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diff --git a/43658-0.txt b/43658-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f1b11c --- /dev/null +++ b/43658-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6589 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43658 *** + +The Quiver 3/1900 + +[Illustration: (_Drawn by Percy Tarrant._) + +EASTER BLOSSOMS.] + + + + +THE CENTENARY OF THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY. + +By the Rev. A. R. Buckland, M.A., Morning Preacher at the Foundling +Hospital. + + +At "The Castle and Falcon," in Aldersgate Street, on April 12th, +1799, there met, in all the solemnity of a public gathering, sixteen +clergymen and nine laymen. + +They founded there and then the Church Missionary Society for +Africa and the East. That Society keeps its Centenary this month; +no longer an inconspicuous organisation expressing the hopes of a +godly few, but a great Society which has girdled the earth with +its missions. When, in November, 1898, its Estimates Committee +surveyed its position, they found that its roll included the names +of 802 European missionaries, of whom 295 were ladies, whilst, of +the 802, no fewer than eighty-four were serving altogether or in +part at their own expense. Some of them represented the missionary +enthusiasm of Australia and Canada; a fair proportion were duly +qualified medical workers, men and women. + +[Illustration: MRS. J. A. BAILEY. + +(_The first lady missionary of the Society._)] + +With the exception of South America, there is no considerable +quarter of the globe in which they are not represented. They may be +found ministering to Esquimaux within the Arctic Circle, and to the +Indians of the vast expanses of Canada; they are shepherding the +Maoris of New Zealand; in India their stations may be discovered +alike amongst the wild tribes of the northern frontier, the strange +aboriginals found here and there in the continent, and the milder +races of the south; in Africa the Society begins in Egypt, but +goes no farther south than Uganda, though it is both on the east +coast and the west; it is strongly represented along the coasts of +China, as well as in the inland province of Sze-Chuen; it works both +amidst the Japanese themselves and that strange people the hairy +Ainu; it is domiciled in Ceylon and Mauritius; it has not forgotten +Persia. From Madagascar it has retired, and it has shown a wise +indisposition to enter upon new fields whilst the old are still +insufficiently manned. It has ever been known for the strictness +with which it observes the comity of missions; and it may fairly be +said that the zeal with which its friends have worked in behalf of +foreign missions has reacted on all the missionary agencies which +have their origins in Great Britain, as well as upon some which +express the zeal of America and the Colonies. + + From Greenland's icy mountains, + From India's coral strand + Where Afric's sunny fountains + Roll down their golden sand, + + From many an ancient river + From many a palmy plain + They call us to deliver + Their land from error's chain + + What though the spicy breezes + Blow soft o'er Ceylon's Isle + Though every prospect pleases + And only man is vile? + + In vain, with lavish kindness, + The gifts of God are strown + The heathen in his blindness + Bows down to woods and stone! + +[Illustration: BISHOP HEBER'S MISSIONARY HYMN. + +(_Facsimile of part of the Original MS._)] + +The Church Missionary Society was really one of the fruits of the +Evangelical Revival, though when the Society was born that movement +was no longer young. Its first leaders had passed to their rest; +it was their successors amongst whom the Church Missionary Society +took its origin. They were, as history judges them, no mean persons, +though in their own day they fell, for their religious zeal, under +the condemnation of polite society, whether ecclesiastical or social. + +[Illustration: THE BOARD ROOM AT THE MISSION HOUSE.] + +That meeting in Aldersgate Street did not include some of those to +whom the foundation of the Church Missionary Society must directly +be referred; but, if we look at the circle they represented, we +shall find that it was one of rare distinction in the religious +history of the country. It included William Wilberforce, Zachary +Macaulay, Charles Grant, James Stephen, and Henry Thornton on the +lay side; Charles Simeon, John Newton, Thomas Scott, Richard Cecil, +and William Goode amongst the clergy. The impulse which moved +them was moving others, for the Baptist Missionary Society had +been founded by Carey in 1793, and the London Missionary Society +in 1795. The Religious Tract Society also began its existence in +this year 1799, and the Bible Society was founded in 1804. It was +a fruitful epoch. Yet it has to be remembered that it began under +ecclesiastical discouragement, and amidst such popular contempt of +missions to the heathen as was reflected in Sydney Smith's essay. + +I do not propose to trace in detail the history of the Church +Missionary Society: within the space of a magazine article such an +attempt could do little more than produce a list of names and dates. +It may be more useful, as well as more interesting, to look at some +of the Society's great workers at home, at some of its heroes in +the mission-field, and at some of the romances which diversify its +history. + +[Illustration: THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY'S MISSION HOUSE, +SALISBURY SQUARE.] + +Of the men who helped to found the Church Missionary Society the +first place must be given to Charles Simeon. He was not at "The +Castle and Falcon" meeting, but it was he who, at the gathering of +the Eclectic Society in March of the same year, when missionary +plans were again under discussion, urged immediate action. "There +is not a moment to be lost," he said; "we have been dreaming these +four years, while all Europe is awake." The precise old bachelor, +fellow of his college at Cambridge, and incumbent of Holy Trinity +Church in that town, was not a person easily daunted by obstacles. +As an Evangelical he had had to face the most strenuous opposition +in his own parish. But he had been deeply stirred by plans and hopes +for missionary work in India; he was the friend and mentor of Henry +Martyn. He was able in time to wield at Cambridge an influence +which the late Bishop Christopher Wordsworth compared to that of +Newman at Oxford. Later generations somehow came to think of him +as something other than a Churchman; but they were quite wrong. A +careful scrutiny of Simeon's works, letters, and diaries will show +that he was consistently loyal to his Church and her formularies. +Of his influence upon foreign missions it is difficult to speak in +exaggeration; but one or two illustrations may serve to show its +extent. Henry Martyn was the first Englishman who offered to go +out under the Church Missionary Society. But Simeon was especially +anxious about India, and so Martyn went there as "Chaplain." His +brief work in Persia, the example of his singularly beautiful +character, and the swift end of so promising a career, still +influence the minds of young and old. And the influence of Martyn, +is, in a sense, the influence of Simeon. Less popularly known than +Henry Martyn, but in some respects of wider power, were the others +of the famous "Five Chaplains" who went out to India, the fruits of +Simeon's zeal for that land. These men left an indelible mark upon +the English in India during their time, and did much to prepare +the way of the missionary. Thus Claudius Buchanan helped more than +any other man to create the public opinion which opened India to +missionaries, and led to the consecration of the first bishop for +all India, the Bishop of Calcutta. Thomas Thomason was the father +of James Thomason, who, as Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West +Provinces, ruled (and taught others to rule) in the fear of God, and +with the warmest sympathy for missionary enterprise. Through him, +when the Punjab was annexed in 1849, it felt the influence which had +flowed from the rooms of Charles Simeon at Cambridge. + +[Illustration: SECRETARIES of the CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY + + REV THOMAS SCOTT 1799-1802 + (L. COSSÉ pinxt) + + REV. JOSIAH PRATT 1802-1824 + (H. WYATT pinxt) + + REV. E. BICKERSTETH 1824-1830 + (ALEX. MOSSES pinxt) + + REV. WILLIAM JOWETT 1832-1840 + + REV HENRY VENN 1841-1872 + (G RICHMOND R. A. pinxt) + + REV HENRY WRIGHT + 1872-1880 + + REV F E WIGRAM 1880-1895 + (PHOTO ELLIOTT & FRY) + + REV H E FOX appointed 1895 + (PHOTO ELLIOTT & FRY) + + Robert A Shield 99 +] + +The name of Edward Bickersteth seems a natural succession to that of +Simeon. The influence of both is still unexhausted. When the Church +Missionary Society kept its second Jubilee in November, 1898, the +sermon was preached by Bishop E. H. Bickersteth, the son of Edward +Bickersteth. And the influence had been wider than the limits of +any one Society, for Bishop Edward Bickersteth, of Japan, who died +in 1897, represented another generation in this line of truly +apostolic succession. + +Edward Bickersteth had been a solicitor in prosperous circumstances +when zeal for missions led him to take holy orders, and join the +Church Missionary Society as Assistant Secretary in 1816. Almost +at once he was sent to examine the Society's work at Sierra Leone. +There he admitted the Society's first African converts to the Holy +Communion. In 1824 he succeeded Josiah Pratt in the Secretaryship +of the Society. He was never an autocrat in the sense that Henry +Venn was; but his work for the Society in the country was enormous. +It has ceased to be the kind of work which is mainly done by the +Honorary Secretary of the Society, but at that period it was work +which was of inestimable value. It was the more important because +public opinion at home still presented a front of mingled contempt +and indifference to missions, whilst abroad the outlook was far from +hopeful. + +[Illustration: + + ZENANA WORK. BIBLE SELLING IN EASTERN BAZAARS. + + TEACHING THE YOUNG. + + LECTURING TO CHINESE HELPERS. ITINERATING THROUGH THE VILLAGES. + + SOME METHODS OF WORK. +] + +A greater figure than that of Edward Bickersteth in the annals of +the Church Missionary Society is that of Henry Venn. Here, too, +the name appears in more than one generation. The first Henry +Venn belongs, with Wesley, Whitfield, Romaine and others, to the +beginnings of the Evangelical Revival. Then comes John Venn, +who took the chair at "The Castle and Falcon" meeting. Then, in +1834, Henry Venn the younger, the son of John Venn and grandson +of the first Henry Venn, began regularly to attend the Society's +Committee. He was Hon. Secretary in 1841, and held office for +thirty-one years. He is the standard by which, doubtless, for +generations to come, Hon. Secretaries of the Church Missionary +Society will be compared. He was a strong man in every sense; a +statesman and an autocrat. But, like some other autocrats, he clung +to his work too long. He resigned only a few months before his +death, and left the Society in a condition of discouragement, from +the failure both of candidates for the mission field and of means +for carrying on the work. Under his successor, Henry Wright (who +was drowned in Coniston Lake in 1880), the Society began almost at +once to enter upon new life and activity. Here again the hereditary +influence, so manifest in the work of the Church Missionary Society, +is evident, for four of his children went to the mission field. +His successor, Frederic Wigram, was one of the most munificent +benefactors the Society ever had. He died, after resigning office, +worn out by its responsibility and toil. He, too, has sent children +to the mission-field. In his successor, the Rev. H. E. Fox, the +hereditary impulse is manifest again. Mr. Fox's father was one of +the founders of the Society's Telugu mission, and one of the most +devoted of its workers in the foreign field. + +And now let us glance for a moment at some of the Society's agents +abroad. The task of selection is difficult. There are names on +the list that all men who care for missions have heard of. Samuel +Marsden, Samuel Crowther, Valpy French, Pfander, John Horden, James +Hannington, Alexander Mackay--these, to name but a few, and many +others, are familiar far outside the limits of the Society's own +friends. But there are more, less widely known, whose work deserves +not a whit less to be had in remembrance. + +[Illustration: (_From Photo: supplied by the Church Missionary +Society._) + +CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY'S TRAINING COLLEGE AT AGRA. + +(_With students in foreground._)] + +Amongst these was William Johnson, one of the first missionaries to +Sierra Leone. He went out in 1816, and began an extraordinary work +amongst the slaves released by British cruisers and landed at Sierra +Leone. He died on the voyage home to England at the early age of +thirty-four. Those were the days in which to face work in Sierra +Leone meant facing a peril so imminent that each volunteer needed +the courage of those who go upon a forlorn hope. + +There was William Williams, first a surgeon and then, after +graduating at Oxford, ordained for work in the Colonies. He went +to New Zealand in 1825, when its people were a race of cannibals, +not one of whom professed Christianity. He lived to see the whole +country more or less fully evangelised. His wife died as recently as +1896, and his son, baptised in 1829 with the children of one of the +most savage of the Maori chiefs, became Bishop of Waiapu in the land +the father did so much to open up. William Williams had a brother, +Henry Williams, who preceded him in the field. So great was the +influence he won that, on the news of his death reaching two Maori +camps, in which rival tribes were preparing to meet in battle, they +at once proclaimed a truce, attended his funeral, and settled their +differences in peace. + +[Illustration: (_Photo: G. P. Abraham, Keswick._) + +MR. EUGENE STOCK. + +(_Editorial Secretary of the Society._)] + +[Illustration: (_From Photo: supplied by the Church Missionary +Society._) + +THE LIBRARY AT THE MISSION HOUSE.] + +There was Ludwig Krapf, whose name, with that of John Rebmaun, +should ever be joined with the origins of our growing empire +in Eastern Equatorial Africa. He began his missionary work in +Abyssinia, had to leave as the result of French intrigues, sailed +down the East African coast in an Arab boat, and in 1844 settled +at Mombasa. From the knowledge of the interior gained by Krapf and +his companion, came the chain of African discovery which issued, +as long afterwards as 1875, in the publication, through Mr. H. M. +Stanley, of Mtesa's appeal for missionaries for Uganda. How little +could Krapf ever have dreamed of the vast results, political as well +as spiritual, that would flow from that early disappointment, his +expulsion from Abyssinia! + +There was David Hinderer, who, upon the other side of Africa, did +so striking a work in the Yoruba country. The prosperity of his +evangelistic labours, the virtual imprisonment in which he and his +wife--half-starved and in deadly peril--were for five years in the +town of Ibadan, and the ultimate discovery that their work stood the +severe tests of isolation and persecution, go to make up one of the +most interesting chapters in the history of African missions. + +There was George Maxwell Gordon, the pilgrim-missionary of the +Indian frontier, a pioneer who saw little direct fruit of his +labours, yet left missions where none had been. Acting as chaplain +to the British forces shut up in Kandahar, he was killed, when +seeking to succour the wounded, in August, 1880. + +But this is a list that might be almost indefinitely extended, and +still would seem invidious. Let us come to some striking pages in +the Society's history; again, of necessity, passing by many of the +most impressive as well as some of the most familiar. + +The city of Peshawur, upon the Afghan frontier, has long been a +centre of missionary work. The fanaticism of the people when it +was first occupied by British troops seemed to make missionary +enterprise impossible. One Commissioner--he afterwards fell by +the hand of an assassin--refused permission for missionaries to +come, on the ground that they would excite the fanaticism of the +people to a dangerous pitch. The arrival of Herbert Edwardes +changed the situation. A meeting of English people, military and +civil, was called in Peshawur itself; a sum of £3,000 was raised, a +memorial sent to the Church Missionary Society, and, in response, +missionaries provided. Here is an example of what is so often +forgotten by critics of Indian missions, that they in a large +measure owe their origin and support to men actually or formerly +engaged in the administration of India. The Church Missionary +Society has been peculiarly happy in the number of men of high +distinction in the Army and the Civil Service who have served on +its Committee. Now from the Punjab men are pushing still farther +afield; Quetta has long been occupied, and the medical missionary +has found a welcome from the Afridis themselves. + +Let us take another mission founded in answer to an appeal from +without, and that an appeal from a layman. People who recall the +missionary meetings of a generation ago will remember that no +more thrilling story was told at them than the history of William +Duncan's early work amongst the Tsimshean Indians of the North +Pacific coast. It was a marvellous example of courage, tact, and +patience, rewarded by the conversion of savages of a singularly +unapproachable type. It was a naval officer, Captain Prevost, who +suggested that mission to the Society, carried Mr. Duncan thither, +and landed him at Fort Simpson in 1857. In ten years' time he had +baptised nearly three hundred adult converts. In 1862 the Christian +community was moved to Metlakahtla, where the spectacle of a +cannibal and violent people living in peace and industry was long +deemed one of the marvels of missionary enterprise. + +I pass by such striking histories as those of Uganda, of the attempt +of J. A. Robinson and Graham Wilmot Brooke to reach the Soudan from +the Niger, and of the massacre of English women at Hwa-Sang in +Fuh-kien, to recall romances of another kind. What could be more +moving than the careers of some of the Society's converts? Is there +any more striking history of its kind than that of the Rev. Dr. +Imad-ud-din, a learned Mohammedan, who had sought the peace of God +by every available means, and at last found it in Christ? Or what +would they who distrust converts say to the career of that once +notorious Border bandit, Dilawar Khan, baptised in 1858, who served +as an officer in the Guides, and died in Chitral whilst in the +service of the British Government? + +But it is time to leave these things and to speak of some aspects of +the Society's work which concern all missionary enterprise. + +[Illustration: "IN THE UTTERMOST PARTS OF THE EARTH." + +(_The peoples amongst whom the C.M.S. Missionaries are now +working._)] + +Twice in its career the Church Missionary Society has definitely +committed itself to a policy of faith as it has committed itself to +sending out all who offer and are found qualified. It is a policy +which, judged by the most secular standard, must be accounted +a success. The growth of its staff in recent years, under this +system, has been most striking. The Society has had its periods +of stagnation and disappointment; at times its directors have +felt driven to retrenchment. Thus in 1859 the number of European +missionaries on its roll was 226; ten years later it was only 228. +But, whereas in 1889 the number was 360, in 1898 it had risen to +802. During the first ten years the Society sent out five agents; +in the ten years ending with its Jubilee the number was 119; in +the nine years ending 1898 it reached 719. The income of 1848 was +£92,823; the income of 1898 was £331,598. Its latest statistics show +that there are about 240,000 natives associated with its missions, +and of late it would seem that its clergy baptise on an average +about twenty adult converts every day. + +[Illustration: (_Photo: A. G. Carlile, Exmouth._) + +SIR JOHN H. KENNAWAY, M.P. + +(_President of the Church Missionary Society._)] + +In this month of April all round the world--from North-West Canada +to New Zealand, from Palestine to Japan, from Central Africa to the +Indian frontier--men will be keeping the centenary of that meeting +at "The Castle and Falcon," in Aldersgate Street. For a hundred +years of work, considered in relation to the power and the wealth +and the responsibilities of our nation, there may be little to show; +but, for such as there is, men of many races, and once of many +creeds, will, with one accord, give thanks to God. + +[Illustration: THE CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY'S MAP OF THE WORLD. + +(_The shaded portions indicate the present-day fields of work._)] + + + + +[Illustration: THE MASTERFUL YOUNG MAN] + +_A COMPLETE STORY._ + +By Margaret Westrup, Author of "They Furriners," Etc. + + +He stopped in the shade of the high old wall and listened. + +A smile shone in his blue eyes as the sweet, childish voice sounded +clear and high in the still, scented air. + +"What now, Jeannette, shall the mistress of Ancelles fall in love +like an ordinary mortal, then?" + +There was mischief in the pretty voice, but there was pride, too. + +"But yes, mamzelle! Love comes to all--high and low--and spares no +one its pangs." + +"Pangs? Ah, bah! it shall have no pangs for me!" + +"Ah, mamzelle! do not be rash." + +"How will it take me, Jeannette? Tell me, that I may be prepared. +Will it come like a fiery dart to my bosom, bringing a light to my +eyes, and a colour of roses to my cheeks? Or will it take me sadly, +rendering my cheek pale and my spirits low? Tell me, Jeannette." + +"Not the last way, mamzelle"--the voice was slow now--"for you are +too proud." + +"You are right, Jeannette, I am too proud! 'Tis not I who must be +pale and afraid. 'Tis the other. Love must come to me humble and +suing--to be glad or sorry at my will. Is it not so, Jeannette?" + +"How should I know, mamzelle?"--sadly--"I dread its coming at all." + +"Bah! what matters it? And why should it come? I, for one, do not +want---- Ah! do not scream so, Jeannette--it is a man--he is hurt." + +The man scrambled to his feet, and tried to bow, but his face was +ghastly. + +"I beg your--pardon----" + +"You are hurt, monsieur. Do not try to apologise. Jeannette, help +him to the house. Follow me." + +The man leant on Jeannette's stout shoulder, and followed the +stately little figure through the sunny, twisting paths, sweet and +rich with their wealth of roses, up to the old château with its +narrow windows gleaming in the sunshine. + +"Here, Jeannette," said the little mistress of the roses and the +château. "Monsieur, you will rest on the sofa." + +He obeyed the wave of the small white hand and lay down. + +"Jeannette, send for Dr. Raunay." + +Jeannette departed. + +The man opened his blue eyes. + +"I am so sorry----" + +"You must not speak," eyeing him with grave, dark eyes. "You will +keep quiet till the doctor comes." + +He submitted. + +Jeannette returned immediately. + +"Are you thirsty?" asked his little hostess gently. + +"No--thank you." + +"You want for nothing?" + +"No, thank you." + +She sat down and waited. + +Then later--"Jeannette, lower the blinds. Make no noise." + +"Thank you," said the man. + +"Do not speak!"--frowning. + +He smiled a little. + +"Mamzelle, suppose he dies?" + +"Jeannette, how _dare_ you?" + +"But his face is white; and"--her suspicions bursting out--"how came +he to fall into mamzelle's garden?" + +"Jeannette, leave the room!" + +"That I will not! No, I will not! Jeannette knows what is owing to +her mistress, and to leave----" + +"Well, well"--quickly--"but do not dare to utter another word." + +Jeannette mumbled rebelliously, but retired to a corner vanquished. + +The man opened his eyes as a soft wave of air was wafted across his +face. + +A pair of soft, dark eyes looked down pityingly into his. + +He shut his own with a murmured word of thanks, and let her fan him. +Jeannette came ponderously across the room. + +"Mamzelle, it is not fitting----" + +"Did I not forbid you to speak?" said the haughty young voice. + +"Yes, but Jeannette knows what is due to mamzelle, and----" + +"Mademoiselle also knows." + +Something in the tone stopped the old servant's words, and once more +she retired vanquished. + +The man smiled to himself. + +Dr. Raunay came and pronounced a bad sprain of the left arm to be +the only injury the man had received. + +The doctor's sharp, black eyes were full of questions, but +Mademoiselle Stéphanie met his gaze calmly, indifferently, and he +dared not put one question into words. + +"Monsieur, of course, will be our guest," she said when the doctor +had taken his departure. + +The man reddened slowly under his tan. + +"I--really----" He raised himself on his right elbow. + +Jeannette eyed him with sharp suspicion. + +"Of course, you will stay," said mademoiselle, with her little +imperious air. + +"But I am quite well enough to go to an inn----" + +"There is not one within five miles, and that--well----" A little +expressive wave of the small hands and a whimsical smile finished +her sentence. + +"I do not like to trespass----" + +"It is not trespassing," with pretty warmth; "indeed, monsieur, you +must accept of our hospitality." + +"Then thank you very much." + +"And--your luggage? Is it with friends? They will be anxious--we +will send----" + +She was too courteous to ask with whom he was staying. Yet she +wondered much, for, beyond poor cottages, there were no dwellings +within many miles of Ancelles. + +"I am alone," he answered; "I have walked from B---- to-day." + +Jeannette snorted. She plainly did not believe him. B---- was thirty +and more miles distant. The suspicion in her stare grew deeper. + +"Oh," said Stéphanie. + +"My luggage----" He hesitated; yet what could he do without it? +"It is only a small bag--it is--er--outside your garden wall," he +finished desperately. + +"Jeannette, please see that it is fetched at once." + +No faintest spark of surprise appeared in his hostess's small face. +She seemed quite used to having strangers tumble over her wall into +her garden, quite used to luggage being left outside the wall. + +The man was distinctly amused, but he was touched too. + +An old manservant, with a faint, indescribable old-world air, that +fitted in with the château and the garden and the roses somehow, +brought food to the stranger, and, after he had eaten, showed him to +his room. + +The stranger looked round him with interest. + +It was a large apartment, large and bare and old--but everything at +Ancelles was old. + +But the curtains to the bed, faded now, had once been rich and +handsome. The tapestry across the door of a smaller room leading +from the other, was still beautiful though worn with age. + +Hugh Michelhurst shivered a little as he stood there, in the dim, +dark, old-world chamber. There was something pathetic in the tale it +told of bygone splendour, something sad and forlorn. + +Then his eye fell on a bowl of vivid red roses standing on his +dressing-table, and he smiled. + +They at least were not old. Their splendour was undimmed. There was +nothing faded in their fresh, glowing beauty; and who had put them +there? + +He went closer; he bent over them and drank in their sweet scent. +And as he did it the old, sunny garden rose before him again. The +little twisting paths, the roses so thick and luxuriant that they +trespassed forward from their beds; the old broken fountain, with +the water nymph bending eternally in graceful readiness to dive, and +amongst them--the roses, the sunshine, the queer paths, and the old +fountain--the little mistress of them all, slim, childish, with soft +dark eyes, with pretty lips made for laughter, with the sun caught +in the waves of her brown hair. His hands wandered gently over the +roses as he stood and thought what a gracious little hostess she +was! How sweetly she had welcomed him, asking no questions! + +A wave of colour surged over his white face. + +But he smiled as he sank down on to a chair. + +His entry into the sweet, old-world garden had been supremely +ridiculous. Moreover, he was terribly ashamed of himself as well as +rueful. + +But his sense of humour was strong enough to save either feeling +from overpowering him. His arm began to pain him badly again. He +shut his lips tightly and sat still. + +Outside he heard a gay young voice. "It is a pity, Jeannette, that +the sun does not shine into his room now. See how glorious is its +setting to-night." + +A pause. + +Hugh Michelhurst guessed how the pause was filled by his little +hostess's mocking answer: + +"Why, Jeannette, how cross you are! And, anyway, in the morning the +sun will wake him." + +"It may rain, mamzelle." + +"Rain?" with a little burst of prettiest laughter. "Why, where are +your eyes, Jeannette? Rain? With that sky--that sunset? All, no! +Even _ma tante_ would not say that, and she always predicts rain, +you know." + +"It is her rheumatism, mamzelle; she feels it in her bones." + +"Yes," carelessly. "Jeannette, he will need assistance--how careless +I am! It is that I am so unused to entertaining a guest, and yet +once Ancelles was noted for its hospitality----" + +The pretty voice died away into the distance, and a few minutes +later there was a discreet tap at the stranger's door, and the faded +old manservant appeared, and, with an air, offered monsieur his +humble services. + + * * * * * + +Two mornings had Stéphanie's prophecy been fulfilled. Two mornings +the sun had wakened her guest, and now he was wondering if he dared +stay and let it wake him a third. + +"Madame ma tante" had put in an appearance once. She had welcomed +the stranger with a stiff yet courteous stateliness that was as +old-worldly as the garden and the château and everything pertaining +thereto. + +She was a confirmed invalid, and, till she sallied forth to welcome +her niece's guest (Ancelles belonged to Stéphanie), had not left her +room for nearly two years. + +Hugh Michelhurst was duly presented, and made a favourable +impression on "Madame ma tante." In half an hour the impression had +faded. In an hour it was gone. "Madame ma tante" had forgotten his +existence. + +He was sitting now on the old, worn steps leading to the second +terrace. His right arm rested on the step above, close by his +hostess's dainty little feet. + +The air was sunny and warm, and sweet with the scent of roses. + +He wondered dreamily what had become of the world---- + +[Illustration: She smiled softly at his words. + +G. G. Manton] + +A little breeze came and scattered the rose leaves in her lap--the +soft, fragrant heap that she had gathered for _pot-pourri_--and +roused the man. + +He stooped to gather them up, but she stayed him. + +"There are plenty more," she said. + +"Yes," he said; "what a lovely old garden it is!" + +He watched the pink deepen in her cheek, and the little dimples come +and go as she smiled softly at his words. + +Then he sighed. + +"My arm is better," he said. "I"--doubtfully--"must go to-day." + +"Must you? Will you not stay a little longer? It"--wistfully--"is +nice to have a guest." + +He looked up at her with his blue eyes full of love. + +"It is good of you to say so," he said earnestly. + +"Ancelles cannot offer much," she said, with a little stately air, +"but it offers you a true welcome, monsieur, and one that will never +fail you so long as you will stay with us." + +"I have never," he said slowly, "had such a true welcome before." + +His eyes made her restless. + +She crushed the rose leaves in her hand, and scattered them abroad. + +He picked them up and kept them. + +"Do you never wonder," he said, "how I came to fall into your +garden?" + +"We are only glad that monsieur so fell, except for the sprained +arm," answered the little mistress of Ancelles. + +"I heard your voice," he said, looking up into her face. "I stood +and listened, and then--I wanted to see the owner of the voice, and +I climbed to the top of the wall and then--I fell." + +"I thought only schoolboys behaved so," she said, but her pretty +lips parted and her eyes smiled, in spite of herself. + +"If I had been a schoolboy I should not have fallen." + +"Why?" + +"Because a schoolboy does not lose his head as I did, mademoiselle." + +"And your footing, monsieur." + +"The one was an outcome of the other." + +She looked away across the sweet, smiling sunshine. + +"Monsieur"--suddenly bending her gaze upon his face--"how came you +to lose your head?" + +He glanced at her in swift surprise. He was no chicken-heart, yet +something in the proud little face made him hesitate. + +But he was proud, too. + +"Because directly my eyes fell upon you I loved you," he said +steadily. + +Stéphanie started to her feet. + +"Monsieur, you outrage my hospitality," she said haughtily. + +He got up and faced her. + +"Never!" he cried. "I did not mean to say it--yet, but----" + +"You insult me, monsieur!" + +"Pardon me, mademoiselle"--his tone was cool as hers now--"but the +offer of a man's heart and home can never be an insult!" + +"An honour, perhaps?" mockingly. + +"It is at least his best, mademoiselle." + +"And seemly within a two-days' acquaintanceship, monsieur?" + +Her pride, the haughty little smile curling her pretty lip, maddened +him. + +He bent towards her. + +"Seemly or unseemly," he said in low, tense tones, "you shall love +me!" + +Her dark eyes flashed. + +"I shall not, monsieur!" she cried, and shut her small teeth closely. + +With a haughty inclination of her pretty head, she left him--left +him amongst the roses, in the sunshine, but cold at heart at what he +had done. + + * * * * * + +He wooed her persistently. He was persistent by nature, and all his +life he had never wanted anything as he wanted her. He bore the +discomforts of the little inn without a murmur, and every day the +roses on the little twisting paths found him among them. + +Mademoiselle was proud and cold; mademoiselle was proud and +mocking, proud and wilful, proud and laughing, proud and +non-comprehending--every mood in the world, one after another, was +mademoiselle, but proud always--proud with them all. And at last he +lost heart. + +So there came a day when the scent of the roses sickened him, when +the twisting paths maddened him, and he stood before the little +mistress of them all, white, stern, beaten. + +"I have come to say good-bye," he said, and the tone of his voice +had changed. + +"Good-bye?" she repeated, and she gave him her hand without another +word. + +"I would like to thank you for your kindness to me," he said dully; +"but--well, perhaps some day you will understand what I feel now. I +know you are too good for me. I don't see why you should ever have +cared for me; but oh! my little Stéphanie, you are just all the +world to me----" + +His voice broke, and he turned away down one of the little sunny +paths. But there amongst the roses love came to him at last; for +Stéphanie, with a sudden radiance in her face which sent all the +pride away, ran after him, and he, seeing the radiance, straightway +took her into his arms, and the scent of the roses grew sweet to him +again. + +And all the explanation mademoiselle ever saw fit to give of her +many unkind moods was--"You were so masterful, monsieur. You +hammered out love, love, love, and 'you must,' and 'you shall'--till +that day--then you wooed me as I would that I should be wooed." + +And he, remembering the words he had overheard when he stood beneath +the garden wall, smiled and thought he understood. + +Not all peace was his wooing even now. + +His little mistress still had her moods, and was tantalisingly chary +of her soft words and caresses. Moreover, she possessed a will +that had never been thwarted, and she did not understand the words +"shall" and "must," never having had them said to her. + +So that, sweet as he found his wooing, at times his brow grew dark; +for he too had a strong will, and it irked him to have to make it +give way to hers. + +And at last there came a matter in which he would not yield, and so +they parted. + +For mademoiselle declared that always must Ancelles be her home. + +"When you are my wife," he said, "you must come with me to my house +in town--in London, you know. What a change it will be for you, +_petite_!" + +And then mademoiselle, her eyes kindling, declared that never would +she live elsewhere than at Ancelles. + +He was aghast. For to a man, strong of limb and strong of brain, the +life that was a dream amongst the roses could not suffice. + +In vain he urged his views upon her. She rebelled against his tone +of authority. At last she stood before him with head erect, and +eyes that flashed on him from under their long lashes. + +"Choose," she said peremptorily: "London or me." + +"But, child, hear me----" + +"I will not hear you. Pray choose at once." + +"I would have both----" + +With a little scornful laugh she bade him begone. + +"Stéphanie----" + +She waved her white hand towards the gates of Ancelles. + +"You have chosen. Adieu!" + +She turned away with a scornful smile on her lips. + +He sprang forward. + +"Stéphanie, you must--you _shall_ give way to me in this----" + +Her small hand clenched. + +"Monsieur, allow me to pass!" + +He stood aside. + +"You will repent," he said. + +For an instant she turned her great eyes dark with pride on him. + +"_Never!_" she said, and walked away. + + * * * * * + +At Ancelles the roses still blossomed, the sun still shone, though +not so hotly, on the little twisting paths, the water nymph still +bent gracefully for her dive, and amongst them all flitted their +little mistress. In and out, gayer, more restless, swifter of foot +than even of yore, she wended her way--a laugh ever on her lips, +merry words tripping from her tongue, and hovering near--Jeannette. + +"Life is good, Jeannette," cried mademoiselle, and gaily she made +herself a crown of roses. + +"Life with love--yes, mamzelle," murmured Jeannette, for she was +getting desperate over the problem as to how long a young girl could +live eating nothing, or next to nothing. + +"Love? Bah! Jeannette, what an old sentimentalist you are!" + +Yet Jeannette had heard the sharp, indrawn breath that preceded the +mocking words. + +And why did mamzelle have to rest half-way up to her room now? + +Jeannette had seen her again and again, yet never with +mademoiselle's knowledge. + +For if Jeannette were with her, then, setting her little white teeth +closely, mademoiselle did the flights of stairs without a pause; +but Jeannette saw how the small hand, once so disdainful of the +balusters, now clung to the support. She saw how the pretty throat +throbbed, how her bosom heaved, and how the colour left her face; +and, seeing, Jeannette's own face grew grey and lined with care. + +"It is a merry world," cried mademoiselle, setting the crown of +roses on her pretty head, "and love is superfluous." + +"So is pride, mamzelle." + +Up went the small crowned head. + +"Pride superfluous, Jeannette?" haughtily. "Nay, it is but proper +and right for those of Ancelles." + +Jeannette moistened her dry lips. + +"It can be bought too dearly, mamzelle." + +"I--do not understand, Jeannette. Surely you are forgetting +yourself?" + +The eyes were dangerous, the lips haughty, but Jeannette's love for +her charge overcame the long reserve and terror of those last months. + +"Mamzelle, mamzelle, listen to me! He is a good man, and he loves +you well. Without him you will pine a----" + +"Pine, Jeannette? _Pine?_" Suddenly she caught the old servant's +wrists between her small, hot hands. "Jeannette," she whispered +passionately, "never speak so again! Do you hear? _I_ pine--_I!_ Am +I sad, Jeannette? Answer me! Are my spirits low?" + +"N--no, mamzelle." + +"Do I not work and read and play as always?" + +"Y--yes, mamzelle." + +"Do I ever droop?" + +"No----" + +"Or sigh?" + +"No----" + +"Or weep?" + +"No----" + +"Then what made you speak so, Jeannette?" + +"I--I do not know, mamzelle." + +Stéphanie dropped her wrist. Her eyes were burning, her cheeks +flushed. + +"Then never dare to speak so again," she said, and turned haughtily +away. + +And almost directly she burst into a gay little song; and Jeannette, +standing listening, felt the slow tears of age dropping one by one +down her cheeks. + + * * * * * + +In London Hugh Michelhurst shouldered his way amongst the busy +throng in Piccadilly, and in the fog his thoughts turned to the old +sunny garden at Ancelles. He sighed, then frowned as if such sighing +displeased him. His mouth took a bitter curve as his thoughts +wandered back to the last time he had stood on the little sunny +paths amongst the roses, with Stéphanie at his side. + +[Illustration: G. G. Manton + +She turned away with a scornful smile.] + +Perhaps it was because his thoughts so often wandered in that +direction that his face seemed to have grown harder, his mouth +sterner. + +"Four months!" he murmured, "twelve months in a year--say, forty +years--long years! Forty years like these last four months!" + +"Forty years, forty years!" rang mockingly in his ears. + +Suddenly he paused. + +"Forty or a hundred, I will never give in!" he said, and his mouth +looked almost cruel in its set sternness. + + * * * * * + +Spring had come. A soft, warm, early spring that brought all the +tender flowers peeping out before their time. + +And in the warm, trying spring Hugh Michelhurst fell ill of a low +fever. + +At the end of May he rose from his sick bed, and refused to be an +invalid any longer. + +But his strength was gone from him. + +One day he walked out into the country, and his love was strong +on him, so that he bowed his head, and felt weak as a child. And +suddenly a scent was wafted to him on the breeze. He stood and +lifted his head to meet it, and his face worked. On a little cottage +red roses glowed before their time. He had seen none since he was in +the old garden at Ancelles. He stretched out his arms. "I give in," +he said, and he turned and retraced his steps the way he had come. + + * * * * * + +In a little sunny path amongst the roses he found her. + +"My darling--my darling--I will live here always--only live with +me----" + +His voice broke; he could say no more. + +With a little fond cry she nestled close to him. + +"No, no," she whispered, "I will come away to your London as you +wish." + +They sat on the steps leading to the second terrace, and the water +nymph seemed to smile down on them as she bent to take her dive. +They sat side by side, and mademoiselle's pretty head rested against +his shoulder. + +[Illustration: G. G. Manton + +With a little cry she nestled close to him.] + +"But, _petite_, you love your home so----" + +"My home is wherever you are, monsieur." + +"You did not think so once, _chérie_." + +"Ah! but then you were 'shall' and 'must'"--pouting--"and now--now +you are different." + +He smiled tenderly. He thought he understood now. + +"We will live part of the year here and part in London. There, my +little one--will that do?" + +"Ah, yes, perfectly!" + +"Come now for a little walk," he said, for he had something in his +mind. + +He stopped in one of the twisting paths down which they had so often +wandered, and looked at the old château. + +"That ivy is too thick to be healthy," he said, "but" (sighing), +"you like it--it must stop." + +Now that same ivy had been the cause of their biggest quarrel before +that last biggest one of all. + +"It shall be cut," cried mademoiselle, smiling up at him, "and at +once!" + +He looked down into her eyes adoringly. + +The scent of the roses wrapped them round with softest sweetness. + +He smiled at her tenderly. + +Yes, he understood now. He had found the way to rule her. + + + + +GREAT ANNIVERSARIES. + +_IN APRIL._ + + +April claims an anniversary which all Englishmen are presumed to +honour. April 23rd is St. George's Day, and St. George is the patron +saint of England. Yet he was not, so far as we know, an Englishman. +He is said to have been a centurion in the army of Diocletian, and +to have been roasted alive for pulling down a copy of the decree +ordering the infamous persecution associated with Diocletian's name. +That distinction is disputed in the interests of another person; but +the fact remains that St. George was held in conspicuous honour by +the early Church. His particular place as the patron of the English +dates from the Crusades. The story of George and the Dragon has no +relation to the incident which couples him to the English. Some +authorities have identified this St. George with a certain George +of Cappadocia, Arian Bishop of Alexandria; but Mr. Baring-Gould +rejects with indignation the proposal to confound the patron saint +of England with a heretic. We are on the ground, not of legend, but +of history, in recalling St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, who +was born about 1033. His day is April 21st. + +[Illustration: (_Photo: A. F. Colbourne, Canterbury._) + +ST. ANSELM'S CHAPEL, CANTERBURY.] + +[Illustration: WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. + +(_The Stratford-on-Avon Portrait._)] + +[Illustration: WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. + +(_From the Tablet in Grasmere Church._)] + +St. George's Day has memories of other people than the legendary +slayer of the dragon. On April 23rd, 1564, William Shakespeare was +born; on April 23rd, 1616, he died. These, then, are anniversaries +which cannot be overlooked by any person who values literature. Our +pride is qualified by the thought that all the world of intelligence +has taken hold of Shakespeare; he is the possession of educated +mankind. Cervantes does not come of our stock, but in passing it may +be permitted to remember that he died on the same day of the same +year as Shakespeare. It was on St. George's Day, 1850, too, that +William Wordsworth, poet laureate, died. The body of John Keble, the +poet of the Oxford Movement, was laid to rest in Hursley churchyard +on April 6th, 1866. He was deeply influenced by Wordsworth, but +his name still more definitely suggests another English poet--the +saintly George Herbert. He, too, belongs to this month, for he was +born on April 3rd, 1593. + +[Illustration: GEORGE HERBERT.] + +[Illustration: ROBERT RAIKES.] + +George Herbert was related to Lord Herbert of Cherbury, whose +friends included Thomas Hobbes, of Malmesbury, one of the most +distinguished of English philosophers. Hobbes was born on April 5th, +1588. The philosophy afterwards associated with the names of Locke, +Hume, and Priestley owed much to Hobbes. Hume himself--philosopher, +historian, and servant of the State--was born at Edinburgh on April +26th, 1711. Charles Darwin, philosopher and naturalist, died this +month (April 19th, 1882). Few Englishmen have attained to wider +fame; few have ever more profoundly influenced human thought. + +[Illustration: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN.] + +Robert Raikes, in virtue of his work in prisons and his share in the +foundation of Sunday schools, deserves long to be held in memory. +Born at Gloucester, he died there suddenly on April 5th, 1811. Could +Raikes have looked into the future, with what astonishment and joy +he would have marked the development in the extent and spirit of +this work, which is indicated by the existence of THE QUIVER Medal +Fund and its rewards to veteran Sunday-school workers! A more modern +and a greater philanthropist also belongs to April. Anthony Ashley +Cooper, seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, was born in Grosvenor Square +on April 28th, 1801. In and out of Parliament, with a zeal which +no opposition and no disappointment could repress, "the good Earl" +worked for the cause of the oppressed, the poor, the sick, the +sinful. He did much directly; perhaps more by the stimulus of his +example. + +[Illustration: THE LATE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY. + +(_Photo: Russell & Sons, Baker Street, W._)] + +Of institutions associated with the month of April, the Royal +Academy is one of the most conspicuous. The Society of Incorporated +Artists held their first exhibition at the Society of Arts, Adelphi, +on April 21st, 1760. From this there sprang the Royal Academy. The +first exhibition of the Academicians was held in Pall Mall on April +26th, 1769. The British Museum has its association with this month, +for it was on April 5th, 1753, that Parliament granted the sum of +£20,000 to the daughters of Sir Hans Sloane, in return for the +collections which were the basis of the museum's vast treasures. +The National Gallery also has its link with April, for it was on +April 9th, 1838, that the present building in Trafalgar Square was +completed and opened. + +April has many memories for citizens of the United States. On April +17th, 1790, died Benjamin Franklin, politician, economist, and +natural philosopher; in April, 1861, began the long struggle between +the Northern and Southern States; and on April 14th, 1865, Abraham +Lincoln, perhaps the most striking personality hitherto produced by +the great democracy, was shot by John Wilkes Booth. + +[Illustration: A VIEW OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY.] + + + + +[Illustration: BROUGHT AGAIN FROM THE DEPTHS.] + +_AN EASTERTIDE ADDRESS._ + +By the Very Rev. W. Lefroy, D.D., Dean of Norwich. + + "Thou, which hast showed me great and sore troubles, shalt + quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of + the earth."--PSALM lxxi. 20. + + +Human history had seen but its infancy when the +announcement was made that man was "born unto trouble, as the +sparks fly upward." And ever since the home of the Arab chief was +devastated; ever since the day that Job's heart was broken by the +intelligence of the Sabean slaughter of his sons and daughters, +followed by a conflagration which stripped him of property, and +made a pauper of a prince; ever since, the dreary wail of woe rends +the air, and the requiem of life sobs and sighs like Eliphaz the +Temanite, "Man is born unto trouble." + +Nor can we allow ourselves to question the dictum. The infant's wail +precedes the infant's weal. The cry of helplessness is heard in the +cradle. The child's deep sigh anticipates the child's sweet smile. +And although sunny childhood sometimes passes as if the pitiless law +of hereditary trouble were suspended, yet no serious thinker can +hesitate to accept the proposition, that trouble is in the ratio in +which life's meaning and purpose are experienced, or divine love +accepted and enjoyed. If a man has no trouble, it is because he has +not yet practically realised the significance of existence. He is +still free from those social, domestic, and personal influences, the +derangement of any of which brings agony by day and sleeplessness +by night. Or, again, it may be because he has learnt the loftiest +and yet the lowliest lesson from his Lord, by accepting the Gospel +of Gethsemane, "Thy will be done." But excepting the persons so +classified by social isolation or spiritual resignation, there is +not on earth an exception to the law of the human race being "born +unto trouble." Yea, more. Constituted as we are, we live in the +presence of the grim enigma, that the object which gave us the +highest joy can give us the most excruciating sorrow. Nor can that +existence be anything else than mournful whose happiness or misery +depends upon any earthly object. + +This statement may be illustrated by every condition in +life--domestic, physical, intellectual. The genius across whose +mental firmament the lights and shadows of history travelled, and +by whom they were arrested, analysed, and grouped in their course; +the great brain of the great worker whose intrepid excursions into +the realms of the past and the present, with a view to tabulating +the rise of civilisation--the patient and profound Mr. Buckle, is +absorbed by mental enjoyment. He lives, and moves, and has his being +in men and manners, among maps and manuscripts. He makes a grand +discovery. He keeps the secret for twenty years. He repairs to +Damascus to recruit for literary service. He is stricken with fever, +and dies with the words of his intellectuality on his parched lips, +"My book, my book! I shall never finish my book!" Here his highest +joy was his keenest sorrow. So in physical life. There have been +men who seemed at one time as if they were created without nerves. +Their arms were brawny, muscular, and mighty. Their limbs were firm +and fine. They seemed God's highest type of organic life. They +rejoiced in their strength and in their youth. But disease assailed, +or dissipation punished, and retribution appeared in feebleness, +exhaustion, and debility. Youthful feats were forbidden. The sports +of the past recalled a youth of virtue and purity; and then came +the sigh which told that, even physically, the source of our joy +becomes the spring of our sorrow. And need I elaborate details to +establish the place of this doctrine in domestic life? Do we not +know this from the gloomy history of the orphan child, the widowed +mother, the bereaved sister, brother, friend? You know that to love +dearly means to have a skeleton in your house. The object of your +love causes a thousand smiles to play in your eye, and to break +on your countenance; but the shade of that object is mocking your +mirth, and is only waiting a few rounds of the clock to compensate +mirth with misery. + +Nor is this all. There are sorrows far more terrible than those of +sickness or the cemetery. A living sorrow defies rivalry. It has a +fearful pre-eminence in woe. A wayward, wild, debauched youth; an +estranged husband; an embittered, irascible, worldly wife; a stormy, +or, what is far worse, a sullen home; these are amongst the darkest +illustrations of the doctrine, that our sighs are in the track of +our smiles; our delights become our dangers; yea, it sometimes seems +as if affection became idiotic, and then, like the raving maniac, we +laugh and cry together. So we are "born to trouble." This being so, +it is important to listen to testimony concerning the remedy which +troubled souls have found efficacious. If we have one such man, able +and willing to give his fellow-sufferers a cure for care, it is +surely prudent to hear what he has to say. Accordingly, let me ask +you to follow me while I try to establish a cure for all afflicted +souls from the experience, conviction, and anticipation of a royal +mourner. I invite you to come with me to the side of a man like one +of us. Listen to him struggling up the great altar-stairs of faith +sustained by love, and, as he peers into the Unseen, he speaks as if +to one warm with life, charged with ardent sympathy, and he says, +"Oh, what troubles and adversities hast Thou shown me; and yet didst +Thou turn and refresh me!" + +The first step in this study is to be clear as to the nature of +the troubles God showed David. There was, then, the personal and +the spiritual trouble of backsliding, consequent upon his murder +of Uriah for his base purpose. And here we must discriminate. The +trouble of David about Bathsheba was not sent by God; God permitted +it; but in the heartless and cold-blooded plot in the tyrannical +insolence and diabolical dastardliness of its execution--in the +coarse, callous, and criminal height of its succeeding guilty +rapture--it was of Satan, of sin, of David. For three-quarters of +a year David played fast and loose with God and conscience; and it +was when Nathan scared him that God showed him the trouble. Then +came anguish, remorse, penitence. Then came the sorrowful sighing of +the soul--all the greater in the awakening because it had slept so +soundly and so long. Then came that lamentation over lost virtue, +the penitential Fifty-first Psalm. It is the expression of a man +lacerated by conscience. He seems to bleed at every pore. The +agitation and alarm and agony are piteous beyond description. He +appears in this psalm to look in every direction, and the ghost of +his crime haunts him. Within, without, above, below, behind, beyond, +he can see the furies of justice as the embassied troublers of his +life. Original depravity, actual outrage, a heart black with the +Egyptian darkness of fostered treachery, the warrior slaughtered +by his mandate, the blood-guiltiness staining his soul, and then +the wail ringing in the ears of God, "Cast me not away from Thy +presence; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me"--all these may be +compared to a spiritual chamber of horrors, in which David found +himself after the startling visit of Nathan. + +These were some of the troubles God showed him. And their cause +introduced more of a domestic, not to say of a political, kind. The +sin brought scandal and reproach on the Church of God. The enemies +blasphemed. Then Jehovah, vindicating His character for justice +before the world, avenging the atrocious murder of Uriah, sent a +series of domestic afflictions upon David unparalleled in human +experience. One scene--a nameless scene--has its miserable match +in the brutal bestiality of the Empire, when the sceptre of Rome +was in the hands of a corpse. But the other experiences are easily +related. They are as the outcome of a curse which hung heavily on +the royal house. Amnon, the eldest son, was slain by young Absalom, +who waited two years for an opportunity. This severed Absalom from +home for three years. He then, by a singular artifice, returned, +and won the hearts of the people by his consummate and accomplished +address, his handsome presence, and adroit demeanour. His aged +and royal father's statesmen proved false to the king, and one in +particular advised the murder of David and a revolution. At length +the conspiracy grew in defiance and dimension. David was obliged +to flee from the capital. His flight was far more humiliating than +that of the French emperor from Paris. Napoleon had not to mourn +over the treason of his son as the cause of his exile. This was +David's anguish. He ascended the Mount of Olives and looked back +upon the city of palaces he had founded and ornamented--the seat +for a generation of his power, his glory, his happiness. He was +leaving it a miserable fugitive, driven forth by the nation he had +established and the child he had reared. He could not, he did not, +disguise his sorrow. With bared head and uncovered feet the exile +began his pilgrimage, and every step the old king took recalled the +crime and sin of earlier years, while it remained for one Shimei +to load him with the bitterest and most contemptuous execrations. +Then came the crisis. Such of the army as remained loyal engaged in +battle with the revolutionary forces attracted to Absalom. David +begged that his unhappy son might be spared in the conflict. The war +began and issued in the success of the royalists. The first question +of the venerable monarch was, "Is the young man Absalom safe?" +He then learnt that order was re-established, but at the cost of +Absalom's life. He was accidentally hanged, and while hanging he was +speared by David's commander-in-chief. + +These are amongst the troubles--political, domestic, and +spiritual--which God permitted to fall upon David; and yet this +very David has courage amid the havoc of holiness, the misery of +exile, the torture of outraged parental affection, and political +insurrection. That courageous confidence is in a person: he +realises God. This conviction is unshaken amid his chequered life +and history; indeed, all through the din of revolution, the grief +of a homeless and worse than childless existence, there is one +ever-recurring belief: "God my help," "God my refuge," "God my +shield." In this belief he brings back to God every trouble God +sent to him. Hence we have these psalms, written by David, as agony +after agony swept in upon his soul. Nor did it seem to signify how +different one sorrow might be from another. The old cry, the same +cry, is raised to a personal God. When Saul sought his life through +jealousy; when Jonathan was slain in battle; when he himself had +fallen into sin, and then was aroused--now by the whisperings of +reclaiming grace, now by the booming billows of divine justice; when +he bowed his head in shame, and the fierce light that beat about +his court gleamed on his dark soul; when he tottered up the heights +of Olivet, an impotent outcast, betrayed by his courtiers, deserted +by his troops, and exiled by the unnatural rebellion and heartless +perfidy of his son--in these experiences, so fearful, overwhelming, +and varied, he saw God showing him the trouble. As the hand that +sent it was ever the same, so from the heart that received it there +arose ever and anon the same plea--"Have mercy upon me, O Lord"; +"Make haste to help me"; "O Lord, make no long tarrying"; "I am +poor and needy"; "O be not Thou far from me, for trouble is near +at hand." And then, as if realising the apostasy, desertion, and +faithlessness of his friends and forces, he adds, "There is none to +help." + +We know how these earnest and anxious entreaties were heard: "Thou +didst turn and refresh me"; "Through Thee have I been holden up +ever since I was born"; "My mouth shall speak of Thy salvation +all the day long; for I know no end thereof." But further. +This acknowledgment of God as a "very present help in trouble" +is followed by a prophecy, and that of nothing less than the +resurrection--"Thou shalt bring me up again from the depths of the +earth"; so that David's sorrow, when brought humbly and heartily +to God, was followed by divine refreshment then, and hope of +resurrection hereafter. And a well-founded hope it was, because the +trouble sent by God produced a grand moral result when laid before +Him Who sent it. It had a purifying influence which made his mind +speed on to the resurrection day. In its anticipation he was but +yielding to the influence of a life higher than that he lived before +his sorrow, and which sought enjoyment and exercise loftier and +still loftier. This he, by faith, foresaw, in the anticipation of +that rest to which his trouble sent him, and for the appreciation of +which his trouble purified him. + +So we have here in the spiritual world an instructive and +encouraging illustration of what frequently occurs in the physical. +We have purification by pain; refreshment out of ruin. So have I +seen this grand law asserting the governance of its God in those +Alpine crags on which the stars seem to pause. There on those +storm-scalped peaks the climber feasts on the panorama spread by +God's own hand, in winding river, sapphire lake, everlasting hill, +sentinelled by a forest of pines, dressed in the matchless sombre +of Alpine green or shrouded by the spotless snows of heaven. I have +witnessed the troubles of the atmosphere. The bursting rain-cloud +hangs low, the light recedes, the darkness deepens, the wind moans; +and then the full-toned thunder roars, and the long lines of fire, +angular and electric, leap from fissures in the firmament. The +artillery of the elements is deafening, and its echoes rumble +in the distance like the mutterings of imprisoned spirits. The +storm is over. The calm succeeds. The clouds become brighter and +brighter still. The sun peeps out here and there in a rift of the +heavens. The air is fresh and keen and pure. The vegetation is +bright and green. The rivulets and mountain torrents ripple and rush +rejoicing. As we see this, we are reminded of the analogies of God's +government; yea, if we could put a preacher on every peak, a tongue +in every valley, Nature would minister to grace, and from each would +come the response of the royal poet to the call of God. The world +physical would raise the ecstatic antiphon to the world spiritual: +"O what great troubles and adversities hast Thou showed me, and yet +didst Thou turn and refresh me!" + +But these words have a still richer meaning in their bearing upon +the religious fortunes of the Hebrew race, the Messianic glory of +the Redeemer, and the present and future position of His believing +people. I believe that Israel's troubles are to issue in Israel's +refreshment, and even in national resurrection. Her captivities +and dispersions, her degradation and exile, are but the preludes +to her rise, return, and splendour. God has sworn it; His word is +bound to it. His promise is as certain as though it were performed. +But we may merely mention this as a conviction, in order to pass +on and recognise in these words the history of Jesus Christ. From +that cradle and cottage home; from that carpenter's bench where +He toiled; from that country, with its hills and dales, and lanes +and lakes, where He preached; from the Temple which He glorified +and abrogated; from the cross where He died; from the tomb which +He vacated; from the throne of mediation, where He sympathises, +intercedes and governs; from earth below, and heaven above, the +voice of Jesus sounds o'er land and sea, filling angelic souls with +adoration, and human hearts with hope, announcing, "O what great +troubles and adversities hast Thou showed Me!" He was betrayed, +despised, and rejected. He looked for some to have pity on Him, +but there was no man; neither found He any to comfort Him. He was +maligned and misunderstood. The malice of His enemies omitted but +one sin in their resolve to blacken His character, and it remained +for the patronising blasphemy of Renan to insinuate that one as +possible. He was accused of deceit, though infallible; He was +slandered as a drunkard, though immaculate; yea, the detraction +of His foes did not spare Him the agony of being charged with the +commission of a sin as disgusting as it is brutal--that of gluttony. +He was arraigned as a felon, and died as an impostor. But beyond +all was the sin of which these were but the symptoms. This was the +trouble, "great and sore," which God showed Him. This was the agony +of agonies to the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. Its fell pressure +is the meaning of the tradition that Jesus was often seen to weep, +but never once to smile. To this trouble we trace the overpowering +experiences of the fainting, prostrate Christ in the garden; of +the wailing and woe-bearing Christ on the cross. Yet there was the +refreshment; there was behind it all the unchangeable love of God +the Father--"Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down +My Life that I might take it again." There was the satisfaction of +His soul, in saving the race He died to redeem by representation; +there was, above all, the guarantee of that redemption in being +brought "from the depths of the earth again." + +And if we were to follow the history of His Church, that history +would be a living commentary on the experience of David and of +David's Lord: divinely sent trouble, divinely sought and divinely +sent refreshment, issuing in spiritual resurrection. Is not this +the account many have to give of sorrow, succour, and salvation? +You were weak: you are now strong. You were "choked with cares," +and sought relief in a flood of tears: you are now able to leave +the burden of your cares with Him Who "careth for you"; while your +eyes, once red with agony, are now bright with praise, gratitude, +and hope. Remembering what you were, and now recognising what you +are, you may adopt the language of David, "I am become a wonder +unto many, but my sure trust is in Thee"; or, taking a fuller view +and a finer tone, you will ring out the litany of deliverance, and +chant the song of praise and blessing, "O what great troubles and +adversities has Thou showed me; and yet didst Thou turn and refresh +me." + +This present refreshment is a prophecy of future resurrection. It +leads all the afflicted children of God on to the grand climax in +sin, sorrow, and all the trouble to which we are born. Then the cup +of universal affliction shall be full. The waters of our pilgrimage +shall be sweetened, and changed into the bright, clear, rosy wine of +immortality. Then farewell, sorrow; farewell, weakness; agony, ache, +desolation, and sin, we bid you a final and a glad farewell. Then +shall rise upon this scene of change and uncertainty, where pain +and pleasure are so intermingled and combined, the sun that knows +no setting, the everlasting day that knows no night. Then shall the +children of God, the "children of the resurrection," gathered from +every known and unknown region, race, and age, rise to the rapture +of the saints, and, defying the immeasurable weight of all the +ocean's pressure--for the sea shall give up its dead--shattering +the manacles with which corruption had long bound the germ of +incorruption, they shall "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," +greet the Saviour Who loved them, with a greeting worthy the Lamb +that was slain; worthy the grandest event in the annals of earth +and heaven; while high above the din of the last crash of worlds, +yea, louder than the storm which marches on the ruins of creation, +shall rise the anthem of royal and even wretched and relieved +experience--"Thou hast brought me from the depths of the earth +again." + + + + +[Illustration: FOR THE SAKE OF HER CHILD] + +By Scott Graham, Author of "The Link between Them," Etc. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +_The Pity of It._ + + +On Saturday night, in that same week, Harold sallied +forth at dusk, with a bulky brown-paper parcel under his arm, +containing a pair of boots which he was taking by stealth to a +humble cobbler in a back alley to mend. + +Just because he fervently desired not to meet anybody he knew, as he +turned a corner he almost ran into the arms of May Burnside; who, +on seeing him, appeared confused. He stopped and tried to conceal +his parcel as well as he could, whilst talking volubly; and May +stammered and fidgeted, like one detected in a guilty enterprise. +Her aunt had that day presented her with half-a-crown; and, wishing +to make a frock for Doris, she was on her way to buy some wonderful +material she had seen marked fourpence three-farthings in a cheap, +common shop she would not have cared to enter by daylight. Miss +Waller would have fainted at the idea of her niece being seen going +into Whittaker's, where everything was ticketed "Alarming Sacrifice!" + +So, the boots weighing on his uneasy conscience, and the fourpence +three-farthings on hers, they continued to blush and stammer until +Harold summoned up courage to say that it was rather late, and, if +Mrs. Burnside was going home, he would escort her, if she wished. + +She hesitated, loth to lose the chance of bargain, and then said-- + +"My aunt is dining out, so I need not hurry back; and I wanted to +go to a shop--Whittaker's, do you know it? I buy rubbish there +occasionally." + +He did know the shop, which was close to the alley wherein dwelt his +old cobbler. "If you don't mind," he said eagerly, "I'll leave you a +moment, whilst I do an errand hard by, and meet you when you've done +your shopping." + +So he went off, delighted at solving the problem of the boots; for +no man appears to advantage when hugging a clumsy parcel. Having +duly effected her purchase, May rejoined him, and, as they strolled +towards Victoria Square, informed him that they were starting for +London on Monday. "I know I shall hate it!" she added, with a sigh. + +He sighed too; but what could he say or do, bound as he was, hand +and foot? "July _is_ rather hot for London," he answered discreetly. +"Lulu wrote yesterday, and may I suggest, if you have leisure, she +would be delighted if you called to see her? I will give you her +address. The flat is very tiny, of course, but----" + +"But infinitely preferable, I am sure, to Victoria Square!" retorted +May bitterly. The burden of life seemed intolerable that evening. + +"Are you, then, so unhappy there?" he asked, startled. "How I +wish----" + +He checked himself hastily, and May stifled a sob which rose in her +throat. "Very few people are quite happy, it seems to me," she said, +trying to speak calmly. "There is always something." + +"Yes, but you--_you_ ought to be happy, if there were any justice +in the world!" he burst out impetuously. "You deserve a sunny, +sheltered life, free from worry and care. Will you believe it is +the hardest of my trials to be able to offer you nothing but barren +sympathy?" + +"It is very good of you to sympathise with me," May murmured +gratefully. "So few people do. They look at my clothes, and decide +that anybody dressed as I am, and living in Victoria Square, _must_ +be happy. 'Lucky Mrs. Burnside!' they call me." + +He remembered how enviable, in the early days of their acquaintance, +May had seemed to him, and thought how mistaken are the judgments of +this world. A great pity swelled his heart as she said "Good-bye"; +and he tramped back to his dreary rooms doubly depressed, both on +her account and his own. How he longed to be able to free her from +her shackles, and offer her a happy home, independent of Miss Waller! + + * * * * * + +"I must say, May, nobody would think you were going to London to +enjoy yourself. Do, for goodness' sake, try to look a little more +cheerful!" said Miss Waller sharply, as they took their seats in +a reserved first-class carriage on the Monday. Mr. Lang, to May's +great relief, had returned to town three days before, so they were +spared his company. "You are the most ungrateful girl I ever knew." + +[Illustration: "Do try to look a little more cheerful!"] + +"I'm sorry you think so, aunt, but----" + +"It would serve you right if I washed my hands of you entirely," +continued the irate spinster. "But I am too kind-hearted; my sense +of duty restrains me. I should be better off now, if I'd been more +selfish and less considerate for others. But I'm well aware it's +useless to expect gratitude in _this_ world." + +And, with a heartfelt sigh for the wickedness of this generation, +Miss Waller arranged the air-cushion more comfortably at her back, +and, placing her daintily shod feet on the opposite seat, commenced +to study a newspaper. May sat watching the deep-green summer +landscape flit by, with pretty much the same feelings as a convict +might experience while going down to Portland guarded by warders. +The knowledge that Mr. Lang awaited them at the end of the journey +took all the colour out of the blue sky; and the sleek cattle +standing knee-deep in water beneath the willows, seemed to mock her +by their animal freedom from care. For herself, she cared little; +but there was Doris to consider, and the thought of her helpless +child harassed her throughout that miserable journey. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +_The Recluse._ + + +Enforced idleness is, to an active mind, the greatest misery +conceivable. Harold Inglis had in him a vast capacity for work, and +therefore found it doubly bitter to have to spend his days lounging +about, waiting for the patients who never came. He was afraid to go +out lest he should miss a summons, and unable to sit down to read +or write, so continually did he find himself listening for a ring +at the bell and Ann's voice announcing a patient. He could not even +tranquillise himself with tobacco, for he had given up smoking on +account of the expense. + +He returned from an errand one afternoon to find an elderly +manservant waiting with the intimation that Sir Edward Vane, of The +Towers, was ill, and would like to see him. He knew Sir Edward by +name as a wealthy and eccentric recluse, who lived alone in a big +house just outside the town, and was liberal in doctors' fees. Not +a little flattered, he promised to come immediately, and was about +to turn in at the lodge gate at The Towers, when he encountered Dr. +Selwyn, another local medical man, with whom he was acquainted. + +"Been sent for by Sir Edward, eh?" asked Selwyn, with a broad grin. + +"Yes." + +"Wish you joy. You may not know it, but he's already tried every +doctor in Beachbourne, and quarrelled with them all in succession. I +wouldn't attend him again for any money. Good-bye, and good luck to +you!" + +In some trepidation, Harold knocked, and was admitted through a +handsome hall into a spacious sitting-room, littered with almost +every conceivable object. On a sofa reclined a grey-haired man +about sixty, whose tanned face, speaking of long residence in the +tropics, was disfigured by a look of fretful ill-health. A retired +Anglo-Indian, distinguished in the Civil Service, Sir Edward had +seen more of the world than most men. + +"You're not in partnership with anybody here, are you?" he asked, +when Harold had examined him carefully. + +"No." + +"All the better. A more wretched lot of impostors than the +Beachbourne doctors I never came across. For years they've been +tinkering at me, and, after all, I'm worse, instead of better. What +are doctors for, if they can't cure one?" + +Harold was discreetly silent. Sir Edward had a complication of +maladies, beyond any medical skill to remedy. + +"My father lived to be ninety," continued the invalid. "And why +can't I?" + +"I don't think, for my part, I should wish to be so old as that," +diffidently returned Harold. "It must be so sad to outlive all one's +friends." + +"I have no friends," was the grim reply. "Only some greedy +relations, eager for my money. I've a good deal to leave," he added, +looking keenly at Harold. "And when I take a fancy to people, +I'm liberal----They say here that I'm always quarrelling with my +doctors; but it's the doctors who quarrel with me, and will air +their own particular fads, instead of trying to cure me. Are you +married?" he asked abruptly. + +"No." + +"A good thing, too; you've more time to attend to your patients. +Hewett used to bore me talking by the hour about that ugly wife of +his. Do you understand fossils, and such things? My room's in an +awful mess, as you see, and I should like to have the specimens +arranged a bit; but I can't trust the servants." + +The place was indeed crammed with all sorts of curios, many +exceedingly valuable. By continually asking for one possession after +another, Sir Edward had ended by accumulating all his treasures +in this one room, which he never left, save for his bedchamber +adjoining. A most untidy place it was; the curiosities being heaped +on chairs, shelves, and the floor, without any method. + +"I am very fond of fossils; and if you wish them arranged, it would +give me great pleasure to help." + +"Hewett wanted me to make a clean sweep of them; interfered with the +flow of his precious fresh air. Like his ignorance! Did he think I +wanted to sit and stare at an ugly wall-paper all day when I was +tired of reading?" + +"Do you read much?" + +"Yes; chiefly Sanskrit. In _my_ day, Indian officials had to be not +only gentlemen but scholars. Well," as Harold rose to go, "I'll have +your prescription made up, and shall expect you again to-morrow." + +"I will come, and hope the pain will be easier then." He detailed +the treatment he desired, and was giving a few final directions when +the manservant opened the door. "Miss Geare has called, sir. Will +you see her?" + +"Oh dear!" pettishly exclaimed Sir Edward. "She'll stay an hour, +prosing about her dogs. For mercy's sake, don't go!" detaining +Harold. "Help me to entertain her, and get her away soon! She was to +have been my sister-in-law, having been engaged to my brother Adrian +years ago; and since in an evil hour I settled at Beachbourne, I've +been fairly persecuted by her." + +In another minute the little lady tripped smilingly in. + +"Well, Edward dear, how are you now? I heard you were not well, so I +just came to inquire." + +"I'm better now, thank you," returned Sir Edward gruffly. "I've +given Hewett the sack, and this is my new doctor--Dr. Inglis. Do you +know him?" + +"Oh, yes, he has been attending me. I'm sure he has done me good, +and I hope you'll benefit also, Edward. You can't _think_ how kind +Dr. Inglis was to my darling Bijou when he broke his leg!" + +"Having attended Bijou, it, of course, follows that Dr. Inglis will +cure me," sneered Sir Edward. "How is the amiable Miss Pepper?" + +"She's waiting outside with the dogs, as you said you wouldn't have +her here. She's a faithful creature; I wish you liked her a little +better, Edward dear." + +"I never was fond of vinegar, Catherine." + +"Oh, don't be so sarcastic, Edward! I never was clever; but you make +me feel like a little girl again, when my governess scolded me." + +There were tears in the watery blue eyes; but they did not seem to +touch Sir Edward. "The remedy, my dear Catherine, is exceedingly +simple," he blandly rejoined. "I know I'm a curmudgeon, unfit to +associate with such an angel as you. Why then should you inflict +upon yourself the unpleasantness of coming here? Why not stay away, +to enjoy the more congenial society of Miss Pepper and the dogs?" + +"So you don't want me, Edward? I think you're very unkind," returned +Miss Geare, evidently wounded, but with a patient dignity Harold had +not expected. He noticed that ever since she entered her gaze had +wandered, at intervals, to an oil-painting of a fine-looking young +man in uniform which hung over the mantelpiece. "But I know better +than to take you at your word. You are all I have left--my dear +Adrian's brother--and----" She broke down, and wiped the slow tears +of age from her eyes. + +Sir Edward gave an impatient sigh, and Harold interposed. "Allow me +to remind you, Miss Geare, that my patient has had a very severe +attack, and the quieter he is the better. Everything depends on +that. I must go home now; and may I request the pleasure of your +company to the gate, if you are ready?" + +"Yes, do go home to Bijou!" fretfully murmured the invalid. And Miss +Geare, after bestowing an affectionate farewell on the unresponsive +Sir Edward, allowed Harold to politely conduct her to the lodge gate. + +"Poor Edward!" she began, as they went down the drive, "he allows +illness to sour his temper, and it's such a pity! But I take no +notice--he's my dear Adrian's only brother, and I can't bear +to stay away from the house. Did you see the portrait over the +mantelpiece?--that was my Adrian. I was young, and pretty too, in +those days, though you mayn't believe it----" + +"I quite believe it," said Harold kindly, touched by the spectacle +of this forlorn old age. + +"Adrian was so proud of Edward. He was so much thought of in India, +and is very, very clever--but not equal to my Adrian--oh, no; nobody +ever could be as handsome and noble as he was! When I heard he was +killed in the Mutiny, I thought I should die too; I think it must +have killed something inside me, for I've never been the same since. +I get confused, and I can't remember things----Yes, I'm coming. +Very sorry to have kept you waiting." + +The humble apology was to Miss Pepper, who, with a most unamiable +countenance, was standing just outside the gate. Miss Geare hastily +said farewell, and Harold could hear her companion scolding her +vigorously as they went down the road. But, as he thought of the +faded, antique love story which had ended so tragically, he could +not but feel sorry for poor little eccentric Miss Geare--it was so +evident that the best part of her had been buried in her lover's +grave. Her eyes must have been rather like May's, he thought, before +sorrow had given them that vacant expression; and then he wondered, +for the hundredth time, what Mrs. Burnside was doing in London, and +whether she thought of him as often as he did of her. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +_Vanitas Vanitatum._ + + +Arrived in London, all May's worst anticipations were realised; for +Mr. Lang accompanied them everywhere, and she had not a minute to +call her own. He assumed an air of proprietorship which made her +blood boil. "You ought to do this, Mrs. Burnside--you should see +that," he repeated from morning till night; and, as Miss Waller +invariably pronounced all his suggestions charming, it was useless +for May to rebel. + +So London proved the same weary old story over again--a life of +outward glitter and show, of softly rolling carriages, of sumptuous +dinners, and reserved seats; and within, dust and ashes, and Dead +Sea fruit! May talked and smiled, but it was mechanically; her heart +was far away. + +She asserted herself sufficiently, however, to declare her intention +of calling upon the Inglis girls in their flat in West Kensington. +She had written to Lulu, who sent her a pressing invitation to come +on Saturday afternoon, when they were at leisure. + +Miss Waller instantly denounced the scheme as a wild-goose chase, +asserting that May was certain to lose her way. They were still +discussing it when Mr. Lang came in from Palace Gardens, as he +usually did first thing in the morning, ostensibly to ask what they +wished to do, but really to order them about at his sovereign will +and pleasure. "Well, ladies, what's the programme for to-day?" he +began. + +May turned round from the window of the handsome drawing-room for +which her aunt was paying a small fortune, thinking, as the morning +sunlight fell upon his podgy figure, that Mr. Lang grew uglier and +more common-looking every day. "I have promised to go and see my +friends the Inglises this afternoon," she announced firmly. + +[Illustration: "This is my new doctor--Dr. Inglis."--_p. 509._] + +"And who may the Inglises be?" + +"Some girls who live at West Kensington," returned May, colouring at +his lordly tone. + +"Their brother is a doctor--a very unsuccessful one at Beachbourne," +put in Miss Waller irritably. "They are very poor, and live in a +poky flat. What May can see in them I can't imagine; and I'm sure +she'll get lost if she goes alone." + +"I can take a cab, aunt." By a perfect miracle she had a few +shillings in her pocket. + +"I'll tell you what," pompously proclaimed Mr. Lang. "You shall go +in a cab, Mrs. Burnside, if you really must, and I'll call and bring +you back in my carriage. Eh, Miss Waller?" + +"Oh, what a splendid idea!" gushed the spinster, brightening; and, +though May protested earnestly against troubling Mr. Lang, he +was resolute. Then he carried them off to inspect a picture in a +Bond Street shop which took his fancy--a seapiece, with violently +ultramarine waves tumbling about the canvas. May considered it +a most irritating production, and boldly said so; for, despite +her aunt's frowns, she refused to flatter Mr. Lang. He took her +criticism very good-naturedly, however, and insisted on their coming +to luncheon with him at a fashionable Regent Street restaurant, +where only African millionaires and suchlike could afford to go. + +But at length May's ordeal was over, and she drew a great breath of +relief as the lift deposited her at No. 18, Windermere Mansions. +Lulu herself admitted her, evidently delighted to see her, and +announced that just then she was alone. + +"Esther isn't back yet, but I expect her every minute," she +explained. "Mabel, our chum, has gone to see some friends. We don't +keep a servant, but a charwoman comes morning and evening. Our flat +is a mere cupboard, as you see; but, such as it is, you are very +welcome." + +She conducted May over it, and tiny it certainly was; only one +sitting-room, a speck of a kitchen, three small bedrooms, and a +bathroom. But it was very comfortable and homelike; and, though many +of the articles were merely of wicker and bamboo, it was furnished +with a taste which betrayed the instincts of gentlewomen. + +"How I envy you!" exclaimed May, as she sank into a chair in the +cosy little sitting-room. And then, to Lulu's consternation and to +her own intense disgust, she burst into tears. + +Lulu looked quite alarmed; for the modern girl reserves all such +exhibitions for the privacy of her own apartment, and tears and +hysterics are as much out of fashion nowadays as poke bonnets and +sandalled shoes. It is not that the new girl can't feel, but that +she considers it undignified to cry. + +[Illustration: To Lulu's consternation ... she burst into tears.] + +"Forgive me," apologised May, blushing furiously. "I'm +overtired--I've been doing too much in this heat. I feel quite +ashamed to be so foolish." + +"We'll have tea directly Esther comes; that will revive you," +replied Lulu cheerfully and she proceeded to light a dainty +spirit-kettle which formed part of a most inviting tea equipage. May +watched her enviously, thinking how sweet and homelike it all was. +She had never known a real home since leaving her father's house. +Her married life was a horrible nightmare, and Victoria Square +was little better; and if she yielded to pressure and married Mr. +Lang----But no! that would not bear thinking of! + +"There's Esther!" cried Lulu eagerly, as a latch-key clicked in the +hall door. + +May had expected to find Miss Inglis handsome; but she was not +prepared for such a young goddess as now swept into the room, +with a stride of long, well-knit limbs which made the place seem +ludicrously small. Esther Inglis would have attracted notice +anywhere, with her splendid, keen-cut, dark face and stately poise +of head; and her family might well be proud of her. + +She was better dressed than Lulu, in a plain but well-fitting gown +which was very becoming. + +"Tired, dear?" asked Lulu affectionately, as her sister, after +greeting May, reclined her tall figure in a basket-chair. + +"Rather; that is, I've a Saturday afternoon kind of feeling. +The office was very hot, and the new man can't quite manage the +telephone. Where's Mabel?" + +"Gone to see her friends at Richmond. Give me your hat, dear." + +She removed her sister's outdoor garb with a deft motherliness which +charmed May. Miss Inglis was clearly accustomed to being waited +upon; but it seemed quite natural, with her splendid face and figure. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +_Mr. Lang meets his Match._ + + +"And how is Harold, Mrs. Burnside?" Esther asked as they sipped +their tea. + +May gave as favourable an account of his progress as she could, +to which Miss Inglis listened thoughtfully. "I'm afraid he has an +uphill struggle before him, poor old fellow! Without capital, it +seems to me, you can do nothing nowadays? Are there many doctors at +Beachbourne?" + +"A good many; and, of course, it takes time to make a practice." + +"It's always the same old story--want of money!" sighed Esther +pessimistically. "Nowadays the competition is something dreadful; +and what will it be for the next generation?" + +"Why, Esther, you seem in rather a croaking mood!" remonstrated Lulu. + +"Well, my dear, going about daily in trains and omnibuses, and +having to run the gauntlet of every man who thinks that because a +girl works for her living she can't possibly be a lady, doesn't tend +to sweeten one's view of life." + +"I suppose there are annoyances in every lot," diffidently put in +May. "But there are--there really are--worse things than being +obliged to earn one's living. You must be so happy here, able to do +just as you like, with nobody to worry you." + +Esther's brow cleared. "Yes, it's something to be independent, +nowadays. And it's too bad to bore you with my grumbles, Mrs. +Burnside. I don't often indulge in complaints, do I, Lulu? We three +really have a jolly time here; and my salary is to be raised twenty +pounds a year, beginning from next month." + +"Oh, Esther, how splendid!" + +"Yes, we must go on the river, or have some dissipation to celebrate +it. Oh! who can that be?" as a loud knock resounded at the outer +door. + +"My aunt thought I might get lost, and a friend of ours--Mr. +Lang--offered to call for me," said May, flushing. "He is earlier +than I expected--I hope you don't mind his coming?" + +"Oh, dear, no!" nonchalantly responded Esther, as Lulu bustled +out to admit Mr. Lang, who entered with his usual bumptious +self-confidence. But when his eyes fell upon the superb figure of +Esther, he was palpably surprised. + +May introduced him; but, while Lulu gave him a friendly greeting, +Esther barely condescended to acknowledge his existence. Miss +Inglis, late of Mallowfield Hall, was not to be put down by a vulgar +plutocrat. + +"I must apologise for coming rather early, Mrs. Burnside," he began, +"but I didn't quite know how long it would take to get here; I never +was in this neighbourhood before. Don't you find it rather out of +the way?" he continued, addressing Esther. + +"It _is_ rather inconvenient, especially as we don't keep a +carriage," she coolly returned. A keen observer of human nature, she +had taken Mr. Lang's measure in one haughty glance. + +"Nice little place, though," he added patronisingly, intending to be +very polite. "That drapery over the mantelpiece is a good idea. Did +Liberty do it?" + +"I did it myself, with a few yards of cheap cretonne and an ounce of +tin-tacks." + +"Really! How clever!" he exclaimed, not perceiving that Esther was +covertly laughing at him. "Old miniatures, too! Are you a collector? +I am; I've got some lovely Cosways." + +"Oh, dear, no! these are only some of our ancestors. My father has +the best ones, down in Cornwall." + +"I've rather a good collection at my house in Palace Gardens. You've +seen them, haven't you, Mrs. Burnside? It would give me great +pleasure to show them to your young friends, if they care to call +some day." + +"Thank you; my sister and I are working all day, and have very +little time. I am not specially interested in miniatures, except +those belonging to our family," replied Esther coldly. May inwardly +rejoiced at seeing Mr. Lang meet his match for once. + +"I believe you have a brother out in South Africa?" presently asked +Mr. Lang, turning to Lulu. + +"Yes, at Johannesburg. He's on the staff of the Victorina Mine." + +"I believe I've met him somewhere. Rather good-looking, with dark +hair, isn't he? He must know me; I'm so well known out there +in connection with the Springkloof Mine. Have you heard of the +Springkloof, Miss Inglis?" + +"Yes," answered that superb young lady, fixing her eyes steadily on +him. "I have heard a good deal about it from Jack. He was over in +England last summer." + +"I'm often going backwards and forwards to Johannesburg," continued +Mr. Lang; "I should be glad at any time to take charge of any +parcels or letters for your brother, if you will let me know. This +is my London address," and he laid his card on the table. + +"Thank you, we couldn't think of troubling you." + +"No trouble, I assure you. I should be very glad to oblige any--any +of Mrs. Burnside's friends." + +May crimsoned beneath his significant glance and the scarcely veiled +scorn on Esther's fine face. How these girls must despise her for +associating with this horrible man! Unable to bear it any longer, +she rose to take leave. + +"I hope we shall meet again before you go," Lulu said wistfully; +but May dared not press them to come and see her aunt, knowing they +would only meet a chilly reception from Miss Waller. "I will write +and let you know," she answered hurriedly. + +"Perhaps you young ladies might like a drive in the Park +occasionally?" suggested Mr. Lang. "I'd be very happy to send my +carriage." + +"Thank you," responded Esther, who appeared to be spokeswoman on all +occasions. "My sister and I work for our living, and have no time +for such dissipations. I am employed in a City office." + +"Then it's a shame you should have to work--that's all I can say," +warmly rejoined Mr. Lang. "A woman's place is at home, in a handsome +drawing-room, with every comfort about her--not jostling about in +the crowd with men." + +"Handsome drawing-rooms and an idle life are not within the reach of +every woman, nowadays, Mr. Lang," coldly responded Esther, as they +shook hands; and the next minute the door closed behind them. + +"Horrid man!" cried Esther wrathfully, when the visitors had gone. +"Didn't his insufferable patronage make your blood boil? He might +well ask if we knew him by name; of course, we do--too well, for, +according to Jack, the Springkloof Mine was a byword on the Randt, +from the way in which the original owners were cheated out of the +property by Mr. Lang and his syndicate. I remember he mentioned this +Lang as a man who was well known at Johannesburg to have mixed in +many shady transactions." + +"What a pity that nice Mrs. Burnside should be obliged to associate +with him! He evidently admires her; but, to tell you a secret, +Esther, there's somebody who admires her even more--and that's +Harold." + +"Poor Harold! How can he ever afford to marry? Mrs. Burnside is +dependent on her aunt for everything, isn't she?" + +"Yes, and her aunt intends her to marry Mr. Lang. Poor thing! I can +see she is simply miserable at the idea of it." + +Esther took up Mr. Lang's card, to read the address. "He might well +say West Kensington was out of the way! If he ever comes again--I +don't mean to be at home." And she tore it into the smallest +fragments. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +_On the Island._ + + +"This is what I call perfectly delightful," pronounced Miss Waller +solemnly. She looked meaningly at May, who stood near, looking her +best in pale blue, with a big white hat, but her niece pretended not +to hear. + +A week had elapsed since Mrs. Burnside's visit to the Inglis +girls; and it was again Saturday afternoon. It had been a week of +absolutely tropical heat, exhausting to a degree; and Mr. Lang, +noticing May's pale cheeks, had proposed a trip up the river in his +steam-launch. So, with their mutual friends the Wingates, and some +other people, they were now bound for an island some distance above +Kingston, where they intended to land and have tea. + +After the scorching and crowded streets, the river, with its green, +tree-shaded banks, was indeed a pleasant change; and, had she been +free from care, May would have greatly enjoyed watching the numerous +gay boats and launches filled with happy holiday-makers. But the +presence of Mr. Lang--vulgar, fussy, and pretentious--spoiled +everything, and she avoided him as much as possible, greatly to her +aunt's disgust. + +The island at which they presently arrived was very small; and +so crowded with people that at another time the scene would have +amused May. They landed with some difficulty, amid the crowd of +skiffs, punts, and canoes, which were moored to the banks; and had +to walk warily, not to tread upon their late occupants, who were +now grouped round every variety of tea equipage, arrayed in every +kind of costume. One or two people, ostentatious like themselves, +were attended by liveried servants to turn the whole thing into +a burlesque; but the great mass had spread their tea with their +own hands, and it was comical to see how their ideas of a picnic +varied. Here would be a homely meal with thick enamelled tea-things, +huge chunks of bread-and-butter, and shrimps or watercress for a +relish. Next door would be an aristocratic party with a silver +teapot, fairy-like china, expensive cakes, and fruit on artistic +dessert plates. Here a stout materfamilias, purple with the heat, +struggled to satisfy her hungry brood of eight with hastily buttered +rolls; there a pair of lovers, oblivious of all else, sat partaking +of nectar and ambrosia, in imagination a thousand miles away. +Everywhere was good humour, laughter, and happiness. + +At last, after his usual bustle, Mr. Lang contrived to secure a +vacant spot for his party; though not without an angry argument +with some plainly dressed people who, with scant respect for +African millionaires, declined to move their common delft +tea-service to make way for his costly Dresden. Whilst the footman +spread the cloth May sat abstractedly gazing over the sunlit river, +when suddenly she caught a glimpse in an approaching boat of a +figure which made her heart leap. Surely that stalwart young man in +flannels, rowing two girls towards the island, was Harold Inglis! +With consummate skill he steered his cockleshell craft to the bank, +then helped his sisters out, and, carrying a basket, came to find a +place to sit down. + +"What a handsome girl!" murmured more than one of Mr. Lang's party +as Esther advanced with her queenly gait. May, delighted, rose to +greet her. "How wonderful to meet you here!" exclaimed Miss Inglis. +"Harold had to come up to town on business, and we persuaded him to +bring us up the river." + +"So glad to see you again, Mrs. Burnside," said the young doctor as +they shook hands; his honest English face flushing as his glance +met hers. That glance and that handclasp seemed to throw a flood +of light upon the secret places of May's soul; for suddenly she +realised that she loved him better than her life. He was, and always +must be, the one man in the world to her. + +Miss Waller was not pleased at this addition to their party; but +she could not interfere when Mr. Lang pressed the Inglises to join +the circle assembled at tea. Nor could they well refuse: though +independent Esther insisted on making use of the provisions they +had brought with them. Harold stationed himself beside May, as a +matter of course, and contrived, under cover of the lively chatter +of the rest, to tell her about the new patients he had secured at +Beachbourne, and hear what she had been doing in London. It was a +very harmless, matter-of-fact conversation, but it drew down many +jealous glances from Mr. Lang, which May perceived, but did not +heed. Why should she not enjoy this brief moment of happiness? + +"Shall I see you again before I leave? I'm going back on Monday," +Harold observed wistfully, when the tea-things had been packed up +for the return journey. + +[Illustration: "If he ever comes again!"] + +But she shook her head, knowing it was useless to invite him to call +upon her aunt; nor could she promise to visit Windermere Mansions. +"We shall be returning the end of next week, I hope," she answered +hurriedly, sorry to seem so inhospitable. "I shall be so glad to +leave London!" + +"Now, Mrs. Burnside," interrupted Mr. Lang, bustling up, "your +aunt's invited me to dine with you at eight; and if I'm to be back +in time to dress, we must look sharp. Sorry to have to say good-bye +to you, Miss Inglis," he added, turning to stately Esther with his +most patronising air. "I wish I could ask you to come back in the +launch with us; but there's so little room." + +"Thank you, I prefer a rowing-boat. I thoroughly disapprove of +steam launches on a crowded river like the Thames," calmly responded +she; whilst Miss Waller gasped, open-mouthed, at such effrontery. +Imagine a beggarly girl in an office daring to address such +criticism to the great Mr. Lang! + +The lovers had perforce to separate, for the rowing-boat would, of +course, be soon left behind by the launch. May took her seat with +a sinking heart at the prospect of Mr. Lang's company for the rest +of the day; and Harold was so silent all the way home that Esther +commented on it as they disembarked. + +"So this is the end of my little treat in honour of my rise of +salary!" she ruefully remarked. "I thought it would be pleasant on +the river; but I feel almost sorry we came. Certainly, Mrs. Poyser +was right in her opinion of 'pleasuring-days.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +_Reprieved._ + + +"Now, May," began Miss Waller in her most portentous tone, on Monday +morning, "I must have an explanation with you. I'm going home this +week, for it's ruinously expensive being here; and to-day Mr. Lang +is coming for his answer. Without any beating about the bush, I +expect you to marry him." + +"Oh, aunt, don't--_don't_!" entreated May, wringing her hands. "I +cannot marry Mr. Lang." + +"What childish nonsense! Fancy refusing a house in Palace Gardens, +and all that money!" + +"I can't and won't marry him." + +"Very well, then, you and Doris must find another home. I have +pinched myself to keep you in luxury; but if you will be so wickedly +blind to your plain duty, I wash my hands of you." + +"I don't care one bit for myself, aunt; I could earn a living, +I'm sure, and I'd gladly do it. Let me try," pleaded May, "I will +promise never to cost you another penny, if you will only be so kind +as to give Doris a home until I am able to keep her myself." + +"Which will not be till Doomsday. Talk of earning your living--what +rubbish! Why, you haven't even one decent accomplishment. No, if +you leave my house, Doris goes, too; I won't have the little spoilt +monkey left on my hands." + +"But, aunt----" + +"Besides, think what advantages you could give Doris if you +married Mr. Lang--the best possible education, horses, carriages, +Continental trips, everything! If you really cared at all for your +child, you couldn't hesitate for a minute." + +It was a clever argument, and it made May waver as nothing else +could; and Miss Waller did not know whether to be glad or sorry that +just then Mr. Lang himself was announced. + +"Don't go, Miss Waller," he began, as the spinster, after a few +casual observations, was about to leave the room. "I've nothing to +say to Mrs. Burnside you may not hear as well. Your niece knows by +this time that I am anxious to have her for my wife. I want to marry +and settle down now, and I can promise you," he added, turning to +face May for the first time, "a most luxurious home--you've seen +it--both for yourself and your little girl. Your aunt wishes it, I +know; and I hope, Mrs. Burnside--May--you'll make me very happy by +saying you'll be my wife before Christmas." + +He came closer, and would have taken her hand; but she started +back. Her aunt's basilisk eyes were fixed on her, to add to her +discomfiture; but she said as firmly as she could, "I am very +grateful for your kindness, Mr. Lang; nevertheless, I must refuse +your offer, for I do not love you, and I could not marry any man +unless I did." + +"Now, really, Miss Waller," remonstrated the plutocrat, turning with +an injured air to the wrathful spinster, "I call this too bad! It +was understood between us that you would prepare Mrs. Burnside, so +that it might all be plain sailing. I'm not accustomed to ask and be +refused, I can tell you." + +"May must have lost her senses to reject such an offer, Mr. Lang," +returned Miss Waller, with an annihilating glance at her niece. "She +is an ungrateful, undutiful girl; and if she refuses you, I will +have nothing more to do with her." + +"Well," rejoined Mr. Lang, with a gulp, as if swallowing something +very nauseous to the taste, "I must confess I didn't expect to be +sent to the right-about like this. However, young ladies often +change their minds; and perhaps, when Mrs. Burnside thinks my offer +quietly over, she may alter her opinion. I've great faith in your +persuasions, Miss Waller. I've just had a telegram, saying a fall of +rock has damaged the machinery at the Springkloof, and I'm wanted +out there, so I must sail for the Cape at once. I expect to be away +some months; by November I shall probably be back in England. I give +Mrs. Burnside until then to consider my offer; I won't look upon +this as a final rejection. I'm sure, when she thinks of all I'm in a +position to offer, she can't be so foolish as to refuse." + +"How kind--how generous!" exclaimed Miss Waller, as May stood in +stony silence. "I promise in my niece's name that when you come back +she will accept you. I hope we shall see you again before you leave?" + +"Well, no, for I've a lot to do before I go. But I'll write to you; +and as soon as I possibly can I shall return for Mrs. Burnside's +answer." + +[Illustration: "How wonderful to meet you here!"--_p. 513._] + +As if in a sick dream, with this threat ringing in her ears, May +mechanically tendered him her limp hand in farewell. When they were +once more alone her aunt said in crisp, dry tones: + +"I shall return to Beachbourne on Wednesday, and make arrangements +for spending August and September in visiting amongst our friends in +the country. We have plenty of invitations. I have said all I need +say on the subject of Mr. Lang. Meanwhile, you can choose between +Palace Gardens and every luxury, and a life of starvation and +beggary for you and Doris." + +Despite the apparent calm with which Mr. Lang had taken May's +rejection of his flattering offer, he was nevertheless in a very bad +temper when he left the house and jumped into his victoria. He was +not accustomed to rebuffs--which made the fact that he had just been +rejected by a penniless widow, only saved from actual want by her +aunt's charity, doubly galling. + +"I'm mad to care so much about a pale-faced girl with nothing to say +for herself; and I really ought to do better. I could easily marry a +lady of title, or anybody I choose; and it would serve her right if +I went straight off and proposed to somebody else, just to show her +that rich husbands don't grow on every bush!" + +Revenge is always the first thought of a mean mind which is smarting +from a sense of injury. Mr. Lang chuckled over this idea for some +time, and the result was, that when Esther Inglis entered their +one sitting-room about half-past five that day, she found Mr. Lang +seated in the most comfortable chair, awaiting her. + +She instantly assumed her thorny manner; but it had no more effect +than it would have had upon a rhinoceros. "I've come to say good-bye +for the present, Miss Inglis," he airily remarked, as if his visit +were a matter of course. "I leave to-morrow for Johannesburg on +business; and as I shall probably see your brother, it would give me +great pleasure to take charge of anything you may wish to send him." + +Esther's handsome face relaxed. Really it was very kind and +thoughtful of Mr. Lang, who, with his influence, might prove a +valuable friend to Jack. + +"It is very good of you, and in his last letter Jack asked us to +send him some collars and ties; they are such a fearful price at +Johannesburg, and not good. But they are not bought yet, and you say +you leave to-morrow?" + +"Yes, but the shops will not be closed for some time, and my +victoria is at the door, if you will honour me by using it to go +where you wish." + +Esther hesitated a moment; but the opportunity of saving expensive +and troublesome postage, besides serving Jack, was too good to lose. +Mr. Lang rose, and indicated a box lying on the table. + +[Illustration: "Oh, don't thank me."] + +"I've brought you a little fruit, Miss Inglis, just sent to me from +my country place near Dorking. My head-gardener prides himself on +his peaches and nectarines; but I must leave you to judge." + +"Oh, thank you!" cried Esther, with sparkling eyes; for she had not +tasted a nectarine since leaving Mallowfleld. In a moment she had +undone the satin ribbon which tied down the lid, and was feasting +her eyes on such peaches as she had seldom seen. + +"As you seem fond of fruit, I'll give orders to my gardener to send +you a box periodically," observed Mr. Lang. "Oh, don't thank me; +I shall be away, and somebody may as well enjoy it. And if you'll +have the parcel and letters ready, my footman shall call for them +to-morrow morning." + +He accompanied Esther down to the street, where his beautifully +appointed carriage was waiting; and it must be confessed she enjoyed +finding herself seated behind a spruce coachman and footman once +more. "You will take this lady's orders," pompously commanded Mr. +Lang. "Keep the carriage as long as you like, Miss Inglis, and I'll +not forget about the parcel." + +So manifest was his desire to propitiate, that Esther could do no +less than bid him a civil farewell, with the hope that he might have +a pleasant journey. Then she rolled away, looking so much at home in +the smart carriage that Mr. Lang gazed after her admiringly. + +"By Jove, how well she sets the whole thing off! Looks like a lady +used to carriages all her life. May Burnside really isn't a patch +upon Esther Inglis; there is no mistake about that!" + +Had Miss Waller only been there to hear him, she might well have +trembled for the success of her darling scheme of marrying May to a +rich man. + + +[END OF CHAPTER TWELVE.] + + + + +[Illustration: EASTER EGG ROLLING IN WASHINGTON] + + +"Going to Mr. President's!" + +That is what the hundreds of little boys and girls will tell you any +Easter Monday morning, should you chance to stop them and ask their +destination as they go toddling along the streets of Washington with +baskets of eggs hanging on their arms and a glad delight shining in +their eyes. + +They make up a very "mixed" crowd, these children! There is the +dainty little miss in richly embroidered frock and wide silk sash, +with one tiny hand held tightly in the grasp of a big negro nurse +and the other hand clasping lovingly a basket of pretty coloured +eggs; there is another little girl in a very clean but much-faded +gingham or print apron, trotting along at her mother's side--the +mother dressed, perchance, in shabby black, belonging to the class +known in the Southern part of the States as the "poor whites"; there +is also the trio of little "darkey" girls, dancing merrily along the +sidewalk, swinging their egg-baskets as though with intention of +spilling the eggs over passers-by, yet never quite dropping them, +and singing the while as they keep step-- + + "Tra la la la, tra la la la, + Easter Monday morning!" + +There are nice, smart-looking little boys, strutting along proudly +in their first pair of knickerbockers, with pockets bulging out with +Easter eggs, their black nurses walking just a few steps behind +them; there are the poor white boys whose clothes are patched and +boots worn with toes protruding. On other days they sell newspapers, +black boots, and do "odd jobbs" to earn a few cents, but on Easter +Monday morning they somehow get together a collection of coloured +eggs and go to see the President. Then there are the little black +boys, some smartly dressed (for many of the coloured people of +Washington are well-to-do), and others as shabby as shabby can be. +But no matter. Are they not provided with Easter Monday eggs and +going up to the White House to see "Mr. President," who every Easter +Monday gives over his beautiful lawn to as many little boys and +girls as like to go and see him, and roll their eggs over the grassy +slopes that look out over the Potomac River? + +[Illustration: Lester Ralph. + +THE INVASION OF THE PRESIDENT'S LAWN.] + +On no other day during the year does Washington present so +interesting and picturesque an appearance as on Easter Monday, +and it is the happiest day of all the year with the children of +the Capitol City. In England, of course, Easter Monday is always +a Bank Holiday, but not so in the United States. In New York and +other large American cities banks and shops and schools are open +as usual; but in the district of Columbia, where Washington is +situated, it is a legal holiday. That in itself makes it a happy +time for the children. Then, add to the joy of having no lessons to +learn the fact that they are allowed to take dozens of coloured +eggs to the White House lawn and play the games of "egg-picking" and +"egg-rolling" as the specially invited guests of the President of +the United States, and it will be easily understood how festive an +occasion is Easter Monday to the children of Washington. + +Not even the oldest inhabitants of Washington can remember the time +when the boys and girls of the city did not celebrate Easter Monday +by "egg-rolling," although the children of fifty years ago rolled +their eggs down Capitol Hill, under the shadow of the magnificent +Capitol building, instead of on the White House lawn. Year after +year the children of former generations trudged up the great hill +with their egg-baskets over their arms and had the happiest times +imaginable with their Easter games. + +One Easter Monday, however, about twenty years ago, hundreds of +boys and girls went to Capitol Hill with their eggs just as they +had done in previous years, when they were astonished to be hustled +off the grounds by special messengers and policemen from the Senate +and House of Representatives, who declared that the distinguished +Senators and Congressmen in convention assembled had made up their +minds that their "door-yard" was no longer to be disfigured for days +after Easter Monday with broken eggs and vari-coloured shells! They +were weary of having their highly polished boots smeared with yolks +of eggs, and Easter Monday "egg-rolling" in Washington was to be +ended! + +Then there went up all about the precincts of the nation's Capitol a +loud wail of anguish and wrath from hundreds of childish throats, in +which the numerous nurses and attendants joined. Many boys and girls +gathered on the steps of the building, sobbing in disappointment, +some of the larger boys throwing out direful hints of vengeance +to be wreaked on the heads of the nation's law-makers; but the +stately Senators remained stony-hearted, in spite of it all. In the +midst of the tearful hubbub the President's carriage drove past, +and President Hayes (the then head of the nation) drew up near the +portico to inquire why the children wept instead of rolling their +eggs on Easter Monday. + +A chorus of voices informed him that the "nasty Senators wouldn't +let them play any more because they messed up the grounds"; and then +again from the throng of little ones confronting the President there +arose fresh outbursts of grief and indignation. + +[Illustration: Lester Ralph. + +"GOING TO MR. PRESIDENT'S."] + +"Never you mind, children," said President Hayes soothingly. "You +may come right up to my house and play in my back yard." + +Then the mourning was turned to rejoicing. Every child knew that in +all the city of Washington there was not so wonderful a "back yard" +as that which belonged to the White House. Its beautifully kept +slopes were ideal places for "egg-rolling," and then there was the +great fountain in the middle of the lawn! So when the President's +carriage started to return to the White House, it was followed by +several hundred boys and girls swinging their egg-baskets, and +singing and shouting out their gratitude to the President of the +United States, who was going to let them play in his garden. I doubt +if ever an American President had an escort of which he had such +cause to feel proud as that which accompanied President Hayes to the +White House gates on that memorable Easter Monday. + +[Illustration: Lester Ralph. + +ON THE WAY TO THE WHITE HOUSE.] + +Outside the gates they were kept waiting for about an hour, while +the President gave his hurried instructions to the gardeners to put +the place in readiness. At eleven o'clock the gates swung open, and +from that time till six o'clock the children rolled their eggs. + +Ever since then Washington children have gone regularly every Easter +Monday to play in the President's "back yard," each of President +Hayes's successors having kept up the custom of inserting in the +Washington papers each year an invitation to all the children +residents of the town to spend the day rolling eggs on the lawn. + +In President Hayes's time his own children joined in the sport, and +during the last term of President Cleveland the President's little +girls, who were considered too young to roll eggs with the elder +children, were kept on the back portico with their mother or their +nurse, where they could watch the progress of the games. + +Two years ago, on Easter Monday, I spent the day on the White House +lawn, watching the big "Presidential children's party," as it is +called. The gates were opened at a little after ten o'clock, and +during the day there were several thousand children playing in the +grounds. Many of the children, besides carrying their baskets of +eggs, carried also their luncheon-baskets, and when tired of games +they sat about on the grass, picnic-fashion, eating bread-and-butter +and cakes and hard-boiled eggs. I should here mention that, although +the President does not consider it necessary to make any rules for +the preservation of order among his young guests--it being taken +for granted that all children invited to the President's garden +will behave in their very best style--he always requests that those +who accept his invitation to roll their eggs on his lawn will +be particular to bring with them only eggs that are thoroughly +hard boiled, for in the game of "egg-picking" the use of raw or +soft-boiled eggs would be, to say the least, most inconvenient! + +The game of "egg-picking" is a very simple one, although it is +entered into most enthusiastically by the boys and girls. The +children separate themselves into groups of eight or ten, then seat +themselves on the grass at the top of the slopes and roll their eggs +down to the bottom. The eggs that make the descent without getting +cracked or "picked" may be brought back and re-rolled, until they +do get cracked or until the game is over, while those that get +"picked" are placed back in the baskets. The boy who can hit his +neighbour's egg and "pick" it without "picking" his own is looked +upon as something of a hero. Of course, toward the end of the game +many of the players drop out, all of their eggs having got "picked." +Very often the players are reduced to two who show themselves +particularly expert, and then there is great excitement watching for +the winner. + +Besides the game of "egg-picking" there are egg-ball games, egg +croquet games; but plain "egg-rolling," which consists of rolling +eggs down the slopes, going after them, and rolling them again and +again, seems to be the favourite amusement. Then, too, the children +engage in "jumping the rope" and other similar amusements. + +Although many of the children spend the entire day on the lawn, +numbers of them remain for a couple of hours only. By this means +the grounds are not kept so crowded as they would otherwise be. The +hours between three and five o'clock, however, are considered the +most enjoyable, as during that time the President always arranges to +have the Marine Baud to entertain the children with music, and it +is at that time also that the President makes his appearance out on +the back portico to greet the children. It is, of course, thoroughly +understood that so busy a man as the President cannot spend his +whole day with his young visitors. He entertains them by turning +over his grounds to them, and they enjoy themselves in their own way +without molestation. + +On the afternoon of the Easter Monday which I spent in Washington +President McKinley came out on the portico at about half-past three. +He took off his hat and waved it to the children, who all gathered +as near as possible about the portico and shouted out-- + +"Howdy do, Mr. President? Howdy do, howdy do?"--the boys taking off +their caps and the little girls waving their handkerchiefs. + +"How do you do, children? Glad to see you, and hope you are having a +good time!" shouted back the President. + +[Illustration: Lester Ralph. + +PRESIDENT McKINLEY GREETING HIS YOUNG VISITORS.] + +"Splendid time, Mr. President, and thank you for your invitation," +called back the delighted little guests. + +"That's right!" returned the President, laughing. "I hope you'll all +come again next Easter Monday." + +"Thank you, Mr. President. Good-bye, good-bye!" shouted the +children. Then President McKinley went back to his duties of State +and the children returned to their egg-rolling. Mrs. McKinley +sat on the portico most of the afternoon watching the merriment. +Occasionally a little boy or girl would edge up to the portico, and +push a blue or red egg through the railings, saying: + +"Please, Mrs. President, I've brought you one of my eggs to keep!" + +Mrs. McKinley accepted the little presents with the sweetest of +smiles and a "Thank you." + +At about two o'clock in the afternoon the White House lawn looked +like a large picnic ground. Some of the children had brought napkins +to lay upon the grass when they should be ready to eat their +luncheon, and on the napkins they spread their boiled eggs and +bread-and-butter. One little girl, when I complimented her on her +daintiness, explained: + +"I does it so I won't get eggshells on Mr. President's grass! My +mamma told me I must be careful, cos it wouldn't be very nice if the +President of the 'Nited States had to go round to-morrow picking up +eggshells after me!" + +During the afternoon there were several slight accidents at the +fountain. Some of the children delighted in digging all the meat +from their eggs through the smallest possible aperture and then +floating the empty shells in the lower basin of the fountain where +the water was undisturbed. In trying to keep their improvised ships +from sailing away, two little girls fell into the water, but they +were quickly rescued by their nurses and taken home to be dried. + +At five o'clock the crowd began to disperse, and at a little past +six the small guests of the President had all left the lawn and +were on their way to their various homes. Such a variety of homes, +indeed, they went to! Some to magnificent mansions on Connecticut +Avenue. Their fathers were high Government officials, Senators, +members of the Cabinet, and their mothers well-known society +women. Other little boys and girls went to very humble homes and +minded their little baby brothers and sisters while their mothers +got supper; and then there were the homes in the localities given +over almost entirely to the negro population. Before the War their +parents and grandparents had been slaves, little dreaming that their +descendants would ever be invited along with the children of the +aristocratic whites to play in the President's "back yard"! + +By the way, what a sight that "back yard" did present on the morning +following Easter Monday! There were four gardeners busily at work +with rakes and brooms and baskets. They were gathering up the litter +of eggshells, breadcrumbs, bits of paper, lost playthings, and tiny +bits of muslin and calico that had somehow got torn off the dresses +of some of the children. At the fountain one of the gardeners was +fishing out pieces of string and floating shells. It was four +o'clock when the garden was finally "picked up" and shorn of its +festive appearance. It was then absolutely "spick and span," and +no one could ever have guessed that the day before it had been a +playground for several thousand children! + + ELIZABETH L. BANKS. + + + + +[Illustration: decorative] + +FORGIVENESS. + + + Within a spacious hall, before a fire + Whose flick'ring light danced weirdly on his brow, + Stood Peter mutely brooding o'er his vow + To die with Christ, though thousands should conspire + To wreak their vengeance, profitless and dire, + On Christ and all who faith in Him avow. + With sin the soul of Peter struggled now, + When, "Known, or not, to Jesus?" men inquire. + + "I know Him not"--thus, falsely, thrice he swore; + And think you that because this weak man fell + The God-Man would deny him evermore? + Christ looked upon him, and that look did spell: + "For thee My soul shall on the Cross be riven, + And, therefore, Peter, is thy sin forgiven!" + + LOUIS H. VICTORY. + +[Illustration: OUR ROLL OF HEROIC DEEDS + +The above picture records a brave attempted rescue on the part of +Private Frederick Lakeman Banks, of the London Rifle Brigade. When +on the way to the Rainham Rifle Range some time ago, Banks and +several of his companions were attracted to this spot by the cries +of some bystanders, who stated that a child had fallen into the +thick muddy water of the tidal creek and had disappeared. Banks +immediately threw off his coat, plunged into the filthy water, +and after a three minutes' search succeeded in finding the boy. +Unhappily, the child was past help; but, all the same, the gallantry +displayed by the rescuer was rewarded by the bestowal of the Bronze +Medal of THE QUIVER Heroes' Fund.] + + + + +[Illustration: MISS LUCRETIA'S NEW IDEA. + +H V Brock] + +_A COMPLETE STORY._ + +By M. H. Cornwall Legh, Author of "The Steep Ascent," Etc. + + +I. + +"So poor Annie is dead!" Miss Lucretia repeated as she +laid down the black-edged letter which she had just read through for +the third time and wiped her eyes with a handkerchief already damp +and flabby. "Poor Annie! So soon after poor Edward's death too! And +now I wonder what will become of poor little Amy?" + +She repeated the adjective which seemed most appropriate as often as +she liked, for she was only speaking to herself. + +Miss Lucretia lived alone in a very small house, which was one of +a row, all just alike, with a bow-window apiece for their glory, +and a little bit of garden and a fence and a gate. They were called +Primrose Cottages, despite the fact that there were no primroses +about them. + +Thirlambury was a very dull, behind-the-age little town, and people +thought Miss Lucretia a very dull, behind-the-age little lady. She +thought so herself; for she had always taken life meekly. + +Lucretia was the only one of the three sisters--of whose happy +girlhood together the old maid was thinking as she wiped away +her tears--who had been at all meek. Constantia and Ann had both +been strong-charactered, masterful girls, in accordance with the +traditions of their family. With Constantia this decided turn had +met with the happiest development. It had enabled her to manage to +perfection a husband and family, and it was with pardonable pride +that she now looked at her six successful sons and daughters, +all brought up just as they should have been, physically, +intellectually, and morally; of whom the last had just left the +nursery for the school-room. + +With Ann the family characteristics had gone in the wrong direction. +Her strong will had led her to marry a very unsatisfactory little +man, whom his family finally exported to New Zealand, with her and +their four children, rejoicing over the happy riddance. Out there +Constantia did not like to say, providentially, though that was the +adverb which suggested itself--the four children took diphtheria, +and every one of them died. + +When the grass had grown green on those four graves, another +child was born--little Amy--and Aunt Lucretia was asked to be its +godmother. And now, there was this child of five years old left +without either parent. They had not been first-class parents, +but Miss Lucretia did not think of that; her heart being of too +old-fashioned make for such philosophy. + +"An orphan, poor little dear!" she said to herself, and her +handkerchief became damp again at the thought. + +"Constantia has arranged already about her being brought to +England," Miss Lucretia soliloquised. (Being alone, she had got into +the way of soliloquising.) "How prompt Constantia always is! And now +what will become of the child?" + +It was not an idle speculation. Miss Lucretia was revolving +something in her mind--an idea so new, so absorbing, that over it +her eyes dried, and she put back the letter into its envelope with +untrembling fingers. + +"I am sure I could do it!" she said at last, speaking aloud this +time, and with a great deal of determination. "A child of five +cannot cost much to keep, and there are many little ways in which +I could reduce my expenditure." Then she relapsed into silent +thought again. She was making deep calculations, wondering how an +income which just sufficed for her and her faithful Fanny could +be stretched at the four corners so as to cover the expenses of +one more member of humanity. Such a little member that in a large +household she could be received and fed and clothed for some years +to come without any perceptible difference in the outgoings; but +this was a very small household, and the matter had to be considered. + +Miss Lucretia's income was of the kind described as modest; but she +was a careful manager, and, as everybody knew how poor she was, +nothing was expected of her in the way of entertaining beyond a +quiet cup of afternoon tea, and the promoters of charity lists went +away from her door contented if she only gave half-a-crown. + +She always did give the half-crown, and a penny to the organ-grinder +who came round weekly, and sixpence each to the butcher's boy, the +baker's boy, and the grocer's boy at Christmas; the same every year, +not allowing herself any wild excursions of charity till the regular +subscriptions had been provided for. + +But it was not in her philanthropies that Miss Lucretia proposed +making her substantial reductions. There were a great many little +luxuries which could be curtailed. + +Regarding food, people would have said that no one was more +economical than Miss Lucretia, but Miss Lucretia herself knew +better. It was true that there never was any waste in this little +establishment. A pound of meat was never ordered when three-quarters +of a pound would do; and every scrap of food was eaten. But the +meat and the milk and the butter ordered for 4, Primrose Cottages +were always of the very best. The eggs must be newlaid, and not +selected. The pot of jam--"preserves," Miss Lucretia called it, +with old-fashioned elegance--in which she and Fanny indulged once +a fortnight, must be of whole fruit in syrup; not the marvels of +cheapness in two-pound jars. + +"Why," thought Miss Lucretia now to herself, "should I buy butter +at eighteenpence a pound, when they say the Normandy butter, or +the Brittany, is really excellent? And it does seem a sinful waste +to give two shillings for tea when one can get it quite good, +the Vicar's wife tells me, at sixteen-pence. Indeed, I have seen +phenomenal tea at a shilling." And so on. + +The little lady proceeded with her reductions till she was quite +convinced that Amy's coming need make no real difference in Fanny's +comfort--the question which had pressed most upon her mind. + +Then there were Amy's clothes to be thought of. Well, they would not +cost much. There was a gown hanging up now in the cupboard which +might be cut up for her. + +Then there was a crimson merino dress which Miss Lucretia had +bought last summer for the Vicarage garden-party--not without some +misgivings as to the choice of so unwearing a colour, but with the +solace to her conscience of knowing it could be dyed. + +That would make a sweet little frock and cloak for Amy; for the +dress had only been worn twice, and its wearer had held it up very +carefully out of the dust. + +Miss Lucretia went up to the little box-room opening out of her +bedroom, and turned out a number of old treasures--things she had +kept ever since her girlhood, carefully folded, wrong side out, +and covered with tissue-paper. Here was her bridesmaid's dress for +Constantia's wedding--that would cut up into a lovely Sunday frock; +and here was a piece of china silk which had never been made up till +Miss Lucretia grew too old for white dresses; and other things that +would all come in. Yes, she would have no difficulty in dressing +little Amy, and making her look just as smart as the children at +Beaconsfield Mansion when occasion arose for it. She hoped the +occasions would arise, that her child would be asked to parties, +like other children, and with a new interest the old woman thought +of the different families of her acquaintance. + +And now about a room for Amy. The little box-room must be cleared +out, and that would make a charming nest for her. The old chintz +with the rosebuds on it Miss Lucretia had just taken from its paper +would be the very thing for curtains. A little bed would just +fit here behind the door, and a washstand there, and so on. Miss +Lucretia planned it all out with absorbing interest. The question +was, where was the money to come from for buying the furniture? +There were certain things in the box-room which could be sold. Miss +Lucretia's harp; she never played on it now, and harping was out of +fashion, so it would not be wanted for Amy. And that portfolio of +engravings--and---- She had soon marked out enough of her treasures +to make the furnishing of the little room an easy matter. + +Then she went downstairs and divulged her great project to Fanny. +Her co-operation was very necessary, and her mistress approached her +a little timidly. + +"Fanny, I am thinking of having a child to live with me." + +"Bless us! ma'am, a child?" + +"Yes, my poor sister's little orphan." + +Fanny's heart was warm. She listened to Miss Lucretia's plans and +wishes without any crushing comment, but at the end she remarked, +"Well, I should have thought as Mrs. Dalrymple would have taken her; +she is so rich and with that big place and all; but if she don't +feel disposed that way, and you do, ma'am, well, I suppose the poor +little soul had best come to us." That was quite enough, and now +Miss Lucretia hurried out of the house, and into the High Street, to +inquire about the price of children's beds. It was early in the day, +of course, to enter into such details, but then, the whole affair +was so interesting that they could not be put off till to-morrow. + +As Miss Lucretia walked down the High Street, she was attracted by +a toyshop, and found herself straying into it to inquire the price +of a doll in the window. It would be very silly to buy one so soon, +and before any of the necessaries of life were provided for. But the +temptation proved too strong for her. She went in and bought it--the +first present she would give to _her child_. + +Miss Lucretia spent an hour in the furniture shop. She had to +arrange first with the proprietor about the sale of her own +belongings, and then to choose the furniture for the room. She +found she wanted only the prettiest, nicest things for Amy, though +the cheapest for their solid value would have been her main object +if for herself. Then there was a lovely paper, with nursery rhyme +pictures all over it, which so fascinated her that she ordered +half-a-dozen pieces of it to come on approval. + +Altogether, it was a most exciting afternoon, and Miss Lucretia +came home with a springing step, and radiant eyes, and a general +bearing of youthfulness, such as she had not known for the last +twenty years. A bright golden glow had suddenly overspread the grey +landscape of her life, such as the sun sometimes throws at sunset, +when it looks out from under a cloud at the end of a long grey day. + +Before the post went out, she wrote a letter to Constantia, +announcing her intention of taking Amy for her own, which gave a +delightful seal of finality to her decision. + + +II. + +"I could not have believed that Lucretia would be so foolish. Just +fancy! she wants to adopt Amy!" was Mrs. Dalrymple's comment, as +she read her sister's letter; and everyone at the breakfast table +exclaimed. + +"It is a very generous idea," remarked Mr. Dalrymple mildly. He had +always been a mild sort of man, and marriage with Constantia had not +made him less so. + +"Generous! yes. Lucretia is always generous. You know the difficulty +I had in stopping her giving expensive presents to the children; but +it is so very foolish. I shall write her a letter, of course, and +tell her that we intend to have Amy ourselves. Poor Lucretia! Fancy +her with the charge of a child!" + +So Constantia wrote her letter. It contained about a quarter of +the words that Lucretia had used, and was very sensible, kind and +decided. There was no answer required to it. + +Great was Mrs. Dalrymple's surprise, therefore, when by return of +post came a reply, not of acquiescence, but setting forth the other +aunt's superior claim as godmother, an idea which, as Constantia +remarked, was simply absurd. + +"I shall have to go to Thirlambury myself," she said: "though it +is not very convenient." It was often not very convenient to go to +Thirlambury. + +[Illustration: Then she divulged her great project to Fanny. + +H V Brock] + +In the meantime, Miss Lucretia had been indulging in her new +day-dream, till every bit of her life had been remodelled in +anticipation, and brought into harmony with her coming work and +responsibility as an adopted mother. Already she attached to herself +that beautiful title, the missing of which had been the sole sorrow +of her life. As a young girl, Lucretia's day-dreams had not been of +lovers, but of marriage; the joys of children clinging round her +neck, the merry voices about the house, the little feet pattering up +and down. + +And now she counted the days to the one coming so near, when +she should feel the real warm arms of little Amy clasped round +"godmamma's" neck, and fold the child in her own with the new +wonderful joy of possession. She felt that she could hold up her +head again among women, and that the life which a week ago had +seemed to hold nothing more except advancing infirmities was full of +new possibilities and ever-increasing interest. Miss Lucretia lived +again. + +Miss Lucretia actually bought the bed, which the shopman had urged +her to purchase at once, or it might be gone, as he had no other +bedstead for a child. + +As Miss Lucretia relinquished one after another of her own comforts +and conveniences, the blessedness of giving grew more and more +apparent to her. Nothing in life had ever given her a joy like the +joy of this sacrifice. + +Four days had passed so, and Miss Lucretia was just planning which +plot of the small garden space allowed to a Primrose cottage might +be spared from beans and cauliflowers to make a flowerbed for Amy, +when a ring was heard at the door-bell. Miss Lucretia answered it +herself, as Fanny was out, and there stood Constantia! + +[Illustration: There stood Constantia!] + +Miss Lucretia was always delighted to see her sister, and made the +most of her rather infrequent visits. But to-day a kind of misgiving +came over her at the unexpected sight of Constantia's smiling face; +and a sensation of defeat as Constantia uttered, in her brisk, +cheerful voice, the words, "And how are you, Lucretia? You didn't +expect to see me?" + +Lucretia welcomed her, as usual, and took her into the little +parlour, which was drawing-room or dining-room according to the time +of day. It was drawing-room now, and the dining-table stood folded, +with a cloth and some ornaments on it, in a corner; everything was +as neat and carefully arranged as it always was; each chair in that +particular spot which experience had proved to be the best for it. + +"How nice and tidy you always look, Lucretia," was Mrs. Dalrymple's +first remark, as she sat down with a genial laugh in the visitor's +arm-chair. "You must be struck with the difference when you come to +The Towers. With six children, it is impossible to keep everything +in its place!" + +Miss Lucretia asked after the six children, categorically, staving +off the subject which she knew very well had brought her sister to +Thirlambury. + +"The girls are as well as possible," answered their mother, massing +them, for brevity; "and they are all looking forward so much to +having Amy." Mrs. Dalrymple was a person who took bulls by their +horns. She always knew exactly what she intended to do with the +bull--the great secret of success in life--and was quite sure about +its being the best thing that could be done. + +"But I intended to have Amy," answered Miss Lucretia, in almost as +firm a voice, but putting herself at a disadvantage at once by her +slip of the past tense. + +"Yes, I know you did. You wrote me all about it. It was exceedingly +kind and good of you to think of such a thing, but, of course, it +was quite out of the question. As I told you when I wrote, we intend +to take her." + +"Didn't you get my second letter?" + +"Yes, and I saw by that you did not quite understand mine to you. I +wrote in a hurry, and I suppose I did not make myself clear." + +Constantia Dalrymple was under the impression that she was the most +truthful of women. + +"You made yourself perfectly clear," answered Lucretia, with a +quiet dignity which was not usual with her. "But before you spoke +of taking the child, I had made up my mind to do so. I have spoken +to Fanny about it, and she is perfectly willing to accept the extra +economies we shall have to practise, and any trouble Amy will give +her. Of course, I shall take charge of her myself." + +"How good of Fanny! I have always thought she must have enough to do +with the whole work of your house, and she works a good deal in the +garden, too, does she not?" + +Miss Lucretia looked a trifle uncomfortable. + +"I think Fanny will enjoy having a young life about the house," she +replied, rather hurriedly; "just as I shall myself." + +Constantia smiled. It was not exactly a nice smile, but perhaps she +did not know that. + +"I do not think either you or Fanny have had much to do with +children," she said. "It is all very well to have them with you for +a few hours at a time, when they are in their best frocks and on +their best behaviour, and you have nothing to do with them except +amuse them. But when you have the whole responsibility of a child, +and are obliged to look after her from morning till night, it is a +very different thing." + +"Of course it is," said Miss Lucretia. + +It was that very fact, comprising as it did the constant demand +on time and thought and labour, with all the rich reward of +corresponding affection from the child in its dependence, that +made the sweetness of this dream of motherhood. But Lucretia could +not put this into words. She was never very fluent with her deeper +ideas, which were, perhaps, instincts rather than formulated +notions, and she was least fluent of all with Constantia. + +"And how could you ever afford it?" went on Mrs. Dalrymple. + +Lucretia explained her scheme of retrenchment, and all her little +plans. + +"But you won't be able to go on dressing Amy with your old things +for ever," said Constantia. "And, then, there will be hats and boots +and shoes. + +"She may be ill, too; children have to go through measles and +whooping-cough, and that sort of thing: how will you afford to pay +the doctor?" + +Lucretia was silent for a moment; Constantia had such a very +convincing way of saying things, and making all that was unpractical +and visionary appear so; but she was not really vanquished. + +"I think one must trust for that----" she began, at which Constantia +smiled again. + +"How about schooling, too? A girl's education is a very expensive +thing nowadays. I am sure Edie and Gwendoline have cost us as much +as the boys." + +"Amy is only five now, and for some years to come I think of +teaching her myself." The present tense this time, for she was on +her mettle. "You know we were very thoroughly grounded by Miss Cox." + +"That is a long time ago, Lucretia!" + +"Yes, it is a long time, but I suppose the principles of grammar and +arithmetic are the same, and I have not forgotten how to read!" + +It surprised Mrs. Dalrymple to see her sister pluck up so much +spirit, but this defiant attitude did not affect her. There was in +her such a certainty of being in the right, and of causing the right +to prevail, that she was able to take all Lucretia's opposition very +quietly. It was obstinate of her sister to hold out like this--weak +people always were obstinate--and it was extremely foolish, but her +surrender was only a matter of time. + +Lucretia went on talking, urging her suit in a way that would have +struck some people as pathetic, but Constantia was not much given +to seeing the pathos in life; her view of things in general was +optimistic, and unless a sorrow was thrust before her she did not +look at it. + +Constantia let Lucretia talk on until she naturally ceased, after +repeating herself a good many times, in the way that peculiarly +weakens a cause. Then she brought up her reserve force. + +"But do you think it would be good for the child to be by herself, +just with you and old Fanny?" + +Fanny was ten years younger than her mistress, and Lucretia realised +how very old fifty-nine must be. + +Constantia paused a moment. Then she went on to point out all the +drawbacks of a bringing-up such as Amy must have with two old +maids--not using the term, but dwelling on the characteristics +implied in it. + +"What would you do with the child if she were naughty?" Mrs. +Dalrymple asked by way of a test question. "She is sure to have a +strong will of her own; you know what poor Ann was." + +Miss Lucretia could not answer the question, naughtiness seeming to +her as multi-form a thing as illness, and the treatment for either +depending upon its form and cause. She replied that her idea was to +bring the child up on a system of love; a vague answer which did not +satisfy her sister. + +"Bringing up children is not such an easy and simple matter as +people might think who have had no experience." Here Constantia +herself stood on a firm foundation. "And it is much more difficult +to bring up one child by itself than when there are others for it to +consort with." + +Then Mrs. Dalrymple proceeded to dilate on the smallness of Primrose +Cottage, which was certainly a very poor little place compared with +The Towers. There Amy would have the grounds to play about in; she +would share the girls' governess, ride on Gwendoline's pony, and +Nurse, who had been so splendid with Bertram and Edie, would only be +too pleased to have a child again. + +"It always makes her and me quite unhappy to look at the empty +nursery," said Mrs. Dalrymple, "though the children have only flown +into the schoolroom." + +There was a weight of truth in every sentence Constantia uttered, +which made it strike like a battering-ram against the walls of Miss +Lucretia's airy castle. At last she gave a little cry--a cry in +words: + +"Oh, don't tell me that I mustn't have Amy!" + +"I do not say that you must not have her," answered Constantia. "As +you say, you are the child's godmother, and the elder of us two. I +leave it for you to decide. Only, I want you to think which would +really be best for Amy." + +Released thus, suddenly and unexpectedly, from the paws of the +cat, the little mouse of Miss Lucretia's soul ran trembling into a +corner, while the cat smiled, sweetly enough this time, as those may +who have won the game. It was a good cat, too, which had only been +doing its duty. + +At this moment, Fanny came in, bringing tea, and Mrs. Dalrymple +greeted her with her usual warmth and kindness, rejoicing in the +anticipation of eating some of that delicious home-made cake which +was always so much better than they could get their cook at The +Towers to make; asking with sympathy after Fanny's rheumatism, and +giving her an abundance of those smiles which were so taking; while +Lucretia sat, looking old and small and withered, with a face that +seemed as if it would never smile again. + +She had come to her hour of sacrifice; the great sacrifice of her +life. Even with Lucretia the age was not past when sacrifices may be +lit up by a golden halo of romance. There had been a halo round the +sacrifice of all her little comforts which she had already made in +will for Amy. The love that prompted it had turned the self-denial +into a part of the joy of her prospective guardianship. + +But round this sacrifice there hovered no such brightness. It was +only like herself, a poor, common-place, drab-coloured thing. +No sense of heroism could attend it; common-sense demanded it, +so Constantia had proved, but, even with Constantia's provings, +Lucretia could not have offered up her precious sacrifice upon the +altar of common-sense. But the other altar, which stood hard by, +the altar of love, was one that she could not thus disdain. The +result of the pitiful struggle was certain, or Constantia would not +have given the game into Lucretia's hands; but Lucretia was not +sharp enough to see that. To her the whole brunt of choosing was +as real, the action of her will as decided, as if a long habit of +unselfishness had not made any other course impossible. + +It was better for Amy that she should go to Constantia. Then to +Constantia she must go. + +"I suppose you are right," she said at last, in words as commonplace +as befitted her unheroic sacrifice. + +"I was sure you would agree with me when you came to think about +it," Constantia answered, gently now, for it was part of her system, +the one, perhaps, which had made it so successful with her children, +never to use unnecessary force. "I am sure a month hence you will +feel very glad that you have not a child turning your peaceful life +and your pretty cottage upside down." + +There was no use trying to make Constantia understand; and, if she +could have understood, it would have made no difference. + +Miss Lucretia said nothing. It was time now for Mrs. Dalrymple to +go, and, finishing her second cup of tea, she wished her sister an +affectionate good-bye, with the promise of a hamper of game from The +Towers, where they were just going to have one of their "big shoots." + +[Illustration: She had come to the great sacrifice of her life. + +H V Brock] + +"Perhaps I might have done it more kindly," Constantia thought, as +she drove in her cab to the station. "But it was such a foolish +idea. I am glad Lucretia saw it for herself in the end." + +Miss Lucretia went upstairs with slow, old footsteps, after her +sister had gone. The last red glow had faded from her landscape, and +everything was grey again, a shade deeper grey now, as it must go on +growing deeper, till the night. She went into the little room, and, +as she looked at the little bed which was never to hold her child, a +tear came up into each of her eyes and trickled down her cheeks. + +The doll lay on the bed, wrapped up in the white muslin that was to +have made its underclothes, looking like a tiny corpse. It seemed to +Lucretia like her dream of motherhood as it was now, the dead body +of something that had never really lived. + +She went to the window and looked out on the grey, darkening +landscape, and over it there twinkled one faint star. She stood +watching, and the star grew brighter, then another came out, and +then another. For a long time Lucretia looked up: then she knelt +down, looking up still. + +The far-off light from the stars seemed to be shining on her face as +she turned it to Fanny, when that faithful woman came up at last to +bring her mistress down to supper. + +"Miss Amy is going to Mrs. Dalrymple," she said, quietly, and with a +little smile. "My sister left it to me to decide whether she should +go to The Towers or come here, and I gave her up to them, Fanny. I +am glad she is going to my sister. She will be happier there." + + + + +[Illustration: SOME FAMOUS EASTER HYMNS] + + +There can be no two opinions as to the most famous Easter hymn. +In almost every church throughout the land, and in most chapels +too, there arises, every Easter morning, the well-known strains of +"Jesus Christ is risen to-day, Alleluia!" There may be an occasional +difference in the wording of a line here and there, as the hymn +appears in various hymnals, but practically it is the one hymn which +binds all Christian congregations together on Easter morning. It +is our Easter greeting one to another, in the joy and hope of that +blessed day, like the greeting of the pious Russian on the same +morn, who salutes every passer-by with the words "Christ is risen!" + +[Illustration: (_Photo: W. and D. Downey, Ebury Street, S.W._) + +THE REV. S. BARING-GOULD.] + +[Illustration: (_Facsimile of part of the original manuscript of Mr. +Baring-Gould's Easter Hymn._)] + + On the Resurrection Morning + Soul & Body meet again, + No more sorrow, no more weeping, + No more pain. + Here awhile they must be parted + And the Flesh its Sabbath keep, + Waiting, in a holy stillness + Fast asleep. + + * * * * + + O the beauty! O the gladness + Of that Resurrection Day, + Which shall never, thro' long ages, + Pass away. + On that happy Easter morning + All the graves their dead restore, + Father, sister, child & Mother + Meet once more. + + S. Baring Gould. + +It is strange, therefore, that no one has even an indistinct +notion as to who wrote this famous hymn. Its author is, and long +has been, unknown; and, equally strange, there is almost the same +to be said of the composer of its famous tune. For the tune is as +great a favourite as the words, and, in fact, whilst the words do +occasionally alter, as stated, the tune is ever the same one we know +so well. The honour of being its composer has by some been ascribed +to Henry Carey, but there are no certain grounds for the assumption, +fine musician though he was. So completely has this tune associated +itself, however, with the hymn that few people are aware that some +collections of hymns have alternative tunes to the great song of +praise for Easter Day. But even Monk's tune to it in "Hymns Ancient +and Modern," takes quite an inferior place; it is seldom, or never, +used. + +[Illustration: (_Photo: Elliott and Fry, Baker Street, W._) + +DR. E. H. TURPIN.] + +Possibly the immense popularity of "Jesus Christ is risen to-day" +depends on two things. Firstly, the words are extremely simple--a +little child can understand them; secondly, the tune is one of the +very best "congregational" ones of any collection. + +Were I asked to name the next favourite Easter hymn, I should +certainly give the palm to one of the most beautiful hymns of +the Church of Christ--a hymn which has solaced and sustained the +hearts of thousands in their dark hours of grief for the loss of +their loved ones, just as it has rejoiced the hearts of so many +loving servants of the Master at their Easter festivals. I refer to +Baring-Gould's touching hymn "On the Resurrection morning." + +The comfort derived from the sweet words of hope and promise in this +hymn by members of the Church militant here on earth will never be +known till that "Resurrection morning." + +The Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould has kindly given me, for THE QUIVER, +a copy of the manuscript of this hymn, and a few notes about it +which cannot but prove interesting. It was composed on May Day, in +1864, he says; and, certainly, that is appropriate enough, for do +not all poets sing of May Day as a special day for the awakening +and rejoicing of nature? Horbury, that robust Yorkshire village +where Mr. Baring-Gould was then the curate, was the birthplace of +"On the Resurrection morning," as it was of what has proved one of +the six most "popular" hymns of the world, viz. "Onward, Christian +soldiers." So Horbury enjoys no mean fame. No one speaks more +lovingly of Horbury than does its former curate, now so famous; and +Horbury--church, chapel, and "non-connected"--is proud to a degree +of Sabine Baring-Gould and of the fame he has for ever given its +name by these and other noted hymns. + +[Illustration: "ON THE RESURRECTION MORNING." + +(_Facsimile of Dr. Turpin's Musical Setting._)] + +It will be noticed that there is a word or two slightly different +in the author's copy from those of the usually printed text. In one +case his manuscript is not perhaps the better. "Which shall never, +through long ages, pass away," is not, in the writer's opinion, +grander than "Which shall not, through endless ages, pass away." +Dr. E. H. Turpin's fine tune to "On the Resurrection morning" has +the merit of exactly suiting it. All can sing it, and that makes +it so popular. The composer, with great kindness, has also allowed +me to reproduce his manuscript of it here; and it is only fair to +say that did the renown of the celebrated organist, as a composer, +depend only on this one tune, so linked to the hymn, it would not +easily perish whilst joyful hearts on Easter Day, and sad hearts at +the graveside of loved ones, join in singing "On the Resurrection +morning." + +[Illustration: _Come, ye faithful, raise the strain._ + + _S. John Damascene._ _Arthur Henry Brown._ + +FACSIMILE OF THE COMPOSER'S ORIGINAL SETTING.] + +To the Rev. J. M. Neale, who died about the time when Baring-Gould +wrote the hymn just spoken of, the Christian world is indebted for +three splendid Easter hymns. Of these it is difficult to say which +is the finest, though perhaps, being quite original, we should give +that honour to the well-known "The foe behind, the deep before." +Every section of the Church of Christ sings with deep and solemn +pathos those beautiful lines-- + + "No longer must the mourners weep, + Nor call departed Christians dead; + For death is hallow'd into sleep, + And every grave is but a bed"-- + +following so closely on the joyful strain of "Christ is risen!" in +the preceding verse. + +[Illustration: (_Photo: William Gill, Colchester._) + +_Arthur H. Brown._] + +To this hymn innumerable tunes have been composed by musical people +of various degrees of ability; but it has always seemed to me that +by far the best are the two tunes given to it in the Wesleyan +hymn-book, and, curious to relate, the composers are both ministers, +the Rev. Olinthus R. Barnicott and the Rev. Sidney J. P. Dunman. +And it may safely be said that the singing by an average Wesleyan +congregation of this fine hymn, to either of these fine tunes, will +not be easily forgotten by the person who hears it for the first +time. + +The two other famous Easter hymns of Dr. Neale's composition were +really translations from the Greek. Nevertheless, they are grand +translations, if one may say so. "The Day of Resurrection"--best +recognised when sung to the tune composed by Berthold Tours, the +celebrated composer is a regular favourite at Easter-tide; but even +more famous is the other hymn from the Greek-- + + "Come, ye faithful, raise the strain + Of triumphant gladness." + +This hymn may safely be placed amongst the most popular of Easter +favourites, and, like so many others, whilst excellent in its +words, it owes not a little of its fame to its fine tune. This +latter was composed by Mr. Arthur Henry Brown, of Brentwood, and +was called "St. John Damascene," under which name it still figures +in the various Church hymn-books. Mr. Brown told me that the tune +was composed in less than a quarter of an hour! But he also told +me that even that was eclipsed by the tune "St. Anatolius"--does +any hymn-lover not know it?--to "The day is past and over," which +was composed in five minutes! Truly that was an "inspired" five +minutes, for which the Christian Church has reason to be thankful! + +To the late Bishop of Lincoln, Dr. Christopher Wordsworth--who that +knew the saintly old man did not love him?--the world is indebted +for the ever-popular + + "Alleluia! Alleluia! + Hearts to Heav'n and voices raise," + +which always goes with "a good swing" on Easter morn. Its tone is +"victory" from beginning to end, and there are few more beautiful +Easter verses than the first one of this hymn. + +Sir Arthur Sullivan composed its tune--the one best known, "Lux +Eoi"--and the very lilt of the music seems somehow to suggest the +work of the great musician who gave us similar "swinging" tunes for +"Onward, Christian soldiers" ("St. Gertrude") and for "The Jubilee +Hymn." But Sir Arthur tells me that "Lux Eoi" was not composed +especially for this hymn, but for another one less famous. The +rapidity of Sir Arthur's composition is only equalled by that of +Arthur H. Brown, already mentioned. The gifted composer of _The +Golden Legend_ thinks long before he puts pen to paper, and often +defers doing this "till the last minute," as we say; but when he +_does_ get started, he goes at it as few composers can, and will +polish off the introduction to an oratorio in a night! + +[Illustration: (_Photo: Elliott and Fry, Baker Street, W._) + +THE LATE BISHOP WORDSWORTH.] + +"When I survey the wondrous Cross," that splendid old hymn of that +splendid old divine, Dr. Isaac Watts, is probably one of our very +oldest hymns that is at all well known to-day. Everybody sings it, +for everybody knows both words and tune: Englishman, native African, +Brother Jonathan, converted Chinese, all sing alike from the heart, +after they have felt the real significance and power of that death +and resurrection-- + + "Love so amazing, so divine, + Demands my life, my soul, my all!" + +"Rockingham," the tune to which this hymn is eternally wedded, +was composed by Dr. Edward Miller. There is a magnificent roll +and stateliness about it which suits the words perfectly, and the +wonderful magnetic force which comes over one as one listens to six +thousand people--led by, say, Mr. Ira D. Sankey, singing "When I +survey the wondrous Cross"--was well described by the nameless slave +in America, who, hearing it thus sung by a crowd, and being reproved +for humming the tune as the people sang, said, "Massa, it no use; me +_must_ jine in!" + +[Illustration: (_Photo: J. C. Schaarwächter, Berlin._) + +SIR ARTHUR SULLIVAN.] + +A living hymn-writer of no small fame--the present Archbishop of +York--has given us one of the very finest of the hymns for this +season. Though not popular in the sense that Dr. Watts' celebrated +hymn is, yet there are few more charmingly beautiful lines, +suggestive of Good Friday and Easter thoughts, than are found in Dr. +Maclagan's hymn, "Lord, when Thy Kingdom comes, remember me!" + +This hymn is one of the best-known of the Archbishop's, though, of +course, his most famous one is the ever-beautiful "The Saints of +God, their conflict past." + +We cannot pass by without notice the Rev. John Ellerton's "Welcome, +happy morning," and the Rev. F. W. Faber's very sweetly sad "O come +and mourn with me awhile," which, of course, is a hymn for Good +Friday. The tune to this was written by the celebrated Durham man +to whom the Church of England (and all denominations) will ever +be in debt for some of the sweetest hymn-tunes the world has ever +known--Dr. J. B. Dykes. And it was fitting that he who composed the +beautiful tune to "Our blest Redeemer," for Whitsuntide, should then +give us another ever-famous tune to Faber's grand words. + +[Illustration: (_Photo: T. Heaviside, Durham._) + +THE LATE DR. J. B. DYKES.] + +Let me close this brief account of some of our finest Easter hymns +by just recalling one or two of our finest Easter anthems. Of +course, the first, _par excellence_, is the immortal "I know that my +Redeemer liveth"; and equally with it, from the same "oratorio of +oratorios," is the "Hallelujah" Chorus. Of these what shall be said? +Shall it be told again how Handel thought he was in heaven when he +wrote them? Or shall we note that the "Hallelujah" Chorus is one of +the three pieces of music in the world on hearing which every Briton +stands up and doffs his hat? These are the National Anthem, the +"Dead March" in _Saul_, and the "Hallelujah" Chorus. In the first he +pays his tribute to his earthly sovereign; in the second he pays his +last tribute to the venerated dead; in the third he acknowledges the +tribute due to his Almighty Lord, the Sovereign of Heaven. + +[Illustration: (_Photo: Hills and Saunders, Oxford._) + +_John Stainer_] + +Apart from these two masterpieces of Handel, the prettiest and most +beautiful Easter anthem is that of Dr. Stainer, composed for the +cantata _The Raising of Jairus' Daughter_. In a wide experience of +cathedral music and anthem-singing by our best choirs, I doubt if +there is any much finer musical treat than to listen to the choir of +St. Paul's, or that of York Minster, as there rolls forth that most +beautiful of anthems, words and music--"Awake, thou that sleepest, +and arise from the dead, and God shall give thee light." This is, +indeed, a noble song for "Easter's bright morning," and well may its +words be taken as our special Easter thought; for to all of us, in +some way or other, they must have a special meaning. + + + + +[Illustration: SELF-HEALING.] + +By The Rev. Hugh Macmillan, D.D., L.L.D. + +"Physician, heal thyself."--ST. LUKE iv. 23. + + +We are accustomed to think that the healing virtue there +is in herbs and trees was meant only for man; that herbs and trees +were created with these virtues in them for the special purpose of +curing our human diseases and ministering to our human wants, and +for nothing else; that God had man in view in the beginning when He +gave these medicinal qualities to plants, and apart from man's use +of them they serve no other purpose. + +Now this, which is a common, widespread idea, is an altogether +erroneous one. For if God meant these vegetable qualities and +products exclusively for man's use, the questions may be pertinently +asked, Why were they so long undiscovered; and why do they occur in +places often remote from human habitation, and waste themselves upon +the desert air? + +It is true indeed that God designed them as remedies for man's +ailments, that He prepared beforehand the cures of human ills long +previous to the necessity for these cures arising. But this law of +mercy was a comprehensive one, and had a two-fold object in view. +God in the first place created the plant complete in itself, adapted +to its own circumstances and requirements; and in the second place, +it is through this perfect adaptability to its own wants that it +becomes generally useful in nature, and ministers to the necessities +of other created things. It is because the plant heals itself first +by the remedy which it grows and produces by its own powers that it +becomes a medicine to the animal world, when any members of that +world are placed in similar circumstances and exposed to a similar +disease. + +Why, for instance, does the Peruvian bark tree produce the bitter +principle in its bark from which we have prepared the valuable +medicine called quinine? Is it not because that bitter principle +is necessary to preserve the health of the tree itself in the wet, +malarial districts where it grows? The Peruvian bark tree grows its +own quinine, and administers it to itself, as it were, in order to +prevent a disease in itself caused by the marshy places where it +is found, similar to fever in the human subject. The willow grows +beside rivers and streams which are apt to cause exhalations and +breed influences that are noxious to the well-being of the tree. It +has therefore developed in its own bark a febrifuge called salicin, +which protects it from these noxious influences and maintains its +trunk and branches and foliage in vigorous health and beauty. And +it is because the quinine is good for the tree itself in malarial +places that it is good for the fever which human beings take in such +places; and it is because the salicin of the willow guards the tree +from the injurious exhalations of marshes and river banks that it +is a specific for rheumatism in man, which is produced by the same +causes. + +The same benefit which the medicinal principle developed by itself +works in its own constitution it confers upon man when subjected +to the same evil. And so it is with all the herbal medicines. They +have a purpose to serve in the economy of the plant that yields them +before they can minister to human sickness and disease. Sugar was +not meant in the first instance to sweeten man's cup, but to store +up food for the plant in order to enable it to flower. Tannin is +created in the bark of the oak tree, in the first instance, not for +the purpose of helping to make leather for man's shoes, but for +the purpose of preventing mildew and fungous growths from settling +on the bark of the tree and so decaying it. Scent is produced +in flowers and shrubs that grow in watery places, not for man's +gratification in the first instance, but in order to deodorise the +air and make it fit for these scented flowers and shrubs to breathe +and to preserve their vitality and vigour. Aromatic fragrance is +yielded by the grey shrubs and herbs of the dry desert, not that the +garments of the human passer-by might smell pleasantly of it, but +that it might regulate the temperature, and keep the plants cool in +the burning heat of the noonday and warm in the freezing cold of the +night air. + +Such instances might be multiplied indefinitely. Indeed, it may +be regarded as a rule of nature without exception that, whatever +properties plants possess that are useful to man, these properties, +in the first instance, are not only useful but indispensable to +themselves. And it is because they serve necessary uses in their own +economy that they are found so necessary in the economy of man. Each +plant that grows in circumstances where it is likely to be injured +by the soil or climate develops within itself the antidotes and +remedies against these unfavourable circumstances. It is a physician +that heals itself first of all, that adapts itself as perfectly as +possible to the peculiarities of its own place of growth. Nature +and it are harmonious: they help each other. The qualities that +are beneficial to itself are equally in the same way beneficial to +other creatures; and it helps the world because it has first helped +itself. It imparts health all around because it looks first after +its own health. + +All this is obvious. The plant could not exist at all did it not +develop those qualities which would minister to its welfare and +adjust it perfectly to its environment. But in human economy we +fancy somehow that the law is less strict and more irregular, and +can be violated at times with impunity. We think that a man can +perform the part of a physician, and cure others, although he cannot +cure a trouble that afflicts himself; that he can restore others +to health while he himself is unhealthy. We can separate between a +man's skill and his personality; and, indeed, there are many cases +where a physician who is dying slowly of some incurable disease +can yet, by his knowledge and cleverness, so treat his patients +that he may heal their diseases and restore them to health and +strength. But we are usually suspicious of a doctor endeavouring +to cure others when he himself labours under an uncured disease. +We reason naturally that his first concern should be himself; and +if he fails in doing good to himself by his skill and medicine, +when his interests are most of all concerned and the motive for +healing strongest, how can he hope to succeed in the case of others, +strangers and comparatively indifferent to him? We should not accept +with implicit confidence a so-called remedy for baldness forced +upon our notice by a person whose own head was in that condition. +We should expect him to operate upon himself in the first instance +with success, and then we should feel disposed to venture upon a +similar use of it. The proverb says that "He who drives fat cattle +must himself be fat"; and upon the principle involved in that common +saying he who would heal others must himself be a specimen of that +active, vigorous health to which he wishes to restore others. In no +work, indeed, is the personal equation of more consequence than in +the work of the physician. Three-fourths of the elements that enter +into all diseases are spiritual, and three-fourths of the remedies +that must be used for them must also be spiritual. The personal +appearance, character, and manner of the physician himself are most +important factors in the cure of disease. Confidence in the doctor +is more than half the cure; and therefore what the doctor is in +himself is of great consequence. + +In the spiritual sphere the physician can only heal others as he +heals himself. He himself must be an exemplification of the saving +health of God's countenance if he is to do good to others. It is +just as true in the affairs of the human soul as it is in the +case of the plant--that the quality which is beneficial to the +soul itself is equally beneficial to the world. It is noticeable, +however, that there are exceptions to the rule in the spiritual +world as there are exceptions in the natural human world. Just as +there are cases of physicians healing bodily diseases in others +while their own disease is unhealed, so there are cases where a man +is the means of saving others while he himself is unsaved. + +It is not, indeed, a matter of supposition, but of certainty, that +a man may do good while he is not good. Hundreds of instances could +be given, in which persons have been the means of quickening, +comforting, and building up souls in the Lord, while all the time +they themselves were strangers to the power of truth and ignorant +of the love of Christ in their hearts. Ministers have preached the +Gospel for years, and have been wise in bringing souls to Christ, +and yet have themselves been castaways in the end. Members of +churches have been zealous in every good work, and yet have known +nothing of godliness but the form. The very commonness of this +thing increases its sadness. We think the case of Moses leading +the Israelites to the border of the Promised Land while he himself +was forbidden to enter peculiarly pathetic; but its pathos is in +reality far less touching than the case of the man who brings others +to the fountain of life while he himself is perishing of thirst, who +is like a guide-post pointing the way of salvation to others while +unable himself to take a single step. + +But though instances have unquestionably occurred in which signal +beneficial results have followed the preaching of the Gospel by +ungodly men, this is not the normal order of the Divine procedure. +It is personal experience of religion as an inward life, as a living +power in the heart, that imparts unction to active Christian effort, +that adds conviction and power to testimony and commendation. He +is the man to do spiritual good to others who is able to say with +the Apostle, "That which we have heard, which we have seen with our +eyes, and our hands have handled, of the word of life, declare we +unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us." He is the man +to say to others, "O taste and see that the Lord is good," who has +himself tasted, and from his own enjoyment can say, "Blessed is the +man that trusteth in Him." + +It is an unchangeable law and constitution of our nature that we +cannot desire blessings for others which we do not really desire for +ourselves, the blessedness of which we have not known ourselves. +When we feel the value of our own souls, and not till then, we +shall feel the value of the souls of others. When we see the Lord +ourselves, and not till then, we shall desire that every child of +man shall see Him. + +It is on this account that our Lord says to Peter, "When thou art +converted, strengthen thy brethren." "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest +thou Me? Feed My sheep; feed My lambs." If we are saved ourselves, +we shall be best fitted to save and benefit others. There is a +virtue in true holiness, there is a secret charm in the wisdom that +cometh from above, which wins our hearts, and inclines us to embrace +a religion which yields such blessed fruits. The man who eminently +possesses and constantly exhibits these qualities becomes quick and +powerful in acting upon the minds of those around him. + +The best way, then, to do good is to be good, and to have such a +Christian character as will of itself communicate good. Be yourself +what you wish your family, your friends and neighbours, to be. +"Physician, heal thyself." God needs physicians, many physicians; +for there are many destroyers spreading the influence of their +ungodly life--a deadly infection--around, and adding to the disease +and misery which man's sin first brought upon the world. Let us act +as fellow-workers with the Good Physician in bringing back health +and strength and beauty to a plague-stricken world; and for this +purpose let us qualify ourselves more thoroughly. Let us apply the +Gospel remedies anew to our own case which we recommend to others, +that our own profiting and healing by these may be made manifest to +all. Let us ask God to search us and see if there be anything that +would prevent us from doing all the good that we might, any defect +of manner or disposition of heart that might cause the way of truth +so far as we are concerned to be evil spoken of; and let us ask the +help of the Divine Spirit to get it healed. So that thus being made +every whit whole ourselves, we may diffuse a healthy atmosphere +around us and make others partakers of our saving health. + +The Sabbath is the best day for healing. Jesus asked the Jews, "Is +it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?" The reply might have been, +"Is it lawful to do anything else but heal on the Sabbath day?" +That day is set apart for healing the diseases of the world. It is +the day of recreation--re-creating us and fitting us anew by its +rest and refreshment of worship for the toil and travail of our +weekday life. Let us bring to Jesus on this Sabbath day all the old +infirmities and disabilities which have been a hindrance to the +growth of the work of grace in the midst of us, and He will deliver +us from them, and make us new creatures; and so--set free in newness +of health and strength, with our palsied frame invigorated, our +withered hand restored, our lame feet made swift in the way of God's +commandments, and our world-bound spirit loosed from its infirmity +and covetousness, and enabled to look upward where our true treasure +is--let us seek to free others from their infirmities and diseases, +and to make all around us strong in faith and health in the new life +of God's service. + +Let the tonic that has restored our own spiritual constitution be +in all our words and deeds and looks, to restore the spiritual +constitution of others. Let the perfume that neutralises the drought +and cold of the world be exhaled from all our character and conduct, +so that it may be the means of enabling all with whom we come in +contact to resist the aridity and the coldness of the world too. +Let each of us be so full of Christ's healing and saving power, so +saturated with His salvation, as it were, that we ourselves may be +Christ's best medicines. Let the words "Physician, heal thyself" be +in the very forefront of our profession and of our life throughout +all the years; and we ourselves in such a case will be among the +most potent influences for good in the world. + + + + +[Illustration: PLEDGED.] + +By Katharine Tynan, Author of "A Daughter of Erin," Etc. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +"GOOD-BYE, SWEETHEART." + + +Beside the Wishing Well stood Anthony Trevithick, pale +and moody. His eyes were on the ground, and an old childish habit of +biting his nails when he was perplexed or in trouble had come back +to him. + +"I beg your pardon," said Lord Glengall at his elbow. "I have +returned for some things Miss Graydon left behind her." + +"These?" asked the young fellow, pointing with his foot to the +little heap of trinkets on the moss. But even in his anger he +blushed for the unhappiness of the position. + +Lord Glengall stooped and picked up the things, and stuffed them +into one of the pockets of his rough coat. He turned as if to go +away. Then he hesitated an instant and came back. + +"There is no reason why we should be enemies," he said, advancing a +step nearer. + +"No?" replied Anthony Trevithick, lifting his moody eyes. "That +depends." + +"On what, sir?" + +"On--a great many things," stammered the young man. + +"You mean on whether I am prepared to stand aside and to sacrifice +everything that you may have your will. I know the state of affairs, +you see." + +"I meant to seek you out and tell you, Lord Glengall. I ought to +say, perhaps, that Miss Graydon is without reproach in this matter." + +"Neither of us is likely to wrong her in our thoughts, I hope," said +Lord Glengall. "The question is, whether _you_ are without reproach." + +"By what right----" began the younger man. + +"Hush!" said the other, with a dignity that was more compelling than +his words. "We are speaking as man to man. Miss Graydon has told +me something of how affairs lay between you and her, but not all. +Why did you leave her in the first instance in the position of a +half-engaged girl?" + +"Are you her ambassador?" + +"She is dearer to me, I dare swear, than she is to you, though you +will not believe it. There is no use in beating about the bush. If I +think you can make her happier than I can, I am prepared to give her +back her promise." + +"Lord Glengall!" + +A gesture silenced the words on his lips. + +"Don't say anything, please. If I do it, I do it for her. And I +shall only give her up to you if I am sure you are worthy." + +"I don't say I am worthy, but I have a fairly clean record. As for +that matter, I will explain. I was unwise, but I was not altogether +to blame. My mother has a greatly loved young cousin. She has been +in the house with us since her mother died some years ago. It was a +scheme of my mother's that we should marry, though it was not openly +expressed. I did not oppose it. I had no idea what love meant till I +saw Pamela; but I had fetched and carried for Lady Kitty. Probably +a great number of people thought we were engaged; and it seemed to +me that I ought to set the matter straight before I was formally +engaged to Pamela." + +"It would have been better to have let Pamela alone till you were +quite free." + +"Yes, I know, but----" + +"There; you are young. You can't be expected to be as deliberate as +an older man. You meant to act straight by her?" + +"I meant to come back in a week a free man. When I was called away +to my uncle's sick bed, my mother made me promise not to speak, not +to try to clear up things with Lady Kitty, till I returned. I did +write to Mr. Graydon, but the letter never reached him." He blushed +hotly and paused. + +"Yes, I know," interrupted Lord Glengall. "When you came back?" + +"When I came back, I found--Pamela engaged to you, and my cousin +engaged to a great friend of mine. As it proved, she had never +thought of me in that way; but her affection for my mother prevented +her from speaking out." + +"You should have written again to Mr. Graydon. You made Pamela +unhappy." + +"I thought he had not written because I said I would come as soon as +I could. Then I was kept week after week, till the time turned into +months. I am deeply sorry that I caused her unhappiness." + +"This is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?" + +"It is absolutely the truth, and nothing else." + +"Very well, Sir Anthony, I believe you. If you had not been +straight, I should have held her to the letter of her bond against +you and the world, even against herself. Now--in her heart she has +chosen you, and you are a fitter mate for her than I--I resign her +to you." + +"Lord Glengall!" + +"I do not ask your thanks, sir. Make her happy--that is all. For the +rest, I have one word of advice for you." + +"Whatever it is, I shall act upon it." + +"Go back to-night to England." + +"Without a word to Pamela?" + +"Let her be. I will say what is necessary. You will have to win her +again, young sir. She is not the girl to change her lovers like her +frocks." + +"Perhaps you are right, sir," with hesitation. + +"Go," said Lord Glengall, waving him away, "go! If you speak to her +in her present mood, you will be sorry. Let her be free of both of +us for a while." + +"You, too, will leave her?" + +"I shall leave her till all this is forgotten. It will be nothing +new for me to set out for the ends of the earth at an hour's notice." + +"You are, as Pamela says, the best man living." + +"Stop!" said Lord Glengall, with a gesture as if he could not endure +the praise. "Good-bye!" + +"Good-bye," repeated Sir Anthony, turning away. + +Several times as he went homeward Lord Glengall stooped to pat the +shaggy coat of the terrier who still trotted by him. + +[Illustration: Pointing with his foot to the little heap of +trinkets.] + +"You don't know poetry, old fellow," he said once aloud, "but there +was a poet named Shakespeare who wrote something about people coming +back 'to push us from our stools.' I am not good at remembering +poetry; but that young gentleman we have just left has come back to +push us from our stools--to push us from our stools." + +The dog, as if he understood, thrust a sympathetic nose into his +companion's hand. + +When Lord Glengall reached Carrickmoyle, he went straight to Mr. +Graydon's room. Mary was sitting by her father, stitching a piece of +fine white stuff in the twilight. + +"Ah! Glengall," said the invalid briskly. "Have you come in to smoke +a last pipe with me? Come and tell me what prices were like at the +fair to-day. Run away, Molly child, and rest your eyes, and let +Glengall have your seat." + +The two men lit up soberly, and smoked away for a while, discussing +prices and cattle and crops in a desultory fashion. + +At last Lord Glengall knocked out the ashes from his stumpy clay +against the top bar of the grate, and stuffed the pipe into his +pocket. + +"I wanted to talk to you about Pam, Graydon," he said. + +"What about Pam?" + +"Only that I did the child an injustice in wanting to marry her. I +am too old." + +"Does Pam say this? Are you speaking for her?" + +"Poor little Pam! There were some love-passages, Graydon, between +her and your pupil Trevithick." + +"I guessed as much, but how far the thing went I have no idea. I +don't believe in probing into those things, Glengall. It is better +to let them die." + +"Had you any idea that the young fellow might possibly ask for her?" + +"I hoped so once, not because it would be a good marriage for Pam, +or anything of that sort, but because I thought him a good lad, and +I believed in his father's son. I was disappointed that he turned +out so different from my expectations." + +"Would you be surprised to hear that he wrote to you about Pam +immediately after he left, and that his mother intercepted the +letter?" + +"His mother!" + +"Yes; she had other views for him." + +"I wonder why she came here, why she troubled our peace, and forced +her hospitality on Pam, who didn't want it?" said Mr. Graydon +musingly. + +"To make a parting between the lad and Pam more certain. She told +Pam he was engaged to his cousin; and in other ways made the child's +visit miserable." + +"My poor Pam! I remember she hated to go." + +"I am sorry the boy has such a mother." + +"Yet I remember her a very noble-looking girl. I don't think she +was made for mean things." + +"Ah! well, we can let her be. She is sufficiently punished, poor +woman, by her son's scorn. That must be a terrible thing to endure." + +"And she is a proud woman." + +"However, Graydon, we are not concerned with her. The state of the +case is this: The young people were in love with each other, and +were parted by a fraud. Under a total misapprehension, Pamela has +engaged herself to me. Now that the misapprehension is removed, what +is the clear course for me to take?" + +"I should ask Pamela, Glengall." + +"Pamela is at this moment in a mood in which it would not be safe to +take her at her word. The only thing for me to do is to step down +and out." + +"Glengall!" said Mr. Graydon, laying a hand on his. + +"Don't pity me just now, Graydon. Frankly, I'm not equal to it." + +"Have you told Pam?" + +"I shall tell her. Afterwards I shall go away till the nine days' +wonder is forgotten." + +"Glengall, I wish this had not happened." + +"There is one way in which you can atone to me for its bitterness--I +don't mind confessing to you that it is bitter." + +"And that way?" + +"You must borrow from me what will take you abroad. You must; it is +for their sakes." + +"Very well; if there is no other way. I shall repay you, I hope." + +"You have plenty of time before you to grow rich in. When you come +back next spring, you must finish your _magnum opus_." + +Mr. Graydon rubbed his hands in boyish cheerfulness. + +"I shall feel equal to tackling it after a change. I'm afraid I've +been vegetating, and the mosses and mildew have grown upon me. You +have lived, Glengall, while I was growing into a worthless old +block." + +"It is you who have lived," said Lord Glengall. "You have lived +naturally. When I die, it is the end of my line, and I shall have no +one to close my eyes." + +When he found Pam in the drawing-room alone, a little later, he drew +her to him, and kissed her hair where it clustered over the white +forehead. + +"I have brought your pretty things, Pam," he said, fumbling in his +pocket. + +"And you have forgiven me?" + +"I have forgiven you, dear." + +He fastened the little chain about her neck and the bracelet on her +wrist. + +"You will wear them for me, Pam?" he said. "I should not know what +to do with them." + +"And my ring?" said Pam, wondering. + +"I have taken back the ring. You are free, Pam; free as air." + +[Illustration: "You are free, Pam; free as air."] + +"But I don't want to be free." + +"You did yesterday, Pam, and you will to-morrow. I have seen Sir +Anthony, Pam. He is guiltless, and will come again." + +"I do not want him to come," cried Pam with a great sob. + +"I sent him away because I was afraid if he came to you now you +would make him and yourself unhappy. He hated to go, but he went. He +will come again. You will be good to him, Pam, because you love him. +Now, good-bye, my dear. I shall come back when you are married." + +Pamela's hands were over her eyes, and she was crying quietly. + +"Another thing, Pam," he said. "I have arranged with your father. He +is to winter abroad." + +"Sylvia will see to that," she answered. "Miss Spencer has made it +easy for her. At least, we need not take that from you." + +"You have given me great happiness," he repeated. "And now, +good-bye, my dear, good-bye." + +A day or two later Carrickmoyle was startled by the news that Lord +Glengall had sailed for Australia. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + +"THOUGH 'TWERE TEN THOUSAND MILE." + + +"I wish something would happen," said Sylvia; "it is the longest +summer I have ever known." + +Sylvia was wearing black for Miss Spencer, who had passed away +peacefully a few weeks after that talk with Pamela. When the +legal formalities were completed, Sylvia would be _châtelaine_ of +Dovercourt; but her interest in her inheritance seemed very slight. + +"By-and-by," she had said, "I shall be glad to know that I have +money to do things with; but just at present I can only remember +what it is that has made me rich." + +[Illustration: "I thought you were going to marry him, Bridget."] + +"Why not have Mr. Baker or Mr. St. Quintin to tea quietly?" +suggested Pam. "I am sure they are longing to come, and they would +cheer you up." + +But Sylvia would not. She preferred to wander from the house to the +garden with the dogs at her heels, or to stray from one room to +another, having a desultory chat with her father, who was now up and +about, or with Mary, cheerfully sewing her bridal clothes, usually +ending up with a visit to Bridget in the kitchen. + +Bridget quite agreed with Sylvia about the dulness of the house, and +suggested the same remedy for it as Pamela had done. + +"Have a bit of company, child," she said. "Sure, her that's gone +(the heavens be her bed!) 'ud be the last to grudge the young what's +natural to the young, let alone that I hear young Mr. St. Quintin's +that mopy that they say 'tis to horse-racin' he's took, wid the +design of breakin' his neck by way of divarsion." + +"Don't talk such nonsense, Bridget," said Sylvia languidly. "The +horse is not born that could unseat Mr. St. Quintin. He can stick +on like grim death. But I don't feel that company, such company as +I could get, would be any good to me. I don't like young people, +Bridget." + +"Well, sorra such a house I ever was in," said Bridget, scandalised. + +"Never mind, Bridget dear," said Sylvia, who had temporarily lost +her taste for sharp argument with Bridget. "I suppose I was born +old." + +"Listen to her," cried Bridget, "an' she wid the lightest feet, aye, +an' the purtiest face in the barony! Between you and Miss Pamela, +me heart's fairly bruk. There's Miss Pamela, that ought to be goin' +to be married a week from next Tuesday, goin' round as mopy as a +chicken wid the pip. I never seen such goin's on anywhere I was." + +"It certainly _is_ time," said Sylvia again, "that something should +happen, and, short of marrying myself, Bridget, I'll do anything to +bring it about." + +"Indeed, then Mr. St. Quintin's a pleasant young gentleman," said +Bridget, broadly smiling, "though an imp of mischief. 'Tis meself'll +not forget in a hurry how he whipped the steps from undher Grady +whin he was pickin' the morello cherries, an' never purtended he +heard him bawlin' melia murther, an' the ould rogue, as he was +contrivin' to slip down by the trunk, caught by a twig in his +breeches an' held there! As I said to Mr. St. Quintin, I hoped he +thought then on poor Mary that's gone, that often he made suffer, +the crathur!" + +"I thought you were going to marry him, Bridget," said Sylvia, with +the same languid interest. + +"Och, then, heaven forgive you, Miss Sylvia. Sure them was only my +jokes. Not but what he axed me. 'The mischief bother you, man,' says +I. 'Is it havin' me commit murther you'd be? Why, sure I couldn't +keep me hands off you if I was lookin' at you every day, an' then +I'd be tried an' hung for it, maybe.'" + +"Well, I'm glad you're not going to marry him under the +circumstances," said Sylvia. "But, all the same, it is time some of +us made a stir." + +And even then one thing that was to disturb the current of their +lives was on its way. + +The very morning after Sylvia's conversation with Bridget there was +a large square envelope for Mr. Graydon, which somewhat exercised +his youngest daughter's imagination. + +"Come here, dad," she said, when at last he arrived at the +breakfast-table. "I've been longing for something to happen, and I +believe this is really a happening at last." + +"It is my uncle's writing," said Mr. Graydon, as he took the letter +and opened it. As he read it his face grew graver and graver. + +"Poor old Uncle Charles!" he said, when he had finished. "His boy is +dead." + +Lord Downshire's letter was very characteristic:-- + +"MY DEAR ARCHIE,--I will not say you have scored again, but at +least I have failed with the last card I held against you. My boy +is dead. I don't ask for your sympathy or your pity. You, with your +healthy girls, cannot appreciate what I suffer. I am racked in the +spirit and the body, and I shall be very glad to leave a world that +has lost savour for me. I heard indirectly that you were ill after +you had been here; but, you see, _you_ have recovered, and it is +my boy that is dead. You are my heir now, and I am too sick of it +all to make another attempt to frustrate you. And there is no use +continuing in enmity against you, so I shall make you an allowance +proportionate to the condition of my heir. I shall not ask to see +you, but Messrs. Lees and Saunders, of Lincoln's Inn--you will +remember Saunders; Lees died last year--have my instructions." + +Mr. Graydon put the letter into his pocket when he had read it. + +"Something has happened, Sylvia," he said sorrowfully. "I am Lord +Downshire's heir once more; and yet I would a thousand times rather +be as I was, and the old man's little son living." + +But the happenings of the day were not over. + +Sylvia, going her pilgrimage to Miss Spencer's new grave, was +aware of a tall young figure, which had something familiar about +it, swinging along towards her. Presently she recognised Anthony +Trevithick. + +"Miss Sylvia," he said, "I am so glad I met with you. I want to see +Pamela." + +"Pamela!" with oddly upraised eyebrows. + +"Yes--Pamela. I have stayed away as long as I could. I promised Lord +Glengall I would give her time." + +"Oh! that is how it is, is it?" + +"Yes; didn't you know?" + +"I guessed, of course, but Pam is not the old Pam. She has been as +solemn as an owl, and as secretive, ever since.... When was it?... I +really think it began about the time of your going away. She used to +be the best of good company." + +"What is this for, Miss Sylvia?" said the young man, touching her +black frock. + +"Ah! You do not know. Miss Spencer died a month ago." + +"I am sorry," he said, with a sympathy which at once made Sylvia his +friend. + +"Does Pam know you are coming?" she asked. + +"No. I was afraid to announce myself. Perhaps she will show me the +door." + +"Perhaps she won't, Sir Anthony. She's fond of you, you see." + +"Oh, Miss Sylvia!" cried Anthony Trevithick, flushing delightedly +through his tan. + +"Oh, yes! she's fond of you. I'm not going to talk about her +secrets, but I know how it is. I knew all along. That is why I was +so vexed with her--when---- Never mind. You want to see Pamela, +then? Well, just wait for me a minute outside this gate. I will come +back with you then, and find Pamela for you." + +"You are awfully good." + +"Perhaps I'm glad to get rid of Pam. She's prettier than I am, +though some people don't think so. Perhaps I'm afraid of her +stealing my admirers." + +"I believe it is only your goodness to me." + +"And to Pam. She's not the same Pam she was a year ago. If you make +her like her old self, I shall forgive you even that you left us +forlorn and unsquired at that famous festivity for which you should +have returned." + +"Oh! Miss Sylvia, I shan't believe that." + +She did not try Anthony Trevithick's patience by keeping him waiting +long at the churchyard gate. She was gone only a minute or two +before she returned, her basket empty of its flowers, and her face, +which had gained so much in character and sweetness during the +year, a little overshadowed. + +When they reached Carrickmoyle, she brought Anthony Trevithick +through the sunny hall where the door stood, as ever, hospitably +open, and into the big drawing-room. "Stay here till I find Pam," +she said. She went upstairs two steps at a time in the boyish way he +remembered. He listened with a smile on his face till the sound of +the footsteps died away. Then he began to walk up and down nervously. + +Pam sat in the window of her own little room with her chin in her +hands, gazing over the summer-dark landscape, her air listless, and +her eyes apathetic. + +"It is lonely, Sylvia," she said, scarcely turning her head as her +sister entered. + +"You never used to find it so," said Sylvia. "I remember the time +when Carrickmoyle held all the delights for you." + +"That was when we were little girls in short frocks, and led poor +Mick into scrapes." + +"Many a year ago," said Sylvia. "When you struck Anthony Trevithick +with the sun-bonnet that was intended for the red cock----" + +Pamela's heightened colour assured Sylvia of what she wanted to know. + +"Pam," she said, "why don't you make it straight with Anthony +Trevithick?" + +"How do you know there is anything to make straight?" + +"Rubbish!" said Sylvia, with quiet scorn. + +"Oh, Sylvia!" said Pamela, "you don't understand. I am tired of love +and lovers. I only want to be let alone. I have suffered too much." + +"If you have, it's your own fault. You'd no business to take poor +dear Glengall when you were in love with someone else, though how +you could look at others in the same day with Glengall fairly +bothers me. And now, why don't you write and ask Anthony Trevithick +to come back?" + +"I don't want him to come back." + +"Yes, you do; you're crying your eyes out for him every night. +Yes, you are. And why you let all this muddle go on without doing +anything to prevent it I don't know. I could shake you, Pam!" + +"What would you have done, Sylvia?" + +"Well, supposing I was in love with a man and knew him to be in love +with me, and supposing he went away and didn't write, I'd never +think anything except that the letter was lost. If I could get at +him, I'd write and ask him what it meant. If I couldn't, I'd go on +believing in him, maybe till I was old and grey, and till I died, as +some have done--if I really loved him, mind you." + +"Perhaps you are right, Sylvia." + +"There's no doubt about it, Madam Faint-Heart." + +"But come," she said, after a benevolent scrutiny of Pamela; "come, +you look very nice, unless you'd like to put on the pink sun-bonnet. +Anthony Trevithick is in the drawing-room." + +"Sylvia!" + +"Yes, I know I ought to have mentioned it before, instead of talking +nonsense. The poor young man's on tenter-hooks." + +"Sylvia! I _can't_ go down." + +"Yes, you can. You shall, even if I have to use force." + +"Very well, Sylvia," said Pam, rising and trembling a little. + +"Come, don't think about it. Do it quickly, as we used to take our +cod-liver oil long ago. Let us run down the stairs. There, you poor +little thing! your hands are cold. The run will warm them." + +And, half-resisting, Pamela was pulled by force down the stairs. + +Nevertheless, she entered the room with her head high. + +"How do you do, Sir Anthony?" she began. + +"Ah, Pam darling!" cried the young man, coming to meet her. "Don't +give me any more cold words or cold looks. I haven't deserved them, +and if you've nothing else for me I shall go away for ever." + +"No, surely," said Pam, and her sweet voice had a little surprise in +it. "You didn't really deserve any blame at all." + +"But you did, for I asked you to trust me, Pam. I asked you to trust +me, and your faith was brittle." + +"So it was," said Pam. + +"Well," said Sylvia, as she went out and closed the door. "It is +plain these recriminations are not meant for me. Heigho! I wish Mr. +Baker would come along just now, that I might have the satisfaction +of refusing him. It is easy to see that Glengall is as completely +forgotten as if he had never existed." + +No one could say that Mr. Graydon's youngest daughter was not loyal +to the absent. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + +A PROPOSAL. + + +Pamela Graydon had been Pamela Trevithick for three years, when one +day in late summer Sylvia, still Sylvia Graydon, was entertaining a +visitor in her London drawing-room. + +It was Lord Glengall, a shade greyer, a shade leaner, but looking +well nevertheless, and brown with southern suns. + +"And so," he said, "we shall travel back to Ireland together." + +"It will be a delightful and unexpected pleasure to have your +company." + +"You are glad to return, Sylvia?" + +"Glad! It is no word for it. I am hungry for the velvety wind that +blows across the mountains. I am so tired of these glaring streets, +of parties, and dinners and luncheons, and functions of all kinds." + +Lord Glengall laughed. + +"To tell you the truth, I am amazed and amused to find your father +in the midst of it all." + +[Illustration: Half-resisting, Pamela was pulled by force.] + +"Papa! Oh, papa is the veriest Piccadilly lounger. He has returned +to it all as freshly as if he had never left it. He discovered +troops of old friends--without a misgiving--as soon as ever he came +in for the title." + +"He doesn't pine for Carrickmoyle?" + +"Now and again. When the desire becomes very strong, he and I slip +away to Euston some evening, forgetting all our engagements, and, +for a few days, our new circumstances, at Carrickmoyle, where +Bridget cooks our chops and makes us potato-cakes just as of old." + +"I am glad to hear Bridget is still to the fore." + +"She is not a day older." + +"She never carried out her threat of marrying my gardener?" + +"Mr. Grady is still a widdy-man, as they used to say in the dear +country." + +"But to return to your father. The _magnum opus_ has become an +accomplished fact. You see, I haven't been so far out of the world +as not to have heard that." + +"Yes. It has been a great success. He is as much in request at +learned societies and conversaziones as he is in fashionable +drawing-rooms. To think of the years he vegetated at Carrickmoyle!" + +"Happy years, Sylvia." + +"I could hardly hope for happier." + +"He will be in soon, Sylvia?" + +"About half-past five," consulting a little watch fastened to her +gown. "You can endure my company till then." + +"I shall try to. But am I not keeping you from afternoon calls or +something? I saw a carriage at the door as I came in." + +"I have sent it away. I was rejoiced to do it. Papa will be simply +wild with delight at your falling from the clouds like this." + +"He hasn't forgotten me, then?" + +"How should he? The only drawback about Carrickmoyle has been that +we could see from it the cold chimneys of Glengall." + +"Ah! we shall warm them," said Lord Glengall, beaming at her. "We +shall have fine jinks if only you and your father will spend six +months of the year at Carrickmoyle. I am no Londoner, and never +shall be. But I shall be able to endure six months of solitude if I +know I am going to have you for the remainder of the year." + +"You will not long be left solitary. You cheated the country the +last time by disappearing again before it had had time to rejoice +over you. Your return will flutter the dovecotes for thirty miles +around." + +"You are very kind, Sylvia," said Lord Glengall simply. "But you +have not told me half the news," he went on. "How is Molly?" + +"Flourishing. Mick has got his company. He wouldn't leave the +service on any consideration, and I think he was right. They are as +much in love with each other as ever; and they have a beautiful boy." + +"Ah! that is right. Molly deserved to be happy." + +"She did, and so did Mick. Mick is a dear old fellow." + +"And Pam, Sylvia?" + +There was no consciousness in his voice. + +"Pam, too, is a success. She has been a beauty for three seasons, +strange to say." + +"And it is a happy marriage?" + +"Perfectly happy. They are ideally well suited." + +"I am glad of that. How does Pam get on with her mother-in-law?" + +"Fairly well, I believe. Lady Jane keeps herself to herself, which +is lucky for Pam. I never took to that lady. But she is devoted +to the heir. She wouldn't strike you, somehow, as a grandmotherly +person, but it is so." + +"There is an heir?" + +"Yes; he is two years old, and he has a baby sister of seven months." + +"Ah! how you young people have been making history since I left. I +shall not know this new world of your making." + +"You find me changed?" + +"Lovelier, Sylvia." + +"It is nice to have you say that." + +"Still greedy for conquest, even though it is only an old fogey?" + +"Ah!"--with more intensity than he thought the occasion +demanded--"you never can be that!" + +"You are always kind, little girl. When I look into your eyes, I +fancy it is the old Sylvia I am talking to, and not a fine lady." + +"It is the old Sylvia." + +"The Sylvia I knew would never have worn this"--touching a fold of +her dress. + +"She would, if she could. It is only a Paris tea-gown. She was +happier in the prints at sixpence a yard from Guirk's shop in +Lettergort." + +"Happier, Sylvia? What have you been doing with yourself since?" + +"Growing old and faded with trying to occupy several houses at once +and doing a great many things I detest." + +She laughed at him from where she sat in her youth and beauty, and +he laughed in answer. + +"Where are the lads who used to be in love with you?" + +"All married, except Algy St. Quintin; but he has long given up +asking me. We are good comrades." + +"No more than that, Sylvia?" + +"No more than that. I wouldn't lose sight of him for anything. He +is just the same imp of mischief, as Bridget used to call him. His +coolness is phenomenal, and his impudence so deliciously incongruous +with his cherubic boy's face." + +"There is no one else, Sylvia?" + +"There is no one else." + +"Ah! you are so hard-hearted, child. Or is it that you will stay +with your father?" + +"Not altogether that. I've seen no one here I would marry." + +"Yet you have met all sorts and conditions of men." + +"All sorts and conditions, but not the right one." + +"The right one will come." + +"He might come--he may have come, and not have found me the right +woman." + +She looked at him an instant; then she suddenly blushed hotly, and +her eyes fell and rested on the jewelled fingers in her lap. So full +was her attitude of yielding and submission that it might well make +the heart of a lover leap. + +A sudden, bewildering idea came to the man before her. For an +instant he was dazed with the shock of it. Then he stood up and +paced the room in great agitation. + +"Sylvia," he said at last, pausing before her where she still sat, a +lovely image of submission, "Pamela was right when she did not marry +me." + +"She was right because she did not love you." + +"How could she love me? I might have been her father." + +"That is no reason. Love does not take count of such things." + +"Ah, Sylvia! What has love to do with grey hairs?" + +"If there is love, they are better than gold." + +"Sylvia, do you know what madness you are putting into my head?" + +"I cannot know unless you tell me." + +Sylvia's eyes were raised to his with a flash of the old audacity. + +"Perhaps I dare not tell you." + +"Ah, do!" + +"If I were a young man and you would do it, you might turn this +work-a-day earth to Paradise for me." + +"And why not now?" + +[Illustration: He made a step towards her.--_p. 552._] + +"Ah! child, you do not know what you are saying. What could you, a +beauty and an heiress, see in me?" + +"I am glad I am beautiful to you. But why should that and the other +things stand between me and my happiness?" + +"Your happiness, Sylvia?" + +"Ah, yes! You wouldn't see it, but I always thought there was no +one in the world like you. You chose Pam before me, and even then I +accepted your will, but I loved you still." + +"I chose Pam because she was unhappy, because there seemed no other +way. It did not break my heart to give her up, though it was a blow. +It does not hurt me now to hear of her as Lady Trevithick. But I +dare not risk the same thing with you." + +"Why?" + +"Because it would be so easy to forget my years, and love you with a +young man's ardour, and more than a young man's faith." + +"Then why not love me?" + +"Ah! Sylvia, it is your kindness, your compassion. I could not +endure to be thrown over now, even though I am well on in my +forties." + +"I shall not throw you over. Look at me, and you will see." + +He looked at her, and made a step towards her. + +"Then you will make the world over again for me?" + +"And you for me?" + +"Ah, Sylvia!" + +"Yes. How hard it was to persuade you. There will be lots of people +who will want to marry you once it is known you have come back. You +might have liked someone better than me. And I have waited for three +years." + +"You fairy princess, what do you mean by condescending to a mortal's +grey hairs?" + +"We shall be so happy, you and I and papa. We shall lead the country +life, though he'll have to come to London now and again for his +serious 'frivolities.' And I shall make you care for me. Now you do +not care for me nearly so much as I do for you." + +"You bewilder me, Sylvia." + +"Ah! yes, you will care for me. I shall not let you cheat me." + +"You talk as if my youth were not flown, you lovely child." + +"It is not flown. You do not mean to say you used up your youth +during those hard years that lined your face and sowed grey hairs in +your head? Ah! no, you were saving it up for me." + +"It is _too_ incredible!" + +"Take time, then, to think, good gentleman," said Sylvia, with +laughter dancing bewitchingly about her mouth; but her eyes were +tender. + +"If I take time, all this will take wings like a dream and fly away." + +"Then keep it," said Sylvia. + +"My life--what remains of it--will be devoted to you." + +"It is time you should say that. You have been going after false +fires, while I have been true all the time." + +"You to me, Sylvia!" + +"I to you. But if I had not almost asked you, you would have left me +to single blessedness. Ah! there is papa's ring. He will be glad." + +"He will think it folly, Sylvia." + +"Ah! no, he won't. Dear, wise papa, he was always anxious for you to +marry one of his daughters." + +[Illustration: THE END] + + + + +TIRED. + + + On the weary waves of the world + To and fro + This tired life of mine has been whirled! + In the flow + And ebb of every dangerous tide + My thoughts have drifted far and wide, + As on a bleak and bare hill-side + Drifts the snow. + + I sought for rest afar, afar, + But found it not; + I dreamed sweet dreams, if such things are + Sweet which we wot + Are false. I woke again to know + The weight of an unceasing woe, + And journeyed onward, bending low + To a hard lot. + + At length to my weary soul I said, + "Soul of mite, + The empty restless life thou hast led, + In shade and shine, + In winter's cold and angry beat, + In summer's languid parching heat-- + Poor soul!" I said, "It is not meet + Such fate be thine. + + "There is a rest, oh! my tired soul, + Far away, + We soon may reach that happy goal + Beyond to-day. + Far, far beyond those darkening skies + There is a Land which Rest supplies-- + Peace, endless peace, that never dies. + Come away!" + + H. BROOKE DAVIES. + + + + +LIGHT THROUGH DULL PANES. + +_A VISIT TO THE EARLSWOOD ASYLUM._ + +(_Illustrated from Photographs by Cassell and Co., Ltd._) + + [_This is the first of a special series of illustrated articles + on representative philanthropic institutions. Each article will + describe the scope and work of the institution concerned, and + will in addition contain detailed information as to the methods + of admission, with special reference to the "voting" system._] + + +The young Queen Victoria had been ten years on the +throne of England. In this decade the wheel of philanthropy seemed +to turn with increased impetus. It had been set in motion before +the dawn of the nineteenth century, for then asylums for the +blind, the deaf and dumb, and lunatic had been established. Now +various institutions and schemes of benevolence were springing into +existence in aid of other classes of sufferers. There was still +something wanting, a lady maintained to Dr. Andrew Reed--a powerful +friend of the afflicted and needy; she asked him to help the +feeble-minded. He demurred; he doubted whether there were sufficient +cases to call for a special institute. If she could find six in six +days, he promised to take up the matter. Six days produced twenty +eligible from their poverty and infirmity, and the well-known +philanthropist kept his word. The National Asylum for Idiots +was inaugurated at the Mansion House in October, 1847, and was +established at Highgate in January, 1848. Since then it has received +upwards of 3,000 cases, and the institution now at Earlswood has +served as a model for others in different parts of Europe and our +colonies. + +[Illustration: IN THE PRINTING OFFICE AT EARLSWOOD.] + +The need of such asylums encircles the world; for wherever humanity +has spread children may be born with inherent infirmity, or the +"heart ache and a thousand natural shocks which flesh is heir to" +may cloud the brightest intelligence. The poor and sick in mind +must ever appeal for help to the rich and strong and capable. +The mysterious "something wanting" in intellect is a grievous +calamity, even when good friends and wealth can procure all +possible compensations. In a family where the necessities of life +depend on the power to work, it reduces existence to a miserable +burden. It was especially for the poor that the National Asylum was +established. The pleasant building standing on the breezy uplands +above Redhill can accommodate nearly 700 patients; and twice a +year, on the last Thursday in the months of April and October, +needy cases, from five years old and upwards, are elected on the +foundation by the votes of subscribers. There are generally from 130 +to 150 applicants, though funds only allow the admission of about +one-fifth of the number. Presentations for life may be secured, but +it is a happiness to know that the term of five years, which is the +rule in election, is sometimes sufficient to teach a boy a trade, +or a girl to make herself useful in housework, needlework, or a +laundry. Patients entered for five years may be re-elected. Lately +one of them wrote to his friends, "It will be soon time to get me in +again for another five years. I hope that it will be all right; I +like Earlswood." + +[Illustration: A VIEW OF THE DINING HALL.] + +Why should a boy able to write and to take thought for his own +affairs be in an asylum for imbeciles? A visit to Earlswood would be +the most effectual answer to the question. It is hard to know where +idiocy begins and ends. There are skilled workmen in the printers', +tailors', carpenters', and other departments, who, to a casual +observer, betray nothing wanting. + +Many of their exhibits, as well as specimens of the girls' and +women's needlework, were sold at the Arts and Crafts Exhibition at +Lancaster in 1897, where a section was open to institutions for +imbeciles, and seventeen prizes were awarded to Earlswood. But there +are other patients whose limited intelligence renders them oblivious +of their own infirmity or their own names; between the two extremes +there is every degree of feebleness of mind. Those who consciously +suffer least are likely to call out the greatest compassion. It is +natural to turn away and try to forget the sight of a human creature +going on all-fours, or of great helpless babies, without the charm +or sweetness of infancy, sitting up with bibs on, waiting for the +meal for which they cannot ask. + +[Illustration: IN HIS OWN WORKSHOP.] + +"It must be sad and painful to a visitor," the matron said, "to have +a passing glance at the worst cases, but to live amongst them, as +she had done for eleven years, was full of interest. Nearly all were +capable of some improvement." + +A home where everything is done to promote their health and +happiness is, for the weak-minded, a new world. To be taken from +conditions of continual disadvantage, and placed under the charge of +guardians whose first duty is to work and watch for the awakening +of soul and mind, brings hope and comfort into their life. A poor +constitution is often added to the disadvantages of the imbecile; +and in families where their friends cannot constantly protect them +they are often exposed to teasing, and driven into fits of fury, +ending in chronic bad temper, by the mischief or malice of their +companions. + +[Illustration: A VIEW OF THE ASYLUM.] + +"No one is allowed to tease them here," a nurse remarked, in +speaking of the patients' affection and their general disposition +to get on well together. They are classified, so that they +meet companions on equal terms. The lowest have not the spirit +or independence to defy lawful authority; to the highest but +refractory, degradation to a class below is the most salutary +punishment that can be inflicted. They soon try by their conduct to +rise to their former level. Anyone in charge giving a patient a blow +would be liable to criminal prosecution. The vicious or dangerous +cases are not admitted, and the authorities do not encourage the +re-election of those who give absolutely no promise of improvement. +The vacancies ought to be filled by candidates to whom care and +treatment will be of use. In the great busy world outside Earlswood +are muscular limbs dwindling or growing stiff for want of exercise, +and hands framed for skill which are only filled with mischief by +the active spirit against whom Dr. Watts left an immortal warning. +They need not remain idle, for special training can supply much that +Nature has denied. + +[Illustration: AT SCHOOL.] + +It requires a great deal of patience to teach this class of pupils +a useful calling, as more than one instructor remarked when the +doctor conducted a visitor through the various workshops. Some +are unwilling to learn; in Earlswood, as in all communities, each +variety of disposition is represented, as well as every degree of +lack of ability. + +"You can't make me work, you know, doctor," one patient maintained, +"for I am only an imbecile." + +Happily, in this little world which, in spite of its limitations, +manufactures and supplies for itself most of the necessaries of +life, all are not ready to make capital out of their infirmity. The +master-carpenter lamented the loss of a former diligent pupil, who +had been worth one pound a week to the institution, and he showed +with pride the doors and panels of another, who he said might now +earn his own living anywhere. This clever young carpenter had been +at Earlswood for three years, and in the workshop for two. He bore a +high character, and was so attached to the asylum that, when he was +at home for a summer holiday, he came back for a day. Yet before his +admission his relations had been unable to manage him. + +The master-tailor called one of his "best boys" to show the +waistcoat he was making. A good-looking middle-aged man descended +with alacrity from the table--where, in the time-honoured custom +of his trade, he worked in an attitude calculated to cause persons +of other callings violent cramp in the legs--and shook hands all +round with great warmth and friendliness. Directly he had displayed +a piece of work, in which his instructor took pardonable pride, +he returned with renewed diligence to his needle and thread. This +man's interest in tailoring is so keen that when he, in his turn, +does duty in the kitchen, he returns to his cloth and his favourite +attitude for every available moment. Seated together with the +first-class workmen are others, smiling over their attempts to learn +stitching or to make button-holes. They may possibly never get +beyond samplers, but time will show. + +In the shoemakers' shop similar degrees of skill and industry were +manifest. One man held in his hand a finished boot that he had made +from the beginning, whilst others could only be trusted to black +and polish. So it was with the rest of the twenty-five trades and +callings in which last year 198 men and boys were employed, each +according to his several ability. Perhaps the highest attainments +are seen in the printing department--the only one that undertakes +outside work. Besides the necessary printing for Earlswood and the +London office, 232 private orders were sent out last year, and +a profit was made of £150. On the occasion of my visit, a young +compositor was not quite ready to show his proof to the doctor, who +inquired what he was doing. He had just set up the programme for a +patients' party, and had made it conclude with "Musicle Chairs"; he +wanted to correct the spelling before it was inspected. + +One elderly man, deaf, with an impediment in his speech and +afflicted in mind, had his own workshop. All around him were +evidences of his artistic skill. He looked tenderly at his own +drawings, but the objects of his special admiration were the various +magnifiers and reflectors he had designed and made to help him in +fine carving. H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, who is interested in +Earlswood, has lately presented him with some elephant tusks. It +was a pleasure to this artist to display the lightness of an ivory +landscape brooch. A piece of tortoise-shell at the back, with a +judicious arrangement of the golden and dark blotches, made it a +transparency. When held up on one side to the light, it was a sunny +scene; whilst on the other it was dark, with a full moon. + +[Illustration: A CORNER OF THE KITCHEN.] + +In spite of gentle manners and artistic skill, this man would +probably be unable to live or turn his talents to account outside +an asylum. He belongs to a class who for practical purposes never +outgrow mental childhood. Years roll by. Time brings them grey +hairs and other signs of his flight, but never carries them beyond +the need of fatherly care. Many with far less intelligence seem to +realise this. + +It is pathetic to hear in some wards the cry of "Mother!" and +see a smile of fancied recognition when a stranger appears. +One middle-aged woman who called out "Mamma, mamma!" had some +information, cheerful but incoherent, to impart. Then the name of +"George" suddenly arrested her flow of trivialities, and her face +puckered into a grotesque expression of distress. She raised her +hand and pointed upward, saying, "George up there." The sorrowful +remembrance was, however, transient; the next instant she was all +smiles. The eddy on the surface of her smooth life soon caught +the sunshine, but its presence was sufficient to call out fresh +compassion for the poor souls whose wits may have been lost under a +weight of trouble heavier than they could bear. + +The sad pages in the life-history of some of the most helpless are, +however, blotted out of their memory, or only dimly recalled by a +fragmentary remark. The sound of laughter in the recreation-room, +sitting-rooms, and playground is almost constant. If it shows the +vacant mind, it also bespeaks content. Pleasure and enjoyment are +circumscribed, but so also is the capacity for suffering in mind +and body. The patients have almost as little temptation to anxious +thought for the morrow as the ravens or lilies. + +In a narrow sphere a trifling event assumes great dimensions, and +the day may be easily filled with pleasures. The delight with which +one middle-aged patient said that she was going to have a new dress +had all the innocent glee of childhood. A lad who called out "Tick, +tick!" at the sight of the doctor was immediately made happy by +being allowed to listen to his watch. + +[Illustration: THE CHILDREN AT DRILL IN THE RECREATION-ROOM.] + +Various little treats are planned as rewards for good conduct. +In the winter, those who do well are invited once a week to join +in games in the recreation-room. Yet the Head Governess is of +opinion that the little ones are never happier than when they are +at lessons. According to their ability, they go through the course +usually adopted in elementary schools, and have the same physical +exercises. The elder girls are employed in housework or in the +laundry. Many, no doubt, enjoy the new experience of being usefully +employed, and industry and willingness are rewarded by an afternoon +walk to the town, a small amount of pocket-money, and a reward at +the New Year. + +[Illustration: MAT-MAKING.] + +The sense of right and wrong, and of responsibility, develops with +exercise. Of the many letters received last year at Earlswood from +the patients or their relations acknowledging the good results +of training, the Resident Physician looked upon one from a man +discharged five years ago as the most satisfactory. But for a course +of treatment the writer would probably have remained all his life as +a burden on his relations. He is now earning ten shillings a week in +a grocery business. After making this satisfactory announcement, he +continues: "I belong to a Bible-class. I am also in a club, so, if +I am ill, my mother gets ten shillings and sixpence per week, and +my doctor's bill paid." With inquiries after old friends, special +love to two, this patient remains a "loving friend." How many men +with all their faculties do more? And how many others fall below his +standard of duty and gratitude! In days of old, one out of ten to +whom the same miracle of mercy brought new life and health returned +to the great Healer and gave glory to God, and he belonged to a +class from whom least might have been expected. A good proportion +of the strangers to many privileges, as the feeble-minded must +ever remain, often live as examples of doing their best. A man is +accepted according to that he hath. + +[Illustration: SOME BASKET-WORKERS.] + +The highest and the only certain principle of good conduct is kept +before all who enter the asylum. Twice a day they meet for prayers, +and before and after meals grace, sung in the great hall to the +accompaniment of a fine organ, fills the corridors with music, +in which many of the patients delight. The resident Religious +Instructor last year found a note slipped into his hand, addressed, +"Mr. Small, from me." A patient wrote: + +"DEAR SIR, I wish to ask you, in a nice kind way or other, to have +two of my hymns on the 5th of February, which is Saturday. Please +have them in the evening--Nos. 500 and 532--and you may quite expect +a nice pocket-book from me.--Your friend, PERCY." + +It is not unusual for boys to ask that their birthdays may be +celebrated by singing their favourite hymns. + +Their teacher finds that lessons on the life and miracles of our +Lord always have a charm for the patients. Even those unable to read +or intelligently follow the prayers can enjoy Sunday; then they +receive pictures illustrating Bible incidents, and can, at least, +hear the hymns at the evening service, which in summer is held +under the trees. Methods of teaching must be adapted to the varied +capacity, but the lesson of the compassion of our Lord for every +infirmity is common to the 600 patients whom Earlswood now shelters, +whilst 130 are waiting for admission. + +One class may enter by payment, which varies according to the +circumstances and requirements. The lowest payment is sixty-five +guineas a year, and it includes entire maintenance and clothing +for twelve months. There are no vacations, unless the friends +desire it. Private patients do not mix with those on the foundation +either at meals or in the recreation-room. Some have their own +sitting-rooms and special attendants. + +Another class of patients may enter by part-payment. They are +elected from a list of candidates whose friends fill a position that +would preclude their gaining free admission, but who are unable to +make the ordinary payment. The minimum sum of fifteen guineas is +required annually so long as the child remains in the asylum. + +A large number of subscribers' votes, 700 at least, are required to +place a candidate for ordinary election on the foundation. Before +canvassing, a form must be obtained from the office, 36, King +William Street, London Bridge, E.C., in order to see if the case +is deemed eligible by the Board, whether for free or part-payment +election. For the well-being of the community in general, rules +cannot be broken. Great disappointment and trouble are sometimes +occasioned by an attempt to canvass before ascertaining that a +candidate will be approved by the Board. The receipt of parish +relief at any time disqualifies a candidate. Certain regulations, +the result of experience, have been made regarding receiving and +maintaining the large family whom the authorities have taken under +their care, and Earlswood is subject to the inspection of the +Commissioners in Lunacy. + +During fifty years the supporters of this institution have, in +a very literal sense, obeyed the injunction to "comfort the +feeble-minded." In spite of limp limbs and slouching gait, the +weakest among the imbecile bear the image of their Creator. Can +it be doubted that they are as precious to Him as the conies who, +though "but a feeble folk," find, under His providence, a refuge in +the stony rocks? In their helplessness and dependence, the afflicted +in mind find a place in the heart and affection of their guardians; +and who can tell how many have learnt, through them, to hide +themselves with all their infirmities in the Rock of Ages? + + D. L. WOOLMER. + +[Illustration: IN THE SHOEMAKING ROOM.] + + + + +[Illustration: MOTHER-HOOD] + +By Lina Orman Cooper, Author of "Our Home Rulers," Etc. + + +"There is many an arrow in my quiver, full of speech to +the wise, but for the many they need interpreters." + +So wrote Pindar long, long ago; and I, having gathered many arrows +of help and knowledge from the quiver of books around me, would +fain pass them on. In this paper I string these barbs to the bow of +motherhood, and trust they may pierce to the joints of the harness. + +Perhaps there is no subject absorbing more attention at the present +time than that of motherhood and heredity. Never has the cult of +maternity been better formulated--never has the practice of it +been more carefully studied. "In these days of pressure," writes +Lyttleton, "it is a mother's first duty to her children to secure +for them a full seven years of passive life." "The best and first +service a mother can do her children," says another writer, "is to +maintain the standard of her own life at its highest-- + + "'Allure to brighter worlds, and _lead the way_.'" + +"It is a mother's first duty to provide for each newborn soul +an environment which will foster its highest development," says +another. "To praise is a part of a mother's first work in the world +on behalf of her children," adds a fourth. "I consider it to be the +first and most important part of the education of childhood to lead +them early to think" is Froebel's opinion. + +The importance of a mother's influence during the first few years of +existence is repeated in Lord Macaulay's well-known aphorism, "Give +me the first seven years of a child's life, and let who will take +the rest"; and by Froebel, when he says, "The most important period +of human education is before the child is seven years old." + +We mothers, who are God's special servants--His instruments, as it +were, for the particular purpose of carrying out His will for the +wee individuals confided to us--are apt to think too little about +those first years of a child's life. Our children, from two to five, +are often left to self-education. Very little scientific care is +expended on them. Yet beauty of body and soul would not be so seldom +met with, or so transient as it is apt to be with us, if we truly +educated persons took our children in hand from their _babyhood_, +instead of leaving them to the most ignorant class of the community. + +"It is usual to speak of the Greeks," writes Peabody in his "Primary +School," "as if they were of exceptional organisation. Their +organisation was only exceptional because it was more carefully +treated in _infancy_ than ours is apt to be." + +"The laws which govern the growth of the human mind are as definite +and as general in their application as those which apply to the +material universe," and we know the basis of all development is +a _good foundation_. This must be laid in early youth, both as +regards the body and as regards the mind. "It is so fatally easy +to do mischief" in those first seven years. The limbs of a sapling +are not more easily bent than the budding desires of the infant. +"The soul instinctively expects love" from the first, and only a +mother's exclusively cherishing tenderness ought to be the rule in a +nursery. "The true educational instinct is but the mother's instinct +and method clearly understood in all its bearings and carried out +intelligently." + +This last word opens out a wonderful vista. "Parents should make +the care of their children an object to study physiology and +psychology," says Peabody; and thus we find education is always +mutual. According to Goethe, "the child teaches the parent what the +parents omit to teach him"; and, as Plato adds, "man cannot propose +(or woman either) a higher or loftier object for his study than +education and all that pertains thereto." + +Before leaving this branch of the subject, it is well for all +mothers clearly to understand the difference between education and +instruction. The former (training of the heart) belongs exclusively +to the parent. The latter (training of the intellect) to the +governess. As Renan puts it, "Instruction is given in the school. +Education takes place in the father's house; the masters are the +mothers and sisters." + +Well for us if we remember that education is always going on, +whether we will it or not. Our life, our morals, are affecting our +children for weal or woe, whether we realise or shirk the fact. +"Every human life is lifted or lowered by the home it is born +into." That magic and omnipotent gift of a mother's influence "is +an hourly, unconscious, emanating force" exercised on those around. +"We always know when we are instructing. We do not always know when +we are educating." The realisation of this amazing power is enough +to stagger the bravest heart. "A mother has to be convinced that +the great function of motherhood is not only to guard her child, to +exhort him, to train him, but to live her life in the presence of +that child as a pattern of what the child should aspire to become." + +A mother's influence should certainly be at its strongest during +the early years of life. It "depends on what she is, and only in a +subordinate way on what she does." Therefore, she can carry altruism +too far. A mother is of as much value in the sight of God as is +her child, and "the path in which she has to walk is plainly that +of self-sanctification for the sake of" that child. This implies +seasons for culture, rest, prayer, and the preservation of her body +in health. To quote Miss Mason on this point, "Health is a duty, and +any trifling with health, either vicious or careless, is really in +the nature of suicide, because life is held in trust from a supreme +Authority." + +Will the years be wasted if we spend them mastering the science of +education in our nurseries? Nay! even our personal charms will be +amplified by the most entrancing study in the world. "The perfect +loveliness of a woman's countenance can only consist in that +majestic peace which is founded in memory of happy and useful years +full of sweet records" (Ruskin). Verily we shall have our reward. + + + + +[Illustration: Remembrance. + + + _Words by_ JAMES MONTGOMERY. + _Music by_ GORDON SAUNDERS, Mus.D. Oxon. + + 1. According to Thy gracious Word, In meek humility + This will I do, my dying Lord--I will remember Thee. + + 2. When to the cross I turn mine eyes, And rest on Calvary, + O Lamb of God, my sacrifice, I must remember Thee. + + Amen +] + + + + +[Illustration: THE TEN LITTLE INDIANS] + +A FAIRY PARABLE. + +By Howard Angus Kennedy. + + +Once upon a time there were ten little Red Indians, +and they lived in a school-house built of logs on the banks of the +River Saskatchewan; and, if you cannot pronounce the river's name, +just try till you can. The reason they lived in a school-house was +that their fathers had gone hunting in the woods, and their mothers +were dead, so the wigwams were very lonely; but the children were as +happy as they could be, and enjoyed their schooling as much as any +white children enjoy their holidays. The teacher was a sweet white +lady from down beyond, who mothered them all so well that they never +even thought of being bad. At least, only two of them did; and they +never got beyond thinking about it, as long as the teacher was with +them. + +Down at the bottom of the river, in a deep, deep hole, there +lived a wicked wizard; and one morning very early he was prowling +along by the shore, with just the tip of his nose above water, +sniff-sniff-sniffing for the scent of anyone good to eat. Now it +happened that that morning the teacher had got up very early, and +was sitting on a stone by the riverside, trying to think of new +story-lessons to tell the children; and the wizard put up his long +snaky arm out of the water and caught her by the neck and dragged +her down to his cave. Then he tied her hands and feet, and waited +for her to drown; but drown she would not. So he thought she must +have a Testament in her pocket to act as a charm. The Testament was +really in her heart, which was a great deal better. So when he saw +she would not drown, he was a little frightened, and offered to let +her go if she would give him one of the children instead. + +"You wicked wizard," said she, "not one of them shall you have!" + +"We shall see about that," said the wizard; and out he went, leaving +the teacher tied fast at the bottom of the hole. + +Now, when the children came down, they were very much surprised +to find no teacher; but they took their morning dip in the river, +as she had taught them to do. Just as they were coming out to dry +themselves, a great grey fish put his head out of the water and +said--"Children, the wizard that lives in the hole has caught your +teacher, and he's coming to catch you." + +The children jumped out of the water in a great fright. "What shall +we do? What _shall_ we do?" they all began to cry. + +"Put on your clothes," said the fish, after he had gone down for a +moment to breathe. + +That was soon done, for they had very few clothes to put on. + +"Now get on our backs," said the great grey fish, who had come up +this time with nine others as like him as could be. Then the ten +fishes humped up their great grey backs, just keeping their heads +under water to breathe with and their tails to swim with; and the +ten children got on, and the fishes carried them across the big +river in a twinkling. + +"Now, children," said the chief of the fishes, "strike into the +wood as straight as you can go till you come to the old brown bear, +and he'll tell you the way to Fruity Hollow, where you'll get your +dinner; but don't speak to the grizzly bear, for he's the wizard's +son. Then go on till you come to the old grey wolf, and she'll tell +you the way to the otters' cave; but don't say a word to the red +wolf with the squint, for she's the wizard's daughter." + +The fish was quite out of breath when he got to the end of this +speech, and disappeared in a hurry. + +Then the ten little Indians marched off into the woods, Indian file; +and they all kept close together, one behind the other, except the +two little boys that sometimes wished they did not have to do what +they ought; and they dawdled behind. Pretty soon the children got to +where the poplars end and the pinewoods begin, and there they saw +the grizzly bear sitting on his haunches beside the path, with his +arms folded smugly across his chest and his cruel face trying to +smile. + +"Welcome, little darlings!" the grizzly bear said, in a voice as +sweet as honey. "Would you like me to take you to Fruity Hollow?" + +The children shut their mouths tightly, and went straight on, and +the grizzly gritted his teeth in disappointment; but when the two +bad little Indians came straggling along he sat up again and put on +his smirkiest smile and said-- + +"You poor little dears! What a shame it was for the others to leave +you behind! How hungry you must be! Would you like me to show you +the way to Fruity Hollow?" + +"That I should, indeed!" said one of the boys. And the grizzly bear +sprang upon him, and caught him up, and hugged him till the breath +was nearly out of his body, and strode off with him; and the other +boy ran on as fast as he could to catch up his companions. + +Meanwhile the eight little Indians marched steadily on till they +came to the old brown bear; and he was so fast asleep they could +only wake him by pulling his fur, but they took care to pull it +respectfully. + +"All right," said the old brown bear in a mumbly voice, "I know what +you want. First turning on the right, over the big tree that blew +down last winter." Then he went to sleep again before they could say +"Thank you, sir." + +When they came to a big tree lying with its roots in the air, but +with its needles still green, they scrambled over it and followed a +winding path down into a narrow valley just full of wild raspberry- +and gooseberry- and currant-bushes, and they picked and ate and +picked and ate till they could eat no more. Then they made baskets +of big leaves and twigs, and filled them with berries for supper, +and climbed back over the big tree and trudged along up the path. + +Soon afterwards they came upon the squinting red wolf, straddling +right across the track. + +"Here we are, you sweet little redskins," said she, with a grin two +feet long. "The otters have asked me to show you the way to their +cave." + +The little redskins turned almost white with fear, but they shut +their mouths tightly and pushed right on, and the wicked red wolf +had to jump out of the way in a hurry, for she did not dare to touch +children who remembered and obeyed. Presently the dawdler came up, +very hungry and tired--for the brown bear had been much too fast +asleep to tell him about Fruity Hollow--and burst out at once, +without thinking, "Please can you tell me the way to the otters' +cave?" Then the red wolf leapt upon him, and knocked him down, and +picked him up by the back of his clothes and carried him off at a +trot through the scratching brambles. + +Just where the pinewoods end and the poplars begin again, the eight +little Indians came upon the old grey wolf, curled up with her nose +on her tail; and she put up her head for the children to scratch her +neck. "Across the meadow and round the slough," she said when she +had been scratched enough; "and down the stony creek." + +So when they got to the edge of the wood they struck right across +the meadow, wading knee-deep in the long rich grass; and then they +found a path leading through another patch of poplar wood to a wide +green slough--or "sloo," as they call it in Canada--half-lake and +half-swamp; and they trod lightly round the narrow edge till they +found the place where the water oozed out into the creek. Down the +creek they went, with the stream purring beside their feet like a +kitten in the sun, and the mosquitoes humming over their heads, and +the silly loose-leaved poplars rustling all around them, wind or no +wind. + +"Listen!" said the biggest little Indian. And through all the +purring and humming and rustling came the long low swishing sound of +a big river. Then the eight little pairs of feet climbed out of the +creek-bed, and crossed a corner of land till they stood almost on +the edge of the river's earthen-cut bank. + +There was a bustling and a scurrying under foot, and then a row of +furry brown little heads popped up from the edge of the bank. "Come +in!" barked all the otters in chorus; and, scrambling down the bank, +the children followed the otters into their cave. There was plenty +of room, though the door was rather small, and a big bed of prairie +hay was spread on the floor. + +"We've been expecting you, you see," said the mother otter, when +the eight little Indians were squatting on their hunkers and eating +berries. "The fishes told us to look out for you about this time." + +"Have you made friends with the fishes, then?" asked the biggest boy. + +"No, we're not exactly friends, only allies. We hate the wizard more +than we hate each other, so we've joined to fight him. But I wish +it was all over, so that we could go fishing again. Gophers are +dreadfully dry food, and they do burrow in such dusty holes." + +After supper the eight little Indians lay down in a row, and all +the little otters spread themselves out into a big fur counterpane +to keep the children warm. But the big otters sharpened their teeth +as soon as it was dark, and swam down and down and down, with fiery +eyes, till they came into the River Saskatchewan; and then they swam +up and up and up till they came near the wizard's pit; and there +they climbed out and hid just under the edge of the bank. + +Presently they felt a heavy silent somebody tramping over the grass +from the wood, and they knew that the grizzly bear was coming, and +one of them slipped down to the water's edge to tell the great grey +fishes, who were lying just inside the river. + +"Well," said the greatest of the fishes, "what do you want us to +do?" For he knew that the otters must take the lead when fighting +had to be done. + +"You must pretend to be the wizard," said the otter, "and tell the +grizzly to come into the river up to his waist. We can fight much +better in the water, you know." + +So the fish put up his head, and called out, imitating the wizard's +voice as well as he could, "Is that you, my son?" + +"Of course it's me," grumbled the bear; "and a precious hard run +I've had with this little wretch. I'd a good mind to stop on the way +and eat him myself." + +"Never mind, my dear," said the sham wizard. "I'll pay you well. +Just bring him in, will you? The water won't come above your middle." + +The grizzly grumbled something about the water being cold, and he +thought his father might as well have come ashore; but he waded in, +all the same, and the otters dived and swam after him. And when the +water was up to his middle the fishes swam in between his legs and +nibbled his toes, and hit him hard on the legs with their great +tails, and toppled him right over; but still he held on to the boy +with one arm, while he clawed savagely at the fishes with the other. +Then the otters sprang at his shoulders, and bit right through the +fur and the flesh, so that he dropped the boy in the water; and +the fishes and otters kept up such a splashing and a jumping and a +biting that the bear could not see a foot in front of him, and the +boy dashed back to the shore and huddled shivering under the bank. + +"Help, help, help!" yelled the grizzly. "They've stolen the boy! +They're cutting off my toes! They're tearing off my ears! They're +flaying me alive!" + +[Illustration: "Help, help, help!" yelled the grizzly.] + +Then the wizard awoke, and leapt out of his hole, and came flying to +the rescue, raking the water and the air with his long snaky arms, +and screeching horribly. But before he got to where the grizzly was +rolling over and over in a whirlpool of mad otters and fishes and +foam, he heard the voice of his daughter, the red wolf, who had just +arrived and was calling out (as well as she could with a little +Indian's clothes in her mouth) to ask what was the matter. + +"If I've lost one, I'll make sure of the other," the wizard thought; +and he seized the boy from his daughter's mouth and plunged down +into the pit, leaving his grizzly son to look after himself. + +"We must save the boy!" cried the head otter. + +"He's not worth saving," said the fishes; "haven't we done enough +for one night?" + +The otters did not condescend to answer, but swam hotly after the +wizard, and the fishes followed without another word, leaving the +grizzly to hobble ashore and lick his wounds. + +None of the otters had ever dared to descend the wizard's pit +before, and none of the fishes had ever ventured within a hundred +feet of its mouth; but now the otters' blood was up, and they dived +like a flash, and caught up the wizard before he got to the bottom, +and fastened on his heels, and dug their teeth into his calves. The +wizard flung himself round and gripped an otter in each hand; but +they gnawed his wrists till their teeth met in the sinews, and the +rest of the otters swarmed round his neck and cut his head right off. + +"The boy is drowned, all the same," said the head fish, who swam +bravely down into the pit when he heard the otters' scream of +victory. + +"Not a bit of it," said the head otter; "it's only his badness +that's drowned; the boy will be righter than ever if you hurry +ashore with him." + +So the fishes pushed him up to the air and rolled him ashore; though +it was rather difficult, as he had not the sense to hold on, and +they had no arms to hold him by. + +Meanwhile the otters had gone down to the very bottom of the pit, +and bitten through the teacher's cords; and she kissed their wet +foreheads and left her dark prison, and the rising sun flung her +a rosy welcome as she stepped out on to dry ground. The squinting +wolf shut her eyes and howled, and fled into the wood with her tail +between her legs. + +The eight little Indians were having a fine romp with the little +otters when the big otters came back, tired and wounded, but proud +with glorious news. As soon as the story was told, the head otter +said--"Now, children, it's time to go home, and the fishes are +waiting. No going through the woods this time!" + +As he spoke, the fishes humped up their great grey backs, and the +children took their seats, and the procession never stopped till +it came to the little school-house, where the best of all teachers +stood smiling welcomes at the door and two shamefaced little Indians +pretended to be very busy at their sums inside. + +[Illustration: The procession never stopped till it came to the +school-house.] + +Then there was a great hugging and kissing and laughing and crying +for joy, while the little otters turned flying somersaults over the +desks and played catch on the grass outside, and the fishes looked +on through their water-window, till the children were tired of play +and begged for lessons to begin. + + + + +TEMPERANCE NOTES AND NEWS. + +By a Leading Temperance Advocate. + + +A MODEL TOWN. + +"Could we but do away with intemperance, the conditions +of living would become so changed that we should hardly know +ourselves," said John Bright on a memorable occasion. What would +the country be like without public-houses? We can form some idea of +the altered state of affairs by taking a trip to the model town of +Bessbrook in the county of Armagh. Here we shall find a thriving, +populous community without any public-house or place for the sale +of intoxicating liquor. It owes its origin to the philanthropic +prescience of the late John Grubb Richardson, a wealthy member of +the Society of Friends. In the early 'sixties he purchased an estate +of some sixty thousand acres, and there erected the factory which is +now world-famed as the Bessbrook Flax Spinning Mills. Approaching +the town from Newry, the spinning mills form the most prominent +feature in the view. The immense range of lofty buildings is of +noble proportions, and for massive elegance compares very favourably +with similar erections in the Lancashire and Yorkshire factory +districts. When the mills are in full work, occupation is afforded +for about five thousand hands. The chief feature of the model town +is a handsome square. There are several shops in addition to the +co-operative stores, and the houses are well built, varying in size, +every family being accommodated with three to six rooms, according +to the number of its members. There is an institute with a capital +library, a recreation room, a dispensary, excellent schools under +the supervision of the National Board of Education, a savings bank, +and half-a-dozen places of worship, the respective congregations +supporting the current expenses. The sale of intoxicating liquors +is entirely prohibited, and, as a consequence, there is not only an +absence of drunkenness, but a general freedom from the legion of +evils which seem inseparable from the liquor traffic. There is no +resident police officer, and it is only quite recently that there +has been any police perambulation of the model town, this latter +being due more to political disturbances in the near neighbourhood +than to any outbreak of crime on the part of the inhabitants of +Bessbrook itself. The North of Ireland thus furnishes an excellent +example of how to make the working classes thrifty, sober, +industrious, happy and prosperous. + +[Illustration: THE TOWN HALL, BESSBROOK.] + +[Illustration: (_Photo: Cuwell and Co., Ltd._) + +A VIEW OF BESSBROOK.] + + +A VILLAGE EXPERIMENT. + +The Rev. W. E. Bolland, M.A., vicar of Embleton, Northumberland, +has, in conjunction with some friends, launched a scheme for a +model club and hall for the village. The plan contains some novel +features, inasmuch as it embraces a working men's club, a public +hall available for meetings, entertainments, etc.; a café and +refreshment rooms, specially catering for cyclists and visitors; +bedrooms for summer visitors, and also a public laundry. The +catering will exclude the provision of intoxicants, and it will +be seen from the illustration that the architect has planned a +very attractive looking house. This village scheme will be closely +watched, and, if it should succeed, there can be no doubt that the +enterprising vicar of Embleton will have many followers. + +[Illustration: THE PROPOSED TEMPERANCE CLUB FOR EMBLETON.] + + +THE BLUECOAT BOYS. + +In a very short time London will be deprived of one of its most +picturesque sights--namely, the tramp of its seven hundred or more +Bluecoat boys to the Mansion House on Easter Tuesday to pay their +respects to the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress, and receive a monetary +gift, and a bun and a glass of wine. The Grecians are given a +sovereign and a shilling each; the junior Grecians a half-sovereign +and a sixpence; the monitors half-a-crown; and the other boys a +shilling each. The removal of this famous school to the country will +possibly put an end to the function. The glass of wine has become a +diminishing quantity in recent years; for, thanks to the activity of +a friend at court, lemonade was introduced as an alternative a few +years back, and now the teetotal boys have no hesitation in availing +themselves of this beverage. The preacher of the Spital sermon this +year is to be a life-long abstainer, the Bishop of Carlisle. + + +COMING EVENTS. + +The programmes for the May meetings are now nearing completion. +The Church of England Temperance Society announces as speakers the +Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Chichester, the Bishop of +Thetford, and the Rev. Dr. Ridgeway; the National Temperance League +relies upon the Archbishop of Canterbury, Mr. T. W. Russell, M.P., +Mr. John Colville, M.P., the Rev. George Hanson, B.D., and Miss +Agnes Weston; while Sir George Williams will preside for the United +Kingdom Band of Hope Union. The annual meetings of the Scottish +Temperance League will be held in Glasgow on April 17th; the annual +meeting of the Sussex Band of Hope Union will take place at Lewes +on April 26th; a social meeting of the Young Men's Auxiliary of the +National Temperance League will be held in Sion College on April +21st; the Hackney and East Middlesex Band of Hope Union will give +a reception in honour of its new President, the Dowager Countess +of Errol, on April 20th. The usual open-air demonstrations in the +London parks, promoted by the United Temperance Council will take +place on Saturday, June 17th. The Rev. F. B. Meyer will preach the +annual sermon of the Congregational Total Abstinence Society. The +Archbishop of Canterbury and Mrs. Temple will give a Garden Party +at Lambeth Palace on July 1st to meet the official advocates of the +temperance movement. The Norwich Diocesan temperance anniversary +will be held at Norwich from October 17th to October 24th inclusive. + +[Illustration: (_Photo: Russell and Sons, Baker Street, W._) + +THE BISHOP OF LLANDAFF.] + + +TOTAL ABSTAINING BISHOPS. + +A few weeks ago the Lord Bishop of Llandaff agreeably surprised the +temperance workers of Cardiff by announcing that he had definitely +decided to try total abstinence. It may not be generally known that +the Right Rev. H. J. Foss, who has recently been consecrated Bishop +of Osaka, is an abstainer, and has been an active temperance worker +during the whole of his twenty years' residence in Japan. The Bishop +of Islington and the Bishop of Southampton are also total abstainers. + +[Illustration: (_Photo: Cassell and Co., ltd._) + +THE BRADFORD TEMPERANCE HALL.] + + +THE FIRST TEMPERANCE HALL IN THE WORLD. + +The city of Bradford claims to possess the first Temperance Hall +in the world. The foundation stone was laid on Monday, March 13th, +1837, and the building was opened on February 27th, 1838, by the +Bishop of Ripon, Dr. Longley (who in succession became Bishop of +Durham, Archbishop of York, and Archbishop of Canterbury). This +famous building is still in regular use, the Bradford Temperance +Society being one of the most vigorous associations in the country. +A unique feature of the hall is a very handsome painted window +in memory of the late John Priestman. It is a four-light window, +and contains four female figures robed in mediæval costumes, and +representing "Religion," "Temperance," "Health," and "Prosperity." +Above the central light is an effective portrait of Mr. Priestman. +Mr. George Field in his interesting "Historical Survey of the +Bradford Temperance Society," says:-- + +"The hall of this, the first temperance society in England, has +been a battle-field for many conflicts with drink, and some of the +greatest orators have made its walls re-echo with their oratory. +It has had amongst its friends and workers some of the best men +and women of Bradford. By its agency many a degraded sot has been +rescued and restored to respectability in society, but while the +curse of drink remains the work will have to go on." + + + + +SCRIPTURE LESSONS FOR SCHOOL & HOME INTERNATIONAL SERIES + +With Illustrative Anecdotes and References. + + +APRIL 16TH.--=Jesus Teaching Humility.= + +_To read--St. John xiii. 1-17. Golden Text--Ver. 15._ + +So far have had Christ's _active_ life coupled with His +teachings. Come now to His _passive_ life just before the close. +To-day's lesson--a sort of active parable--teaching His giving up +Himself for man. + +=I. The Washing= (1-11). _The time._ Just before Christ's last +Passover. Supper being "at hand" (Revised Version); washing taking +place before a meal (St. Mark vii. 3). Always known as the "Last +Supper" or Passover Feast. His "hour" for showing Himself fully as +the Saviour was now come. + +_The cause_ (ver. 1). Love passing all knowledge (Eph. iii. +19). Shown by its _greatness_--loved to the uttermost; its +_comprehensiveness_--including even Judas; its _lowliness_--doing a +servant's work. + +_The act._ Disciples began to dispute which should be the greatest +(St. Luke xxii. 24). Christ shows by His action what His opinion is. +The greatest in His kingdom are they who serve most. Takes towel, +water, basin; washes feet of each in turn. Who declines to accept +the act of service? But unless Peter submits to Christ, can have no +part with Him. He dreads separation from Him, therefore is eager now +to be wholly washed. Christ tells him two things-- + +(_a_) He cannot understand meaning of this act but will +hereafter--will add to his faith, virtue (or valour), and knowledge +(2 Pet. i. 3). + +(_b_) He who is washed, _i.e._ bathed (Greek), in Christ's atoning +blood (Zech. xiii. 1) needs only to "wash" or be washed from daily +sin to be kept clean and holy. + +=II. The Meaning= (12-17). _Equality_ in Christ's service. He is +their Master, but delights to serve them. Followers must copy His +example. + +_Service._ The spirit of His example to be followed--feeding hungry, +teaching ignorant, visiting the sick and sad (St. Matt. xxv. 35, 36). + +_Knowledge._ Life's mysteries to be cleared up hereafter. Duties +now, rewards future. + +=Lesson.= Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? + + +Kindness to the Poor. + + The great general, Sir William Napier, once met a little girl + in a country lane sobbing over a broken bowl. She had dropped + it after taking her father's dinner, and expected to be beaten + for her carelessness. Suddenly a gleam of hope seemed to + cheer her. "You can mend it, sir," she said, "can't you?" Sir + William explained that he could not mend it, but could give + her sixpence to buy another. It chanced, however, that he had + no money with him, so he promised to meet her at the same time + and place the next day with a sixpence. On his return home, he + found an invitation to dinner the next day to meet someone whom + he specially wished to see. What was he to do? He could not do + both; but the child had trusted him. He must do his duty to the + poor before thinking of his own pleasure. So he declined the + invitation and helped, as he had promised, Christ's little one. + + +APRIL 23RD.--=Jesus the Way, Truth, and Life.= + +_To read--St. John xiv. 1-14. Golden Text--Ver. 6._ + +Discourse with disciples at Last Supper continued. Peter, boasting +of his steadfastness, been warned of his coming fall, that very +night (xiii. 38), but comforted by thought of heaven to all who come +to God by Him for pardon. + +=I. The Many Mansions.= What they are? Abiding places (Greek). This +world passes away--heaven endures. They are many in number--room +for all. Also prepared by Christ for all who believe in Him. Christ +by His death opened heaven to man, and waits there to receive His +people. + +=II. The Way to Heaven= (4-7). _Christ the Way._ Came to reveal +this. None else could make atonement. God's holy Son alone could, by +dying for sin, open way to heaven for sinners. He alone lifted up, +gives eternal life (iii. 14, 15). + +_Christ the Truth._ Yet charged that night with blasphemy, worst of +all falsehoods, making Himself God (xix. 7). Yet was the perfect +truth. Exposed hypocrisy of chief priests, hollowness of Scribes +and Pharisees (St. Luke xi. 39, 44). Taught the spirit of the +commandments in Sermon on Mount (St. Matt. v. 21, 22, 28, 39, etc.). +Acted truth in His own perfect life. Taught God's truth to men. + +_Christ the Life_, though put to death day following. Author of +life; the world made by Him. Gave natural life once more to three +dead persons. Gave spiritual life to Nicodemus, who became disciple; +Samaritan who accepted His teaching (iv. 42). Raised Himself from +the dead, and gives eternal life to as many as believe. + +=Lesson.= He that believeth in Me shall not die. + +=III. The Father Revealed= (8-14). Cannot be seen by mortal eye (i. +18), but is seen in person of His Son. Christ reveals the person of +the Father full of love and pity to those in need; full of anger +against hypocrites, liars, etc. (viii. 44). Christ also reveals +works of God, miracles of mercy. Same, and even greater, power of +working miracles promised to His disciples after His departure. Also +answers to prayer made to the Father in His name. + +So the revelation of the Father shows Him as a loving Person, a +Giver of power, a Hearer of prayer. What more can Philip need? + + =Lesson.= "Thou art coming to a King, + Large petitions with thee bring." + + +"Is that All?" + + A wounded soldier in a hospital was visited by a clergyman, + who saw that his life was fast ebbing out. "Young man," said + he, "you are soon to die; are you saved from sin?" "No, sir," + was the reply; "what must I do?" "'Believe on the Lord Jesus + Christ, and thou shalt be saved.'" "Say that again," said the + soldier. It was repeated. Steadily looking at the minister, the + soldier said, "Is that all?" "Yes, that is all. No man goeth to + the Father but by Him." Closing his eyes for a few moments, the + young soldier opened them again and, raising his right hand, + exclaimed, "Lord Jesus, I surrender." Instantly his face shone + with brightness, and in a few days the new-born soul went home + to God. + + +APRIL 30TH.--=The Comforter Promised.= + +_To read--St. John xiv. 15-27. Golden Text--Ver. 16._ + +Christ continues to comfort and teach His disciples ready for the +time when He must leave them. + +=I. The Comforter= (15-17). See the order in the spiritual life. +First faith to believe in Him (ver. 1), then love to cling to Him, +then obedience to work for Him. He will help them. He must leave +them, but will not forget them. Will send Another to be with them +always--the Comforter. + +_His person._ Divine in nature; equal to the Father and Son (Acts v. +3, 4). + +_His name._ Holy Ghost, or Holy Spirit of God. + +_His work._ To aid Christ's people. How does He do so? By helping +their prayers (Rom. viii. 26). By giving counsel, _e.g._ showing how +to speak to adversaries (St. Matt. x. 19, 20), of which Stephen is +an example (Acts vi. 10). By strengthening their souls to do right; +hence called the Comforter or Strengthener. Also by revealing the +things of God. + +=11. The Result= (18-27). Consolations of Christ's people. _Comfort_ +by His continual presence. _Life_ present and future because of +union with Him. + +=Lessons.= 1. Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. + +2. If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of His. + + +MAY 7TH.--=The Vine and the Branches.= + +_To read--St. John xv. 1-16. Golden Text--Ver. 5._ + +This parable one of two only in this Gospel. Spoken in court of +Temple after leaving Passover Feast. + +=I. The Parable= (1-8). _The Vine_ itself must be good and true, +planted in soil prepared for it. Husbandman places, cares for, and +watches over it. Unfruitful branches must be cut off, fruitful ones +purged--to produce more fruit--dead ones burned. Much fruit redounds +to glory of husbandman. + +_The meaning._ Christ Himself is the true ideal Vine, doing always +such things as please God. The husbandman is God, who placed Him in +the world (iii. 16) and watched over Him (St. Matt. iii. 17). The +branches are believers joined to Him by living faith. Fruit--the +graces of a Christian life. + +What are results of union with Christ the Vine? _Life_ to the +soul from life of Christ. _Fruit_ outward result of inward life. +_Answers_ to prayer. Christ and His people alike heard. _Glory_ to +God the Father. + +=II. Results of Union= (9-16). Metaphor dropped. Christ urges +disciples to continue in His love. Then they will have _full joy_; +_love_ to all arising from love to Him; _friendship_ of Christ as +evidenced by His death for them; _knowledge_ because of revelation +of Father. _Permanence_ of results. + +=Lesson.= Are we truly joined to Christ? What fruit is seen in our +lives? + + +Joy through Faith. + + Bunyan, in "The Pilgrim's Progress," pictures Christiana as + saying to Mercy, "What was the matter that you did laugh in your + sleep last night?" And Mercy said, "But are you sure I laughed?" + When she told her dream, Christiana said, "Laugh, ay, well you + might to see yourself so well." She laughed because she dreamed + that she had been welcomed into glory. To faith this is no + dream. Saved by grace, adopted by the Father, united to the Son, + taught by the Spirit, we have joy in the soul now and a good + hope of glory hereafter. + + +MAY 14TH.--=Christ Betrayed and Arrested.= + +_To read--St. John xviii. 1-14. Golden Text--Is. liii. 3._ + +Christ's hour now come--has finished teachings--must go forth to +die. Path of sorrow to be trod--He does not shrink. + +=I. Christ Betrayed= (1-11). _The place._ The garden or olive +orchard of Gethsemane. Note that Christ went forth of His own will, +knowing all before Him. Also He went not for concealment, but for +prayer. + +_The band._ Judas, His disciple, their leader. A band of Roman +soldiers to prevent a tumult, and officers of the Temple police +supplied by chief priests. Also chief priests and elders, and a +mixed rabble (St. Luke xxii. 52). All had common hatred of Jesus of +Nazareth. + +_The incidents._ Jesus comes forth with His three disciples, +Peter, James, John. He asks, "Whom seek ye?" Soldiers fall back in +surprise. He asks again--they answer. He asks that disciples may +go their way. Request granted; He lost none. St. Peter with sword +wounds Malchus. Christ heals his ear (St. Luke xxii. 51) and rebukes +Peter. Note the forbearance and majesty of Christ; the loving +impetuosity of St. Peter; the malice of Judas and the gratified +hatred of chief priests. + +=II. Christ a Prisoner= (12-14). The soldiers close in. Prisoner +bound because of attempt to rescue. The captain secures Christ, +leads Him to Annas, chief of priests and president of Jewish +Sanhedrim. + +=Lessons.= _From Judas._ Beware of covetousness. + +_From St. Peter._ The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. + +_From Christ._ He loved me and gave Himself for me. What have I +given Him? + + +Christ Loved Best. + + A martyr was going to be burned for Christ's sake. His friends + brought out his wife and young children, and made them kneel in + a long row and ask their father, for their sakes, to deny the + faith and live. But as he kissed them one by one he said, "I + would do anything for your sakes that I might live with you, but + since it is for Christ my Lord's sake, I must tear myself away + even from you." So he went to the stake. + + + + +[Illustration: SHORT ARROWS] + +NOTES OF CHRISTIAN LIFE AND WORK. + + +A Remarkable Church Doorway. + +Clonfert Cathedral, in County Galway, can boast a very remarkable +and ancient doorway, which is regarded as one of the finest +specimens of Hiberno-Romanesque work now in existence. The shafts +and piers present an astonishing variety of decoration; every inch +of its surface has been worked by the sculptor's tool. Above the +rounded archway rises a triangular space filled with many carvings, +while the archway itself consists of several decorated semicircles, +one within the other. Norman and Romanesque porches may be found of +grander proportions; but Brash, in his "Ecclesiastical Architecture +of Ireland," declares that "in point of design and execution" he +had not seen this beautiful porch "excelled by any similar features +in these islands," and specially mentions its beauty of design and +fertility of invention. The Cathedral itself has had a long and +interesting history. It was founded by St. Brendan in the year +558, and suffered greatly from the Danes. It was burnt six times +between 744 and 1179, and was plundered thrice between 949 and +1065. In 1541 it was almost destroyed. Repaired by Bishop Wolley +in 1664, it was subsequently altered and improved to some extent, +but no general work of restoration was done, and consequently it is +in great need of repair. To this work Canon McLarney, the present +rector of Clonfert, has set his hand. Though small, the building is +very beautiful, and is now used as the parish church, the parish of +Clonfert being very large and measuring twenty-seven Irish miles in +circumference. The work of restoration is proceeding in sections +as funds are provided by the public. The chancel has already been +restored, and Canon McLarney hopes to collect a thousand pounds to +complete the work on the nave. One need not leave the British Isles +to see very ancient and interesting structures, and a writer lately +said it would be worth a pilgrimage to Connaught to see Clonfert +doorway alone. + +[Illustration: (_Photo: Mr. A. C. White, Clonskea, Dublin._) + +A TWELFTH-CENTURY DOORWAY.] + + +The Westminster Choir Boys. + +Nowhere in England do the trained voices of a choir seem to +harmonise more perfectly with the surroundings than in Westminster +Abbey. Architecture, as an old German philosopher once described +it, is but "frozen music" after all. The noble anthems that rise +soaring upwards amongst the fluted columns and giant arches, the +hymns of praise that roll through the long aisles seem, as we listen +to the sacred music, not only to give thanks to Him who "made the +earth so bright," but to Him who gave England such men as lie +in the sculptured tombs around us. Not far from the Abbey--some +three minutes' walk, in fact, through Dean's Yard--stands a +tall, red-brick building. It is the choir school, where live the +twenty-four boys of the choir under the headmastership of Mr. +Arthur Hore. To gain admission, a boy must be at least eight years +of age, possessing a good voice and the knowledge of the rudiments +of music; he will also be expected to read and write fairly. His +examination on these points will be conducted by the master of the +choristers, Sir J. Frederick Bridge, or someone appointed by him. If +he passes satisfactorily, he will become a probationer, paying £10 +a year towards his expenses; at the end of three years, however, he +will become a recognised member of the Abbey choir, and no further +charge will be made. The internal arrangements of the choir house +are excellent. On the ground floor are the big class-room and the +dining-room. To see the youngsters attacking a joint of roast beef +is a conclusive proof that the boy who sings like a young seraph +is, nevertheless, far from being the wishy-washy individual that he +is often represented to be in some poems and sentimental novels. On +the second floor is another big class-room containing the school +library. Walter Scott is there, and rows of well-thumbed volumes +of Henty. Many years ago Princess Alice gave a present of books to +the school. For some time they were kept ceremoniously shut up in a +glass case. The present headmaster, however, recognising that the +kind donor would have strongly objected to such a foolish use being +made of the volumes, placed them in the library for general use. On +the third floor are the plain, clean dormitories with their rows of +little iron beds and the regulation striped rugs over all. + +[Illustration: (_Photo: Russell and Sons, Baker Street, W._) + +DR. BRIDGE AND THE WESTMINSTER CHOIR BOYS.] + + +A Chinese Y.M.C.A. + +Amid the discouragements which the recent revolution in Pekin +has occasioned to those concerned in China's welfare--for the +movement in question is manifestly anti-reform, anti-foreign, +and consequently anti-Christian--there are many signs that such +opposition cannot radically hinder this country's enlightenment. +Such a sign is the progress of the Y.M.C.A. movement among Chinese +youths, which is assuming considerable importance, especially in +connection with mission schools. It was found desirable to invite +from America an experienced worker in this department; and though +it will be some time before this gentleman can speak Chinese, +there is no difficulty in the matter of interpreters, native or +foreign. Yesterday in our large Shanghai mission church--says a +correspondent--there were gathered 200 Chinese boy-scholars from +various mission stations in and near Shanghai, all of whom were +either members of the local Y.M.C.A. or willing to join it. Earnest +addresses were given and prayers offered, both in English and +Chinese, the English addresses being admirably translated by a +Christian Chinaman; while the bright hymn-singing of these strong +young voices was a delightful sound. At the close of the morning +meeting papers were distributed to the boys containing questions to +be answered in writing, and a form, of Christian engagement to be +signed. At the afternoon service many of these were returned most +satisfactorily and intelligently filled in. Such assemblies have +recently been held with much interest and zeal, and apparently solid +results, at Nanking and other centres of missionary work. + + +The "Metal Man." + +At Tramore, near Waterford, a place where the Atlantic breakers +dash with sublime fury against the rocks, there are on one of the +headlands three towers, and on the middle one stands what is called +"The Metal Man." This is a figure made of metal, and painted to +resemble a sailor. With his finger he points to some very dangerous +rocks that are to be shunned. There are rocks in life's troublesome +sea that are ready to shipwreck the bodies and souls of the young. +These we should point out to them with as much diligence as does the +metal man when God has saved us from being shipwrecked upon them. + +[Illustration: (_Photo: A. H. Poole and Co., Waterford._) + +THE "METAL MAN," TRAMORE.] + + +A Saint's Rest. + +Richard Baxter was all his long life physically weak, and for +fourteen years had scarcely a waking hour free from pain. He felt +himself continually "at the door of eternity." At the close of his +life he said, "Weakness and pain helped me to study how to die; I am +going now to see that for which I have lived and studied." His death +was a fitting end to a life of pain and patience--a fulfilment of +his own words: "After the rough and tempestuous day we shall at last +have the quiet, silent night--light and rest together; the quietness +of the night without its gloom." + + +The Quiver Pictures. + +The six beautiful plates which the readers of THE QUIVER have the +opportunity of acquiring, and the last coupon for which is contained +in this number, are representative examples of the work of some +of the most notable exponents of sacred art among modern British +painters. The names of Leighton and Millais are now familiar in +every household, and great interest attaches to the works from +their hands included in this series of pictures. "The Star of +Bethlehem," by Lord Leighton, was painted in 1862, when the artist +was thirty-two years of age, and four years before his election +as Associate of the Royal Academy. The main figure represents one +of the magi on the terrace of his house, gazing at the miraculous +light which led him and his fellows to search out Him, "who was +born King of the Jews." "Christ in the House of His Parents" is one +of the most wonderful pictures painted by Sir John Millais. It was +exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1850, when the artist was but +twenty years of age, and, as related in the article on "Pictorial +Sermons" in our last number, aroused a storm of discussion among +the critics. The work is a veritable parable in paint, and, as its +allegories are all fully explained in the article referred to, we +need not repeat them here. The picture has great interest, apart +from this, as being one of the best specimens of the work of the +artist's Pre-Raphaelite period. "Christ Washing Peter's Feet," by +Ford Madox Brown, which was presented to the nation by a body of +subscribers; and now hangs in the Tate Gallery at Millbank, is a +typical painting, and one of the most beautiful examples of this +artist's work. Exquisite in colour, it is a perfect specimen of what +a picture dealing with a sacred subject should be. Full of reverence +and piety, it yet illustrates the subject fully; the rugged figure +of the apostle, expressing withal the penitence produced by the +rebuking words, "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me," +contrasts strongly with the humility of the Master kneeling to +His self-imposed task. "The Remorse of Judas," by the late Edward +Armitage, R.A., is another picture to be seen at Millbank, and is, +perhaps, one of the strongest works produced by this artist. The +terror of remorse is expressed in every line of the face of the +betrayer, while the cold indifference of the priests, now that their +work is accomplished, is admirably portrayed. "The Raising of the +Widow's Son of Nain," by W. C. T. Dobson, R.A., was shown at the +Academy in 1868, and fully explains itself. The joy of the mother +and the surprise of the beholders of the miracle are well rendered; +but the main interest of the picture, of course, centres in the +boy. His gaze is fixed upon Him whose voice has recalled him from +the "valley of the shadow." The last picture of the series, by W. +Dyce, R.A., was recently added to the national collection, and was +removed from Trafalgar Square to Millbank when the new gallery was +completed. It represents the Apostle John taking Mary to his own +home after the death of their Lord. Mary carries on her arm the +crown of thorns, and in the background may be seen Nicodemus and +Joseph of Arimathea, who are just leaving the garden which contains +the sepulchre. Mary Magdalene and the "other Mary" are seen seated +at the mouth of the grave. The picture was painted in 1860. + + +Public Charity. + +According to a recent calculation, the amount given during +the previous year by Churchmen towards Christian work of all +kinds, such as Church Building, Home Missions, Foreign Missions, +Education, etc., was over £5,750,000. The various Presbyterian +Churches contributed during the same time for similar work a sum of +£1,600,000, and the Wesleyans gave over £500,000; the Calvinistic +Methodists about £228,500; the Baptists over £200,000; and the +Primitive Methodists over £100,000. Of the Congregationalists and +the "Friends" no such statistics are available, and it is estimated +that other branches of the Christian Church in England gave an +aggregate of not less than £150,000 towards the same work. Generally +speaking, all the different bodies contribute in a fairly equal +proportion, directly or indirectly, to the different kinds of +Christian work--at any rate, sufficiently so for the comparison we +wish to make here. So, taking the Church of England's returns as +our standard, we find that these proportions are nearly as follows, +1 being our unit:--Church Building and Repairs, 35; Home Missions, +7; Foreign Missions, 10; Educational Work of all kinds, 20; various +Charitable Works of other kinds, 6. + +[Illustration: DIAGRAM ILLUSTRATING PUBLIC CHARITY.] + + _The church_ (1) _represents the money spent in building + places of worship._ + _The mission room_ (2) " " " _home mission work._ + _The native hut_ (3) " " " _foreign + mission work._ + _The school_ (4) " " " _educational work._ + _The hall_ (5) " " " _other general + charitable work._ + + +A New Quiver Heroine. + +The latest recipient of the Bronze Medal of THE QUIVER Heroes Fund +is Annie Healand, a servant in the employ of Mr. Frederick Latham, +of Sledmere. On the afternoon of January 28th last, two little boys +and a girl were suddenly immersed beneath the ice whilst sliding +on a pond. On hearing of this, Annie Healand, who is herself but +fifteen years of age, immediately rushed to the rescue, and, +plunging in, succeeded in bringing the little girl to the bank. She +then endeavoured to find the two boys, who were still under the ice, +but was at last reluctantly compelled to give up the search, through +being overcome by the intense cold. The bodies of the lads were +afterwards found, and the coroner congratulated the brave girl for +the very plucky manner in which she had rescued one of the party and +attempted to save the others. + + +International League of Peace. + +We are still daily receiving the names of numbers of new members, +and one roll of signatures which has just come to hand measures +thirty feet in length. Any number of blank forms will be gladly +sent, post free, to those requiring them. We may take this +opportunity of announcing that the first member to send in a +thousand signatures is Mr. John N. Munro, of 50, Park Road, Glasgow, +to whom a cheque for Ten Pounds has been sent, in accordance with +our offer. + + + + +ROLL OF HONOUR FOR SUNDAY-SCHOOL WORKERS. + +The =Special Silver Medal= and =Presentation Bible= offered for the +longest known Sunday-school service in the county of =Devonshire= +(for which applications were invited up to February 28th, 1899) have +been gained by + + LOUISA JANE LARGE, + Cross Street, Northam, Bideford, + +who has distinguished herself by =sixty-two= complete years' service +in Northam Church Sunday School. + +As already announced, the next territorial county for which claims +are invited for the Silver Medal is + + KENT, + +and applications, on the special form, must be received on or before +March 30th, 1899. We may add that =Cheshire= is the following county +selected, the date-limit for claims in that case being April 30th, +1899. This county, in its turn, will be followed by the territorial +county of =Somersetshire=, for which the date will be one month +later--viz. May 31st, 1899. + + +AN INTERESTING LETTER. + +The following letter, received from the Devonshire Silver Medallist, +of whom particulars are given above, will doubtless be interesting +to all our readers, and especially to Sunday school workers:-- + + "In sending the enclosed certificates I should like to add that + I began my career as a Sunday school teacher at the age of ten, + with a class of four little girls, and proud enough I was. That + was some time in the year 1836. From that date to the present + (1899), I have been teaching continuously in the same school, + except when occasional illness or absence from home for a few + Sundays made a break. I am now teaching the grandchildren of + former scholars. Many changes have I seen; such a difference + in the teaching and general management of Sunday schools since + 1836! Only two or three individuals are now living who were with + us when I began my work." + + +THE QUIVER FUNDS. + +The following is a list of contributions received from February +1st, 1899, up to and including February 28th, 1899. Subscriptions +received after this date will be acknowledged next month:-- + + For _"The Quiver" Waifs' Fund_: J. J. E. (135th donation), + 5s.; Anglo-Indian, 5s.; M. R. B., Ipswich, 4s. 2d.; C. E. H., + 3s. 6d.; A Glasgow Mother (105th donation), 1s.; E. A. W., + Petersfield, 2s. 6d. + + For _Dr. Barnardo's Homes_: An Irish Girl, £1; E. J. L., + Glenageary, 10s.; X. J., 10s. 6d. The following amounts have + been sent direct:--A Well-Wisher, £2; Lila Noel, £1; G. C., 8s.; + P. P. O., 5s.; Ruth L., £1. + + For _The Hospital for Women_: A Thank-Offering, 1s. + + For _The Leper's Mission Fund_: Two Jersey QUIVER Readers, 4s. + 6d. + + + + +[Illustration: decorative] + +THE QUIVER BIBLE CLASS. + +(BASED ON THE INTERNATIONAL SCRIPTURE LESSONS.) + + +QUESTIONS. + +61. What did our Lord do as a rebuke to His Apostles when they +disputed among themselves as to who should be the greatest? + +62. In the discourse at the Last Supper, what did our Lord say is to +be the distinctive mark of all His disciples? Quote passage. + +63. In what words did Jesus warn St. Peter of the temptation which +awaited him? + +64. By what promise did our Lord seek to comfort His Apostles on the +eve of His crucifixion? + +65. Which of the Apostles seems to have been very slow in +comprehending the divinity of our Lord? + +66. Quote some words from our Lord's answer to St. Philip in which +He clearly declares His Godhead? + +67. What does our Lord say is the true test of our love to Him? + +68. What is the great blessing Christ gives as the result of the +influence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts? + +69. What is the general purport of our Lord's parable of the Vine? + +70. What does our Lord give as the greatest proof of true love? + +71. What was the position of the garden of Gethsemane? + +72. From what circumstances do we gather that the Jews expected +great difficulty in arresting our blessed Lord? + + +ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ON PAGE 480. + +49. In the parable of the Sheepfold our Lord speaks of a porter who +had charge of the door, and of a thief climbing over a fence (St. +John x. 1-3). + +50. St. John x. 9. + +51. Our Lord speaks of Himself as the Good Shepherd, who giveth His +life for the sheep, while the Jewish teachers, as hirelings, cared +not for them (St. John x. 11-14). + +52. St. John vii. 15. + +53. St. John v. 39. + +54. Turning the water into wine and healing the nobleman's son (St. +John ii. 1-11 and iv. 46-54). + +55. The fact that the body had been buried three days. + +56. That it was done to increase the faith of the Apostles by +showing them that there was no limitation to the power of Christ +(St. John xi. 15). + +57. So many Jews believed in Christ that the chief priests thought +of killing Lazarus as well as Jesus (St. John xi. 47-53 and xii. 10, +11). + +58. Because it would seem that Martha was hostess at the house of +Simon the Leper, where Mary, her sister, anointed our Lord with the +precious ointment of spikenard (compare St. John xii. 1-3 with St. +Mark xiv. 3). + +59. St. John tells us that Judas Iscariot acted as treasurer for our +Lord and His disciples, but that he was a thief (St. John xii. 6 and +xiii. 29). + +60. Caiaphas prophesied that Jesus should die (St. John xi. 39). + + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's note: + +Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + +Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold=). + +Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals. + +Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. +Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as +printed. + +Missing page numbers are page numbers that were not shown in the +original text. + +Mismatched quotes are not fixed if it’s not sufficiently clear where +the missing quote should be placed. + +The cover for the eBook version of this book was created by the +transcriber and is placed in the public domain. + +The hymns are handwritten on pages 483, 534, 535 and 536. There are +handwritten signatures by Arthur H. Brown on page 536, and John +Stainer on page 538. + +Page 508 and following: The chapter titles in the section "For the +Sake of the Child" are in handwritten script. + +Page 559: "in the evening--Nos. 500 and 532--and"--the number 500 is +unclear. + +Page 560: "must be obtained from the office, 36,"--the number 36 is +unclear. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Quiver, by Anonymous + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43658 *** |