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diff --git a/40527.txt b/40527.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5c55f9c --- /dev/null +++ b/40527.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6963 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, In League with Israel, by Annie F. Johnston + + +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: In League with Israel + A Tale of the Chattanooga Conference + + +Author: Annie F. Johnston + + + +Release Date: August 20, 2012 [eBook #40527] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN LEAGUE WITH ISRAEL*** + + +E-text prepared by David Edwards, Emmy, and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made +available by Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org). Music was +transcribed by Linda Cantoni. + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file + which includes the original sheet music illustration + and an accompanying audio file of the music. + See 40527-h.htm or 40527-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40527/40527-h/40527-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/40527/40527-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + http://archive.org/details/inleaguewithisra00johniala + + + + + +IN LEAGUE WITH ISRAEL + +A Tale of the Chattanooga Conference + +by + +ANNIE FELLOWS JOHNSTON + +Author of +"Joel: A Boy of Galilee;" "The Story of the Resurrection;" +"Big Brother;" "The Little Colonel." + + + + + + + +[Illustration] + +Cincinnati: Curts & Jennings +New York: Eaton & Mains +1896 + +Copyright +By Curts & Jennings, +1896. + + + + +TO THE EPWORTH LEAGUE. + + +What Paul was to the Gentiles, may you, the Young Apostle of our Church, +become to the Jews. Surely, not as the priest or the Levite have you so +long passed them by "on the other side." + +Haply, being a messenger on the King's business, which requires haste, +you have never noticed their need. But the world sees, and, re-reading +an old parable, cries out: "Who is thy neighbor? Is it not even Israel +also, in thy midst?" + + Nor knowest thou what argument + Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent. + --EMERSON. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE. + + CHAPTER I. + THE RABBI'S PROTEGE, 7 + + + CHAPTER II. + ON TO CHATTANOOGA, 23 + + + CHAPTER III. + THE SUNRISE SERVICE ON "LOOKOUT," 43 + + + CHAPTER IV. + AN EPWORTH JEW, 65 + + + CHAPTER V. + "TRUST," 86 + + + CHAPTER VI. + TWO TURNINGS IN BETHANY'S LANE, 105 + + + CHAPTER VII. + JUDGE HALLAM'S DAUGHTER, STENOGRAPHER, 115 + + + CHAPTER VIII. + A KINDLING INTEREST, 130 + + + CHAPTER IX. + A JUNIOR TAKES IT IN HAND, 145 + + + CHAPTER X. + THE DEACONESS'S STORY, 163 + + + CHAPTER XI. + "YOM KIPPUR," 186 + + + CHAPTER XII. + DR. TRENT, 189 + + + CHAPTER XIII. + A LITTLE PRODIGAL, 220 + + + CHAPTER XIV. + HERZENRUHE, 241 + + + CHAPTER XV. + ON CHRISTMAS EVE, 261 + + + CHAPTER XVI. + A "WATCH-NIGHT" CONSECRATION, 275 + + * * * * * + + SILENT KEYS, 297 + + + + +IN LEAGUE WITH ISRAEL. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE RABBI'S PROTEGE. + + +IT was growing dark in the library, but the old rabbi took no notice of +the fact. As the June twilight deepened, he unconsciously bent nearer +the great volume on the table before him, till his white beard lay on +the open page. + +He was reading aloud in Hebrew, and his deep voice filled the room with +its musical intonations: "Praise Him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye +waters that be above the heavens." + +He raised his head and glanced out toward the western sky. A star or two +twinkled through the fading afterglow. Pushing the book aside, he walked +to the open window and looked up. + +There was a noise of children playing on the pavement below, and the +rumbling of an electric car in the next street. A whiff from a passing +cigar floated up to him, and the shrill whistle of a newsboy with the +evening paper. + +But Abraham at the door of his tent, Moses in the Midian desert, Elijah +by the brook Cherith, were no more apart from the world than this old +rabbi at this moment. + +He saw only the star. He heard only the inward voice of adoration, as he +stood in silent communion with the God of his fathers. + +His strong, rugged features and white beard suggested the line of +patriarchs so forcibly, that had a robe and sandals been substituted for +the broadcloth suit he wore, the likeness would have been complete. + +He stood there a long time, with his lips moving silently; then +suddenly, as if his unspoken homage demanded voice, he caught up his +violin. Forty years of companionship had made it a part of himself. + +The depth of his being that could find no expression in words, poured +itself out in the passionately reverent tones of his violin. + +In such exalted moods as this it was no earthly instrument of music. It +became to him a veritable Jacob's ladder, on which he heard the voices +of the angels ascending and descending, and on whose trembling rounds he +climbed to touch the Infinite. + +There was a quick step on the stairs, and a heavy tread along the upper +hall. Then the portiere was pushed aside and a voice of the world +brought the rhapsody to a close. + +"Where are you, Uncle Ezra? It is too dark to see, but your fiddle says +that you are at home." + +"Ah, David, my boy, come in and strike a light. I wondered why you were +so late." + +"I was out on my wheel," answered the young man. "Cycling is warm work +this time of year." + +He lighted the gas and threw himself lazily down among the pile of +cushions on the couch. + +"I had a letter from Marta to-day." + +"And what does the little sister have to say?" answered the rabbi, +noticing a frown deepening on David's forehead. "I suppose her vacation +has commenced, and she will soon be on her way home again." + +"No," answered David, with a still deeper frown. "She has changed all +her plans, and wants me to change mine, just to suit the Herrick +family. She has gone to Chattanooga with them, and they are up on +Lookout Mountain. She wants me to meet her there and spend part of the +summer with her. She grows more infatuated with Frances Herrick every +day. You know they have been inseparable friends since they first +started to kindergarten." + +"Why did she go down there without consulting you?" asked the old man +impatiently. "You should be both father and mother to her, now that +neither of your parents is living. I wish I were really your uncle and +hers, that I might have some authority. You must be more careful of her, +my boy. She should spend this summer with you at home, instead of with +strangers in a hotel." + +"But, Uncle Ezra," protested David, quick to excuse the little sister, +who was the only one in the world related to him by family ties, "at +home there is nobody but the housekeeper. Mrs. Herrick is with the girls +now, and the major will join them next week. Marta is just like one of +the family, and I have encouraged the intimacy, because I felt that Mrs. +Herrick gives her the motherly care she needs. Besides, Marta and +Frances are so congenial in every way that they find their greatest +happiness together. I tell them they are as bad as Ruth and Naomi. It is +a case of 'where thou goest I will go,' etc." + +"Heaven forbid!" exclaimed the rabbi, fervently. "Do you remember that +the rest of that declaration is, 'Thy people shall be my people, and thy +God my God?' David, my son, I tell you there is great danger of the +child's being led away from the faith. Your father and hers was my +dearest friend. I have loved you children like my own. You must heed my +warning, and discourage such intimacy with a Gentile family, especially +when it includes such an agreeable member as that young Albert Herrick." + +"Why, he is only a boy, Uncle Ezra." + +"Yes, but he is older than Marta, and they are thrown constantly +together." + +David looked down at the carpet, and began absently tracing a pattern +with his foot. He was thinking of the little sixteen-year-old sister. +The seven years' difference in their ages gave him a fatherly feeling +for her. He could not bear the thought of interfering seriously with her +pleasure, yet he could not ignore the old man's warning. + +Rabbi Barthold had been his tutor in both languages and music. Aside +from a few years at college, all that he knew had been learned under the +old man's wise supervision. + +"Ezra, my friend," said the elder David, when he lay dying, "take my +child and make him a man after your own pattern. I know your noble soul. +Give his the same strength and sweetness. We are so greedy for the +fleshpots of Egypt, that we forget to satisfy the soul hunger. But you +will teach the little fellow higher things." + +Later, when the end had almost come, his hand groped out feebly towards +the child, who had been brought to his bedside. + +"Never mind about the shekels, little David," he said in a hoarse, +broken whisper. "But clean hands and a pure heart--that's all that +counts when you're in your coffin." + +The child's eyes grew wide with wonder as a paroxysm of pain contracted +the beloved face. He was led quickly away, but those words were never +forgotten. + +The rabbi was thinking of them now as he studied the handsome features +of the young fellow before him. + +It was a strong face, but refinement and gentleness showed in every +line. There was something so boyish and frank, also, in its expression, +that a tender smile moved the rabbi's lips. "Clean hands and a pure +heart," he said fondly to himself. "He has them. Ah, my David, if thou +couldst but see how thy little one has grown, not only in stature, but +in soul-life, in ideals, thou would'st be satisfied." + +"Well," he said aloud, as the young man left his seat and began to walk +up and down the room with his hands in his pockets, "what are you going +to do?" + +"I scarcely know," was the hesitating answer. "It would not be wise to +send for Marta to come home, for the reason you suggest, and I have no +other to offer her." + +"Then go to her!" the rabbi exclaimed. "You need not tell her that you +have any fear of her being influenced by Gentile society--but never for +a moment let her forget that she is a Jewess. Kindle her pride in her +race. Teach her loyalty to her people, and love for all that is Hebrew." + +"But my Hudson Bay trip?" David suggested. + +"That can wait. The Tennessee mountains will give you as good a summer +outing as you need, and you can play guardian angel for Marta while you +take it." + +David laughed, and took another turn across the room. Then he paused +beside the table, and picked up a newspaper. + +"I wonder what connections the trains make now," he said. "There used to +be a long wait at a dismal old junction." He glanced hastily over the +time-table. + +"Why, look here!" he exclaimed. "Here is a cheap excursion to +Chattanooga this next week. I could afford to run down and see Marta, +anyhow. Maybe I could persuade her to come back with me, if I promised +to take her to Hudson Bay with me." + +"What kind of an excursion?" asked the rabbi. + +"Epworth League, it says here, whatever that may be. It seems to be some +sort of an international convention, and says to apply to Frank B. +Marion for particulars." + +"Marion," repeated the rabbi, thoughtfully. "O, then it is a Methodist +affair. He is not only the head and shoulders of that big Church on +Garrison Avenue, but hands and feet as well, judging by the way he +works for it. I wish my congregation would take a few lessons from him." + +"Is he very tall, with a short, brown beard, and blue eyes, and a habit +of shaking hands with everybody?" asked David. "I believe I know the +man. I met him on the cars last fall. He's lively company. I've a notion +to hunt him up, and find what's going on." + +"Telephone out to Hillhollow that you will not be at home to-night," +said the rabbi, "and stay in the city with me. If you conclude to go to +Chattanooga next week, I have much to say to you before taking leave of +you for the summer." + +"Very well," consented David. "I'll go down town immediately, and see if +I can find this Mr. Marion. What is his business, do you know?" + +"A wholesale shoe merchant, I believe. He is in that big new building +next to Cohen's furniture-store, on Duke Street. But you'll not find him +Wednesday night. They have Church in the middle of the week, and he is +one of the few Christians whose life is as loud as his profession." + +David smiled a little bitterly. "Then I shall certainly cultivate his +acquaintance for the purpose of studying such a rara avis. It has never +been my lot to know a Christian who measured up to his creed." + +"Do not grow cynical, my lad," answered the old man, gently. "I have +made you a dreamer like myself. I have kept you in an atmosphere of high +ideals. I have led you into the companionship of all that was heroic in +the past, and held you apart as much as possible from the sordid +selfishness of the age. O, I grow sick at heart sometimes when I stroll +through the great centers of trade, watching the fierce struggle of +humanity as they snatch the bread from other mouths to feed their own. + +"You remember our Hebrew word for teach comes from tooth, and means to +make sharp like a tooth. Sometimes I think that primitive idea has +become the popular view of education in this day. Anything that will fit +a man to bite and cut his way through this hungry wolf-pack is what is +sought after, no matter how many of his kind are trampled under foot in +the struggle. I am almost afraid for you to step down from the place +where I have kept you. When you are thrown with men who care for +nothing but material things, who would barter not only their birthrights +but their souls for a mess of pottage, I am afraid you will lose faith +in humanity." + +"That is quite likely, Uncle Ezra." + +"Aye, but I would not have it so, David. The world is certainly growing +a little less savage, and in every nature smolders some spark, however +small, of the eternal good. No matter how we have fallen, we still bear +the imprint of the Creator, in whose likeness we were first fashioned." + +Rabbi Barthold had been right in calling himself a dreamer. The ability +to live apart from his surroundings, had been his greatest comfort. +Because of it, the rigor of extreme poverty that surrounded his early +life had not touched his heart with its baneful chill. He had gone +through the world a happy optimist. + +He had been trained according to the most strictly orthodox system of +Judaism. But even its severe pressure had failed to confine him to the +limits of such a narrow mold. + +He was still a dreamer. In the new world he had cast aside the shackles +of tradition for the larger liberty of the Reformed Jew. + +Now in his serene old age, surrounded by luxuries, he still lived apart +in a world of music and literature. + +His congregation, broken loose from the old moorings, drifted +dangerously away towards radicalism, but he stood firm in the belief +that the "chosen people" would finally triumph over all error, and found +much comfort in the thought. + +David took out his watch. "It is after eight o'clock," he said. +"Probably if I walk down Garrison Avenue, I may meet Mr. Marion coming +from Church. I'll be back soon." + +People were beginning to file out of the side entrance that led to the +prayer-meeting room, by the time he reached the church. + +"Is Mr. Frank Marion in here?" he asked of the colored janitor, who was +standing in the doorway. + +"Yes, sah!" was the emphatic response. "He sut'n'y is, sah! He am always +the fust to come, an' the last to depaht." + +"Why, good evening, Mr. Herschel," exclaimed a pleasant voice. + +David turned quickly to lift his hat. An elderly lady was coming down +the steps with two young girls. She came up to him with a smile, and +held out her hand. + +"I have not seen you since you came back from college," she said, +cordially; "but I never lose my interest in any of Rob's playmates." + +"Thank you, Mrs. Bond," he replied, with his hat still in his hand. + +As she passed on, a swift rush of recollection brought back the big +attic where he had passed many a rainy day with Rob Bond. He recalled +with something of the old boyish pleasure a certain jar on their pantry +shelf, where the most delicious ginger-snaps were always to be found. + +But the next moment the smile left his lips, as an exclamation of one of +the girls was carried back to him. It was made in an undertone, but the +still evening air transmitted it with startling distinctness. + +"Why, Auntie, he's a Jew! I didn't think you would shake hands with a +Jew!" + +He could not hear Mrs. Bond's reply. He drew himself up haughtily. Then +the indignant flash died out of his eyes. After all, why should he, with +the princely blood of Israel in his veins, care for the callow +prejudices of a little school-girl? + +A crowd of people passed out, laughing and talking. Then he saw Mr. +Marion come into the vestibule with several boys, just as the janitor +began to extinguish the lights. + +He turned to David with a hearty smile and a strong hand-clasp, +recognizing him instantly. + +"How are you, brother?" he asked. He spoke with a slight Southern +accent. Somehow, David felt forcibly that it was not merely as a matter +of habit that Frank Marion called him brother. Such a warm, personal +interest seemed to speak through the friendly blue eyes looking so +honestly into his own, that he was half-way persuaded to go to +Chattanooga with him before a word had been said on the subject. They +walked several blocks together up the avenue, discussing the excursion. +Then Mr. Marion stopped at the gate of an old-fashioned residence, built +some distance back from the street. + +"I have a message to deliver to Miss Hallam, a cousin of mine," he said. +"If you will wait a moment, I'll go with you over to the office." + +The front door stood open, and the hall-lamp sent a flood of yellow +light streaming out into the warm, June darkness. + +In response to Mr. Marion's knock, there was a flutter of a white dress +in the hall, and the next instant the massive old doorway framed a +picture that the young Jew never forgot. It was Bethany Hallam. The +light seemed to make a halo of her golden hair, and to illuminate her +dress and the sweet upturned face with such an ethereal whiteness that +David was reminded of a Psyche in Parian marble. + +"Who is she?" he exclaimed, as Mr. Marion rejoined him. "One never sees +a face like that outside of some artist's conception. It is too +spirituelle for this planet, but too sad for any other." + +"She is Judge Hallam's daughter," Mr. Marion responded. "He died last +fall, and Bethany is grieving herself to death. I have at last persuaded +her to go to Chattanooga with us. She needs to have her thoughts turned +into another channel, and I hope this trip will accomplish that +purpose." + +"I knew the Judge," said David. "I met him a number of times after I was +admitted to the bar." + +"O, I didn't know you were a lawyer," said Mr. Marion. + +"Yes, I expect to begin practicing here after vacation," he answered. + +"Well, I am going to begin my practice right now," said Mr. Marion, +laughing, "and plead my case to such purpose that you will be persuaded +to take this Chattanooga trip." He slipped his arm through David's, and +drew him around the corner toward his store. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +"ON TO CHATTANOOGA." + + +IT was within three minutes of time for the south-bound train to start +when David Herschel swung himself on the platform of the Chattanooga +special. As he settled himself comfortably in the first vacant seat, Mr. +Marion hurried past him down the aisle with a valise in each hand. He +was followed by two ladies. The first one seemed to know every one in +the car, judging by the smiles and friendly voices that greeted her +appearance. + +"O, we were so afraid you were not coming, Mrs. Marion," cried an +impulsive young girl, just in front of David. "It would have been such a +disappointment. Isn't she just the dearest thing in the world?" she +rattled on to her companion, as Mrs. Marion passed out of hearing. + +"Well, if she hasn't got Bethany Hallam with her! Of all people to go on +an excursion, it seems to me she would be the very last." + +"Why?" asked the other girl. As that was the question uppermost in +David's mind, he listened with interest for the answer. + +"O, she seems so different from other people. Her father always used to +treat her as if she were made of a little finer clay than ordinary +mortals. When she traveled, it was always in a private car. When she +went to lectures or concerts, they always had the best seats in the +house. All her teachers taught her at home except one. She went to the +conservatory for her drawing lessons, but a maid came with her in the +morning, and her father drove by for her at noon." + +As he listened, David's eyes had followed the tall, graceful girl who +was now seating herself by Mrs. Marion. + +Every movement, as well as every detail of her traveling dress, +impressed him with a sense of her refinement and culture. He noticed +that she was all in black. A thin veil drawn over her face partially +concealed its delicate pallor; but her soft, light hair, drawn up under +the little black hat she wore, seemed sunnier than ever by contrast. + +"Isn't she beautiful?" sighed David's talkative neighbor. "I used to +wish I could change places with her, especially the year when she went +abroad to study art; but I wouldn't now for anything in the world." + +"Why?" asked her companion again, and David mentally echoed her +interrogation. + +"O, because her father is dead now, and everything is so different. +Something happened to their property, so there's nothing left but the +old home. Then her little brother had such a dreadful fall just after +the Judge's death. They thought he would die, too, or be a cripple all +his life; but I believe he's better now. He is sort of paralyzed, so he +has to stay in a wheel-chair; but the doctor says he is gradually +getting over that, and will be all right after awhile. It's a very +peculiar case, I've heard. There have only been a few like it. She is +studying stenography now, so that she can keep on living in the old home +and take care of little Jack." + +"Do you know her?" interrupted the interested listener. + +"No, not very well. I've always seen her in Church; you know Judge +Hallam was one of our best paying members, and rarely missed a Sabbath +morning service. But they were very exclusive socially. My easel stood +next to hers in the art conservatory one term, and we talked about our +work sometimes. She used to remind me of Sir Christopher in 'Tales of a +Wayside Inn.' Don't you remember? She had that + + 'Way of saying things + That made one think of courts and kings, + And lords and ladies of high degree, + So that not having been at court + Seemed something very little short + Of treason or lese-majesty, + Such an accomplished knight was he.'" + +Both girls laughed, and then the lively chatter was drowned by the +jarring rumble of the train as it puffed slowly out of the depot. + +"Any one would know this is a Methodist crowd," said Mrs. Marion +laughingly, as a dozen happy young voices began to sing an old revival +hymn, and it was caught up all over the car. + +"That reminds me," said her husband, reaching into his coat pocket, "I +have something here that will prevent any mistake if doubt should +arise." + +He drew out a little box of ribbon badges and a paper of pins. "Here," +he said, "put one on, Ray; we must all show our colors this week. You, +too, Bethany." + +"O no, Cousin Frank," she protested. "I am not a member of the League." + +"That makes no difference," he answered, in his hearty, persistent way. +"You ought to be one, and you will be by the time you get back from this +conference." + +"But, Cousin Frank, I never wore a badge in my life," she insisted. "I +have always had the greatest antipathy to such things. It makes one so +conspicuous to be branded in that way." + +He held out the little white ribbon, threaded with scarlet, and bearing +the imprint of the Maltese cross. The light, jesting tone was gone. He +was so deeply in earnest that it made her feel uncomfortable. + +"Do you know what the colors mean, Bethany?" Then he paused reverently. +"The purity and the blood! Surely, you can not refuse to wear those." + +He laid the little badge in her lap, and passed down the aisle, +distributing the others right and left. + +She looked at it in silence a moment, and then pinned it on the lapel of +her traveling coat. + +"Cousin Ray, did you ever know another such persistent man?" she asked. +"How is it that he can always make people go in exactly the opposite way +from the one they had intended? When he first planned for me to come on +this excursion, I thought it was the most preposterous idea I ever heard +of. But he put aside every objection, and overruled every argument I +could make. I did not want to come at all, but he planned his campaign +like a general, and I had to surrender." + +"Tell me how he managed," said Mrs. Marion. "You know I did not get home +from Chicago until yesterday morning, and I have been too busy getting +ready to come on this excursion to ask him anything." + +"When he had urged all the reasons he could think of for my going, but +without success, he attacked me in my only vulnerable spot, little Jack. +The child has considered Cousin Frank's word law and gospel ever since +he joined the Junior League. So, when he was told that my health would +be benefited by the trip, and it would arouse me from the despondent, +low-spirited state I had fallen into, he gave me no rest until I +promised to go. Jack showed generalship, too. He waited until the night +of his birthday. I had promised him a little party, but he was so much +worse that day, it had to be postponed. I was so sorry for him that I +could have promised him almost anything. The little rascal knew it, too. +While I was helping him undress, he put his arms around my neck, and +began to beg me to go. He told me that he had been praying that I might +change my mind. Ever since he has been in the League he has seemed to +get so much comfort out of the belief that his prayers are always +answered that I couldn't bear to shake his faith. So I promised him." + +"The dear little John Wesley," said Mrs. Marion; "you ought to give him +the full benefit of his name, Bethany." + +"Mamma did intend to, but papa said it was as much too big for him as +the huge old-fashioned silver watch that Grandfather Bradford left him. +He suggested that both be laid away until he grew up to fit them." + +"Who is taking care of him in your absence?" was the next question. + +"O, he and Cousin Frank arranged that, too. They sent for his old nurse. +She came last night with her little nine-year-old grandson. Just Jack's +age, you see; so he will have somebody to make the time pass very +quickly." + +Mrs. Marion stopped her with an exclamation of surprise. "Well, I wish +you'd look at Frank! What will he do next? He is actually pinning an +Epworth League badge on that young Jew!" + +Bethany turned her head a little to look. "What a fine face he has!" she +remarked. "It is almost handsome. He must feel very much out of place +among such an aggressive set of Christians. I wonder what he thinks of +all these songs?" + +Mr. Marion came back smiling. As superintendent of both Sunday-school +and Junior League, he had won the love of every one connected with them. +His passage through the car, as he distributed the badges, was attended +by many laughing remarks and warm handclasps. + +There was a happy twinkle in his eyes when he stopped beside his wife's +seat. She smiled up at him as he towered above her, and motioned him to +take the seat in front of them. + +"I'm not going to stay," he said. "I want to bring a young man up here, +and introduce him to you. He's having a pretty lonesome time, I'm +afraid." + +"It must be that Jew," remarked Mrs. Marion. "I know every one else on +the car. I don't see that we are called on to entertain him, Frank. He +came with us, simply to take advantage of the excursion rates. I should +think he would prefer to be let alone. He must have thought it +presumptuous in you to pin that badge on him. What did he say when you +did it?" + +Mr. Marion bent down to make himself heard above the noise of the train. + +"I showed him our motto, 'Look up, lift up,' and told him if there was +any people in the world who ought to be able to wear such a motto +worthily, it was the nation whose Moses had climbed Sinai, and whose +tables of stone lifted up the highest standard of morality known to the +race of Adam." + +Mrs. Marion laughed. "You would make a fine politician," she exclaimed. +"You always know just the right chord to touch." + +"Cousin Frank," asked Bethany, "how does it happen you have taken such +an intense interest in him?" + +He dropped into the seat facing theirs, and leaned forward. + +"Well, to begin with, he's a fine fellow. I have had several talks with +him, and have been wonderfully impressed with his high ideals and views +of life. But I am free to confess, had I met him ten years ago, I could +not have seen any good traits in him at all. I was blinded by a +prejudice that I am unable to account for. It must have been hereditary, +for it has existed since my earliest recollection, and entirely without +reason, as far as I can see. I somehow felt that I was justified in +hating the Jews. I had unconsciously acquired the opinion that they were +wholly devoid of the finer sensibilities, that they were gross in their +manner of living, and petty and mean in business transactions. I took +Fagin and Shylock as fair specimens of the whole race. It was, really, a +most unaccountable hatred I had for them. My teeth would actually clinch +if I had to sit next to one on a street-car. You may think it strange, +but I was not alone in the feeling. I know it to be a fact that there +are hundreds and hundreds of Church members to-day that have the same +inexplicable antipathy." + +Bethany looked up quickly. + +"My father's reading and training," she said, "has caused me to have a +great admiration and respect for Jews in the abstract. I mean such as +the Old Testament heroes and the Maccabees of a later date. But in the +concrete, I must say I like to have as little intercourse with them as +possible. And as to modern Israelites, all I know of them personally is +the almost cringing obsequiousness of a few wealthy merchants with whom +I have dealt, and the dirty swarm of repulsive creatures that infest the +tenement districts. We used to take a short cut through those streets +sometimes in driving to the market. Ugh! It was dreadful!" She gave a +little shiver of repugnance at the recollection. + +"Yes, I know," he answered. "I had that same feeling the greater part of +my life. But ten years ago I spent a summer at Chautauqua, studying the +four Gospels. It opened my eyes, Bethany. I got a clearer view of the +Christ than I ever had before. I saw how I had been misrepresenting him +to the world. The inconsistencies of my life seemed like the lanterns +the pirates used to hang on the dangerous cliffs along the coast, that +vessels might be wrecked by their misleading light. Do you suppose a Jew +could have accepted such a Christ as I represented then? No wonder they +fail to recognize their Messiah in the distorted image that is reflected +in the lives of his followers." + +"But they rejected Christ himself when he was among them," ventured +Bethany. + +"Yes," answered Mr. Marion, "it was like the old story of the man with a +muck rake. Do you remember that picture that was shown to Christian at +the interpreter's house in 'Pilgrim's Progress?' As a nation, Israel had +stooped so much to the gathering of dry traditions, had bent so long +over the minute letter of the law, that it could not straighten itself +to take the crown held out to it. It could not even lift its eyes to +discern that there was a crown just over its head." + +"It always made me think of the blind Samson," said Mrs. Marion. "In +trying to overthrow something it could not see, spiritually I mean, it +pulled down the pillars of prophecy on its own head." + +Mr. Marion turned to Bethany again. + +"Yes, Israel, as a nation, rejected Christ; but who was it that wrote +those wonderful chronicles of the Nazarene? Who was it that went out +ablaze with the power of Pentecost to spread the deathless story of the +resurrection? Who were the apostles that founded our Church? To whom do +we owe our knowledge of God and our hope of redemption, if not to the +Jews? We forget, sometimes, that the Savior himself belonged to that +race we so reproach." + +He was talking so earnestly, he had forgotten his surroundings, until a +light touch on his shoulder interrupted him. + +"What's the occasion of all this eloquence, Brother Marion?" asked the +minister's genial voice. + +He turned quickly to smile into the frank, smooth-shaven face bending +over him. + +"Come, sit down, Dr. Bascom. We're discussing my young friend back +there, David Herschel. Have you met him?" + +"Yes, I was talking with him a little while ago," answered the minister. +"He seems very reserved. Queer, what an intangible barrier seems to +arise when we talk to one of that race. I just came in to tell you that +Cragmore is in the next car. He got on at the last station." + +"What, George Cragmore!" exclaimed Mr. Marion, rising quickly. "I +haven't seen him for two years. I'll bring him in here, Ray, after +awhile." + +"That's the last we'll see of him till lunch-time," said Mrs. Marion, as +the door banged behind the two men. + +"Frank will never think of us again when he gets to spinning yarns with +Mr. Cragmore. I want you to meet him, Bethany. He is one of the most +original men I ever heard talk. He's a young minister from the 'auld +sod.' They called him the 'wild Irishman' when he first came over, he +was so fiery and impetuous. There is enough of the brogue left yet in +his speech to spice everything he says. He and Frank are a great deal +alike in some things. They are both tall and light-haired. They both +have a deep vein of humor and an inordinate love of joking. They are +both so terribly in earnest with their Christianity that everybody +around them feels the force of it; and when they once settle on a point, +they are so tenacious nothing can move them. I often tell Frank he is +worse than a snapping-turtle. Tradition says they do let go when it +thunders, but nothing will make him let go when his mind is once +clinched." + +There was a stop of twenty minutes at noon. At the sound of a noisy gong +in front of the station restaurant, Mr. Marion came in with his friend. +Capacious lunch-baskets were opened out on every side, with the generous +abundance of an old-time camp-meeting. + +"Where is Herschel?" inquired Mr. Marion. "I intended to ask him to +lunch with us." + +"I saw him going into the restaurant," replied his wife. + +"You must have a talk with him this afternoon, George," said Mr. Marion. +"I've been all up and down this train trying to get people to be +neighborly. I believe Dr. Bascom is the only one who has spoken to him. +They were all having such a good time when I interrupted them, or they +didn't know what to say to a Jew, and a dozen different excuses." + +"O, Frank, don't get started on that subject again!" exclaimed Mrs. +Marion. "Take a sandwich, and forget about it." + +Bethany Hallam laughed more than once during the merry luncheon that +followed. She could not remember that she had laughed before since her +father's death. The young Irishman's ready wit, his droll stories, and +odd expressions were irresistible. He seemed a magnet, too, drawing +constantly from Frank Marion's inexhaustible supply of fun. + +"You have seen only one side of him," remarked Mrs. Marion, when her +husband had taken him away to introduce David. "While he was very +entertaining, I think he has shown us one of the least attractive phases +of his character." + +David had felt very much out of place all morning. It was one thing to +travel among ordinary Gentiles, as he had always done, and another to be +surrounded by those who were constantly bubbling over with religious +enthusiasm. He did not object to sitting beside a hot-water tank, he +said to himself, but he did object to its boiling over on him. + +His neighbors would have been very much surprised could they have known +he was studying them with keen insight, and finding much to criticise. +Even some of their songs were objectionable to him, their catchy +refrains reminding him of some he had heard at colored minstrel shows. + +With such an exalted idea of worship as the old rabbi had inculcated in +him, it did not seem fitting to approach Deity in song unless through +such sonorous utterances as the psalms. Some of these little tinkling, +catch-penny tunes seemed profanation. + +He ventured to say as much to George Cragmore. He had very unexpectedly +found a congenial friend in the young minister. It was not often he met +a man so keenly alert to nature, so versed in his favorite literature, +or of his same sensitive temperament. He felt himself opening his inner +doors as he did to no one else but the rabbi. + +A drizzling rain was falling when they began to wind in and out among +the mountains of Tennessee, and for miles in their journey a rainbow +confronted them at every turn in the road. It crowned every hilltop +ahead of them. It reached its shining ladder of light into every valley. +It seemed such a prophecy of what awaited them on the mountain beyond, +that some one began to sing, "Standing on the Promises." + +As the full glory of the rainbow flashed on Cragmore's sight, he stopped +abruptly in the middle of a sentence. The expression of his face seemed +to transfigure it. When he turned to David, there were tears in his +eyes. + +"O, the covenants of the Old Testament!" he said, in a low tone, that +thrilled David with its intensity of feeling. "The Bethels! The Mizpahs! +The Ebenezers! See, it is like a pillar of fire leading us to a +veritable land of promise." + +Then, with his hand resting on David's knee, he began to talk of the +promises of the Bible, till David exclaimed, impulsively: "You make me +forget that you are a Christian. You enter into Israel's past even more +fully than many of her own sons." + +Cragmore thrust out his hand, in his quick, nervous way, with an +impetuous gesture. + +"Why, man!" he cried, relapsing unconsciously into the broad brogue of +his childhood, "we hold sacred with you the heritage of your past. We +look up with you to the same God, the Father; we confess a common faith +till we stand at the foot of the cross. There is no great barrier +between us--only a step--one step farther for you to take, and we stand +side by side!" + +He laid his hand on David's, and looked into his eyes with an +expression of tender pleading as he added: + +"O, my friend, if you could only see my Savior as he has revealed +himself to me! I pray you may! I do pray you may!" + +It was the first time in David's life any one had ever said such a thing +to him. He sat back in his corner of the seat, at loss for an answer. It +put an end to their conversation for a while. Cragmore felt that his +sympathy had carried him to the point of giving offense. He was relieved +when Dr. Bascom beckoned him to share his seat. + +After a while, as the train sped on into the darkness, the passengers +subsided in to sleepy indifference. It seemed hours afterward when Mr. +Marion clapped him on the shoulder, saying briskly, "Wake up, old +fellow, we are getting into Chattanooga." + +"Let us go in with banners flying," said Dr. Bascom. "I understand that +every car-full that has come in, from Maine to Mexico, has come +singing." + +The lights of the city, twinkling through the car-windows, aroused the +sleepy passengers with a sense of pleasant anticipations, and when they +steamed slowly into the crowded depot, it was as "pilgrims singing in +the night." + +In the general confusion of the arrival, Mr. Marion lost sight of David. + +"It's too bad!" he exclaimed, in a disappointed tone. "I intended to ask +him to drive to Missionary Ridge with us to-morrow, and I wanted to +introduce him to you, Bethany." + +"I'm very glad you didn't have the opportunity, Cousin Frank," she said, +as she followed him through the depot gates. "He may be very agreeable, +and all that, but he's a Jew, and I don't care to make his +acquaintance." + +The handle of the umbrella she was carrying came in collision with some +one behind her. + +"I beg your pardon," she said, turning in her gracious, high-bred way. + +The gentleman raised his hat. It was David Herschel. A stylish-looking +little school-girl was clinging to his arm, and a gray-bearded man, whom +she recognized as Major Herrick, was walking just behind him. They had +come down from the mountain to meet him, and take him to Lookout Inn. As +their eyes met, Bethany was positive that he had overheard her remark. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +THE SUNRISE SERVICE ON "LOOKOUT." + + +BY some misunderstanding, Bethany and her cousins had been assigned to +different homes. + +"It is too late to make any change to-night," said Mrs. Marion, as they +left her. "We are only one block further up on this same street. We will +try to make some arrangement to-morrow to have you with us." + +Bethany followed her hostess into the wide reception-hall. One of the +most elegant homes of the South had opened its hospitable doors to +receive them. Ten delegates had preceded her, all as tired and +travel-stained as herself. + +During the introductions, Bethany mentally classified them as the most +uninteresting lot of people she had seen in a long time. + +"I believe you are the odd one of this party, Miss Hallam," said the +hostess, glancing over the assignment cards she held; "so I shall have +to ask you to take a very small room. It is one improvised for the +occasion; but you will probably be more comfortable here alone than in a +larger room with several others." + +It had never occurred to Bethany that she might have been asked to share +an apartment with some stranger, and she hastened to assure her hostess +of her appreciation of the little room, which, though very small indeed +compared with the great dimensions of the others, was quite comfortable +and attractive. + +"I have always been accustomed to being by myself," she said, "and it +makes no difference at all if it is so far away from the other +sleeping-rooms. I am not at all timid." + +Yet, when she had wearily locked her door, she realized that she had +never been so entirely alone before in all her life. Home seemed so very +far away. Her surroundings were so strange. Her extreme weariness +intensified her morbid feeling of loneliness. She remembered such a +sensation coming to her one night in mid-ocean, but she had tapped on +her state-room wall, and her father had come to her immediately. Now she +might call a weary lifetime. No earthly voice could ever reach him. + +With a throbbing ache in her throat, and hot tears springing to her +eyes, she opened her valise and took out a little photograph case of +Russia leather. Four pictured faces looked out at her. She was kneeling +before them, with her arms resting on the low dressing-table. As she +gazed at them intently, a tear splashed down on her black dress. + +"O, it isn't right! It isn't right," she sobbed, passionately, "for God +to take everything! It would have been so easy for him to let me keep +them. How could he be so cruel? How could he take away all that made my +life worth living, and then let little Jack suffer so?" + +She laid her head on her arms in a paroxysm of sobbing. Presently she +looked up again at her mother's picture. It was a beautiful face, very +like her own. It brought back all her happy childhood, that seemed +almost glorified now by the remembered halo of its devoted mother-love. + +The years had softened that grief, but it all came back to-night with +its old-time bitterness. + +The next face was little Jack's--a sturdy, wide-awake boy, with +mischievous dimples and laughing eyes. But the recollection of all he +had suffered since his accident, made her feel that she had lost him +also, in a way. The physician had assured her that he would be the same +vigorous, romping child again; but she found that hard to believe when +she thought of his present helpless condition. + +She pressed the next picture to her lips with trembling fingers, and +then looked lovingly into the eyes that seemed to answer her gaze with +one of steadfast, manly devotion. + +"O, it isn't right! It isn't right!" she sobbed again. How it all came +back to her--the happy June-time of her engagement!--the summer days +when she dreamed of him, the summer twilights when he came. Every detail +was burned into her aching memory, from the first bunch of violets he +brought her, to the judge's tender smile when she spread out all her +bridal array for him to see. Such shimmering lengths of the white, +trailing satin; such filmy clouds of the soft, white veil, destined +never to touch her fair hair! For there was the telegram, and afterward +the darkened room, and the darker hour, when she groped her way to a +motionless form, and knelt beside it alone. O, how she had clung to the +cold hands, and kissed the unresponsive lips, and turned away in an +agony of despair! But as she turned, her father's strong arms were +folded about her, and his broken voice whispered comfort. + +The dear father! It had been doubly desolate since he had gone, too. + +Kneeling there, with her head bowed on her arms, she seemed to face a +future that was utterly hopeless. Except that Jack needed her, she felt +that there was absolutely no reason why she should go on living. + +The ticking of her watch reminded her that it was nearly midnight. In a +mechanical way, she got up and began to arrange her hair for the night. + +After she had extinguished the light, she pulled aside the curtain, and +looked out on the unfamiliar streets. + +The moon had come up. In the dim light the crest of old Lookout towered +grimly above the horizon. A verse of one of the Psalms passed through +her mind: "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh +my help." + +"No," she whispered, bitterly, "there is no help. God doesn't care. He +is too far away." + +As she went back to the bed, the words of the novice in Muloch's +"Benedetta Minelli" came to her: + + "O weary world, O heavy life, farewell! + Like a tired child that creeps into the dark + To sob itself asleep where none will mark, + So creep I to my silent convent cell." + +"I wish I could do that," she thought; "lock myself away with my +memories, and not be obliged to keep up this empty pretense of living, +just as if nothing were changed. It might not be so hard. How I dread +to-morrow, with its crowds of strange faces! O, why did I ever come?" + +Next morning, the guests gathered out on the vine-covered piazza to +discuss their plans for the day. + +There were two theological students from Boston, a young doctor from +Texas, and the son of a wealthy Louisiana planter. A Kansas farmer's +wife and her sister, a bright little schoolteacher from an Iowa village, +and three pretty Georgia girls, completed the party. + +Bethany sat a little apart from them, wondering how they could be so +greatly interested in such things as the most direct car-line to +Missionary Ridge, or the time it would take to "do" the old +battle-grounds. + +The youngest Georgia girl was about her own age. She had made several +attempts to include Bethany in the conversation, but mistaking her +reserve and indifference for haughtiness, turned to the Louisiana boy +with a remark about unsociable Northerners. + +Their frequent laughter reached Bethany, and she wondered, in a dull +way, how anybody could be light-hearted enough even to smile in such a +world full of heart-aches. Then she remembered that she had laughed +herself, the day before, when Mr. Cragmore was with them. It rather +puzzled her now to know how she could have done so. Her wakeful night +had left her unusually depressed. + +An open, two-seated carriage stopped at the gate. Mrs. Marion and George +Cragmore were on the back seat. Mr. Marion and Dr. Bascom sat with the +driver. Bethany had been waiting for them some time with her hat on, so +she went quickly out to meet them. Mr. Cragmore leaped over the wheel to +open the gate, and assist her to a seat between himself and Mrs. +Marion. + +They drove rapidly out towards Missionary Ridge. To Bethany's great +relief, neither of her companions seemed in a talkative mood. Mr. +Marion, who was an ardent Southerner, had been deep in a political +discussion with Dr. Bascom. As they stopped on the winding road, half +way up the ridge, to look down into the beautiful valley below, and +across to the purple summit of Lookout, Mr. Marion drew a long breath. +Then he took off his hat, saying, reverently, "The work of His fingers! +What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?" Then, after a long silence: +"How insignificant our little differences seem, Bascom, in the sight of +these everlasting hills! Let's change the subject." + +Mrs. Marion, absorbed in the beauty on every side, did not notice +Bethany's continued silence or Cragmore's spasmodic remarks. The fresh +air and brisk motion had somewhat aroused Bethany from her apathy. +First, she began to be interested in the constantly-changing view, and +then she noticed its effect on the erratic man beside her. + +From the time they commenced to ascend the ridge he had not spoken to +any one directly, but everything he saw seemed to suggest a quotation. +He repeated them unconsciously, as if he were all alone; some of them +dreamily, some of them with startling force, and all with the slight +brogue he spoke so musically. + +"Every common bush afire with God," he murmured in an undertone, looking +at a dusty wayside weed, with his soul in his eyes. + +Bethany thought to herself, afterwards, that if any other man of her +acquaintance had kept up such a steady string of disjointed quotations, +it would have been ridiculous. She never heard him do it again after +that day. It seemed as if the old battle-fields suggested thoughts that +could find no adequate expression save in words that immortal pens had +made deathless. + +The warm odor of ripe peaches floated out to them from grassy orchards, +where the trees were bent over with their wealth of velvety, +sun-reddened fruit. Seemingly, Cragmore had taken no notice of Bethany's +depression when she joined them, or of the soothing effect nature was +having on her sore heart. But she knew that he had seen it, when he +turned to her abruptly with a quotation that fitted her as well as his +first one had the wayside weed. He half sang it, with a tender, wistful +smile, as he watched her face. + + "O the green things growing, the green things growing-- + The faint, sweet smell of the green things growing! + I should like to live, whether I smile or grieve, + Just to watch the happy life of my green things growing, + For by many a tender touch, they comfort me so much, + With the soft, mute comfort of green things growing." + +Bethany wondered if her cousin Frank had told him of all she had +suffered, or if he had guessed it intuitively. Somehow she felt that he +had not been told, but that he had divined it. Yet when they stopped on +the Chickamauga battle-field, and she saw him go leaping across the +rough fields like an overgrown boy, she thought of her cousin Ray's +remark, "They used to call him the wild Irishman," and wondered at the +contradictory phases his character presented. She saw him pause and lay +his hand reverently on the largest cannon, and then come running back +across the furrows with long, awkward jumps. + +"What on earth did you do that for, Cragmore?" asked Mr. Marion, in his +teasing way. "The idea of keeping us waiting while you were racing +across a ten-acre lot to pat an old gun." + +"Old gun, is it?" was the laughing answer, yet there was a flash in his +eyes that belied the laugh. "Odds, man! it is one of the greatest +orators that ever roused a continent. I just wanted to lay my hands on +its dumb lips." He waved his arm with an exulting gesture. "Aye, but +they spoke in thunder-tones once, the day they spoke freedom to a race." + +He did not take his seat in the carriage for a while, but followed at a +little distance, ranging the woods on both sides; sometimes plunging +into a leafy hollow to examine the bark of an old tree where the shells +had plowed deep scars; sometimes dropping on his knees to brush away the +leaves from a tiny wild-flower, that any one but a true woodsman would +have passed with unseeing eyes. Once he brought a rare specimen up to +the carriage to ask its name. He had never seen one like it before. That +was the only one he gathered. + +"It's a pity to tear them up, when they would wither in just a few +hours," he said; "the solitary places are so glad for them." + +"He's a queer combination," said Dr. Bascom, as he watched him break a +little sprig of cedar from the stump of a battle-broken tree to put in +his card-case. "Sometimes he is the veriest clown; at others, a child +could not be more artless; and I have seen him a few times when he +seemed to be aroused into a spiritual giant. He fairly touched the +stars." + +Bethany was so tired by the morning's drive that she did not go to the +opening services in the big tent that afternoon. + +"Well, you missed it!" said Mr. Marion, when he came in after supper, +"and so did David Herschel." + +"Missed what?" inquired Bethany. + +"The mayor's address of welcome, this afternoon. You know he is a Jew. +Such a broad, fraternal speech must have been a revelation to a great +many of his audience. I tell you, it was fine! You're going to-night, +aren't you, Bethany?" + +"No," she answered, "I want to save myself for the sunrise +prayer-meeting on the mountain to-morrow. I saw the sun come up over the +Rigi once. It is a sight worth staying up all night to see." + +It was about two o'clock in the morning when they started up the +mountain by rail. The cars were crowded. People hung on the straps, +swaying back and forth in the aisles, as the train lurched around sudden +curves. Notwithstanding the early hour, and the discomfort of their +position, they sang all the way up the mountain. + +"Cousin Ray," said Bethany, "do tell me how these people can sing so +constantly. The last thing I heard last night before I went to sleep was +the electric street-car going past the house, with a regular hallelujah +chorus on board. Do you suppose they really feel all they sing? How can +they keep worked up to such a pitch all the time?" + +"You should have been at the tent last night, dear," answered Mrs. +Marion. "Then you would have gotten into the secret of it. There is an +inspiration in great numbers. The audiences we are having there are said +to be the greatest ever gathered south of the Ohio. Our League at home +has been doing very faithful work, but I couldn't help wishing last +night that every member could have been present. To see ten thousand +faces lit up with the same interest and the same hope, to hear the +battle-cry, 'All for Christ,' and the Amen that rolled out in response +like a volley of ten thousand musketry, would have made them feel like a +little, straggling company of soldiers suddenly awakened to the fact +that they were not fighting single-handed, but that all that great army +were re-enforcing them. More than that, these were only the +advance-guard, for over a million young people are enlisted in the same +cause. Think of that, Bethany--a million leagued together just in +Methodism! Then, when you count with them all the Christian Endeavor +forces, and the Baptist Unions, and the King's Daughters and Sons, and +the Young Men's Christian Associations, and the Brotherhood of St. +Andrew, it looks like the combined power ought to revolutionize the +universe in the next decade." + +"Then you think it is an inspiration of the crowds that makes them sing +all the time," said Bethany. + +"By no means!" answered Mrs. Marion. "To be sure, it has something to do +with it; but to most of this vast number of young people, their religion +is not a sentiment to be fanned into spasmodic flame by some excitement. +It is a vital force, that underlies every thought and every act. They +will sing at home over their work, and all by themselves, just as +heartily as they do here. I remember seeing in Westminster Abbey, one +time, the profiles of John and Charles Wesley put side by side on the +same medallion. I have thought, since then, it is only a half-hearted +sort of Methodism that does not put the spirit of both brothers into its +daily life--that does not wing its sermons with its songs." + +Hundreds of people had already gathered on the brow of the mountain, +waiting the appointed hour. Mr. Marion led the way to a place where +nature had formed a great amphitheater of the rocks. They seated +themselves on a long, narrow ledge, overlooking the valley. They were +above the clouds. Such billows of mist rolled up and hid the sleeping +earth below that they seemed to be looking out on a boundless ocean. The +world and its petty turmoils were blotted out. There was only this one +gray peak raising its solitary head in infinite space. It was still and +solemn in the early light. They spoke together almost in whispers. + +"I can not believe that any man ever went up into a mountain to pray +without feeling himself drawn to a higher spiritual altitude," said Dr. +Bascom. + +Frank Marion looked around on the assembled crowds, and then said +slowly: + +"Once a little band of five hundred met the risen Lord on a +mountain-side in Galilee, and were sent away with the promise, 'Lo, I am +with you alway!' Think what they accomplished, and then think of the +thousands here this morning that may go back to the work of the valley +with the same promise and the same power! There ought to be a wonderful +work accomplished for the Master this year." + +Cragmore, who had walked away a little distance from the rest, and was +watching the eastern sky, turned to them with his face alight. + +"See!" he cried, with the eagerness of a child, and yet with the +appreciation of a poet shining in his eyes; "the wings of the morning +rising out of the uttermost parts of the sea." + +He pointed to the long bars of light spreading like great flaming +pinions above the horizon. The dawn had come, bringing a new heaven and +a new earth. In the solemn hush of the sunrise, a voice began to sing, +"Nearer, my God, to thee." + +It was as in the days of the old temple. They had left the outer courts +and passed up into an inner sanctuary, where a rolling curtain of cloud +seemed to shut them in, till in that high Holy of Holies they stood face +to face with the Shekinah of God's presence. + +Bethany caught her breath. There had been times before this when, +carried along by the impetuous eloquence of some sermon or prayer, every +fiber of her being seemed to thrill in response. In her childlike +reaching out towards spiritual things, she had had wonderful glimpses of +the Fatherhood of God. She had gone to him with every experience of her +young life, just as naturally and freely as she had to her earthly +father. But when beside the judge's death-bed she pleaded for his life +to be spared to her a little longer, and her frenzied appeals met no +response, she turned away in rebellious silence. "She would pray no more +to a dumb heaven," she said bitterly. Her hope had been vain. + +Now, as she listened to songs and prayers and testimony, she began to +feel the power that emanated from them,--the power of the Spirit, +showing her the Father as she had never known him before: the Father +revealed through the Son. + +Below, the mists began to roll away until the hidden valley was revealed +in all its morning loveliness. But how small it looked from such a +height! Moccasin Bend was only a silver thread. The outlying forests +dwindled to thickets. + +Bethany looked up. The mists began to roll away from her spiritual +vision, and she saw her life in relation to the eternities. Self +dwindled out of sight. There was no bitterness now, no childish +questioning of Divine purposes. The blind Bartimeus by the wayside, +hearing the cry, "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by," and, groping his way +towards "the Light of the world," was no surer of his dawning vision +than Bethany, as she joined silently in the prayer of consecration. She +saw not only the glory of the June sunrise; for her the "Sun of +righteousness had arisen, with healing in his wings." + +People seemed loath to go when the services were over. They gathered in +little groups on the mountain-side, or walked leisurely from one point +of view to another, drinking in the rare beauty of the morning. + +Bethany walked on without speaking. She was a little in advance of the +others, and did not notice when the rest of her party were stopped by +some acquaintances. Absorbed in her own thoughts, she turned aside at +Prospect Point, and walked out to the edge. As she looked down over the +railing, the refrain of one of the songs that had been sung so +constantly during the last few days, unconsciously rose to her lips. She +hummed it softly to herself, over and over, "O, there's sunshine in my +soul to-day." + +So oblivious was she of all surroundings that she did not hear Frank +Marion's quick step behind her. He had come to tell her they were going +down the mountain by the incline. + +"O, there's sunshine, blessed sunshine!" The words came softly, almost +under her breath; but he heard them, and felt with a quick heart-throb +that some thing unusual must have occurred to bring any song to her +lips. + +"O Bethany!" he exclaimed, "do you mean it, child? Has the light come?" + +The face that she turned towards him was radiant. She could find no +words wherewith to tell him her great happiness, but she laid her hands +in his, and the tears sprang to her eyes. + +"Thank God! Thank God!" he exclaimed, with a tremor in his strong voice. +"It is what I have been praying for. Now you see why I urged you to +come. I knew what a mountain-top of transfiguration this would be." + +Standing on the outskirts of the crowd, David Herschel had looked around +with great curiosity on the gathering thousands. It was only a little +distance from the inn, and he had come down hoping to discover the real +motive that had brought these people together from such vast distances. +He wondered what power their creed contained that could draw them to +this meeting at such an early hour. + +He had felt as keenly as Cragmore the sublimity of the sunrise. He felt, +too, the uplifting power of the old hymn, that song drawn from the +experience of Jacob at Bethel, that seemed to lift every heart nearer to +the Eternal. + +He was deeply stirred as the leader began to speak of the mountain +scenes of the Bible, of Abraham's struggles at Moriah, of Horeb's +burning bush, of Sinai and Nebo, of Mount Zion with its thousand +hallowed memories. So far the young Jew could follow him, but not to +the greater heights of the Mountain of Beatitudes, of Calvary, or of +Olivet. + +He had never heard such prayers as the ones that followed. Although +there can be found no sublimer utterances of worship, no humbler +confessions of penitence or more lofty conceptions of Jehovah, than are +bound in the rituals of Judaism, these simple outpourings of the heart +were a revelation to him. + +There came again the fulfillment of the deathless words, "And I, if I be +lifted up, will draw all men unto me!" O, how the lowly Nazarene was +lifted up that morning in that great gathering of his people! How his +name was exalted! All up and down old Lookout Mountain, and even across +the wide valley of the Tennessee, it was echoed in every song and +prayer. + +When the testimony service began, David turned from one speaker to +another. What had they come so far to tell? From every State in the +Union, from Canada, and from foreign shores, they brought only one +story--"Behold the Lamb of God!" In spite of himself, the young Jew's +heart was strangely drawn to this uplifted Christ. Suddenly he was +startled by a ringing voice that cried: "I am a converted Jew. I was +brought to Christ by a little girl--a member of the Junior League. I +have given up wife, mother, father, sisters, brothers, and fortune, but +I have gained so much that I can say from the depths of my soul, 'Take +all the world, but give me Jesus.' I have consecrated my life to his +service." + +David changed his position in order to get a better view of the speaker. +He scrutinized him closely. He studied his face, his dress, even his +attitude, to determine, if possible, the character of this new witness. +He saw a man of medium height, broad forehead, and firm mouth over which +drooped a heavy, dark mustache. There was nothing fanatical in the calm +face or dignified bearing. His eyes, which were large, dark, and +magnetic, met David's with a steady gaze, and seemed to hold them for a +moment. + +With a lawyer-like instinct, David longed to probe this man with +questions. As he went back to the inn, he resolved to hunt up his +history, and find what had induced him to turn away from the faith. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +AN EPWORTH JEW. + + +NEARLY every northern-bound mail-train, since Bethany's arrival in +Chattanooga, had carried something home to Jack--a paper, a postal, +souvenirs from the battle-fields, or views of the mountain. Knowing how +eagerly he watched for the postman's visits, she never let a day pass +without a letter. Saturday morning she even missed part of the services +at the tent in order to write to him. + +"I have just come back from Grant University," she wrote. "Cousin Frank +was so interested in the Jew who spoke at the sunrise meeting yesterday, +because he said a little Junior League girl had been the means of his +conversion, that he arranged for an interview with him. His name is +Lessing. Cousin Frank asked me to go with him to take the conversation +down in shorthand for the League. I haven't time now to give all the +details, but will tell them to you when I come home." + +Bethany had been intensely interested in the man's story. They sat out +on one of the great porches of the university, with the mountains in +sight. They had drawn their chairs aside to a cool, shady corner, where +they would not be interrupted by the stream of people constantly passing +in and out. + +"It is for the children you want my story," he said; "so they must know +of my childhood. It was passed in Baltimore. My father was the strictest +of orthodox Jews, and I was very faithfully trained in the observances +of the law. He taught me Hebrew, and required a rigid adherence to all +the customs of the synagogue." + +Bethany rapidly transcribed his words, as he told many interesting +incidents of his early home life. He had come to Chattanooga for +business reasons, married, and opened a store in St. Elmo, at the foot +of Mount Lookout. He was very fond of children, and made friends with +all who came into the store. There was one little girl, a fair, +curly-haired child, who used to come oftener than the others. She grew +to love him dearly, and, in her baby fashion, often talked to him of +the Junior League, in which she was deeply interested. + +Her distress when she discovered that he did not love Christ was +pitiful. She insisted so on his going to Church, that one morning he +finally consented, just to please her. The sermon worried him all day. +It had been announced that the evening service would be a continuation +of the same subject. He went at night, and was so impressed with the +truth of what he heard, that when the child came for him to go to +prayer-meeting with her the next week, he did not refuse. + +Towards the close of the service the minister asked if any one present +wished to pray for friends. The child knelt down beside Mr. Lessing, and +to his great embarrassment began to pray for him. "O Lord, save Brother +Lessing!" was all she said, but she repeated it over and over with such +anxious earnestness, that it went straight to his heart. + +He dropped on his knees beside her, and began praying for himself. It +was not long until he was on his feet again, joyfully confessing the +Christ he had been taught to despise. In the enthusiasm of this +new-found happiness he went home and tried to tell his wife of the +Messiah he had accepted, but she indignantly refused to listen. For +months she berated and ridiculed him. When she found that not only were +tears and arguments of no avail, but that he felt he must consecrate his +life to the ministry, she declared she would leave him. He sold the +store, and gave her all it brought; and she went back to her family in +Florida. + +In order to prepare for the ministry he entered the university, working +outside of study hours at anything he could find to do. In the meantime +he had written to his parents, knowing how greatly they would be +distressed, yet hoping their great love would condone the offense. + +His father's answer was cold and businesslike. He said that no disgrace +could have come to him that could have hurt him so deeply as the +infidelity of his trusted son. If he would renounce this false faith for +the true faith of his fathers, he would give him forty thousand dollars +outright, and also leave him a legacy of the same amount. But should he +refuse the offer, he should be to him as a stranger--the doors of both +his heart and his house should be forever barred against him. + +His mother, with a woman's tact, sent the pictures of all the family, +whom he had not seen for several years. Their faces called up so many +happy memories of the past that they pleaded more eloquently than words. +It was a sweet, loving letter she wrote to her boy, reminding him of all +they had been to each other, and begging him for her sake to come back +to the old faith. But right at the last she wrote: "If you insist on +clinging to this false Christ, whom we have taught you to despise, the +heart of your father and of your mother must be closed against you, and +you must be thrust out from us forever with our curse upon you." + +He knew it was the custom. He had been present once when the awful +anathema was hurled at a traitor to the faith, withdrawing every right +from the outlaw, living or dead. He knew that his grave would be dug in +the Jewish cemetery in Baltimore; that the rabbi would read the rites of +burial over his empty coffin, and that henceforth his only part in the +family life would be the blot of his disgraceful memory. + +He spread the pictures and the letters on the desk before him. A cold +perspiration broke out on his forehead, as he realized the hopelessness +of the alternative offered him. One by one he took up the photographs of +his brothers and sisters, looked at them long and fondly, and laid them +aside; then his father's, with its strong, proud face. He put that away, +too. + +At last he picked up his mother's picture. She looked straight out at +him, with such a world of loving tenderness in the smiling eyes, with +such trustful devotion, as if she knew he could not resist the appeal, +that he turned away his head. The trial seemed greater than he could +bear. He was trembling with the force of it. Then he looked again into +the dear, patient face, till his eyes grew too dim to see. It was the +same old mother who had nursed him, who had loved him, who had borne +with his waywardness and forgiven him always. He seemed to feel the soft +touch of her lips on his forehead as she bent over to give him a +goodnight kiss. All that she had ever done for him came rushing through +his memory so overwhelmingly that he broke down utterly, and began to +sob like a child. "O, I can't give her up," he groaned. "My dear old +mother! I can't grieve her so!" + +All that morning he clung to her picture, sometimes walking the floor in +his agony, sometimes falling on his knees to pray. "God in heaven have +pity," he cried. "That a man should have to choose between his mother +and his Christ!" At last he rose, and, with one more long look at the +picture, laid it reverently away with shaking hands. He had surrendered +everything. + +He did not tell all this to his sympathizing listeners. They could read +part of the pathos of that struggle in his face, part in the voice that +trembled occasionally, despite his strong effort to control it. + +Frank Marion's thoughts went back to his own gentle mother in the old +homestead among the green hills of Kentucky. As he thought of the great +pillar of strength her unfaltering faith had been to him, of how from +boyhood it had upheld and comforted and encouraged him, of how much he +had always depended upon her love and her prayers, his sympathies were +stirred to their depths. He reached out and took Lessing's hand in his +strong grasp. + +"God help you, brother!" he said, fervently. + +Bethany turned her head aside, and looked away into the hazy distances. +She knew what it meant to feel the breaking of every tie that bound her +best beloved to her. She knew what it was to have only pictured faces to +look into, and lay away with the pain of passionate longing. The +question flashed into her mind, could she have made the voluntary +surrender that he had made? She put it from her with a throb of shame +that she was glad that she had not been so tested. + +Some acquaintance of Mr. Marion, passing down the steps, recognized him, +and called back: + +"What time does your speech come on the program, Frank? I understand you +are to hold forth to-day." + +Mr. Marion hastily excused himself for a moment, to speak to his friend. + +Bethany sat silent, thinking intently, while she drew unmeaning dots and +dashes over the cover of her note-book. + +Mr. Lessing turned to her abruptly. "Did you ever speak to a Jew about +your Savior?" he asked, with such startling directness, that Bethany was +confused. + +"No," she said, hesitatingly. + +"Why?" he asked. + +He was looking at her with a penetrating gaze that seemed to read her +thoughts. + +"Really," she answered, "I have never considered the question. I am not +very well acquainted with any, for one reason; besides, I would have +felt that I was treading on forbidden grounds to speak to a Jew about +religion. They have always seemed to me to be so intrenched in their +beliefs, so proof against argument, that it would be both a useless and +thankless undertaking." + +"They may seem invulnerable to arguments," he answered, "but nobody is +proof against a warm, personal interest. Ah, Miss Hallam, it seems a +terrible thing to me. The Church will make sacrifices, will cross the +seas, will overcome almost any obstacle to send the gospel to China or +to Africa, anywhere but to the Jews at their elbows. O, of course, I +know there are a few Hebrew missions, scattered here and there through +the large cities, and a few earnest souls are devoting their entire +energy to the work. But suppose every Christian in the country became an +evangel to the little community of Jews within the radius of his +influence. Suppose a practical, prayerful, individual effort were made +to show them Christ, with the same zeal you expend in sending 'the old +story' to the Hottentots. What would be the result? O, if I had waited +for a grown person to speak to me about it, I might have waited until +the day of my death. I was restless. I was dissatisfied. I felt that I +needed something more than my creed could give me. For what is Judaism +now? I read an answer not long ago: 'A religion of sacrifice, to which, +for eighteen centuries, no sacrifice has been possible; a religion of +the Passover and the Day of Atonement, on which, for well-nigh two +millenniums, no lamb has been slain and no atonement offered; a +sacerdotal religion, with only the shadow of a priesthood; a religion of +a temple which has no temple more; its altar is quenched, its ashes +scattered, no longer kindling any enthusiasm, nor kindled by any +hope.'[A] No man ever took me by the hand and told me about the peace I +have now. No man ever shared with me his hope, or pointed out the way +for me to find it. If it had not been for the blessed guiding influence +of a little child, my hungry heart might still be crying out +unsatisfied." + +He went on to repeat several conversations he had had with men of his +own race, to show her how this indifference of Christians was reckoned +against them as a glaring inconsistency by the Jews. Almost as if some +one had spoken the words to her, she seemed to hear the condemnation, "I +was a hungered, and ye gave me no meat. I was thirsty, and ye gave me no +drink. I was a stranger, and ye took me not in. Inasmuch as ye did it +not to one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it not to me." + +Strange as it may seem, Bethany's interpretation of that Scripture had +always been in a temporal sense. More than once, when a child, she had +watched her mother feed some poor beggar, with the virtuous feeling that +that condemnation could not apply to the Hallam family. But now +Lessing's impassioned appeal had awakened a different thought. Who so +hungered as those who, reaching out for bread, grasped either the stones +of a formal ritualism or the abandoned hope of prophecy unfulfilled? Who +such "strangers within the gates" of the nations as this race without a +country? From the brick-kilns of Pharaoh to the willows of Babylon, from +the Ghetto of Rome to the fagot-fires along the Rhine, from Spanish +cruelties to English extortions, they had been driven--exiles and +aliens. The New World had welcomed them. The New World had opened all +its avenues to them. Only from the door of Christian society had they +turned away, saying, "I was a stranger, and ye took me not in." + +In the pause that followed, Bethany's heart went out in an earnest +prayer: "O God, in the great day of thy judgment, let not that +condemnation be mine. Only send me some opportunity, show me some way +whereby I may lead even one of the least among them to the world's +Redeemer!" + +Mr. Marion came back from his interview, looking at his watch as he did +so. It was so near time for services to begin at the tent, that he did +not resume his seat. + +"We may never meet again, Mr. Lessing," said Bethany, holding out her +hand as she bade him good-bye. "So I want to tell you before I go, what +an impression this conversation has made upon me. It has aroused an +earnest desire to be the means of carrying the hope that comforts me, +to some one among your people." + +"You will succeed," he said, looking into her earnest upturned face. +Then he added softly, in Hebrew, the old benediction of an olden +day--"Peace be unto you." + +All that day, after the sunrise meeting, David Herschel had been with +Major Herrick, going over the battle-fields, and listening to personal +reminiscences of desperate engagements. A monument was to be erected on +the spot where nearly all the major's men had fallen in one of the most +hotly-contested battles of the war. He had come down to help locate the +place. + +"It's a very different reception they are giving us now," remarked the +major, as they drove through the city. + +Epworth League colors were flying in all directions. Every street +gleamed with the white and red banners of the North, crossed with the +white and gold of the South. + +"Chattanooga is entertaining her guests royally; people of every +denomination, and of no faith at all, are vying with each other to show +the kindliest hospitality. We are missing it by being at the hotel. I +told Mrs. Herrick and the girls I would meet them at the tent this +evening. Will you come, too?" + +"No, thank you," replied David, "my curiosity was satisfied this +morning. I'll go on up to the inn. I have a letter to write." + +The major laughed. + +"It's a letter that has to be written every day, isn't it?" he said, +banteringly. "Well, I can sympathize with you, my boy. I was young +myself once. Conferences aren't to be taken into account at all when a +billet-doux needs answering." + +The next day David kept Marta with him as much as possible. He could see +that she was becoming greatly interested, and catching much of Albert +Herrick's enthusiasm. The boy was a great League worker, and attended +every meeting. + +David took Marta a long walk over the mountain paths. They sat on the +wide, vine-hung veranda of the inn, and read together. Then, as it was +their Sabbath, he took her up to his room, and read some of the ritual +of the day, trying to arouse in her some interest for the old customs of +their childhood. + +To his great dismay, he found that she had drifted away from him. She +was not the yielding child she had been, whom he had been able to +influence with a word. + +She showed a disposition to question and contend, that annoyed him. The +rabbi was right. She had been left too long among contaminating +influences. + +It was with a feeling of relief that he woke Sunday morning to hear the +rain beating violently against the windows. He was glad on her account +that the storm would prevent them going down into the city. But toward +evening the sun came out, and Frances Herrick began to insist on going +down to the night service in the tent. + +"It is the last one there will be!" she exclaimed. "I wouldn't miss it +for anything." + +"Neither would I," responded Marta. "There is something so inspiring in +all that great chorus of voices." + +When David found that his sister really intended to go, notwithstanding +his remonstrances, and that the family were waiting for her in the hall +below, he made no further protest, but surprised her by taking his hat, +and tucking her hand in his arm. + +"Then I will go with you, little sister," he said. "I want to have as +much of your company as possible during my short visit." + +Albert Herrick, who was waiting for her at the foot of the stairs, +divined David's purpose in keeping his sister so close. He lifted his +eyebrows slightly as he turned to take his mother's wraps, leaving +Frances to follow with the major. + +The tent was crowded when they reached it. They succeeded with great +difficulty in obtaining several chairs in one of the aisles. + +"Herschel and I will go back to the side," said Albert. "The audience +near the entrance is constantly shifting, and we can slip into the first +vacant seat; some will be sure to get tired and go out before long. They +always do." + +It was the first time David had been in the tent, and he was amazed at +the enormous audience. He leaned against one of the side supports, +watching the people, still intent on crowding forward. Suddenly his look +of idle curiosity changed to one of lively interest. He recognized the +face of the Jew who had attracted him in the mountain meeting. Isaac +Lessing was in the stream of people pressing slowly towards him. + +Nearer and nearer he came. The crowd at the door pushed harder. The +fresh impetus jostled them almost off their feet, and in the crush +Lessing was caught and held directly in front of David. Some magnetic +force in the eyes of each held the gaze of the other for a moment. Then +Lessing, recognizing the common bond of blood, smiled. + +That ringing cry, "I am a converted Jew," had sounded in David's ears +ever since it first startled him. He felt confident that the man was +laboring under some strong delusion, and he wished that he might have an +opportunity to dispel it by skillful arguments, and win him back to the +old faith. + +Seized by an impulse as sudden as it was irresistible, he laid his hand +on the stranger's arm. + +"I want to speak with you," he said, hurriedly, and in a low tone. "Come +this way. I will not detain you long." + +He drew him out of the press into one of the side aisles, and thence +towards the exit. + +"Will you walk a few steps with me?" he asked; "I want to ask you +several questions." + +Lessing complied quietly. + +The sound of a cornet followed them with the pleading notes of an old +hymn. It was like the mighty voice of some archangel sounding a call to +prayer. Then the singing began. Song after song rolled out on the night +air across the common to a street where two men paced back and forth in +the darkness. They were arm in arm. David was listening to the same +story that Bethany and Frank Marion had heard the day before. He could +not help but be stirred by it. Lessing's voice was so earnest, his faith +was so sure. When he was through, David was utterly silenced. The +questions with which he had intended to probe this man's claims were +already answered. + +"We might as well go back," he said at last. As they walked slowly +towards the tent, he said: "I can't understand you. I feel all the time +that you have been duped in some way; that you are under the spell of +some mysterious power that deludes you." + +Just as they passed within the tent, the cornet sounded again, the +great congregation rose, and ten thousand voices went up as one: + + "All hail the power of Jesus' name, + Let angels prostrate fall!" + +The sight was a magnificent one; the sound like an ocean-beat of praise. +Lessing seized David's arm. + +"That is the power!" he exclaimed. "Not only does it uplift all these +thousands you see here, but millions more, all over this globe. It is +nearly two thousand years since this Jesus was known among men. Could he +transform lives to-night, as mine has been transformed, if his power +were a delusion? What has brought them all these miles, if not this same +power? Look at the class of people who have been duped, as you call it." +He pointed to the platform. "Bishops, college presidents, editors, men +of marked ability and with world-wide reputation for worth and +scholarship." + +At the close of the hymn some one moved over, and made room for David on +one of the benches. Lessing pushed farther to the front. David listened +to all that was said with a sort of pitying tolerance, until the sermon +began. The bishop's opening words caught his attention, and echoed in +his memory for months afterward. + +"Paul knew Christ as he had studied him, and as he appeared to him when +he did not believe in him--when he despised him. Then he also knew +Christ after his surrender to him; after Christ had entered into his +life, and changed the character of his being; after new meanings of life +and destiny filled his horizon, after the Divine tenderness filled to +completeness his nature; then was he in possession of a knowledge of +Christ, of an experience of his presence and of his love that was a +benediction to him, and has through the centuries since that hour been a +blessing to men wherever the gospel has been preached. + +"It is such a man speaking in this text. A man with a singularly strong +mind, well disciplined, with great will-power; a man with a great +ancestry; a man with as mighty a soul as ever tabernacled in flesh and +blood. He proclaimed everywhere that, if need be, he was ready to die +for the principles out of which had come to him a new life, and which +had brought to his heart experiences so rich and so overwhelming in +happiness, that he was led to do and undertake what he knew would lead +at the last to a martyr's death and crown. Why? Hear him: 'For the love +of Christ constraineth us.'" + +There was a testimony service following the sermon. As David watched the +hundreds rising to declare their faith, he wondered why they should thus +voluntarily come forward as witnesses. Then the text seemed to repeat +itself in answer, "For the love of Christ constraineth us!" + +He dreamed of Lessing and Paul all night. He was glad when the +conference was at an end; when the decorations were taken down from the +streets, and the last car-load of irrepressible enthusiasts went singing +out of the city. + +Albert Herrick went to the seashore that week. David proposed taking +Marta home with him; but her objections were so heartily re-enforced by +the whole family that he quietly dropped the subject, and went back to +Rabbi Barthold alone. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[A] Archdeacon Farrar. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +"TRUST." + + "Alas! we can not draw habitual breath in the thin air + of life's supremer heights. We can not make each meal + a sacrament."--Lowell. + + +IT had seemed to Bethany, in the experience of that sunrise on Lookout +Mountain, she could never feel despondent again; but away from the +uplifting influences of the place, back among the painful memories of +the old home, she fought as hard a fight with her returning doubts as +ever Christian did in his Valley of Humiliation. + +For a week since her return the weather had been intensely warm. It made +Jack irritable, and sapped her own strength. + +There came a day when everything went wrong. She had practiced her +shorthand exercises all morning, until her head ached almost beyond +endurance. The grocer presented a bill much larger than she had +expected. While he was receipting it, a boy came to collect for the +gas, and there were only two dimes left in her purse. Then Jack upset a +little cut-glass vase that was standing on the table beside him. It was +broken beyond repair, and the water ruined the handsome binding of a +borrowed book that would have to be replaced. + +About noon Dr. Trent called to see Jack. He had brought a new kind of +brace that he wanted tried. + +"It will help him amazingly," he said, "but it is very expensive." + +Bethany's heart sank. She thought of the pipes that had sprung a leak +that morning, of the broken pump, and the empty flour-barrel. She could +not see where all the money they needed was to come from. + +"It's too small," said the doctor, after a careful trial of the brace. +"The size larger will be just the thing. I will bring it in the +morning." + +He wiped his forehead wearily as he stopped on the threshold. + +"A storm must be brewing," he remarked. "It is so oppressively sultry." + +It was not many hours before his prediction was verified by a sudden +windstorm that came up with terrific force. The trees in the avenue were +lashed violently back and forth until they almost swept the earth. Huge +limbs were twisted completely off, and many were left broken and +hanging. It was followed by hail and a sudden change of temperature, +that suggested winter. The roses were all beaten off the bushes, their +pink petals scattered over the soaked grass. The porch was covered with +broken twigs and wet leaves. + +As night dropped down, the trees bordering the avenue waved their green, +dripping boughs shiveringly towards the house. + +"How can it be so cold and dreary in July?" inquired Jack. "Let's have a +fire in the library and eat supper there to-night." + +Bethany shivered. It had been the judge's favorite room in the winter, +on account of its large fireplace, with its queer, old-fashioned tiling. +She rarely went in there except to dust the books or throw herself in +the big arm-chair to cry over the perplexities that he had always +shielded her from so carefully. But Jack insisted, and presently the +flames went leaping up the throat of the wide chimney, filling the room +with comfort and the cheer of genial companionship. + +"Look!" cried Jack, pointing through the window to the bright reflection +of the fire in the garden outside. "Don't you remember what you read me +in 'Snowbound?' + + 'Under the tree, + When fire outdoors burns merrily, + There the witches are making tea.' + +This would be a fine night for witch stories. The wind makes such queer +noises in the chimney. Let's tell 'em after supper, all the awful ones +we can think of, 'specially the Salem ones." + +As usual, Jack's wishes prevailed. Afterward, when Bethany had tucked +him snugly in bed, and was sitting alone by the fire, listening to the +queer noises in the chimney, she wished they had not dwelt so long on +such a grewsome subject. She leaned back in her father's great +arm-chair, with her little slippered feet on the brass fender, and her +soft hair pressed against the velvet cushions. Her white hands were +clasped loosely in her lap; small, helpless looking hands, little fitted +to cope with the burdens and responsibilities laid upon her. + +The judge had never even permitted her to open a door for herself when +he had been near enough to do it for her. But his love had made him +short-sighted. In shielding her so carefully, he did not see that he was +only making her more keenly sensitive to later troubles that must come +when he was no longer with her. Every one was surprised at the course +she determined upon. + +"I supposed, of course," said Mrs. Marion, "that you would try to teach +drawing or watercolors, or something. You have spent so much time on +your art studies, and so thoroughly enjoy that kind of work. Then those +little dinner-cards, and german favors you do, are so beautiful. I am +sure you have any number of friends who would be glad to give you +orders." + +"No, Cousin Ray," answered Bethany decidedly; "I must have something +that brings in a settled income, something that can be depended on. +While I have painted some very acceptable things, I never was cut out +for a teacher. I'd rather not attempt anything in which I can never be +more than third-rate. I've decided to study stenography. I am sure I can +master that, and command a first-class position. I have heard papa +complain a great many times of the difficulty in obtaining a really good +stenographer. Of the hundreds who attempt the work, such a small per +cent are really proficient enough to undertake court reporting." + +"You're just like your father," said Mrs. Marion. "Uncle Richard would +never be anything if he couldn't be uppermost." + +It had been nearly a year since that conversation. Bethany had +persevered in her undertaking until she felt confident that she had +accomplished her purpose. She was ready for any position that offered, +but there seemed to be no vacancies anywhere. The little sum in the bank +was dwindling away with frightful rapidity. She was afraid to encroach +on it any further, but the bills had to be met constantly. + +Presently she drew her chair over to the library table, and spread out +her check-book and memoranda under the student-lamp, to look over the +accounts for the month just ended. Then she made a list of the probable +expenses of the next two months. The contrast between their needs and +their means was appalling. + +"It will take every cent!" she exclaimed, in a distressed whisper. "When +the first of September comes, there will be nothing left but to sell +the old home and go away somewhere to a strange place." + +The prospect of leaving the dear old place, that had grown to seem +almost like a human friend, was the last drop that made the day's cup of +misery overflow. The old doubt came back. + +"I wonder if God really cares for us in a temporal way?" she asked +herself. + +The frightful tales of witchcraft that Jack had been so interested in, +recurred to her. Many of the people who had been so fearfully tortured +and persecuted as witches were Christians. God had not interfered in +their behalf, she told herself. Why should he trouble himself about her? + +She went back to her seat by the fender, and, with her chin resting in +her hand, looked drearily into the embers, as if they could answer the +question. She heard some one come up on the porch and ring the bell. It +was Dr. Trent's quick, imperative summons. + +"Jack in bed?" he asked, in his brisk way, as she ushered him into the +library. "Well, it makes no difference; you know how to adjust the +brace anyway. He will be able to sit up all day with that on." + +He gave an appreciative glance around the cheerful room, and spread his +hands out towards the fire. + +"Ah, that looks comfortable!" he exclaimed, rubbing them together. "I +wish I could stay and enjoy it with you. I have just come in from a long +drive, and must answer another call away out in the country. You'd be +surprised to find how damp and chilly it is out to-night." + +"I venture you never stopped at the boarding-house at all," answered +Bethany, "and that you have not had a mouthful to eat since noon. I am +going to get you something. Yes, I shall," she insisted, in spite of his +protestations. Luckily, Jack wanted the kettle hung on the crane +to-night, so that he could hear it sing as he used to. "The water is +boiling, and you shall have a cup of chocolate in no time." + +Before he could answer, she was out of the room, and beyond the reach of +his remonstrance. He sank into a big chair, and laying his gray head +back on the cushions, wearily closed his eyes. He was almost asleep when +Bethany came back. + +"The fire made me drowsy," he said, apologetically. "I was quite +exhausted by the intense heat of this morning. These sudden changes of +temperature are bad for one." + +"Why, my child!" he exclaimed, seeing the heavy tray she carried, "you +have brought me a regular feast. You ought not to have put yourself to +such trouble for an old codger used to boarding-house fare." + +"All the more reason why you should have a change once in a while," said +Bethany, gayly, as she filled the dainty chocolate-pot. + +The sight of the doctor's face as she entered the room had almost +brought the tears. It looked so worn and haggard. She had not noticed +before how white his hair was growing, or how deeply his face was lined. + +He had been such an intimate friend of her father's that she had grown +up with the feeling that some strong link of kinship certainly existed +between them. She had called him "Uncle Doctor" until she was nearly +grown. He had been so thoughtful and kind during all her troubles, and +especially in Jack's illness, that she longed to show her appreciation +by some of the tender little ministrations of which his life was so +sadly bare. + +"This is what I call solid comfort," he remarked, as he stretched his +feet towards the fire and leisurely sipped his chocolate. "I didn't +realize I was so tired until I sat down, or so hungry until I began to +eat." Then he added, wistfully, "Or how I miss my own fireside until I +feel the cheer of others'." + +The doubts that had been making Bethany miserable all evening, and that +she had forgotten in her efforts to serve her old friend, came back with +renewed force. + +"Does God really care?" she asked herself again. Here was this man, one +of the best she had ever known, left to stumble along under the weight +of a living sorrow, the things he cared for most, denied him. + +"Baxter Trent is one of the world's heroes," she had heard her father +say. + +There were two things he held dearer than life--the honor of the old +family name that had come down to him unspotted through generations, and +his little home-loving wife. For fifteen years he had experienced as +much of the happiness of home-life as a physician with a large practice +can know. Then word came to him from another city that his only brother +had killed a man in a drunken brawl, and then taken his own life, +leaving nothing but the memory of a wild career and a heavy debt. He had +borrowed a large amount from an unsuspecting old aunt, and left her +almost penniless. + +When Dr. Trent recovered from the first shock of the discovery, he +quietly set to work to wipe out the disgraceful record as far as lay in +his power, by assuming the debt. He could eradicate at least that much +of the stain on the family name. It had taken years to do it. Bethany +was not sure that it was yet accomplished, for another trial, worse than +the first, had come to weaken his strength and dispel his courage. + +The idolized little wife became affected by some nervous malady that +resulted in hopeless insanity. + +Bethany had a dim recollection of the doctor's daughter, a little +brown-eyed child of her own age. She could remember playing +hide-and-seek with her one day in an old peony-garden. But she had died +years ago. There was only one other child--Lee. He had grown to be a +big boy of ten now, but he was too young to feel his mother's loss at +the time she was taken away. Bethany knew that she was still living in a +private asylum near town, and that the doctor saw her every day, no +matter how violent she was. Lee was the one bright spot left in his +life. Busy night and day with his patients, he saw very little of the +boy. The child had never known any home but a boarding-house, and was as +lawless and unrestrained as some little wild animal. But the doctor saw +no fault in him. He praised the reports brought home from school of high +per cents in his studies, knowing nothing of his open defiance to +authority. He kissed the innocent-looking face on the pillow next his +own when he came in late at night, never dreaming of the forbidden +places it had been during the day. + +Everybody said, "Poor Baxter Trent! It's a pity that Lee is such a +little terror;" but no one warned him. Perhaps he would not have +believed them if they had. The thought of all this moved Bethany to +sudden speech. + +"Uncle Doctor," she broke out impetuously--she had unconsciously used +the old name--as she sat down on a low stool near his knee, "I was +piling up my troubles to-night before you came. Not the old ones," she +added, quickly, as she saw an expression of sympathy cross his face, +"but the new ones that confront me." + +She gave a mournful little smile. + +"'Coming events cast their shadow before,' you know, and these shadows +look so dark and threatening. I see no possible way but to sell this +home. You have had so much to bear yourself that it seems mean to worry +you with my troubles; but I don't know what to do, and I don't know +what's the matter with me--" + +She stopped abruptly, and choked back a sob. He laid his hand softly on +her shining hair. + +"Tell me all about it, child," he said, in a soothing tone. Then he +added, lightly, "I can't make a diagnosis of the case until I know all +the symptoms." + +When he had heard her little outburst of worry and distrust, he said, +slowly: + +"You have done all in your power to prepare yourself for a position as +stenographer. You have done all you could to secure such a position, and +have been unsuccessful. But you still have a roof over your head, you +still have enough on hands to keep you two months longer without selling +the house or even renting it--an arrangement that has not seemed to +occur to you." He smiled down into her disconsolate face. "It strikes me +that a certain little lass I know has been praying, 'Give us this day +our to-morrow's bread.' O Bethany, child, can you never learn to trust?" + +"But isn't it right for me to be anxious about providing some way to +keep the house?" she cried. "Isn't it right to plan and pray for the +future? You can't realize how it would hurt me to give up this place." + +"I think I can," he answered, gently. "You forget I have been called on +to make just such a sacrifice. You can do it, too, if it is what the +All-wise Father sees is best for you. Folks may not think me much of a +Christian. They rarely see me in Church--my profession does not allow +it. I am not demonstrative. It is hard for me to speak of these sacred +things, unless it is when I see some poor soul about to slip into +eternity; but I thank the good Father I know how to trust. No matter how +he has hurt me, I have been able to hang on to his promises, and say, +'All right, Lord. The case is entirely in your hands. Amputate, if it is +necessary; cut to the very heart, if you will. You know what is best.'" + +He pushed the long tray of dishes farther on the table, and, rising +suddenly, walked over to the book-shelves nearest the chimney. After +several moments' close scrutiny, he took out a well-worn book. + +"Ah, I thought it was here," he remarked. "I want to read you a passage +that caught my eyes in here once. I remember showing it to your father." + +He turned the pages rapidly till he found the place. Then seating +himself by the lamp again, he began to read: + +"It came to my mind a week or two ago, so full an' sweet an' precious +that I can hardly think of anything else. It was during them cold, +northeast winds; these winds had made my cough very bad, an' I was shook +all to bits, and felt very ill. My wife was sitting by my side, an' +once, when I had a sharp fit of it, she put down her work, an' looked at +me till her eyes filled with tears, an' she says, 'Frankie, Frankie, +whatever will become of us when you be gone?' She was making a warm +little petticoat for the little maid; so, after a minute or two, I took +hold of it, an' says, 'What are 'ee making, my dear?' She held it up +without a word; her heart was too full to speak. 'For the little maid?' +I says. 'An' a nice, warm thing, too. How comfortable it will keep her! +Does she know about it yet?' + +"'Know about it? Why, of course not,' said the wife, wondering. 'What +should she know about it for?' + +"I waited another minute, an' then I said: 'What a wonderful mother you +must be, wifie, to think about the little maid like that!' + +"'Wonderful, Frankie? Why, it would be more like wonderful if I forgot +that the cold weather was a-coming, and that the little maid would be +a-wanting something warm.' + +"So, then, you see, I had got her, my friends, and Frankie smiled. 'O +wife,' says I, 'do you think that you be going to take care o' the +little maid like that an' your Father in heaven be a-going to forget you +altogether? Come now (bless him!), isn't he as much to be trusted as you +are! An' do you think that he'd see the winter coming up sharp and cold, +an' not have something waiting for you, an' just what you want, too? +An' I know, dear wifie, that you wouldn't like to hear the little maid +go a-fretting, and saying: "There the cold winter be a-coming, an' +whatever shall I do if my mother should forget me?" Why, you'd be hurt +an' grieved that she should doubt you like that. She knows that you care +for her, an' what more does she need to know? That's enough to keep her +from fretting about anything. "Your heavenly Father knoweth that you +have need of all these things." That be put down in his book for you, +wifie, and on purpose for you; an' you grieve an' hurt him when you go +to fretting about the future, an' doubting his love.'" + +Dr. Trent closed the book, and looked into his listener's thoughtful +eyes. + +"There, Bethany," he said, "is the lesson I have learned. Nothing is +withheld that we really need. Sometimes I have thought that I was tried +beyond my power of endurance, but when His hand has fallen the heaviest, +His infinite fatherliness has seemed most near; and often, when I least +expected it, some great blessing has surprised me. I have learned, after +a long time, that when we put ourselves unreservedly in His hands, he +is far kinder to us than we would be to ourselves. + + 'Always hath the daylight broken, + Always hath he comfort spoken, + Better hath he been for years + Than my fears.' + +I can say from the bottom of my heart, Bethany, Though he slay me, yet +will I trust him." + +The tears had gathered in Bethany's eyes as she listened. Now she +hastily brushed them aside. The face that she turned toward her old +friend reminded him of a snowdrop that had caught a gleam of sunshine in +the midst of an April shower. + +"You have brushed away my last doubt and foreboding, Uncle Doctor!" she +exclaimed. "Really, I have been entertaining an angel unawares." + +The old clock in the hall sounded the half-hour chime, and he rose to +go. + +"You have beguiled me into staying much longer than I intended," he +answered. "What will my poor patients in the country think of such a +long delay?" + +"Tell them you have been opening blind eyes," she said, gravely. +"Indeed, Uncle Doctor, the knowledge that, despite all you have +suffered, you can still trust so implicitly, strengthens my faith more +than you can imagine." + +At the hall door he turned and took both her hands in his: + +"There is another thing to remember," he said. "You are only called on +to live one day at a time. One can endure almost any ache until sundown, +or bear up under almost any load if the goal is in sight. Travel only to +the mile-post you can see, my little maid. Don't worry about the ones +that mark the to-morrows." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +TWO TURNINGS IN BETHANY'S LANE. + + "Sunshine and hope are comrades." + + +THE early morning light streaming into Bethany's room, aroused her to a +vague consciousness of having been in a storm the night before. Then she +remembered the garden roses beaten to earth by the hail, and the flood +of doubt and perplexity that had swept through her heart with such +overwhelming force. The same old problems confronted her; but they did +not assume such gigantic proportions in the light of this new day, with +its infinite possibilities. + +All the time she was dressing she heard Jack singing lustily in the next +room. He was impatient to try the new brace, and paused between solos to +exhort her to greater haste. She knelt just an instant by the low +window-seat. The prayer she made was one of the shortest she had ever +uttered, and one of the most heartfelt: "Give me this day my daily +bread." That was all; yet it included everything--strength, courage, +temporal help, disappointments or blessings--anything the dear Father +saw she needed in her spiritual growth. When she arose from her knees, +it was with a feeling of perfect security and peace. No matter what the +day might bring forth, she would take it trustingly, and be thankful. + +About an hour after breakfast she wheeled Jack to a front window. It was +growing very warm again. + +"It doesn't hurt me at all to sit up with this brace on," he said. "If +you like, I'll help you practice, while I watch people go by on the +street." He had often helped her gain stenographic speed by dictating +rapid sentences. He read too slowly to be of any service that way, but +he knew yards of nursery rhymes that he could repeat with amazing +rapidity. + +"I know there isn't a lawyer living that can make a speech as fast as I +can say the piece about 'Who killed Cock Robin,'" he remarked when he +first proposed such dictation; "and I can say the 'Peter Piper picked a +peck of pickled peppers' verse fast enough to make you dizzy." + +Bethany's pencil was flying as rapidly as the boy's tongue, when they +heard a cheery voice in the hall. + +"It's Cousin Ray!" cried Jack. "I have felt all morning that something +nice was going to happen, and now it has." Then he called out in a +tragic tone, "'By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way +comes.'" + +"You saucy boy!" laughed Mrs. Marion, as she appeared in the doorway. "I +think he is decidedly better, Bethany; you need not worry about him any +longer." + +She stooped to kiss his forehead, and drop a great yellow pear in his +lap. + +"No; I haven't time to stay," she said, when Bethany insisted on taking +her hat. "I am to entertain the Missionary Society this afternoon, and +Dr. Bascom has given me an unusually long list of the 'sick and in +prison' kind to look after this month. It gives me an 'all out of +breath' sensation every time I think of all that ought to be attended +to." + +She dropped into a chair near a window, and picked up a fan. + +"You never could guess my errand," she began, hesitatingly. + +"I know it is something nice," said Jack, "from the way your eyes +shine." + +"I think it is fine," she answered; "but I don't know how it will +impress Bethany." + +She plunged into the subject abruptly. + +"The Courtney sisters want to come here to live." + +"The Courtney sisters!" echoed Bethany, blankly. "To live! In our house? +O Cousin Ray! I have realized for some time that we might have to give +up the dear old place; but I did hope that it need not be to strangers." + +"Why, they are not strangers, Bethany. They went to school with your +mother for years and years. You have heard of Harry and Carrie Morse, I +am sure." + +"O yes," answered Bethany, quickly. "They were the twins who used to do +such outlandish things at Forest Seminary. I remember, mamma used to +speak of them very often. But I thought you said it was the Courtney +sisters who wanted the house." + +"I did. They married brothers, Joe and Ralph Courtney, who were both +killed in the late war. They have been widows for over thirty years, +you see. They are just the dearest old souls! They have been away so +many, many years, of course you can't remember them. I did not know they +were in the city until last night. But just as soon as I heard that they +had come to stay, and wanted to go to housekeeping, I thought of you +immediately. I couldn't wait for the storm to stop. I went over to see +them in all that rain." + +"Well," prompted Bethany, breathlessly, as Mrs. Marion paused. + +She gave a quick glance around the room. She felt sick and faint, now +that the prospect of leaving stared her in the face. Yet she felt that, +since it had been unsolicited, there must be something providential in +the sending of such an opportunity. + +"O, they will be only too glad to come," resumed Mrs. Marion, "if you +are willing. They remembered the arrangement of the house perfectly, and +we planned it all out beautifully. Since Jack's accident you sleep +down-stairs anyhow. You could keep the library and the two smaller rooms +back of it, and may be a couple of rooms up-stairs. They would take the +rest of the house, and board you and Jack for the rent. Your bread and +butter would be assured in that way. They are model housekeepers, and +such a comfortable sort of bodies to have around, that I couldn't +possibly think of a nicer arrangement. Then you could devote your time +and strength to something more profitable than taking care of this big +house." + +"O, Cousin Ray!" was all the happy girl could gasp. Her voice faltered +from sheer gladness. "You can't imagine what a load you have lifted from +me. I love every inch of this place, every stone in its old gray walls. +I couldn't bear to think of giving it up. And, just to think! last +night, at the very time I was most despondent, the problem was being +solved. I can never thank you enough." + +"The idea!" exclaimed Mrs. Marion, as she rose to go. "No thanks are due +me, child. And Miss Caroline and Miss Harriet, as everybody still calls +them, are just as anxious for such an arrangement as you can possibly +be. They'll be over to see you to-morrow, for they are quite anxious to +get settled. They have roamed about the world so long they begin to feel +that 'there's no place like home.' Jack, they've been in China and +Africa and the South Sea Islands. Think of the charming tales in store +for you!" + +"Goodness, Bethany!" exclaimed Jack, when she came back into the room +after walking to the gate with Mrs. Marion. "Your face shines as if +there was a light inside of you." + +"O, there is, Jackie boy," she answered, giving him an ecstatic hug. "I +am so very happy! It seems too good to be true." + +"Cousin Ray is awful good to us," remarked the boy, thoughtfully. "Seems +to me she is always busy doing something for somebody. She never has a +minute for herself. I remember, when I used to go up there, people kept +coming all day long, and every one of them wanted something. Why do you +suppose they all went to her? Did she tell them they might?" + +"Jack, do you remember the plant you had in your window last winter?" +she replied. "No matter how many times I turned the jar that held it, +the flower always turned around again towards the sun. People are the +same way, dear. They unconsciously spread out their leaves towards those +who have help and comfort to give. They feel they are welcome, without +asking." + +"She makes me think of that verse in 'Mother Goose,'" said Jack. "'Sugar +and spice and everything nice.' Doesn't she you, sister?" + +"No," said Bethany, with an amused smile. "Lowell has described her: + + 'So circled lives she with love's holy light, + That from the shade of self she walketh free.'" + +"I don't 'zactly understand," said Jack, with a puzzled expression. + +She explained it, and he repeated it over and over, until he had it +firmly fixed in his mind. + +Then they went back to the dictation exercises. It was almost dark when +they had another caller. Mr. Marion stopped at the door on his way home +to dinner. + +"I have good news for you, Bethany," he said, with his face aglow with +eager sympathy. "Did Ray tell you?" + +"About the house?" she said. "Yes. I've been on a mountain-top all day +because of it." + +"O, I don't mean that!" he exclaimed, hastily. "It's better than that. I +mean about Porter & Edmunds." + +"I don't see how anything could be better than the news she brought," +said Bethany. + +"Well, it is. Mr. Porter asked me to see their new law-office to-day. +They have just moved into the Clifton Block. They have an elegant place. +As I looked around, making mental notes of all the fine furnishings, I +thought of you, and wished you had such a position. I asked him if he +needed a stenographer. It was a random shot, for I had no idea they did. +The young man they have has been there so long, I considered him a +fixture. To my surprise he told me the fellow is going into business for +himself, and the place will be open next week. I told him I could fill +it for him to his supreme satisfaction. He promised to give you the +refusal of it until to-morrow noon. I leave to-night on a business-trip, +or I would take you over and introduce you." + +"O, thank you, Cousin Frank!" she exclaimed. "I know Mr. Edmunds very +well. He was a warm friend of papa's." + +Then she added, impulsively: + +"Yesterday I thought I had come to such a dark place that I couldn't see +my hand before my face. I was just so blue and discouraged I was ready +to give up, and now the way has grown so plain and easy, all at once, I +feel that I must be living in a dream." + +"Bless your brave little soul!" he exclaimed, holding out his hand. "Why +didn't you come to me with your troubles? Remember I am always glad to +smooth the way for you, just as much as lies in my power." + +When he had gone, Bethany crept away into the quiet twilight of the +library, and, kneeling before the big arm-chair, laid her head in its +cushioned seat. + +"O Father," she whispered, "I am so ashamed of myself to think I ever +doubted thee for one single moment. Forgive me, please, and help me +through every hour of every day to trust unfalteringly in thy great love +and goodness." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +JUDGE HALLAM'S DAUGHTER, STENOGRAPHER. + + +THERE was so much to be done next morning, setting the rooms all in +order for the critical inspection of Miss Caroline and Miss Harriet, +that Bethany had little time to think of the dreaded interview with +Porter & Edmunds. + +She wheeled Jack out into the shady, vine-covered piazza, and brought +him a pile of things for him to amuse himself with in her absence. + +"Ring your bell for Mena if you need anything else," she said. "I will +be back before the sun gets around to this side of the house, maybe in +less than an hour." + +He caught at her dress with a detaining grasp, and a troubled look came +over his face. + +"O sister! I just thought of it. If you do get that place, will I have +to stay here all day by myself?" + +"O no," she answered. "Mena can wheel you around the garden, and wait +on you; and I will think of all sorts of things to keep you busy. Then +the old ladies will be here, and I am sure they will be kind to you. +I'll be home at noon, and we'll have lovely long evenings together." + +"But if those people come, Mena will have so much more to do, she'll +never have any time to wheel me. Couldn't you take me with you?" he +asked, wistfully. "I wouldn't be a bit of bother. I'd take my books and +study, or look out of the window all the time, and keep just as quiet! +Please ask 'em if I can't come too, sister!" + +It was hard to resist the pleading tone. + +"Maybe they'll not want me," answered Bethany. "I'll have to settle that +matter before making any promises. But never mind, dear, we'll arrange +it in some way." + +It was a warm July morning. As Bethany walked slowly toward the business +portion of the town, several groups of girls passed her, evidently on +their way to work, from the few words she overheard in passing. Most of +them looked tired and languid, as if the daily routine of such a +treadmill existence was slowly draining their vitality. Two or three +had a pert, bold air, that their contact with business life had given +them. One was chewing gum and repeating in a loud voice some +conversation she had had with her "boss." + +Bethany's heart sank as she suddenly realized that she was about to join +the great working-class of which this ill-bred girl was a member. Not +that she had any of the false pride that pushes a woman who is an +independent wage-winner to a lower social scale than one whom +circumstances have happily hedged about with home walls; but she had +recalled at that moment some of her acquaintances who would do just such +a thing. In their short-sighted, self-assumed superiority, they could +make no discrimination between the girl at the cigar-stand, who flirted +with her customer, and the girl in the school-room, who taught her +pupils more from her inherent refinement and gentleness than from their +text-books. + +She had remembered that Belle Romney had said to her one day, as they +drove past a great factory where the girls were swarming out at noon: +"Do you know, Bethany dear, I would rather lie down and die than have +to work in such a place. You can't imagine what a horror I have of +being obliged to work for a living, no matter in what way. I would feel +utterly disgraced to come down to such a thing; but I suppose these poor +creatures are so accustomed to it they never mind it." + +Bethany's eyes blazed. She knew Belle Romney's position was due entirely +to the tolerance of a distant relative. She longed to answer vehemently: +"Well, I would starve before I would deliberately sit down to be a +willing dependent on the charity of my friends. It's only a species of +genteel pauperism, and none the less despicable because of the purple +and fine linen it flaunts in." + +She had not made the speech, however. Belle leaned back in the carriage, +and folded her daintily-gloved hands, as they passed the factory-girls, +with an air of complacency that amused Bethany then. It nettled her now +to remember it. + +She turned into the street where the Clifton Block stood, an imposing +building, whose first two floors were occupied by lawyers' offices. +Porter & Edmunds were on the second floor. The elevator-boy showed her +the room. The door stood open, exposing an inviting interior, for the +walls were lined with books, and the rugs and massive furniture bespoke +taste as well as wealth. + +An elderly gentleman, with his heels on the window-sill and his back to +the door, was vigorously smoking. He was waiting for a backwoods client, +who had an early engagement. His feet came to the floor with sudden +force, and his cigar was tossed hastily out of the window when he heard +Bethany's voice saying, timidly, + +"May I come in, Mr. Edmunds?" + +He came forward with old-school gallantry. It was not often his office +was brightened by such a visitor. + +"Why, it is Miss Hallam!" he exclaimed, in surprise, secretly wondering +what had brought her to his office. + +He had met her often in her father's house, and had seen her the center +of many an admiring group at parties and receptions. She had always +impressed him as having the air of one who had been surrounded by only +the most refined influences of life. He thought her unusually charming +this morning, all in black, with such a timid, almost childish +expression in her big, gray eyes. + +"Take this seat by the window, Miss Hallam," he said, cordially. "I hope +this cigar smoke does not annoy you. I had no idea I should have the +honor of entertaining a lady, or I should not have indulged." + +"Didn't Mr. Marion tell you I was coming this morning?" asked Bethany, +in some embarrassment. + +"No, not a word. I believe he said something to Mr. Porter about a +typewriter-girl that wants a place, but I am sure he never mentioned +that you intended doing us the honor of calling." + +Bethany smiled faintly. + +"I am the typewriter-girl that wants the place," she answered. + +"You!" ejaculated Mr. Edmunds, standing up in his surprise, and +beginning to stutter as he always did when much excited. "You! +w'y-w'y-w'y, you don't say so!" he finally managed to blurt out. + +"What is it that is so astonishing?" asked Bethany, beginning to be +amused. "Do you think it is presumptuous in me to aspire to such a +position? I assure you I have a very fair speed." + +"No," answered Mr. Edmunds, "it's not that; but I never any more thought +of your going out in the world to make a living than a-a-a pet canary," +he added, in confusion. + +He seated himself again, and began tapping on the table with a +paper-knife. + +"Can't you paint, or give music lessons, or teach French?" he asked, +half impatiently. "A girl brought up as you have been has no business +jostling up against the world, especially the part of a world one sees +in the court-room." + +Bethany looked at him gravely. + +"Yes," she answered, "I can do all those things after a fashion, but +none of them well enough to measure up to my standard of proficiency, +which is a high one. I do understand stenography, and I am confident I +can do thorough, first-class work. I think, too, Mr. Edmunds, that it is +a mistaken idea that the girl who has had the most sheltered home-life +is the one least fitted to go into such places. Papa used to say we are +like the planets; we carry our own atmosphere with us. I am sure one may +carry the same personality into a reporter's stand that she would into +a drawing-room. We need not necessarily change with our surroundings." + +As she spoke, a slight tinge of pink flushed her cheeks, and she +unconsciously raised her chin a trifle haughtily. Mr. Edmunds looked at +her admiringly, and then made a gallant bow. + +"I am sure, Miss Hallam would grace any position she might choose to +fill," he said courteously. + +"Then you will let me try," she asked, eagerly. She slipped off her +glove, and took pencil and paper from the table. "If you will only test +my speed, maybe you can make a decision sooner." + +He dictated several pages, which she wrote to his entire satisfaction. + +"You are not half as rapid as Jack," she said, laughingly; and then she +told him of the practice she had had writing nursery rhymes. + +He seemed so interested that she went on to tell him more about the +child, and his great desire to be in the office with her. + +"I told him I would ask you," she said, finally; "but that it was a very +unusual thing to do, and that I doubted very much if any business firm +would allow it." + +He saw how hard it had been for her to prefer such a request, and smiled +reassuringly. + +"It would be a very small thing for me to do for Richard Hallam's boy," +he said. "Tell the little fellow to come, and welcome. He need not be in +any one's way. We have three rooms in this suite, and you will occupy +the one at the far end." + +It was hard for Bethany to keep back the tears. + +"I can never thank you enough, Mr. Edmunds," she said. "The legacy papa +thought he had secured to us was swept away, but he has left us one +thing that more than compensates--the heritage of his friendships. I +have been finding out lately what a great thing it is to be rich in +friends." + +Bethany went home jubilant. "Now if my twin tenants turn out to be half +as nice," she thought, "this will be a very satisfactory day." + +She tried to picture them, as she walked rapidly on, wondering whether +they would be prim and dignified, or nervous and fussy. Mrs. Marion had +said they were fine housekeepers. That might mean they were exacting and +hard to please. + +"What's the use of borrowing trouble?" she concluded, finally. "I'll +take Uncle Doctor's advice, and not try to count to-morrow's +milestones." + +She found them sitting on the side piazza, being abundantly entertained +by Jack. + +"Sister!" he called, excitedly, as she came up the steps to meet them; +"this one is Aunt Harry--that's what she told me to call her--and the +other one is Aunt Carrie; and they've both been around the world +together, and both ridden on elephants." + +There was a general laugh at the unceremonious introduction. + +Miss Caroline took Bethany's hands in her own little plump ones, and +stood on tiptoe to give her a hearty kiss. Miss Harriet did the same, +holding her a moment longer to look at her with fond scrutiny. + +"Such a striking resemblance to your dear mother," she said. "Sister and +I hoped you would look like her." + +"They are homely little bodies, and dreadfully old-fashioned," was +Bethany's first impression, as she looked at them in their plain dresses +of Quaker gray. "But their voices are so musical, and they have such +good, motherly faces, I believe they will prove to be real restful kind +of people." + +"Sister and I have been such birds of passage, that it will seem good to +settle down in a real home-nest for a while," said Miss Harriet, as they +were going over the house together. + +"When one has lived in a trunk for a decade, one appreciates big, roomy +closets and wardrobes like these." + +They went all over the place, from garret to cellar, and sat down to +rest beside an open window, where a climbing rose shook its fragrance in +with every passing breeze. + +"Mrs. Marion thought you might not be ready for us before next week," +sighed Miss Caroline; "but these cool, airy rooms do tempt me so. I wish +we could come this very afternoon." She smiled insinuatingly at Bethany. +"We have nothing to move but our trunks." + +"Well, why not?" answered Bethany. "I shall be glad to surrender the +reins any time you want to assume the responsibility." + +"Then it's settled!" cried Miss Caroline, exultingly. "O, I'm so glad!" +and, catching Miss Harriet around her capacious waist, she whirled her +around the room, regardless of her protestations, until their spectacles +slid down their noses, and they were out of breath. + +Bethany watched them in speechless amazement. Miss Caroline turned in +time to catch her expression of alarm. + +"Did you think we had lost our senses, dear?" she asked. "We do not +often forget our dignity so; but we have been so long like Noah's dove, +with no rest for the sole of our foot, that the thought of having at +last found an abiding-place is really overwhelming." + +"I wish you wouldn't always say 'we,'" remarked Miss Harriet, with +dignity. "I am very sure I have outgrown such ridiculous exhibitions of +enthusiasm, and it is fully time that you had too." + +"O, come now, Harry," responded Miss Caroline, soothingly. "You're just +as glad as I am, and there's no use in trying to hide our real selves +from people we are going to live with." + +Then she turned to Bethany with an apologetic air. + +"Sister thinks because we have arrived at a certain date on our +calendar, we must conform to that date. But, try as hard as I can, I +fail to feel any older sometimes than I used to at Forest Seminary, when +we made midnight raids on the pantry, and had all sorts of larks. I +suppose it does look ridiculous, and I'm sorry; but I can't grow old +gracefully, so long as I am just as ready to effervesce as I ever was." + +Bethany was amused at the half-reproachful, half-indulgent look that +Miss Harriet bestowed on her sister. + +"They'll be a constant source of entertainment," she thought. "I wonder +how we ever happened to drift together." + +Something of the last thought she expressed in a remark to the sisters +as they went down stairs together. + +"Indeed, we did not drift!" exclaimed Miss Caroline, decidedly. "You +needed us, and we needed you, and the great Weaver crossed our +life-threads for some purpose of his own." + +By nightfall the sisters had taken their places in the old house, as +quietly and naturally as twin turtle-doves tuck their heads under their +wings in the shelter of a nest. Their presence in the house gave Bethany +such a care-free, restful feeling, and a sense of security that she had +not had since she had been left at the head of affairs. + +After Jack had gone to bed, she drew a rocking-chair out into the wide +hall, and sat down to enjoy the cool breeze that swept through it. + +Miss Caroline was down in the kitchen, interviewing Mena about +breakfast. How delightful it was to be freed from all responsibility of +the meals and the marketing! After the next week she would not have even +the rooms to attend to, for Miss Caroline had engaged a stout maid to do +the housework, that Bethany's inexperienced hands had found so irksome. + +Up-stairs, Miss Harriet was stepping briskly around, unpacking one of +the trunks. Bethany could hear her singing to herself in a thin, sweet +voice, full of old-fashioned quavers and turns. Some of the notes were +muffled as she disappeared from time to time in the big closet, and +some came with jerky force as she tugged at a refractory bureau drawer. + + "Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, + The clouds ye so much dread + Are big with mercy, and shall break + In blessings on your head." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +A KINDLING INTEREST. + + +FRANK Marion, on his way to the store one morning, stopped at the office +where Bethany had been installed just a week. + +"You will find me dropping in here quite often," he said to Mr. Edmunds, +whom he met coming out of the door. "Since that little cousin of mine is +never to be found at home in the day-time any more, I shall have to call +on him here. He is my right-hand man in Junior League work." + +"Who? Jack?" inquired Mr. Edmunds. "He's the most original little piece +I ever saw. Sorry I'm called out just now, Frank. You're always welcome, +you know." + +Bethany was seated at her typewriter, so intent on her manuscript that +she did not notice Mr. Marion's entrance. Jack, in his chair by the +window, was working vigorously with slate and pencil at an arithmetic +lesson. As Bethany paused to take the finished page from the machine, +Jack looked up and saw Mr. Marion's tall form in the doorway. + +"O, come in!" he cried, joyfully. "I want you to see how nice everything +is here. We have the best times." + +Mr. Marion looked across at Bethany, and smiled at the child's delight. + +"Tell me about it," he said, drawing a chair up to the window, and +entering into the boy's pleasure with that ready sympathy that was the +secret of his success with all children. + +"Well, you see, Bethany wheels me onto the elevator, and up we come. And +it's so nice and cool up here. She hasn't been very busy yet. While she +writes I get my lessons, or draw, or work puzzles. Then, when Mr. +Edmunds and Mr. Porter go off, and she hasn't anything to do, I recite +to her. But the best fun is grocery tales." + +"What's 'grocery tales?'" asked Mr. Marion, with flattering interest. + +"Do you see that wholesale grocery-store across the street?" asked Jack, +"and all the things sitting around in front? There's almost everything +you can think of, from a broom to a banana. I choose the first thing I +happen to look at, and she tells me a story about it. If it's a +tea-chest, that makes her think of a Chinese story; or if it's a bottle +of olives, something about the knights and ladies of Spain. Yesterday it +was a chicken-coop, and she told me about a lovely visit she had once on +a farm. She says when we come to that coil of rope, it will remind her +of a storm she was in on the Mediterranean; and the coffee means a South +American story; and the watermelons a darkey story; and the brooms +something she read once about an old, blind broom-maker. Then I have +lots of fun watching people pass. So many teams stop at the +watering-trough over there. I like to wonder where everybody comes from, +and imagine what their homes are like. It is almost as good as reading +about them in a book." + +"You are a very happy little fellow," said Mr. Marion, patting his +cheek, approvingly. "I am glad you are getting strong so fast, so that +you can go out into this big, discontented world of ours, and teach +other people how to be happy. I've brought you some more work to do. I +want you to look up all these references, and copy them on separate +slips of paper for our next meeting. By the way, Bethany," he said, as +he rose to go, "I had a letter from our Chattanooga Jew this morning. He +is as much in earnest as ever. I wish we could get our League interested +in him and his mission." + +"It is a very unpopular movement, Cousin Frank," she answered. "Think of +the prejudices to overcome. How little the general membership of the +Church know or care about the Jews! It seems almost impossible to combat +such indifference. Carlyle says, 'Every noble work is at first +impossible.'" + +"Ah, Bethany," he answered, "and Paul says: 'I can do all things through +Christ who strengthened me.' I can't get away from the feeling that God +wants me to take some forward step in the matter. Every paper I pick up +seems to call my attention to it in some way. All the time in my +business I am brought in contact with Jews who want to talk to me about +my religion. They introduce the subject themselves. Ray and I have been +reading Graetz's history lately. I declare it's a puzzle to me how any +one can read an account of all the race endured at the hands of the +Christianity of the Middle Ages, and not be more lenient toward them. +Pharaoh's cruelties were not a tithe of what was dealt out to them in +the name of the gentle Nazarene. No wonder their children were taught to +spit at the mention of such a name." + +"O, is that history as bad as 'Fox's Book of Martyrs?'" asked Jack, +eagerly. "We've got that at home, with the awfullest black and yellow +pictures in it of people being burned to death and tortured. I hope, if +it is as interesting, sister will read it out loud." + +Bethany made such a grimace of remonstrance that Mr. Marion laughed. + +"I'll send the books over to-morrow. You'll not care to read all five +volumes, Jack; but Bethany can select the parts that will interest you +most." + +Jack's tenacious memory brought the subject up again that evening at the +table. + +"Aunt Harry," he asked, abruptly, pausing in the act of helping himself +to sugar, "do you like the Jews?" + +"Why, no, child," she said, hesitatingly. "I can't say that I take any +special interest in them, one way or another. To tell the truth, I've +never known any personally." + +"Would you like to know more about them?" he asked, with childish +persistence. "'Cause Bethany's going to read to me about them when +Cousin Frank sends the books over, and you can listen if you like." + +"Anything that Bethany reads we shall be glad to hear," answered Miss +Harriet. "At first sister and I thought we would not intrude on you in +the evenings; but the library does look so inviting, and it is so dull +for us to sit with just our knitting-work, since we have stopped reading +by lamp-light, that we can not resist the temptation to go in whenever +she begins to read aloud." + +"O, you're home-folks," said Jack. + +Bethany had excused herself before this conversation commenced, and was +in the library, opening the mail Miss Caroline had forgotten to give her +at noon. When the others joined her, she held up a little pamphlet she +had just opened. + +"Look, Jack! It is from Mr. Lessing, from Chattanooga. It is an article +on 'What shall become of the Jew?' I suppose it is written by one of +them, at least his name would indicate it--Leo N. Levi. It will be +interesting to look at that question from their standpoint." + +"Will I like it?" asked Jack. + +"No, I think not," she answered, after a rapid glance through its pages. +"We'll have some more of the 'Bonnie Brier-Bush' to-night, and save this +until you are asleep." + +Bethany read well, and excelled in Scotch dialect. When she laid down +the book after the story of "A Doctor of the Old School," she saw a big +tear splash down on Miss Harriet's knitting-work, and Miss Caroline was +furtively wiping her spectacles. + +"Leave the door open," called Jack, when he had been tucked away for the +night. "Then I can listen if it's nice, or go to sleep if it's dull." + +"Do you really care to hear this?" asked Bethany, picking up the +pamphlet. + +"Yes," said Miss Caroline, with several emphatic nods. "I'll own I am +very ignorant on the subject; and after something so highly entertaining +as these sweet Scotch tales, it's no more than right that we should take +something improving." + +"O sister," called Jack's voice from the next room, "you never told +them about Mr. Lessing, did you?" + +"No," answered Bethany. "I never told them any of my Chattanooga +experiences. Maybe it would be better to begin with them, and then you +can understand how I happened to become so interested in the Hebrew +people. The pamphlet can wait until another time." + +She tossed it back on the table, and settled herself comfortably in a +big chair. + +"I'll begin at the beginning," she said, "and tell you how I was +persuaded into going, and how strangely events linked into each other." + +"Can't you just see it all?" murmured Miss Caroline, as Bethany drew a +graphic picture of the mountain outlook, the sunrise, and the crowded +tent. When she came to Lessing's story, Miss Harriet dropped her work in +her lap, and Miss Caroline leaned forward in her chair. + +"Dear! dear! It sounds like a chapter out of a romance!" exclaimed Miss +Caroline, when Bethany had finished. "That part about the mother's curse +and being buried in effigy makes me think of the novels that we used to +smuggle into our rooms at school. I wish you could go on and give us +the next chapter. It is intensely interesting." + +"Ah, the next chapter," replied Bethany, sadly. "I thought of that at +the time. What can it be but the daily repetition of commonplace events? +He will simply go on to the end in a routine of study and work. He will +preach to whatever audiences he can gather around him. That is all the +world will see. The other part of it, the burden of loneliness laid upon +him because of Jewish scorn and Christian distrust, the soul-struggles, +the spiritual victories, the silent heroism, will be unwritten and +unapplauded, because unseen." + +"I don't wonder you are interested," said Miss Harriet. "Would you +believe it, I don't know the difference between an orthodox and a reform +Jew? I think I shall look it up to-morrow in the encyclopedia." + +She picked up the little pamphlet, and opened at random. + +"Here is a marked paragraph," she said. "'The Jew is everywhere in +evidence. He sells vodki in Russia; he matches his cunning against +Moslem and Greek in Turkey; he fights for existence and endures +martyrdom in the Balkan provinces; he crowds the professions, the arts, +the market-place, the bourse, and the army, in France, England, Austria, +and Germany. He has invaded every calling in America, and everywhere he +is seen; and, what is more to the point, he is felt. He runs through the +entire length of history, as a thin but well-defined line, touched by +the high lights of great events at almost every point.'" + +"Where did we leave off with him, sister?" she asked, turning to Miss +Caroline. "Wasn't it at the destruction of the temple, somewhere in the +neighborhood of 70 A. D.? We shall have to trace that line back a +considerable distance, I am thinking, if we would know anything on the +subject." + +"Let's trace it then," said Miss Caroline, with her usual alacrity. + +Several evenings after, when Bethany came home from the office, she +found a new book on the table, with Miss Caroline's name on the +fly-leaf. It was "The Children of the Ghetto." + +"I bought it this afternoon," she explained, a little nervously. "It is +one of Zangwill's. The clerk at the bookstore told me he is called the +Jewish Dickens, and that it is very interesting. Of course, I am no +critic, but it looked interesting, and I thought you might not mind +reading it aloud. Several sentences caught my eye that made me think it +might be as entertaining as 'Old Curiosity Shop,' or 'Oliver Twist.'" + +Bethany rapidly scanned several pages. "I believe it is the very thing +to give us an insight into the later day customs and beliefs of the +masses." + +She read the headings of several of the chapters aloud, and a sentence +here and there. + +"Listen to this!" she exclaimed. "'We are proud and happy in that the +dread unknown God of the infinite universe has chosen our race as the +medium by which to reveal his will to the world. History testifies that +this has verily been our mission, that we have taught the world religion +as truly as Greece has taught beauty and science. Our miraculous +survival through the cataclysms of ancient and modern dynasties is a +proof that our mission is not yet over.'" + +"O, I thought it was going to be a story!" exclaimed Jack, in a +disappointed tone. + +"It is, dear," answered Bethany. "You can understand part, and I will +explain the rest." + +So it came about that, after the Scotch tales were laid aside, the +little group in the library nightly turned their sympathies toward the +children of the London Ghetto, as it existed in the early days of the +century. + +"I can never feel the same towards them again," said Miss Caroline, the +night they finished the book. "I understand them so much better. It is +just as the proem says: 'People who have been living in a ghetto for a +couple of centuries are not able to step outside merely because the +gates are thrown down, nor to efface the brands on their souls by +putting off the yellow badges. Their faults are bred of its hovering +miasma of persecution.'" + +"Yes," answered Bethany, "I am glad he has given us such a diversity of +types. You know that article that Mr. Lessing sent me says: 'No people +can be fairly judged by its superlatives. It would be silly to judge all +the Chinese by Confucius, or all the Americans by Benedict Arnold. If +the Jews squirm and indignantly protest against Shylock and Fagin and +Svengali, they must be consistent, and not claim as types Scott's +Rebecca and Lessing's Nathan the Wise.' Now, Zangwill has given us a +glimpse of all sorts of people--the 'pots and pans' of material +Judaism, as well as the altar-fires of its most spiritual idealists. I +hope you'll go on another investigating tour, Miss Caroline, and bring +home something else as instructive." + +But before Miss Caroline found time to go on another voyage of discovery +among the book-stores, something happened at the office that gave a +deeper interest to their future investigations. + +Mr. Edmunds sat at the table a few minutes longer than usual, one +morning after he had finished dictating his letters, to say: "We are +about to make some changes in the office, Miss Hallam. Mr. Porter has +decided to go abroad for a while. Family matters may keep him there +possibly a year. During his absence it is necessary to have some one in +his place; and, after mature deliberation, we have decided to take in a +young lawyer who has two points decidedly in his favor. He has marked +ability, and he will attract a wealthy class of clients. He is a young +Jew, a protege of Rabbi Barthold's. Personally, I have the highest +respect for him, although Mr. Porter is a little prejudiced against him +on account of his nationality. I wondered if you shared that feeling." + +"No, indeed!" answered Bethany, quickly. "I have been greatly interested +in studying their history this summer." + +"Well, I have never given their past much thought," responded Mr. +Edmunds; "but their relation to the business world has recently +attracted my attention. It is wonderful to me the way they are filling +up the positions of honor and trust all over the world. Statistics show +such a large proportion of them have acquired wealth and prominence. +Still, it is only what we ought to expect, when we remember their +characteristics. They have such 'mental agility,' such power of adapting +themselves to circumstances, and such a resistless energy. Maybe I +should put their temperate habits first, for I can not remember ever +seeing a Jew intoxicated; and as to industry, the records of our county +poor-house show that in all the seventy years of its existence, it has +never had a Jewish inmate. People with such qualities are like cream, +bound to rise to the top, no matter what kind of a vessel they are +poured into." + +"Who is this young man?" asked Bethany, coming back to the first +subject. + +"David Herschel," responded Mr. Edmunds. "You may have met him." + +"David Herschel!" repeated Bethany, incredulously. She caught her breath +in surprise. Was there to be a deliberate crossing of life-threads here, +or had she been caught in some tangle of chance? Maybe this was the +opportunity she had prayed for that morning when she had listened to +Lessing's story, and caught the inspiration of his consecrated life. + +A feeling of awe crept over her, that a human voice could so reach the +ear of the Infinite, and draw down an answer to its petition. She was +almost frightened at the thought of the responsibility such an answer +laid upon her. O, the childishness with which we beat against the +portals as we importune high Heaven for opportunities, and then shrink +back when the Almighty hands them out to us, afraid to take and use what +we have most cried for! + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +A JUNIOR TAKES IT IN HAND. + + +IT was a sultry morning in August when David Herschel took his place in +the law-office of Porter & Edmunds. + +The sun beat against the tall buildings until the radiated heat of the +streets was sickening in its intensity. Clerks went to their work with +pale faces and languid movements. Everything had a wilted look, and the +watering-carts left a steam rising in their trail, almost as +disagreeable as the clouds of dust had been before. + +Miss Caroline had insisted on Jack's remaining at home, and Bethany's +wearing a thin white dress in place of her customary suit of heavy +black. They had both protested, but as Bethany went slowly towards the +office she was glad that the sensible old lady had carried her point. + +To shorten the distance, she passed through one of the poorer streets of +the town. Disagreeable odors, suggestive of late breakfasts, floated +out from steamy kitchens. Neglected, half-dressed children cried on the +doorsteps and quarreled in the gutters. + +A great longing came over Bethany for a breath from wide, fresh fields, +or green, shady woodlands. This was the first summer she had ever passed +in the city. August had always been associated in her mind with the wind +in the pine woods, or the sound of the sea on some rocky coast. It +recalled the musical drip of the waterfalls trickling down high banks of +thickly-growing ferns. It brought back the breath of clover-fields and +the mint in hillside pastures. + +A strong repugnance to her work seized her. She felt that she could not +possibly bear to go back to the routine of the office and the monotonous +click of her typewriter. The longer she thought of those old care-free +summers, the more she chafed at the confinement of the present one. + +She sighed wearily as she reached the entrance of the great building. +Every door and window stood open. While she waited for the elevator-boy +to respond to her ring, she turned her eyes toward the street. A blind +man passed by, led by a wan, sad-eyed child. The sun was beating +mercilessly on the man's gray head, for his cap was held appealingly in +his outstretched hand. + +"How dared I feel dissatisfied with my lot?" thought Bethany, with a +swift rush of pity, as the contrast between this blind beggar's life and +hers was forced upon her. + +There was no one in the office when she entered. After the glare of the +street, it seemed so comfortable that she thought again of the blind +beggar and the child who led him, with a feeling of remorse for her +discontent. + +A great bunch of lilies stood in a tall glass vase on the table, filling +the room with their fragrance. She took out a card that was half hidden +among them. Lightly penciled, in a small, running hand, was the one +word--"Consider!" + +"That's just like Cousin Ray," thought Bethany, quickly interpreting the +message. "She knew this would be an unusually trying day on account of +the heat, so she gives me something to think about instead of my irksome +confinement. 'They toil not, neither do they spin,'" she whispered, +lifting one snowy chalice to her lips; "but what help they bring to +those who do--sweet, white evangels to all those who labor and are +heavy laden!" + +She fastened one in her belt, then turned to her work. She had been +copying a record, and wanted to finish it before Mr. Edmunds was ready +to attend to the morning mail. Her fingers flew over the keys without a +pause, except when she stopped to put in a new sheet of paper. When she +was nearly through, she heard Mr. Edmunds's voice in the next room, and +increased her speed. She had forgotten that this was the day David +Herschel was to come into the office. He had taken the desk assigned +him, and was so busily engaged in conversation with Mr. Edmunds that for +a while he did not notice the occupant of the next room. When, at last, +he happened to glance through the open door, he did not recognize +Bethany, for she was seated with her back toward him. + +He noticed what a cool-looking white dress she wore, the graceful poise +of her head, and her beautiful sunny hair. Then he saw the lilies beside +her, and wished she would turn so that he could see her face. + +"Some fair Elaine--a lily-maid of Astolat," he thought, and then smiled +at himself for having grown Tennysonian over a typewriter before he had +even heard her name or seen her face. + +At last Bethany finished the record, with a sigh of relief. Quickly +fastening the pages, she rose to take it into the next room. Just on the +threshold she saw Herschel, and gave an involuntary little start of +surprise. + +As she stood there, all in white, with one hand against the dark +door-casing, she looked just as she had the night David first saw her. +He arose as she entered. + +Mr. Edmunds was not usually a man of quick perceptions, but he noticed +the look of admiration in David's eyes, and he thought they both seemed +a trifle embarrassed as he introduced them. + +They had recalled at the same moment the night in the Chattanooga depot, +when she had distinctly declared to Mr. Marion that she did not care to +make his acquaintance. + +For once in her life she lost her usual self-possession. That gracious +ease of manner which "stamps the caste of Vere de Vere" was one of her +greatest charms. But just at this moment, when she wished to atone for +that unfortunate remark by an especially friendly greeting, when she +wanted him to know that her point of view had changed entirely, and that +not a vestige of the old prejudice remained, she could not summon a word +to her aid. + +Conscious of appearing ill at ease, she blushed like a diffident +school-girl, and bowed coldly. + +David courteously remained standing until she had laid the record on Mr. +Edmunds's desk and left the room. + +Mr. Edmunds glanced at him quickly, as he resumed his seat; but there +was not the slightest change of expression to show that he had noticed +what appeared to be an intentional haughtiness of manner in Bethany's +greeting. But he had noticed it, and it stung his sensitive nature more +than he cared to acknowledge, even to himself. + +Nothing more passed between them for several days, except the formal +morning greeting. Then Jack came back to the office. He had gained +rapidly since the new brace had been applied. During his enforced +absence on account of the heat, he found that he could wheel himself +short distances, and proudly insisted on doing so, as they went through +the hall. He was a great favorite in the building. Everybody, from the +janitor to the dignified judge on the same floor, stopped to speak to +him. He was such a thorough boy, so full of fun and spirits, despite the +misfortune that chained him to the chair and had sometimes made him +suffer extremely, that the sight of him oftener provoked pleasure than +pity. He was so glad to get back to the office that he was bubbling over +with happiness. It seemed to him he had been away for an age. The +cordial reception he met on every hand made his eyes twinkle and the +dimples show in his cheeks. + +Mr. Edmunds had not come down, but David was at his desk, busily +writing. Bethany paused as they passed through the room. + +"Allow me to introduce my little brother, Mr. Herschel," she said. "Jack +is very anxious to meet you." + +He glanced up quickly. This friendly-voiced girl, leaning over Jack's +chair, with the brightness of his roguish face reflected in her own, was +such a transformation from the dignified Miss Hallam he had known +heretofore, that he could hardly credit his eyesight. He was surprised +into such an unusual cordiality of manner, that Jack straightway took +him into his affections, and set about cultivating a very strong +friendship between them. + +One afternoon Bethany was called into another office to take a +deposition. She left Jack busy drawing on his slate. + +David, who had been reading several hours, laid down the book after a +while, with a yawn, and glanced into the next room. The steady scratch +of the slate pencil had ceased, and Jack was gazing disconsolately out +of the window. + +As he heard the book drop on the table he turned his head quickly. "May +I come in there?" he asked David eagerly. + +David nodded assent. "You may come in and wake me up. The heat and the +book together, have made me drowsy." + +Jack pushed his chair over by a window, and looked out towards the court +house. It was late in the afternoon, and the massive building threw long +shadows across the green sward surrounding it. + +"I wanted to see if the flag is flying," said Jack. "I can't tell from +my window. Don't you love to watch it flap? I do, for it always makes me +think of heroes. I love heroes, and I love to listen to stories about +'em. Don't you? It makes you feel so creepy, and your hair kind o' +stands up, and you hold your breath while they're a-risking their lives +to save somebody, or doing something else that's awfully brave. And +then, when they've done it, there's a lump in your throat; but you feel +so warm all over somehow, and you want to cheer, and march right off to +'storm the heights,' and wipe every thing mean off the face of the +earth, and do all sorts of big, brave things. I always do. Don't you?" + +"Yes," answered David, amused by his boyish enthusiasm, yet touched by +the recognition of a kindred spirit. "May be you will be a hero +yourself, some day," he suggested in order to lead the boy further on. + +"No, I'm afraid not," answered Jack, sadly. "Papa wanted me to be a +lawyer. He was in the war till he got wounded so bad he had to come +home. We've got his sword and cap yet. I used to put 'em on sometimes, +and say I was going to go to West Point and learn to be a soldier. But +he always shook his head and said, 'No, son, that's not the highest way +you can serve your country now.' Then sometimes I think I'll have to be +a preacher like my grandfather, John Wesley Bradford, because he left me +all his library, and I am named for him. Jack isn't my real name, you +know." + +"Would you like to be a preacher?" asked David, as the boy paused to +catch a fly that was buzzing exasperatingly around him. + +"No!" answered Jack, emphasizing his answer by a savage slap at the fly. +"Only except when we get to talking about the Jews. You know we are very +much interested in your people at our house." + +"No, I didn't know it," answered David, amused by the boy's +matter-of-fact announcement. "How did you come to be so interested?" + +"Well, it started with the Epworth League Conference at Chattanooga. +There was a converted Jew up there on the mountain that spoke in the +sunrise meeting. Cousin Frank went to see him afterwards. He took +Bethany with him to write down what they said in shorthand. O, he had +the most interesting history! You just ought to hear sister tell it. You +know the two old ladies I told you about, that live at our house. Well, +may be it isn't polite to tell you so, but they didn't have the least +bit of use for the Jews before that. Now, since we've been reading about +the awful way they were persecuted, and how they've hung together +through thick and thin, they've changed their minds." + +"And you say that it is only when you are talking about the Jews that +you would like to be a preacher," said David, as the boy stopped, and +began whistling softly. He wanted to bring him back to the subject. + +"Yes," answered Jack. "When I think how that man's whole life was +changed by a little Junior League girl; how she started him, and he'll +start others, and they'll start somebody else, and the ball will keep +rolling, and so much good will be done, just on her account, I'd like to +do something in that line myself. I'm first vice-president of our +League, you know," he said, proudly displaying the badge pinned on his +coat. + +"But I wouldn't like to be a regular preacher that just stands up and +tells people what they already believe. That's too much like boxing a +pillow." He doubled up his fist and sparred at an imaginary foe. + +"I'd like to go off somewhere, like Paul did, and make every blow count. +We studied the life of Paul last year in the League. Talk about +heroes--there's one for you. My, but he was game! Thrashed and stoned, +and shipwrecked and put in prison, and chained up to another man--but +they couldn't choke him off!" Jack chuckled at the thought. + +"Did you ever notice," he continued, "that when a Jew does turn +Christian he's deader in earnest than anybody else? Cousin Frank told us +to notice that. There's Matthew. He was making a good salary in the +custom-house, and he quit right off. And Peter and Andrew and the rest +of 'em left their boats and all their fishing tackle, and every thing in +the wide world that they owned. Mr. Lessing had even to give up his +family. Cousin Frank told us about ever so many that had done that way. +So that's why I'd rather preach to them than other people. They amount +to so much when you once get them made over." + +"You might commence on me," said David. + +Jack colored to the roots of his hair, and looked confused. He stole a +sidelong glance at David, and began to wheel his chair slowly back into +the other room. + +"I haven't gone into the business yet," he called back over his +shoulder, recovering his equanimity with young American quickness, "But +when I do I'll give you the first call." + +David was so amused by the conversation that he could not refrain from +recounting part of it to Bethany when she returned. It seemed to put +them on a friendlier footing. + +Finding that she was really making a study of the history of his people, +he gave her many valuable suggestions, and several times brought Jewish +periodicals with articles marked for her to read. + +"My Sunday-school class have become so interested," she told him. "They +are very well versed in the ancient history, but this is something so +new to them." + +"I wish you knew Rabbi Barthold," he exclaimed. "He would be an +inspiration in any line of study, but especially in this, for he has +thrown his whole soul into it. Ah, I wish you read Hebrew. One loses so +much in the translation. There are places in the Psalms and Job where +the majesty of the thought is simply untranslatable. You know there are +some pebbles and shells that, seen in water, have the most exquisite +delicacy of coloring; yet taken from that element, they lose that +brilliancy. I have noticed the same effect in changing a thought from +the medium of one language to another." + +"Yes," answered Bethany, "I have recognized that difficulty, too, in +translating from the German. There is a subtle something that escapes, +that while it does not change the substance, leaves the verse as +soulless as a flower without its fragrance." + +"Ah! I see you understand me," he responded. "That is why I would have +you read the greatest of all literature in its original setting. Are you +fond of language?" + +"Yes," she answered, "though not an enthusiast. I took the course in +Latin and German at school, and got a smattering of French the year I +was abroad. Afterwards I read Greek a little at home with papa, to get a +better understanding of the New Testament. But Hebrew always seemed to +me so very difficult that only spectacled theologians attempted it. You +know ordinary tourists ascend the Rigi and Vesuvius as a matter of +course. Only daring climbers attempt the Jungfrau. I scaled only the +heights made easy of ascent by a system of meister-schafts and mountain +railways." + +He laughed. "Hebrew is not so difficult as you imagine, Miss Hallam. Any +one that can master stenography can easily compass that. There is a +similarity in one respect. In both, dots and dashes take the place of +vowels. I will bring you a grammar to-morrow, and show you how easy the +rudiments are." + +Jack was more interested than Bethany. He had never seen a book in +Hebrew type before. The square, even characters charmed him, and he +began to copy them on his slate. + +"I'd like to learn this," he announced. "The letters are nothing but +chairs and tables." + +"It was a picture language in the beginning," said David, leaning over +his chair, much pleased with his interest. "Now, that first letter used +to be the head of an ox. See how the horns branch? And this next one, +Beth, was a house. Don't you remember how many names in the Bible begin +with that--Beth-el, Beth-horon, Beth-shan--they all mean house of +something; house of God, house of caves, house of rest." + +Jack gave a whistled "whe-ew!" "It would teach a fellow lots. What are +you a house of, Beth-any?" + +He looked up, but his sister had been called into the next room. + +"Would you really like to study it, Jack?" asked David. "It will be a +great help to you when you 'go into the business' of preaching to us +Jews." + +Jack tilted his head to one side, and thrust his tongue out of the +corner of his mouth in an embarrassed way. Then he looked up, and saw +that David was not laughing at him, but soberly awaiting his answer. + +"Yes, I really would," he answered, decidedly. + +"Then I'll teach you as long as you are in the office." + +Mr. Marion came in one day and saw David's dark head and Jack's yellow +one bending over the same page, and listened to the boy's enthusiastic +explanation of the letters. + +"I wish we could form a class of our Sabbath-school teachers," said Mr. +Marion. "Would you undertake to teach it, Herschel?" + +The young man hesitated. "If it were convenient I might make the +attempt," he said. "But I do not live in the city. My home is out at +Hillhollow." + +Then, after a pause, while some other plan seemed to be revolving in his +mind, he asked: "Why not get Rabbi Barthold? He is a born teacher, and +nothing would delight him more than to imbue some other soul with a zeal +for his beloved mother-tongue." + +"I'll certainly take the matter into consideration," responded Mr. +Marion, "if you will get his consent, and find what his terms are. +Bethany, I'll head the list with your name. Then there's Ray and myself. +That makes three, and I know at least three of my teachers that I am +sure of. I wish George Cragmore were here. Do you know, Bethany, it +would not surprise me very much if the Conference sends him here this +fall?" + +"Not in Dr. Bascom's place," she exclaimed. + +"O no, he is too young a man for Garrison Avenue, and unmarried besides. +But I heard that the Clark Street Church had asked for him. I hope the +bishop will consider the call." + +"Don't set your heart on it, Cousin Frank," she answered. "You know what +is apt to befall 'the best laid schemes of mice and men.'" + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +THE DEACONESS'S STORY. + + +AUGUST slipped into September. The vase on Bethany's desk, that Mrs. +Marion had kept filled with lilies, brightened the room with the glow of +the earliest golden-rod. + +"Isn't it pretty?" said Jack, drawing a spray through his fingers. "It +makes me think of your hair, sister. They are both so soft and +fuzzy-looking." + +"And like the sunshine," added David mentally, wishing he dared express +his admiration as openly as Jack. His desk was at an angle overlooking +Bethany's, and he often studied her face while she worked, as he would +have studied some rare portrait--not so much for the perfect contour and +delicacy of coloring as for the soul that shone through it. + +She had seldom spoken to him of spiritual things. It was from Jack he +learned how interested she was in all her Church relationships. Still +he felt forcibly an influence that he could not define; that silent +charm of a consecrated life, linked close with the perfect life of the +Master. + +One day when he was thus idly occupied, the janitor tiptoed into the +room, ushering a lady past to Bethany's desk. David looked up as she +passed, attracted by her unusual costume. It was all black, except that +there were deep, white cuffs rolled back over the sleeves, and a large, +white collar. The close-fitting black bonnet was tied under the chin +with broad white bows. She was a sweet-faced woman, with strong, capable +looking hands. + +David heard Bethany exclaim, "Why, Josephine Bentley!" as if much +surprised to see her. Then they stood face to face, holding each other's +hands while they talked in low, rapid tones. + +The stranger staid only a few moments. After she passed out, David +strolled leisurely up to Bethany's desk. + +"I hope you'll excuse my curiosity, Miss Hallam," he said. "I am +interested in the costume of the lady who was here just now. I've seen +one like it before. Can you tell me to what order she belongs? Is it +anything like the Sisters of Charity?" + +"Yes, something like it," she answered. "She is a deaconess. There is +this difference. They take no vows of perpetual service to the order, +but their lives are as entirely consecrated to their work as though they +had 'taken the veil,' as the nuns call it. This friend of mine who was +just here, is a visiting deaconess. She goes about doing good in the +Master's own way, to rich and poor alike. She came in just now to report +a case of destitution she had discovered. I am chairman of the Mercy and +Help Department in our League." + +"Is that all they do?" asked David. + +"All!" repeated Bethany. "You should see the Deaconess Home on Clark +Street. They have a hospital there, and a Kitchen-garten. It is the work +of some of these women to gather in all the poor, neglected girls they +can find. They make it so very attractive that the poor children are +taught to be respectable little housekeepers, without suspecting that +the music and games are really lessons. Homes that could be reached in +no other way have some wonderful changes wrought in them." + +"You have so many different organizations in your Church," said David. +"Seems to me I am always hearing of a new one. There is an old saying, +'Too many cooks spoil the broth.' Did you never prove the truth of +that?" + +"Now, that's one beauty of Methodism," exclaimed Bethany. "The little +wheels all fit into the big one like so many cogs, and all help each +other. For instance, here is the deaconess work. It goes hand in hand +with the League, only reaching out farther, with our motto of 'Lift Up,' +for they have an 'open sesame' that unbars all avenues to them. Of all +hard, self-sacrificing lives, it seems to me a nurse deaconess has the +hardest. She goes only into homes unable to pay for such services, and +whatever there is to do in the way of nursing, or of cleansing these +poverty-stricken homes, she does unflinchingly." + +"The reason I asked," answered David, "is that one day last week I went +down to that terrible quarter of the city near the lower wharves. I +wanted to find a man who I knew would be a valuable witness in the +Dartmon murder case. I had been told that the only time to find him +would be before six o'clock, as he was a deckhand on one of the early +boats. I had been directed to a laundry-office in a row of rotten old +tenements near the river. I found the room used as an office was down in +a damp basement. It was about half-past five when I reached there. I +went down the rickety old stairs and knocked several times. You can +imagine my surprise when the door was opened by a refined-looking woman, +in just such a costume as your friend wore, except, of course, the +little bonnet. When I told her my errand, she asked me to step inside a +moment. The smell of sewer-gas almost stifled me at first. There was a +narrow counter where a few bundles were lying, still uncalled for. I +learned afterward, that the laundry had failed, and these were left to +await claimants. There was a calico curtain stretched across the room to +form a partition. She drew it aside, and motioned me to look in. There +was a table, two chairs, a gasoline stove, and an old bed. Lying across +the foot of the bed, as if utterly worn-out with weariness and sorrow, +lay a young girl heavily sleeping. A baby, only a few months old, was +lying among the pillows, as white and still as if it were dead. The +woman dropped the curtain with a shudder. 'It is the poor girl's husband +you are looking for,' she said. 'He is a rough, drunken fellow, and has +been away for days, nobody knows where. The baby is dying. I was called +here at three o'clock this morning. A physician came for me, but he said +it could not live many hours. O, it was awful! The cockroaches swarmed +all over the floor, and the rats were so bad they fairly ran over our +feet. The poor girl sank in a heavy stupor soon after I came, from sheer +exhaustion. There is nothing to eat in the house, and the milk I brought +with me for the baby has soured. It seems a dreadful thing to say, but I +dare not leave the baby while she is asleep long enough to get +anything--on account of the rats.' Of course I went out and got the +things she needed. Then there was nothing more I could do, she said. The +wretched poverty of the scene, and the woman's bravery, have been in my +thoughts ever since." + +"I heard of that case yesterday," Bethany said, when he had finished. "I +know the nurse, Belle Carleton. The baby died, and they took the mother +to the Deaconess Hospital. She has typhoid fever. Belle told me of +another experience she had. Her life is full of them. She was sent to a +family where drunkenness was the cause of the poverty. The man had not +had steady work for a year, because he was never sober more than a few +days at a time. They lived in three rooms in the rear basement of a +large tenement-house. Belle said, when she opened the door of the first +room, it seemed the most forlorn place she had ever seen. There was a +table piled full of dirty dishes, and a cooking-stove covered with +ashes, on which stood a wash-boiler filled with half-washed clothes. The +floor looked as if it had never known the touch of a broom. The odor of +the boiling suds was sickening. A slatternly, half-grown girl, one of +the neighbors, stood beside a leaky tub, washing as best she knew how. +Four dirty, half-starved children were playing on the bare floor. Their +mother was sick in the next room. I couldn't begin to repeat Belle's +description of that bedroom, it was so filthy and infested with vermin. +She said, when she saw all that must be done, that repulsive creature +bathed, the dishes washed, and the floor scrubbed, a great loathing came +over her. She felt that she could not possibly touch a thing in the +room. She wanted to turn and run away from it all. I said to her, 'O, +Belle, how could you force yourself to do such repulsive things?'" + +"What did she say?" exclaimed Herschel. + +Bethany's face reflected some of the tenderness that must have shone in +Belle Carleton's, as she repeated her answer softly, "For Jesus' sake!" + +There was a long pause, which Herschel broke by saying: "And she staid +there, I suppose, forced her shrinking hands into contact with what she +despised, did the most menial services, from a sense of duty to a man +whom she had never seen, who died centuries ago? Miss Hallam, how could +she? I find it very hard to understand." + +"No, not from a sense of duty," corrected Bethany, "so much as love." + +"Well, for love then. What was there in this man of Nazareth to inspire +such devotion after such a lapse of time? I understand how one might +admire his ethical teaching, how one might even try to embody his +precepts in a code to live by; but how he can inspire such sublime +annihilation of self, surpasses my comprehension. He was no greater +lawgiver than Moses, yet who makes such sacrifices for the love of +Moses? Peter suffered martyrdom, and Paul; yet who is ready to lay down +his life cheerfully and say, 'I do it for the sake of Peter--or Paul?'" + +"Mr. Herschel," said Bethany, looking up at him wistfully, "don't you +see that it is no mere man who exercises such power; that he must be +what he claimed--one with the Father?" + +Cragmore's passionate exclamation that day on the train came back to +him: "O, my friend, if you could only see my Savior as he has been +revealed to me!" + +Then he seemed to hear Lessing's voice as they paced back and forth in +front of the tent, arm in arm in the darkness. + +"Of a truth you can not understand these things, unless you be born +again--be born of the Spirit, into a realm of spiritual knowledge you +have never yet even dreamed of. Winged life is latent in the worm, even +while it has no conception of any existence higher than the cabbage-leaf +it crawls upon. But how is it possible for it to conceive of flight +until it has passed through some change that bursts the chrysalis and +provides the wings?" + +The silence was growing oppressive. David shook his head, rose, and +slowly walked out of the room. + + * * * * * + +"Sister," said Jack, a few days after, as she wheeled him homeward from +the office at noon-time, "Mr. Herschel keeps teasing me all the time +about something I said once about preaching to the Jews. He brings it up +so often, that if he doesn't look out I'll begin on him sure enough." + +Whatever answer Bethany might have made was interrupted by Miss +Caroline, who met them as they turned a corner. + +"Do tell!" she exclaimed in surprise. "You were in my mind just this +minute. I wondered if I might not chance to meet you." + +"Where have you been, Aunt Carrie?" asked Jack, seeing that she carried +several small parcels. + +"Shopping," she said. "Just think of it! Caroline Courtney actually out +shopping in the dry-goods stores." + +"What's the occasion?" asked Bethany. "It must be something important. I +can't remember that you have done such a thing before since I have +known you. Have you been invited to a ball, a wedding, or a wake?" + +Miss Caroline beamed on them through her spectacles. "Really, my dears, +that is just what I would like to know myself. That's why I had to make +these purchases. Your cousin Ray came in this morning, just after you +had gone, to invite us all to go to her house at half-past six this +evening. She wouldn't tell us what sort of an occasion she was planning, +only that it was a surprise for everybody, Mr. Marion most of all. He +has been gone a week on a business trip, but will get home to-night at +six. Sister and I have been trying to think what kind of an occasion it +could be. I know it isn't their wedding anniversary, nor her birthday. +Maybe it is his. So you see we couldn't decide just how we ought to +dress--whether to wear our very best dove-colored silks and point lace, +or the black crepon dresses we have had two seasons. Sister absolutely +refuses to carry her elegant fan that she got in Brussels, although I +want very much to take mine, especially if we wear the gray dresses. My +second best is broken, and of course we wouldn't want to carry a +palm-leaf. There was no other way but to take the second best fan down +and match it. Then she had lost one of the bows of ribbon that was on +her gray dress, and I had to match that, in case we decided to wear the +grays. Here I have spent the whole morning over my fan and her ribbon." + +"Dear me!" said Jack. "Why don't you carry your Brussels fan and wear +your gray dress, and let her wear her black dress and take the kind of +fan she wanted?" + +"O, my child!" exclaimed Miss Caroline, "Neither of us would have taken +a mite of comfort so. You don't understand how it feels when there are +two of you. When you have spent--well, a great many years, in having +things alike, you don't feel comfortable unless you are in pairs." + +It was arranged that Jack should not go back to the office that +afternoon. The sisters volunteered to take him with them. + +Bethany hurried through her work, but it seemed to her she had never had +so many interruptions, or so much to do. + +It was after six when she closed her desk. Mr. Edmunds noticed the tired +look on her flushed face, and said: + +"Miss Hallam, my carriage is waiting down stairs. I have to stay here +some time longer to meet a man who is late in keeping his engagement. +Jerry may as well take you home while he is waiting." He went down on +the elevator with her, and handed her into the carriage. + +"Better stay out in the fresh air a little before you start home," he +said, kindly. "It will do you good." + +Bethany sank back gratefully among the cushions. Jerry had been her +father's coachman at one time. He grinned from ear to ear as she took +her seat. + +"We'll take a spin along the river road," she said. "Give me a glimpse +of the fields and the golden-rod, and then take me to Mrs. Marion's, on +Phillips Avenue." + +"Yes, miss," said Jerry, touching his hat. "I know all the roads you +like best!" + +The impatient horses needed no urging. They fairly flew down the beaten +track that led from the noisy, bouldered streets into the grassy byways. +On they went, past suburban orchards and outlying pastures, to the +sights and sounds of the real country. + +Bethany heard the slow, restful tinkle of bells in a quiet lane where +the cows stood softly lowing at the bars. She heard the coo of doves in +the distance, and the call of a quail in a brown stubble-field near by. +Then the wind swept up from the river, now turning red in the sunset. It +put new life into her pulses, and a new light in her eyes. The weariness +was all gone. The wind had blown the light, curly hair about her face, +and she put up her hands to smooth it back, as they came in sight of +Mrs. Marion's house. + +"It doesn't make any difference," she thought. "I can run up into Cousin +Ray's room and put myself in order before any one sees me." + +As the carriage stopped, some one stepped up quickly to assist her +alight. It was David Herschel. + +"Of all times!" she thought; "when I am literally blown to pieces. How +queerly things do happen in this world!" + +To her still greater wonderment, instead of closing the gate after her +and going on down the street, he followed her up the steps. + +"Cousin Ray said this was to be a surprise," she thought. "This must be +part of it." + +Miss Harriet and Miss Caroline had just smoothed their plumage in the +guest-chamber, and were coming down the stairs hand in hand as David +and Bethany entered the reception-hall. + +This was their first glimpse of David. They had been very curious to see +him. Jack had talked about him so much that they recognized him +instantly from his description. + +Miss Caroline squeezed Miss Harriet's hand, and said in a dramatic +whisper, "Sister! the surprise." + +"Look at Bethany," remarked Miss Harriet. "How unusually bright she +looks, and yet a little flushed and confused. I wonder if he has been +saying anything to her. They came in together." + +"Pooh!" puffed Miss Caroline. Then they both moved forward with their +most beaming "company smile," as Jack called it, to meet Mr. Herschel. + +"Come in here," said Mrs. Marion, leading the way into the drawing-room, +while Bethany made her escape up stairs. + +"Mrs. Courtney, allow me to introduce Mrs. Dameron." + +"Sally Atwater!" fairly shrieked Miss Caroline and Miss Harriet in +chorus, as a tall, thin woman, with gray hair and sharp, twinkling eyes +rose to meet them; "Sally Atwater, for the land's sake! how did you ever +happen to get here?" + +"It's an old school friend of theirs," explained Mrs. Marion to David, +as the twins stood on tiptoe to grasp her around the neck and kiss her +repeatedly between their exclamations of joyful surprise. "They haven't +seen her since they were married. I'll present you, and then we'll leave +them to have a good old gossip." + +During the introductions in the drawing-room, Mr. Marion came into the +hall, with his gripsack in his hand. + +"Why, hello, Jack!" he called cheerily. "How are you, my boy? I'm so +glad to see you." + +He hung up his hat, and went forward to clap him on the shoulder and +hold the little hands lovingly in his big, strong ones. While he still +sat on the arm of Jack's chair, there was a sudden parting of the +portieres behind them, a swift rustle, and two white hands met over his +eyes and blindfolded him. + +"O! O!" cried Jack ecstatically, and then clapped his hand over his +mouth as he heard a warning "Sh!" + +"It's Ray, of course," said Mr. Marion, laughing and reaching backwards +to seize whoever had blindfolded him. "Nobody else would take such +liberties." + +"O, wouldn't they?" cried a mocking voice. "What about Ray's younger +sister?" + +He turned around, and catching her by the shoulders, held her out in +front of him. + +"Well, Lois Denning!" he exclaimed in amazement. "When did you get here, +little sister? I never imagined you were within two hundred miles of +this place." + +"Neither did Ray until this morning. I just walked in unannounced." + +When he had given her a hearty welcome she said: "O, I'm not the only +one to surprise you. Just go in the other room, Brother Frank, and see +who all's there, while I talk with this young man I haven't seen for a +year." + +Lois Denning had been Jack's favorite cousin since he was old enough to +fasten his baby fingers in her long, brown hair. In her yearly visits to +her sister she had devoted so much of her time to him, and been such a +willing slave, that he looked forward to her coming even a shade more +eagerly than he watched for Christmas. + +There was one thing that remained longest in the memory of every guest +who had ever enjoyed the hospitality of the Marion home. It was the warm +welcome that made itself continually felt. It met them even in the free +swing of the wide front door that seemed to say, "Just walk right in +now, and make yourself at home." + +There was an atmosphere of genial comfort and cheer that cast its spell +on all who strayed over its inviting threshold. It made them long to +linger, and loath to leave. + +David Herschel was quick to appreciate the warm cordiality of his +greeting. He had not been in the house five minutes until he felt +himself on the familiar footing of an old friend. At first he wondered +at the strange assortment of guests, and thought it queer he had been +asked to meet the elderly twins and their old friend, who were so +absorbed in each other. + +Then Mrs. Marion brought in her sister, Lois Denning--a slim, graceful +girl in a white duck suit, with a red carnation in the lapel of the +jaunty jacket. She was a lively, outspoken girl, decided in her +opinions, and original in her remarks. + +"That red carnation just suits her," said David to himself, as they +talked together. "She is so bright and spicy." + +"Isn't it time for dinner, Ray?" asked Mr. Marion, anxiously. "It's +getting dark, and I'm as hungry as a schoolboy." + +"Yes, and your guests will think you are as impatient as one," she +answered, laughingly. "We must wait a few minutes longer. Mr. Cragmore +hasn't come yet." + +"Cragmore!" cried Mr. Marion, starting to his feet. + +"O dear," exclaimed his wife, "I didn't intend to tell you he was +coming. I knew you hadn't seen the report from Conference yet, and I +wanted to surprise you. He has been sent to the Clark Street Church. I +met him coming up from the depot this morning, and asked him to dine +with us to-night." + +"Now I do wish I were a school-boy!" exclaimed Mr. Marion, "so that I +might give vent to my delight as I used to." + +"I remember how loud you could whoop when you were two feet six," +remarked Mrs. Dameron. "I should not care to risk hearing you, now that +you are six feet two." + +There was a quick ring at the front door, and the next instant Frank +Marion and George Cragmore were shaking hands as though they could never +stop. + +"I'm going to see if they fall on each other's necks and weep a la +Joseph and his brethren," said Lois, tiptoeing towards the hall. "I've +heard so much about George Cragmore, that I feel that I am about to be +presented to a whole circus--menagerie and all." + +"And how are ye, Mistress Marion?" they heard his musical voice say. + +"Will ye moind that now," commented Lois in an undertone. "How's that +for a touch of the rale auld brogue?" + +He was introduced to the old ladies first, then to the saucy Lois and +Jack. Then he caught sight of Herschel. They met with mutual pleasure, +and were about cordially to renew their acquaintance, begun that day on +the car, when Cragmore glanced across the room and saw Bethany. + +Both Lois and David noticed the way his face lighted up, and the +eagerness with which he went forward to speak to her. + +That evening was the beginning of several things. The Hebrew class was +organized. Mr. Marion had found only two of his teachers willing to +undertake the work, but Lois cheerfully allowed herself to be +substituted for the third one he had been so sure would join them. + +"I'll not be here more than long enough to get a good start," she said, +"but I'm in for anything that's going--Hebrew or Hopscotch, whichever it +happens to be." + +The twins declined to take any part. "I know it is beyond us," sighed +Miss Harriet. "The Latin conjugations were always such a terror to me, +and sister never did get her bearings in the German genders." + +When it came time for the merry party to break up, Frank Marion would +not listen to any good-nights from Cragmore. + +"You're not going away. That's the end of it," he declared. "I'll walk +down with you to the hotel, and have your trunk sent up. You're to stay +here until you get a boarding place to suit you. I wouldn't let you go +then, if I did not know it was essential for you to live nearer your +congregation." + +Mr. Marion walked on ahead, pushing Jack's chair, with Miss Caroline on +one side, and Miss Harriet on the other. + +Bethany followed with George Cragmore. There was a brilliant moonlight, +and they walked slowly, enjoying to the utmost the rare beauty of the +night. + +"Come in a moment, George," called Mr. Marion, as he wheeled Jack up the +steps. "I want to finish spinning this yarn." + +They all went into the hall. + +Bethany opened the door into the library and struck a match. Cragmore +took it from her and lighted the gas. + +But Mr. Marion still stood in the hall with his attentive audience of +three. + +"I'll be through in a moment," he called. The sisters dropped down in a +large double rocker. + +"You might as well sit down, too, Mr. Cragmore," said Bethany. "His +minute may prove to be elastic." + +Cragmore looked around the homelike old room, and then down at the +fair-haired woman at his side. "Not to-night, thank you," he responded; +"but I should like to come some other time. Yes, I think I should like +to come here very often, Miss Hallam." + +The admiration in his eyes, and the tone, made the remark so very +personal that Bethany was slightly annoyed. + +"O, our latch-string is always out to the clergy," she said lightly, and +then led the way back to the hall to join the others. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +"YOM KIPPUR." + + +THE morning after the first meeting of the Hebrew class at Rabbi +Barthold's, Frank Marion came into the office. + +"Herschel," he said, "when do you have your Day of Atonement services? +Is it this week or next? Rabbi Barthold invited us to attend, but I am +not sure about the date. He is going to preach a series of sermons that +are to set forth the views now held by the Reform school, and Cragmore +and I are anxious to hear them." + +"It is the week after this," said David, consulting the calendar. + +"Then I can arrange to get in from my trip in time for the Friday night +service." + +"What do you think of Rabbi Barthold?" asked David. "Isn't he a +magnificent old fellow?" + +Marion stroked his mustache thoughtfully. "Well," he said after some +deliberation, "I hardly know where to place him. He doesn't belong to +this age. If I believed in the transmigration of souls, I should say +that some old Levite, whose life-work had been to keep the Temple lamps +perpetually burning, had strayed back to earth again. + +"That seems to be his mission now. He is trying to rekindle the pride +and zeal and hope of an ancient day. Excuse me for saying it, Herschel, +but there are few in his congregation who understand him. Their vision +is so obscured by this dense fog of modern indifference that they fail +to appreciate his aims. They are still in the outer courts, among the +tables of the money-changers, and those who sell doves. They have never +entered the inner sanctuary of a spiritual life. Their religion stops +with the altar and the censer--the material things. Understand me," he +said hastily, as David interrupted him, "I know there are a number you +have in mind, who are loyally true to the spirit of Judaism, but they +are few and far between. I am not speaking of them, but of the great +mass of the congregation. I believe the services of the synagogue, and +their religion itself, is only a form observed from a cold sense of +duty, merely to avert the evil decree." + +David drew himself up rather stiffly. + +"And you are the disciple of the man who said, 'Let him that is without +sin among you cast the first stone!' What do you suppose the Jew has to +say about the dead-heads in your Churches? What proportion of your +membership has passed beyond the tables of the money-changers? How many +in your pews, who mumble the creed and wear the label 'Christian,' will +be able at the passages of God's Jordan to meet the challenge of his +Shibboleth?" + +Marion laid his hand on David's shoulder. "You misunderstand me, my +boy," he said. "I have no harsher denunciation for the indifferent Jew +than for the indifferent Christian. God pity them both! I was simply +drawing a contrast between Rabbi Barthold and his people, as it appears +to me--a shepherd who longs to lead his flock up to the source of all +living water; but they prefer to dispense with climbing the spiritual +heights, jostle each other for the richest herbage of the lowlands, and +are satisfied. You know that is so, David." + +"Yes," admitted David, with a sigh. "He can not even arouse them to the +necessity of teaching their children Hebrew, if they would perpetuate +loyalty to its traditions." + +David was about to repeat what the Rabbi had said the night he consented +to take the Hebrew class, but his pride checked him: "What are we coming +to, my son? Protestantism is having a wonderful awakening in regard to +the study of the Bible. Never has there been such a widespread interest +in it as now. But among our people, how many of the younger generation +make it a text-book of daily study? Such negligence will surely write +its 'Ichabod' upon the future of our beloved Israel." + +"What a discussion we have drifted into!" exclaimed Mr. Marion. "I had +only intended dropping in here to ask you a simple question. Come to +think, I believe I have not answered yours. You asked me my opinion of +Rabbi Barthold. Well, I think he is a sincere, noble soul, a true seeker +of the truth, and a man whose friendship I would value very highly." + +Herschel looked much pleased. + +"I hope you may be able to hear him on 'Yom Kippur,'" he said. + +"I shall certainly try to be there," Marion answered. + +As his footsteps died away in the hall, David said to himself: "If every +Gentile were like that man, and every Jew like Uncle Ezra, what an +ideal state of society there would be! But then," he added as an +after-thought, "what would become of the lawyers? We would starve." + + * * * * * + +In the waning light of the afternoon, that Day of the Atonement, there +was no more devout worshiper in all the temple than George Cragmore. He +had just finished reading a book of M. Leroy Beaulieu's, "Israel Among +the Nations," and as he turned the leaves of the prayer-book some one +handed him, he was impressed with the truth of this sentence which +recurred to him: + +"The Hebrew genius was confined to a narrow bed between two rocky walls, +whence only the sky could be seen; but it channeled there a well so deep +that the ages have not dried it up, and the nations of the four corners +of the earth have come to slake their thirst at its waters." + +It seemed to him that all that was purest, most heart-searching and +sublime in the Old Covenant; all that time has proven most precious and +comforting of its promises; all therein that best satisfies the human +yearnings toward the Infinite, and gives wings to the God-instinct in +man, might be found somewhere in the exquisite mosaic of this day's +ritual. + +Marion, concentrating his attention chiefly on the sermons, admired +their scholarly style, and indorsed most of their substance, but he came +away with a feeling of sadness. + +It seemed so pitiful to him to see these people with their backs turned +on the sacrifice a divine love had already provided, trying to make +their own empty-handed atonement, simply by their penitent pleadings and +good deeds. + +Herschel's devotions were interfered with by a spirit of criticism +heretofore unknown to him. His thoughts were so full of doubts that had +been having an almost imperceptible growth that he could not enter into +the service with his usual abandon. He was continually contrasting those +around him with that never-to-be-forgotten gathering on Lookout, and the +congregation in the tent. + +What made them to differ? He could not tell, but he felt that something +was lacking here that had made the other such a force. + +Cragmore had not been able to attend the Friday night service, nor the +one on the following morning. He came in just after the noon recess, and +was ushered to a pew near the center of the room, where he immediately +became absorbed in the ritual. He followed devoutly through the +meditations and the silent devotions, and when they came to the +responsive readings, his voice joined in as earnestly as any son of +Abraham there. + +The synagogue, with its modern trappings and fashionably-dressed +congregation, seemed to disappear. He saw the old Temple take its place, +with its solemn ceremonials of scapegoat and burnt-offering. Through the +chanting of the choir in the gallery back of him he heard the +thousand-voiced song of the Levites. He seemed to see the clouds of +incense, and the smoke arising from the high brazen altar. He bowed his +head on the seat in front of him. His whole soul seemed to go out in +reverent adoration to this great Jehovah, worshiped by both Hebrew and +Christian. + +The memorial service to the dead followed the sermon. + +Cragmore's music-loving nature responded like a quivering harp-string as +the choir began a minor chant: + + "Oh what is man, the child of dust? + What is man, O Lord?" + +The low, moaning tones of the great organ rose and fell like the beat of +a far-off tide, as all heads bowed in silent devotion, recalling in that +moment the lives that had passed out into the great beyond. + +Cragmore whispered a fervent prayer of thankfulness for the unbroken +family circle across the wide Atlantic. + +As he did so, a breath of blossoming hawthorn hedges, a faint chiming of +the Shandon bells, and the blue mists of the Kerry hills seemed to +mingle a moment with his prayer. + +The sun had set, when in the concluding service his eyes fell on the +words the Rabbi was reading--The Mission of Israel--"It's a pity," he +thought, "that every mentally cross-eyed Christian, who, between +ignorance and bigotry, can get only a distorted impression of the Jews, +couldn't have heard this service to-day, especially that prayer for all +mankind, and this one he is reading now: + +"'This twilight hour reminds us also of the eventide, when, according to +Thy gracious promise, Thy light will arise over all the children of men, +and Israel's spiritual descendants will be as numerous as the stars in +the heaven. Endow us, our Guardian, with strength and patience for our +holy mission. Grant that all the children of Thy people may recognize +the goal of our changeful career, so that they may exemplify, by their +zeal and love for mankind, the truth of Israel's watchword: One humanity +on earth, even as there is but one God in heaven. Enlighten all that +call themselves by Thy name with the knowledge that the sanctuary of +wood and stone, that erst crowned Zion's hill, was but a gate, through +which Israel should step out into the world, to reconcile all mankind +unto Thee! Thou alone knowest when this work of atonement shall be +completed; when the day shall dawn in which the light of Thy truth, +brighter than that of the visible sun, shall encircle the whole earth. +But surely that great day of universal reconciliation, so fervently +prayed for, shall come, as surely as none of Thy words return empty, +unless they have done that for which Thou didst send them. Then joy +shall thrill all hearts, and from one end of the earth to the other +shall echo the gladsome cry: Hear, O Israel, hear all mankind, the +Eternal our God, the Eternal is One. Then myriads will make pilgrimage +to Thy house, which shall be called a house of prayer for all nations, +and from their lips shall sound in spiritual joy: Lord, open for us the +gates of thy truth. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, +ye everlasting doors, for the King of glory shall come in.'" + +And the choir chanting, replied: + +"Who is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts--He is the King of glory." + +There was a short prayer, then a benediction that made Cragmore and +Marion look across the congregation at each other and smile. It was the +Epworth benediction, with which the League was always dismissed: + +"May the Lord bless thee, and keep thee. May the Lord let his +countenance shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee! The Lord lift up +his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace." + +The two men met each other at the door, and walked homeward together +through the twilight. + +Cragmore had found a boarding place. It was not far from the temple. + +"Come up to my room," he said to Marion. "I see you still have +Herschel's prayer-book with you. I want to compare the mission of Israel +as given there with the one I was reading to-day of Leroy-Beaulieu's. I +have never known before to-day what special hope they clung to. Come in +and I will find the paragraph." + +He lighted the gas in his room, pushed a chair over towards his guest, +and, seating himself, began rapidly turning the leaves of the book. + +"Here it is," he said, and he read as follows: + +"Then at last Jewish faith, freed from all tribal spirit and purified of +all national dross, will become the law of humanity. The world that +jeered at the long suffering of Israel, will witness the fulfillment of +prophecies delayed for twenty centuries by the blindness of the scribes, +and the stubbornness of the rabbis. According to the words of the +prophets, the nations will come to learn of Israel, and the people will +hang to the skirts of her garments, crying, 'Let us go up together to +the mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the Lord of Israel, that he may +teach us to walk in his ways.' The true spiritual religion, for which +the world has been sighing since Luther and Voltaire, will be imparted +to it through Israel. To accomplish this, Israel needs but to discard +her old practices, as in spring the oak shakes off the dead leaves of +winter. The divine trust, the legacy of her prophets, which has been +preserved intact beneath her heavy ritual, will be transmitted to the +Gentiles by an Israel emancipated from all enslavement to form. Then +only, after having infused the spirit of the Thora into the souls of all +men, will Israel, her mission accomplished, be able to merge herself in +the nations." + +"See what a hopeless hope," said Cragmore, as he closed the book. "And +yet do you know, Frank, I am becoming more and more sure that Israel has +some great part to play in the conversion of humanity? Any one must see +that nothing short of Divine power could have kept them intact as a +race, and Divine power is never aimlessly exerted. There must be some +great reason for such a miraculous preservation. What missionaries of +the cross these people would make! What torch-bearers they have been! +They have carried the altar-fires of Jehovah to every alien shore they +have touched." + +Cragmore stood up in his earnestness, his eyes alight with something +akin to prophetic fire. + +"The old thorny stem of Judaism shall yet bud and blossom into the +perfect flower of Christianity!" he cried. "And when it does, O when it +does, the 'chosen people' will become a veritable tree of life, whose +leaves will be 'for the healing of the nations.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +DR. TRENT. + + +IT was a cold, bleak night in November. There was a blazing wood-fire on +the library hearth. Bethany sat in a low chair in front of it, with a +large, flat book in her lap, which she was using as a desk for her +long-neglected letter-writing. An appetizing smell of pop-corn and +boiling molasses found its way in from the cozy kitchen, where the +sisters were treating Jack to an old-fashioned candy-pulling. The +occasional gusts that rattled the windows made Bethany draw closer to +the fire, with a grateful sense of warmth and comfort. She thoroughly +appreciated her luxurious surroundings, and was glad she had the long, +quiet evening ahead of her. + +For half an hour the steady trail of her pen along the paper, and the +singing of the kettle on the crane, was all that was audible. + +Then Jack came wheeling himself in, with a radiant, sticky face, and a +plate of candy. + +"O, we're having such lots of fun!" he cried. "We're going to make some +chocolate creams now. Do come and help, sister?" + +She pointed to the pile of unanswered letters on the table. "I must get +these out of the way first," she said. "Then I'll join you." + +"I guess you can eat and write at the same time," he answered, holding +out the plate. + +He waited only long enough for her to taste his wares, and hurried back +to the kitchen to report her opinion of their skill as confectioners. + +Just as the dining-room door banged behind him, she thought she heard +some one coming up on the front porch with slow, uncertain steps. She +paused in the act of dipping her pen into the ink, and listened. Some +one certainly tried the bell, but it did not ring. Then the outside door +opened and shut. She started up slightly alarmed, and half way across +the room stopped again to listen. There was a momentary rustling in the +hall. She heard something drop on the hat-rack. Then there was a low +knock at the library door. She opened it a little way, and saw Dr. Trent +standing there. + +"O, Uncle Doctor!" she cried, throwing the door wide open. "I never +once thought of its being you. I took you for a burglar." + +Then she stopped, seeing the worn, haggard look on his face. He seemed +to have grown ten years older since the last time she had seen him. +Without noticing her proffered hand, he pushed slowly past her, and +stood shivering before the fire. He had taken off his overcoat in the +hall. He was bent and careworn, as if some unusual weight had been laid +upon his patient shoulders, already bowed to the limit of their +strength. + +Bethany knew from his firmly set lips and stern face that he was in sore +need of comfort. + +"What is it, Uncle Doctor?" she asked, following him to the fire, and +laying her hand lightly on his trembling arm. She felt that something +dreadful must have happened to unnerve him so. "What can I do for you?" +she asked with a tremble of distress in her voice. + +He dropped into a chair and covered his face with his hands. When he +raised his head his eyes were blurred, and he had that helpless, +childish look that comes with premature age. + +"I have been with Isabel all day," he said, huskily. + +Although Bethany had never heard Mrs. Trent's given name before, she +knew that he was speaking of his wife. + +There was a long pause, which she finally broke by saying, "Don't you +see her every day? I thought you were in the habit of going out to her +that often." + +"O, I have gone there," he answered wearily, "day after day, and day +after day, all these long years; but I have never seen Isabel. It has +only been a poor, mad creature, who never recognized me. She was always +calling for me. The way she used to rave, and pray to be sent back to +her husband, would have touched a heart of flint; yet she never knew me +when I came. She would grow quiet when I put my arm around her, but she +would sit and stare at me in a dumb, confused way that was pitiful. I +always hoped that some day she might recognize me. I would sing her old +songs to her, and talk about our old home, although the thought of its +shattered happiness broke my heart. I tried in every way to bring her to +herself. She would listen awhile, and look up at me with a recognition +almost dawning in her eyes. Then the tears would begin to roll down her +cheeks, and she would beg me to go and find her husband. Yesterday she +knew me!" His voice broke. "She came back to me for the first time in +eight years,--my own little Isabel! I knew it was only because the frail +body was worn out with its terrible struggle, and I could not keep her +long. O, such a day as this has been! I have held her in my arms every +moment, with her poor, tired head against my heart. She was so glad and +happy to find herself with me at last, but the happiness was over so +soon." + +He buried his face in his hands as before, with a groan. When he spoke +again, it was in a dull, mechanical way. + +"She died at sundown!" + +The tears were running down Bethany's face. She had been standing behind +his chair. Now she bent over him, lightly passing her hand over his gray +hair, with a comforting caress. + +"If I could only do something," she exclaimed, in a voice tremulous with +sympathy. + +"You can," he answered. "That is why I came. None of her relatives are +living. Only my most intimate friends know that she did not die eight +years ago, when she was taken away to a sanitarium. I want--" he stopped +with a choking in his throat. "The attendants have been very kind, but +I want some woman of her own station--some woman who would have been her +friend--to put flowers about her--and--smooth her hair, as she would +have wanted it done--and--and--see that everything is all fine and +beautiful when she is dressed for her last sleep." + +He tried to keep his voice steady as he talked; but his face was working +pitifully, and the tears were rolling down his face. + +"She would have wished it so. She knew Richard Hallam. He was my best +friend. I do not know any one I could ask to do this for my little +Isabel, but Richard Hallam's daughter." + +She leaned over and touched his forehead with her lips. + +"Then let her have a daughter's place in helping you bear this," she +said. "Let her serve her father's dear, old friend as she would have +served that father." + +He reached up and mutely took her hand, resting his face against it a +moment, as if the touch of its sympathy strengthened him. Then he rose, +saying, "I shall send for you in the morning." + +"O, are you going home so soon?" she exclaimed. "You have hardly been +here long enough to get thoroughly warm." + +"No, not home, but back to Isabel. It will be only a few hours longer +that I can sit beside her. I have staid away now longer than I intended, +but I had to come in town to see that Lee was all right." + +"O, does he know?" asked Bethany. + +"No, he was only two years old when they were separated. She has always +been dead to him. Poor, little fellow! Why should I shadow his life with +such a grief?" + +Bethany helped him on with his overcoat, turned up the collar, and +buttoned it securely. Then she gave him his gloves; but instead of +putting them on, he stood snapping the clasps in an absent-minded way. + +"I suppose Richard told you about that debt I have been wrestling with +so long," he said, finally. "I got that all paid off last week, the last +wretched cent. And now that Isabel is gone, I seem to have lost all my +old vigor and ambition. If it were not for Lee, it would be so good to +stop, and not try to take another step. I should like to lie down and go +to sleep, too." + +He opened the door. A raw, cold wind, laden with snow, rushed in. + +Bethany watched him out of sight, then went shivering back to the fire. + +A deep snowstorm kept Jack at home next day, so no one questioned, or no +one knew why Bethany was excused from the office during the morning. + +She carried out Dr. Trent's wishes faithfully. She stood beside him in +the dreary cemetery till the white snow was laid back over the +newly-made mound. Then she rode silently back to town with him. He sat +with his hands over his eyes all the way, never speaking until the +carriage stopped at the office, and the driver opened the door for +Bethany to alight. + +Next day she saw him drive past on his usual round of professional +visits. No one else noticed any difference in him, except that he seemed +a little graver, and, if possible, more tender and thoughtful in his +ministrations, than he had been before. + +To Bethany there was something very pathetic in the sudden aging of +this man, who had borne his burden so silently and bravely that few had +ever suspected he had one. + +He was making a stern effort to keep on in the same old way. His +profession had brought him in contact with so much of the world's sorrow +and suffering that he would not lay even the shadow of his burden on +other lives, if he could help it. + +Only Bethany noticed that his hair was fast growing white, that he +stooped more, and that he climbed slowly and heavily into the buggy, +instead of springing in as he used to, with a quick, elastic step. She +ministered to his comfort in all the little ways in her power, but it +was not much that any one could do. + +It must have been nearly two weeks before he came again to the house. +This time it was to examine Jack. + +"What would you say, my son," he asked, "if I should tell you I do not +want you to go to the office any more after this week?" + +Jack's face was a study. The tears came to his eyes. "Why?" he asked. + +"Because you will be strong enough then to go through a certain exercise +I want you to take many times during the day. If you keep it up +faithfully, I believe you will be walking by Christmas." + +This was so much sooner than either Jack or Bethany had dared hope, that +they hardly knew how to express their joy. Jack gave a loud whoop, and +went wheeling out of the room at the top of his speed to tell Miss +Caroline and Miss Harriet. + +Dr. Trent looked after him with a fatherly tenderness in his face. Then +he sighed and turned to Bethany. "I have another trouble to bring to +you, my dear. Lee has been getting into so much mischief lately. I never +knew till yesterday that he has not been attending school regularly this +term. You see every allowance ought to be made for the child--no home +but a boarding-house; no one to take an oversight--for I am called out +night and day. He is such a bright boy, so full of life and spirit. I am +satisfied that his teachers do not understand him. They have not been +fair with him. He has been transferred from one ward to another, and +finally expelled. He never told me until last night. He said he knew it +would grieve me, and that he put it off from day to day, because he did +not want to trouble me when I was so worried over several critical +cases. That showed a sweet spirit, Bethany. I appreciated it. He has +always been such an affectionate little chap. I wanted to go and +interview the superintendent; but he insisted it would do no good, +because they are all prejudiced against him. I know Lee is a good child. +They ought not to expect a growing boy, full of the animal spirits the +Creator has endowed him with, to always work like a prim little machine. +Maybe I am not acting wisely, but he begged so hard to be allowed to go +to work for awhile, instead of being sent to any other school, that I +gave my consent. It is little a ten-year old boy can do, but he has a +taking way with him, and he got a place himself. He is to be +elevator-boy in the same building where your office is. You will see him +every day, and I am giving you the true state of affairs, so you will +not misjudge the child. I hope you will look out a little for him, +Bethany." + +"You may be sure I shall do that," she promised. "We are already great +friends. He used to often join us on his way to school, and wheel Jack +part of the distance." + +Jack made as much as possible of the remaining time that he was allowed +to go to the office. He studied no lessons but the short Hebrew +exercises David still gave him. He called at all the different offices +where he had made friends, and spent a great deal of time in the hall, +talking to Lee, who was soon installed in the building as elevator-boy. + +"My! but Lee has been fooling his father," exclaimed Jack to Bethany +after his first interview. "Dr. Trent thinks he is such a little angel, +but you ought to hear the things he brags about doing. He's tough, I can +tell you. He smokes cigarettes, and swears like a trooper. He showed me +an old horse-pistol he won at a game of 'seven up.' He shoots 'craps,' +too. He has been playing hooky half his time. One of the hostlers at the +livery-stable, where his father keeps his horse, used to write his +excuses for him. Lee paid him for it with tobacco he stole out of one of +the warehouses down by the river. You just ought to see the book he +carries around in his pocket to read when he isn't busy. It's called +'The Pirate's Revenge; or, A Murderer's Romance.' There is the awfulest +pictures in it of people being stabbed, and women cutting their throats. +I told him he showed mighty poor taste in the stuff he read; and asked +him how he would like to be found dead with such a thing in his pocket. +He told me to shut up preaching, and said the reason he has gone to work +is to save up money so's he could go to Chicago or New York, or some big +place, and have a 'howling good time.'" + +It made Bethany sick at heart to think of the deception the boy had +practiced on his father. Much as she trusted Jack, she could not bear to +encourage any intimacy between the boys, and was glad when the time came +for him to stay at home from the office. But in every way she could she +strengthened her friendship with Lee. She brought him great, rosy +apples, and pop-corn balls that Jack had made. No ten-year-old boy could +be proof against the long twists of homemade candy she frequently +slipped into his pocket. Sometimes when the weather was especially +stormy and bleak outside, she stopped to put a bunch of violets or a +little red rose in his button-hole. She was so pretty and graceful that +she awakened the dormant chivalry within him, and he would not for +worlds have had her suspect that he was not all his father believed him +to be. + +One day she told David enough of his history to enlist his sympathy. +After that the young lawyer began to take considerable notice of him, +and finally won his complete friendship by the gift of a little brown +puppy, that he brought down one morning in his overcoat pocket. + +There was no more time to read "The Pirate's Revenge." The helpless, +sprawling little pup demanded all his attention. He kept it swung up in +a basket in the elevator, when he was busy, but spent every spare moment +trying to develop its limited intelligence by teaching it tricks. That +was one occupation of which he never wearied, and in which he never lost +patience. From the moment he took the soft, warm, little thing in his +arms, he loved it dearly. + +"I shall call him Taffy," he said, hugging it up to him, "because he's +so sweet and brown." + +Bethany had intended for Dr. Trent and Lee to dine with them on +Thanksgiving day, but the sisters were invited to Mrs. Dameron's, and +Mrs. Marion was so urgent for her and Jack to spend the day with them, +that she reluctantly gave up her plan. + +"I shall certainly have them Christmas," she promised herself, "and a +big tree for Lee and Jack. Lois will help me with it." + +It was a genuine Thanksgiving-day, with gray skies, and snow, to +intensify the indoor cheer. + +"Didn't the altar look beautiful this morning with its decorations of +fruit and vegetables, and those sheaves of wheat?" remarked Miss +Harriet. She had just come home from Mrs. Dameron's, and was holding her +big mink muff in front of the fire to dry. She had dropped it in the +snow. + +"Yes, and wasn't that salad-dressing fine?" chimed in Miss Caroline. +"Sally always did have a real talent for such things." + +"It couldn't have been any better than we had," insisted Jack. "I don't +believe I'll want anything more to eat for a week." + +"That's very fortunate," answered Miss Caroline, "for I gave Mena an +entire holiday. We'll only have a cup of tea, and I can make that in +here." + +They sat around the fire in the gloaming, quietly talking over the happy +day. One of Bethany's greatest causes for thanksgiving was that these +two gentle lives had come in contact with her own. Their simple piety +and childlike faith sweetened the atmosphere around them, like the +modest, old-fashioned garden-flowers they loved so dearly. Well for +Bethany that she had the constant companionship of these loving sisters. +Happy for Jack that he found in them the gracious grandmotherly +tenderness, without which no home is complete. They were very proud of +their boy, as they called him. Between the Junior League and their +conscientious instruction, Jack was pretty firmly "rooted and grounded" +in the faith of his fathers. Night stole on so gradually, and the +firelight filled the room with such a cheerful glow, they did not notice +how dark it had grown outside, until a sudden peal of the door-bell +startled them. + +"I'll go," said Miss Caroline, adjusting the spectacles that had slipped +down when the sudden sound made her start nervously up from her chair. +She waited to light the gas, and hastily arrange the disordered chairs. + +When she opened the door she saw David Herschel patiently awaiting +admittance. It was the first time he had ever called. She was all in a +flutter of surprise as she ushered him into the library. He declined to +take a seat. + +"I have just come home from Dr. Trent's," he said. "You know he boards +across the street from Rabbi Barthold's, where I have been spending the +day. He was called out to see a patient last night, and came home late, +with a hard chill. Lee saw me coming out of the gate a little while ago, +and came running over to tell me. He had been out skating all morning. +After dinner, when he went up-stairs, he found his father delirious, and +had telephoned for Dr. Mills. He was very much frightened, and wanted me +to stay with him until the doctor came. As soon as Dr. Mills examined +him, he called me aside and asked me to get into his buggy and drive out +to the Deaconess Home. I have just come from there," he said, "and Miss +Carleton has no case on hands. Tell her if ever she was needed in her +life, she is needed now. He has pneumonia, and it has been neglected too +long, I'm afraid. It may be a matter of only a few hours." + +Bethany started up, looking so white and alarmed that David thought she +was going to faint. He arose, too. + +"I must go over there at once," she said. + +"It is quite dark," answered David. "I am at your service, if you want +me to wait for you." + +"O, I shall not keep you waiting a moment," she answered. "Jack, I'll be +back in time to help you to bed." + +As she spoke she began putting on her wraps, which were still lying on +the chair, where she had thrown them off on coming in, a little while +before. + +David offered his arm as they went down the icy steps. + +"It was so good of you to come at once," she said, as she accepted his +assistance. "Is Miss Carleton there now?" + +"Yes," he answered, "she was ready almost instantly. She is the same +nurse that I met early one morning in that laundry office. She told me +on the way back that Dr. Trent has done so much for the Home and for the +poor. She says she owes her own life to his skill and care, and that no +service she could render him would be great enough to express her +gratitude. They all feel that way about him at the Home." + +Belle Carleton met them at the bedroom door. "Dr. Trent has just spoken +about you," she said in a low tone to Bethany. "He has had several +lucid intervals. Take off your hat before you go to him." + +Lee sat curled up in a big chair in a dark corner of the room, with +Taffy hugged tight in his arms. An undefinable dread had taken +possession of him. He looked up at Bethany, with a frightened, tearful +expression, as she patted him on the cheek in passing. + +Dr. Trent opened his eyes when she sat down beside him, and took his +hand. He smiled brightly as he recognized her. + +"Richard's little girl!" he said in a hoarse whisper, for he could not +speak audibly. "Dear old Dick." + +Then he grew delirious again. It was only at intervals he had these +gleams of consciousness. + +After awhile his eyes closed wearily. He seemed to sink into a heavy +stupor. Bethany sat holding his hand, with the tears silently dropping +down into her lap as she looked at the worn fingers clasped over hers. + +What a world of good that hand had done! How unselfishly it had toiled +on for others, to wipe out the brother's disgrace, to surround the +little wife with comforts, to provide the boy with the best of +everything! Besides all that, it had filled, as far as lay in its power, +every other needy hand, stretched out toward its sympathetic clasp. + +She sat beside him a long time, but he did not waken from the heavy +sleep into which he had fallen, even when she gently withdrew her +fingers, and moved away to let Dr. Mills take her place. He had just +come in again. + +"Will you need me here to-night, Belle?" asked Bethany. + +The nurse turned to Dr. Mills inquiringly. He shook his head. "Miss +Carleton can do all that is necessary," he said. "I shall come again +about midnight, and stay the rest of the night, if I am needed. He will +probably have no more rational awakenings while this fever keeps at such +a frightful heat. If we can subdue that soon, he has such great vitality +he may pull through all right." + +"You'd better go back, dear," urged the nurse. "You have your work ahead +of you to-morrow, and you look very tired." + +"I have an almost unbearable headache," admitted Bethany, "or I would +not think of leaving. I would not go even for that, if I thought he +would have conscious intervals of any length; but the doctor thinks that +is hardly probable to-night. I'll come back early in the morning. Maybe +he will know me then." + +"Are you going, too?" asked Lee, clinging wistfully to David's hand, as +Bethany put on her hat. + +"Would you like me to stay?" he asked, kindly. + +Lee swallowed hard, and winked fast to keep back the tears. + +"Everybody else is strangers," he said, with his lip trembling. + +David put his arm around him caressingly. His sympathies went out +strongly to the little lad, who might so soon be left fatherless. + +"Then I'll come back and stay with you till you go to sleep, after I +take Miss Hallam home," he promised. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +A LITTLE PRODIGAL. + + +LEE was waiting disconsolately on the stairs, with Taffy beside him, +when David opened the door and stepped into the hall. The landlady was +up-stairs with the nurse, and all the boarders had gone to a concert, so +the parlor was vacant, and David took the boy in there. He gave him an +intricate chain-puzzle to work first, and afterward told him such +entertaining stories of his travels that Lee forgot his painful +forebodings. The clock in the hall struck ten before either of them was +aware how swiftly the time had passed. + +"Here's a little fellow who doesn't know where he is to sleep," David +said to the nurse, when they had noiselessly entered Dr. Trent's room. + +"We'll cover him up warm on the sofa," she said, kindly. "He'd better +not undress." + +David looked quickly across to the bed. "Is there any change?" he asked, +anxiously. + +She nodded, and then motioned him aside. "Would it be too much to ask +you to stay a couple of hours longer, until Dr. Mills comes? Lee clings +to you so, and the end may be much nearer than we thought." + +"If I can be of any use, I'll stay very willingly," he replied. + +They moved the sofa to the other side of the room, and the nurse began +folding some blankets the landlady brought her to lay over it. + +"Can't you put some more coal on the fire, dear?" she asked Lee. + +He picked up a larger lump than he could well manage. The tongs slipped, +and it fell with a great noise on the fender, breaking in pieces as it +did so, then rattling over the hearth. + +They all turned apprehensively toward the bed. The heavy jarring sound +had thoroughly aroused Dr. Trent from his stupor. He looked around the +room as if trying to comprehend the situation. He seemed puzzled to +account for David's presence in the room, and drew his hand wonderingly +across his burning forehead, then pressed it against his aching throat. + +The nurse bent over him to moisten his parched lips with a spoonful of +water. + +Then he understood. A look of awe stole over his face, as he realized +his condition. He held his hand out towards Lee, and the nurse, turning, +beckoned the child to come. He folded the cold, trembling little fingers +in his hot hands. "Papa's--dear--little son!" he gasped in whispers. + +David turned his head away, his eyes suffused with hot tears. The scene +recalled so vividly the night he had crept to his father's bedside for +the last time. His heart ached for the little fellow. + +"God--keep--you!" came in the same hoarse whisper. + +Then he turned to the nurse, and with great effort spoke aloud, "Belle, +pray!" + +David, standing with bowed head, while she knelt with her arm around the +frightened boy, listened to such a prayer as he had never heard before. +He had wondered one time how this woman could sacrifice everything in +life for the sake of a man who died so many centuries ago. But as he +listened now, to her low, earnest voice, he felt an unseen Presence in +the room, as of the Christ to whom she spoke so confidingly. + +As she prayed that the Everlasting Arms might be underneath as this +soul went down into the "valley of the shadow," the doctor cried out +exultingly, "There is no valley!" + +David looked up. The doctor's worn face was shining with an unspeakable +happiness. He stretched out his arms. + +"Jesus saves me! O, the wonder of it!" + +His hands dropped. Gradually his eyes closed, and he relapsed into a +stupor, from which he never aroused. When Dr. Mills came at midnight he +was still breathing; but the street lights were beginning to fade in the +gray, wintry dawn when Belle Carleton reverently laid the lifeless hands +across the still heart, and turned to look at Lee. + +The child had sobbed himself to sleep on the sofa, and David had gone. + + * * * * * + +O, the pity of it, that we keep the heart's-ease of our appreciation to +wreathe cold coffin-lids, and cover unresponsive clay! + +There was a constant stream of people passing in and out of the +boarding-house parlor all day. + +Bethany was not surprised at the great number who came to do honor to +Baxter Trent, nor at the tearful accounts of his helpful ministrations +from those he had befriended. But as she arranged the great masses of +flowers they brought, she thought sadly, "O, why didn't they send these +when he was in such sore need of love and sympathy? Now it's too late to +make any difference." + +All sorts of people came. A man whose wrists had not yet forgotten the +chafing of a convict's shackles, touched one of the lilies that Bethany +had placed on the table at the head of the casket. + +"He lived white!" the man said, shaking his head mournfully. "I reckon +he was ready to go if ever any body was." + +They happened to be alone in the room, and Bethany repeated what the +nurse had told her of the doctor's triumphant passing. + +Late in the afternoon there was a timid knock at the door. Bethany +opened it, and saw two little waifs holding each other's cold, red +hands. One had a ragged shawl pinned over her head, and the other wore a +big, flapping sunbonnet, turned back from her thin, pitiful face. Their +teeth were chattering with cold and bashfulness. + +"Missus," faltered the larger one, "we couldn't get no wreaves or +crosses, but granny said he would like this ''cause it's so bright and +gold-lookin'.'" + +The dirty little hand held out a stemless, yellow chrysanthemum. + +"Come in, dears," said Bethany softly, opening the door wide to the +little ragamuffins. + +They glanced around the mass of blossoms filling the room, with a look +of astonishment that so much beauty could be found in one place. + +"Jess," whispered the oldest one to her sister, "'Pears like our 'n +don't show up for much, beside all these. I wisht he knowed we walked a +mile through the snow to fetch it, and how sorry we was." + +Bethany heard the disappointed whisper. "Did you know him well?" she +asked. + +"I should rather say," answered the child. "He kep' us from starvin', +all the time granny was down sick so long." + +"An' once he took me and Jess ridin' with him, away out in the country, +and he let us get out in a field and pick lots of yellow flowers, +something like this, only littler. Didn't he, Jess?" + +The other child nodded, saying, as she wiped her eyes with the corner of +her sister's shawl, "Granny says we'll never have another friend like +him while the world stands." + +Deeply touched, Bethany held up the stemless chrysanthemum. "See," she +said, "I'm going to put it in the best place of all, right here by his +hand." + +The door opened again to admit David Herschel. Before it closed the +children had slipped bashfully away, still hand in hand. + +Bethany told him of their errand. "Who could have brought more?" she +said, touching the shining yellow flower; "for with this little drop of +gold is the myrrh of a childish grief, and the frankincense of a loving +remembrance." + +She felt that he could appreciate the pathos of the gift, and the love +that prompted it. They had grown so much closer together in the last +twenty-four hours. + +"You've been here nearly all day, haven't you?" he asked, noticing her +tired face. "I wish you would go home and rest, and let me take your +place awhile." + +He insisted so kindly that at last she yielded. Her sympathies had been +sorely wrought upon during the day, and she was nearly exhausted. + +After she had gone, he sat down with his overcoat on, near the front +window. There was only a smoldering remnant of a fire in the grate. + +The last rays of the sunset were streaming in between the slats of the +shutters. He could hear the boys playing in the snowy streets, and the +occasional tinkle of passing sleighbells. + +"I wonder where Lee is," he thought. He had not seen the child since +morning. + +Two working men came in presently. They looked long and silently at the +doctor's peaceful face, and tiptoed awkwardly out again. + +The minutes dragged slowly by. + +The heavy perfume of the flowers made David drowsy, and he leaned his +head on his hand. + +The door opened cautiously, and Lee looked in. His eyes were swollen +with crying. He did not see David sitting back in the shadow. Only one +long ray of yellow sunlight shone in now, and it lay athwart the still +form in the center of the room. + +Lee paused just a moment beside it, then slipped noiselessly over to the +grate. There was a pile of books under his arm. He stirred the dying +embers as quietly as he could, and one by one laid the books on the red +coals. They were the ones Jack had so unreservedly condemned. Last of +all he threw on a dogeared deck of cards. They blazed up, filling the +room with light, and revealing David in his seat by the window. + +"O," cried Lee in alarm, "I didn't know any one was in here." + +Then leaning against the wall, he put his head on his arm, and began to +sob in deeper distress than he had yet shown. He felt in his pocket for +a handkerchief, but there was none there. + +David took out his own and wiped the boy's wet face, as he drew him +tenderly to his knee. + +"Now tell me all about it," he said. + +Lee nestled against his shoulder, and cried harder for awhile. Then he +sobbed brokenly: "O, I've been so bad, and he never knew it! I came in +here early this morning before anybody was up, to tell him I was +sorry--that I would be a good boy--but he was so cold when I touched +him, and he couldn't answer me! O, papa, papa!" he wailed. "It's so +awful to be left all alone--just a little boy like me!" + +David folded him closer without speaking. No words could touch such a +grief. + +Presently Lee sat up and unfolded a piece of paper. It was only the +scrap of a fly-leaf, its jagged edges showing it had been torn from some +school-book. + +"Do you think it will hurt if I put this in his pocket?" he asked in a +trembling voice. "I want him to take it with him. I felt like if I +burned up those books in here, and put this in his pocket, he'd know how +sorry I was." + +David took the bit of paper, all blistered with boyish tears, where a +penitent little hand, out of the depths of a desolate little heart, had +scrawled the promise: "Dear Papa,--I will be good." + +A sob shook the man's strong frame as he read it. + +"I think he will be very glad to have you give him that," he answered. +"You'd better put it in his pocket before any one comes in." + +Lee slipped down from his lap, and crossed the room. "O, I can't," he +moaned, attempting to lift the lifeless hands. + +David reached down, and unbuttoning the coat, laid the promise of the +little prodigal gently on his father's heart, to await its reading in +the glad light of the resurrection morning. Then he called some one else +to take his place, and went to telephone for a sleigh. In a little while +he was driving through the twilight out one of the white country roads, +with Lee beside him, that nature's wintry solitudes might lay a cool +hand of healing sympathy on the boy's sore heart. + +Bethany took him home with her after the funeral, and kept him a week. + +Miss Caroline and Miss Harriet petted him with all the ardor of their +motherly old hearts. Jack did his best to amuse him, and with the +elasticity of childhood, he began to recover his usual vivacity. + +"This can not go on always," Mr. Marion said to Bethany one day. He had +gone up to the office to talk to her about it. + +Dr. Trent had left a small insurance, requesting that Frank Marion be +appointed guardian. + +"Ray wants him," continued Mr. Marion. "She would have turned the house +into an orphan asylum long ago if I had allowed it. But she has so many +demands on her time and strength that I am unwilling to have her taxed +any more. You see, for instance, if we should take Lee, I am away from +home so much, that the greater part of the care and responsibility would +fall on her. Just now his father's death has touched him, and he is +making a great effort to do all right; but it will be a hard fight for +him in a big place like this, so full of temptations to a boy of his +age. He would be a constant care. The only thing I can see is to put him +in some private school for a few years." + +"Let me keep him till after Christmas," urged Bethany. "I can't bear to +let the little fellow go away among strangers this near the holiday +season. I keep thinking, What if it were Jack?" + +"How would it do for me to take him out on my next trip?" suggested Mr. +Marion. "I will be gone two weeks, just to little country towns in the +northern part of the State, where he could have a variety of scenes to +amuse him." + +"That will be fine!" answered Bethany. "I'm sure he will like it." + +Lee was somewhat afraid of his tall, dignified guardian. He had a secret +fear that he would always be preaching to him, or telling him Bible +stories. He hoped that the customers would keep him very busy during the +day, and he resolved always to go to bed early enough to escape any +curtain lectures that might be in store for him. + +To his great relief, Mr. Marion proved the jolliest of traveling +companions. There was no preaching. He did not even try to make sly +hints at the boy's past behavior by tacking a moral on to the end of his +stories, and he only laughed when Taffy crawled out of the +innocent-looking brown paper bundle that Lee would not put out of his +arms until after the train had started. + +Such long sleigh-rides as they had across the open country between +little towns! Such fine skating places he found while Mr. Marion was +busy with his customers! It was a picnic in ten chapters, he told one of +the drivers. + +One afternoon, as they drove over the hard, frozen pike, one of the +horses began to limp. + +"Shoe's comin' off," said the driver. "Lucky we're near Sikes's smithy. +It's jes' round the next bend, over the bridge." + +The smoky blacksmith-shop, with its flying sparks and noisy anvils, was +nothing new to Lee. He had often hung around one in the city. In fact, +there were few places he had not explored. + +The smith was a loud, blatant fellow, so in the habit of using rough +language that every sentence was accompanied with an oath. + +Mr. Marion had taken Lee in to warm by the fire. + +"I wonder what that horrible noise is!" he said. They had heard a harsh, +grating sound, like some discordant grinding, ever since they came in +sight of the shop. + +Sikes pointed over his shoulder with his sooty thumb. + +"It's an ole mill back yender. It's out o' gear somew'eres. It set me +plumb crazy at first, but I'm gettin' used to it now." + +"Let's go over and investigate," said Mr. Marion, anxious to get Lee out +of such polluted atmosphere. + +The miller, an easy-going old fellow, nearly as broad as he was long, +did not even take the trouble to remove the pipe from his mouth, as he +answered: "O, that! That's nothing but just one of the cogs is gone out +of one of the wheels. I keep thinking I'll get it fixed; but there's +always a grist a-waiting, so somehow I never get 'round to it. Does make +an or'nery sound for a fact, stranger; but if I don't mind it, reckon +nobody else need worry." + +"Lazy old scoundrel," laughed Mr. Marion, after they had passed out of +doors again. "I don't see how he stands such a horrible noise. It is a +nuisance to the whole neighborhood." + +When he reported the conversation at the smithy, Sikes swore at the +miller soundly. + +Frank Marion's eyes flashed, and he took a step forward. + +"Look here, Sikes," he exclaimed, in a tone that made every one in the +shop pause to listen, "you've got a bigger cog missing in you than the +old mill has, and it makes you a sight bigger nuisance to the +neighborhood. You have lost your reverence for all that is holy. You go +grinding away by yourself, leaving out God, leaving out Christ, making a +miserable failure of your life grist, and every time you open your lips, +your blasphemous words tell the story of the missing cog. If that old +mill-wheel makes such a hateful sound, what kind of a discord do you +suppose your life is making in the ears of your Heavenly Father?" + +Sikes looked at him an instant irresolutely. His first impulse was to +knock him over with the heavy hammer he held; but the truth of the +fearless words struck home, and he could not help respecting the man who +had the courage to utter them. + +"Beg pardon, sir," he said at last. "I had no idee you was a parson. I +laid out as you was a drummer." + +"I am a drummer," answered Marion. "I am a wholesale shoe-merchant now; +but I spent so many years on the road for this same house before I went +into the firm, that I often go out over my old territory." + +Sikes regarded him curiously. "Strikes me you've got sermons and +shoe-leather pretty badly mixed up," he said. + +Afterward, when he had watched the sleigh disappear down the road, he +picked up the bellows and worked them in an absent-minded sort of a way. + +"A drummer!" he repeated under his breath. "A drummer! I'll +be--blowed!" + +The incident made a profound impression on Lee. A loop in the road +brought them in sight of the old mill again. + +"We don't want to have any cogs missing, do we, son!" said Mr. Marion, +first pinching the boy's rosy cheek, and then stooping to tuck the +buffalo robes more snugly around him. + +The subject was not referred to again, but the lesson was not forgotten. + +Sunday was passed at a little country hotel. They walked to the Church a +mile away in the morning. Time hung heavy on Lee's hands in the +afternoon while Mr. Marion was reading. If it had not been for Taffy, it +would have been insufferably dull. He had a slight cold, so Mr. Marion +did not take him out to the night service. He left him playing with the +landlady's baby in the hotel parlor. That amusement did not last long, +however. The baby was put to bed, and some of the neighbors came in for +a visit. Lee felt out of place, and went up to their room. + +It was the best the house afforded, but it was far from being an +attractive place. The walls were strikingly white and bare. A hideous +green and purple quilt covered the bed. The rag carpet was a dull, +faded gray. The lamp smoked when he turned it up, and smelled strongly +of coal-oil when he turned it down. + +He felt so lonely and homesick that he concluded to go to bed. It was +very early. He could not sleep, but lay there in the dark, listening to +somebody's rocking-chair, going squeakety squeak in the parlor below. + +He wished he could be as comfortable and content as Taffy, curled up in +some flannel in a shoe-box, on a chair beside the bed. He reached out, +and stroked the puppy's soft back. + +The feeling came over him as he did so, that there wasn't anybody in all +the world for him really to belong to. + +It was the first time since Bethany took him home that he had felt like +crying. Now he lay and sobbed softly to himself till he heard Mr. +Marion's step on the stairs. + +He grew quiet then, and kept his eyes closed. Mr. Marion lighted the +lamp, putting a high-backed chair in front of it, so that it could not +shine on the bed. He picked up his Bible that was lying on the table, +and, turning the leaves very quietly that he might not disturb Lee, +found the night's lesson. + +A stifled sniffle made him pause. After a long time he heard another. +Laying down his book, he stepped up to the bed. Lee was perfectly +motionless, but the pillow was wet, and his face streaked with traces of +tears. Marion, with his hands thrust in his pockets, stood looking at +him. + +All the fatherly impulses of his nature were stirred by the pitiful +little face on the pillow. + +He knelt down and put his strong arm tenderly over the boy. + +"Lee," he said, "look up here, son." + +Lee glanced timidly at the bearded face so near his own. + +"You were lying here in the dark, crying because you felt that there was +nobody left to love you. Now put your arms around my neck, dear, while I +tell you something. I had a little child once. I can never begin to tell +you how I loved her. When she died it nearly broke my heart. But I said, +for her sake I shall love all children, and try to make them happy. +Because her little feet knew the way home to God, I shall try to keep +all other children in the same pure path. For her sake, first, I loved +you; now, since we have been together, for your own. I want you to feel +that I am such a close friend that you can always come to me just as +freely as you did to your father." + +The boy's clasp around his neck tightened. + +"But, Lee, there will be times in your life when you will need greater +help than I can give; and because I know just how you will be tried, and +tempted, and discouraged, I want you to take the best of friends for +your own right now. I want you to take Jesus. Will you do this?" + +Lee hesitated, and then said in a half-frightened whisper, "I don't know +how." + +"Did you ever ask your papa to forgive you after you had been very +naughty?" asked Mr. Marion. + +"O yes," cried Lee, "but it was too late." Between his choking sobs he +told of the promise lying on his father's heart, in the far-off grave +under the cemetery cedars. + +Mr. Marion controlled his voice with an effort, as he pointed out the +way so surely and so simply that Lee could not fail to understand. + +Then, with his arm still around him, he prayed; and the boy, following +him step by step through that earnest prayer, groped his way to his +Savior. + +It was a time never to be forgotten by either Frank Marion or Lee. They +lay awake till long after midnight, too happy even to think of sleep. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +HERZENRUHE. + + +A STORY has come down to us of a cricket that, hidden away in an old oak +chest, found its way to the New World in the hold of the Mayflower. When +night came, and the strange loneliness of those winter wilds made the +bravest heart appalled; when little children held with homesick longing +to their mother's hands, and talked of England's bonny hedgerows, then +the brave little cricket came out on the hearthstone; and its familiar +chirp, bringing back the cheer of the happy past, comforted the +children, and sang new hopes into the hearts of their elders. + +With every vessel that has touched the New World's shores since that +time have come these fireside voices. Whether stowed away in the ample +chests of the first Virginians, or bound in the bundles of the last +steerage passengers just landed at Castle Garden, some quaint custom of +a distant Fatherland has always folded its wings, ready to chirp on the +new hearthstone, the familiar even-song of the old. + +That is how the American celebration of Christmas has become so +cosmopolitan in its character. It is a chorus of all the customs that, +cricket-like, have journeyed to us, each with its song of an "auld lang +syne." + +"I should like to have a little of everything this year," remarked Miss +Caroline, as, pencil in hand, she prepared to make a long memorandum. + +It was two weeks before Christmas, and she had called a family council +in her room, after Jack had gone to bed. + +Mrs. Marion and Lois were there, busily embroidering. + +"It is the first time we have had a home of our own for so many years, +or been where there is a child in the family," added Miss Harriet, "that +we ought to make quite an occasion of it." + +"Now, my idea," remarked Miss Caroline, "is to begin back with the +mistletoe of the Druids, and then the holly and plum-pudding of old +England. I'm sorry we can't have the Yule log and the wassail-bowl and +the dear little Christmas waits. It must have been so lovely. But we +can have a tree Christmas eve, with all the beautiful German customs +that go with it. Jack must hang up his stocking by the chimney, whether +he believes in Santa Claus or not. Then we must read up all the +Scandinavian and Dutch and Flemish customs, and observe just as many as +we can." + +"And all this just for Jack and Lee," said Mrs. Marion, thoughtfully. + +"Bless you, no," exclaimed Miss Caroline. "Jack is going to invite ten +poor children that the Junior Mercy and Help Department have reported. +He is so grateful for being able to walk a little, that he wants to give +up his whole Christmas to them." + +"What do you want me to do?" asked Lois. "I'm through with my last +present now, and am ready for anything, from serving a dinner to the +slums to playing a bagpipe for its entertainment." + +As she spoke she snipped the last thread of silk with her little silver +scissors, and tossed the piece of embroidery into Bethany's lap. + +Bethany spread it out admiringly. "You are a true artist, Lois," she +said. "These sweet peas look as if they had just been gathered. They +would almost tempt the bees." + +"They're not as natural as Ray's buttercups," answered Lois. "You can't +guess whom she's making that table-cover for?" + +Mrs. Marion held it up for them to see. "For that dear old grandmother +where we were entertained at Chattanooga last summer," she said. "Don't +you remember Mrs. Warford, Bethany? She couldn't hear well enough to +enjoy the meetings, or to talk to us much, but her face was a perpetual +welcome. She asked me into her room one day, and showed me a great bunch +of red clover some one had sent her from the country. She seemed so +pleased with it, and told me about the clover chains she used to make, +and the buttercups she used to pick in the meadows at home, with all the +artlessness of a child. That is why I chose this design." + +"There never was another like you, Cousin Ray," said Bethany. "You +remember everything and everybody at Christmas, and I don't see how you +ever manage to get through with so much work." + +"Love lightens labor," quoted Miss Harriet, sententiously. "At least +that's what my old copy-book used to say." + +"And it also said, if I remember aright," said Miss Caroline, a little +severely, "'Plan out your work, and work out your plan.' It's high time +we were settling down to business, if we expect to accomplish anything." + +While this Christmas council was in session in Miss Caroline's room, +another was being held in an old farm-house in the northern part of the +State, by Gottlieb Hartmann's wife and daughter. Everything in the room +gave evidence of German thrift and neatness, from the shining brass +andirons on the hearth, to the geraniums blooming on the window-sill. + +"Herzenruhe" was the name of the home Gottlieb Hartmann had left behind +him in the Fatherland, when he came to America a poor emigrant boy; and +that was the name now carved on the arch that spanned the wide +entrance-gate, leading to the home and the well-tilled acres that he had +earned by years of steady, honest toil. + +It was indeed "heart's-ease," or heart-rest, to every wayfarer sheltered +under its ample roof-tree. + +He had accumulated his property by careful economy, but he gave out with +the same conscientious spirit with which he gathered in. No matter when +the summons might come, at nightfall or at cock-crowing, he was ready to +give an account of his faithful stewardship. Not only had he divided his +bread with the hungry, but he had given time and personal care, and a +share in his own home-life, to those who were in need. + +More than one young farmer, jogging past Herzenruhe in a wagon of his +own, looked gratefully up the long lane, and remembered that he owed the +steady habits of his manhood and his present prosperity to Gottlieb +Hartmann. For in all the years since he had had a place of his own, +there had seldom been a time when some homeless boy or another had not +been a member of his household. + +He was an old man now, white-haired and rheumatic, and called +grandfather by all the country side; but he was still young at heart, +sweet and sound to the very core, like a hardy winter apple. His +children had all married and gone farther West, except his oldest +daughter, Carlotta, whom no one had ever been able to lure away from +her comfortable home-nest. She was an energetic, self-willed little +body, and had gradually assumed control until the entire household +revolved around her. Just now she had wheeled her sewing-machine beside +the table, on which the evening lamp stood, and was preparing to dress a +whole family of dolls to be packed in the Christmas boxes that were soon +to be sent West. + +Her mother sat on one side of the fireplace, her sweet, wrinkled old +face bright with the loving thoughts that her needles were putting into +a little red mitten, destined for one of the boxes. + +"It will be the first Christmas since I can remember," said Carlotta, +"that there will be no little ones here, and no tree to light. Ben's boy +was here last year, and all of Mary's children the year before. It's a +pity they are so far away. It will just spoil my Christmas." + +Mr. Hartmann laid down the German Advocate he was reading. + +"Ach, Lotta," he said, "I forgot to tell you. There will be a little lad +here to-morrow to take dinner with us. When I was in town to-day I met +our good friend, Frank Marion, and he had a boy with him whose father is +just dead, and he is the guardian." + +"How many years has it been since Mr. Marion first came here?" asked +Carlotta. "Seems to me I was only a little girl, and now I have pulled +out lots of gray hairs already." + +"It has been twenty years at least," answered her mother. "It was while +we were building the ice-house, I know." + +"Yes," assented her husband, "I had gone into Ridgeville one Saturday to +get some new boots, and I met him in the shoestore. He was just a young +fellow making his first trip, and he seemed so strange and homesick that +when I found he was a country boy and a strong Methodist, I brought him +out here to stay over Sunday with us." + +"I remember you brought him right into the kitchen where I was dropping +noodles in the soup," answered Mrs. Hartmann, "and he has seemed to feel +like one of the family ever since." + +"Yes, he has never missed coming out here every time he has been in this +part of the State, from that day to this," said Mr. Hartmann, taking up +his paper again. + +Meanwhile, in the Ridgeville Hotel, three miles away, Mr. Marion was +telling Lee of all the pleasant things that awaited him at Herzenruhe. +The boy was so impatient to start that he could hardly wait for the time +to come, and he dreamed all night of the country. + +Mr. Marion saw very little of him during the visit. The delighted child +spent all his time in the barn, or in the dairy, helping Miss Carlotta. +"O, I wish we didn't ever have to go away," he said. "There's the +dearest little colt in the barn, and six Holstein calves, and a big pond +in the pasture covered with ice!" + +Later he confided to Mr. Marion, "Miss Carlotta makes doughnuts every +Saturday, and she says there's bushels of hickory-nuts in the garret." + +When Miss Carlotta found that Mr. Marion was going on to the next town +before starting home, she insisted on keeping Lee until his return. + +"Let him get some of 'the sun and wind into his pulses.' It will be good +for him," she said. + +"Nobody knows better than I," answered Mr. Marion, "the sweet +wholesomeness of country living. I should be glad to leave him in such +an atmosphere always. He would develop into a much purer manhood, and I +am sure would be far happier." + +Miss Carlotta shook her head sagely. "We'll see," she said. "Don't say +anything to him about it, but we'll try him while you're gone, and then +I'll talk to father. He seems right handy about the chores, and there is +a good school near here." + +Two days later, when Mr. Marion came back, he went out to the barn to +find Lee. The boy had just scrambled out of a haymow with his hat full +of eggs. His face was beaming. + +"I've learned to milk," he said proudly, "and I rode to the post-office +this afternoon, horseback." + +"Do you like it here, my boy?" asked Mr. Marion. + +"Like it!" repeated Lee, emphatically. "Well I should say! Mr. Hartmann +is just the grandfatheriest old grandfather I ever knew, and they're all +so good to me." + +It proved to be a very eventful journey for the boy; for after some +discussion about his board, it was arranged that he should come back to +the farm after the holidays. + +"Do I have to wait till then?" he asked. "Why couldn't I stay right on, +now I'm here. You could send my clothes to me, and it wouldn't cost near +as much as to go home first." + +"What will Bethany say?" asked Mr. Marion. "She is planning for a big +tree and lots of fun Christmas." + +"But papa won't be there," pleaded Lee. "I'd so much rather stay here +than go back to town and find him gone." + +"Then you shall stay," exclaimed Miss Carlotta, touched by the +expression of his face. "We'll have a tree here. You can dig one up in +the woods yourself." + +When Mr. Marion drove away, Lee rode down the lane with him to open the +big gate. After he had driven through he turned for one more look. + +The boy stood under the archway waving good-bye with his cap. The late +afternoon sun shone brightly on the happy face, and illuminated the +snow, still clinging to the quaintly carved letters on the arch above, +till it seemed they were all golden letters that spelled the name of +Herzenruhe. + + * * * * * + +This holiday season would have been a sad time for Bethany, had she +allowed herself to listen to the voices of Christmas past, but Baxter +Trent's example helped her. She turned resolutely away from her +memories, saying: "I will be like him. No heart shall ever have the +shadow of my sorrow thrown across it." + +Full of one thought only, to bring some happiness into every life that +touched her own, she found herself sharing the delight of every child +she saw crowding its face against the great show windows. She +anticipated the pleasure that would attend the opening of each bundle +carried by every purchaser that jostled against her in the street. It +was impossible for her to breathe the general air of festivity at home, +and not carry something of the Christmas spirit to the office with her. + +"Everybody has caught the contagion," she said gayly, coming into the +office Saturday afternoon, with sparkling eyes, and snowflakes still +clinging to her dark furs. "I saw that old bachelor, Mr. Crookshaw, whom +everybody thinks so miserly, going along with a little red cart under +his arm, and a tin locomotive bulging out of his pocket." + +"Jack is missing a great deal," said David, "by not being down-town +every day." + +"O no, indeed!" she exclaimed. "He is nearly wild now with the +excitement of the preparations that are going on at home. That reminds +me, he has written a special invitation for you to be present at the +lighting of his tree Christmas eve. He put it in my muff, so that I +could not possibly forget. I am sure you will enjoy watching the +children," she added, after she had told him of their various plans, +"and I hope you will be sure to come." + +"Thank you," he responded, warmly. "That is the second invitation I have +had this afternoon. Mr. Marion has just been in to ask me to attend the +League's devotional meeting to-morrow night. He says it will be +especially interesting on account of the season, and insists that 'turn +about is fair play.' He went to our Atonement-day services, and he wants +me to be present at his Christmas services." + +"We shall be very glad to have you come," said Bethany. "Dr. Bascom is +to lead the meeting instead of any of the young people, who usually take +turns. I can not tell how such a meeting might impress an outsider; to +me they are very inspiring and helpful." + +That night, as she sat in her room indulging in a few minutes of +meditation before putting out the light, she reviewed her acquaintance +with David Herschel. Her conscience condemned her for the little use she +had made of her opportunity. + +It had been four months since he had come into the office, and while +they had several times discussed their respective religions, she had +never found an occasion when she could make a personal appeal to him to +accept Christ. Once when she had been about to do so, he had abruptly +walked away, and another time, a client had interrupted them. + +"I must speak to him frankly," she said. Then she knelt and prayed that +something might be said or sung in the service of the morrow that would +prepare the way for such a conversation. + +David felt decidedly out of place Sunday evening as he took a seat in +the back part of the room, in the least conspicuous corner he could +find. + +They were singing when he entered. He recognized the tune. It was the +one he had heard at Chattanooga--"Nearer, my God, to Thee." It seemed to +bring the whole scene before him--the sunrise--the vast concourse of +people, and the earnestness that thrilled every soul. + +At the close of the song, another was announced in a voice that he +thought he recognized. He leaned forward to make sure. Yes, he had been +correct. It was Hewson Raleigh's--one of the keenest, most scholarly +lawyers at the bar, and a man he met daily. + +He was leaning back in his seat, beating time with his left hand, as he +led the tune with his strong tenor voice. He sang as if he heartily +enjoyed it, and meant every word and note. + +David moved over to make room for a newcomer. From his changed position +he could see a number of people he recognized: Mr. and Mrs. Marion, Lois +Denning, and the Courtney sisters. Bethany was seated at the piano. + +Presently the door from the pastor's study opened, and Dr. Bascom came +in and took his seat beside the president of the League. + +"Look at Dr. Bascom," he heard some one behind him whisper to her +escort. "What do you suppose could have happened? His face actually +shines." + +David had been watching it ever since he took his seat. It was a benign, +pleasant face at all times, but just now it seemed to have caught the +reflection of a great light. Everybody in the room noticed it. David, +quick to make Old Testament comparisons, thought of Moses coming down +the mountain from a talk with God. He felt as positively, as if he had +seen for himself, that the minister had just risen from his knees, and +had come in among them, radiant from the unspeakable joy of that +communion. Every one present began to feel its influence. + +The prophecy Dr. Bascom had chosen for reading, was one they had heard +many times, but it seemed a new proclamation as he delivered it: + +"Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given." + +Something of the gladness that must have rung through the song of the +heralds on that first Christmas night, seemed to thrill the minister's +voice as he read. + +Then he turned to Luke's account of the shepherds abiding in the fields +by night--that beautiful old story, that will always be new until the +stars that still shine nightly over Bethlehem shall have ceased to be a +wonder. + +As the service progressed, David began to feel that he was not in a +church, but that he had stumbled by mistake on some family reunion. +Everything was so informal. They told the experiences of the past week, +the blessings and the trials that had come to them since they had last +seen each other. + +Sometimes they stood; oftener they spoke from where they sat, just as +they would have talked in some home-circle. + +And through it all they seemed to recognize a Divine presence in the +room, to whom they spoke at intervals with reverence, with humility, but +with the deepest love and gratitude. + +As David listened to voice after voice testifying to a personal +knowledge of Christ as a Savior, he was forced to admit to himself that +they possessed something to which he was an utter stranger. + +When Hewson Raleigh arose, David listened with still greater interest. +He knew him to be an eloquent lawyer, and had heard him a number of +times in rousing political speeches, and once in a masterly oration over +the Nation's dead on Memorial-day. He knew what a power the man had with +a jury, and he knew what respect even his enemies had for his +unimpeachable veracity and honor. + +Raleigh stood up now, quiet and unimpassioned as when examining a +witness, to give his own clear, direct, lawyer-like testimony. + +He said: "There may be some here to-night to whom the prophecy that was +read, and the story of the Advent, are only of historic interest. To +such I do not come with the sayings of the prophets, or to repeat the +tidings of the shepherds, or to ask any one's credence because the +apostles and martyrs and Christians of all times believed. I tell you +that which I myself do know. The Holy Spirit has led me to the Christ. +If he were only an ethical teacher, if he were not the Son of God, he +could not have entered into my life, and transformed it as he has done. +My star of hope is far more real to me than the stars outside that +lighted my way to this room to-night. I have knelt at his feet and +worshiped, and gone on my way rejoicing. I know that through the +sacrifice he offered on Calvary my atonement is made, and I stand +before the Father justified, through faith in his only-begotten. The +voice that bears witness to this may not be audible to you; but though +all the voices in the universe were combined to dispute it, they would +be as nothing to that still, small voice within that whispers peace--the +witness of the Spirit." + +On the Day of Atonement Marion and Cragmore had not been half so +surprised at hearing the League benediction intoned by rabbi and choir, +as was David when the familiar blessing of the synagogue was repeated in +unison by those of another faith: + +"The Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord make his face to shine upon +thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon +thee, and give thee peace." + +David had heard so much of Methodists that he had expected noisy +demonstrations and great exhibitions of emotion. He had found +enthusiastic singing and hearty responses of amen during the prayers; +but while the prevailing spirit seemed one of intense earnestness, it +had the depth and quiet of some great, resistless under-current. + +He slipped out of the room after the benediction, fearful of meeting +curious glances. A member of the reception committee managed to shake +hands with him, but his friends had not discovered his attendance. + +Two things followed him persistently. The expression of Dr. Bascom's +face, and Hewson Raleigh's emphatic "I know." + +He took the last train out to Hillhollow, wishing he had staid away from +the League meeting. It haunted him, and made him uncomfortable. + +He walked the floor until long after midnight. Even sleep brought him no +rest, for in his dreams he was still groping blindly in the dark for +something--he knew not what--but something wise men had found long years +ago in a starlit manger, earth's "Herzenruhe." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +ON CHRISTMAS EVE. + + +IT was Christmas eve, and nearing the time for Bethany to leave the +office. She stood, with her wraps on, by one of the windows, waiting for +Mr. Edmunds to come back. She had a message to deliver before she could +leave, and she expected him momentarily. + +In the street below people were hurrying by with their arms full of +bundles. She was impatient to be gone, too. There were a great many +finishing touches for her to give the tall tree in the drawing-room at +home. + +She had worked till the last moment at noon, and locked the door +regretfully on the gayly-decked room, with its mingled odors of pine +boughs and oranges, always so suggestive of Christmas festivities. + +While she stood there, she heard steps in the hall. + +"O, I thought you were Mr. Edmunds," she exclaimed, as David entered. It +was the first time he had been at the office that day. "I have a message +for him. Have you seen him anywhere?" + +"No," answered David. "I have just come in from Hillhollow. Marta has +telegraphed that she is coming home on the night train, so I shall not +be able to accept Jack's invitation. She had not expected to come at all +during the holidays; but one of the teachers was called home, and she +could not resist the temptation to accompany her, although she can only +stay until the end of the week." + +As Bethany expressed her regrets at Jack's disappointment, David picked +up a small package that lay on his desk. + +"O, the expressman left that for you a little while ago," she said. +"Your Christmas is beginning early." + +She turned again to the window, peering out through the dusk, while +David lighted the gas-jet over his desk, and proceeded to open the +package. + +It occurred to her that here was a time, while all the world was turning +towards the Messiah on this anniversary eve of his coming, that she +might venture to speak of him. Before she could decide just how to +begin, David spoke to her: + +"Do you care to look, Miss Hallam? I would like for you to see it." + +He held a little silver case towards her, on which a handsome monogram +was heavily engraved. + +As she touched the spring it flew open, showing an exquisitely painted +miniature on ivory. + +She gave an involuntary cry of delight. + +"What a beautiful girl," she exclaimed. "It is one of the loveliest +faces I ever saw." She scrutinized it carefully, studying it with an +artist's evident pleasure. Then she looked up with a smile. + +"This must be the one Rabbi Barthold spoke to me about," she said. "He +said that she was rightly named Esther, for it means star, and her +great, dark eyes always made him think of starlight." + +"How long ago since he told you that?" asked David in surprise. + +"When we first began taking Hebrew lessons," she answered. + +"And did he tell you we are bethrothed?" + +"Yes." + +David felt annoyed. He knew intuitively why his old friend had departed +so from his usual scrupulousness regarding a confidence. He had +intimated to David, when he had first met Miss Hallam, that she was an +unusually fascinating girl, and he feared that their growing friendship +might gradually lessen the young man's interest in Esther, whom he saw +only at long intervals, as she lived in a distant city. + +"I had hoped to have the pleasure of telling you myself," said David. + +"I have often wondered what she is like," answered Bethany, "and I am +glad to have this opportunity of offering my congratulations. I wish +that she lived here that I might make her acquaintance. I do not know +when I have seen a face that has captivated me so." + +"Thank you," replied David, flushing with pleasure. A tender smile +lighted his eyes as he glanced at the miniature again before closing the +case. "She will come to Hillhollow in the spring," he added proudly. + +They heard Mr. Edmunds's voice in the hall. Bethany held out her hand. + +"I shall not see you again until next week, I suppose," she said, "so +let me wish you a very happy Christmas." + +He kept her hand in his an instant as he repeated her greeting, then, +looking earnestly down into the upturned face, added gently in Hebrew, +the old benediction--"Peace be upon you." + +It was quite dark when she stepped out into the streets. She thought of +David and Esther all the way home. + +At first she thought of them with a tender smile curving her lips, as +she entered unselfishly into the happiness of the little romance she had +discovered. + +Then she thought of them with tears in her eyes and a chill in her +heart, as some little waif might stand shivering on the outside of a +window, looking in on a happy scene, whose warmth and comfort he could +not share. The joy of her own betrothal, and the desolation that ended +it, surged back over her so overwhelmingly that she was in no mood for +merry-making when she reached home. + +She longed to slip quietly away to her own room, and spend the evening +in the dark with her memories. She had to wait a moment on the +threshold before she could summon strength enough to go in cheerfully. + +Mrs. Marion and Lois were in the dining-room helping the sisters +decorate the long table, where the children were to be served with +supper immediately on their arrival. + +"Frank and Jack have gone out in a sleigh to gather them up," said Mrs. +Marion. "They'll soon be here, so you'll not have much time to dress." + +"All right," responded Bethany, "I'll go in a minute. Mr. Herschel can't +come, so you may as well take off one plate." + +"But George Cragmore can," said Miss Caroline, pausing on her way to the +kitchen. "I asked him this morning, and forgot to say anything about +it." + +Then she trotted out for a cake-knife, blissfully unconscious of the +grimace Bethany made behind her back. + +"O dear!" she exclaimed to Lois, "Miss Caroline means all right, but she +is a born matchmaker. She has taken a violent fancy to Mr. Cragmore, and +wants me to do the same. She thinks she is so very deep, and so very +wary in the way she lays her plans, that I'll never suspect; but the +dear old soul is as transparent as a window-pane. I can see every move +she makes." + +"What about Mr. Cragmore?" asked Lois. "Is he conscious of her efforts +in his behalf?" + +"O no. He thinks that she is a dear, motherly old lady, and is always +paying her some flattering attention. It is well worth his while, for +she makes him perfectly at home here, keeps his pockets full of goodies, +as if he were an overgrown boy (which he is in some respects), and +treats him with the consideration due a bishop. She is always going out +to Clarke Street to hear him preach, and quoting his sermons to him +afterwards. There he is now!" she exclaimed, as two short rings and one +long one were given the front door-bell. + +"So he even has his especial signals," laughed Lois. "He must be on a +very familiar footing, indeed." + +"He got into that habit when he first started to calling by to take me +up to the Hebrew class," she explained. "Miss Caroline encouraged him in +it." + +Just then Miss Caroline came hurrying through the room to receive him. + +"Bethany, dear," she said in an excited stage whisper, "you'd better run +up the back stairs. And do put on your best dress, and a rose in your +hair, just to please me. Now, won't you?" + +Bethany and Lois looked at each other and laughed. + +"I'd like to shock her by going in just as I am," said Bethany; "but as +it's Christmas-time I suppose I must be good and please everybody." + +It was not long before a great stamping of many snowy little feet +announced the arrival of the Christmas guests. + +They came into the house with such rosy, happy faces, that no one +thought of the patched clothes and ragged shoes. + +"Dear hearts, I wish we could have a hundred instead of ten," sighed +Miss Harriet, as she helped seat them at the table. "They look as though +they never once had enough to eat in all their little lives." + +"They shall have it now," declared Miss Caroline heartily, "if George +Cragmore doesn't keep them laughing so hard they can't eat. Just hear +the man!" + +She had never seen him in such a gay humor, or heard him tell such +irresistibly funny stories as the ones he brought out for the +entertainment of these poor little guests, who had never known anything +but the depressing poverty of the most wretched homes. + +Mr. Marion was the good St. Nicholas who had found them, and spirited +them away to this enchanted land; but Cragmore was the Aladdin who +rubbed his lamp until their eyes were dazzled by the wonderful scenes he +conjured up for them. + +When the dinner was over, and everything had been taken off the table +but the flowers and candles and bonbon dishes, he lifted the smallest +child of all from her high chair, and took her on his knee. + +With his arms around her, he began to tell the story of the first +Christmas. His voice was very deep and sweet, and he told it so well one +could almost see the dark, silent plains and the white sheep huddled +together, and the shepherds keeping watch by night. + +One by one the children slipped down from their chairs, and crowded +closer around him. + +He had never preached before to such a breathless audience, and he had +never put into his sermons such gentleness and pathos and power. + +He was thinking of their poor, neglected lives, and how much they needed +the love of One who could sympathize to the utmost, because he was born +among the lowly, and "was despised and rejected of men." When he had +finished, the tears stood in his eyes with the intensity of his feeling, +and the children were very quiet. + +The little girl on his lap drew a long breath. Then she smiled up in his +face, and, putting her arm around his neck, leaned her head against him. + +There was a bugle-call from the library, and Jack led the children away +to listen to an orchestra composed of boys from the League, who had +volunteered their services for the occasion. + +While they were playing some old carols, Miss Caroline called Mr. +Cragmore aside. "I've sent Bethany to light the candles on the tree in +the drawing-room," she said. "May be you can help her." + +Lois heard the whisper, and his hearty response, "May the saints bless +you for that now!" She hurried into the hall to intercept Bethany. + +"Ah ha, my lady," she said teasingly, "you needn't be putting everything +off onto poor Aunt Caroline. I've just now discovered that she is only +somebody's cat's-paw." + +Bethany was irritated. She had been greatly touched by the winning +tenderness of Cragmore's manner with the children. If there had been no +memory of a past love in her life, she could have found in this man all +the qualities that would inspire the deepest affection; but with that +memory always present, she resented the slightest word that hinted of +his interest in her. + +She made Lois go with her to light the tapers, and that mischief-loving +girl thoroughly enjoyed forestalling the little private interview Miss +Caroline had planned for her protege. + +It was still early in the evening, while the children were romping +around the dismantled tree, that Cragmore announced his intention of +leaving. + +"I promised to talk at a Hebrew mission to-night," he explained, in +answer to the remonstrances that greeted him on all sides. + +"By the way," he exclaimed, "I intended to tell you about that, and I +must stay a moment longer to do it." + +He hung his overcoat on the back of a tall chair, and folded his arms +across it. + +"The other day I made the acquaintance of a Russian Jew, Sigmund +Ragolsky. He has a remarkable history. He married an English Jewess, was +a rabbi in Glasgow for a long time, and is now a Baptist preacher, +converted after a fourteen years' struggle against a growing belief in +the truth of Christianity. The story of his life sounds like a romance. +He was so strictly orthodox that he would not strike a match on the +Sabbath. He would have starved before he would have touched food that +had not been prepared according to ritual. He is here for the purpose of +establishing a Hebrew mission. You should see the people who come to +hear him. They are nearly all from that poor class in the tenement +district. One can hardly believe they belong to the same race with Rabbi +Barthold and his cultured friends. Ragolsky, though, is a scholar, and +I should like to hear the two men debate. He says the Reform Jews are no +Jews at all--that they are the hardest people in the world to convert, +because they look for no Messiah, accept only the Scripture that suits +them, and are so well satisfied with themselves that they feel no need +of any mediator between them and eternal holiness. They feel fully equal +to the task of making their own atonement. Rabbi Barthold says that the +orthodox are narrow fanatics, and that the majority of them live two +lives--one towards God, of slavish religious observances; the other +towards man, of sharp practices and double-dealing. I want you to hear +Ragolsky preach some night. I'll tell you his story some other time." + +"Tell me this much now," said Bethany, as he picked up his overcoat +again; "did he have to give up his family as Mr. Lessing did?" + +"No, indeed. Happily his wife and children were converted also. He had +two rich brothers-in-law in Cape Colony, Africa, who cut them off +without a shilling, but he is not grieving over that, I can assure you. +O, he is so full of his purpose, and is such a happy Christian! If we +were all as constantly about the Master's business as he is, the +millennium would soon be here." + +Afterward, when the children had been taken home, and the feast and the +tree, and the people who gave them, were only blissful memories in their +happy little hearts, Bethany stood by the window in her room, holding +aside the curtain. + +Everything outside was covered with snow. She was thinking of Ragolsky +and Lessing, and wondering which of the two fates would be David +Herschel's, if he should ever become a Christian. + +Would Esther's love for her people be stronger than her love for him? + +She knew how tenaciously the women of Israel cling to their faith, yet +she felt that it was no ordinary bond that held these two together. + +Looking up beyond the starlighted heavens, Bethany whispered a very +heartfelt prayer for David and the beautiful, dark-eyed girl who was to +be his bride; and like an answering omen of good, over the white roofs +of the city came the joyful clangor of the Christmas chimes. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +A "WATCH-NIGHT" CONSECRATION. + + +THE office work for the old year was all done. Mr. Edmunds had locked +his desk and gone home. David would soon follow. He had only some +private correspondence to finish. + +Bethany sat nervously assorting the letters in the different +pigeon-holes of her desk. Ninety-five was slipping out into the +eternities. It had brought her a prayed-for opportunity; it was carrying +away a far different record from the one she had planned. She felt that +she could not bear to have it go in that way, yet an unaccountable +reticence sealed her lips. + +David had been in the office very little during the past week, only long +enough to get his mail. This afternoon he had a worried, preoccupied +look that made it all the harder for Bethany to say what was trembling +on her lips. + +She heard him slipping the letter into the envelope. He would be gone +in just another moment. Now he was putting on his overcoat. O, she must +say something! Her heart beat violently, and her face grew hot. She shut +her eyes an instant, and sent up a swift, despairing appeal for help. + +David strolled into the room with his hat in his hand, and stood beside +her table. + +"Well, the old year is about over, Miss Hallam," he said, gravely. "It +has brought me a great many unexpected experiences, but the most +unexpected of all is the one that led to our acquaintance. In wishing +you a happy new year, I want to tell you what a pleasure your friendship +has been to me in the old." + +Bethany found sudden speech as she took the proffered hand. + +"And I want to tell you, Mr. Herschel, that I have not only been +wishing, but praying earnestly, that in this new year you may find the +greatest happiness earth holds--the peace that comes in accepting Christ +as a Savior." + +He turned from her abruptly, and, with his hands thrust in his overcoat +pockets, began pacing up and down the room with quick, excited strides. + +"You, too!" he cried desperately. "I seem to be pursued. Every way I +turn, the same thing is thrust at me. For weeks I have been fighting +against it--O, longer than that--since I first talked to Lessing. Then +there was Dr. Trent's death, and that nurse's prayer, and the League +meeting Frank Marion persuaded me into attending. Cragmore has talked to +me so often, too. I can answer arguments, but I can't answer such lives +and faith as theirs. Yesterday morning I had a letter from Lee--little +Lee Trent--thanking me for a book I had sent him, and even that child +had something to say. He told me about his conversion. Last night +curiosity led me down town to hear a Russian Jew preach to a lot of +rough people in an old warehouse by the river. His text was Pilate's +question, 'What shall I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ?' It +wasn't a sermon. There wasn't a single argument in it. It was just a +tragically-told story of the Nazarene's trial and death sentence--but he +made it such a personal matter. All last night, and all day to-day those +words have tormented me beyond endurance, 'What shall I do? What shall I +do with this Jesus called Christ!'" + +He kept on restlessly pacing back and forth in silence. Then he broke +out again: + +"I saw a man converted, as you call it, down there last night. He had +been a rough, blasphemous drunkard that I have seen in the police courts +many a time. I saw him fall on his knees at the altar, groaning for +mercy, and I saw him, when he stood up after a while, with a face like a +different creature's, all transformed by a great joy, crying out that he +had been pardoned for Christ's sake. I just stood and looked at him, and +wondered which of us is nearer the truth. If I am right, what a poor, +deluded fool he is! But if he is right, good God--" + +He stopped abruptly. + +"Mr. Herschel," said Bethany, slowly, "if you were convinced that, by +going on some certain pilgrimage, you could find Truth, but that the +finding would shatter your belief in the creed you cling to now, would +you undertake the journey? Which is stronger in you, the love for the +faith of your fathers, or an honest desire for Truth, regardless of +long-cherished opinion?" + +For a moment there was no answer. Then he threw back his shoulders +resolutely. + +"I would take the journey," he said, with decision. "If I am wrong I +want to know it." Bethany slipped a little Testament out of one of the +pigeon-holes, and handed it to him, opened at the place where the answer +to Thomas was heavily underscored: + +"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way and the truth and the life; no man +cometh unto the Father but by me." + +"Follow that path," she said, simply. "The door has never been opened to +you, because you have never knocked. You have no personal knowledge of +Christ, because you have never sought for it. He has never revealed +himself to you, because you have never asked him to do so." + +He turned to her impatiently. + +"Could you honestly pray to Confucius?" he asked; "or Isaiah, or Elijah, +or John the Baptist? This Jewish teacher is no more to me than any other +man who has taught and died. How can I pray to him, then?" + +Bethany fingered the leaves of her little Testament, her heart +fluttering nervously. + +"I wish you would take this and read it," she said. "It would answer you +far better than I can." + +"I have read it," he replied, "a number of years ago. I could see +nothing in it." + +"O, but you read it simply as a critic," she answered. "See!" she cried +eagerly, turning the leaves to find another place she had marked. "Paul +wrote this about the children of Israel: 'Their minds were blinded: for +until this day remaineth the same veil' (the one told about in Exodus, +you know) 'untaken away, in the reading of the Old Testament; which veil +is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the +veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, +the veil shall be taken away.'" + +"Where does it say that?" he asked, incredulously. He took the book, and +turning back to the first of the chapter, commenced to read. + +The great bell in the court-house tower began clanging six. + +"I must go," he said; "but I'll take this with me and look through it +another time." + +"I wish you would come to the watch-meeting to-night," she said, +wistfully. "It is from ten until midnight. All the Leagues in the city +meet at Garrison Avenue." + +He slipped the book in his pocket, and buttoned up his overcoat. A +sudden reserve of manner seemed to envelop him at the same time. + +"No, thank you," he answered, drawing on his gloves. "I have an informal +invitation from some friends in Hillhollow to dance the old year out and +the new year in." + +His tone seemed so flippant after the recent depth of feeling he had +betrayed, that it jarred on Bethany's earnest mood like a discord. He +moved toward the door. + +"No matter where you may be," she said as he opened it, "I shall be +praying for you." + +After he had gone, Bethany still sat at her desk, mechanically assorting +the letters. She was so absorbed in her thoughts that she had quite +forgotten it was time to go home. + +The door opened, and Frank Marion came in. He was followed by Cragmore, +who was going home with him to dinner. + +"All alone?" asked Mr. Marion in surprise. "Where's David? We dropped in +to invite him around to the watch-meeting to-night." + +"He has just gone," answered Bethany. "I asked him, but he declined on +account of a previous engagement. O, Cousin Frank," she exclaimed, "I +do believe he is almost convinced of the truth of Christianity!" + +She repeated the conversation that had just taken place. + +"He has been fighting against that conviction for some time," answered +Mr. Marion. "I had a talk with him last week." + +"What do you suppose Rabbi Barthold would say if Mr. Herschel should +become a Christian?" asked Bethany. + +"Ah, I asked the old gentleman that very question yesterday," exclaimed +Mr. Cragmore. "It astounded him at first. I could see that the mere +thought of such apostasy in one he loves as dearly as his young David, +wounded him sorely. O, it grieved him to the heart! But he is a noble +soul, broad-minded and generous. He did not answer for a moment, and +when he finally spoke I could see what an effort the words cost him: + +"'David is a child no longer,' he said, slowly. 'He has a right to +choose for himself. I would rather read the rites of burial over his +dead body than to see him cut loose from the faith in which I have so +carefully trained him; but no matter what course he pursues, I am sure +of one thing, his absolute honesty of purpose. Whatever he does, will be +from a deep conviction of right. I, who was denounced and misunderstood +in my youth because I cast aside the weight of orthodoxy that bound me +down spiritually, should be the last one to condemn the same +independence of thought in others.'" + +"Herschel would have less opposition to contend with than any Jew I +know," remarked Mr. Marion. + +"That little sister of his would be rather pleased than otherwise, and, +I think, would soon follow his example." + +Bethany thought of Esther, but said nothing. + +"We'll make it a subject of prayer to-night," said Cragmore, who had +been appointed to lead the meeting. + +"Yes," answered Marion, clapping his friend on the shoulder. Then he +quoted emphatically: "'And this is the confidence that we have in Him, +that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.'" + +"Let's ask him right now!" cried Cragmore, in his impetuous way. + +He slipped the bolt in the door, and kneeling beside David's desk, +began praying for his absent friend as he would have pleaded for his +life. Then Marion followed with the same unfaltering earnestness, and +after his voice ceased, Bethany took up the petition. + +"Nobody need tell me that those prayers are not heard," exclaimed +Marion, triumphantly, as he arose from his knees. "I know better. Come, +Bethany; if you are ready to go, we will walk as far as the avenue with +you." + +As they went down-stairs together, he kept singing softly under his +breath, "Blessed be the name, blessed be the name of the Lord!" + +By ten o'clock the League-room of the Garrison Avenue Church was +crowded. + +George Cragmore had prepared a carefully-studied address for the +occasion; but during the half hour of the song service preceding it, +while he studied the faces of his audience, his heart began to be +strangely burdened for David and his people. He covered his eyes with +his hand a moment, and sent up a swift prayer for guidance, before he +arose to speak. + +"My friends," he said in his deep, musical voice, "I had thought to talk +to you to-night of 'spiritual growth,' but just now, as I have been +sitting here, God had put another message into my mouth. We are all +children of one Father who have met in this room, and for that reason +you will bear with me now for the strangeness of the questions I shall +ask, and the seeming harshness of my words. This is a time for honest +self-examination. I should like to know how many, during the year just +gone, have contributed in any way to the support of Home and Foreign +Missions?" + +Every one in the room arose. + +"How many have tried, by prayer, daily influence, and direct appeal, to +bring some one to Christ?" + +Again every one arose. + +"How many of you, during the past year, have spoken to a Jew about your +Savior, or in any way evinced to any one of them a personal interest in +the salvation of that race?" + +Looks of surprise were exchanged among the Leaguers, and many smiled at +the question. Only two arose, Mr. Marion and Bethany Hallam. + +When they had taken their seats again there was a moment of intense +silence. The earnest solemnity of the minister was felt by every one +present. They waited almost breathlessly for what was coming. + +"There is a young Jew in this city to-night whose heart is turning +lovingly towards your Savior and mine. I have come to ask your prayers +in his behalf, that the stumbling-blocks in his way may be removed. But +it is not for him alone my soul is burdened. I seem to hear Isaiah's +voice crying out to me, 'Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your +God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her +warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.' And then I seem +to hear another voice that through the thunderings of Sinai proclaims, +'Thou shalt not bear false witness.' Ah! the Christian Church has been +weighed in the balance and found wanting. It must read a terrible +handwriting on the wall in the fact that Israel's eyes have not been +opened to the fulfillment of prophecy. For had she seen Christ in the +daily life of every follower since he was first preached in that little +Church at Antioch, we would have had a race of Sauls turned Pauls! We +are Christ's witnesses to all men. Do all men see Christ in us, or only +a false, misleading image of him? He cherished no racial prejudices. He +turned away from no man with a look of scorn, or a cold shrug of +indifference. He drew no line across which his sympathies and love and +helping hands should not reach. When we do these things, are we not +bearing false witness to the character of him whose name we have +assumed, and the emblem of whose cross we wear? I can not believe that +any of us here have been willfully neglectful of this corner of the +Lord's vineyard. It must be because your hearts and hands were full of +other interests that you have been indifferent to this." + +Then he told them of Lessing and Ragolsky and David, and called on them +to pray that his friend might find the light he was seeking. A dozen +earnest prayers were offered in quick succession, and every heart went +out in sympathy to this young Jew, whom they longed to see happy in the +consciousness of a personal Savior. + +David had not gone out to Hillhollow. He dined at the restaurant, and +was just starting leisurely down to the depot when he found that his +watch told the same time as when he had looked at it an hour before. It +must have been stopped even some time before that. At any rate it had +made him too late for the train. The next one would not leave till nine +o'clock. He stood on a corner debating how to pass the time, and finally +concluded to go back to the office for a magazine he had borrowed from +Rabbi Barthold, and take it home to him. + +His steps echoed strangely through the deserted hall as he climbed the +stairs to the office. He lighted the gas, and sat down to look through +the papers on his desk for the magazine. But when he had found it, he +still sat there idly, drumming with his fingers on the rounds of his +chair. + +After awhile he took Bethany's Testament out of his pocket, and began to +read. It was marked heavily with many marginal notes and underscored +passages, that he examined with a great deal of curiosity. Beginning +with Matthew's account of the wise men's search, he read steadily on +through the four Gospels, past Acts, and through some of Paul's +epistles. It was after ten by the office clock when he finished the +letter to the Hebrews. + +He put the book down with a groan, and, folding his arms on the desk, +wearily laid his head on them. + +Just then Bethany's parting words echoed in his ears, "No matter where +you may be, I shall be praying for you." + +It had irritated him at the moment. Now there was comfort in the thought +that she might be interceding in his behalf. He loved the faith of his +fathers. He was proud of every drop of Israelitish blood that coursed +through his veins. He felt that nothing could induce him to renounce +Judaism--nothing! Yet his heart went out lovingly toward the Christ that +had been so wonderfully revealed to him as he read. + +The conviction was slowly forcing itself on his mind that in accepting +him he would not be giving up Judaism, that he would only be accepting +the Messiah long promised to his own people--only believing fulfilled +prophecy. + +He wanted him so--this Christ who seemed able to satisfy every longing +of his heart, which just now was 'hungering and thirsting after +righteousness;' this Christ who had so loved the world that he had given +himself a willing sacrifice to make propitiation for its sins--for +his--David Herschel's sins. + +The old questions of the Trinity and the Incarnation came back to +perplex him, and he put them resolutely away, remembering the words that +Bethany had quoted, that when Israel should turn to the Lord, the veil +should be taken from its heart. + +Suddenly he started to his feet, and with his hands clasped above his +head, cried out: "O, Thou Eternal, take away the veil! Show me Christ! I +will give up anything--everything that stands in the way of my accepting +him, if thou wilt but make him manifest!" + +He threw himself on his knees in an agony of supplication, and then +rising, walked the floor. Time and again he knelt to pray, and again +rose in despair to pace back and forth. + +He hardly knew what to expect, but Paul's conversion had been attended +by such miraculous manifestations that he felt that some great +revelation must certainly be made to him. + +Opening the little Testament at random, he saw the words, "If thou shalt +confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart +that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." + +"I do believe it," he said aloud. "And I will confess it the first +opportunity I have. Yes, I will go right now and tell Uncle Ezra--no +matter what it may cause him to say to me." + +He looked at the clock again. The old year was almost gone. It was +nearly midnight. Rabbi Barthold would be asleep. Then he remembered the +watch-night service Bethany had asked him to attend. Cragmore and Marion +would be there. He would go and tell them. + +He started rapidly down the street, saying to himself: "How queer this +seems! Here am I, a Jew, on my way to confess before men that I believe +a Galilean peasant is the Son of God. I don't understand the mystery of +it, but I do believe in some way the promised atonement has been made, +and that it avails for me." + +He clung to that hope all the way down to the Church. It was growing +stronger every step. + +Bethany had risen to take her place at the piano at the announcement of +another hymn, when the door opened and David Herschel stood in their +midst. Not even glancing at the startled members of the League, he +walked across the room and held out one hand to Cragmore and the other +to Marion. His voice thrilled his listeners with its intensity of +purpose. + +"I have come to confess before you the belief that your Jesus is the +Christ, and that through him I shall be saved." + +Then a look of happy wonderment shone in his face, as the dawning +consciousness of his acceptance became clearer to him. + +"Why, I am saved! Now!" he cried in joyful surprise. + +Glad tears sprang to many eyes, and only one exclamation could express +the depth of Frank Marion's gratitude--an old-fashioned shout of "Glory +to God!" Yes, an old, old fashion--for it came in when "the morning +stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy." + +"O, I must tell the whole world!" cried David. + +"Come!" exclaimed Cragmore, turning to those around him, and laying his +hand on David's shoulder; "here is another Saul turned Paul. Who such +missionaries of the cross as these redeemed sons of Abraham? Leagued +with such an Israel, we could soon tell all the world. Who will join the +alliance?" + +In answer they came crowding around David, with warm hand-clasps and +sympathetic words, till the bells all over the city began tolling the +hour of midnight. + +At a word from Cragmore they knelt in the final prayer of consecration. + +There was a deep silence. Then the leader's voice began: + +"The untried paths of the new year stretch out into unknown distances. +But trusting in an Allwise Father, in a grace-giving Christ, and the +sustaining presence of the Holy Spirit, how many will sing with me: + +[Illustration: Music + + "Where He leads me I will follow, + Where He leads me I will follow, + Where He leads me I will follow. + I'll go with Him, with Him all the way."] + +The melody arose, sweet and subdued, as every voice covenanted with his. + +"But some of us may have planned out certain paths for our own feet, +that lead alluringly to ease and approbation. Think! God may call us +into obscure bypaths, into ways that lead to no earthly recompense, to +lowly service and unrequited toil. Can we still sing it? Let us wait. +Let us consider and be very sure." + +In the prayerful silence, David thought of his profession and the hopes +of the great success that it was his ambition to attain. Could he give +it up, and spend his life in an unappreciated ministry to his people? He +wavered. But just then he had a vision of the Christ. He seemed to see a +footsore, tired man, holding out his hands in blessing to the motley +crowds that thronged him; and again he saw the same patient form +stumbling wearily along under a heavy beam of wood, scourged, mocked, +spit upon, nailed to the cross, for--him! + +David shuddered, and he took up the refrain: "I'll go with Him, with +Him, all the way." + +"It may be that, so far as ambition and personal plans are concerned, we +are willing to put ourselves entirely in God's hands; but suppose he +should call for our hearts' best beloved, are we willing to make of this +hour a Mount Moriah, on which we sacrifice our Isaacs--our all? Do we +consecrate ourselves entirely? Will we go with him all the way, no +matter through what dark Gethsemane he may see best to lead us?" + +Again David wavered as Esther's beautiful face came before him. + +"O God! anything but that!" he cried out passionately. + +Cragmore felt him trembling, and, reaching out, clasped his hand, and +prayed silently that strength might be given him to make the +consecration complete. + +"I'll go with Him, with Him, all the way!" + +David's voice sung it unfalteringly. When they arose the tears were +streaming down his cheeks, but a great light was in his face, and a +great peace in his heart. The Christ had been revealed to him. A new +life and a new year had been born together. + + * * * * * + +No, the story is not done, but the rest of it can not be written until +it has first been lived. + +In God's good time the shuttles of his purposes shall weave these +life-webs to the finish. Some threads may cross and twine, some be +widely parted, and some be snapped asunder. Who can tell? The new year +has only begun. + +But we know that all things work together for good to those who give +themselves into the eternal keeping, and--"God's in his heaven." + + + + +SILENT KEYS. + + +ONCE, in a shadowy old cathedral, a young girl sat at the great organ, +playing over and over a simple melody for a group of children to sing. +They were rehearsing the parts they were to take in the Christmas +choruses. + +It was not long before every voice had caught the sweet old tune of "Joy +to the World," and as their little feet pattered down the solemn aisles, +the song was carried with them to the work and play of the streets +outside. + +As the girl turned to follow, she found the old white-haired organist, a +master-musician, standing beside her. + +"Why did you not strike all the keys, little sister?" he asked. "You +have left silent some of the sweetest and deepest. Listen! This is what +you should have put into your song." + +As he spoke, his powerful hands touched the key-board, till the great +cathedral seemed to tremble with the mighty symphony that filled +it--"Joy to the world, the Lord is come!" + +High, sweet notes, like the matin-songs of sky-larks, fluttered away +from his touch, and went winging their flight--up and up--beyond all +mortal hearing. Down the deep, full chords and majestic octaves rolled +the triumphal gladness. Every key seemed to find a voice, as the hands +of the old musician swept through the variations of "Antioch." + +Tears filled the young girl's eyes, and when he had finished she said +sadly: "Ah, only a master-hand could do that--bring out the varied tones +of those silent keys, and yet through it all keep the thread of the song +clear and unbroken. All those divine harmonies were in my soul as I +played, yet had I tried to give expression to them, I might have +wandered away from the simple motif that I would have the children +remember always. In trying to span those fuller chords you strike so +easily, or in reaching always for the highest notes, I would have failed +to impress them with the part they are to take in the choruses, and they +would not have gone out as they did just now, singing their joy to the +world." + +Maybe some such master may turn the pages of this story, and feel the +same impatience at its incompleteness. Here in this place he would have +added, with strong touches, many a convincing argument. There he would +have spoken with the voice of a sage or prophet, and he may turn away, +saying: "Why did you not strike all the keys, little sister? You have +left silent some of the sweetest and deepest." + +The answer is the same. Only a master-hand can sweep the gamut of +history and human weaknesses and dogmas and creeds, touch the discordant +elements of controversy and criticism in all their variations, and at +the same time keep the simple theme constantly throbbing through them, +so strong and full and clear it can never be forgotten. + +The purpose of this story is accomplished if it has only attracted the +attention of the League to a neglected duty, and struck a higher +key-note of endeavor. But the League must not stop with that. + +There is only one song that will ever bring universal joy to this old, +tear-blinded world, and that is that the Lord is come, and that he is +risen indeed in the lives of his followers. + +True, the veriest child may lisp it; but the League should not be +content simply to do that. It should be the master-musician, so familiar +with the great complexity of human doubts and longings, that it will +know just what chord to touch in every heart it is striving to help. + +Go back to the days of the dispersion, and follow this Ishmael through +his almost limitless desert of persecution--his hand against every man +because every man's hand was against him. + +Put yourself in his place until your vision grows broad and your +sympathy deep. Chafe against his limitations. Stumble over his +obstacles, and in so doing learn where best to place the +stepping-stones. + +Dig down through the strata of tradition, below all the manifold +ceremonies of his formal worship, until you come to the bed-rock of +principle underlying them. + +When you have thus studied Judaism, its prophets, its priesthood, its +patriots--when you have traced its sinuous path from Abraham's tent to +the Temple gates, and then followed its diverging lines on into almost +every hamlet of both hemispheres, you will have learned something more +than the history of Judaism. You will have read the story of the whole +race of Adam, and you will have fitted yourself far better to serve +humanity. + +Christ reached his hearers through his intimate knowledge of them. He +never talked to shepherds of fishing-nets, nor to vine-dressers of +flocks. He gave the same water of life to the woman at Jacob's well that +he bestowed on the ruler who came to him by night. Yet how differently +he presented it to the ignorant Samaritan and the learned Nicodemus. + +To this end, then, study these creeds and systems; for instance, the +unity of God, clung to alike by the Hebrew persistently reiterating his +Shemang, and the Moslem crying "God is God, and Mohammed is his +prophet!" + +Follow this belief in the Unity, as it goes deeply channeling its way +through centuries of Semitic thought, until it enters the very +life-blood. You can trace its influence even down into the early +Christian Church, in the hot disputes of Arius and his followers, at the +Council of Nicea. + +Not until you comprehend how idolatrous the worship of the Trinity +seems to a Jew, can you understand what a stumbling-block lies between +him and the acceptance of his Messiah. + +You will find this study of Judaism reaching out like a banyan-tree, +striking root and branching again and again in so many different places +that it seems that it must certainly, by some one of its manifold +ramifications, shadow every great problem and people. + +In the first conception of this story it was purposed to place +considerable emphasis on a number of things that have been left +untouched, especially the colonization schemes of the philanthropic +Barons Hirsch and De Rothschild, and the prophecies concerning the +return of the Jews to Palestine. + +But prophecy, while always a most interesting and profitable subject for +research and study, leads into an unmapped country of speculation. Many +an enthusiast, not recognizing that on God's great calendar a thousand +years are but as a day, has attempted to solve the mysteries of +Revelations by the same numerical system with which he calculates his +assets and liabilities. As we examine this subject, we must not forget +the vast difference between our finite yardsticks, and the reed of the +angel who measured the city. + +God grant that, as the tree thrown into the stream of Marah changed its +bitter waters into wholesome, life-giving sweetness, so this study of +Israel, earnestly and honestly pursued, may turn all bitterness of +prejudice into the broad, sweet spirit of true brotherhood! + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +Obvious punctuation errors were corrected. + +Page 6, "189" changed to "199" to show the actual location of the +chapter "Dr. Trent". + +Page 23, "apearance" changed to "appearance" (greeted her appearance) + +Page 50, "Southener" changed to "Southerner" (who was an ardent +Southerner) + +Page 55, "Nothwithstanding" changed to "Notwithstanding" (sudden curves. +Notwithstanding) + +Page 216, "Cartleton" changed to "Carleton" (Belle Carleton met them) + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN LEAGUE WITH ISRAEL*** + + +******* This file should be named 40527.txt or 40527.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/0/5/2/40527 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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