FROM
that evening onwards, Arthur was a frequent as well
as a welcome visitor at Mr Johnstone’s, and he
never came without bringing an addition to Katie’s
supply of books. “Feats on the Fiord” and
“The Swiss Family Robinson” were sent to
her by Clara the day after his first visit; but Katie,
who dipped into them, and would gladly have devoured
them at once, showed sufficient self-control to reserve
them faithfully for Ned to read to her in the evenings,
which his mother was most anxious he should spend at
home. The books proved sufficiently fascinating to interest
even him, and Katie, in her idle moments, was ever dreaming,
now of the scenery of the wonderful tropical island
with its sago palms and flamingos, and anon of the bold
outlines and clear atmosphere of the [Page 94]
“Fiord,” with its romantic islets and inlets,
and the enchanted midsummer evenings, when the sun scarcely
sank beneath the horizon, but shone brightly all night
over a sleeping country, and only elves and demons were
abroad, holding, as was supposed, high carnival.
They excited and enchanted her
so much, that she asked Helen one day whether it was
right to have her mind engrossed with such fancies.
“I know some people would
say it was not,” replied Helen, “and I suppose
there is danger in it, which we should pray and guard
against; but I don’t think a vivid description
of the wonderful and beautiful things which God has
created, and of the life of our fellow-creatures in
other lands, or other days, can ever do us harm, if
only we are looking to Him as the Guide and Ruler of
it all, and trying to feel His presence in it, as in
all things. I think we are too apt to get into a sort
of idea as if He were only present in some places, and
with some kind of people; yet it is good for us to try
to realise His presence everywhere, and see in how many
different ways He comes into contact with human beings.
And here,” she added, “we have so little
grand or sublime scenery, that we really need to have,
at least, some vivid description of it. How much of
the Bible language, for instance, we can hardly understand,
unless we are able to form some idea of what a mountain
is,—or the sea, when the ‘waters thereof
roar and are troubled.’”
“Well, I’m very
glad you don’t think it any harm, and I fancy
I do comprehend some things better already. Before,
I scarcely ever thought what a mountain really [Page
95] was; but since I have read about Salitelma,
I can better understand why Christ went up into a mountain
to pray,” said Katie, reverently.
“Yes,” replied Helen,
“we may be sure He was insensible to none of the
influences proceeding from ‘the wonderful works
of God.’ I think we lose something in not realising
more fully that He lived a real human life in this very
world, and was surrounded by the same interests, and
subject to the same pleasures and pains, as we are.
If we only carry Him with us into everything,
all things will be safe to us. And the thing, whatever
that may be, in the enjoyment of which we feel we are
forgetting Him, must be injurious to us. The difficulty
is, that some things are so insidious in their influence
that they sometimes lead us away from Him without our
perceiving it.”
“But how is one to know,
then?” asked Katie, in a perplexed tone.
“There is no rule but
the one Christ gives us,—‘Watch and pray,
that ye enter not into temptation,’” replied
Helen.
Jim’s lessons, in the
meantime, were steadily going on. He was somewhat shy
and awkward at first, but he soon began to feel at ease,
and even to make real progress in the hands of his anxious
preceptress. The little ones, however, got on faster
than he did, being very much attracted to their lessons
by the picture primer which Helen had procured for the
use of Katie. The little boy in particular, a strange
refined-looking child, considering his circumstances,
with expansive forehead and spiritual-looking [Page
96] blue eyes,—a great contrast to Jim,
with his rugged features and wide-awake shrewdness,—had
been unusually quick at mastering the difficulties of
the alphabet, and was now spelling words of three letters.
It was wonderful how much interest and pleasure Katie
took in her self-appointed task, and what importance
she attached to the progress of her rough-looking class.
Indeed, but for the evident good it did her, the attempt
would have been cut short by her father, who was absent
when the lessons began. On coming home one day, and
seeing Jim taking his departure, he asked angrily what
that young rascal was doing about there, and when he
learned the cause would have peremptorily prohibited
his return but for Katie’s distress and earnest
pleading in his behalf. “Well, child,” he
said, “it is on your account I can’t bear
the sight of the fellow; but if you have a fancy for
pottering away at teaching such a set, I suppose you
must just have your way.”
Whereupon Katie kissed and thanked
him for the concession, grateful that Ned had not witnessed
the scene between them, as she was anxious to prevent
his hearing of anything to prejudice him against poor
Jim. Dr Elliott, in the meantime, procured for the boy
employment in one of the mills, sufficient to keep him
out of mischief during most of the day.
As the lovely June weather drew
on and Katie’s strength gradually increased, so
that she could bear the motion of a carriage, Mrs Winstanley
called for her frequently to give her a gentle drive.
She had had very little experience of pleasure-drives,
and these gave her inexpressible delight, presenting
at every turn some fresh source of enjoyment [Page
97] in the rich vivid green of the new foliage;
the luxuriant pastures dotted with grazing cows and
sheep; the winding river; and even the little gardens
of the village houses, so gay at that season with beds
of tulips, peonies, and “snowballs.” She
never returned from a drive without being penetrated
with a sense of quiet pleasure, sufficient to last for
days after; and the “leafy month of June”
was ever after associated in her mind with these delightful
excursions in Mrs Winstanley’s carriage. She generally
had the society of Clara and Arthur, as well as Mrs
Winstanley herself, and sometimes her happiness was
enhanced by the presence of her mamma or Helen Grey.
So rapid was her improvement
under all the healthful and happy influences around
her, that it seemed practicable for her to accept an
invitation, given by Mrs Winstanley, and warmly urged
by Clara, to spend a day or two at Pine Grove. She was
now able to walk a very little, and would not therefore
be so dependent on those around her; so her mother,
in consideration of the pleasure it would give her,
overcame her own private scruples about accepting “the
obligation,” and began to arrange a suitable dress
for her to wear during her visit. She had worn nothing
at home but the most simple print frocks, and she had
outgrown the only nice summer dress in her scanty wardrobe,
so that it required a good deal of altering before Mrs
Johnstone could consider it presentable at Pine Grove.
Even when she had done her best, however, Katie, who
was not usually hard to please in such matters, observed
that it did not seem to fit nicely; but when she saw
the [Page 98] remark vexed her mother,
and made her sigh sorrowfully, she hastened to say that
she was sure it would do very well.
Ned had been invited to take
tea at Pine Grove on the first evening of her visit,
and early in the afternoon Clara came in the carriage
to take her there. The drive was not a long one: they
had to pass through the village an across the river,
dashing and chafing among its mill-dams, and then along
a quiet piece of road, till they came to the gate leading
into the grove of fine old pines which almost surrounded
the house, and gave it its name. After winding for a
short distance among the pines, which had strewed the
ground with brown needles, slippery to walk on, and
perfumed the summer air with their fragrance, the carriage
emerged with its party into a pretty shrubbery immediately
in front of the house, rich with luxuriant foliage,
bright clusters of pink and red peonies, Gueldres roses
and lilacs, and here and there an early rose-bush just
bursting into bloom. Lighted up with the rich afternoon
sunshine, it seemed to Katie almost a fairy-land for
loveliness. She often tried afterwards to see it exactly
as it appeared to her at first sight, that lovely June
afternoon, but never could quite succeed, for knowledge
of the details of a scene very often prevents us from
realising the full beauty of the general impression.
On the wide shady verandah, which surrounded the front
and sides of the house, Caroline Winstanley, Clara’s
elder sister, a pretty, graceful girl, about eighteen,
reclined in a low chair, absorbed in a novel. The arrival
of the carriage aroused her, however, and she advanced
with a bright, pleasant smile to welcome Katie, and
conducted her to the low seat she had left, where she
[Page 99] insisted on establishing
her, to rest after the drive. Katie was at once won
by her bright kindliness of manner, and she thought
that if she were Clara she would almost worship such
a sister. When she was sufficiently rested, Clara led
her through the French windows into a cool drawing-room,
tastefully furnished, and fragrant with bouquets of
lily of the valley and other lovely flowers of the season,
and thence to a small room on the ground floor, which
had been prepared for her, where she assisted her to
smooth her hair and arrange her dress, and from which
she conducted her on a tour of inspection round so much
of the house as she could see without the fatigue of
going upstairs.
When they returned to the verandah,
Ned had arrived and Arthur had joined the party. The
latter now brought out some of his books, to compare
the work her was doing under his tutor with what Ned
had been going through at college, and Caroline returned
to her novel, though she looked up occasionally to address
a remark to Katie, who was very well contented to do
nothing but sit still and enjoy the lovely scene and
the exquisite evening. Before Arthur had finished comparing
notes, which was often interrupted by Ned’s college
stories, however, and at which even Caroline had to
stop reading and laugh, Mrs Winstanley came to call
them in to the early tea, for everybody in Lynford,
even the Winstanleys, kept country meal-hours Mr Winstanley,
a shrewd, complacent-looking man, rather advanced in
life, was already in the pleasant dining-room, which
looked out on the pine-trees, and presently the younger
children came in, flushed and eager, from a search [Page
100] for wild strawberries in the fields. Katie
was shown to a seat next Mr Winstanley, who was always
hospitably kind in his own house—though he was
called a hard man in money matters—and he took
care to see her helped to the largest share of the tempting
strawberries on the tea-table, and to the richest cream.
Ned was quite at his ease, as indeed he was in most
places, and kept up an animated conversation with Arthur
and Clara, who was in her highest spirits.
After
tea, they went back to the verandah, to enjoy the
cool pleasant evening, and watch the fire-flies gleaming
out among the dark foliage as the dusk drew on. Then
lights were brought into the drawing-room, and Caroline
went in and sang some of her songs, while the others
remained in the soft dusk, listening to the sweet sounds
as they came floating out through the open windows.
To Katie the whole evening was full of new and pleasant
sensations; and when she lay down, she was for some
time too excited to sleep.
She was awakened very early
next morning by the golden rays of the sun, slanting,
in almost level lines, through the pines, and the warbling
of the birds stealing sweetly in through the open window,
to which, accordingly, she went to enjoy the cool, pleasant
freshness of the early hour. Then she knelt to pray,
and offer—not a short formal prayer, such as used
to satisfy her conscience—but a full, thankful
outpouring of gratitude to God for all the blessings
she was enjoying. When she was dressed, she went quietly
to the verandah, and thence out among the pine-trees,
where she walked slowly up and down for a [Page
101] little till she was tired, and sat down
to rest. She was left long undisturbed, for the family
were, most of them, not early risers. Arthur was the
first to make his appearance, coming by a path through
the pines, with a book in his hand which looked very
like one of Ned’s college books.
“Have you been up long,
Miss Katie?” said he. “You seem to have
the start of everybody else.”
“It was such a lovely
morning, and everything is so beautiful here, that I
couldn’t bear to lose any of it.”
“Yes, it does seem a shame
to lose the best of the day,—which the morning
is at this season of the year. Things are never so fresh
and sweet at any other time. I always get an hour or
two’s study before breakfast, in a quiet nook
I have, down there, in the hollow of an old pine.”
Katie glanced at the book he
was holding. “‘Horace,’ isn’t
it?” she asked.
“Yes; I suppose you haven’t
made the acquaintance of that poet yet, have you?”
“Oh, I have read very
little poetry at all,” replied Katie, blushing;
“only Mrs Hemans, and ‘Edingburgh after
Flodden,’ and a little of the ‘Christian
Year’—what I can understand of it.”
“Well, I’ll introduce
you to ‘Horace,’ if you like,—an elegant
and original translation,” he added.
“Thank you; I should like
it, if it is not too much trouble.”
Accordingly, he translated for
her one of the light, sparkling odes, which she thought
pretty, read with his musical voice and rhythmical intonation;
but it was far from awaking the play of feeling, or
touching the deeper chords, [Page 102]
and this was her chief enjoyment in the reading of poetry.
So, though she thanked him, he could easily see that
Horace was not likely to be a favourite of hers.
“I’ll read you something
better than that by and by,” he said, as the breakfast-bell
rang. After breakfast, accordingly, he handed her a
large volume, saying, as he did so, that he fancied
that would keep her in reading for the day, at all events.
She glanced at the title: it was “Ivanhoe,”
so full of interest and magical unfolding of romantic
delight to all young readers. Katie, with her enthusiasm
for old-fashioned things and times, derived partly from
Mrs Duncan’s old Scotch stories, was likely to
appreciate it fully. The temptation to bury herself
in its fascinating pages all day, in forgetfulness of
everything else, was hard to resist; yet she bravely
overcame it, reading it only when her attention was
not claimed by any other object.
Helen Grey came to give her
morning lesson, which was not, however, begun till she
had first promised to come to tea that evening, and,
if possible, bring her father along with her. After
Clara and the children had gone to their lessons, and
Arthur to his studies, Caroline—who was seen flitting
about for half-an-hour among the flowers, in her pretty
summer morning dress and straw hat, looking, as Katie
thought, with her bright fair hair and light graceful
figure, “like a picture in a book”—appeared,
with a quantity of cut flowers of all kinds, and claimed
Katie’s assistance in the pleasant task of arranging
them in bouquets for the vases. Katie very willingly
aided in the operation, for it was work she enjoyed
thoroughly; and as they proceeded they kept up a lively
conversation, the chief interest being [Page
103] Katie’s flowers at home, her little
lost dog, and her rollicking brother. But much as Katie
admired Caroline, and pleasantly as she talked, Katie
felt instinctively that she could never hold converse
with her as she did with Helen; and that the whole range
of subjects which she and Helen liked best to discuss,
touching the really important part of our life—our
immortal interests—was strange ground, which she
shrank from entering upon with Caroline. It is sad that
it should ever be so—that the minds of the young
should not always be accustomed to dwell upon things
unseen and eternal, which, far from diminishing their
happiness, would give it a higher and more enduring
quality, and impart, as well, a purer and richer tone
to the first vibrations of their inner being. But it
was not so in the Winstanley family; the “better
part” was very much overlooked, or considered
as at best, in the culture it received, only a decorous
appendage to the abundance of earthly life and possessions.
Even Arthur, with his purer tastes and poetical longing
for something higher than this life affords, had, at
most, only a vague religious sentimentality, and never
sought earnestly to realise the meaning of “following
Christ” as his Lord and Master.
In the afternoon, when his studies
were over, Arthur brought out with him several volumes
of poetry, and announced himself free to read to Katie
and his sisters. One of his selections—a great
favourite of his—was the “May Queen.”
It was quite new to Katie, who listened with an expression
of rapture; till, at length, the sweet, touching pathos
of the poem, and the happy Christian hopefulness of
the concluding strains, made her glad to turn away her
[Page 104] head to hide the tears she
could suppress no longer. Even Arthur’s voice
trembled as he read; and Caroline and Clara, though
they had heard it before, did not listen without emotion.
No one ventured to make a remark when it was concluded;
and Arthur, as a relief from its tone of sadness, turned
to read one of the spirited “Lays of the Cavaliers.”
Katie, however, when she saw that Aytoun’s shafts
were, some of them, launched against her heroes, the
Covenanters, was roused to indignation, vehemently protesting
that it was “not nearly so nice as ‘Edinburgh
after Flodden.’” Thereupon an animated discussion
followed between her and Arthur, as to the merits of
the Covenanters and their cause, in which Arthur took
the opposite side, chiefly for the sake of argument—a
thing he was fond of doing. When Mr Grey arrived, with
Helen, the point was referred to him; and Katie, who
had got quite excited about it, felt sure that he would
take her side.
“Well, at any rate,”
exclaimed Katie, after Mr Grey had hazarded an opinion,
“I am sure the Covenanters were, at least, a great
deal better than the other people, and they did not
kill women and children.”
“I hope they were better,”
said Mr Grey; “it would have been strange if they
had not been so, since they professed to be serving
Christ, while the cruel soldiers, who committed the
deeds you speak of, were serving only an earthly king,
and perhaps had never been taught anything about the
love of Christ at all. And I feel persuaded that many
of the Covenanters had forsaken all for Christ, nor
‘counted their own lives dear unto them’
when His cause was at stake. But, whenever we begin
to exalt erring men to [Page 105] an
undue authority, and give them any of the veneration
and homage which belongs to the one perfect Man, we
need to be reminded that ‘all flesh is grass,’
that it is only ‘the word of the Lord that endureth
forever.’” From the moment it assumed this
form, Arthur ceased to bear a part in the discussion;
the battle was not fought on his ground at all, for
Mr Grey’s remarks took a higher range than his
thoughts had, as yet, been accustomed to follow. There
were thoughts that were new to him in what Mr Grey had
said; and as he saw with surprise that Katie, who was
certainly much his inferior in attainments and general
culture, was able to enter into them much better than
he could, he connected this with what he had previously
noticed in her, and concluded that the principles on
which she felt and acted were different from those which
usually actuated himself and those around him.”
Helen and Katie had a little
quiet talk by themselves, as the dusk came on, and then,
after some music from Caroline, Mr Grey closed the evening,
as was his wont wherever he visited socially—whether
among his own people or among others,—with reading
the Scriptures and prayer. Family worship was not customary
with the Winstanleys, but they were always willing that
any clergyman who might be their guest should conduct
it. Arthur was particularly struck with one petition
in Mr Grey’s simple prayer, which he long remembered—“Help
us, O Lord, to seek to know Thy will concerning us,
and to follow Christ in doing it, assured of Thine own
promise, that if any man will do Thy will, he shall
know of the doctrine.” [Page 106]
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