father's
+just crazy about her. He come down on
+the stage with her, and then he went out to
+see her. She knows how to get around men;
+she was frying doughnuts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, and Mrs. Cowmull's artist was
+out there, and they had waffles in the middle
+of the morning. That's a funny kind of
+new religion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Has she got a new religion?&quot; Miss
+Debby looked frightened. &quot;I hadn't heard
+of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why, yes; Emily says she's got the
+funniest religion you ever heard of. Whatever
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;63]</span>
+she wants to do or don't want to do,
+she says it's her religion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Dear me, but I should think that that
+would be very convenient,&quot; said Miss
+Debby, much impressed. &quot;Why, my religion
+is always just the opposite of what I
+want to do or don't want to do. It says
+so every Sunday, you know,&mdash;'we have
+done those things,' and so forth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hers is different,&quot; said Mrs. Mead.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, I declare,&quot; repeated Miss Debby;
+then, suddenly, &quot;I remember now that
+Madeleine said that they had waffles because
+Jane said that she thought waffles
+would taste good, and it was her religion
+to do whatever you thought of right off.
+Well, I declare!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Both ladies stared in solemn amazement
+at one another.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This'll be a nice town to live in, if she
+sets everybody to doing whatever you like,
+because it's right,&quot; Mrs. Mead said finally.
+&quot;Father won't put on his coat again this
+summer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;64]</span>
+&quot;It'll make a great difference in the feeling
+of the town,&quot; said Miss Debby, mysteriously,
+&quot;a great difference. Well, I hope
+it won't change Madeleine any way her
+family won't approve. Madeleine's in love,
+and I suppose it's Mr. Rath. They knew
+each other before, and her family don't
+want it. I've pieced it all out of scraps.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, dear!&quot; said Emily Mead's mother,
+her face falling; &quot;my, I hadn't heard but
+what he was a free man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, no,&quot; said Miss Debby, &quot;your sister
+isn't sure. But everybody else is. My own
+view of artists is they're deluders and snares.
+I give an artist a picture and a dollar once
+to enlarge, and that was the last I ever heard
+of them both&mdash;of all three.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I wonder if Emily knows Mr. Rath's
+engaged,&quot; said Mrs. Mead, sadly. &quot;Dear me,
+I never thought of that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not engaged, but in love,&quot; corrected
+Miss Debby.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Perhaps he's a real artist and changeable,&quot;
+suggested Mrs. Mead.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;65]</span>
+&quot;There's no comfort in that for any one,
+'cause if he'll change once, he'll change right
+along.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mrs. Mead sighed very heavily. &quot;Well,
+I must keep up for Father and Emily,&quot;
+she remarked, not tracing any very clear
+connection between word and deed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes,&quot; said Miss Debby, &quot;you must, and
+we'll all keep a sharp eye on these new kind
+of ways of looking at things, for we don't
+know where they'll end.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The &quot;new way of looking at things&quot; had
+already been very efficacious in the house
+at the other end of the street. It had
+assumed an utterly new appearance, both
+outside and in.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And I never felt nothing like the change
+in the <i>feel</i> of it,&quot; Susan exclaimed that
+afternoon, as she re-arranged her belongings
+in her own room. &quot;Oh, you Sunshine
+Jane, you, you've just sunshone into every
+room, and I'm so happy turning my things
+about I don't know what to do. Matilda
+wouldn't never let me turn a china cow
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;66]</span>
+other end to, and I've lived with some of
+the ornaments facing wrong for the whole
+of these five long years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It isn't me, Auntie,&quot; said Jane, washing
+shelves with the hearty and happy energy
+which she threw into every task in which
+she engaged; &quot;it's the opening of the windows
+and the letting in of God and His
+sunshine together. I'll soon have time to
+clean the whole house, and then we'll
+have fun re-arranging every room. You've
+such pretty things, and they must be
+rubbed up and given a chance to play a
+part in the world. God never meant anything
+to be idle,&mdash;not even a brass andiron.
+If it can't work, it can shine and be cheerful,
+anyway. What can't smile ought to shine,
+you know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I wonder why rubbing things makes 'em
+bright,&quot; said Susan, opening her bonnet-box
+and hitting her bonnet a smart cuff to
+knock dust out of the folds. &quot;I never could
+understand that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's your individuality that you transfer
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;67]</span>
+till the poor dull things get enough of it to
+shine alone, without anybody's help.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What a good reason,&quot; said Susan.
+&quot;My, to think maybe I'll go to church
+again in this bonnet! Matilda was always
+wanting to rip it up, but something made
+me cling to it. It's a kind of souvenir.
+I wore it to husband's funeral and my last
+picnic, and there are lots of other pleasant
+memories inside it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll freshen it up with a cloth dipped in
+ammonia,&quot; said Jane. &quot;Dear me, how I <i>do</i>
+enjoy washing shelves. I love to sop the
+soapy water over and mop the corners,
+and dry the whole, and fit a clean newspaper
+in, and then see the closet in perfect
+order.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You like to do everything, seems to me,&quot;
+said Susan.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I do. I've been led to see that
+doing things well is about the finest way
+in which one can pass one's time. And I'm
+crazy over doing things <i>well</i>. If I fold a
+towel, I like to fold it just square, and if I
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;68]</span>
+make a bed, I want the fold in the spread
+and the fold in the sheet to meet even.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You'll make a fine wife, Jane,&quot; said
+Susan, gravely, &quot;only no man'll ever appreciate
+the folds lying straight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane laughed merrily. &quot;I'm never going
+to marry; I'm one of the new sex, the
+creatures who are born to live alone and
+lend a hand anywhere. Didn't you know
+that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That's nonsense,&quot; said Susan; &quot;no
+woman's made so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No. It's a big fact. One of the newest
+facts in the world. The New Woman, you
+know!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Mercy on us,&quot; said Susan, &quot;don't
+you go in for any of that nonsense. The
+idea of a girl like you deciding not to marry!
+I never heard of such a thing!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's so, though,&quot; said Jane, smiling
+brightly; &quot;you see, my little Order is a kind
+of Sisterhood. We're taught to want to
+help in so many homes and to never even
+think of a home of our own. We're taught
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;69]</span>
+to love all children so dearly that we mustn't
+limit ourselves to one family of little ones.
+We're trained to be so fond of the best in
+every man that we see more good to be done
+as sisters to men than as wives.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't believe Mr. Rath will agree with
+you,&quot; said Susan, &quot;nor any other real nice
+fellow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane was cutting paper for the shelves.
+&quot;Yes, he will,&quot; she said, nodding confidently;
+&quot;men are so scarce nowadays
+that they are ready to agree with any
+one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Jane, <i>I</i> think he's in love with you already.&quot;
+Susan's tone was very solemn.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane merely laughed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Then the door-bell rang, and she had to
+run. Presently she was back, a little
+breathless. &quot;It's Mrs. Mead and her
+daughter. Can you come down?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, in a minute. You say, in a
+minute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane ran down again with the message.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Most remarkable,&quot; said Mrs. Mead,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;70]</span>
+now dressed for calling, with her black
+hair put back in three even crinkles on
+either side, &quot;about your aunt, you know,
+I mean. Why, we looked upon her as 'most
+dead. You know, Emily, we've always
+been given to understand she was nearing
+her end.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It does an invalid a lot of good to have
+something new to think about,&quot; said Jane.
+&quot;I'm very enlivening. Aunt Susan just
+couldn't help getting up, when she heard
+me upsetting her house in all directions.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I expect it was enough to make her
+nervous,&quot; said Mrs. Mead, sincerely. &quot;How
+long are you going to stay?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Until Aunt Matilda comes back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't believe she'll like these changes,&quot;
+said Mrs. Mead, gravely. &quot;I should think
+that you'd feel a good deal of responsibility.
+It's no light matter to leave a
+shut-up house and an invalid in bed to a
+niece and come home to find the house
+open and the invalid all over it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And a man coming in and having waffles
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;71]</span>
+in the morning,&quot; said Emily Mead, with a
+smile meant to be arch.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane laughed. &quot;That was dreadful,
+wasn't it?&quot; she said, twinkling&mdash;&quot;it was
+all so impromptu and funny. And everybody
+had such a good time. It just popped
+into my head, and you see it's my religion
+to have to do anything that you think will
+make people happy, if you see a chance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, we've heard about your religion,&quot;
+said Mrs. Mead; &quot;dear me, I should think
+you'd get into a lot of trouble! Waffles in
+the morning would upset some folks, except
+on Sunday.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Perhaps most people haven't enough
+religion to manage them week-days,&quot; Jane
+suggested.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My aunt, Mrs. Cowmull, says Mr. Rath
+could hardly eat any lunch,&quot; observed
+Emily, smiling some more.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, dear!&quot; said Jane, &quot;but I'm not
+surprised. Aunt Susan couldn't, either.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mrs. Mead coughed significantly. &quot;Susan
+Ralston's pretty delicate to stand many new
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;72]</span>
+ideas, I should think,&quot; she began, but
+stopped suddenly as Susan entered, and
+viewed her with an expression of shocked
+surprise.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why, Mrs. Ralston, I'd no idea you
+were so well. Where have you kept yourself
+these last years, if you were so well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;In my own room,&quot; said Susan, with
+dignity. &quot;I didn't see no special call to
+come down. Matilda knew where everything
+was, but Jane doesn't, so I've changed
+my ways for a little.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane took her hand and pressed it affectionately.
+The sunshine seeds were sprouting
+finely. &quot;Don't you want to come out
+into the garden with me?&quot; she asked Emily
+Mead, and Emily rose at once. &quot;I thought
+auntie would enjoy visiting alone with her
+old friend,&quot; she added, as they passed
+through the hall.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What are you, anyway?&quot; Emily asked
+curiously. &quot;I've heard you were a trained
+nurse,&mdash;are you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm one of the brand-new women,&quot;
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;73]</span>
+said Jane; &quot;not a Suffragette, nor an advanced
+anything, but just a creature who
+means to give her life up to teaching happiness
+as an art.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I heard that. But how do you do
+it?&quot; asked Emily Mead.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;By being happy and thinking happy
+thoughts and doing happy things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Emily considered. &quot;But don't you ever
+have hard things to do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Never. I enjoy them all&mdash;I love to
+work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Emily looked at her wonderingly. &quot;But
+washing dishes?&mdash;We don't keep a girl,
+and I hate washing dishes. What would
+you say to them?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane laughed. &quot;What, those two lovely
+tin pans and that nice boiling kettle?
+And all the dirty plates sinking under the
+soap-suds and then piling up under the clean
+hot water. And the shining dryness and
+the putting them on the shelves all in their
+own piles. And then the knowing that
+God wanted those dishes washed, and that
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;74]</span>
+you've done them just exactly as He'd
+like to see them done. Why, I think dish-washing
+is grand!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Emily opened her eyes widely. &quot;How
+funny you are! I never heard such talk
+before! But, then, you've lived in a big
+city and learned to think in a big way.
+You wouldn't see dish-washing so if you'd
+done it all your life and never been told it
+was nice. You couldn't.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But you've been told now,&quot; said Jane,
+&quot;and no work need ever seem horrid to you
+again. Just look at it in my way after
+this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But all work seems horrid to me. I'd
+like to marry an awfully rich man and never
+see this place again. I hate it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane thought a minute; then said in
+sweet, low, even tones: &quot;You won't evolve
+any man fit to marry out of that spirit, you
+know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The other girl stared at her. &quot;Evolve!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes. Don't you know that every
+minute in this world is the result of all the
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;75]</span>
+minutes that have gone before, and that
+who we marry is part of a result&mdash;not
+just an accident?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;<i>What?</i>&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't you know that? Don't you
+understand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Not a bit. Tell me what you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's too long to explain right this
+minute, because one can't tell such things
+quickly, and if you've never studied them,
+you haven't the brain-cells to receive them.
+You see brain-cells are the houses for
+thoughts, and they have to be built and
+ready before the thoughts can move in.
+That's what they told me, when I was
+learning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Emily looked at her in bewilderment.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's very interesting,&quot; said Jane. &quot;I
+think that it's the most interesting thing
+in the whole world. You see, I didn't
+have any life at all; I was an orphan and
+not very bright. And then I happened
+to get hold of a book that said that all the
+life there was in the world was mine, if
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;76]</span>
+I'd just take it. So I wrote to the man who
+wrote the book&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;How did you ever dare?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why, I knew that the man who wrote
+that book would help any one&mdash;he couldn't
+have written the book if he hadn't been
+made to help people&mdash;and I asked him
+how I could begin.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What did he answer?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He said: 'Seize every chance to prove
+your mind the master of your own body
+first, and when you are thoroughly master
+of yourself, you can master all else.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What did he mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, I took it that he meant me to do
+anything that I thought of, right off, and
+that if I got in the habit of sweeping all
+work out of my small way, I'd soon be
+given a chance at big work in a big way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And were you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes. I began to get through so quick&mdash;I
+lived with an uncle and helped his wife
+with the sewing and the children&mdash;that
+I had some spare time, and I went into the
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;77]</span>
+kitchen and learned to cook. Then one of
+the children was ill, and the doctor thought
+I'd make a good nurse, so he got me into a
+hospital, and I met a woman there who had
+all the books that I wanted to read and who
+just took hold and helped me right out.
+I saw that I didn't want to be a sick-nurse,
+because there's such a lot of humbug and
+such a lot that's silly, and my friend said
+that I was one who would evolve opportunities&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What does that mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Evolve means to sort of develop out of
+the world and yourself together at the same
+time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't understand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why, if you want anything, you want it
+because it's there, and you can get it if you've
+got the strength and perseverance to build
+a road to it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;<i>What!</i>&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I mean just what I say. We can get
+anything, if we have sufficient will-power
+to build a way right straight to it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;78]</span>
+&quot;Suppose I want to marry a millionaire?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It would mean a lot of well-directed
+effort, and the effort would slowly train
+you to want something much better than
+to live rich and idle.&quot; Jane paused a
+minute, and Emily looked at her curiously.
+&quot;If you want to marry a millionaire bad
+enough to start in and make yourself all
+over new, you'll have such control over
+your future that I think you'll get something
+much better than a millionaire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I never heard any one like you in all my
+life,&quot; said Emily Mead.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'd be so glad to help you straight
+along,&quot; Jane said. &quot;I've got two books
+with me, and you can read one and then the
+other. Then you'll get where you can get
+the meaning out of the Bible, and then
+you'll begin to see the meaning of everything.
+The world gets so wonderful. You
+see miracles everywhere. You feel so well.
+The sun shines so bright. Life becomes so
+lovely.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Emily looked at her with real wonder.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;79]</span>
+&quot;How did you happen to come here?&quot; she
+asked.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, that came long after all the rest of
+the story. One day I remembered that
+my mother had two sisters, and I wrote
+to them. My letter arrived just as Aunt
+Matilda's arm began to trouble her, and
+she asked me if I could come for a visit.
+You see that was another opportunity I
+evolved.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Emily seized her hand impulsively. &quot;I'm
+so glad that you came. I'm going to try,
+and you'll help me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, indeed, I will. Would you like
+one of the books right now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, I should.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll get it for you, and then I'll tell you
+some day about the doctor I met and his
+Sunshine Order.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They went towards the house. &quot;You
+mustn't expect to understand everything
+right off, you know,&quot; Jane said to her
+gently. &quot;You see this is all new to you,
+and that means that you can't any more
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;80]</span>
+understand right off than you could paint
+a picture right off. You have to learn
+gradually.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But I mean to learn,&quot; said Emily.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They went in the door, and Jane ran upstairs
+and fetched the book. &quot;There!&quot;
+she said, &quot;you read it, and I'll help you
+all I can. You see the thing is to learn
+with your whole heart to do God's will,
+and then, in some strange, subtle way,
+you get to feel what is coming and to sort
+of shape all. It's so fascinating and thrilling
+to realize that what you want is marching
+towards you as fast as you can march
+towards it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What do you want?&quot; Emily asked.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I want to do exactly what I'm doing,&quot;
+said Jane, very quietly. &quot;I've passed wanting
+anything else. I want lots of chances
+to teach and help,&mdash;that's all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't you want to marry?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, no,&mdash;I want to be able to teach
+and help everywhere. I don't want things
+for myself, somehow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;81]</span>
+&quot;How strange!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They went into the sitting-room.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, Jane,&quot; Susan cried, &quot;how I have
+enjoyed hearing about everybody in town!
+Sister never told me about Eddy King's
+running off with the store cash or Mrs.
+Wilton's daughter going to cooking-school,
+or one thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We must be going,&quot; said Mrs. Mead,
+rising; &quot;we'll come again, though. It's
+good to see you up, Mrs. Ralston, and I
+only hope you may stay up. You know
+Katie Croft's mother-in-law got up just as
+you have and then had a stroke that night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, is old Mrs. Croft dead?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, she isn't,&quot; said Mrs. Mead; &quot;if
+she was, she wouldn't be such a warning
+as she is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Dear, dear,&quot; said Susan, &quot;think of all
+I've missed. Has she got it just in her
+legs or all over? Matilda never told me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Legs,&quot; said Mrs. Mead, &quot;and it's
+affected her temper. Katie has an awful
+time with her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;82]</span>
+&quot;Dear, dear,&quot; said Susan again,&mdash;&quot;and,
+oh, Jane, a boy I've known since he was a
+baby has had his skull japanned and nearly
+died. Matilda's never told me a thing!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, she didn't know much, you know,&quot;
+said Mrs. Mead; &quot;she kept herself about as
+close as she kept you. We were given to
+understand pretty plainly that we weren't
+wanted to call.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Think of that now,&quot; said Susan, &quot;and
+me up-stairs, feeling all my friends had
+forgot me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Everybody'll come now,&quot; said Mrs.
+Mead; &quot;folks will be glad to see you so
+well. We were told you never got up and
+hardly ate enough to keep a cat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;An ordinary cat,&quot; corrected Emily;
+&quot;Miss Matilda's always told what a lot
+your cat ate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He is an eater,&quot; said Susan, crinkling
+a bit about the eyes; &quot;but I eat, too, now, I
+can tell you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">After they were gone, Jane came back
+into the sitting-room. Her aunt was standing
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;83]</span>
+by the window. &quot;It's so beautiful to
+be down-stairs,&quot; she said, without turning.
+&quot;My goodness, and to think that only a
+week ago I laid up-stairs wanting to die.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You can thank Aunt Matilda that you
+didn't die,&quot; said Jane, going and putting her
+arm around her. &quot;If she had kept you
+thinking of all the illnesses in town, you'd
+have died long ago. Sick thoughts are
+more catching than diseases. But we don't
+need to talk of that now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, indeed we don't,&quot; said Susan,
+&quot;for there's Mr. Rath coming.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane gave a little start. &quot;I wonder what
+for,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What for!&quot; Susan's tone was full of
+deep meaning; &quot;why, he's fallen dead in
+love with you, Jane, that's what it means,
+and I don't wonder, for you're the nicest
+girl I ever saw.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, Auntie!&quot; said Jane, quite red.
+&quot;The very idea!&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;84]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">LORENZO RATH</p>
+
+<p class="indent">IT wasn't to be supposed for a minute that
+Lorenzo Rath, a real live young man
+and an artist, shouldn't take first place
+in the town talk. Jane's remarkable religion
+might attract the attention of a few
+who were sufficiently religious themselves
+to be naturally shocked over the waffles
+and depressed over the invalid's recovery,
+but Lorenzo was of interest to every one.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If he ain't took already, there's a fine
+chance for Emily,&quot; Mr. Cattermole said
+benevolently to his daughter. Being a man,
+he naturally supposed that Mrs. Mead
+would never have come by such an idea if
+she hadn't had a bright old father to point
+it out to her.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Emily doesn't want to marry,&quot; said
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;85]</span>
+Mrs. Mead, compressing her lips and expanding
+her dignity simultaneously; &quot;she
+wouldn't marry an artist, anyway.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Maybe he ain't much of an artist,&quot; said
+Mr. Cattermole, with a tendency to look
+on the bright side. &quot;Why don't Emily
+want to marry? I thought girls always
+wanted to marry. They did when I was
+young.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's different nowadays,&quot; said Mrs.
+Mead, with condescending reserve. &quot;You
+don't understand, Father, but nothing is
+like it used to be. The world is getting
+all changed. When Emily was an only
+child, she was looked upon as very odd,
+but most women have an only child nowadays.
+Life is quite different.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'd like to see Emily married,&quot; said Mr.
+Cattermole, thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Emily has had plenty of chances,&quot;
+said her mother, waving the brave, tattered
+mother-lie that seems to cover over such
+cruel wounds.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Has she really?&quot; said Mr. Cattermole,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;86]</span>
+in genuine surprise. &quot;I didn't know that.
+And she wouldn't have 'em! Laws sakes!
+Who, for instance?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No one you knew,&quot; said his daughter,
+telling the truth then.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Sarah knew 'em, I suppose?&quot; (Sarah
+was Mrs. Cowmull.)</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, no one Sarah knew.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Think of that now! Why, I s'posed
+there wasn't nothing Sarah didn't know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In voicing this opinion Mr. Cattermole
+voiced the town opinion, too. It was
+popularly supposed that Sarah Cowmull
+always knew everything. But she didn't
+know the status of Lorenzo Rath's heart,
+and Lorenzo Rath himself puzzled her not a
+little.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lorenzo puzzled everybody, mainly because
+he was so open and simple that even
+a child must have suspected him of keeping
+something back. Such frankness was unthinkable,
+such innocence incredible.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why, he's gallivanting all over with
+Madeleine, and yet she's gotten another
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;87]</span>
+man's picture on her table!&quot; said Miss
+Debby to Katie Croft.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And he's skipping in Mrs. Ralston's
+gate at all hours,&quot; said Katie Croft&mdash;&quot;no
+kind of ceremony to him. The other day
+he see mother in the window, and he waved
+his hat at her and give her an awful turn.
+She don't see well, and thought he threw a
+stone at her. She ain't used to city ways;
+she's used to country ways. I had to let
+her smell camphor for a good hour, and
+while she was smelling, the kitchen fire
+went out. I wish he'd keep his hat on
+his head another time. My life's hard
+enough without having a artist suddenly
+set to, to cheer up mother.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What do you think of Mrs. Ralston's
+niece? Think she's nice?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Nice! With Susan Ralston about as
+lively as a cricket! I don't think much of
+such new ways. I don't know whatever
+Matilda will say. She's just got life all
+systematized, and now here's Susan up and
+out of bed. I'm so scared the girl'll come
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;88]</span>
+over and go at mother, I don't know what
+to do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My, suppose Mrs. Croft was to be up
+and about!&quot; said Miss Debby, opening
+her eyes widely. &quot;Whatever would you
+do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do! I know what I'd do.&quot; Young
+Mrs. Croft looked dark and mysterious.
+&quot;I know just exactly what I'll do. And
+I'm all ready to do it, and if I'm interfered
+with, I will do it,&mdash;good and quick,
+too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;How is old Mrs. Croft now?&quot; Miss
+Debby asked.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, she's grabbin' as ever. I never see
+such a disposition. She's always catching
+at me or the cat or something. Seems to
+consider it a way of attracting attention.
+Crazy folks has such crazy ideas, and she's
+crazy,&mdash;crazy as a loon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Katie Croft took up her market basket
+and went on up the street. Miss Debby
+stayed behind to wait for the noon mail.
+&quot;Katie's so bitter,&quot; she said to herself,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;89]</span>
+shaking her head; &quot;she ought to be more
+grateful for being supported.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Miss Debby forgot that there are few
+things so irritating in this world as being
+supported. It is a situation which has
+become especially unpopular lately, particularly
+with women and political motives.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But no old worn-out aphorism held for
+one minute in the breezy bloom of the House
+Where Jane Lived.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, I'm so happy,&quot; Susan exclaimed
+many times daily, &quot;I'm so happy. I never
+felt nothing like your sunshining in all my
+life before, you Sunshine Jane, you! I
+feel like my own cupboards, all unlocked
+and aired and nice and used again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane stopped caroling as she kneaded
+bread and laughed&mdash;which sounded equally
+pleasant.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm as happy as you are, Auntie; it's
+so nice to be in heaven.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I used to think maybe I'd die suddenly
+and find myself there some day,&quot; said
+Susan. &quot;I'm glad I didn't.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;90]</span>
+&quot;It's better to live suddenly than to die
+suddenly,&quot; said Jane, merrily; &quot;when people
+are awfully bothered sometimes, I've
+heard their friends say: 'But if you died
+suddenly, it would work out somehow,'
+and I wanted to say: 'Why not live suddenly
+instead of dying suddenly, and then everything's
+bound to come out splendidly.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, Jane, what a grand idea,&mdash;to
+live suddenly! That's what I've done,
+surely.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes,&quot; said Jane, &quot;that's what I did, too.
+Instead of fading out of life, we just bloomed
+into life. It's just as easy, and a million
+times more fun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And it's all so awfully agreeable,&quot; said
+Susan. &quot;My things look so nice, all set
+different, and it's so pleasant having folks
+coming in, and I like it all, and we haven't
+to fuss with the garden.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I attend to the garden!&quot; cried a
+voice outside, and a mysterious hand shoved
+a basket of peas over the window-ledge.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I know who that is,&quot; said Susan; &quot;it's
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;91]</span>
+that boy, and he's smelt cinnamon rolls and
+come to lunch. How do you do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lorenzo, brown and merry, was getting in
+at the window.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why, you've really been weeding!&quot;
+exclaimed Susan.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Of course! I've tended the garden ever
+since you gave it up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I declare! Well, I never. Jane, we
+must give him a bite of something.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, that's what I came for,&quot; said
+Lorenzo, cheerfully, &quot;cookies, jelly-roll,&mdash;anything
+simple and handy. Madeleine
+and I were out walking, discussing our
+affairs, and when I stopped for the garden,
+she went on for her mail. I'm awfully
+hungry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;People say you're engaged to her,&quot;
+said Susan. Jane turned to get the tin of
+cookies.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, naturally. People say so much.
+She is a pretty girl, isn't she?&mdash;but then
+there's Emily Mead. I must look at
+myself on all sides and consider carefully.
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;92]</span>
+Old Mr. Cattermole took me to drive
+yesterday and told me that he was healthy
+and his dead wife was healthy and that,
+except for what killed him, Mr. Mead was
+healthy, too; and there was Emily, perfectly
+healthy and the only grandchild,
+and why didn't I come over often,&mdash;it
+wasn't but a step.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, you do beat all,&quot; said Susan.
+Jane offered the tin of cookies. Lorenzo
+took six. They were all laughing.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Later, when he'd gone away, Susan said,
+almost shyly this time: &quot;Jane, I don't
+want to interfere, but he <i>is</i> in love.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;With Madeleine?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;With you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Auntie,&quot; Jane came to her side, &quot;you
+mustn't speak in that way about me.
+I can't marry,&mdash;not possibly. I'm a Sunshine
+Nurse, and I shall be a Sunshine Nurse
+till I die. I'll make homes happy, but I
+shall never have one of my own.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan looked frightened and timid. &quot;But
+why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;93]</span>
+&quot;For many reasons. And all good ones.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There was that in the young girl's tone
+that ended the subject for the time being.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But Susan thought of it a great deal, and
+alone in her room that night, Jane thought,
+too. She had made herself ready for bed,
+and then sat down by the window, clasping
+her hands on the sill. Lorenzo Rath was
+buoyantly dear and jolly, and she realized
+that he was the nicest man that she had
+ever met. It had all been fun, great fun,
+and she had enjoyed it mightily. But with
+all her learning Jane was not so very much
+farther along the Highway to Happiness
+than some others. In many cases she was
+only a holder of keys as yet&mdash;the distinct
+knowledge to be gained by unlocking secrets
+with their aid was as yet not hers. To hold
+the keys and look at the doors is to realize
+what power means,&mdash;but to unlock is to
+use it. Jane was still a novice; she left the
+doors locked and was content to hold the
+keys, and no more.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The next night Lorenzo appeared again.
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;94]</span>
+&quot;I'm half-dead,&quot; he said. &quot;I've tramped
+twelve miles, sketching.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Dear, dear,&quot; said Susan, &quot;seems like
+nobody in this world ever wants what's close
+to.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Sometimes it's no use to want what's
+close to,&quot; said Lorenzo, &quot;or else what's
+close to is like Emily Mead, and you just
+ache to run.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Emily Mead is a very nice girl,&quot; said
+Jane, in a tone clearly reproachful.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lorenzo just laughed. But then Susan
+made some excuse to slip away. &quot;I wonder
+if you'd help me a little,&quot; he said then,
+hesitating a bit.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Is it something that I can do? Of
+course I'll help you if I can.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's something very necessary.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Necessary?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;To my welfare and happiness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What is it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I think&mdash;I'm&mdash;falling in love.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, dear,&quot; Jane was carefully tranquil.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I've never really been in love in my
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;95]</span>
+life, so I can't be sure. But I think it's
+that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane said nothing. The room was getting
+dark.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I've never seen any one so pretty in all
+my life as Miss Mar,&quot; said the young artist,
+slowly. &quot;You know we're old friends.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, she's lovely,&quot; said Jane, with sudden
+fervor.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I thought that we might make up
+little picnics and walks and things?&quot; hesitated
+the young man.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Of course,&quot; said Jane, heartily. &quot;And
+you can come here all you like. Auntie likes
+you both so much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lorenzo Rath stood by the door. &quot;Were
+you ever in love?&quot; he asked bluntly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No,&quot; said Jane. &quot;I've never had the
+least little touch of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Haven't you ever thought about it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, I've never had time. I've never
+seen any man that I could or would
+marry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Never?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;96]</span>
+&quot;Never.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That's too bad,&quot; said Lorenzo Rath
+slowly. &quot;Seems to me you'd make such a
+splendid wife.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She laughed a little. Then she had to
+wink quickly to drive back tears which
+leapt suddenly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I won't say any more,&quot; said Lorenzo.
+She thought that he did not care to speak of
+Madeleine to her.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Then she went. And later she found
+herself sitting in her own room again, sitting
+by the same window, thinking.
+&quot;Poor Emily Mead and her illusory millionaire!
+I'm about as silly as she is,&quot;
+thought Jane. &quot;And yet I know it's
+higher and more beautiful to make life
+lovely for others than to make it lovely
+for one's self.&quot; She sighed because the reflection&mdash;all
+altruistic as it was&mdash;was
+not quite the truth, and she was true enough
+herself to feel jarred by the slightest cross-shadow
+of falsehood. Truth plays as
+widely and freely as the sunbeams themselves
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;97]</span>
+and goes as straight to the heart
+of each and all.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Finally she opened a little book and read
+aloud a few pages to herself in a low tone.
+&quot;I know I'm on the right path,&quot; she said,
+when she had closed the book; &quot;the thing
+is to stick resolutely to keeping on straight
+ahead. And I must be absolutely content
+with all that comes. You have to be
+content if you're going to grow in goodness,
+for you have to know that you've been
+trying and been successful.&quot; She sat still
+a while longer and then rose with a deep,
+long breath. &quot;Well, to-day's been something,
+and to-morrow I'll be something
+better, I know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The truth did shine then, and she went
+to bed calmed, but was hardly stretched
+down between the cool sheets when Susan
+rapped at the door.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Come in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, Jane, I can't sleep. I've got to
+thinking of when Matilda comes back,
+and I'm scared blue.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;98]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">A NEW OUTLOOK ON MATILDA</p>
+
+<p class="indent">THE next morning Susan looked half-sheepish
+and half-anxious. &quot;I just
+couldn't help it, Jane. I laid in bed so
+long, thinking, and then it come over me
+what life was going to be when she was
+back and you gone and&mdash;well&mdash;I just
+couldn't help coming. I felt awful.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane was busy with breakfast. &quot;I
+know, Auntie, I know. I ought to have
+thought of Aunt Matilda sooner. Half
+her stay is over.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, my, I should say it was,&quot; wailed
+Susan; &quot;that's what scares me so. We're
+so happy, and the time is going so fast.
+It's about the most awful thing I ever
+knew.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane began beating eggs for an omelette.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We never were one bit alike,&quot; Susan
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;99]</span>
+intoned mournfully; &quot;we were always so
+different, and then when husband died,
+there was just nothing to do but for us to
+live together. She's my only sister, and
+it's right that I should humor her, but, oh
+my, what a scratch-about life she has led
+me. I was getting to feel more like a
+mouse than a woman&mdash;soon as I got a
+bite, I'd begin to tremble and to listen and
+then how I <i>did</i> run!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But it will be all so different when she
+comes back,&quot; Jane said cheerily. &quot;She'll
+be very different, and so will you. It'll
+be just like I told you last night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I know,&mdash;I know. But somehow I
+can't see it as you do. I'm all upset.
+And I'm so happy without her. We're
+so happy. The house looks beautiful.
+You've just made everything over. I declare,
+Jane, I never saw anything like you.
+All my old things have turned new, and so
+pretty. I feel like a bride. That is, I
+feel like a bride when I ain't thinking of
+Matilda.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;100]</span>
+&quot;It looks very nice, surely,&quot; said Jane,
+smiling. &quot;Your things were so pretty,
+anyhow. But what I was gladdest about
+was to really get it all opened up and fresh.
+I didn't want any one to come while it
+was so gloomy. The whole town may
+call now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;They do, too,&quot; said Susan, diverted
+for the minute; &quot;they certainly do. Oh,
+it is so nice, I so adore to hear all about
+things again. Matilda just shut everybody
+out. She didn't like company.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;She was pretty busy, you know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;She hadn't any more to do than you
+have. She hadn't so much to do as you
+have, because she didn't do a thing you do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But you were ill. She was always up
+and down stairs&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, she wasn't, Jane. No, she wasn't.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, she had your meals to carry upstairs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't call it meals to run with a teacup.
+Meals! <i>Such</i> meals! It's a wonder
+I didn't die. She'd turn anything upside
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;101]</span>
+down on a plate and something else upside
+down on that, and call it a meal for
+me. I was about sick, just from how she
+fed me. If I said something was cooked
+too dry, she emptied the tea-kettle into it
+next time; and if I said anything was too
+wet, she put on fresh coal and left it in
+the oven over night. If I said the room
+was too light, she shut it up as dark as a
+pickpocket; and if I said it was too dark,
+she turned the sun into my eyes. She's
+my only sister and I must humor her, but
+I've had a very hard time, Jane, and I
+don't blame myself for waking up with my
+teeth all of a chatter over the thought of
+living with her again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane had their breakfast ready now on
+the table by the window. &quot;Come and sit
+down,&quot; she said; &quot;we'll talk while we eat.
+It's like I told you last night,&mdash;there must
+be a hitch somewhere. Of course, God has
+a good reason for you and Aunt Matilda
+living together. He doesn't allow accidents
+in His world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;102]</span>
+&quot;Perhaps He wasn't thinking. I can't
+believe that anybody would deliberately
+put anybody in the house with Matilda&mdash;not
+if they knew Matilda. I didn't
+know what she'd grown into myself when
+she first came to take care of me, because
+I was a little poorly. It was to save spending
+on a nurse, you know. They're such
+trying, prying things, nurses are.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm a nurse, you know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My goodness, I didn't mean your kind;
+I meant the regular kind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane was laughing. &quot;But I mustn't
+laugh,&quot; she said, after a minute; &quot;we must
+go to work. Let's see if we can find out
+how it all began. Didn't you and Aunt
+Matilda get on nicely at first?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan considered. &quot;Well, I don't believe
+we did. She was always so very
+sparing. Husband was sparing, and of
+course I'd had a good many years of it,
+but when your husband's gone and you've
+got the property yourself and have left it to
+an only sister who takes care of you, you
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;103]</span>
+don't like her being even more sparing,&mdash;putting
+you on skim-milk right from the first and
+chopping the potato peelings in the hash.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But there must have been some good
+in the situation, or it wouldn't have been.
+When there's a wrong situation, the cure
+lies in hunting out the good, not in talking
+over the bad.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You won't find any good in Matilda
+and me living together,&mdash;not if you hunt
+till Doomsday.&quot; Susan took a big sip of
+coffee and then shook her head hard.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;There's good in everything.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't know what it was here, then.
+I was all ready to die, and the doctor said
+I couldn't live, and when I found out how
+Matilda was counting on it, I just made up
+my mind to live just to spite her. But it's
+been awful hard work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane turned and seized her hand. &quot;Well,
+maybe that's the reason for the situation,
+then. You see if she'd been different, you'd
+have died, but being a person who made
+you mad, you stayed alive.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;104]</span>
+Susan laughed a little. &quot;I've been mad
+enough, I know,&quot; she went on; &quot;it's awful
+to be up-stairs the way I've been and
+have to prowl down-stairs and run off with
+your food like a dog in an alley. I was
+always watching till I saw Matilda over
+that second fence and then racing for something
+to eat. I've been very hungry often
+and often, Jane, very hungry indeed,&mdash;and
+in my own house, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The tears came into the girl's eyes.
+&quot;Poor Auntie!&quot; she said. &quot;Well, it's all
+over now and won't ever come back. You
+must believe me when I say so. Old conditions
+never return. The wheel can't
+turn backward. That mustn't be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But how'll it help it when Matilda's
+visit gets over?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane rested her chin on her hands and
+looked out of the window. &quot;I'll have to
+get you on to a plane where you can't
+live as you did ever again,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;On a plane!&mdash;&quot; Susan stared.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A plane is a kind of grade in life. We
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;105]</span>
+keep going up them like stairs, and the
+quieter and happier people live, the higher
+is the plane on which they are. It's very
+simple, when you come to understand it.
+It's sort of like a marble staircase built
+out of a marsh and on up a mountain.
+You can stand down in the mud, or step
+higher in the reeds, or step higher in the
+water (generally it's hot water,&quot; Jane
+interrupted herself to say with a little
+smile). &quot;Or out on the dry earth, or
+higher where it's flowers, or higher or higher.
+But every time you get up a step you leave
+all the mess of all the lower steps behind
+you forever. Do you understand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, I don't.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why, don't you see that if you lift
+yourself higher than your surroundings, of
+course you'll have other conditions around
+you and be really living another life? We
+can't possibly be bound by conditions lower
+than our souls. It's a law. I'll help you
+to understand it, and then it will help you
+to not be at all troubled over Aunt Matilda.
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;106]</span>
+You'll be above her. Don't you see? One
+can always get out of a disagreeable life by
+lifting one's self above it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But I did stay up-stairs,&quot; said Susan,
+with beautiful literalness. &quot;I think it's
+awful to have to keep a plane above any
+one, when the whole house is yours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I didn't mean that,&quot; said Jane. &quot;I
+meant that mentally you must get above
+her. It isn't in words or in thoughts,&mdash;you
+must <i>be</i> above her. You must get
+free. I must help you. You can do it.
+Anybody can do it. And as soon as you
+are free in your spirit, your life will change.
+Our daily life follows our thoughts. Our
+thoughts make a pattern, and life weaves
+it. The world of stars that we can't
+hardly grasp at all is all God's thought.
+The life in this house was your thought
+and Aunt Matilda's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It wasn't mine,&quot; said Susan quickly;
+&quot;it was hers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, it's mine now,&quot; said Jane.
+&quot;That's the true business of the Sunshine
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;107]</span>
+Nurses. They must get a new thought into
+a house and get it to growing well. Then
+they'll leave the true sunshine there forever
+after.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan's eyes were very curious&mdash;very
+bright. &quot;I declare I don't see how you'll
+do it here,&quot; she said. &quot;I can't look at
+Matilda any new way, as I know of. Whatever
+she does, she does just exactly as I
+don't like it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I suppose that you try her, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, I didn't die; of course she minded
+that. But I couldn't die. You can't die
+just to order.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, of course not; I didn't mean that.&quot;
+Jane was quite serious. &quot;I don't blame
+you at all for not doing that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan had finished and rose from the
+table. &quot;Let's leave the dishes and go
+out in the yard,&quot; she said. &quot;I'm awfully
+anxious to keep on at this till we find a way
+out, if you think that you can; I go about
+wild when I think of her. I'm ready for
+anything except staying in bed any more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;108]</span>
+&quot;Oh, that's all over,&quot; said Jane.
+&quot;You're off the bed-plane now, and don't
+you see how much higher you've got already?
+The next step is to fix yourself
+so securely on this happy one that you
+know that it's yours and you can't leave
+it. You see, you feel able to go back down
+again, and as long as you feel that way,
+it's possible. One has to bar out the wrong
+kind of life forever, and then of course it's
+over.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But she is coming back,&quot; said Susan,
+&quot;and I can't live any more on gobbles of
+milk and cold bits swallowed while I'm
+getting up-stairs three steps to the jump.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane looked at her. &quot;I expect that
+exercise was awfully good for you, Auntie,&quot;
+she said seriously. &quot;You've probably gotten
+a lot of health and interest out of it.
+Don't forget that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, maybe; but I don't want any
+more.&quot; Susan's tone was terribly earnest.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's all over then,&quot; said Jane, slowly
+and with emphasis; &quot;if you truly and
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;109]</span>
+honestly don't want any more, then it
+must be all over. The thing to do now is
+to build a firm connection between ourselves
+and it's being all over.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't quite understand what you
+mean,&quot; said Susan, &quot;but something's got
+to be done, of course, because otherwise
+she'll come home, and oh, my, her face
+when she sees me up and around!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane knit her brows. &quot;You see, Auntie,&quot;
+she said slowly, &quot;there's only one thing to
+do. We've got to change ourselves completely;
+we've to get where we want her
+to come home and where we look forward
+to it&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan stopped short and lifted up both
+hands. &quot;Gracious, we can't ever do that!
+It isn't in humanity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, we can do it,&quot; said Jane firmly;
+&quot;people can always do anything that they
+can think out, and if we can think this out
+straight, we can do it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;How?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It isn't easy to see in just the first
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;110]</span>
+minute, but I understand the principle of
+it and I know that we can work it, for
+I've seen it done. You do it by getting
+an entirely new atmosphere into the house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But you've done that already,&quot; interrupted
+Susan. &quot;It isn't musty anywhere
+any more, and there's such a kind
+of a happy smell instead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't mean that kind of an atmosphere.
+I mean a change of feeling in ourselves.
+We've got to somehow make ourselves
+all over; we must really and truly
+be different.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But I am made over, and you were all
+right, anyhow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, I'm not all right,&quot; said Jane firmly.
+&quot;I'm very wrong. I'm letting silly
+thoughts with which I've no business torment
+me dreadfully, and I'm not driving
+them out with any kind of resolution.
+Then we're both doing wrong about Aunt
+Matilda. We're making a narrow little
+black box of our opinion and crowding her
+into it all the time. There's nothing so
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;111]</span>
+dreadful as the way families just chain
+one another to their faults. Outsiders
+see all the nice things, and we have lots
+of courage to always live up to their opinions,
+but families spend most of their
+time just nailing those they love best into
+pretty little limits. You and I are so
+happy together, and we're changing ourselves
+and one another every day, but we
+never think that Aunt Matilda's also having
+experience and changing herself, too.
+We kind of forbid her to grow better.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You won't find anything that will
+change Matilda very quick, Jane. She's
+a dreadful person to stick to habits; she's
+drunk out of the blue cup and give me the
+green one for these whole five years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The change in the atmosphere of the
+house,&quot; said Jane slowly, &quot;must be complete.
+We must never say one more word
+about her that isn't nice, and we mustn't
+even think unkind thoughts. We must
+talk about her lots and look forward to
+her coming back&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;112]</span>
+&quot;Oh, heavens, I can't,&quot; gasped Susan.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We'll begin to-day on her room&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Then you'll make her madder than a
+hatter, sure; she can't bear to have her
+room touched.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm going to make it the prettiest room
+in the house,&quot; said Jane resolutely. &quot;I'm
+going to brush and clean and mend and fix
+all those clothes she's left hanging up, and
+I'm going to love her dearly from now on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan sat still, her lips moving slightly,
+but whether with repressed feeling or
+trembling sentiment it would be impossible
+to say. &quot;She looked awful cute
+when she was little and wore pantalettes,&quot;
+she said finally.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Bravo!&quot; cried Jane, running to her
+and kissing her. &quot;There's a fine victory
+for you, and now,&quot;&mdash;her face brightening
+suddenly,&mdash;&quot;I've got an idea of what we
+can do to lift us right straight up into a
+new circle of life. What do you say to
+our making the little back parlor over
+into a bedroom, and&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;113]</span>
+&quot;&mdash;taking Mr. Rath to board?&quot; cried
+Susan joyfully. &quot;Oh, I am sure that he
+wanted to come all along.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane laughed outright. &quot;No, indeed,
+the very idea! No, what I thought of
+was inviting that poor old Mrs. Croft here
+for a week and giving her and her daughter-in-law
+a rest from one another.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan gave a sharp little yell. &quot;Why,
+Jane Grey, I never heard the beat!
+Why, she can't even feed herself!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It would be a way to change the atmosphere
+of the house; it's just the kind of
+thing that would change us all&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I should think it would change us all,&quot;
+interrupted Susan; &quot;why, she threw a
+cup of tea at Katie's back last week. Katie
+said she couldn't possibly imagine what
+had come over her,&mdash;she was leaning out
+to hook the blinds.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It would be a Bible-lovely thing to do,&quot;
+Jane went on slowly. &quot;You or I could
+feed her, and I'd take care of her. I'm
+a nurse, you know!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;114]</span>
+&quot;Jane! Well, you beat all! Well, I
+never did! Old Mrs. Croft. Why, they
+say you might as well be gentle with a
+hornet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Maybe she has her reasons; maybe it's,&mdash;Set
+a hornet to tend a hornet, for all we
+know. Anyway, it's come to me as some
+good to do, and when I think of any good
+that I can do, I have to do it,&mdash;else it's
+a sin. That's my religion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That religion of yours'll get you into
+a lot of hot water along through life.&quot;
+Susan's tone was very grave. &quot;And you've
+never seen old Mrs. Croft, or you'd never
+speak of her and religion in the same
+breath. They've got a cat she caresses,
+and some days she caresses it for all she's
+worth. I've heard the cat being caressed
+when it was quiet, myself, many's the
+time. You can't use that religion of yours
+on old Mrs. Croft; she isn't a subject for
+religion. She's one of that kind that the
+man in the Bible thanked God he wasn't
+one of them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;115]</span>
+&quot;My religion is what brought me here
+to you,&quot; said Jane gently. &quot;You aren't
+really sorry that I learned it, are you,
+Auntie?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan's eyes moistened quickly. She
+gasped, then swallowed, then made up her
+mind. &quot;Well, Sunshine Jane,&quot; she said
+resignedly, &quot;when shall we get her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We'll put her room in order to-morrow
+morning, and I'll go and ask her in the
+afternoon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, dear!&quot; said Susan, with a world of
+meaning in the two syllables. &quot;I hope
+she'll enjoy the change.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane laughed. &quot;Goodness, Auntie, I
+never saw any one pick up new ideas as
+quick as you do. I was months learning
+how to make myself over, and you do it in
+just a few hours. You must have laid a
+big foundation of self-control up there in
+bed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan sighed, uncheered. &quot;It kept me
+pretty sharp, I tell you,&quot; she said; &quot;when
+you're always hungry and have to get
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;116]</span>
+your food on the sly and be positively sure
+of never being found out, it does keep you
+in trim being spry pretty steady.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;May we come in?&quot; asked voices at
+the gate. It was Lorenzo Rath and Madeleine.
+&quot;We wanted to see how you were
+getting on to-day,&quot; the latter called.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We've been changing the furniture and
+the atmosphere,&quot; said Susan, trying bravely
+to smile. &quot;Jane is turning everything
+around and bringing the bright new side
+out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If you'll come and help me wash the
+breakfast dishes and then make biscuits,&quot;
+Jane said to Madeleine, &quot;I'll ask you both
+to lunch.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I want to learn how to do everything,
+of course,&quot; said Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And why shouldn't we go down to the
+garden?&quot; suggested Lorenzo to Susan.
+&quot;You'll point out the things you want
+to-day, and I'll pull 'em up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But there are fences to climb,&quot; said
+Jane.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;117]</span>
+&quot;Fiddle for fences,&quot; said her aunt;
+&quot;he'll go ahead, and I'll skim over 'em like
+a squirrel. I never made anything of
+fences.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">So they divided the labor.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;The house looks so pretty,&quot; said Madeleine,
+as she and Jane went through to the
+kitchen. &quot;How do you ever manage it,&mdash;with
+just the same things, too?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane glanced about. &quot;Why, there's a
+right place for everything, and if you just
+stand back a bit and let the things have
+time to think, they'll tell you where to put
+them. There was an old blue vase in the
+dining-room that was pretty weak-minded,
+but I was patient and carried it all over
+the place till finally it was suited on top of
+the what-not in the corner of the hall.
+The trouble with most things is that we
+hurry them too much at first, and then we
+don't help them out of their false position
+later.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, Jane, you are so delightfully quaint.
+You must tell Mr. Rath that. It's the
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;118]</span>
+kind of speech that will just charm the
+soul right out of an artist.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane was deep in the flour-bin. &quot;But
+I don't want to charm his soul. I'll leave
+that to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;To me! Why, he doesn't care a rap
+about me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, then, to Emily Mead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Emily Mead! Oh, my dear, you have
+put a lot of new ideas into her head! She
+says that you told her that any one could
+get anything that he or she wanted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And so they can.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Suppose she wants Mr. Rath?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If she wants him in the right way,
+she'll have him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't like that way of speaking of
+men,&quot; said Madeleine, dipping her white
+fingers into the flour and beginning to chip
+the butter through it. &quot;Don't you think
+it's horrid how girls speak of men nowadays?
+I do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Of course I do,&quot; said Jane. &quot;But one
+drops into the habit just because everybody
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;119]</span>
+does it. I'll never be married myself,
+and it's partly because I think it's all
+being so dragged down. Instead of two
+people's knowing one another and liking
+one another better till finally a big, beautiful,
+holy secret sort of dawns on them
+and makes the world all over new, girls
+just go on and act as if men were wild
+animals to be hunted and caught and
+talked about, or married and made fun
+of. I don't think all these new ideas
+and new ways for women have made
+women a bit more womanly. When I had
+to earn my living, I picked out work that
+a man couldn't do, and that I wouldn't
+be hurting any man by doing. I'm sorry
+for men nowadays. And I think women
+lose a lot the way some of them go on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;After all, there can't be anything nicer
+than to be a woman, can there?&quot; said
+Madeleine, stirring as the other poured in
+ingredients. &quot;I've always been glad that
+I was a woman. I think that a woman's
+life is so sweet, and it's beautiful to be protected
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;120]</span>
+and cared for.&quot; The pink flew over
+her cheeks at the words.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane's lashes swept downward for a
+minute, then rose resolutely. &quot;Or to protect
+and care for others. It always seems
+to me as if a woman was the sort of blessed
+way through which a man's love and
+strength and care go to his children. Men
+are so helpless with children, but they do
+such a lot for wives, and then the mothers
+pass it on to the little ones.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Life's lovely when you think of it
+rightly, isn't it?&quot; Madeleine said thoughtfully.
+&quot;I'm so pleased over having come
+here. You see Father and Mother wanted
+me to spend a few weeks quietly where I
+could rest and pick myself up a little, and
+so they sent me here. I didn't care much
+about coming, but I'm glad now. You're
+doing me lots of good, Jane; you seem to
+help me to unlock the doors to everything
+that's just best in me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It isn't that I do it,&quot; said Jane; &quot;it's
+that it's been done to me, and after it got
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;121]</span>
+through me, it's bound to shine on. It's
+like light; every window you clean lets it
+through into another place, where maybe
+there's something else to clean and let it
+through again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I suppose we just live to keep clean and
+let light through,&quot; laughed Madeleine,
+cutting out the biscuits.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That's all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I think that you'd make a good
+preacher, Jane; you've such nice, plain,
+homely, understandable ways of putting
+things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane laughed and popped the pan into
+the oven. &quot;Come and help lay the table,&quot;
+she said. &quot;Oh, you never saw anything
+as sweet as Aunt Susan's joy in her own
+things. She's like a little child at Christmas.
+It's a kind of coming back to life
+for her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;They say that her sister was awfully
+mean to her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But she wasn't at all. She thought
+that she was sicker than she was, and she
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;122]</span>
+kept her in bed, and the joke of it was that
+Aunt Susan didn't like to hurt her feelings
+by letting her see what mistaken ideas she
+had, so she hopped up every time the coast
+was clear and kept lively and interested
+trying to be about and in bed at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;How perfectly delightful! I never
+heard anything so funny. And then you
+came and discovered the truth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, I didn't want her to stay in bed.
+I'd never encourage any one in a false
+belief, but she hadn't the belief,&mdash;she had
+only the false appearance. She didn't
+enjoy being an invalid one bit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I think it's too droll,&quot; said Madeleine.
+&quot;Didn't you laugh when it dawned on you
+first?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It dawned on me rather sadly. But we
+laugh together now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What will she do when her sister comes
+back?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, that will all come out nicely. I
+don't know just how, but I know that it
+will come out all right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;123]</span>
+&quot;Do you always have faith in things
+coming out rightly?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Always. I wouldn't dare not to. I'm
+one of those people who kind of feel the
+future as it draws near, and so I wouldn't
+allow myself to feel any mean future drawing
+near, on principle. I always feel that
+nice things are marching straight towards
+me as fast as ever the band of music plays.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do you believe that it really makes any
+difference?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Of course it makes a difference. It
+makes all the difference in the world, because
+hope's a rope by which any good
+thing can haul you right up to it, hand
+over hand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You give me a lot to think about,&quot;
+said Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane ran out and picked some ivy leaves
+to place under the vase of flowers in the
+middle of the table. It made a little green
+mat. &quot;There; we're all ready when they
+come, now,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Presently they did come.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;124]</span>
+&quot;Oh, what will Mrs. Cowmull say to
+this!&quot; said Lorenzo, as he pulled out Mrs.
+Ralston's chair. &quot;She's busy marking passages
+in <i>The Seven Lamps of Architecture</i>
+to read aloud to me while I eat, and now
+I shan't show up at all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Have you seen her niece lately?&quot;
+asked Madeleine.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I saw her this morning. She
+wants to pose for me, only she stipulated
+that she should wear clothes. I told her
+that my models all wore thick wool and
+only showed a little of their faces. She
+didn't seem to like that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But what did you mean? Surely you
+don't always have them wear thick
+woolen?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I just do. If they haven't thick wool
+on, I won't paint them at all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What do you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why, I paint sheep.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The mild little joke met with great favor.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I think you're a very clever young
+man,&quot; Susan said with great sincerity. &quot;To
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;125]</span>
+think of me having a good time laughing
+with a sheep painter,&quot; she added. &quot;Who
+holds them for you to paint, and do you
+set them afterwards?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I paint them right in the fields,&quot; said
+Lorenzo.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I should think they'd butt you from
+behind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I paint over a fence.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, that's safe,&quot; said Jane's aunt.
+&quot;If you're careful not to be on the side
+where there's a bull.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">After supper Madeleine helped Jane wash
+the dishes.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What fun you make out of everything,&quot;
+she said.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's the only way,&quot; Jane answered.
+&quot;My mission is to make two sunbeams
+shine where only one slanted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm glad I'm one of the heathen to
+whom you were sent,&quot; said Madeleine
+affectionately.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane put her arm around her. &quot;So am
+I, dear, very glad.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;126]</span>
+Madeleine laid her face against the other
+girl's. &quot;Some day I want to tell you a
+secret,&quot; she said; &quot;a secret that Lorenzo
+told me yesterday.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane felt her heart sort of skip a beat.
+&quot;Do tell me,&quot; she said in a whisper.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I can't now,&quot; said Madeleine. &quot;I
+want to be all alone with you. It's too&mdash;too
+big a secret to bear to be broken in
+upon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Can you come to-morrow afternoon?
+Auntie's going to Mrs. Mead's to the Sewing
+Society, and I'll be here alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That will be nice,&quot; said Madeleine;
+&quot;yes, I'll come.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;127]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">SOUL-UPLIFTING</p>
+
+<p class="indent">IT was the next morning about eleven
+o'clock.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You see,&quot; said Jane, sitting in the
+Crofts' sitting-room opposite Katie Croft
+who, whatever else she might or might not
+be, was certainly not pleasant of expression,
+&quot;you see, my aunt has been an invalid so
+much that she appreciates what a change
+means to both the sick one and the one
+who cares for her, and so we thought that
+it would be so nice if you'd let me wheel
+your mother&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;She ain't my mother&mdash;she's my
+mother-in-law,&quot; broke in Mrs. Katie Croft,
+instantly indignant over so false an imputation.
+&quot;Good lands, the very idea!
+My mother! And never one single stroke
+of paralysis nor nothing in my family,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;128]</span>
+and all reading the Bible without glasses
+right up till they died.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You see, it would give you a little rest,
+too,&quot; Jane continued, &quot;and it would do
+Aunt Susan good to feel that she was
+helping a weaker&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;She ain't weak,&quot; broke in Katie Croft,
+again; &quot;my lands, she's strong as a
+lady-ox. Anything she makes up her mind
+to keep she lays hold of with a grip as
+makes you fairly sick all up and down your
+back. You don't know perhaps, Miss
+Grey, as my husband died in our youth,
+and I come to live with his mother as a
+sacred duty, and I tell you frankly that
+I wish I'd never been born or that he'd
+never been born, forty times an hour&mdash;I
+do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You'll like a week alone, I'm sure,&quot;
+said Jane serenely, &quot;and we'll like to
+have your mother-in-law. Perhaps she'll
+get a few new ideas&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;She's stubborn as a mule,&quot; interrupted
+the daughter-in-law.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;129]</span>
+&quot;But may I see her and ask her? I do
+so want to help you a little. Life must
+have been so hard for you these last
+years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hard!&quot; said Katie Croft, with emphasis.
+&quot;Hard! Well, I'll tell you what
+it is, Miss Grey,&mdash;to marry a young man
+as was meek as Moses and then have him
+just fade right straight out and get a
+mother-in-law like that old&mdash;that old&mdash;that
+old&mdash;well, I'll tell you frankly she's
+a siren and nothing else.&quot; (Young Mrs.
+Croft probably meant &quot;vixen,&quot; but Jane
+did not notice.) &quot;My life ain't really
+worth a shake-up of mustard and vinegar
+some days. What I have suffered!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I know more than you think,&quot; said
+Jane sympathetically; &quot;nurses take care of
+so many kinds of people. But do let me
+ask her. If she likes to come to us, it'll
+be a great rest to you, and perhaps it'll
+do her a little good, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I can't understand you're wanting her,&quot;
+said Katie. &quot;It's all over town how queer
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;130]</span>
+you are, but I never thought that anybody
+could be as queer as that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do let us go to her,&quot; Jane urged.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Katie rose and forthwith conducted the
+caller to old Mrs. Croft's room, a large,
+square place adorned with no end of black
+daguerreotypes and faded photographs.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Mother, it's Miss Grey. You know?&mdash;she's
+Mrs. Ralston's niece.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Old Mrs. Croft received her visitor with
+acutely suspicious eyes. &quot;Well?&quot; she said
+tartly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane took her hand, but she jerked it
+smartly away.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Sit down anywhere,&quot; said Katie; &quot;she
+hears well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Hear!&quot; said old Mrs. Croft. &quot;I
+should say I did hear. There ain't a pan
+fell in the neighborhood for the last ten
+years as hasn't woke me out of a sound
+sleep, dreaming of my husband&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Miss Grey's come to see you about
+something,&quot; interrupted Katie; &quot;she&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I had a husband,&quot; continued old Mrs.
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;131]</span>
+Croft, raising her voice from Do to Re,
+&quot;and such a one! Wednesday he'd go to
+sleep and Thursdays he'd wake, so regular
+you could tell the days of the week just
+from his habits. He&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Miss Grey wants&mdash;&quot; interrupted
+Katie.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I came to&mdash;&quot; said Jane.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I had a husband,&quot; continued old
+Mrs. Croft, going from Re to Mi now;
+&quot;oh, my, but I did have a husband. In
+May I had him and in December I had him,
+but he was always the same to me. You
+can see his picture there, Miss Grey; it's
+all faded out, just from being looked at;
+but I'll tell you where it never fades, Miss
+Grey&mdash;it never so much as turns a hair
+in my heart. My heart is engraved&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You'd better go on and say what you've
+got to say,&quot; said Katie to Jane. &quot;I often
+put her to bed talking, and she talks all
+the night through.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I want to ask you&mdash;&quot; Jane began.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ask me no questions and I'll tell
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;132]</span>
+you no lies,&quot; sang Mrs. Croft. &quot;Oh, I
+had&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;&mdash;I want you to come and stay with
+us,&quot; Jane said, with forceful accents.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There was a sudden tense hush.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My aunt and I want you to come and
+make us a little visit,&quot; the caller added.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The hush grew awful.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A little change would be so good for
+you&mdash;you've been shut up so long.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Old Mrs. Croft lifted her two hands
+towards the ceiling.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What do you want to take me out of
+my own house for? Going to do something
+to it that I wouldn't approve, I
+expect. Oh, I see it all. There was Macbeth
+and there was Othello, and now there's
+my house&mdash;What are you going to do to
+it, anyhow?&quot; The question was pitched
+so high and sharp that Jane jumped.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We just want to give you a little
+change.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Change! I had a change once. Went
+to Cuba with my husband and nearly died.
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;133]</span>
+I don't want no change of <i>house</i>,&quot; with
+deep meaning in the emphasis; &quot;the
+change that I want is another change.
+Change is a great thing to have. My husband
+never changed. Only his collars.
+Never no other way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You and Aunt Susan are old friends&mdash;&quot;
+suggested Jane.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Never nothing special,&quot; broke in old
+Mrs. Croft. &quot;My goodness, I do hope
+your aunt ain't calling me her friend,
+because if she is, it's a thing I can't allow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane thanked her stars that her powers
+of mental concentration forbade her mind
+to wander. &quot;I'm sure if you came to us,
+you'd enjoy it,&quot; she said persuasively;
+&quot;we've such a pretty bedroom down-stairs,
+and I'll sleep on the dining-room sofa, so
+you won't feel lonely.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Lonely. I never feel lonely. I'd thank
+Heaven if I could be let alone for a little,
+once in a while. I don't want to come,
+and that's a fact. If that be treason,
+make the most of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;134]</span>
+&quot;Oh, but you must come,&quot; said Jane;
+&quot;you'll like it. We want you, and you
+must come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, get me my bonnet then,&quot; said
+old Mrs. Croft. &quot;Run, Katie, I've been
+sitting here waiting for it for over an hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Katie and Jane regarded one another
+in consternation. They hadn't quite
+counted on this.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm going visiting,&quot; said Mrs. Croft
+gaily. &quot;Oh, my, and how I shall visit.
+Years may come and years may go, and
+still I shall sit there visiting away, and
+when I hear the door-bell, I shall know
+it's time for Christmas dinner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Katie took Jane's hand and drew her
+out of the room. &quot;I don't believe you'd
+better take her,&quot; she said; &quot;she's so flighty.
+I know how to manage her, and you don't.
+Just give it up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, I won't,&quot; said Jane, smiling. &quot;I
+know that it's a kind thing to do and that
+I must do it. I'm going to take her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Seems so odd you're wanting to,&quot; said
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;135]</span>
+Katie. &quot;You're very funny, I think.
+People are saying that you think that
+everything's for the best. Do you really
+believe that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Of course. We can't get outside of
+God's plan, whatever we may do. If we
+do wrong, we have to bear the consequences
+because it's as easy to <i>see</i> the right thing
+to do as the wrong, but the great Plan
+never wavers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, my,&quot; said Katie. &quot;I'm glad to
+know that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane pressed her hand. &quot;I'll get things
+all ready, and we'll bring her over tomorrow
+night,&quot; she said; &quot;that'll be best.
+Then she can go right to bed and get rested
+from the effort.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">So it was arranged, and the Sunshine
+Nurse went home to tell Susan that Mrs.
+Croft had consented to come. She felt
+quite positive that now they would both
+attain unto a higher plane without any
+difficulty, if they kept such a guest in the
+house for a week.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;136]</span>
+&quot;It isn't going to be easy, Auntie,&quot; she
+said, a bit later, &quot;but it will teach you and
+me a lot, and if one wants to voyage greatly,
+one must get out into the deep water.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll do anything to get hold of some
+different way of getting on with Matilda,&quot;
+said Susan, &quot;and I begin to see what you
+mean when you say that if I change <i>me</i>,
+I'll change it all. If you could make flour
+into sugar, you'd have cake instead of
+biscuit, but, oh, my! Old Mrs. Croft!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It won't be for so very long,&quot; said
+Jane, &quot;and think of Katie Croft through
+all these years! She's been splendid, I
+think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, she didn't have any other place
+to live, you know,&quot; Susan promptly reminded
+her niece.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Work's work, no matter why you do it,&quot;
+Jane said, &quot;and all the big laws work
+greatly. This having old Mrs. Croft is a
+pretty big step for you and me to take,
+and you'll see that when Aunt Matilda
+returns, we'll be so strongly settled in our
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;137]</span>
+new ways that she can't unsettle us. We'll
+be absolutely different people.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Y&mdash;yes,&quot; said Susan, confidence fighting
+doubt stoutly. &quot;I'm willing to try,
+although left to myself I should never
+have thought of old Mrs. Croft as a way of
+getting different.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Anything that we do with earnest
+purpose is a way of getting better,&quot; said
+Jane. She looked out of the window for
+a minute, and her lip almost quivered.
+Susan didn't notice. &quot;Everything is always
+for the best, if we're sure of it,&quot; she
+then said firmly.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;138]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">MADELEINE'S SECRET</p>
+
+<p class="indent">THE two girls were enjoying a pleasant
+time in Susan's big, tidy kitchen.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I never knew that a kitchen could be so
+perfectly lovely,&quot; said Madeleine, as they
+took tea by the little table by the window.
+&quot;Jane, you are a genius! One opens the
+gate here with a bubbling feeling that
+everything in the whole world's all right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm so glad,&quot; said Jane; &quot;it's grand to
+feel that one is a real channel of happiness.
+I always seem to see people as made to
+form that kind of connection between God
+and earth, and that happiness is the visible
+sign of success, a good 'getting through,'
+so to speak.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do you know, the English language is
+awfully indefinite. That sentence might
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;139]</span>
+mean good flowing like water through
+people, or people so made that good can
+go through them easily. Do you see?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I see. But either meaning is all
+right. It isn't what I say that matters
+so much, anyway. It's how you take it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I took that two ways.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, and both were good. That's so
+fine,&mdash;to get two good meanings, where
+I only meant one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They smiled together.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Mr. Rath and I were talking about
+that last evening,&quot; said Madeleine, the
+color coming into her face a little. &quot;Do
+you know, he's really a very dear man.
+He's awfully nice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane jumped up to drive a wasp out of
+the window. &quot;You know him better than
+I do,&quot; she said, very busy.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I've known him for several years, but
+never as well as here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane came back and sat down. Madeleine
+was silent, seeming to search for
+words.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;140]</span>
+&quot;You were going to tell me a secret,&quot;
+her friend said, after a little.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I know, but I&mdash;I can't.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane lifted her eyes almost pitifully.
+&quot;Why not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't feel that I have the right, after
+all. Secrets are such precious things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If I can help you&mdash;?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, no, no.&mdash;It isn't any trouble.
+It's something quite different&mdash;I&mdash;I
+thought that perhaps I could tell you my
+thoughts, but&mdash;I can't.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There was a silence.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;There are such wonderful feelings in the
+world,&quot; Madeleine went on, after a little;
+&quot;they don't seem to fit into words at all.
+One feels ashamed to have even planned
+to talk about them. One feels so humble
+when&mdash;&quot; she paused&mdash;then closed her
+lips.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane put out her hand and took the hand
+upon the other side of the little table, close.
+&quot;Don't mind me, dear; I understand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do you really?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;141]</span>
+&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Madeleine's eyes were anxious. &quot;Do
+you guess? Did you guess?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And how&mdash;what&mdash;what do you
+think?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I think that it would be lovely, only, of
+course, I don't quite know it all, for I shall
+never have anything like it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Madeleine started. &quot;Oh, Jane, don't say
+that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But it's so, dear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, <i>no</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, dear,&mdash;I can guess and sympathize.
+But I shall never have any such happiness.
+It's&mdash;it's quite settled.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Madeleine left her seat, went round by
+the side of the other girl, flung herself
+down on the floor, and looked as if she were
+about to cry. &quot;Oh, Jane, you mustn't
+feel so. Why shouldn't you marry?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I can't, dear; I've debts of my father's
+to pay, and I'm pledged to my Order.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But they'll get paid after a while.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;142]</span>
+&quot;It will take all my youth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But a way can be found?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No way can ever be. There is no one
+in the wide world to help me. I'm quite
+alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why, Jane,&quot; said Madeleine, always
+kneeling and always looking up, &quot;I know
+some one who can manage everything, and
+you do, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane stared a little. &quot;My aunt, do you
+mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No,&mdash;God.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane smiled suddenly. &quot;Thank you, dear.
+I hadn't forgotten, but I just didn't think.
+Still, I think God means me to be brave
+about my burdens. I don't think that He
+sees them as things from which to be
+relieved.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Madeleine was still looking up. &quot;But
+the channel doesn't think; the channel
+just conveys what pours along it,&quot; she
+whispered.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Just at this second the scene altered.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, there's my aunt!&quot; Jane exclaimed.
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;143]</span>
+Susan passed the window, and the next
+minute she came in the door. &quot;I've had
+the most bee&mdash;youtiful afternoon,&quot; she
+announced radiantly. &quot;I did Jane lots of
+credit, for I never said a word about anybody,
+but oh, how splendid it was to just
+be good and silent, and hear all the others
+talk. They talked about everybody, and
+a good many were of my own opinion, so I
+had considerable satisfaction without doing
+a thing wrong.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane couldn't help laughing or Madeleine,
+either. &quot;Was young Mrs. Croft there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, and most everybody says that she'll
+go off to-morrow and never come back, and
+we'll have old Mrs. Croft till she dies.
+They looked at me pretty hard, but I
+stuck to my soul and never said a word.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It was noble in you, Auntie,&quot; Jane said
+warmly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, it was,&quot; assented Susan. Then
+she turned to Madeleine, who had returned
+to her chair. &quot;Jane's religion's pretty hard
+on me, but I like its results, and I can do
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;144]</span>
+anything I set out to do, and I don't mean
+to not get a future if I can help it. You
+see, my sister Matilda is a very peculiar
+person. You must know that by this
+time?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I have heard a good deal about her,&quot;
+Madeleine admitted.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, I hope it isn't unkind in me to
+say that I know more than anybody else
+can possibly imagine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But she's coming back all right,&quot; Jane
+interrupted firmly; &quot;we mustn't forget
+that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No,&quot; said Susan, with a quick gasp in
+her breath; &quot;no, I'm not forgetting a
+thing. I'm only talking a little. And oh,
+how Mrs. Cowmull did talk about you,
+Madeleine. She says Mr. Rath can't put
+his nose out of the door alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That's dreadful,&quot; said Madeleine, trying
+not to color, &quot;especially as we always
+come straight here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, I tell you it's pretty hard work
+being good,&quot; said Susan, with a cheerful
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;145]</span>
+sigh; &quot;it's a relief to get home and take off
+one's bonnet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And don't you want some tea, Auntie?
+It's all hot under the cozy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I will, you Sunshine Jane, you.
+I'll never cease to be grateful for good tea
+again as long as I live. I've had five years
+of the other kind to help me remember.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Later, when Madeleine was gone, Susan
+said: &quot;Do you know, Jane, Katie Croft is
+certainly going to desert that awful old
+woman when we get her here? Everybody
+says so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, she isn't, Auntie; the expected is
+never what happens.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Jane, any one with your religion can't
+rely on proverbs to help them out, because
+the whole thing puts you right outside of
+common-sense to begin with.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane was sitting looking out upon the
+pretty garden. &quot;I know, Auntie; I only
+quoted that in reference to the Sewing
+Society gossip. It's never the expected
+that happens in their world; it's the expected
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;146]</span>
+that always happens in my world.
+And proverbs don't exist in my world; they're
+every one of them a human limitation.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, Jane, I don't know; some of
+them are very pretty, and when I've seen
+Matilda over the fence and run down to
+get a few scraps, I've taken considerable
+comfort in 'No cloud without a silver
+lining' and 'It never rains but it pours.'
+They were a great help to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane kissed her tenderly. &quot;Bless you,
+Auntie,&mdash;everything's all right and all
+lovely, and Madeleine made me so happy
+to-day. I'm sure that she's engaged.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I've thought that, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, and I'm so glad for her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I hope he's good enough for her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, I'm sure that he is.&quot; Jane thought
+a minute. &quot;And Madeleine gave me a big
+lesson, too,&quot; she added.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;She showed me that with all my teaching
+and preaching, I don't trust God half
+enough yet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;147]</span>
+&quot;Well, Jane,&quot; said Susan solemnly, &quot;I
+s'pose trusting God is like being grateful
+for the sunshine,&mdash;human beings ain't big
+enough to hold all they ought to feel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Perhaps we'd be nothing but trust and
+gratitude, then,&quot; said Jane, smiling.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;They're nice feelings to be made of,&quot;
+said Susan serenely, &quot;but I must go and
+put my bonnet away. But, oh, heavens,
+when I think that to-morrow old Mrs.
+Croft is coming!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And that lots of good is coming with
+her; she is coming to bring happiness and
+happiness only.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I know,&quot; Susan's air was completely
+submissive. &quot;I can hardly wait
+for her to get here. They wondered at the
+Sewing Society if she'd sing Captain Jinks
+all night often. She does sometimes, you
+know. But I'm sure we'll like her. She's
+a nice woman.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;148]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">OLD MRS. CROFT</p>
+
+<p class="indent">OLD Mrs. Croft arrived the next afternoon
+about half after four. She was
+rolled up in her chair, and her small trunk
+followed on a wheelbarrow.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;How old you have grown!&quot; she said
+to Susan, by way of greeting, as she grated
+up the gravel. &quot;My, to think you ever
+looked young!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They wheeled her into the hall. &quot;Same
+hall,&quot; she said, looking about, &quot;same
+paper you had thirty years ago. Oh, my,
+to think of it. I've papered and papered
+and scraped off, and papered and papered
+and scraped off, and then papered again in
+those same thirty years.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They got her into the room on the ground
+floor, which had been prepared for her.
+&quot;I suppose this was the most convenient
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;149]</span>
+place to put me,&quot; she said, &quot;and so you
+put me in it. Put me where you please,
+only I do hope you haven't beetles. It
+makes me very nervous to hear 'em chipping
+about all night, and when I'm nervous, I
+don't sleep, and when I don't sleep, I just
+can't help lying awake. It's a way I've
+got. I caught it from my husband when
+he was a baby. He'd wake up and give
+it to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan went out with Jane to get her some
+supper. &quot;I never thought much about
+Katie Croft,&quot; she said, &quot;but I never doubted
+she had a hard time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes,&quot; said Jane, &quot;and one of the nicest
+things in this world is to be able to give
+some one who's had a hard time a rest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Wouldn't it be dreadful if she died,
+though, while she was here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Who? Old Mrs. Croft?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, no, she won't ever die. I meant
+Katie. Everybody says she's going to run
+away, but if she don't do that and dies,
+we'll be just as badly off as if she did it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;150]</span>
+&quot;Oh, Auntie!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, Jane, we'd have to keep old Mrs.
+Croft till she died.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I guess there's not much chance of
+that,&quot; Jane said; &quot;she won't die. She
+has come here to do us good and to receive
+good herself, that's all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan looked appalled. &quot;Surely you
+don't expect to sunshine <i>her</i> up, do you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Then Susan looked amazed. &quot;Well, I
+never did! I thought she was just here
+to do us good. I&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Their conversation was suddenly interrupted
+by a piercing shriek. Jane flew.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm so happy I just had to let it out,&quot;
+Mrs. Croft announced. &quot;I can't hold in
+joy or sorrow. Sorrow I let out in the low
+of my voice&mdash;like a cow, you know&mdash;but
+joy I let rise to the skies. You'll hear
+to-night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane looked at her and smiled. She
+looked like a story-book witch in a nice,
+white, modern bed. &quot;I thought that perhaps
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;151]</span>
+you wanted something,&quot; she said,
+turning to leave the room again.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, indeed, I never want anything.
+I ain't by no means so bad off as is give
+out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I guessed as much. You can make a
+fresh start now, and we shan't remind you
+of the past.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, then I'm coming to the table,&quot; exclaimed
+Mrs. Croft, &quot;and I'm going to be
+helped like a Christian and feed myself
+like a human being. This being put to bed
+and just all but tied there with a rope isn't
+going to go on much longer, I can tell you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't speak of it at all,&quot; said Jane;
+&quot;you just do what you please here, and
+we'll let you. I'm going to get you your
+supper now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Stop!&quot; cried old Mrs. Croft sharply.
+&quot;Stop! I won't have it! I won't stand
+it. Oh, I've had such a time,&quot; she went
+on, bringing her clenched fist down vigorously
+on her knee under the bedclothes
+and raising her voice very high indeed,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;152]</span>
+&quot;such a time! I had a beautiful son that
+you or any girl might have been proud to
+marry, and then he must go and marry that
+Katie Croft creature. There ain't many
+things to cut a mother's heart to the quick
+like seeing her own son marry her own
+daughter-in-law. Such a nice raised boy
+as he was, so neat, and she kicking her
+clothes under the bed at night to tidy up
+the room. Oh!&quot; cried Mrs. Croft, lifting
+her voice to a still more surprising pitch,
+&quot;what I have suffered! Nothing ain't been
+spared me. I lost my son and the use of
+my legs from the shock and&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Supper is all ready,&quot; Jane interrupted
+sweetly and calmly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What you got?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Sardines&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I never eat 'em.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Toast.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I hate it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Plum preserves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Lord have mercy on me, I wouldn't
+swallow one if you gave it to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;153]</span>
+Jane stood still at the door.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan, having heard the screams, came
+running in.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, Mrs. Ralston,&quot; cried Mrs. Croft,
+&quot;I had&quot;&mdash;Jane rose, approached the bed,
+and laid a firm hand on her arm. &quot;What
+do you want for supper?&quot; she asked in a
+quiet, penetrating tone.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't want nothing,&quot; cried Mrs.
+Croft; &quot;days I eat and days I don't.
+This is a day I don't eat, and on such a day
+I only take a little ham and eggs from time
+to time. Oh, my husband, how I did love
+you! It's just come over me how I loved
+him, and I love him so I can't hardly stand
+it&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We'll go out and have supper ourselves,
+then,&quot; said Jane.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Eat, drink, and be merry while you can,&quot;
+fairly yelled Mrs. Croft. &quot;The handwriting
+is on the wall and the Medes and Persians
+is in the chicken yard right now. Oh,
+what a&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They slipped out and shut the door after
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;154]</span>
+them. Susan turned a scared face Jane's
+way. &quot;Why, she's crazy!&quot; she said.
+&quot;Katie always said so, and folks thought
+she was just talking. It's awful.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;She's a little excited with the change,&quot;
+said Jane soothingly; &quot;she'll be calmer
+soon. It's very bad to shut one's self off
+from others. It's better to fuss along
+with disagreeable people than to live altogether
+alone. She's grown flighty through
+being left alone. It's a wonder that you
+didn't get odd yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">When they went back after supper, Mrs.
+Croft was sound asleep.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't wake her, for goodness' sake,&quot;
+whispered Susan, in the doorway. Jane
+left the room quietly, and her aunt took
+her by the arm and led her up-stairs.
+&quot;This is pretty serious,&quot; she said. &quot;I
+think Katie Croft ought to have told us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;She didn't want her to come; we insisted,&quot;
+said Jane.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I tell you what,&quot; said Susan, &quot;we were
+too happy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;155]</span>
+Susan's tone was so solemn that Jane
+had an odd little qualm. But the next
+instant she knew that all was right, because
+all is always right. &quot;Auntie,&quot; she said,
+putting her hand on the older woman's
+shoulder, &quot;you must try to realize that
+you've moved out of the world where things
+go wrong into the world where things go
+right. When you go out of the cold, dark
+winter night into a cosy, warm house, you
+don't fear that the house will turn dark
+and cold any minute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But old Mrs. Croft isn't a house; she's
+moved into us, instead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane smiled her customary smile of
+tranquil sweetness. &quot;She has come to
+show us ourselves,&quot; she said, &quot;and to bring
+us to some kind of better things. I know
+it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan's eyes altered to confidence.
+&quot;Well, Sunshine Jane,&quot; she said, &quot;I'll try
+to believe that you know. I'll try.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They went to bed early, and Jane slept
+on the dining-room sofa. In the night
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;156]</span>
+Mrs. Croft, calling, woke her. She jumped
+up and went to her at once.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm hungry. You didn't ask me here
+to starve me, did you? Oh, how hungry
+I am. I've never been so hungry before.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll get you anything you like,&quot; the girl
+said. &quot;What shall it be?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mrs. Croft shook her head lugubriously.
+&quot;Whatever I eat is sure to kill me. I wish
+I was home. You don't know how good
+dear Katie is to me, Miss Grey. Nobody
+could, unless they lived with her year in
+and year out as I do. Something told me
+never to leave my sweet child, and I disobeyed
+my conscience which won't let me
+sleep for aching like a serpent's tooth. Oh,
+my little Katie, my pretty little Katie, my
+loving little Katie that I went and left at
+home! Take me to her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But she isn't at home,&quot; said Jane.
+&quot;She's gone away on a little visit. She
+went last evening.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I shall never see her again,&quot; said Mrs.
+Croft mournfully. &quot;I shall never see no
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;157]</span>
+one again. Oh, dear; oh, dear. My eyes.
+My eyes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What shall I get you? A glass of
+milk?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It doesn't matter. Whatever you like.
+I was never one to make trouble. Whatever
+you like.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">When Jane returned with the milk and
+some hastily prepared bread and butter,
+Mrs. Croft was praying rapidly. &quot;I think
+I've got religion,&quot; said she, in a bright,
+chatty tone; &quot;if you'll sit down, I'll convert
+you. It's never too late to mend,
+and so get your darning basket and come
+right here.&quot; She began to eat and drink
+very rapidly. &quot;It's going to kill me,&quot; she
+said, between bites, &quot;but I don't care a
+mite. What is life after all,&mdash;a vain
+fleeting shadow of vanity,&mdash;why, you
+ain't put no jam on this bread!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do you like jam? I'll get you some at
+once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, merciful heavens, waking me up
+in the dead of night to give me plain bread
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;158]</span>
+and no jam! I shall never see Katie again,
+and perhaps it's just as well, for she'd not
+stand such doings. Oh, you idle, thriftless
+girl, take me home, take me home at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;In the morning,&quot; said Jane gently.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, my,&mdash;why did I ever come!
+Katie, my Katie, my long-loving Katie;
+my dear little Katie that's gone to New
+York!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Then, having swallowed the milk in
+great gulps and the bread in great bites,
+she shut her eyes and lay back again in bed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Shan't I bring you anything else?&quot;
+Jane asked.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No,&quot; said the invalid, &quot;not by no means,
+and I'll trouble you to get out and keep
+out and don't make a noise in the morning,
+for I want my last hours to be peaceful,
+and I'm going to take a screw-driver and
+fix my thoughts firmly to heaven at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane went softly out.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;159]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">SHE SLEEPS</p>
+
+<p class="indent">THE next morning Susan felt perturbed.
+&quot;She'll take up a whole week of our
+happy visit, and I can't bear to lose a
+minute. The time's going too fast, anyhow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lorenzo Rath came in shortly after.
+He and Madeleine and Emily Mead were
+in and out daily to suit themselves by this
+time. &quot;Do you know, Mrs. Croft has
+gone off, nobody knows where,&quot; he said
+gravely; &quot;she's left no address, and people
+say she'll never come back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan threw up her hands with a wail.
+&quot;Oh, Jane, she <i>has</i> left that dreadful old
+woman on us for life; I'll just bet anything
+folks knew exactly that she meant to do it
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;160]</span>
+when they talked to me so. What <i>will</i>
+Matilda say when she comes back?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane was silent a minute. &quot;It's no use
+doubting what one really believes,&quot; she
+said finally. &quot;I do really believe that I
+came here for a good purpose, and I know
+that I had a good purpose in inviting Mrs.
+Croft. I'm taught that to doubt is like
+pouring ink into the pure water of one's
+good intentions, and I won't doubt. I
+refuse to.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But if you go back to where you come
+from and leave me with Matilda and old
+Mrs. Croft, I'll be dead or I'll wish I was
+dead,&mdash;it all comes to the same thing,&quot;
+cried poor Susan.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Auntie,&quot; said Jane firmly, &quot;I shan't
+leave you alone with Aunt Matilda and
+Mrs. Croft, you needn't fear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh,&quot; said Susan, her face undergoing a
+lightning transformation, &quot;if you'll stay
+here, I'll keep Mrs. Croft or anybody else,
+with pleasure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What, even me?&quot; laughed Lorenzo.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;161]</span>
+&quot;I'd like to keep you,&quot; said Susan
+warmly. &quot;I think you're one of the nicest
+young men I ever knew.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'd like to stay,&quot; said Lorenzo, looking
+at Jane.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She lifted up her eyes and they had a
+peculiar expression.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Just then Emily Mead came in. &quot;Only
+think,&quot; she said, directly greetings were
+over, &quot;people say Mrs. Croft drew all
+their money out of the bank before she left.
+Everybody says she's deserted her mother-in-law
+completely.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Jane, it really is so,&quot; said Susan; &quot;she
+really is gone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane looked steadily into their three
+faces. &quot;If I begin worrying and doubting,
+of course there'll be a chance to worry and
+trouble, because I'm the strongest of you
+all,&quot; she said gravely, &quot;but I won't go
+down and live in the world of worry and
+trouble under any circumstances. I know
+that only good can come of Mrs. Croft's
+being here. I <i>know</i> it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;162]</span>
+&quot;I wish that I could learn how you
+manage such faith,&quot; said the young artist.
+&quot;I'd try it on myself,&mdash;yes, I would, for
+a fact.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's not so easy,&quot; said Jane, looking
+earnestly at him. &quot;It means just the
+same mental discipline that physical culture
+means for the muscles. It takes
+time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But I'd like to learn,&quot; said Lorenzo.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;So would I!&quot; said Emily Mead.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I've begun already,&quot; said Susan;
+&quot;every time I think of old Mrs. Croft I
+say: 'She's here for some good purpose,
+God help us.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Tell me,&quot; said Emily Mead, &quot;what
+possessed you to have her, anyway?
+Everybody's wondering.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Jane thought that it would be a nice
+thing to do. And so we did it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do you always do things if you think
+of them?&quot; Emily asked Jane.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm taught that I must.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Taught?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;163]</span>
+&quot;It's part of my sunshine work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That's why she's here,&quot; interposed
+Susan; &quot;she thought of me and came right
+along.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Emily looked thoughtful. &quot;I wonder if
+I could learn,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Anybody can learn anything,&quot; said
+Lorenzo.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Wouldn't it be nice to all learn Jane's
+religion?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I've got it most learned,&quot; said Susan,
+&quot;I'm to where I'm most ready to stand
+Matilda, if only we don't have to keep old
+Mrs. Croft.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What is old Mrs. Croft doing now?&quot;
+Emily asked suddenly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;She's still asleep. She says that she
+sleeps late.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Then Emily rose to go. Lorenzo Rath
+rose and left with her.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Jane,&quot; said Susan solemnly, after they
+were alone, &quot;I'm afraid that religion of
+yours ain't as practical as it might be, after
+all. It's got us old Mrs. Croft, and I
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;164]</span>
+ain't saying a word, but now I'm about
+positive it's going to lose you that young
+man. You could have him if you'd just
+exert yourself a little, and you don't at
+all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I couldn't have him, Auntie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, you could. Don't tell me. I
+know a young man when I see one, and Mr.
+Rath's a real young man. He loves you,
+Jane, just because nobody could help it,
+and if you weren't always so busy, he'd
+get on a good deal faster.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I can't marry, Aunt Susan.&quot; Jane,
+with Madeleine's secret high in her heart,
+was very busy setting the kitchen to rights.
+&quot;Some people are not meant to have homes
+of their own. It's the century.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Fiddle for the century,&quot; said Susan,
+with something almost like violence. &quot;I'm
+awful tired of all this hash and talk about
+the century. About the only thing I've
+had to think of since Matilda made up her
+mind I was too sick to get up, was what I
+read in newspapers about the troubles of
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;165]</span>
+the century. Centuries is always in hot
+water till they're well over, and then they
+get to be called the good old days. I guess
+days ain't so different nor centuries either
+nor women neither. Fiddle for all this
+kind of rubbish,&mdash;it's no use except to
+upset a nice girl like you and keep her from
+marrying a nice young fellow like Mr. Rath.
+Girls don't know nothing about love no
+more. Mercy on us, why, it's a kind of
+thing that makes you willing to go right
+out and hack down trees for the man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane looked a little smiling and a little
+wistful. &quot;I'll tell you what it is, Auntie,&quot;
+she said; &quot;when my father died he left a
+debt that ought to be paid, and I promised
+him I'd pay it. I couldn't marry&mdash;it
+wouldn't be honest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan's eyes flew pitifully open. &quot;Good
+heavens, mercy on us, no; then you never
+can't marry, sure and certain. There never
+was the man yet so good he wouldn't throw
+a thing like that in a woman's teeth. It's
+a man's way, my dear, and a wife ought not
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;166]</span>
+to mind, but one of the difficulties of being
+a wife is that you always do mind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I know that I should mind,&quot; said Jane
+quietly, &quot;and, anyway, I don't want to
+marry. I'm much happier going about on
+my sunbeam mission, trying to help others
+a bit here and a bit there.&quot; She smiled
+bravely as she spoke, for all that it takes a
+deal of training in truth not to waver or
+quaver in such a minute. She had to think
+steadily along the lines which she had
+worked so hard to build into every brain-cell
+and spirit-fiber of her make-up.
+&quot;Auntie,&quot; she went on then, after a brief
+reflection that he who works in truth's wool
+works without fear as to the breaking of
+one single thread, &quot;you and I are trying
+dreadfully hard&mdash;trying with all our might
+to do exactly right. We're trying to break
+your chains by the only way in which
+material chains can be broken,&mdash;by breaking
+those of others. We can't go astray.
+If old Mrs. Croft should stay here till she
+died, and if I should work till I died at
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;167]</span>
+paying the debts of others, she'd stay for
+some good purpose, and I'd be working in
+the same way. Be very sure of that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">For a second Susan looked cheered&mdash;but
+only for a second. Then, &quot;That's all very
+well for you and me, who want to be uplifted&mdash;at
+least you want to be, and I
+think maybe I'll like it after I get a little
+used to it. But Matilda doesn't know or
+care anything about planes, and it's Matilda
+I keep thinking of.&quot; There was another
+pause, and then she added: &quot;And it's
+Matilda I'll have to live with,&mdash;along
+with old Mrs. Croft. Oh, Jane, I'd be so
+much happier if you'd marry Mr. Rath and
+let me come and live with you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane went and put her arms about her.
+&quot;Auntie, it isn't easy to learn my way of
+looking at things, because you have to keep
+at them till they're so firm in you that
+nothing from outside can ever shake or uproot
+them. But what I believe is just so
+firm with me, and I won't give anything up,&mdash;not
+even about Mrs. Croft. We're all
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;168]</span>
+right and she's all right and everything's
+all right, and I don't need to marry any
+one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan winked mournfully. &quot;If there
+was only some way to meet Matilda on her
+way home and kind of get that through her
+head before she saw Mrs. Croft. You see,
+she always shuts that room up cold winters
+and keeps cold meat in there. I've had
+many a good meal out of that room.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You must not cast about for ways and
+means,&quot; said Jane firmly. &quot;Life is like a
+sunshiny warm day, and our part is to
+breathe and feel and thank God,&mdash;not to
+look for the sun to surely cease shining.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But it does stop,&quot; wailed Susan, &quot;often.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, thank Heaven,&quot; said Jane, &quot;if it
+didn't, we'd be burnt up alive by our own
+vitality.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, dear,&quot; said Susan briefly, &quot;you've
+an answer for everything. Well, let's get
+dinner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They went into the kitchen.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;169]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">EMILY'S PROJECT</p>
+
+<p class="indent">AFTER dinner that day Emily Mead
+came with her work. Emily Mead
+was one of those nondescript girls who seem
+to spring up more and more thickly in these
+troublous, churned-up times of ours.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Too pretty to be plain, too unattractive
+to be beautiful. Too well-to-do to need
+to work, too poor to attain to anything for
+which she longed. Too clever to belong to
+her class, not clever enough to rise above it.
+Altogether a very fit subject for Jane to
+&quot;sunshine,&quot; as her aunt put it.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;How do you get along with old Mrs.
+Croft?&quot; she asked, directly she was seated.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;She's asleep yet,&quot; Jane said; &quot;she
+was so restless all night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;170]</span>
+&quot;She always sleeps days and is awake all
+night; didn't you know that before?&quot;
+queried Emily, in surprise. &quot;Some one
+ought to have told you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It doesn't matter,&quot; said Jane serenely.
+There was never any bravado in her serenity;
+it was quite sincere.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That was what made Katie so mad,&quot;
+Emily continued. &quot;She said it gave her
+her days, to be sure, but, as she couldn't
+very well sleep, too, all day, she never really
+had any time herself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We'll get along all right,&quot; said Jane
+quietly; &quot;old people have ways, and then
+they change and have other ways, and the
+rest must expect to be considerate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Mercy on us, I wonder what she'll
+change to next,&quot; said Susan, with feeling.
+She had just returned from listening at the
+invalid's door.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't worry, Auntie,&mdash;just remember!&quot;
+Jane's smile was at once bright
+and also a bit admonitory.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm trying to believe that everything's
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;171]</span>
+all right always, too,&quot; said Susan to Emily,
+&quot;but, oh, my!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They went out on the shady side of the
+house to where a little table stood, which
+was made out of a board nailed into a cut-off
+tree stump. Jane and Emily carried
+chairs, and Susan brought her darning
+basket. It was delightfully pleasant.
+From time to time Jane or her aunt slipped
+in and listened at the door, but old Mrs.
+Croft slept on like a baby.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I do wonder if Katie Croft has really
+gone for good!&quot; Emily said to Susan, while
+Jane was absent on one of these errands.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I can't trust myself even with my own
+opinions,&quot; said Susan reservedly; &quot;I haven't
+much time to get changed before Matilda
+comes, you know, and I want to believe in
+Jane's religion if I can. It's so kind of
+warm and comforting. I like it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Jane,&quot; Emily said, turning towards her
+when she returned, &quot;I've come to-day on an
+awfully serious errand, and I want you to
+help me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;172]</span>
+&quot;I will certainly, if I can. What is it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do you really believe that wanting
+anything shows that one is going to get it?
+You said something like that the other day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I know that one can get anything one
+wants,&quot; Jane answered gravely; &quot;of course
+the responsibility of some kinds of wanting
+is awfully heavy. But the law doesn't
+alter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Can you explain it to me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, that's it,&quot; said Susan, &quot;you tell
+us how to manage. I want to get something
+myself. Or I mean it's that I want something
+I've got to go away again. Or I
+guess I'd better not try to say what I
+mean.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But you won't either of you understand
+what I mean, when I tell you,&quot; said Jane.
+&quot;It's just as I said before, it takes a lot of
+study to get your brain-cells to where they
+can hold an idea that's really new to you.
+Heads are like empty beehives,&mdash;you have
+to have the comb before you can have the
+honey, and every different kind of study
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;173]</span>
+requires a different kind of cells just for
+its use alone. When things don't interest
+us, it's because the brain-cells in regard to
+that subject have never been developed.
+That's all. That's what they taught
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I think it's interesting,&quot; said Susan.
+&quot;I always thought that the inside of my
+head was one thing that I didn't need to
+bother about. Seems it isn't, after all.
+Go on, you Sunshine Jane, you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm like your aunt. I thought that
+what I thought was the last thing that
+mattered,&quot; said Emily.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Everything matters. There's nothing
+in this world that doesn't matter, because
+this world is all matter. Anything that
+doesn't matter must be spirit. Don't you
+see that when you say and really mean that
+a thing doesn't matter, you mean that to
+you it isn't material,&mdash;that it's no part of
+your world?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Dear me, I never thought of that,&quot; said
+Susan, &quot;then I suppose as long as things do
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;174]</span>
+matter to us, it means we just hang on
+to them and hold them for all we're
+worth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But, Jane, thoughts can't matter much?
+Or we can forget things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;There isn't anything that we can think
+of at all that we are ever free not to think
+about again&mdash;that is, if it's a good
+thought,&quot; said Jane. &quot;If a thought comes
+to us at all, it comes with some responsibility
+attached. Either we are meant to gain
+strength by dismissing it, if it seems wrong,
+or it's our duty to do something with it, if
+it's right. Most people's minds are all
+littered up with thoughts that they never
+either use or put away. That's what makes
+them so stupid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Goodness!&quot; exclaimed Susan. &quot;Why,
+I never put a thought away in my life,&mdash;not
+as I know of.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I've never thought anything at all about
+my thoughts,&quot; said Emily, looking rather
+startled.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;175]</span>
+&quot;Lots of people don't,&quot; said Jane; &quot;they
+act just as a woman would in making a
+dress, if she cut it out a bit now and a bit
+then without ever laying the pattern back
+even, and then joined it anywhere any time,
+and then was surprised when it didn't even
+prove fit to wear&mdash;not to speak of looking
+all witched.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Is that what ails some lives?&quot; Emily
+asked, looking yet more startled.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's what ails almost every life. It's
+what makes 'I didn't think' the worst confession
+in the world. A man driving a
+motor with his eyes shut wouldn't be a bit
+worse. Life's a great powerful force always
+rushing on, and we swing into the tide and
+never bother to row or to steer or to see that
+our boat is water-tight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You make me feel awful, Jane. As if
+I'd been lazy, staying in bed so. And it
+was the only way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You couldn't do any better, Auntie.
+At least you weren't doing anything wrong.
+Being moored in a little, quiet cove is better
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;176]</span>
+than being adrift and slamming into the
+boats of others.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'd really have had to think more about
+Matilda's thoughts than my own, if I'd
+known. I'd never have had time for much
+thinking as I pleased in the way you say; I
+was always jumping up and flopping down.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Jane,&quot; said Emily earnestly, &quot;then
+every thought matters?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, or matterates.&quot; Jane smiled. &quot;If
+a thought doesn't produce good, it'll surely
+produce bad,&mdash;it's got to do something.
+You plant your thoughts in time just as one
+plants seed in the ground, and any further
+thoughts of the same kind add to its strength
+until enough strength causes an appearance
+in this world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You really believe that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I know it. I know it so well that I
+think that every seed that's ever fallen was
+a lesson that we were too stupid to learn.
+Every time a seed fell and germinated, God
+said: 'There, that's the very plainest teaching
+on earth. Can't you see?' Sometimes
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;177]</span>
+I think the world's all a book for us
+to learn heaven in, just as our bodies explain
+our souls to us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan looked at Emily in an awed way.
+&quot;I guess I can get to believe it all,&quot; she
+said, in a low tone; &quot;it sounds so plain
+when you stop and think of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll try to believe it,&quot; said Emily, &quot;but
+what I care most about is to learn how to
+get what you want?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane considered. &quot;That comes ever so
+far along. You have to learn to get what
+you want out of yourself before you can be
+upon the plane where you naturally get
+what you want, because you are too far on
+to want what you couldn't get.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Emily didn't understand and didn't care.
+&quot;Do tell me how it's done, anyway,&quot; she
+begged eagerly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't know whether what I say will
+have any meaning for you, but I'll say it,
+anyway. You'll have to know that it's
+what I believe and live by, and if you're to
+believe it and live by it, it will come to you
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;178]</span>
+quite easily, and if not it's because it isn't
+for you yet.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I mean to believe,&quot; said Emily firmly.
+&quot;I want something, and I'll do anything to
+get it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane shook her head. &quot;That's the very
+hardest road to come by,&quot; she said, &quot;unless
+it's some overcoming in yourself that you
+are wanting. You see, the very first step
+has to be the conquering of ourselves, not
+the asking for material things. You have
+to open a channel for the spirit, and then
+the material flows through afterwards, as a
+matter of course. But if you've gone on a
+good ways, you don't think of getting <i>things</i>
+at all; you just want opportunities to grow,
+and you know that what you need for life
+will keep coming.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But it doesn't with lots of people,&quot; said
+Emily. &quot;Just look at the poor&mdash;and the
+suffering.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;They aren't living according to this
+law,&quot; said Jane. &quot;They're living on
+another plane. There are different planes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;179]</span>
+&quot;Don't you see,&quot; interposed Susan, &quot;we
+asked Mrs. Croft because it would get me
+on a plane where, when Matilda came back,
+she wouldn't mind so many changes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Emily looked inquiring. &quot;A different
+plane?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes,&quot; said Jane, &quot;you can lift yourself
+straight out of any circle of conditions by
+suddenly altering all your own ideas&mdash;if
+you've strength to do so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'd never have asked Mrs. Croft alone
+by myself, you know,&quot; said Susan; &quot;nobody
+that looked at things the way other
+folks do, would. But Jane looks at everything
+different from everybody else. She
+said it would be a quick way of being different.
+I guess she's right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I never heard any ideas like that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But they aren't new,&quot; said Jane;
+&quot;they're older than the hills. God made
+the world and then gave every man dominion
+over his world. We all have the whole
+of <i>our</i> world to rule. This way of looking
+at things is new to you, but there are
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;180]</span>
+thousands and thousands of people proving
+it true every day. All the old religions
+teach it, and all the new religions bid you
+live it or they won't be for you. They
+don't kill men for not believing now. They
+just let them live and suffer and go blundering
+on. Why&quot;&mdash;Jane grew suddenly pink
+with fervor&mdash;&quot;why, everywhere I look, almost,
+I see just lovely chances being let die,
+because people won't fuss to tend them.
+People are too careless and too thoughtless.
+The truth is so plain that the very word
+'thoughtless' fairly screams what's the matter
+to every one, but hardly any one bothers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But the people who believe as you do,&mdash;do
+they all get everything that they
+want?&quot; asked Emily.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Or else they want what they get,&quot; said
+Jane; &quot;it comes to exactly the same thing
+when you begin to understand. The beauty
+of every step nearer God is the new learning
+of how exactly right his world is managed.
+All my old puzzles have been cleared up,
+and it's so wonderful. Why, I used to
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;181]</span>
+think that when beautiful, dear little children
+died it was awful; but now I know
+that they came to help and teach others,
+and that when they'd spread their lesson to
+those others, they didn't need lessons themselves
+and just left the school and went
+back into the beautiful world of Better
+Things. It was such a help to me to know
+why splendid men and women who were
+needed went so suddenly sometimes; it's
+because they're needed much more elsewhere
+and respond to that call of duty at
+once. I don't think of death as anything
+dreadful now; I think of it as a door that
+will open and close very easily for me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's one door that Matilda liked to keep
+setting open,&quot; said Susan,&mdash;&quot;oh, dear me,
+Jane, I'm trying to grow brain-cells and be
+a credit to you, and I can't think of anything
+but old Mrs. Croft. Perhaps she's
+woke up.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane rose and went into the house.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do you think you can take it all in?&quot;
+Emily asked, slowly and thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;182]</span>
+&quot;I'm doing my best,&quot; said Susan, &quot;she's
+so happy and so good I think she must know
+what she's talking about.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane came back. &quot;She's still sleeping,&quot;
+she said; &quot;don't you worry, dear Auntie.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I can't help it,&quot; said Susan. &quot;I've
+dodged about for so long and played things
+were so that weren't so, that I guess I'm
+pretty much out of tune, and it'll be a little
+while before I can stop worrying.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, you aren't out of tune,&quot; said Jane,
+smiling at her affectionately, &quot;or if you are,
+just say you're in tune and you will be,
+right off.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do you believe that?&quot; Emily asked.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why, of course. I know it absolutely
+for myself, and I know that it's equally true
+for others if they have the strength to
+declare it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But how?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;How! Why, because every declaration
+of good is spiritual, and proves that you
+are one with your soul and master over your
+body, just as false declarations make you
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;183]</span>
+one with your body and take away all power
+from your soul. That's how mental cures
+work. When anybody says 'I am well,'
+she declares souls can't be ill, and she makes
+Truth stronger by adding her strength to its
+strength. But when a man says 'I am ill,'
+he declares a lie, for souls can't be ill, and
+so he's claiming not to be spiritual, but just
+to be his own body. It's as if a weaver
+stopped weaving and said: 'I've broken
+several threads, and <i>I'm</i> going to be imperfect,
+and <i>I</i> won't bring any price, and
+<i>I'll</i> only be fit to cut up into cleaning
+cloths.' What would you think of him?
+You'd say: 'Why, that's only an hour's work
+in cloth and can be put aside without further
+thought. Just go right on and with your
+skill and judgment make the next piece
+perfect. It was never any of it <i>you</i>; it
+was the stuff you were making.' Bodies
+are the stuff we are making.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Emily laid down her work. &quot;Jane, that's
+wonderful,&quot; she said solemnly. &quot;You put
+that so that I really got hold of it. I
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;184]</span>
+understand exactly what you mean, and if
+only everybody else did!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But nobody else really matters to you,&quot;
+said Jane; &quot;all that matters to you is that
+you believe. They have their lives&mdash;you
+have yours.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Emily was looking very earnest. &quot;I'm
+going to try,&quot; she said, rising. &quot;I'm going
+to try. I must go now, but I'm going
+home to go to work in my world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane walked with her to the gate. &quot;I'll
+help you all I can,&quot; she said, &quot;I'm so glad
+you're interested. It makes life so splendid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Emily stopped and took her hand.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Jane,&quot; she said, &quot;I want to tell you
+something. I want to marry Mr. Rath.
+I think he's the nicest man I ever saw.
+Do you really&mdash;really&mdash;believe that I
+can, if I learn to think as you do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane turned white beneath the other's
+eyes. &quot;Why, but don't you know&mdash;don't
+you <i>see</i> that he's in love?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;In love! With you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;185]</span>
+&quot;With me,&mdash;oh, <i>no</i>. With Madeleine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, no, he's not in love with her,&quot; said
+Emily decidedly; &quot;I know that. I know
+that perfectly well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;They knew one another before they
+came here, you know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why, I see them round town together
+all hours,&quot; said Emily; &quot;they're like
+brother and sister, they're not one bit in
+love. I thought that perhaps it was you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, dear, no&mdash;I can't marry. I never
+even think of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't you use any of your ideas with
+him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, indeed! I never ask anything for
+myself any more. I just ask to manifest
+God's will,&mdash;to help in any of His work
+that offers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You're awfully good, dear. But, honestly,
+do you think that I could surely get
+him if I tried?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why, the law is certain, but&quot;&mdash;Jane
+spoke gently&mdash;&quot;you're so far from
+understanding it yet. I only told you a little.
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;186]</span>
+It takes ever so long to get one's mind built
+to where it will grasp an ideal and hold it
+without wavering once. There's such a lot
+I didn't tell you; I couldn't in those few
+minutes. I just showed you the picture,
+and you have to work hard till you learn
+how to paint it. You see, a wish is like
+blowing a bubble, and if you add wishes
+and more wishes, you gradually change the
+bubble into a solid mold, which is a real
+thing of spirit but empty of material; then,
+if you keep it solid and firm, the fact of it
+is real spiritually, and a vacuum as to matter
+makes the matter just <i>have</i> to fill it, and it is
+that filling into the mold shaped by our
+thoughts that makes what we see and live
+here in this world. The world is all matter
+circulating in thought-molds. Anything
+that you carefully and steadily and consistently
+think out must become manifest.
+God manifesting His will means that. We
+are His will. And the nearer we approximate
+to the highest in Him, the more we
+can manifest ourselves. That's why very
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;187]</span>
+good people are seldom rich; they want to
+manifest in deeds and not in things. That's
+why they never keep money&mdash;it only represents
+to them the need of others. If you
+really and truly love Mr. Rath, and feel it
+steadily and steadfastly your mission to
+make him very happy, of course it will be,
+even though he loved some one else. But to
+want a man who loved some one else
+wouldn't be possible to any one who believed
+in this teaching. That's where it is,
+you see. When you get power, you never
+want to do evil with it. Power from God
+never manifests in evil. When you are
+where you can get whatever you want, it
+simply means that you are living where only
+good can come, and where you are able to
+see it coming.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Emily stood perfectly still, looking downwards.
+Then suddenly she burst into
+violent sobs. &quot;Oh, I feel so small, so mean&mdash;so
+wicked. It isn't as you feel a bit with
+me. I just want to get out of this stupid
+town&mdash;and he's so good-looking!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;188]</span>
+Jane's eyelids fell.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I feel so mean and petty,&quot; Emily went
+on, pressing her hands over her face. &quot;I
+could never be good like you. I can't
+understand. I just want to be married.
+I'm so tired of my life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well,&quot; said Jane, with steady firmness,
+&quot;why don't you go to him and talk it all
+over nicely? As you would with Madeleine
+or me. Perhaps that would be best.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do you really think so?&quot; said Emily,
+lifting her eyes; &quot;do you believe that a
+girl can go to a man and be honest with
+him, just as a man can with a woman?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I couldn't,&quot; said Jane, &quot;because I
+wouldn't want to, but if you want to do it,
+I don't see why you can't.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But why wouldn't you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Because I get my things that other way,&mdash;simply
+by asking God to guide me towards
+His will and guide me from mistake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Did you do that about asking old Mrs.
+Croft?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;189]</span>
+&quot;Certainly. I do it about everything.
+I live by that rule now. I've absolute faith
+in God's guidance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Emily looked at her. &quot;It must be beautiful,&quot;
+she said, &quot;and you really think that
+it would be all right for me to go and talk
+to him, do you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes,&quot; said Jane slowly. &quot;I think that
+it would be best all round.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;After all, this is the woman's century,&quot;
+said Emily, with a sudden energy quite unlike
+her previous interest. &quot;I don't know
+why I shouldn't.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I think that the best way to handle all
+our problems is to let them flow naturally
+to their finish,&quot; said Jane; &quot;dammed or
+choked rivers always make trouble.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I should like to say just what I felt to a
+man just once,&quot; said Emily thoughtfully.
+&quot;It would do me a world of good.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Then say it,&quot; said Jane. &quot;Only are
+you really sure that he's not in love with
+Madeleine?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, I'm positive as to that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;190]</span>
+&quot;Then go ahead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They parted, and Jane returned to the
+house. She was not so entirely spiritual
+that she could repress a very human kind of
+smile over Emily's project.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;191]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">EMILY IS HERSELF FREELY</p>
+
+<p class="indent">AS Emily turned from Mrs. Ralston's
+gate, she felt more buoyant happiness
+than anything in life had ever hitherto
+brought her. She felt licensed on high
+authority to revel in the hitherto forbidden.
+She wanted Lorenzo Rath, and she thought
+that she understood how to get him. We
+may follow her thought and then we will
+follow where it led her, for in all the surge
+of the new teaching there is no lesson greater
+to learn than this which Emily had failed
+to grasp,&mdash;that the possession of tools does
+not make one a carver; that all things
+spiritual must be learned exactly as all
+things material. One may have so lived
+previously that the learning is a mere showing
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;192]</span>
+how, but without experience nothing,
+either spiritual, mental, or physical, can be
+efficaciously handled. When people declare
+that something is not true because
+they tried it and it failed to work, remember
+Emily Mead. Emily had acquired just
+one idea out of Jane's exposition: &quot;That
+you could get anything that you want.&quot;
+It is the idea that hosts of people find most
+attractive in this world, quite irrespective
+of its correlative esotericism,&mdash;that the
+soul growing towards infinite power learns
+every upward step by resolutely liking what
+it gets. No man can climb a stair by hacking
+down every step passed; he climbs by
+being so firm upon each step that he can
+poise his whole weight thereon as he mounts.
+It is part of the supremely beautiful logic
+of the highest teaching that the same effort
+which Jesus made&mdash;every great teacher
+has made&mdash;is sure to make, too. We
+must see the Divine embodied in the
+Present and the Weak and the Humble,
+before in our own spirit we may deal, for
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;193]</span>
+the good of all, with the Future and
+Strength and Power. When one seizes
+upon anything God-given as a means of acquiring
+earth-gifts, one has but seized the
+empty air; the idea and then ideal have
+never been in the possession of such an one.
+There is nothing shut away from those who
+really make God's teaching a vital part of
+themselves, but such men and women are
+no longer keen to selfishly possess, and the
+good which they reach out for flows easily
+in for their further distribution; in other
+words, they become what we were all designed
+to be,&mdash;the outward manifestations
+of God's purpose, the living breathing,
+blessed servants of His will.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">How far this interpretation lay from poor
+Emily's comprehension the reader knows.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She hurried along, her whole being bounding
+with joy over the simplicity of the new
+lesson. It all seemed almost too story-book-like
+to be happening in her stupid,
+commonplace life. She had spent so many
+long hours in thinking over how things
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;194]</span>
+would never happen for her, that she had
+entirely lost faith in their ever changing
+their ways and now, all of a sudden, here
+was a complete reversal. Bonds were
+turned into wings; that unattainable being,
+a live man, was not only at hand, but available;
+she felt herself bidden not to doubt
+her power; she judged herself advised to
+say frankly all the things that girls may
+never say. This was the day of feminine
+freedom. To wish was to have. What
+one wanted was the thing that was best for
+one. Emily&mdash;with all of Jane's ideas
+swimming upside down in her head&mdash;felt
+superbly joyous and confident. After all,
+being alive was a pretty good thing.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She turned a corner into the lane that led
+in a roundabout way to her mother's back
+garden gate and walked swiftly. She was
+a fine, straight girl with a lithe, springy walk.
+Perhaps Lorenzo Rath could not have done
+better, from most standpoints, than to
+marry such an one. Many men do worse.
+And there was old Mr. Cattermole's money,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;195]</span>
+too. Some of these views float in all human
+atmosphere to-day&mdash;float there securely,
+because the world is a practical world, and
+an automobile is obvious, while love and
+trust are absolutely unknown to many.
+&quot;Ye cannot serve God and Mammon too,&quot;
+and Mammon is very plain and practical,
+rolling on rubber tires to the best restaurant.
+Emily could not have reduced her
+roseate visions to any such sordid reasoning,
+but love to her meant leaving town and
+having a good-looking and lively young man
+to take her about. This was not really
+love, any more than the means by which
+she expected to acquire it were the religion
+taught by Jane. We hear much of the
+downfall of love and the downfall of religion
+in these days, but no one even stops to
+realize that religion and love cannot possibly
+even shake on their thrones. Their counterfeits
+may crumble and tumble, but real
+truth can never fail. It was the counterfeits
+at which Emily, like many another,
+grasped eagerly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;196]</span>
+So now she was tripping lightly along and,
+turning the twist by the great chestnut tree,
+her heart gave a sudden flop, for just ahead
+she saw her quarry. He was propped
+against the fence, using his knees for an
+easel, while he made a rapid water-color
+sketch. He was good at those little impressions
+of an artistic bit, that nearly
+always show forth in youth a great artist
+struggling to grow.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Emily started, for she was very close to
+him before she saw him, and her rampant
+thoughts led her to blush, apologize, and
+stammer precisely as she might have done,
+had her sex never advanced at all but merely
+remained the dominant note that they have
+always been.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why, Mr. Rath,&quot; and then she paused.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lorenzo&mdash;who wanted to finish his
+sketch&mdash;nodded pleasantly without looking
+up. &quot;Grand day for walking,&quot; he said,
+as a supremely polite hint, and continued to
+work rapidly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Emily went close beside him and looked
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;197]</span>
+downward upon the canvas. &quot;How pretty!
+I wish I knew more about pictures. What
+is that brown hill? You can't see a hill
+from here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That's a cow,&quot; said Lorenzo, painting
+very fast indeed, &quot;but don't ask me to
+explain things, for I can't work and talk at
+the same time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Emily sank down beside him with a
+pleasant sense of proprietorship now that
+she could get him by will power alone.
+&quot;I've just come from Mrs. Ralston's.
+They're in such distress over old Mrs.
+Croft.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Is she worse?&quot; The artist forgot to
+paint all of a sudden, and turned quickly
+towards her.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, no,&mdash;she was asleep when I left.
+Jane didn't seem a bit troubled, but Mrs.
+Ralston is almost wild over not knowing
+what to say to her sister when she comes
+back and finds that awful old woman there.
+It's a terrible situation. Everybody knows
+that young Mrs. Croft has run away. She
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;198]</span>
+just hated to stay and now she's gone.
+Isn't it awful?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, I don't know,&quot; said Lorenzo,
+suddenly regaining his deep interest in work,
+&quot;I have a distinct feeling that Miss Grey
+will bring things out all right for most
+people always. It's her way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, she's a dear girl,&quot; said Emily, and
+paused to have time to consider things a
+little while, feeling that the conversation
+should be continued by the man. The man
+didn't continue the conversation, however,
+merely wielding his brush and looking completely
+absorbed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Then she remembered her mission. &quot;Mr.
+Rath, do you believe in frankness always?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I wish that I did.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But don't you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Civilization wouldn't stand for it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Perhaps not every one could bear it,
+but some could. I could, I'm sure.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Are you so sure?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I am sure. I was talking with
+Jane alone just at the gate before I left, and
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;199]</span>
+she believes that frankness is best always.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's easiest, certainly.&quot; Lorenzo raised
+his eyebrows a little impatiently, but she
+paid no attention.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do you think so?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why, of course. When one wants to be
+let alone and blurts out, 'Let me alone,'
+why, one gets let alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, but that would be impolite,&quot; said
+Emily, feeling that for an artist he used very
+crude metaphor. &quot;Of course, Jane and I
+were not talking about that kind of people,
+or that kind of ways. We were talking of
+people like you and me&mdash;nice people, you
+know. Jane advised me to be quite frank
+with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lorenzo opened his eyes widely. &quot;About
+what, please?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, about all things. You see I meet so
+few men, and men are so interesting, and I
+enjoy talking with them. I've read a good
+deal, and I don't care for the life in this
+place. I want to leave it dreadfully.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;200]</span>
+&quot;So do I,&quot; said the artist. &quot;I quite agree
+with you there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You see, Jane has been teaching me to
+understand life, and I am getting the feeling
+that I am meant for something else than
+just helping my mother, wandering about
+town, and going to church. I'm very tired
+and restless.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lorenzo painted fast.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Mr. Rath, if you&mdash;a man&mdash;felt as I
+do, what would you do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Get out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But where?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Everybody can find a way, if they really
+want to.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It isn't as if I had talent, you see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A good many people haven't talent
+and yet do very well, indeed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But I don't want to be a shop-girl or
+anything like that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Naturally not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There was a pause.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm very much interested in the progress
+women are making,&quot; said Emily. &quot;I
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;201]</span>
+read all I can get hold of about it. Don't
+you think it remarkable?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't think much about it, and I skip
+everything on the subject.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, Mr. Rath!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm a jealous brute. I don't like to
+realize that a woman can do everything
+that is a man's work, even to the verge of
+driving him to starvation, while he can't
+do any of her work under any circumstances.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He could wash and cook and sweep.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, he's invented machines to save her
+that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I see you've no sympathy with the advanced
+woman.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I have. I'm very sorry for her.
+A nice mess the next generation will be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, dear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My one comfort is that boys take after
+their mothers, and I'm looking to see a
+future generation of men so strong-minded
+that they smash ladies back to where they
+belong&mdash;in the rear with the tents.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;202]</span>
+&quot;Goodness, Mr. Rath, then you don't
+like any of the ways things are going?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Of course I don't. Once upon a time
+a busy man's time was sacred; now any
+woman who feels like taking it, appropriates
+it mercilessly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I should lock the door, if I felt that way.
+But now really, don't you think that we
+might speak quite openly and frankly?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lorenzo began to put up his paints.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I want to get to the bottom of a lot of
+things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You're the first man that I've ever
+known that I felt could understand what I
+meant, and I do want to know the man's
+side of things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;A man hasn't got any side nowadays.
+He's not allowed one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Emily looked a little surprised. &quot;You
+speak bitterly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I think I've a right. Men are still
+observing the rules of the game and suffering
+bitter consequences.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;203]</span>
+&quot;What do you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Women with homes have gone into the
+world to earn some extra pocket money
+until they've knocked the bottom out of
+all wage systems, and you never can make
+the wildest among them see that women
+can't expect men's pay unless they do men's
+work. A man's work is only half of it in
+business, the other half is supporting a
+family. Women want equal pay and to
+spend the result as they please. The
+man's wages go usually on bread and the
+woman's on bonnets, to speak broadly.
+He goes to his own home at night and has
+every single bill for four to ten people.
+She goes to somebody else's house and has
+only her own needs to face, with perhaps
+some contribution towards those off somewhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Dear me,&quot; said Emily, &quot;I never thought
+of that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No,&quot; said Lorenzo, snapping the lid
+of his color box shut, &quot;women don't think
+of that. But men do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;204]</span>
+&quot;But surely there are loads and loads of
+women who do support families.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, and who are dragged down by the
+injustice of what economists call 'The Law
+of Supplemented Earnings'!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Emily felt that the experience of conversing
+frankly with a live man was not exactly
+what she had anticipated. It certainly
+was in no way romantic. She felt baffled
+and a good deal chilled. The conversation
+had taken a horrid twist away from what
+she had intended.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You think that women have no right
+to go out in the world then?&quot; she said.
+&quot;You don't sympathize with the modern
+trend?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I sympathize with nature and human
+nature,&quot; said Lorenzo, &quot;but not with
+civilization.&quot; He rose to his feet.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, Mr. Rath!&quot; she looked upward,
+expecting to be assisted to rise.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I believe in life, lived by live things in
+the way God meant. I loathe this modern
+institution limping along with its burden of
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;205]</span>
+carefully fed and tended idiots and invalids
+and babies, better dead. I wish that I
+were a Zulu.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Good Heavens!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Come,&quot; said the man, picking up his
+load, &quot;we can go now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Had you finished?&quot; She scrambled to
+her feet.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'd done all that I could under the
+circumstances.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I suppose the light changes so fast at
+this time....&quot; Emily was quite unsuspicious
+and content. The intuition that
+used to reign supreme in women was especially
+lacking in her. She had not the
+least idea of what her presence meant to the
+unhappy artist.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Come, come,&quot; he repeated impatiently.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They walked away then through the
+pretty winding lane.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It seems to me so awful that we are all
+so hopeless,&quot; Emily went on presently.
+&quot;We are all put here and often see just what
+should be done and can't do it possibly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;206]</span>
+&quot;I do exactly what I choose,&quot; said
+Lorenzo,&mdash;then he added: &quot;as a usual
+thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You must be very happy.&quot; She paused.
+&quot;I suppose that you have plenty of money
+to live as you please.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm fortunate enough not to have any.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Goodness!&quot; the exclamation was sincere.
+The shock to Emily was dreadful.
+&quot;Why do you call that fortunate?&quot; she
+asked, after a little hasty agony of downfall
+as to rich and generous travel, spaced
+off by going to the theater.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Because it makes me know that I shall
+do something in the world. A very little
+money is enough to swamp a man nowadays,
+when the idea of later being supported by a
+woman is always a possibility. Oh,&quot; said
+Lorenzo, with sudden irritation, &quot;if there
+weren't so many perfectly splendid women
+and girls in the world, I'd go off and become
+a Trappist. Everything's being knocked
+into a cocked hat. I've had girls practically
+make love to me. Disgusting.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;207]</span>
+Emily felt her heart hammer hard.
+&quot;You're very old-fashioned in your views,&quot;
+she said, a little faintly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">They came out by her mother's back
+gate as she spoke.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I am,&quot; said Lorenzo, &quot;I admit it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Mrs. Mead came running out of the back
+door. &quot;Oh, Emily,&quot; she cried, &quot;old Mrs.
+Croft is dead. Jane sent for the doctor&mdash;she
+sent a boy running&mdash;but she's
+dead. Wherever have you been for so
+long?&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;208]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">JANE'S CONVERTS</p>
+
+<p class="indent">THE feelings which revolved around
+the dead body of old Mrs. Croft can
+be better imagined than described; everybody
+had wondered as to every contingency
+except this. In the midst of the confusion
+Jane moved quietly, a little white and with
+lips truly saddened. &quot;And I meant to do
+such a lot for her,&mdash;I meant to help her so
+much,&quot; she murmured from time to time.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The doctor, a ponderous gentleman of
+great weight in all ways, was very grave.
+The doctor said that he had warned the
+daughter of such a possible ending twenty
+years before. &quot;Heart failure was <i>always</i>
+imminent,&quot; he declared severely, looking
+upon Jane, Susan, and Mrs. Cowmull, who
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;209]</span>
+had driven out with him and thus become
+instantly a privileged person. &quot;She never
+ought to have been left alone a minute during
+these last forty years. Even if she had
+lived to be a hundred, the danger was always
+there. Such neglect is awful.&quot; He stopped
+and shook his head vigorously. &quot;Awful,&quot;
+he declared again with emphasis, &quot;awful!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I didn't know that she had heart
+disease,&quot; said Jane.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No blame attaches to you,&quot; said the
+doctor, veering suddenly about as to the
+point in discussion; &quot;nobody can blame
+you. I shall exonerate you completely.
+Of course, if you were not aware of the state
+of the case, you couldn't be expected to consider
+its vital necessities.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, and it was so vital,&quot; sobbed Mrs.
+Cowmull. &quot;Dear, sweet, old Mrs. Croft.
+Our sunbeam. And to go off like that.
+What good is life when people can die any
+minute. Oh! Oh!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There was a brief pause for silent sorrow.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I never looked for her to die,&quot; Mrs.
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;210]</span>
+Cowmull went on, shaking her head. &quot;I
+always told Emily she'd outlive even
+Brother Cattermole. So many people will,
+you know. Dear, kind, loving friend!
+And now to think she's gone. I can't make
+it seem true. She's been alive so long.
+Seems only yesterday that I was up to see
+Katie about making a pie for the social,
+and our dear, sweet friend was singing her
+favorite song, <i>Captain Jinks of the Horse
+Marines</i>, all the time. What spirits she
+did have everywhere, except in her legs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan sat perfectly quiet. The doctor
+took Jane's arm and led her into the hall,
+there to speak of the first few necessary
+steps to be taken. Then he returned to the
+sitting-room, gathered up Mrs. Cowmull
+and departed, saying that he would send
+&quot;some practical person at once.&quot; Mrs.
+Cowmull, who was widely known as having
+practical designs on him, did not resent the
+implied slur at her own abilities at all.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">After they were gone, there was a slight
+further pause, and then Susan rose slowly
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;211]</span>
+and went and laid her hands upon her
+niece's shoulders. &quot;Oh, Jane, that religion
+of yours is a wonderful thing. I'm
+converted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane started. &quot;Converted, Auntie?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes. You were sure that it would come
+out all right and now see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Then a little white smile had to cross the
+young girl's face. &quot;The poor old woman,&quot;
+she said gently, &quot;to think of her lying there
+all alone all that day. I thought that she
+was sleeping so quietly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, she was,&quot; said Susan.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, of course she was. It's just our
+little petty way of thinking that masks all
+of what is truly sacred and splendid behind
+a veil of wrong thinking. Of course she
+was sleeping quietly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It'll be sort of awful if they can't find
+Katie, though,&quot; Susan said next; &quot;she left
+no address, and I think it's almost silly to
+try to hunt her up. I'm only too pleased
+to pay for the funeral, I'm sure, and there
+won't be any real reason for her returning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;212]</span>
+&quot;No,&quot; said Jane thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And I really can look forward to
+Matilda's coming back now,&quot; pursued
+Susan. &quot;I shan't mind a bit. Old Mrs.
+Croft has done that much good, anyway,&mdash;she's
+made me feel that Matilda's coming
+back is just nothing at all. You see you
+knew that everything was coming out all
+right, but I'd never had any experience
+with that kind of doings up till now, and
+it was all new to me. I was only thinking
+of when you and me would have to face
+Matilda. Matilda would have looked
+pretty queer if she'd come home to old Mrs.
+Croft to tend, and me up and lively.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane didn't seem to hear. &quot;I never once
+thought of her dying,&quot; she said again; &quot;oh,
+dear, she had so much to learn. I expected
+to do her such a lot of good.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I wouldn't complain, Jane. I wouldn't
+find fault with a thing. Goodness, think
+if she'd begun singing <i>Captain Jinks</i> last
+night. I've heard that sometimes she'd
+sing it six hours at a stretch.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;213]</span>
+Jane shook her head. &quot;Who is to go
+down and pack up that house?&quot; she
+wondered.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, the house can be rented furnished.
+It's a nice home for anybody,&quot; said Susan,
+&quot;and the rent'll buy her a lovely monument.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The funeral was fixed for the third day,
+and some effort made to trace the daughter-in-law.
+But that lady evidently didn't
+care to be found.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's hardly any use going to a great deal
+of expense to hunt her up,&quot; Lorenzo said
+to Jane, &quot;because the house is all there is,
+and a thorough search with detectives would
+just about eat it up alive.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He probably was not wholly disinterested
+in his outlook, for the next bit of news that
+shook the community was that Lorenzo
+Rath had taken Mrs. Croft's house and
+moved in! Naturally Mrs. Cowmull was
+far from pleased. &quot;Of course it means
+he's going to get married,&quot; she said to Miss
+Vane, &quot;but what folly to take a house so
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;214]</span>
+soon. Who's to cook for him? And who's
+he going to marry? Not Emily, I know.
+She wouldn't have him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Miss Vane didn't know and didn't care.
+&quot;Not my Madeleine,&quot; she said promptly,
+for her part; &quot;she gets a letter every day.
+She'll marry that man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Then it's Jane Grey,&quot; said Mrs. Cowmull.
+The town was greatly exercised,
+and not as positive as to Emily's state of
+mind as her aunt.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It'll be one of those two,&quot; Mrs. Ball said
+to Miss Crining (both very superior women
+and much given to meeting at the grocery
+store). &quot;They're both after him. Emily
+chases him wherever he's posing woods
+and cows, and the little appetite that Mrs. Cowmull
+says he has, after going to Mrs. Ralston's,
+shows what they're thinking of.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Miss Crining shook her head. &quot;Once
+on a time girls were so sweet and womanly,&quot;
+she said.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My,&quot; said Mrs. Ball, &quot;I remember
+when my husband asked me. I almost
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;215]</span>
+fell flat. I'd never so much as thought of
+him. I was engaged to a boy named
+Richie Kendall, and Mr. Ball was bald, and
+had all those children older than I was.
+There was some romance about life then.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And me,&quot; said Miss Crining, with a
+gentle sigh, &quot;I never told a soul I was in
+love till months after he was drowned. I
+didn't know I was in love myself. Girls
+used to be like that, modest, timid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Mr. Rath's very severe on girls nowadays,
+Mrs. Cowmull says,&quot; said Mrs. Ball;
+&quot;but he's blind like all men are and will get
+hooked when he ain't looking, like they all
+do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But Lorenzo Rath didn't care about any
+of the gossip; he was so happy over his
+home. &quot;I'll have a woman come and cook
+occasionally,&quot; he explained blithely to Jane
+and Susan, &quot;and I'll get all my illustrating
+off my hands in short order.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do you illustrate?&quot; Jane asked.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, that's my bread-and-butter job.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It'll be nice to have you in the neighborhood,&quot;
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;216]</span>
+said Susan placidly; &quot;to think
+how it's all come about, too. I'm in heaven,
+no matter what I'm doing. I just sit about
+and pray to understand more of Jane's
+religion. I'm gasping it down in big swallows.
+I think it's so beautiful how she
+does right, without having to take the
+consequences.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane laughed a little at that and went out
+to get supper.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;She's a nice girl,&quot; Lorenzo said, looking
+after her; &quot;when she leaves here, what
+shall we do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, heavens, I don't know,&quot; said
+Susan. &quot;I try never to think of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And what is she going to do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, she's going back to her nursing,
+and I want to cry when I think that other
+people will have her around and I shan't.
+I'll be here alone with Matilda. Not but
+what I'm a good deal more reconciled than
+I was, when I thought I'd be alone with
+Matilda and old Mrs. Croft, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, that would have been bad,&quot; said
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;217]</span>
+Lorenzo soberly. &quot;Well, I must be running
+along. I've got a lot of work to do and a
+lot of thinking, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan contemplated him earnestly.
+&quot;Well,&quot; she said, with fervor, &quot;when Jane
+goes, I'll still have you, anyway.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lorenzo, who had just risen, stopped
+short at that. &quot;Do you know an idea that
+I'm just beginning to hold?&quot; he asked
+suddenly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No; how should I?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's this. Why shouldn't you and I try
+working Jane's Rule of Life a little? I'm
+dreadfully impressed with a lot she says.
+Suppose you and I pulled together and made
+up our minds that she was going to stay here
+in some perfectly right and pleasant and
+proper way. How, then? Don't you believe
+maybe we could manage it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan stared. &quot;But there couldn't be
+any perfectly right, pleasant, proper way,&quot;
+she said sadly, &quot;because she wants to go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'd like to try.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">The aunt shook her head, sighing heavily.
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;218]</span>
+&quot;It's no use. There isn't a way. Nothing
+could keep her. You see, she's got some
+family debts to pay, and she can't rest till
+she's paid 'em. I've begged and prayed
+her to stay; I've told her that her own flesh
+and blood has first claim, but she won't
+hear to any kind of sense.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I wish that we might try,&quot; Lorenzo
+insisted. &quot;I've listened to her till I just
+about believe she really does know what
+she's talking about. It seems as if it's all
+so logical and after all, it's the way God
+made the world, surely.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I know, but you and I ain't equal
+to making worlds and won't be yet awhile.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't care,&quot; said the young man, turning
+towards the door, &quot;I'm going at it
+alone, then. I don't believe that any one
+in the world needs her as much as I do, and
+I'm going to have her, and that by her own
+methods, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan's mouth opened in widest amazement.
+&quot;Mercy on us, you ain't proposing
+to her by way of me, are you? You don't
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;219]</span>
+mean that you really do want to marry her,
+do you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, I don't mean that I want to marry
+her. I mean that I'm going to marry her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh! Oh!&quot; the aunt cried faintly.
+&quot;Oh, goodness me! But I don't know why
+I'm surprised, for I said you was in love with
+her right from the start. I couldn't see
+how you could help but be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Of course I couldn't help but be. Who
+could? She's one of the few real girls that
+are left in the world these days. The
+regular girls with lectures and diplomas
+and stiff collars have spoiled the sweetest
+things God ever made. Men don't thank
+Heaven for any of these late innovations
+wrought in womankind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, I know,&quot; said Susan; &quot;my husband
+was old-fashioned, too. I&quot;&mdash;she stopped
+short, because just then the door opened,
+and Jane came in.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;220]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">REAL CONVERSATION</p>
+
+<p class="indent">BOTH Susan and lover jumped rather
+guiltily, but Jane didn't notice. Or
+if she did notice, it did not impress her as
+anything worthy consideration. Among
+the little weeds in the rose-garden of life,
+did you ever think of what a common one is
+that bother over how people act when you
+&quot;come in suddenly&quot;? It is one of the petty
+tortures of everyday existence. &quot;They
+stopped talking the instant they saw me!&quot;
+&quot;They both turned red, when I opened the
+door!&quot; Well, what if they did? Is it a
+happening of the slightest moment? Unless
+one is guilty and in dread of discovery,
+what can it matter who chatters or of what?
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;221]</span>
+Stop and realize the real, separate, distinct
+meaning of the phrase &quot;He was above suspicion,&quot;
+and see how it applies equally to
+being safe from the evil thoughts <i>of</i> others
+as well as being safe from the holding of evil
+thoughts <i>towards</i> others. If people change
+color at your approach and it makes you uncomfortable,
+you are not above suspicion
+either of or from others. Then look to it
+well that henceforth you manage to root
+out the double evil. There are a whole lot
+of very uncomfortable family happenings
+founded on the absolutely natural crossings
+of family intercourse, and the only possible
+way to go smoothly through such rapids is&mdash;as
+the Irishman said&mdash;to pick up your
+canoe and port around them. Don't go
+down to the level of anything beneath your
+own standard, because when you go down
+anywhere for any reason, your standard
+goes down with you. There is that peculiarity
+about standards that we keep them
+right with us, whether we go up or whether
+we go down.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;222]</span>
+&quot;Oh, Jane,&quot; said Susan, &quot;we're having
+such an interesting time talking about your
+religion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane smiled. &quot;I'm glad,&quot; she said
+simply. &quot;Did you decide to absorb some
+of it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, I'm converted, anyhow,&quot; said the
+aunt; &quot;nobody could live in the house
+with you and not be, and Mr. Rath is going
+to try it for a while, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane looked at Lorenzo a little roguishly.
+&quot;It's a contagion in the town,&quot; she said;
+&quot;I feel like an ancient missionary.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I know,&quot; said Susan, &quot;holding up a
+cross. I've seen them in pictures.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, and I hold up the cross, too,&quot; said
+Jane, &quot;only most people wouldn't know it.
+Do you know what the cross meant in the
+long-ago times,&mdash;before the Christian
+era?&quot; she asked Lorenzo quickly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's the sunbeam transfixing and vivifying
+the earth-surface. It was the holiest
+symbol of the power of God. It embodied
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;223]</span>
+divine life descending straight from heaven
+and making itself a part of earth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;My!&quot; exclaimed Susan, really amazed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane smiled and laid her hand upon her
+aunt's affectionately. &quot;I love my cross,&quot;
+she said; &quot;it's the greatest emblem that
+humanity can know, and, just because we
+are human, it will always keep coming back
+into our lives. Only it shouldn't be
+preached as a burden, it should be preached
+as an opportunity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lorenzo sat watching her. A curious
+white look passed over his face. He felt
+for the moment that he hardly ought to
+dare hope that this girl who was so full of
+help for all should narrow her field of labor
+to just him.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You'll end by being like Dinah in <i>Adam
+Bede</i>,&quot; he said, trying to laugh; &quot;you like
+to teach and preach, don't you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't know,&quot; said Jane; &quot;it's always
+there, right on my heart and lips. I feel
+as if the personal 'I' was only its voice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't think she's exactly human,&quot;
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;224]</span>
+said Susan meditatively; &quot;she doesn't
+strike me so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't say that, Auntie,&quot; said the young
+girl quickly; &quot;I want to be human more
+than anything else. I don't want to make
+you or anybody feel that I'm not. It would
+be as dreadfully lonely to be looked upon as
+unhuman as to be looked upon as inhuman.
+I want to work and love and be loved.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But you're so different from everybody
+else,&quot; said her aunt.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But I don't want to be different. I
+want to just be a woman&mdash;or a girl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Some kindly intuition prompted Susan to
+change the subject. &quot;Mr. Rath and I
+were talking about girls just now; we both
+thought what a pity it is that there are so
+few in these days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I guess there are just as many girls as
+ever, only they aren't so conspicuous,&quot;
+Jane said, laughing at Lorenzo.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I think they're more conspicuous,&quot;
+said Lorenzo, &quot;only they're the wrong
+kind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;225]</span>
+&quot;I liked the old kind,&quot; said Susan, &quot;the
+kind that stayed at home and wasn't wild
+to get away and be going into business.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane laughed again. &quot;You ought not
+to blame the girls, Auntie. Lots of them
+feel dreadfully over leaving home. But
+they have to go out and work. I had to, I
+know. It's some kind of big world-change
+that's pushing us all on into different
+places.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I wasn't thinking of girls who do something
+nice and quiet like you. I was thinking
+of the others.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;They have to go, too,&quot; said Jane.
+&quot;There's a fearful pressure that we don't
+understand behind it all. A restlessness
+and discontent that no one can alter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, that's true,&quot; said Lorenzo; &quot;I
+never thought of it, but I can see that it is
+so now that you've put it into my head.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I've seen a lot of it. It's curious that
+it seems to come equally to women who want
+to work and to women who don't. I'm
+sure I never wanted to earn my living, but
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;226]</span>
+I was forced to it. And ever so many
+others are, too. It's rather an awful feeling
+that you're in the grip of a power that
+sweeps your life beyond your guidance.
+I'm trying hard to be big enough to live in
+this century, but I'd have liked the last
+better.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Don't you consider that there's anything
+voluntary in the way women are acting
+now?&quot; Lorenzo asked, with real interest.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, I'm afraid not. I think that
+there's something we don't understand, or
+grasp, or&mdash;or quite see rightly. I believe
+that everything is ordered and ordered
+ultimately for the best, and I see the problems
+of to-day as surely here by God's
+will and to be worked out by learning the
+conduct of the current instead of opposing
+it. But still I really don't understand it all
+as I wish that I did.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You really do feel God as a friend,&quot;
+said Lorenzo, watching her illuminated face.
+&quot;He isn't just a religion to you, then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He's <i>everything</i> to me,&quot; said Jane reverently,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;227]</span>
+&quot;Help and Sunlight and Strength
+and Daily Bread. That part of Him that
+is energy manifests in us in one way, and
+that part of Him that is divine right and
+justice manifests in us in another way. My
+part in this life is to learn to use them together,
+but they and all else are all God.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan rose from her seat and stood contemplating
+her niece and Lorenzo by turns.
+&quot;To think of talking like this in my house,&quot;
+she said; &quot;this is what I call real conversation.
+I tell you, Jane, you certainly did
+lift me into another life when you invited
+old Mrs. Croft here. Every kind of religion
+sinks right into me now, and I can
+believe without the least bother. It's wonderful,
+but I'm going to have a short-cake
+for tea, so I'll have to go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She went away, and Lorenzo turned to
+the window.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There was a little pause while he wondered
+about many things. Finally he held
+out his hand abruptly. &quot;You've gone a
+long way, Jane,&quot; he said, &quot;you've got a big
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;228]</span>
+grip on life and its meaning, and you make
+me understand as I never did before how
+hopeless it is to wish that the wheels of time
+will turn backward. But whatever you
+may preach, you only prove what I said
+and what I feel, that the old-fashioned,
+sweet, home-keeping, winning and winnable
+girl is gone, only she's gone in a different
+way from what most people understand.
+When she still exists, she exists for herself&mdash;not
+for a man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane felt her eyes fill suddenly. &quot;Why
+do you say that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Because you prove it. A man might
+adore you, but he couldn't hope to get you.
+Could he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Her eyes dropped. &quot;Do you think that
+it's all any harder on the man than it is on
+the girl?&quot; she asked. &quot;If men feel bad
+nowadays over the changes, how do you
+suppose it is with the woman, unfitted to
+fight and forced into the battle. A woman
+isn't built as a man is; she's created for
+another kind of work, much harder and
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;229]</span>
+lasting, much longer than any man's labor.
+And she has to leave that work of her own
+either undone or only half-done and do
+things unsuited to her. Of course there
+are some girls and women who like it,&mdash;but
+most of them don't. Most of them feel
+dreadfully and would give anything to be
+able to stay in a home and live the life God
+meant to be woman's. There's always a
+pitiful story behind nine out of every ten
+bread-winning women, whether they go
+out washing or are artists like you. A
+woman never leaves her home until she's
+forced to do so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Are you sure that you know what you're
+talking about? Aren't you an idealist?
+Look at Emily Mead&mdash;&quot; he smiled in spite
+of his earnestness. &quot;If she had a rag of
+a chance, she'd fly off to-morrow. It
+wouldn't take force.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane remained carefully grave. &quot;That's
+more her mother's fault than hers. Her
+mother has taught her that girls only live
+to marry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;230]</span>
+&quot;And quite right, too. Don't you believe
+it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It used to be true, but it isn't now. A
+girl can't marry without a man, and the
+world's all disjointed. It's a part of that
+strange new leaven which causes civilization
+to drive men and women both to become
+homeless by separating them widely on
+earth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Of course it's a governmental crime to
+send men by the hundreds of thousands to
+fight it out alone in Canada and leave
+their sisters to be old maids in England,
+but governments are pretty stupid, nowadays.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;We are all pretty stupid. We build
+all our difficulties and then hang to them
+and their consequences for dear life. It's
+too bad in us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do you mean woman?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, I mean everybody.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's depressing, isn't it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't think so. I think it's grand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Grand!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;231]</span>
+&quot;Yes, because I like to struggle in a big
+way. And then, too, if I'm a woman forced
+to work because I'm one part of the problem,
+I'm also gloriously happy in being part
+of the new upburst of comprehension that's
+balancing and will soon overbalance such a
+lot of the troubles.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You mean? Oh, you mean your way of
+looking at things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Of course I do. I'm so blessedly glad
+of every circumstance in my life, because
+each one led to my getting hold of just what
+I have got hold of. I'm perfectly happy
+and perfectly content. It's so beautiful
+to be guided by a rule that never fails.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lorenzo couldn't but laugh. &quot;I tell
+you what,&quot; he said gayly, &quot;I'll let you into
+a little secret. I've made up my mind to
+go to work and learn how to work that game
+of yours myself. I want to be blessedly
+glad and gloriously happy, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You've got to be in earnest, you know,&quot;
+Jane said. &quot;It's handling live wires to
+amuse oneself with any force of God, and
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;232]</span>
+will-power is more of a force than electricity.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, I'm in earnest,&quot; said the artist.
+&quot;I've made my picture&mdash;as you say&mdash;and
+I hang to it for grim death. Only I
+can't see, if you feel as you do about home
+and marriage, and all that, why you don't
+make one, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm making ever so many homes,&quot; said
+Jane. &quot;I'm teaching home-making.
+That's a Sunshine Nurse's business, and it
+would be selfish in me to desert my task.
+Besides&mdash;&quot; she paused.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;233]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">THE MOST WONDERFUL THING EVER
+HAPPENED</p>
+
+<p class="indent">SHE stopped and hesitated.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes,&quot; he said impatiently, &quot;besides&mdash;?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I wonder if it would be right to be quite
+frank with you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Nothing sincere is ever wrong. Of
+course you ought to be quite frank with me,&mdash;aren't
+you that with every one?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Still she considered.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What stops you?&quot; he asked. &quot;Go on.
+Tell me everything. It's my right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why is it your right?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Because I love you, and you know it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She started violently, then turned very
+white. &quot;Don't say that. I've always
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;234]</span>
+thought of you as engaged to Madeleine.
+She was talking to me, and I thought&mdash;I&mdash;&quot;
+She stopped, quite shaken.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You misunderstand her. She's always
+been in love with one fellow&mdash;the one that
+her parents are against. He's even poorer
+than I am.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Then Jane pressed her lips together and
+interlocked her fingers. &quot;I can never
+marry. I never think of it. There's money
+to be paid, nobody to pay it but me, and no
+way to get it except to earn it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lorenzo looked almost sternly at her.
+&quot;What about the book you lent me; it
+would say that that was setting limits. It
+says that we've not to concern ourselves
+with ways and means. I've only to concern
+myself with loving you. The rest will
+come along of its own accord.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She shook her head. &quot;No, it won't.
+This world is all learning, and it's part of
+my lesson not to be able to apply it in absolute
+faith to myself. So many teachers
+have wisdom to give away which they can't
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;235]</span>
+quite take unto themselves, you know.&quot;
+She smiled a little tremulously.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But you ought to take it unto yourself.
+It ought to be easy and simple for you to
+realize that if conditions are false, they don't
+exist; that if you want a home, it's because
+you are going to have one; that if I love
+you, it's because it's right that you should be
+loved.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She put her hands down helplessly on
+each side of the chair-seat. &quot;I never even
+think of such things,&quot; she said, almost in a
+whisper.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But why not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I've always been so necessary to others.
+I've no rights in my own life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But if life is a thing to guide, why not
+guide your beneficence as well from a basis
+of home as from one of homelessness?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Nothing has ever seemed to be for me,
+myself. Everything has always pointed to
+me for others.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lorenzo paced back and forth. &quot;But it
+is the women like you who should show the
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;236]</span>
+way out of the wilderness and back to the
+right, instead of attempting to order the
+chaos while sweeping on with it. If there
+be a real truth in this new teaching which
+lays hold of all those who are in earnest so
+easily and so quickly, its first care should
+be to demonstrate happiness in the lives of
+its believers,&mdash;not the negative happiness
+of wide-spread devotion to others, but the
+positive lessons of joy in the center from
+which springs&mdash;must spring&mdash;the next
+generation of better, wiser men and women,
+those among whom I expect to live as an old
+man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane turned her face away, her eyes filled
+with tears. &quot;You make me feel very small
+and petty,&quot; she said; &quot;you show me a way
+beyond what I had guessed. But I can't
+grasp at it; I'm too used to asking nothing
+for myself. I'm always so sure that God
+is managing for me. And I have so much
+to do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Perhaps realization that God is managing
+is all that you need to set right. Perhaps
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;237]</span>
+that confidence will bring you all
+things. Even me.&quot; He laughed a little.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It has brought me all that I needed.
+Daily bread, daily possibilities of helpfulness,&mdash;I
+don't ask more, except 'more
+light.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It sounds a little presumptuous coming
+from me, but perhaps I can help you towards
+your end, even as to 'more light.' At any
+rate, I'll try if you'll let me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She sat quite still. Finally she lifted up
+her eyes&mdash;and they were beautiful eyes,
+big and true&mdash;and said, the words coming
+softly forth: &quot;It would be so wonderful.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lorenzo didn't speak. He felt choked
+and gasping. To him it was also &quot;so wonderful,&quot;
+as wonderful as if he hadn't lived
+with it night and day ever since the first
+minute of knowing her. &quot;I think I'd better
+go,&quot; he said very gently, realizing keenly
+that he must not press her in this first blush
+of the new spring-time. &quot;I've 'made my
+picture' you know, and I won't let it fade,
+you may be sure. And you must believe
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;238]</span>
+in happiness for yourself,&mdash;you tell us that
+the first step is all that counts. Get the
+seed into the ground then. I'll do the rest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She sat quite still. &quot;If I could only
+try,&quot; she whispered. He turned quickly
+away and was gone.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">After a dizzy little while she rose and
+went into the kitchen. Susan was moving
+briskly about.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Two cups flour, four teaspoonfuls baking
+powder, one of sugar, one of salt, two
+of butter, two of lard, cup half water, half
+milk, pour in pan greased and bake in hot
+oven. Scotch scone-bread for lunch,&quot; she
+said, almost suiting the deed to the word.
+&quot;Is Mr. Rath still here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, he's gone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You know, Jane, he's caught your religion.
+I never heard anything like it.
+He's got the whole thing pat. I'd be almost
+scared to go round teaching a thing like
+that. Why, folks'll be doing anything they
+please soon. I've been wondering if I could
+get strong enough to kind of dispose of
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;239]</span>
+Matilda, in some perfectly right way, you
+know. I wouldn't think of anything that
+wasn't perfectly right, you know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane seemed a little numb and stood
+watching the buttering of the scone-pan
+without speaking.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I keep saying: 'Matilda doesn't want
+to come back. Matilda's disposed of in a
+perfectly pleasant way.' I've been saying
+it ever since I began on those scones. I
+guess I've said it twenty times, and I'm
+beginning to make a real impression on myself.
+I'm beginning to feel sure God is
+fixing things up. It's too beautiful to feel
+God taking an interest in your affairs.
+Matilda doesn't want to come home.
+Matilda is completely disposed of in a perfectly
+pleasant way.&quot; Susan's accents were
+very emphatic.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Auntie,&quot; said Jane, turning her eyes
+towards her and rallying her attention by a
+strong effort, &quot;you know your perfect faith
+is because Aunt Matilda really isn't anxious
+to come home. It's only if you're doubting
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;240]</span>
+that there's any doubt about it. One
+doesn't alter Destiny, one only apprehends
+it. Oh, dear,&quot; she said though, sitting
+down suddenly, and hiding her face in her
+hands, &quot;the thing about light is that it
+always keeps bursting over you with a new
+light, and my own teaching has suddenly
+come to me as if I'd never known what any
+of it meant before. I'm too stunned at
+seeing how I've limited myself. I'm really
+too stupid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan glanced at her as she poured the
+batter into the pan, and then kept glancing.
+Her face grew softened, &quot;I wouldn't worry,
+dear,&quot; she said finally, &quot;don't you bother
+over anything. God's taking care of everything
+and everybody. It's every bit of it
+all right. You must know that yourself,
+or you never could have taught it to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I do know it,&mdash;but in spite of
+myself I can't see&mdash;I can't dare think&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You told me not to worry over old Mrs.
+Croft,&quot; said Susan, coming around by her
+side and putting her arm about her; &quot;you
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;241]</span>
+said worry spoiled everything. And I did
+try so hard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, I know, I'll try. I really will&mdash;But&mdash;&quot;
+suddenly she turned deep crimson,
+&quot;it seems too awful for me to take one
+minute to work on myself or my life. I
+need all my time for others.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But you don't have to,&quot; said Susan,
+&quot;all you've got to do is to know things are
+right. You know they're right because
+they are right. Everything's coming along
+fine, and you just feel it coming; that's
+your part. My goodness, Jane, isn't this
+funny? There isn't a blessed thing you've
+preached to me that I ain't having to preach
+back to you now. You don't seem to have
+sensed hardly any of your own meaning.
+Talk about being a channel; you'd better
+choke up a little and hold back some for
+yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane threw her arms around her and
+kissed her. &quot;Auntie, you're right, you're
+right. I won't doubt a mite more. I'll try
+to know as much as I seem to have taught.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;242]</span>
+&quot;Just be yourself, you Sunshine Jane,
+you,&quot; Susan was clinging close to the girl
+she loved so well, &quot;just be yourself. Nothing
+else is needed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes,&quot; Jane whispered, &quot;I will.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That's the thing,&quot; said Susan; &quot;'cause
+you've certainly taught us a lot. I'll lay
+the table now,&quot; she moved towards the door,
+&quot;Matilda doesn't want to come home. Matilda
+wants to stay away in some perfectly
+pleasant way,&quot; she added with heavy emphasis,
+passed through, and let the door close.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane was left alone in the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He said he loved me!&quot; she thought
+over and over. &quot;It seems so wonderful&mdash;the
+most wonderful thing that has ever
+happened since the world was made. He
+said he loved me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She went up-stairs to her own room and
+shut the door softly. &quot;Of course I can never
+marry him,&quot; she whispered aloud, &quot;but
+he did say he loved me. Oh, I know that
+nothing so wonderful ever was in this world
+before!&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;243]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">WHY JANE SHOULD HAVE BELIEVED</p>
+
+<p class="indent">THE Sunshine Nurse was long in seeking
+sleep that night and early to rise
+the next morning. She found herself suddenly
+metamorphosed&mdash;facing a new
+world&mdash;two worlds in fact. There was the
+world of Lorenzo's actually loving her,
+which was a dream from which she would
+surely awaken, and then there was that
+second world of wonder, the world of her
+own teaching, a world in which she started,
+big-eyed, at all in which she had trusted,
+and wondered if it could be possible that
+what she believed firmly and preached so
+ardently was really true. &quot;It isn't setting
+limits to face what must be,&quot; she said
+over and over to herself, &quot;and I <i>must</i> pay
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;244]</span>
+poor father's debts, and there is no possible
+way for me to get the money except to
+earn it bit by bit.&quot; The statement had
+gone to bed with her, and it rose with her
+when she rose; it looked indisputable, incontrovertible,
+as all fixed statements have
+a way of looking&mdash;and yet each time that
+she made it she felt hot with guilt. &quot;It's
+setting limits,&quot; cried her soul, &quot;it's saying
+that God can't possibly do what He pleases,&quot;
+and, as she listened to the strong, heaven-sent
+cry of rebellion against petty earthly
+laws, she struggled in the meshes of her own
+old earlier learning, the &quot;old garment&quot;
+which clings so close about us all, and which
+we simply must discard before we can don
+the new robe of Infinite Hope and Radiant
+Belief in God's law of Only Good for Each
+and Every One.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane always rose an hour before her aunt.
+The hour was spent in opening windows,
+brushing up and building the kitchen fire.
+It was always a pleasant hour, for she
+usually filled it to the brim with work well
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;245]</span>
+done and thoughts sent strongly and happily
+out over the coming time. But to-day
+all this was changed; new thoughts rioted
+forth on every side, and a sort of chaos took
+the place of her usually sunny calm. This
+riot and chaos is the common, logical outcome
+of all who feel sure that they are wiser
+than God. You cannot possibly set any
+border to His Kingdom and then be happy
+in that outer darkness which you have
+deliberately chosen for your own part. As
+well ask a cow to shut herself out of her
+pasture and rest happy in the waste beyond.
+&quot;I mustn't think, because it is none of it
+for me&mdash;&quot; she repeated over and over,
+much as if the aforesaid cow declared, &quot;I
+am barred out&mdash;I can never get back&mdash;I
+must starve contentedly.&quot; Jane&mdash;who
+would have laughed at my illustration
+quite as you have laughed yourself&mdash;saw
+only distress in her own, and had to wink
+away so many tears that finally in maddest
+self-defense she rushed out doors and fled
+to the little garden that had, through so
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;246]</span>
+many years, been Susan's refuge in such a
+droll way.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">And Lorenzo was there!</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He looked very blithe and happy.
+&quot;Well,&quot; he said, &quot;have you thought it over
+and decided that you're right, after all?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She was panting, and surprise flooded
+her face with color. &quot;Oh&mdash;&quot; she gasped,
+&quot;oh!&quot; and then: &quot;Right&mdash;of course
+I'm right!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He approached, his hand extended.
+&quot;Right in believing, or right in mistrusting?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She gave him her hand, and he took it.
+&quot;Don't put it that way,&quot; she said; &quot;it
+isn't that way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But, dear Jane, that's the only way to
+put it. It's the way you've been teaching
+us. Either we can look up and ahead confidently,
+or you're all wrong. I can't believe
+that you're ever even a little bit
+wrong, so I'm going to believe that it's all
+true.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, no&mdash;it isn't&mdash;I mean&mdash;Oh, in
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;247]</span>
+my case, it can't be so. Everything that
+I said was true, only I myself am meant to&mdash;to
+work&mdash;not to&mdash;to marry. It's a kind
+of pledge I've taken to myself. It doesn't
+change the teaching.&quot; Then she dragged
+her hand free.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lorenzo smiled. &quot;You can't tell me any
+of that. I know. I'm the happiest man
+in the world.&quot; Then he went on, taking
+up the rake and scratching a little here
+and there: &quot;Like other pupils, I've surpassed
+my teacher. You've preached, and
+I practice; you can describe God's thoughts,
+and I think them. You're sure that He
+can do anything, and I know what He's
+going to do. I've been let straight into one
+of His secrets. It's been revealed to me
+how the world is run.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane stared. &quot;How can you talk so?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I talk so because I know so. Everything's
+coming right for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You're crazy,&quot; she tried to laugh.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I've heard people say that of you. Not
+that it matters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;248]</span>
+She stood watching him and considering
+his words. &quot;I wouldn't let you give me the
+money to straighten out my father's affairs,
+even if you were ever so rich, you know,&quot;
+she said slowly. &quot;I couldn't.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I know it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And I wouldn't let Auntie pay the debts.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I know. God doesn't require either
+your aunt's help or mine in this matter.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane's eyes moistened slightly. &quot;Please
+don't make a joke of anything so hard and
+sad.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm not joking; I'm a veritable apostle
+of joy. I'm as happy as I can be.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She looked at him with real wonder because
+his appearance certainly bore out
+his words. &quot;I wish that I knew what you
+meant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">He dropped the rake, came to her side,
+and caught her hand. &quot;Can't you trust
+God&mdash;can't you trust me?&mdash;won't you
+try?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She looked up into his face. &quot;I wish
+that I could, but how can I?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;249]</span>
+&quot;You ought to know. So deep and big
+and true a nature. Surely you ought to
+be able to understand your own teaching!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But I can't see any way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Your book says that one must not
+think of ways; one must just look straight
+to the good end.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, but there isn't any such end possible
+for me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lorenzo dropped her hand and laughed
+out loud. And then he caught her in his
+arms and kissed her.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She screamed. To her it was the greatest
+shock of her life, for no man had ever kissed
+her before. &quot;Oh&mdash;oh, mercy!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Matters were not helped much by Susan's
+looking over the fence just then and crying
+out abruptly: &quot;Well, I declare!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Mrs. Ralston,&quot; said Lorenzo, not even
+blushing, &quot;you're the very person we need
+this minute. I want to marry Jane, and
+she won't hear to it because of her father's
+debts. The debts are all right and everything's
+all right, only she won't believe it.
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;250]</span>
+I wish you'd climb the fence and help me
+persuade her, for although I <i>know</i> she'll end
+by marrying me, I've just set my heart on
+converting her to her own religion first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan swung easily over the fence.
+&quot;You're just right, Mr. Rath, you ought
+to marry her. She's the nicest person to
+have around the house that I ever saw; she's
+far too good to be a nurse. How much
+did your father owe, you Sunshine Jane,
+you? Maybe I can pay it. I will if I
+can.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;There,&quot; said Lorenzo; &quot;see how easy it
+is to evolve money if you'd only trust a
+little?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane looked at him and then at Susan.
+&quot;I couldn't take your money, Auntie,&quot;
+said she, quite gently, but quite firmly.
+&quot;And then, too,&quot; she added, with her
+roguish smile, &quot;you've left it to Aunt
+Matilda.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, but dear,&quot; Susan's face became
+suddenly radiant, &quot;you know I've been
+working your religion on her; maybe she
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;251]</span>
+isn't coming back at all; maybe something
+will happen; maybe she's going to be
+drowned or something like that in some
+perfectly right way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No,&quot; said Lorenzo soberly. &quot;It isn't
+necessary to plan as to God's business at
+all. He knows. I don't think that Jane
+ought to take anybody's money; she ought
+to pay the debts with her own money, but
+I can't see why she can't trust and know it's
+coming.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Because there's no place for it to come
+from,&quot; said Jane firmly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Unless Matilda&mdash;&quot; Susan interposed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I believe I'm better at her religion than
+she is herself,&quot; said Lorenzo. &quot;I declare,
+I believe that there's nothing that I can't
+get now. I wanted a house, and I worked
+just as the book said! I saw myself living
+cosily alone, and in less than a week I was
+living cosily alone. Now I want Jane with
+me in the house, and I mean to have her,
+and I shall have her, and there's no doubt
+about that; but I do wish&mdash;with all my
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;252]</span>
+heart&mdash;that she could rise to a higher
+plane.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If that's all, I know how to manage that
+easily enough,&quot; said Susan. &quot;We could
+get old Mr. Cattermole in for a week and
+raise Jane's plane with him, just like she
+raised mine with Mrs. Croft.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, she'll rise,&quot; said her lover quietly.
+&quot;We must give her time and help her,
+that's all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane stood doubting between them. Her
+aunt regarded her wistfully. &quot;Dear me,&quot;
+she said, &quot;I wonder if I could screw myself
+up to believing she'll come in for a fortune.
+I want to help, but I'm a little like her&mdash;I
+can't for the life of me see where it's to
+come from.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But that isn't the question at all,&quot; said
+Lorenzo, &quot;the question isn't how&mdash;the
+question is just the faith. Why, it's the
+corner-stone of the whole thing! It's the
+moving into God's world where nothing
+but good can be, and you know you're
+there because you see only good coming in
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;253]</span>
+all directions! Just good&mdash;nothing but
+good! I don't see why Jane holds back so.
+I know that she can get that money and
+get every other thing she wants in life, including
+me, and I'm one of the nicest fellows
+alive&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That's so&mdash;&quot; interposed Susan.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;If she'll only put out her hand with
+confidence. I've studied that book till
+I'm full of it, and I know that I'm going to
+have her for my wife, and I know it absolutely,
+and I want her to know it,
+too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan began to get back over the fence.
+&quot;I'm going in about breakfast,&quot; she said;
+&quot;the trouble with us is we all need hot coffee
+to brace up our souls.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Keep on declaring the truth,&quot; Lorenzo
+reminded her, as she walked off upon the
+other side.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I will. I'll say 'Jane is going to get
+some money' and 'Matilda doesn't want to
+come home to live,' alternately.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">When she was out of hearing the two
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;254]</span>
+young people remained silent for a few
+seconds. Then the man spoke.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Dear,&quot; his voice was very gentle, &quot;I
+want to tell you something. I've had a
+very great experience in the last twenty-four
+hours. It isn't loving you&mdash;it's that I've
+been allowed to see a little bit of life from
+God's standpoint. Don't you want to
+know the real truth about all this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;What do you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm going to tell you, because you'll see
+the lesson and learn it with me. We don't
+doubt that God knows all that has been or
+is to be, do we?&mdash;or that in our minutes of
+fiercest pain or trouble He looks calmly to
+the end beyond?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She shook her head. &quot;No, of course
+not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, dearest girl, I was allowed last
+night to put myself in the Deity's place
+and see one corner of the universe as He
+must see the whole.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Her eyes grew big. &quot;What do you
+mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I mean this. I want you, and I understand
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;255]</span>
+perfectly about the money. I sat
+down last night and I labored with myself
+until I made myself <i>know</i> that it was yours.
+I can't tell you just how it came to me, but
+I knew it. It is yours and yours absolutely,
+and now I want you to realize it and believe
+in it without question, before I give it to
+you. Will you do that? I'm asking of
+you the faith that Jesus preached. Can
+you believe?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane looked at him wonderingly. &quot;You
+mean&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I mean just what I say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I can't receive money from you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It isn't my money.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't understand. I only know that
+there is no way that I can get the money.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lorenzo looked at her a minute, and then
+said slowly and very gently: &quot;I've found
+Mrs. Croft's will. She left all that she had
+to whoever took care of her the night she
+died. It appears that she had a good deal
+more than any one supposed. It's all
+yours, dear. Now you see why you should
+have trusted.&quot;</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;256]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">IN A PERFECTLY RIGHT WAY</p>
+
+<p class="indent">WHEN Susan, looking out of the
+window, saw the two whom she
+had left behind coming across the grass,
+she knew instantly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;They've settled it somehow,&quot; she exclaimed
+in supremest joy, and whirled to
+whisk the bacon off the stove.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Auntie,&quot; said Jane, from outside the
+window, the minute after, &quot;I am just
+dumb. I don't believe I'll ever be able to
+lift up my head in life again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Auntie,&quot; said Lorenzo, over her
+shoulder, &quot;she's inherited her fortune.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan gave a scream. &quot;Oh, good
+mercy!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, dear,&quot; said her niece, now in the
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;257]</span>
+doorway, &quot;only I can't believe it. I think
+that it's a dream.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You see she still isn't able to rise to
+the proper heights of trust,&quot; laughed her
+lover, also now in the doorway, &quot;but I
+have hopes of yet teaching her to believe
+what she believes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Come straight in and help me set all
+this on the table, so that I can listen with
+a free mind.&quot; Susan's appeal was pathetic
+in the extreme. &quot;Where <i>did</i> she get it,
+anyhow?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, Auntie, it's the most wonderful
+thing you ever heard of.&quot; Jane took up
+the coffee-pot and led the way.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I did it all, except I didn't provide the
+money,&quot; said Lorenzo, and the next minute
+they were all seated, and he could tell the
+whole story.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan didn't scream. She sat still, a
+bit of toast in her hand, listening breathlessly.
+When Lorenzo had finished, &quot;Oh,
+that new religion!&quot; she murmured in an
+awed voice, and then, &quot;Nothing like this
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;258]</span>
+ever happened in this town before, I
+know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm more bewildered over it's being
+there for me and my not being able to believe
+than I am by the money,&quot; said Jane.
+&quot;Oh, Auntie, what a lesson, what a lesson!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You would limit yourself, you see,&quot;
+said Lorenzo; &quot;you wouldn't believe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;How could I ever imagine such a
+thing?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You didn't have to imagine,&mdash;you
+only had to expect.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You laid limits, you see,&quot; said Susan,
+suddenly beginning to pour out the coffee,
+and pouring with a glad dash that swept
+over cup and saucer together. &quot;I expect
+if God hadn't been patient&mdash;like Mr.
+Rath&mdash;He could have very well hid that
+will forever. There may be a lot of such
+goings on in the world, for all we know.
+My goodness, suppose I'd been like Matilda
+and not have had old Mrs. Croft around
+for one minute,&mdash;it makes me ill to think
+of it! It's a lesson for me, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;259]</span>
+&quot;Life is all lessons,&quot; said Jane. &quot;Dear
+me, think of Aunt Matilda's surprise!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Think of it! Good mercy, how can I
+wait to tell her!&quot; Susan's whole face
+beamed. &quot;I don't mind a bit her coming
+back now. That shows the good of making
+that declaration about her. Those declarations
+are a great thing. I've told
+myself Matilda was coming back in a
+perfectly right way so many times that now,
+however she came back, I'd be positive it
+was perfectly right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Ah, Auntie,&quot; said Jane, &quot;you've got
+hold of another great truth. Every one
+seems quicker than me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, you started us at it, anyhow,&quot;
+said Susan kindly. &quot;Oh my, but I'm
+happy! Why, I believe I'm really in a
+hurry now for Matilda to come back, just
+so I can tell her. Think of that&mdash;me
+really and truly anxious to see Matilda
+again! My, you Sunshine Jane, you&mdash;what
+a lot of difference you've made in
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;260]</span>
+&quot;When is your aunt coming?&quot; Lorenzo
+asked Jane.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;She went for three weeks,&quot; said Jane;
+&quot;it will be three weeks next Thursday.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Goodness, only three weeks, and it
+seems like three years?&quot; observed Susan.
+&quot;What a lot has happened! There's Jane&mdash;and
+her religion&mdash;and me up and well&mdash;and
+old Mrs. Croft here and gone&mdash;and
+you, Mr. Rath,&mdash;and then you and
+Jane&mdash;and now this money.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I can't believe any of it,&quot; said Jane;
+&quot;I try, but I just can't. I guess I'm hopelessly
+limited. I'm too bewildered, I&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll tell you what ails you,&quot; said her
+aunt warmly. &quot;It's that you've spread
+yourself too much; you've given such a
+lot away everywhere that you've got to
+just stop and let the tide run backwards
+into you yourself for a while. It's nature.
+Nature and the new religion combined.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I feel overwhelmed by the coming-back
+tide then,&quot; said Jane; &quot;I don't deserve
+it all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;261]</span>
+Her aunt started to reply, but was
+stopped by a sudden loud bang outside.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Goodness, what's that?&quot; she exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Auto tire burst, I think. I'll go and
+see,&quot; said Lorenzo, jumping up and going
+out.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Jane,&quot; said Susan solemnly, &quot;that's a
+young man in a million. Think of his
+finding that will. My, but he'll make a
+good husband!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I just can't realize any of it,&quot; said her
+niece. She seemed to be totally unequal
+to any other view of her present situation.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, you'd better realize it,&quot; said her
+aunt, &quot;because it's coming right along.
+What will Mrs. Mead say, I wonder!
+Dear me, how every one will wish they'd
+tried to get up a plane or two by having old
+Mrs. Croft to visit them. If that poor
+old thing could only come back, the whole
+town would just adore to have her on a
+visit now, and every one would sit up all
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;262]</span>
+night and listen to <i>Captain Jinks</i> so cheerfully.
+She used to sing <i>Rally round the
+flag, boys</i> too,&mdash;I forgot that. She used
+to sing it when she heard the roosters begin
+to crow. But nobody would have minded,
+whatever she sang now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, there's&mdash;&quot; Jane hesitated and
+blushed.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lorenzo stood in the door. &quot;It wasn't a
+burst tire,&quot; he explained briefly; &quot;it's a
+new kind of siren they're using. It's
+friends from out of town, Mr. and Mrs.
+Beamer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;They've got the wrong house,&quot; said
+Susan. &quot;I don't know any Beamers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;They asked for Mrs. Ralston.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Then they're selling something, grape-wine
+or hand-knit lace, or something.
+I don't want to see 'em.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll go,&quot; said Jane. And went at once.
+In the pretty, changed sitting-room she
+found the visitors&mdash;Mrs. Beamer tall and
+of large build, with a handsome motor-costume.
+Mr. Beamer also large, very wiry,
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;263]</span>
+and with rampant gray hair. Mrs. Beamer
+was Matilda.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But what a changed Matilda! &quot;Well,
+Jane,&quot; coming forward and holding out
+both hands, &quot;did you and Susan feel it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane staggered and laid hold of a chair.
+&quot;Feel&mdash;&quot; she stammered&mdash;&quot;feel what?
+Oh, Aunt Matilda!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Did you feel the good I've been doing
+you? How's my sister?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;She&mdash;oh, she's all right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Up and dressed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;There, you see!&quot; Matilda turned to
+Mr. Beamer, triumph radiating her whole
+figure. &quot;It worked,&mdash;oh, Matthew, it
+worked.&quot; Then she turned back to Jane.
+&quot;Get up right off, didn't she? Same day
+I left?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Y&mdash;yes.&quot; Jane clung more tightly to
+the chair. She began to doubt the ground
+beneath her feet.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Perfectly well, strong, able-bodied,&mdash;isn't
+she?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;264]</span>
+&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You see?&mdash;&quot; to Mr. Beamer. Then,
+&quot;Oh, it's too splendid! I s'pose the cat's
+stopped snooping, too, hasn't he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Y&mdash;yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;House all clean? Garden growing
+fine?&quot;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, indeed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And you, Jane, how are you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, I'm all right. I&mdash;I've become
+engaged.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You hear that, Matthew? And the
+town?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Everybody's well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Did you ever in all your life!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, old Mrs. Croft died!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Did she indeed. Katie happy?&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Katie was away. She died here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;How nice! I expect she enjoyed every
+minute of it. Oh, Jane, you don't know
+how happy your every word is making
+me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Shan't I call auntie?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, we'll go out and have breakfast
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;265]</span>
+with you. We had one breakfast so as
+to make it easy for you to have us have it
+with you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Do come right out to the table.&quot; Jane
+led the way. &quot;I can't think what Aunt
+Susan will say!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Never mind what she says&mdash;it'll be
+just right. Everything always is. Come,
+Matthew;&quot; then Mrs. Matilda Beamer led
+off, and Mr. Matthew Beamer followed,
+smiling cheerfully. He seemed to be a
+very cheerful man.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Perhaps I'd better go first and just
+prepare auntie,&quot; Jane suggested hastily.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No need. She always yelled when
+she saw me suddenly, and this time it will
+be for joy. Life is going to be all joy for
+Susan now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Jane turned the button of the dining-room
+door. &quot;Auntie Susan, it's Aunt
+Matilda and Mr. Beamer.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan justified her sister's views by forthwith
+giving the yell of her whole life.
+&quot;Ma&mdash;tilda!&mdash;And Mr. Beamer!&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;266]</span>
+Matilda went up to her, seized her, gave
+her a good hug and a real kiss. &quot;I've
+made lots of mistakes,&quot; she said, with a
+big tear in each eye, &quot;but somehow it was
+written that I should be allowed to make
+them right. Susan, this is Matthew. Sit
+down, Matthew. Sit down, every one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Lorenzo hastily pushed up chairs, and
+they all sat down.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'll get some more dishes,&quot; Jane exclaimed,
+hurrying into the pantry.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Matilda!&quot; Susan looked almost ready
+to faint. &quot;Are you&mdash;are you&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I'm married,&quot; said Matilda. &quot;I don't
+know what I've ever done to deserve it,
+but I'm married. It's the most beautiful
+romance that ever was in the world, and
+we've come to tell you all about it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, do!&quot; Susan exclaimed. &quot;Jane,
+come back! Think of another romance,
+and Matilda, too! Well, what next!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Matilda smiled quite radiantly. &quot;We
+met on the train the day I left here,&quot; she
+began; &quot;it was right off. He took me out
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;267]</span>
+on the back platform of the car and opened
+my eyes to life, and we just suited, didn't
+we, Matthew?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Tell it all,&quot; said Mr. Beamer; &quot;tell
+the beginning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes,&quot; said his wife, &quot;I will, I'll tell it
+all. It's so splendid it would be a pity to
+skip anything. You see, he looked at me
+and&mdash;well, really, Matthew, I think you'd
+better tell the first part.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, you tell,&quot; said Mr. Beamer.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;No, Matthew, you tell it, and I'll help
+anywhere I can.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well,&quot; said her husband, &quot;then I'll
+begin with saying, Sister Susan, Niece
+Jane, and young man, that I'd better tell
+you what I am, first of all, because I'm the
+only one of the kind in the world so far
+as I know. You see, one of those Bible
+miracles, that no one can seem to lay hold
+of any more, got into me, and I'm the
+result.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;That is all true,&quot; interposed Matilda,
+her plain face quite metamorphosed, as
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;268]</span>
+she looked at her husband and then at
+them. &quot;Every word he says is true, and
+it's all miracles.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;You see I was just a plain, ordinary
+man, with a nice business and a good
+disposition,&quot; Mr. Beamer went on, &quot;and
+I did get so awful tired of things as they
+were going, and I used to wish everything
+was different, and then one day, all of a
+God-blessed sudden, it came over me, with
+a shock like lightning, that wanting things
+different is the first step to getting 'em
+different, and that if you've got the brain
+to see what's lacking, you've got the body
+to turn to and help fill up the hole. I
+didn't get religion out of a book; I got it
+just like that. I was sitting in a rocking-chair
+with a palm-leaf fan, and I got up and
+put the fan on the shelf and knew I was
+all made new. The very next day I read
+about a doctor as set up some nurses&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, my goodness,&quot; Susan cried, &quot;hear
+that, Jane!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;&mdash;as was to spread sunshine, and I
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;269]</span>
+thought that was a good idea, only I
+couldn't see a place in it for me, 'cause I
+wasn't young and wasn't no girl to go
+'round spreading nothing. I looked upon
+it that being a man, my business wasn't
+to spread things&mdash;a man's business is
+to get the stuff to spread; so I figured out
+that being as I was a man, I could maybe
+help make the sunshine, and then any one
+could slather it on that pleased. So I
+began to look about for some sunshine to
+make, and the handiest field I see was
+folks with hard lines around their mouths;
+there's a powerful lot of them around, you
+know,&mdash;ain't nothin' so hard to break up
+in life as hard lines around mouths. So I
+set out to plow fields of hard lines.&quot;
+He paused. It was a picture, a picture
+painted in heavenly colors to see his face
+at the moment, full of its own heartfelt,
+tried, and true enthusiasm, and the faces
+of those of his four listeners, each touched
+with the spiritual light shed by recent
+events over his or her own individual path.</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;270]</span>
+&quot;Do go on,&quot; Jane whispered softly.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Well, whenever I'd see a hard man
+sitting alone, I'd go up to him and hold
+out my hand and say, 'Well, I ain't laid
+eyes on you, I don't know when!' That
+wasn't no lie, and 'most always we'd get
+a-talking. Then I'd say, 'I'm a harmless
+crank that likes to go round making friends,
+and I took a fancy to you right off.' It
+was wonderful all I come up against. Why,
+the hardest folks was just aching to sit
+down and explain that they wasn't hard at
+all. It was the most interesting thing I
+ever got hold of. I got arrested once for a
+gold-brick man, and it give me a fine chance
+at the jailers and some of the men in prison.
+Pretty soon everything that turned up
+seemed to just come along to give me a
+chance to make a little sunshine. Pretty
+soon life was all nothing but sunshine
+chances. I got hold of some books that
+showed me that lots of others were trying
+some similar games, and all working hard,
+and I picked out one book that 'most anybody
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;271]</span>
+could understand, and I used to carry
+it to read from. Would you believe that
+I wore out that book about a hundred
+times and sold it more'n five hundred times
+and give it away 'most a thousand times.
+I got where hard lines was just play to me.
+I've now got where they're flowers in my
+garden. I just fly at 'em. If they don't
+give up to one course, they do to another.
+I travel about looking for 'em. I was on
+my last trip when I see Matilda sittin'
+across the aisle from me, and I said to
+myself right off, 'What fine lines!' So I
+went right over and shook hands with
+her&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;He said he feared maybe he'd made
+a mistake,&quot; interrupted his wife, &quot;and I
+said&mdash;God forgive me!&mdash;'If you speak
+to me again, I'll call out to the conductors!'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And I said: 'Madam, excuse me, I'm
+only a harmless crank as is trying to help
+folks as is sick or in trouble, and you look
+like a woman as could tell me of some I
+could help, maybe!'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;272]</span>
+&quot;Then I thought of you, Susan,&quot; said
+the sister; &quot;you see, I'd been looking out
+of the window, and the view was so pretty,
+and it kind of come over me how awful
+hard it was to lie in bed&mdash;and&mdash;and I felt
+kind of bad, and his face looked kind, and
+I said: 'Well, sit down. I do know somebody
+sick.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;So I set down,&quot; went on Mr. Beamer,
+&quot;and in just a little while she let up like
+everybody does and told me the whole
+story, and then I took her out on the
+back platform and we was swinging 'round
+curves of mighty lovely scenery, and I got
+out my book and I begin to read aloud to
+her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And I got hold of the idea like mad,&quot;
+said Matilda. &quot;I said right off: 'Then
+Susan's really all well now?' an' he said:
+'She's been well always,' and I says:
+'And my arm's well,' and he said: 'Nothin'
+ain't ever ailed your arm except your own
+innard feelings, and they're gone now,'
+and then I just put my hands over my face
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;273]</span>
+and says: 'Oh, God, forgive me for lots
+and lots and lots of things.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There was another little pause, and then
+Susan said very low: &quot;And God did it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And then,&quot; said Mr. Beamer, &quot;I says
+to her: 'Now, if you want to see how true
+everything I've been saying is, we'll just
+put this to a practical proof.' I'd noticed
+a woman with lines back there in the car
+slapping two sleepy children, and I told
+Matilda we'd each take a child for an hour
+and give her lines a chance to smooth out
+a little, and then we'd come back on the
+platform and talk it over.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;So we did it,&quot; said Matilda, &quot;and when
+I took the baby back to the woman, she
+burst out crying and said she'd tried to
+hold in all day and just couldn't any longer,
+cause her mother was sick and had been
+sick so long, and she couldn't leave the
+children to go to her 'cause the children was
+the neighbor's and left with her to board,
+and she'd never liked children and only took
+'em 'cause her mother needed the money.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;274]</span>
+&quot;Showing,&quot; interrupted Mr. Beamer,
+&quot;how we'd misjudged her and her hard
+lines, which is another feature of my crusade,
+as lots don't think enough about.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;But what come next was just like a
+story, too,&quot; Matilda said. &quot;When I got
+to Mrs. Camp's at last, I found Mrs. Camp
+so changed that if I hadn't met Matthew
+on the train and got something to hold
+on to, I couldn't have stayed in the house
+an hour.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why, what was the matter with Mrs.
+Camp?&quot; Susan asked anxiously.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Why, all Mrs. Camp's family is married
+now, and it seems she was so lonely she's
+turned into a social settler or some such
+thing, and her nice, quiet house where I'd
+looked to rest was one swarm of Italians
+learning English and girls learning sewing
+and women asking advice and such a chaos
+of Bedlam you never dreamed. If it
+hadn't been for my just having got religion
+that way, I'd have turned around and come
+straight back home. But as it was, I
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;275]</span>
+didn't have time to do anything but get
+into my blue print and take hold right
+with her and get some order into things
+in general.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, Aunt Matilda!&quot; Jane's face was
+radiant.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Afternoons Matthew came with an
+auto, and he'd take me off with the back
+seat full of children, and we'd hunt hard
+lines anywhere they looked likely.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;And then, of course, we soon got married,&quot;
+said Mr. Beamer.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes, and that's all,&quot; said Matilda.
+&quot;<i>Now did you ever?</i>&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">There was a sudden hush, until finally
+Susan said, through tears: &quot;Oh, Matilda,&mdash;it's
+like something in heaven's got loose
+and fell right down over us, isn't it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I think it's all too wonderful,&quot; said
+Jane.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Of course there really is something out
+of heaven spread over earth every day,&quot;
+said Lorenzo, low, and very reverently;
+&quot;only people don't see it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;276]</span>
+&quot;But nowadays, everybody's beginning
+to recognize it,&quot; Jane murmured.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;It's like it says in one of my books,&quot;
+said Mr. Beamer. &quot;God's a reservoir and
+we're all pipes, just as soon as we're willing
+to be pipes, and then He pours through us
+according to how willing we are, because
+you're big or little just according to how
+willing you are.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Let us all be very willing,&quot; said Jane.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Oh, Jane,&quot; said Susan, &quot;that sounds
+like a blessing to ask at the table. Let's
+ask a blessing after this and just say:
+'Let us all be very willing!'&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Amen,&quot; said Lorenzo.</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2"/>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;277]</span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<p class="h2a">THE RESULTS</p>
+
+<p class="indent">JANE was married in the early autumn.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">She didn't have any trousseau or any
+wedding presents or any bridal trip. It was
+a new kind of wedding, because so much
+about her and her way of looking at life
+was new to those about her, that even her
+marriage had to match it. &quot;My clothes
+are always in nice order,&quot; she said to Susan,
+slightly appalled over the non-existing preparations,
+&quot;and I love to sew and will
+make what I need as I need it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't want any presents,&quot; Lorenzo
+had said decidedly. &quot;I don't want any
+one on earth to groan because I'm marrying
+Jane.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;I don't think much of bridal trips;
+<span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;278]</span>
+Matthew and I didn't have one, so I know
+all about them,&quot; said Matilda, who now
+had her standard and never lowered it for
+one instant; &quot;those bothers are just about
+over for sensible people.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">So it all fell out in this way. One lovely
+bright September day, Mr. and Mrs.
+Beamer and Mrs. Susan Ralston walked
+quietly into the village church and sat
+down in the front pew. Shortly after
+the clergyman and the bride and the groom
+came in, and the clergyman married the
+bride to the groom. Then they all went
+out together, and the clergyman left them
+to go home together. A nice cold luncheon
+was spread at Susan's, and the cat was
+waiting, scratching hard at his white bow
+while he did so.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">After luncheon Mr. Beamer, his wife,
+and his wife's sister went off for a journey.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Think of me traveling!&quot; Susan cried
+ecstatically. &quot;Oh, Jane, may you enjoy
+going abroad this winter as much as I shall
+going off now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg&nbsp;279]</span>
+Jane smiled her pretty smile, and then,
+after the last wave of adieu, she and Lorenzo
+went back into the house.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;This is really very funny, you know,&quot;
+said Lorenzo; &quot;first we will wash all the
+dishes, and then we will plan our future.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">&quot;Yes,&quot; Jane said.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">But they failed to do either.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">Instead, they left the dishes and the future
+to care for themselves. Going straight
+down into the garden, climbing the two
+fences, safely secluded in the little, growing,
+blooming inclosure, Lorenzo took his wife
+in his arms, and said: &quot;Oh, my dearest
+dear, how rightest right everything is!&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">The End</span></p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<p class="h2">Books by Anne Warner</p>
+
+<p class="h3a">The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="indent">Players' Edition, with illustrations reproduced from photographs
+of scenes in the play. <b>$1.50</b></p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="indent">Always amusing and ends in a burst of sunshine.&mdash;<i>Philadelphia
+Ledger.</i></p>
+
+<p class="h3a">Just Between Themselves</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="indent">Frontispiece in color by Will Grefé. <b>$1.50</b></p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="indent">It is full of apt, pert little take-offs on human nature that provokes
+frequent chuckles.&mdash;<i>Philadelphia Item.</i></p>
+
+<p class="h3a">In A Mysterious Way</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="indent">Illustrated by J. V. McFall. <b>$1.50</b></p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="indent">A story of love and sacrifice that teems with the author's original
+humor.&mdash;<i>Baltimore American.</i></p>
+
+<p class="h3a">Your Child and Mine</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="indent">Illustrated. <b>$1.50</b></p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="indent">The child-heart, strange and sweet and tender, lies open to this
+sympathetic writer.&mdash;<i>Chicago Record-Herald.</i></p>
+
+<p class="h3a">An Original Gentleman</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="indent">Frontispiece by Alice Barber Stephens. <b>$1.50</b></p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="indent">Exhibits her cleverness and sense of humor.&mdash;<i>New York Times.</i></p>
+
+<p class="h3a">Susan Clegg, Her Friend and Her Neighbors</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="indent">Illustrated. <b>$1.50</b></p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="indent">Combining all the Susan Clegg stories originally published in &quot;Susan
+Clegg and Her Friend Mrs. Lathrop&quot; and &quot;Susan Clegg and Her
+Neighbors' Affairs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p class="indent">One of the most genuinely humorous books ever written.&mdash;<i>St.
+Louis Globe-Democrat.</i></p>
+
+<p class="h3a">Susan Clegg And a Man in the House</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="indent">Illustrated by Alice Barber Stephens. <b>$1.50</b></p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="indent">Susan is a positive joy, and the reading world owes Anne Warner a
+vote of thanks for her contribution to the list of American humor.&mdash;<i>New
+York Times.</i></p>
+
+<p class="h3a">When Woman Proposes</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="indent">Illustrated in color. <b>$1.25 <i>net</i></b></p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="indent">Dainty in form and content. It is printed, bound, and illustrated
+charmingly, and the story, style, and atmosphere correspond.&mdash;<i>New
+York Herald</i></p>
+
+<p class="h3a">A Woman's Will</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="indent">Illustrated. <b>$1.50</b></p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="indent">A deliciously funny book.&mdash;<i>Chicago Tribune.</i></p>
+
+<p class="h3a">How Leslie Loved</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+<p class="indent">Illustrations in color by A. B. Wenzell. <b>$1.25 <i>net</i></b></p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<p class="indent">The sprightly romance of a young and charming American widow.</p>
+
+<p class="h2">LITTLE, BROWN, &amp; CO., <i>Publishers</i><br />
+34 BEACON STREET, BOSTON</p>
+
+<hr class="hr2" />
+
+<div class="tnote">
+
+<p class="h2a">Transcriber's Note:</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="indent">On page 228, &quot;winable&quot; was replaced with &quot;winnable&quot;.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">On page 242, the comma after &quot;softly&quot; was replaced with a period.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">On page 245, the period after &quot;cow declared&quot; was replaced with a comma.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">On page 278, &quot;Mr Beamer&quot; was replaced with &quot;Mr. Beamer&quot;.</p>
+
+<p class="indent">In the advertisements at the end of the book, the duplicate header on the last page was removed.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUNSHINE JANE***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 37972-h.txt or 37972-h.zip *******</p>
+<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br />
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/7/9/7/37972">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/9/7/37972</a></p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, Sunshine Jane, by Anne Warner, Illustrated by
+Harriet Roosevelt Richards
+
+
+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: Sunshine Jane
+
+
+Author: Anne Warner
+
+
+
+Release Date: November 10, 2011  [eBook #37972]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUNSHINE JANE***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Ernest Schaal, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images
+generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries
+(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustration.
+      See 37972-h.htm or 37972-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37972/37972-h/37972-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37972/37972-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/sunshinejane00warniala
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
+
+      Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=).
+
+      Small capital letters were replaced by all capitals
+
+
+
+
+
+SUNSHINE JANE
+
+
+[Illustration: "Auntie Susan, it's Aunt Matilda and Mr. Beamer."
+FRONTISPIECE. _See Page 265._]
+
+
+SUNSHINE JANE
+
+by
+
+ANNE WARNER
+
+Author of "The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary," "Susan
+Clegg and Her Friend, Mrs. Lathrop," etc.
+
+With Frontispiece by Harriet Roosevelt Richards
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Boston
+Little, Brown, and Company
+1914
+
+Copyright, 1913, 1914,
+By Little, Brown, and Company.
+
+All rights reserved
+
+Published, February, 1914
+Reprinted, January, 1914
+
+Set up and electrotyped by J. S. Cushing Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
+Presswork by S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, Mass., U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+    CHAPTER                                          PAGE
+
+        I. GENERAL IGNORANCE                            1
+
+       II. EVERYBODY GETS THERE                         6
+
+      III. MATILDA TEACHES                             22
+
+       IV. JANE BEGINS SUNSHINING                      37
+
+        V. A CHANGE IN THE FEEL OF THINGS              61
+
+       VI. LORENZO RATH                                84
+
+      VII. A NEW OUTLOOK ON MATILDA                    98
+
+     VIII. SOUL-UPLIFTING                             127
+
+       IX. MADELEINE'S SECRET                         138
+
+        X. OLD MRS. CROFT                             148
+
+       XI. SHE SLEEPS                                 159
+
+      XII. EMILY'S PROJECT                            169
+
+     XIII. EMILY IS HERSELF FREELY                    191
+
+      XIV. JANE'S CONVERTS                            208
+
+       XV. REAL CONVERSATION                          220
+
+      XVI. THE MOST WONDERFUL THING EVER HAPPENED     233
+
+     XVII. WHY JANE SHOULD HAVE BELIEVED              243
+
+    XVIII. IN A PERFECTLY RIGHT WAY                   256
+
+      XIX. THE RESULTS                                277
+
+
+
+
+SUNSHINE JANE
+
+
+
+
+SUNSHINE JANE
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+GENERAL IGNORANCE
+
+
+THERE was something pathetic in the serene unconsciousness of the little
+village as the stage came lumbering down the hillside, bearing its
+freight of portent. So many things were going to be changed forever
+after,--and no one knew it. Such a vast difference was going speedily to
+make itself felt, and not a soul was aware even of what a bigger soul it
+was so soon to be. Old Mrs. Croft, clear at the other end of town and
+paralyzed for twenty years, hadn't the slightest conception of what a
+leading part was being prepared for her to play. Poor Katie Croft, her
+daughter-in-law and slave, whose one prayer was for freedom, dreamed not
+that the answer was now at last coming near. Mrs. Cowmull, sitting on
+her porch awaiting the "artist who had advertised," knew not who or what
+or how old he might be or the interest that would soon be hers. Poor
+Emily Mead, shelling peas on the bench at the back of her mother's
+house, frowned fretfully and, putting back her great lock of rich
+chestnut hair with an impatient gesture, wished that she might see "just
+one real man before she died,"--and the man was even then jolting
+towards her. Miss Debby Vane, putting last touches to the flowers on her
+guest-room table, where Madeleine would soon see them, was also sweetly
+unaware of the approach of momentous events. She thought but of
+Madeleine, the distant cousin whose parents wanted to see if absence
+would break up an obnoxious love affair, and so were sending her to Miss
+Debby, who was "only too pleased."
+
+"A love affair," she whispered rapturously. "A _real_ love affair in
+this town!" And then she pursed her lips delightfully, never guessing
+that she was to see so much besides.
+
+Meanwhile Miss Matilda Drew stood looking sternly out of her sister
+Susan's window, considering if there were any necessary yet up to now
+forgotten point to be impressed upon Jane the instant that she should
+arrive. Miss Matilda was naturally as ignorant as all the rest,--as
+ignorant even as poor Susan, lying primly straight behind her on the
+bed. Susan was a widow and an invalid, not paralyzed like old Mrs.
+Croft, but pretty helpless. Matilda had lived with her for five years
+and tended her assiduously, as she grew more and more feeble. Now
+Matilda was "about give out," and--"just like a answer out of a clear
+sky," as Matilda said--their niece Jane, whom neither had seen since she
+was a mite in curls fifteen years ago, had written to ask if she might
+spend her holiday with them. They had said "Yes," and Matilda was going
+away for a rest while Jane kept house and waited on her poor old aunt.
+Jane was one of the passengers now rattling along in the stage. She
+differed widely from the others and from every one else in the village,
+but all put together, they formed that mass known to literature as "the
+situation." I think myself that it was the rest that formed "the
+situation" and that Jane formed "the key," but I may be prejudiced.
+Anyway, "key" or not, Miss Matilda's niece was a sweet, brown-skinned,
+bright-haired girl, with a happy face, great, beautiful eyes, and a
+heart that beat every second in truer accord with the great working
+principles of the universe. She was the only one among them now who had
+a foot upon the step that led to the path "higher up." And yet because
+she was the only one, she had seen her way to come gladly and teach them
+what they had never known; not only that, but also to learn of them the
+greatest lesson of her own life. So we see that although conscious of
+both hands overflowing with gifts, Jane really was as ignorant, in God's
+eyes, as all the rest. She had gone far enough beyond the majority to
+know that to give is the divinest joy which one may know, but she had
+not gone far enough to realize that in the greatest outpouring of
+generosity which we can ever give vent to, a vacuum is created which
+receives back from those we benefit gifts way beyond the value of our
+own. "I shall bring so much happiness here," ran the undercurrent of her
+thought; she never imagined that Fate had brought her to this simple
+village to fashion herself unto better things.
+
+So all, alike unaware--those in the stage and those awaiting its advent
+with passengers and post--drew long, relieved breaths as it passed with
+rattle and clatter over the bridge and into the main street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+EVERYBODY GETS THERE
+
+
+JANE sat on the rear seat with old Mr. Cattermole, who was coming home
+to his daughter, Mrs. Mead.
+
+"Ever been here before?" old Mr. Cattermole asked her.
+
+"No, never."
+
+"Hey?"
+
+"No, never."
+
+"Once?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Never!"
+
+"I'll tell you what it is," said Mr. Cattermole, beaming benevolently,
+"it's the jolting. It keeps me from hearing what you say."
+
+Jane nodded, smiling.
+
+But old Mr. Cattermole wasn't long inconvenienced by the jolting.
+
+"Who you going to stop with?" he asked next.
+
+"Mrs. Ralston and Miss Drew."
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Mrs. Ralston and Miss Drew."
+
+"Who? I don't hear you."
+
+"Miss Drew."
+
+"The Crews?--There ain't no such people in town."
+
+"Miss Drew!" Jane became slightly crimson.
+
+"I'll tell you," said Mr. Cattermole, "we'll wait. I can't hear. Really
+I can't."
+
+The next minute they arrived at Mrs. Cowmull's, since she lived in the
+first house on the street. Lorenzo Rath, the artist, who had been
+sitting on the middle seat with Madeleine, now pressed her hand, twisted
+about and shook Jane's, nodded to old Mr. Cattermole, leaned forward and
+dragged his suit-case from under the seat, and then wriggled out, over
+two boxes and under a flapping curtain, and down on to the sidewalk.
+Mrs. Cowmull was standing on the porch, trying to look hospitable and
+unconscious at the same time. "Here," said the stage driver, suddenly
+delivering Lorenzo's trunk on to the top of his head,--"and here's the
+lampshade and the codfish,--they get down here, too."
+
+Lorenzo couldn't help laughing. "Au revoir," he cried, waving the
+lampshade as the steps began to move.
+
+"We'll meet again soon," Madeleine cried, her face full of bright color.
+
+"Yes, of course."
+
+Then they were off.
+
+"Seemed a nice young feller," said old Mr. Cattermole to Jane.
+
+"Yes." She tried to speak loudly.
+
+"Hey!"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I'll tell you," said old Mr. Cattermole benevolently, "you come and see
+my granddaughter Emily, and then we'll talk. My granddaughter's a great
+student. You'll like her. She's full of the new ideas and new books and
+all that. We're very proud of her. Only she don't get married."
+
+Then the stage stopped, and Mrs. Mead came running out. "Oh, Father, did
+you buy the new magazines,--on the train, you know?"
+
+Old Mr. Cattermole was descending backwards with the care of a cat in an
+apple-tree. "It's my daughter," he said to Jane. "I can always hear her
+because she speaks so plain. Yes, Emma, it _was_ dusty, very dusty."
+
+"This lawn-sprinkler is your's, ain't it?" said the stage driver,
+jerking it off the roof into Mrs. Mead's arms. "Here's his bag, too."
+
+And then they went on again. Madeleine now had space to turn about.
+"You'll come and see me?" she asked Jane earnestly; "it'll be so nice.
+We're both strangers here."
+
+"I'll try," Jane answered, "but I shall be closely tied to the house.
+Aunt Susan is an invalid, you see. I'll not only have all the work, but
+if I go out, that poor sick woman will be left helpless and alone
+up-stairs."
+
+"Perhaps I can come and see you, then," said Madeleine. "I'll have the
+time to come, if you'll have the time to see me."
+
+"I don't know anything about what my life will be," said Jane. "As I
+told you on the train, I've only seen my aunts once in my life and that
+was fifteen years ago. But I should think that you could come and see
+us. I should think that a little company would do Aunt Susan a lot of
+good. I'm sure that it would, in fact. But she may not like to see
+strangers. I really don't know a thing about it. I'm all in the dark."
+
+"I'll come and ask if I may come," said Madeleine brightly. "If she sees
+me, maybe she'll like me. Most everybody does." She laughed.
+
+"I'm sure of that," Jane said, laughing, too. Then the stage stopped at
+Miss Debby Vane's, and Miss Debby came flying down to embrace her
+cousin. "Thanks be to God that you're here safe, my dear. These awful
+storms at sea have just about frightened me to death."
+
+"But I was on land, Aunt Deborah." Madeleine, in getting down, had
+gotten into a warm embrace at the same time.
+
+"I know, dear, I know. But one can't remember that all the time--can
+one?" Miss Debby was kissing her over and over.
+
+"Your step-ladder. Look out!" cried the stage driver, and they had
+barely time to jump from under.
+
+Then Madeleine reached up and clasped Jane's hand. "We shall be
+friends," she said earnestly; "I've never met any one whom I've liked
+quite in the same way that I like you. Do let us see all that we can of
+one another."
+
+"_I_ want to, I know," Jane answered.
+
+The stage driver was already remounting his seat.
+
+"Au revoir," Madeleine cried, just as Lorenzo had done.
+
+"Just for a little," Jane called back, and then she was alone in the
+stage, rattling down the long, green-arched street to its furthest end.
+
+"There goes the stage," Katie Croft called out to her mother-in-law in
+the next room. "Now Miss Drew'll have her niece and be able to get away
+for a little rest."
+
+"If it was a daughter-in-law, she couldn't, maybe," said a voice from
+the next room; "the rest is going to be poor, sweet Susan Ralston's,
+anyhow. Oh, my Susan Ralston, my dear, sweet Susan Ralston, my loving
+Susan Ralston, where I used to go and call!"
+
+"Why, Mother, you haven't so much as thought of Mrs. Ralston for years."
+Katie's voice was very sharp.
+
+"Nobody knows what I think of," wailed the voice from the other room.
+"My thoughts is music. They fly and sing all night. They sing Caw, Caw,
+and they fly like feathers."
+
+Katie Croft walked over and shut the door with a bang. Katie was almost
+beside herself.
+
+The stage now drew up before the Ralston house.
+
+Miss Matilda quitted the window, where she had stood watching for an
+hour, and went to the gate. Her emotions were quite tumultuous--for her.
+Single-handed she had tended her sister for five years, and now she was
+going to have a rest. She had had very trying symptoms, and the doctor
+had advised a rest,--three weeks of freedom, night and day. She was
+going away on a real holiday, going back to the place where she had
+taught school before the summons had come to cherish, love, and protect
+her only sister, who was not strong and had property. It seemed like a
+dream,--a wild, lively, and joyful dream. She almost smiled as she
+thought of what was at hand.
+
+Jane descended, her small trunk came bang down beside her in the same
+instant, and the driver was paid and drove off. The aunt and niece then
+turned to go into the house.
+
+"Well, and so it's you!" Matilda's tone and glance were slightly
+inquisitorial, and more than slightly dictatorial. "I'm glad to see
+you're strong. You'll need be. She's an awful care. She ain't up much
+now. Isn't up at all sometimes for weeks. Sleeps considerable. Take off
+your hat and coat and hang them there. That's the place where they
+belong."
+
+Jane obeyed without saying anything. But her smile spoke for her.
+
+"Hungry?" inquired Matilda.
+
+"A little."
+
+"I surmised you would be and waited supper. Thought you'd see how I
+fixed hers then. She's eating very little. Less and less all the time.
+There's a garden to weed, too. Awful inconvenient out there across two
+stiles. But she won't give it up. She pays me to tend it, or I'd let the
+dandelions root it out in short order. But I tend it."
+
+They had gone into the kitchen, where a kettle stewed feebly over a
+half-dead fire. "Sit down," said Matilda. "I'll fix her supper first.
+She takes her tea cold, so I save it from morning and heat it up with a
+little boiling water, _so_. Then there's this bit of fish I saved from
+day before yesterday, and I cut a piece of bread. No butter, because her
+stomach's delicate. You'll see that she'll hardly eat this. Watch now."
+
+Jane sat and watched, still smiling.
+
+"Mr. Rath, the artist, came down in the stage with you, didn't he?" Miss
+Matilda went on. "What kind of a young man was he? Somebody'll tell you,
+so it might as well be me, what's brought him here. Mrs. Cowmull's
+trying to marry off her niece, Emily Mead. There aren't any men in town,
+so she advertised. She gave it out that she wanted a boarder, but
+everybody see through that. That's what marriage has come to these days,
+catching men to board 'em and then marrying them when they're thinking
+of something else. I thank Heaven I ain't had nothing to do with any
+marriage. They're a bad business. There, that's your supper."
+
+Jane started slightly. Her own cold fish and lukewarm tea sat before
+her. "Shan't I take Aunt Susan's up first?" she asked, recollecting that
+she still had some lunch in her bag, and that Matilda would be leaving
+early in the morning.
+
+"No need. She likes things cold. You ought to see her face if she gets
+anything boiling in her mouth. It's no use to give her nothing hot.
+You'd think it was a snake. I give it up the third time she burnt her."
+
+"But I ought to go up and see her, I think; she hasn't seen me since I
+was such a little girl."
+
+"No need. You go ahead and enjoy your supper without bothering over her.
+She knows you're here, and she isn't one that's interested in things.
+She'll read an old shelf paper for hours, but carry her up a new paper
+and like as not when you get to the bed with it, you'll find her asleep.
+She sleeps a lot."
+
+Jane--thus urged--picked the chilled fish with a fork and considered.
+
+"I'll show you about the house after you've done eating," the aunt
+continued presently; "it's easy taken care of, for I keep it all shut
+up. Just Susan's room and mine and the kitchen is open. The neighbors
+won't bother you, for I give them to understand long ago as I wasn't one
+with time to waste. There isn't any one in the place that a woman with
+any sense would want to bother with, anyhow."
+
+"I don't fancy that I'll have time to be lonesome," smiled Jane, bravely
+swallowing some tea.
+
+"You'd have if it wasn't for the garden. I don't know whatever in the
+world makes Susan set such store by that garden. She will have it that
+it shall be kept up in memory of her husband, and you never saw such
+weeds. I've often sat down backwards when one come up--often."
+
+"I can't see it at all," with a glance out of the window.
+
+"You can't from here. And it's got to be watered, and she counts every
+pot full of water from her bed. She can hear me pumping. The birds dig
+up the seeds as fast as I can plant 'em, and I never saw no sense in
+slaving in the sun over what you can buy in the shade any day.--Are you
+done?"
+
+"Yes, I'm done."
+
+"Then come on."
+
+"Can I spread the tray?"
+
+"Tray! She doesn't have a tray. What should I fuss with a tray for, when
+I've got two hands?"
+
+Jane rose and stood by the table in silence, watching the cup filled
+from the standing teapot and the plate ornamented with a lonely bit of
+fish and a slice of bread. "Don't you butter the bread?"
+
+"She's in bed so much she mustn't have rich food," Matilda answered;
+"there, now it's ready. Come on."
+
+"Shan't I carry anything?"
+
+"I can take it, I guess. I've carried it alone for five years; I guess I
+can manage it to-night."
+
+Jane followed up the stairs in silence; Matilda marched ahead with a
+firm, heavy tread.
+
+"Shall I knock for you?"
+
+"I don't know what for. She yells anyway, whenever I come in, whether
+she's knocked or not. Just open the door."
+
+Jane opened the door gently, and they went in together. The room was
+half darkened, and only a little sharp nose showed over the top of the
+bedquilt.
+
+"Here's your supper," said the affectionate sister, "and here's Jane."
+
+A shrill cry was followed by two eyes tipping upward beyond the nose.
+"Oh, are you Jane?" There was a lot of pathos in the tone.
+
+The girl moved quickly to the bedside. "I hope that we're going to be
+very happy," she said; "we must love one another very much, you know."
+
+The invalid hoisted herself on to an elbow and looked towards the plate
+which Matilda was holding forth.
+
+"Oh, my! Fish again!" she wailed.
+
+Later--on their way back to the kitchen fire--Matilda said
+significantly: "Most ungrateful person I ever saw, she is. But just
+don't notice what she says. It's the only way to get on. I keep her room
+tidy and I keep her house clean and I keep her garden weeded. I'm
+careful of her money, and she's well fed. I don't know what more any one
+could ask, but she ain't satisfied and she ain't always polite, but
+you'll only have three weeks of what I've had for five years, so I guess
+it won't kill you."
+
+"Oh, I think that I'll be all right," Jane answered cheerfully.
+
+"The stage is ordered for seven in the morning, and I shall get up at
+half-past four," the aunt continued. "You can sleep till five just as
+well. I'm going to bed now, and you'd better do the same thing."
+
+"Yes, I think so," said Jane cheerfully; "good night."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+MATILDA TEACHES
+
+
+MATILDA seated herself bolt upright on one of the kitchen chairs and
+drew a hard, stiff sigh.
+
+"It'll be a great rest to get away," she said, "more of a rest than any
+one but me will ever know. You see, she's left all she's got to me in
+her will, so I'm bound in honor to keep a pretty sharp watch over
+everything. I can't even take a chance at her sinking suddenly away,
+with the room not picked up or a cobweb in some high corner. I've seen
+her will, and she ain't left you a cent, so you won't have the same
+responsibility. It'll be easier for you."
+
+"I'll do my very best," said Jane.
+
+"The trouble is I'm too conscientious," said Matilda. "I was always
+conscientious, and she was always slack. It's an awful failing. It's a
+warning, too, for now there she lays, snug as a bug in a rug, and me
+with New Asthma in my arm from tending her and the house."
+
+"You'll get over all that very soon," said the niece soothingly.
+
+Matilda glanced at her suspiciously. "No, I shan't. I may get better,
+but I shan't get over it. It's a nerve trouble and can't never be
+completely cured. A doctor can alligator it, but he can't cure it. I'll
+have it till I die."
+
+Jane was silent.
+
+"You wrote that you were some kind of a nurse. What kind did you say you
+were?"
+
+"I'm a Sunshine Nurse."
+
+"A Sunshine Nurse! What's that? Some new idea of never pulling down the
+shades?"
+
+Jane laughed. "Not exactly. It's an Order just founded by a doctor. He
+picked out the girls himself, and he sends them where he chooses for
+training."
+
+"What's the training?"
+
+Jane looked at her and hesitated a little. "I expect you'll laugh," she
+said finally; "it does sound funny to any one who isn't used to such
+ideas. We're to see the sun as always shining, and always shine
+ourselves, and our training consists in going where there isn't any
+brightness and being bright, and going where there isn't any happiness
+and teaching happiness."
+
+"Sounds to me like nonsense," said Matilda, rising abruptly;
+"don't you go letting up the sitting-room shades and fading the
+upholstering,--that's all I've got to say. Come now and I'll show you
+about locking up, and then we'll go to bed."
+
+Jane obeyed with promptness and was most observant and attentive.
+Matilda loaded her with behests and instructions and seemed appreciative
+of the intelligence with which they were received.
+
+"I wouldn't go in for nothing fancy," she said, as they completed their
+task; "the less you stir up her and the house, the easier it'll be for
+me when I come back. You don't want to ever forget that I'm coming back,
+and don't put any fancy ideas into her head. There's plenty to do here
+without going out of your way to upset my ways."
+
+"I'll remember," said Jane.
+
+Then they started up-stairs, and a few minutes later the Sunshine Nurse
+was alone in her own room, free to stand quietly by the window and let
+her outward gaze form a bond between the still beauty of a country night
+and the glad vision of work in plenty, and that of a kind which Miss
+Matilda couldn't prohibit, because she knew not the world in which such
+work is done.
+
+"Not--" said Jane to herself with a little whimsical smile--"not but
+what I'm 'most sure that my teaching will be manifest in a lot of
+material changes, too, but by the time that she comes back, her own
+feelings will be sufficiently 'alligatored' so that she'll see life
+differently also. God's plan is just as much for her good in sending her
+away as it is for mine in sending me here, and I mustn't forget that for
+a minute. I'll be busy and she'll be busy, and we'll both be learning
+and we'll both be teaching and we'll both be being necessary."
+
+She drew a chair close and sat down, full of her own bright and helpful
+thoughts. Much of love and wonder came flooding into her through the
+medium of the sweet, calm night without. "It's like being among angels,"
+she fancied, and felt a close companionship with those who had known the
+Great White Messengers face to face.
+
+Long she sat there, praying the prayer that is just one indrawn breath
+of content and uplifted consciousness. Not many girls of twenty-two
+would have seen so much in that not unusual situation, and yet it was to
+her so brimful of fair possibilities that she could hardly wait for
+morning to begin work.
+
+When she rose to undress, when she climbed into the plain, hard bed that
+received her so kindly, when she slept at last, all was with the same
+sense of responsibility mixed with energetic intention. All that she had
+"asked" in the usual sense of "asking in prayer" had been "to be shown
+exactly how," and because she was one of those who know every prayer to
+be answered, in the hour of its making she knew that to be answered,
+too. "I'll be led along," was her last thought before sleeping, and it
+swept the fringe of her consciousness, leaving her to enter dreamland
+with the happy security of a trusting child.
+
+It really seemed no time at all before Matilda rapped loudly on her
+door, bringing her suddenly to the knowledge that the hour to begin all
+the longed-for work was at hand.
+
+"Five o'clock!" Matilda howled gently through the crack.
+
+"Yes, yes," she cried in response.
+
+The door opened a bit wider. "You'd better get right up or you'll go to
+sleep again," Matilda said, putting her head in, "right this minute."
+
+"Yes, I will."
+
+She sat up in bed to prove it.
+
+"All right," said her aunt--and shut the door.
+
+Jane had unpacked her small trunk the night before, and so was able to
+dress quickly and get down-stairs without a minute wasted. She found
+Matilda in the kitchen, very busy with the stove.
+
+"I do hope you'll remember what I said last night," she said, shoveling
+out ashes with an energy that filled the room with dust. "I can't have
+her habits all upset. It'll be no good giving me this change if you go
+and spoil her. Remember that."
+
+"I won't make any trouble," promised Jane. "I'll always remember that
+you're coming back."
+
+As she spoke, she saw again the thin, hopeless face on the pillow
+up-stairs and knew that Matilda herself was to know a glad surprise over
+the change which should welcome her home-coming. It was the learning to
+instantly realize the better side of those who insisted on exhibiting
+their worst that was the leading force in the training of that beaming
+little Order to which she belonged. The Sunshine Nurses were forbidden
+to consider anything or anybody as fixedly wrong either in kind,
+conception, or working out. It would be a very comfortable way of
+looking at things--even for such mere, ordinary, everyday folk as you
+and me.
+
+Matilda now said, "Ugh, ugh!" over the dust and proceeded to dive into
+the wood-box with one hand and get a sliver in her thumb.
+
+"In the morning she has tea," she said, going to the window to put her
+hand to rights. "One cup. Piece of bread. At noon, whatever is handy.
+Night, cup of tea and whatever she fancies. Bread or a cracker usually.
+She eats very little and less all the time. The cat eats more than she
+does. He's a snooper, that cat,--you'll have to watch out."
+
+Jane didn't seem to understand. "A--a snooper?"
+
+"Steals food. Awful thief. Slap him when you catch him at it; it's all
+you can do. Sometimes I throw water over him. He'll make off with what
+would be a meal for a hired man, and he's sly as any other thief."
+
+"Can't I help you with your hand?"
+
+"No, you can't. I get lots of them. They bother me a little because Mrs.
+Croft's cousin died of blood-poison from one. There, it's out. What was
+I saying? Oh, yes, the cat."
+
+"Where is she now?"
+
+"It's a he. Named Alfred for her husband. He's up in her room now.
+Always sleeps on her bed. She will have him, and I humor her. She's my
+only sister and she can't live long and she's left me all her money, and
+I humor her. It's my plain duty."
+
+"Is it healthy for an invalid to sleep with a cat?"
+
+"No, it ain't. But I promised to do whatever she said about the cat and
+the garden, and I do."
+
+"I'm sure it's very good in you," Jane murmured, looking out of the
+window.
+
+"It is. I'm a good woman. I do my whole duty, and there's not many in a
+town this size can say as much."
+
+"Where is the garden?"
+
+"I'll show you, if you don't mind getting your feet wet. I have my
+rubbers on already, to travel, so I can go right there now while the
+fire is kindling."
+
+"Is it wet?"
+
+"Most grass is wet, at five in the morning."
+
+Jane wanted to laugh. "I mean, isn't there a path?"
+
+"Part way, and then you have to climb two fences."
+
+"Climb! Two!" the niece turned in surprise.
+
+"Climb two fences. You never saw such a place. The strip between is
+rented for a cow-pasture. That's why there's two fences."
+
+"But why not have gates?"
+
+"Don't ask me. Find out if you can. I've lived here five years, and I
+ain't found out. You try and see if you'll do better. She's very
+secretive, and so was he before he died. I've just had to get along the
+best I could. She fails and fails steady, but it don't seem to affect
+her health none, and now at last it's affected mine instead and give me
+neophytes in my left arm."
+
+Jane turned her head and looked some more out of the window.
+
+"We'll go now. Might as well. The kettle will get to boiling while we're
+away, and then we'll have breakfast. It boils slow, because I've got the
+eggs in it for my lunch. Come on."
+
+The question of the wet grass seemed to have faded. They went out the
+kitchen door. It was a clear, bright morning. "Weedy weather," commented
+Matilda, and led the way down the path.
+
+"It's a pretty place," said Jane, her eyes roaming happily.
+
+"Yes, I suppose so. But it takes an artist or some one who hasn't lived
+in it for five years to feel that way." She paused to climb the first
+fence. It was three rails high and very awkward. "I'll go over first,"
+she said. "Think of it; I've done this six times a day for five years."
+
+Jane didn't wonder that she was so agile at it. "But how funny to have a
+garden away off here!" she said.
+
+Matilda was now over on the other side. "Yes, and think of keeping it
+up. Folks about here make no bones of telling me that they were both
+half-witted, only as she's my sister, they try to give me to understand
+as she caught it from him. He was a miser, you know."
+
+Jane was just getting her second leg over. "I don't know a thing about
+him," she said.
+
+"Well, you will, soon enough. The neighbors'll come flocking as soon as
+I'm gone, and you'll soon know all there is to know about us all.
+They'll pick me to pieces, too, and tell you I'm starving Susan to
+death, but I don't care. Climbing these fences has hardened me to
+calumny."
+
+They crossed the strip of cow-pasture, and Matilda got over another
+fence, saying as she did so: "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,"
+leaving Jane to make the application and follow her at the same time.
+
+Then they found themselves in a trim little garden.
+
+"How sweet," said the niece.
+
+"You can see I've done my duty by it, too," said Matilda; "that's my
+way. I'm hard and I ain't pretty to look at, but I do my duty, which is
+more'n most handsome women do. Every last bean here is clawed around
+like it ought to be, and the whole thing neat as wax. Same with Susan;
+you'd think from her face I'd murdered her, and yet the Recording Angel
+knows she's had a cold sponge and every last snarl combed out of her
+hair every day since I came. I don't boast, but I do work."
+
+"Dear me, it's a long way from the house," said Jane, forgetting her
+higher philosophy for the minute.
+
+"It's a good ten minutes to get here. A picking of peas is a half-hour's
+job. And ten to one, when I get back, the cat's been at the cream."
+
+Jane had had time to remember. "I can see you've been awfully good," she
+said warmly, "and my, but you've worked hard. Everything shows that."
+
+Matilda's face flushed with pleasure, the sudden pathetic flushing of
+unexpected appreciation. "I just have," she declared. "I've worked hard
+all my life and done a lot of good, and nobody's ever bothered to thank
+me. She don't. She just lays there and lets me run up and down stairs
+and climb fences and dig weeds and scamper back and forth with a extra
+hike, when I hear the bell of the door, till it'll be a mercy if I don't
+get neophytes all over, and the New Asthma in both legs, _I_ think."
+
+After a brief tour of the tiny whole, devoted mainly to instructing the
+novice, Matilda led the way back to the house.
+
+"Does it ever need watering?" Jane asked, lapsing again to a lower
+level.
+
+"Sometimes," said Matilda briefly. Jane hadn't the heart to say another
+word until--several steps further on--it occurred to her that the garden
+also could be only a good factor in God's plan, if she wreathed it and
+shrined it and saw it in her world, as He saw all His world on the day
+when it was first manifest and set. "And God saw everything that He had
+made, and behold, it was very good."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+JANE BEGINS SUNSHINING
+
+
+THE stage came for Matilda at eight o'clock. For half an hour before it
+could possibly be due, the traveler sat ready on a chair in the hall,
+with her umbrella tightly gripped in both hands, delivering bits of
+useful information as they occurred to her.
+
+"Be careful to lock up well every night."
+
+"Remember if she dies sudden, I shall want to know at once."
+
+"Don't look to enjoy yourself, but remember you're doin' a act of
+Christian charity."
+
+Jane sat on a small, hard ottoman in the corner by the whatnot and said:
+"I'll try," or "Yes, indeed," every time.
+
+"You're a good girl," the aunt said finally. "I'm glad to know you.
+Those Rainy-day Cooks or whatever you call yourself--"
+
+"Sunshine Nurse."
+
+"Yes, of course,--well, it's a good idea. I feel perfectly sure you'll
+do everything you know how."
+
+"Yes, I will," said Jane, resolving all over fresh that everything was
+going to come out fine, even to the return of Matilda herself.
+
+"There, I hear the stage on the bridge," said her aunt, jumping to her
+feet suddenly. "I must go and say good-by to Susan."
+
+"Isn't she still asleep?"
+
+"It doesn't matter. She's my only living sister, and it's my duty to
+wake her up."
+
+She rushed up-stairs, and a feeble little yell from above soon announced
+her duty done. Then followed a brief hum and jabber, and then she came
+running down again.
+
+"Feels bad to see me go," she said briefly. "That's natural, as she's
+turned over to you body and soul and ain't the least idea what you're
+like. I told her it was no more chances than every child run just being
+born, and a third of them lived, but she never could see reason,--kind
+of clung to my arm,--she's my only sister, and it makes me feel bad."
+With which hasty statement Matilda gave a brief dab to each eye, put up
+her pocket-handkerchief, and opened the front door. Jane had her bag in
+her hand, and they had carried the trunk to the gate before.
+
+The stage was empty, and the driver was tying the trunk-strap with a
+rope.
+
+"Well, good-by," said Matilda; "remember to lock up well every night."
+
+"Yes, I will," said Jane. "I hope you'll have a good time and a splendid
+change."
+
+"I'm sure of the change," said Matilda, swinging herself up with an
+agility bred of her liberal diet on stiles. "Five years,--will you only
+think of it?"
+
+The driver picked up the reins, gave them a slap, and the expedition was
+off.
+
+Matilda Drew was really "gone off on a visit."
+
+"Think of it," said Katie Croft, who, despite her town-name of "Katie,"
+was a gray-haired woman of fifty. "Think of it! A vacation! What luck
+some folks have. I shall never have a vacation in all--" her voice
+ceased, and she continued sweeping down the steps, the stage passing out
+of sight as she did so.
+
+Meanwhile Jane had re-entered the house and carefully closed the door
+after her. She felt curiously freed in spirit, and that subtly supreme
+joy of seeing a helplessly bad situation delivered bound and gagged into
+one's hands to be mended was hers.
+
+"I'll go straight and ask about auntie's breakfast first," she thought,
+mounting the staircase. To her light tap at the door, a feeble "come in"
+responded. She entered then and observed, with a slight start, that the
+invalid had just been up. The blind was drawn, and a pair of kicked-off
+slippers betrayed a hasty jump back into bed. Her eyes sought Susan's in
+explanation. "I didn't know that you could move about," she said, with a
+pleased look.
+
+Susan's little, sharp nose had an apologetic appearance, as it showed
+over the sheet-fold. "I can get about a little, days when I'm strong,"
+she explained, "and I wanted to see her off. I wanted to see if she
+really did go." She paused, gave a sharp choke and gasp, and then
+waited.
+
+Jane leaned over and kissed her forehead. "I will try very hard to make
+you comfortable and happy," she said gently.
+
+Susan rather shrunk together in the bed. "What kind of a girl are you,
+anyhow?" she asked suddenly and sharply. "Are you really religious, or
+do you only just go to church?"
+
+"I try to do what's right," her niece answered simply.
+
+The invalid contemplated her intently. "It can be pretty hard living
+with any one that tries to do right," she said. "My experience is that
+good people is often more trying than bad ones. Maybe it's just that
+I've had more to do with them, though. I suppose Matilda told you about
+everything and the garden and all?"
+
+"Yes, I think I know what to see to."
+
+"And the cat?--and his stealing?"
+
+"Yes, she told me about him."
+
+"The garden must be weeded," Susan pronounced, sinking down deep into
+the bed. "Don't you ever forget that. And that cat has got to be
+fed--and well fed, too--even if he does steal."
+
+Jane watched her disappear beneath the bedclothes.
+
+"Auntie," she said, "I've got lots of funny ideas, and one of them is
+that it's wicked not to be just as happy as possible every minute. Now
+I'm to be here three weeks, and I think that I ought to be able to make
+them a real change for you as well as for Aunt Matilda. We'll begin with
+your breakfast. You tell me what you like best, and I'll fix it for
+you--"
+
+Susan's head came up out of the bed-clothes with the suddenness of a boy
+rising from a dive. "If I can have anything I want," she cried, "I want
+some hot tea--some boiling hot tea, some tea made with water that's
+boiling as hard as it can boil. And I want the pot hot. Burning hot
+before the tea goes in."
+
+Jane started. "I thought you liked your tea cold."
+
+Susan's eyes fairly snapped. "Well, I don't. I don't like nothing cold.
+I like everything hot."
+
+Jane moved towards the door. "I'll go and make some right away," she
+said.
+
+Susan's small, bright eyes looked after her very hard indeed. "I wonder
+if you really mean what you say about my doing what I please."
+
+"Of course I mean what I say."
+
+"Then I want to go back into my own room."
+
+The niece stopped. "Isn't this your room?" she asked in surprise.
+
+"No, this is the nearest room to the top of the stairs. I'll show you
+which is my room." With a quick leap she was out of bed.
+
+"Barefooted!" cried Jane.
+
+"I'll get into slippers quick enough, and I always wear stockings in
+bed. It's one of my peculiar ways. I'm very peculiar." She was running
+out of the room. Jane followed, astonished at the strength and
+steadiness of the bedridden.
+
+"But I thought that--that you were always in bed," she stammered.
+
+Susan stopped short and turned about. "It was the pleasantest way to get
+along," she said briefly. "I guess that you've a really kind heart, so
+I'll trust you and tell you the truth. Matilda wasn't here very long
+before I see that if her patience wasn't to give out, I'd got to begin
+to fail. I went to bed, and I've failed ever since. I've failed steady.
+It's been the only thing to do. It wasn't easy, but it was that or have
+things a lot harder. So I failed."
+
+Jane stared in amazement, and then suddenly the fun of it all overcame
+her, and she burst out laughing. Susan laughed, too. "It was all I could
+do," she repeated over and over.
+
+"And so you failed," said her niece, still laughing.
+
+"Yes, and so I failed."
+
+"Mercy on us, it's the funniest thing I ever heard in all my life,"
+exclaimed the Sunshine Nurse.
+
+"It ain't always been funny for me," said Susan, "but come, now, I want
+to show you my room."
+
+She opened a door as she spoke and led the way into a dark,
+musty-smelling place. It was the work of only a minute to draw the blind
+and throw up the window. "Right after we've had breakfast, we'll clean
+it," the aunt declared, "and then I'll move right back in. Husband and
+me had this room for twenty long years together. He was a saving man,
+and most of what he was intending to save when I wanted to buy things
+was told me in this room. Whatever I wanted he always said I could have,
+and then when it came night, he said I couldn't. The room is full of
+memories for me--sad memories--but after he was mercifully snatched to
+everlasting blessedness, I grew fond of it. It's a nice room."
+
+"I think I'll get your tea," said Jane, "and then I'll clean this room
+and help you move into it. We'll have you all settled before noon."
+
+She turned and ran down to the kitchen. The kettle was singing, and she
+stuffed more wood in under it and began to hunt for a tray and the other
+concomitants of an up-stairs breakfast. Things were not easily found.
+
+"Well, I declare!" a voice at the window behind her exclaimed, as she
+was down on her knees getting a tray-cloth out of a lower drawer. The
+voice gave her a violent start, being a man's. She sprang to her feet
+and faced about.
+
+"I'm sorry; I thought you'd know me." It was the artist of the day
+before, the young man who had come down in the stage.
+
+"It's so early." She went to the window and shook hands. "But I'm glad
+to see you, anyhow."
+
+"I always get up at six and walk five miles before breakfast when I'm in
+the country," he explained.
+
+"Do you really? What enterprise!"
+
+"And so this is where you've come. Why, it's the quaintest old place
+that I ever saw. A regular tangle of picturesque possibilities. Who are
+you visiting?"
+
+"I'm taking care of my invalid aunt while my other aunt has a little
+rest."
+
+"Is she very ill?"
+
+"Oh, no. But this is her tea that I'm making, and I must take it up to
+her now."
+
+"I'll go, then. But may I come again--and sketch?"
+
+"I can't have company. I'll be too busy."
+
+"Can't I help with the work?"
+
+He was so pleasant and jolly that she couldn't help laughing. "I'm
+afraid not," she said, shaking her head.
+
+He stood with his hand on the window-sash. "Do you know my name?" he
+asked.
+
+"No."
+
+"It's Lorenzo, Lorenzo Rath. I've to grow famous with that name. Think
+of it."
+
+She laughed again.
+
+"I can draw the outside of the house, anyhow--can't I?"
+
+"Dear me, I suppose so,"--she picked up the tray,--"you must go now,
+though. Good-by."
+
+"Good-by," he cried after her.
+
+"Oh, see the steam," was Susan's exultant exclamation, as she entered
+her room. "I ain't seen steam coming out of a teapot's nose for upwards
+of three years. Matilda just couldn't seem to stand my taking my tea
+hot, and she's my only sister, and I humor her. Who was you talking to?"
+
+"A man who came down on the stage yesterday. He was out walking and
+didn't know that I lived here."
+
+"Oh, a love affair!" cried Susan, in high-keyed ecstasy. "He's fallen in
+love with you, and like enough was prowling around all night. Oh! How
+interesting! I ain't seen a love affair close to for years." She was so
+genuinely joyful that Jane felt sorry to dampen the enthusiasm.
+
+"I don't believe you'll see one now," she said, smiling good-humoredly.
+"You see, I don't mean to marry, Auntie. I'm a Sunshine Nurse, and they
+have their hands too full for that kind of thing."
+
+"A nurse! I didn't know you were a nurse."
+
+"A Sunshine Nurse is a person who does what doctors can't always
+do,--who makes folk well."
+
+"Are you going to make me well?"
+
+"Yes," said Jane, resolutely.
+
+Susan stopped eating and looked at her with an expression full of
+contradictory feelings. "I shall like it," she said slowly. "But, oh my!
+Matilda won't. Why, she--" she paused. "Oh, I _do_ wonder if I can trust
+you?"
+
+"Anybody can trust me," said Jane. "It's part of my training to be
+honest."
+
+"Dear me, but that's a good idea," said Susan, with sincerest approval.
+"Well, if I can trust you, I don't mind telling you that it's taken
+considerable care for me to live along with Matilda. I don't mean
+anything against her--not rat-poison nor anything like that, you
+know?--but she hasn't just approved of my living; she's looked upon it
+as a waste of her time. And I've had to manage pretty careful in
+consequence. You see, she's my only sister, and she'd have my property
+anyhow, but if I had to have a nurse or a woman to look out for me long,
+there'd be no property to leave. She's real sensible, and we both know
+just how it is, but it's been pleasantest for me to stay more and more
+in bed and kind of catch at things as I walk, and once in a while I
+don't eat all day, and so it keeps up her hope and keeps things
+pleasant."
+
+Jane looked paralyzed. "How can you go without food all day?"
+
+Susan considered a little. Then she took a big drink of hot tea and
+confessed. "I don't really. I watch till she goes to the garden, and
+then I skip down-stairs and make a good meal and lay it all on the cat."
+
+Jane sank down on the foot of the bed and burst out laughing again.
+Again she just couldn't help it. Susan laughed, too; first softly and
+gingerly, then in a way almost as hearty as her niece's.
+
+"Oh me, oh my," the latter declared, after a minute, wiping her eyes.
+"Well, we'll have a very lively three weeks, I see."
+
+"Oh, yes," Susan exclaimed, "and we'll have liver and bacon, and I'll
+see the neighbors when they come in. I give up seeing them because it
+made so much trouble, and the way I'm made is--'Anything for peace.'
+That's what I always used to say to husband, whatever he said. First
+along I used to say real things, but all the last years I just said
+whatever he said; anything for peace."
+
+"You've finished your tea now," said Jane, rising. "I'll take the tray
+down while you dress a bit, and then we'll move you into the other
+room."
+
+"Oh, and _how_ I will enjoy it," cried Susan, clasping her hands in
+ecstasy. "Oh, you Sunshine Jane, you--how glad I am you've come."
+
+"I'm glad, too," said Jane. "We'll have an awfully nice time."
+
+She ran down-stairs with the tray and found Madeleine sitting in the
+kitchen, waiting. "Why, how long have you been here?" she asked.
+
+Madeleine lifted a rather mournful countenance and tried to smile. "Oh,
+Miss Grey. I'm so blue. I can't stand this place at all, I don't
+believe. My situation is going to be unbearable."
+
+"What's the matter with it?"
+
+"It's so small and petty and spiteful. All last evening I had to sit and
+listen to gossip. I hate personalities. Why, whatever I do is going to
+be seen and talked about the minute I do it."
+
+Jane looked grave. "That nice woman who came out to meet you didn't look
+like a gossip."
+
+"She isn't, but she sits and listens, and every once in a while she
+throws oil on the fire by saying, '_I_ never believed the story.'"
+
+"Who did the talking?"
+
+"The neighbors--a woman named Mrs. Mead, who came in with her daughter.
+The mother was old-fashioned in her ideas, and the daughter was new.
+That old man in the stage stopped there, you know."
+
+"My aunt spoke of them last evening," said Jane; "she said that Emily
+Mead was picked out to marry that young man who came down with us."
+
+Madeleine laughed and then blushed. "I'm afraid not," she said. "I know
+him. He won't marry anybody here."
+
+Jane turned and began to put away the breakfast things.
+
+"Don't be bored," she said gently. "Put on this extra apron, and help me
+wash these dishes; and then I'll set the kitchen to rights and get ready
+to move my aunt into another bedroom. She's an invalid, you know."
+
+"What kind of a person is your aunt?"
+
+"Awfully nice," began Jane, but was stopped by the sudden opening of the
+hall door.
+
+There stood Susan, all dressed.
+
+"It seems good to have clothes on again," she remarked calmly; "I ain't
+been dressed for upwards of three years."
+
+Then she saw Madeleine. "How do you do," she said, holding out her hand.
+"I suppose you're the Miss Mar from Deborah's?"
+
+"Yes, I am," Madeleine admitted, smiling.
+
+"My, but you look good to me," said Susan; "it's so nice to see a
+strange face. You see, I've been in bed for a long time, and I give up
+seeing strangers long before that." She sat down on one of the kitchen
+chairs and beamed on them both, turn and turn about. "Husband always
+thought that strangers was pickpockets," she said, "but I like to look
+at 'em. My, but I will enjoy these next weeks. You see, I live with my
+sister," she explained to Madeleine, "and I've had a pretty hard time.
+My sister's got a good heart, but maybe you know how awful hard it is to
+live with that kind of people. It's been pleasanter to stay in bed."
+
+"But you won't do that any more, Auntie," said Jane, moving busily
+about.
+
+"No, indeed I won't. You see," again to Madeleine, "she was my only
+sister, so I humored her. It's the only way to get on with some people.
+But you can even humor folks too much, and she got a disease they call
+the Euphrates all up and down her ear and her elbow, just from being
+humored too much. So she's gone off for a change."
+
+"What are you doing?" Madeleine asked Jane.
+
+"Making waffles. I thought it would be fun to eat them hot right now."
+
+Susan fairly shrieked with joy. "I ain't so much as smelt one since
+husband died. Waffles in the morning, and I'm so awful hungry, too. Oh,
+Jane, the Lord will surely set a crown of glory on your head the minute
+He sees it. Your feet won't be into heaven when the crown goes on. How
+did you ever think of it?"
+
+Jane brought out the iron, laughing as she did so. "Why, Auntie, it's
+part of my training."
+
+"Cooking waffles in the morning?"
+
+"No. Giving joy. If I think of any way to give pleasure and don't do it,
+I count it a sin. To make more happiness is all the work of a Sunshine
+Nurse."
+
+"Isn't that splendid?" Susan appealed to Madeleine.
+
+Madeleine's great, beautiful eyes were lifted towards the other girl's
+face with an expression mysterious in its longing. "Teach me the gift,"
+she said; "I want to make more happiness, too."
+
+"We'll be her class," exclaimed Susan, "just you and me."
+
+"The first lesson is eating waffles," Jane announced solemnly.
+
+"And me, too," cried a voice in the kitchen window, and there was
+Lorenzo Rath back for his second call that day, and it not yet ten
+o'clock. "I've been to Mrs. Cowmull's and eaten breakfast, and I'm as
+hungry as a wolf." He came in through the window as he spoke.
+
+"Oh, a young man!" cried Susan. "I ain't seen a young man since the last
+time the pump broke. Oh, my! Ain't this jolly? Ain't this fun?"
+
+"You show Madeleine where to find plates and forks and knives, Auntie,"
+said Jane. "Here, Mr. Rath, I'll break two more eggs and you can beat
+them. I haven't made enough batter, if there's a man to eat, too."
+
+"I feel as if I'd leave Mrs. Cowmull's to-morrow and come here to
+board," said Lorenzo. "Could I?" His tone was very earnest.
+
+"No, you couldn't," said Jane firmly.
+
+"Oh, let him," exclaimed Susan, from the pantry, where she was getting
+out plates. "It'll make Mrs. Cowmull so mad, and I ain't made any one
+mad for years and years. I'd so revel to be human again. And it would be
+so nice having a man about, too."
+
+"I couldn't think of it," said Jane, getting very crimson.
+
+Madeleine looked at the artist.
+
+"Then I shall leave Mrs. Cowmull's, anyway," said Lorenzo, decidedly; "I
+shall look up another place at once. Why, that woman would drive me mad.
+She says something ridiculous every time she opens her mouth. She asked
+me this morning if I'd ever climbed to the top of the Kreutzer Sonata."
+
+"What did you say?" Madeleine asked.
+
+"I told her no, but I'd been to the bottom of the Campanile and seen
+them getting out coal from the mine there."
+
+"Well, that showed you'd seen some sights, anyhow," said Susan,
+placidly.
+
+"The waffles are done!" Jane announced. They all drew up round the
+table.
+
+"This is living," the invalid exclaimed. "If my sister would only never
+come back!"
+
+"Maybe she won't!" suggested Lorenzo.
+
+"I wouldn't like her to die," said Susan, gravely. "I'm sensitive over
+feeling people better off dead. But if she'd marry, it would be nice."
+
+"For the man?" queried Lorenzo.
+
+"For us all," said Susan, gravely.
+
+"Just exactly the right thing is going to happen to her and everybody,"
+said Jane, firmly--dividing the waffles as she spoke.
+
+"Are you so sure?" the artist asked, looking a little amused.
+
+Susan noticed the look. "She's a Sunshine Nurse," she explained quickly.
+"It's her religion to be like that. She can't help it. She's promised."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A CHANGE IN THE FEEL OF THINGS
+
+
+IT didn't take long for the town to wake up to the fact that some new
+element had entered into its composition.
+
+"I can't get over it, Susan Ralston's being up and about," Miss Debby
+Vane said distressedly to Mrs. Mead. "Why, she was 'most dead!"
+
+"Matilda ought not to have gone away," Mrs. Mead said sternly. "Sick
+folks in bed can't bear a change. A new face gives them a little spurt
+of strength, and then when they see the old face again, they kind of
+give up hope and drop right off."
+
+"Yes, I know that," said Miss Debby; "my father had a cousin die that
+way. There was a doctor going about in a wagon, pulling teeth and giving
+shocks, and he said he'd give Cousin Hannah a shock and cure her. So
+they took him up-stairs, and there she was dead of heart disease. They
+thought of prosecuting him, but the funeral coming right on they hadn't
+time, and then he was gone to another place, and it seemed too much
+bother."
+
+"That girl is just the same kind, I believe," said Mrs. Mead; "that
+dreadful way of making you feel that after all what she says is pretty
+sensible, maybe. My Emily is awfully took with her, and Father's just
+crazy about her. He come down on the stage with her, and then he went
+out to see her. She knows how to get around men; she was frying
+doughnuts."
+
+"Yes, and Mrs. Cowmull's artist was out there, and they had waffles in
+the middle of the morning. That's a funny kind of new religion."
+
+"Has she got a new religion?" Miss Debby looked frightened. "I hadn't
+heard of it."
+
+"Why, yes; Emily says she's got the funniest religion you ever heard of.
+Whatever she wants to do or don't want to do, she says it's her
+religion."
+
+"Dear me, but I should think that that would be very convenient," said
+Miss Debby, much impressed. "Why, my religion is always just the
+opposite of what I want to do or don't want to do. It says so every
+Sunday, you know,--'we have done those things,' and so forth."
+
+"Hers is different," said Mrs. Mead.
+
+"Well, I declare," repeated Miss Debby; then, suddenly, "I remember now
+that Madeleine said that they had waffles because Jane said that she
+thought waffles would taste good, and it was her religion to do whatever
+you thought of right off. Well, I declare!"
+
+Both ladies stared in solemn amazement at one another.
+
+"This'll be a nice town to live in, if she sets everybody to doing
+whatever you like, because it's right," Mrs. Mead said finally. "Father
+won't put on his coat again this summer."
+
+"It'll make a great difference in the feeling of the town," said Miss
+Debby, mysteriously, "a great difference. Well, I hope it won't change
+Madeleine any way her family won't approve. Madeleine's in love, and I
+suppose it's Mr. Rath. They knew each other before, and her family don't
+want it. I've pieced it all out of scraps."
+
+"Oh, dear!" said Emily Mead's mother, her face falling; "my, I hadn't
+heard but what he was a free man."
+
+"Oh, no," said Miss Debby, "your sister isn't sure. But everybody else
+is. My own view of artists is they're deluders and snares. I give an
+artist a picture and a dollar once to enlarge, and that was the last I
+ever heard of them both--of all three."
+
+"I wonder if Emily knows Mr. Rath's engaged," said Mrs. Mead, sadly.
+"Dear me, I never thought of that."
+
+"Not engaged, but in love," corrected Miss Debby.
+
+"Perhaps he's a real artist and changeable," suggested Mrs. Mead.
+
+"There's no comfort in that for any one, 'cause if he'll change once,
+he'll change right along."
+
+Mrs. Mead sighed very heavily. "Well, I must keep up for Father and
+Emily," she remarked, not tracing any very clear connection between word
+and deed.
+
+"Yes," said Miss Debby, "you must, and we'll all keep a sharp eye on
+these new kind of ways of looking at things, for we don't know where
+they'll end."
+
+The "new way of looking at things" had already been very efficacious in
+the house at the other end of the street. It had assumed an utterly new
+appearance, both outside and in.
+
+"And I never felt nothing like the change in the _feel_ of it," Susan
+exclaimed that afternoon, as she re-arranged her belongings in her own
+room. "Oh, you Sunshine Jane, you, you've just sunshone into every room,
+and I'm so happy turning my things about I don't know what to do.
+Matilda wouldn't never let me turn a china cow other end to, and I've
+lived with some of the ornaments facing wrong for the whole of these
+five long years."
+
+"It isn't me, Auntie," said Jane, washing shelves with the hearty and
+happy energy which she threw into every task in which she engaged; "it's
+the opening of the windows and the letting in of God and His sunshine
+together. I'll soon have time to clean the whole house, and then we'll
+have fun re-arranging every room. You've such pretty things, and they
+must be rubbed up and given a chance to play a part in the world. God
+never meant anything to be idle,--not even a brass andiron. If it can't
+work, it can shine and be cheerful, anyway. What can't smile ought to
+shine, you know."
+
+"I wonder why rubbing things makes 'em bright," said Susan, opening her
+bonnet-box and hitting her bonnet a smart cuff to knock dust out of the
+folds. "I never could understand that."
+
+"It's your individuality that you transfer till the poor dull things get
+enough of it to shine alone, without anybody's help."
+
+"What a good reason," said Susan. "My, to think maybe I'll go to church
+again in this bonnet! Matilda was always wanting to rip it up, but
+something made me cling to it. It's a kind of souvenir. I wore it to
+husband's funeral and my last picnic, and there are lots of other
+pleasant memories inside it."
+
+"I'll freshen it up with a cloth dipped in ammonia," said Jane. "Dear
+me, how I _do_ enjoy washing shelves. I love to sop the soapy water over
+and mop the corners, and dry the whole, and fit a clean newspaper in,
+and then see the closet in perfect order."
+
+"You like to do everything, seems to me," said Susan.
+
+"Yes, I do. I've been led to see that doing things well is about the
+finest way in which one can pass one's time. And I'm crazy over doing
+things _well_. If I fold a towel, I like to fold it just square, and if
+I make a bed, I want the fold in the spread and the fold in the sheet to
+meet even."
+
+"You'll make a fine wife, Jane," said Susan, gravely, "only no man'll
+ever appreciate the folds lying straight."
+
+Jane laughed merrily. "I'm never going to marry; I'm one of the new sex,
+the creatures who are born to live alone and lend a hand anywhere.
+Didn't you know that?"
+
+"That's nonsense," said Susan; "no woman's made so."
+
+"No. It's a big fact. One of the newest facts in the world. The New
+Woman, you know!"
+
+"Mercy on us," said Susan, "don't you go in for any of that nonsense.
+The idea of a girl like you deciding not to marry! I never heard of such
+a thing!"
+
+"It's so, though," said Jane, smiling brightly; "you see, my little
+Order is a kind of Sisterhood. We're taught to want to help in so many
+homes and to never even think of a home of our own. We're taught to love
+all children so dearly that we mustn't limit ourselves to one family of
+little ones. We're trained to be so fond of the best in every man that
+we see more good to be done as sisters to men than as wives."
+
+"I don't believe Mr. Rath will agree with you," said Susan, "nor any
+other real nice fellow."
+
+Jane was cutting paper for the shelves. "Yes, he will," she said,
+nodding confidently; "men are so scarce nowadays that they are ready to
+agree with any one."
+
+"Jane, _I_ think he's in love with you already." Susan's tone was very
+solemn.
+
+Jane merely laughed.
+
+Then the door-bell rang, and she had to run. Presently she was back, a
+little breathless. "It's Mrs. Mead and her daughter. Can you come down?"
+
+"Yes, in a minute. You say, in a minute."
+
+Jane ran down again with the message.
+
+"Most remarkable," said Mrs. Mead, now dressed for calling, with her
+black hair put back in three even crinkles on either side, "about your
+aunt, you know, I mean. Why, we looked upon her as 'most dead. You know,
+Emily, we've always been given to understand she was nearing her end."
+
+"It does an invalid a lot of good to have something new to think about,"
+said Jane. "I'm very enlivening. Aunt Susan just couldn't help getting
+up, when she heard me upsetting her house in all directions."
+
+"Yes, I expect it was enough to make her nervous," said Mrs. Mead,
+sincerely. "How long are you going to stay?"
+
+"Until Aunt Matilda comes back."
+
+"I don't believe she'll like these changes," said Mrs. Mead, gravely. "I
+should think that you'd feel a good deal of responsibility. It's no
+light matter to leave a shut-up house and an invalid in bed to a niece
+and come home to find the house open and the invalid all over it."
+
+"And a man coming in and having waffles in the morning," said Emily
+Mead, with a smile meant to be arch.
+
+Jane laughed. "That was dreadful, wasn't it?" she said, twinkling--"it
+was all so impromptu and funny. And everybody had such a good time. It
+just popped into my head, and you see it's my religion to have to do
+anything that you think will make people happy, if you see a chance."
+
+"Yes, we've heard about your religion," said Mrs. Mead; "dear me, I
+should think you'd get into a lot of trouble! Waffles in the morning
+would upset some folks, except on Sunday."
+
+"Perhaps most people haven't enough religion to manage them week-days,"
+Jane suggested.
+
+"My aunt, Mrs. Cowmull, says Mr. Rath could hardly eat any lunch,"
+observed Emily, smiling some more.
+
+"Oh, dear!" said Jane, "but I'm not surprised. Aunt Susan couldn't,
+either."
+
+Mrs. Mead coughed significantly. "Susan Ralston's pretty delicate to
+stand many new ideas, I should think," she began, but stopped suddenly
+as Susan entered, and viewed her with an expression of shocked surprise.
+
+"Why, Mrs. Ralston, I'd no idea you were so well. Where have you kept
+yourself these last years, if you were so well?"
+
+"In my own room," said Susan, with dignity. "I didn't see no special
+call to come down. Matilda knew where everything was, but Jane doesn't,
+so I've changed my ways for a little."
+
+Jane took her hand and pressed it affectionately. The sunshine seeds
+were sprouting finely. "Don't you want to come out into the garden with
+me?" she asked Emily Mead, and Emily rose at once. "I thought auntie
+would enjoy visiting alone with her old friend," she added, as they
+passed through the hall.
+
+"What are you, anyway?" Emily asked curiously. "I've heard you were a
+trained nurse,--are you?"
+
+"I'm one of the brand-new women," said Jane; "not a Suffragette, nor an
+advanced anything, but just a creature who means to give her life up to
+teaching happiness as an art."
+
+"Yes, I heard that. But how do you do it?" asked Emily Mead.
+
+"By being happy and thinking happy thoughts and doing happy things."
+
+Emily considered. "But don't you ever have hard things to do?"
+
+"Never. I enjoy them all--I love to work."
+
+Emily looked at her wonderingly. "But washing dishes?--We don't keep a
+girl, and I hate washing dishes. What would you say to them?"
+
+Jane laughed. "What, those two lovely tin pans and that nice boiling
+kettle? And all the dirty plates sinking under the soap-suds and then
+piling up under the clean hot water. And the shining dryness and the
+putting them on the shelves all in their own piles. And then the knowing
+that God wanted those dishes washed, and that you've done them just
+exactly as He'd like to see them done. Why, I think dish-washing is
+grand!"
+
+Emily opened her eyes widely. "How funny you are! I never heard such
+talk before! But, then, you've lived in a big city and learned to think
+in a big way. You wouldn't see dish-washing so if you'd done it all your
+life and never been told it was nice. You couldn't."
+
+"But you've been told now," said Jane, "and no work need ever seem
+horrid to you again. Just look at it in my way after this."
+
+"But all work seems horrid to me. I'd like to marry an awfully rich man
+and never see this place again. I hate it."
+
+Jane thought a minute; then said in sweet, low, even tones: "You won't
+evolve any man fit to marry out of that spirit, you know."
+
+The other girl stared at her. "Evolve!"
+
+"Yes. Don't you know that every minute in this world is the result of
+all the minutes that have gone before, and that who we marry is part of
+a result--not just an accident?"
+
+"_What?_"
+
+"Don't you know that? Don't you understand?"
+
+"Not a bit. Tell me what you mean?"
+
+"It's too long to explain right this minute, because one can't tell such
+things quickly, and if you've never studied them, you haven't the
+brain-cells to receive them. You see brain-cells are the houses for
+thoughts, and they have to be built and ready before the thoughts can
+move in. That's what they told me, when I was learning."
+
+Emily looked at her in bewilderment.
+
+"It's very interesting," said Jane. "I think that it's the most
+interesting thing in the whole world. You see, I didn't have any life at
+all; I was an orphan and not very bright. And then I happened to get
+hold of a book that said that all the life there was in the world was
+mine, if I'd just take it. So I wrote to the man who wrote the book--"
+
+"How did you ever dare?"
+
+"Why, I knew that the man who wrote that book would help any one--he
+couldn't have written the book if he hadn't been made to help
+people--and I asked him how I could begin."
+
+"What did he answer?"
+
+"He said: 'Seize every chance to prove your mind the master of your own
+body first, and when you are thoroughly master of yourself, you can
+master all else.'"
+
+"What did he mean?"
+
+"Well, I took it that he meant me to do anything that I thought of,
+right off, and that if I got in the habit of sweeping all work out of my
+small way, I'd soon be given a chance at big work in a big way."
+
+"And were you?"
+
+"Yes. I began to get through so quick--I lived with an uncle and helped
+his wife with the sewing and the children--that I had some spare time,
+and I went into the kitchen and learned to cook. Then one of the
+children was ill, and the doctor thought I'd make a good nurse, so he
+got me into a hospital, and I met a woman there who had all the books
+that I wanted to read and who just took hold and helped me right out. I
+saw that I didn't want to be a sick-nurse, because there's such a lot of
+humbug and such a lot that's silly, and my friend said that I was one
+who would evolve opportunities--"
+
+"What does that mean?"
+
+"Evolve means to sort of develop out of the world and yourself together
+at the same time."
+
+"I don't understand."
+
+"Why, if you want anything, you want it because it's there, and you can
+get it if you've got the strength and perseverance to build a road to
+it."
+
+"_What!_"
+
+"I mean just what I say. We can get anything, if we have sufficient
+will-power to build a way right straight to it."
+
+"Suppose I want to marry a millionaire?"
+
+"It would mean a lot of well-directed effort, and the effort would
+slowly train you to want something much better than to live rich and
+idle." Jane paused a minute, and Emily looked at her curiously. "If you
+want to marry a millionaire bad enough to start in and make yourself all
+over new, you'll have such control over your future that I think you'll
+get something much better than a millionaire."
+
+"I never heard any one like you in all my life," said Emily Mead.
+
+"I'd be so glad to help you straight along," Jane said. "I've got two
+books with me, and you can read one and then the other. Then you'll get
+where you can get the meaning out of the Bible, and then you'll begin to
+see the meaning of everything. The world gets so wonderful. You see
+miracles everywhere. You feel so well. The sun shines so bright. Life
+becomes so lovely."
+
+Emily looked at her with real wonder.
+
+"How did you happen to come here?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, that came long after all the rest of the story. One day I
+remembered that my mother had two sisters, and I wrote to them. My
+letter arrived just as Aunt Matilda's arm began to trouble her, and she
+asked me if I could come for a visit. You see that was another
+opportunity I evolved."
+
+Emily seized her hand impulsively. "I'm so glad that you came. I'm going
+to try, and you'll help me?"
+
+"Yes, indeed, I will. Would you like one of the books right now?"
+
+"Oh, I should."
+
+"I'll get it for you, and then I'll tell you some day about the doctor I
+met and his Sunshine Order."
+
+They went towards the house. "You mustn't expect to understand
+everything right off, you know," Jane said to her gently. "You see this
+is all new to you, and that means that you can't any more understand
+right off than you could paint a picture right off. You have to learn
+gradually."
+
+"But I mean to learn," said Emily.
+
+They went in the door, and Jane ran upstairs and fetched the book.
+"There!" she said, "you read it, and I'll help you all I can. You see
+the thing is to learn with your whole heart to do God's will, and then,
+in some strange, subtle way, you get to feel what is coming and to sort
+of shape all. It's so fascinating and thrilling to realize that what you
+want is marching towards you as fast as you can march towards it."
+
+"What do you want?" Emily asked.
+
+"I want to do exactly what I'm doing," said Jane, very quietly. "I've
+passed wanting anything else. I want lots of chances to teach and
+help,--that's all."
+
+"Don't you want to marry?"
+
+"Oh, no,--I want to be able to teach and help everywhere. I don't want
+things for myself, somehow."
+
+"How strange!"
+
+They went into the sitting-room.
+
+"Oh, Jane," Susan cried, "how I have enjoyed hearing about everybody in
+town! Sister never told me about Eddy King's running off with the store
+cash or Mrs. Wilton's daughter going to cooking-school, or one thing."
+
+"We must be going," said Mrs. Mead, rising; "we'll come again, though.
+It's good to see you up, Mrs. Ralston, and I only hope you may stay up.
+You know Katie Croft's mother-in-law got up just as you have and then
+had a stroke that night."
+
+"Oh, is old Mrs. Croft dead?"
+
+"No, she isn't," said Mrs. Mead; "if she was, she wouldn't be such a
+warning as she is."
+
+"Dear, dear," said Susan, "think of all I've missed. Has she got it just
+in her legs or all over? Matilda never told me."
+
+"Legs," said Mrs. Mead, "and it's affected her temper. Katie has an
+awful time with her."
+
+"Dear, dear," said Susan again,--"and, oh, Jane, a boy I've known since
+he was a baby has had his skull japanned and nearly died. Matilda's
+never told me a thing!"
+
+"Well, she didn't know much, you know," said Mrs. Mead; "she kept
+herself about as close as she kept you. We were given to understand
+pretty plainly that we weren't wanted to call."
+
+"Think of that now," said Susan, "and me up-stairs, feeling all my
+friends had forgot me!"
+
+"Everybody'll come now," said Mrs. Mead; "folks will be glad to see you
+so well. We were told you never got up and hardly ate enough to keep a
+cat."
+
+"An ordinary cat," corrected Emily; "Miss Matilda's always told what a
+lot your cat ate."
+
+"He is an eater," said Susan, crinkling a bit about the eyes; "but I
+eat, too, now, I can tell you."
+
+After they were gone, Jane came back into the sitting-room. Her aunt was
+standing by the window. "It's so beautiful to be down-stairs," she said,
+without turning. "My goodness, and to think that only a week ago I laid
+up-stairs wanting to die."
+
+"You can thank Aunt Matilda that you didn't die," said Jane, going and
+putting her arm around her. "If she had kept you thinking of all the
+illnesses in town, you'd have died long ago. Sick thoughts are more
+catching than diseases. But we don't need to talk of that now."
+
+"No, indeed we don't," said Susan, "for there's Mr. Rath coming."
+
+Jane gave a little start. "I wonder what for," she said.
+
+"What for!" Susan's tone was full of deep meaning; "why, he's fallen
+dead in love with you, Jane, that's what it means, and I don't wonder,
+for you're the nicest girl I ever saw."
+
+"Oh, Auntie!" said Jane, quite red. "The very idea!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+LORENZO RATH
+
+
+IT wasn't to be supposed for a minute that Lorenzo Rath, a real live
+young man and an artist, shouldn't take first place in the town talk.
+Jane's remarkable religion might attract the attention of a few who were
+sufficiently religious themselves to be naturally shocked over the
+waffles and depressed over the invalid's recovery, but Lorenzo was of
+interest to every one.
+
+"If he ain't took already, there's a fine chance for Emily," Mr.
+Cattermole said benevolently to his daughter. Being a man, he naturally
+supposed that Mrs. Mead would never have come by such an idea if she
+hadn't had a bright old father to point it out to her.
+
+"Emily doesn't want to marry," said Mrs. Mead, compressing her lips and
+expanding her dignity simultaneously; "she wouldn't marry an artist,
+anyway."
+
+"Maybe he ain't much of an artist," said Mr. Cattermole, with a tendency
+to look on the bright side. "Why don't Emily want to marry? I thought
+girls always wanted to marry. They did when I was young."
+
+"It's different nowadays," said Mrs. Mead, with condescending reserve.
+"You don't understand, Father, but nothing is like it used to be. The
+world is getting all changed. When Emily was an only child, she was
+looked upon as very odd, but most women have an only child nowadays.
+Life is quite different."
+
+"I'd like to see Emily married," said Mr. Cattermole, thoughtfully.
+
+"Emily has had plenty of chances," said her mother, waving the brave,
+tattered mother-lie that seems to cover over such cruel wounds.
+
+"Has she really?" said Mr. Cattermole, in genuine surprise. "I didn't
+know that. And she wouldn't have 'em! Laws sakes! Who, for instance?"
+
+"No one you knew," said his daughter, telling the truth then.
+
+"Sarah knew 'em, I suppose?" (Sarah was Mrs. Cowmull.)
+
+"No, no one Sarah knew."
+
+"Think of that now! Why, I s'posed there wasn't nothing Sarah didn't
+know."
+
+In voicing this opinion Mr. Cattermole voiced the town opinion, too. It
+was popularly supposed that Sarah Cowmull always knew everything. But
+she didn't know the status of Lorenzo Rath's heart, and Lorenzo Rath
+himself puzzled her not a little.
+
+Lorenzo puzzled everybody, mainly because he was so open and simple that
+even a child must have suspected him of keeping something back. Such
+frankness was unthinkable, such innocence incredible.
+
+"Why, he's gallivanting all over with Madeleine, and yet she's gotten
+another man's picture on her table!" said Miss Debby to Katie Croft.
+
+"And he's skipping in Mrs. Ralston's gate at all hours," said Katie
+Croft--"no kind of ceremony to him. The other day he see mother in the
+window, and he waved his hat at her and give her an awful turn. She
+don't see well, and thought he threw a stone at her. She ain't used to
+city ways; she's used to country ways. I had to let her smell camphor
+for a good hour, and while she was smelling, the kitchen fire went out.
+I wish he'd keep his hat on his head another time. My life's hard enough
+without having a artist suddenly set to, to cheer up mother."
+
+"What do you think of Mrs. Ralston's niece? Think she's nice?"
+
+"Nice! With Susan Ralston about as lively as a cricket! I don't think
+much of such new ways. I don't know whatever Matilda will say. She's
+just got life all systematized, and now here's Susan up and out of bed.
+I'm so scared the girl'll come over and go at mother, I don't know what
+to do."
+
+"My, suppose Mrs. Croft was to be up and about!" said Miss Debby,
+opening her eyes widely. "Whatever would you do?"
+
+"Do! I know what I'd do." Young Mrs. Croft looked dark and mysterious.
+"I know just exactly what I'll do. And I'm all ready to do it, and if
+I'm interfered with, I will do it,--good and quick, too."
+
+"How is old Mrs. Croft now?" Miss Debby asked.
+
+"Oh, she's grabbin' as ever. I never see such a disposition. She's
+always catching at me or the cat or something. Seems to consider it a
+way of attracting attention. Crazy folks has such crazy ideas, and she's
+crazy,--crazy as a loon."
+
+Katie Croft took up her market basket and went on up the street. Miss
+Debby stayed behind to wait for the noon mail. "Katie's so bitter," she
+said to herself, shaking her head; "she ought to be more grateful for
+being supported."
+
+Miss Debby forgot that there are few things so irritating in this world
+as being supported. It is a situation which has become especially
+unpopular lately, particularly with women and political motives.
+
+But no old worn-out aphorism held for one minute in the breezy bloom of
+the House Where Jane Lived.
+
+"Oh, I'm so happy," Susan exclaimed many times daily, "I'm so happy. I
+never felt nothing like your sunshining in all my life before, you
+Sunshine Jane, you! I feel like my own cupboards, all unlocked and aired
+and nice and used again."
+
+Jane stopped caroling as she kneaded bread and laughed--which sounded
+equally pleasant.
+
+"I'm as happy as you are, Auntie; it's so nice to be in heaven."
+
+"I used to think maybe I'd die suddenly and find myself there some day,"
+said Susan. "I'm glad I didn't."
+
+"It's better to live suddenly than to die suddenly," said Jane, merrily;
+"when people are awfully bothered sometimes, I've heard their friends
+say: 'But if you died suddenly, it would work out somehow,' and I wanted
+to say: 'Why not live suddenly instead of dying suddenly, and then
+everything's bound to come out splendidly.'"
+
+"Oh, Jane, what a grand idea,--to live suddenly! That's what I've done,
+surely."
+
+"Yes," said Jane, "that's what I did, too. Instead of fading out of
+life, we just bloomed into life. It's just as easy, and a million times
+more fun."
+
+"And it's all so awfully agreeable," said Susan. "My things look so
+nice, all set different, and it's so pleasant having folks coming in,
+and I like it all, and we haven't to fuss with the garden."
+
+"I attend to the garden!" cried a voice outside, and a mysterious hand
+shoved a basket of peas over the window-ledge.
+
+"I know who that is," said Susan; "it's that boy, and he's smelt
+cinnamon rolls and come to lunch. How do you do?"
+
+Lorenzo, brown and merry, was getting in at the window.
+
+"Why, you've really been weeding!" exclaimed Susan.
+
+"Of course! I've tended the garden ever since you gave it up."
+
+"I declare! Well, I never. Jane, we must give him a bite of something."
+
+"Yes, that's what I came for," said Lorenzo, cheerfully, "cookies,
+jelly-roll,--anything simple and handy. Madeleine and I were out
+walking, discussing our affairs, and when I stopped for the garden, she
+went on for her mail. I'm awfully hungry."
+
+"People say you're engaged to her," said Susan. Jane turned to get the
+tin of cookies.
+
+"Yes, naturally. People say so much. She is a pretty girl, isn't
+she?--but then there's Emily Mead. I must look at myself on all sides
+and consider carefully. Old Mr. Cattermole took me to drive yesterday
+and told me that he was healthy and his dead wife was healthy and that,
+except for what killed him, Mr. Mead was healthy, too; and there was
+Emily, perfectly healthy and the only grandchild, and why didn't I come
+over often,--it wasn't but a step."
+
+"Well, you do beat all," said Susan. Jane offered the tin of cookies.
+Lorenzo took six. They were all laughing.
+
+Later, when he'd gone away, Susan said, almost shyly this time: "Jane, I
+don't want to interfere, but he _is_ in love."
+
+"With Madeleine?"
+
+"With you."
+
+"Auntie," Jane came to her side, "you mustn't speak in that way about
+me. I can't marry,--not possibly. I'm a Sunshine Nurse, and I shall be a
+Sunshine Nurse till I die. I'll make homes happy, but I shall never have
+one of my own."
+
+Susan looked frightened and timid. "But why?"
+
+"For many reasons. And all good ones."
+
+There was that in the young girl's tone that ended the subject for the
+time being.
+
+But Susan thought of it a great deal, and alone in her room that night,
+Jane thought, too. She had made herself ready for bed, and then sat down
+by the window, clasping her hands on the sill. Lorenzo Rath was
+buoyantly dear and jolly, and she realized that he was the nicest man
+that she had ever met. It had all been fun, great fun, and she had
+enjoyed it mightily. But with all her learning Jane was not so very much
+farther along the Highway to Happiness than some others. In many cases
+she was only a holder of keys as yet--the distinct knowledge to be
+gained by unlocking secrets with their aid was as yet not hers. To hold
+the keys and look at the doors is to realize what power means,--but to
+unlock is to use it. Jane was still a novice; she left the doors locked
+and was content to hold the keys, and no more.
+
+The next night Lorenzo appeared again. "I'm half-dead," he said. "I've
+tramped twelve miles, sketching."
+
+"Dear, dear," said Susan, "seems like nobody in this world ever wants
+what's close to."
+
+"Sometimes it's no use to want what's close to," said Lorenzo, "or else
+what's close to is like Emily Mead, and you just ache to run."
+
+"Emily Mead is a very nice girl," said Jane, in a tone clearly
+reproachful.
+
+Lorenzo just laughed. But then Susan made some excuse to slip away. "I
+wonder if you'd help me a little," he said then, hesitating a bit.
+
+"Is it something that I can do? Of course I'll help you if I can."
+
+"It's something very necessary."
+
+"Necessary?"
+
+"To my welfare and happiness."
+
+"What is it?"
+
+"I think--I'm--falling in love."
+
+"Oh, dear," Jane was carefully tranquil.
+
+"I've never really been in love in my life, so I can't be sure. But I
+think it's that."
+
+Jane said nothing. The room was getting dark.
+
+"I've never seen any one so pretty in all my life as Miss Mar," said the
+young artist, slowly. "You know we're old friends."
+
+"Oh, she's lovely," said Jane, with sudden fervor.
+
+"I thought that we might make up little picnics and walks and things?"
+hesitated the young man.
+
+"Of course," said Jane, heartily. "And you can come here all you like.
+Auntie likes you both so much."
+
+Lorenzo Rath stood by the door. "Were you ever in love?" he asked
+bluntly.
+
+"No," said Jane. "I've never had the least little touch of it."
+
+"Haven't you ever thought about it?"
+
+"No, I've never had time. I've never seen any man that I could or would
+marry."
+
+"Never?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"That's too bad," said Lorenzo Rath slowly. "Seems to me you'd make such
+a splendid wife."
+
+She laughed a little. Then she had to wink quickly to drive back tears
+which leapt suddenly.
+
+"I won't say any more," said Lorenzo. She thought that he did not care
+to speak of Madeleine to her.
+
+Then she went. And later she found herself sitting in her own room
+again, sitting by the same window, thinking. "Poor Emily Mead and her
+illusory millionaire! I'm about as silly as she is," thought Jane. "And
+yet I know it's higher and more beautiful to make life lovely for others
+than to make it lovely for one's self." She sighed because the
+reflection--all altruistic as it was--was not quite the truth, and she
+was true enough herself to feel jarred by the slightest cross-shadow of
+falsehood. Truth plays as widely and freely as the sunbeams themselves
+and goes as straight to the heart of each and all.
+
+Finally she opened a little book and read aloud a few pages to herself
+in a low tone. "I know I'm on the right path," she said, when she had
+closed the book; "the thing is to stick resolutely to keeping on
+straight ahead. And I must be absolutely content with all that comes.
+You have to be content if you're going to grow in goodness, for you have
+to know that you've been trying and been successful." She sat still a
+while longer and then rose with a deep, long breath. "Well, to-day's
+been something, and to-morrow I'll be something better, I know."
+
+The truth did shine then, and she went to bed calmed, but was hardly
+stretched down between the cool sheets when Susan rapped at the door.
+
+"Come in."
+
+"Oh, Jane, I can't sleep. I've got to thinking of when Matilda comes
+back, and I'm scared blue."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A NEW OUTLOOK ON MATILDA
+
+
+THE next morning Susan looked half-sheepish and half-anxious. "I just
+couldn't help it, Jane. I laid in bed so long, thinking, and then it
+come over me what life was going to be when she was back and you gone
+and--well--I just couldn't help coming. I felt awful."
+
+Jane was busy with breakfast. "I know, Auntie, I know. I ought to have
+thought of Aunt Matilda sooner. Half her stay is over."
+
+"Oh, my, I should say it was," wailed Susan; "that's what scares me so.
+We're so happy, and the time is going so fast. It's about the most awful
+thing I ever knew."
+
+Jane began beating eggs for an omelette.
+
+"We never were one bit alike," Susan intoned mournfully; "we were always
+so different, and then when husband died, there was just nothing to do
+but for us to live together. She's my only sister, and it's right that I
+should humor her, but, oh my, what a scratch-about life she has led me.
+I was getting to feel more like a mouse than a woman--soon as I got a
+bite, I'd begin to tremble and to listen and then how I _did_ run!"
+
+"But it will be all so different when she comes back," Jane said
+cheerily. "She'll be very different, and so will you. It'll be just like
+I told you last night."
+
+"I know,--I know. But somehow I can't see it as you do. I'm all upset.
+And I'm so happy without her. We're so happy. The house looks beautiful.
+You've just made everything over. I declare, Jane, I never saw anything
+like you. All my old things have turned new, and so pretty. I feel like
+a bride. That is, I feel like a bride when I ain't thinking of Matilda."
+
+"It looks very nice, surely," said Jane, smiling. "Your things were so
+pretty, anyhow. But what I was gladdest about was to really get it all
+opened up and fresh. I didn't want any one to come while it was so
+gloomy. The whole town may call now."
+
+"They do, too," said Susan, diverted for the minute; "they certainly do.
+Oh, it is so nice, I so adore to hear all about things again. Matilda
+just shut everybody out. She didn't like company."
+
+"She was pretty busy, you know."
+
+"She hadn't any more to do than you have. She hadn't so much to do as
+you have, because she didn't do a thing you do."
+
+"But you were ill. She was always up and down stairs--"
+
+"No, she wasn't, Jane. No, she wasn't."
+
+"Well, she had your meals to carry upstairs."
+
+"I don't call it meals to run with a teacup. Meals! _Such_ meals! It's a
+wonder I didn't die. She'd turn anything upside down on a plate and
+something else upside down on that, and call it a meal for me. I was
+about sick, just from how she fed me. If I said something was cooked too
+dry, she emptied the tea-kettle into it next time; and if I said
+anything was too wet, she put on fresh coal and left it in the oven over
+night. If I said the room was too light, she shut it up as dark as a
+pickpocket; and if I said it was too dark, she turned the sun into my
+eyes. She's my only sister and I must humor her, but I've had a very
+hard time, Jane, and I don't blame myself for waking up with my teeth
+all of a chatter over the thought of living with her again."
+
+Jane had their breakfast ready now on the table by the window. "Come and
+sit down," she said; "we'll talk while we eat. It's like I told you last
+night,--there must be a hitch somewhere. Of course, God has a good
+reason for you and Aunt Matilda living together. He doesn't allow
+accidents in His world."
+
+"Perhaps He wasn't thinking. I can't believe that anybody would
+deliberately put anybody in the house with Matilda--not if they knew
+Matilda. I didn't know what she'd grown into myself when she first came
+to take care of me, because I was a little poorly. It was to save
+spending on a nurse, you know. They're such trying, prying things,
+nurses are."
+
+"I'm a nurse, you know."
+
+"My goodness, I didn't mean your kind; I meant the regular kind."
+
+Jane was laughing. "But I mustn't laugh," she said, after a minute; "we
+must go to work. Let's see if we can find out how it all began. Didn't
+you and Aunt Matilda get on nicely at first?"
+
+Susan considered. "Well, I don't believe we did. She was always so very
+sparing. Husband was sparing, and of course I'd had a good many years of
+it, but when your husband's gone and you've got the property yourself
+and have left it to an only sister who takes care of you, you don't like
+her being even more sparing,--putting you on skim-milk right from the
+first and chopping the potato peelings in the hash."
+
+"But there must have been some good in the situation, or it wouldn't
+have been. When there's a wrong situation, the cure lies in hunting out
+the good, not in talking over the bad."
+
+"You won't find any good in Matilda and me living together,--not if you
+hunt till Doomsday." Susan took a big sip of coffee and then shook her
+head hard.
+
+"There's good in everything."
+
+"I don't know what it was here, then. I was all ready to die, and the
+doctor said I couldn't live, and when I found out how Matilda was
+counting on it, I just made up my mind to live just to spite her. But
+it's been awful hard work."
+
+Jane turned and seized her hand. "Well, maybe that's the reason for the
+situation, then. You see if she'd been different, you'd have died, but
+being a person who made you mad, you stayed alive."
+
+Susan laughed a little. "I've been mad enough, I know," she went on;
+"it's awful to be up-stairs the way I've been and have to prowl
+down-stairs and run off with your food like a dog in an alley. I was
+always watching till I saw Matilda over that second fence and then
+racing for something to eat. I've been very hungry often and often,
+Jane, very hungry indeed,--and in my own house, too."
+
+The tears came into the girl's eyes. "Poor Auntie!" she said. "Well,
+it's all over now and won't ever come back. You must believe me when I
+say so. Old conditions never return. The wheel can't turn backward. That
+mustn't be."
+
+"But how'll it help it when Matilda's visit gets over?"
+
+Jane rested her chin on her hands and looked out of the window. "I'll
+have to get you on to a plane where you can't live as you did ever
+again," she said.
+
+"On a plane!--" Susan stared.
+
+"A plane is a kind of grade in life. We keep going up them like stairs,
+and the quieter and happier people live, the higher is the plane on
+which they are. It's very simple, when you come to understand it. It's
+sort of like a marble staircase built out of a marsh and on up a
+mountain. You can stand down in the mud, or step higher in the reeds, or
+step higher in the water (generally it's hot water," Jane interrupted
+herself to say with a little smile). "Or out on the dry earth, or higher
+where it's flowers, or higher or higher. But every time you get up a
+step you leave all the mess of all the lower steps behind you forever.
+Do you understand?"
+
+"No, I don't."
+
+"Why, don't you see that if you lift yourself higher than your
+surroundings, of course you'll have other conditions around you and be
+really living another life? We can't possibly be bound by conditions
+lower than our souls. It's a law. I'll help you to understand it, and
+then it will help you to not be at all troubled over Aunt Matilda.
+You'll be above her. Don't you see? One can always get out of a
+disagreeable life by lifting one's self above it."
+
+"But I did stay up-stairs," said Susan, with beautiful literalness. "I
+think it's awful to have to keep a plane above any one, when the whole
+house is yours."
+
+"I didn't mean that," said Jane. "I meant that mentally you must get
+above her. It isn't in words or in thoughts,--you must _be_ above her.
+You must get free. I must help you. You can do it. Anybody can do it.
+And as soon as you are free in your spirit, your life will change. Our
+daily life follows our thoughts. Our thoughts make a pattern, and life
+weaves it. The world of stars that we can't hardly grasp at all is all
+God's thought. The life in this house was your thought and Aunt
+Matilda's."
+
+"It wasn't mine," said Susan quickly; "it was hers."
+
+"Well, it's mine now," said Jane. "That's the true business of the
+Sunshine Nurses. They must get a new thought into a house and get it to
+growing well. Then they'll leave the true sunshine there forever after."
+
+Susan's eyes were very curious--very bright. "I declare I don't see how
+you'll do it here," she said. "I can't look at Matilda any new way, as I
+know of. Whatever she does, she does just exactly as I don't like it."
+
+"I suppose that you try her, too."
+
+"Well, I didn't die; of course she minded that. But I couldn't die. You
+can't die just to order."
+
+"No, of course not; I didn't mean that." Jane was quite serious. "I
+don't blame you at all for not doing that."
+
+Susan had finished and rose from the table. "Let's leave the dishes and
+go out in the yard," she said. "I'm awfully anxious to keep on at this
+till we find a way out, if you think that you can; I go about wild when
+I think of her. I'm ready for anything except staying in bed any more."
+
+"Oh, that's all over," said Jane. "You're off the bed-plane now, and
+don't you see how much higher you've got already? The next step is to
+fix yourself so securely on this happy one that you know that it's yours
+and you can't leave it. You see, you feel able to go back down again,
+and as long as you feel that way, it's possible. One has to bar out the
+wrong kind of life forever, and then of course it's over."
+
+"But she is coming back," said Susan, "and I can't live any more on
+gobbles of milk and cold bits swallowed while I'm getting up-stairs
+three steps to the jump."
+
+Jane looked at her. "I expect that exercise was awfully good for you,
+Auntie," she said seriously. "You've probably gotten a lot of health and
+interest out of it. Don't forget that."
+
+"Well, maybe; but I don't want any more." Susan's tone was terribly
+earnest.
+
+"It's all over then," said Jane, slowly and with emphasis; "if you truly
+and honestly don't want any more, then it must be all over. The thing to
+do now is to build a firm connection between ourselves and it's being
+all over."
+
+"I don't quite understand what you mean," said Susan, "but something's
+got to be done, of course, because otherwise she'll come home, and oh,
+my, her face when she sees me up and around!"
+
+Jane knit her brows. "You see, Auntie," she said slowly, "there's only
+one thing to do. We've got to change ourselves completely; we've to get
+where we want her to come home and where we look forward to it--"
+
+Susan stopped short and lifted up both hands. "Gracious, we can't ever
+do that! It isn't in humanity."
+
+"Yes, we can do it," said Jane firmly; "people can always do anything
+that they can think out, and if we can think this out straight, we can
+do it."
+
+"How?"
+
+"It isn't easy to see in just the first minute, but I understand the
+principle of it and I know that we can work it, for I've seen it done.
+You do it by getting an entirely new atmosphere into the house."
+
+"But you've done that already," interrupted Susan. "It isn't musty
+anywhere any more, and there's such a kind of a happy smell instead."
+
+"I don't mean that kind of an atmosphere. I mean a change of feeling in
+ourselves. We've got to somehow make ourselves all over; we must really
+and truly be different."
+
+"But I am made over, and you were all right, anyhow."
+
+"No, I'm not all right," said Jane firmly. "I'm very wrong. I'm letting
+silly thoughts with which I've no business torment me dreadfully, and
+I'm not driving them out with any kind of resolution. Then we're both
+doing wrong about Aunt Matilda. We're making a narrow little black box
+of our opinion and crowding her into it all the time. There's nothing so
+dreadful as the way families just chain one another to their faults.
+Outsiders see all the nice things, and we have lots of courage to always
+live up to their opinions, but families spend most of their time just
+nailing those they love best into pretty little limits. You and I are so
+happy together, and we're changing ourselves and one another every day,
+but we never think that Aunt Matilda's also having experience and
+changing herself, too. We kind of forbid her to grow better."
+
+"You won't find anything that will change Matilda very quick, Jane.
+She's a dreadful person to stick to habits; she's drunk out of the blue
+cup and give me the green one for these whole five years."
+
+"The change in the atmosphere of the house," said Jane slowly, "must be
+complete. We must never say one more word about her that isn't nice, and
+we mustn't even think unkind thoughts. We must talk about her lots and
+look forward to her coming back--"
+
+"Oh, heavens, I can't," gasped Susan.
+
+"We'll begin to-day on her room--"
+
+"Then you'll make her madder than a hatter, sure; she can't bear to have
+her room touched."
+
+"I'm going to make it the prettiest room in the house," said Jane
+resolutely. "I'm going to brush and clean and mend and fix all those
+clothes she's left hanging up, and I'm going to love her dearly from now
+on."
+
+Susan sat still, her lips moving slightly, but whether with repressed
+feeling or trembling sentiment it would be impossible to say. "She
+looked awful cute when she was little and wore pantalettes," she said
+finally.
+
+"Bravo!" cried Jane, running to her and kissing her. "There's a fine
+victory for you, and now,"--her face brightening suddenly,--"I've got an
+idea of what we can do to lift us right straight up into a new circle of
+life. What do you say to our making the little back parlor over into a
+bedroom, and--"
+
+"--taking Mr. Rath to board?" cried Susan joyfully. "Oh, I am sure that
+he wanted to come all along."
+
+Jane laughed outright. "No, indeed, the very idea! No, what I thought of
+was inviting that poor old Mrs. Croft here for a week and giving her and
+her daughter-in-law a rest from one another."
+
+Susan gave a sharp little yell. "Why, Jane Grey, I never heard the beat!
+Why, she can't even feed herself!"
+
+"It would be a way to change the atmosphere of the house; it's just the
+kind of thing that would change us all--"
+
+"I should think it would change us all," interrupted Susan; "why, she
+threw a cup of tea at Katie's back last week. Katie said she couldn't
+possibly imagine what had come over her,--she was leaning out to hook
+the blinds."
+
+"It would be a Bible-lovely thing to do," Jane went on slowly. "You or I
+could feed her, and I'd take care of her. I'm a nurse, you know!"
+
+"Jane! Well, you beat all! Well, I never did! Old Mrs. Croft. Why, they
+say you might as well be gentle with a hornet."
+
+"Maybe she has her reasons; maybe it's,--Set a hornet to tend a hornet,
+for all we know. Anyway, it's come to me as some good to do, and when I
+think of any good that I can do, I have to do it,--else it's a sin.
+That's my religion."
+
+"That religion of yours'll get you into a lot of hot water along through
+life." Susan's tone was very grave. "And you've never seen old Mrs.
+Croft, or you'd never speak of her and religion in the same breath.
+They've got a cat she caresses, and some days she caresses it for all
+she's worth. I've heard the cat being caressed when it was quiet,
+myself, many's the time. You can't use that religion of yours on old
+Mrs. Croft; she isn't a subject for religion. She's one of that kind
+that the man in the Bible thanked God he wasn't one of them."
+
+"My religion is what brought me here to you," said Jane gently. "You
+aren't really sorry that I learned it, are you, Auntie?"
+
+Susan's eyes moistened quickly. She gasped, then swallowed, then made up
+her mind. "Well, Sunshine Jane," she said resignedly, "when shall we get
+her?"
+
+"We'll put her room in order to-morrow morning, and I'll go and ask her
+in the afternoon."
+
+"Oh, dear!" said Susan, with a world of meaning in the two syllables. "I
+hope she'll enjoy the change."
+
+Jane laughed. "Goodness, Auntie, I never saw any one pick up new ideas
+as quick as you do. I was months learning how to make myself over, and
+you do it in just a few hours. You must have laid a big foundation of
+self-control up there in bed."
+
+Susan sighed, uncheered. "It kept me pretty sharp, I tell you," she
+said; "when you're always hungry and have to get your food on the sly
+and be positively sure of never being found out, it does keep you in
+trim being spry pretty steady."
+
+"May we come in?" asked voices at the gate. It was Lorenzo Rath and
+Madeleine. "We wanted to see how you were getting on to-day," the latter
+called.
+
+"We've been changing the furniture and the atmosphere," said Susan,
+trying bravely to smile. "Jane is turning everything around and bringing
+the bright new side out."
+
+"If you'll come and help me wash the breakfast dishes and then make
+biscuits," Jane said to Madeleine, "I'll ask you both to lunch."
+
+"I want to learn how to do everything, of course," said Madeleine.
+
+"And why shouldn't we go down to the garden?" suggested Lorenzo to
+Susan. "You'll point out the things you want to-day, and I'll pull 'em
+up."
+
+"But there are fences to climb," said Jane.
+
+"Fiddle for fences," said her aunt; "he'll go ahead, and I'll skim over
+'em like a squirrel. I never made anything of fences."
+
+So they divided the labor.
+
+"The house looks so pretty," said Madeleine, as she and Jane went
+through to the kitchen. "How do you ever manage it,--with just the same
+things, too?"
+
+Jane glanced about. "Why, there's a right place for everything, and if
+you just stand back a bit and let the things have time to think, they'll
+tell you where to put them. There was an old blue vase in the
+dining-room that was pretty weak-minded, but I was patient and carried
+it all over the place till finally it was suited on top of the what-not
+in the corner of the hall. The trouble with most things is that we hurry
+them too much at first, and then we don't help them out of their false
+position later."
+
+"Oh, Jane, you are so delightfully quaint. You must tell Mr. Rath that.
+It's the kind of speech that will just charm the soul right out of an
+artist."
+
+Jane was deep in the flour-bin. "But I don't want to charm his soul.
+I'll leave that to you."
+
+"To me! Why, he doesn't care a rap about me."
+
+"Well, then, to Emily Mead."
+
+"Emily Mead! Oh, my dear, you have put a lot of new ideas into her head!
+She says that you told her that any one could get anything that he or
+she wanted."
+
+"And so they can."
+
+"Suppose she wants Mr. Rath?"
+
+"If she wants him in the right way, she'll have him."
+
+"I don't like that way of speaking of men," said Madeleine, dipping her
+white fingers into the flour and beginning to chip the butter through
+it. "Don't you think it's horrid how girls speak of men nowadays? I do."
+
+"Of course I do," said Jane. "But one drops into the habit just because
+everybody does it. I'll never be married myself, and it's partly because
+I think it's all being so dragged down. Instead of two people's knowing
+one another and liking one another better till finally a big, beautiful,
+holy secret sort of dawns on them and makes the world all over new,
+girls just go on and act as if men were wild animals to be hunted and
+caught and talked about, or married and made fun of. I don't think all
+these new ideas and new ways for women have made women a bit more
+womanly. When I had to earn my living, I picked out work that a man
+couldn't do, and that I wouldn't be hurting any man by doing. I'm sorry
+for men nowadays. And I think women lose a lot the way some of them go
+on."
+
+"After all, there can't be anything nicer than to be a woman, can
+there?" said Madeleine, stirring as the other poured in ingredients.
+"I've always been glad that I was a woman. I think that a woman's life
+is so sweet, and it's beautiful to be protected and cared for." The pink
+flew over her cheeks at the words.
+
+Jane's lashes swept downward for a minute, then rose resolutely. "Or to
+protect and care for others. It always seems to me as if a woman was the
+sort of blessed way through which a man's love and strength and care go
+to his children. Men are so helpless with children, but they do such a
+lot for wives, and then the mothers pass it on to the little ones."
+
+"Life's lovely when you think of it rightly, isn't it?" Madeleine said
+thoughtfully. "I'm so pleased over having come here. You see Father and
+Mother wanted me to spend a few weeks quietly where I could rest and
+pick myself up a little, and so they sent me here. I didn't care much
+about coming, but I'm glad now. You're doing me lots of good, Jane; you
+seem to help me to unlock the doors to everything that's just best in
+me."
+
+"It isn't that I do it," said Jane; "it's that it's been done to me, and
+after it got through me, it's bound to shine on. It's like light; every
+window you clean lets it through into another place, where maybe there's
+something else to clean and let it through again."
+
+"I suppose we just live to keep clean and let light through," laughed
+Madeleine, cutting out the biscuits.
+
+"That's all."
+
+"I think that you'd make a good preacher, Jane; you've such nice, plain,
+homely, understandable ways of putting things."
+
+Jane laughed and popped the pan into the oven. "Come and help lay the
+table," she said. "Oh, you never saw anything as sweet as Aunt Susan's
+joy in her own things. She's like a little child at Christmas. It's a
+kind of coming back to life for her."
+
+"They say that her sister was awfully mean to her."
+
+"But she wasn't at all. She thought that she was sicker than she was,
+and she kept her in bed, and the joke of it was that Aunt Susan didn't
+like to hurt her feelings by letting her see what mistaken ideas she
+had, so she hopped up every time the coast was clear and kept lively and
+interested trying to be about and in bed at once."
+
+"How perfectly delightful! I never heard anything so funny. And then you
+came and discovered the truth."
+
+"Well, I didn't want her to stay in bed. I'd never encourage any one in
+a false belief, but she hadn't the belief,--she had only the false
+appearance. She didn't enjoy being an invalid one bit."
+
+"I think it's too droll," said Madeleine. "Didn't you laugh when it
+dawned on you first?"
+
+"It dawned on me rather sadly. But we laugh together now."
+
+"What will she do when her sister comes back?"
+
+"Oh, that will all come out nicely. I don't know just how, but I know
+that it will come out all right."
+
+"Do you always have faith in things coming out rightly?"
+
+"Always. I wouldn't dare not to. I'm one of those people who kind of
+feel the future as it draws near, and so I wouldn't allow myself to feel
+any mean future drawing near, on principle. I always feel that nice
+things are marching straight towards me as fast as ever the band of
+music plays."
+
+"Do you believe that it really makes any difference?"
+
+"Of course it makes a difference. It makes all the difference in the
+world, because hope's a rope by which any good thing can haul you right
+up to it, hand over hand."
+
+"You give me a lot to think about," said Madeleine.
+
+Jane ran out and picked some ivy leaves to place under the vase of
+flowers in the middle of the table. It made a little green mat. "There;
+we're all ready when they come, now," she said.
+
+Presently they did come.
+
+"Oh, what will Mrs. Cowmull say to this!" said Lorenzo, as he pulled out
+Mrs. Ralston's chair. "She's busy marking passages in _The Seven Lamps
+of Architecture_ to read aloud to me while I eat, and now I shan't show
+up at all."
+
+"Have you seen her niece lately?" asked Madeleine.
+
+"Yes, I saw her this morning. She wants to pose for me, only she
+stipulated that she should wear clothes. I told her that my models all
+wore thick wool and only showed a little of their faces. She didn't seem
+to like that."
+
+"But what did you mean? Surely you don't always have them wear thick
+woolen?"
+
+"I just do. If they haven't thick wool on, I won't paint them at all."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Why, I paint sheep."
+
+The mild little joke met with great favor.
+
+"I think you're a very clever young man," Susan said with great
+sincerity. "To think of me having a good time laughing with a sheep
+painter," she added. "Who holds them for you to paint, and do you set
+them afterwards?"
+
+"I paint them right in the fields," said Lorenzo.
+
+"I should think they'd butt you from behind."
+
+"I paint over a fence."
+
+"Well, that's safe," said Jane's aunt. "If you're careful not to be on
+the side where there's a bull."
+
+After supper Madeleine helped Jane wash the dishes.
+
+"What fun you make out of everything," she said.
+
+"It's the only way," Jane answered. "My mission is to make two sunbeams
+shine where only one slanted."
+
+"I'm glad I'm one of the heathen to whom you were sent," said Madeleine
+affectionately.
+
+Jane put her arm around her. "So am I, dear, very glad."
+
+Madeleine laid her face against the other girl's. "Some day I want to
+tell you a secret," she said; "a secret that Lorenzo told me yesterday."
+
+Jane felt her heart sort of skip a beat. "Do tell me," she said in a
+whisper.
+
+"I can't now," said Madeleine. "I want to be all alone with you. It's
+too--too big a secret to bear to be broken in upon."
+
+"Can you come to-morrow afternoon? Auntie's going to Mrs. Mead's to the
+Sewing Society, and I'll be here alone."
+
+"That will be nice," said Madeleine; "yes, I'll come."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+SOUL-UPLIFTING
+
+
+IT was the next morning about eleven o'clock.
+
+"You see," said Jane, sitting in the Crofts' sitting-room opposite Katie
+Croft who, whatever else she might or might not be, was certainly not
+pleasant of expression, "you see, my aunt has been an invalid so much
+that she appreciates what a change means to both the sick one and the
+one who cares for her, and so we thought that it would be so nice if
+you'd let me wheel your mother--"
+
+"She ain't my mother--she's my mother-in-law," broke in Mrs. Katie
+Croft, instantly indignant over so false an imputation. "Good lands, the
+very idea! My mother! And never one single stroke of paralysis nor
+nothing in my family, and all reading the Bible without glasses right up
+till they died."
+
+"You see, it would give you a little rest, too," Jane continued, "and it
+would do Aunt Susan good to feel that she was helping a weaker--"
+
+"She ain't weak," broke in Katie Croft, again; "my lands, she's strong
+as a lady-ox. Anything she makes up her mind to keep she lays hold of
+with a grip as makes you fairly sick all up and down your back. You
+don't know perhaps, Miss Grey, as my husband died in our youth, and I
+come to live with his mother as a sacred duty, and I tell you frankly
+that I wish I'd never been born or that he'd never been born, forty
+times an hour--I do."
+
+"You'll like a week alone, I'm sure," said Jane serenely, "and we'll
+like to have your mother-in-law. Perhaps she'll get a few new ideas--"
+
+"She's stubborn as a mule," interrupted the daughter-in-law.
+
+"But may I see her and ask her? I do so want to help you a little. Life
+must have been so hard for you these last years."
+
+"Hard!" said Katie Croft, with emphasis. "Hard! Well, I'll tell you what
+it is, Miss Grey,--to marry a young man as was meek as Moses and then
+have him just fade right straight out and get a mother-in-law like that
+old--that old--that old--well, I'll tell you frankly she's a siren and
+nothing else." (Young Mrs. Croft probably meant "vixen," but Jane did
+not notice.) "My life ain't really worth a shake-up of mustard and
+vinegar some days. What I have suffered!"
+
+"I know more than you think," said Jane sympathetically; "nurses take
+care of so many kinds of people. But do let me ask her. If she likes to
+come to us, it'll be a great rest to you, and perhaps it'll do her a
+little good, too."
+
+"I can't understand you're wanting her," said Katie. "It's all over town
+how queer you are, but I never thought that anybody could be as queer as
+that!"
+
+"Do let us go to her," Jane urged.
+
+Katie rose and forthwith conducted the caller to old Mrs. Croft's room,
+a large, square place adorned with no end of black daguerreotypes and
+faded photographs.
+
+"Mother, it's Miss Grey. You know?--she's Mrs. Ralston's niece."
+
+Old Mrs. Croft received her visitor with acutely suspicious eyes.
+"Well?" she said tartly.
+
+Jane took her hand, but she jerked it smartly away.
+
+"Sit down anywhere," said Katie; "she hears well."
+
+"Hear!" said old Mrs. Croft. "I should say I did hear. There ain't a pan
+fell in the neighborhood for the last ten years as hasn't woke me out of
+a sound sleep, dreaming of my husband--"
+
+"Miss Grey's come to see you about something," interrupted Katie;
+"she--"
+
+"I had a husband," continued old Mrs. Croft, raising her voice from Do
+to Re, "and such a one! Wednesday he'd go to sleep and Thursdays he'd
+wake, so regular you could tell the days of the week just from his
+habits. He--"
+
+"Miss Grey wants--" interrupted Katie.
+
+"I came to--" said Jane.
+
+"I had a husband," continued old Mrs. Croft, going from Re to Mi now;
+"oh, my, but I did have a husband. In May I had him and in December I
+had him, but he was always the same to me. You can see his picture
+there, Miss Grey; it's all faded out, just from being looked at; but
+I'll tell you where it never fades, Miss Grey--it never so much as turns
+a hair in my heart. My heart is engraved--"
+
+"You'd better go on and say what you've got to say," said Katie to Jane.
+"I often put her to bed talking, and she talks all the night through."
+
+"I want to ask you--" Jane began.
+
+"Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies," sang Mrs. Croft. "Oh, I
+had--"
+
+"--I want you to come and stay with us," Jane said, with forceful
+accents.
+
+There was a sudden tense hush.
+
+"My aunt and I want you to come and make us a little visit," the caller
+added.
+
+The hush grew awful.
+
+"A little change would be so good for you--you've been shut up so long."
+
+Old Mrs. Croft lifted her two hands towards the ceiling.
+
+"What do you want to take me out of my own house for? Going to do
+something to it that I wouldn't approve, I expect. Oh, I see it all.
+There was Macbeth and there was Othello, and now there's my house--What
+are you going to do to it, anyhow?" The question was pitched so high and
+sharp that Jane jumped.
+
+"We just want to give you a little change."
+
+"Change! I had a change once. Went to Cuba with my husband and nearly
+died. I don't want no change of _house_," with deep meaning in the
+emphasis; "the change that I want is another change. Change is a great
+thing to have. My husband never changed. Only his collars. Never no
+other way."
+
+"You and Aunt Susan are old friends--" suggested Jane.
+
+"Never nothing special," broke in old Mrs. Croft. "My goodness, I do
+hope your aunt ain't calling me her friend, because if she is, it's a
+thing I can't allow."
+
+Jane thanked her stars that her powers of mental concentration forbade
+her mind to wander. "I'm sure if you came to us, you'd enjoy it," she
+said persuasively; "we've such a pretty bedroom down-stairs, and I'll
+sleep on the dining-room sofa, so you won't feel lonely."
+
+"Lonely. I never feel lonely. I'd thank Heaven if I could be let alone
+for a little, once in a while. I don't want to come, and that's a fact.
+If that be treason, make the most of it."
+
+"Oh, but you must come," said Jane; "you'll like it. We want you, and
+you must come."
+
+"Well, get me my bonnet then," said old Mrs. Croft. "Run, Katie, I've
+been sitting here waiting for it for over an hour."
+
+Katie and Jane regarded one another in consternation. They hadn't quite
+counted on this.
+
+"I'm going visiting," said Mrs. Croft gaily. "Oh, my, and how I shall
+visit. Years may come and years may go, and still I shall sit there
+visiting away, and when I hear the door-bell, I shall know it's time for
+Christmas dinner."
+
+Katie took Jane's hand and drew her out of the room. "I don't believe
+you'd better take her," she said; "she's so flighty. I know how to
+manage her, and you don't. Just give it up."
+
+"No, I won't," said Jane, smiling. "I know that it's a kind thing to do
+and that I must do it. I'm going to take her."
+
+"Seems so odd you're wanting to," said Katie. "You're very funny, I
+think. People are saying that you think that everything's for the best.
+Do you really believe that?"
+
+"Of course. We can't get outside of God's plan, whatever we may do. If
+we do wrong, we have to bear the consequences because it's as easy to
+_see_ the right thing to do as the wrong, but the great Plan never
+wavers."
+
+"Oh, my," said Katie. "I'm glad to know that."
+
+Jane pressed her hand. "I'll get things all ready, and we'll bring her
+over tomorrow night," she said; "that'll be best. Then she can go right
+to bed and get rested from the effort."
+
+So it was arranged, and the Sunshine Nurse went home to tell Susan that
+Mrs. Croft had consented to come. She felt quite positive that now they
+would both attain unto a higher plane without any difficulty, if they
+kept such a guest in the house for a week.
+
+"It isn't going to be easy, Auntie," she said, a bit later, "but it will
+teach you and me a lot, and if one wants to voyage greatly, one must get
+out into the deep water."
+
+"I'll do anything to get hold of some different way of getting on with
+Matilda," said Susan, "and I begin to see what you mean when you say
+that if I change _me_, I'll change it all. If you could make flour into
+sugar, you'd have cake instead of biscuit, but, oh, my! Old Mrs. Croft!"
+
+"It won't be for so very long," said Jane, "and think of Katie Croft
+through all these years! She's been splendid, I think."
+
+"Well, she didn't have any other place to live, you know," Susan
+promptly reminded her niece.
+
+"Work's work, no matter why you do it," Jane said, "and all the big laws
+work greatly. This having old Mrs. Croft is a pretty big step for you
+and me to take, and you'll see that when Aunt Matilda returns, we'll be
+so strongly settled in our new ways that she can't unsettle us. We'll be
+absolutely different people."
+
+"Y--yes," said Susan, confidence fighting doubt stoutly. "I'm willing to
+try, although left to myself I should never have thought of old Mrs.
+Croft as a way of getting different."
+
+"Anything that we do with earnest purpose is a way of getting better,"
+said Jane. She looked out of the window for a minute, and her lip almost
+quivered. Susan didn't notice. "Everything is always for the best, if
+we're sure of it," she then said firmly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+MADELEINE'S SECRET
+
+
+THE two girls were enjoying a pleasant time in Susan's big, tidy
+kitchen.
+
+"I never knew that a kitchen could be so perfectly lovely," said
+Madeleine, as they took tea by the little table by the window. "Jane,
+you are a genius! One opens the gate here with a bubbling feeling that
+everything in the whole world's all right."
+
+"I'm so glad," said Jane; "it's grand to feel that one is a real channel
+of happiness. I always seem to see people as made to form that kind of
+connection between God and earth, and that happiness is the visible sign
+of success, a good 'getting through,' so to speak."
+
+"Do you know, the English language is awfully indefinite. That sentence
+might mean good flowing like water through people, or people so made
+that good can go through them easily. Do you see?"
+
+"Yes, I see. But either meaning is all right. It isn't what I say that
+matters so much, anyway. It's how you take it."
+
+"I took that two ways."
+
+"Yes, and both were good. That's so fine,--to get two good meanings,
+where I only meant one."
+
+They smiled together.
+
+"Mr. Rath and I were talking about that last evening," said Madeleine,
+the color coming into her face a little. "Do you know, he's really a
+very dear man. He's awfully nice."
+
+Jane jumped up to drive a wasp out of the window. "You know him better
+than I do," she said, very busy.
+
+"I've known him for several years, but never as well as here."
+
+Jane came back and sat down. Madeleine was silent, seeming to search for
+words.
+
+"You were going to tell me a secret," her friend said, after a little.
+
+"I know, but I--I can't."
+
+Jane lifted her eyes almost pitifully. "Why not?"
+
+"I don't feel that I have the right, after all. Secrets are such
+precious things."
+
+"If I can help you--?"
+
+"Oh, no, no.--It isn't any trouble. It's something quite different--I--I
+thought that perhaps I could tell you my thoughts, but--I can't."
+
+There was a silence.
+
+"There are such wonderful feelings in the world," Madeleine went on,
+after a little; "they don't seem to fit into words at all. One feels
+ashamed to have even planned to talk about them. One feels so humble
+when--" she paused--then closed her lips.
+
+Jane put out her hand and took the hand upon the other side of the
+little table, close. "Don't mind me, dear; I understand."
+
+"Do you really?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+Madeleine's eyes were anxious. "Do you guess? Did you guess?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And how--what--what do you think?"
+
+"I think that it would be lovely, only, of course, I don't quite know it
+all, for I shall never have anything like it."
+
+Madeleine started. "Oh, Jane, don't say that."
+
+"But it's so, dear."
+
+"Oh, _no_."
+
+"No, dear,--I can guess and sympathize. But I shall never have any such
+happiness. It's--it's quite settled."
+
+Madeleine left her seat, went round by the side of the other girl, flung
+herself down on the floor, and looked as if she were about to cry. "Oh,
+Jane, you mustn't feel so. Why shouldn't you marry?"
+
+"I can't, dear; I've debts of my father's to pay, and I'm pledged to my
+Order."
+
+"But they'll get paid after a while."
+
+"It will take all my youth."
+
+"But a way can be found?"
+
+"No way can ever be. There is no one in the wide world to help me. I'm
+quite alone."
+
+"Why, Jane," said Madeleine, always kneeling and always looking up, "I
+know some one who can manage everything, and you do, too."
+
+Jane stared a little. "My aunt, do you mean?"
+
+"No,--God."
+
+Jane smiled suddenly. "Thank you, dear. I hadn't forgotten, but I just
+didn't think. Still, I think God means me to be brave about my burdens.
+I don't think that He sees them as things from which to be relieved."
+
+Madeleine was still looking up. "But the channel doesn't think; the
+channel just conveys what pours along it," she whispered.
+
+Just at this second the scene altered.
+
+"Oh, there's my aunt!" Jane exclaimed. Susan passed the window, and the
+next minute she came in the door. "I've had the most bee--youtiful
+afternoon," she announced radiantly. "I did Jane lots of credit, for I
+never said a word about anybody, but oh, how splendid it was to just be
+good and silent, and hear all the others talk. They talked about
+everybody, and a good many were of my own opinion, so I had considerable
+satisfaction without doing a thing wrong."
+
+Jane couldn't help laughing or Madeleine, either. "Was young Mrs. Croft
+there?"
+
+"No, and most everybody says that she'll go off to-morrow and never come
+back, and we'll have old Mrs. Croft till she dies. They looked at me
+pretty hard, but I stuck to my soul and never said a word."
+
+"It was noble in you, Auntie," Jane said warmly.
+
+"Yes, it was," assented Susan. Then she turned to Madeleine, who had
+returned to her chair. "Jane's religion's pretty hard on me, but I like
+its results, and I can do anything I set out to do, and I don't mean to
+not get a future if I can help it. You see, my sister Matilda is a very
+peculiar person. You must know that by this time?"
+
+"I have heard a good deal about her," Madeleine admitted.
+
+"Well, I hope it isn't unkind in me to say that I know more than anybody
+else can possibly imagine."
+
+"But she's coming back all right," Jane interrupted firmly; "we mustn't
+forget that."
+
+"No," said Susan, with a quick gasp in her breath; "no, I'm not
+forgetting a thing. I'm only talking a little. And oh, how Mrs. Cowmull
+did talk about you, Madeleine. She says Mr. Rath can't put his nose out
+of the door alone."
+
+"That's dreadful," said Madeleine, trying not to color, "especially as
+we always come straight here."
+
+"Well, I tell you it's pretty hard work being good," said Susan, with a
+cheerful sigh; "it's a relief to get home and take off one's bonnet."
+
+"And don't you want some tea, Auntie? It's all hot under the cozy."
+
+"Yes, I will, you Sunshine Jane, you. I'll never cease to be grateful
+for good tea again as long as I live. I've had five years of the other
+kind to help me remember."
+
+Later, when Madeleine was gone, Susan said: "Do you know, Jane, Katie
+Croft is certainly going to desert that awful old woman when we get her
+here? Everybody says so."
+
+"No, she isn't, Auntie; the expected is never what happens."
+
+"Jane, any one with your religion can't rely on proverbs to help them
+out, because the whole thing puts you right outside of common-sense to
+begin with."
+
+Jane was sitting looking out upon the pretty garden. "I know, Auntie; I
+only quoted that in reference to the Sewing Society gossip. It's never
+the expected that happens in their world; it's the expected that always
+happens in my world. And proverbs don't exist in my world; they're every
+one of them a human limitation."
+
+"Well, Jane, I don't know; some of them are very pretty, and when I've
+seen Matilda over the fence and run down to get a few scraps, I've taken
+considerable comfort in 'No cloud without a silver lining' and 'It never
+rains but it pours.' They were a great help to me."
+
+Jane kissed her tenderly. "Bless you, Auntie,--everything's all right
+and all lovely, and Madeleine made me so happy to-day. I'm sure that
+she's engaged."
+
+"Yes, I've thought that, too."
+
+"Yes, and I'm so glad for her."
+
+"I hope he's good enough for her."
+
+"Oh, I'm sure that he is." Jane thought a minute. "And Madeleine gave me
+a big lesson, too," she added.
+
+"What?"
+
+"She showed me that with all my teaching and preaching, I don't trust
+God half enough yet."
+
+"Well, Jane," said Susan solemnly, "I s'pose trusting God is like being
+grateful for the sunshine,--human beings ain't big enough to hold all
+they ought to feel."
+
+"Perhaps we'd be nothing but trust and gratitude, then," said Jane,
+smiling.
+
+"They're nice feelings to be made of," said Susan serenely, "but I must
+go and put my bonnet away. But, oh, heavens, when I think that to-morrow
+old Mrs. Croft is coming!"
+
+"And that lots of good is coming with her; she is coming to bring
+happiness and happiness only."
+
+"Yes, I know," Susan's air was completely submissive. "I can hardly wait
+for her to get here. They wondered at the Sewing Society if she'd sing
+Captain Jinks all night often. She does sometimes, you know. But I'm
+sure we'll like her. She's a nice woman."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+OLD MRS. CROFT
+
+
+OLD Mrs. Croft arrived the next afternoon about half after four. She was
+rolled up in her chair, and her small trunk followed on a wheelbarrow.
+
+"How old you have grown!" she said to Susan, by way of greeting, as she
+grated up the gravel. "My, to think you ever looked young!"
+
+They wheeled her into the hall. "Same hall," she said, looking about,
+"same paper you had thirty years ago. Oh, my, to think of it. I've
+papered and papered and scraped off, and papered and papered and scraped
+off, and then papered again in those same thirty years."
+
+They got her into the room on the ground floor, which had been prepared
+for her. "I suppose this was the most convenient place to put me," she
+said, "and so you put me in it. Put me where you please, only I do hope
+you haven't beetles. It makes me very nervous to hear 'em chipping about
+all night, and when I'm nervous, I don't sleep, and when I don't sleep,
+I just can't help lying awake. It's a way I've got. I caught it from my
+husband when he was a baby. He'd wake up and give it to me."
+
+Susan went out with Jane to get her some supper. "I never thought much
+about Katie Croft," she said, "but I never doubted she had a hard time."
+
+"Yes," said Jane, "and one of the nicest things in this world is to be
+able to give some one who's had a hard time a rest."
+
+"Wouldn't it be dreadful if she died, though, while she was here?"
+
+"Who? Old Mrs. Croft?"
+
+"Oh, no, she won't ever die. I meant Katie. Everybody says she's going
+to run away, but if she don't do that and dies, we'll be just as badly
+off as if she did it."
+
+"Oh, Auntie!"
+
+"Well, Jane, we'd have to keep old Mrs. Croft till she died."
+
+"I guess there's not much chance of that," Jane said; "she won't die.
+She has come here to do us good and to receive good herself, that's
+all."
+
+Susan looked appalled. "Surely you don't expect to sunshine _her_ up, do
+you?"
+
+"Yes, I do."
+
+Then Susan looked amazed. "Well, I never did! I thought she was just
+here to do us good. I--"
+
+Their conversation was suddenly interrupted by a piercing shriek. Jane
+flew.
+
+"I'm so happy I just had to let it out," Mrs. Croft announced. "I can't
+hold in joy or sorrow. Sorrow I let out in the low of my voice--like a
+cow, you know--but joy I let rise to the skies. You'll hear to-night."
+
+Jane looked at her and smiled. She looked like a story-book witch in a
+nice, white, modern bed. "I thought that perhaps you wanted something,"
+she said, turning to leave the room again.
+
+"No, indeed, I never want anything. I ain't by no means so bad off as is
+give out."
+
+"I guessed as much. You can make a fresh start now, and we shan't remind
+you of the past."
+
+"Oh, then I'm coming to the table," exclaimed Mrs. Croft, "and I'm going
+to be helped like a Christian and feed myself like a human being. This
+being put to bed and just all but tied there with a rope isn't going to
+go on much longer, I can tell you."
+
+"Don't speak of it at all," said Jane; "you just do what you please
+here, and we'll let you. I'm going to get you your supper now."
+
+"Stop!" cried old Mrs. Croft sharply. "Stop! I won't have it! I won't
+stand it. Oh, I've had such a time," she went on, bringing her clenched
+fist down vigorously on her knee under the bedclothes and raising
+her voice very high indeed, "such a time! I had a beautiful son that
+you or any girl might have been proud to marry, and then he must go and
+marry that Katie Croft creature. There ain't many things to cut a
+mother's heart to the quick like seeing her own son marry her own
+daughter-in-law. Such a nice raised boy as he was, so neat, and she
+kicking her clothes under the bed at night to tidy up the room. Oh!"
+cried Mrs. Croft, lifting her voice to a still more surprising pitch,
+"what I have suffered! Nothing ain't been spared me. I lost my son and
+the use of my legs from the shock and--"
+
+"Supper is all ready," Jane interrupted sweetly and calmly.
+
+"What you got?"
+
+"Sardines--"
+
+"I never eat 'em."
+
+"Toast."
+
+"I hate it."
+
+"Plum preserves."
+
+"Lord have mercy on me, I wouldn't swallow one if you gave it to me."
+
+Jane stood still at the door.
+
+Susan, having heard the screams, came running in.
+
+"Oh, Mrs. Ralston," cried Mrs. Croft, "I had"--Jane rose, approached the
+bed, and laid a firm hand on her arm. "What do you want for supper?" she
+asked in a quiet, penetrating tone.
+
+"I don't want nothing," cried Mrs. Croft; "days I eat and days I don't.
+This is a day I don't eat, and on such a day I only take a little ham
+and eggs from time to time. Oh, my husband, how I did love you! It's
+just come over me how I loved him, and I love him so I can't hardly
+stand it--"
+
+"We'll go out and have supper ourselves, then," said Jane.
+
+"Eat, drink, and be merry while you can," fairly yelled Mrs. Croft. "The
+handwriting is on the wall and the Medes and Persians is in the chicken
+yard right now. Oh, what a--"
+
+They slipped out and shut the door after them. Susan turned a scared
+face Jane's way. "Why, she's crazy!" she said. "Katie always said so,
+and folks thought she was just talking. It's awful."
+
+"She's a little excited with the change," said Jane soothingly; "she'll
+be calmer soon. It's very bad to shut one's self off from others. It's
+better to fuss along with disagreeable people than to live altogether
+alone. She's grown flighty through being left alone. It's a wonder that
+you didn't get odd yourself."
+
+When they went back after supper, Mrs. Croft was sound asleep.
+
+"Don't wake her, for goodness' sake," whispered Susan, in the doorway.
+Jane left the room quietly, and her aunt took her by the arm and led her
+up-stairs. "This is pretty serious," she said. "I think Katie Croft
+ought to have told us."
+
+"She didn't want her to come; we insisted," said Jane.
+
+"I tell you what," said Susan, "we were too happy."
+
+Susan's tone was so solemn that Jane had an odd little qualm. But the
+next instant she knew that all was right, because all is always right.
+"Auntie," she said, putting her hand on the older woman's shoulder, "you
+must try to realize that you've moved out of the world where things go
+wrong into the world where things go right. When you go out of the cold,
+dark winter night into a cosy, warm house, you don't fear that the house
+will turn dark and cold any minute."
+
+"But old Mrs. Croft isn't a house; she's moved into us, instead."
+
+Jane smiled her customary smile of tranquil sweetness. "She has come to
+show us ourselves," she said, "and to bring us to some kind of better
+things. I know it."
+
+Susan's eyes altered to confidence. "Well, Sunshine Jane," she said,
+"I'll try to believe that you know. I'll try."
+
+They went to bed early, and Jane slept on the dining-room sofa. In the
+night Mrs. Croft, calling, woke her. She jumped up and went to her at
+once.
+
+"I'm hungry. You didn't ask me here to starve me, did you? Oh, how
+hungry I am. I've never been so hungry before."
+
+"I'll get you anything you like," the girl said. "What shall it be?"
+
+Mrs. Croft shook her head lugubriously. "Whatever I eat is sure to kill
+me. I wish I was home. You don't know how good dear Katie is to me, Miss
+Grey. Nobody could, unless they lived with her year in and year out as I
+do. Something told me never to leave my sweet child, and I disobeyed my
+conscience which won't let me sleep for aching like a serpent's tooth.
+Oh, my little Katie, my pretty little Katie, my loving little Katie that
+I went and left at home! Take me to her."
+
+"But she isn't at home," said Jane. "She's gone away on a little visit.
+She went last evening."
+
+"I shall never see her again," said Mrs. Croft mournfully. "I shall
+never see no one again. Oh, dear; oh, dear. My eyes. My eyes."
+
+"What shall I get you? A glass of milk?"
+
+"It doesn't matter. Whatever you like. I was never one to make trouble.
+Whatever you like."
+
+When Jane returned with the milk and some hastily prepared bread and
+butter, Mrs. Croft was praying rapidly. "I think I've got religion,"
+said she, in a bright, chatty tone; "if you'll sit down, I'll convert
+you. It's never too late to mend, and so get your darning basket and
+come right here." She began to eat and drink very rapidly. "It's going
+to kill me," she said, between bites, "but I don't care a mite. What is
+life after all,--a vain fleeting shadow of vanity,--why, you ain't put
+no jam on this bread!"
+
+"Do you like jam? I'll get you some at once."
+
+"Oh, merciful heavens, waking me up in the dead of night to give me
+plain bread and no jam! I shall never see Katie again, and perhaps it's
+just as well, for she'd not stand such doings. Oh, you idle, thriftless
+girl, take me home, take me home at once."
+
+"In the morning," said Jane gently.
+
+"Oh, my,--why did I ever come! Katie, my Katie, my long-loving Katie; my
+dear little Katie that's gone to New York!"
+
+Then, having swallowed the milk in great gulps and the bread in great
+bites, she shut her eyes and lay back again in bed.
+
+"Shan't I bring you anything else?" Jane asked.
+
+"No," said the invalid, "not by no means, and I'll trouble you to get
+out and keep out and don't make a noise in the morning, for I want my
+last hours to be peaceful, and I'm going to take a screw-driver and fix
+my thoughts firmly to heaven at once."
+
+Jane went softly out.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+SHE SLEEPS
+
+
+THE next morning Susan felt perturbed. "She'll take up a whole week of
+our happy visit, and I can't bear to lose a minute. The time's going too
+fast, anyhow."
+
+Lorenzo Rath came in shortly after. He and Madeleine and Emily Mead were
+in and out daily to suit themselves by this time. "Do you know, Mrs.
+Croft has gone off, nobody knows where," he said gravely; "she's left no
+address, and people say she'll never come back."
+
+Susan threw up her hands with a wail. "Oh, Jane, she _has_ left that
+dreadful old woman on us for life; I'll just bet anything folks knew
+exactly that she meant to do it when they talked to me so. What _will_
+Matilda say when she comes back?"
+
+Jane was silent a minute. "It's no use doubting what one really
+believes," she said finally. "I do really believe that I came here for a
+good purpose, and I know that I had a good purpose in inviting Mrs.
+Croft. I'm taught that to doubt is like pouring ink into the pure water
+of one's good intentions, and I won't doubt. I refuse to."
+
+"But if you go back to where you come from and leave me with Matilda and
+old Mrs. Croft, I'll be dead or I'll wish I was dead,--it all comes to
+the same thing," cried poor Susan.
+
+"Auntie," said Jane firmly, "I shan't leave you alone with Aunt Matilda
+and Mrs. Croft, you needn't fear."
+
+"Oh," said Susan, her face undergoing a lightning transformation, "if
+you'll stay here, I'll keep Mrs. Croft or anybody else, with pleasure."
+
+"What, even me?" laughed Lorenzo.
+
+"I'd like to keep you," said Susan warmly. "I think you're one of the
+nicest young men I ever knew."
+
+"I'd like to stay," said Lorenzo, looking at Jane.
+
+She lifted up her eyes and they had a peculiar expression.
+
+Just then Emily Mead came in. "Only think," she said, directly greetings
+were over, "people say Mrs. Croft drew all their money out of the bank
+before she left. Everybody says she's deserted her mother-in-law
+completely."
+
+"Jane, it really is so," said Susan; "she really is gone."
+
+Jane looked steadily into their three faces. "If I begin worrying and
+doubting, of course there'll be a chance to worry and trouble, because
+I'm the strongest of you all," she said gravely, "but I won't go down
+and live in the world of worry and trouble under any circumstances. I
+know that only good can come of Mrs. Croft's being here. I _know_ it!"
+
+"I wish that I could learn how you manage such faith," said the young
+artist. "I'd try it on myself,--yes, I would, for a fact."
+
+"It's not so easy," said Jane, looking earnestly at him. "It means just
+the same mental discipline that physical culture means for the muscles.
+It takes time."
+
+"But I'd like to learn," said Lorenzo.
+
+"So would I!" said Emily Mead.
+
+"I've begun already," said Susan; "every time I think of old Mrs. Croft
+I say: 'She's here for some good purpose, God help us.'"
+
+"Tell me," said Emily Mead, "what possessed you to have her, anyway?
+Everybody's wondering."
+
+"Jane thought that it would be a nice thing to do. And so we did it."
+
+"Do you always do things if you think of them?" Emily asked Jane.
+
+"I'm taught that I must."
+
+"Taught?"
+
+"It's part of my sunshine work."
+
+"That's why she's here," interposed Susan; "she thought of me and came
+right along."
+
+Emily looked thoughtful. "I wonder if I could learn," she said.
+
+"Anybody can learn anything," said Lorenzo.
+
+"Wouldn't it be nice to all learn Jane's religion?"
+
+"I've got it most learned," said Susan, "I'm to where I'm most ready to
+stand Matilda, if only we don't have to keep old Mrs. Croft."
+
+"What is old Mrs. Croft doing now?" Emily asked suddenly.
+
+"She's still asleep. She says that she sleeps late."
+
+Then Emily rose to go. Lorenzo Rath rose and left with her.
+
+"Jane," said Susan solemnly, after they were alone, "I'm afraid that
+religion of yours ain't as practical as it might be, after all. It's got
+us old Mrs. Croft, and I ain't saying a word, but now I'm about positive
+it's going to lose you that young man. You could have him if you'd just
+exert yourself a little, and you don't at all."
+
+"I couldn't have him, Auntie."
+
+"Yes, you could. Don't tell me. I know a young man when I see one, and
+Mr. Rath's a real young man. He loves you, Jane, just because nobody
+could help it, and if you weren't always so busy, he'd get on a good
+deal faster."
+
+"I can't marry, Aunt Susan." Jane, with Madeleine's secret high in her
+heart, was very busy setting the kitchen to rights. "Some people are not
+meant to have homes of their own. It's the century."
+
+"Fiddle for the century," said Susan, with something almost like
+violence. "I'm awful tired of all this hash and talk about the century.
+About the only thing I've had to think of since Matilda made up her mind
+I was too sick to get up, was what I read in newspapers about the
+troubles of the century. Centuries is always in hot water till they're
+well over, and then they get to be called the good old days. I guess
+days ain't so different nor centuries either nor women neither. Fiddle
+for all this kind of rubbish,--it's no use except to upset a nice girl
+like you and keep her from marrying a nice young fellow like Mr. Rath.
+Girls don't know nothing about love no more. Mercy on us, why, it's a
+kind of thing that makes you willing to go right out and hack down trees
+for the man."
+
+Jane looked a little smiling and a little wistful. "I'll tell you what
+it is, Auntie," she said; "when my father died he left a debt that ought
+to be paid, and I promised him I'd pay it. I couldn't marry--it wouldn't
+be honest."
+
+Susan's eyes flew pitifully open. "Good heavens, mercy on us, no; then
+you never can't marry, sure and certain. There never was the man yet so
+good he wouldn't throw a thing like that in a woman's teeth. It's a
+man's way, my dear, and a wife ought not to mind, but one of the
+difficulties of being a wife is that you always do mind."
+
+"I know that I should mind," said Jane quietly, "and, anyway, I don't
+want to marry. I'm much happier going about on my sunbeam mission,
+trying to help others a bit here and a bit there." She smiled bravely as
+she spoke, for all that it takes a deal of training in truth not to
+waver or quaver in such a minute. She had to think steadily along the
+lines which she had worked so hard to build into every brain-cell and
+spirit-fiber of her make-up. "Auntie," she went on then, after a brief
+reflection that he who works in truth's wool works without fear as to
+the breaking of one single thread, "you and I are trying dreadfully
+hard--trying with all our might to do exactly right. We're trying to
+break your chains by the only way in which material chains can be
+broken,--by breaking those of others. We can't go astray. If old Mrs.
+Croft should stay here till she died, and if I should work till I died
+at paying the debts of others, she'd stay for some good purpose, and I'd
+be working in the same way. Be very sure of that."
+
+For a second Susan looked cheered--but only for a second. Then, "That's
+all very well for you and me, who want to be uplifted--at least you want
+to be, and I think maybe I'll like it after I get a little used to it.
+But Matilda doesn't know or care anything about planes, and it's Matilda
+I keep thinking of." There was another pause, and then she added: "And
+it's Matilda I'll have to live with,--along with old Mrs. Croft. Oh,
+Jane, I'd be so much happier if you'd marry Mr. Rath and let me come and
+live with you!"
+
+Jane went and put her arms about her. "Auntie, it isn't easy to learn my
+way of looking at things, because you have to keep at them till they're
+so firm in you that nothing from outside can ever shake or uproot them.
+But what I believe is just so firm with me, and I won't give anything
+up,--not even about Mrs. Croft. We're all right and she's all right and
+everything's all right, and I don't need to marry any one."
+
+Susan winked mournfully. "If there was only some way to meet Matilda on
+her way home and kind of get that through her head before she saw Mrs.
+Croft. You see, she always shuts that room up cold winters and keeps
+cold meat in there. I've had many a good meal out of that room."
+
+"You must not cast about for ways and means," said Jane firmly. "Life is
+like a sunshiny warm day, and our part is to breathe and feel and thank
+God,--not to look for the sun to surely cease shining."
+
+"But it does stop," wailed Susan, "often."
+
+"Yes, thank Heaven," said Jane, "if it didn't, we'd be burnt up alive by
+our own vitality."
+
+"Oh, dear," said Susan briefly, "you've an answer for everything. Well,
+let's get dinner."
+
+They went into the kitchen.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+EMILY'S PROJECT
+
+
+AFTER dinner that day Emily Mead came with her work. Emily Mead was one
+of those nondescript girls who seem to spring up more and more thickly
+in these troublous, churned-up times of ours.
+
+Too pretty to be plain, too unattractive to be beautiful. Too well-to-do
+to need to work, too poor to attain to anything for which she longed.
+Too clever to belong to her class, not clever enough to rise above it.
+Altogether a very fit subject for Jane to "sunshine," as her aunt put
+it.
+
+"How do you get along with old Mrs. Croft?" she asked, directly she was
+seated.
+
+"She's asleep yet," Jane said; "she was so restless all night."
+
+"She always sleeps days and is awake all night; didn't you know that
+before?" queried Emily, in surprise. "Some one ought to have told you."
+
+"It doesn't matter," said Jane serenely. There was never any bravado in
+her serenity; it was quite sincere.
+
+"That was what made Katie so mad," Emily continued. "She said it gave
+her her days, to be sure, but, as she couldn't very well sleep, too, all
+day, she never really had any time herself."
+
+"We'll get along all right," said Jane quietly; "old people have ways,
+and then they change and have other ways, and the rest must expect to be
+considerate."
+
+"Mercy on us, I wonder what she'll change to next," said Susan, with
+feeling. She had just returned from listening at the invalid's door.
+
+"Don't worry, Auntie,--just remember!" Jane's smile was at once bright
+and also a bit admonitory.
+
+"I'm trying to believe that everything's all right always, too," said
+Susan to Emily, "but, oh, my!"
+
+They went out on the shady side of the house to where a little table
+stood, which was made out of a board nailed into a cut-off tree stump.
+Jane and Emily carried chairs, and Susan brought her darning basket. It
+was delightfully pleasant. From time to time Jane or her aunt slipped in
+and listened at the door, but old Mrs. Croft slept on like a baby.
+
+"I do wonder if Katie Croft has really gone for good!" Emily said to
+Susan, while Jane was absent on one of these errands.
+
+"I can't trust myself even with my own opinions," said Susan reservedly;
+"I haven't much time to get changed before Matilda comes, you know, and
+I want to believe in Jane's religion if I can. It's so kind of warm and
+comforting. I like it."
+
+"Jane," Emily said, turning towards her when she returned, "I've come
+to-day on an awfully serious errand, and I want you to help me."
+
+"I will certainly, if I can. What is it?"
+
+"Do you really believe that wanting anything shows that one is going to
+get it? You said something like that the other day."
+
+"I know that one can get anything one wants," Jane answered gravely; "of
+course the responsibility of some kinds of wanting is awfully heavy. But
+the law doesn't alter."
+
+"Can you explain it to me?"
+
+"Yes, that's it," said Susan, "you tell us how to manage. I want to get
+something myself. Or I mean it's that I want something I've got to go
+away again. Or I guess I'd better not try to say what I mean."
+
+"But you won't either of you understand what I mean, when I tell you,"
+said Jane. "It's just as I said before, it takes a lot of study to get
+your brain-cells to where they can hold an idea that's really new to
+you. Heads are like empty beehives,--you have to have the comb before
+you can have the honey, and every different kind of study requires a
+different kind of cells just for its use alone. When things don't
+interest us, it's because the brain-cells in regard to that subject have
+never been developed. That's all. That's what they taught me."
+
+"I think it's interesting," said Susan. "I always thought that the
+inside of my head was one thing that I didn't need to bother about.
+Seems it isn't, after all. Go on, you Sunshine Jane, you."
+
+"I'm like your aunt. I thought that what I thought was the last thing
+that mattered," said Emily.
+
+"Everything matters. There's nothing in this world that doesn't matter,
+because this world is all matter. Anything that doesn't matter must be
+spirit. Don't you see that when you say and really mean that a thing
+doesn't matter, you mean that to you it isn't material,--that it's no
+part of your world?"
+
+"Dear me, I never thought of that," said Susan, "then I suppose as long
+as things do matter to us, it means we just hang on to them and hold
+them for all we're worth."
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But, Jane, thoughts can't matter much? Or we can forget things."
+
+"There isn't anything that we can think of at all that we are ever free
+not to think about again--that is, if it's a good thought," said Jane.
+"If a thought comes to us at all, it comes with some responsibility
+attached. Either we are meant to gain strength by dismissing it, if it
+seems wrong, or it's our duty to do something with it, if it's right.
+Most people's minds are all littered up with thoughts that they never
+either use or put away. That's what makes them so stupid."
+
+"Goodness!" exclaimed Susan. "Why, I never put a thought away in my
+life,--not as I know of."
+
+"I've never thought anything at all about my thoughts," said Emily,
+looking rather startled.
+
+"Lots of people don't," said Jane; "they act just as a woman would in
+making a dress, if she cut it out a bit now and a bit then without ever
+laying the pattern back even, and then joined it anywhere any time, and
+then was surprised when it didn't even prove fit to wear--not to speak
+of looking all witched."
+
+"Is that what ails some lives?" Emily asked, looking yet more startled.
+
+"It's what ails almost every life. It's what makes 'I didn't think' the
+worst confession in the world. A man driving a motor with his eyes shut
+wouldn't be a bit worse. Life's a great powerful force always rushing
+on, and we swing into the tide and never bother to row or to steer or to
+see that our boat is water-tight."
+
+"You make me feel awful, Jane. As if I'd been lazy, staying in bed so.
+And it was the only way."
+
+"You couldn't do any better, Auntie. At least you weren't doing anything
+wrong. Being moored in a little, quiet cove is better than being adrift
+and slamming into the boats of others."
+
+"I'd really have had to think more about Matilda's thoughts than my own,
+if I'd known. I'd never have had time for much thinking as I pleased in
+the way you say; I was always jumping up and flopping down."
+
+"Jane," said Emily earnestly, "then every thought matters?"
+
+"Yes, or matterates." Jane smiled. "If a thought doesn't produce good,
+it'll surely produce bad,--it's got to do something. You plant your
+thoughts in time just as one plants seed in the ground, and any further
+thoughts of the same kind add to its strength until enough strength
+causes an appearance in this world."
+
+"You really believe that?"
+
+"I know it. I know it so well that I think that every seed that's ever
+fallen was a lesson that we were too stupid to learn. Every time a seed
+fell and germinated, God said: 'There, that's the very plainest teaching
+on earth. Can't you see?' Sometimes I think the world's all a book for
+us to learn heaven in, just as our bodies explain our souls to us."
+
+Susan looked at Emily in an awed way. "I guess I can get to believe it
+all," she said, in a low tone; "it sounds so plain when you stop and
+think of it."
+
+"I'll try to believe it," said Emily, "but what I care most about is to
+learn how to get what you want?"
+
+Jane considered. "That comes ever so far along. You have to learn to get
+what you want out of yourself before you can be upon the plane where you
+naturally get what you want, because you are too far on to want what you
+couldn't get."
+
+Emily didn't understand and didn't care. "Do tell me how it's done,
+anyway," she begged eagerly.
+
+"I don't know whether what I say will have any meaning for you, but I'll
+say it, anyway. You'll have to know that it's what I believe and live
+by, and if you're to believe it and live by it, it will come to you
+quite easily, and if not it's because it isn't for you yet."
+
+"I mean to believe," said Emily firmly. "I want something, and I'll do
+anything to get it."
+
+Jane shook her head. "That's the very hardest road to come by," she
+said, "unless it's some overcoming in yourself that you are wanting. You
+see, the very first step has to be the conquering of ourselves, not the
+asking for material things. You have to open a channel for the spirit,
+and then the material flows through afterwards, as a matter of course.
+But if you've gone on a good ways, you don't think of getting _things_
+at all; you just want opportunities to grow, and you know that what you
+need for life will keep coming."
+
+"But it doesn't with lots of people," said Emily. "Just look at the
+poor--and the suffering."
+
+"They aren't living according to this law," said Jane. "They're living
+on another plane. There are different planes."
+
+"Don't you see," interposed Susan, "we asked Mrs. Croft because it would
+get me on a plane where, when Matilda came back, she wouldn't mind so
+many changes."
+
+Emily looked inquiring. "A different plane?"
+
+"Yes," said Jane, "you can lift yourself straight out of any circle of
+conditions by suddenly altering all your own ideas--if you've strength
+to do so."
+
+"I'd never have asked Mrs. Croft alone by myself, you know," said Susan;
+"nobody that looked at things the way other folks do, would. But Jane
+looks at everything different from everybody else. She said it would be
+a quick way of being different. I guess she's right."
+
+"I never heard any ideas like that."
+
+"But they aren't new," said Jane; "they're older than the hills. God
+made the world and then gave every man dominion over his world. We all
+have the whole of _our_ world to rule. This way of looking at things is
+new to you, but there are thousands and thousands of people proving it
+true every day. All the old religions teach it, and all the new
+religions bid you live it or they won't be for you. They don't kill men
+for not believing now. They just let them live and suffer and go
+blundering on. Why"--Jane grew suddenly pink with fervor--"why,
+everywhere I look, almost, I see just lovely chances being let die,
+because people won't fuss to tend them. People are too careless and too
+thoughtless. The truth is so plain that the very word 'thoughtless'
+fairly screams what's the matter to every one, but hardly any one
+bothers."
+
+"But the people who believe as you do,--do they all get everything that
+they want?" asked Emily.
+
+"Or else they want what they get," said Jane; "it comes to exactly the
+same thing when you begin to understand. The beauty of every step nearer
+God is the new learning of how exactly right his world is managed. All
+my old puzzles have been cleared up, and it's so wonderful. Why, I used
+to think that when beautiful, dear little children died it was awful;
+but now I know that they came to help and teach others, and that when
+they'd spread their lesson to those others, they didn't need lessons
+themselves and just left the school and went back into the beautiful
+world of Better Things. It was such a help to me to know why splendid
+men and women who were needed went so suddenly sometimes; it's because
+they're needed much more elsewhere and respond to that call of duty at
+once. I don't think of death as anything dreadful now; I think of it as
+a door that will open and close very easily for me."
+
+"It's one door that Matilda liked to keep setting open," said
+Susan,--"oh, dear me, Jane, I'm trying to grow brain-cells and be a
+credit to you, and I can't think of anything but old Mrs. Croft. Perhaps
+she's woke up."
+
+Jane rose and went into the house.
+
+"Do you think you can take it all in?" Emily asked, slowly and
+thoughtfully.
+
+"I'm doing my best," said Susan, "she's so happy and so good I think she
+must know what she's talking about."
+
+Jane came back. "She's still sleeping," she said; "don't you worry, dear
+Auntie."
+
+"I can't help it," said Susan. "I've dodged about for so long and played
+things were so that weren't so, that I guess I'm pretty much out of
+tune, and it'll be a little while before I can stop worrying."
+
+"No, you aren't out of tune," said Jane, smiling at her affectionately,
+"or if you are, just say you're in tune and you will be, right off."
+
+"Do you believe that?" Emily asked.
+
+"Why, of course. I know it absolutely for myself, and I know that it's
+equally true for others if they have the strength to declare it."
+
+"But how?"
+
+"How! Why, because every declaration of good is spiritual, and proves
+that you are one with your soul and master over your body, just as false
+declarations make you one with your body and take away all power from
+your soul. That's how mental cures work. When anybody says 'I am well,'
+she declares souls can't be ill, and she makes Truth stronger by adding
+her strength to its strength. But when a man says 'I am ill,' he
+declares a lie, for souls can't be ill, and so he's claiming not to be
+spiritual, but just to be his own body. It's as if a weaver stopped
+weaving and said: 'I've broken several threads, and _I'm_ going to be
+imperfect, and _I_ won't bring any price, and _I'll_ only be fit to cut
+up into cleaning cloths.' What would you think of him? You'd say: 'Why,
+that's only an hour's work in cloth and can be put aside without further
+thought. Just go right on and with your skill and judgment make the next
+piece perfect. It was never any of it _you_; it was the stuff you were
+making.' Bodies are the stuff we are making."
+
+Emily laid down her work. "Jane, that's wonderful," she said solemnly.
+"You put that so that I really got hold of it. I understand exactly what
+you mean, and if only everybody else did!"
+
+"But nobody else really matters to you," said Jane; "all that matters to
+you is that you believe. They have their lives--you have yours."
+
+Emily was looking very earnest. "I'm going to try," she said, rising.
+"I'm going to try. I must go now, but I'm going home to go to work in my
+world."
+
+Jane walked with her to the gate. "I'll help you all I can," she said,
+"I'm so glad you're interested. It makes life so splendid."
+
+Emily stopped and took her hand.
+
+"Jane," she said, "I want to tell you something. I want to
+marry Mr. Rath. I think he's the nicest man I ever saw. Do you
+really--really--believe that I can, if I learn to think as you do?"
+
+Jane turned white beneath the other's eyes. "Why, but don't you
+know--don't you _see_ that he's in love?"
+
+"In love! With you?"
+
+"With me,--oh, _no_. With Madeleine."
+
+"Oh, no, he's not in love with her," said Emily decidedly; "I know that.
+I know that perfectly well."
+
+"They knew one another before they came here, you know."
+
+"Why, I see them round town together all hours," said Emily; "they're
+like brother and sister, they're not one bit in love. I thought that
+perhaps it was you."
+
+"Oh, dear, no--I can't marry. I never even think of it."
+
+"Don't you use any of your ideas with him?"
+
+"No, indeed! I never ask anything for myself any more. I just ask to
+manifest God's will,--to help in any of His work that offers."
+
+"You're awfully good, dear. But, honestly, do you think that I could
+surely get him if I tried?"
+
+"Why, the law is certain, but"--Jane spoke gently--"you're so far from
+understanding it yet. I only told you a little. It takes ever so long to
+get one's mind built to where it will grasp an ideal and hold it without
+wavering once. There's such a lot I didn't tell you; I couldn't in those
+few minutes. I just showed you the picture, and you have to work hard
+till you learn how to paint it. You see, a wish is like blowing a
+bubble, and if you add wishes and more wishes, you gradually change the
+bubble into a solid mold, which is a real thing of spirit but empty of
+material; then, if you keep it solid and firm, the fact of it is real
+spiritually, and a vacuum as to matter makes the matter just _have_ to
+fill it, and it is that filling into the mold shaped by our thoughts
+that makes what we see and live here in this world. The world is all
+matter circulating in thought-molds. Anything that you carefully and
+steadily and consistently think out must become manifest. God
+manifesting His will means that. We are His will. And the nearer we
+approximate to the highest in Him, the more we can manifest ourselves.
+That's why very good people are seldom rich; they want to manifest in
+deeds and not in things. That's why they never keep money--it only
+represents to them the need of others. If you really and truly love Mr.
+Rath, and feel it steadily and steadfastly your mission to make him very
+happy, of course it will be, even though he loved some one else. But to
+want a man who loved some one else wouldn't be possible to any one who
+believed in this teaching. That's where it is, you see. When you get
+power, you never want to do evil with it. Power from God never manifests
+in evil. When you are where you can get whatever you want, it simply
+means that you are living where only good can come, and where you are
+able to see it coming."
+
+Emily stood perfectly still, looking downwards. Then suddenly she burst
+into violent sobs. "Oh, I feel so small, so mean--so wicked. It isn't as
+you feel a bit with me. I just want to get out of this stupid town--and
+he's so good-looking!"
+
+Jane's eyelids fell.
+
+"I feel so mean and petty," Emily went on, pressing her hands over her
+face. "I could never be good like you. I can't understand. I just want
+to be married. I'm so tired of my life."
+
+"Well," said Jane, with steady firmness, "why don't you go to him and
+talk it all over nicely? As you would with Madeleine or me. Perhaps that
+would be best."
+
+"Do you really think so?" said Emily, lifting her eyes; "do you believe
+that a girl can go to a man and be honest with him, just as a man can
+with a woman?"
+
+"I couldn't," said Jane, "because I wouldn't want to, but if you want to
+do it, I don't see why you can't."
+
+"But why wouldn't you?"
+
+"Because I get my things that other way,--simply by asking God to guide
+me towards His will and guide me from mistake."
+
+"Did you do that about asking old Mrs. Croft?"
+
+"Certainly. I do it about everything. I live by that rule now. I've
+absolute faith in God's guidance."
+
+Emily looked at her. "It must be beautiful," she said, "and you really
+think that it would be all right for me to go and talk to him, do you?"
+
+"Yes," said Jane slowly. "I think that it would be best all round."
+
+"After all, this is the woman's century," said Emily, with a sudden
+energy quite unlike her previous interest. "I don't know why I
+shouldn't."
+
+"I think that the best way to handle all our problems is to let them
+flow naturally to their finish," said Jane; "dammed or choked rivers
+always make trouble."
+
+"I should like to say just what I felt to a man just once," said Emily
+thoughtfully. "It would do me a world of good."
+
+"Then say it," said Jane. "Only are you really sure that he's not in
+love with Madeleine?"
+
+"Oh, I'm positive as to that."
+
+"Then go ahead."
+
+They parted, and Jane returned to the house. She was not so entirely
+spiritual that she could repress a very human kind of smile over Emily's
+project.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+EMILY IS HERSELF FREELY
+
+
+AS Emily turned from Mrs. Ralston's gate, she felt more buoyant
+happiness than anything in life had ever hitherto brought her. She felt
+licensed on high authority to revel in the hitherto forbidden. She
+wanted Lorenzo Rath, and she thought that she understood how to get him.
+We may follow her thought and then we will follow where it led her, for
+in all the surge of the new teaching there is no lesson greater to learn
+than this which Emily had failed to grasp,--that the possession of tools
+does not make one a carver; that all things spiritual must be learned
+exactly as all things material. One may have so lived previously that
+the learning is a mere showing how, but without experience nothing,
+either spiritual, mental, or physical, can be efficaciously handled.
+When people declare that something is not true because they tried it and
+it failed to work, remember Emily Mead. Emily had acquired just one idea
+out of Jane's exposition: "That you could get anything that you want."
+It is the idea that hosts of people find most attractive in this world,
+quite irrespective of its correlative esotericism,--that the soul
+growing towards infinite power learns every upward step by resolutely
+liking what it gets. No man can climb a stair by hacking down every step
+passed; he climbs by being so firm upon each step that he can poise his
+whole weight thereon as he mounts. It is part of the supremely beautiful
+logic of the highest teaching that the same effort which Jesus
+made--every great teacher has made--is sure to make, too. We must see
+the Divine embodied in the Present and the Weak and the Humble, before
+in our own spirit we may deal, for the good of all, with the Future and
+Strength and Power. When one seizes upon anything God-given as a means
+of acquiring earth-gifts, one has but seized the empty air; the idea and
+then ideal have never been in the possession of such an one. There is
+nothing shut away from those who really make God's teaching a vital part
+of themselves, but such men and women are no longer keen to selfishly
+possess, and the good which they reach out for flows easily in for their
+further distribution; in other words, they become what we were all
+designed to be,--the outward manifestations of God's purpose, the living
+breathing, blessed servants of His will.
+
+How far this interpretation lay from poor Emily's comprehension the
+reader knows.
+
+She hurried along, her whole being bounding with joy over the simplicity
+of the new lesson. It all seemed almost too story-book-like to be
+happening in her stupid, commonplace life. She had spent so many long
+hours in thinking over how things would never happen for her, that she
+had entirely lost faith in their ever changing their ways and now, all
+of a sudden, here was a complete reversal. Bonds were turned into wings;
+that unattainable being, a live man, was not only at hand, but
+available; she felt herself bidden not to doubt her power; she judged
+herself advised to say frankly all the things that girls may never say.
+This was the day of feminine freedom. To wish was to have. What one
+wanted was the thing that was best for one. Emily--with all of Jane's
+ideas swimming upside down in her head--felt superbly joyous and
+confident. After all, being alive was a pretty good thing.
+
+She turned a corner into the lane that led in a roundabout way to her
+mother's back garden gate and walked swiftly. She was a fine, straight
+girl with a lithe, springy walk. Perhaps Lorenzo Rath could not have
+done better, from most standpoints, than to marry such an one. Many men
+do worse. And there was old Mr. Cattermole's money, too. Some of these
+views float in all human atmosphere to-day--float there securely,
+because the world is a practical world, and an automobile is obvious,
+while love and trust are absolutely unknown to many. "Ye cannot serve
+God and Mammon too," and Mammon is very plain and practical, rolling on
+rubber tires to the best restaurant. Emily could not have reduced her
+roseate visions to any such sordid reasoning, but love to her meant
+leaving town and having a good-looking and lively young man to take her
+about. This was not really love, any more than the means by which she
+expected to acquire it were the religion taught by Jane. We hear much of
+the downfall of love and the downfall of religion in these days, but no
+one even stops to realize that religion and love cannot possibly even
+shake on their thrones. Their counterfeits may crumble and tumble, but
+real truth can never fail. It was the counterfeits at which Emily, like
+many another, grasped eagerly.
+
+So now she was tripping lightly along and, turning the twist by the
+great chestnut tree, her heart gave a sudden flop, for just ahead she
+saw her quarry. He was propped against the fence, using his knees for an
+easel, while he made a rapid water-color sketch. He was good at those
+little impressions of an artistic bit, that nearly always show forth in
+youth a great artist struggling to grow.
+
+Emily started, for she was very close to him before she saw him, and her
+rampant thoughts led her to blush, apologize, and stammer precisely as
+she might have done, had her sex never advanced at all but merely
+remained the dominant note that they have always been.
+
+"Why, Mr. Rath," and then she paused.
+
+Lorenzo--who wanted to finish his sketch--nodded pleasantly without
+looking up. "Grand day for walking," he said, as a supremely polite
+hint, and continued to work rapidly.
+
+Emily went close beside him and looked downward upon the canvas. "How
+pretty! I wish I knew more about pictures. What is that brown hill? You
+can't see a hill from here."
+
+"That's a cow," said Lorenzo, painting very fast indeed, "but don't ask
+me to explain things, for I can't work and talk at the same time."
+
+Emily sank down beside him with a pleasant sense of proprietorship now
+that she could get him by will power alone. "I've just come from Mrs.
+Ralston's. They're in such distress over old Mrs. Croft."
+
+"Is she worse?" The artist forgot to paint all of a sudden, and turned
+quickly towards her.
+
+"Oh, no,--she was asleep when I left. Jane didn't seem a bit troubled,
+but Mrs. Ralston is almost wild over not knowing what to say to her
+sister when she comes back and finds that awful old woman there. It's a
+terrible situation. Everybody knows that young Mrs. Croft has run away.
+She just hated to stay and now she's gone. Isn't it awful?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know," said Lorenzo, suddenly regaining his deep interest
+in work, "I have a distinct feeling that Miss Grey will bring things out
+all right for most people always. It's her way."
+
+"Yes, she's a dear girl," said Emily, and paused to have time to
+consider things a little while, feeling that the conversation should be
+continued by the man. The man didn't continue the conversation, however,
+merely wielding his brush and looking completely absorbed.
+
+Then she remembered her mission. "Mr. Rath, do you believe in frankness
+always?"
+
+"I wish that I did."
+
+"But don't you?"
+
+"Civilization wouldn't stand for it."
+
+"Perhaps not every one could bear it, but some could. I could, I'm
+sure."
+
+"Are you so sure?"
+
+"Yes, I am sure. I was talking with Jane alone just at the gate before I
+left, and she believes that frankness is best always."
+
+"It's easiest, certainly." Lorenzo raised his eyebrows a little
+impatiently, but she paid no attention.
+
+"Do you think so?"
+
+"Why, of course. When one wants to be let alone and blurts out, 'Let me
+alone,' why, one gets let alone."
+
+"Oh, but that would be impolite," said Emily, feeling that for an artist
+he used very crude metaphor. "Of course, Jane and I were not talking
+about that kind of people, or that kind of ways. We were talking of
+people like you and me--nice people, you know. Jane advised me to be
+quite frank with you."
+
+Lorenzo opened his eyes widely. "About what, please?"
+
+"Oh, about all things. You see I meet so few men, and men are so
+interesting, and I enjoy talking with them. I've read a good deal, and I
+don't care for the life in this place. I want to leave it dreadfully."
+
+"So do I," said the artist. "I quite agree with you there."
+
+"You see, Jane has been teaching me to understand life, and I am getting
+the feeling that I am meant for something else than just helping my
+mother, wandering about town, and going to church. I'm very tired and
+restless."
+
+Lorenzo painted fast.
+
+"Mr. Rath, if you--a man--felt as I do, what would you do?"
+
+"Get out."
+
+"But where?"
+
+"Everybody can find a way, if they really want to."
+
+"It isn't as if I had talent, you see."
+
+"A good many people haven't talent and yet do very well, indeed."
+
+"But I don't want to be a shop-girl or anything like that."
+
+"Naturally not."
+
+There was a pause.
+
+"I'm very much interested in the progress women are making," said Emily.
+"I read all I can get hold of about it. Don't you think it remarkable?"
+
+"I don't think much about it, and I skip everything on the subject."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Rath!"
+
+"I'm a jealous brute. I don't like to realize that a woman can do
+everything that is a man's work, even to the verge of driving him to
+starvation, while he can't do any of her work under any circumstances."
+
+"He could wash and cook and sweep."
+
+"Oh, he's invented machines to save her that."
+
+"I see you've no sympathy with the advanced woman."
+
+"Yes, I have. I'm very sorry for her. A nice mess the next generation
+will be."
+
+"Oh, dear."
+
+"My one comfort is that boys take after their mothers, and I'm looking
+to see a future generation of men so strong-minded that they smash
+ladies back to where they belong--in the rear with the tents."
+
+"Goodness, Mr. Rath, then you don't like any of the ways things are
+going?"
+
+"Of course I don't. Once upon a time a busy man's time was sacred; now
+any woman who feels like taking it, appropriates it mercilessly."
+
+"I should lock the door, if I felt that way. But now really, don't you
+think that we might speak quite openly and frankly?"
+
+Lorenzo began to put up his paints.
+
+"I want to get to the bottom of a lot of things."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"You're the first man that I've ever known that I felt could understand
+what I meant, and I do want to know the man's side of things."
+
+"A man hasn't got any side nowadays. He's not allowed one."
+
+Emily looked a little surprised. "You speak bitterly."
+
+"I think I've a right. Men are still observing the rules of the game and
+suffering bitter consequences."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Women with homes have gone into the world to earn some extra pocket
+money until they've knocked the bottom out of all wage systems, and you
+never can make the wildest among them see that women can't expect men's
+pay unless they do men's work. A man's work is only half of it in
+business, the other half is supporting a family. Women want equal pay
+and to spend the result as they please. The man's wages go usually on
+bread and the woman's on bonnets, to speak broadly. He goes to his own
+home at night and has every single bill for four to ten people. She goes
+to somebody else's house and has only her own needs to face, with
+perhaps some contribution towards those off somewhere."
+
+"Dear me," said Emily, "I never thought of that."
+
+"No," said Lorenzo, snapping the lid of his color box shut, "women don't
+think of that. But men do."
+
+"But surely there are loads and loads of women who do support families."
+
+"Yes, and who are dragged down by the injustice of what economists call
+'The Law of Supplemented Earnings'!"
+
+Emily felt that the experience of conversing frankly with a live man was
+not exactly what she had anticipated. It certainly was in no way
+romantic. She felt baffled and a good deal chilled. The conversation had
+taken a horrid twist away from what she had intended.
+
+"You think that women have no right to go out in the world then?" she
+said. "You don't sympathize with the modern trend?"
+
+"I sympathize with nature and human nature," said Lorenzo, "but not with
+civilization." He rose to his feet.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Rath!" she looked upward, expecting to be assisted to rise.
+
+"I believe in life, lived by live things in the way God meant. I loathe
+this modern institution limping along with its burden of carefully fed
+and tended idiots and invalids and babies, better dead. I wish that I
+were a Zulu."
+
+"Good Heavens!"
+
+"Come," said the man, picking up his load, "we can go now."
+
+"Had you finished?" She scrambled to her feet.
+
+"I'd done all that I could under the circumstances."
+
+"I suppose the light changes so fast at this time...." Emily was quite
+unsuspicious and content. The intuition that used to reign supreme in
+women was especially lacking in her. She had not the least idea of what
+her presence meant to the unhappy artist.
+
+"Come, come," he repeated impatiently.
+
+They walked away then through the pretty winding lane.
+
+"It seems to me so awful that we are all so hopeless," Emily went on
+presently. "We are all put here and often see just what should be done
+and can't do it possibly."
+
+"I do exactly what I choose," said Lorenzo,--then he added: "as a usual
+thing."
+
+"You must be very happy." She paused. "I suppose that you have plenty of
+money to live as you please."
+
+"I'm fortunate enough not to have any."
+
+"Goodness!" the exclamation was sincere. The shock to Emily was
+dreadful. "Why do you call that fortunate?" she asked, after a little
+hasty agony of downfall as to rich and generous travel, spaced off by
+going to the theater.
+
+"Because it makes me know that I shall do something in the world. A very
+little money is enough to swamp a man nowadays, when the idea of later
+being supported by a woman is always a possibility. Oh," said Lorenzo,
+with sudden irritation, "if there weren't so many perfectly splendid
+women and girls in the world, I'd go off and become a Trappist.
+Everything's being knocked into a cocked hat. I've had girls practically
+make love to me. Disgusting."
+
+Emily felt her heart hammer hard. "You're very old-fashioned in your
+views," she said, a little faintly.
+
+They came out by her mother's back gate as she spoke.
+
+"Yes, I am," said Lorenzo, "I admit it."
+
+Mrs. Mead came running out of the back door. "Oh, Emily," she cried,
+"old Mrs. Croft is dead. Jane sent for the doctor--she sent a boy
+running--but she's dead. Wherever have you been for so long?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+JANE'S CONVERTS
+
+
+THE feelings which revolved around the dead body of old Mrs. Croft can
+be better imagined than described; everybody had wondered as to every
+contingency except this. In the midst of the confusion Jane moved
+quietly, a little white and with lips truly saddened. "And I meant to do
+such a lot for her,--I meant to help her so much," she murmured from
+time to time.
+
+The doctor, a ponderous gentleman of great weight in all ways, was very
+grave. The doctor said that he had warned the daughter of such a
+possible ending twenty years before. "Heart failure was _always_
+imminent," he declared severely, looking upon Jane, Susan, and Mrs.
+Cowmull, who had driven out with him and thus become instantly a
+privileged person. "She never ought to have been left alone a minute
+during these last forty years. Even if she had lived to be a hundred,
+the danger was always there. Such neglect is awful." He stopped and
+shook his head vigorously. "Awful," he declared again with emphasis,
+"awful!"
+
+"I didn't know that she had heart disease," said Jane.
+
+"No blame attaches to you," said the doctor, veering suddenly about as
+to the point in discussion; "nobody can blame you. I shall exonerate you
+completely. Of course, if you were not aware of the state of the case,
+you couldn't be expected to consider its vital necessities."
+
+"Oh, and it was so vital," sobbed Mrs. Cowmull. "Dear, sweet, old Mrs.
+Croft. Our sunbeam. And to go off like that. What good is life when
+people can die any minute. Oh! Oh!"
+
+There was a brief pause for silent sorrow.
+
+"I never looked for her to die," Mrs. Cowmull went on, shaking her head.
+"I always told Emily she'd outlive even Brother Cattermole. So many
+people will, you know. Dear, kind, loving friend! And now to think she's
+gone. I can't make it seem true. She's been alive so long. Seems only
+yesterday that I was up to see Katie about making a pie for the social,
+and our dear, sweet friend was singing her favorite song, _Captain Jinks
+of the Horse Marines_, all the time. What spirits she did have
+everywhere, except in her legs."
+
+Susan sat perfectly quiet. The doctor took Jane's arm and led her into
+the hall, there to speak of the first few necessary steps to be taken.
+Then he returned to the sitting-room, gathered up Mrs. Cowmull and
+departed, saying that he would send "some practical person at once."
+Mrs. Cowmull, who was widely known as having practical designs on him,
+did not resent the implied slur at her own abilities at all.
+
+After they were gone, there was a slight further pause, and then Susan
+rose slowly and went and laid her hands upon her niece's shoulders. "Oh,
+Jane, that religion of yours is a wonderful thing. I'm converted."
+
+Jane started. "Converted, Auntie?"
+
+"Yes. You were sure that it would come out all right and now see."
+
+Then a little white smile had to cross the young girl's face. "The poor
+old woman," she said gently, "to think of her lying there all alone all
+that day. I thought that she was sleeping so quietly."
+
+"Well, she was," said Susan.
+
+"Yes, of course she was. It's just our little petty way of thinking that
+masks all of what is truly sacred and splendid behind a veil of wrong
+thinking. Of course she was sleeping quietly."
+
+"It'll be sort of awful if they can't find Katie, though," Susan said
+next; "she left no address, and I think it's almost silly to try to hunt
+her up. I'm only too pleased to pay for the funeral, I'm sure, and there
+won't be any real reason for her returning."
+
+"No," said Jane thoughtfully.
+
+"And I really can look forward to Matilda's coming back now," pursued
+Susan. "I shan't mind a bit. Old Mrs. Croft has done that much good,
+anyway,--she's made me feel that Matilda's coming back is just nothing
+at all. You see you knew that everything was coming out all right, but
+I'd never had any experience with that kind of doings up till now, and
+it was all new to me. I was only thinking of when you and me would have
+to face Matilda. Matilda would have looked pretty queer if she'd come
+home to old Mrs. Croft to tend, and me up and lively."
+
+Jane didn't seem to hear. "I never once thought of her dying," she said
+again; "oh, dear, she had so much to learn. I expected to do her such a
+lot of good."
+
+"I wouldn't complain, Jane. I wouldn't find fault with a thing.
+Goodness, think if she'd begun singing _Captain Jinks_ last night. I've
+heard that sometimes she'd sing it six hours at a stretch."
+
+Jane shook her head. "Who is to go down and pack up that house?" she
+wondered.
+
+"Oh, the house can be rented furnished. It's a nice home for anybody,"
+said Susan, "and the rent'll buy her a lovely monument."
+
+The funeral was fixed for the third day, and some effort made to trace
+the daughter-in-law. But that lady evidently didn't care to be found.
+
+"It's hardly any use going to a great deal of expense to hunt her up,"
+Lorenzo said to Jane, "because the house is all there is, and a thorough
+search with detectives would just about eat it up alive."
+
+He probably was not wholly disinterested in his outlook, for the next
+bit of news that shook the community was that Lorenzo Rath had taken
+Mrs. Croft's house and moved in! Naturally Mrs. Cowmull was far from
+pleased. "Of course it means he's going to get married," she said to
+Miss Vane, "but what folly to take a house so soon. Who's to cook for
+him? And who's he going to marry? Not Emily, I know. She wouldn't have
+him."
+
+Miss Vane didn't know and didn't care. "Not my Madeleine," she said
+promptly, for her part; "she gets a letter every day. She'll marry that
+man."
+
+"Then it's Jane Grey," said Mrs. Cowmull. The town was greatly
+exercised, and not as positive as to Emily's state of mind as her aunt.
+
+"It'll be one of those two," Mrs. Ball said to Miss Crining (both very
+superior women and much given to meeting at the grocery store). "They're
+both after him. Emily chases him wherever he's posing woods and cows,
+and the little appetite that Mrs. Cowmull says he has, after going to
+Mrs. Ralston's, shows what they're thinking of."
+
+Miss Crining shook her head. "Once on a time girls were so sweet and
+womanly," she said.
+
+"My," said Mrs. Ball, "I remember when my husband asked me. I almost
+fell flat. I'd never so much as thought of him. I was engaged to a boy
+named Richie Kendall, and Mr. Ball was bald, and had all those children
+older than I was. There was some romance about life then."
+
+"And me," said Miss Crining, with a gentle sigh, "I never told a soul I
+was in love till months after he was drowned. I didn't know I was in
+love myself. Girls used to be like that, modest, timid."
+
+"Mr. Rath's very severe on girls nowadays, Mrs. Cowmull says," said Mrs.
+Ball; "but he's blind like all men are and will get hooked when he ain't
+looking, like they all do."
+
+But Lorenzo Rath didn't care about any of the gossip; he was so happy
+over his home. "I'll have a woman come and cook occasionally," he
+explained blithely to Jane and Susan, "and I'll get all my illustrating
+off my hands in short order."
+
+"Do you illustrate?" Jane asked.
+
+"Yes, that's my bread-and-butter job."
+
+"It'll be nice to have you in the neighborhood," said Susan placidly;
+"to think how it's all come about, too. I'm in heaven, no matter what
+I'm doing. I just sit about and pray to understand more of Jane's
+religion. I'm gasping it down in big swallows. I think it's so beautiful
+how she does right, without having to take the consequences."
+
+Jane laughed a little at that and went out to get supper.
+
+"She's a nice girl," Lorenzo said, looking after her; "when she leaves
+here, what shall we do?"
+
+"Oh, heavens, I don't know," said Susan. "I try never to think of it."
+
+"And what is she going to do?"
+
+"Oh, she's going back to her nursing, and I want to cry when I think
+that other people will have her around and I shan't. I'll be here alone
+with Matilda. Not but what I'm a good deal more reconciled than I was,
+when I thought I'd be alone with Matilda and old Mrs. Croft, too."
+
+"Yes, that would have been bad," said Lorenzo soberly. "Well, I must be
+running along. I've got a lot of work to do and a lot of thinking, too."
+
+Susan contemplated him earnestly. "Well," she said, with fervor, "when
+Jane goes, I'll still have you, anyway."
+
+Lorenzo, who had just risen, stopped short at that. "Do you know an idea
+that I'm just beginning to hold?" he asked suddenly.
+
+"No; how should I?"
+
+"It's this. Why shouldn't you and I try working Jane's Rule of Life a
+little? I'm dreadfully impressed with a lot she says. Suppose you and I
+pulled together and made up our minds that she was going to stay here in
+some perfectly right and pleasant and proper way. How, then? Don't you
+believe maybe we could manage it?"
+
+Susan stared. "But there couldn't be any perfectly right, pleasant,
+proper way," she said sadly, "because she wants to go."
+
+"I'd like to try."
+
+The aunt shook her head, sighing heavily. "It's no use. There isn't a
+way. Nothing could keep her. You see, she's got some family debts to
+pay, and she can't rest till she's paid 'em. I've begged and prayed her
+to stay; I've told her that her own flesh and blood has first claim, but
+she won't hear to any kind of sense."
+
+"I wish that we might try," Lorenzo insisted. "I've listened to her till
+I just about believe she really does know what she's talking about. It
+seems as if it's all so logical and after all, it's the way God made the
+world, surely."
+
+"Yes, I know, but you and I ain't equal to making worlds and won't be
+yet awhile."
+
+"I don't care," said the young man, turning towards the door, "I'm going
+at it alone, then. I don't believe that any one in the world needs her
+as much as I do, and I'm going to have her, and that by her own methods,
+too."
+
+Susan's mouth opened in widest amazement. "Mercy on us, you ain't
+proposing to her by way of me, are you? You don't mean that you really
+do want to marry her, do you?"
+
+"No, I don't mean that I want to marry her. I mean that I'm going to
+marry her."
+
+"Oh! Oh!" the aunt cried faintly. "Oh, goodness me! But I don't know why
+I'm surprised, for I said you was in love with her right from the start.
+I couldn't see how you could help but be."
+
+"Of course I couldn't help but be. Who could? She's one of the few real
+girls that are left in the world these days. The regular girls with
+lectures and diplomas and stiff collars have spoiled the sweetest things
+God ever made. Men don't thank Heaven for any of these late innovations
+wrought in womankind."
+
+"Oh, I know," said Susan; "my husband was old-fashioned, too. I"--she
+stopped short, because just then the door opened, and Jane came in.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+REAL CONVERSATION
+
+
+BOTH Susan and lover jumped rather guiltily, but Jane didn't notice. Or
+if she did notice, it did not impress her as anything worthy
+consideration. Among the little weeds in the rose-garden of life, did
+you ever think of what a common one is that bother over how people act
+when you "come in suddenly"? It is one of the petty tortures of everyday
+existence. "They stopped talking the instant they saw me!" "They both
+turned red, when I opened the door!" Well, what if they did? Is it a
+happening of the slightest moment? Unless one is guilty and in dread of
+discovery, what can it matter who chatters or of what? Stop and realize
+the real, separate, distinct meaning of the phrase "He was above
+suspicion," and see how it applies equally to being safe from the evil
+thoughts _of_ others as well as being safe from the holding of evil
+thoughts _towards_ others. If people change color at your approach and
+it makes you uncomfortable, you are not above suspicion either of or
+from others. Then look to it well that henceforth you manage to root out
+the double evil. There are a whole lot of very uncomfortable family
+happenings founded on the absolutely natural crossings of family
+intercourse, and the only possible way to go smoothly through such
+rapids is--as the Irishman said--to pick up your canoe and port around
+them. Don't go down to the level of anything beneath your own standard,
+because when you go down anywhere for any reason, your standard goes
+down with you. There is that peculiarity about standards that we keep
+them right with us, whether we go up or whether we go down.
+
+"Oh, Jane," said Susan, "we're having such an interesting time talking
+about your religion."
+
+Jane smiled. "I'm glad," she said simply. "Did you decide to absorb some
+of it?"
+
+"Oh, I'm converted, anyhow," said the aunt; "nobody could live in the
+house with you and not be, and Mr. Rath is going to try it for a while,
+too."
+
+Jane looked at Lorenzo a little roguishly. "It's a contagion in the
+town," she said; "I feel like an ancient missionary."
+
+"I know," said Susan, "holding up a cross. I've seen them in pictures."
+
+"Yes, and I hold up the cross, too," said Jane, "only most people
+wouldn't know it. Do you know what the cross meant in the long-ago
+times,--before the Christian era?" she asked Lorenzo quickly.
+
+"No."
+
+"It's the sunbeam transfixing and vivifying the earth-surface. It was
+the holiest symbol of the power of God. It embodied divine life
+descending straight from heaven and making itself a part of earth."
+
+"My!" exclaimed Susan, really amazed.
+
+Jane smiled and laid her hand upon her aunt's affectionately. "I love my
+cross," she said; "it's the greatest emblem that humanity can know, and,
+just because we are human, it will always keep coming back into our
+lives. Only it shouldn't be preached as a burden, it should be preached
+as an opportunity."
+
+Lorenzo sat watching her. A curious white look passed over his face. He
+felt for the moment that he hardly ought to dare hope that this girl who
+was so full of help for all should narrow her field of labor to just
+him.
+
+"You'll end by being like Dinah in _Adam Bede_," he said, trying to
+laugh; "you like to teach and preach, don't you?"
+
+"I don't know," said Jane; "it's always there, right on my heart and
+lips. I feel as if the personal 'I' was only its voice."
+
+"I don't think she's exactly human," said Susan meditatively; "she
+doesn't strike me so."
+
+"Don't say that, Auntie," said the young girl quickly; "I want to be
+human more than anything else. I don't want to make you or anybody feel
+that I'm not. It would be as dreadfully lonely to be looked upon as
+unhuman as to be looked upon as inhuman. I want to work and love and be
+loved."
+
+"But you're so different from everybody else," said her aunt.
+
+"But I don't want to be different. I want to just be a woman--or a
+girl."
+
+Some kindly intuition prompted Susan to change the subject. "Mr. Rath
+and I were talking about girls just now; we both thought what a pity it
+is that there are so few in these days."
+
+"I guess there are just as many girls as ever, only they aren't so
+conspicuous," Jane said, laughing at Lorenzo.
+
+"I think they're more conspicuous," said Lorenzo, "only they're the
+wrong kind."
+
+"I liked the old kind," said Susan, "the kind that stayed at home and
+wasn't wild to get away and be going into business."
+
+Jane laughed again. "You ought not to blame the girls, Auntie. Lots of
+them feel dreadfully over leaving home. But they have to go out and
+work. I had to, I know. It's some kind of big world-change that's
+pushing us all on into different places."
+
+"I wasn't thinking of girls who do something nice and quiet like you. I
+was thinking of the others."
+
+"They have to go, too," said Jane. "There's a fearful pressure that we
+don't understand behind it all. A restlessness and discontent that no
+one can alter."
+
+"Yes, that's true," said Lorenzo; "I never thought of it, but I can see
+that it is so now that you've put it into my head."
+
+"I've seen a lot of it. It's curious that it seems to come equally to
+women who want to work and to women who don't. I'm sure I never wanted
+to earn my living, but I was forced to it. And ever so many others are,
+too. It's rather an awful feeling that you're in the grip of a power
+that sweeps your life beyond your guidance. I'm trying hard to be big
+enough to live in this century, but I'd have liked the last better."
+
+"Don't you consider that there's anything voluntary in the way women are
+acting now?" Lorenzo asked, with real interest.
+
+"No, I'm afraid not. I think that there's something we don't understand,
+or grasp, or--or quite see rightly. I believe that everything is ordered
+and ordered ultimately for the best, and I see the problems of to-day as
+surely here by God's will and to be worked out by learning the conduct
+of the current instead of opposing it. But still I really don't
+understand it all as I wish that I did."
+
+"You really do feel God as a friend," said Lorenzo, watching her
+illuminated face. "He isn't just a religion to you, then?"
+
+"He's _everything_ to me," said Jane reverently, "Help and Sunlight and
+Strength and Daily Bread. That part of Him that is energy manifests in
+us in one way, and that part of Him that is divine right and justice
+manifests in us in another way. My part in this life is to learn to use
+them together, but they and all else are all God."
+
+Susan rose from her seat and stood contemplating her niece and Lorenzo
+by turns. "To think of talking like this in my house," she said; "this
+is what I call real conversation. I tell you, Jane, you certainly did
+lift me into another life when you invited old Mrs. Croft here. Every
+kind of religion sinks right into me now, and I can believe without the
+least bother. It's wonderful, but I'm going to have a short-cake for
+tea, so I'll have to go."
+
+She went away, and Lorenzo turned to the window.
+
+There was a little pause while he wondered about many things. Finally he
+held out his hand abruptly. "You've gone a long way, Jane," he said,
+"you've got a big grip on life and its meaning, and you make me
+understand as I never did before how hopeless it is to wish that the
+wheels of time will turn backward. But whatever you may preach, you only
+prove what I said and what I feel, that the old-fashioned, sweet,
+home-keeping, winning and winnable girl is gone, only she's gone in a
+different way from what most people understand. When she still exists,
+she exists for herself--not for a man."
+
+Jane felt her eyes fill suddenly. "Why do you say that?"
+
+"Because you prove it. A man might adore you, but he couldn't hope to
+get you. Could he?"
+
+Her eyes dropped. "Do you think that it's all any harder on the man than
+it is on the girl?" she asked. "If men feel bad nowadays over the
+changes, how do you suppose it is with the woman, unfitted to fight and
+forced into the battle. A woman isn't built as a man is; she's created
+for another kind of work, much harder and lasting, much longer than any
+man's labor. And she has to leave that work of her own either undone or
+only half-done and do things unsuited to her. Of course there are some
+girls and women who like it,--but most of them don't. Most of them feel
+dreadfully and would give anything to be able to stay in a home and live
+the life God meant to be woman's. There's always a pitiful story behind
+nine out of every ten bread-winning women, whether they go out washing
+or are artists like you. A woman never leaves her home until she's
+forced to do so."
+
+"Are you sure that you know what you're talking about? Aren't you an
+idealist? Look at Emily Mead--" he smiled in spite of his earnestness.
+"If she had a rag of a chance, she'd fly off to-morrow. It wouldn't take
+force."
+
+Jane remained carefully grave. "That's more her mother's fault than
+hers. Her mother has taught her that girls only live to marry."
+
+"And quite right, too. Don't you believe it?"
+
+"It used to be true, but it isn't now. A girl can't marry without a man,
+and the world's all disjointed. It's a part of that strange new leaven
+which causes civilization to drive men and women both to become homeless
+by separating them widely on earth."
+
+"Of course it's a governmental crime to send men by the hundreds of
+thousands to fight it out alone in Canada and leave their sisters to be
+old maids in England, but governments are pretty stupid, nowadays."
+
+"We are all pretty stupid. We build all our difficulties and then hang
+to them and their consequences for dear life. It's too bad in us."
+
+"Do you mean woman?"
+
+"No, I mean everybody."
+
+"It's depressing, isn't it?"
+
+"I don't think so. I think it's grand."
+
+"Grand!"
+
+"Yes, because I like to struggle in a big way. And then, too, if I'm a
+woman forced to work because I'm one part of the problem, I'm also
+gloriously happy in being part of the new upburst of comprehension
+that's balancing and will soon overbalance such a lot of the troubles."
+
+"You mean? Oh, you mean your way of looking at things."
+
+"Of course I do. I'm so blessedly glad of every circumstance in my life,
+because each one led to my getting hold of just what I have got hold of.
+I'm perfectly happy and perfectly content. It's so beautiful to be
+guided by a rule that never fails."
+
+Lorenzo couldn't but laugh. "I tell you what," he said gayly, "I'll let
+you into a little secret. I've made up my mind to go to work and learn
+how to work that game of yours myself. I want to be blessedly glad and
+gloriously happy, too."
+
+"You've got to be in earnest, you know," Jane said. "It's handling live
+wires to amuse oneself with any force of God, and will-power is more of
+a force than electricity."
+
+"Oh, I'm in earnest," said the artist. "I've made my picture--as you
+say--and I hang to it for grim death. Only I can't see, if you feel as
+you do about home and marriage, and all that, why you don't make one,
+too."
+
+"I'm making ever so many homes," said Jane. "I'm teaching home-making.
+That's a Sunshine Nurse's business, and it would be selfish in me to
+desert my task. Besides--" she paused.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE MOST WONDERFUL THING EVER HAPPENED
+
+
+SHE stopped and hesitated.
+
+"Yes," he said impatiently, "besides--?"
+
+"I wonder if it would be right to be quite frank with you?"
+
+"Nothing sincere is ever wrong. Of course you ought to be quite frank
+with me,--aren't you that with every one?"
+
+Still she considered.
+
+"What stops you?" he asked. "Go on. Tell me everything. It's my right."
+
+"Why is it your right?"
+
+"Because I love you, and you know it."
+
+She started violently, then turned very white. "Don't say that. I've
+always thought of you as engaged to Madeleine. She was talking to me,
+and I thought--I--" She stopped, quite shaken.
+
+"You misunderstand her. She's always been in love with one fellow--the
+one that her parents are against. He's even poorer than I am."
+
+Then Jane pressed her lips together and interlocked her fingers. "I can
+never marry. I never think of it. There's money to be paid, nobody to
+pay it but me, and no way to get it except to earn it."
+
+Lorenzo looked almost sternly at her. "What about the book you lent me;
+it would say that that was setting limits. It says that we've not to
+concern ourselves with ways and means. I've only to concern myself with
+loving you. The rest will come along of its own accord."
+
+She shook her head. "No, it won't. This world is all learning, and it's
+part of my lesson not to be able to apply it in absolute faith to
+myself. So many teachers have wisdom to give away which they can't quite
+take unto themselves, you know." She smiled a little tremulously.
+
+"But you ought to take it unto yourself. It ought to be easy and simple
+for you to realize that if conditions are false, they don't exist; that
+if you want a home, it's because you are going to have one; that if I
+love you, it's because it's right that you should be loved."
+
+She put her hands down helplessly on each side of the chair-seat. "I
+never even think of such things," she said, almost in a whisper.
+
+"But why not?"
+
+"I've always been so necessary to others. I've no rights in my own
+life."
+
+"But if life is a thing to guide, why not guide your beneficence as well
+from a basis of home as from one of homelessness?"
+
+"Nothing has ever seemed to be for me, myself. Everything has always
+pointed to me for others."
+
+Lorenzo paced back and forth. "But it is the women like you who should
+show the way out of the wilderness and back to the right, instead of
+attempting to order the chaos while sweeping on with it. If there be a
+real truth in this new teaching which lays hold of all those who are in
+earnest so easily and so quickly, its first care should be to
+demonstrate happiness in the lives of its believers,--not the negative
+happiness of wide-spread devotion to others, but the positive lessons of
+joy in the center from which springs--must spring--the next generation
+of better, wiser men and women, those among whom I expect to live as an
+old man."
+
+Jane turned her face away, her eyes filled with tears. "You make me feel
+very small and petty," she said; "you show me a way beyond what I had
+guessed. But I can't grasp at it; I'm too used to asking nothing for
+myself. I'm always so sure that God is managing for me. And I have so
+much to do."
+
+"Perhaps realization that God is managing is all that you need to set
+right. Perhaps that confidence will bring you all things. Even me." He
+laughed a little.
+
+"It has brought me all that I needed. Daily bread, daily possibilities
+of helpfulness,--I don't ask more, except 'more light.'"
+
+"It sounds a little presumptuous coming from me, but perhaps I can help
+you towards your end, even as to 'more light.' At any rate, I'll try if
+you'll let me."
+
+She sat quite still. Finally she lifted up her eyes--and they were
+beautiful eyes, big and true--and said, the words coming softly forth:
+"It would be so wonderful."
+
+Lorenzo didn't speak. He felt choked and gasping. To him it was also "so
+wonderful," as wonderful as if he hadn't lived with it night and day
+ever since the first minute of knowing her. "I think I'd better go," he
+said very gently, realizing keenly that he must not press her in this
+first blush of the new spring-time. "I've 'made my picture' you know,
+and I won't let it fade, you may be sure. And you must believe in
+happiness for yourself,--you tell us that the first step is all that
+counts. Get the seed into the ground then. I'll do the rest."
+
+She sat quite still. "If I could only try," she whispered. He turned
+quickly away and was gone.
+
+After a dizzy little while she rose and went into the kitchen. Susan was
+moving briskly about.
+
+"Two cups flour, four teaspoonfuls baking powder, one of sugar, one of
+salt, two of butter, two of lard, cup half water, half milk, pour in pan
+greased and bake in hot oven. Scotch scone-bread for lunch," she said,
+almost suiting the deed to the word. "Is Mr. Rath still here?"
+
+"No, he's gone."
+
+"You know, Jane, he's caught your religion. I never heard anything like
+it. He's got the whole thing pat. I'd be almost scared to go round
+teaching a thing like that. Why, folks'll be doing anything they please
+soon. I've been wondering if I could get strong enough to kind of
+dispose of Matilda, in some perfectly right way, you know. I wouldn't
+think of anything that wasn't perfectly right, you know."
+
+Jane seemed a little numb and stood watching the buttering of the
+scone-pan without speaking.
+
+"I keep saying: 'Matilda doesn't want to come back. Matilda's disposed
+of in a perfectly pleasant way.' I've been saying it ever since I began
+on those scones. I guess I've said it twenty times, and I'm beginning to
+make a real impression on myself. I'm beginning to feel sure God is
+fixing things up. It's too beautiful to feel God taking an interest in
+your affairs. Matilda doesn't want to come home. Matilda is completely
+disposed of in a perfectly pleasant way." Susan's accents were very
+emphatic.
+
+"Auntie," said Jane, turning her eyes towards her and rallying her
+attention by a strong effort, "you know your perfect faith is because
+Aunt Matilda really isn't anxious to come home. It's only if you're
+doubting that there's any doubt about it. One doesn't alter Destiny, one
+only apprehends it. Oh, dear," she said though, sitting down suddenly,
+and hiding her face in her hands, "the thing about light is that it
+always keeps bursting over you with a new light, and my own teaching has
+suddenly come to me as if I'd never known what any of it meant before.
+I'm too stunned at seeing how I've limited myself. I'm really too
+stupid."
+
+Susan glanced at her as she poured the batter into the pan, and then
+kept glancing. Her face grew softened, "I wouldn't worry, dear," she
+said finally, "don't you bother over anything. God's taking care of
+everything and everybody. It's every bit of it all right. You must know
+that yourself, or you never could have taught it to me."
+
+"Yes, I do know it,--but in spite of myself I can't see--I can't dare
+think--"
+
+"You told me not to worry over old Mrs. Croft," said Susan, coming
+around by her side and putting her arm about her; "you said worry
+spoiled everything. And I did try so hard."
+
+"Yes, I know, I'll try. I really will--But--" suddenly she turned deep
+crimson, "it seems too awful for me to take one minute to work on myself
+or my life. I need all my time for others."
+
+"But you don't have to," said Susan, "all you've got to do is to know
+things are right. You know they're right because they are right.
+Everything's coming along fine, and you just feel it coming; that's your
+part. My goodness, Jane, isn't this funny? There isn't a blessed thing
+you've preached to me that I ain't having to preach back to you now. You
+don't seem to have sensed hardly any of your own meaning. Talk about
+being a channel; you'd better choke up a little and hold back some for
+yourself."
+
+Jane threw her arms around her and kissed her. "Auntie, you're right,
+you're right. I won't doubt a mite more. I'll try to know as much as I
+seem to have taught."
+
+"Just be yourself, you Sunshine Jane, you," Susan was clinging close to
+the girl she loved so well, "just be yourself. Nothing else is needed."
+
+"Yes," Jane whispered, "I will."
+
+"That's the thing," said Susan; "'cause you've certainly taught us a
+lot. I'll lay the table now," she moved towards the door, "Matilda
+doesn't want to come home. Matilda wants to stay away in some perfectly
+pleasant way," she added with heavy emphasis, passed through, and let
+the door close.
+
+Jane was left alone in the kitchen.
+
+"He said he loved me!" she thought over and over. "It seems so
+wonderful--the most wonderful thing that has ever happened since the
+world was made. He said he loved me!"
+
+She went up-stairs to her own room and shut the door softly. "Of course
+I can never marry him," she whispered aloud, "but he did say he loved
+me. Oh, I know that nothing so wonderful ever was in this world before!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+WHY JANE SHOULD HAVE BELIEVED
+
+
+THE Sunshine Nurse was long in seeking sleep that night and early to
+rise the next morning. She found herself suddenly metamorphosed--facing
+a new world--two worlds in fact. There was the world of Lorenzo's
+actually loving her, which was a dream from which she would surely
+awaken, and then there was that second world of wonder, the world of her
+own teaching, a world in which she started, big-eyed, at all in which
+she had trusted, and wondered if it could be possible that what she
+believed firmly and preached so ardently was really true. "It isn't
+setting limits to face what must be," she said over and over to herself,
+"and I _must_ pay poor father's debts, and there is no possible way for
+me to get the money except to earn it bit by bit." The statement had
+gone to bed with her, and it rose with her when she rose; it looked
+indisputable, incontrovertible, as all fixed statements have a way of
+looking--and yet each time that she made it she felt hot with guilt.
+"It's setting limits," cried her soul, "it's saying that God can't
+possibly do what He pleases," and, as she listened to the strong,
+heaven-sent cry of rebellion against petty earthly laws, she struggled
+in the meshes of her own old earlier learning, the "old garment" which
+clings so close about us all, and which we simply must discard before we
+can don the new robe of Infinite Hope and Radiant Belief in God's law of
+Only Good for Each and Every One.
+
+Jane always rose an hour before her aunt. The hour was spent in opening
+windows, brushing up and building the kitchen fire. It was always a
+pleasant hour, for she usually filled it to the brim with work well done
+and thoughts sent strongly and happily out over the coming time. But
+to-day all this was changed; new thoughts rioted forth on every side,
+and a sort of chaos took the place of her usually sunny calm. This riot
+and chaos is the common, logical outcome of all who feel sure that they
+are wiser than God. You cannot possibly set any border to His Kingdom
+and then be happy in that outer darkness which you have deliberately
+chosen for your own part. As well ask a cow to shut herself out of her
+pasture and rest happy in the waste beyond. "I mustn't think, because it
+is none of it for me--" she repeated over and over, much as if the
+aforesaid cow declared, "I am barred out--I can never get back--I must
+starve contentedly." Jane--who would have laughed at my illustration
+quite as you have laughed yourself--saw only distress in her own, and
+had to wink away so many tears that finally in maddest self-defense she
+rushed out doors and fled to the little garden that had, through so many
+years, been Susan's refuge in such a droll way.
+
+And Lorenzo was there!
+
+He looked very blithe and happy. "Well," he said, "have you thought it
+over and decided that you're right, after all?"
+
+She was panting, and surprise flooded her face with color. "Oh--" she
+gasped, "oh!" and then: "Right--of course I'm right!"
+
+He approached, his hand extended. "Right in believing, or right in
+mistrusting?"
+
+She gave him her hand, and he took it. "Don't put it that way," she
+said; "it isn't that way."
+
+"But, dear Jane, that's the only way to put it. It's the way you've been
+teaching us. Either we can look up and ahead confidently, or you're all
+wrong. I can't believe that you're ever even a little bit wrong, so I'm
+going to believe that it's all true."
+
+"No, no--it isn't--I mean--Oh, in my case, it can't be so. Everything
+that I said was true, only I myself am meant to--to work--not to--to
+marry. It's a kind of pledge I've taken to myself. It doesn't change the
+teaching." Then she dragged her hand free.
+
+Lorenzo smiled. "You can't tell me any of that. I know. I'm the happiest
+man in the world." Then he went on, taking up the rake and scratching a
+little here and there: "Like other pupils, I've surpassed my teacher.
+You've preached, and I practice; you can describe God's thoughts, and I
+think them. You're sure that He can do anything, and I know what He's
+going to do. I've been let straight into one of His secrets. It's been
+revealed to me how the world is run."
+
+Jane stared. "How can you talk so?"
+
+"I talk so because I know so. Everything's coming right for you."
+
+"You're crazy," she tried to laugh.
+
+"I've heard people say that of you. Not that it matters."
+
+She stood watching him and considering his words. "I wouldn't let you
+give me the money to straighten out my father's affairs, even if you
+were ever so rich, you know," she said slowly. "I couldn't."
+
+"I know it."
+
+"And I wouldn't let Auntie pay the debts."
+
+"I know. God doesn't require either your aunt's help or mine in this
+matter."
+
+Jane's eyes moistened slightly. "Please don't make a joke of anything so
+hard and sad."
+
+"I'm not joking; I'm a veritable apostle of joy. I'm as happy as I can
+be."
+
+She looked at him with real wonder because his appearance certainly bore
+out his words. "I wish that I knew what you meant."
+
+He dropped the rake, came to her side, and caught her hand. "Can't you
+trust God--can't you trust me?--won't you try?"
+
+She looked up into his face. "I wish that I could, but how can I?"
+
+"You ought to know. So deep and big and true a nature. Surely you ought
+to be able to understand your own teaching!"
+
+"But I can't see any way."
+
+"Your book says that one must not think of ways; one must just look
+straight to the good end."
+
+"Oh, but there isn't any such end possible for me."
+
+Lorenzo dropped her hand and laughed out loud. And then he caught her in
+his arms and kissed her.
+
+She screamed. To her it was the greatest shock of her life, for no man
+had ever kissed her before. "Oh--oh, mercy!"
+
+Matters were not helped much by Susan's looking over the fence just then
+and crying out abruptly: "Well, I declare!"
+
+"Mrs. Ralston," said Lorenzo, not even blushing, "you're the very person
+we need this minute. I want to marry Jane, and she won't hear to it
+because of her father's debts. The debts are all right and everything's
+all right, only she won't believe it. I wish you'd climb the fence and
+help me persuade her, for although I _know_ she'll end by marrying me,
+I've just set my heart on converting her to her own religion first."
+
+Susan swung easily over the fence. "You're just right, Mr. Rath, you
+ought to marry her. She's the nicest person to have around the house
+that I ever saw; she's far too good to be a nurse. How much did your
+father owe, you Sunshine Jane, you? Maybe I can pay it. I will if I
+can."
+
+"There," said Lorenzo; "see how easy it is to evolve money if you'd only
+trust a little?"
+
+Jane looked at him and then at Susan. "I couldn't take your money,
+Auntie," said she, quite gently, but quite firmly. "And then, too," she
+added, with her roguish smile, "you've left it to Aunt Matilda."
+
+"Yes, but dear," Susan's face became suddenly radiant, "you know I've
+been working your religion on her; maybe she isn't coming back at all;
+maybe something will happen; maybe she's going to be drowned or
+something like that in some perfectly right way."
+
+"No," said Lorenzo soberly. "It isn't necessary to plan as to God's
+business at all. He knows. I don't think that Jane ought to take
+anybody's money; she ought to pay the debts with her own money, but I
+can't see why she can't trust and know it's coming."
+
+"Because there's no place for it to come from," said Jane firmly.
+
+"Unless Matilda--" Susan interposed.
+
+"I believe I'm better at her religion than she is herself," said
+Lorenzo. "I declare, I believe that there's nothing that I can't get
+now. I wanted a house, and I worked just as the book said! I saw myself
+living cosily alone, and in less than a week I was living cosily alone.
+Now I want Jane with me in the house, and I mean to have her, and I
+shall have her, and there's no doubt about that; but I do wish--with all
+my heart--that she could rise to a higher plane."
+
+"If that's all, I know how to manage that easily enough," said Susan.
+"We could get old Mr. Cattermole in for a week and raise Jane's plane
+with him, just like she raised mine with Mrs. Croft."
+
+"Oh, she'll rise," said her lover quietly. "We must give her time and
+help her, that's all."
+
+Jane stood doubting between them. Her aunt regarded her wistfully. "Dear
+me," she said, "I wonder if I could screw myself up to believing she'll
+come in for a fortune. I want to help, but I'm a little like her--I
+can't for the life of me see where it's to come from."
+
+"But that isn't the question at all," said Lorenzo, "the question isn't
+how--the question is just the faith. Why, it's the corner-stone of the
+whole thing! It's the moving into God's world where nothing but good can
+be, and you know you're there because you see only good coming in all
+directions! Just good--nothing but good! I don't see why Jane holds back
+so. I know that she can get that money and get every other thing she
+wants in life, including me, and I'm one of the nicest fellows alive--"
+
+"That's so--" interposed Susan.
+
+"If she'll only put out her hand with confidence. I've studied that book
+till I'm full of it, and I know that I'm going to have her for my wife,
+and I know it absolutely, and I want her to know it, too."
+
+Susan began to get back over the fence. "I'm going in about breakfast,"
+she said; "the trouble with us is we all need hot coffee to brace up our
+souls."
+
+"Keep on declaring the truth," Lorenzo reminded her, as she walked off
+upon the other side.
+
+"I will. I'll say 'Jane is going to get some money' and 'Matilda doesn't
+want to come home to live,' alternately."
+
+When she was out of hearing the two young people remained silent for a
+few seconds. Then the man spoke.
+
+"Dear," his voice was very gentle, "I want to tell you something. I've
+had a very great experience in the last twenty-four hours. It isn't
+loving you--it's that I've been allowed to see a little bit of life from
+God's standpoint. Don't you want to know the real truth about all this?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"I'm going to tell you, because you'll see the lesson and learn it with
+me. We don't doubt that God knows all that has been or is to be, do
+we?--or that in our minutes of fiercest pain or trouble He looks calmly
+to the end beyond?"
+
+She shook her head. "No, of course not."
+
+"Well, dearest girl, I was allowed last night to put myself in the
+Deity's place and see one corner of the universe as He must see the
+whole."
+
+Her eyes grew big. "What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean this. I want you, and I understand perfectly about the money. I
+sat down last night and I labored with myself until I made myself _know_
+that it was yours. I can't tell you just how it came to me, but I knew
+it. It is yours and yours absolutely, and now I want you to realize it
+and believe in it without question, before I give it to you. Will you do
+that? I'm asking of you the faith that Jesus preached. Can you believe?"
+
+Jane looked at him wonderingly. "You mean--"
+
+"I mean just what I say."
+
+"I can't receive money from you."
+
+"It isn't my money."
+
+"I don't understand. I only know that there is no way that I can get the
+money."
+
+Lorenzo looked at her a minute, and then said slowly and very gently:
+"I've found Mrs. Croft's will. She left all that she had to whoever took
+care of her the night she died. It appears that she had a good deal more
+than any one supposed. It's all yours, dear. Now you see why you should
+have trusted."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+IN A PERFECTLY RIGHT WAY
+
+
+WHEN Susan, looking out of the window, saw the two whom she had left
+behind coming across the grass, she knew instantly.
+
+"They've settled it somehow," she exclaimed in supremest joy, and
+whirled to whisk the bacon off the stove.
+
+"Auntie," said Jane, from outside the window, the minute after, "I am
+just dumb. I don't believe I'll ever be able to lift up my head in life
+again."
+
+"Auntie," said Lorenzo, over her shoulder, "she's inherited her
+fortune."
+
+Susan gave a scream. "Oh, good mercy!"
+
+"Yes, dear," said her niece, now in the doorway, "only I can't believe
+it. I think that it's a dream."
+
+"You see she still isn't able to rise to the proper heights of trust,"
+laughed her lover, also now in the doorway, "but I have hopes of yet
+teaching her to believe what she believes."
+
+"Come straight in and help me set all this on the table, so that I can
+listen with a free mind." Susan's appeal was pathetic in the extreme.
+"Where _did_ she get it, anyhow?"
+
+"Oh, Auntie, it's the most wonderful thing you ever heard of." Jane took
+up the coffee-pot and led the way.
+
+"I did it all, except I didn't provide the money," said Lorenzo, and the
+next minute they were all seated, and he could tell the whole story.
+
+Susan didn't scream. She sat still, a bit of toast in her hand,
+listening breathlessly. When Lorenzo had finished, "Oh, that new
+religion!" she murmured in an awed voice, and then, "Nothing like this
+ever happened in this town before, I know."
+
+"I'm more bewildered over it's being there for me and my not being able
+to believe than I am by the money," said Jane. "Oh, Auntie, what a
+lesson, what a lesson!"
+
+"You would limit yourself, you see," said Lorenzo; "you wouldn't
+believe."
+
+"How could I ever imagine such a thing?"
+
+"You didn't have to imagine,--you only had to expect."
+
+"You laid limits, you see," said Susan, suddenly beginning to pour out
+the coffee, and pouring with a glad dash that swept over cup and saucer
+together. "I expect if God hadn't been patient--like Mr. Rath--He could
+have very well hid that will forever. There may be a lot of such goings
+on in the world, for all we know. My goodness, suppose I'd been like
+Matilda and not have had old Mrs. Croft around for one minute,--it makes
+me ill to think of it! It's a lesson for me, too."
+
+"Life is all lessons," said Jane. "Dear me, think of Aunt Matilda's
+surprise!"
+
+"Think of it! Good mercy, how can I wait to tell her!" Susan's whole
+face beamed. "I don't mind a bit her coming back now. That shows the
+good of making that declaration about her. Those declarations are a
+great thing. I've told myself Matilda was coming back in a perfectly
+right way so many times that now, however she came back, I'd be positive
+it was perfectly right."
+
+"Ah, Auntie," said Jane, "you've got hold of another great truth. Every
+one seems quicker than me."
+
+"Well, you started us at it, anyhow," said Susan kindly. "Oh my, but I'm
+happy! Why, I believe I'm really in a hurry now for Matilda to come
+back, just so I can tell her. Think of that--me really and truly anxious
+to see Matilda again! My, you Sunshine Jane, you--what a lot of
+difference you've made in me."
+
+"When is your aunt coming?" Lorenzo asked Jane.
+
+"She went for three weeks," said Jane; "it will be three weeks next
+Thursday."
+
+"Goodness, only three weeks, and it seems like three years?" observed
+Susan. "What a lot has happened! There's Jane--and her religion--and me
+up and well--and old Mrs. Croft here and gone--and you, Mr. Rath,--and
+then you and Jane--and now this money."
+
+"I can't believe any of it," said Jane; "I try, but I just can't. I
+guess I'm hopelessly limited. I'm too bewildered, I--"
+
+"I'll tell you what ails you," said her aunt warmly. "It's that you've
+spread yourself too much; you've given such a lot away everywhere that
+you've got to just stop and let the tide run backwards into you yourself
+for a while. It's nature. Nature and the new religion combined."
+
+"I feel overwhelmed by the coming-back tide then," said Jane; "I don't
+deserve it all."
+
+Her aunt started to reply, but was stopped by a sudden loud bang
+outside.
+
+"Goodness, what's that?" she exclaimed.
+
+"Auto tire burst, I think. I'll go and see," said Lorenzo, jumping up
+and going out.
+
+"Jane," said Susan solemnly, "that's a young man in a million. Think of
+his finding that will. My, but he'll make a good husband!"
+
+"I just can't realize any of it," said her niece. She seemed to be
+totally unequal to any other view of her present situation.
+
+"Well, you'd better realize it," said her aunt, "because it's coming
+right along. What will Mrs. Mead say, I wonder! Dear me, how every one
+will wish they'd tried to get up a plane or two by having old Mrs. Croft
+to visit them. If that poor old thing could only come back, the whole
+town would just adore to have her on a visit now, and every one would
+sit up all night and listen to _Captain Jinks_ so cheerfully. She used
+to sing _Rally round the flag, boys_ too,--I forgot that. She used to
+sing it when she heard the roosters begin to crow. But nobody would have
+minded, whatever she sang now."
+
+"Oh, there's--" Jane hesitated and blushed.
+
+Lorenzo stood in the door. "It wasn't a burst tire," he explained
+briefly; "it's a new kind of siren they're using. It's friends from out
+of town, Mr. and Mrs. Beamer."
+
+"They've got the wrong house," said Susan. "I don't know any Beamers."
+
+"They asked for Mrs. Ralston."
+
+"Then they're selling something, grape-wine or hand-knit lace, or
+something. I don't want to see 'em."
+
+"I'll go," said Jane. And went at once. In the pretty, changed
+sitting-room she found the visitors--Mrs. Beamer tall and of large
+build, with a handsome motor-costume. Mr. Beamer also large, very wiry,
+and with rampant gray hair. Mrs. Beamer was Matilda.
+
+But what a changed Matilda! "Well, Jane," coming forward and holding out
+both hands, "did you and Susan feel it?"
+
+Jane staggered and laid hold of a chair. "Feel--" she stammered--"feel
+what? Oh, Aunt Matilda!"
+
+"Did you feel the good I've been doing you? How's my sister?"
+
+"She--oh, she's all right."
+
+"Up and dressed?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"There, you see!" Matilda turned to Mr. Beamer, triumph radiating her
+whole figure. "It worked,--oh, Matthew, it worked." Then she turned back
+to Jane. "Get up right off, didn't she? Same day I left?"
+
+"Y--yes." Jane clung more tightly to the chair. She began to doubt the
+ground beneath her feet.
+
+"Perfectly well, strong, able-bodied,--isn't she?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You see?--" to Mr. Beamer. Then, "Oh, it's too splendid! I s'pose the
+cat's stopped snooping, too, hasn't he?"
+
+"Y--yes."
+
+"House all clean? Garden growing fine?"--
+
+"Yes, indeed."
+
+"And you, Jane, how are you?"
+
+"Oh, I'm all right. I--I've become engaged."
+
+"You hear that, Matthew? And the town?"
+
+"Everybody's well."
+
+"Did you ever in all your life!"
+
+"Oh, old Mrs. Croft died!"
+
+"Did she indeed. Katie happy?--"
+
+"Katie was away. She died here."
+
+"How nice! I expect she enjoyed every minute of it. Oh, Jane, you don't
+know how happy your every word is making me!"
+
+"Shan't I call auntie?"
+
+"No, we'll go out and have breakfast with you. We had one breakfast so
+as to make it easy for you to have us have it with you."
+
+"Do come right out to the table." Jane led the way. "I can't think what
+Aunt Susan will say!"
+
+"Never mind what she says--it'll be just right. Everything always is.
+Come, Matthew;" then Mrs. Matilda Beamer led off, and Mr. Matthew Beamer
+followed, smiling cheerfully. He seemed to be a very cheerful man.
+
+"Perhaps I'd better go first and just prepare auntie," Jane suggested
+hastily.
+
+"No need. She always yelled when she saw me suddenly, and this time it
+will be for joy. Life is going to be all joy for Susan now."
+
+Jane turned the button of the dining-room door. "Auntie Susan, it's Aunt
+Matilda and Mr. Beamer."
+
+Susan justified her sister's views by forthwith giving the yell of her
+whole life. "Ma--tilda!--And Mr. Beamer!--"
+
+Matilda went up to her, seized her, gave her a good hug and a real kiss.
+"I've made lots of mistakes," she said, with a big tear in each eye,
+"but somehow it was written that I should be allowed to make them right.
+Susan, this is Matthew. Sit down, Matthew. Sit down, every one."
+
+Lorenzo hastily pushed up chairs, and they all sat down.
+
+"I'll get some more dishes," Jane exclaimed, hurrying into the pantry.
+
+"Matilda!" Susan looked almost ready to faint. "Are you--are you--"
+
+"I'm married," said Matilda. "I don't know what I've ever done to
+deserve it, but I'm married. It's the most beautiful romance that ever
+was in the world, and we've come to tell you all about it."
+
+"Oh, do!" Susan exclaimed. "Jane, come back! Think of another romance,
+and Matilda, too! Well, what next!"
+
+Matilda smiled quite radiantly. "We met on the train the day I left
+here," she began; "it was right off. He took me out on the back platform
+of the car and opened my eyes to life, and we just suited, didn't we,
+Matthew?"
+
+"Tell it all," said Mr. Beamer; "tell the beginning."
+
+"Yes," said his wife, "I will, I'll tell it all. It's so splendid it
+would be a pity to skip anything. You see, he looked at me and--well,
+really, Matthew, I think you'd better tell the first part."
+
+"No, you tell," said Mr. Beamer.
+
+"No, Matthew, you tell it, and I'll help anywhere I can."
+
+"Well," said her husband, "then I'll begin with saying, Sister Susan,
+Niece Jane, and young man, that I'd better tell you what I am, first of
+all, because I'm the only one of the kind in the world so far as I know.
+You see, one of those Bible miracles, that no one can seem to lay hold
+of any more, got into me, and I'm the result."
+
+"That is all true," interposed Matilda, her plain face quite
+metamorphosed, as she looked at her husband and then at them. "Every
+word he says is true, and it's all miracles."
+
+"You see I was just a plain, ordinary man, with a nice business and a
+good disposition," Mr. Beamer went on, "and I did get so awful tired of
+things as they were going, and I used to wish everything was different,
+and then one day, all of a God-blessed sudden, it came over me, with a
+shock like lightning, that wanting things different is the first step to
+getting 'em different, and that if you've got the brain to see what's
+lacking, you've got the body to turn to and help fill up the hole. I
+didn't get religion out of a book; I got it just like that. I was
+sitting in a rocking-chair with a palm-leaf fan, and I got up and put
+the fan on the shelf and knew I was all made new. The very next day I
+read about a doctor as set up some nurses--"
+
+"Oh, my goodness," Susan cried, "hear that, Jane!"
+
+"--as was to spread sunshine, and I thought that was a good idea, only I
+couldn't see a place in it for me, 'cause I wasn't young and wasn't no
+girl to go 'round spreading nothing. I looked upon it that being a man,
+my business wasn't to spread things--a man's business is to get the
+stuff to spread; so I figured out that being as I was a man, I could
+maybe help make the sunshine, and then any one could slather it on that
+pleased. So I began to look about for some sunshine to make, and the
+handiest field I see was folks with hard lines around their mouths;
+there's a powerful lot of them around, you know,--ain't nothin' so hard
+to break up in life as hard lines around mouths. So I set out to plow
+fields of hard lines." He paused. It was a picture, a picture painted in
+heavenly colors to see his face at the moment, full of its own
+heartfelt, tried, and true enthusiasm, and the faces of those of his
+four listeners, each touched with the spiritual light shed by recent
+events over his or her own individual path.
+
+"Do go on," Jane whispered softly.
+
+"Well, whenever I'd see a hard man sitting alone, I'd go up to him and
+hold out my hand and say, 'Well, I ain't laid eyes on you, I don't know
+when!' That wasn't no lie, and 'most always we'd get a-talking. Then I'd
+say, 'I'm a harmless crank that likes to go round making friends, and I
+took a fancy to you right off.' It was wonderful all I come up against.
+Why, the hardest folks was just aching to sit down and explain that they
+wasn't hard at all. It was the most interesting thing I ever got hold
+of. I got arrested once for a gold-brick man, and it give me a fine
+chance at the jailers and some of the men in prison. Pretty soon
+everything that turned up seemed to just come along to give me a chance
+to make a little sunshine. Pretty soon life was all nothing but sunshine
+chances. I got hold of some books that showed me that lots of others
+were trying some similar games, and all working hard, and I picked out
+one book that 'most anybody could understand, and I used to carry it to
+read from. Would you believe that I wore out that book about a hundred
+times and sold it more'n five hundred times and give it away 'most a
+thousand times. I got where hard lines was just play to me. I've now got
+where they're flowers in my garden. I just fly at 'em. If they don't
+give up to one course, they do to another. I travel about looking for
+'em. I was on my last trip when I see Matilda sittin' across the aisle
+from me, and I said to myself right off, 'What fine lines!' So I went
+right over and shook hands with her--"
+
+"He said he feared maybe he'd made a mistake," interrupted his wife,
+"and I said--God forgive me!--'If you speak to me again, I'll call out
+to the conductors!'"
+
+"And I said: 'Madam, excuse me, I'm only a harmless crank as is trying
+to help folks as is sick or in trouble, and you look like a woman as
+could tell me of some I could help, maybe!'"
+
+"Then I thought of you, Susan," said the sister; "you see, I'd been
+looking out of the window, and the view was so pretty, and it kind of
+come over me how awful hard it was to lie in bed--and--and I felt kind
+of bad, and his face looked kind, and I said: 'Well, sit down. I do know
+somebody sick.'"
+
+"So I set down," went on Mr. Beamer, "and in just a little while she let
+up like everybody does and told me the whole story, and then I took her
+out on the back platform and we was swinging 'round curves of mighty
+lovely scenery, and I got out my book and I begin to read aloud to her."
+
+"And I got hold of the idea like mad," said Matilda. "I said right off:
+'Then Susan's really all well now?' an' he said: 'She's been well
+always,' and I says: 'And my arm's well,' and he said: 'Nothin' ain't
+ever ailed your arm except your own innard feelings, and they're gone
+now,' and then I just put my hands over my face and says: 'Oh, God,
+forgive me for lots and lots and lots of things.'"
+
+There was another little pause, and then Susan said very low: "And God
+did it."
+
+"And then," said Mr. Beamer, "I says to her: 'Now, if you want to see
+how true everything I've been saying is, we'll just put this to a
+practical proof.' I'd noticed a woman with lines back there in the car
+slapping two sleepy children, and I told Matilda we'd each take a child
+for an hour and give her lines a chance to smooth out a little, and then
+we'd come back on the platform and talk it over."
+
+"So we did it," said Matilda, "and when I took the baby back to the
+woman, she burst out crying and said she'd tried to hold in all day and
+just couldn't any longer, cause her mother was sick and had been sick so
+long, and she couldn't leave the children to go to her 'cause the
+children was the neighbor's and left with her to board, and she'd never
+liked children and only took 'em 'cause her mother needed the money."
+
+"Showing," interrupted Mr. Beamer, "how we'd misjudged her and her hard
+lines, which is another feature of my crusade, as lots don't think
+enough about."
+
+"But what come next was just like a story, too," Matilda said. "When I
+got to Mrs. Camp's at last, I found Mrs. Camp so changed that if I
+hadn't met Matthew on the train and got something to hold on to, I
+couldn't have stayed in the house an hour."
+
+"Why, what was the matter with Mrs. Camp?" Susan asked anxiously.
+
+"Why, all Mrs. Camp's family is married now, and it seems she was so
+lonely she's turned into a social settler or some such thing, and her
+nice, quiet house where I'd looked to rest was one swarm of Italians
+learning English and girls learning sewing and women asking advice and
+such a chaos of Bedlam you never dreamed. If it hadn't been for my just
+having got religion that way, I'd have turned around and come straight
+back home. But as it was, I didn't have time to do anything but get into
+my blue print and take hold right with her and get some order into
+things in general."
+
+"Oh, Aunt Matilda!" Jane's face was radiant.
+
+"Afternoons Matthew came with an auto, and he'd take me off with the
+back seat full of children, and we'd hunt hard lines anywhere they
+looked likely."
+
+"And then, of course, we soon got married," said Mr. Beamer.
+
+"Yes, and that's all," said Matilda. "_Now did you ever?_"
+
+There was a sudden hush, until finally Susan said, through tears: "Oh,
+Matilda,--it's like something in heaven's got loose and fell right down
+over us, isn't it?"
+
+"I think it's all too wonderful," said Jane.
+
+"Of course there really is something out of heaven spread over earth
+every day," said Lorenzo, low, and very reverently; "only people don't
+see it."
+
+"But nowadays, everybody's beginning to recognize it," Jane murmured.
+
+"It's like it says in one of my books," said Mr. Beamer. "God's a
+reservoir and we're all pipes, just as soon as we're willing to be
+pipes, and then He pours through us according to how willing we are,
+because you're big or little just according to how willing you are."
+
+"Let us all be very willing," said Jane.
+
+"Oh, Jane," said Susan, "that sounds like a blessing to ask at the
+table. Let's ask a blessing after this and just say: 'Let us all be very
+willing!'"
+
+"Amen," said Lorenzo.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE RESULTS
+
+
+JANE was married in the early autumn.
+
+She didn't have any trousseau or any wedding presents or any bridal
+trip. It was a new kind of wedding, because so much about her and her
+way of looking at life was new to those about her, that even her
+marriage had to match it. "My clothes are always in nice order," she
+said to Susan, slightly appalled over the non-existing preparations,
+"and I love to sew and will make what I need as I need it."
+
+"I don't want any presents," Lorenzo had said decidedly. "I don't want
+any one on earth to groan because I'm marrying Jane."
+
+"I don't think much of bridal trips; Matthew and I didn't have one, so I
+know all about them," said Matilda, who now had her standard and never
+lowered it for one instant; "those bothers are just about over for
+sensible people."
+
+So it all fell out in this way. One lovely bright September day, Mr. and
+Mrs. Beamer and Mrs. Susan Ralston walked quietly into the village
+church and sat down in the front pew. Shortly after the clergyman and
+the bride and the groom came in, and the clergyman married the bride to
+the groom. Then they all went out together, and the clergyman left them
+to go home together. A nice cold luncheon was spread at Susan's, and the
+cat was waiting, scratching hard at his white bow while he did so.
+
+After luncheon Mr. Beamer, his wife, and his wife's sister went off for
+a journey.
+
+"Think of me traveling!" Susan cried ecstatically. "Oh, Jane, may you
+enjoy going abroad this winter as much as I shall going off now."
+
+Jane smiled her pretty smile, and then, after the last wave of adieu,
+she and Lorenzo went back into the house.
+
+"This is really very funny, you know," said Lorenzo; "first we will wash
+all the dishes, and then we will plan our future."
+
+"Yes," Jane said.
+
+But they failed to do either.
+
+Instead, they left the dishes and the future to care for themselves.
+Going straight down into the garden, climbing the two fences, safely
+secluded in the little, growing, blooming inclosure, Lorenzo took his
+wife in his arms, and said: "Oh, my dearest dear, how rightest right
+everything is!"
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+                          Books by Anne Warner
+
+
+=The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary=
+
+    Players' Edition, with illustrations reproduced from photographs
+    of scenes in the play. =$1.50=
+
+Always amusing and ends in a burst of sunshine.--_Philadelphia
+Ledger._
+
+
+=Just Between Themselves=
+
+    Frontispiece in color by Will Grefe. =$1.50=
+
+It is full of apt, pert little take-offs on human nature that provokes
+frequent chuckles.--_Philadelphia Item._
+
+
+=In A Mysterious Way=
+
+    Illustrated by J. V. McFall. =$1.50=
+
+A story of love and sacrifice that teems with the author's original
+humor.--_Baltimore American._
+
+
+=Your Child and Mine=
+
+    Illustrated. =$1.50=
+
+The child-heart, strange and sweet and tender, lies open to this
+sympathetic writer.--_Chicago Record-Herald._
+
+
+=An Original Gentleman=
+
+    Frontispiece by Alice Barber Stephens. =$1.50=
+
+Exhibits her cleverness and sense of humor.--_New York Times._
+
+
+=Susan Clegg, Her Friend and Her Neighbors=
+
+    Illustrated. =$1.50=
+
+Combining all the Susan Clegg stories originally published in "Susan
+Clegg and Her Friend Mrs. Lathrop" and "Susan Clegg and Her
+Neighbors' Affairs."
+
+One of the most genuinely humorous books ever written.--_St.
+Louis Globe-Democrat._
+
+
+=Susan Clegg And a Man in the House=
+
+    Illustrated by Alice Barber Stephens. =$1.50=
+
+Susan is a positive joy, and the reading world owes Anne Warner a
+vote of thanks for her contribution to the list of American humor.--_New
+York Times._
+
+
+=When Woman Proposes=
+
+    Illustrated in color. =$1.25 _net_=
+
+Dainty in form and content. It is printed, bound, and illustrated
+charmingly, and the story, style, and atmosphere correspond.--_New
+York Herald_
+
+
+=A Woman's Will=
+
+    Illustrated. =$1.50=
+
+A deliciously funny book.--_Chicago Tribune._
+
+
+=How Leslie Loved=
+
+    Illustrations in color by A. B. Wenzell. =$1.25 _net_=
+
+The sprightly romance of a young and charming American widow.
+
+
+LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., _Publishers_
+34 BEACON STREET, BOSTON
+
+
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of
+the speakers. Those words were retained as-is.
+
+Errors in punctuations and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected
+unless noted below:
+
+On page 228, "winable" was replaced with "winnable".
+
+On page 242, the comma after "softly" was replaced with a period.
+
+On page 245, the period after "cow declared" was replaced with a comma.
+
+On page 278, "Mr Beamer" was replaced with "Mr. Beamer".
+
+In the advertisements at the end of the book, the duplicate header on
+the last page was removed.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUNSHINE JANE***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 37972.txt or 37972.zip *******
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