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Leslie turned with sudden compunction.
“O Cloudy, dear, I didn’t mean to hurt you; indeed I didn’t! I never thought you’d care.”
“It’s all right, dear,” said Julia Cloud with her gentle voice, and just the least mite of a gasp. “You see––I––Sunday has been always very dear to me; I hadn’t realized you wouldn’t feel the same.”
She seemed to shrink into herself; and, though the smile still trembled on her lips, there was a hovering of distress over her fine brows.
“Wewillfeel the same!” declared Allison. “If you feel that way so much, we’ll manage somehow to be loyal to what you think. You always do it for us; and, if we can’t be as big as you are, we haven’t got the gang spirit. It’s teamwork, Leslie. Cloudy goes to football games, and makes fudge for our friends; and we go to church and help her keep Sunday her way. See?”
“Why, of course! Sure!” said Leslie, half bewildered. “I didn’t mean not to, of course, if Cloudy likes such things; only she’ll have to teach me how, for I never did like those things.”
“Well, I say, let’s get Cloudy to spend the first Sunday telling us how she thinks Sunday ought to be kept, and why. Is that a bargain, Cloudy?”
“But I’m afraid I wouldn’t be wise enough to explain,” faltered Julia Cloud, distress in her voice. “I could maybe find something to read to you about it.”
“Oh, preserve us, Cloudy! We don’t want any old dissertations out of a book. If we can’t have your own thoughts that make you live it the way you do, we haven’t any use for any of it. See?”
Julia Cloud forced a trembling little smile, and said131she saw, and would do her best; but her heart sank at the prospect. What a responsibility to be put upon her ignorant shoulders. The Lord’s Sabbath in her bungling hands to make or to mar for these two young souls! She must pray. Oh, she must pray continually that she might be led!
And then there came swiftly to her mind one of the verses that had become dear and familiar to her through the years as she read and reread her Bible, “And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say; for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.”
This was not exactly being brought before magistrates; but it was being challenged for a reason for the hope that was in her, and perhaps she could claim the promise. Surely, if the Lord wanted her to defend His Sabbath before these two, He would give her wise words in which to speak. Anyhow, she would just have to trust Him, for she had none of her own.
“Now see what you’ve done, Leslie!” said her brother sharply. “Cloudy hasn’t looked that way once before. Next thing you know she’ll be washing her hands of us and running off back to Sterling again.”
“O Cloudy!” said the penitent Leslie, flinging herself into her aunt’s arms and nestling there beseechingly. “You wouldn’t do that, would you, Cloudy, dear? No matter how naughty I got? Because you would know I wouldn’t mean it ever. Even if I was real bad.”
“No, dear,” said Julia Cloud, kissing her fair forehead. “But this is just one of those things that132I meant when I was afraid to undertake it. You see there may be a great many things you will want to do on Sunday that I would not feel it right for me to do, and I may be a hindrance to you in lots of ways. I shouldn’t like to get to be a sort of burden to you, and it isn’t as if they were things that I could give up, you know. This is a matter of conscience.”
“That’s all right, Cloudy,” put in Allison. “You have your say in things like that. We aren’t so selfish as all that. And besides, if it’s wrong for you, who knows but it’s wrong for us, too? We’ll look into it.”
Julia Cloud went smiling through the rest of the evening, but underneath was a tugging of strange dread and fear at her heart. It was all so new, this having responsibility with souls. She had always so quietly trusted her Bible and tried to follow her Lord. She had never had to guide others. There had not been time for her even to take a class in Sunday school, and she knew her religion only as it applied to her one little narrow life, she thought, not realizing that, when one has applied a great faith to the circumstances of even a narrow life, and applied it thoroughly through a lifetime, one has learned more theology than one could get in years of a theological seminary. Theories, after all, are worth little unless they have been worked out in experience; and when one has patiently, even happily, given up much of the joy of living to serve, has learned to keep self under and love even the unlovable, has put to the test the promises of the Bible and found them hold true in time of need, and has found the Sabbath day an oasis in the desert of an otherwise dreary life, even an old theologian wouldn’t have much more to go on in beginning a discussion on Sabbath-keeping.
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Quite early the next morning, before Leslie had awakened, Julia Cloud had slipped softly to her knees by the bedside, and was communing with her heavenly Father concerning her need of guidance.
When Leslie awoke, her aunt was sitting by the window with her Bible on her knee and a sweet look of peace on her face, the morning sunlight resting on the silvery whiteness of her hair like a benediction. It was perhaps the soft turning of a leaf that brought the girl to wakefulness, and she lay for some time quietly watching her aunt and thinking the deep thoughts of youth. Perhaps nothing could have so well prepared her for the afternoon talk as that few minutes of watching Julia Cloud’s face as she read her Bible, glancing now and then from the window thoughtfully, as if considering something she had read. Julia Cloud was reading over everything that her Bible said about the Sabbath, and with the help of her concordance she was being led through a very logical train of thought, although she did not know it. If you had asked her, she would have said that she had not been thinking about what she would say to the children; she had been deep in the meaning that God sent to her own soul.
But when Leslie finally stirred and greeted her, Julia Cloud looked up with a smile of peace; and there was no longer a little line of worry between her straight brows.
The peace lasted all through the morning, and went with her down to breakfast; and something of her enjoyment of the day seemed to pervade the atmosphere about her and extend to the two young people. They hovered about her, anxious to please, and a trifle ill at134ease at first lest they should make some mistake about this day that seemed so holy to their aunt and had always been to them nothing but a bore to get through with in the jolliest way possible.
There was no question about going to church. They just went. Leslie and Allison had never made a practice of doing so since they had been left to themselves. It had not been necessary in the circle in which they moved. When they went to school, and had to go to church, they evaded the rule as often as possible. But somehow they felt without being told that if they tried to remain away now it would hurt their aunt more than anything else they could do; and, while they were usually outspoken and frank, they both felt that here was a time to be silent about their habits.
“We’re going to church,” said Allison in a low tone as he drew his sister’s chair away from the breakfast-table. His tone had the quality of command.
“Of course,” responded Leslie quietly.
It was so that Julia Cloud was spared the knowledge that her two dear young people did not consider it necessary to attend church every Sabbath, and her peace was not disturbed.
The sermon in the little stucco church where they had gone to prayer meeting that first night was not exceedingly enlivening nor uplifting. The minister was prosy with dignity, soaring into occasional flights of eloquence that reminded one of a generation ago. There was nothing about it to bring to mind the sweetness of a Sabbath communion with Christ, nothing to remind a young soul that Christ was ready to be Friend and Saviour. It was rather a dissertation on one of the epistles with a smack of modern higher criticism. The135young people watched the preacher a while listlessly, and wished for the end; but a glance at the quiet, worshipful face of their aunt kept them thoughtful. Julia Cloud evidently had something that most other people did not have, they said to themselves, some inner light that shone through her face, some finer sight and keener ear that made her see and hear what was not given to common mortals to comprehend; and because she sat thus with the light of communion on her face they, too, sat with respectful hearts and tried to join lustily in the hymns with their fresh voices.
The minister came down and shook hands with them, welcoming them kindly. He seemed more human out of the pulpit, and asked quite interestedly where they were to live and whether he might call. He mentioned Sunday school and Christian Endeavor, and said he hoped they would “cast in their lot” among them; and the young people gave him cold little smiles and withdrew into themselves while their aunt did the talking. They were willing she should have her Sabbath, and they would do all in their power to make it what she wanted; but they were hostile toward this church and this minister and all that it had to do with. It simply did not interest them. Julia Cloud saw this in their eyes as she turned to go away, and sighed softly to herself. How much there was to teach them! Could she ever hope to make them feel differently? In two short weeks the college would open, and they would be swept away on a whirl of work and play and new friends and functions. Was she strong enough to stem the tide of worldliness that would ingulf them? No, not of herself. But she had read that very morning the promises of her Lord, “Surely I136will be with thee,” “I will help thee”; and she meant to lay hold on them closely. She could do nothing of herself, but she with her Lord helping could do anything He wanted done. That was enough.
Leslie turned longing eyes toward the winding creek and an alluring canoe that lolled idly at the bank down below the inn as she stood on the piazza after dinner waiting for her aunt; but Allison saw her glance, and shook his head.
“Better not suggest it,” he said. “There are a lot of picnickers down there carrying on high. She would not like it, I’m sure. If it were all quiet and no one about, it would be different.”
“Well, there are a lot of people around here on the piazzas,” said Leslie disconsolately. “I don’t see the difference.”
But, when Julia Cloud came with her Bible slipped unobtrusively under her arm, she suggested a quiet spot in the woods; and so they wandered off through the trees with a big blanket from the car to sit on, and found a wonderful place, high above the water, where a great rift of rocks jutted out among drooping hemlocks, and was carpeted with pine-needles.
“It would please me very much,” said Julia Cloud as she sat down on the blanket and opened her Bible, looking up wistfully at the two, “if you two would go to that Christian Endeavor meeting to-night. I hate to ask you to do anything like that right away, but that minister begged me to get you to come. He said they were having such a struggle to make it live and that they needed some fresh young workers. He asked me if you didn’t sing, and he said singers were very much needed.”
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There was a heavy silence for a moment while the two young things looked at each other aghast across her, and Julia Cloud kept her eyes on the floating clouds above the hemlocks. She still had that softened look of being within a safe shelter where storms and troubles could not really trouble her; yet there was a dear, eager look in her eyes. Both children saw it, and with wonderful intuition interpreted it; and because their hearts were young and tender they yielded to its influence.
Leslie swooped down upon her aunt with an overwhelming kiss, and Allison dropped down beside her with a “Sure, we’ll go, Cloudy, if that will do you any good. I can’t say I’m keen about pleasing that stiff old parson guy, but anythingyouwant is different. I don’t know just what you’re letting us in for, but I guess we can stand most anything once.”
Julia Cloud put out a hand to grasp a hand of each; and, looking up, they saw that there were tears in her eyes.
“Are those happy tears, Cloudy, or the other kind? Tell us quick, or we’ll jump in the creek and drown ourselves,” laughed Leslie; and then two white handkerchiefs, one big and one little, came swiftly out and dabbed at her cheeks until there wasn’t a sign of a tear to be seen.
“I think I’m almost too happy to talk,” said Julia Cloud, resting back against the tree and looking up into its lacy green branches. “It seems as if I was just beginning my life over and being a child again.”
For a few minutes they sat so, looking up into the changing autumn sky, listening to the soft tinkle of the water running below, the dip of an oar, the swirl of a138blue heron’s wing as it clove the air, the distant voices of the picnickers farther down the creek, the rustle of the yellow beech-leaves as they whispered of the time to go, and how they would drift down like little brown boats to the stream and glide away to the end. Now and then a nut would fall with a tiny crisp thud, and a squirrel would whisk from a limb overhead. They were very quiet, and let the beauty of the spot sink deep into their souls. Then at last Julia Cloud took up her Bible, and began to talk.
139CHAPTER XII
There were tiny slips of paper in Julia Cloud’s well-worn Bible, and she turned to the first one shyly. It was such new work to her to be talking about these things to any but her own worshipful soul.
The two young people settled back in comfortable attitudes on the blanket, and put their gaze upon the far sky overhead. They were embarrassed also, but they meant to carry this thing through.
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them,” read Julia Cloud; and straightway the shining blue above them took on a personality, and became a witness in the day’s proceedings. It was as if some one whom they had known all their lives, quite familiar in their daily life, should suddenly have stood up and declared himself to have been an eye-witness to most marvellous proceedings. The hazy blue with its floating clouds was no longer a diversion from the subject in hand. Their eyes were riveted with mysterious thoughts as they lay and listened, astonished, fascinated. It was the first time it had ever really entered into their consciousness that there had been a time when there was no blue, no firm earth, no anything. Whether it were true or not had not as yet become a question with them. They were near enough to their fairy-story days to accept a tale while it was being read, and revel in it.
The quiet voice went on:
“And on the seventh day God ended his work140which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.”
“What did He have to rest for? A God wouldn’t get tired, would He?” burst forth Leslie, turning big inquiring eyes on Julia Cloud.
“I don’t know, unless He did it for our sakes to set us an example,” she answered slowly, “although that might mean He rested in the sense of stopped doing it, you know. And that would imply that He had some reason for doing so. I’m not very wise, you know, and because I may not be able to answer your questions doesn’t mean they can’t be answered by some one who has studied it all out. I’ve often wished I could have gone to college and studied Greek and Hebrew, so I could have read the Bible in the original.”
“H’m!” said Allison thoughtfully. “That would be interesting, wouldn’t it? I always wondered why they did it, but I don’t know but I’ll study them myself. I think I’d enjoy it if there was a real reason besides just the discipline of it they are always talking about when you kick about mathematics and languages.”
“Well,” said Leslie, sitting up interestedly, “is that all there is to it? Did some one just up and say we had to keep Sunday because God did? I think that is a kind of superstition. I don’t see that God would want to make us do everything He did. We couldn’t. Iwouldn’tunlessHesaid to, anyhow.”
“O Les! You’re way off,” laughed her brother. “God did. He said, ‘Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all141thy work, but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant nor thy maid servant–––’ Don’t you remember the Ten Commandments? No, I guess you were too little to learn them. But I got a Testament for learning them once. Say, Cloudy, when did He give that command? Right away after He made Adam and Eve?”
“I’m not sure,” said Julia Cloud, fluttering the leaves of her Bible over to the second slip of paper. “I don’t find any reference to it in my concordance till way over here in Exodus, after the children of Israel had been in Egypt so many years, and Moses led them out through the wilderness, and they got fretful because they hadn’t any bread such as they used to have in Egypt, so God sent them manna that fell every morning. But He told them not to leave any over for the next day because it would gather worms and smell bad, except on Saturday, when they were to gather enough for the Sabbath. Listen: ‘And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating; and when the sun waxed hot, it melted. And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man; and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy sabbath unto the Lord; bake that, which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade; and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, Eat that to-day; for to-day is a sabbath unto the Lord:142to-day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none. And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day.’ It looks as though the people had been used to the Sabbath already, for the commandments given on the mount come three whole chapters later. It looks to me as if God established the Sabbath right at the beginning when He rested from His own work, and that’s what it means when it says He sanctified it.”
“What do you suppose He said, ‘I have givenyoua sabbath’ for? It looks as if it were meant for a benefit for the people and not for God, doesn’t it?” said Allison, sitting up and looking over his aunt’s shoulder. “Why, I always supposed God wanted the Sabbath for His own sake, so people would see how great He was.”
Julia Cloud’s cheeks grew red with a flash of distress as if he had said something against some one she loved very much.
“Oh, no!” she said earnestly. “God isn’t like that. Why, He loves us! He wouldn’t have given a Sabbath at all if it hadn’t been quite necessary for our good. Besides, in the New Testament, Jesus said, ‘The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath’! Oh, He made it for us, to be happy143in, I’m sure. And perhaps He rested Himself so that we might understand He had set apart that time of leisure in order to be everything to us on the day when we had most time for Him. I have read somewhere that God had to teach those early people little by little just as we teach babies, a few things each year; and over in the New Testament it says that all these things that happened in the Old Testament to those children of Israel happened and were written down for an example to us who should live in the later part of the world. So, little by little, by pictures and stories He taught those people what He wanted all of us to know as a sort of inheritance. And He took the things first that were of the most importance. It would seem as if He considered this matter of the Sabbath very important, and as if He had it in mind right away at the first when He made the world, and intended to set apart this day out of every seven, because He stopped right off the very first week Himself to establish a precedent, and then He ‘sanctified’ it, which must mean He set it apart in such a way that all the world should understand.”
“What is a precedent?” asked Leslie sharply.
“Oh, you know, Les, it’s something you have to do just like because you always have done it that way,” said Allison, waving her aside. “But, Cloudy, what I can’t get at at all is why He wanted it in the first place if He didn’t want it just entirely for His own glorification.”
“Why, dear, I am not sure; but I think it was just so that He and we might have a sort of a trysting-time when we could be sure of having nothing to interfere between us. And He meant it, too, to be the sign144between Himself and those who really loved Him and were His children, a sign that should show to the world who were His. He said so in several places. Listen to this.” She turned the leaves quickly. “‘And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying: Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep; for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you; every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death; for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord; whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.’”
“There! Now!” said Leslie, sitting up. “That’s just what I thought! That was only for the children of Israel. It hasn’t the leastest bit to do with us. Those were Jews, and they keep it yet, on Saturday.”
“Wait, dear!” Julia Cloud turned the leaves of her Bible rapidly to Corinthians.
“Listen! ‘Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did145all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither, be ye idolators, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.... Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.’ Doesn’t that look as though God meant the Sabbath for us, too, Leslie?”
Leslie dropped back on her pillow of moss with a sigh. “I s’pose it does,” she answered somewhat disconsolately. “But I never did like Sundays anyhow!” and she drew a deep breath of unrest.
“But, dear,”––Julia Cloud’s hand rested on the bright head lovingly,––“there’s a closer sense than that in which this belongs to us if we belong to Christ; we are Israel ourselves. I was reading about it just this morning, how all those who want to be Christ’s chosen people, and are willing to accept Him as their Saviour, are Israel just as much as a born Jew. I think I can find it again. Yes, here it is in Romans: ‘For they are not all Israel which areofIsrael: neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children; but, In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which146are children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.’ That means the promise that was given to Abraham that there should be a Messiah sometime in his family who would be the Saviour of the world, and the idea is that all who believe in that Messiah are the real chosen people. It was to the chosen people God gave these careful directions––commands, if you like to call them––to help them be what a chosen people ought to be. And the Sabbath rest and communion seems to be the basis of the whole idea of a people who were guided by God. It is the coming home to God after the toil of the week. They had to have a time when other things did not call them away from spending a whole day with Him and getting acquainted, from getting to know what He wanted and how to shape their lives, or they would just as surely get interested in the world and forget God.”
“Well, I don’t see why we have to go to church, anyway,” declared Leslie discontentedly. “This is a great deal better out here under the trees, reading the Bible.”
“Yes,” said Allison. “Cloudy, that minister’s dull. I know I wouldn’t get anything out of hearing him chew the rag.”
“O Allison, dear! Don’t speak of God’s minister that way!”
“Why not, Cloudy? Maybe he isn’t God’s minister. How did he get there, anyway? Just decided to be a minister, and studied, and got himself called to that church, didn’t he?”
“Oh, no, dear! I trust not. That is terrible! Where ever did you get such an idea? There may be147some unworthy men in the ministry. Of course there must be, for the Bible said there would be false leaders and wolves in sheep’s clothing; but surely,surelyyou know that the most of the men in the pulpit are there because they believe that God has called them to give up everything else and spend their lives bringing the message of the gospel to the souls of men. The office is a holy office, and must be reverenced even if we do not fancy the man who occupies it. He may have a message if you listen for it, even though he may seem dull to you. If you knew him better, could look into his life and see the sacrifices he has made to be a minister, see the burdens of the people he has to bear!”
“O Cloudy, come now. Most of the ministers I ever saw have automobiles and fine houses, and about as good a time as anybody. They get big salaries, and don’t bother themselves much about anything but church services and getting people to give money. Honestly, now, Cloudy Jewel, I think they’re putting it over on you. I’ll bet not half of them are sincere in that sacrifice stuff they put over. It may have been so long ago; but ministers have a pretty soft snap nowadays, in cities anyhow.”
“Allison! Didn’t you ever see any true, sincere ministers, child? There are so many, many of them!”
“To tell you the truth, Cloudy, I never saw but one that didn’t have shifty eyes. He was a little missionary chap that worked in a slum settlement and would have taken his eye-teeth out for anybody. Oh, I don’t mean that old guy to-day looked shifty. I should say he was just dull and uninteresting. He may have thought he had a call long ago, but he’s been asleep so long he’s forgotten about it.”148“O Allison! This is dreadful!”
Julia Cloud closed her Bible, and looked down in horror at the frank young face of the boy who minced no words in saying what he thought about these holy things that had always been so precious and sacred to her. She felt like putting her hands over her ears and running away screaming. Her very soul was in agony over the desecration. The children looked into her face, saw the white, scared look, and took warning.
“There now, Cloudy, don’t worry!” said Allison, leaning over and patting her hand awkwardly. “I didn’t mean to hurt you; honest I didn’t. Perhaps I’m wrong. Of course I am if you say so. I don’t really know any ministers, anyhow. I was just saying what is the general impression among the fellows. I didn’t realize you wouldcare.”
“Do the young men all think that?” Julia Cloud’s lips were white, and an agonized expression for the church of God had grown in her eyes. She searched the boy’s face with a look he did not soon forget. It made an impression that stayed with him always. At least, there was something in religion if it could make her look like that to hear it lightly spoken of. At least this one woman was a sincere follower of Christ.
“There now, Cloudy! I tell you I’m sorry I said that; and just to prove it I’ll go to that old Christian Endeavor to-night, and try to find something interesting. I will truly. And Les will go, too!”
“Of course!” said Leslie, nestling close. “Forget what he said, and tell us why we have to go to church, Cloudy, dear.”
Julia Cloud tried to recall her troubled thoughts to the subject in hand.
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“Well, God had them build the tabernacle for worship, you know, dear; told them how to make everything even to the minutest details, and established worship. That was to be part of the Sabbath day, a place to worship, and a promise that He would be there to meet any one who came. That promise holds good to-day. You needn’t ever think about the minister. Just fancy you see Christ in the pulpit. He is there, come to meet His own, you know. He’ll be in that Christian Endeavor to-night. He was in the tabernacle of old. There was a brightness in the cloud of His presence to show the people that God had come down to meet them. They were children, and had to be helped by a visible manifestation.”
“Yes, that would be something like!” said Allison. “If we could see something to help us believe–––”
“Those who truly believe with the heart will have the assurance,” said Julia Cloud earnestly. “Iknow.”
There was something in her tone and the look of her eye that added, “For I have experienced it.” The young people looked at her, and were silent. There was a long, quiet pause in which the sounds of the falling nuts and the whispering of the hemlocks closed in about them, and made the day and hour a sacred time. At last Leslie broke the silence.
“Well, Cloudy, suppose we go to church and Christian Endeavor. What can we do the rest of the day? We don’t have to go to church every minute, do we? I don’t really see how it’s going to do me any good. I don’t, indeed.”
Julia Cloud smiled at her wistfully. It was so wonderfully sweet to have this bright, beautiful young thing asking her these vital questions.
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“Why, deary, it’s just a day to spend with God and get to enjoy His company,” she said. “Let me read you this verse in Isaiah: ‘Blessed’––that means, ‘O the happiness of’: I’ll read it so––‘O the happiness of the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil. Neither let the son of the stranger that hath joined himself to the Lord’––there, Leslie, that means us, or any Gentiles that want to be Christ’s––‘speak, saying, The Lord hath utterly separated us from his people.... For thus saith the Lord to’ them ‘that keep my sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant; even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off. Also the sons of the stranger that join themselves to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name of the Lord, to be his servants, every one that keepeth the sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant; even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer’––you see, Allison, there’s a promise that will secure you from feeling the service dull and dry if you are willing to comply with its conditions––‘their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.’”
She turned the leaves quickly again.
“And now I want to read you the verse that seems to me to tell how God likes us to keep the Sabbath. ‘If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing151thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight’––you see, Leslie, He doesn’t want it to be a dull, poky day. He wants us to call it a delight. And yet we are to find our pleasure in Him, and not in the things that belong just to ourselves. Listen: ‘a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.’”
Leslie suddenly threw her head in Julia Cloud’s lap right over the Bible, and looked up into her face with an exquisite earnestness all her own.
“Cloudy Jewel, it sounds all different from anything I ever heard of, and I don’t know how to do it; but something inside says it ought to be true, and I’m going to try it!” she said. “Anyhow, we’ve had a grand time this afternoon, and it hasn’t been a bit dull. Do you suppose maybe we’ve been ‘delighting’ in Him this afternoon? But there goes the supper bell, and I’m hungry as a bear. How about that, Cloudy? Is it right to cook on Sunday? That place you read about the man who picked up sticks to make a fire in camp doesn’t sound like it.”
“Well, dear, you know in the old times we always got the Sunday cooking and baking done on Saturday, just as the Lord told the Israelites to do. I haven’t any business to judge other people, and every one must decide for himself what is necessary and what is not, I suppose; but, as for me, I like to do as mother always did. I always have the cake-box and bread-box full of152nice fresh things, and make a pie, perhaps, and cook a piece of meat, or have some salad in the ice-box; and then it is the work of but a few minutes to get the nicest kind of a meal on Sunday. It is easy to have a beefsteak to broil, or cold meat, or something to warm up in a minute if one cares enough to get it ready; and it really makes a lovely, restful time on Sunday to know all that work is done. Besides, it isn’t any harder. I like it.”
Allison gathered up the rug and books, and they walked slowly toward the inn, watching the wonderful colorings of the foliage they passed, and drinking in all the woodsy odors and gentle sounds of dying leaves and dropping nuts.
“Say, Cloudy,” said Allison suddenly out of the midst of his thoughtfulness, “why don’t the ministers preach about all this? I had to go to church a lot when I was in prep school, and I never yet heard a sermon on it. Or, if I did, it was so dull I didn’t get the hang of it. But I should think if they preached about it just as you’ve done, made it plain so people could understand, that most folks, that is, the ones who wanted to do half right, would see to it that Sunday wasn’t so rotten.”
“Well, Allison,” said Julia Cloud, a soft smile playing dreamfully about her lips, “perhaps they don’t realize the need. Perhaps it’s ‘up to you,’ as you say, to somehow wake them up and set them at it.”
Allison drew a long whistle and grinned as they went into the house.
153CHAPTER XIII
A few minutes later Julia Cloud watched them go off into the dusk to the Christian Endeavor meeting. She was to follow them in a little while and meet them for the evening service. She wondered as she saw them disappear into the shadows of the long maple-lined avenue whether perhaps she was not overdoing the matter a little in the way of meetings, and was almost sorry she had not suggested staying home from the evening service. It would not do to make them weary of it all on this first Sunday.
As they walked along together, the brother and sister were thinking deeply.
“Say, Allison, isn’t this the very funniest thing we ever did, going off like this to a prayer meeting alone? What did we do it for?” asked the sister.
“Well, I guess just because Cloudy wanted it,” replied the brother. “She’s given up her home and everything for us; we ought to. But say, Les, there’s a whole lot in what Cloudy was reading this afternoon. If it’s all true, it’s a wonder more people don’t try it. I’ve often wondered why we were alive, anyway, haven’t you? There doesn’t seem much sense to it unless there’s something like this.” “Oh, I don’t know, Allison; it’s nice to be alive. But of course we never will feel quite as if this is the only place since Mother and Dad aren’t here any more. Aren’t things queer, anyway? I wish there was some way to be sure.”
“Well, I s’pose the Bible claims to be sure. Perhaps we could find out a lot if we read it.”
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“We’re likely to read it quite a good deal, don’t you think?” asked the sister archly. “But really, now, it was interesting, and isn’t Cloudy a dear? If Christians were all like that, I’d believe in them.”
“Perhaps they are, real Christians. Perhaps the ones we mean aren’t anything but shams.”
“Well, there’s a good many shams, then.”
The big, noisy bell began to bang out a tardy summons now; but the two young people did not feel the same antipathy toward it that they had felt the night they heard it first. It seemed somehow to have a homely, friendly sound. As they neared the open door, they grew suddenly shy, however, and drew back, lingering on the corner, watching the few stragglers who walked into the pathway of light that streamed from the doorway.
“Some bunch!” growled Allison. “I should say they did need waking up, but I don’t hanker for the job.”
They slipped in, and followed the sound of voices, through a dimly-lighted hall, smelling of moldy ingrain carpet, into a wide, rather pleasant, chapel room. There were branches of autumn leaves about the walls, reminiscent of some recent festivity, and a bunch of golden-rod in a vase on the little table by the leader’s chair.
Two girls were turning over the hymn-book, picking out hymns for the evening; and a tall, shy, girlish young fellow was making fancy letters on a blackboard up in front. Three more girls with their arms about one another had surrounded him, and were giggling and gurgling at him after the manner of that kind of girl. Another plain-faced, plainly-dressed young woman sat half-way up at one side, her hands folded and a look155of quiet waiting on her face. That was all that were in the room.
Allison and Leslie found a seat half-way up on the other side from the plain-faced girl, and sat down. No one noticed them save for furtive glances, and no one came near them. The three giggling girls began to talk a little louder. One with her hair bobbed and a long view of vertebrae above her blue dress-collar began to prattle of a dance the night before.
“I thought I’d die!” she chortled. “Bob had me by the arm; and here was my dress caught on Archie’s button, and he not knowing and whirling off in the other direction; and the georgette just ripped and tore to beat the band, and me trying to catch up with Archie, and Bob hanging on to me, honest.––You’d uv croaked if you could uv seen me. Oh, but Mother was mad when she saw my dress! She kept blaming me, for she knew I hated that dress and wanted a new one. But me,I’mglad. Now I’ll get after Dad for a new one. Say, when’s Mary’s surprise? Is it true it’s put off till next week?”
“I’m going to have a new dress for that and silver slippers,” declared the girl next her, teetering back and forth on her little high-heeled pumps. “Say, Will, that letter’s cock-eyed. What are you giving us? What’s the old topic, anyway? I don’t see any use in topics. They don’t mean anything. I never can find a verse with the words in. I just always ask for a hymn, and half the time I give out any old number without knowing what it is, just to see what it’ll turn out.”
“Oh, say! Did you hear Chauncey Cramer singing last Sunday night?” broke out the third girl with a side glance at the strangers. “He was perfectly156killing. He was twisting the words all around in every hymn. He had girls’ names and fellers’ all mixed up, and made it rhyme in the neatest way. I thought I’d choke laughing, and Dr. Tarrant was just coming in, and looked at me as if he’d eat me. Oh, my goodness! There he comes now. We better beat it, Hattie. Come on, Mabel. Let’s sit back in the last row.”
The three girls toppled down the aisle on their high-heeled pumps, and rustled into the back row just as the pastor entered and looked about the room. His eyes brightened when he saw the brother and sister, and with a pleasant “Good-evening” to the three whispering misses in the back seat he came over to shake hands with Allison and Leslie. But, when he expressed a most cordial hope that the two would come in and help in the young people’s work, Allison was wary. He said they would have to see how much time they had to spare after college opened. It was altogether likely that they would be exceedingly busy with their college work.
The minister, watching their bright faces wistfully, and knowing their kind, sighed, and thought how little likelihood there was that his Christian Endeavor society would see much of them.
A few more people straggled in, and one of the girls who had been picking out hymns went and sat down at the piano. The other girl sat near her. The young man at the blackboard took his place at the little table in front of the desk, and the elaborate colored letters which he had just made were visible as a whole for the first time.
“The Great Companion: How to Live with Him.”
There was something startling and solemn in the157words as they stood out in blue and gold and crimson and white on the little blackboard. Allison and Leslie looked and turned wonderingly toward the young leader. He had corn-colored hair, light, ineffective blue eyes, and a noticeably weak chin. He did not look like a person who would be putting forth a topic of that sort and attempting to do anything about it. His face grew pink, and his eyelashes seemed whiter in contrast as he stood up to give out the first hymn. It was plain that he was painfully embarrassed. He glanced now and then deprecatingly toward the visitors with an anxious gasp as he announced that they would open the meeting by singing number twenty-nine. The two young strangers opened their hymn-books and found the place, marvelling how such a youth had ever been persuaded to get himself into such a trying situation. Allison found himself thinking that there must be some power greater than the ordinary influences of life that made him do it. He seemed so much out of his element, and so painfully shy.
“All to Jesus I surrender!” chirped the little gathering gayly. They had good voices, and the harmony was simple and pleasing. Allison and Leslie joined their beautiful voices in with the rest, and liked it, felt almost as if they were on the verge of doing something toward helping on the kingdom of heaven.
They sang another hymn, and more young people came in until there were twenty-four in the room. Then the leader called upon Tom Forbes to read the Scripture, and a boy about fourteen years old read in a clear voice the story of the walk to Emmaus. To the brother and sister whose Bible knowledge was limited to the days of their very young childhood, it158was most interesting. They listened intently, but were surprised to notice a tendency to whisper on the part of some, especially the girls in the back seat, who had been joined by three young fellows of about their own age and caliber. Leslie, glancing over her shoulder at the whisperers, saw they had no thrill over the story, no interest save in their own voluble conversation. The story went on to the point where Jesus at the table blessed the bread, and the two men knew Him, and He vanished out of their sight, without an interruption in the whispering. The Great Companion had come into the room and gone, and they had not even known it.
The leader rose, and cleared his voice with courage; and then in a tone of diffidence he recited the few words he had learned for the occasion.
“Our topic to-night is ‘The Great Companion: How to Live with Him.’ It seems hard to realize that Christ is still on the earth. That He is with us all the time. We ought to realize this. We ought to try to realize it. It would make our lives different if we could realize that Christ is always with us. I expect some of us wouldn’t always feel comfortable if we should find Him walking along with us, listening to our talk. We ought to try to live so we would feel all right if we should find Christ walking with us some day. And I heard a story once about a boy who had been a cripple, and he had been a great Christian; and, when he came to die, they asked him if he was afraid; and he said no, he wasn’t afraid, that it was only going into another room with Jesus. And I think we ought to all live that way. We will now listen to a solo by Mame Beecher, after which the meeting will be open, and I hope that all will take part.”