IT might have been thought that
Katie’s life would have been a very sad and lonely
one after her friend’s marriage and departure,
and she had once feared this herself, but it was not
so. Her heart was too full of the peace which cannot
be taken away, and her time too full of thought and
work for others, to leave her much leisure for realising
the sense of her loneliness, though she did continually
miss Helen, as well as her brother, from whom, however,
she had regular and satisfactory letters that helped
not a little to preserve her cheerfulness. She tried
to keep up as much of Helen’s visiting and other
work as, with her limited strength, she could overtake,
and at home she always had Martha’s watchful care
and Mr Grey’s genial kindliness, as well as abundance
of interesting [Page 202] reading,
when she was too tired for active work. Helen and Mr
Russell very often sent her some new book or periodical
which they thought she should like; and Mr Grey’s
small library was well stocked with valuable works of
older times, some of which—as for instance, “Hall’s
Contemplations”—she much enjoyed. Mr Grey
took care to make her a sharer in the interests of his
parish work, so that her mind was never without some
object of interest to engage her affections and occupy
them for good. Then Helen’s occasional visits,
and those which she from time to time made to her friend’s
new home, were full of enjoyment at the time, and of
pleasant memories in the retrospect.
Clara, too, returned home before
long, not so much spoiled as Katie had feared; and the
latter found her a willing assistant in anything in
which she asked her help—though Clara was not
good at finding out work for herself. The pleasant visits
to Pine Grove were renewed, though the place looked
strange in the absence of the familiar faces. Caroline
had gone to England with her husband’s regiment,
and she and Arthur had met again there. Arthur occasionally
divided his letters between Clara and Katie; and a passage
in one of those which he wrote to the latter from Switzerland,
where he was travelling during the summer, was especially
gratifying to her. He had been describing the grand
scenery of the Bernese Alps, and the impression which
they had made upon him, and added—
“I feel more and more,
in the midst of these sublime though silent tokens of
God’s presence and working, how great will be
the glory of ‘the King in His beauty,’ when
[Page 203] our eyes shall see Him.
Do you remember speaking to me of that once, and of
how infinitely small in comparison are most of the objects
on which people usually fix their desires here? I am
more and more resolved on what was first suggested to
me through you—not to rest satisfied with any
aim centred in self, or even with the contemplation
of human wisdom, and the study of human knowledge, but
to look onward to eternal realities, and in their light
to try to do as well as I can the highest work to which
God calls any man here—that of winning souls for
eternal life.”
Not long after she got this
letter, Katie received a visit from her former pupil,
James Egan, whom, in the tall, respectable-looking youth
he had grown, she at first hardly recognised. He was
now working with a carpenter in Ashby, with good hopes
of being eventually taken into his master’s business.
He had carried on his education, so far at least as
he was likely to require it, and spoke sensibly and
gratefully of his obligations to Katie. “I’m
sure, miss, it was your trouble that began the making
of me, only I’m afraid you’ll not think
it was worth while for that.”
But Katie had long ceased to
regret anything that had happened to her, and was too
full of the pleasure of seeing that Jim had turned out
so well for any other thoughts.
There are many such boys as
Jim in all our towns and villages—“springs
shut up”—“fountains sealed,”
as far as any development of their higher nature goes,
and destined, if let alone, only to perpetuate and extend
the evil influences which have made them what they are.
It only needs a little watchful but patient care, and
some trouble and active kindness, to awaken their better
nature, and turn [Page 204] them into
useful citizens, instead of roughs, to disturb tranquillity
and order, and to become at last inmates of so-called
reformatories and penitentiaries. Perhaps every reader
of this tale might be able to do something towards reclaiming
one such; and were every one to try who could, it would
more advance the prosperity of Canada than any development
of merely material resources.
Jim had, however, a great sorrow
soon after this. The little brother, so clever and thoughtful,
who had been Katie’s favourite pupil, died of
an inflammatory disease, brought on, she feared, by
his mother’s neglect. She saw him often during
his illness, and tried to lead his mind to the Saviour
of whom she had so often told him; and she had the satisfaction
of knowing that he died with His name on his lips, as
he breathed a simple childish prayer which she had taught
him. His sisters are fast growing into nice, useful
girls, able to make their father’s home comfortable,
and likely to become good servants. Their father himself
continues steady and industrious, though his wife still
indulges in her old drinking ways whenever she has an
opportunity. But, through the care that has been exercised
over them, it may be hoped that the evil effects of
her conduct will not extend beyond herself.
But Katie’s work was nearly
finished now. In the beginning of the second winter
after Helen’s marriage, Mr Grey and she went to
be present at the baptism of Helen’s baby, and
in returning home she caught a severe cold from exposure
to rain, which ultimately settled on her lungs. She
had always had a predisposition to her mother’s
constitutional malady, and, once seated, it made rapid
progress [Page 205] in her delicate
frame. Her strength sank very quickly; but as she never
complained, and as she always appeared to rally from
the fits of weakness to which she was subject, Mr Grey
was scarcely alarmed at their recurrence, until Dr Elliott
told him he had better send for Helen, as the end could
not be far distant.
Helen was much shocked, when
she arrived, to see Katie’s condition. She could
not “restrain bitter tears,” though Katie
smiled and said, “You should not grieve, Helen,
or grudge my going to papa and mamma and Hughie—and
‘the island valley of Avilion,’” she
added, dreamily—
“‘Where
falls not hail or rain, or any snow,
Nor
ever wind blows loudly.’”
“But that is not the best
of what you are going to,” said Helen, a little
anxiously, through her tears.
“Oh, no!” replied
Katie, with a radiant smile; “‘the throne
of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants
shall serve Him.’”
Helen would not leave her friend
again so long as she lived. The fading away was very
gradual, and attended with very little pain. Towards
the last there seemed to be a prostration of all her
powers, and she occasionally wandered in her talk, seemingly
recalling pleasant scenes and associations from her
past life. Clara, as well as Helen, was a faithful and
loving attendant to the last. When death came, it was
like the peaceful falling asleep of a weary child, stealing
on without her knowing of it. But those who had known
so well her heart and life did not need words to assure
them that the faith which had held her up so long had
not forsaken her now. [Page 206]
She was laid in the grave on
a sweet sunny day in April; and as Helen saw the green
turf replaced on her lowly bed, and heard the melodious
carol of a bird on a branch above her head, she thought
of that long-past Good Friday when she had gone to see
her, and wondered at the abundant fruit which had sprung
from that unconscious sowing.
They could not mourn bitterly
over her death, feeling that such mourning would have
been selfish. Even Mr Grey, as he felt he might soon
follow her, could scarcely regret that so gentle a lamb
had been safely folded before his own departure.
Ned grieved a good deal when
he heard of his sister’s death, and so did Arthur;
but they both soon felt that they could not wish her
recalled; and to both her memory was long a preservative
from evil, and an incitement to good. Clara missed her
friend sadly, and now tends with care the quiet resting-place,
which Helen always loves to visit when she comes to
Lynford. Clara tries to fill Katie’s place somewhat,
and is much more disposed to look for work, and do it
in her own way, than she might ever have been but for
her friend’s example and influence.
Caroline Ainslie is as graceful
as ever, and much admired, as well as a great favourite
with those whom she meets in society. She has no children,
and her time, of which she has a good deal to spare,
is divided between the gaieties of her circle and the
manufacture of various adornments for her house and
person; but she has never known a genuine enthusiasm
for an unselfish object, or the blessedness of working
for Him who gives His servants such an abundant award
in the success of their work. [Page 207]
Ned has begun to enjoy an income
of his own earning, and has nearly realised his self-imposed
task of clearing off the remains of his father’s
debts. He is steady and diligent, and strongly attached
to his early friend, Arthur; who, after completing his
university course, has nearly finished his studies for
the Church, and endeavours to repay the good he had
received from Katie by trying to exercise an influence
for good over her brother.
Arthur and Clara Winstanley,
Ned, and James Egan have very different destinies before
them, and are likely to move in very different spheres;
but they have each benefited, in no small degree, by
Katie Johnstone’s cross, and the way in which
it was borne. [Page
208]
THE
END.
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