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[Illustration: THE HEIRLOOM

_From the Drawing by_ M. L. GOW, R.I.]




A DAY IN DAMASCUS.


It was only just over a fortnight since we left England--according
to the calendar, that is to say; but that way of reckoning time
seems to me as misleading as the common method of £ s. d. in
computing alms. Two days' weary railway travel to Marseilles after
crossing the Channel, two days of smooth sailing to the Straits
of Messina, then two of tossing "in Adria," till we ran under the
lee of Crete; one spent in plunging along its southern shores,
followed by a bright, warm day which brought us to the coast of
Egypt (only to learn that if we entered the longed-for haven of
Alexandria we should be subject to five days' quarantine at our
next port); a tiresome day's run across this most choppy corner of
the Mediterranean to Jaffa, and a landing there through the surf
on a glorious morning, which made up for everything, and plunged
us straight into the midst of Eastern life, with all its warmth of
colouring to eye and ear; three hours' run by rail to Jerusalem,
and five days there and thereabouts, almost bewildering us with a
constant succession of scenes half-novel and half-familiar; another
railway journey back to Jaffa, a pleasant run along the coast of
Palestine to Beirut, and a day spent there. All this lay between
England and Beirut as we finished an early breakfast on a February
morning, and drove to the railway station through the busy streets
of Beirut, full of picturesque life, and yet much more European than
those of other Syrian towns. Our driver stopped on the way, somewhat
to our amusement, to light his cigarette from a friend's!

[Illustration: WALL FROM WHICH ST. PAUL ESCAPED, DAMASCUS.

(_Photo: Bonfils._) ]

This railway line is a new one, due to French enterprise, and was
opened in August, 1895. The Lebanon district owes much to the
French. We were a party of seventy, and had chartered a special
train. The distance is only about ninety miles; it seemed almost
impossible that the journey should take nine hours, as we were told;
but there are more than a score of stations, and at each one the
train (even a special) stops for several minutes--by order of the
Government, we heard. And, more than that, the line passes right
over Libanus and Anti-Libanus, reaching a point some 5,000 feet up,
where the coast of Cyprus comes in sight over the blue waters of the
Mediterranean; while, as one journeys east, the snowy top of Hermon
stands out against the sky away to the south. A system of cogs and
several reversings of the engine carried us high into the mountains
in a very short time. Beirut was left far below, and we were among
the snows, glad of the rugs and thick overcoats which wisdom (not
our own) had advised us to bring; glad, too, by mid-day of the lunch
we had brought with us. Even in the midst of the grandest scenery
we were vulgarly hungry, and rather sleepy when we felt the rare
atmosphere. After a time, the scene changed: we were in Coele-Syria,
among mulberries and vineyards, from which comes Lebanon wine. Here
and there were mud villages, with picturesque groups of natives and
cattle. We were the first large English party to pass over the line;
and at one station a red-robed Syrian, who had served in a London
milliner's years ago, asked eagerly for an English newspaper, to
know what was going on in Constantinople! He got one from us about
a fortnight old; we had none later. Elsewhere the natives were
wondrously pleased to see some of our party playing at leapfrog
during the stops.

[Illustration: DETAIL OF THE CARVED WORK IN A JEWISH HOUSE.

(_Photo: Bonfils._)]

Over the hills the _diligence_ road runs for the most part near
the railway, and here and there we saw strings of mules winding
along above us. We passed Anti-Libanus at an altitude of 4,000 feet
above the sea, and at Zebdany entered the valley of the Barada (the
ancient Abana), which we followed the remaining twenty-four miles to
Damascus. Here and there are short tunnels or cuttings, and almost
everywhere splendid cliffs, sometimes cavernous, and rich valleys
with orchards and olive-trees.

About nightfall we ran into Damascus, and were driven to the Hotel
Besraoui: we were getting used by this time to the apparently
reckless manners of the Oriental driver. There are large barracks
close to the station: the Government put them up when the railway
was made, as a measure of political prudence. At Zahleh, the
half-way station, whence runs the road to Baalbek, we had seen
trucks full of Turkish soldiers returning from the Haurân, where
the Druses had been giving trouble; in fact, the first train
chartered for our party at Beirut was taken for military purposes by
the Government officials, so we understood, leaving us to wait till
the next morning! And now we found troops bivouacked along the road
by which we left the station for our hotel. They are good soldiers,
these Turks, and not bad fellows, from what I have heard; but
unpaid, unclad, unfed, many of them, we were told, had died under
their hardships.

Arrived at the hotel, we passed through the entrance hall into an
open central court, where a fountain was playing in the midst of
leafy trees. By the stairs and balconies surrounding it we mounted
to our bedrooms. The hotel was a new and a large one, but the almost
unexpected incursion of a party of seventy taxed the resources
of the kitchen somewhat heavily. It was not till breakfast-time,
however, that this appeared: the Damascenes had evidently thought
it a good opportunity to get rid of stores of eggs which had passed
the first bloom of freshness. But there was no other ground of
complaint. A large staff of native waiters had been drafted in to
attend us in the large chilly dining saloon--for we were out of "the
season." Before leaving the dinner-table we were warned that if
anyone ventured into the streets he must, by law, carry a lantern;
but that, as the city was full of soldiers, and a good deal of
excitement prevailed--a number of Druse prisoners being expected--we
had better stay indoors. There was not much temptation to do
otherwise after a weary day's travel beyond stepping into the street
to look up at the brilliant stars sparkling in the cold night, as
they must have done to the eyes of patriarchs and perhaps of Magi,
of Naaman and of Omar. And in the drawing-room there had actually
been lighted a real fire--a rare luxury in Syria and Palestine. Of
course, one must send some postcards to friends at home--it is not
every day you can date a letter from Damascus--and there is always
a diary waiting to be "written up"; but it was not long before we
drifted bedwards, to sleep for the first time in perhaps the most
ancient city in the world.

[Illustration: THE STREET CALLED "STRAIGHT."

(_Photo: Bonfils._)]

Bright and early next morning we were at breakfast, and then
scattered in groups to walk or drive about the city and its suburbs.
It was still cold, and the natives needed the heat of the sun to
"expand" them; but it was pleasant to drive along the banks of the
Abana, which flows through the city, and feel that one was on the
extreme verge of modern civilisation. Entering "the street which
is called Straight," which traverses Damascus from west to east,
we drove slowly along, noticing the busy, prosperous look of the
city. There were not the crowds of beggars and pilgrims to be seen
in some quarters of Jerusalem. Above us were latticed windows, like
those through which, elsewhere, the mother of Sisera once looked;
and we saw bronze-work in progress, and great hanks of unspun silk,
representing two of the staple trades of Damascus.

[Illustration: VIEW OF DAMASCUS FROM THE FORTRESS.

(_Photo: Bonfils._)]

We visited two houses, the first that of Shemaiah, a wealthy banker,
who was ruined by lending money to the Turkish Government. We
noticed imitations of living birds among the beautiful carved work
on the walls of the magnificent room into which we were conducted.
The house is a typical Eastern mansion, but it is now unoccupied.
Our second visit, through a narrow and not very clean alley in
the Christian Quarter, was to the traditional "House of Ananias."
Oblivious of the historic record that St. Paul lodged in the house
of Judas, in the street called Straight, and was visited there
by Ananias, local tradition shows the cave in which the meeting
took place in Ananias' house! We have to be satisfied, as in the
case of many traditional sacred sites, with the reflection, "It
was somewhere near here"; but as we continued our drive through
"Straight" Street we read St. Luke's account of that journey to
Damascus, and the events which were the means of changing the pupil
of Gamaliel into the Apostle of the Gentiles. We were reminded of
him again as we passed out of the triple East Gate. Its central arch
is now built up, as well as one of the side ones; but by this, quite
possibly, Saul was actually led in his blindness into the city. Not
far away is pointed out the window by which he was let down. The
house is in reality a modern one, but there are many examples round
us of the kind of place in the "houses on the wall," which seem
quite a feature of the city.

[Illustration: THE MARKET, DAMASCUS.

(_Photo: Bonfils._)]

But Damascus has other associations, and we have to visit "the
house of Naaman," not many yards away. The traditional site is now
suitably occupied by a leper hospital; and about its gateway we can
see unhappy creatures in various stages of this living death. As we
drove away, we read the story of Naaman, and opportunely noticed, if
not a mule, at least an ass, with a "burden of earth," illustrating
the Syrian's request for material to build an altar to Jehovah.

Pursuing our way through the suburbs, we found the roads more and
more thronged with a motley Eastern crowd. It was Friday, the
Mahometan Sabbath, which is, to some extent, a festal day; and,
further, 600 Druse prisoners were rumoured to be coming in, and
house-tops as well as streets were occupied by would-be spectators.

A considerable force of troops, armed _cap-à-pie_ for active
service, passed us, probably on the way to the Haurân; and what with
them, and the camels, and the crowds, our drivers thought it well to
turn back, instead of going any further--as, I think, was proposed
to do--in the direction of the traditional site of St. Paul's
conversion. So, returning through the city by a different route, we
drove, past the Abana once more, to the heights of Salahiyeh away
to the north-west. From thence there is a fine view of the "Pearl
of the East," which lies, as is sometimes said, "like a spoon in
the salad," the handle being the long straggling suburb which has
grown up along the line of march by which Mecca pilgrims leave the
city year by year. The resemblance was less striking to us than it
would have been a month or two later, when the leafy springtime had
clothed in green the broad expanse of trees, spreading around the
minarets and domes and flat-roofed houses of the city. Snow-capped
Hermon stood out quite clear to the west; and towards the east were
pointed out the Meadow lakes, in which the "rivers of Damascus"
lose themselves; and we knew--if we could not clearly see--that,
beyond the limits of the oasis of which the city is the centre, the
wide desert stretched away several weary days' ride to Palmyra. The
site of St. Paul's conversion was pointed out in the distance; and,
nearer at hand, the new barracks, and in the city itself, the ruins
of the Great Mosque, once the glory of Damascus, destroyed by fire a
few years ago.

From some such point as this Mahomet gazed upon this "earthly
paradise," fair indeed to eyes accustomed to the dreary desert;
and, declaring that man could not have his heaven both here and
hereafter, refused to enter the city. By the time we were in our
hotel once more, it was the hour for lunch; and, that over, a
party sallied forth on foot to visit the Bazaars. All the Western
associations of this word must be banished from the mind, before one
can call up a picture of the thing as it is in Cairo or Jerusalem,
or, most picturesque of all, in Damascus. The "streets," which Ahab
won the Israelites the privilege of making in this city, were, I
suppose, nothing else than bazaars. According to time-honoured
custom, we have here a classification by trades: silversmiths,
leather-merchants, silk-merchants, brass-workers, shoemakers,
sellers of "Turkish delight," and other sweets, vendors of inlaid
work and so on, all have their well-known places. Lofty arcades
cover some of the rows of little open shops, with no door but a net,
drawn across the front during its owner's absence. The shopkeepers
themselves seem to come out of the "Arabian Nights"; so does
the stream of passengers on foot or horseback, or with mules or
donkeys, or even in carriages, passing through these busy scenes of
traffic. On our way thither, we stopped for a moment to admire the
"Plane-tree of Omar," the growth, according to tradition, of the
staff which the prophet's brother planted here. It is a grand old
tree.

Our dragoman undertook to do our shopping for us, but the sad
experience we gained suggested (to say the least of it) that in such
cases there is an understanding between him and the dealers not
always to the advantage of the buyer.

As to the Eastern method of trade, it is, more or less, the same
everywhere, with few exceptions. You ask the price of the article;
the shopman names a figure at least twice its value; you turn away,
but, relenting, offer him a fraction of what he asks; he shrugs his
shoulders, raises his eyebrows, and probably extends his hands,
intimating that he would be ruined; you turn away again; he follows
you; you express utter indifference, but, at length, repeat your
offer, and, when this haggling has gone on long enough, carry off
your purchase for the nearest approach you can get to its real
value. I have heard of a bargain going on for a week! What between
ignorance of the language, ignorance of the coinage, and ignorance
of the value of the article, shopping in Damascus is venturesome
work for travellers. With such purchases as we had secured, we
wended our way homeward.

Some of our party invited friends engaged in missionary work
in the city to dine with us, and from them we gathered many
interesting scraps of information about the life and work of British
missionaries under the Turkish flag. As to political events, even in
their immediate neighbourhood, our friends told us they knew less
than folks at home, and had to wait for the London papers to know
the facts. As regarded personal danger, they went quietly on with
their work, and the recent storm seemed to have pretty well blown
over.

After dinner the entrance-hall was full of merchants, eager to
dispose of their wares--silver and silk, antiques, such as daggers
and swords, and so on. I think they drove a pretty brisk trade.

[Illustration: INTERIOR OF THE ENGLISH CONSUL'S HOUSE AT DAMASCUS.

(_Photo: Bonfils._)]

The open court soon presented another attraction. We were favoured
there with two exhibitions of Damascene physical prowess. A pair of
wrestlers, after baring themselves to the waist and greasing their
bodies plentifully enough to suit Homer himself, displayed their
skill to their own satisfaction; and a pair of doughty swordsmen
engaged in a desperate combat, in which shouting and stamping seemed
to bear an important part. They were certainly very careful not to
hurt each other, only delivering in turn careful blows to be parried
by the opponent's little shield, and then spinning round with the
force of the blow to begin a new series of feints and shoutings and
stamping. It was not a thrilling spectacle, though, of course, the
surroundings gave it a certain interest. So our day in Damascus drew
to its close, and we must be ready for an early start to-morrow.

A glorious morning saw us betimes at the railway station, where some
of our friends from home came to see us off. About nine the train
steamed away; up the valley, over the mountains, into the clouds and
the snow, till the blue waves of the Mediterranean came in sight
once more; then down, down, down the steep descent, till we ran just
ere nightfall into Beirut.




[Illustration: GREAT ANNIVERSARIES]

GREAT ANNIVERSARIESS

_IN JANUARY._

By the Rev. A. R. Buckland, M.A., Morning Preacher at the Foundling
Hospital.


The month of January brings around one anniversary which, of late,
has been much in the minds of the British people. On January 26th,
1885, General Gordon was slain at Khartoum. Born at Woolwich in
1833, he had seen an extraordinary variety of service when he was
sent to withdraw the garrisons shut up in the Soudan. It is needless
to recall the circumstances of his gallant resistance in Khartoum,
and of the noble valour shown in the unsuccessful endeavour to
relieve him. The annals of the Empire can present to us men whose
careers have been no less varied than that of Gordon, and soldiers
whose piety has been as deep. Yet few of them have ever touched the
public imagination as did the man who faced his death at Khartoum
fourteen years ago.

[Illustration: FOX'S MONUMENT IN THE ABBEY.

(_Photo: York and Son, Notting Hill, W._)]

The anniversaries of December brought together two rival statesmen
of the first rank; so do the anniversaries of this present month.
On January 24th, 1749, Charles James Fox was born. On January 23rd,
1806, his rival, William Pitt, died. They passed away within a few
months of each other, and lie together in Westminster Abbey, hard by
the scene of their many struggles.

[Illustration: WILLIAM CHILLINGWORTH.]

To the month of January belongs Francis Bacon, who was born on the
22nd. Posterity finds it an unpleasant task to join in the same
thoughts the man who deserted his friends in the hour of their
need, and used the highest office for the base ends of personal and
financial aggrandisement, and the man who wrote the "Advancement of
Learning" and the "Novum Organum." But Francis Bacon is not the only
person whose practice has not always squared with the principles he
taught to others. He died at Highgate in 1626.

To the same month belongs another philosopher, George Berkeley,
Bishop of Cloyne. Born in 1685, he is remembered mainly for the
system of philosophy associated with his name, which treats the
exterior material world as existing only in the mind. Few now
think of him as one of the first to feel deeply interested in the
spiritual necessities of the heathen. He was the originator of a
project for converting the savages of America through the agency of
a college to be established at Bermuda.

"The Bible only is the religion of Protestants." The author of
this oft-quoted and often misinterpreted saying was William
Chillingworth, who died on January 30th, 1644. The sentence comes
from his chief work, "The Religion of Protestants a Safe Way to
Salvation." Chillingworth, who was born in 1602, and educated at
Oxford, fell under the influence of Fisher, Laud's great opponent in
the controversy with Rome, and was received into the Roman Church.
But his mind was soon unsettled again, and Laud, his godfather,
brought him back once more to the Church of England. He returned
to Oxford, and gave himself to the defence of Protestantism.
Chillingworth was a devoted Royalist, and saw service on the King's
side in the Civil War. He died at Chichester, and was buried in the
cathedral.

A contemporary of Chillingworth, born on January 25th, 1627,
deserves also to be remembered in this place. Robert Boyle was
the son of the great Earl of Cork, a conspicuous figure in the
Stuart times. Educated at Eton, he settled down at Stalbridge in
Dorsetshire to the study of natural philosophy. He found a place
amongst the chief men of science of his day, and became one of
the originators of the Royal Society. His foundation of the Boyle
Lectures "for proving the Christian religion against Atheists,
Deists, Pagans, Jews, and Mohammedans," was a witness, no doubt, to
the mental struggles through which he himself had passed. He was,
however, an active layman, full of good works, and one of the early
friends of foreign missions. Boyle died in 1691, and was buried in
Westminster Abbey.

[Illustration: SIR SIDNEY WATERLOW.

(_Photo: Walery, Ltd., Regent Street, W._)]

On the thirteenth of the month, in the year 1838, died Lord
Chancellor Eldon. He was one of a family of sixteen, the son of
a Newcastle coal-fitter. He also might have been a coal-fitter,
but his elder brother was at Oxford, on the way to becoming Lord
Stowell. To him John Scott was sent, and the younger son, like the
elder, used his Oxford chances well. He made a runaway marriage,
and at one time seemed likely to take holy orders; but, helped by
their parents, the young couple came to London. John Scott, after
some waiting, made his mark in the Court of Chancery, and then went
steadily on to the Woolsack. In politics, an unbending Tory, he
distrusted all reform. But he was a good lawyer, though harassed by
a capacity for doubting and the love of an "if."

[Illustration: DR. JAMES WAKLEY.

(_Photo: Barraud, Oxford Street, W._)]

To the month of January belongs the establishment of the Hospital
Sunday Fund. From the year 1869 to the year 1872 the late Dr. James
Wakley, editor of the _Lancet_, urged the establishment of such a
fund; but it was not until January 16th, 1873, that the meeting
which gave birth to the movement was held in the Mansion House. Sir
Sidney Waterlow was Lord Mayor that year, and he became the first
treasurer and president of the fund.

There are several anniversaries in the month of January which have a
peculiar interest for the supporters of foreign missions. On January
16th, 1736, the Rev. John Wesley was appointed by the Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel a missionary for Georgia. On January
9th, 1752, the Rev. T. Thompson, the first missionary sent to West
Africa, landed at Fort Gambia. On January 1st, 1861, the heroic
Bishop C. F. Mackenzie was consecrated in the cathedral at Capetown,
the first bishop for Central Africa. There is no more pathetic story
in the history of foreign missions than the account of his short
episcopate. He was the first bishop consecrated in the Colonies for
a region outside the limits of the British Empire.

[Illustration: BISHOP MACKENZIE.]




[Illustration: PLEDGED]

PLEDGED

By Katharine Tynan, Author of "A Daughter of Erin," Etc.




CHAPTER VII.

MOTHER AND SON.


"I have bad news for you, Anthony," said Lady Jane Trevithick, when
the butler had at last closed the door behind him, and mother and
son were left together.

"Not very bad, I trust, mother?"

"It is about your poor Uncle Wilton. I did not bother you with it
till you had had your dinner. He is ill."

"Ill? What's the matter with him?"

"A very serious collapse, I'm afraid. The last letter said he was
unconscious. You'll have to go to him, Anthony, I suppose."

"His state is not dangerous? Surely not, or you would not have
delayed about telling me?"

"There is no immediate fear," said Lady Jane coldly. "I have only
known of his illness a few days. If you had not been coming, I
should have wired to you, of course. But since you were coming, I
didn't see the use of it. The doctor said that everything was being
done."

"Poor old Uncle Wilton. He is alone and ill, then?"

"He is always alone, so I do not see that that fact adds anything to
his being ill."

"Of course, I must go to him. I didn't want to, though. Not just
now."

He looked up at his mother's handsome face, almost as though he
longed to find some tenderness in it; but there was none. Lady Jane,
a superb figure in her brocade and diamonds, was calmly waving her
fan to and fro, as if no such things as illness or loneliness or
death existed in the world.

"You won't rush away, headlong? You can spare a day or two to
me--and to Kitty?" She smiled frostily. "Kitty has been looking
forward to your coming, Anthony."

"It is very good of Lady Kitty," he said, contracting his eyebrows
in a frown. "She is still with you, then?"

"She is good enough to brighten up my loneliness, dear child. I
don't know what I should do without Kitty."

"You seem to get on well together."

Again his fingers drummed impatiently.

"She is a dear child to me," said Lady Jane, her face becoming
almost warm. "I wish she had been my daughter, really."

"You would rather have her than your son, mother?"

"You have never given me any trouble, Anthony, but you are more your
father's child than mine."

"Some women would have loved me all the more," said the boy, again
frowning heavily.

He took a cigar and lit it. Then he said, with apparent
carelessness--

"It was good of Lady Kitty to go out to-night. I suppose she thought
we would have things to talk about after nearly six months of
absence."

"Oh, dear, no," said the mother. "It was an old engagement, that was
all. Kitty knows I'm not sentimental."

"Except where she is concerned."

"I shall think you are jealous, Anthony," and as she spoke the
half-softened expression momentarily lit her face.

"Of whom, mother?"

"Not of your mother, Anthony."

The young man again made an impatient movement.

"You are not interested in my six months of absence."

"Among savages, my poor Anthony."

"They are not the least bit in the world savages, mother. They are
very charming people."

"I daresay, but who are _they_?"

"Mr. Graydon--and his family."

"Oh, I didn't know he had a family. Of course, he was married
before he sold out. He married beneath him. It was something rather
disgraceful, I think. Afterwards--he went under."

"I am sure he did nothing disgraceful, mother. He would be no more
capable of it than--my father. Besides, I have seen Mrs. Graydon's
picture; it hangs over his study mantelpiece. She was a lovely young
woman, and very distinctly a lady."

Lady Jane yawned.

"Indeed! I am not interested in Mr. Graydon's family affairs. I know
he married beneath him."

"Mother, why do you detest Graydon so much?"

At the point-blank question a dark flush rose to Lady Jane's cheek.

"I am not aware that I detest him. You are like your father, always
making absurd friendships, and jumping to absurd conclusions."

"I am glad to be like my father."

She said nothing, and he went on, "Yes, of course, I must go to
uncle at once. If I go to Liverpool to-morrow night, I should get a
boat on Thursday. Yet I did not want to go now."

His mother glanced over her shoulder at him. There was an expectancy
in her face which brightened and softened it.

"No, surely. Why, you haven't yet even seen Kitty. She will be vexed
that she was out."

"I wasn't thinking of Lady Kitty."

"Oh!" and her face stiffened again. "I don't profess to understand
the young men of the present generation."

"Mother," said the young man--and he blushed like a girl--"tell me
plainly: how much truth is there in what you are always suggesting,
that Lady Kitty's affections are involved where I am concerned?"

"What do you mean, Anthony? It is a question you should ask Kitty
yourself. You are not afraid of the answer, surely?"

"I hope she cares nothing for me."

"You _hope_!" cried Lady Jane incredulously.

"Yes," said her son doggedly. "It is a disgustingly foppish thing
for a man to have to say; but I hope it----"

"Are you mad, Anthony?"

"Not that I know, mother. You have always suggested a marriage
between us, and have behaved as if there were some such
understanding, but it has been entirely your doing. I was a young
idiot not to have put my foot on it long ago, but worse than that I
have not been."

"You will not dare to play with Kitty."

His mother had stood up and faced him, and her eyes blazed at him.

"I play with no lady," said her son, meeting her glance steadily. "I
have fetched and carried for Kitty, because she was always here, and
a woman--and young and pretty perhaps; I have never said a word of
love to her."

"You have allowed it to be understood; and if you play her false
now, you will kill her. You know how delicate she is. She is dearer
to me than you are, ten thousand times over."

The young man bowed stiffly.

"I daresay, but that is no reason why you should persuade me that
your will is, or has been, or ever will be, mine."

"Kitty's money would make you very rich."

"That would be the last reason, mother."

"If you brought me Kitty for a daughter, I should love you."

"I have grown used to doing without your love."

Her eyes blazed at him again.

"There is someone else, I suppose?"

"There is someone else," he repeated after her.

"Not someone you have met over there?"

"Yes."

"I thought ill would come of it; but you cared no more for my wishes
than your father before you. Who is it?"

"I am sorry you are so bitter, mother. It is Mr. Graydon's daughter."

"Archibald Graydon's daughter!"

She put her hand to her throat with an hysterical gesture which he
had never before observed in her. Her face was livid with anger, and
for a moment its expression shocked him.

"You are going to jilt my Kitty for that man's daughter!" she cried,
when she had recovered her power of speech.

"There is no question of jilting Lady Kitty," he answered steadily.
"But I am certainly going to marry Mr. Graydon's daughter, Pamela."

"Some wild savage."

"A beautiful and gentle girl."

"You will be beggars together."

"Not necessarily. We shall not be very rich, but that is another
thing."

Lady Jane turned from him, and gazed at the fire. For several
minutes there was silence between them. Then she spoke again without
looking at him.

"You will go your own way, I suppose--only give me time to soften
the blow it will be to Kitty."

He would have spoken, but she lifted her hand with an imperious
gesture, and went on--

"Kitty loves you. Why she should I do not know, but, most
unfortunately, it is true. I shall never speak of it again after
this. Give me time, I beg you."

There was something imploring in her gesture.

"You can have plenty of time," he said. "But even yet I cannot
believe she loves me. A woman's love is not given on such slight
grounds. Why, I have never pressed her hand even."

"You know nothing about it. Would it have made any difference to you
if you had believed she loved you?"

[Illustration: "=You will not dare to play with Kitty.="--_p. 203._]

"None. I love once and for ever."

"If I believed that to be true, I should be sorry for you."

"It is true, mother."

She waved him off contemptuously.

"It is true of a few people in this world, but you are not one of
them."

"Mere assertion is nothing."

"Are you engaged to this--this young woman?" She brought the words
out with a jerk.

"In honour, yes; formally, no."

"Ah, then you will go away, and I shall have my own time for telling
Kitty."

"Yes, if you wish for it."

"You will not engage yourself to the girl till Kitty knows?"

"You are exacting, mother. I have to think of Miss Graydon too."

"You can think of her all your life. It is my Kitty that is to be
deserted and betrayed. You don't know what you are doing."

"Mother, it is some mania of yours. Desertion and betrayal are
strong words."

"Let them pass. Technically, I suppose you are free from reproach."

He made a weary gesture, and let her speech pass without answer.

Suddenly the silence of the room was broken by the _frou-frou_ of a
silk dress in the corridor outside.

"Ah, here is my Kitty," said Lady Jane. "Are you cold, my darling?
and was your party pleasant? Come to the fire."

A young lady, slight and brilliantly fair, had entered the room
languidly.

"So you have come, Anthony," she said, extending a white hand to
him. "I hope you had a pleasant journey."

He helped her to take off her cloak, and she seated herself, as if
by right, in the most comfortable chair in the room. The fire leaped
and sparkled in the grate and brought millions of rays from the
diamonds in her hair and on her neck.

"How cosy you are here!" she said. "It was a horrid party--so dull!
That is why I came home early."

"You would like some tea?" said Lady Jane.

"Yes, please. Oh, thank you," as Anthony rang the bell. "It is
pleasant to see you home again."

[Illustration: =Lady Jane stooped and kissed her tenderly.=--_p.
206._]

"He is leaving us very soon," said Lady Jane, and her tones were
again cold and measured. "He feels it his duty to go to nurse his
Uncle Wilton."

"Why?" said the young woman, lifting her eyebrows. "Is there no one
at Washington to look after him? Or is the lot of a diplomat so
friendless?"

Anthony frowned at her tone.

"He is very ill, and he is my father's only brother. My place is
with him."

"You are a self-sacrificing young man. First, you bury yourself
among Irish savages; now, at a moment's notice, you are off to nurse
the sick. I should think a valet would do quite as well."

"Here is your tea, Lady Kitty," the young man said coldly.

"By the way, I sat beside such a pleasant old man at dinner, Sir
Rodney Durant. He asked me about you, and I told him of your exile.
I ought to apologise for calling your hosts savages, by the way,
for he told me a most interesting story about your tutor--Graydon,
isn't it? It seems old Lord Downside cut him off with an angry penny
because he married some friendless little beauty. Scandal said the
old lord himself had pretensions. And then, to spite his heir, he
married his cook or someone, and has a wretchedly delicate little
boy of thirteen or thereabouts. Why didn't you tell me, Auntie
Janie, or did you not know?"

"I never take notice of gossip, Kitty."

"But is it gossip? You ought to know, for your husband and this man
were friends. To hear Sir Rodney, the man Graydon was a sort of hero
of romance."

"An old man's stories, my dear."

But Sir Anthony's face had brightened.

"Graydon is a splendid fellow," he said. "I am sure he is all
Sir Rodney said." And his smile at Lady Kitty was now full of
friendliness.

"Well, I'm sure it's nice to hear of such people nowadays," said
Lady Kitty, yawning, "I thought they only existed in books. But
such an interesting story, Auntie Janie! If you knew of it, why
didn't you tell me, instead of treating the man as a kind of bucolic
savage?"

Lady Jane stooped and kissed her tenderly.

"Go to bed, my darling," she said; "and don't sit up romancing. You
must have your beauty-sleep, you know."

"Bother my beauty-sleep!" said the young lady irreverently.




CHAPTER VIII.

THE GREAT EVENT.


The Vandaleur function was over, and for a long time to come the
young women of that part must feel a certain flatness in their days,
as one does when an event eagerly expected is over and done with.

For the sisters the function had been a series of triumphs, to all
appearance. They had been, as Miss Spencer put it, "dressed as
befitted their position." They had not had, after all, to call in
Mrs. Cullen's Nancy, for on the Christmas Eve a delightful box had
come for each of the _débutantes_, with Miss Spencer's love.

Pamela's contained a rather short-waisted frock of lilac silk, with
a fichu of chiffon tied softly round the shoulders.

Sylvia's gown, made somewhat similarly, was of white satin, and her
innocent face and golden head rose out of it a vision of loveliness.

It would be hard indeed to say which was the most beautiful girl
that night; but Sylvia held her little court, or rather augmented it
during the evening, while Pamela's, somehow, seemed to melt and fall
away.

Miss Spencer found a comfortable seat for herself in one of the long
galleries after dinner, and remained there, while one or another of
her old cronies and admirers came up to talk with her.

She was almost as great a success in her way as Sylvia, of
whom she caught glimpses now and again, waving her immense fan
where she stood in the centre of the gallery, and playing with
the conversation about her much as one plays at battledore and
shuttlecock.

"The child will do," said Miss Spencer to herself, when Sir John
Beaumont, an old admirer of hers, had gone to fetch her some
refreshment. "Wonderful how she makes all those men look so
delighted with her and themselves! It reminds me of a girl who could
do that. Who was it? And what happened afterwards?... Ah! Pamela,"
she said, speaking aloud, "so you have come to see what I am doing."

"To stay with you awhile, Miss Spencer," said Pamela, creeping into
the shadowy corner beside her.

"And where are all the beaux, my dear? It is not as if your heart
was elsewhere."

Pamela smiled a wan little smile.

"I'm tired, Miss Spencer. I can't keep it up like Sylvia."

"Hoity-toity, _tired_! No, you can't be tired. It will be years
before there is another event like this. Let me call Mr. Wandesforde
over there to take you to hear this Dublin singer, Madame Squallini,
or whatever the woman's name is. All the people have gone trooping
off to the music-room to hear her."

"Please don't, dear Miss Spencer, I would so much rather sit here by
you. I have heard a great many fine singers already."

"Why, what's come to you, Pam? You used to be as full of fun as
Sylvia. Now you are like a girl whose lover has gone away--I know
how such a one would feel--and has never come back to her."

Sir John Beaumont returned at this moment.

"I don't know whether your father or your sister is in the greatest
demand, Miss Graydon," he said. "I heard peals of laughter as
I passed the sitting-room, and, looking in, I saw your father
delighting them. He's a charming fellow, upon my word. He's wasted
on rusticity."

"Indeed, Sir John, I suppose the rustics ought all to be plain and
stupid," said Miss Spencer.

"Ah, my dear lady," murmured the old gentleman, "that would be to do
without you."

"Oh, I daresay; you always had a pretty speech ready. And what about
Pam here?"

"Miss Pamela belongs to the country, as lilies and roses do."

"She likes to bloom in the shade," said Miss Spencer, a bit
irritably. "What do you think of a girl who prefers to sit in the
corner rather than hold a court as her younger sister is doing?"

"It's cruel to the young fellows, Miss Pamela--that's what it is."

"It isn't as if she were an engaged girl."

"Ah! that would be rough on the young fellows, before they had more
than a chance of seeing her."

Pamela listened to this brisk interchange between her elders with a
faint smile. She certainly looked tired, and as the evening went on
she held her quiet place by Miss Spencer, who was very animated, and
talked enough to cover her silence.

Once she had realised that Pamela was really tired and wanted to sit
still, her kindness of heart was aroused. She even waved off the
swains who came at intervals to coax Pamela out of her corner.

At last the evening, which Pamela had felt endless, was really
drawing to an end.

"You poor dears," said Sylvia, standing over them, and still waving
her great fan, "I'm afraid I've been keeping you out of your beds an
unconscionable time."

"Hear her!" cried Miss Spencer. "You'd think we were her
grandmothers."

"Only Pam," said Sylvia. "I've been watching you. You didn't seem to
find it dull."

Miss Spencer laughed, well pleased.

"I'm afraid we're much of a muchness," she said; "but your sister
here, I'm disappointed in her. I think she has a headache, poor
child. It isn't as if she had a lover now."

Pamela did not answer, but walked meekly by Miss Spencer's side,
with Sir John Beaumont murmuring his old-world compliments in her
ear.

Sylvia went on before, surrounded by a phalanx of black coats, which
escorted her to Miss Spencer's carriage.

Pam listened to all the gay good-nights with a throbbing head and an
extreme flatness and dulness of spirit.

"Graydon'll be up all night," said Miss Spencer as they rolled away.
"He enjoyed himself immensely and added to the enjoyment of others.
Your father's well-fitted to shine in society, girls. 'Tis a pity,
as Beaumont says, he should be shut up here."

"Didn't he propose Mr. Vandaleur's health beautifully after dinner?"
said Sylvia. "I sat where I could see him, and all the time he had a
twinkle in his eye."

"He ought to be in Parliament himself," said Miss Spencer
emphatically. "Vandaleur isn't worth a rush."

"But what was the matter with Pam?" asked Sylvia. "Why, Pam's
asleep!"

[Illustration: =Her kindness of heart was aroused.=]

"Never mind your sister, minx, but tell me about your conquests.
Which of them did you like best?"

"Let me see," said Sylvia. "There was Captain Vavasour--from the
barracks. He asked leave to call."

"Did he, indeed, and what did you say?"

"I told him yes, if he'd chance finding me unemployed. I'd so much
to do feeding the fowls, and washing the dogs, and keeping the pony
clean, let alone my household duties."

"Why, you've none, except eating the jam--and that's a pleasure.
What did he say?"

"He said he'd be enchanted to help me at any of these occupations."

"That was nice of him. What about the other lad from the barracks?"

"Mr. Baker? Oh, I like him. He's game for anything. He's coming
ratting with Pat one day. He has an English terrier, but I told him
he wouldn't be a patch on Pat."

"You talked of ratting in that frock?"

"Yes, he was delighted. He confessed it was a passion with him."

"I saw you talking to the Master. He's a fine-looking fellow, but
not a patch on Tom Charteris."

[Illustration: "Wake up, sleepy-head!"]

"He asked me why I didn't hunt. I said I often thought of doing it
on Neddy, only he was a buck-jumper. He said that wouldn't matter,
except that all the world would be riding to hounds on donkeys
presently and taking the ditches backward. He, too, is coming to
call. They're all coming to call. I should like to see Bridget's
face when she's expected to provide afternoon tea. If they keep
ringing at the door, she won't pretend not to hear them; she has
the excuse that the bell's broken. Then they'll have to go away in
tears. I told that young St. Quintin, the Eton boy, so. He said,
after he'd done crying, he'd come in by the window. I really believe
he would. He's so cheeky."

"But you don't tell me which you liked best. I daresay they all
thought you no end of a minx."

"Let me see," said Sylvia, with a dispassionate air. "Why, Lord
Glengall, of course."

"Glengall! with his hatchet face and his forty odd years!"

"I think he has a dear face; his eyes are just like Pat's."

"I wouldn't think of Glengall--that is, if I were free."

"Ah, you see, I don't care seriously for boys. I like them well
enough to talk to; but Glengall one can take seriously."

"He didn't join your court, though."

"No, he wouldn't. I actually went up to have a little chat with him,
and he said, as if I were four years old: 'Now you must go and talk
to the boys, Miss Sylvia. I don't want a dozen duels on my hands.'"

"I daresay he thought you a forward minx."

"I don't think he would. Only he would take some persuading to
believe that I really preferred talking to him. He stood in a corner
then, and watched Pam out of his nice, kind, faithful eyes."

"He wouldn't have any nonsense in his head about Pam? You don't mean
that?"

"Oh, I don't think he's in love with Pam. He'd look just the same at
me if he thought I was tired or melancholy. I think I'll try it."

"Let him alone, minx. But here we are," as the carriage stopped.
"Wake up, sleepy-head!"--to Pam--"you can get to bed as fast as you
like now."

But even when Pam was in bed, Sylvia still paced up and down, waving
her big fan.

"I'm too excited to sleep, you old dunderhead," she said. "I wish it
was all to come over again."

"You will be tired in the morning, Sylvia."

"No, I shan't; I shall be as fresh as possible. I shall dream it all
over again. There, wait till I've brushed my hair, and I'll let you
go to sleep. Not that I can understand your wanting to sleep; you
were just as keen about this as I was."

"Yes," said Pam, languidly.

"I'm downright disappointed in you. Don't you know I'd have enjoyed
it all twice as much if you were enjoying it too? I'm glad papa was
there; the glances of enjoyment he sent me from the high table were
exhilarating. Wasn't it nice the way all those little round tables
were set out? And didn't Vandaleur junior do his duty well as a
host? By the way, wasn't it low of Trevithick not to come back after
all?"

"I daresay there was some good reason."

"Then he ought to have said there was. It is very uncivil to papa,
too, not to return on the date arranged, and not to write."

"He couldn't mean to be uncivil," said Pamela, faintly.

"I'll tell you what. If I hadn't eaten those old sweets he sent me
at Christmas I'd fire them back at his head: wouldn't you his old
violets if they weren't dead and gone?"

Pamela touched in her dark corner a little basket of withered
violets, which, for reasons best known to herself, she had taken to
bed with her.

"You are too impulsive, Sylvia," she said, stung out of her silence.
"Why should Sir Anthony be uncivil or unkind? I know he meant to
return to-night."

"So I heard him say," said Sylvia, cynically; "but I never mind
those boys, Pam; they've no ballast."

"Oh, Sylvia! I'm sure Sir Anthony has plenty of ballast. There must
be some explanation, and when we have heard it you'll be ashamed of
your rash judgment."

"Not I, for if it isn't true of him, it's true of most youths of his
age. Do you think his mother's at the bottom of it, Pam?"

"How should I know, Sylvia? What makes you think of her?"

"Well, from something he let fall one day, I guessed that she didn't
want him to come here. Then he showed me her photograph in his
album. She looked chock-full of pride and insolence. I believe a
woman who looked like that would do anything."

"I should think Sir Anthony would know his own mind in the matter."

"I daresay, but she may have been up to some mischief. And talking
of mothers makes me think of Glengall."

"Why should it, Sylvia?"

"Well, there was that old mother of his. Think of his hard years,
poor dear! No prosperity would wipe out the traces. He is as
anxious-looking as Pat, and Pat is the very image of Micky Morrissy,
who is always six months in arrear with his rent, and expects a
notice of eviction any day. I say, Pam"--suddenly--"would you marry
Glengall?"

"Sylvia!"

"Would you? I know he's nearly as old as dad, and all that--but
would you?"

"No, Sylvia."

"Well, then, I would. But he likes you better than me."

"He likes us both as his friend's little girls."

"I know; he'd never think of us in any other light. Still, if he
liked me best, I'd make him think."

"How, Sylvia?"

"Why, I'd just ask him to marry me."

"He'd think you wanted the gold."

"That he wouldn't. It shows how little you know of him."

"Well, then, other people would."

"We shouldn't care about that."

"We? Who?"

"Glengall and I."

"Sylvia, you're talking as if you were really in earnest."

"So I am, but he likes you better than me. You ought to marry him,
Pam."

But, to Sylvia's dismay, Pamela suddenly burst into tears.

"I shall never marry anyone," she cried amid her sobs.

"You poor dear old duffer, I was advising you for your good. But
you're tired out. There, go asleep. I shan't take you to any more
functions."

And Sylvia blew out the candle and jumped into bed. But Pamela, with
the withered violets close to her, cried herself to sleep.




CHAPTER IX.

"THE WORLD IS SO CRUEL."


"There's a horse-fair at Kilmacredden on Saturday," said Lord
Glengall. "I was thinking you might find time to come along with me
and see what's to be picked up."

"It isn't time I'd be wanting," said Mr. Graydon, "and you know it
isn't inclination."

"Very well, then, you'll come. We'll have to make an early start and
give the mare her time over the mountain. Will four o'clock do?"

"For me, yes. Will you get up on Saturday morning and see that
there's a cup of tea ready for me by four o'clock?"

This to Sylvia, who was demurely making tea at a side-table.

"You know I will. Next to being up all night I like to get up before
daybreak."

Lord Glengall broke into a slow smile as he turned to look at the
speaker. He sat astride a small chair, with his chin resting on the
back. He still wore the frieze coat which he had on when he entered;
and with his clean-shaven, melancholy face and deep-set eyes, he
looked like nothing so much as a hard-pressed mountain farmer,
just as Sylvia had described him. Yet the smile was one of great
sweetness, and the mingled simplicity and shrewdness of the face
were far from being unattractive.

[Illustration: Lady Jane looked a little flurried.]

"'Tis well for you, Graydon," he said, "to have little girls to do
the like for you."

"You must marry, Glengall, and be properly taken care of," said Mr.
Graydon.

"I'm past marrying," said Lord Glengall; "I leave that to the girls
and boys."

"They'd make foolish marriages," said Sylvia, "if they were left to
themselves."

Lord Glengall smiled more broadly.

"'Tis a prudent little woman you're owning, Graydon," he said. "You
should turn match-maker, Miss Sylvia."

"For you, Lord Glengall?"

"I'll go bail you'd find no one to have me, Miss Sylvia."

"If I do will you entertain the proposal, Lord Glengall?"

"Provided she's not too old and will marry me for myself."

"I think I can find her for you, Lord Glengall."

"Come, Sylvia, give Glengall his tea, and don't be talking
nonsense," said Mr. Graydon, laughing.

"Here it is for you, Lord Glengall, just as you like it--hot, strong
and sweet."

"Thank you, Miss Sylvia; it's as good as ever I made for myself in
the Bush."

The two men fell to talking of business matters, while Sylvia
manipulated the teacups. Now and again she looked towards the door.
Mary was finishing her letter to Mick in the chilly room upstairs,
and Pamela had taken the dogs for a walk.

"If they don't come soon," muttered Sylvia over her teacup, "this
tea won't be fit to drink, and Bridget's in no humour to make more."

A rat-tat at the hall-door knocker interrupted her meditations.

"Some of those young fellows from the barracks, Sylvia," suggested
her father.

"It can't be," said Sylvia. "Mr. Baker was here yesterday, and Mr.
De Quincy on Tuesday, and Captain Vavasour's coming to-morrow."

"Lady Jane Trevithick," announced Bridget, flinging the door open.

"Oh, dear!" muttered Sylvia; "and it's one of Bridget's bad days
when she won't wear an apron. Now, where has the woman dropped from?"

Lady Jane swept across the room magnificent in purple and sables.

"How do you do?" said Mr. Graydon, going to meet her. "This _is_ a
pleasure. My daughter, Lady Jane. My friend, Glengall. No, don't sit
there. There's a dog in that chair."

For a self-possessed woman Lady Jane looked a little flurried.
Without meeting her host's gaze, she took the chair he handed her,
and turned it so that she sat with her back to the light. She bowed
in answer to his introductions, and, having seated herself, spoke in
a voice which she tried hard to keep under control.

"I find myself unexpectedly almost a neighbour of yours, Mr.
Graydon, and I did myself the pleasure of calling."

"You are very good, Lady Jane."

He looked at her with kindly scrutiny. Perhaps he was trying to find
in the middle-aged face the features of the proud and stately girl
who had married his dearest friend years ago. If so, the darkness in
which she sat baffled him.

"I am staying with Mr. Verschoyle," she went on; "I suppose you
count him a neighbour?"

"Yes, as country neighbours go. I have met him sometimes on the
Bench. I was not aware you knew him."

Lady Jane did not say that she had disinterred an old and almost
forgotten invitation in order to lead up to this visit.

"I knew him years ago," she said. "But, by the way, have you heard
from my boy?"

"Not directly--nothing since your Ladyship's letter."

"That is careless of Anthony! But he is nursing his uncle, you know,
and I daresay is finding time for a little mild amusement as well."

"Trevithick is no better?"

"No, I am sorry to say. There is no saying when he will be better,
or if he will ever be really better. My son thinks he ought to stay
with him, however."

"I am sure he is right," said Mr. Graydon, heartily.

"And this is--Pamela, I suppose?" said Lady Jane, turning her head
with forced graciousness to Sylvia, who was bringing her her tea.

"No; Pam will be here presently. This is Sylvia, my youngest girl."

"I am very much indebted to you all, Mr. Graydon, for making my son
so happy. He was grieved not to return to you, I know."

Still her eyes never met those of her host.

Seeing that he was practically ignored in the conversation, Lord
Glengall got up awkwardly, and with a bow to the visitor, and an
affectionate nod to Sylvia, took himself off.

"Ugh!" said Lady Jane to herself; "he smells of the stables! And to
think of Archie Graydon coming down to associate with such bucolics!"

Mary came in a little later and was introduced. Then came Pam. The
February air had blown a fitful flame into her cheeks, and when
she entered the drawing-room, not knowing there was a visitor,
Lady Jane's name blew the flame higher, and then extinguished it
altogether.

Her father watched her curiously, as she stood looking gravely down
into Lady Jane's face. The lady, who could be gracious when she
liked, held Pamela's hand a minute, and there was a caress in her
voice as she spoke to her.

"I can't feel," she said to Mr. Graydon, "that your girls are
strangers to me. I have heard such charming things about them from
my son."

"Well, indeed," said Mr. Graydon, to whom belief in the goodwill
of all the world came easily, "I should hope that we need not be
strangers to a Trevithick. I have never forgotten my love for
Gerald, Lady Jane."

"He was devoted to you," said the widow.

No one could have supposed from Lady Jane's manner that the visit
was a painful and difficult ordeal to her. Yet, when she was seated
in her carriage again, and had driven out of sight of Mr. Graydon,
bowing bare-headed on the doorstep, she drew a sigh of actual
physical relief.

Mr. Graydon returned to the drawing-room, rubbing his hands together.

"What a charming woman!" he said, coming up to the fire.

"I call her a cat!" said Sylvia, concisely.

"Oh, Sylvia!" cried Mary Graydon and her father simultaneously; but
Pamela said nothing. Lady Jane, for all her _empressement_, had not
made Pamela believe in her; indeed, Lady Jane was not sufficiently
an actress to deceive any but the most simple people. It was new to
her to play a part--to pretend fondness and friendship where she
felt arrogant dislike; and, to give her her due, she had played it
badly.

The day after Mr. Graydon had gone to the horse-fair with Lord
Glengall, he came out of the study as Pamela was going languidly
upstairs, and called her in. He put her in a comfortable chair by
the fire, and then stood leaning on the dusty mantelpiece, and
regarding her with a wistful and tender gaze.

"Not well, Pam?" he said at last.

"A little out-of-sorts," she answered, dropping her eyes before his
gaze.

"When did it begin, Pam--this being out-of-sorts? Up to Christmas I
thought you were blooming like a wild rose."

Pamela made a movement as if to escape.

"One is not always just the same," she said; "and you fancy things,
dad."

"Glengall noticed it, too. Don't go, child--we haven't finished our
conversation."

"Lord Glengall is as fatherly to us as you are. He is always
watching us like a mother-hen over a brood of ducklings."

Pamela spoke with an attempt at her old sparkle, but her face
retained the cold dulness which had fallen upon it of late, and
which made the father's heart ache to see it.

"Glengall is a good fellow, Pam," he said, wistfully.

"He's a dear," said Pam, in her listless way.

"A girl might do worse than marry Glengall."

"That's what Sylvia says."

"Sylvia's a wise child. And what do you think, Pam?"

"I?--I haven't thought about it."

"Could you think of it, Pam?"

Pamela looked at him incredulously.

"Poor Glengall would like to marry you, Pam. He's troubled about
you, poor fellow. He'd like to take you away, and show you all the
beautiful world, and lavish his wealth upon you. Could you do it,
Pam?"

To his consternation, Pam put down her head on the study-table, and
burst into tears.

"There, Pam, there! I didn't mean to distress you, and I know
Glengall wouldn't for the world. I only told you because I thought
you ought to know. He has no hope at all himself--and would never
ask you, I am sure. Only he is so good. I should know a little girl
of mine was safe with him."

Pam still sobbed, with her face buried in the dusty papers.

"There, there, child!" said her father, "don't think about it any
more. Poor Glengall! Of course, I know he's too old, and you are
only a child; and he'd be the first to say the young should marry
the young."

"I don't want to marry anyone," sobbed Pam. "Why can't I join a
sisterhood and be at peace?"

Mr. Graydon passed his hand fondly over the rumpled curls.

"You'd hate it, Pam, that's what you would. You'd come back again in
a week."

"I hate the world!" cried Pam. "The world is so cruel."

"Poor little girl!" said her father wistfully, though he smiled at
the same time.

"Pam," he said suddenly, "is there--is there anyone else?"

"There isn't," sobbed Pam, "and if there was, I wouldn't tell you."

"I only asked, Pam, because I thought I might be able to help you."

"No one can help me," cried Pam, "except by letting me alone."

"Very well, then," said her father patiently. "I'll let you alone.
Only dry your eyes, and be comforted. I'm afraid you'll have to wash
your face, Pam. You've been flooding my old tattered Euripides with
your tears, and you've carried off half the dust from him. There,
child, be comforted. I won't say another word about Glengall. He's
just like myself, poor fellow, only anxious to take care of you.
Sure, I know you're a child, and ought to have your freedom for
years yet."

"I wish her mother were here now," said Mr. Graydon, as he closed
the door behind his daughter.

He looked up at the pure and innocent face of his wife's portrait.

"I wish I had your wisdom, darling," he muttered. "It is so hard for
a man to deal with little girls. And, ah! what they lost when you
went to heaven!"

He sat before his study-fire deep in thought. Then he got up and
paced the room to and fro, with his brows knitted and his hands
behind his back.

"I'll do it," he said, half-aloud, at last. "I expect money
difficulties would really stand in the way. I know Trevithick died
poor, and Lady Jane had little of her own. The lad _must_ love her
if she loves him. And it will smooth the way. At worst I shall only
suffer a rebuff. I can bear it for the sake of Mary's children. And
poor Molly too! Why need she spend her girlhood fretting for her
lover when a little money would make things straight?"

He sat down and his face cleared. Again he looked up at the
benignant eyes of the portrait.

"I am doing the best I can for them, Mary," he said, speaking aloud
as if to a living person.

That evening he announced his intention of taking a run to London
during the following week. Such an unusual thing in their quiet life
provoked an outcry of surprise from his daughters.

"I may be an old fossil," he said, "but I'm not a limpet attached
to a rock. Perhaps I'm tired of you all. Perhaps I'm starved
for a walk down Piccadilly, or a visit to a good concert hall.
Perhaps--perhaps."

But he gave them no explanation after all of his reason for going.

One event crowded upon another. The next morning, at breakfast,
Mr. Graydon drew out a large, boldly addressed envelope from the
post-bag.

"Now, who can this be from?" he said, putting it down and looking at
it curiously. "'London, W.' Now, who'd be writing to me?"

"Better open it and see," said Sylvia, daintily chipping the top off
her egg.

Mr. Graydon broke the seal and read it.

"It's from Lady Jane Trevithick," he said soberly; "a very civil
letter. She's sorry she wasn't able to call again; and--and--she
wants to know if one of you girls--she mentions Pam, I see--will go
over and stay with her. It is very kind of Lady Jane."

He pushed the letter towards Pam, who took it unsteadily, and held
it before her face as she read.

"I'd rather not go," said Pam, putting down the letter. "I can't
go--I've no frocks."

"I should like you to go, Pam," said her father, wistfully. "The
invitation is kindly meant, and Lady Jane moves in very good
society, and is influential. Why should my girls be buried here? As
for the frocks--I can spare ten pounds--I really can manage that.
How much can be done with ten pounds, Mary?"

[Illustration: "Poor little girl!" said her father wistfully.]

"A good deal. Oh! I hope Nancy Cullen is still at home! We'll go
round after breakfast and see."

"Must I go?" said Pamela.

"I think you ought to go, Pam," said her father; "and we will travel
together. I shall wait for you till you can be ready."

In his heart Mr. Graydon thought that the invitation was a sort of
guarantee for his daughter's happiness. If Lady Jane had not known
or suspected that her son was in love with Pamela, and had not been
prepared to accept her, why should she have asked her on this visit?

"I used to think her a proud and cold girl in the old days," he said
to himself; "but, of course, the girl of my dreams was so different!
After all, I daresay Gerald made no such mistake as I used to fear."

"You will go then, Pam?" he said aloud. "The change will do you
good; and you will enjoy yourself."

"Very well," said Pamela, listlessly; "I would rather be here, but
if you wish I will go."


END OF CHAPTER NINE.




[Illustration: Knowledge Of The Future.]

Knowledge Of The Future.

_A NEW YEAR ADDRESS._

By the Lord Bishop of Ripon.

  "Do not interpretations belong to God?"--GENESIS xl. 8.


The words were spoken by one of
those men who have moulded the history of the world. When he spoke
them he was a prisoner, forgotten in his misfortune and blameless
of offence. He was passing through a time of trial. Later he was
destined to emerge into a position of much power and usefulness.

Joseph had shown from the first a character and qualities which
distinguished him from his brethren. They were men with little or
no thought beyond their daily work. In the open fields, watching
their flocks and enjoying, after their day's task, physical repose,
they found enough to satisfy them. He possessed a soul which went
out beyond such a level of life; he reached out to something higher.
Like the great French preacher, he could not leave his soul amid
mere earthly things. In his brethren's eyes he was a dreamer. They
were practical, and they had no sympathy with his dreams. He,
meanwhile, was full of a wistful wonder, longing to find out the
meaning of the strange visions which filled his soul. Life to him
must be something more than eating, drinking, and tending sheep.
No doubt a touch of egotism and personal ambition mingled with his
dreams; this belonged to his youth; this, in time, would pass away.
Life, with its stern and remorseless reality, would come to test
him and his visions, proving what manner of man he was. Meanwhile,
he was better with his dreams of the larger purpose and scope of
life than his brethren, who were content with somewhat material
gratification.

Time showed that he was no mere dreamer. The day came when the
Prince of his people let him go free. The opportunity of large
and noble service came to him; and he showed force, readiness of
resource, sagacity, and practical vigour. His genius it was which
mitigated misfortune and averted disaster. He foresaw and provided
for the days of scarceness; he piloted Egypt through the bitter
seven years of famine. His dreams were not the idle dreams of
an empty mind; they were the visions of an energetic and finely
tempered spirit. His gifts stood the strain of practical duty.

They had previously endured the harder test of adversity, neglect,
and inaction. There are powers which lose their bloom under the
pressure of prosaic duties; there are powers which wither under
the shadow of misfortune and obscurity. The trial which comes from
neglect is, perhaps, the severer, since it is hard for men to
believe in themselves when there is seemingly none else to believe
in them. But in the darkness of those neglected days the genius of
Joseph remained bright. His insight, his power of vision, was not
dimmed in the prison. He entered into the sorrows of other men; he
showed a sympathy with their difficulties; he strove to read for
them and with them the meaning of their lives.

And the sustaining source of his powers breaks out into view in the
words of our text: "Do not interpretations belong to God?"

We can realise the pathos of the question and the tried, yet
unbroken, faith which it reveals. Joseph is trying to read the
meaning of the dreams of his fellow-prisoners. Life, and the
experiences of life, he assures them, are not meaningless. He will
not forego his faith in the significance of life. We may not be
able to explain all; but there is, nevertheless, a meaning in all.
It is as though he said, "I too have known my visions--beautiful
visions of life's triumphs and life's joys. They faded with my
growing years; and instead of the achievements which I saw in my
dreams, there came false accusation, imprisonment, and neglect; but
though the golden light of those visions is gone, they were not
meaningless. I wait still for the unfolding of their significance.
Still I rely upon Him who will make all things plain--for do not
interpretations belong unto Him?"

As we listen to the words, we feel how aptly they fit into our own
lives.

We, like Joseph, have had our visions. We dreamed of the bright
things, the noble achievements, the splendid triumphs which life
would bring; but as life unfolded her stern sequences of reality,
the golden lines of our dreams vanished, the splendid tints of the
morning melted into the light of common day.

Or perhaps our dreams have not gathered round ourselves, but round
others--Love, which sets her objects in such golden lights, that she
sees visions for them brighter than ambitions can dream for itself.

It may be only the little child, whose prattle half-pleases,
half-worries you; but you are delighted to be so worried to win such
pleasure. The dear innocence of its winsome ways, its simpleness and
quaint airs of sagacity, are perpetual fascinations. In their lives
we live; and for them we see visions and dream dreams.

    "Thou wert a vision of delight
       To bless us given;
     Beauty embodied to our sight,
       A glimpse of heaven."

But the vision of delight fades. The promise which the vision gave
seems to be denied its fulfilment.

It may be the young man, standing on the threshold of life, bearing
himself with quietness of manner, but full of a happy gentleness
and thoughtfulness towards others, and gifted with a sweet and rare
conscientiousness in little things.

Or, again, it may be the man of maturer years, full of high and
chivalrous impulses, ready like a knight of old to gird on his
sword, and yearning to fill his life with worthy deeds, and yet
blending, with all noble martial ardour, tender and generous
thoughts for those who are dear, dearer than life, to his heart.

At this season--teeming with tender and sorrowful memories--visions
such as these rush back upon our thoughts. The deep pathos and the
sad tragedy of life speak to us out of such memories; for what
golden dreams gathered round the heads of those who were so dear;
and what sorrow is ours, when with the revolutions of the sun, the
visions melt away; and all the hope, the promise, the expectation of
achievement are exchanged for sorrow and solitude of heart. Then we
too, like Joseph, find that our dreams can fade; we too encounter
the gloomy days which succeed the bright morning of our hopes. We
are imprisoned with sorrow; the iron enters into our soul; the bars
of stern adversity shut out the cheerful sunlight of other days.

In such hours, when life, which seemed at one time so full of
glorious meanings, droops into darkness and seems to grow cold and
insignificant, our stay must be that of Joseph. Our trust must be
in the living God. The vision seems to have lost its meaning. Life
has become, to our sorrow-stricken hearts, flat, stale profitless,
and meaningless; but it is not so. There is One who can fulfil
our best dreams and give back to us their lost meanings. "Do not
interpretations belong to God?"

Our trust must be in Him, and in none else. True, there is often to
be met with in life the easy chatterer who will take upon himself to
explain everything for us. All things are easy to the man who has
never faced mental anguish or heart-sorrow. He will not hesitate
to interpret our dreams for us, but his pretensions are vain. The
dream and the meaning of the dream are for us alone. Men may soothe
us in our grief. Their kindness and their attempted sympathy may be
welcome to us, as the faded bunch of flowers from a child's hot hand
may be sweet and acceptable; but to read the meaning of the vision,
and to explain it aright, to disclose its fulfilment, showing to us
that nothing is vain and no vision wholly meaningless--to do all
this belongs to God; for do not interpretations belong to Him? He
alone can sustain our trust in the trials of life. He alone can give
us back the visions which so soon vanished from our sight.

The power to realise this constitutes the difference between the
secular and the spiritual disposition. In the view of one poet, man
is but a compound of dust and tears. Life is but sorrow mingled
with earthliness; but better and higher than Swinburne's thought is
Wordsworth's teaching. The older poet has the nobler view. He will
not let life sink down to a mere secular meaning; it is more than
grief and earth. There is that in us which transcends the earth and
can triumph over tears:

    "Oh! joy that in our embers
     Is something that doth live."

Into the world we came, but not as mere dust, to be mingled with
tears. There was a breath of the Almighty which breathed upon us:

    "With trailing clouds of glory did we come
     From God, who is our home!"

The divine spark is ours. It kindles a light and a fire. It calls
forth visions past all imagining. Our young men, by a Divine
Spirit's help, may see visions, and our old men dream dreams. And
these visions are not mere idle fancies, creations of our folly or
of our ambition. True, there are foolish visions and empty dreams;
but all visions are not foolish, nor are all dreams empty. Far
more empty is the soul that has no visions, to whom no bright and
noble outlook upon life's possibilities can ever come. This is what
Shakespeare recognises. Theseus is the man of action. He has dealt
with the hard prosaic work-a-day world. To him the visions of the
poet or dramatist are alike empty imaginings. The grandest and the
most foolish are alike only beautiful bubbles which will vanish
with all their rich colourings into empty air. The work of the poor
players, who labour in their foolish fashion to give him pleasure,
is no worse and no better than that of the most finished actors. To
him all ideas or visions are unpractical and unreal. He is a man of
action, loving deeds and despising dreams.

There is a sort of virtue in this; but how secular it all is,
how low and insignificant life becomes, if no noble ideas and no
heavenly visions environ it! How vain its achievements, if there
be no promised land and no divine fire to give light in the night
season! And so Shakespeare lets us see that, while idle dreams are
vain enough, yet that for a man to be wholly without them, and to be
destitute of ideas and visions, is to be poor indeed.

The true idea of life lifts us above the secular plane and places us
where the heavenly vision is possible, and where the Shekinah light
of God's presence is ever visible--though seen now as cloud, and now
as flame.

But for the full meaning of all the visions and experiences of life,
we must wait. The vision is from God; the experience is from God;
from Him will come the explanation. "Do not interpretations belong
to God?" The vision was given us yesterday--we must wait for its
interpretation; the meaning comes to-morrow.

It is in the spirit of this principle that our Lord spoke, "What
I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter." So
at another time He spoke: "It is not for you to know the times
and the seasons." There is a sweet interpreting "afterwards" of
life's bitter experience. "No chastening seemeth to be joyous, but
grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit
of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." Our faith
carries us forward to that interpreting hereafter, when once we
realise that interpretations belong to God.

Herein we are not different from Christ our Master. He had the
vision of the world conquered, but the vision faded; and in its
place came Gethsemane and Calvary, the loneliness and the cross. And
yet afterwards came the interpretation. The vision, though it faded
for a time, did not die out unfulfilled. The kingdoms of the world
are becoming the kingdoms of the Lord and of His Christ.

So it is the order of life that first should come the glory of
the vision; then the fading of its colours, the grey day and
the postponed realisation; and then afterwards the glorious
interpretation. Not _now_ is the interpretation. Now is the sadness,
now the sense of disappointment, now the temptation to think that
all brightness is gone, and all hope lost; but hereafter the love
which gave the vision and the love which took it away will make all
plain--no whit of the beauty and the beatitude which the vision
promised will be lost. The vision is for an appointed time. Till
then, rest in the Lord; wait patiently for Him. The gem hidden in
the earth will yet sparkle in heaven's light. The meaning of all
will be made plain, hereafter, in God's own light and in God's own
way; for interpretations belong to God.

[Illustration: A VIEW OF RIPON CATHEDRAL.

(_From the Drawing by Herbert Railton._)]




[Illustration: CIRCUMVENTED.]

CIRCUMVENTED.

A Complete Story. By the Author of "Lady Jane's Companion."


"[Illustration: drop cap] I tell you he does not _dream_ of Dolly.
How can you imagine anything so absurd?"

That was how the family tyrant addressed her mother, and poor Mrs.
Rhodes was, as ever, annihilated. It was a vain thing to try and
brave Georgiana. There she stood in the window, majestic, the eldest
daughter, her straight hair stiffly ridged with hot irons, her face
pale, and her lips determined, altogether handsome, but very hard.
Behind her one had a glimpse of a forlorn little figure wandering in
the grass. The sight of that lonely figure, and a dim idea of its
unhappiness, made the poor lady pluck up spirit to murmur still--

"I--I--I thought that Freddy----"

"Impossible!" said Georgiana; her voice vibrated with a little more
than disdain. "Why, what could he see in a stupid little goose like
that? It would be cheaper to buy a sixpenny doll and set it up in
his house; then at least he could always change it. But if he wants
a wife----"

       *       *       *       *       *

In the garden Dolly was walking rather sadly among the trees, and
her white skirts brushed against the grass like a sigh. She was
a little slip of a thing with Irish eyes, great and grey, always
brimming with either a laugh or tears; and she had the dearest
eager face in the world. It was a troubled face now, for she could
not understand why life had been made bitter to her just lately.
Perhaps it was because of some unwitting sin, perhaps because the
family tyrant felt, like her, the approaching parting with their old
playfellow. Georgiana had a peculiar way of showing when she was
vexed.

The Rev. Frederick Cockburn had not always been six feet high and
a parson. And for the greater part of their lives they had only
been parted by a garden wall. Even when he was at college he was
continually running down, and they had never made a plan without
him; he belonged to the girls like a brother. Later he had had to
admonish them as a curate, but he had been their old comrade still.
Of course, he was lucky to get a living offered to him so young, and
it was only right that he should accept it, but still it was a blow.

Freddy had run in so often to talk it over (the girls knew all about
his house and his parish, down to the woman who played the harmonium
and dragged the chants) that they had forgotten it was so far away.
Now they had suddenly to remember.

Dolly was under the weeping ash, where she and Freddy had hidden
when they were little. Georgiana had had the biggest bite of the
apple, and then she had deserted and said, "I'll tell!" How she
would miss him! Always he had been her champion, defending her when
Georgiana was angry and pulled her hair. And although these days
were past she wanted him more than ever. It had hurt her lately that
he should have been monopolised by Georgiana and that she had been
thrust back and made a third. He was a young housekeeper, and the
eldest daughter could talk of carpets and curtains and butcher's
bills. To Dolly life was a weary nightmare of Freddy serious in a
chair, and Georgiana giving him good advice. Vainly she tried to
keep her lip steady, leaning her head in among the leaves.

Half a mile away a black object was sitting on a fence whistling
impatiently, inwardly furious with Georgiana.

"If she would only come out of the gate!" he said, hitting wildly at
all the buttercups in his reach. "If she'd only give me a chance.
But she's just pinned to Dolly, and I never can get a minute."

His whistle grew more lugubrious.

"And I'm off to-morrow!"

Never in the ancient days, when he used to stand in front of his
younger playmate and defy Georgiana, had he felt her to be such a
tyrant. He longed to stand up to her and shake his fist at her as
of old. An instant he stood on the highest rail of the fence to
reconnoitre beyond the trees, and then sat down again in despair.

"I know she thinks I'm not good enough for Dolly," he said; "we
always were enemies, but she might let me ask her. It's Dolly's
business."

Then he jumped down in a hurry that would have been undignified in
any vicar less young and eager. Among the trees he had caught sight
of the unaccompanied white flutter of Dolly's dress.

At the familiar whistle she started, reddening and glancing
fearfully towards the house.

The tyrant's ears were sharp, but for once it appeared that she had
not heard it, and Dolly rushed down the tree-hidden path to the
gate. Her head was just under the green branches and they caught at
her hair as she hurried, the prettiest picture in all the garden,
with a quaint little forward stagger.

"Oh, Freddy!" she said.

He was leaning over the gate, which was fastened with a complicated
arrangement of twisted string, meant to hold it together and keep it
shut. There was something earnest and business-like in his manner;
he hardly smiled at her greeting, and it hurt her. His face was so
desperately solemn.

"Do you want Georgiana?" she said, bravely, "to--to talk
about--furniture?"

He looked at her reproachfully across the gate.

"Dolly," he said, "how can you be so unkind? I've been haunting the
place for hours, watching to catch you alone. I've no chance if I go
to the house, and--and I can't _stand_ housekeeping and chairs and
tables----"

At the emphatic climax they had to laugh. He was struggling
mechanically with the string, and Dolly was making believe to help
him.

"You used always to jump it," she said. Their hands touched as they
fumbled at it, and she felt a new and disturbing thrill. "Hadn't you
better do that, if you have not become too grand?"

"Don't," said Freddy. Ah, their fingers had been too near; he caught
hers and held them tight. "They are all chaffing me about being a
Vicar and having a house and all that. Asking if I've got anybody to
put into it. But what's the good if you can't get the girl you want?"

"Oh!" said Dolly, looking startled and shrinking as far as the
imprisoned hand would allow. He held it fast.

"Dolly," he said, "we've always been chums, you and I. Let me tell
you, and then you must tell me honestly if you think--if I've got
any chance----"

He was interrupted.

"Is that you, Freddy? What a blessing! I wanted to tell you what
you must do about the study."

It was with a kind of terror that he saw Georgiana charging down
upon them remorselessly through the trees. Dolly had wrung her hand
away and vanished with a little sound like a gasp, and he, on the
wrong side of the gate, was almost speechless with wrath and temper.

"If a man can't furnish his own study as he likes----" he stammered
darkly, turning on his heel. Georgiana was like a fate.

"What was Freddy saying?"

A rather sad little face was visible among the leaves of the weeping
ash.

[Illustration: He saw Georgiana charging down upon them.]

"I--I don't know, Georgiana. He was just beginning--I think he has
fallen in love again."

The elder girl glanced at her young sister with a gleam of
suspicion, but Dolly had spoken in all good faith. And, indeed, in
the dim past Freddy had once or twice been smitten and had confided
his troubles to the kind ears of Dolly. They had been slight affairs
and, although unhappy, always less tragic than laughable.

"He did not say who it was?"

"No," answered Dolly, "because you interrupted. I--I--I'm trying to
guess."

Georgiana turned her back on the wistful grey Irish eyes.

"Can't you?" she said, and walked away, utterly hard-hearted.

       *       *       *       *       *

That evening there was a formidable leave-taking. To Freddy Cockburn
it was a nightmare.

As he sat in the drawing-room being talked to by Georgiana and Mrs.
Rhodes (Dolly was very silent) he grew desperate. The last precious
minutes were ticking loudly, now and then marked by a warning whirr,
as the grandfather's clock reproached him.

He listened to them, but all the while he was wandering backwards
hand in hand with Dolly--Dolly who now sat so distantly in the
window.

With a start his mind came back impatiently to the present.

"Good-bye, my dear boy. We shall hear how you get on. Your mother
will write and tell us----"

"You must let me know how you manage about the stairs," said
Georgiana.

They accompanied him to the door, lingering affectionately to watch
him go, and behind them the great brown clock was ticking the last,
last minutes reproachfully. He shook hands and waited, desperately
bold.

"Will you come to the gate with me, Dolly?"

There was a slight pause at that abrupt invitation. He saw Dolly
involuntarily start forward and then hesitate, with a faint red
wonderment in her cheek. He waited, gazing back eagerly at his fate
in the balance.

"Yes, Dolly--come along!" said Georgiana.


II.

The Vicar of Little Easter was in his study. He had not been writing
sermons, but pens were lying about the table, and there were other
signs of an intellectual struggle.

[Illustration: The old lady looked up keenly.--_p. 222._]

"I can't do it," he said at last, crumpling up many fragments of
blotted paper, each the unlucky beginning of a letter. Then he
thrust his hands through his hair, giving it a despairing rumple.

"It's no good," he said. "I can't put it in a letter, and it does
look a cowardly way of--asking. Like chalking up a thing and running
round the corner. If I were a girl and a fellow wrote to me instead
of coming and standing to his guns, I should call it--cheek."

"Dear Dolly----"

He tore the last attempt furiously across.

"She would think it was a joke and show it all round the family for
them to laugh at it too," he lamented; "if Georgiana did not kidnap
it first. I don't think she would stick at that, and I'm afraid she
regularly hates me. Queer!"

He stared forlornly at the heap of papers, and then all at once an
idea struck him and he jumped up.

"Hurrah!"

With sudden energy he flung out of his study and crossed the hall.
His mother was sitting in her room--the only place that was quite in
order--stitching rings on curtains. She was going to stay and put
him to rights before returning home and leaving him in his glory.

"What is the matter, Freddy?" she said.

"I was thinking," said the Vicar soberly, "that you've a lot to do.
Couldn't you ask one of the girls over while you are here to help?"

"If you think the place is ready for visitors," said Mrs. Cockburn,
smiling. The girls were, of course, Freddy's old companions.

"Well, you might ask Dolly; I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

The old lady looked up keenly, but his manner was very careless.

"Why not Georgiana?" she inquired. "Eldest first."

"I don't think she could be spared just now," said the Vicar, hiding
his alarm, "and--and I'd like the place to be tidy before she came."

So Mrs. Cockburn wrote and invited Dolly.

The answer came very quickly: Dolly could not leave home just now.

While his mother was reading out the many sufficient reasons, Freddy
stared hopelessly across at the fatal letter. His face expressed
utter dejection until about halfway through. At the last clause it
lighted up with an inspiration. He leaned over the table.

"Then, mother, of course, you'll ask Georgiana?"

His mother glanced at him oddly.

"Do you want her?"

"Want her?" cried the Vicar. "Rather!"

There was no mistaking the eagerness in his voice. It betrayed
itself in the very stammer with which he proceeded.

"I didn't know she would come, but if Dolly's to manage the school
treat this year, and if Dolly's to take the club, they won't want
Georgiana. Tell her we can't possibly get the house put to rights
without her. Say whatever you think will bring her. Only make her
come."

He got up and fetched his writing things from the study. Mrs.
Cockburn had to write the invitation then and there, almost to his
dictation.

"Tell her she _must_ come!" he cried impetuously, rushing away to
look for a stamp, and then riding in with the letter himself to
catch the early post. Mrs. Cockburn looked after him amused, but
just a little bit disappointed.

"It's Georgiana then, after all," she said.

       *       *       *       *       *

Three days later Georgiana was installed at Little Easter.

She arrived with rather too many clothes for a person who was to
help in getting a house in order, but that did not prevent her from
buckling to. Mrs. Cockburn, a kind old lady with a twinkle of humour
to comfort her in her trials, was taken aback by her visitor's
authoritative grasp at the reins; but Freddy, having suffered more
nearly from her tyrannical ways, thought he had never known her so
gracious. In fact, he repented himself of the hard things he had
been thinking--of all but a certain determination.

"I don't believe she hates me really," he thought. "It was only that
she didn't want me to marry Dolly."

He made that reflection whilst shaving with care the morning after
her arrival. On coming down to breakfast he found her at her post.
She had already whisked away half the litter that was hampering the
breakfast-room, and was making the tea. As he came in she nodded.

"Good morning, Freddy. Your mother is breakfasting in her room.
What a wilderness your house is at present! The first thing after
breakfast will be to have a man in and put down the carpets."

"But they _are_ down," stammered the Vicar, who had laboured hard
all the past week.

"All crooked," said Georgiana.

She poured out his tea and sat down opposite, with an air of calm
superiority and possession (which the Vicar was too agitated to
remark). Having long since made up her mind as to what she wanted,
she was not unduly elated at the present turn of affairs. Freddy was
always fickle, and it had taken very little pains to keep him apart
from Dolly while that fancy lasted. It was not her part to consider
Dolly--Dolly, years younger, and pretty, and always liked.

Something like exultation glittered in Georgiana's eyes. She had a
glimpse of Dolly at home and smiled; her triumph was pitiless.

"Oh, by-the-bye," she said. "Your idea of furnishing the
drawing-room is too ridiculous. It ought to be smart and shiny--a
company room. You don't want old pictures and comfortable chairs!"

"Don't I?" said the Vicar with a half-smile, thinking whose whims he
had tried to suit in the furnishing.

"No," said Georgiana. Her tone was lordly. "I'll tell you what I
will do. You shall drive me into the town, and I will help you to
choose what you really want."

"Do----," began the Vicar, and then stopped hastily, reddening. She
looked at him witheringly, unaware that the word suppressed had been
simply "Dolly."

"In the meantime----" she vouchsafed after a crushing pause. He
looked up suddenly from his letters.

"I'm afraid you'll be dull, Georgiana," he said, rising. "It's
awfully good of you to come, and perhaps you can find some
amusement. You can do what you like, you know--so long as you don't
touch my study, or trick it up like a heathen place in Japan. The
fact is, I find I must leave you and mother for a day or two. Is
that the dogcart? My train is at half-past ten."

Georgiana looked out of the window. There was the dogcart, and a
beast of a brown horse pawing and snorting, to take him away to the
country station. She turned round angrily, like a person who had
been cheated.

"Why?" she asked.

[Illustration: "Dolly!" he cried in a voice of triumph.--_p. 224._]

Freddy had left the breakfast table, and was stacking his letters
behind the clock. He answered her with a kind of chuckle--

"Important business."

Three minutes later, he was running down the stairs, got up for a
journey. Mrs. Cockburn was just saying good-morning to the rather
blank-looking visitor, and he kissed her hurriedly.

"I must go off at once," he said. "Georgiana will explain. And I
say, mother"--in a tone of anxious hospitality--"don't let her go
home, or anything, till I come back. I must catch the early train."


III.

Dolly was all alone.

There was no dragon guarding her, and she might wander unwatched
about the garden, unvexed by the family tyrant's whim. However, she
sat forlornly under the willow tree.

She was disappointed at not being allowed to go and visit Mrs.
Cockburn, but, queerly enough, it had hurt her more to find her
refusal met by that urgent invitation to Georgiana. It was a much
warmer letter. Mrs. Cockburn had been told in inviting Georgiana to
say whatever would bring her, and she had according written--"Freddy
says she _must_ come," twice.

They were ringing in Dolly's ears, these impetuously written words;
but she had not any right to be angry--and hardly any right to be
sad. Only, if that message had been in _her_ letters, she would have
defied them all.

The sun burnt down over all the garden, except under the sad green
shade of the willow tree. Afterwards, it sank lower and lower behind
the beeches until it was almost dusk. It was then that Dolly heard a
familiar whistle.

She started up from the grass, and her wistful face was scarlet. It
must be imagination.

Almost before she knew it she was hurrying up the path.

"Oh!" she gasped, finding herself at the gate, and ready to turn and
fly as the strange whistler came in sight. Her heart beat too fast
for her to hear any step. As if it could be him!

"Dolly!" he cried, in a voice of triumph.

"How did you get here?" she panted.

He vaulted the gate this time, and was immediately by her side.

"By train," he said coolly. "As soon as I'd got Georgiana safe I
bolted."

Dolly paled slightly. Had he come to make an announcement?

"Will you come in to mother?" she said faintly; but Freddy barred
the way.

"No," he said. "I won't."

She was almost frightened. He was so white and eager, and so
emphatic.

"Dolly," he said, "I've got my chance at last. Georgiana thinks I'm
not half good enough for you, and I'm sure it's true, but I don't
care, she'd no right to fight as she did for her lofty plans. It's
your business. And Dolly--Dolly--I love you so!"

       *       *       *       *       *

"I like the house," said Georgiana.

She spoke in a slightly patronising tone, and poor Mrs. Cockburn
sighed.

"It is rather big," she said. "But if Freddy should marry and settle
down----"

"It will not be too big," declared Georgiana. "I have been drawing
up my ideas about the rooms. And I have toiled all the morning
in the study." Mrs. Cockburn looked alarmed. Even in a possible
daughter-in-law this was rather drastic.

"He will not like you to touch his study."

"I know. He charged me to let it alone," said Georgiana calmly;
"but it is no good giving in to a man's absurd notions, and he had
crammed it with such extraordinary things. I have made it look like
another place."

Again Freddy's mother sighed. It was the familiar tone of the family
tyrant. She sighed for Freddy.

The sigh was interrupted by his return. Unexpectedly as he had
disappeared yesterday, he came back. They heard him cross the hall
with a long, quick, eager step, and then he burst in upon them, a
boy again.

"Well, where have you been?" asked his mother, smiling. He was so
tired and dusty, and so excited.

The Vicar looked at her like a school-boy, half-proud, half-shy.

"I've been to the old place," he said, "to ask Dolly if she would
have me. And she says 'Yes.'"

  R. RAMSAY.




THE END OF THE SONG

BY F. E. WEATHERLY.

[Illustration: poem (_By permission of the Berlin Photographic Co._)]


    I read to you one golden morn among the leaves of June,
    The flowers were sweet around our feet, the river sang its tune,
    I know not what the story was that stole upon your ears,
    I only saw your listening eyes were full of tender tears.

    I sang to you when twilight fell, and all the world had flown,
    A song that rose from out my heart and was for you alone,
    I cannot tell what words I sang,--of gladness or of pain,
    I only knew I felt your heart give back the sweet refrain.

    And when the night in silence rose, and all the song was o'er,
    The world was full of happiness I ne'er had known before,
    I know not what I told you then or what you said to me,
    I only knew your heart was mine for all the years to be.




SOME REMARKABLE SERVICES

_IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE COUNTRY._

[Illustration: (_Photo: K. J. Harrison and Co., Kewaigue, Isle of
Man._)

SUNDAY AT KIRK BRADDAN.]


Up and down the country there are several religious services held
which are remarkable, not so much on account of the character of
the service as in consequence of the strange places in which they
take place. Of course, there are strange services--a few of which
are detailed later--but, nevertheless, the majority obtain their
notoriety by reason of their unusual place of assembly.

For instance, who has not heard of the famous open-air service at
Kirk Braddan churchyard in the Isle of Man?--a service which on an
August Bank Holiday Sunday has attracted a congregation of twelve
thousand people. Indeed, so great has been the crush on occasions
that it has been impossible for the collection plate to reach
all those gathered within sound of the preacher's voice--a truly
lamentable fact from the churchwardens' point of view.

If the weather is fine, these open-air services begin, as a rule,
on Whit Sunday and continue to the end of September, or, virtually
during the whole of the holiday season. They were instituted in a
somewhat remarkable way by a former vicar, "Parson Drury," as he was
familiarly called, when it was decided to build Kirk Braddan New
Church in consequence of the old church falling out of repair and
being altogether inadequate as far as size was concerned for the
worshippers who attended. Accordingly, while the new church was in
process of erection, Mr. Drury conceived the happy idea of using the
spacious churchyard, and so popular was the innovation that it has
been kept up in the summer ever since.

Now the services are conducted by the present vicar--the Rev. Canon
Moore--and, fittingly enough, his pulpit is the immense limestone
slab erected to the memory of the founder of the churchyard
services, "Parson Drury." It was felt, when the good man died, that
no better memorial could be raised than a stone which might be
utilised as a pulpit in the "Nature's church" where he had delivered
so many powerful sermons.

The hymn-papers are distributed as the people pour into the
churchyard on Sunday morning. The hymns are most heartily sung by
the congregation. They are well known, and the tunes are also such
as all can join in, and the effect of eight or ten thousand voices
singing the simple strains is wonderful.

[Illustration: A VIEW IN ST. JOHN'S, STREATHAM.

(_Showing the eggs presented for the Egg Service._)]

During the summer the aggregate number of worshippers amounts to
sixty or seventy thousand, from all parts of the United Kingdom,
but principally Lancashire and Yorkshire. Many people join in the
service which is going on at the same time in Braddan new church
close at hand, but the great majority prefer the open air under the
shadow of the old trees and the venerable church.

It is rather remarkable that the Isle of Man should also possess
what is believed by many to be the largest open-air service in the
world. There are some folk who think that the Sunday service in Hyde
Park answers to this description, though it is certain, in point of
size, there is not a great deal of difference between that and the
one held on Douglas Head.

There is, in reality, apart from the size, nothing very special to
say about this service on Douglas Head. It is an ordinary service
of an exceedingly simple character. Every attempt, however, is made
to get a first-rate preacher, and two or three bishops have taken
the service. Archdeacon Sinclair, who is a frequent visitor to
Manxland, has officiated on several occasions. As at Kirk Braddan,
the congregational singing is the great feature of the service. The
Bishop of Sodor and Man is naturally the most popular of all the
prelates who figure prominently at these services.

After these monster services, it is a delightful change to come
to the "Egg Service," which was instituted in 1894 by the Rev. S.
Alfred Johnston of St. John's, Streatham. It was thought that one
of the most beautiful ways of observing Hospital Sunday would be
to send a consignment of eggs to some of the patients in the great
London hospitals, and accordingly the congregation were requested to
make their offerings of eggs on the day when the various churches
unite in rendering financial aid to the institutions in question.

The "Egg Service," like most other things, had a small beginning,
for only 220 eggs were contributed the first year. In 1895 the
number of eggs rose to 446, while the year following no less than
1,618 eggs were given. It was felt, however, that in Jubilee year a
special effort ought to be made in view of the general assistance
then being afforded to the hospitals by the scheme of the Prince of
Wales, and so a "Jubilee" offering was arranged.

The service succeeded beyond all anticipations. Over five thousand
eggs were to be seen in St. John's Church on Hospital Sunday, and
the arrival of the various members of the congregation, carrying
baskets of new-laid eggs, excited a great deal of local interest.
By some means Her Royal Highness the Duchess of York heard of the
service that year, and sent a sovereign to be spent on eggs. For
this sum two hundred were obtained, the difficulties of transit
alone preventing the Duchess from personally sending the eggs. It is
only right to add that the giving of the delicacies referred to in
no way interferes with the financial offertory at the service, which
is forwarded to the Hospital Sunday Fund.

[Illustration: (_Photo: J. Chenhalls, Redruth._)

A REMARKABLE SERVICE IN THE GWENNAP PIT.]

There is some prospect of these "Egg Services" becoming an
institution in other parts. This year the Essex town of Maldon has
followed the good example set at Streatham. Carey Church, Reading,
also made an initial effort of the same kind this year.

[Illustration: (_Photo: Taunt and Co., Oxford._)

THE TOWER SERVICE AT OXFORD.]

These "Egg Services," inasmuch as they help the needy, call to mind
the "Doll Service" that is held at St. Mary-at-Hill, Eastcheap,
the church of the Rev. W. Carlile, the founder of the Church Army.
On the Sunday before Christmas the congregation are requested to
bring dolls, which are laid on a table near the altar. The gentlemen
as well as the ladies are expected to provide a doll in some way
or other, and consequently a goodly number of these ever-popular
playthings are dispensed on Christmas Eve to the poorest of children
in the East End of London. Mr. Carlile's service is now a fixed
institution.

The followers of John Wesley are numerically very strong in
Cornwall, and it is not surprising therefore that the strangest
service held by that denomination takes place in that part of the
country. A service in an old quarry is a decided novelty, and
the fame of the "Gwennap Pit" service is justly popular with its
lusty-voiced congregation of Cornishmen. Every Whit Monday the
gathering takes place, so the Methodists within a radius of twenty
miles are able to make it a day of pleasure as well as profit. The
pit is situated not far from the quaint little town of Redruth.

The quarry forms a natural amphitheatre. Circular in form, and
possessing row after row of steps, it is able to seat a good
congregation, most of the members of which arrive by brakes. In the
centre a sort of rostrum is erected for the various speakers, for
addresses (and not a sermon) are the order of the day.

In days gone by John Wesley preached in this disused quarry to
crowded congregations. Cornish folk always welcomed heartily the
founder of Methodism, and they hold this monster service in memory
of the time when Wesley frequently used the pit, first of all
because it was the only place big enough, and secondly on account of
the fact that it was the only one he was allowed to use. As a rule,
great preachers are not invited, as the congregation prefer to hear
the leading "local preachers." It is the boast of many a man that he
first attended with his grandfather, who had already spent a good
many Whit Mondays at Gwennap Pit.

The Oxford "May Morning" service is well known throughout the
country, chiefly because it is the oldest of such gatherings,
and--what is more--by far the best attended. It is held, as
everybody knows, upon St. Mary Magdalen's tower at five o'clock
in the morning, and is attended by the President and Fellows of
the college as well as the members of the choir. A few strangers,
however, are admitted, and, all told, the number of people on
the tower amounts to about two hundred. The crowd in the street
below, however, runs into thousands, instead of hundreds, as the
illustration of the people on the bridge which crosses the River
Cherwell fully bears out.

[Illustration: (_Photo: Taunt and Co., Oxford._)

WATCHING THE SERVICE ON ST. MARY MAGDALEN'S TOWER, OXFORD.

(_A crowd which gathered at four o'clock a.m._)]

No matter what event takes place, the service is held on May Day.
The crowd begins to assemble soon after four o'clock in the morning,
when the bells begin to ring, warning the citizens that the time
of service is approaching. At half-past four the choir begins to
assemble, and one by one the members begin to make their way to the
top of the tower, which very soon presents an animated appearance on
account of the limited space to be obtained. When at last the hour
of five arrives, and the clocks of the city begin to denote the time
of day, the choir bursts forth into song ere the clocks have ceased
striking.

The holding of the service confers upon the college the right of
presentation to the living of Slimbridge in Gloucestershire, upon
the income of which there is said to be an annual charge of ten
pounds for the music on the top of the college tower. Similar
services were at one time held at St. Paul's Cathedral, and at
Abingdon, but after a time the custom died out. There is, however,
no likelihood of that happening at Oxford, the service now having
too great a hold upon the favour of the public.

Every July a most remarkable service is held at Folkestone. Like
the majority of seaside resorts, Folkestone owns a big fishing
industry, and it was felt that a service of thanksgiving for the
harvest of the sea was just as desirable as the ordinary harvest
festival. So every year the clergy and choir of the parish church
march through the streets, singing hymns, and when the harbour is
reached the fisher-folk join in the service of praise to God for the
blessings vouchsafed in the past, and pray to be kept safe from harm
in following their dangerous avocation, and also for "heavy catches"
in the year to come.

Kirk Braddan churchyard service is not the only one of its kind in
the country, though it is the biggest. For years a similar service
has been held in the spacious churchyard of St. Tudno, situated on
the Great Orme's Head at Llandudno.

[Illustration: AN OPEN-AIR SERVICE ON THE GREAT ORME'S HEAD,
LLANDUDNO.

(_Photo: Photochrome Co., Cheapside._)]

The services are held both in the morning and evening, and although
the Llandudno churches have special preachers during the season,
none of them is so well attended as St. Tudno's. The service is
simple and hearty, the singing is good--for Welsh people can
sing--and the voices of the visitors blend harmoniously with the
rich native element. All the tunes are well known, and the same can
also be said of the hymns, which are printed on hymn-sheets to avoid
the necessity of bringing books.

The congregation is a varied one. Men are there dressed in cycling
costume, while caps and straw hats, with other holiday attire, are
adopted by the great majority. The ladies are allowed to put up
their sunshades, if they wish, and everybody is permitted to do
as he or she desires. The graves form the seats. Some of the more
adventurous perch themselves on the headstones, while others lay
full length on the grass mounds, many of which are unadorned with
names of any kind. The rector, the Rev. J. Morgan, has a loyal
band of workers, who distribute the hymn-sheets, and also hand out
cushions to the many ladies present. The congregation, which often
numbers a couple of thousand, forms the choir.

One of the most pleasing parts of the service is the taking up of
the offertory. This is chiefly done by boys, many of them being the
children of visitors, and the youngsters are only too delighted to
take part in this novel duty.

When the congregation disperses comes the prettiest scene of all,
as the people wend their way down the hill--a long, unbroken line,
which seems to reach as far as the eye can distinguish.

[Illustration: (_Photo: Cassell and Co., Ltd._)

THE RAILWAY MEN'S BREAKFAST SERVICE AT DERBY.]

How many people are there, aware of the fact that the railway town
of Derby has a series of services at the breakfast hour for the men
engaged in the engineering works? These are attended by two thousand
men every morning, and owe their origin entirely to the idea of one
man of very humble circumstances in life. Yet this quiet, unassuming
man initiated one of the grandest services in the country, held not
occasionally but upon every working day in the year.

Thirty years ago very few men were employed at the works of the
Midland Railway, compared with the number who work there to-day.
Many of the men, whose homes were too far distant to admit of their
returning for breakfast, were obliged to bring this meal with them.
George Wilkins, the founder of these mess-room services, was in
charge of an engine-room, and in the winter, as it was a nice warm
spot, some of the men asked Wilkins if they might have their meal by
his fire. The engineer gladly consented, and, being a Christian man,
he took the opportunity of reading the Bible to them.

This fact got noised abroad, and other men joined in. The reading
was first of all supplemented by prayer and then by singing.
The fame of the little service continued to grow, until at last
Wilkins's engine-room was not nearly big enough, and the place of
service had to be moved to an open shed outside. For some time this
shed answered the purpose; but as the railway works grew, and more
men were employed, the attendance at the service increased, until at
last it was absolutely necessary to erect rooms especially for the
service.

[Illustration: A RIVER BAPTISM AT BOTTISHAM.

(_Photo: H. R. de Salis, Uxbridge._)]

First of all, grace is sung, and then the men set to work to eat
their breakfast. Plates rattle and knives and forks jingle as the
speaker for the day reads the Bible and gives a forcible address.
But every word is heard, for the men are very attentive while eating
their food. This is not surprising, for the services are taken by
well-known laymen and clerics, and if a notable preacher is in the
neighbourhood or about to pass through Derby, he is requested to
break his journey and say a few words to the railway men at their
breakfast. Many gladly do this if their engagements permit.

George Wilkins, the founder of these services, is dead, but a
visit to Derby cemetery reveals the fact that his work has not
been forgotten by those who now enjoy the fruits of his labour.
Over his grave a fitting memorial has been placed, and upon it is
inscribed the following: "In loving memory of George Wilkins, who
died November 19th, 1872, aged fifty-three years. He was a faithful
servant of the Midland Railway Company, and under God's guidance
the beginner of a work for Christ which lives on still, though he
is gone. Out of love for his character and gratitude for his work,
his friends and fellow-workmen have erected this stone. His constant
song was 'God is Love.'"

One does not hear very much nowadays of the open-air baptismal
services which fifty years ago were so popular with the Baptist
churches in the country districts. In Cambridgeshire, however, they
still take place in many of the villages, and our illustration shows
the service at Bottisham Sluice, which is situated near Waterbeach,
the scene of the late Mr. Spurgeon's earliest labours. The minister
stands in the river, and the candidate for church membership wades
in to him and is immersed in the waters. A house near by is utilised
for dressing purposes.

  GEORGE WINSOR.




[Illustration: Coals of Fire]

Coals of Fire

A Complete Story. By J. F. Rowbotham, Author of "Solomon Built Him
an House," Etc.


It was twenty years since I left Hambleton as the curate, and on the
identical day I returned as vicar. I sat meditating in the little
village inn, while a gig was being harnessed to draw me to the
vicarage. I wondered how the place would look. I wondered whom I
should see and recognise. Twenty years produce innumerable changes.
Those whom I had known as boys would have grown to men, and men and
women would have become silver-haired and wrinkled, and perhaps past
the power of recognition, until a familiar voice in dubious accents
should say, "I am such a one. Do you not know me?" To such a query
I felt I should have to reply, "I knew you twenty years ago, and if
you assure me you are the very same person, I know you now. But the
identification must come from yourself."

"The gig's ready, sir," cried the man at the hotel parlour door,
and in obedience to this admonition I shut up my tablets and took
my seat in the vehicle. Off went the horse. I whizzed past all the
familiar places _en route_, and at last was landed safe and sound
at the vicarage, but somewhat dazed and bewildered by the sudden
panorama of a vanished past presented to me during the ride.

My experiences of the next few days proved to be exactly as I
predicted. I saw innumerable people who turned out to be old
acquaintances, though it was on the strength of their telling that
I found them to be so. I should never have known them again in a
crowd, nor would they, I imagine, despite their assertions, have
known me. I saw old Haynes once again, Smart the gardener, England
the bell-ringer who was so fond of frequenting "The Rose," Higgs,
Nutcher, and many more.

Localities had not altered so much as people. I noticed that the old
apple-tree in the vicarage garden bent down with the identical curve
in its trunk, and seemed to have the exact number of apples upon it
which it had when I left it. The vicarage had much altered, though,
and so had its surroundings--several new cottages being built which
quite shut out the pretty prospect from the study window which once
was.

I found the circumstances of many of the inhabitants, like the
"extension" of the vicarage, to have altered likewise. I found
several people poor and reduced in circumstances whom I left fairly
well-to-do. I met some people now in comparative opulence whom I
remembered so poor that they were glad of doles from the curate.
All this is a striking instance of a very great truth in English
life, which is that circumstances, as generations pass, are on a
sliding scale. If you look for the descendants of the nobility of
some centuries ago, you will find them in the humblest cottagers
of to-day. And if you search for the descendants of the former
cottagers of our land, you will find them in its present nobility.
Life fluctuates so in great cycles of time; and in the little cycle
during which I had been absent from Hambleton, thus had existence
fluctuated and changed.

Two visits in particular I intended to pay, namely, to the squire,
and to Farmer Brownlow; and before many days elapsed I contrived to
pay them. I saw the squire and the farmer, and I must confess I was
very much struck by the change that had come over them both, but
particularly Mr. Brownlow, whom I remember tall, erect, and jovial.
I concluded there must have been more dissensions in his family
since I last knew them, and that trouble was impending. I made such
domestic inquiries as I could without receiving much satisfaction;
but I took care to observe the greatest reticence about his son
Arthur.

I must mention, in explanation of my last sentence, that when I was
curate here Arthur Brownlow was a boy of about twelve or fourteen,
and one of the brightest and most ingenuous lads it has ever been my
lot to know. He was also blessed with a beautiful voice, and sang
in the choir of the church all the solos in the anthems. Shall I
ever forget the melodious tones that floated from that boy's lips?
Neither I nor any who heard him can cease to remember them.

The popularity which the boy gained, the favour which he received
from everybody and anybody, was so marked and so universal that it
ultimately excited the envy and hostility of his elder brothers, who
were young men of twenty and over, and who were, moreover, prompted
to their animosity by the suspicion that their father intended to
bequeath the farm (which was his freehold) and all his money to his
favourite son, and leave them unprovided for.

Arthur's mother was Mr. Brownlow's second wife, who had been very
dear to him, but had only lived about three years, and then had
passed away, leaving as a legacy to her husband the little baby boy
scarce two years old. The child became the farmer's idol, and was
more and more worshipped as he grew to boyhood.

The elder sons being in the main clownish, stupid fellows, it was a
common speech, half in joke, half in earnest, with the farmer:--

"You lads are strong of build and dull of wit. Why don't you exert
your strength in other spheres than this, and leave the farm to
little Arthur when he grows up? You, Hugh, might, for instance,
go to America. William, you might take a piece of land of your
own--you are old enough to manage it and strong enough to work it.
You, Robert, should apply for the post of farm bailiff with Mr.
Weatherstone or somewhere else; and you, Thomas, should go in for
sheep farming in the colonies. There is your life mapped out for you
all. It will be many years before I am laid on the shelf; and you
are all getting too old to be anything but drags on me; while by the
time I am about settling down in my chimney corner, to take my ease
henceforth, Arthur will be just of an age to take the farm off my
hands and commence the management of it. This will, moreover, keep
the land in one piece, instead of chopping it up into five."

These words, I say, were often used by Mr. Brownlow in jest to his
sons, who were a lazy lot, and who ought, moreover, to have been on
their own hands by now. He possibly meant little more than jest, for
he was not the sort of man to cut any of his family adrift at that
time; but his sons chose to take the remarks in thorough earnest,
and they one and all wreaked their bitterest spite on poor Arthur in
consequence, till his life became almost intolerable to him.

He would often come to me in those days, and say:

"Mr. Calthorpe, I don't think I can stand it any longer, sir--at
least, without telling father; and then, if I do that, I don't know
what might be the consequences. He would certainly be so angry that
he would send all my brothers away, which I should never wish to be
done. Or, if he did not, they would persecute me still worse than
they are doing. So between the two things I don't know what to do."

I strove as hard as I could to exhort the boy to patience, giving
him what comfort I could, and I even offered to intercede between
him and his brothers; but this proposal he would not listen to, and
finally he decided that he would bear all in silence and would not
tell his father. So that matters were at a deadlock, and remained
so, until a new development began in the persecution of Arthur
Brownlow by his brothers--which consisted in the deliberate attempt
on their part to poison his father's mind against him by all sorts
of stories and fabrications, and so get rid of him.

The diabolical attempt was made with greater and more elaborate
cunning than I should have imagined such stupid young men as the
Brownlows to be capable of. They not only carried on the plot
themselves but got their neighbours--the young Spencers of Bray--to
assist them, and from all sides Farmer Brownlow kept continually
hearing of the precocious vices and bad manners of his darling son,
which were at first discredited by him, but afterwards believed, and
then greedily sought after.

"It is all this incense that comes to the boy along of his singing
that is spoiling him," he said to me one day. "And you, Mr.
Calthorpe, are partly to blame for encouraging it. What good can all
that howling and caterwauling do the lad? Not a bit, that I can see,
except that it takes him into company from which he would be better
away. It stuffs the boy's head with nonsense, sir, and it will never
bring him to any good."

It was in vain that I pointed out that there was practically no
foundation for any of these charges against his son, who was one
of the model boys of the parish. The farmer regarded me as a biased
witness, and kept his own opinion of the matter, which was more
and more inimical to poor Arthur every day. Do what I could in the
way of mediation, it was all no good. The ball once set rolling,
continued to roll in the same direction, until one day I heard, to
my unspeakable concern, that Arthur Brownlow had broken into his
father's bureau and extracted five pounds from it, that the money
had been found in his possession, and that he was now in the custody
of the police.

[Illustration: "I disown him, sir."]

I remember what a sensation the trial made at the assizes in the
neighbouring town of C----. I appeared as a witness in the boy's
behalf, and spoke up for him right gallantly; but all intercession
and testimony were of no avail--the evidence was held to be quite
conclusive. Although the father did not appear against him, the
brothers did, and their testimony was sufficient to convict the boy,
who was found guilty and sent to a reformatory for two years.

I saw him before he went, and he said to me--

"Tell father, sir, that I am unjustly condemned. Tell him it was a
plot of my brothers, and that I would scorn to do such an action.
But tell him, moreover, that after this disgrace I could never bear
to show my face in the village again, and when I come out of this
place I shall go beyond the seas or somewhere, but certainly shall
never come to Hambleton, nor shall he be troubled by seeing my face
again."

I wondered what effect this message would have on the old farmer,
but to my surprise he received it with the greatest nonchalance.

"Aye, aye, sir," he said in reply, as with black face and lowering
brow he sat in his parlour with his sons around him. "The lad has
brought disgrace on the family. I disown him, sir. I knew what all
this singing and caterwauling would lead to: I said so from the
first, and my words have come true. He need never seek to see my
face again until he has redeemed his character. Then I'll see him,
but not till then. Meantime, as you are going to the reformatory
occasionally to visit him, tell the lad--for, although a thief,
he is a son of mine--that I will provide him with what money is
necessary, when he leaves that home of thieves and vagabonds, to set
up in something or to go away to some colony, or anything he likes;
and then, as I say, when he has redeemed his character, he can come
and see me--but not till then. Tell him he shall have the money,
sir, when he wants it; but tell him that till he has redeemed his
character I disown him."

The money, however, was never applied for by Arthur Brownlow. I saw
him several times at the reformatory, and, indeed, tried to get him
released on the ground of insufficient evidence, but in vain. When
the end of his time came, he obtained some employment--I know not
how--went to London, and then I lost sight of him; for a month or
two afterwards I left my curacy in Wiltshire and took another in
Northumberland.

I saw the Brownlows now for the first time since that event of
twenty years ago. I was informed incidentally that they had never
heard anything more of Arthur. "I suppose," said one of them, "he's
gone to the bad long ago."

The old man in the chimney corner now white-haired and bowed
down with age, suffered a wistful look to pass over his face
occasionally, but that was all. No more was said, and no more did
I say. In a short time I had forgotten the story of twenty years
ago as completely as they had and as the village had; but there was
one remark alone of that afternoon's conversation which dwelt in my
mind: "I suppose he's gone to the bad."

"Gone to the bad!" Why, there was one thing plain. _All the
Brownlows seemed to have gone to the bad_--not Arthur alone--for a
more besotted, lazy-looking set of men it had never been my lot to
see.

It is the experience of every clergyman, when he comes to a new
parish, that he can soon find by a sort of intuition where the
troublesome spot in that parish is likely to be; and I very soon
knew by instinct that the troublesome people in my parish would be
the Brownlows--as was amply proved immediately after my arrival.
Scarcely a day passed but one or other of them was at the vicarage.
Now it was Robert--now it was Hugh--now it was Thomas. One came
requesting me to go to see their father, who was "in dreadful low
spirits." Another told me they had a horse for sale, and asked me if
I would like to buy it. The third, Thomas Brownlow, wanted to borrow
a little money of me; and this was the first actual hint I got of
the hazardous state of their affairs.

"No, Thomas," I said, "I cannot lend you that money; for, in the
first place, it is your father, not you, who ought to have asked
for it, if the object is to make repairs on your farm; and, in
the second place, I think I am considerably poorer than you. A
well-to-do farmer has considerably more cash than a poor parson, and
so for the second reason I must absolutely decline."

But this rebuff produced no diminution in the importunity of the
Brownlows, which at last culminated in the appearance of the eldest
brother and the father one day at the vicarage, when they told me,
with much display of emotion, that the farm was heavily mortgaged,
and, indeed, had been so for some time, and that the mortgagee, to
whom no payments had been made for some time past, threatened to
foreclose. Could I therefore either lend them the money, or get it
from a friend, or ask the squire to oblige them, or, in fact, help
them in any way whatever?

At the moment I could think of no way in which I might be of service
to them in the manner indicated; but as, despite their importunity,
I was sincerely sorry for them, I said I would turn the matter over
in my mind, make inquiries, and let them know by the morrow if I
could do aught for them.

The same afternoon my old college friend, Vincent Harrowby, who
was vicar of a neighbouring parish, drove over to see me, and dine
with me. It was the first time we had met for twenty years or more,
and it was to celebrate our meeting that I had given orders to my
housekeeper to prepare a somewhat elaborate repast in his honour
and for our mutual delectation. As we sat over dessert, Harrowby
talked of a score of subjects to which I paid a vague and partial
attention; but at last, as his "inextinguishable tongue," as we used
to call it at college, kept up its eternal stream of talk, I found
myself listening with rapt attention to what he was saying, which
sounded incredible to my ears.

"You remember that young choir boy of yours, Arthur Brownlow?"
Harrowby was remarking. "Well, I saw him some years ago--about ten
years, I think--and he had developed then into a man of means. He
had plenty of money, I was told, and was in every respect a fine
fellow. I often wondered what it was in his private history which
you used to allude to in such a guarded manner----"

But before my friend had been able to finish his sentence I, to his
great surprise, brought down my fist upon the table with the remark--

"The very man that is wanted! Where does he live, Harrowby, and what
is his address?"

"As to that," replied my friend, with a look of amused surprise, "I
cannot tell you to a street now. But I suppose he will be somewhere
in the neighbourhood where I knew him, and that was in such and such
a street, Bloomsbury" (naming it), "where he was practising as a
solicitor. Doubtless he may have changed his residence, but Bedford
Row ought to know him."

I then briefly explained to my friend the circumstances which would
make Arthur Brownlow's appearance at the present juncture a godsend
for the distressed family; for I must add that one or two of the
sons were married and had families, on which innocents, even more
than on the men, the blow would fall.

[Illustration: "The very man that is wanted!"]

"We must apply to him at all costs for the money," I remarked. "He
will never refuse to help his father, even if his brothers were
traitors. One of them must go to London to-morrow and search out
Arthur and obtain the funds needed."

And so it was agreed, and the agreement was acted on; but our best
efforts, the personal search of Thomas Brownlow, the most diligent
inquiries of myself and my friend Harrowby, during the short time
at our disposal, were unable to discover any trace of the missing
Arthur, who was gone, like the wind, without a vestige to mark his
flight. No one seemed to know or remember much about him. Those who
affected to, said some one thing, some another, and in the Law List
his name was not to be found.

The condition of the Brownlows had meanwhile become worse. The
little ready money which they had, had been expended in the journey
to London and the prosecution of the inquiries after Arthur. They
looked hungry and dejected, and I was informed that the mortgagee,
incensed at their inattention to his applications for money, had
definitely decided to put someone in possession of the farm by the
last day of May.

I recommended the brothers to make a last appeal personally before
the end of May arrived, and see if by their united rhetoric they
could soften the inflexible heart of Mr. Suamarez. This with rustic
reluctance they ultimately consented to do.

The four brothers, Hugh, William, Robert, and Thomas, proceeded to
Ashcroft. I believed they walked there, as their last horse had
been sold some months ago, and they had not a sixpence left to
pay railway fare. They arrived at the mansion of the inexorable
mortgagee, and were summarily refused admission by the servant, as
I had been. But with a pertinacity worthy of a better cause the
four men hung about the place hour after hour, with the intention
of securing a parley with Mr. Saumarez, with whom they were quite
unacquainted, having hitherto conducted their negotiations through
his agent.

Towards the evening, as they prowled about the coppice surrounding
the house, they saw the owner of the manor, accompanied by his wife
and their young children, come on to the lawn, and no sooner was the
opportunity presented than the four men burst through the bushes and
approached him.

Mrs. Saumarez turned deadly pale, and threw her arms round her
children at the sight of these four ill-clad and travel-stained
loafers, for so they looked, so suddenly appearing on the lawn
of the house, while Mr. Saumarez stood in front of his wife and
children and angrily demanded what they wanted.

"It is just this, sir," said Hugh, rubbing his mouth with his sleeve
preparatory to making a speech, "we are the Brownlows, sir, and we
have travelled fifty miles to see you, sir. You're going to evict us
from our little farm that we have had in our family for years and
years without number. Give us some delay, sir--forgo your intention
for this year--till after the harvest, at least, until we see what
sort of crops we may have, and out of the profit of them we can pay
you your demands."

[Illustration: Mr. Saumarez angrily demanded what they wanted.]

"These speeches are all idle," responded Mr. Saumarez testily. "I
made up my mind long ago. I know you to be good-for-nothing men,
through whose laziness your old father's farm has got into its
present condition. You deserve no pity, and you deserve no delay.
For the present state of affairs you have only yourselves to blame.
You must take the consequences of your conduct."

"Oh, sir." began Hugh, who was the spokesman of the rest, "think of
our circumstances. We have children, as you have; they will all be
thrown on the world----"

"Into this," replied Mr. Saumarez, "I cannot go. When the mortgage
came into my hands--which it did along with some adjoining property
about a year ago, on my return from abroad--I made a particular
point of asking my agent what sort of men conducted the farm.
And hearing from him that they were four brothers, all men of
questionable character, named Brownlow, who owed their present
degradation to their own laziness and folly, I said I wished to hear
no more, and that the farm, which stood conveniently adjacent to a
manor which is also mine, must be appropriated with no more delay
than the usual legal routine permitted of. That is what I said to my
agent. I presume--in fact, I know--he has acted on my orders. I have
nothing more to say about it, so I wish you a good evening."

"We have children--two of us are married men," exclaimed Hugh,
appealing to Mrs. Saumarez.

"We have had sickness in the family for months past," added Robert.

"It is not our fault--the harvests have been bad year after year."

But they were speaking to deaf ears. Mr. Saumarez, motioning to his
wife and children, was turning away to enter the house.

"I don't know," said Thomas, who had not hitherto spoken, "what will
become of our old father----"

"What?" inquired Mr. Saumarez sharply, turning round, "Is your old
father still alive?"

"Yes, he is," they all replied at once, staring at him with most
unfeigned surprise.

"I understood from my agent," replied Mr. Saumarez, his voice
getting thick as he spoke, "that there were only you four
brothers--men who deserved--men whom I knew to be----Look here, you
Brownlows. You tell me your old father is still living. Is he well?
Is he in fair health? Does his memory remain good? And how--how do
you treat him in his old age?"

"How do we treat him, sir?" inquired Hugh Brownlow and the rest,
speaking slowly and gazing at Mr. Saumarez as if they had seen a
ghost. "Why, as to that----"

"As to that," I said, appearing from the drawing-room with old
Mr. Brownlow on my arm--for in deference to his expressed wish,
after the departure of his sons, I had travelled with him by train
to Ashcroft in order that he too might plead, and we had just
arrived--"as to that, Mr. Saumarez, the father can best answer for
himself. See if he is not still an honoured and reverend sire. Look
at him yourself, sir; for before heaven I believe you are Arthur
Brownlow."

"Yes," exclaimed the old man on my arm, his eyes streaming with
tears, "it is my son, my own son Arthur, at last! My former ruin is
nothing to my present joy, for I see the boy whom I have wronged,
whose reproaching image has been present with me for years--I see
him at last before me; I hold him in my arms; I ask pardon of him,
profoundest pardon, for all the injustice I have done him; and I
rejoice to think that at last my lifelong sorrow is at an end."

Arthur was weeping on his father's neck. The brothers stood around
petrified with astonishment.

"It is true," said Arthur Brownlow in a voice choked with emotion;
"it is true that, had my brothers been the only parties concerned,
I might perhaps--nay, I am sure I should--without compunction have
retaliated as the world retaliates. But I never knew--I never
suspected--that you, my father, were among them. I have wept for you
as dead, for such tidings reached me some time ago. I have mourned
for the unjust opinion you held of me, mourned since my boyhood, and
even as a man I mourned. But now I hold you in my arms--alive, God
be thanked! and forgiving, Christ be praised! And greater happiness
can I not know, save if one of my own children should bring me the
same experience, and then my felicity might be as great."

The mystery of the lost identity of Arthur Brownlow was easily
explained. He had prospered in the world as Arthur Brownlow, when
my friend Harrowby knew him; but shortly after that date he had
married a Miss Saumarez, who held large estates in Jamaica, and
whose name he was compelled to take for the sake of securing the
entail of her property to the children. He had lived in Jamaica
for nearly ten years, and had recently come back, to find some
property near Hambleton added to his possessions, and with it the
mortgage over Brownlow's farm. His agent only knew that Brownlow's
farm was managed by the young Brownlows, since the old father had
long retired from active participation in it; and with this account
of the place Arthur Brownlow was naturally satisfied, since he
believed his father had died some years ago. He intended to punish
his brothers for their treachery and cruelty, but it is questionable
whether his intention would ever have gone beyond reading them a
severe, salutary lesson and then reinstating them in their freehold.
At any rate, as circumstances happened, it had no chance of doing
so, for the sight of his father so overwhelmed poor Arthur with joy,
that all was forgotten, all was forgiven, in that happy moment;
and now in the whole of my parish there is not a happier or better
conducted place than Brownlow's farm.




[Illustration: An International League of Peace]

AN INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE OF PEACE.


DEAR READERS OF THE QUIVER,

The recent Rescript of the Czar of Russia, inviting the Great Powers
to entertain the idea of a general disarmament, was naturally
received with joyful acclaim by the whole Religious World. There
were some, of course, who shook their heads dubiously when they
heard of it. "Can it be true," they said, "that the Autocrat of
All the Russias is on the side of peace?" And then they have
proceeded to hint at ulterior motives for the announcement. But
the great majority of Christian people have preferred to take his
Imperial Majesty at his word, and to accept, with deep thankfulness
to Almighty God, the Supreme Disposer of all men and all things,
this gracious sign of a long-hoped-for age of universal peace and
good-will, foretold by the prophets and proclaimed by the herald
angels at Bethlehem.

But the Great White Czar himself does not need to be reminded that
Governments are powerless unless they are supported by the peoples
whom they represent in the International Councils thus convened.
And this support, when voiced in a definite form, is a mighty
force which will carry everything before it. Here, then, and now,
under the inspiration of this blessed Christmas season, is given
us an opportunity of responding to the call for Peace, which, if
neglected, may not be repeated for many a generation yet to come.

We have been awaiting the inauguration of a collective expression of
Christian approval and support of the Peace Rescript, not only from
our own, but from all the Christian nations; but up to the present
no such international movement appears to have been organised. We
therefore invite our readers all over the world to join in a hearty
and thankful endorsement of the sentiment of the Czar's Manifesto,
and thus set in motion a powerful engine for good. We suggest also
that they should all enlist their adult friends, without restriction
of sex or creed, in the same Christlike cause, by obtaining their
signatures to the declaration to be found on the other side of this
leaflet.

When the sheet has been filled up With all the signatures
obtainable, it should be returned without delay to the Editor of
THE QUIVER, La Belle Sauvage, London, E.C. Further sheets will be
supplied, post free, on application, or any number of plain sheets
may be added by the collector as required.

  Yours,
  In the service of the Prince of Peace,
  The Editor of the Quiver

An Honorarium of TEN POUNDS will be awarded to the Sender of the
First Thousand Signatures, under regulations which will appear in
our next issue.




[Illustration: THE QUIVER INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE OF PEACE.]

THE QUIVER INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE OF PEACE.

(_No person under sixteen years of age should be asked to sign._)


We, the undersigned, desire to express our earnest sympathy with the
peace proposals contained in the recent Rescript of his Imperial
Majesty the Czar of Russia, and hereby authorise the attachment of
our names to any International Memorial having for its object the
promotion of Universal Peace upon a Christian basis.

  NAMES.                          ADDRESSES.

  _______________________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________________

  _______________________________________________________________

[Illustration: Our Roll of Heroic Deeds]

Our Roll of Heroic Deeds


TWO MANCHESTER HEROES.

One of the many notable acts of bravery which are constantly being
performed by the members of fire brigades all over the kingdom is
here depicted. The lower floors of a house situated in Portland
Street, Manchester, were in flames, and in an upper window a man
suddenly appeared and cried for help. A ladder was immediately
procured, but, to the dismay of the onlookers, it was too short
by several feet, and seemed absolutely useless. However, Fireman
Lawrence swarmed up the ladder, closely followed by Clayton, and
when they reached the top, the latter so placed his arms that
Lawrence could stand upon them and thus reach the narrow gutter
above, on to which he clambered. The breathless crowd beneath them
watched Lawrence balance himself on the ledge, and, with great
difficulty and at terrible peril to his life, pass the imprisoned
man to his companion. When Lawrence, by the help of Clayton, gained
the ladder in safety again, thundering roars on roars of applause
worthily greeted the plucky men in recognition of their magnificent
bravery.




AS CHAPLAIN TO MR. SPEAKER

_Some Reminiscences of Parliament._

[Illustration: EX-SPEAKER PEEL.

(_Photo: Russell and Sons._)

By F. W. Farrar, D.D., Dean of Canterbury.

MR. SPEAKER GULLY.

(_Photo: Bassano, Ltd._)]

_PART II._


I once had the honour of meeting Mr. Gladstone at a very small
dinner-party of some eight or ten persons; and after dinner I
found myself sitting beside him and one of our most distinguished
men of letters--Mr. W. E. H. Lecky, M.P. It happened to be a
time when party feeling was running very high in Parliament,
and I purposely turned the conversation in that direction. The
question of Home Rule was under discussion, and it was common for
Irish members--especially for some who were of very excitable
temperament--to be called to order. Strong language was frequently
used, such as quite passed the ordinary limits of Parliamentary
conventions. I mentally recalled the current anecdote--I do not
know whether it be true or not--that Daniel O'Connell, in one
of his fierce disputes with Mr. Disraeli, had said that he must
be descended from the unrepentant thief; and I asked the great
statesman whether, during his half-century of experience in
the House of Commons, there had been any change in the license
of vituperation, which happened at that moment to be specially
prevalent. "No," he said; "in that respect there has been no change.
At all the crises which my memory recalls there have been outbursts
of violent expression quite as strong as any which have been heard
of late." As the conversation continued, he mentioned two changes
which had occurred in the House of Commons--one a mere matter of
costume; the other of much greater significance. An American guest
at the dinner-table had observed that he could not remember any
other party since he had been in England at which he was the only
person present who wore a moustache. Mr. Gladstone said that, when
he first entered Parliament, there were actually more members who
still wore pigtails than those who wore the beard or moustache. At
that time no one, as a rule, indulged in those appendages except
officers in the army. There was one exception, the late Mr. Muntz,
who was for many years member for Birmingham; and so noticeable was
this exception, that in the House he was popularly known as "the man
with the beard."

[Illustration: MR. W. E. H. LECKY.

(_Photo: Melhuish and Gale, Ltd., Pall Mall, W._)]

The other change was this: "In old days," said Mr. Gladstone,
"the House used to have an absolute control of bores." Few of the
members took frequent part in the debates. Discussion seemed, by
common consent, to be left mainly to a score or two of leaders.
There were gentlemen who had been for long years representatives of
important cities, who were never known to have opened their lips.
I myself in my boyhood knew one highly respected member who, if I
remember rightly, had sat for a county town for nearly fifty years,
and whose sole contribution to the debates in Parliament, for all
that period, had been the single sentence, "I second the motion!"
It is widely different now. I suppose that now any member who has
sat for a number of years, and never even made his maiden speech,
is a rare exception. Although the gift of utterance is supposed to
be very much less rare than once it was, yet the few only are able
to speak really well. This, however, does not prevent members from
the free expression of their opinions, because in print one speech
does not look very much unlike another. In many cases in these days
members are speaking with far less reference to the House than to
the Press gallery. Their constituents expect them to speak, and
like to see their names and remarks in the daily papers, however
ruthlessly they may be abbreviated by the reporters. In former days
a bore was never tolerated. After a very few sentences the House
gave such unconcealed expression to its impatience, and the orator
was interrupted by such a continuous roar of "Divide, divide!...
'vide!... 'vide!... 'vide!" that the stoutest-hearted, after a short
effort, gave way, and the House was not afflicted with a wearying
tide of commonplace, "in one weak, washy, everlasting flood." At
present it is not always so. It is indeed but seldom that a member
feels perfectly willing to bestow on his fatigued fellow-senators
the whole amount of his tediousness; but I have, not infrequently,
seen a member listen with the blandest smile of indifference to
the torrent of interruptions which marred his oratory--and tire
his audience into partial silence by leaving on their minds the
conviction that he _intended_ to say out what he had meant to say,
so that the shortest way to get rid of him would be to let him
maunder on to the end!

[Illustration: DEAN FARRAR IN HIS OLD CORNER IN THE GALLERY.]

Reverting to the subject of strong language in the House, and
again speaking of O'Connell, I asked Mr. Gladstone whether he had
been present when the great demagogue had convulsed the House with
laughter by his parody on Dryden's epigram on the three great poets,
Homer, Virgil, and Milton. "Oh, yes," he answered. "I see him now
before my mind's eye, as, with a broad gleam of amusement over
his face, he kept looking up at Colonel Sibthorpe, the somewhat
eccentric member for Lincoln, and then jotting down something in his
notes. Colonel Sibthorpe, having been an officer in the army, was
exempt from the then current convention of being close-shaven, and
he was bearded like a pard. I cannot recall the exact epigram, but I
remember the incident perfectly."

[Illustration: (_Photo: Lawrence, Dublin._)

DANIEL O'CONNELL.

(_From the Painting by David Wilkie._)]

I had never seen O'Connell's epigram in print, but I quoted it as I
had, years ago, heard it quoted to me--and quite incorrectly. "Oh,
these colonels!" said O'Connell, "they remind me of the celebrated
lines of the poet"--

    "Three colonels in three distant counties born,
     Armagh and Clare, and Lincoln did adorn;
     The first in lengthiness of beard surpassed,
     The next in bushiness, in both the last:
     The force of nature could no further go--
     To _beard_ the third she _shaved_ the other two!"

That was the form in which I had heard it quoted, but Mr. Lecky
at once suggested that the third and fourth lines were purely
imaginary, and I have since found that they really were something to
this effect--

    "The first in direst bigotry surpassed,
     The next in impudence--in both the last."

Delivered as the supposed "celebrated lines of the poet" were in
O'Connell's rich brogue, and with his indescribable sense of humour,
it may well be imagined that it was long before the laugh of the
members died away!

In old days I was not infrequently present in the House during the
gladiatorial combats, which were then of incessant occurrence,
between Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Disraeli. The House was always
crowded, and the scenes were marked by an interest and vivacity
which are now of far rarer occurrence. I well remember a long and
brilliant speech of Mr. Disraeli's, which occupied perhaps two hours
or more, late at night. During the speech--as is very common--he
had to refresh his voice repeatedly by drinking some composition
or other. Water is the safest refreshment for speakers under these
circumstances, but I suppose that the friend who had been thus
ministering to the speaker's necessities had brought sherry, or
something of that kind. The consequence was that, without any
fault on his part and quite unconsciously, Mr. Disraeli--who was,
I believe, an habitually temperate man--was speaking at last with
far less point and lucidity than was his wont. At the close of his
speech Mr. Gladstone rose to answer, and began by the remark, "I
shall not notice any of the concluding observations of the right
honourable gentleman, because I am sure that the House will agree
with me in thinking that they were due to"--and then he added with
marked emphasis--"a somewhat _heated_ imagination."

It was unfortunate in those years of political antagonism that
the two eminent leaders were men of temperaments absolutely
antipathetic. It would have been difficult to find two men who,
remarkable as were their gifts, differed from each other more
widely in almost every characteristic of their minds. Mr. Disraeli
was a man of essentially kind heart, and one whom I have good
reason to regard with respect and gratitude. Much of his apparent
acerbity, many of his strong attacks, were really only on the
surface. I feel quite sure that for Mr. Gladstone--in spite of the
many interchanges of criticism which sometimes sounded a little
acrimonious--he felt not only a profound respect and admiration,
but even no small personal regard. On one occasion he spoke of his
great rival as "my right honourable _friend_, if he will allow me
to call him so." The characteristic of Mr. Gladstone's mind was an
intense moral sincerity, and he could not return the compliment.
One cannot but regret that he felt himself unable cordially to
reciprocate the kindly expression. Had he felt able to do so--had
these two political opponents been able from that time to speak
of each other as "my right honourable friend"--many acerbities of
debate might have been materially softened. But in his reply, Mr.
Gladstone, while he spoke with kind appreciation, could not, or
would not, use the phrase which Mr. Disraeli had on that single
occasion adopted. Perhaps he attached to it a meaning far deeper
than its conventional significance. At any rate, the fact remains
that, while in his response he spoke with dignified recognition of
his opponent's gifts, and was evidently gratified by the expression
he had used, he could not get himself to call Mr. Disraeli by the
sacred name of "friend," and that word was, I believe, never again
exchanged between them. But I only mention this little incident
because in different ways it seems to me to have been touchingly
to the credit of the best qualities of both. And in spite of so
many years of gladiatorial combat in the arena of the House, when
Lord Beaconsfield died Mr. Gladstone pronounced a eulogy upon him,
generous yet strictly accurate in every particular.

[Illustration: DISRAELI'S FAVOURITE ATTITUDE IN THE HOUSE OF
COMMONS.]

On another occasion Mr. Gladstone--_more suo_ in his earlier
days--had almost leapt to his feet to make a controversial speech,
which he had poured forth with all that intensity of conviction
which held the House in rapt attention even while many of its
members were being convinced against their will. Mr. Disraeli began
his reply by the remark that "Really the right honourable gentleman
sprang up with such vehemence, and spoke with such energy, that
he was often glad that there was between them"--and here he laid
his hands on the large table at which the clerks sit and at which
members take the oath, which occupies the greater part of the
space between the Government bench and the leading members of the
Opposition--"that there was between them a good solid substantial
piece of furniture." The House laughed good-humouredly at the
little harmless sarcasm and at the notion of Disraeli requiring a
barrier of personal protection against such vehement assaults! I
was told by one who heard the remark--and it is a pleasant little
incident--that, on the evening after this speech, Mr. Gladstone had
met Lady Beaconsfield at some social gathering, and, so far from
resenting the little hit at himself, had cordially complimented her
on the excellent speech which her husband had made on the previous
evening. There is, however, no doubt that Mr. Gladstone sometimes
winced under the subtle swordplay of his antagonist, just as
Mr. Disraeli must have felt the force of the rolling tide of his
opponent's oratory. But while Mr. Gladstone sat listening with every
emotion reflected on his expressive and mobile countenance, Mr.
Disraeli sat motionless, with features as unchanging as if he wore a
mask.

The Chaplain of the House has an excellent seat in the gallery--one
of the best seats for seeing and hearing--assigned to him by
the courtesy of the members. I not infrequently availed myself
of the privilege of occupying this seat, and in this way I was
present at some of Mr. Gladstone's last appearances in the House,
I particularly recall an incident which has since then been
frequently alluded to, and which was very highly to the credit of
Mr. Gladstone's essential kindness of heart. Mr. Austen Chamberlain,
son of the Right Hon. J. Chamberlain, had delivered what was, I
believe, his maiden speech. It exhibited many of the qualities of
clear enunciation and forcible statement which make his father
one of the best speakers in the present Parliament. Mr. Gladstone
and (I suppose) the Liberal party in general had felt much hurt
by the separation of Mr. Chamberlain from their councils, and by
his partial alliance with their political opponents; and this
feeling could not but be shared by Mr. Gladstone, who carried
into politics an ardour of conviction of deeper intensity than
is felt by ordinary minds. Mr. Austen Chamberlain's speech had,
of course, been delivered in favour of views which Mr. Gladstone
impugned, and nothing would have been easier to him than to bring
down on the head of the young member the sledgehammer force of his
experience, eloquence, and intellectual supremacy. So far from this,
Mr. Gladstone not only pronounced a warm eulogy on the speech, but
went out of his way to say--turning to Mr. Joseph Chamberlain,
and entirely overlooking any momentary exacerbation of political
opposition--that it was a speech which, in the ability and the
modest force with which it had been delivered, "could not but be
very delightful to a father's heart." Simple and spontaneous as the
expression was, it caused visible pleasure to all who heard it. Such
genuine amenities do much to soften the occasional exasperations of
political struggle.

[Illustration: MR. AUSTEN CHAMBERLAIN.

(_When making his maiden speech._)]

I have heard many fine and telling speeches in the House from its
foremost debaters, from the days of Lord Palmerston to our own;
but certainly I have heard no orators who impressed me at all so
deeply as Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Bright. It is, however, generally
acknowledged that most of Mr. Bright's finest and most memorable
speeches were not delivered in the House of Commons, but to vaster
and more sympathetic audiences of the people from the midst of whom
he had sprung. If I were asked what was the most eloquent speech to
which I ever listened, I should at once answer, The speech which
I heard Mr. Bright deliver at St. James's Hall at the time of the
Second Reform Bill. The meeting was a mass meeting, and a ticket had
been given me for the platform by an old friend and schoolfellow. I
was seated between him and Mr. Frederic Harrison, just behind the
orator of the evening. In the front row with Mr. Bright were the Rt.
Hon. J. Ayrton, who had been First Commissioner of Works, and Mr.
W. A. Cremer and Mr. Odger, who were prominent working-men leaders
of the time. Among the audience, in the middle of the hall, sat
Mr. John Stuart Mill, then one of the most celebrated thinkers of
the day; and, throughout the meeting, he applauded with vehemence,
freely bestowing his claps even on the obvious crudities of some
of the working-men who subsequently spoke. As I was close behind
Mr. Bright I could almost read the notes which lay before him on
his broad-brimmed hat. They showed his method, which was carefully
to write out his speech, to learn it by heart, and to refresh his
memory by having before him some sheets of paper, on which in a
large legible hand he had put down the leading substantives of
every sentence. Besides the magic of his strong, manly, sympathetic
voice, and the force of his Saxon English, and the purity of a style
formed on the best models--especially, I believe, on John Milton and
John Bunyan--he owed much of his power as an orator to the extreme
deliberation of his delivery. Owing to this, an audience was able
to see the point which he was intending to bring out, long before
he actually expressed it. They were gradually wound up into a pitch
of ever-increasing excitement and sympathy until the actual climax,
so that it almost seemed as if the speaker was merely expressing
in his single voice the common sentiment of thousands. Now, at the
time of which I speak, Mr. Bright had been passing--as all the
best and greatest men have to pass in their time--through what he
called "hurricanes of abuse, and tornadoes of depreciation." He
was commonly spoken of, in many of the daily papers, not only as
a Radical, but as a revolutionary Jacobin, a political firebrand,
and a pernicious demagogue. The point which he wanted to impress
on his deeply sympathising hearers was that it was monstrous so
to characterise him, when all that he had done was to point out
the actual existence of perils which he had neither created nor
intensified, but about which he had only uttered those timely
warnings which sometimes enable a patriot to avert the terrible
consequences that it might otherwise be too late to remedy. He
spoke as follows, and the audience, which crowded the hall to its
utmost capacity, followed him from clause to clause with breathless
stillness. I cannot quote his exact words, but they were to this
general effect:--

[Illustration: (_Photo: Fradelle and Young._)

LORD PALMERSTON.]

"I have," he said, "been called an incendiary, a firebrand, a
dangerous agitator. Now, supposing that I were to go to the
inhabitants of a village or hamlet on the side of a mountain, and
were to say to them, 'Do you see that thin blue smoke which is
issuing from the rifts of the mountain summit above your heads?'
and were to warn them that it was a menace of peril. Suppose that
they were heedless of my warning, and denounced me for awaking
unnecessary alarm: and suppose that soon afterwards the mountain
became a huge bellowing volcano, filling the heavens with red-hot
ashes, and pouring huge streams of burning lava down its sides.
Would it have been I who created that volcano? Would it have been
my hand which stored it with combustible materials? Should I have
been a dangerous agitator because I had warned the dwellers in that
mountain hamlet to avert or escape from the perils by which they
were 'menaced'?"

[Illustration: (_Photo: Fradelle and Young, Regent Street._)
Signature]

Such is my recollection of the passage which I heard so many years
ago, and which I have doubtless spoiled in attempting to reproduce.
But when the great orator, speaking with weighty deliberation, had
reached the _dénouement_ of his striking metaphor, so powerfully had
he wrought on the feelings of his hearers that an effect followed
such as I have never seen on any other occasion. The whole vast
audience, as though swayed by one common impulse, sprang to its
feet--not gradually and at the initiative of one or two _claqueurs_
and partisans, but with an absolutely electric sympathy, and they
remained on their feet cheering the speaker for five minutes. It
was by far the most decisive triumph of the magic and mastery of
eloquence that I have ever witnessed in my life.

Another remarkable incident occurred at the same meeting. Mr.
Ayrton, in moving a vote of thanks to the chairman, had alluded to
a huge procession--part of a demonstration of the working-classes
in favour of the Reform Bill--which had taken place in London a few
days previously. Lady Burdett-Coutts had witnessed the procession
from a balcony in the window of her house as it passed down the
length of Piccadilly and Oxford Street. She had been recognised,
and, knowing her generous beneficence, the working-men had cheered
her. Mr. Ayrton alluded to this, and had the very dubious taste
to express a strong regret that the Queen, who was at Buckingham
Palace, had not done the same. The allusion was singularly
misplaced, and Mr. Ayrton, as one who had been a member of the
Government, ought to have known that under no circumstances could
her Majesty thus recognise a demonstration in favour of a Bill which
excited great differences of opinion, and was still under discussion
by the House of Commons. The speech was still more _mal à propos_
because it seemed, whether intentionally or not, to attribute to
her Majesty a lack of that sympathy with the aspirations of the
people which, on the contrary, the Queen has invariably shown, so
that her kindness of heart has won a more unbounded affection than
has ever been lavished on any previous Sovereign. Mr. Bright felt
how unfortunate was this _gaucherie_, into which the speaker had
perhaps unintentionally been led. He saw also how injurious it might
be to the effect which the meeting would otherwise produce. When
he rose to acknowledge the vote of thanks to himself, he not only
defended her Majesty from the blame which Mr. Ayrton had implied,
but, alluding with touching simplicity to the long and uninterrupted
devotion which the Royal Lady had shown for so many years of
widowhood to the memory of her great and princely consort, he showed
the unfairness of the insinuation which might seem to have been
implied.

The great voices of Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Bright are silent. They
have passed from the heated arena of politics, "to where beyond
these voices there is peace"; and they have not left their equals
behind them. We seem to be passing through one of those interspaces
in national life which are not illuminated by minds so bright
with genius as those which have ceased to shine. The soil of the
next generation may perhaps produce a harvest as rich, or richer.
Meanwhile we may at least rejoice that

    "Great men have been among us; hands that penned
     And tongues that uttered wisdom:--better none."




[Illustration: The House Economical]

THE HOUSE ECONOMICAL

By Lina Orman Cooper, Author of "Our Home Rulers," Etc.


"Domestic economy consists in spending a penny to save a pound.
Political economy consists in spending a pound to save a penny."

Such is an aphorism left us by one of the wisest of men. It exactly
defines the principle on which I shall deal with the subject of this
paper. Real economy means good management, and is quite apart from
penuriousness. It implies proper regulation of a household, and
careful disposition or arrangement of work. We can be thrifty of
our talents, time, and money without being niggardly, for frugality
need never descend into parsimony if we are watchful. There are more
precious things than £ s. d., after all, and looking after those
other things makes us sympathetic and original.

For instance, the real House Economical suggests sunshine and
purity. Without these, smallness of rent will be more than
counter-balanced by increase in doctors' fees. Of necessity, it must
be liberally and variously supplied, or satiety follows. It is true
that red herrings offer a larger amount of nutriment for a given sum
of money than any other kind of animal food. Yet it would not be
really economical to feed our households continually on halfpenny
herrings. A farthing dip is the cheapest light obtainable--but eyes
would be ruined if we provided nothing but single candles in our
establishments. Spices and condiments are rather adjuncts of food
than necessities, yet they are medicinal in their properties and of
extreme value in rendering food more palatable and stimulating a
jaded appetite. So far for food--for it is with food we generally
find a tendency to save begins.

True economy consists in maintaining the standard of health in a
family at its highest. Expenditure towards this end can never be
extravagant, even if it ranges from thick curtains over our doors
to silk mufflers in windy weather. Not to provide our children
with warm underclothing on the score of expense is the height of
extravagance; to be content without sanitary surroundings and
labour-saving appliances the depth of foolishness.

The House Economical may first of all be beautiful. A horizon
that is bounded by a need for thrift more often than not tends to
greyness and gloom. This should not be. Lovely surroundings are of
economic value in keeping spirits up to a certain point. Digestion
is promoted by eating in a bright, airy dining-room. A well-arranged
bedroom may be productive of sleep.

Comfortable homes are economical ones, in the best sense of the
word, saving time, fatigue, and temper. One hour's opportune rest
on a Chesterfield may save hours of malaise and headache. The
House Economical will have rules sufficiently elastic to allow of
such occasional pauses in work--"come-apart-and-rest-for-a-while"
possibilities--if called for.

One great principle in the House Economical is never to spend money
on unwanted things because they happen to be seen. Another is, when
wanted, to get the best procurable. "Cheap and nasty" is a very
true union of words. Yet we must remember that some inexpensive
substitutes are quite as good as costly things. A copper kettle, for
instance, looks just as well and wears longer than a silver one. A1
plate lasts a lifetime if taken care of. Serge is more useful than
satin, and just as suitable in its way.

"She looketh well to the ways of her household" was said of the
virtuous woman of old. In the House Economical we must most closely
follow her example in its ingle-nooks. Our average cook thinks
it good to use only lumps of orrell in the range, ignoring the
possibilities of saving in any form. Now all housekeepers know that
pokers should be absent from the hearth if we would limit coal
bills; that cinders, sifted and washed, are most useful fuel for
frying and laundry work; that a judicious admixture of wet slack
with wood or "nuts" is advisable. There are two economical ways
of building and maintaining good fires in our parlours. One is to
ignite at the top and suffer to burn _downwards_. The other is to
lay and light after the usual fashion and "backen" with a bucket
of damp coal dust. Either procedure gives a fire that will burn
for hours without attention, if not "raked" by Mary Jane. We need
not, like the ghost in Hamlet, "be condemned to fast in fires" even
in the House Economical, if we see that every hearth burns its
own cinders--that the kitchen stove consumes every bit of table
refuse--and that the coal man delivers eight bags of slack with
every ton of coal.

In the House Economical some laundry work must be done--by all
means send out starched things. But Jaeger underclothing, and
all flannels, last longer when washed at home. It has been said
that servants, nowadays, are like monkey soap--and "will not wash
clothes." But insertion of a clause in our hiring lease would show
them what is required in this line. To keep woollies soft and
unshrunken, they must be soaked in a bath containing two parts
cold to one of hot water. In this, a handful of boiled soap jelly
is stirred (to a lather) and to it one tablespoonful of ammonia
(liquid) added. This volatile spirit loosens all dirt, and our
clothing requires no rubbing, only a thorough rinsing. After shaking
well, the garments must be hung out in a shady, sunless place to
dry, and finished with a warm smoother. No "cast-iron back with a
hinge in it" is required for scientific washing, and a few minutes'
weekly supervision will enable the mistress of the House Economical
to clothe her household in double garments without fear.

In the House Economical we shall rigidly exclude everything fusty
and dusty. Therefore carpets will be conspicuous by their absence
from the sleeping-rooms, especially those threadbare old lengths
and squares usually relegated to our bedrooms. Floors will be
disinfected and stained, at the cost of a few pence, by the use of
permanganate of potash, and polished with beeswax and turpentine.
A cleanly smell, exemption from germs and spores and microbes,
and knowledge of the perfectly sanitary condition of our sleeping
chambers will result.

"A stitch in time saves nine" is the motto writ large on the lintel
of the House Economical. A supply of carpenterial tools, then,
will always be at hand to prevent recourse to that most expensive
luxury--the British workman. We shall oil locks and link chains,
keep our window cords mended and its sash running free. We shall
learn how to hammer and plane and file and screw. A bit and brace
will be no wonderful instrument to us but a much-used friend. A
handy man about the place is a well-known boon. Who can value at her
right worth the handy woman?

It is a well-known fact that "many hands make light work," but we
must remember that limbs imply mouths, and that mouths must be
filled. Hence, in the House Economical, each child will have its own
vineyard to keep. Helpful, willing little fingers will be trained
to usefulness. Our young folk find as much pleasure in _resultful_
effort as in objectless employment--making beds can be as much
"play" as arranging a doll's house--and Tommy can be taught to mend
as well as to break.

Perhaps, in the House Economical, we are inclined rather to forget
that there is a time to spend as well as a time to keep (Eccles.
iii.). The very fact of an economic course in general ought to help
us to a liberal one at proper seasons. Cheese-paring and skinning a
flint are occupations at all times to be avoided, more especially
so when festivals or hospitality call for an open hand. The royal
road to prosperity is bordered by scattered wealth and watered with
generosity. The wisest of men said so, and I believe him.

What can I say further of the many other avenues leading up to and
from the House Economical? Of the soap to be bought by the stone and
the soda in sacks? Of the plaice for luncheon instead of halibut?
Of rhubarb mixed with cherries, and such like? In treating of such
details in the House Economical, we are treading on less flowery
meads than when considering its twin sisters--the Palace Beautiful
and the House Comfortable. Yet, perhaps, it needs more real wisdom
to run a family coach on economically pleasant lines than it does
to be either artistic or cosy. "Common tasks require all the force
of a trained intellect to bear upon them." So it needs a cultivated
brain, sanctified common sense, and skilful hands, to brighten the
everyday minutiæ of life in the House essentially Economical.




[Illustration: THE MINOR CANON'S DAUGHTER]

THE MINOR CANON'S DAUGHTER

_THE STORY OF A CATHEDRAL TOWN._

By E. S. Curry, Author of "One of the Greatest," "Closely Veiled,"
Etc.




CHAPTER VII.

"BIP? BIP?"


Mrs. Lytchett was paying a homiletic visit to Mrs. Bethune. She
often did. She had great ideas of the duty of a Bishop's wife in
keeping the wives of all the other clergy up to theirs; and there
was much in the Bethune household that, in her opinion, required
exceptional looking after. She liked Mrs. Bethune very much, and
pitied her not a little. Just now, she must require help in managing
Marjorie. A girl fresh from school--and not at all the school Mrs.
Lytchett had advised for her--was almost always tiresome at first,
till she had been settled into her place. Mrs. Lytchett meant to
settle Marjorie.

"Oh, I am glad to see you up, and looking well," she said, coming in
briskly on the early afternoon's calm.

Mr. Bethune put a chair for her beside his wife's sofa, and then sat
down again to the littered table. He had long ago attuned himself
to a placidity and aloofness in the midst of chatter which nothing
ordinary could disturb.

"How dreadfully busy Mr. Bethune looks! Is it another book?" Mrs.
Lytchett said.

With a murmured, "I had better go and look after the boys," Marjorie
obeyed a glance from her mother's merry eyes, and went away through
the window. She was apt to fret and rebel at Mrs. Lytchett's
interferences, and was specially resentful at any implied criticism
of her mother.

"What a big girl Marjorie grows! She is quite startling sometimes.
One forgets she isn't a child."

"She has grown up early--to fill my place," with a little sigh.

"Oh, I hope not," was the cheery response. "She could not do that,
you know--at any rate, not so successfully. By the way, I came
partly to ask about her. Is she engaged to Mr. Warde?"

"Engaged? No. She is scarcely eighteen."

"But he evidently admires her--there is no mistaking that--he takes
complete possession of her. Now, what do you wish about it?"

"It isn't what I wish," gently. "You are very kind--but Marjorie is
a girl who will settle such a matter for herself."

"Oh, but that is nonsense! Those things can always be managed with
proper care."

"But I should be sorry to have her managed. Nothing forced upon
Marjorie will make her happy. She must be left to herself."

"How mistaken! You would not leave her to herself if a bad man were
in question."

"I should take care not to put her in the way of a bad man," with
dignity.

"You would prevent her meeting him? Exactly; then why act
differently when it is someone you like? However, there is time for
that. There is another matter. Do you know anything of Mr. Pelham's
household?"

"No, nothing."

"The Bishop likes him, thinks him a great acquisition, and he
visits at Oldstead. I had him to dinner, and he and Charity sang
nicely. I'm not sure," looking wise, "that there isn't something
between----However, he sent his baby to see me this morning--a most
wilful, spoilt little thing. That nurse will not do at all."

"You share Sandy's opinion."

"Ah! I heard your boys had taken to the baby. Perhaps that was
what made her so tiresome this morning. I warned Mr. Pelham what
mischiefs they were," candidly. "But the nurse is insufferable.
Dressed in a sort of dove-coloured dress and a hat, and all her hair
waved--kid gloves, and an embroidered skirt under her dress. I asked
her if Mr. Pelham had given her leave to dress like that."

"A man does not notice," said Mrs. Bethune, glad that Marjorie was
not by to comment.

"I told her that I should speak to him, as she did not seem to
realise her own duty, and also about the child's dress. It was
ridiculous."

"A man could not know," suggested Mrs. Bethune.

"She was very impertinent, and then we found that the baby had
run away. We could not find her anywhere, and she had got to the
Bishop's room through the window. It seems that your boys had shown
her the way. It seems rather hard that the Bishop of the diocese
shouldn't be free from intrusion in his own palace. And he was very
busy--just going off."

At mention of her boys a little tender smile crept into Mrs.
Bethune's eyes. "He is always good to the boys," she said to the
implied reproach.

"Good, yes--but that should prevent advantage being taken. And the
baby has a temper," pursued Mrs. Lytchett. "She fought and screamed
when I took her from his knee. She is evidently being brought up
very badly indeed. I am going to see about it now. Do you think
he will be back? I hear," in accents of disgust, "that he rides
backwards and forwards on one of those horrid bicycles."

Mrs. Lytchett paused to wonder a little at the sudden flush
suffusing Mrs. Bethune's face, but went on: "I hope he won't
introduce these things into the Precincts, now we have kept them
away so long. I should have thought they might very well be left to
Blackton and such places."

"Even the Duchess rides," Mrs. Bethune said softly. She felt
guiltily conscious that Marjorie and Charity, under Mr. Pelham's
instructions, had been riding for some days past--not only in the
Deanery garden as at first, but far away into the country.

"The Duchess is the Duchess," sharply. "She does and tolerates many
things that seem to me a great pity."

       *       *       *       *       *

Mr. Pelham had ridden home early that day, with the idea in his mind
of taking his baby down to the Canons' Court, and himself consulting
Mrs. Bethune about her. Marjorie had said, "Mother will know";
Charity had said, "Ask Mrs. Bethune, she is the nicest woman to
consult"; and his own drawing in the direction where Marjorie might
be found made him jump at the advice.

But he had found a tearful nurse and a belligerent baby; and he was
just emerging from a lively interview in the study, where he had
been told that, "if she couldn't dress as seemed fitting in such
a house, as the attendant of Miss Pelham, not just like a common
nurse, she would like to give a month's notice," when he met Mrs.
Lytchett crossing the hall to the drawing-room.

"This is very kind of you," he began, conscious of an audible sniff
and the angry rustle of skirts behind him; and before him, Mrs.
Lytchett's tilted nose and stony eyes fixed in the same direction.
He had a man's horror of a scene, and he glanced apprehensively at
the turned-down corners of Mrs. Lytchett's mouth.

"Bring Miss Barbara, nurse," he said hastily, and ushered his
visitor into the drawing-room.

"What a remarkable apartment!" Mrs. Lytchett said in her deep voice,
looking round. "What alterations you have made!"

"I hope you like it," he said courteously.

"I daresay I shall, when I get used to it. I'm not one that approves
of changes," she responded. Then turning from frivolities, she sat
down and began seriously upon her business.

"Your little girl came to see me this morning. I am afraid that
nurse of yours is very unfit for her position, and is doing her
great harm. She is spoilt and very wilful."

"My little Barbara!" murmured Mr. Pelham, a pang filling his heart
at such words in connection with his baby, followed immediately
by a feeling that he should like to do some harm to his visitor.
Just then the door was opened widely, and the baby stood within the
doorway.

To eyes not jaundiced, she was a perfect picture in a fitting
frame. The sun shone in, through old stained glass, on the brown
panelling of the hall behind her. A ray, through a side window of
the drawing-room, fell upon her, lighting up her vivacious, dark
beauty. Nurse, on seeing the visitor, had hastily given vent to her
temper, and arrayed her in the latest Regent Street confection--a
dainty short-waisted, long-skirted white satin frock trimmed with
costly lace, under which the bare pink toes just peeped, for Barbara
had scouted the accompanying shoes.

With her face dimpling into smiles at sight of her father, she
caught up her skirt with one hand and hurried towards him.

"Noo f'ock," she called out.

Then she recognised the visitor, and paused, remembering the
morning's conflict, putting her finger into her mouth and
considering. A little to her father's dismay she tilted her
nose, and said interrogatively, "Bip? Bip?" much as if she were
questioning a terrier. Then she slowly sidled to his knee, eyeing
Mrs. Lytchett the while in evident doubt of her intentions.

"Bip? Bip?" she queried again insistently, pointing her finger at
the visitor.

"What is it, Barbie?" her father asked gently.

"She means the Bishop," explained the Bishop's wife in disgusted
tones. "That is what she was screaming all through the hall this
morning, when I brought her from his study. It is a dreadful name.
You must say 'Bishop,' little one," she commanded in deep tones,
bending towards the baby.

Barbara was not easily frightened, but the atmosphere was stormy,
and her dressing had been hurried. She glanced up into the stony
eyes above her, and perhaps gauged the lack of sympathy. With a
quiver of her rosy mouth she said faintly, "Barbedie say Bip," and
having thus asserted herself, threw herself against her father's
knees, her face buried. He afterwards related that he heard murmurs
of the obnoxious monosyllable; but fortunately the situation was
relieved by a piercing whistle that now sounded through the windows.

As she heard it, a delighted smile came over Barbara's lifted
face--a kind of record of past delight and future hope. She raised
her hand, and pointed vaguely at the outside world.

"Boy," she said ecstatically, wriggling hurriedly from her father's
knee. It was Sandy's summons to his comrade, and she hastened to
answer it.

"I think it is the Bethune boys on their way home from school," Mr.
Pelham said apologetically.

"It certainly sounds like them--no one else could make such a
dreadful noise," Mrs. Lytchett answered. "Are you going to let that
child go out like that, with no shoes on, and in that dress? Ah,
there!"

[Illustration: "What a remarkable apartment!"]

She had risen and approached the window, with the view of
intercepting Barbara's exit. But the baby was too quick. Hastily
wriggling down the steps, in a manner peculiarly her own, she
was seized upon on either hand by David and Sandy--apt at quick
evasions, as well as in seeing cause for them--and was striding
with huge strides across the lawn. Point lace and satin were of
no account with the Bethune boys, any more than were bare toes
and a hatless head. The girl-baby, all smiles to them, they found
delightful, no matter in what she might happen to be cased.

[Illustration: His keen eyes took in all the details of the scene.]

"That dress will be ruined," Mrs. Lytchett said tragically; and she
proceeded with energy to convey her opinions as to the dressing
of little children, as well as of their nurses. When she at last
withdrew to pay a visit on the Green, Mr. Pelham closed the big gate
behind her with a sigh of relief.

"I daresay she is right," he thought. "But what unpleasant 'right.'
I will ask Mrs. Bethune."

He felt always irresistibly drawn by the dark beauty of Mrs.
Bethune's eyes. No one could see the appeal in them without a pang.
Even amidst her merriment, their wistful beauty somewhat belied it.
Mr. Pelham found her helplessness and patience very pathetic. She
looked so young to be a prisoner--so young, too, to be the mother of
all those boys--whose noise was, however, curbed somewhat near her
sofa.

When she had heard his errand, she said, "I thought you had come
for your little girl. She came down half an hour ago with my boys,
in a dress fit for a princess. I feared they had stolen her away.
We have ventured to take it off, and put her into one of the boy's
blouses. I really couldn't let her go and dig in such clothes. Yes,"
in response to his look, "they are all in the garden. Go and see if
you like her in it, and then you shall have a pattern."

Mr. Pelham, on emerging through the window into the garden, saw that
the "all" included also Mr. Warde. That gentleman had shown himself
disinclined to follow the Bishop's lead in being civil to the
newcomer. He had not yet called on him--though when they met they
were friendly in discussing mutual tastes.

Mr. Warde was sitting with Marjorie under the beech tree on
the lawn, and Mr. Pelham was struck by the look of intimacy,
long-established, that the books and work scattered on the table
seemed to prove between them. He could not know that Mr. Warde
had joined Marjorie, after she had gone out to overlook the boys.
He only saw that they were sitting together in the summer shade,
talking in low voices--the man with a look on his face, and a
possession in his attitude, which could not be mistaken--the girl
with a wistful appeal shining in her dark eyes, which might well be
a response.

A cold doubt fell on the beholder as he walked slowly towards them,
and his keen eyes took in all the details of the scene. He had
heard rumours--Charity had half-revealed the understanding between
them--but his heart had refused belief.

Could it be that, after all, they were engaged? If so, he knew that
life--which, with its new possibilities, had lately become strangely
sweet--would again be a dark and careful problem.




CHAPTER VIII.

BETWEEN TWO LOVERS.


Barbara had been exercising all her fascinations in beguiling Mr.
Warde. She was attired in one of Orme's blue smocks, in which her
small body was somewhat lost, but in which she was equally pretty as
when attired in her own daintinesses. Her nurse had fostered in her
a taste for dress, which so far prompted a desire for her father's
approval; but the male tuition she was now under promised soon to
qualify this taste.

She had informed Mr. Warde of her importance in Orme's dress, and
received his sympathy, with pretty little pattings down of the blue
linen, until recalled to business by Sandy's whistle.

"Bardedie go dig," she announced, showing all her white teeth in an
alluring smile, and trotting off to the cave side.

Down below, the boys were strenuously repairing the ravages of the
thunderstorm, and all hands--and baskets--were in requisition.
The _rôle_ of highwayman, like that of ghost, having palled, they
were eager to begin the more important one of settler. David had
arranged the start for the next day, and they were excitedly making
preparations and collecting necessary stores.

These included numerous and unlikely things.

"Settlers have spades; we shan't want any, as ours isn't diggin'
ground," objected David to Sandy's list.

"It's ridic'lus to go settling wivout spades," said Sandy.

"Less to carry, and there'll be enough, and it isn't like straight,
even ground."

"We must have a blanket. That can come off a bed. It's a mountain,
Dave, 'member--the top of a mountain. An' our fambly to get up an'
all. It'll be awfly hard," said Sandy, stopping for a moment in
his burrowings to mop his heated face. Just then Barbara danced
in, planting her feet in great delight in the damp mud Sandy had
excavated.

"Me," she demanded, "me too. Barbedie dig"; and, seizing a basket,
she began to fill it, in keen emulation of Orme's business-like
labour. Orme was a most useful coadjutor in anything. When once
set to work, he always went on stolidly till he was told to stop,
or till material failed him. Nothing in the way of temptation, no
delight or allurement, could turn him aside.

[Illustration: Marjorie lifted her head to meet his gaze.]

Marjorie's tools, like his, were her two little fat hands, and these
were soon, to her delight, plastered with mud.

"How shall we get her?" inquired David, pausing and looking at the
baby, working so ardently. "Must she come too?"

"'Course she must," said Sandy. "We ain't got no other girl. 'Sides,
it ud be a shame to leave her out just when the fun begins. She'll
have to be fetched. We'll get her to tea."

The boys' heads got together over schemes which grew more and more
ambitious, and by the time the passage was cleared of the _débris_
and mud, and the little ones shunted back from discovery of its
exit, all details had been planned.

Sandy, hearing voices, reconnoitred, with only his eyes above
ground, to find out whether friend or foe were with Marjorie. He was
delighted to see Barbara's father. Here was his opportunity.

It was probably the dirtiest little boy in England who came
persuasively to Mr. Pelham's side, holding the transformed
Barbara--now almost equally dirty--by the hand.

"Your baby likes our house," he said. "May she come to-morrow, and
stop to tea?"

Barbara, gazing with delight at her unrecognisable hands, held them
up to her father's view; sufficient plea, she held these hands for a
repetition of delight. And when Ross and Orme ambled up alongside,
regarding him solemnly with their round blue eyes, awaiting his
verdict, he said "Yes."

Sandy's remnant of conscience prompted him to say, "We'll bring her
back some time--honour bright. Don't want that nasty nurse prancing
'bout."

"Hush, Sandy!" said Marjorie.

"Don't," reiterated Sandy sturdily; "her skirts scrape an'
scratch--an' she screams if you do things sudden."

"I hope it is quite safe," Marjorie said a little anxiously, as
Barbara was marched off to the nursery by all her swains, to be
cleaned, and reinstated in her satin gown. "Sandy doesn't quite
realise what a baby she is."

"No harm could happen on the way down," Mr. Pelham said
thoughtfully, "and it is but a step from my gate to the Court. I
have watched how careful they are with her."

Marjorie's solicitude for his baby prompted him to inquire, rising
unwillingly when that small person reappeared, "Are you dining at
the Deanery to-morrow?"

"Yes," answered Marjorie. "Charity has some musical people coming
down from London--and you----"

She paused, recollecting Charity's pretty air of possession when
mentioning Mr. Pelham and his singing. She had said, "Mr. Pelham
and I have been practising together a good deal--he sent for some
new songs from town. Our voices suit perfectly--there are very few
evenings, when we are disengaged, that he doesn't find his way down
the hill."

She did not mention the warm and recurrent invitation of the Dean.
Nor could Marjorie realise the allurement of the pretty drawing-room
with its charming hostess to the lonely man. Possibly, neither would
she have believed that sometimes a visionary hope that he might find
her with her friend had been his lure.

Marjorie's was a home to which he did not often like to venture
unasked. One evening, he had volunteered to be Charity's messenger;
and he had been struck by the aloofness and quiet of the little
scene into which he had been announced.

The lamp, on the minor canon's table, shining white on the scattered
papers, lit up his scholarly face, as, busy with his writing and the
thoughts it brought, he turned a far-away gaze on the visitor.

Another lamp, by Mrs. Bethune's sofa, shone on Marjorie's burnished
head, and lighted the fragile beauty of her mother. Both were
busy with needlework--the pretty smocks of the little boys. Mrs.
Bethune's slender hands rested whilst she welcomed and talked
to Mr. Pelham; but Marjorie's went on with their occupation. He
noticed, too, the open book which lay upon the table; the quiet
homeliness of this little scene, which yet Marjorie's rapidly moving
fingers made part of a more strenuous life than the one he had just
left; the work-a-day room in which were no luxuries, except the
little table of hothouse flowers, always kept fresh and fragrant
by Mrs. Bethune's many friends; and the bent, aloof figure of the
student--all gave the room a totally different atmosphere from the
luxurious apartment whence he had come. Its calm, and peace, and
withdrawal, struck Mr. Pelham with a sense of chill. He had no part
in it. Mother and child were enough for each other. Marjorie had
none of Charity's pretty restlessnesses and fusses for her visitor's
entertainment. As the conversation went on, she scarcely raised her
eyes. He talked to Mrs. Bethune, prolonging the conversation that
he might enjoy the quiet pose of Marjorie's slim figure, the pretty
curves of cheek and ear, and the moving swiftness of her fingers.

Only now and then Marjorie lifted her head to meet his gaze,
with the wistful look now becoming habitual. For Mr. Warde's
steady wooing, although, according to his promise, unvoiced, was
sufficiently assiduous; and Marjorie was unconsciously making up
her mind to a future which she realised would be a great delight
to her parents. She was quite matter-of-fact about it. It did not
occur to her that she was of sufficient importance to revolt at such
a future. She did not once say to her mother, "It is my own life I
have to live. Why should I marry Mr. Warde if I don't love him?" She
put aside the fancies of a far different lover which, in moments of
unrest, or rare idleness, filled her day-dreams.

"Life isn't a fairy tale," she settled with a sigh, at the
remembrance of an arresting look she could not banish. "He cares
for Charity. Everybody says so. How can I be so silly? And yet--and
yet----"

"Could you not come up and see my house some day?" Mr. Pelham had
asked that evening, as he was leaving. "Oh!" as a sudden thought
struck him, "I have a carriage--scarcely ever used. I believe it
could be made as comfortable as your chair. Would it shake you too
much? And then," turning eagerly to Marjorie, "your mother could
drive every day it was fine. It would be a kindness to use it!" he
pleaded.

Marjorie's face lit in response. "Mother does drive sometimes. Mr.
Warde----" and with angry dismay, the looker-on beheld the mounting
flush. "Oh, everybody is very kind in that way," she finished
hurriedly.

"But come and see my house and pictures," he persisted, turning to
Mrs. Bethune. "Come to-morrow, and I will be at home to show you
them, and see that you are not tired."

The visit had been duly paid and enjoyed, and plans for others made,
till it soon happened that, thanks also to the boys and Barbara,
scarcely a day passed without communication between the Canons'
Court and The Ridges.

And so love, unconsciously fed and fostered, had grown apace.

       *       *       *       *       *

There was a silence under the beech tree after Mr. Pelham's
departure, during which both Marjorie and Mr. Warde were busy with
their own thoughts. It was broken by Mr. Warde.

"When is that engagement to be announced? Is it settled yet?"

"What engagement?"

"Pelham and your friend, Charity. I never drop in of an evening but
I find him there."

"Perhaps he says the same about you," said Marjorie, a flash of
mischief in her eyes.

Mr. Warde's speech had broken in upon a dreamy wonder, which
was making a song of joy in her heart, as to the meaning of Mr.
Pelham's lingering look as he had said good-bye. With a start of
recollection, and a pulling of herself together, Marjorie remembered
that she had known this man, on whose looks she was dwelling, just
six weeks. Six weeks! And this other man, sitting so near, with an
air of possession at which her whole heart rebelled--though she
quelled the expression she was longing to give way to--she had known
all her life! All her life he had been intimate--one of them--as
near almost as her father. And how good he had been to her, to them
all! How the household would miss the constant care--first for one,
then for another--which in so many ways he had evinced. Marjorie's
conscience smote her when she recalled his many kindnesses, accepted
as a matter of course, as between lifelong friends; kindnesses, as
she quickly remembered, entirely on one side.

The recollection of her mother's pleading for him drew Marjorie's
eyes in mute questioning to his face. Would he feel very much if she
could not bring herself to care for him? He looked so comfortable,
and healthy, and prosperous. Surely it could not matter to him what
a girl might do? And then--he turned, and looked at her suddenly, to
meet the questioning in her eyes. A queer, rigid expression hardened
his mouth. For a moment he waited, as though preparing for a blow.
Then he stood up and looked down at her, shielding her by his action
from any lookers-on from the windows.

"Well, Marjorie, you have something to say to me?" and she heard him
catch his breath, and pause to recover, before he added: "Say it
quickly, dear. Have you changed? Have you reconsidered?"

"Mother----" stammered Marjorie, taken by surprise; "no, I haven't
changed, but----"

"Yes," he encouraged; and he vaguely wondered that she was not
stunned by the loud beating of his heart. It had come at last, what
he longed for. It overmastered him.

"Mother said--it is love." Her head was bent, and her voice was a
whisper, scarcely audible in the soft summer air; but the man heard.

"And you--and you?" he breathed.

Marjorie lifted her eyes, startled. This--what was it?--this
transforming emotion, shining in the eyes, usually so quiet? She
shrank back.

"No, do not," she implored. "I do not know--I do not feel like that."

She made as though to rise, and pushed him gently away. What had she
said? What had she done to cause such feeling?

"Nay, Marjorie," he said, and he grew rigid again in self-control;
"tell me what was in your mind. I will not vex you--I will claim
nothing; only tell me--tell me," he entreated.

Marjorie, looking into her memory, searched in vain for something
that would meet this demand. A vague memory of her mother's
words about marriage and Mr. Warde, mingled with the Duchess's
conversation at the Deanery; a recollection of the constant coupling
of Charity's name with that of Mr. Pelham; a tired feeling that
she had been worsted in a struggle, and could no longer fight; a
yearning for comfort in some undefined sorrow, to which she could
give no name--a sense of irrevocableness, of emptiness, of ineffable
longing. This is what Marjorie felt, and from which she turned, as
human nature will turn from a hurt to which experience can give no
cure.

"I do not think--I do not know whether it is love," she said at
last. The man winced unconsciously at the icy aloofness of the
girlish voice. "But--if--you--care----" The words fell sighingly
from her lips.

"If I care?" he repeated slowly, and his voice was as cold as hers
in the effort at repression; "if I care? Marjorie, I care so much
that to make you happy, to win your love, I would give my life.
My darling"--he paused--"how dear--how dear--I cannot make you
understand. You shall never regret--never!"

He looked down for a second at the bowed white face, so unlike the
face of a happy girl hearing her lover tell that she is beloved, and
said softly:

"You will like to be alone; I will go. Do not think of me in any
other way than as just your old friend, until--until you give it me
willingly. I will claim nothing more."




CHAPTER IX.

MISSING!


"What's he been doin', Margie?"

Ages had passed, so it seemed to Marjorie, since the departure of
Mr. Warde, when Sandy's question reached her ear. All the boys were
standing round, looking at her with inquisitive concern. Marjorie,
a limp heap, inattentive, unready to listen to them, was a new
experience. Ross and Orme had tender hearts, not yet hardened
by contact with an unsympathetic world. The latter had dug his
elbows into his sister's knees, and was looking up pitifully into
the far-away eyes that did not even yet see him. Conscious of the
blankness, Orme felt moved to whimper; Ross thumped with sturdy
fists the limp knees which, hitherto, for baby weaknesses had
provided firm support.

"What's he been doin', Margie?"

As the question reached her far-away consciousness, Marjorie came
back to reality with a sudden start. Mr. Warde had forgotten that
the boys were still in the garden, so occupied was he and so quiet
were they. But as the tea-hour approached, first one, then another,
finally all four pairs of eyes had been cautiously lifted above
ground to survey the situation.

Something, perhaps, in Mr. Warde's appearance, some intuition of
unwonted agitation in the interview going on under their eyes, had
warned David against intrusion, and he had held Sandy back until the
visitor was gone.

[Illustration: "Seems you're struck all of a heap, Margie!"]

"Seems you're all struck of a heap, Margie," said David now. "Has he
been scolding?"

"Not exactly," faltered Marjorie; she could not meet the inquiring
glances bent on her from all sides. She felt sore and shaken; and
the familiar faces brought back to her recollection the full meaning
of the interview through which she had just passed. What had she
done? what had she said? With a shock she realised that she had
agreed to become Mr. Warde's wife. Her whole soul shrank.

"Ain't we goin' to have any tea?" Sandy inquired, his mind bent on
an opportunity for the acquisition of stores.

"Is it tea-time?"

"Bell went ever so long ago."

"Didn't you hear it, Margie?" Ross inquired, much impressed at such
absent-mindedness.

"No, Ross. Go in, all of you, and get clean," Marjorie ordered,
glancing from one to another, feeling less like a victim under
the eyes of her judges now that they too were in a position to be
criticised.

"'Stead of eatin' much," Sandy had exhorted beforehand, "you've got
to save."

If Marjorie had not been so occupied with her own perplexities, she
must have noticed, first, the ravenous appetite of the four; next,
the rapidity with which the bread-and-butter and cake disappeared.
All the pockets were bulging when Ross was deputed to say grace, but
the little boy's face looked very disconsolate indeed. Regardless of
Sandy's frowns, after struggling through the formula, in accents of
lingering unwillingness, he added--

"Ain't had a good tea--me hungry as hungry."

"Me, too," said Orme hopefully.

Marjorie glanced suspiciously round on the faces of her brothers,
and then at the empty board. Even so preoccupied as she was, she
could not but suspect that some means, other than natural ones, must
have been used to banish all that food. And when the same thing
happened the next afternoon also, when a more than usually varied
abundance graced the table in honour of Barbara's visit, she spoke.

"I can't think," she was beginning to protest, when, to Sandy's
delighted relief, Mrs. Lytchett was announced as being in the
drawing-room, and asking specially for her.

"Oh, dear!" sighed Marjorie, her mind travelling back to all her
misdemeanours. "What can it be? I hope not the cycling."

But it was. There was an amused flash in her mother's eyes, while
Mrs. Lytchett's lips looked as though they were carved in stone, so
very determined was her aspect.

"I hope it isn't true, Marjorie, what I hear?" she said in aggrieved
tones.

"What is that?" asked Marjorie.

"Three of those horrid bicycles passed me this afternoon close,
whirling by at a furious pace. I had been to the Deanery, to tell
Charity how sorry the Bishop was to miss her music. She wasn't in;
and passing the garden entrance--the garden entrance--ah, I see it
is true!"

For Marjorie's aspect was unmistakable. It was one of guilt. She did
nothing, but sat down in a somewhat limp manner in the chair near
which she stood, and looked blankly at her inquisitor.

"So I asked; I could scarcely believe my eyes. That young footman
was lounging near; I suppose he was waiting for the bicycles,
wasting his time. And he said you have all been riding a long time."

"Not so very long," Marjorie answered in excusing accents. "Only
about a month."

Mrs. Bethune laughed, though she looked at Marjorie anxiously. When
they were not too bitter, she enjoyed the humour of the encounters
between Mrs. Lytchett and Marjorie. Generally the latter showed
fight; but all that day she had been unusually quiet.

"I thought you knew how much the Bishop and I hated the horrid
things."

The tones were deeply reproachful.

"I thought--he--had changed," Marjorie stammered.

"No; he will never change, neither shall I"--in accents of
certainty. "The Bishop thinks them most unbecoming. How did you
learn? I hope that young footman----" She paused, unable to put into
words the suspicion she had conjured up.

"We learnt--Mr. Pelham showed us--in the Deanery garden. It isn't
difficult."

"I am sorry you didn't think more of your position in Norham before
setting such an example. And they cost so much!"

"Mine was a present," murmured Marjorie, unwontedly gentle.

"A present! From Mr. Pelham?"

"It came with Charity's."

"From the Dean. Oh! that is different."

Marjorie's memory went back to the sunshiny afternoon under the
chestnuts at the Deanery, when the two new glittering machines--just
arrived from the maker--had been brought out to Charity's tea-table.

"One for me!" she had exclaimed, reading the label in delight. "How
kind of the Dean!"

But when she thanked the Dean, in pretty gratitude, a little later,
he had disclaimed the gift.

"Who sent for it for me? Can it really be for me? Not Mr. Pelham,
surely?" (for it was he who, at the Dean's request, had ordered
Charity's). He, too, disowned being the giver.

"But you know?" Marjorie asked.

"Yes, I know. The giver is one who has every right to give you
pleasure."

Something in his manner put her on the track, and she remembered
that the Bishop had been in the garden when the purchase had been
talked about. When she saw him next, he did not disavow her thanks.

"I like to see you enjoying yourself, my dear," he answered in his
kind tones. "I thought how bright and happy you both looked the
other day. Only don't have any accidents."

"I don't think it was the Dean," Marjorie's truthful nature prompted
her to answer now. "It was--the Bishop."

"And I asked him not! I begged him not to carry out his intention.
Poor Norham!" with a sigh, "it has given in at last, and now you and
Charity have started, every girl in the place will follow. I blame
the Duchess."

When the visitor had gone, Marjorie stood for a moment at the
window, anxiously watching Sandy speeding up the garden as fast as
his legs could carry him.

"The boys have got some scheme on, I believe, mother," she said.
"Dave and Sandy have been full of mystery all day, and Ross is
pompous. I wish we weren't going to leave you alone to-night," she
said tenderly.

"I like you to go with your father, dear--he will not stay for the
music, so I shall not be alone long. And now--I must expect to lose
you gradually, dear."

"Oh, not yet." With passion Marjorie pushed the thought away.

Many little hindrances occurred whilst she was dressing. One knock
preceded the entrance of Sandy, an unwonted visitor at such a time.
He looked eager and excited; but he stood fidgeting by Marjorie's
dressing-table, watching the arrangement of her hair, and did not
appear in any hurry to explain what he needed.

"Is all girl's hair done like that? What a bover it must be," he
remarked after a little time. "I _should_ like that tiny, squinchy,
soft brush, Margie."

"What for?"

"To brush Barbie's hair. It's in a awfle mess."

"Well, take it," said Marjorie kindly. "And it's time you took her
home. She goes to bed at seven, and you promised."

"Yes, but"--objected Sandy eagerly--"not to-day. Mr. Pelham said she
might stay a bit longer. Is your bed or mine biggest, Margie?"

"Mine. What a funny boy you are, Sandy."

"Could I have a blanket off your bed, Margie? Nurse'll fuss ever so,
if I take ours--an' I can't poss'bly do wivout one."

Marjorie's thoughts had passed away from her little brother and
his needs; and the absent assent she gave was enough for Sandy. He
dragged the blanket from the bed, and ran off, hugging it in his
arms. He found always that directness was his best aid. Not often
did Sandy beat about the bush.

Marjorie went down, cloak and gloves in hand, a dainty, graceful
figure in her soft white dress. Her father was waiting for her,
sitting in unwonted idleness by her mother's sofa.

Marjorie looked at them curiously as she crossed the floor, noting,
as she would not have noted another time, that her mother's hand was
clasped in her father's. Love, the love she had pledged herself to,
was theirs. They loved each other well, it was easy to see; though,
to Marjorie, it seemed impossible that her dignified father could
ever have told his love behind a door.

Her aspect was stern, like that of a young judge, as she looked down
upon them now. Somehow, to her, love's outward features were no
longer fair.

"You look very nice, Margie," her mother said softly, looking at the
tall, slim form, crowned by its cold pure face. "That dress is a
success. Look, father."

Mr. Bethune turned his eyes upon his daughter, and smiled.

"Yes," he said; "she looks sweet and clean. She is like you,
Alysson," his voice lingering and breaking, "in the old days."

[Illustration: Anxiously watching Sandy speeding up the garden.]

Marjorie heard, wondering. Alysson! How sweet the name sounded with
that caressing accent on its second syllable. This was the first
time she had ever heard her father call her mother thus.

She walked beside him through the evening sunset, down the Canons'
Court, to the music of the cathedral chimes; her cloak cast round
her emphasising the youthful slenderness, which made her seem so
tall. Mr. Warde, from the Deanery steps, watched them approach, his
heart bounding with delight at her fairness. Only when they reached
the door, a thought occurred to Marjorie, and she turned to her
father in a little concern.

"I saw nothing of the children. I quite forgot them. Did you see
them?"

"Mother said"--it was work-a-day "mother" now, not the tenderly
breathed "Alysson"--"that they had gone off, she thought, with
Pelham's baby."

[Illustration: The hasty, flying figure.]

"Oh! I hope so," said Marjorie, with a little cold thrill of
prophetic fear. "How careless of me not to see! However, mother will
see that it is all right."

Charity's London friends had been late in arriving, and dinner had
been put back a little to give them time to dress. It was about
half-finished, and the timepiece on the mantelshelf was chiming
half-past nine, when Marjorie saw a footman speaking to her father
at the other end of the table.

Mr. Bethune asked a quick question or two, and then rose and slipped
away.

Marjorie wondered for a moment, and then again grew interested in
her neighbour's talk. When Charity's signal drew the ladies into the
hall, she was detained a second by the enveloping skirt of one of
the ladies.

A colloquy was going on at the hall door. The soft night air
streamed in, feeling cool and grateful to Marjorie's heated cheek.
As she lingered, she caught the hurried words in a familiar voice--

"Tell Mr. Pelham, please, immediate! Mr. Bethune is gone to the
police--but he is to go, and Miss Bethune, at once to Mrs. Bethune.
Poor lady, she is----"

With a little cry, Marjorie was at the door.

"What is it, nurse?" she asked breathlessly. "Barbara?"

Almost with a note of triumph at the importance of her news, the
woman said, "Neither Miss Barbara nor any of the young gentlemen can
be found anywhere, miss. They have all clean disappeared. Oh, sir,"
in accents of direful import, as Mr. Pelham reached Marjorie's side,
"Miss Barbara is lost!"

Down the steps, waiting for no wrap, sped Marjorie; and the
twilight, now descending on the Canons' Court, closed her in. For a
second, through the dimness, Mr. Pelham saw the hasty, flying figure
in its soft white robe, and caught a glimpse of her face. It was a
vision that burnt itself on his memory.

Mr. Warde leapt with him down the wide steps.

"We shall soon find her, never fear," he said kindly--he had only
heard the end of nurse's message. "I will call my servants, and be
with you directly."

  [END OF CHAPTER NINE.]




PROSPECT AND RETROSPECT.

By the Rev. George Matheson, M.A., D.D., F.R.S.E., St. Bernard's,
Edinburgh.

     "But many of the priests and Levites and chief of the fathers,
        who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the
        foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with
        a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy."--EZRA iii. 12.


One of the finest and most poetic touches of human nature occurs in
the most prosaic book of the Bible--the Book of Ezra. It is like a
single well-spring in a dry, parched land, like one lingering leaf
of autumn in the heart of winter. It is found at that scene where
the foundation of the new Temple is laid. The passage thus records
the mingled feelings of the spectators: "But many of the priests and
Levites and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had
seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid
before their eyes, wept with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud
for joy."

The passage is suggestive for all time. We see it repeated at the
opening of every January. Nay, it is not limited to inauguration
days; it recurs wherever youth and age are found side by side. At
the presentation of every new thing there are two attitudes among
the crowd--the young shout and the old weep. They are looking
through two different glasses--hope and memory. Neither of them is
worshipping in the building in which they stand. Youth sees the
house gilded by the rays of to-morrow; age beholds it overshadowed
by the light of yesterday. Youth claps its hands over its coming
possibilities; age says, "It is nothing to what used to be in the
old days." Youth disparages the first temple, and says the new is
better; age exclaims with the Scottish poetess:--

    "There ne'er shall be a new house
     Can seem so fair to me."

You will observe that in neither of these cases is the attitude
pessimistic. Both see roses; both are agreed that a happy time is
somewhere; but they differ as to where the roses lie. Youth sees
them at the end; age beholds them at the beginning. The one has
placed its Garden of Eden in the future; the other has planted it in
the past. Both are optimists; but they seek their goal by opposite
ways. Youth is for advance; it cries with a loud voice, "Speak to
the children of Israel, that they go forward." Age is for retreat,
for regress toward a former day; it would say with the ancient poet,
"Return unto thy rest, O my soul."

Which is right? Neither. Both are one-sided; each ignores something
in the other. Let us begin with youth--the tendency to disparage the
past, to set hope against memory. It forgets something--that hope
is itself an inheritance of the past. Why does youth clap its hands
previous to experience? It is because the young man has got in his
blood the experience of past generations, and the result has been on
the side of happiness rather than of misery. If the result had been
on the side of misery, youth would not have hoped; it would have
despaired. Instinct is the fruit of past habit; instinctive hope
must come from long prosperity. Christianity itself has propagated
from sire to son an inheritance of hope; Christ in us becomes the
hope of glory. Paul declares that the highest ground for hope is to
be found in the past: "He that spared not His own Son, shall He not
with Him also freely give us all things?" He means that nothing in
the future need be too much to expect after this exhibition of love
in the past. The handing down of such a thought is alone sufficient
to create sunshine. It causes the average child in a Christian
population to be born an optimist--to come into the world with an
expectation of blue sky, and to dream of a good for which he has no
warrant in personal experience.

But if youth is one-sided in disparaging the past, age is also so
in disparaging the future, in dwelling on the past exclusively.
The old man tends to say that the former days were better than
these. If he could get back to these former days, he would make a
discovery. He would find that, in point of fact, there was not one
of them which was not lit by to-morrow's sky. Take the boy's game.
To one looking back through the years, it seems to have been a pure
enjoyment of the hour; in truth, it was never so. What the boy saw
was more than the game of play; it was the game of life. To him the
game was an allegory: it represented something beyond itself--the
chances of the world. That which made him glad in his success, that
which made him sad in his defeat, was not mainly the fact but the
omen. The game was to him rather a sign of the future than an event
of the hour. Or take the girl's doll. Was that purely a pleasure
of the hour? Nay; the hour had very little to do with it. She was
living in a world of imagination--a world to come. The doll to her
represented motherhood. She had already in fancy a house of her
own. She reigned; she administered; she managed; she had put away
childish things. There are no moments so speculative as our real
moments; no sphere is so full of to-morrow as what we call the
events of the hour.

But, although each view separately is one-sided, there is an extreme
beauty in their union. It is one of the finest laws of Providence
that youth should see the end at the beginning, and that age should
see the beginning at the end. Let us glance at each in turn. Let us
begin with youth. And let us remember what is the problem before
youth: it is, how to advance. Now, I have no hesitation in saying
that nothing causes us to advance but a vision of the future.
Paradoxical as it may sound, if there is to be progress, the end
must get behind the beginning and push it on. No other vision will
impel us forward. The past will not. I do not think the effect
even of _bright_ memories is stimulating; they tend rather to make
us fold the hands. The present will not. How short is the effect
of any actual joy! If a windfall comes to you, you contemplate it
perhaps for a few moments exclusively; presently you say, "What
will my friend think when he hears of it?" The thing itself is not
sufficient. It cannot bear the weight even of five minutes. It is
incapable of self-sustenance. It would die at its birth if it were
not supported by to-morrow.

Therefore it is that God leads on the youth of individuals and
communities, not by a sight of their environment, but by a vision
of the end. He shows them the end without perspective--without
the years between. He knows that by nature the child ignores all
between--that in the presence of any coming joy he cries, "Not
to-morrow, nor to-morrow, nor to-morrow, but the next day." And so
our Father has always begun by showing us the next day. He came
to Abraham and said, "Get thee out of thy country, and I will
make of thee a great nation." He did not tell him that Egypt and
the desert and the Jordan lay between. If He had, his steps would
have been paralysed on the threshold. Did you ever ask yourself
what is the earliest revealed doctrine of the New Testament? Is it
justification, sanctification, effectual calling, the perseverance
of the saints? No, it is none of these: it is the second coming of
Christ--the completed glory of redeeming love. When Paul sat down
to write his first epistle to the Thessalonians--the earliest book
of the New Testament--he began at the end. He let the world hear
the final bells ringing across the snow. He concealed the snow;
he veiled the intervening years; he said, "To-morrow." He did not
tell that a Red Sea of trouble and a desert of visionless waiting
lay between. And he was right. Men heard only the bells, and the
bells lured them on. They helped them to tread the snow; they nerved
them to cross the sea. They sustained them to meet the desert. They
sounded nearer than they were; they rang ever the one refrain,
"Christ is coming"; and the persistent strain of to-morrow hid the
jarring of the passing day.

But if it is benevolent that youth should see the end at the
beginning, it is no less a bounteous provision that age should
see the beginning at the end. "Say not that the former days were
better than these" is a counsel wise and true. But it is none the
less wise and true that to the eye of the old man the past ought
to be _glorified_. It ought to be glorified because it _needs_ to
be glorified. The past never got justice while it was passing.
Childhood ignored it; youth disparaged it. The hour laid gems at
our feet which we did not see, or which, seeing, we despised. We
kept asking when Elias would come; and Elias had come already. To
us, as to Moses, the hand of God was laid over the face while God
was passing by; we did not discern the actual blessings of the day.
Are we never to discern them here below? Must we go hence without
seeing the world in which we dwell? Shall we be sent forth to gaze
on things unseen before we have looked at the objects which have
been actually in our hands? God says "No." He says the past must
be righted, righted on the earth, righted _by_ the earth. He has
appointed a day even here in which each man shall judge the world in
which he has dwelt--in which he shall reverse his former judgment.
The crooked shall be seen straight, the rough places shall appear
plain, the glory of the Lord, which was veiled in passing, shall be
recognised in retrospect; and the end will pronounce the beginning
to have been indeed very good.

Therefore it is that the eyes of the aged men rest more on the old
house than on the new. The old is to them really a new house. They
have seen it for the first time. They did not see it when they were
living in it; their eyes were then on the _coming_ temple, and the
voice of the present God spoke to them unheard. Therefore, on the
quiet road to Emmaus--the road of life's silent afternoon--God shows
them the disappearing form of yesterday; and, like Jacob, they
exclaim in deep surprise, "Surely the Lord was in this place, and we
knew it not; this was none other than the house of God."

And this explains something which otherwise I could not understand.
In the Book of Revelation the host of the redeemed in heaven are
represented as singing two songs--the song of Moses and the song of
the Lamb. Why two? The song of Moses I can readily understand; it is
the triumph of the _future_--the shout over the coming emancipation.
But why sing the song of the Lamb? Why chant a pæan over the
sacrifices of yesterday? Why allow the dark memories of the past to
dim the glory of the approaching day? Is there not something which
jars upon the ear in the union of two anthems such as these?

[Illustration: THE REV. DR. MATHESON.

(_Photo: J. Horsburgh and Son, Edinburgh._)]

No; there would be something jarring without it. All other heavens
but that of the Bible sing the song of Moses alone; they ask nothing
more than to be free from the pain of yesterday. The heaven of
Christ would be content with no such aspiration. It deems it not
enough to promise the joys of to-morrow--the golden streets, and the
pearly gates, and the luscious fruits of an unfading summer's bloom.
It seeks to connect the future with the past, to show that in some
sense the glory had its birth in the gloom. It would reveal to us
that the golden streets have arisen from our desert, that the pearly
gates have opened from our brick walls, that the luscious fruits
have sprung from the very ground which we used to deem barren. It
would tell us that the crown has been made from the materials of
our cross, that the day has come out of our dusk, and that we have
climbed the heights of Olivet by ascending the steps of Calvary.

And is not the heaven of Christ true in this to human nature? What
you and I are seeking is not merely nor even mainly emancipation.
That would be something, but not all; I want a justification of
my past bonds. It is not enough to be able to say "I am all right
_now_." Have I not wasted time? Are there not years which the
locusts have eaten? Might not this emancipation have come sooner?
Why should I not always have been free? Is it any vindication of
God's dealings with Job that at the end he gets back houses and
brethren and lands? No; that is a mere appendage to the story.
The patriarch wants to learn, and _we_ want to learn, why he was
afflicted at all. We are not satisfied merely because the grey is
followed by the gold. We wish to know that the grey has _made_ the
gold. The song of Moses may tell how the peace came _after_ the
storm; but the song of the Lamb alone can say, "God answered Job
_out of_ the whirlwind."

Our future, then, like our present, must be a blending of memory and
hope. The stones of the heavenly temple must be stones that have
been hewn in the quarry of time; otherwise they will _not_ sparkle
in the sun. The marriage supper of the Lamb is a union of to-morrow
and yesterday; no other bells will ring Christ in for me. Grace is
not enough; it must be justifying grace--grace that vindicates my
past. In vain shall I walk by the crystal river, in vain shall I
stand upon the glassy sea, if the light upon each be only the sun of
to-morrow. My sea must be "glass mingled with _fire_"--calm that has
been evolved by tempest, rest that has grown out of struggle, beauty
that has shaped itself through seeming anarchy, joy that has been
born of tears. To-morrow morning and yesterday evening must form
together one day--a day in which the imperfections of the old house
will explain the symmetry of the new, and in which the symmetry of
the new will compensate for the short-comings of the old. So shall
the first and second temple receive a common glory, and memory and
hope shall be joined for evermore.

[Illustration: signature]




"NOT TOO LATE."

By the late Rev. Gordon Calthrop, M.A.


    The cords were knotted round me fast,
    I writhed and plucked them as I lay;
    But Sin too well her net had cast--
    I could not tear myself away.
    Then hissed a voice, "Give up the strife;
    Too late thou seek'st to change thy life."
    Another spake--"Make God thy Friend,
    And then 't is not too late to mend."

    But I had scorned the proffered love,
    And bidden Heav'n's angels from me flee;
    How could I think that Heaven would move
    To stretch a helping hand to me?
    So hissed the voice, "Give up thy hope:
    Some paths to hell _must_ downward slope."
    The other said, "God is thy Friend;
    Why should it be too late to mend?"

    The time was bitter. Ah! how oft
    I almost dashed aside the cup!
    But Hope her banner waved aloft,
    And God's great Son still held me up.
    And if the voice hissed, "Thou art long
    In conqu'ring foes so old and strong,"
    The other cried, "With God thy Friend
    It cannot be too late to mend."

    And when the bitter day was done,
    And forth the demons howling fled,
    I went to strengthen many a one
    Whom, like me, Sin had captive led:
    I told them, though a voice of fear
    Might speak of ruin in their ear,
    Another said, "God is thy Friend,
    It cannot be too late to mend."




AN AMERICAN BOY-EDITOR

AND HIS "BAREFOOT MISSION."

By Elizabeth L. Banks.

[Illustration: TELLO J. D'APERY AT THE AGE OF TWELVE.

(_Photo: Eisenmann, New York._)]


"_The Sunny Hour_--A Monthly Magazine for Boys and Girls. Published
and Edited by Tello d'Apery, a Boy twelve years old."

This was the inscription which appeared on the title-page of a
new periodical which made its appearance in New York a few years
ago. Editors of important daily and weekly newspapers, finding
the pretty brown-covered magazine on their desks along with more
ambitious-looking first numbers of other periodicals, stopped in the
midst of their work to glance over the result of a twelve-year-old
editor's work. Accustomed as they were to reading and hearing
of prodigies in America, the land of prodigies, they were yet
surprised at the enterprise, not to say the audacity, of the young
boy who essayed to put himself before the public as the editor and
proprietor of a magazine.

"The commercial instincts of the American nation show themselves in
its very infants!" they reflected amusedly. "A few years hence that
twelve-year-old, grown to be a man, is likely to make Wall Street
hum."

Commercial instincts! Well, yes, perhaps, but of an order more
likely to bring about results in the neighbourhood of Baxter Street
and the other poverty-stricken haunts of the lowly East Side than
among the brown-stone business palaces of Wall Street.

Turning to the first "leader" written by the young editor on his
editorial page, the literary critics were told in childish language
why so small a specimen of humanity had dared to venture into the
world of letters.

"I am twelve years old," ran the leading article, "so I hope all the
public will excuse any mistakes I make in my paper. I am publishing
it to earn money to buy new boots and shoes and get old ones mended
for poor boys and girls in New York who have to go barefooted.
That's what I'm going to do with all the profits. I want to make
enough money to rent a house where I can have my offices and lots of
room for a Barefoot Mission, where the boys and girls in New York
can come and get boots for nothing. I hope the public will buy my
paper, which is a dollar a year and ten cents for single copies."

     How to Manage Fathers and Mothers.

     BY THE EDITOR.

     I have had a father and mother twelve years, and I am said to
     manage them pretty well, and I am going to tell all boys and
     girls just how I do it, and it would do no harm for them to try
     the same plan and see how it works in their cases.

     FACSIMILE OF AN EXTRACT FROM NO. 1 OF "THE SUNNY HOUR."

So it happened that when the important editors of New York and other
large cities read the leading article in the first copy of _The
Sunny Hour_, there was a kindness and gentleness in their tones as
they threw the little periodical over to the "exchange editors,"
saying, "Here, this little thing isn't a bad idea at all! Be sure
you notice it in your reviews."

I doubt if any other new paper ever published received from its
contemporaries such kind and encouraging "press notices" as did _The
Sunny Hour_, and when it appeared upon the stalls for sale the
newsdealers sold a great many copies.

[Illustration: OFFICE OF "THE SUNNY HOUR."]

When the first number of his magazine was off his hands, little
Tello began to think of ways and means for insuring its success
and getting as much money as he could for his Barefoot Mission. He
decided that he must have patrons, and so with his own hands he
folded up and addressed copies of his paper to many great people of
whom he had heard. One of the papers went to the Queen of England,
and along with it was posted a letter to her Majesty telling her all
about his paper and his mission and asking her to let her name go
first on his list of patrons. What mattered it to the Queen that she
was simply addressed as "Dear Queen" by the little American boy who
wanted her for his patron! In the reply which she sent through Sir
Henry Ponsonby, she told him of her interest in his noble work and
gladly became his first patron.

Letters and papers were also sent to the Empress of Russia, the
Queen-Regent of Spain, Queen Olga of Greece, Queen Elizabeth of
Roumania, the Khedive, and numerous other royalties, all of whom
wrote to him and became his patrons and subscribers. The great
Church dignitaries of America, Europe, and Asia, wrote charming
letters to the boy-editor, subscribing for his paper and saying that
they would like to be considered patrons of _The Sunny Hour_ Mission.

After the first number of the magazine appeared, the list of
contributors became a very notable one indeed. The Queen of Roumania
(Carmen Sylva) wrote several autograph poems for it, and sent an
autographed photograph for publication. The Prince of Montenegro,
Prince Albert of Monaco, Prince Roland Bonaparte, Osman Pasha (Grand
Master of Ceremonies to the Sultan), Pierre Loti, Sir Edwin Arnold,
Mr. Justin McCarthy, Sully-Prudhomme, the Rev. Edward Everett Hale,
Marion Harland, and many other literary celebrities, had articles,
stories, and poems in _The Sunny Hour_, for which they asked no
reward, except the knowledge that they were helping to sell the
paper and thus putting shoes on little bare feet.

[Illustration: WAITING OUTSIDE THE MISSION-HOUSE.]

With the money that came in from the subscriptions and
advertisements for the paper, a building on Twenty-fourth Street
was rented as an editorial and mission house. It was fitted up in
the most practical way possible, with a play-room for the very
little "Barefoots," a library for the older ones, a reception-room
for "Barefoots," a storeroom for boots and shoes, and the editorial
and publishing offices of _The Sunny Hour_. Though the help of
grown-up people was always gladly received, only little folks were
employed about the headquarters of the boy-editor and missionary.
His assistant editor was a boy of his own age, Jack Bristol, whose
happy face and manner gained for him the title of "Jolly Jack."
Three small boys, friends of the editor, were the type-setters and
printers. They had a small steam press on which they printed the
magazine. Florencia Lewis, a young girl, acted as secretary and
general manager.

I must not forget to mention another very important employee of the
mission, who acted as carrier and distributer of boots and shoes to
the little "Barefoots." He also was of very tender years--or rather
I should say months, for Prince Roland Bonaparte, the St. Bernard
puppy, though very much larger than many of the children who took
the shoes he carried to them in his mouth, was only a few months
old when the mission was started. "Prince," as he was called for
short, was (and is) one of the most indefatigable and enthusiastic
supporters of the Barefoot Mission in New York. As a puppy he always
had a place of honour in the reception-room where the barefooted
children went to make their requests. By the time he was four months
old "Prince" learned to tell a "Barefoot" on sight, so that, as soon
as a poor little shivering tot made its appearance, the puppy would
wag his tail and gravely trot into the storeroom, procure a pair of
boots, and, returning, lay them at the bare feet of the applicant.
It must be confessed that "Prince's" sagacity, great though it was,
did not always enable him to select just the right-sized boot for
the would-be wearer. There were also a few occasions, during his
initiation into his new duties, when he disgraced himself by chewing
up one shoe while the "Barefoot" was putting on the other, but he
has outgrown these puppyish proclivities. He now weighs one hundred
and seventy-five pounds, and is one of the finest and most useful
St. Bernards in New York. When out walking with his young master,
he always stops in front of any shops where boots and shoes are
displayed in the windows, and with a worldly-wise look in his eyes
and numerous wags of his huge tail seems to be trying to calculate
in his mind just how many applicants at the Barefoot Mission could
have their feet shod if the shopkeepers did their duty. It takes all
Tello's powers of coaxing and persuasion to keep him from entering
the shop and carrying off by force (in his mouth) some of the wares
displayed for sale.

[Illustration: THE FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE FOR SEVEN HUNDRED CHILDREN.]

Not all, perhaps only a very few, new enterprises in the literary
world are able to meet all their expenses and show a profit during
the first year of their existence, but the twelve-year-old boy's
enterprise was able to do this. Beside meeting all his expenses,
he had at the end of the first year been able to distribute 760
pairs of shoes to the poor children of New York. Not all of these
were new. Some were old ones mended by Tello's special shoemaker
in such a way as to make them almost as good as new in the matter
of usefulness, if not in appearance. Then people began to send in
stockings (some new, some old), dresses, boys' suits, underwear, old
playthings, etc., until the Barefoot Mission became indeed a blessed
place to the poor of New York. When Christmas came, the boy-editor
provided a great Christmas tree and festival, where not only boots
and shoes and clothing were distributed to the needy, but turkeys
and ham, and cakes and "candies" were given out, to the great
delight of the 700 children who attended it. Here is one of the many
pathetic little letters the young editor received just before one of
the Christmas festivals. It was published at the time in _The Sunny
Hour_:--

     "DEAR MR. TELLO,--Me and my little sister and the baby can't
     have no crismus this year 'cause our father is dying and granma
     is sick with perelisis and our little bruther died two weeks ago
     and the city had to bury him. Mother is not working 'cause the
     baby is too little--there's ten of us all counted. So if you
     have any crismus won't you let us come, for we all haven't got
     clothes to keep us warm nor shoes, and no coal except what my
     big brother picks up--nothing to eat hardly. Yours respecfully."

Childish letters of appeal similar to the above have been coming
in ever since the mission was started, and they have acted as a
continual spur to the young missionary. The distributions increased
until one day 3,032 pairs of shoes and stockings were given out, and
about 2,000 flannel garments as well.

[Illustration: GOLD MEDAL PRESENTED TO THE BOY-EDITOR BY THE
PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA.

(_Of which there are only five in existence._)]

Meanwhile _The Sunny Hour_ magazine increased in interest and
circulation. The list of eminent contributors and patrons became
larger every month. Very busy men and women, for the product of
whose pens the editors of the best periodicals were willing to pay
liberally, sent in gratis to _The Sunny Hour_ stories and poems to
be edited by a little boy.

[Illustration: TELLO J. D'APERY AT PRESENT TIME.

(_Photo: D. Garber, New York._) (_Showing the Medals and Orders
presented to him by European and Asiatic Sovereigns._)]

When the mission and the magazine had been running for about three
years Tello d'Apery's health broke down from overwork, and through
the kindness of a friend he made a trip round the world, leaving
his paper and mission in the care of "Jolly Jack," the assistant
editor. The boy carried copies of his little paper along with him,
his object being to interest everyone he met in his work, and
this object was attained to such an extent that on his return he
numbered among his subscribers nearly every Oriental potentate. He
was received in audience by the Sultan and the Khedive. The latter
was especially kind to him, delegating one of his sons to show him
about Cairo, and became so interested in the Barefoot Mission that
he contributed one hundred dollars towards it. It was during his
visit to Egypt that Tello d'Apery became distinguished as the only
American boy who has ever been decorated by a foreign potentate. The
Khedive conferred upon him the Order of the Medjidieh, which carried
with it the title of Bey. Other orders, medals, and titles have been
showered upon the young American. He is a Chevalier of the Order
of Bolivar, conferred upon him by the President of Colombia. The
Order of Umberto was also conferred upon him in Italy. He is also a
Chevalier of the Order of St. Katherine, and another order gives him
the title of "Don." He has received in all eighteen decorations and
medals, and it is by special request that he has had his portrait
taken with a number of his decorations fastened to his coat. In
writing to me recently concerning this portrait, he says: "Of
course, being an all-round and patriotic American boy, I could not
use a title, and care only for my decorations because of the good
friends who gave them to me and the interest that they show has been
taken in my work by great people abroad."

     With this issue I present the initial
     number of THE SUNNY HOUR, modestly, as becomes so young an
     editor, but hopefully, because I mean to try and make it worthy
     of a place in every home where there are children.

     If I find as much encouragement in my subscription list and
     advertising patronage, as I hope, I shall enlarge my paper every
     three months, and add new features. In any case it has come to
     stay one year.

     I shall devote my paper to such literature as mothers will
     approve, and there will be no Indian Scalping, nor pistols, nor
     any such thing. I shall always uphold the cause of temperance
     and morality and so shall not touch upon politics, and it shall
     be my earnest endeavor to deserve well of the public.

     If my paper ever falls below expectations, please remember that
     I am only twelve years old.--THE EDITOR.

                    _____________

                   SPECIAL NOTICE.

     All paying subscribers, who desire it, are entitled to a cabinet
     photograph of the editor, with his autograph. This is not done
     from vanity, but because he thought perhaps some persons might
     like to see what the youngest editor and publisher in the world
     looks like.

             FROM NO. 1 OF "THE SUNNY HOUR."

When Tello returned from his travels, much improved in health, his
boy friends took a notion to call him "Chevalier d'Apery," but on
pain of his sore displeasure the title was dropped, he declaring
that it was not for publication but only as an evidence of good
faith on the part of his decorators. A medal that he very highly
prizes is a gold one given him by the venerable Patriarch of
Alexandria, Sophronius, who had it struck when he had been fifty
years in office. There are only four others like Tello's in the
world. The Patriarch presented one to Tello, one to the Queen of
Greece, one to the late Queen of Denmark, and one to the Empress
Dowager of Russia. Sophronius is now one hundred and six years old,
and is one of Tello's most devoted friends, writing frequent letters
to him in Apostolic Greek.

Many also are the presents Tello d'Apery has received from noted
people. Don Carlos of Spain, the Queen of Greece, and many other
royalties, have sent him tokens of their interest and esteem,
so that, besides his medals and decorations, he has a number of
interesting and valuable scarf-pins, rings, etc. While in Athens
the Queen of Greece entertained him at the palace, and begged him
to make her a member of _The Sunny Hour_ Mission Club, which he
did by himself pinning at her throat the pretty little badge of
the Order of _The Sunny Hour_, the Queen repeating after him the
promise made by all those who join the Club: "I promise to give one
hour each week to some good action. I will be kind to my parents,
to my brothers and sisters, to the poor and the unfortunate, and to
animals."

These _Sunny Hour_ Mission Clubs are auxiliaries of _The Sunny Hour_
and Barefoot Mission, and have been formed in different parts of
the world. There is one in Paris, which has been very prosperous,
and there has also been one in London. There are a number of little
persons belonging to royal families who wear the badge of _The Sunny
Hour_. Among them are the little Lady Alexandra Duff, and the tiny
Prince Boris of Bulgaria.

After his return from abroad Tello d'Apery published an account
of his experiences in a book called "Europe Seen through a Boy's
Eyes," all the profits of which went to buy shoes for the barefooted
children of New York. He also, in order to get more money for his
work, started a little book and stationery shop, spending a part
of his time there behind the counter and a part of it behind his
editorial desk. Recently his health has again failed, and he has
been obliged to lessen some of his arduous labours. He is now trying
to establish a mammoth boot- and shoe-mending shop of his own,
where old foot-gear may be repaired at less expense than it is now.
When this object is accomplished, some of the "Barefoots" themselves
will learn the cobbler's trade and work in the establishment, thus
helping others while helping themselves.

The idea is to rent a building, or at least a part of a building,
for the purpose, and issue circulars to the residents of New York
and vicinity, asking them to send their old boots and shoes to the
building, or, better still, to have a horse and cart go about from
house to house to collect them. Then two or three expert cobblers
will be hired for a few months to mend them and to take a certain
number of apprentices from among the "Barefoots" and teach them the
trade of cobbling. Only such boys as show a liking and aptitude for
the work will, of course, be chosen as apprentices. They will spend
the whole day or only a few hours a day at the work, as their other
duties permit. Not only will they be taught to mend boots--they
will also be taught to make them. When they have learned their
trade they will receive the same wages as other workmen are paid.
Of course, when _The Sunny Hour_ "Barefoots" (or, rather, those who
have been "Barefoots" in times gone by) become expert shoemakers,
there is no reason why they should confine their efforts to making
and mending boots for the New York poor alone. Tello d'Apery hopes
that many orders for men's and women's and children's footgear will
be received from well-to-do New Yorkers, so that not only will the
expenses of the establishment be met, but an extra amount of money
taken in for the mission. It is a magnificent scheme, and we can but
hope that this noble American boy may be able to carry it out.

[Illustration: THE PLAYROOM IN "THE SUNNY HOUR" MISSION BUILDING.]




LITTLE LADY WILMERTON.

[Illustration: LITTLE LADY WILMERTON]

By the Rev. P. B. Power, M.A., Author of "The Oiled Feather," Etc.


Hard by the village of Hopedale, away from railways and their
whistles, and indeed pretty nearly from the world in general, was a
very beautiful castle, surrounded by pleasure grounds, and gardens
for both fruit and flowers.

The place had been well kept up, because old Lord Wilmerton, the
grandfather of the little lady of whom I am going to tell you, was a
proud man; and he would not have it said that any of his properties
were allowed to go to ruin, or even to run wild. But the old Lord
himself never went there nor did his son, the father of the present
little Lady Wilmerton. The place was too dull for them; they liked
the gaieties of London and the Continent, and the country had no
charms for them.

Little Lady Wilmerton's father and grandfather were now both dead.
Her father died first, and her grandfather soon followed him to the
grave. And now our little lady was a Countess, for in her family the
title did not die out with the males, but, when there were no sons,
passed on to the daughters, if there were any. And as with the title
went most of the estates, the little Countess, who was only twelve
years old, became the mistress of Hopedale Castle, and the village
and, indeed, the country for, I might almost say, many miles round.

The last thing that anyone in Hopedale would have ever thought of
was her little ladyship's coming to live at the Castle. Great,
therefore, was the astonishment of everyone when they heard that she
was to live there for a large part of the year--and, moreover, that
she was coming almost at once.

At first the report was treated as an idle rumour, but when a
carriage arrived one day at the Castle with an elderly gentleman and
a much younger man, and a second carriage with a lady and her maid,
there could be no doubt that something was about to take place.
Moreover, the agent had been summoned to meet this old gentleman,
and he and the new arrivals were known to have gone all over the
Castle. This gentleman was the little Countess's guardian, and the
younger man was his solicitor; and the lady was a distant relative
of the little Countess, and was to be her caretaker--for her mother
had been dead now three years.

Such a possibility as the Castle being inhabited could not take
place without causing much talk in the village. Old and young had
their say about it--some of the old, I am sorry to say, at the
"Green Dragon," the village ale-house; and some at their cottage
doors, or when they met in the street.

The children too had their ideas and speculations--very different,
of course, from the older people's, but very decided, nevertheless.

As to the folk at the "Green Dragon," some were for the lady's
coming and some were not, and each party were positive.

"I tell you," said old Joe Crupper, the saddler, "there ain't no
good a-comin' out of this. We've got on very well hereabouts for
many a year, without having anyone to worrit us from that place. Why
can't they let it be as it has been so long? It don't want anyone to
live in it to keep it warm. Why, I'm told that they've burnt thirty
ton of coal in a winter to keep the place aired. We don't want no
great people down here in these parts; we can get on well enough by
ourselves. I didn't never know any good come of the haristockracy,"
said the saddler, giving the table a thump.

"But I'm told," chimed in a meek little man, who frequented the
"Green Dragon" more for gossip than for drink, "that the new 'lord'
is a little lady, and is only twelve years old."

"Joseph Simmons," said the saddler, looking witheringly into the
little man's face, "you are a man of edication, and ought to know
better. As to the little 'lord' being a lady, I ask you and all
the company"--here the saddler looked round--"what difference does
that make? Isn't a goose a goose, whether it's a goose or a gander?
Would you say, when 'tis roasted, 'Who'll take a bit of gander?'
No, goose or gander, 'tis a goose. In like manner, it don't matter
whether 'tis a boy or girl, a man or a woman"--and here the saddler
paused, evidently seeking for a further variety in sex, which he
could not find--"excuse me," said he, looking deprecatingly round,
"if I stop for a moment, for the argument is deep, and one's liable
to get tangled a bit--a man or a woman. Yes, the argument is plain,
and I defy you, Joseph Simmons, to beat it. A haristocrat is a
haristocrat, whether it be man or woman, boy or girl."

"I humbly beg pardon if I've given any offence," said the meek
little man. "You were once in London for a day, and you ought to
know more than I do."

[Illustration: "All the haristockracy wear gold crowns," said
Dolly.--_p. 276._]

"Ah, you're now coming to your senses," said the saddler. "I always
knew that you were a sensible man; the best of us forget ourselves
at times, as you did just now. You just mind what I say: no good
will come of this haristocrat." And as the saddler led most of the
company by the nose, they all went away with a terrible prejudice
against the little Countess.

The children, too, had their ideas and their talks. They had heard
that the new "lord" was a lady, and that she was only twelve years
old.

This was a puzzle to them, and no effort of their mental powers
enabled them to understand it; but they could--each according to
their own cast of mind--have their ideas on the subject, and talk of
and debate about them amongst themselves.

And so it came to pass that they, as well as their elders at the
Green "Dragon," had their argument about the newcomer.

We often form our ideas of people out of our own fancies; and we are
very often wrong, and I would recommend all young people not to be
in too great a hurry in forming their opinion about others, until
they have something to go on.

In the present instance Dolly Strap, who hated lessons, and whose
one desire was to run wild, said she "was sure that the little
haristocrat that was coming" (for the saddler's word had got all
over the village) "was a girl who never learned any lessons, who
never did and never would be obliged to; who was allowed to jump
over hedges and ditches, and never got whacked for tearing her
frock. Look here!" said Dolly, exhibiting a long rent in her frock;
"that means smackers to-night, girls, at eight o'clock; and as like
as not there will be smackers to-morrow night too. And haristocrats
jump over hedges and ditches, and tear their frocks to pieces every
day, and they only gets new ones for their pains, and never a smack
get they; and if the day was wet, and they couldn't get out of doors
to tear them, then you may be sure they does it somehow indoors,
leaping over chairs, or somehow. You know," said Dolly, with a
leer in her eye, "when you want to do a thing, you can always do
it--somehow."

"I don't know about dress," said Martha Furblow; "but you may be
sure she's dressed very grand--lots of feathers and flowers in her
hat, and plenty of lace and beads all over her."

"And she has dozens of dolls, you may be sure," said Mary Mater.
"I've heard say that there are dolls that say 'Papa' and 'Mamma,'
and that open their eyes and shuts 'em too, and winks when they
wants to look knowin'. She'll have some that asks you how you are,
and says, 'Very well, thank ye, and how are you?'"

"Ah," said Jenny Giblet, "and her sweets--do you think of them?
Hard-bake every morning for breakfast, and ginger-pop, and bottles
of peardrops, and boxes of peppermints--she don't go in for
pennorths, not she."

"And a gold crown--only not quite so grand as the Queen's," said
Dolly. "All the haristockracy wear gold crowns when they go to see
the Queen, and on Sundays when they go to church."

Thus the village children settled amongst themselves all about the
little Countess, and the outcome of it all was that, as she was so
much better off than they, she was to be disliked, and when she
came into the village--if, indeed, she ever did--they were to turn
up their noses at her, just as they made sure she would turn up her
nose at them.

There was one, however, amongst the group who ventured to put in a
word for the poor little Countess--this was Patience Filbert--whom,
in spite of themselves, everyone liked, for Patience was good to
all. The child was a little younger than the Countess. She had long
fair hair, and round grey eyes which seemed to open wide when she
talked to you and looked you, as she often did, so honestly, so
wonderingly, so lovingly in the face.

Patience ventured to say that, perhaps the little Countess might be
very nice, and if she was born a countess that was not her fault;
but poor Patience was told that she was a silly little thing.

"Yes, yes," said Dolly Strap; "you was hatched out a little goose,
and you'll be a little goose until you die. Now you go and give your
Bullie his dinner; you sat up with him half the night, and I hope he
won't die."

"Yes," they all said, "we hope he won't die," for they all liked
Patience--as, indeed, who could help doing?--and they knew that her
bullfinch was her great pleasure in life.

Poor Bullie! he was indeed ill, drawing near his end. He no longer
sang when Patience sang, nor hopped from his cage to eat out of her
mouth. He had fulfilled his mission in life, by making the delicate
child happy in what would have been many lonely hours, for she could
seldom play with other girls; and now in his death Bullie was about
to play a greater part than he had ever done in his life.

Bullie lingered two or three days, during which time he had three
warm baths and apoplectic fits, to the last of which he succumbed,
and, turning himself on his back and throwing his legs up into the
air, he departed this life. As Bullie had nothing to leave--at
least, so far as he knew--he died without a will, though in reality
he left a good deal, which was divided amongst all the inhabitants
of Hopedale, making them ever so much richer than they had been
before.

And it all came about in this way.

When Bullie died, it was determined amongst the children that he
should have a public funeral. Patience Filbert would have liked
to bury him just by herself; but two considerations induced her
to let her little neighbours have their way. There was first the
kindly feeling shown to herself, and then there was the honour done
to Bullie. And so Bullie was carried to his burial; his body was
wrapped in a clean pocket-handkerchief, and his coffin was an old
cigar box with wadding and sweet herbs inside. There was a long
avenue of trees leading up to the Castle gate, beneath a particular
one of which it was decided the body should be buried. Here it was
interred.

There was one more at the funeral than was expected. The little
Countess was there. She had seen the small procession as she was out
for her morning walk, and followed respectfully at a little distance
all the way. Moreover, she was at the ceremony of interment, only
standing a little way behind the rest.

The child was dressed in a simple holland frock, with a black ribbon
round her waist, and another round her plain straw hat. Her servant
was so far behind that she seemed to be quite by herself.

[Illustration: She put her arm round Patience's neck.]

The funeral over, the little Countess came forward, and the tears
came into her eyes when she saw how the chief mourner cried, for
poor Patience Filbert was very sad; and although she was a countess,
she put her arm round Patience's neck, and wiped away her tears.

Who was she?

"Lady," said Dolly Strap, who was rather rude, "what's your name?"

"They call me 'the Countess,'" said the child, "but my name is Mary.
Should you all like to come up to the garden? There is plenty of
fruit."

And they went, wondering that a countess could be so plainly
dressed, and so feeling, and so kind.

Our feelings in this life are very mingled--joy and sorrow,
sorrow and joy. So was it in this case. For the funeral party (now
replenished with gooseberries) returned with a new Bullie in a gilt
cage; it was the little Countess's own pet which she gave Patience
to make up her loss.

The little Countess's treatment of Patience--her sympathy, the tears
which came into her eyes when she saw another's distress--knocked
the bottom out of all the saddler's arguments against the
"haristockracy," and the little man cock-a-doodle-doo'd over him
tremendously at the "Green Dragon." And every door in Hopedale was
open at once to the little Countess, and every child in the place
was ready to put his hand to his hat or curtsey to her. One kind
act of real sympathy had opened all hearts to her; and who knows
how much prejudice against us will be done away with, and how many
hearts will be opened to us, even by one act of sympathy and love?




Heavenly Cheer.

  _Words by_ THOMAS KELLY, 1806.       H. WALFORD DAVIES, MUS.D.
                                  (_Organist of the Temple Church._)


    1.  On the mountain-top appearing,
          Lo! the sacred herald stands,
        Welcome news to Zion bearing--
          Zion long in hostile lands:
            Mourning captive!
          God Himself will loose thy bands.

    2.  Has thy night been long and mournful?
          Have thy friends unfaithful proved?
        Have thy foes been proud and scornful,
          By thy sighs and tears unmoved?
            Cease thy mourning!
          Zion still is well-beloved.

    3.  God, thy God, will now restore thee;
          God Himself appears thy Friend!
        All thy foes shall flee before thee--
          Here their boasts and triumphs end:
            Great deliverance
          Zion's King vouchsafes to send.

        Amen.




TEMPERANCE NOTES AND NEWS.

By a Leading Temperance Advocate.

A HAPPY NEW YEAR.


The good old wish which we offer to all our readers points its own
moral. There was great practical sagacity in Joseph Livesey's method
of arranging to send a temperance tract to every family in Preston
on New Year's Day. Christian men and women, who are in sympathy with
the efforts of those who are fighting against our national vice,
would give a great lift to the work by starting the New Year as
total abstainers themselves. As New Year's Day falls on a Sunday,
we trust the clergy and ministers will "remember not to forget" to
drop a word for temperance in their Watch Night and New Year's Day
sermons.

[Illustration: DR. MACDOWELL COSGRAVE.

(_President of the Dublin T.A.S._)]


A DISTINGUISHED RECORD.

[Illustration: MR. T. WILLSON FAIR

(_Photo: Glover, Dublin._)]

[Illustration: THE DUBLIN COFFEE PALACE.

(_With large public hall in rear._)]

For upwards of sixty-two years the Dublin Total Abstinence Society
has perseveringly held on its way, a record not surpassed by any
temperance association in the sister country. When one remembers
the "storm and stress" through which Ireland has passed during
this eventful period, the fact that this ancient society still
survives is a tribute to the enthusiastic labours of its executive
officers of which they may well be proud. The old-fashioned method
of "signing the pledge" is still kept in the forefront at all the
meetings of the society. It rejoices in a coffee palace with a
commodious public hall, in the very heart of the city of Dublin,
and from year's end to year's end there is one attractive round of
lectures, entertainments, clubs, and popular festivities, variously
adapted to meet the requirements of the young and old alike. It
was at a meeting under the auspices of this association that the
late Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson, F.R.S., made the memorable
deliverance: "The sale of drink is the sale of disease; the sale
of drink is the sale of poverty; the sale of drink is the sale of
insanity; the sale of drink is the sale of crime; the sale of drink
is the sale of death." The president of the society is a well-known
Dublin physician, Dr. E. MacDowell Cosgrave, and the hon. secretary
is Mr. Thomas Willson Fair, whose devotion to the cause has made his
name a household word in Irish temperance circles.


THE "DICTIONARY" BRIDE.

It will be remembered that last month we mentioned that under the
word "abstaining" in the new dictionary, Dr. Murray quoted from the
"Clerical Testimony to Total Abstinence," published in 1867, in
which the present Bishop of Carlisle stated that a certain "bride
was the daughter of an abstaining clergyman." Who was she? Well,
first of all, let us clear the way by saying that Dr. Bardsley, in
his testimony, cited the case of his own family. He said he was
the eldest of seven sons, who were brought up as total abstainers
by total abstaining parents. He then added, "To some readers who,
upon occasions of family festivities, have been perplexed by
their abstaining principles, it may not be uninteresting to learn
that when, recently, one of the seven entered the happy estate of
matrimony, the bride was the daughter of an abstaining clergyman.
Here, then, was a difficulty. Should the wedding-day be regarded as
an exception, and a little laxity allowed? The question was decided
in the negative, and, notwithstanding the little protests as to
'such a thing never having been heard of before,' and the fear as to
what that mythical personage Mrs. Grundy would say, the wedding was
conducted on total abstinence principles. Amongst the good things of
God provided, the spirits of evil were _wanting--but not wanted_,
for the general remark was 'How little they are missed!'" We ask
again, "Who was the bride?" In view of Dr. Bardsley's reference to
the _mythical_ Mrs. Grundy, our reply looks just a trifle piquant,
for the bride was a Miss Grundy, the daughter of the Rev. George
Docker Grundy, M.A., then (and still) Vicar of Hey, near Oldham.
We tender our hearty congratulations to this grand old churchman,
who graduated in honours at Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1828, was
ordained in 1830, and entered upon his present benefice more than
sixty years ago!


THE CHILDREN'S FOUNTAIN.

In the Temple Gardens, on the Victoria Embankment, there is a
beautiful drinking-fountain, the work of Mr. George E. Wade. It
is an exact facsimile of one executed by the same artist for
the World's Women's Christian Temperance Union and erected in
a prominent position in the city of Chicago. The funds for the
purchase of the London fountain were mainly collected by children
of the Loyal Temperance Legions, in response to an appeal from
Lady Henry Somerset. At the unveiling ceremony, which took place
in May, 1897, her Ladyship presented the fountain to the London
County Council, and Miss Hilda Muff, who, of all the children, had
collected the largest sum, had the honourable privilege of declaring
the fountain free to all.

[Illustration: THE CHILDREN'S FOUNTAIN, VICTORIA EMBANKMENT.

(_Photo: Cassell and Co., Ltd._)]


COMING EVENTS.

The friends in Norwich are organising a Sunday Closing
Demonstration, to be held in the historic St. Andrew's Hall, on
January 24th. The annual business meeting of the London Temperance
Council will take place on January 27th. Temperance Sunday for the
diocese of Liverpool has been fixed for January 29th, and Bishop
Ryle has issued a letter to all his clergy urging the due observance
of the day. The annual New Year's Soirée of the United Kingdom
Band of Hope Union has been fixed for January 30th, and the annual
meetings of the same institution will be held in Exeter Hall on
May 10th. The seventh International Congress against the Abuse of
Spirituous Drinks will be held in Paris from April 4th to 9th.




[Illustration: SCRIPTURE LESSONS FOR SCHOOL AND HOME

INTERNATIONAL SERIES]

SCRIPTURE LESSONS FOR SCHOOL AND HOME

INTERNATIONAL SERIES

With Illustrative Anecdotes and References.


=JANUARY 15TH.--Christ's First Miracle.=

_To read--St. John ii. 1-11. Golden Text--Ver. 2._

Last lesson told of disciples coming to Christ one by one. John the
Baptist pointed to Him as Lamb of God--the sin-bearer. Andrew and
John, hearing this, followed Christ. Andrew brought his brother
Simon. Christ bade Philip follow Him, and he brought his friend
Nathanael. Now Christ works miracle which confirms faith of all.

I. =The Need= (1-5). Third day after call of Nathanael. Cana, his
home, near Nazareth, sixty miles from Bethabara (i. 28). A wedding
party. Mary, mother of Jesus, evidently a family friend. Christ and
His five new disciples among the guests. Supplies ran short, perhaps
from poverty or from larger number of guests than expected. Painful
position of bridegroom, giver of feast. Mary notices, tells Christ,
receives answer, "What is that to Me and thee?" He is best judge of
right time for help. She knows His loving heart, is sure He will do
something; therefore bids servants obey Christ's orders.

II. =The Supply= (6-11). Waterpots ready, but empty. Been used for
washing before meals (St. Mark vii. 3). Christ orders them to be
filled--twenty gallons each. Governor of feast tastes first. Finds
it excellent wine--such as usually put on table at beginning of
feast--commends bridegroom for it. What was the result?

Satisfaction to Mary, who knew her Divine Son.

Faith strengthened in the new disciples of Christ.

Glory to Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God.

III. =Lessons.= 1. _About wine._ God's gift (Ps. civ. 15), to be
used sparingly--a little (1 Tim. v. 23).

2. _About Christ._ How was His glory manifested? By
sympathy--sharing home-life--its joys and sorrows. Believing wants
of His people.

3. _About ourselves._ The benefit of such a Friend (Ps. cxliv. 15).
Difference between this world's blessings and those of Christ.
This world's come first--health, riches, fame, etc. Christ's come
last--glory, honour, immortality. Which are best? Then seek those
things which are above (Col. iii. 1).


=God's Bounty.=

     On a cold winter's day a poor woman stood at the window of
     a King's greenhouse looking at a cluster of grapes which
     she longed to have for her sick child. She went home to her
     spinning-wheel, earned half a crown, and offered it to the
     gardener for the grapes. He ordered her away. She returned home,
     took the blanket from her bed, sold it for five shillings, and
     offered this sum to the gardener. He repelled her with anger.
     The Princess, overhearing the conversation and seeing the
     woman's tears, said to her, "You have made a mistake, my good
     woman. My father is a king; he does not sell, but gives." So
     saying she plucked a bunch of the best grapes and placed them in
     the happy woman's hands.


=JANUARY 22ND.--Christ and Nicodemus.=

_To read--St. John iii, 1-17. Golden Text--Ver. 16._

Christ now in Jerusalem. Probably in retirement because Jews
hostile. Picture Him with His new disciples in house in a back
street on a windy night (ver. 8). A knock at the door. A Rabbi,
member of the Sanhedrim (vii. 50), enters cautiously; he seeks to
know more of this new teaching.

I. =Regeneration of Man= (1-8). _The inquiry._ Nicodemus, a searcher
after truth, comes to Christ the new Teacher, whom he acknowledges
as sent from God, as testified by His miracles. What must he do?

_The answer._ He must have a new birth, _i.e._ be changed into a
spiritual state--be concerned with inner things of God. This change
only wrought by work of Holy Spirit on soul, of which washing by
water, as in baptism, is outward sign. How does the Spirit work?
_Invisibly_--seen in effects, as wind on water. _Irresistibly_, its
power being divine--as at Pentecost 3,000 converted (Acts ii. 41).
But man's will must co-operate.

II. =Lifting up of Christ= (9-15). _Effects of new birth._ The
regenerate see the truth revealed desired long (St. Luke x. 24), and
bear witness to others--as new converts after Stephen's death (Acts
viii. 4).

_Subject of the new teaching._ Christ Himself, His Person, Son of
Man--the Perfect Man. His dwelling-place, heaven; not by ascending
there, but as being His own eternal home.

_Christ's lifting up._ On a cross--a sacrifice for sin, giving
eternal life to those who believe, of which brazen serpent was a
type (Num. xxi. 9).

III. =Love of the Father= (16, 17). How shown? He gave, sent, spared
not His Son (Rom. viii. 32). Why shown? That man may not die, but
live eternally.

=Lesson.= 1. The new birth. Am I changed?

2. Christ lifted up for me. Am I saved?

3. God's love. What am I giving in return?


=A Great Change.=

     Queen Victoria once paid a visit to a paper-mill. Among other
     things she saw men picking out rags from the refuse of the
     city, and was told that these rags would make the finest white
     paper. After a few days her Majesty received a packet of the
     most delicate white paper, having the Queen's likeness for the
     water-mark, with the intimation that it was made from the dirty
     rags she had noticed. So our lives, renewed by God's Spirit, can
     be transformed and bear His likeness.


=JANUARY 29TH.--Christ at Jacob's Well.=

_To read--St. John iv. 5-15. Golden Text--Ver. 14._

Christ leaves Jerusalem, travels north with His disciples, passes
through Samaria, reaches Sychar, near Shechem. Rests at Jacob's well
while disciples buy food in neighbouring town.

I. =The Story= (5-9). _Time._ Noon by Hebrew reckoning, or 6 p.m. by
Roman time.

_Place._ Jacob's well. Bought by him (Gen. xxxiii. 19), burial-place
of Joseph (Josh. xxiv. 32).

_Persons._ Jesus and the woman. He wearied, but, ever ready to do
His Father's work, opens conversation. Uses the water, thirst,
spring, as illustrations of spiritual truths. He asks her for water.
She is surprised, because of national hostility.

II. =The Water of Life= (10-15). Christ tells of His power to give
living water. She thinks He means deep spring water, and asks how it
is to be obtained. He then explains His meaning: water--commonest
and simplest of all liquids--emblem of gifts and graces of Holy
Spirit.

_Its source._ Gift of God alone. Offered freely to all (Isa. lv. 1).

_Its necessity._ If any have not God's Spirit, they are not His
(Rom. viii. 9).

_Its nature._ Pure--from God's throne (Rev. xxii. 1).
Refreshing--joy of salvation (Ps. li. 12). Healing (Rev. xxii. 2).
Satisfying (Isa. lxi. 1). Unfailing--wells of salvation (Isa. xii.
3).

_Its results._ Everlasting life.

III. =Lesson.= Drink of this living water which Christ offers to-day.


=Living Water.=

     The fountain of living waters is God Himself. It is not a mere
     cistern to hold a little water; it is a running, living stream,
     and a fountain that springs up perpetually. Now a fountain is
     produced by the pressure of water coming down from a height, and
     never rises higher than its source. Our spiritual life has its
     source in heaven. It came from God, and to God it will return.


=FEBRUARY 5TH.--The Nobleman's Son Healed.=

_To read--St. John iv. 43-54. Golden Text--Ver. 53._

Christ has passed through Samaria, returned to Cana. Now works first
miracle of healing.

I. =Faith Beginning= (43-47). _The father._ A courtier of Herod
Antipas, King of Galilee. In trouble because of son's sickness.
Hears of Jesus and His wonderful doings--will see if He can help
him. Leaves his home to go and meet Jesus. Urgently entreats Him to
come from Cana down to Capernaum on the Lake of Galilee to visit and
relieve his dying son.

II. =Faith Increasing= (48-50). Christ seems to hesitate--makes a
difficulty. He wants strong faith. He sees father desires external
signs, personal visit. Christ must have implicit faith. What does
Christ do? Does not comply with the request nor refuse, but calmly
tells him his son lives. The man believes, and returns home.

=III. Faith Perfected= (51-54). Met by his servants on way back.
They had noted the change for the better in the boy, hastened to
meet the father and tell the good news. What does he ask? The
time exactly agreed. So the father knew that Christ was more than
man--that He was Lord of life and death--the true Son of God. No
more doubts.

=Lessons.= 1. Trouble leads to prayer and prayer to blessings.

2. Belief in Christ brings peace and happiness.

3. He is the same Lord to all them that believe.


=Freemen of the Gospel.=

     An old man once said that it took him forty years to learn three
     simple things. The first was that he could not do anything to
     save himself; the second was that God did not expect him to; and
     the third was that Christ had done it all, and all he had to do
     was to believe and be saved.


=FEBRUARY 12TH.--Christ's Divine Authority.=

_To read--St. John v. 17--27. Golden Text--John iv. 42._

Christ has returned to Jerusalem to keep one of appointed feasts
(ver. 1). There He healed a cripple at the Pool of Bethesda on the
Sabbath, which caused the Jews to persecute Him for "breaking" or
relaxing the Sabbath day. Christ answers them.

I. =The Father's Work= (17, 18). God is Creator of world and Father
of all. The Sabbath not a time for inaction. Does everything stop?
Earth continues to revolve, winds blow, vegetation grows. Sabbath a
rest for man from work by which livelihood gained, but also a day to
be spent in works of mercy. Thus Christ works on with the Father.
His claim to be equal with God angers the Jews.

II. =The Son's Work= (19-23). Same as the Father's--does nothing by
Himself. He shares the Father's counsels--loving bond of sympathy
between them. Shares Father's work--giving life to dead (i. 4).
Christ already done this when raised Jairus's little daughter (St.
Matt. ix. 25). Also raised dead souls by forgiving sins and leading
to new life. Example--sick of the palsy (St. Matt. ix. 2) and the
woman who had sinned (St. Luke vii. 37, 47).

Christ also appointed as the Judge (Acts xvii. 31). Therefore
equally with Father claims honour from men. To dishonour Him is to
dishonour God.

III. =Man's Relation to Christ= (24-27). How can he obtain this new
life? Must hear and accept Son's word, must believe the Father, Who
speaks through the Son (xvii. 3; Heb i. 2). Then he passes from
death in sin (Eph. ii. 1) to life in Christ (Col. iii. 3). This a
present change. Old things passed--all become new. New faith, hope,
love. New life for soul now, for body hereafter.

=Lessons.= 1. It is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.

2. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.


=Full Salvation.=

     Those who trust Christ do not trust Him to save only for a year
     or two, but for ever. In going a long journey it is best to
     take a ticket all the way through. Take your ticket for the New
     Jerusalem, and not for a half-way house. The train will never
     break down, and the track never be torn up. Trust Jesus Christ
     to carry you through to glory, and He will do it.--REV. C. H.
     SPURGEON.




[Illustration: SHORT ARROWS

Notes of Christian Life & Work.]

SHORT ARROWS

Notes of Christian Life & Work.


"The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple."

In response to the request of many of our readers, we give the
following account of this great picture, a special reproduction
of which (in colours and suitable for framing) was presented with
our November number. With the idea of the picture in his mind, Mr.
Holman Hunt went, in 1854, to Jerusalem to obtain local colour and
models for the work. "Truth to Nature" being the principle of his
art, he desired to get as near as possible to the probable aspect
of the scene he was attempting to depict. The Temple he had to
construct for himself, and this he did after studying Eastern, and
especially ancient Jewish, architecture, the only part painted
from an actual fact being the marble pavement. This he copied from
the floor of the Mosque of Omar, which, according to tradition, is
the only remaining portion of Herod's Temple. He experienced great
difficulty in getting models for his figures, owing to the suspicion
having arisen that he was a Christian missionary in disguise. By
the end of eighteen months, however, he had painted in all the
adult figures from actual models, and, returning to England, he
managed, by the help of Mr. Mocatta, to get a boy from the Jewish
community in the East-End of London to sit for the figure of Christ.
Every detail of the picture has a symbolic interest. The rabbi
on the left, clasping in his arms the _Torah_ or sacred roll of
the Law, is blind and decrepit, and the other rabbis, with their
phylacteries and scrolls, are all characteristic of the proud,
self-righteous, sects to which they belonged. Joseph carries his own
and Mary's shoes over his shoulders--even in their haste they had
remembered the injunction to remove them when entering the house
of the Lord--and Mary is clad in robes of grey and white, with a
girdle fringed with orange-red, the colours of purity and sorrow.
Christ wears a _kaftan_, striped with purple and blue, the colours
of the royal house of David. He is pulling the buckle of the belt
tighter--"girding up His loins"--and in spite of the "Wist ye not
that I must be about My Father's business?" has one foot advanced
in readiness to go with His earthly parents. Through the doorway
the builders are still at work; they are hoisting into position the
block which is to be "the chief corner-stone of the building."

[Illustration: BLIND PETER AND HIS BRIDE.

(_Photo: T. F. McFarlane, Crieff._)]

[Illustration: St. Paul's Bennett St. Sunday School, Manchester
Quiver Medalists March 1^{st.} 1898. ]


Blind Peter and his Bride.

In spite of his blindness, Peter was a very happy man. A young
girl, brought up in the American Presbyterian School in Pekin,
emphatically declared that he was the best, the cleverest, and
the best-looking of six candidates for her hand. She enjoyed the
unheard-of privilege of choosing her husband, and, as her relations
approved the selection, settlements were at once arranged. Her hair
was cut in a fringe, which in China marks an engaged maiden; the
contract was drawn up on a sheet of lucky scarlet paper, and Peter
undertook to make a regular allowance to his mother-in-law. Neither
the bride nor Peter's relations ever had occasion to regret their
decision. He was one of the earliest pupils in the School for the
Blind established in Pekin in 1879. As a boy of twelve years old, he
was led to the door by his brother aged fourteen. They were orphans,
and on their first begging tour, and the elder said that he could
support himself by work, but could not gain sufficient food for two
without begging. The blind boy was admitted, and he quickly gained a
high character. Within two years he was the ablest and best teacher
of the blind in Pekin, and he had knowledge and influence which
might be the means of bringing light and understanding to untold
numbers groping in darkness of mind and body. It is calculated
that the blind in China number at least 500,000, and they have
the character of being amongst the most depraved of beggars. Miss
Gordon-Cumming tells the story of blind Peter in her new book, "The
Inventor of the Numeral Type for China." The Chinese Dictionary
contains from 30,000 to 40,000 characters. It is true that to read
a book so sublimely simple as the Bible it is sufficient to learn
4,000; but the length of this task deters the majority of people
from the attempt. Mr. W. H. Murray found it possible to reduce the
distinct tones of Mandarin Chinese (used in four-fifths of the
Empire) to 408, and to represent them in numerals, embossed in dots
according to Braille's system. Miss Gordon-Cumming devotes several
pages to explaining the invention and the means by which it has been
carried into good effect. The result is that blind men and women
have not only been raised from demoralised beggary, but have become
teachers of others afflicted like themselves, and in some cases of
the sighted illiterate or deaf and dumb.


A Notable Group.

In the course of our last volume we had occasion to refer several
times to the remarkable Sunday-school in Manchester which contains
no less than forty-five teachers, all of whom have served for over
twenty years as active officers of the school. This discovery
was made in connection with our Roll of Honour for Sunday-school
Workers, and each of the forty-five was awarded THE QUIVER medal.
These teachers have since associated themselves in a photographic
group, the result of which we reproduce on the opposite page. It
forms an interesting and unique memento of an interesting and unique
school.


A Quiver Hero.

The latest addition to the Roll of Quiver Heroes and Heroines is
Captain James Hood, of the London tug _Simla_, who, on October
17th last, was by his self-sacrificing courage and presence of
mind instrumental in saving twelve members of the crew of the
_Blengfell_ off Margate. The circumstances attending the conspicuous
act of Captain Hood are probably still fresh in the minds of
all our readers, and it is only necessary to recall that on the
day in question his tug was in attendance on the naphtha ship
_Blengfell_, when the latter vessel was suddenly rent in two by
a terrific explosion, which resulted in the sudden death of the
captain of the doomed ship, his wife and child, and six other
persons. Hood immediately saw that the only way to save the men left
on the wreck and those struggling in the sea was to steam right
alongside the burning ship, there being no time to lower boats.
This he courageously did in the face of several minor explosions,
and knowing full well that at any moment the remaining barrels of
naphtha might ignite and blow his vessel to pieces. Fortunately he
was successful in rescuing the survivors, and was able to steam
away in safety from the burning ship. Our readers will undoubtedly
endorse our opinion that Captain Hood has nobly earned the Silver
Medal of THE QUIVER Heroes Fund, which it has been our pleasure to
hand to him.

[Illustration: CAPTAIN HOOD. (_The latest Quiver Hero._)

(_Photo: W. Bartier, Poplar, E._)]


Unusual Diffidence.

An able public man known to the writer was asked the other day to
speak at a conference upon one of the subjects to be debated. He
replied that he could not do so, as he did not know much about the
question and had not time to study it in all its bearings. How much
shorter and more profitable would speeches and sermons be if those
who deliver them were as conscientious as our friend! But "fools
rush in where angels fear to tread," and speak loud and long out of
the abundance of their ignorance. When a man has only one idea, has
seen only one side of a thing, knows only a limited number of words,
and is in possession of good lungs, there is no reason why he should
ever stop speaking.


Distributing Mansion House Money.

Four great famines in India have marked the reign of Queen
Victoria--each more widespread than the last, but each successively
occasioning less loss of life. It was in the famine of 1868-69
that Lord Lawrence initiated, as a working principle for the
Administration, a sense of personal responsibility for every life
lost. In the last, that of 1896-97, the scarcity extended from
the Punjab to Cape Comorin, but the skill in checking starvation
was greater than in the preceding one of 1877, and the number of
sufferers relieved exceeded three millions. Whilst many of India's
sons gazed up at the cloudless sky with the calm desperation of
fatalists, the Government and missionaries fought side by side to
repel hunger and death. England subscribed £550,000 through the
Mansion House Relief Fund alone. The scourge fell most heavily on
the Central Provinces, and the paternal Government had not only to
deal with present necessity, but to provide for the future. Our
illustration is copied from a photograph of a scene in Central
India. An English Government servant sits at a table covered with
money from the Mansion House Fund, and he is granting fifteen rupees
to a cultivator for seed rice. A crowd of applicants for similar
relief surround him.

[Illustration: DISTRIBUTING MANSION HOUSE MONEY IN INDIA.

(_Photo: Rev. A. Logsdail_)]


For Old and Young.

By a curious coincidence two of the various works which call for
notice this month are by present contributors to our own pages, and
two are by future contributors. It is unnecessary to deal with the
former at length--even if space permitted--and it is sufficient
to state that Dr. Joseph Parker's second volume of his series of
"Studies in Texts" (Horace Marshall and Son) is as full of pregnant
and forceful thoughts as its predecessor; whilst in "Love to the
Uttermost" (Morgan and Scott) our old friend, the Rev. F. B. Meyer,
has tenderly and reverently expounded the principal incidents and
texts contained in the latter portion of the Gospel of the disciple
"whom Jesus loved."--From Mr. Elliott Stock comes a small volume
of "Addresses to all Sorts and Conditions of Men," which have been
delivered at various times and in various places by Archdeacon
Madden, who is well known as an earnest and gifted preacher to
young men, and we can but hope that these outspoken truths may,
in their more permanent form, be the means of much lasting good.
We hope shortly to introduce Archdeacon Madden more directly to
our readers by means of our own pages, and also Dr. R. F. Horton,
who is responsible for "The Commandments of Jesus," which has just
reached us from Messrs. Isbister. It should be emphasised at once
that the book does not deal with the commandments given to Moses,
but with the commandments delivered by our Lord whilst on earth. Dr.
Horton claims that a careful study of these will prove that they
form "a sufficient, authoritative, and exact rule of life" at the
present day, and he has ably upheld and explained what he so happily
terms "the eternal code of Jesus."--To turn from theological
to lighter works, we are pleased to draw attention to Mr. S. H.
Hamer's "Whys and Other Whys" (Cassell and Co.), which would form
an admirable present for little people. The author tells a number
of humorous stories of "Curious Creatures and their Tales," which
will amuse and delight the children, whilst the many quaint and
clever illustrations by Mr. Neilson combine to make this one of the
best gift-books of the season.--For the little ones and also to
"children of a larger growth" we can heartily commend Mrs. Orman
Cooper's life of "John Bunyan, the Glorious Dreamer" (Sunday School
Union), which is written from an extensive knowledge of the subject
(gained principally from many years' residence in Bedford), and is
also copiously illustrated.--We have also to acknowledge the receipt
of "Rabbi Sanderson" (Hodder and Stoughton) by Ian Maclaren, which
forms a companion to his former short story, "A Doctor of the Old
School," though we feel it is not so brilliant as the latter; of
"Neil Macleod" (same publishers), an interesting and well-written
story of literary life in London; and also of "Silver Tongues"
(Morgan and Scott), which consists of a series of talks to the
young by the Rev. John Mitchell, based on simple objects of common
knowledge, such as a leaf, a thimble, flowers, etc., and enriched by
many appropriate lessons.


Four Anchors from the Stern.

These anchors, our Revised Version tells us, the sailors "let go"
on St. Paul's disastrous voyage towards Rome, "fearing lest haply
we should be cast ashore on rocky ground." There is many a reef of
rocks which threatens a young man or woman's barque, as it is pushed
off across the waters of life's ocean; and, at the close of this
century, one such reef is certainly the neglect and desecration
of the Sabbath. It is difficult, perhaps undesirable, to lay down
minute rules upon a subject concerning the details of which good
folks conscientiously differ; but, in days when the social trend
is distinctly towards laxity, there are four main principles which
must be binding on all who acknowledge the New Testament as the
supreme law of life. Little, comparatively, is said there about the
observance of the first day of the week, but that little is very
helpful and suggestive. (1) Sunday should be a day of joy. It was
"with great joy" that the holy women returned from the sepulchre
after the resurrection. Let us try and make Sunday bright and
happy, especially to children and to the poor. (2) Sunday must
be a day of worship. The disciples were wont to meet together to
break bread in remembrance of their Master, and (Acts xx. 7) to
hear a sermon. (3) Sunday must be a day of generosity and kindness.
The apostle specially enjoins that each one should "lay by him in
store, as he may prosper." The spirit of this command must forbid
selfish entertainments and recreations, which impose extra toil on
hard-worked servants. (4) Sunday should be a day of rest, and (to
some extent, at least), of holy contemplation. St. John the Divine
at Patmos was "in the spirit on the Lord's Day," when he saw the
vision of the New Jerusalem. Sundays upon earth are a preparation
for "the Sabbaths of Eternity." Neglect and desecration are "rocks
ahead." Young men and maidens who fare forth into the world, and are
apt to be driven rockward by the powerful and dangerous currents of
public opinion, will find that these four stout scriptural anchors
will hold their craft secure and fast.


Crowns of Thorns and Crowns of Righteousness.

A man called upon President Lincoln, introduced himself as one of
his best friends, and asked for a Government post, then vacant, on
the ground that it was solely through the applicant's exertions that
he was elected to the Presidency. "Oh, indeed," said Lincoln; "then
I now look upon the man who, of all men, has crowned my existence
with a crown of thorns. No post for you in my gift, I assure you.
I wish you good-morning." Thus it is that, when we obtain them, we
care nothing about things that once were objects of our ambition. It
will not be so with the never-fading crowns of righteousness that
are the rewards of another and happier world.

[Illustration: MISS HARRISON.
(_The veteran Leicester Sunday-school teacher._)

(_Photo: A. Pickering, Leicester._)]


The Leicester Silver Medallist.

Many of our readers will be pleased to see the accompanying
portrait of Miss Anne Harrison, the veteran Sunday-school teacher
of Leicestershire, who was recently awarded the Silver Medal and
Presentation Bible for the longest known period of service in that
county. Fifty-eight years ago Miss Harrison commenced work in
the Sunday-school attached to the Baptist Chapel in Harvey Lane,
Leicester, and is still to be found at her post Sunday after Sunday,
devoting all her energies to the cause which is so near her heart,
and which she has so faithfully served for over half a century.


=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 =Sussex=
(for which applications were invited up to November 30th) have been
gained by

  MR. CHARLES WATTS,
  14, Western Road, Hove,

who has distinguished himself by =fifty-one= years' service in the
county, forty-nine of which were spent in Christ Church Sunday
School, Montpelier Road, Brighton.

As already announced, the next territorial county for which claims
are invited for the Silver Medal is

  =WILTSHIRE=,

and applications, on the special form, must be received on or before
December 31st, 1898. We may add that =Durham= is the following
county selected, the date-limit for claims in that case being
January 31st, 1899. This county, in its turn, will be followed by
=Devonshire=, for which the date will be one month later--viz.
February 31st, 1899.

       *       *       *       *       *

_Erratum._--Susan Hammond, the Essex County Medallist, was
inadvertently described in our November number as Miss Hammond
instead of Mrs. Hammond.


=THE QUIVER FUNDS.=

The following is a list of contributions received from November 1st
up to and including November 30th, 1898. Subscriptions received
after this date will be acknowledged next month:--

For ="The Quiver" Christmas Stocking Fund=: Jessie B., Clerkenwell,
2s. 6d.; A School Girl, Stockport, 3s.; A. Newport, Dorchester,
1s.; L. Holland, Crouch End, 2s.; C. D., Bradford-on-Avon, 2s.; A
Sunday Scholar, 1s.; M. T., 3s.; E. E., Newmarket, 3s.; B. Burston,
Moreland Court, 1s.; A Few Friends at Hazelwood, 5s.; F. S. T.,
1s.; R. S., Crouch End, 5s.; E. M. Ellis, Derby, 1s.; Mrs. S.,
Newport, 5s.; Mrs. J. Cunningham, West Kensington, 5s.; E. Baylis,
Woldingham, 10s.; Violet, 2s.; H. D., 10s.; G. S. Andrews, 3s.;
A Reader, 2s.; E. R. Boys, Warlingham, 3s.; M. A., Kilburn, 1s.;
Sympathy, 1s. 6d.; Mrs. Anderson, 1s.; Anon., Croydon, 2s. 2d.; M.,
Horsham, 5s.; S. L. G., Camberwell, 5s.; Anon., East Grinstead,
10s.; Anon., Dublin, 1s.; W. Dellar, 1s.; Little Florrie, Brighton,
2s.

For "_The Quiver_" _Waifs' Fund_: J. J. E. (132nd donation), 5s.;
A Glasgow Mother (102nd donation), 1s.; S. A., Newport, 10s.; A
Swansea Mother, 5s.

For _Dr. Barnardo's Homes_: An Irish Girl, 6s. 6d.; E. E.,
Newmarket, 2s.

       *       *       *       *       *

The Editor is always pleased to receive and forward to the
institutions concerned the donations of any of his readers who wish
to help the movements referred to in the pages of THE QUIVER. All
contributions of one shilling and upwards will be acknowledged.

[Illustration: decorative]




THE QUIVER BIBLE CLASS.

(BASED ON THE INTERNATIONAL SCRIPTURE LESSONS.)


QUESTIONS.

25. Why was the place where our Lord performed His first miracle
called Cana of Galilee?

26. Why was such a large quantity of water provided at Jewish feasts?

27. How many disciples were with Jesus at the marriage in Cana of
Galilee?

28. What proof have we that Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrim
or great council of the Jews?

29. In what words does our Lord refer to His crucifixion while
speaking to Nicodemus?

30. What was the piece of land which Jacob gave to his son Joseph?

31. In what way could the woman of Samaria speak of Jacob as "our
father"?

32. How did the Samaritans show their belief in Jesus as the
Redeemer of all mankind?

33. In what way did our Lord manifest His Divine power to the
nobleman of Capernaum?

34. At what celebrated place in Jerusalem did our Lord heal a man
who had been ill for thirty-eight years?

35. Quote words in which Jesus speaks of Himself as the Judge of the
quick and dead.

36. Why was it that when our Lord said to the Jews "My Father
worketh hitherto, and I work," they sought to kill Him?


ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ON PAGE 192.

13. He broke the most solemn oath which he had made to the King of
Babylon (2 Chron. xxxvi. 13).

14. His eyes were burned out, and he was taken prisoner to Babylon
(Jer. lii. 11).

15. The prophecy of Ezekiel, who foretold that Zedekiah should die
at Babylon, but should not see it (Ezek. xii. 13).

16. He says the revelation of the Old Testament was given at various
times, and in many different ways, but the Gospel was revealed to
mankind by the Son of God Himself (Heb. i. 1, 2).

17. "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister
for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" (Heb. i. 14).

18. It declares the divinity of Christ and records the deeper
spiritual truths of His teaching (St. John i. 1-14, and xx. 31).

19. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (St. John i. 14).

20. "Behold, I will send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way
before Me" (Malachi iii. 1, and iv. 5).

21. "For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God; the Lord thy
God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself" (Deut.
vii. 6; St. John i. 11).

22. When his brother, St. Philip, tried to bring him to see Jesus,
he said, "We have found Him, of whom Moses in the law, and the
prophets, did write" (St. John i. 45).

23. Jesus said unto him, "Before that Phillip called thee, when thou
wast under the fig tree, I saw thee" (St. John i. 48).

24. As Jesus passed by St. John said, "Behold the Lamb of God!" (St.
John i. 36).


       *       *       *       *       *

Transcriber's note:

Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).

Small capital text has been replaced with all capitals.

The carat character (^) followed by letters enclosed in curly
brackets indicates that the following letters are superscripted.
(Example: March 1^{st.}).

Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note.
Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as
printed.

The cover for the eBook version of this book was created by the
transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

Page 266: "God answered Job out _out of_ whirlwind." The transcriber
has change this line to: "God answered Job _out of_ the whirlwind."c
domain.