"Now, Frank, warm yourself before you go up to dress," cried Josiah Lethbridge. "Mother, is the fire in Frank's room all right? He will be cold and tired, you know."
"Nonsense, Josiah; the fire has been burning there for hours."
"Well, I ordered it to be laid this morning," said the old man, "and when I went into the room at twelve o'clock the servants had not done it. Ah, but you are welcome, my boy; we will have a grand Christmas," and then he sighed.
I knew what he was thinking about, but I was so happy that I had almost forgotten Hugh when I entered the drawing-room and found Isabella awaiting me.
"I have got this new frock especially for you, Your Lordship. How do you like it?" she said, and my heart leapt as I saw the light in her eyes.
"If you had a decent figure it would look very well," I said, with a laugh; "but you know, even dressmakers can't ..."
After this I had to show contrition for my rudeness.
"You should have seen the hampers that dad has sent to the trenches," she said presently. "All the men in Hugh's company have been remembered. Oh, Frank, there is such a difference in dad; he is not the same man he used to be. He is great friends now with the Vicar, and with Squire Treherne, and all of them."
Precisely at seven o'clock we found our way into the dining-room. The apartment was resplendent with Christmas decorations; everywhere the feeling of Christmas abounded. There were only five of us to sit down to dinner—Mr. and Mrs. Lethbridge, Mary, Isabella, and myself—but six chairs were placed. The empty chair was at the end of the table opposite Mr. Lethbridge, and everything had been arranged as though the chair was expected to be occupied. All of us noted it, although no one spoke aloud concerning it.
"Dad ordered it," said Isabella to me; "he would have it so."
We took our places at the dinner-table, and then Josiah Lethbridge said:
"We will sing the old Grace, children."
"We thank Thee, Lord, for this our food,But more because of Jesu's love.Let manna to our souls be given,The bread of life sent...."
"We thank Thee, Lord, for this our food,But more because of Jesu's love.Let manna to our souls be given,The bread of life sent...."
But we never finished the last line; we heard a quick step in the hall outside, a bustling noise, then the dining-room door opened, and Hugh Lethbridge, pale and wan, but still tall and erect, clad in an officer's uniform, came into the room!
For a moment he seemed to be dazzled by the light, and walked with uncertain footsteps, while we stood silent with amazement. Then he caught the look on his wife's face.
"It's Hugh!" she gasped.
Hugh rushed towards her, and a second later they were locked in each other's arms.
"My wife! My Mary!" he cried.
I will not try to describe what followed, nor attempt to tell how the mother fell upon her boy's neck with fond words of endearment; how Josiah Lethbridge put his hand upon his boy's head, felt his shoulders and his arms, and patted him with infinite tenderness as though he wanted to assure himself that it was really he and not his spirit; how Isabella kissed him again and again, with all sorts of endearing terms; and how Hugh and I shook hands at least twenty times.
"And it is not vacant after all," said Josiah Lethbridge, as he saw his son sitting in the chair which had been placed opposite him. "Oh, thank God! Thank God!"
Of course Hugh had a long story to tell. It seems that in the excitement of battle, after the German officer had shot him, he was left for dead, and then, before the stretcher-bearers came to him, he had crawled away, and it was believed that he had been buried with the others who were killed that night.
Hugh's description was extremely hazy, because he himself scarcely knew what happened to him. When he awoke to consciousness he found himself in a French peasant's hut within the German lines, and here he was kept and nursed by the owners. It seemed a miracle that he should have escaped, but these peasants, seeing that he was English and hating the Germans, kept their secret well. Month after month he lay ill, and even when at length he was well enough to get up, his memory had gone, and he could tell nothing about himself nor what he wanted to do. By and by, however, when his faculties were restored to him, he realized the difficulties of his situation, and for a long time he schemed and planned how to get through the German lines and find his way back to his friends.
I will not trouble the reader with a recital of all he went through; suffice it to say that he at length succeeded, and was received by his old comrades as a man risen from the dead. As may be imagined, no sooner did he get among the English than all his difficulties vanished. A new uniform and money were given to him, with a lengthy leave of absence. He was careful, too, to impress upon his superior officers that he didn't want any news concerning his safety to arrive in England before he himself got there. He wanted to give his people a surprise, he said. This being easily arranged, Hugh returned to England, and arrived in Cornwall on Christmas Eve. He decided first of all to go straight to John Treleaven's farm, where he hoped to find his wife, but learning that she had gone to Trecarrel, he with a great wonder in his heart had hurried to his old home.
The lights of Trecarrel never went out that night. It was Josiah Lethbridge's will that they should not. Besides, we all had so much to say. Hugh would have the baby brought into the room, and Josiah Lethbridge insisted that Mary's father and mother should be fetched immediately. And then Hugh had to tell his story at least six times over, and we all wondered and exclaimed at each recital.
The wonder of that night will never leave me. I had thought that I could never be so happy again as on the evening when Josiah Lethbridge told me he would give Isabella to me for my wife. But that Christmas Eve when Hugh came and the Christmas morning which followed were more wonderful still. Never shall I forget how the soldier lad held his baby in his arms, and looked at it with infinite tenderness and wonder; while his wife, who had believed him dead, clung to him, uttering fond, endearing terms all the while. Never shall I forget how Mrs. Lethbridge went from one to another, with tears of joy streaming down her face, or how Josiah Lethbridge, the old hard look gone from his eyes, told his children again and again how he loved them.
I will leave my narrative here. My tale is told, even while it is not finished. While I write, guns are booming, and the war between the nations goes on; but I do not fear.
"For Right is Right, since God is God,And Right the day must win."
"For Right is Right, since God is God,And Right the day must win."
This great world carnage is horrible beyond words, its madness is inexpressible, but beyond all is God. He has many ways of teaching His lessons, and He is now speaking to us out of the whirlwind and out of the fire.
Printed in the United States of America
[Transcriber's Notes: Some odd spellings have been retained as typeset, i.e., "unforgetable".]
Author of "Wee Macgreegor," etc.
Just Jemima
Another "Mile of Smiles" with J. J. Bell. His latest creation is marked by the same dry, pungent humor for which he has long been noted, and "Just Jemima" will quickly take its place next to "Wee MacGreegor," "Oh, Christina!" "Johnny Pryde," and Bell's other books, over which millions have laughed and rejoiced.
Author of "Little Merry Christmas"
Miss Emeline's Kith and Kin
A capital portrayal of American country life as it is lived in the villages of New England. Miss Emeline's dealings with her "kith and kin" make up a most diverting narrative, one certain to win for Miss Arnold large additions to the friends she made with "Mis' Bassett" and "Little Merry Christmas."
The Ragged Inlet Guards
A Story of Adventure in Labrador.
In Wallace's latest story a wartime setting is given to the fascinating Labrador stage. The four "Inlet Guards" furnish round after round of exciting adventures, including the thrilling capture of a German wireless station, while their seniors were fighting "over seas."
Author of "Once-Upon-a-Time Tales"
"Tell Me a Story I Never Heard Before"
With deft and practiced art, Miss Stewart weaves a modern garland out of blossoms of story-telling as old as the ages. About the Daisy, the Fleur-de-lys, the Pansy, the Tulip, and so forth, she has entwined old-world legends of the days of chivalry, of high adventure, of pastoral romance.
Author of "Alaska Days with John Muir," "The Klondike Clan," etc
Adventures in Alaska
"When a man's actual experiences are more interesting than ingenious invention, he is wise if he avoids fiction and writes a straight narrative of his adventures. This is what Dr. Young has done in this illustrated account of some of his remarkable experiences during over thirty years work in Alaska."—The Outlook.
Author of "Dr. Luke of the Labrador"
Battles Royal Down North
Appreciation by Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell.
Sir Wm. Robertson Nicoll, LL.D.: "No one can read Mr. Norman Duncan's marvellous Newfoundland fisher idylls without feeling that an English Pierre Loti has arisen, a mystic of the unfathomable deeps."
Harbor Tales Down North
Appreciation by Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell.
Honoré Willsie, inThe New York Times Magazine. "We lost the best short story writer in the country when Norman Duncan died."
The Knock on the Door
A Story of To-day.
The story of a young man and woman who institute a search for the faith they have outgrown. Cynthia Holden, the girl, goes far on her quest, leaving Jim Trefethen, a young clergyman to whom she is engaged, to "tread the wine-press alone." The ending is a happy one, with an unexpected vision of a good Samaritan, ministering to an oppressed people who had fallen among thieves because of the war.
It Happened "Over There"
A story of an American aviator and an English "lady of high degree." Dr. Jenkins' book is permeated with the atmosphere of these thrilling heart-searching days, and succeeds in visualizing sights and scenes, which set forth the unspeakable infamy of the Hun, and the unflinching, indomitable spirit of the Allies, one and all determined to work, suffer and endure to the end.
Author of "Wee Macgreegor"
Johnny Pryde
"Should be read aloud—otherwise the family circle wants to know what the joke is every time you laugh. There's a good laugh in every chapter—sometimes half a dozen, and it has the real J. J. Bell touch."—New York Evening Sun.
Author "The Lure of the Labrador Wild," "Ungava Bob," etc.
Grit-A-Plenty
A Tale of the Labrador Wild.
Dillon Wallace, the famous Labrador explorer, has written another book for boys, of that bleak, hard-bitten region which for interest and appeal will press hard his other popular stories of boy life in Labrador. For adventure and realism of the most healthful sort, boys will find it difficult indeed to beat this latest story from the surviving companion of Leonidas Hubbard, Jr., the Labrador explorer.
Uncle Joe's Lincoln
The popular author of "On the Trail of the Immigrant" has written few works of greater appeal than this delightful story of the influence of the life of Abraham Lincoln upon the boys of a far away land, most of whom eventually found their way to the United States.
Author of "Boy Scout Crusoes"
Cameron Island
Further Adventures in the South Seas.
The success of "Boy Scout Crusoes" has furnished the incentive for a new story of the same sort of thrilling adventures. Here are many new and wonderful bits of natural history which every wide-awake boy will find not only interesting but instructive as well.
At His Country's Call
A Tale of the Great War for Boys.
Lt.-Gen. Sir R. Baden-Powell says: "A most exciting yarn for boys which should arouse their spirit of patriotic adoration."
Here is a story of the Great War that will make any full-blooded boy sit up nights to arrive at the end. One climax succeeds another until it seems as though every adventure and incident occurring in modern warfare has been woven into this fascinating book.
Alaska Days with John Muir
"Do you remember Stickeen, the canine hero of John Muir's famous dog story? Here is a book by the man who owned Stickeen and who was Muir's companion on that adventurous trip among the Alaskan glaciers. This is not only a breezy outdoor book, full of the wild beauties of the Alaskan wilderness; it is also a living portrait of John Muir in the great moments of his career."—New York Times.
Author of "Silver Sand," etc.
Hal 'o the Ironsides: A Story of the Days of Cromwell
"Crockett's last story. A rip-roaring tale of the days of the great Oliver—days when the dogs of war were let loose in English meadows, and the gallants of England struck home for the King."—Examiner.
Fanny Crosby's Story of Ninety-Four Years
By S. Trevena Jackson.
"This is, in a way, an autobiography, for it is the story of Fanny Crosby's life as she told it to her friend, who retells it in this charming book. All lovers of the blind hymn writer ought to read this volume. It tells a story of pathos and of cheer. It will strengthen the faith and cheer the heart of every reader."—Watchman-Examiner.
The New World
"Dr. Black is a strong thinker and a clear, forcible writer. Here he analyzes national tendencies toward unrest—social, material, religious. This he does with moderation yet with courage, and always with hopefulness."—The Outlook.
Author of "Arabia," etc.
Childhood in the Moslem World
"The claims of millions of children living and dying under the blighting influence of Islam are set forth with graphic fidelity. Both in text and illustrations, Dr. Zwemer's new book covers much ground hitherto lying untouched in Mohammedan literature."—Christian Work.
The Oriental Policy of the United States
A plea for the policy of the Open Door in China, presented by an oriental scholar of broad training and deep sympathies. The history of American diplomatic relationships with the Orient, the development of the various policies and influences of the western powers in China, and the imperilistic aspirations of Japan are set forth admirably.
Missionary Amer. Baptist Foreign Miss. Society to Japan
Captain Bickel of the Inland Sea
"Especially valuable at this hour, because it throws a flood of light on many conditions in the Orient in which all students of religious and social questions are especially interested. We would suggest that pastors generally retell the story at some Sunday evening service, for here is a story sensational, thrilling, informing and at the same time a story of great spiritual urgency and power."—Watchman-Examiner.
Canton, China
A Light in the Land of Sinim
Forty-five Years in the True Light Seminary, 1872-1917.
"An authoritative account of the work undertaken and achieved by the True Light Seminary, Canton, China. Mrs. Noyes has devoted practically her whole life to this sphere of Christian service, and the record here presented is that of her own labors and those associated with her in missionary activity in China, covering a period of more than forty-five years."—Christian Work.
Underwood of Korea
A Record of the Life and Work of Horace G. Underwood, D.D.
"An intimate and captivating story of one who labored nobly and faithfully in Korea for thirty-one years, presenting his character, consecration, faith, and indomitable courage."—Missions.
Author of "The Captain of the Janizaries," "Deborah," etc.
Along the Friendly Way
Dr. Ludlow has observed keenly, and thought wisely and deeply; he has read extensively, traveled widely, and rubbed elbows and wits with men great and little of many nations and under varying conditions. He is the "full man" of which the philosopher speaks. And all these intellectual and spiritual riches garnered from many harvests he spreads before the reader in a style that is remarkable for its felicity of phrasing, the color of its varied imagery, and its humor, warmth, and human sympathy.
The Napoleon of the Pacific: Kamehameha the Great
The history of the great chieftian who, in the closing years of the eighteenth century, effected the union of the eight islands of the Hawaiian Archipelago and welded them into a kingdom. Both student and general reader will find THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC a richly-stored mine of deeply interesting information, extremely difficult to come at in any other form.
Foch the Man
W. B. McCormick in theN. Y. Sunsays: "Miss Laughlin has let nothing escape her that will throw light on the development of his character. A revelation of the man who at sixty-seven put the crowning touch to the complete defeat of Germany's military pretensions."
The One Great Society
Records of some personal reminiscences and recollections of the author, who, as preacher, editor and prominent member of one or two international organisations, has met many of the world's prominent men in the fields of divinity, philanthropy, literature and reform.