 CHAPTER 34 Know Thyself The first interruption to his vigil was a card presented by a girl who from her appearance in dress might have been a relative of the landlady. The card was the official one of the young men's Christian association and merely bore the statement that their messenger was below, prepared to spend the night, and would come up at once if he might. Robert, by this time in a very subdued mood, sent an immediate invitation for him to do so, and a moment thereafter, in answer to the knock, admitted Austin Barrow's. Well, he said, stopping before him in amazement, is it possible that it is you? Why yes, but I did not know before that it was you. I fell in with some of the young men on Monday evening and joined the association, and I happened to be in at noon when there came this urgent call for help, so I volunteered to come as soon as business released me. So this was the young man of leisure who could sleep all day. Who called for help? Was Robert's abrupt question. The doctor, but I did not see him. The secretary told me. I did not know I was to relieve you. I say, Parks, it is a little strange that you and I should be associated in this way just now. It strikes me pleasantly, as though our new captain meant to unite us in his service. Now what's to do? Give me my orders quickly and be off. You look tired out. Have you been here all day? What did you do for something to eat? I sent downstairs and got a bite, Robert explained. It did not seem necessary to admit just then that he had sent the relief committee away and gone dinnerless because he was in a rage. However, he did not go just yet. The doctor was the next comer. He asked many questions, gave very careful orders, promised to call it midnight, and then peremptorily ordered Parks away with him. Under a brisk, silent walk of some squares it was Robert who broke the stillness. Doctor, I've been a fool on my life and especially so today. I think I know now for the first time what I am about. But there are some things that I want to ask you. Professional skill is one thing, and bathing people's faces and washing out bowls and fighting flies are other things. What I want to know is how you teach yourself to think of such things or feel that you have time to attend to them. Of course, if I had exercised common sense I might have thought of some of them myself, but I don't understand how you have taught your mind to spring to them as a matter of course. One reason, doubtless, is that they are not always so separated from professional duties as you suppose. All these so-called little matters have very much to do with the progress or the stay of disease. Besides my friend, I am a fisherman. You should not forget that. A fisherman, repeated Robert, unable to follow him in what seemed a sudden transition. I regularly commissioned. Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. That is the order with the promise attached. When you have lived somewhat longer in this world, you will begin to realize that there are ten thousand little things no more important in themselves than brushing out troublesome flies or shutting out glaring sunlight or tidying a slovenly washstand or cooling a burning forehead which can be used as nets wherewith to catch poor, tired, homesick fish. Possibly you and I are set to catch this young man in our nets and present him to our captain as a trophy. You had your opportunity last night, mine comes later. We must do our work well, the trifles as well as the great things, for we know not which shall prosper this or that. By the way, if you are homeward bound, will you ask Mrs. Saunders if she can let me have a small role of old linen? Tell her to send my boy down there with it, and whatever else she thinks of that ought to be there. These mothers can think of things which seem to occur to nobody else. I doubt my getting home tonight. I have two bad cases. Good night. Robert went on his way, realizing two things. First that there was no little matters connected with the solemn business of living, and secondly that he had proved a very poor fisher, not worthy to be counted among those who followed. Still his captain gave him other opportunities in that same sick room. This was no easy task which they had undertaken. For days and weeks Fred Briggs wrestled with pain and fever. There were days and nights in which it seemed that the disease would conquer. It was a time of unusual sickness in the city, and no professional nurse was to be had. The nearest approach to it was a blundering young fellow who could not be trusted for much more than to wait on the volunteer watcher for the hour. Young Parks found himself thoroughly roused out of his selfishness, and was so often a volunteer that Dr. Everett had to take him in hand at times and order him home. Still, there were nights when for hours together he was left as sole watcher, with all the responsibilities and anxieties of the position pressing down upon him. Then there were other nights when Mrs. Saunders and Dr. Everett and he stood around helplessly, with apparently nothing to do but realize that they had failed and await the coming of death. During those weeks it seemed to Robert that he grew old very fast, that indeed he must be years older than he was on that first evening of his vigil. There was one night in particular that stood out in his memory. It was early, not yet nine o'clock, but his night of watching had already commenced to be relieved later by the doctor if he could get away from another sick bed. There was not much to do, but the gloom of a probable failure was upon him in full force, the doctor having frankly told him that he feared the case was hopeless. As for the patient, he was in a state of semi-stupor, wherein he feared nothing and noticed nothing. There came a tap at the door, and Robert, moving softly to open it, found himself to his utter amazement, standing face-to-face with Hester Mason. She sent you up a cup of tea. She explained briefly, setting down her burden, her eyes fixed on the sleeping occupant of the bed. She thought you looked unusually tired when you came up. Don't you watch too often? You didn't expect to see me, did you? There is a girl boarding here who is a sort of a friend of mine. I come to see her once in a while, and tonight I have been in the kitchen helping the landlady. She has a dreadful headache. She isn't very neat, but she is good-hearted. It was she thought of the tea for you, but I made it myself and washed the cup and spoon before I served it. Is he going to get well? I am afraid not. The doctor looks grave to-night and seems discouraged. Is he ready to die? Coming from Hester, this question, at all times a solemn one, seemed peculiarly startling. I don't know, he said mournfully. I am afraid not. Does he know it? I mean, does he know that he is likely to die? I should want to know it. I wouldn't like to lie there sleeping my life away and having everybody stepping softly and keeping still. I should want to have them shout at me and wake me up to get ready. What good would it do now, Hester? He does not understand what is said to him. He is quite indifferent to everything concerning himself. I don't think even shouting would rouse him enough to have him understand. He ought to have been told before. I mean, he ought to have thought of this possibility and got ready for it. You ought to have settled it before Rob and then gone after him so that he should have been ready for this time. How do you know but it is your fault after all? There was not the slightest touch of banter in her voice. Instead it was singularly solemn, modulated as it was to soothe the stillness of the room. It had a strange effect on Robert. He glanced over at the quiet form and felt his own pulses beating fast with suppressed feeling. I do not know but it is. He said at last, speaking tremulously, I might have helped him. I had opportunities and wasted them. I may have to go around forever after, feeling that I might have introduced him to Christ and did not. It must be an ugly feeling. She still spoke in that strangely grave tone, her eyes fixed on the bed. Then she turned away with a little sigh as if the dreary past were unalterable and said, Well, you can't help it now, I suppose. You may as well drink your tea. I hope he won't blame you if he dies and you and he never meet again. Perhaps he will blame you. Robert felt himself impelled to say these words and he turned and looked steadily at her. You knew him, Hester. He told me once that he met you at the theatre and had a really gay visit with you. Why may not you be the one to blame when he meets you again? I? Who can blame me? I don't belong to the safe people. I am lost myself, you know. But you know exactly how to be safe and you know how to point the way to others. How will the fact of your not doing what you might have done relieve you from obligation? Hester, if you lay on a dying bed unready, would I have to think that I was perhaps to blame for that, too? Well, I think you would have to bear some of the blame. I don't suppose that would save me from responsibility, but then there is no telling what you might have coaxed me to do, you know, if you had tried early enough. Still, I don't blame you. Only I do hope I shall not have to be ashamed of you as a Christian. I only know a few people by that name of whom I am not heartily ashamed. She had dropped into her light-bantering tone, had retreated entirely within the shadow of the hall instead of occupying the open door, and, waiting only to ask if he liked cold tea, vanished downstairs. But she left a solemn lesson for Robert to study. He could not shut away her words. The awful thought that there he was in the shadow of death and that this silent soul before him might have been helped by his efforts and was not shut down about him like a pall. That night of prayer for forgiveness, for a chance to try once more, for an opportunity to reach this young man, for power to influence that young woman, he will never forget. End of CHAPTER 34 CHAPTER 35 HALF ME EXCUSED There came an evening when Fred Briggs sat, gaunt in hollow-eyed, in the large rocking chair which Dr. Everett had ordered to be sent to him, propped up with pillows, and looked with curious and unnaturally large eyes at his one-hands and long-skeleton fingers. Robert Parks was with him for the first time in three days. Nice-looking fellow I am, he said at last, seeing that Robert was regarding him thoughtfully. There seemed no reasonable reply to make to this, and apparently Fred expected none. He left the survey of his hands and gave attention to the room. There had been changes, many little comforts added during his sickness, and the utmost neatness prevailed. This room has improved more than I have during the last month, the invalid said at last. I thought I was rather ahead in appearance the last time I gave any attention to these matters, but I seem to have been left awfully in the lurch. Your improvement has only commenced with the last few days, remember? I can tell you it has been fast enough. You look better than I ever expected to see you, old fellow. Fred's answer was a sigh. I suppose I am grateful, he said wearily. In fact, I know I am. I am not such a dog as to forget all that has been done for me. But I should like to know how it is all to come out. I wish I were at home, though mother has enough to bear now. Did she know when I was at the worst? Not fully until afterwards. The worst came on so suddenly that we hardly knew what we were about. And you know you had made it plain to me that she could not come. We thought we would spare her all the anxiety that we could. But she has heard from you daily for the last two weeks. No, said Fred, she could not come. That would have been out of the question as much as my going home is. And then he sighed again. Robert was in doubt how to talk with him. He had no plans to communicate, for the people who had shared the care of him for so long a time had been too busy to have other than necessary talk together. But there was something that his attendant wanted to say, if only he knew how, and the earnest desire to say it or write held him silent. He had a consuming sense of responsibility for the young man. He could not get away from the fact that death had so nearly claimed him when he was not ready to go. He had not been able to forget Hester Mason's words, and the keen reproach conveyed through them. If he could but say something now that would turn Fred's thoughts during these few days of leisure upon himself and his escape, and the probable reason for his being spared, and urge him to settle the great question now so that no more risks need be run. After all his thinking, his words were at last blunt enough. Fred, what if you had died? Well, said Fred, after a moment's surprised stare out of his sunken eyes, then I suppose I should have died, and that would have been the end of the trouble. Oh, no, it would have only been the beginning. It is the part which comes afterwards that I am thinking about. That's kind of you, I am sure. Thinking in the tone made Robert feel that he was not progressing. I wish you would think of these things, he said, speaking with a sort of pleading earnestness, but Fred replied more lightly than he had since his illness. My dear fellow, I can't. More weighty matters occupy my thoughts. It requires all the strength I possess to determine whether I will have beef, tea, for my breakfast, or tea and toast. On the whole, which do you think would be likely to foot up the largest bill? Robert felt himself growing impatient. This seemed such a strangely flippant way to talk, for one who was hardly yet out from under the solemn shadow. A little of his disappointment showed in his words. I don't know how you, of all fellows, can feel like trifling with such matters just now. I don't think you can half realize how near you were to death. There were days together in which the doctor did not have a shadow of hope. He told me afterwards that he should have telegraphed your mother, had he thought that there was a possibility of your living until she could reach you. If he had not been so young a worker, he would have detected a suspicious quiver in the voice which answered, though the words were gay enough. Oh, well, as to that I pushed through, you see, and came out right side up with care. It isn't likely that I shall have another such experience very soon. People don't, generally. Did you never hear of that old fellow who said he had always noticed that if he lived until the first of April he lived through the year? I'm enough you of his, I suspect, and inherit the same feeling. Well, said Robert, moving restlessly in his chair, you have had experiences solemn enough to tame you, I should think. But it seems they have not done it. He felt not only discouraged, but disgusted. What hope was there of a person who could talk so heartlessly after hovering for days on the very verge of the grave? Fred laughed feebly, his extreme weakness being more apparent when he laughed than at any other time. Tame me, he said, why I'm sure I feel as tame as a sick chicken. My wings are not only clipped, but pulled out altogether, I fancy. There was no answer made to this, and presently an uncomfortable feeling stole over the sick man that he had hurt one to whom he owed much, and who seemed during these last weeks to have been unfailingly kind and patient with him. He began to fidget a little in his chair, and as Robert came to rearrange the pillow, he said, I seem like an ungrateful fellow, I know, but I don't mean it, Parks, upon honor. If there was ever a fellow whom I would like to go down on my knees to think, it is you. But I am not of the sort to talk much about things. As to these other matters that you want me to think about, I've done some thinking. A stone would have thawed if it had lain where I did, but I don't suppose it will amount to much. I'm the same worthless scamp I was before, I wish my sickness had torn Fred Briggs to pieces, and patched him up again as it is doing to the house I live in. But it didn't. I feel myself to be on hand as much as ever, or would if I had strength enough to feel anything. You didn't do much thinking in that line when I knew you well. Do you mean to say that your new notions last? They last, said Robert, speaking with firmness, and Briggs. I have one great regret. I wish I had settled the question a dozen years ago when I was a child. I knew the way then as well as I do now, but I shut my eyes to it just as you are doing now. I wish you wouldn't, Fred. I haven't had the right sort of influence over you in the past. I want to undo some of my work, if I can. You don't know how we prayed for you to get up again. And now that God has answered the prayer, I am sure it is to give you a chance to do some earnest thinking right away. Oh, I mean to, answered Fred quickly. In fact, I must. I have enough to think about. If it doesn't distract me, I shall be glad. How are all these bills to be paid I should like to know? Think of the doctor's bill, for instance, and who is going to pay for all the beef teas and jellies and creams, and I don't know what not that I have been swallowing all this time. I tell you I've got to get well and go to work and work out of hours and all that until I see a glimmer of daylight. No danger, but I'll think. There's a chance for lots of it. Oh, now, Fred, you know you're begging the question. Not that I recognize your anxieties and sympathize with them. But you know very well that I am not talking about that sort of thinking. Really, this is a practical matter as well as the other. And settling it will help you wonderfully in straightening out all the tangles in your life. It isn't, after all, so much getting ready to die as it is getting ready to live. I do wish, Fred, that I could prevail on you to settle the question of first importance first and bring a clear, quiet brain to all the other matters. It is queer what different views different people have, isn't it? Do you know I don't believe I could do anything in life that would disappoint Maddie more than to turn around now and be a good church-going prayer-meeting fellow. I hate to disappoint her just now after scaring her by coming so near dying as I did. It seems as though it would be too hard on her. He meant that much of this should be taken as nonsense, but there was a shade of truth underlying it. Robert was very well aware who Maddie was, the girl whose counter was just at Hester's left and who was on terms of intimacy with Hester herself, a girl who, apparently, up to the time of this young man's illness, had given no more thought to the importance of her life than might be expected of a frisky young kitten. Probably she knew little, if anything, about the laws of influence, nor did she realize the power she had over human destinies, a power that reached into eternity. But here she was springing up before the mind of this young man, holding him back from a possible decision that would have settled all his future for him in this world and the next. The name Maddie had been much in the sick man's thoughts, and in his hours of delirium was constantly on his lips, so it was no news to Robert that the girl had a strong hold upon him. What he thought was something like this. While strangely intertwined the chain of influences, this Maddie is Hester's friend. Hester has much influence over her. If Hester were and had been an earnest Christian, might she not have drawn Maddie? And if Maddie came, it would be an easy thing to influence Fred, and I am the one who had at least some influence over Hester. Suppose it had all told from the first on the side of Christ. Might she not have been one? As she says herself, there is no telling to what I might have coaxed her had I tried in time. Am I then, in a sense, responsible before God for all these souls? Also, there was another train of thought shaping itself out in his brain. Somebody at the Young Men's Prayer Meeting the evening before had read and commented on the excuses which were made in answer to the invitation to the feast, dwelling on the fact that with a little change of the phraseology, they fitted the present day as well. I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. This sentence hovered in his mind as he thought of Fred and Maddie. And they all, with one consent, began to make excuse. He repeated these words aloud. Do you know, he said, that you are the embodied presence of all those excuses? You have run through the entire list. Have you any idea how absurdly they sound when you study them carefully? It is a hundred years since I read the story, though I used to rattle it off like an express train. I'll venture that I know more about the Bible than you do, old fellow. I was brought up on it. My grandmother looked out for that. She put me through a regular course. Why, no, I'm not a bit like those old worthies, so far as I can see. One of them bought a farm or something, didn't he? I shall not have money enough after paying my soup and jelly debts to buy a hen, let alone a farm. And as for that worthy who married a wife, when do you think I will be able to do that? I look like it, don't I? But the light laugh that followed had a tone of restlessness in it. CHAPTER 36 Another Link And this was the apparent result of the effort which had lain so heavily on Robert Parks's heart. He was bitterly disappointed. It had seemed to him so entirely reasonable that one who had passed through Fred Briggs's experiences should be roused to thought and action. To have his earnest words passed over with a spirit born half of fun and half of listlessness seemed to him more discouraging than even an outspoken rebuff. I don't understand how to work, he told himself sadly. Evidently I don't know how to say the right thing. If I could ever hope to have influence over any person, it might be supposed to be Fred Briggs after what has passed, and yet my words have been worse than useless. Two days afterwards he overheard that which confirmed him in the belief that he was a bungler at his master's work. A business matter having called him in that direction during the morning, he looked in on Fred to see that all was well. Entering according to his customs since the invalid had been judged well enough to be left alone some of the time, without knocking and on tiptoe, lest he might disturb a nap, he found Mrs. Saunders beating up pillows and mattress in a way unknown to the best hired servant of them all, and joy in the act of bringing a fresh handkerchief to the invalid in the large chair. On the handkerchief she had laid a tiny bouquet of freshly blossomed pansies in all the glory and variety of their wonderful dress. If I knew of some way to show my gratitude for all your kindness and thoughtfulness I would be glad. Fred was speaking in a low, grateful tone, joy had a ready answer, also spoken low. I know a way, will you do it? I surely will if it is in my power. Only there lay beside the pansies a small open testament in clear print with a heavy line drawn in blue ink around several verses. Fred those marked verses a good many times today and asked Christ to tell you what they mean. I will keep my promise, he said, and his voice was grave and earnest. All this Robert Parks both saw and heard while he seemed to listen to Mrs. Saunders, for the talk, though an aside, was not a secret one. Joy had not the air of saying what was not for any to hear who chose. And compel them to come in. These were the Bible verses which came to the listener. Joy Saunders seemed to him to be that kind of a servant. He could invite those who, with one consent, made excuse, but she could sweetly compel them in that the house might be full. He went away both saddened and gladdened. The subdued tones of Fred Briggs's voice, the look in his eyes, and the positive nature of the promise, made him believe that fruit would come. At that he could rejoice. The sigh was for himself that he was an unprofitable servant. I can tell you something that Robert Parks does not know. All night the young man, Fred Briggs, had tossed on an uneasy pillow his dreams as well as his waking thoughts, being busy with the fact that he was poorly requiting such loving care as had been given him. Why should he not give this question attention now, if for no other reason than to show his gratitude, since this would evidently please them all, even Parks, whom he had not supposed cared much? And then his mind went over certain words spoken to him by Robert in the morning, and he could but feel their force. They shone anew in the light of marked verses which had been read often enough to fix them in his memory. Thus it came to pass that Joy Saunders's marked verses were seeds dropped into prepared ground, and the instrument used of God for preparing the soil was Robert Parks. He may never know it here, but he is part of the chain woven of God for the purpose of saving Fred Briggs, and there will come a time when he will feel the joy of it. Still, you are not to suppose that the fruit appeared at once. Some seeds take long to grow. Even after the ground has been prepared and they are planted, other influences known to God must be set at work to develop them. He was watching over Fred Briggs, though none as yet saw results. Very slowly, as it seemed to the impatient invalid, he crept back to life in strength. It was a gala day with him when he was established in the sunset room making an all-day visit, enjoying all the pretty and thoughtful little attentions which people of refined taste and refined hearts know how to bestow. The homesick boy leaned back in the easy chair and reveled in the atmosphere of home from which he had been so long shut out. Is it wonderful that so many of our city boys go astray? There are no homes for them. That's the fact that it was Sunday added pleasure to the visit. Sundays had long been such unutterably dreary days to Fred Briggs. He had just enough conscience left to hold him away from places where many others went and to people his loneliness with misery. The sunset room was not, as a rule, open to outsiders on Sunday, but Fred had been transported bodily from his den to Mrs. Sander's boarding-house the afternoon before. Of course Joy was there. Bright as the sunset room was, there would have seemed a shadow resting over the Sabbath afternoon if she had not been present. It was the custom of the house to invite unoccupied borders to this room for an hour on Sabbath afternoon. It was not a religious meeting, though they sang a hymn or two, and in the course of conversation several Bible verses were apt to be repeated. That is what it really was, a conversation on religious topics, yet intensely practical topics. We are practical people, would Mrs. Sander say. Every border in the house belongs to the workers, and if we don't have a religion that will help our everyday lives, what is it good for since we have nothing but everyday lives? She was always present at these afternoon talks. If you knew Mrs. Sander's well, I should not need to tell you that she was quite apt to make one of a circle which included Joy, especially when that circle was largely composed of young men. On one occasion she tried to apologize to the doctor for this peculiarity. It isn't that I cannot trust my Joy with you, doctor. For the matter of that, I can trust her anywhere with herself. But young men of a certain age are so liable to be silly, talking about rose buds and fairies and all that sort of trash. I've heard them, Joy can't stand that kind of stuff. And you know I mustn't make too much difference between the way I treat you and the way I treat other folks. So you must just excuse me, and let me look after my one chicken in my own fashion. She had been much pleased with the doctor's answer. Mrs. Sander, I hope you will never consider it your duty to apologize to me for being one of the most sensible mothers in my list of acquaintances. I wish the world were full of mothers who held your ideas. It would be a better world. After that Mrs. Sander's was heard to say that Dr. Everett had more sense in his little finger than most men had in their whole bodies. So mother and doctor went their ways, mutually pleased, and the pretty room gave out more and more of its sunshine to the homeless ones of the house. On this particular afternoon Joy came into the room just as Robert Parks had settled himself back with the air which he used when he felt that he was making an unanswerable remark, and said, Well, all I have to say is that nobody does it. Does what? Said Joy. A question of this sort is very apt to have a calming effect in certain styles of argument, to be obliged to pause and think over one's position so as to state it clearly to a newcomer, either tones down the speaker or exasperates him according to the manner of person he chances to be. Robert modulated his voice and tried to answer clearly why we were discussing the propriety or the advisability of conversing freely together about religion just as we would talk of the news of the day or of business or of the weather. What I say is that it isn't done. Religion is kept at one side. Nobody hears much about it unless he goes to prayer meeting or meets a minister. For the matter of that I have met a dozen of them since I have been in the city, and not one has spoken a word to me about religion. The best people even don't do it. Well, do you mean to join the rank and file? It was Dr. Everett who spoke so quietly looking meantime at the flowers on the table in a dreamy, almost unobstracted way, as if nothing was farther from his thoughts or desires than an argument that Robert felt himself puzzled. Just what did the question mean? Sir, he said inquiringly, I say, do you mean to belong to that large class of people who evidently do not meet your ideas of right in this matter, or are you going to throw your influence on the other side? If the doctor had chosen to argue, he would have found Robert somewhat prepared, but to produce a personality instead of an argument and sit quietly awaiting an answer was embarrassing, the morsel that Fred Briggs laughed. Not that he had any desire to add to the embarrassment, but simply because a question which seemed to corner any person was sure to afford him amusement. Well, said Robert, after a moment's thoughtful pause, I don't believe it ought to be expected of me to take the lead in society among Christians of long experience on this subject or any other. I don't know about that conclusion, the doctor replied meditatively, apparently still giving part of his attention to the flowers. I should say that depended on whether society met the demands of your conscience. If it does not, assuredly the Lord expects you to step out from it, even if by so doing you appear to be taking the lead. No one seemed to have a reply to make to this statement, so the doctor enlarged upon it. The fact is that to sit in a pleasant room among one's friends and discuss the inconsistencies of Christians is one thing, and to go out into the world in the thick of the fight and live consistently is quite another. We all need to remember that. I have heard Fred here twice this afternoon make remarks which showed that he considers Mr. Templeton and Judge Bartlett rather, well, we will put it mildly and say inconsistent, yet it does not seem to have occurred to him that in condemning them he condemns himself. This brought the invalid from the couch, where he had been half-reclining to a sitting posture, and his manner was full of surprise. How in the world do you make that out? I'm sure I make no professions of any sort and never have. Ah, then I understand your position to be that because these gentlemen are trying for the mark and are doing it poorly they are inconsistent, and because you are not trying at all and never have been, you are therefore all right? This was so manifestly absurd that Fred laid back among the cushions and laughed, and the doctor turned to Robert. CHAPTER 37 Mother Isn't it just possible, my friend, that you are not acquainted with every Christian in the city? You must constantly remember that your former standpoint has been a poor one from which to judge. A physician, for instance, does not expect to hear a medical discussion at a prayer meeting. Neither do I expect to hear the controlling power of religion and its practical effect on individual lives discussed intelligently at a dancing party. If we want to hear how living, growing Christians talk, we must frequent the places where we shall be likely to find them. It is possible that you have not come in close contact with Christ's intimate friends. There are degrees in friendship, you know. Robert was silenced, but apparently not convinced. He was not, after all, so ready to argue as he supposed, but felt much like repeating his former charge with a variation. But, Dr. Everett, do you really think that Christian people are acting as though they believed religion to be the most important thing in the world? Some of them are, said the doctor. I know a few who are. The question which interests me just now more than anything else is whether a young man named Robert Parks is going to be one of them and let the world feel his influence at every point where it touches him, or is he going to be one of the class which he so unsparingly condemns? I seriously think that this is the question for each of us. What manner of communications are these that you have one to another? Make it personal. When I am conversing with any person, what is my habitual theme? One mischief with Christians is that when they sit down to think of these matters, they are not personal. I am apt to ask whether people act as though they thought religion the most important matter in life instead of asking whether I, Dr. Everett, have this day lived as though I thought religion the most important matter with which I had to do. Dr. Everett, do you think that folks who profess to be Christians ought to talk about religion all the time? It was not Robert but young Briggs who asked this question. The doctor turned to him smiling. Do you think they ought to talk irreligion part of the time, my dear fellow? Of course not, but then, where is the middle ground, my friend, what I think is just this? I believe it is your solemn duty to so live and act and talk that Robert here, who comes in frequent contact with you, may be impressed with the fact that to you, religion is the great business of life, that Christ is first and always, and all decisions must be subject to his will. Are you doing it? Not much, declared Fred with peculiar emphasis, and he looked like one who had resolved to have nothing more to do with this dangerous conversation. I don't know how one is to live in this way always, Robert said. Why, I know people before whom you could not converse on religious matters at all. You would simply be laughed at. Miss Joy, said Dr. Everett, turning to where she sat, an interested listener, I am curious to know what you would do if you came in contact with people who were inclined to laugh when you said anything about your savior. Joy's cheeks were glowing, but her answer was ready. Somehow I think as I should if they laughed at my mother, I should not come in contact with them any oftener than seemed to be my duty, but I would, if possible, convey to them the impression that they were the persons of whom I was ashamed, not my mother. Perhaps the one who thought most deeply over this conversation was Fred Briggs. His friend Maddie knew how to make things in which she was not interested appear in a ridiculous light. She had mingled with most of his serious thoughts. She had stood in the way of any decision. During his illness, he had not been, of course, under her immediate influence, but now he was getting well and would be thrown constantly with her again. He could imagine her laughing at his sober notions, ridiculing his resolves, turning into sparkling nonsense, any attempts at seriousness, and he shrink from the ordeal. He was too weak, he told himself, to think of any such thing now. He must wait at least until he became physically stronger. This matter of strength, or the absence of it, was giving Dr. Everett no little anxiety. It was more apparent to him than to others that the gain in this direction was not what it should be. The young man's constitution had received a severe shock and the rallying was alarmingly slow. There were things that worked against him. Among others, he was homesick. Two years since he had seen his mother and he had been looking forward to spending his two-week summer vacation at home. Now it was impossible. No salary to look forward to for some time to come, a burden of debt resting heavily on him. There was nothing for it, but to stay here all through the long summer and struggle with poverty and homesickness. He admitted to himself when the night was dark and he was alone in his room that it did not seem as though he could live without seeing his mother. His eyes were always red after one of these hours alone and he was not so strong the next day. The senior partner, Mr. Katie, came in for some share of the blame which seemed at times to Fred to attach to every human being. Much he cares about me, Fred would rumble, charming Christian he is. He has done a wonderful thing, I suppose he thinks, in holding my situation for me so I can dig away at my work when I get back. It is more than some would do and I'm sure I am obliged to him, but I don't think it is anything so very wonderful. It wouldn't hurt him a bit to just pay over the salary that I might have earned while I lay flat on my back, a rich man like him. I don't see why these rich men can't do a nice thing now and then just for a change. It seems to me I couldn't help doing anything of that sort occasionally if I had his money, but he will help it easy enough. Dr. Everett is very fond of talking about Christian brotherhood. I should like to see a little of it myself. To be sure, the doctor practices what he preaches and asks for parks, just now he practices better than he preaches. I shouldn't wonder if he would come out one of that sort when he gets full-fledged. Oh, there is now and then one, but if it belongs to the profession, why don't we see more of it? A fellow wouldn't be long in deciding what road he ought to travel if there were a few more practices as well as preachers. Mr. Katie can preach. Didn't he tell me last night that the Lord had been very good to me and he hoped I would decide to serve him hereafter? The Lord has been good to me, I don't doubt it, and so have some of his folks, but I don't see that Mr. Katie has had much to do with it. If he would give me a chance to earn a little more money and not dock me on my vacation, I might be able to realize his share in the business. Beautiful Christian rule, that is. When a fellow gets sick and loses two weeks time, it must count just the same as though he had his two weeks vacation. I suppose Mr. Katie would think he had taken a delightful rest if he had lain in one room and broiled with fever for a month. Yet I'm his neighbor, and according to his belief he is bound to think as much of me as he does of himself. That's Bosch. With which elegant expletive, Fred was in the habit of concluding his solitary grumblings. By that he understood himself to say that there were no words with which to express his contempt for such a state of things. I have often wondered what Mr. Katie would have thought, could he have known what an imperfect link he was in the chain of influences which were surrounding Fred Briggs. The weak and homesick young fellow could brood by the hour over certain nice things which he felt were in his employer's power to do for him and which he did not in the least expect to have done until all the softening influences connected with his lung sickness and the unexpected and tender care bestowed on him would for the time being retire into the background and he would feel himself an ill-used fellow and savagely assert that religion was like everything else, a humbug. He was not very logical, it is true, few grumblers are. He did not believe what he asserted yet the assertion had its effect and helped him to stifle the voice of conscience. Neither do I think he was capable of believing in the power of Christ over human lives to the extent that he would have been had Mr. Katie's profession matched his daily life as it might. That man's influence was, like that of most other people, far wider than he supposed and touched those of whose very existence he was ignorant. For instance, imagine him hearing Hester Mason say, I don't see that most of your Christians amount to much. Suppose I was that Mr. Katie, how long would it take me to send Fred Briggs a receipt for some of the bills which are bothering the life out of him and I'm nothing but a heathen? That was, in substance, what she said to Robert Parks one evening and yet Mr. Katie did not dream that he was on the witness stand. No such wild hope as this had entered Fred's heart but he had longed to hear the great man say, we will try to spare you in October perhaps after the others get back. On this hope he felt that he could have gained strength and done extra work and managed in some way to get money enough to go to his mother but all these grumblings he kept largely to himself. Dr. Everett should not know how he longed for home and mother. The people who had already done everything for him should never know that the great thing was left undone. It was while he sat brooding in this very way and making these same resolves as to silence that Dr. Everett said to Joy, there is one thing that must be done. Briggs must go home and be nursed by his mother for a while. He won't get well if he doesn't. I wonder how we can help to bring it about. End of chapter 37, recording by Tricia G. Recording by Tricia G. Chapter 38 of Workers Together This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Workers Together or an Endless Chain by Pansy. Chapter 38, Discovered Links It was several weeks afterwards. Joy Saunders, standing in the door of a Veil Street store, had just signaled her car when Dr. Everett's horses came to a sudden halt. Will not this do as well as the car? The doctor asked, and Joy satisfied, was soon seated at his side. I did not expect to see you in this vicinity, she said. It must be later than I thought. Has the train gone and is everything right? It is gone and everything is right. More right than that poor fellow had any idea things with him would ever be. I am glad he is alone with time to rest and think matters over calmly. It has been a wonderful afternoon joy, a succession of surprises to all parties concerned. I said not a word to Briggs about the plans until this morning. I decided that he needed a night's rest and would not get it if he went to planning about home. So Robert packed his trunk after he was asleep. Then I called this morning, according to appointment, to take him around to the store. While we were away, Robert had his trunk sent to the station. On the drive down, I asked him about the different bills, his landlady's and the meat bill and so forth. Cheery conversation wasn't it for a sick young fellow. But I wanted to see if he really knew where he stood and I found that he had every penny carefully added. It was considerably less than we had supposed. At the store, Mr. Katie was waiting for him in the office. Then began my surprise. The plan was, you know, that Mr. Katie should pay him the salary which he supposed he lost through sickness and give him a month's leave of absence. And I should assume his debts, he to pay me when he could. But what did Mr. Katie do, but present him with a check which covered the whole amount and more too? Then he told him of the plan of going home. Fred bore up bravely until then. But when he took in the fact that his salary was continued, his debts were paid and that he was actually to start for home today, he gave up and cried outright. I was really afraid that it would be too much excitement for him. I couldn't have enjoyed the thing because of my anxiety as to how he would bear it. Mr. Katie was a good deal melted too. Very much astonished to discover that so small a sum of money could produce such abounding gratitude. I believe one reason why rich men treat themselves to so few luxuries of this kind is that they have no idea what fruit they produce. I do it for your father's sake, young man, he said to Fred. And then I was afraid he was going to take that inopportune time to read the poor fellow a lecture about not having deserved things for his own sake. But he didn't. After a moment's pause, he added, and for my father's sake, because I want to honor him with my money and he has put it into my heart to spend a little of it in this way. That melted Fred right down. It is really the most unanswerable argument that could have been presented. A year of talking could not have done for him what that one sentence did with the practical object lesson accompanying lying open in Fred's hand. On the whole we had an interesting time. I took Briggs back home and made him lie down, and the landlady was paid and really served a nice dinner for him and hoped he would have a good visit and come back to her, which he never will. By the way, young Reed is interested in working up a boarding house downtown, somewhat after the pattern of your mother's on a simpler scale. I hope all those young men can be gotten into it. Well, at the appointed time we went to the train and behold, there was Mr. Katie. He led the way into a palace car and after the bewildered fellow was seated, he handed him an envelope containing a through ticket, sleeping car, palace car, everything complete. I must say that Katie has exceeded my expectations. He waited for me outside and rode uptown with me and I told him that he had done more today for Fred Briggs' salvation than he ever had before. He was all melted down. That is saying nothing at all, doctor, said he. I never did anything for him nor for any of them, but I mean too. I'm waking up to my privileges. I never knew until today that it was more blessed to give than to receive. How things are intertwined, Joy. Mr. Katie's clerks are really educating him and Fred, as he shook my hand for goodbye, said, doctor, I want to take back what I said about him the other night, meaning Mr. Katie. I do believe in his religion. And now, Joy, here comes your part. Tell Miss Joy I have the marked verses and I will put my trust in them. Thank the Lord, said Joy softly. When they had calmed down a little from the excitement of the story, Joy said, I have had a wonderful afternoon too and made some discoveries. I have been talking with Hester Mason. Do you know, doctor, I think she is a Christian? I believe the question was decided several weeks ago. She is a strange girl, you know, never does anything like anybody else. And she seemed to have an idea that she must test her experience to find whether it was genuine before she owned to it. Now I'm going to surprise you about another thing. I think she has been a real help to Robert Parks. No, said the doctor. That doesn't surprise me. I have surmised the same thing from what he has told me. In fact, at the very time when I was trying to break her influence over him, she was the only one who had exerted any successfully for good. I am beginning to see that the Lord has ways we know not of. He has led Hester by strange ways, certainly. Do you know anything of a professor, Ellis, who teaches music in the city? A little, the doctor said quietly. Is he a bad man? I have every reason to think that he is. Well, I should think so from Hester's story. He has been paying her special attention and while I don't think she really cared for him, his attentions were marked and flattering. He led her on insensibly, I think, until that pretty Grace Dennis, who was Mrs. Robert's guest for so long, came to the rescue. Hester's rendering of their interview is this. She proved to me three things, that he was a villain and I was a fool and she was a grand Christian girl. I've thought better of religion ever since. There were some things about her which made me feel that I really wanted to be a Christian woman myself and do things for others that I knew I could do. She doesn't know how Grace Dennis came to know anything about her. Hasn't the least idea. But she believes, she says, that the Lord sent her just at that time and in that way because there are reasons why no other time in way would have done any good. I don't doubt it in the least, Dr. Everett said heartily. The Lord knows the end from the beginning and nothing is sureer than that he uses his children to carry out his plans. He kept his own counsel as to his being one of the means used. To a man of Dr. Everett's refined nature, this was too much a part of another's secret to be revealed, even to Joy Saunders when there was no need. I'll tell you now what I really wish, said Joy, speaking with a deliberate impressiveness, calculated to make one feel that the subject was weighty and her decision surprising. I wish Robert was deeply interested in Hester and that he would marry her. I do believe that they are intended for each other. She has just the qualities that he needs and he can mold her in just the lines along which she needs helping. The doctor laughed gaily, I shall not differ from you in the tremendous way that you evidently expect, he said, and moreover I have to confess that I believe just that result will be accomplished even whether we approve or not. Of course the wisest thing for us is to approve and although once I did not think I should, I find I do. After that he drove very rapidly until they had left the noisy city in the distance and the twilight was falling. Then he reigned in his horses, obliging them to walk when they wanted to run and again opened conversation. Joy, I have made another discovery today. What is it? Asked Joy with the delightfully eager air of one who is sure she is going to sympathize heartily and is ready to help in whatever direction needed. Perhaps I ought not to say that I made the discovery today in point of fact I made it long ago but it presses on me today with such a firm conviction that I am right and that the question should be settled that I want to submit it to you. I discover that you and I at work for the same master in almost the same channels can do better, happier, stronger work together than apart and that he intends us to join hands as I believe and be one in life. I shall have to own that so far as hard as concerned I have felt one with you so long that I should not know how to think apart from you. To all of which Joy Saunders, usually so prompt to respond, made not the slightest answer, where at the doctor seemed in no sense discomfited. Mrs. Saunders, he said, arresting that good woman with prompt speech. It was an hour later and she was on her way up the stairs. She had always to be waylaid on her way to somewhere for her life knew little rest. She was burdened with an armful of clean linen. She was apt to make all her steps tell toward the accomplishment of the hundreds of little things that were always doing and never done. Mrs. Saunders, just a moment. I have something to tell you. This is a day of discoveries. I have made one which directly concerns you. I discover that I cannot get along any longer without your joy. You have shared with me for many a day, but I want the right to claim her. I should so like to give you a picture of Mrs. Saunders' face as she stood there with her pile of clean towels on her arm. Dear, she said after a moment of not exactly bewildered silence. The expression of her face was rather that of one who had been expecting a calamity that now had come. Dear, I suppose it has got to be somebody, and if it has, I would rather it would be you, Doctor, than anybody else in the world. So would I, said Dr. Everett with great heartiness. End of Chapter 38, Recording by Tricia G. End of Workers Together or an Endless Chain by Pansy.