 CHAPTER XIV. THE NEW LESSON Yuri turned her pillow, thumped the scant feathers into little heaps, and gave a dismal groan as she laid her head back on it. It's very queer, she said, that as soon as ever I made up my mind to be orthodox and go to meeting every time the bell rings, I should be dumped into a heap on this hard bed with the headache. I haven't had a touch of it before. The way of transgressors is hard, quoted Marion, going on calmly with her writing. If you hadn't taken that horrid tramp yesterday instead of going to meeting like a Christian, you would have been all right today. I believe you sit up nights to read your Bible so as to have verses to fling at people who are overtaken in any possible trial or inconvenience. You always have them ready. Didn't you bring it with you, and don't you prepare a list for each day's use? This was Yuri's half-Mary, half-petulant reply to the Bible verse that had been flung at her. Marion carefully erased a word that seemed to her fastidious taste too inexpressive before she answered, I don't own such an article as a Bible, my child. See, our suspicions are entirely unfounded. My early education was not defective in that respect, however, and I confess that I find many verses that seem to very aptly describe the ways of sinful mortals like yourself. Yuri raised herself on one elbow, regardless of headache and the cloth wet in vinegar that straightway fell off. You don't own a Bible, she said in utter surprise, and with a touch of actual dismay in her voice. I am depraved to that degree, my dear little saint. I conclude that you are more devoutly inclined and have one of your own. Pray, how many chapters a day do you read in it? Yuri laid down again, and Flossy came with the vinegar cloth and bound it securely on her forehead. I don't read it very often, to be sure, Yuri murmured. In fact, I suppose I may as well say that I never do, but then I own one and always have. I am not a heathen, and really and truly it seems almost queer not to have a Bible of one's own. It is a sort of mark of civilization, you know. Marion laughed good-naturedly. I never make a great deal of pretense in that line, she said gaily. As for being a heathen, that is only a relative term. According to Dr. Calkins, they were more or less in advance of us. I am one of the advanced sort. Ruth, your toilet ought to be nearly completed. I hear that indefatigable bell. You are very foolish not to go this morning and let your writing wait. We shall be certain to have something worth listening to. It is a strange time to select for absence. This was Ruth's quiet answer, as she pinned her lace ruffle with a gleaming little diamond. Diligent in business, there is another verse for you, my heathen, Marion said, with a merry glance toward Yuri. When you get home and get the dust of years swept off from your Bible, you take a look at it and see if I have not quoted correctly, and a good sensible verse it is. I have found it the only way in which to keep my head above water. Ruthie, the trouble is not with me. It lies with those selfish and obstinate newspaper men. If they would have the sense to let their papers wait over another day, I could go to the lecture this morning. As it is, I am a victim to their indifference. If I miss a blessing, the sin will be at their door, not mine. Yuri opened her heavy eyes and looked at Flossie. Come, she said, don't stand there mopping me in vinegar any longer. Are you ready? I am really disappointed. I have always wanted to hear that man. I want to tell Nell about him. Flossie washed her hands, shook back the yellow curls with an indifferent and preoccupied air, and went to the door to wait for Ruth. She had taken no part in the war of words that had been passing between Marion and Yuri, but she had heard. And like almost everything else that she heard during these days, it had awakened a new thought and desire. She was growing amazed at herself. It seemed to her that she must have spent her seventeen years of life taking long naps, and this shatakwa was a stiff breeze from the ocean that was going to shake her away. The special thought that had dashed itself at her this morning was that she, too, had no Bible. Not that she did not own one, elegantly done in velvet and clasped in gold, so effectually clasped that it had been sealed to her all her life. She positively had no recollection of having ever sat down deliberately to read the Bible. She had looked over occasionally in school, but even this service of her eyes had been fitful and indifferent. And as for her head paying any sort of attention to the reading, it might as well have been done in Greek instead of French, which language she but dimly comprehended even when she tried. But now she ought to have a Bible. She ought not to wait for that velvet-covered one, a whole week in which to find what some of her orders were, and no way in which to find them. Of course she could buy one, but how queer it would seem to be going to the museum to make a purchase of a Bible. They will wonder why I did not bring my own, she murmured, with that lifelong deference that she had educated herself to pay to the day who composed her world. And in another instance the newborn feeling of respect and independence asserted itself. I can't help that, she said positively, shaking her curls with a determined air. And it really makes no difference what anybody thinks. Of course I must have a Bible, and I only wish I had it for this morning. I shall certainly get one at the first opportunity. Then she turned and said good morning to the pretty little lady who occupied the tent next door, and between whom and herself a pleasant acquaintance was springing up. Are you going to the lecture? Flossy asked, and the small lady shook her head with a wistful air. Dear me, no, my young tyrant wouldn't consent to that. I meant to take him down with me and try him, but he has gone to sleep, and it is just as well, for he would have been certain to want to do all the talking. He has no idea that there is anyone in the country who knows quite as much as he does. It was said in a half-complaining tone, but underneath it was the foundation of tender pride that showed her to be the vain mother of the handsome tyrant. Still it seemed to be Flossy's duty to condole with her. You miss most of the meetings, do you not? Three-fourths of them. You see it is inconvenient to have a husband who is a reporter for the press, and who must be there to hear. It is only when he must write up his notes for publication that I can get a chance, and even then, unless it's baby's sleepy time, it does me no good. I am especially sorry this morning, for Dr. Keiler used to be my pastor. He married me one summer morning just like this, and I haven't laid eyes on him since. I should like to hear his voice again, but it can't be done. Now who would have imagined that, with all the powers that were besturing themselves to come to Flossy's education, it would have been a rosy, crowing baby in the unconsciousness of a morning nap that should have given her her first lesson in unselfishness. Yet he was the very one. It flashed over Flossy in an instant from some source, who was so likely to have suggested it as the sweet angel who hovered over the sleeping darling. Oh, Mrs. Adams, let me stay with baby, and you go to hear Keiler. It is a real pity that you should miss him when he is associated with your life in this way. I never saw him, and though of course I should like to, yet I presume there will be opportunities enough. I will be as careful of baby as if he were my grandson, and if he wakens I will churn him out of his wits, so that it will never occur to him to cry. Of course there was demurring and profuse expressions of thanks and declinatures all in a breath, but Flossy was so winning, so eager, so thoroughly in earnest, and the little Mrs. Adams did so love her old pastor, and did feel so anxious to see him again that in a very short time she was beguiled into going in all haste to her tent to make a go to meeting toilet, and a blessed thing it was that that sentence does not mean a Chautauqua what it does in Buffalo or Albany or a few other places, else Dr. Keiler might have slipped from them before the necessary articles were all in a ray. It involved simply the twitching off of a white apron, the settling of a pretty sun hat, for the sun actually shone, and the seizure of a waterproof needed, if she found a seat, to protect her from the damp boards, needed in any case, because in five minutes it might rain, and she was ready. Ruth came to the door. Come, Flossy, she said. Where in the world are you? We shall be late, and said it precisely as though she had been waiting for that young person for half an hour. Flossy emerged from the adjoining tent. I am not going, she said. I have turned nurse-girl and have the sweetest little baby in here that ever grew. Mrs. Adams is going in my place. Mrs. Adams, Mrs. Erskine. And as those two ladies walked away together, Mrs. Adams might have been heard to say, What a lovely, unselfish disposition your friend has. It was so beautiful in her to take me so by storm this morning. I am afraid I was very selfish, which is apt to be the case, I think, when one comes in contact with actual unselfishness. It is one of the Christian graces that is very hard to cultivate anyway, don't you think so? Ruth was silent, not from discourtesy, but from astonishment. It was such a strange experience to hear anyone speak of Flossy shipply as unselfish. In truth she had grown up under influences that had combined to foster the most complete and tyrannical selfishness, exercised in a pretty winning sort of way, but rooted and grounded in her very life. So indeed was Ruth, but she, of course, did not know that, though she had clear vision for the moat in Flossy's eyes. Meantime, Marian had stayed her busy pen and was biting the end of it thoughtfully. The two tents were such near neighbors that the latter conversation and introduction had been distinctly heard. She glanced around to the girl on the bed. Yuri, she said, Are you asleep or are you enjoying Flossy's last new departure? Yuri giggled. I heard, she said. The lazy little mouse has slipped out of a tedious hour and has a chance to lounge and read a pleasant novel. I dare say the mother is provided with them. Then Marian, after another thoughtful pause. But, my child, how do you account for the necessity of going to the neighbors and taking the supervision of a baby in order to do that? Flossy need not have gone to church if she didn't choose. Yes, she did. Don't you suppose the child can see that it is the fashion of the place? She is afraid that it wouldn't look well to stay in the tent and lounge without an excuse for doing so. If that girl could only go to a place where it was the fashion for all people to be good, she would be a saint just because they were. She would have to go to heaven, muttered Marian, going on with her writing. And, according to you, there is no such place, so there is no hope for her after all. Oh, dear, I wonder if you are right, and nothing is of any consequence anyhow. And the weary girl turned on her pillow and tried not to think, an effort that was hard to accomplish after a week's experience at Shatakwa. Flossy sat herself down beside the sleeping darling and cast about her for something to amuse or interest, her eyes brightening into beauty as she recognized a worn and torn copy of the Bible. Urie would have been surprised to see the eagerness with which she seized upon the book that was to afford her entertainment. She turned the leaves tenderly with a new sense of possession about her. This Bible was a copy of letters that had been written to her, words spoken many of them by Jesus himself. Strange that she had so little idea what they were. Marian with her boasted infidel notions knew much more about the book than Flossy with her nominal education and belief. She had no idea where to turn or what to look for to help her. Yet she turned the leaves slowly with a delicious sense of having found a prize, a book of instructions, a guidebook for her on this journey that she was just beginning to realize that she was taking. Somewhere within it she would find light and help. The book was one that had been much used and had a fashion of opening of itself at certain places that might have been favorites with the little mother. At one of those places Flossy halted and read. After this there was a feast of the Jews. After what I wonder, she said within herself, she knew nothing about it. Never mind, I will see pretty soon. This is about a feast where Jesus was and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Oh, how nice to have been there wherever that was. The ignorant little thing had not the least idea where Jerusalem was, except that it was in that far away, misty, holy land that had seemed as vague and indefinite to her as the grave or as heaven. But there came suddenly to her heart a certain blessed analogy. If I were going to write an account of my recent experiences to some dear friend that I wanted to tell it to, she said, talking still to herself or to the sleeping baby, I would write it something like this. After this, that would mean, let me see what it would mean. Why, after that party at home, when I danced all night and was sick. After this there was a feast of the Christian people at Chautauqua and Jesus went there. I would certainly write that, for I have seen him and heard him speak in my very heart. Then she went on, through the second verse to the third. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. And here a great swell of tears literally blinded her eyes. It came to her so suddenly, so forcibly. The great multitude here at Chautauqua, blind. Yes, some of them. Was not she? How many more might there be? Many of whom she knew, others that she did not know, but that Jesus did. Waiting without knowing that they were waiting. With tears and smiles and with a new great happiness throbbing at her heart, she read through the sweet, simple, wonderful story. How the poor man met Jesus, how he questioned, how the man complained, and how Jesus was greater than his infirmity. Through the whole of it, until suddenly she closed the book, her tears dried, and a solemn, wondering, almost awestruck look on her face. She had got her lesson, her directions, her example. She could bear no more, even of the Bible, just then. She said it over, that startling verse that came to her with a whole volume of suggestion. And the man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus which had made him whole. The Slipperbox Recording is in the Public Domain. Four Girls at Chautauqua by Pansy, Chapter 15 Great Men. Ruth Erskine, with her skirts gathered daintily around her, to avoid contact with the unclean earth, made her way skillfully through the crowd, and with the aid of a determined spirit and a camp chair, secured a place and a seat very near the stand. The little lady who timidly followed in her lead was not quite so fortunate, in as much as she had no camp chair, and was less resolved in her determination to get ahead of those who had arrived earlier. So she contented herself with a damp seat on the end of a board, which was vacated for her use by a courteous gentleman. Ruth, you must understand, was not selfish in this matter because she had planned to be, but simply because it had never occurred to her to be otherwise, which is one of the misfortunes that come to people who are educated in a selfish atmosphere. Ruth Erskine had come to this meeting fully prepared to enjoy it. Dr. Keiler was a star of sufficient magnitude to attract her. During her frequent visits to New York, she had heard much of but had never seen him. The people whom she visited were too elegant in their views and practices to have much in common with the church, which was so pronounced on the two great questions of religion and temperance. Yet even with them, Dr. Keiler and Dr. Keiler's great church were eccentricities to be tolerated, not ignored. Therefore Ruth had headed in her heart to enjoy listening to him some time. The some time had arrived. She had dressed herself with unusual care, a ceremony which seemed to be quite in the background among the people who were at home at Chautauqua. But some way it seemed to Ruth that the great Brooklyn pastor should receive this mark of respect at her hands. So she had spent the morning at her toilet and was now a fashionable lady, fashionably attired for church. If the people who vouchsafed her a glance as she crowded past indulged some of them in a smile at her expense and thought the simple temple made of trees and grasses and inappropriate surrounding to her silken robes and costly lace mantle, she was none the wiser for that, you know, and took her seat indifferent to them all, except that presently there stole over her the sense of disagreeable incongruity with her outdoor surroundings. So Satan had the pleasure of ruffling her spirits and occupying her thoughts with her rich brown silk dress instead of letting her heart be touched with the salinity and beauty of the grand hymn which rolled down those long aisles. Satan has that everlasting weapon, what to wear and what not to wear, everlastingly at command and wonderfully under his control. But Ruth in her way was strong-minded and could control her thoughts when she chose, so she presently shook off the feeling of annoyance and decided to give herself up to the influences of the hour. By this time Dr. Keiler appeared and was introduced. Ruth gave him the benefit of a very searching gaze and decided that he was the very last man of all those on the platform whom she would have selected as the speaker. Probably if Dr. Keiler had known this and known also that his personal presence entirely disappointed her, he would not have been greatly disconcerted thereby. But his subject was one that found an answering thrill in this young lady's heart. Some talks I have had with great men. Ruth liked greatness. In her calm, composed way she bowed before it. She would have enjoyed being great, celebrity in a majestic, dignified form would have been her delight. She by no means admitted this as Yuri Mitchell so often did. She by no means sought after it in the small ways within her reach. Small ways did not suit her. They disgusted her. But if she could have flashed into splendid greatness, if by any amount of laborious study or work or suffering she could have seen the way to worldwide renown, she would have grasped for it in an instant. The next best thing to being renowned oneself was to have renowned people for friends. This was another thing that Ruth coveted in silence. She wanted no one to know how earnestly she aspired to, sometime, making the acquaintance of some of the great people, not the vulgarly great, those who were in a sense and in the eyes of a few, great because of the accidents of fortune and travel. She knew such by the scores. Indeed she had been in circles many a time where she shone with that sort of greatness herself. Perhaps it was for that reason that it was such a despised height to her. But she meant the really great people of this world, people of power, people who moved the masses by the force of their brains. Not one such had she ever met to look upon as an acquaintance. And here was this man telling off the honored names by the score and saying, my friend Dr. Guthrie, my good friend Thomas Carlyle, my dear brother Newman Hall, how would it seem to stand an intimate relationship with one single gifted mind like these, and was she destined ever to know by actual experience? There was another reason why Ruth had desired to choose Dr. Keiler to listen to rather than some other names on the program, because from the nature of his subject she had judged it most unlikely that he should have about him any arrows that would touch home to her. Not that she put it in that language. She did not admit even to herself that any of the solemn words that had been spoken at Chautauqua had referenced to her. And yet in a vague, fitful way she was ill at ease. She had moments of feeling that there was a reach of happiness possessed by these people of which she knew nothing. Little side thrusts had come to her from time to time in places where she least expected them. That question asked by Flossie during her night of unrest, should you be afraid to die, hovered around this quietly poised young lady in a most unaccountable manner. All the more persistently did it cling because she could not shake it off with the thought that it was silly. Common sense told her that the strange, solemn shadow which came so steadily after men and so surely enveloped one after another among the grandest intellects that the world owned was not a thing to pass over lightly. After all, why should she not be afraid of death? Then that strange gentleman who had persisted in ranking her among the praying people, he had left his shadow. Why did she not pray? She wondered over this in a vague sort of way. Wondered how it seemed to kneel down alone and speak to an invisible presence. Wondered if those who've so knelt always felt as though they were really speaking to God. There were times when Ruth was exceedingly disgusted with these perplexing thoughts and wanted nothing so much as to get away from them. She resented this intrusion upon her quiet. This day was one of those in which she was impatient of all these things, and she had made her toilet with great satisfaction and said within herself complacently, We are to have one hour at last devoted to this mundane sphere and the mortals who inhabit it. Most of the time these Chautauquins talk and act as though earth was only a railroad station where people changed cars and went on to heaven. Dr. Keiler is going to refresh us with some actual living specimens of humanity. He can't make a sermon out of that subject if he tries. But Ruth Erskine had not measured the power of the earnest preachers of Jesus Christ, as if Dr. Keiler could talk for an hour to thousands of immortal souls and leave Christ and heaven and immortality out. To Ruth these three words constituted a sermon and she got them that day. Not that he had an idea that he was preaching Christ, except incidentally, as a man refers almost unconsciously to the one whom he loves best in all the world, but Ruth knew he was. It came in little sudden touches when she least expected it when heart and soul were wrought upon with some strong enthusiasm by the splendid picture of a splendid man, as when he told of Spurgeon. It was a glowing description, such as thrilled Ruth, and made her feel that to have just one glimpse of that great man with his great marvelous power over humanity would be worth a lifetime. Suddenly the speaker said, the secret of that man's power lies first in his study of the Bible. Ruth started and came down like a bombshell from her wondrous height. The Bible, copies of which lay carelessly on every table of her father's elegantly furnished house, unstudied and unthoughtful. How very strange to ascribe the power of the great intellect to the study of one book that was more or less familiar to every Sunday school boy. Second in short simple homely language. Ruth smiles now. Dr. Keiler was growing absurd, as if it were not the most common thing in the world to use simple homely language. No Spurgeons could be manufactured in that way, she was sure. Third, mighty earnestness to save souls. Here was a point concerning which Ruth knew nothing. Dr. Keiler's manner put tremendous force into the forceful words, and carried conviction with them. She wondered how a really mighty earnestness to save souls made a man appear. She wondered whether she had ever seen such a one. She went rapidly over the list of her acquaintances in the church. She smiled to herself a sarcastic, contemptuous smile. She had met them all at parties, concerts, festivals, and the like. She had seen them on occasions when nothing seemed to possess them, but to have a good time like the rest of the world. Like the rest of the world, Ruth reasoned and decided from her chance meetings with the outside life of these Christians, forgetting that she had never seen one of them in their closets before God. Rather, she knew nothing about these closets, nor the experiences learned there, and could only reason from outside life. This being the case, what a pity that her verdict of those lives should have called forth only that contemptuous smile. Wandering off in this train of thought, she lost the speaker's next point, but was called back by his solemn, ringing clothes. Put these together, melt them down with the love of Christ, and you have a spurgeon. God be thanked for such a piece of handwork as he. Another start in another retrospect. Did she know any people who put these together, who made a real earnest constant study of the Bible as schoolgirls learned their Latin grammars, and who were really eager to save souls because they had the love of Christ in their hearts, and who said so in plain, simple language? Does he, I wonder, she said to herself, I wonder if his sermon sound like that. I should like to hear him preach just once. Oh, dear, if he isn't running off to Moody and Sanky, it is a sermon after all. On the whole, Ruth was disgusted. Her brain was in a whirl. She was being compelled to hear sermons on every hand. She was sick of it. They had been great men of whom she had heard, and she admired them all. She wanted the secret of their power, but she didn't want it to be made out of such commonplace material as was in the hands of every child. She did not know what she wanted, only that she had come out to be entertained and to revel in her love of heroes, and she had been pinned down to the one thought that real men were made of those who found their power in their Bible and on their knees. The solemn, earnest, tender closing to this address did not lessen her sense of discomfort. Then just beside her was carried on a conversation that added to her annoyance. They are big men, a man said. He was dressed in a common business suit. His linen had not the exquisite freshness about it that her fastidious eyes delighted in. His hands looked as though they might have been used to work that was rough and hard. His straggling hair was sprinkled with gray, and there was not a striking feature about him. They are big men, he said, and I've no doubt it is a big thing to know them and talk with them and have a friendly feeling for each as if they belonged to him, but he knows a bigger one than them, and the best of it is so do we. The Lord Jesus Christ, our elder brother, is not to be compared to common men like these. And now Ruth slips curled utterly. She was an aristocrat without knowing it. She believed in Christianity and in its power to save the poor and the commonest, but this insufferable assumption of dignity and superiority over the rest of the world, as she called it, was hateful to her in the extreme. It would have startled her exceedingly to have been told that she was angry with the man for presuming to place his friend higher in the list of great ones than any of those given that day. And yet such was actually her feeling. She swept her skirts angrily away from contact with the man and spoke so crustily to the little lady who had come in her wake that she moved timidly away. Just at her left were two gentlemen shaking hands. Both had been on the stand together, she knew the faces of both, and one ranked just a trifle higher in her estimation than anyone at Chautauqua. She edged a little nearer. She lived in the hope of making the acquaintance of some of these lights just enough acquaintance to receive a bow and a clasp of the hand, though how one could accomplish it who was determined that her interest in them should never be seen nor suspected, it would be hard to say. But they were talking in eager, hearty tones, not at all as if their words were confidential, at least she might have the benefit of them. That was a capital lecture, the older of the two was saying. Keiler has had great advantages in his life in meeting on a familiar footing so many of our great men. When you get thinking of these things and of the many men whom you would like to know intimately, what is the thought that strikes you most forcibly? That I am glad I belong to the royal family and have the opportunity of knowing intimately and holding close personal relations with him who spake as never man spake. The other answered in a rare rich tone of suppressed jubilance of feeling. Exactly, his friend said, and when you can leave the fullness of that thought long enough to take another, there is the looking forward to actual fellowship and communion not only with him, but with all these glorious men who are living here and who have gone up yonder. Ruth turned abruptly away, the very thought that possessed the heart of the plain looking man and that so annoyed her, and these two whom to know was an honor were looking forward to that consummation as the height of it all. End of Chapter 15, Recording by Tricia G. Chapter 16 of Four Girls at Chautauqua. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Four Girls at Chautauqua by Pansy. Chapter 16, A War of Words. Well, why not, she said, as she went slowly down the aisle. Of course all these people would be in heaven together and why should they not look forward to a companionship untrammeled by earthly forms and conventionalities and unencumbered by the body in its present dull and ponderous state? What a chance to get into the best society, the highest circle, real best too, not made up of money or blood or dress, or any of the flimsy and silly barriers that fenced people in and out now. Then at once she felt her own inconsistency in growing disgusted with the plainly dressed common-looking man. If he did really belong to that royal family, why not rejoice over it? Wasn't she the foolish one? She by no means liked these reflections, but she could not get away from them. How do you do? Said a clear, round voice behind her, not speaking to her but to someone whom he was very glad to see, judging from his tone. And the voice was peculiar. She had been listening to it for an hour and could not be mistaken. It belonged to Dr. Keiler himself. She turned herself suddenly. Here was a chance for a nearer view and to see who was being greeted so heartily. It was the little lady whose society had been thrust upon her that morning by Flossie, and they were shaking hands as though they were old and familiar acquaintances. It is good to see your face again, that same hearty voice which seemed to have so much good fellowship in it was saying. I didn't know you were to be here. I'm real glad to see you again. And what about the husband and the dear boy? At which point it occurred to Ms. Ruth Erskine that she was listening to conversation not designed for her ears. She moved away suddenly in no way comforted or sweetened as to her temper by this episode. Why should that little bit of an insignificant woman have the honor of such a cordial greeting from the great man, while he did not even know of her existence? To be sure Dr. Keiler had baptized and received into church fellowship and united in marriage the little woman with whom he was talking, but Ruth, even if she had known these circumstances, was in no mood to attach much importance to them. She wandered away from the crowd down by the lakeside. She stopped at Jerusalem on her way and poked her parasol listlessly into the sand of which the hills lying about that city were composed and thought. What silly child's play all this was! How absurd to suppose that people were going to get new ideas by playing at cities with bits of painted board and piles of sand! Even if they could get a more distinct notion of its surroundings, what difference did it make how Jerusalem looked or where it stood or what had become of the buildings? This last, as it began dimly to dawn upon her, that it was useless to deny the fact that even such listless and disdainful staring as she had vouchsafed to this make-believe city had located it as it had not been located before in her brain. When she produced the flimsy question what difference does it make, you can see at once the absurd mood that had gotten possession of her and you lose all your desire to argue with anyone who feels as foolish as that, nor had Ruth any desire to argue with herself. She was disgusted with her mind for insisting on keeping her up to a strain of thought. Lovely place to rest, she said, allowed and indignantly, giving a more emphatic poke with her parasol and quite dislodging one of the buildings in Jerusalem. One's brain is just kept at high pressure all the time. Now why this young lady's brain should have been in need of rest, she did not take the trouble to explain, even to herself. She sat herself down presently under one of the trees by the lakeside and gave herself up to plans. She was tired of Shatakwa, of that she was certain. It stirred her up and the process was uncomfortable. Her former composed life suited her taste better. She must get away. There was no earthly reason why she should not go at once to Saratoga. A host of friends were already there and certain other friends would be only too glad to follow as soon as ever they heard of her advent in that region. Before she left that rustic sati under the trees, she had the program all arranged. We will get through tomorrow as best we can, she said, sighing over the thought that tomorrow being the Sabbath would perforce be spent there. And then on Monday morning Flossie and I will just run away to Saratoga and leave those two absurd girls to finish their absurd scheme in the best way they can. And having disposed of Flossie as though she were a bit of fashionable merchandise without an evolution of her own, Ruth felt more composed and went at once to dinner. There came an astonishing interference to this planning from no other than Flossie herself. To the utter amazement of each of the girls, she quietly refused to be taken to Saratoga, nor did she offer any other excuse for this astonishing piece of self-assertion than that she was having a good time and meant to finish it. And to this she adhered with a pertinacity that was very bewildering, because it was so very new. Marian laughed over her writing to which she had returned the moment dinner was concluded. That is right, Flossie, she said. I'm glad to see Shatakwa as having an effect of some sort on one of us. You are growing strong-minded. Mind isn't a bad thing to have. Keep to yours. Ruth, I am astonished at you. I shall have to confess that you are disappointing me, my child. Now I rather expected this dear little bit of lace and velvet to give up, conquered, in less than a week. But I said to myself, Ruth Erskine has pluck enough to carry her through a month of camp life, and here you are quenched at the end of four days. It isn't the camp life, Ruth said irritably. I am not so much a baby as to care about those things to such a degree that I can't endure them, although everything is disagreeable enough. But that isn't the point at all. Maryan turned and looked at her curiously. What on earth is the point, then? What has happened to so disgust you with Shatakwa? The point is that I am tired of it all. It is unutterably stupid. I suppose I have a right to be tired of a silly scheme that ought never to have been undertaken if I choose to be have I not without being called in question by anyone and feeling more thoroughly vexed not only with the girls but with herself than ever she remembered feeling before. Ruth arose suddenly and sought refuge under the trees outside the tent. Maryan maintained a puzzled silence. This was a new phase in Ruth's character and one hard to manage. Flossie looked on the point of crying. She was not used to crossing the wills of those who had influence over her, but she was very determined as to one thing. She was not going to leave Shatakwa. Nothing could tempt me to go to Saratoga just now, she said earnestly. Why? asked Maryan and receiving no answer at all felt that Flossie puzzled her as much as Ruth had done. However, she set herself to work to restore peace. This letter is done, she said gaily, folding her manuscript. It is a perfectly gushing account of yesterday's meeting for some of which I am indebted to the Buffalo reporters for I have given the most thrilling parts where I wasn't present. Now I'm going to celebrate. Come in, Ruth, we are of the same mind precisely. I would gladly accompany you on the afternoon train to Saratoga with the greatest pleasure, were it not for certain inconveniences connected with my pocketbook and a desire to replenish it by writing up this enterprise. But since we can't go to Saratoga, let's you and I go to Mayville. It is a city of several hundred inhabitants, six or eight certainly I should think. And we can have an immense amount of fun out of the people and the sights this afternoon and escape the preaching. I haven't got to write another letter until Monday. Come shall we take the three o'clock boat? Neither of these young ladies could have told what possible object there could be in leaving the lovely woods in which they were camped and going off to the singularly quiet, uninteresting little village of Mayville, except that it was, as they said, a getting away from the preaching. Though why two young ladies, with first-class modern educations, should find it so important to get themselves away from some of the first speakers in the country, they did not stop to explain even to themselves. However, the plan came to Ruth as a relief, and she unhesitatingly agreed to it. So they went their ways, flossy to the afternoon meeting, since Yuri declared herself so far convalescent as to be entirely able to remain alone, and the two of the party who had prided themselves up to this time on their superiority of intellect down to the wharf to take the boat for Mayville. The ride thither on the lovely lake was almost enough to excuse them for their folly, but the question what to do with themselves afterward was one that burdened them during all that long summer afternoon. They went to the Mayville house and took a walk on the piazza, and the boarders looked at them in curiosity and wondered if it were really a pleasanter walk than the green fields over at Chautauqua. They ordered dinner and aided at the general table with great relish, Ruth rejoicing over this return to civilized life. One episode of the table must be noted. Opposite them sat a gentleman who, either from something in their appearance or more probably from the reasonable conclusion that all the strangers who had gathered at the quiet little village were in some way associated with the great gathering, addressed them as being part of that great whole. You people are going to reap a fine harvest pecuniarily tomorrow, but how about the fourth commandment? You Christians lay great stress on that document whenever a Sunday reading room or something of that sort is being contemplated, don't you? The remark was addressed to both of them, but Ruth was too much occupied with the strangeness of the thought that she was again being counted among Christian people to make any answer. Not so, Marian. Her eyes danced with merriment, but she answered with great gravity. We believe in keeping holy the Sabbath day, of course. What has that to do with Shatakwa? Haven't you consulted the program and read? No admission at the gates or docks? The gentleman smiled incredulously. I have read it, he said significantly, and doubtless many believe it implicitly. I hope their faith won't be shaken by hearing the returns from tickets counted over in the evening. There was a genuine flush of feeling on Marian's face now. Do you mean to say, she asked hotly, that you have no faith in the published statement that the gates will be closed, or do you mean that the association have changed their minds? Because if you have heard the latter, I can assure you it is a mistake, as I heard the matter discussed by those in authority this very morning, and they determined to adhere rigidly to the rules. I have no doubt they will so far as lies in their power, the gentleman said, with an attempt at courtesy in his manner. But the trouble is, the thing is absurd on the face of it. If I hold a ticket for an entertainment, which the association have sold to me, it is none of their business on what day I present it, providing the entertainment is in progress. They have no right to keep me out, and they are swindling me out of so much money if they do it. You have changed your argument, Marian said, with a flash of humor in her eyes. You were talking about the amount of money that the association were to earn tomorrow, not the amount which you were to lose by not being allowed to come in. However, I am willing to talk from that standpoint. If you hold the season ticket of the association, and are stopping outside, you will be admitted, of course. It is held to be as reasonable a way to go to church as though you harnessed your horses at home and drove on the Sabbath to your regular place of worship. But you buy no ticket for the Sabbath, and none is received from you, and if you choose not to go, the association neither makes nor loses by the operation, and, so far as money is concerned, is entirely indifferent which you decide to do. What fault can possibly be found with such an arrangement? Well, said the gentleman, with a quiet positiveness of tone, I haven't a season ticket, and I don't mean to buy one, and I mean to go down there to meeting tomorrow, and I expect to get in. I dare say, Marian answered with glowing cheeks, the grounds are extensive, you know, and they are not walled in. I haven't the least doubt, but that hundreds can creep through the brush, and so have the gospel free. There is something about he that climbeth up some other way being a thief and a robber, but, of course, the writer could not have had shatakwa in mind, and even if it applies, it would only be stealing from an association which is not stealing at all, you know. You are hard on me, the gentleman said, flushing in his turn, and the listeners of whom there were many laughed and seemed to enjoy the flashing of words. I have no intention of creeping or climbing in. I shall present the same sort of ticket which took me in today, and if it doesn't pass me, I will send you a dispatch to let you know if you will give me your address. And if you do get in and will let me know, I will report at once to the proper authorities that the gatekeepers have been unfaithful to their trust, said Mary in triumphantly. But, my dear madame, what justice is there in that? I have paid my money, and what business is it to them when I present my ticket? That is keeping me out of my just dues. Oh, not a bit of it! That is, if you can read and have, as you admit, read their printed statement that you are not invited to the ground on Sunday. Your fifty-cent ticket will admit you on Monday, and you surely will not argue that the association has not a right to limit the number of guests that it will entertain over the Sabbath? Yes, I argue that it is their business to let me in whenever I present their ticket. Mary in laughed outright. That is marvelous, she said. It is wicked for them to receive payment for your coming in on the Sabbath, and it is wicked for them not to let you in on your ticket. Really, I don't see what the association are to do. They are committing sin either way it is put. I see no way out of it, but to have refused to sell you any tickets at all. Would that have made it right? The laugh that was raised over this innocently put question seemed to irritate her new acquaintance. He spoke hastily. It is a Sabbath-breaking concern, viewed in any light that you choose to put it. There is no sense in holding camp meetings over the Sabbath, and everyone agrees that they have a demoralizing effect. Do you mean me to understand you to think that the several thousand people who are now stopping at Chautauqua will be breaking the Sabbath by going out of their tents tomorrow and walking down to the public service? The bit of sophistry in this meekly put question was overlooked or at least not answered, and the logical young gentleman asked. If they think Sabbath services in the woods so helpful, why are they not consistent? Let them throw the meeting open for all who wish to come, making the Gospel without money and without price, as they pretend it is. Why isn't that done? Well, there are at least half a dozen reasons. I wonder you have not thought of one of them. In the first place, that, of course, would tempt to a great deal of Sabbath traveling, a thing which they carefully guard against now by refusing to admit all travelers. And in the second place, it would give the Chautauqua people a great deal to do in the way of entertaining so large a class of people. As it is, they have quite as much as they care to do to make comfortable the large company who belong to their family. And in the third place, but perhaps you do not care to hear all the reasons? He ignored this question also and went back to one of her arguments. They don't keep travelers away at all, even by your own admission. What is to hinder hundreds of them from coming here today and buying season tickets in order to get in tomorrow? He had the benefit of a most quizzical glance, then, from Marion's shining eyes before she answered. Oh, well, if people are really so hungering and thirsting for the Gospel, as it is dispensed at Chautauqua, that they are willing to act a lie by pretending that they are members who have been and are to be in regular attendance and then are willing to pay two dollars and a half for a Sunday meeting, I don't know, but I think they ought to be allowed to creep in, don't you? End of Chapter 16, Recording by Trisha G. Chapter 17 of Four Girls at Chautauqua The Slipper Box Recording is in the public domain. Four Girls at Chautauqua by Pansy. Chapter 17. Getting Ready to Live Amid the laughter that followed this retort, the company rose up from the table and went their various ways to meet perhaps again. How on earth do you manage to keep so thoroughly posted in regard to Chautauqua affairs? One would think you were the wife of the private secretary. I shouldn't have known whether the gates were to be opened or closed tomorrow. This from Ruth as the two girls paced the long piazza while waiting for the carriage which was to take them to the boat, for having exhausted the resources of Mayville for entertainment they were about to return to Chautauqua. Marian laughed. I'm here in the capacity of a newspaper writer, please remember, she answered promptly, and what I don't know I can imagine, like the rest of that brilliant fraternity. I am not really positive about a great many of the statements that I made, except on the general principle that these people belong to the class who are very much given to doing according to their printed word. It says on the circulars that the gates will be closed on the Sabbath, and I dare say they will be. At least we have a right to assume such to be the case until it is proven false. What class of people do you mean who are given to doing as they have agreed? Christian people do you refer to? Well, yes, the sort of Christians that one meets at such a gathering as this. As a rule, the Nambi-Pambi Christians stay away from such places, or if they come they float off to Saratoga or some more kindred climate. I beg your pardon, Ruthie, that doesn't mean you, you know, because you are not one of any sort. Then do you take it to be their religion which inclines you to trust to their word without having an individual acquaintance with them? Marian shrugged her shoulders. Oh, bother, she said gaily. You are not turning theologian or police detective in search of suspicious characters, are you? I never pretend to pry into my notions for and against people and things. If I was betrayed into anything that sounded like common sense, I beg your pardon. I am out on a frolic and mean to have it if there is any such thing. Well, before you go back into absolute nonsense, let me ask you one more question. Do you really feel as deeply as you pretended to that man on all these questions of the Shatakwa conscience? I mean, is it a vital point in your estimation whether people go there to church on Sunday or not? Marian hesitated and a fine glow deepened on her face as she said, after a little, speaking with grave dignity, I do not know that I can explain myself to you, Ruth, and I dare say that I seem to you like a bundle of contradictions. But it is a real pleasure to me to come in contact with people who have earnest faith and eager enthusiasm over anything and principal enough to stand by their views through evil and good report. In this way, and to a great degree, this meeting is a positive delight to me, though I know personally as little about the feeling from which they think their actions take rise as any mortal can. Does that answer satisfy you, my Blessed Mother Confessor? Or are you more muddled than ever over what I do and especially over what I do not believe? If I believed as much as you do, I should look further. Ruth said this with emphasis, and there was that in it which, despite her attempts to throw it off, set Mary into thinking and kept her wonderfully quiet during their return trip. On the whole, the flight to Mayville was not viewed entirely in the light of a success. Ruth had been quiet and grave for some time when she suddenly spoke in her most composed and decided voice. I shall go to Saratoga on Monday, whether anyone else will or not. I shall find plenty of friends to welcome me and I shall take the morning train from here. But she didn't. Meantime, Flossie's afternoon had been an uninterrupted satisfaction to her. She attended the children's meeting, and it was perfectly amazing to her newly awakened brain how many of the stories used to point truths for the children touched home to her. Dr. Hurlbut of Plainfield seemed to have especially planned his address for the purpose of hitting at some of the markedly weak points in her character, though no doubt the good man would have been utterly amazed had he known her thoughts. She listened and laughed with the rest over the story of the poor tailor who promised a coat to a customer for one, two, and three weeks, keeping up his promises one on the other until he had a perfect pyramid of them only to topple about his ears. She heard with the rest the magnificent voice ring out the solemn conclusion. Children, he did not mean to lie. He did not even think he was a liar. He only broke his promises. They all heard, and I don't know how many shivered over it, but I do know that to Flossy Shipley it seemed as if someone had struck her an actual blow. Was it possible that the easy sentences, the easy promises, to write, to come, to bring this, to tell that, made so gracefully, sounding so kindly, costing so little because forgotten almost as soon as her head was turned away, actually belonged in that list described by the ugly word lie. Flossy had been a special sinner in this department of polite wickedness because it just accorded with her nature. Such promises were so easy to make and seemed to please people and were so easy to forget. Like the tailor she hadn't meant to be a liar nor dreamed that she was one. But her wide open ears took it all in and her roused brain turned the thought over and over until be it known to you that the girl's happy pastor, when he receives from her a decided yes sir I will do it, may rest assured that unless something beyond her control intervenes she will be at her post. So much did Dr. Hurlbut accomplish that afternoon without ever knowing it. There were many things done that afternoon I suspect that only the light of the judgment day will reveal. Over the story of the two workmen who each resolved to stick to a certain effort for six months and did it, the one earning thereby a patent right worth thousands of dollars and the other teaching a little dog how to dance to the whistling of a certain tune, Placie looked unutterably sober while the laughter swelled to a perfect roar around her. It was hard to feel that not six months only but a dozen years of intelligent life were gone from her and she had not even taught a dog to dance a jig. That was the very way she put it in her humility. And I do not say that she placed it too low because I really don't know that Flacie Shipley had ever had even so settled a purpose in life as that. She had simply fluttered around the edge of the solemn business that we call living. But along with the sober thought blowed the earnest purpose given another dozen years to my young lady's life and they will bear a different record and whatever they bear Dr. Hurlbut will be in a sense responsible for though he never saw her and probably never will. Verily this living is a complicated bewildering thing. Well for us that all the weight of the responsibility is not ours to bear. There was still another story and over it Flacie's lips parted and her eyes glowed with feeling that wonderful machine that the most skillful workmen tried in vain to repair that was useless and worthless until the name of the owner was found on it and he was sent for then indeed it found the master hand the only one who could write it. She did not need Dr. Hurlbut's glowing application. So he who made us and engraved his name his image on our bodies can alone take our hearts and make them right. Flacie listened to this and the sentences that followed thrilling her heart with their power and beauty thrilling as they would not have done one week ago for did she not know by actual experience just how blessed a worker the great maker was had she not carried her heart to him and had he not left his indelible impression there oh this was a wonderful meeting to Flacie one that she will never forget one that many others will have reason to remember because of the way in which she listened but was it not strange the way in which her education was being cared for after T she stood at the entrance of the tent looking out for the girls looking out also on the cool quiet sunset and the glory spread everywhere for there had been sunshine that day part of the time and there was a clear sun setting under her arm she held the treasure which she had in the morning determined to possess a good plain large print bible not at all like the velvet covered one that lay on her toilet stand at home but such as the needs of bible students at Chautauqua had demanded and therefore much better fitted for actual service than the velvet among the many passersby came Mrs. Smythe she halted before Flacie good evening I thought your party must have left I haven't seen you since Thursday haven't you been fearfully bored we are going to leave on Monday morning going to Saratoga don't some of you want to join us I don't know Flacie said thoughtfully mindful of Ruth and her plan that had not worked it is possible that Ms. Erskine may do your entire party go oh not my nephew of course nothing could tear him away he is perfectly charmed with all this singing and praying and preaching but I confess it is too much of a good thing for me I am not intellectually inclined I like the music very well and some of the addresses are fine but there is such a thing as carrying meetings to excess at this point she turned quickly at the sound of a firm step behind her and greeted a young man speak of angels and you hear their wings or the squeak of their boots she said we were just talking about you Evan my nephew Mr. Roberts miss Shipley I believe you have never met before had they not there was a heightened flush on the cheek of each as they shook hands it was clear that each recognized the other are we strangers he asked with a bright smile speaking so low that Mrs. Smith whose attention had already wandered from them to a group who were passing did not hear the words on the contrary I think we are related though I do not know that we have happened to hear each other's names before Clossie understood the relationship sons and daughters of one father for she knew that this was the young man who had twice questioned her concerning her allegiance to that father also she remembered him as the only one whom she had ever heard pray for her Mrs. Smith called out a gay good evening to them and joined a party of friends and Mr. Roberts leaned against a tree and prepared to cultivate the acquaintance of his newly found relative you have one of those large sensible looking Bibles I see he said I have been very much tempted but I could not make myself feel that I really needed one I really needed mine Clossie said smiling I left my Bible at home I had not such a thought as bringing it along I feel now as if I had a treasure that I didn't know how to use it is quite new to me I don't know where to read first but I suppose it makes no difference indeed it does make a great difference he said smiling and you will enjoy finding out how to read it Chautauqua is a good place for such a study and the Bible reading this evening is an excellent place to commence are you going yes indeed Clossie said with brightening eyes I have been looking forward to it all day I can't think what a Bible reading is do they just read verses in the Bible yes he said smiling it is just Bible verses with a word of explanation now and then and a little singing but the Bible verses are something remarkable as you will see it is nearly time for service are you ready shall we walk down in secure seats so they went down together in the early twilight and took seats under the trees amid the glowing of brilliant lights and the soft sound of music coming from the piano on the stand end of chapter 17 recording by Trisha G chapter 18 of four girls at Chautauqua this LibriVox recording is in the public domain four girls at Chautauqua by Pansy chapter 18 the silent witness that Bible reading I wish I could make it appear to you as it did to Clossie Shipley not that either because I trust that the sound of the Bible verses is not so utterly new to you as it was to her rather that it might sound to you as it did to the earnest sold young man who sat beside her taking in every word with as much eagerness as if some of the verses had not been his dear and long cherished friends nay with more eagerness on that account do you know Dr. Parsons of Boston it was he who conducted that reading and his theme was the coming of the Lord let me give you just a few of the groupings as he called them forth from his congregation under the trees and which he called the Lord's own testimonies to his coming watch therefore for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come therefore be ye also ready for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour where in the Son of Man cometh take ye heed watch and pray for ye know not when the time is for solemn warnings from the head of the vineyard they reached to Flossie's very soul and she had that old well-known thrill of feeling that almost every Christian has some time experienced if I had only been there if he had spoken such words to me I could never never have forgotten or been neglectful if I could only have heard him speak and as if in answer to this longing cry Dr. Parsons himself read the next solemn sentence read it in such a way that it almost seemed as if this might be the sacred garden and himself standing among the olive trees speaking even to her and what I say unto you I say unto all watch here then was her direction from his own lips those centuries had passed since he spoke them they echoed down to her she was not overwhelmed she was not crushed by the new and solemn sense of her calling that flowed over her the Lord himself was there in every deed and whispered in her ear it is I be not afraid and her heart responded solemnly I Lord I feel thy presence I have been sleeping but I am awake and from henceforth I will watch that Bible reading was like a whole week of theological study to Flossie it was not that she learned simply about the blessed assurance the weight of testimony amounting to an absolute certainty concerning the coming of the Lord but there were so many truths growing out from that so many incentives to be up and doing for she found before the reading closed that one must not only watch but in the watching work and there were so many reasons why she should and so many hints as to the way and the time then there was also the most blessed discovery that the Bible was not a book to treat like an arithmetic that one must read through the book of Genesis then go on to Exodus a chapter today two chapters tomorrow and perhaps some days when one was not in too great a hurry and could read very fast take a half a dozen chapters and so get through it but she learned that there were little connecting links of sweetness all the way through the book that she had a right to look over in Revelation for an explanation of something that was stated in Deuteronomy she did not learn all this either at this one time but she got a vivid hint of it strong enough to keep her hunting and pulling at the lovely golden thread of the Bible for long years to come there were special points about the closing verses that throbbed in her heart and awakened purposes that never slept again it was the gentleman who sat beside her who read the solemn words of the verse but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are there in shall be burned up seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons i.e. to be in all holy conversation and godliness his voice was very earnest and his face had an eager look of solemn joy from it she felt the truth that while the words which he had been reading were full of solemnity and while he felt the sense of responsibility there was also that in them which filled his heart with great joy for when that time should come would he not be with his Lord again when a little later he gave the closing verses of this wonderful lesson reading them from her bible because in the dimness the print was larger and clearer than his own they made the conclusion of the whole matter ye are the children of light and the children of the day we are not of the night nor of the darkness therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober he marked it with his pencil as he finished reading and as he returned to the book to her keeping he said with a smile we will shall we not and it felt to flossy like a covenant witnessed by the Lord himself but Dr. Parsons you know knew nothing of all this Chautauqua was the place for sowing the seed they could only hope that the Lord of the vineyard was looking on and watching over the coming harvest it was not for their eyes to see the fruits Sunday morning at Chautauqua none of all the many hundreds who spent the day within the shadow of that sweet and leafy place have surely forgotten how the quaint and quiet beauty of the place and its surroundings fell upon them they know just how the birds sang among those tall old trees they know just how still and blue and clear the lake looked as they cut glimpses of it through the quivering green of myriad leaves they knew just how clearly the Chautauqua bells cut the air and called to the worship it needs not even these few words to recall the place and its beauty to the hearts of those who worshipped there that day and for you who did not see it nor feel its power there is no use to try to describe Chautauqua only this it is a place to love and look back to with a sort of sweet and tender longing all your lives our girls felt somewhat of the sacredness of the place at least they went around with a more decided feeling that it was Sunday than they had ever realized before three of them did to flossy this day was like the revelation of a new heaven and a new earth her first Sunday in Christ there was no sunshine neither was there rain just a hush of all things and sweetness everywhere after breakfast Ruth and Marian lulled on their cots and studied the program while the other two made hasty toilets and announced their intention of going to Sunday school what in the name of sense takes you queried Marian rising on one elbow the better to view this strange phenomena why I have a mission Yuri said about 3000 people have been talking all this week about teaching a few Bible verses to some children today and I'm going to find out what they are and what is so wonderful about them besides I was taken for a being named Miss Ryder and on inquiry I find her to be what they call an infant class teacher so I am going to hunt her up and see if we look alike and our affinities flossy chose to make no answer at all and presently the two departed together to attend their first Sabbath school since they were known as children as they passed a certain tent Yuri's ready ears gained information from other passersby this is where the little children are Miss Ryder is going to teach them Yuri halted I'm going in here she said decidedly to flossy that is the very lady I am in search of and seeing flossy hesitate she added oh you may go on it is just as well to divide our forces we may each have some wonderful adventure you go your way and I will go mine and we'll see what will come of it the tent was full apparently but that spirit which was right at Chautauqua and which prompted everybody to try to look out a little for the comfort of everybody else made a seat full of ladies crowd a little and make room for her rose and rose of little people with smiling faces and shining eyes it was a pretty sight Yuri gave eager attention to the lady who was talking to them and laughed a little to herself over the dissimilarity of their appearance hair and eyes and height and everything else totally unlike me she said she is older than I too ever so much she doesn't look as I thought Miss Ryder would but what she was saying proved to be very interesting not only to the little people but to Yuri she listened eagerly it was important to discover what had been so stirring the Sunday school world all the week she was not left in doubt the story was plainly clearly fascinatingly told it was that tender one of the sick man so long waiting waiting to be helped into the pool disappointed year after year until one blessed day Jesus came that way and asked one simple question and received an eager answer and gave one brief command and low the work was done the long long years of pain and trial were over do you think this seemed like a wonderful story to Yuri do you think her cheeks glowed with joy over the thought of the great love and the great power of Jesus alas alas to her there was no beauty in him this simple tender story did not move her as the commonplace account of a common sickness and common recovery given in a village paper would have done the very most that she thought of it was this that Miss Ryder has a good deal of dramatic power how well she tells the story but dear me how stupid it must be what is the use of taking so much trouble for these little midgets they don't understand the story and of what use would it be to them if they did something that happened to somebody hundreds of years ago but now her attention was arrested by the sound of a very loud whisper just behind her given in a childish voice Miss Ryder Miss Ryder the child was saying and emphasizing her whisper by a poll at a lady's dress Yuri turned quickly the dress belonged to a young fair girl with fresh glowing face and large bright eyes that shown now with feeling as she listened eagerly to the story to the story and to the comments of the children concerning it then she in turn whispered to the lady nearest her is it miss Ryder who is teaching no it is mrs. Clark of Newark that is miss Ryder leaning against a post then Yuri looked back to her she is no older than I she murmured indeed not so old I should think her hair must be exactly the color of mine and we are about the same height I wonder if we do look in the least alike what do I care yet still she looked the bright face fascinated her the little child had won the lady's attention and the lips and eyes and indeed the whole face were vivid with animation as she bent low and answered some troubled question appealing to the diagram on the board and making clear her answer by rapid gestures with her fingers the lady beside Yuri volunteered some more information miss Ryder was to have taught this class I heard I wonder why she didn't I don't know Yuri answered briefly then she looked back at her again she is jealous she said to herself she was to have taught this class this morning and by some blundering she was left out and she is disgusted she will say that such teaching as this amounts to nothing she could have done it five times as well or if she doesn't say that last she will think it and act it I have no doubt these rival teachers cordially hate each other like politicians nevertheless that fresh young face with its glow of feeling fascinated her she kept looking at her she gave no more attention to the lesson what was it after all but an old story that had nothing to do with her the fact that it was taken from the bible was proof enough of that but she watched miss Ryder the session closed and that lady pressed forward to assist in giving out papers the crowd pushed the willing Yuri nearer to her so near that she could catch the sentence that she was eagerly saying to the lady near her isn't mrs. Clark delightful it was such a beautiful lesson this morning I think it is such a treat and such a privilege to be allowed to listen to her yes darling this last to another little one claiming a word of course Jesus can hear you now just as well as though he stood here he often says to people wilt thou be made whole he has said so to you this morning Yuri turned away quickly she had had her lesson it wasn't from the bible nor yet did she find it in those hundred little faces so eager to know the story in all its details it was just in that young face not so old as hers so bright so strong so thoroughly alert and so thoroughly enlisted in this matter the vivid contrast between that life and hers struck Yuri with the force of a new revelation she went to the general service under the trees she heard a sermon from dr. Pierce so full of power and eloquence that to many who heard it there came new resolves new purposes new plans I beg her pardon she did not listen she simply occupied a seat and looked as though she was a listener but the truth was she had not learned yet to listen to sermons the very fact that it was a sermon made it clear to her mind that there was to be nothing in it for her this had been her education in reality during that hour of worship she was engaged in watching the changeful play of expression on misriders face as her eyes brightened and glowed with enthusiasm or trembled with tears according as the preacher's words roused or subdued her well Yuri had her lesson it was not from the bible it was not from the preacher's lips except incidentally but it was from a living epistle ye shall be witnesses of me was the promise of christ in the long ago just before the cloud received him out of sight is not that promise verified to us often and often when we know it not misrider had no means of knowing as she sat a listener that sabbath mourning that she was witnessing for christ but she was just as surely speaking for him as though she had stood up amid that throng and said I love jesus ye are my witnesses sayeth the lord and the poet has said they also serve who only stand and wait blessed are those in whom the waiting and the service go together end of chapter 18 recording by trisha g chapter 19 of four girls at shatakwa this liver box recording is in the public domain four girls at shatakwa by pansy chapter 19 an old story mean time flassy deserted by her companion made her way somewhat timidly down to the stand amazed by the great congregation of people who had formed themselves into a sunday school with all their haste the girls had gotten a very late start the opening exercises were all over and the numerous teachers were turning to their work strangely enough the first person whom flessey's eye took indistinctly enough for recognition was mr roberts he had recognized her also and was coming toward her how do you do this morning he said holding out his hand do you know i have a mission for you there are two boys who seem to belong to nobody and to have nothing in common with this gathering except curiosity the superintendent has twice tried to charm them in but without success they will come no further than that tree i think they have slipped in from the village probably in a most unorthodox fashion and what i am coming at is will you go out under the tree to them and beguile them into attending a sabbath school for once in their lives they look to me as though it was probably a rare occurrence now you are not to suppose that this invitation came to flessey with the same sound that it would have had to you if mr roberts had come to you that sabbath morning and asked you to tell those two boys a bible story it is something that you have probably been doing a good deal of all your grown-up life and two boys at shatakwa are no more to you than two boys anywhere else except that there is a delightful sensation connected with having a classroom out in the open air but imagine yourself suddenly confronted by dr vincent and asked if you would be so kind as to step on the platform and preached of five thousand people from a text that he would select for you now you have something of an idea as to how this request felt to flessey a rare glow spread all over her face and she looked up at her questioner with eyes that were quivering in tears you do not know what you are saying she said in low and trembling voice i have not been to a sabbath school in seven years and i never taught anybody anything in my life it was true that he did not know it seemed to him such a very little thing that he had asked however he spoke gently enough as one who was courteous even when he could not quite comprehend then is not today a good time to commence you will surely never have a better opportunity but she shook her head and turned quite away from him walking down among the trees where no people were her joy was all gone and her pleasant time she had meant to go to sabbath school to sit down quietly in somebody's class and learn oh a very great deal during the next hour now she was all stirred up and could not go anywhere as for mr roberts he went back to the large class who were waiting for him and those two boys hovered around the edge of that feast like hungry creatures who had yet never learned to come to the table and take their places flossy looked at them at first indignantly as miserable beings who had spoiled her pleasure then she became fascinated by their bright dirty faces and roguish ways she edged a little nearer to them boys she was afraid of she knew nothing about them had they been a little older and been dressed well and been of the stamp of boys who knew how to bring her handkerchief to her when she dropped it she would have known what to say to them but boys who were not more than 12 or 14 and who were both ragged and dirty were new phases of life to her why don't you go to Sunday school she questioned at last with a timid air she could at least ask that they were not the least timid as to answering the older and the dirtier of the two turned his roguish eyes on her and surveyed her from head to foot before he said why don't you flossy was unprepared for this question but she answered quickly and truthfully because i am afraid to go both boys stared and then laughed and the other younger one said so be we i suppose we are both very silly flossy said but i have not been to Sunday school for so long that i have forgotten all about it let's have one of our own that we are not afraid to go to and she sat bravely down on the stump at her feet her mood had changed very suddenly only yesterday she had read a verse in that bible and it thrilled her then and came to her now the man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him whole suppose she were the man and these were the Jews could she not say to them he has made me whole she could tell them about that pool and about the sick man it wouldn't be teaching in Sunday school but it would be doing the best thing that she could it suddenly occurred to her to wonder where the lesson was that was being taught this morning and she consulted the lesson leaf that Mr. Roberts had left in her hand the glow on her face deepened and spread as she recognized the very story which had so filled her heart the day before what if the great physician had actually selected her to tell of that miracle of healing to these two neglected ones surely they were not so formidable as the Jews but how in the world to begin was a bewilderment clearly she must decide at once if she was to have any class for her two boys began to look about them and show signs of flight did you ever hear about a wonderful spring that used to cure people lots of them I used to live right by one that cured the rheumatism but this one would cure other things only it wouldn't cure people all the time there was just one time in the year when it would do it and then the one that got in first was the only one cured her listeners looked skeptical what was that for we read the boulder of the two why didn't it cure about one I don't know flossy said there are ever so many things that I know that I can't tell why they are so for instance I don't know why that spring you have been telling me about cures the rheumatism but I know it does for you told me so no more do I the boy said promptly having in his heart a rising respect for the young teacher and her story then this new beginner with the air of a diplomatist told all the details of this wonderful cure without once mentioning the name of either person or place an innate sense of the human heart told her that Jerusalem and Jesus were both probably connected in the minds of these two with the Bible and their appearance told her that they were likely to be skeptical as to the interest of Bible stories but like all ignorant persons there was a credulous side to their nature it is surprising what marvelous stories people are prepared to receive and credit provided only that they do not come from the Bible with a thus sayeth the Lord to vouch for them then indeed they are apt to become unreasonable and improbable presently her boys volunteered some remarks and asked some questions jolly that fellow must have felt good I guess he wanted to run all around the country and tell about it where was this spring and what was the man's name that cured him the other chimed in yes and how did he do it that's what I'm after and is he dead because I don't hear of no such cures nowadays then was flossy tremulous of heart she had become eagerly interested in her story and her boys would the charm that she had woven be broken the moment they knew the story's origin but of course she must tell them for what good else would the story do he is dead she said slowly answering the last question first that is he is what you call dead but of course you know as well as I do that that doesn't mean what it seems to it means simply that he doesn't live in the same place that he once did he went to heaven to live ever so many years ago she waited to feel the effect of this announcement the boys were silent and great they had evidently heard of heaven and had some measure of respect for the name the new teacher did not know what to say next the boys helped her the younger one drew a heavy sigh well all I've got to say is I wish he was alive now he said in a regretful tone because my mother has been sick longer than 38 years she has been sick about all her life and she is real bad now so she can't walk at all I suppose he could cure her if he was here I suppose he could cure her now flossy said this slowly reverently looking earnestly at the boy hoping to convey to him a sense of her meaning he looked utterly puzzled light began to dawn on the face of the older boy she's been telling us one of them bible stories he said speaking not to flossy but to his companion and assuming an injured air as if a rung had been done them flossy spoke quickly of course I have I thought you wanted to hear something that really happened and not a made-up story this seemed to be an appeal to their dignity and they eyed her reflectively how do you know it happened ventured the younger one flossy gave a rapid and animated answer there are about a hundred reasons why I know it it would take me all day to tell you half of them what one is that I read it in a book which good men who know a great deal and who have been studying all their lives to find out about it say they know it's true and I believe what they tell me about Washington and Lincoln and other men whom I never saw so I ought to believe them when they tell me about this man but there's one thing you don't know you don't know that he can cure folks now and he don't do it this was spoken with a quiet positiveness and with the air that said that can't be disputed and you know it can't flossy hesitated just a moment the glow on her face deepened and spread then she answered in much the same tone that the boy had used I know he can and I have good reason for knowing I'll tell you a secret you are the very first persons I have told about it but he has cured me I have been sick all my life when I came here to I was sick I could not do anything that I was made to do and I kept doing things all the time that were not meant for me to do but he has cured me the boys looked at her in absolute incredulous wonder was you sick in bed when you came ventured one of them at last no it is not that kind of sickness that I mean that is when the body is sick the body that when the soul goes away looks like nothing but marble cannot move nor feel nor speak that isn't of much consequence you know because we are sure that the soul will go away from it after a while it is the soul of mine that is going to live forever that was cured how do you know it was came again from these wondering boys flossy smiled a rare bright smile that charmed them if yours had been cured you would not ask me that question she said you would know how I know it but I can't tell you how it is don't you know there are some things that you are sure of that you can't explain you are sure you can think aren't you but how would you set to work to explain to me that you are sure the only way that you can know how is by going to this doctor and getting cured then you will understand I'd like him if he would cure folks's bodies began the boy who had a sick mother speaking in a doubtful somewhat dissatisfied tone he does flossy said quickly don't people's bodies get well sometimes and who can cure bodies except the one who made them if you want your mother cured you ought to try him if she is to be made well you may be sure that he can do it but why should he so long as you do not care enough about it to ask him there was a rush and a bustle among the crowds in the distance Sunday school session was over and the great company were moving for seats for the morning service the boys took the alarm and fled each glancing back to nod and smile at the bright apparition who had told them a story flossy picked up her bible she had not needed to use it during this talk the story of Bethsaida had burned itself so into her heart with that morning reading that she had no need to look at it again she gave a thoughtful little sigh I don't know about that being teaching she said within her heart but I certainly told them about Jesus and I told them it was Jesus who had made me whole I made my own experience witness for me to that degree if that is what they mean by teaching I like to do it I mean to go to Sunday school just as soon as I get home and if I find out that they just tell about things as they are in the bible I can do it I can make the boys listen to me I know bright little fairy that she was there was a new glow about her face she was waking to the thought that there was such a thing as power over people's brains no danger but she will use her knowledge let me tell you another thing that Chautauqua did for her it planted the seed that shall blossom into splendid teaching there was one teacher who gave many glances that morning to the little group around that old tree stump Mr. Roberts from his point of observation not far away watched this scene from beginning to end it fascinated him he saw the timid beginning and the ever increasing interest until when Flossy closed her bible and arose he turned his eyes from her with a quiet smile in them and to himself he said unless I am very greatly mistaken she has found something that she can do end of chapter 19 recording by Trisha G chapter 20 of four girls at Chautauqua this Librebox recording is in the public domain four girls at Chautauqua by Pansy chapter 20 people who having eyes see not girls said Yuri as she munched a doughnut which she had brought from the lunch table with her and lounged on a camp chair waiting for the afternoon service do you know that Flossy taught a class in Sunday school this morning taught a class repeated both Marion and Ruth in one voice and with about equal degrees of amazement she did as true as the world that is she must have been teaching the way of it was this I went to see the little midgets exhibit themselves and when I came out of the tent and walked over toward the stand there sat Flossy on that old stump just back of the stand and before her were two of the roughest looking boys that ever emerged from the backwoods they were ragged and dirty and wild and as wicked little imps as one could find I am sure Flossy was talking to them and had a large Bible in her lap and one of those lesson leaves that they flutter about here so much and well altogether it was an amazing sight she was certainly talking to them with all her might and they were listening and it is my opinion that she was trying to play Sunday school teacher and give them a lesson you know she is an imitative little sheep and always was nonsense Ruth said and she seemed to speak more sharply than the occasion warranted just as if Flossy should be couldn't have anything to say to two boys but what she found in the Bible little she knows what is in it for that matter I suppose she wandered out that way because she did not know what else to do with herself and talked to the boys by way of amusement she has often amused herself in that way I am sure oh yes but these specimens were rather too youthful and dirty for that sort of amusement and she had a Bible in her lap what of that Bibles are as common as leaves here I found two lying on the seat which I took this morning people seem to think the art of stealing has not found its way here Flossy has changed interrupted Marian the mouse is certainly different from what I ever saw her before she seems so quiet and self-sustained I thought she was bored why I expected her to hail a trip to her dear Saratoga with absolute delight she belongs to just the class of people who would find the intellectual element here too strong for her and would have to flutter off in that direction in self-defense Ruthie you have the temper of an angel not to fly out at me for bringing in Saratoga every few minutes it isn't with malice a forethought I assure you I forget your projected scheme whenever I speak of it but you must allow me to be astonished over Flossy's refusal to go with you something has come over the mousey that is not explainable by any of the laws of science with which I am acquainted don't trouble yourself to apologize I beg I hope you do not think I am so foolish as to care anything about your hints as to Saratoga of course I recognize my right in this world to be governed by my own tastes and inclinations I have enjoyed that privilege too long to be disturbed by trifles this from Ruth but I shall have to admit that it was very stiffly spoken and if she had but known it indicated that she did care a great deal in truth she was very sore over her position and her plans she who had prided herself on her intellectuality bored to the very point of leaving and Flossy who had been remarkable for nothing but flutter and fashion actually so interested that she could not be coaxed into going away what was it that interested her that was the question which interested and puzzled Ruth she studied over it during all the time that Marianne and Yuri were chatting about the morning service Flossy was different there was no shutting one's eyes to that fact the truth was that she had suddenly seemed to have little in common with her own party she certainly said little to them she made no complaints as to inconveniences even when they amounted to positive annoyances with the rest of the party she had given up afternoon toilets all together and in fact the subject of dress seemed to be one that had suddenly sunk in into such insignificance as to cease to claim her thoughts at all grave changes these to be found in Flossy Shipley then too she had taken to wandering away alone in the twilight during the short spaces between services she was nowhere to be found but the Chautauqua bell brought her back invariably in time to make ready for the next service there is certainly more to the little mouse than I ever expected before if Chautauqua wakes our wits as it has Flossy's we shall have reason to bless the day that Dr. Vincent invented it this Ruth heard from Marianne as she roused herself from her reverie to give attention to what the girls were saying they had got back to a discussion of Flossy again it was a subject that some way annoyed Ruth so she dismissed it and made ready for the afternoon meeting whether they all went to Marianne the morning sermon had been an intellectual treat she had a way of listening to sermons that would have been very disheartening to the preacher if he had known of it she had learned how to divest herself of all personality the subject was one that had nothing to do with her the application of solemn truths were for the people around her who believed in these things but never for her so she listened and enjoyed just as she enjoyed a book or a picture just as if she had no soul at all nothing but an intellect it was very rare indeed that an arrow from anyone's quiver touched her but there was one single sentence in Dr. Pierce's sermon that was destined to haunt her said he when the blind man was questioned he couldn't argue he didn't try to but he could stand up there before them and say whereas I was blind now I see make the most of that and wasn't it an unanswerable argument there is no argument like it when men are honest and earnest and spiritual in Wall Street it tells now that was just the kind of sentence to delight Marianne's heart the inconsistencies of Christians was one of her very strong points she saw them bristling out everywhere and she looked about her with a satisfied smile on her face that so large a company of them were getting so sharp a thrust as this and suddenly they're flashed across her brain and utterly new thought whereas I was blind now I see perhaps she said to herself perhaps I am blind what if that should be the only reason why these things are not to me as they are to others how do I know after all but there may really be a spiritual blindness and that it may be holding me how do I know but that the reason some of these poor ignorant people whom I meet are so firm in their belief of Christ and heaven is because they have had just this experience whereas I was blind now I see how can I possibly tell but that this may be the case I wonder what I do think anyway do I really think that all these men gathered here are either deceived or deceivers one or the other they must be and either position is too silly to sustain or else I must be blind if there should be such a thing is seeing and I discover it too late if there is a too late to this thing and I do not find it out simply because I am blind what then the sun shines of course though I dare say an entirely blind man doesn't believe it doesn't have an idea anyway what it is how can he over and over did she revolve this sentence and look at it from every attainable standpoint no use to try to shut it off back it came all the clatter with which she had amused herself during the interval between meetings had not banished it no sooner was she seated under those trees waiting for the afternoon service than the thought presented itself for her to consider I wonder if there are different degrees of moral blindness she said suddenly people who can see just enough to enable them to keep constantly going the wrong way so that they are no better off than the blind except that they admit that there is such a thing as seeing the thing is possible I suppose Ruth turned and looked at her wonderingly what are you talking about she asked it last I'm moralizing Marion said laughing you yourself suggested that train of thought I was wondering which of us was right in our notions you or I and for all practical purposes what difference it made you are too high up for me to follow I haven't the least idea what you mean why I tell you I was contrasting our conditions let me see if I have a right view of them don't you honestly think that there is a God and a heaven and a hell and that to escape the one place and secure the other certain efforts upon your part are necessary why of course I think so I have never made any pretense of disbelieving all these things I think it is foolish to do so exactly now for one question more have you made the effort that you believe to be necessary have you been hired as an exhorter Ruth said trying to laugh why no I cannot say that I have well then suppose you and I should both die tonight I don't believe any of these things you do but you don't practice on your belief then according to your own view you will be lost forever and according to that same view so shall I now practically what difference is there between us so if it is really blindness why may not one be totally blind as well as to have a little sight that keeps one all the time in the wrong way I dare say we are quite as well off Ruth said composedly only I think there is a point of difference between us I think your position is silly I don't see how anyone who has studied Pali and Butler and in fact any of the sciences can think so foolish a thing as you pretend to one doesn't like to be foolish even if one doesn't happen to be a Christian foolish Miriam repeated and there was a fine glow on her face don't you go and talk anything so wild as that if there is any class of people in this world who profess to be simpletons and act up to their professions it is you people who believe everything and do nothing now just look at the thing for a minute suppose you say there is a precipice over there and every whiff of wind blows us nearer to it we will surely go over if we sit here we ought to go up on that hill I know that is a safe place and yet you sit perfectly still and suppose I say I don't believe there is any such thing as a precipice and I believe this is just as safe a place as there is anywhere and I sit still now I should like to know which of us was acting the sillier you would be Ruth said stoutly if you persisted in disbelieving what could be proved to you so clearly that no person with common sense would think of denying it humph said Marian settling back in that case I think there would be very little chance for each to accuse the other of folly only I confess to you just this Ruth Erskine if you could prove to me that there was a precipice over there and that we were being carried toward it and that the hill was safe I know in my very soul that I should get up and go to that hill I would not be such a fool as to delay I know I wouldn't you are frank Ruth said and her face was flushed I am sure I don't see why you don't make the attempt and decide for yourself if you feel this thing so deeply I think there ought to be a prayer meeting on your account if I knew Dr. Vincent I would try to have this thing turned into a regular camp meeting time then you would doubtless get all the help you need Marian laughed good humordly don't waste your sarcasm on me she said cheerily keep your weapons for more impressible subjects you know I am not in the least afraid of any such arguments I have been talking downright truth and common sense and you know it and our hit that is what makes you sarcastic did you know that was at the bottom of most sarcasm my dear do hush please these people before us are trying hard to hear what the speaker is saying this was Ruth's answer but she had had her sermon and of all the preachers at Chautauqua the one who had preached to her was Marion Wilbur the infidel school teacher it was her use of Dr. Pierce's arrow that had thrust Ruth she gave herself up to the thought of it all during that wonderful afternoon meeting very little did she hear of the speeches saved now and then a sentence more vivid than the rest her brain was busy with new thoughts was it also very queer did it look to others than Marion a strange way to live did she actually believe these things for which she had been contending if she did was she in very deed an idiot it actually began to look as though she might be she was not wild like Yuri nor intense and emotional like Marion she was still and cold and in her way slow given to weighing thoughts and acting calmly from decisions rather than from impulse it struck her oddly enough now that having so stoutly defended the cardinal doctrines of Christian faith she should have no weapons except sarcasm with which to meet a bold appeal to her inconsistency when I get home from Saratoga she said at last turning on easily in her seat annoyed at the persistency of her thoughts I really mean to look into this thing I am not sure but a sense of propriety should lead one to make a profession of religion it is as Marion says strange to believe as we do and not indicated by our professions I am not sure but the right thing for me to do would be to unite with the church there is certainly some ground for the thrusts that Marion has been giving my position must seem inconsistent to her I certainly believe these things what harm in my saying so to everybody rather is it not the right thing to do I will unite with the church from a sense of duty not because my feelings happen to be brought upon by some strong excitement I wonder just what is required of people when they join the church a sense of their own dependence on Christ for salvation I suppose I certainly feel that I am not an unbeliever in any sense of the word I respect Christian people and always did mother used to be a church member I suppose she would be now if she were not an invalid most of the married ladies in our set are church members I don't see why it isn't quite as proper for young ladies to be I certainly mean to give some attention to this matter just as soon as the season is over at Saratoga in the meantime I wonder when there is a train I can get and if I couldn't telegraph to mother to send my trunks on and have them there when I arrived end of chapter 20 recording by Tricia G