 CHAPTER XXII For Professor Langham had been in thorough earnest. It had taken him some time to decide this for himself. He had weighed carefully and with more attention to detail than young men in his frame of mind generally succeed in giving the disadvantages in the situation. On such a subject it is something to be able to own that there are disadvantages. This man owned to them frankly. Esther Randall, he admitted, had been educated on narrow lines. Her father was a home missionary of the radical or fanatical sort and had succeeded to a remarkable degree in permeating his daughter's mind with his ideas. Her work in college, well done though it was, evidently counted for little so far as compared with the molding process that had been going on for years in her home. It was undeniable that he and she differed radically with regard to matters of some importance. As he came to know her more intimately, was it not probable that other points of difference would appear? Was it not altogether possible that these differences would make a difficult problem of life together? Mr. Langham had taken months to study this matter and had finally reached the conclusion that, differed though they might and must, Esther Randall was the one woman in the world whom he wanted for himself. He came back from his long vacation fully resolved upon this course of action and making not the slightest provision for possible decisions that Esther might have reached in the meantime. In truth, Mr. Langham without being consciously or in the least oppressively conceited, had yet a conviction or an impression that he would be able to win any girl on whom he chose to fix his affections. The estimate in which he had heretofore been held in his world justified such an impression. He was eager to walk home with Esther on the first evening of the new year and almost resented her spending the night with her friends. Why could she not have changed a plan of so little consequence when she saw his evident disappointment? In that case they could have seen the girl safely home and had the long walk back together. As he walked back to Mr. Kimball's alone that evening he told himself that, as soon as he had the right to criticize Esther on other matters than her studies, he should tell her plainly that such coiness was unworthy of her and savored of the very young girl or the conscious flirt. But he never told her anything of the kind. Her coiness increased upon her to such an extent and she grew so skillful in managing that the weeks passed without his having secured that interview which he had meant to have it once. There were times when Mr. Langham was so annoyed by the state of things as to be almost tempted to feel that he had been mistaken in his estimate of this girl. How could any girl of refinement steadily plan to circumvent and annoy a man who had plainly made known his desires and intentions? Did she think to tease him into a more open manifestation of his regard for her and thereby give the entire college a chance to gossip about their affairs? But that thought was unworthy of her. She had never shown the slightest tendency toward common coquetry. Nor did she now he was obliged to own. Nothing could be quieter or more correct than her manner. She was even careful not to shun him conspicuously, and yet contrive as he might that strictly private interview could not be arranged in the incidental way that he desired to bring it about, nor indeed in any way unless he risked a definite request to see her alone at a given time, and he shrank from that. Who could tell but, in her present mood, she might decline to make an appointment with him. Meantime Esther was by no means coquettting, nor did she misunderstand the character of Mr. Langham's interest in her. What she was trying to do was to learn, not her own heart, there were times when she felt painfully sure of that, but the right way. Certain homely words of Malindies persisted in repeating themselves in her brain. Then, of course, I quit, Malindie had said. The occasion was when she had discovered that she and Jim Slicer could not walk together in a way to please him. Discovering this, she had quit with as much promptness and directness as she would have shown with regard to any other duty. Evidently, Malindie had never learned that love is an exceptional passion, not subject to guidance and control, but must sway the creature whether it will without regard to duty or even propriety. Esther Randall's problem to the looker on would not have appeared by any means so simple as Malindie's from an ethical standpoint. For whereas Jim Slicer did not believe much in the Bible and laughed about praying, was not Mr. Langham a professor of religion and a Bible teacher? What more could a reasonable being desire? Yet Esther, mentally quoting Malindie again, knew there were lots of things about which they did not agree, things which she believed were vital to her spiritual growth. Moreover, she felt rather than realized that if they were much together it would be she and not he who would slowly change. And yet a whole volume of possible self renunciation and pain were wrapped up in those two short words. While she still hesitated, sure of but one thing, that she must not accept Mr. Langham's personal advances while she was still in a doubtful mind, there came a week that quickened her spiritual nature and placed some things in a clearer light. By invitation of a number of the leading churches in the town, there came a man of national reputation to lead an eight days series of Bible meetings avowedly for the purpose of deepening the Christian life in individuals and of winning outsiders to Christ. On the part of the pastors an earnest effort was made to have their people set apart these eight days to the service of the church so far as possible. Even Dr. Armitage, who was not supposed to look favorably on special efforts of any kind, and who had not united in the original call for these meetings, still gave courteous notice of them from his pulpit and urged upon his people the wisdom of attending at least some of them. After the first day or two, the character of the meetings and the undoubted scholarship as well as spirituality of the leader, won even the indifferent to interest and the attendance was excellent. Several of the college professors spoke an unstinted praise of the Bible expositions and of the methods employed in the meetings urging upon the students to give to them what time they could spare. To this end they extended the date of an examination and gave out less work than usual. But Mr. Langham was not numbered among these professors. He said not a word against the meetings and not a word in their praise. He seemed unable to spare any evenings for them. Not only this, but he gave his personal support to and was present at a social function on the evening when it had been announced that the meeting would be in the interest of college students. Someone made bold to ask him why he did this, and it was reported that he said the social function had been planned before the meetings were announced, and also that religious specialization of this sort was not, in his judgment, in very good taste. Whatever else that series of meetings may have accomplished, they convinced Esther Randall that she and Malindi were having a like experience. She owned to her own heart that, like Malindi, she cared a heath and could care powerful if she would let herself. But that, also like Malindi, she must quit. She knew at last that she could not pray, lead me not into temptation, and choose for her closest companionship one like Mr. Langham. And that's the prayer the Lord gave us for a sample, ain't it? Malindi had asked. After that Esther made as honest an effort as a young woman could to save Mr. Langham from any open avowal of his feelings, but in this she failed. The matter had gone too far before she discovered her own soul. Mr. Langham reached the hour when he all but demanded an interview as his right, and went away from it a deeply astonished as well as a disappointed man. He was not vain above the average of those born to good fortune, and petted alike by family and circumstances. It simply had never occurred to him that any girl whom he should honor with his preference could refuse so great a gift as himself. It had been a very painful interview to Esther, because, compelled by the truth to admit that but for his religious views, or wanta views, she might have answered differently, he tried to argue with her. And she was not ready to argue. What she wanted to do was to live Christ, not argue about him. Mr. Langham had gone away at last, hurt, disappointed, almost angry, but by no means hopeless. He simply could not conceive of this as being a final decision. He told himself that the girl was under the influence of an unnatural religious excitement, that he ought to have waited until the spasm of fanaticism connected with those special meetings had had time to subside. Esther, by reason of her home environment, was peculiarly susceptible to such emotions. She came of a long line of religionists who seemed every now and then to awaken to the vital need or imminent peril of some of the Lord's children, and seemed never to have discovered that the saving of individual souls was a losing game. Of course, he need not wonder that a girl so trained lost her head as soon as there was a special wave of emotional effort. When she had had time to think sanely, she would surely realize what an absurd barrier of sea foam she had tossed up between them. He, a church member and Bible teacher, being objected to on religious grounds. That would be enough if he were an unbeliever. Because of this method of reasoning, when the first warmth of his indignation subsided, Mr. Langham commenced a carefully arranged series of daily courtesies and kindnesses that were harder for Esther than aloofness would have been and bided his time. But the religious spasm did not pass. On the contrary, as the weeks passed, and then the months, and the long vacation came again into view, Mr. Langham went away for the summer with a strange conviction pressing upon him that from a sense of duty, and that solely on religious grounds, this strange girl meant to deliberately and permanently turn away from a position such as could not surely be expected to be offered more than once in a lifetime. However, something was gained when Mr. Langham began really to understand that he had been refused. It had all been hard for Esther, harder than without having lived through the experience, she could have imagined possible. She had been mercifully preserved from that false and foolish idea which some girls indulge, that she must be a lifelong victim to a hopeless love. She knew that the power of Christ over the human heart was supreme, that he was able not only to control and subdue, but also to eradicate, if necessary, any human passion. Yet there were times when the girl shed a few bitter tears and asked herself if she could ever hope to overcome entirely the sense of loss and loneliness. The passing dream had been very sweet. Sometimes she wondered if Melindy still missed Jim Slicer. Not a word of it all was written to her mother. At first she could not write. There was no question awaiting decision. There had not, even from the first, been much doubt in her mind as to her father's and mother's opinions. Why should she burden them with the story of a loss? For at least she had lost a friend. When the months and then the years passed and Esther living her full eager life, grew heart free again and knew that she was happy with a happiness that her young girl days had never known or even imagined, surely there was no occasion then to tell the story of that closed volume. Was there not a sense in which it was not her story but belonged exclusively to Mr. Langham? It is possible that she was helped to more rapid soundness by the fact that in the middle of Professor Langham's second year of disappointed ambitions, he received and accepted a call to an Eastern College, having succeeded in convincing the College Board that there were important reasons why he should make the change at once. Over his going, Faith Farnham was curious and questioned as closely as her sense of propriety would admit and learned nothing. She talked much about him and by degrees Esther came to understand that her friend's interest in him was deeper than her own had ever been. Poor Faith, she said softly to herself when this conviction took full hold upon her. And I sent him away. If he could have stayed, perhaps, then she remembered that there had been a time when it smote her like a blow to think of Faith being in his company and she left out. Over that she smiled. People change, she told herself. I shouldn't mind it now. If he were only, well, different, I should like it for her. But perhaps even he could help her. She did not intend the fine sarcasm involved in that phrase, even he, it floated through her mind unawares. Meantime there came to Esther that indescribable joy like unto no other that this life has for us. She won her first trophy for the cross. Salma Victor took a firm, jubilant, outspoken stand for Christ and owned and was glad to own, but it was Esther who had won her. She had been frank, too, in her confession. Salma was always frank. It wasn't the kind of religion you had when you first came to our house that interested me, she told her. I didn't care too straws for that. I had seen the same kind hundreds of times and always poked fun at it on the sly so as not to trouble mother. But one time, while it was before Catherine had the favor, all of a sudden it seemed to me you got different. I never have understood what made it, but it wasn't possible not to notice and think about it. Esther, honestly, your very face looked different. I used to watch you and study you and think that if I could return to the days when I believed in fairies, I should know that the original Esther Randall had been spirited away and another one dropped into her place. I don't hesitate to tell you that I liked the new one a hundred percent better, but I was always curious over the change. Don't you know yourself, Esther, that you suddenly, why in a single night it seemed to me, were different? Yes, said Esther, with a sweet salinity. I know it, Selma, and I have great joy in explaining it. I was a Christian before that day, but I was never happy in my religion. It was half-hearted. I lived always in an interrogation. Ought I to do this? May I do that? Must I deny myself the other? It was a dreadful life, Selma. Don't you ever try to live it? On the day I fully settled it that Jesus Christ was to be the center around which every act and word and thought of mine were to revolve forever and opened my heart to the fullness of his promise that his grace was sufficient for every temptation, why he simply fulfilled his word Selma and came. Look at the verse tonight when you read and see how plain the promise is. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and he will be with me. Think of it, the intimacy of the relation. But, said the young disciple, wondering, curious, what did you do, Esther? Opened the door, said Esther, with a bright glad smile, and he came in and took possession. Try it, dear, it can be understood only by experience. CHAPTER XXXIII And now the scattered threads have been taken up, and the time reached when Esther Randall had been at home for more than a year and was in the kitchen with her mother. No, wait, there is still another change to be chronicled, one so surprising and bewildering that, although nearly six months had passed since it burst upon them, Esther was not yet able to speak of it without a little catch in her breath that meant astonishment and gratitude and fun. Uncle Joram Pratt, young Joram's father, had been a character in that frontier town since its first settlement. Ignorant and shrewd and quaint, he had the respect and confidence of everyone in the community. To everybody he was Uncle Joram, and for everybody he had a kind word and a cheery laugh as well as something better when occasion offered. No one could remember a time when Uncle Joram was not ready to supplement his cheerful laugh with kindly deeds. He lived five miles out, in the parlance of the villagers, with his one treasure, young Joram, his only child and the pride and joy of his life. They had lived alone since the timid and tired little mother laid down her cares and entered into rest when young Joram was a toe-headed boy of ten. Uncle Joram, sorrowing as men with great unselfish hearts, must sorrow for anything small and frail that they have done their best to nourish in an unfriendly soil, yet took brave hold of his burden, determined to be both father and mother to the boy. And he had succeeded nobly according to his opportunities. Young Joram Pratt, at the age of twenty-five, was as fine a specimen of a clean soul, honest, earnest, good-natured, shock-headed country farmer as one could wish to find. As often as Esther looked at him after her homecoming, she thought of Malindi and a great longing arose within her to become a matchmaker. What a wonderful contrast to Jim Slicer would Joram be. The idea clung to her. She had a realizing sense of the probable loneliness of Malindi's life since she and Jim had quit. She became intimate friends again with Joram, so intimate that, despite the evident chasm between them, Aunt Sarah actually began to indulge in hopes that simply amused the girl's mother. And always Esther was talking to him about Malindi. She described the two-roomed cabin in which the girl lived and explained in detail how she, with remarkable energy and skill, had slowly transformed the place until it was really a pretty home. She even told how Malindi had been wooed and almost won by Jim Slicer and why she had at last refused him. And Joram listened and nodded his appreciation and asked now and then an intelligent question over that last story he pondered with all his soul in his eyes. I swan, he said at last. That was a big thing for a girl to do, now wasn't it? I should have thought that would have fetched him round. Esther shook her head and spoke positively. It didn't, Joram. He wasn't man enough for that. He grew meaner and uglier all the time and let her see very plainly that he wasn't worthy of even being remembered as a friend. Suddenly into the midst of Esther's delicious plans, while she was even discussing with her mother the possibility of getting Malindi out in some way to visit her, came the astounding surprise. Aunt Sarah exploded it upon them one evening just as, lamp in hand, she was starting for her room. I've got something to tell you all and I guess I may as well do it now as any time. I shall not be here with you much longer. Her sister turned quickly toward her with a sudden stricter at her heart. Sarah had been a trial in some ways that could not in the interests of honesty be denied. But she was her very own sister and was beloved. Could she be feeling ill? No surely. She had never looked better than at that moment. There was a becoming flush on her usually pale face which deepened under her sister's anxious gaze and she hurried her words. I meant to tell you before but I couldn't manage it somehow. Joram Pratt and I have decided to be married. We thought of asking you to have it here and then we decided that it would make less trouble all around to have it done quietly at the church next Wednesday night after prayer meeting. We aren't going to make any fuss. Just stand up there as we are with whoever happens to come to prayer meeting for witnesses and after it is done young Joram will be there waiting with the new carriage and he will drive his father and me home and that's all there will be of it. Good night all of you. And she shot out of the room. The blood in Esther's body which had seemed to her to stand suddenly still with the shame and pain of it made a great leap just then and she felt like shouting. For a single terrible moment she had believed that her aunt was talking about young Joram. When she said he will drive his father and me home light broken upon her and she could have laughed for joy. Mrs. Randall dashed after her sister leaving the father and daughter to enjoy their surprise together. When the mother returned an hour later she had been crying a little but her face was bright and the first words she said were Spencer she really loves him. The ways of the human heart are past finding out said the whole missionary cheerfully but there isn't another big fellow on this big earth more worthy of being heartily loved than that same Joram Pratt senior unless it is his son. Shall we sing the long meter doxology daughter. But a more wonderful experience was to follow despite certain grave not to say anxious talks between Mr. Randall and his wife and occasionally Esther when the first excitement having subsided they voiced their fears that their relative had carried trouble and sorrow to adhere to for a singularly peaceful home Joram Pratt's round good natured face did not change unless it took on if possible and added twinkle of content. It was Aunt Sarah who changed a marvelous change it was for her for she grew content. She tended her poultry and counted her eggs and cared for her young chickens and skimmed her brimming pans of milk and brought fresh eggs and rich cream and golden butter to the home missionaries table and boasted over everything taking not the least of her satisfaction in the fact that their Joram was the best boy that ever lived as she had always told Esther when some months had passed the missionary with a feeling that was almost akin to a told his wife of another change. Sarah wants to come into the church and she doesn't want to use her church letter she wouldn't present it you know always making the excuse that she might soon go back east but now she says she doesn't want to have anything to do with it that it doesn't represent Joram's kind of religion and she doesn't care for any other so she is coming on in profession Helen he has won her for the Lord. I wanted so much to help Aunt Sarah Esther confessed to her mother laughing while the tears brimmed her eyes and to think that it was meant that Joram Pratt should do it. Mrs Randall had not laughed over her daughter's nonsense and when Esther returned from her excursion to the wood shed the look on her mother's face had deepened and there was a hint of tears in her voice as she spoke not with her usual calm but with a kind of repressed excitement. I may as well speak truth to you Esther it isn't the tablecloths simply though they are worn enough but they stand for a great many things. Your father and I can endure this sort of life we expected it when we began and we are willing to go on in this way until the end but I confess that sometimes it seems to me too great a sacrifice to bury you alive out here in the backwoods of civilization with no chance to associate with people of kindred tastes or ambitions and with no prospect of its ever being any better. You ought to be where there are at least a few who would appreciate you. Esther who was used to a halo of peace on her mother's face and serenity in her voice was almost alarmed. She spoke quickly and gaily. Appreciate mother dear I am ashamed of you if you could have heard Deacon Bascombe this morning when he stopped at the gate with a bunch of roses and told me I was as pretty as the biggest peony in their garden. What do you want in the way of appreciation pray you unreasonable mother. If you try me in this way I may have to consider young Joram myself instead of puzzling my brain's day and night about ways of getting Malindi out here for him. Moreover I'm inclined to think there might be other chances. Deacon Bascombe had a very significant tone this morning when he reminded me that his jet had as pretty a piece of land to set a house on as you could find in four counties and it would be set to before long if he could make things work to his mind. Who knows mother what might happen. Mrs. Randall laughed then as the girl's vivid mimicry brought Deacon Bascombe's withered face and broad nasal before her mental vision and Esther made haste to follow up her advantage. Don't you ever worry one least little speck about me mommy if I could begin to tell you how good it is to be at home with you and father why when I think of that and and of all the blessings that have come to us lately my heart just sings for joy and I feel like a bird escaped from his cage to an evergreen tree mother won't it be a shame if father doesn't get home today when I have dug the first of those splendid baking potatoes I planned for two a piece and one over for luck and counted him in I know they will be delicious now I'm ready for that ironing and I'll make every napkin there look like real damask if you will go into the other room and sit down in the big chair by the window and fold your hands and rest how do you think you would feel doing just that for once even while she spoke the gate clicked and Esther glancing from the side window exclaimed there he is this minute it's father then she vanished in the direction of the door it must be good for a man who has been five days away from his home to receive such a greeting as Mr. Randall did in truth it was an unusual experience for that little family to have its head away for even five days the need for closest economy had been so great that Spencer Randall had years before this time given up regular attendance at even the semi annual gatherings of the official body to which he belonged as chief remaining representative of a very important committee of three it had this year become his duty to make the sacrifices necessary to his going even so he could not have accomplished it had it not been for Aunt Sarah it had seemed strange indeed to be indebted to her the minister told his wife good humoredly that it was still a question with him which would ultimately get the most good out of that five dollar gold piece himself in receiving or aunt Sarah in bestowing and when she flushed over the significance of his tone he had added cheerfully really Helen it was a fine thing we must appreciate it and them Uncle Joram Pratt is well to do as they say here that is he has meat and milk and butter and eggs and wood and everything that grows in abundance but ready money is something that he doesn't handle much and a five dollar gold piece as as large for him as a hundred dollars would be for some I've got great news for you he told his wife and daughter that day as soon as the first greetings and questionings were over what do you think I was elected to represent us at the great missionary rally in October oh Spencer and oh father in the same breath fact I was isn't it great and I was never so surprised in my life is when my name was proposed except when 15 minutes afterward I was unanimously elected it's Dr. Wheeler's doings I knew he was trying to accomplish something he kept slipping around among the brethren whispering to this and that one I wondered that he didn't come to me but it never entered my head what he was about and he asked me the night before when we were all having a chat together how many years it was since I had been east and then it happened to come out that the place of the rally wasn't far from my old home but I never once dreamed that and it's near mother's home too interrupted Esther eagerly oh father you can visit them both can't you and go around to all the places where you and mother used to take walks and drives what fun it will be yes said her father the two homes are within a half days ride of each other and I thought of that first thing and they have arranged it all nicely for me I am to travel all through that part of the state and give a series of missionary talks I shall have a chance to look up all the old landmarks and besides I thought that why Esther where is your mother he had been diving into his believes as he talked in search of something that he wanted to show them and he looked up to discover that Esther had become his only listener mother ran away a minute ago said Esther she may have smelled something burning I do anyway you will have to hurry father and change your clothes dinner is almost ready and I've got the first of our bakers in the oven don't you smell them you can finish telling mother about it upstairs while I finish the dinner and then you will have to tell it all over again to me you'll hurry now won't you I'm getting up a special dinner in honor of your homecoming and I can't have it spoiled you have had no such dinner since you have been gone as I shall dish up for you sir I venture to say I have had no young woman of your sort to serve my dinners at least said the happy father stopping in the doorway to bestow a parting look of fond admiration on the fair face of his daughter she made him a low mock curtsy as she said if that is intended as a compliment my dear sir allow me to say that deacon bascombe is ahead he was here this morning and I am blushing yet under the weight of his efforts father please hurry I am afraid those potatoes are done this minute why Helen said mr. Randall stopping midway in his room consternation in his voice and dismay on his face why Helen what is it what has happened end of chapter 23 recording by Trisha G chapter 24 of Esther Reed's namesake this LibriVox recording is in the public domain Esther Reed's namesake by Pansy chapter 24 homeward bound mrs. Randall was at her toilet stand in the act of pouring water into the basin she turned quickly from her husband as he entered but not quickly enough to prevent his catching the glitter of tears on her face and the sight of one or two flashing into the water this was the explanation of his dismayed why Helen to see his wife in tears was a sight for Spencer Randall to remember he went over to her speaking gently touching with tender fingers the little rings of hair that had escaped from their confining pins Helen dear wife what is it what has happened to hurt you Esther was so merry that I thought everything was well everything is she dashed the water over her flushed face and tried to speak in her usual tone nothing has happened Spencer really I was warm and tired and a little bit foolish that is all he searched her face in perplexed sympathy and then slowly as men take in such things came a gleam of intelligence he drew the face all dripping with water close to his and kissed it again and again half whimsical holy tender kisses did she think he said between the kisses that her husband had turned into a thoughtless selfish Claude who meant to go off and flocked by himself leaving his wife and child to brave it out alone that isn't true dear I'm not going a step not a single step Spencer let me go his wife was struggling to free herself from his hold she was laughing yet her eyes were still suspiciously veiled I am a complete idiot this morning I don't know what to make of myself only it is warm warmer than usual and I got overtired at the ironing it isn't because you are to go Spencer you don't think so meanly of me as that I know you don't it's just that it came to me so suddenly how long it was since I had seen mother and how many times she had planned and planned and been disappointed it just broke me down for a minute but I'm all over it now and you needn't ever think of it again I'm a brute said the Reverend Spencer Randall penitently that is just what I am I don't know how I came to yield to the thought even for an hour I must have got carried off my balance for a little while over mother and the girls but I won't go of course I won't I'll write to Dr. Wheeler this very evening and tell him so it won't make any trouble there's an alternate who is just suffering to be in my shoes and he can have them it wouldn't be any pleasure for me to go east and leave you and Esther out here alone it seems ridiculous that I entertained the idea for a moment Spencer Randall you will kill me if you don't stop talking in that way I wouldn't have you give it up for anything in this world why it is the next best thing to going myself to think of you seeing mother and Mary face to face and telling them all about Esther and and everything I'm just as glad as I can be over the thought of it why to have mother come so near to a visit from you is that and then have to give it up after all she has born would be too cruel you couldn't do it oh Spencer I forgot you mustn't put on your garden clothes you will have to go out to the Johnson place right after dinner poor old Mrs. Johnson is almost home they sent for you twice yesterday and this morning John said it seemed as though she was just waiting to tell you goodbye at that moment the voice of Esther sounded from the foot of the stairs father are you sure you are hurrying I do believe you are wasting your time making love to mother and those potatoes are done all through the dinner and until he was fairly started for his eight-mile ride to the Johnson place Mr. Randall protested that he could not think of filling his appointment the more he considered it the more he was sure he did not want to go not until he could take them both with him that might happen in another year who could tell anyway he simply could not go without them he had been dazed it had seemed to him all the time that of course they were going to and when it suddenly came over him that this thing was to be done alone leaving the best two-thirds of him behind why it was preposterous he went away reiterating this and all the way to the Johnson place while his doubt pony picked out carefully the least objectionable portions of the ugly road his rider kept assuring himself that it had been cruel even to mention it he ought to have spared Helen that and as for going no indeed nothing that Helen or Esther could say should make him change his mind when he rode home from the Johnson place in the dusk of the fast-gathering night even the journey to the east had slipped into the background he had been waiting at the place where two worlds meet he had gone with the worn out mother to the very verge of this one and held her hand and offered a prayer just as the door had opened and her soul had slipped away to God it was true that she seemed to have waited only to bid her faithful minister goodbye her last words to him had been pleasant ones to remember goodbye pastor goodbye I shall tell them all in heaven and him first of all that I wouldn't have got there if it hadn't been for you poor old mother Johnson she had been one of those who all through the earlier years had been planning each season to go home to Vermont and the plans had miscarried and the way grown heavier and more doubtful with each passing year and the woman had grown discouraged and hard and bitter and given up her hope not only of the earthly home but of the heavenly and then one day pastor Randall had found her away off in another township unknown to his church or people he had found her and reached her and won her for his master and her later years had been bright with his presence and on her rugged old face had glowed at last the anticipation of her sure homegoing that no blighted harvests could arrest as the missionary trotted through the bridal path between the wide stretches of fields he told himself that heaven was as near to them there as it was in the old eastern homes and that after all it was the home to think about and look forward to and there were compensations along the way suppose he had been east when the summons came for mother Johnson he wouldn't have missed her goodbye for a great deal but his wife and daughter meant that he should go east and visit the two mothers given two such women as mrs Randall and her daughter Esther it seems hardly necessary to add that they accomplished their purpose though not it is true without many perplexities and some misgivings all the while the father was waiting in the Johnson cabin to close the doors of this world after the departing mother his wife and daughter were holding a council of ways and means his best suit looks pretty well said the mother that coat in the spring box came just in time and it fits him better than they do generally I can never feel thankful enough that it didn't fit the man for whom it was made and that he was moved to put it into our box I don't think it fits any too well Esther said if the man for whom it was made had been content with a cheaper one and put the difference into the collection for home missions he and father might both have had coats that fitted them that would be the truest economy mother as well as the pleasantest way for missionaries it does very well said her mother who had returned to her usual state of calm energy I wish I could say the same for his shirts I confess that I don't know how to manage about them I was hoping that Sarah well never mind that I had set my heart on two new shirts in that last box and you know there wasn't one the old ones are too much foreign to patch any longer the cloth has got so that it will not hold the stitches Esther laughed absently as she said it will not do to set your heart on anything that comes in boxes mother she was leaning forward with her elbow resting on her knee and her chin in her hand gazing meditatively into the pasteboard box that held the disabled shirts suddenly she came to an upright position and clasped her shapely hands mother I have an idea why can't we make father a shirt out of my white petticoat too indeed if shirts didn't need to have sleeves I am sure it could be done and even as it is we may be able to do it with piecing aren't the sleeves of the old shirts pretty good it is a very wide skirt and long as for the bosoms do you remember that queer old-fashioned white linen cape that came in the box you had just before I came home and we wondered what could ever be done with it why wouldn't that make bosoms mommy why don't you go into raptures over the thought what a child you are said her mother gazing fondly at her treasure but I believe it could be done I could rip up the oldest of these for a pattern I am sure it will not stand another washing but Esther dear what do you think your father would say you know he will not have your one white petticoat sacrificed for him sacrificed repeated the girl in her gayest tone who thinks of such a thing am I not planning for the petticoat to take a trip east and visit all the folks what better experience than that could it hope for mommy I am ashamed of you if you don't enter into the spirit of great opportunities any better than that I may have to marry Deacon Bascom's Jed just to teach you a lesson it was plain to Esther that she must indulge in a little nonsense for her mother's lip had quivered over that word sacrificed she had her way the mother reflected tenderly that night and many times through the following busy days how sure the child was sooner or later to sway them both what a blessed thing it was that her ways were always sweet and unselfish and pure for certainly it would be hard to withstand her the Reverend Spencer Randall thought it all over as he sat on the eastbound express moving at the rate of 30 miles an hour in the worn valise at his feet reposed two new shirts as carefully made and laundered as skill and love could accomplish undoubtedly they were a credit to their makers and the home missionary knew their history Esther had earnestly instructed her mother that the source of the material from which they were made must forever remain a secret to her father and mrs. Randall had tried to obey but the father had keen eyes and quick wits and knew all about his frayed shirt bosoms and the poverty of the family purse his questions grew too close for truth loving lips and the story of the shirts evolved little by little the father's eyes grew misty and his expression tender and wistful as he looked down at the valise and thought not only of the new shirts but of the many things connected with the getting ready for this wonderful trip almost to the last he had steadily persisted that he was not going home until he could take wife and daughter with him but the wife and daughter had known how to manage him much talk was made before him about the joy his coming would make in mrs. Randall's own home she explained to Esther of course how fully she had written to mother and Mary about the plans and she knew how to bring in at just the right moment the eager hope that nothing would occur to disappoint mother again it seems as though i could not bear it if she had to give this up too she said as for Esther with each new morning she had thought of some new way in which this trip of fathers was to be of immense advantage to those who stayed behind gradually the meshes of the loving spell they were weaving gathered close about him and made him feel that somehow it was becoming his duty to sacrifice himself and take that long deferred journey for the sake of his family there had been no tears visible on his wife's face since that first day instead she had lived apparently for the sole purpose of getting him well started they watched him away mother and daughter with brave smile wreaths faces and kisses blown after him as far down the road as his straining backward-looking eyes could see and so at last at last he was going home thought was very busy that morning it was not possible to keep from reverting to the times without number in which plans for this very journey had been made and lived on for months and relinquished nor had the eastern homes been without their plans mrs. Randall besides her sister mary had two brothers older than herself who had struggled all their lives against the disadvantages of having passed their youth and early manhood and luxury and in the belief that there would be always a wealthy father to back them they had never been financial successes and now in middle life had large families and small salaries on mr. Randall's side there were two maiden sisters living with his widowed mother he always spoke of them as the girls never being able to realize that during the quarter century of separation they had grown into more than middle-aged women all these people had remembered their missionary brother and sister with frequent letters and such Christmas and birthday tokens as they could afford and at their family reunions had told one another hopefully that by next year they thought they could make up a purse between them and sent for Helen and Spencer and the child to make a long visit the two mothers in particular had been long fed on these hopes that blossomed each Christmas and were blighted by necessities before the new year reached its spring time later had come somewhat anxious plans for the child which was the way in which they had always spoken of ester Randall none of them had traveled much and out west was to them a vast howling wilderness peopled chiefly by Indians and half-breeds no place certainly in which to bring up a child especially a girl and they met and planned and were perplexed over difficulties and made their various sacrifices and at last arranged that the child should be sent to them for a term of years to be educated they to assume all responsibility for her maintenance while she was with them and they were wholly astonished and half offended when Helen with singular blindness refused to give up the child for even a year they had ceased to urge this after a while but their anxieties had not lessened and they hinted in their letters so much about the contrast that there must someday be between their favorite children and the unfortunate ester that the mother half amused and half vexed ceased telling in her letters about esters accomplishments or virtues they think she is half a savage she said to her husband and that we apparently have also become uncivilized i presume they think we eat with our fingers and have forgotten the use of napkins let them think so i shall not try to enlighten them anymore someday when we take ester home they will make discoveries end of chapter 24 recording by trisha g chapter 25 of ester reed's namesake this libra vox recording is in the public domain ester reads namesake by pansy chapter 25 a woman of her word it was all of these matters great and trivial that the father thought as the train sped on helen ester home and the years that piled themselves between once in a quarter of a century he said to himself drawing a long breath and then to go without them if we were foreign missionaries we would have been sent home twice by this time for a year of rest each time and helen needs rest if ever a woman did how is she ever to get it and the child to think of sacrificing such a child as that it isn't as though she had chosen the work as we did mr randall did not often indulge in thoughts that hinted of any more desirable lot in life than the home mission field but this prospect of long absence from his treasures was giving him a new perspective he knew that his wife despite her cheerful hopeful nature had hours of regret for ester's sake their beautiful peerless ester fitted to grace any society stranded in a little poverty hedged western village where few people of culture came even for a visit and where most of those who would have been glad for opportunities of culture were too poor to seek them it was certainly a lonesome prospect for a girl like their ester was aunt sara half right in her solemn conviction that the child would have been better off without those four years of college life oh no no indeed it was only the very superficial who could seriously entertain such a thought as that ester was undoubtedly better fitted for her work in this world and the next because of her four years of training but some things were hard for the hundredth time he told himself that if he had not felt that somehow good would come to her to them out of the strip of his he would not have taken it but he added truthfully to be sure i don't see how then his perplexed face cleared into its usual calm as his next thought was it may not be my place to see they are both of them children of a king we have trusted him all these years and we may surely be dependent on to continue to do so he knows all about it and long before that one good woman mrs john potter by name all unknown to herself was engaged in helping to work out the plan by which many of the home missionaries perplexities were to be answered mrs john potter was a power in the 10th street church which was a little church in a big eastern city on a blustering march day nearly seven months before the reverend spencer randall started on his memorable trip to the great missionary rally the women of the 10th street church were in commotion within the large plain room where they were shipped hails brooms dust cloths and soap were in evidence one woman mounted on a step ladder was wrestling with the accumulation of dust and soot on the gas globes and expressing her mind after this fashion if st john could visit this church he would have another proof that men love darkness rather than light the idea of allowing dust to gather on globes in this way no wonder the church isn't half lighted there ought to be women janitors where is the long handled brush called a voice from the back room i have hunted everywhere for it mrs potter can tell you said the woman on the step ladder she took care of all those things where is mrs potter here answered a voice from behind a half open door but it was a discouraged apathetic voice quality so unusual in its owner that they brought the woman in search of the long handled brush to the door to look and the woman on the step ladder turned herself about in dismay pity's sake she said what is the matter with mrs potter you didn't have a tumble did you my body didn't but i must say my heart is tumbled into my shoes i'm downright discouraged what about what's the matter what has happened now three or four women were speaking at once one came from the little store closet with a cake of soap in one hand and a box of tax in the other and the woman who was draping curtains and had her mouth full of pins showered them about as she tried to ask a question it was painfully unusual for mrs potter to be discouraged or to take a seat when work was waiting to be done her arms were at that moment bare to the elbow and she was clasping in her hands a cake of sepulio but her wet cloth lay in an abandoned heap at her feet then you haven't seen mrs evans she said languidly mrs evans no she hasn't come over yet i guess yes she has and i hear her in the hall this minute she is trying to pacify the gardener girls but she will find it hard work i know just how they feel they have given all they can afford to help pay the debt and now to have it puttered away in this fashion is too much for flesh and blood do for pity's sake tell us what is the matter and don't keep us on tenterhooks in this way said the step ladder woman rapidly descending a globe in each hand and one under her arm why the men are upstairs having a business meeting i suppose you know and what have they done but voted every man of them to pay fifty dollars toward that meeting that's to be here in october and to request the lady's circle to give it out of their fund a general murmur of indignant protest ensued and the woman with pins took several of them out of her mouth to ask what meeting why the missionary rally they call it i believe you must have heard of it the men in the papers have talked of nothing else all the spring it seems it is considered a great honor to a city to have the meeting all the world is coming and the delegates are to have their traveling expenses paid and be entertained besides and we who have worked our fingers to the bone to pay off our church debt have got to help do it all i should like to see one woman helping i don't see what use these great meetings are anyway look at the money it takes for one thing to say nothing of the trouble and why should even the traveling expenses of missionaries be paid i wonder nobody pays my expenses when i take a journey for that matter i generally stay at home because i cannot afford to go and i don't see why missionaries shouldn't do the same we can get along without missionary meetings oh i believe in missionary meetings and in having them come and tell us about their work said the step ladder woman but i must say it seems kind of mean to make our poor little church pay fifty dollars toward it who told you mrs evans her husband is upstairs with the committee when he heard her in the hall he came out and told her and asked her to explain to the ladies i wish her joy of her undertaking i think it will take a good deal of explaining it seems the first church has the planning of it all and they assess the other churches their proportion of expense shouldn't you think that great rich church would have felt rather mean assessing us fifty dollars the gardener girls as they were always called though they were middle-aged women had come in from the hall and joined the session of indignant women one of them now spoke her mind why don't the men pay the fifty dollars if they think it ought to be paid this question started mrs john potter afresh i think as much she said indignantly what is the use of our slaving here to earn money towards paying the church debt that has been a shame and a disgrace to us for years and then have the men meet upstairs and coolly voted away before it is earned i made up my mind that if we had a good night for the supper we should clear an even fifty for the debt i didn't mean to be satisfied with a penny less than that and i could see myself going to the bank to deposit it a real beginning on our last thousand and here we are called upon to throw it away my opinion is that the time has come for us to rebel don't let's give one cent to the missionary rally the church fathers have had things all their own way for so long that they think all they have to do is vote that we women shall pay the bills and we'll meekly do it i say let's refuse i vote that we send mrs evans to tell them that we think charity begins at home and that we can't help in any outside expenses until we have wiped out our disgraceful debt discussion ran high other women left their dusting and regulating to join in it and mrs john potter who had recovered her usual energies sufficiently to talk briskly held court brandishing her cake of sepolio by way of emphasis there was found to be a decided difference of opinion about leaving the payment of the assessment to the church fathers most of the ladies present were wives of the said fathers and understood perfectly that in the matter of giving the family was a unit a few of those who had small incomes of their own as for instance the gardener girls and mrs john potter who was a widow were for leaving the bill to the men but the others were unanimous that this would not do there is no use in saying that the men don't help earn our money said mrs easman we could not get along very well without their help and besides it is their money that furnishes the hams and turkeys and things yes said mrs adams and then we expect them to come and eat the supper which their money has provided and pay a good price for it too i don't see but the men help there doesn't any man help pay for the turkeys and hams that i bring said mrs potter with emphasis and i must say i don't consider it wonderful liberality on their part to come and eat 50 cents worth of supper after it has been got ready for them i never saw a man who wasn't willing to eat a first-rate supper when he could get it and he eats his money's worth every time too i call this whole business mean that is my name for it and i may as well own it more than that i believe in being honest and above board and i'll just say now and here that if you vote to throw away the money that we make tonight by paying that assessment why the church can pay its own debt without any more help from me you all know as well as i do how hard i have been slaving for years to get us out of debt and now that we were beginning to see the end words failed her for a moment and her indignation had increased as she talked i'll see this thing through now that i am in it and she bent to get hold of the wet cloth at her feet but you can mark what i say and if you know me at all you will know that i am a woman of my word if our money is voted for the rally this is the last time that i shall lift my finger toward that church debt the very last time they all went back to their appointed tasks subdued and troubled mrs john potter as she was always called to distinguish her from her sister-in-law mrs james potter was a recognized power among them and without her they knew they should feel like a little ship in a storm at sea without a captain there was need for work as the day was waning and the most elaborate church supper they had ever undertaken was set for that evening the talk went on much of it in gloomy or half irritable tones the keys seem to have all been set at that pitch look at this turkey said mrs adams as she flopped a monster bird on his side preparatory to slicing him this is from the macintayers done to a turn and the biggest fellow i ever saw well why not if i had as much money as the macintayers i would do more than furnish fine turkeys how easily she could pay this assessment out of her own pocket and never know it what is fifty dollars to her i wish she would get us a new stove said alvira mills as she gave a vicious slam to the oven door this old thing won't stand many more church suppers we won't have many more i am afraid said mrs eastman with a sigh it would scare me to death to think of getting up one without mrs john potter besides there are others who will draw off if she does i must say i don't think it is very good missionary work to divide a church in this way still said the woman who had finally put most of her pins into her curtain and so had her mouth free for its ordinary service i don't see what we can do it would be real disgraceful in us not to pay our assessment the tenth street church has always done its share and the men have all they can stagger under now mrs john potter ought not to be so set in her way which was just what that good woman was she prided herself on being a woman of her word and was not always as careful as she might have been as to whether the word she had spoken was worthy of such zealous guard the supper was prepared at last and eaten and pronounced the most delicious of any of the notable suppers in the history of that church and they had been numerous after all bills were settled it was found that the effort had netted to them the sum of fifty three dollars and sixty five cents this passed beyond their most sanguine hopes as their expenses had been unusually heavy and only mrs potter had had courage to mention more than forty dollars as their aim but for the shadow that the church fathers had thrown across their path the ladies would have been jubilant as it was they were miserable nevertheless they called a special meeting on the day following the supper and solemnly voted fifty dollars to be sent to deacon thorn dyke in payment of the assessment there were gloomy faces among the voters but mrs john potter and her sister-in-law mrs james potter and the gardener girls and their niece and little mrs jones who was a cousin of the potters cast the only dissenting votes the church mothers had been at home overnight talking this matter over with the church fathers and they felt sure that there was no other way very well said mrs john potter when the vote was announced sitting upright in her chair with a bright spot glowing on either cheek and speaking with portentious calmness very well i haven't a word to say the majority rules in this country the only thing i am anxious about is that my position in the matter shall be thoroughly understood i suppose you all remember what i said yesterday and it will save a great deal of trouble if you understand from the first that i meant exactly what i said i shall not lift so much as a finger again toward the payment of that church debt not a finger i think i have done fully my share both in working and giving some of you know that i haven't been afraid of a little sacrifice for the cause but that's neither here nor there it pleases you to let the work and all the rest of it go for nothing it seems so be it only just remember that i am done they knew they could trust her and many of the ladies went home from that meeting with troubled hearts end of chapter 25 recording by trisha g chapter 26 of ester reed's namesake this libra box recording is in the public domain ester reads namesake by pansy chapter 26 the nest egg nor did the trouble in the 10th street church quiet down as the days passed mrs john potter being a woman of her word and being anxious that all her friends should so understand could not help talking about it and as she talked she made allies not intentionally that is she did not mean to make trouble but it is so natural to enter into detail with one's friends and to expend some effort in making one's own side exhibit its perfect reasonableness that mrs potter could not help making converts there were some of course who cared about neither missionary rallies nor church debts but who scented trouble and being by nature eager for stimulants of this kind contributed what they could to keep it brewing before that summer was over pastor evans whose wife kept him posted as to the unrest in his parish told her privately that it would have been better for him to have paid the fifty dollars out of his own meager salary than to have such a state of things and no one could tell where unto it would end to the uninitiated this will seem an almost incredible story they will find it hard to believe that for so slight a cause an entire church was being made more or less uncomfortable and was even in danger of an actual schism only those who have tried for years to bake and boil and broil and fry and eat a church debt out of existence are capable of entering into the feelings of the aggrieved persons mrs potter had not exaggerated her share in the effort she had toiled early and late in season and in the opinion of some out of season to get rid of that debt the original debt was three thousand dollars and by dint of really heroic efforts in the shape of fairs festivals sales suppers what not by dint also of the sacrifice of something more precious than time or strength namely feelings two thousand dollars and interest had been earned and paid this through the years remember with the closing supper of the season mrs potter the time honored treasurer of the ladies aid had confidently resolved upon placing fifty dollars in the bank for what she called a nest egg for the last thousand one twentieth of the whole she told herself gleefully when she awakened at daylight to count the gains before they had been made she had set her heart upon fifty dollars and her judgment had verified her heart's desire fifty three dollars and sixty five cents clear game but alas only the miserable little sum of three dollars and sixty five cents for the nest egg after all is it any wonder that the poor woman's temper as well as her courage failed she had been through many trying scenes and borne fairly well many burns and stings she knew wise woman that she was that these were almost inevitable accompaniments to their methods of getting money and had set her will to endure but the assessment had been the historic last straw which made trouble it was on a pleasant afternoon in spring just a month after the church supper that mrs john potter sat in her willow rocking chair beside her open south window and grimly surveyed three silver dollars two twenty five cent pieces a ten cent piece and a nickel at her feet lay an open letter that she had but a short time before received it was from the secretary of the ladies aid the annual meeting of that august body had been held the day before and for the first time since the tenth street church had an existence its time-honored treasurer mrs john potter had failed to be present they had reelected her as treasurer despite her resignation which had been sent in an hour after the assessment was voted they had also written her a humble letter expressing their sorrow that trouble had occurred and that they had for the first time felt compelled to go contrary to her advice they begged her to overlook this inability to see the matter as she saw it and not to desert them in what was without doubt a crucial period in the history of their church believing that after prayerful consideration she would see her way clear to withdraw her resignation and give them as her two for the benefit of her splendid business abilities it took the liberty of enclosing the surplus funds of the organization feeling certain that they would be managed with the care and wisdom that had always characterized her work mrs potter had met her postman at the corner and had opened and read this letter on the way home her first impulse had been to throw the money into the river on the bank of which she was walking but she had been a conscientiously careful woman with money all her life every penny that helped to constitute the snug sum payable to her signature she had helped to earn and to save the impulse to save met and checked that other momentary impulse and her second thought was that the money was not her own she had not even that degree of right to throw it away at first it vexed her unreasonably to think that she must take care of it for a time they think she said aloud still with contemptuous eyes on the three dollars and sixty five cents that i can be coaxed and complimented into going at it again and will break my back and burn my fingers a few years more for the sake of raising money for the church fathers to assess if they really haven't found it out yet i think in time they will understand me to be a woman of my word i'll have to keep this money though until they elect a successor after much thought mrs potter who was not often called upon to write other than friendly letters concocted and sent the following terse epistle to the ladies aid of the 10th street church i am sorry to learn that you wasted your time yesterday and so have no treasurer i supposed you knew that when i said i resigned the office i meant that i resigned the office and that no more words need be wasted on the subject but since receiving your letter i have been reflecting that perhaps no woman can be found in your organization who is willing to handle so heavy and important to some of money as you enclosed and i have therefore decided to deposit it in the bank where i do business in a separate account of course more than that since you kindly urge me to reconsider i am willing to meet you halfway and i will therefore give you my word of honor that at such time as that sum namely three dollars and sixty five cents shall have reached the sum of one thousand dollars the face of the debt payable to my order i will have pleasure in drawing a check for the same and bringing it to you moreover if you at that time desire it and i am not too aged for active service i will then resume my duties as treasurer of the ladies aid until that day comes however i must be distinctly understood as having nothing whatever to do with the organization i declined to help in the earning of any monies for debts or assessments or in the care of any monies earned by it always accepting the aforesaid munificent sum of three dollars and sixty five cents respectfully submitted mary potter mrs john potter former treasurer of the 10th street ladies aid and that good woman who was in the mood to be grimly pleased with her letter had no more conception of the fact that her father in heaven was at that very time arranging to turn her sore hearted obstinacy into account in the interests of some of his dear servants then you and i realize that in his goodness and greatness he sometimes allows even our waspish tempers to work out for others some blessed result so verifying his promise to make the wrath of man praise him but it needs to be remembered that mrs potter would have been a better and happier as well as more useful woman if she had been willing to let the master use her virtues instead of her faults to accomplish his ends the long warm summer passed and the first week in october the date set for the great missionary rally came and found the first church in festive array and crowded even in the mornings to its utmost capacity in the evenings the committee of arrangements was compelled to open other churches and have simultaneous meetings the enthusiastic were loud in their enjoyment of these gatherings assuring one another that nothing so helpful to the cause of missions as this mammoth convention had ever before occurred it was a wonderfully inspiring thing to see and hear for themselves some of those grand field officers who had given their lives for the cause still there were some who refused to hear for themselves and persistently held a loop from all the activities connected with the rally most prominent among these was that woman of her word mrs john potter she had declined to open her house to guests assuring the committee that she had plenty of friends to entertain and did not need to take in strangers when she set out to be benevolent she preferred to give to those who needed instead of to people who had homes of their own where they could stay if they had not means enough to travel she did not suppose she should attend any of the meetings she could read in her missionary review all that she needed to know about missions and a good deal more than she was able to put into practice she believed in being practical it was therefore the fourth day of the convention before mrs potter found herself so situated that she could not escape the meeting one of the friends whom she had professed herself as always ready to entertain came from her home 20 miles distant to spend the day and attend the convention she was not acquainted with the city and had come in the expectation of being attended by her friend she explained that she was a master hand at getting lost and that the last words her son had said to her had been a caution about venturing out alone mrs potter who had other plans for the morning saw no way but to sacrifice herself at least in part i'll take you in and see that you get a good seat she explained as they reached the first church and then while they are singing a hymn i'll slip out and attend to my errands some of them are quite important i can get back though in time to take you home with me you wait at the front door if i'm not there the minute the meeting is out but i shall be they have very long meetings hardly ever close on time but for the fact that a woman in front of the seat she chose immediately waylaid mrs potter and kept her whispering about the library association during the singing of the entire hymn that good woman would have carried out this program and slipped away on her errands as it was she was caught a vote had been taken at the library and she herself had been assigned some work in connection with it that she did not wholly approve and while she was intent on explaining this the hymn was concluded and the speaker for the morning announced it embarrassed even mrs potter to think of marching down that long aisle in the face of the great audience while someone was speaking and with the mental hope that he would make his story short she resigned herself to wait for another break in the program but the speaker for the hour was the reverend spencer randall and there was one man on the program committee who knew him and had arranged that he should have as much time as he wanted he has a story to tell he said and he knows how to tell it i heard him last winter when i was west mr randall made good this statement before he had been speaking for 10 minutes his audience all over the great building had settled back with that look on their faces which says as plainly as words go on brother by all means talk just as long as you choose you couldn't please us better there were those in the audience who had known the whole missionary through the years and they said one to another when the service was over did you ever hear anything finer than that i have heard him before and i knew he would be fine but he was at his best this morning without doubt as for mr randall he was never able to give a very clear account of that morning's work beyond the fact that he said a good many things which he had not dreamed of seeing when he began he had sat up late the night before talking with the kind of man whose species should be obsolete but unfortunately is not a man who contended that home missions were in these days unnecessary burdens that the men and women who lived out west and up north and down south at the expense of the boards could teach their churches to be self-supporting instead of everlastingly appealing for help if they chose to do so and were willing to economize as most of those had who sent their money to them then in the morning had come a long letter a joint production from wife and child and mr randall's heart being fired with zeal for the honor of his master's cause and tender with memories of home and his treasures and their environments what wonder that he could talk he had been east long enough to realize the stupendous ignorance that prevailed in some localities with regard to the present condition and present needs of home mission fields and he had determined that if it lay in his power to make it plain to them at least one audience should understand end of chapter 26 recording by trisha g chapter 27 of ester reed's namesake this liber box recording is in the public domain ester reed's namesake by pansy chapter 27 children of one father it is one thing to know certain facts it is quite another to have a genuine heart realization of them it is safe to say that to fully half of his large audience spencer randall's home mission story was a revelation it was something more than a story almost it was what might be called a materialization with a few masterly touches he described helen the wife of his youth and the beautiful and cultured home from which he had taken her then they journeyed with him in his bride to the little straggling western town that had expected to boom and been disappointed he introduced them to the unpainted house set in the midst of a treeless stretch of ground the house still unfinished that had been her home for a quarter century he gave them a view of the garden after the caterpillars had visited it and mass he showed them the rose bushes and the honeysuckles after a drought and the country generally after the locusts passed that way he let them stand beside him and watch with sinking heart the tearing up of the ties of a mile of railroad that was to have brought them prosperity and that changed its mind and went the other way he gave them a vivid picture of the little spirless church with its awful two hundred and fifty dollar debt hanging like a millstone about its neck he described a few a very few of the heroic efforts the surprising sacrifices some of them so singular that they would have been ludicrous had they not been pathetic which the people had made toward the lifting of that debt and yet because of their poverty had failed then he took them out to the johnson cabin eight desolate miles from anywhere and described the patient hollow-eyed hard-worked poorly fed woman who had lived there for years hungering for her eastern home until the picture had dimmed and faded and there had finally moved into view a vision of the eternal home the house not made with hands waiting for her in her father's country it was then that he let them realize that god had not forgotten the poor little town which had never boomed but had ordered the gates of heaven thrown wide one day and sent his angels to convoy mother johnson home but he told them more than that he could never explain why he had not meant to be personal it is certain that if helen had been there he would not have done it he told them about helen and the child how they had stood in the sunlight of that early morning and watched him down the road waving goodbyes after him until they became but specks in the distance and he told of the waiting mother who had not seen her youngest born in 25 years and had never seen her grandchild and now after all these years of hope deferred she must be content with nobody but him while the others bravely worked and waited at home and he told of the patient efforts those two women had made against almost impassable obstacles to get him decently ready for his journey and he told yes he actually told of the one white petticoat that had evolved into two shirts with sleeves oh he knew all about it and once launched could not keep himself from telling the whole story he could feel of course how completely he carried his great audience with him so that they laughed or cried according as he willed that they should yet the willing was not oratory it was simply an honest earnest man bent on making that representative audience understand things as they were of course he was eloquent and convincing for he was master of the theme about which he was talking and his whole soul was in it but he did not pose as a martyr not he not for helen not even for ester who had not chosen her lot as they too had given the same choice again with all the knowledge of the weary way added there too and he believed in his soul that they would all three of them yes the child too have chosen the same service and looked ahead to the same reward but it was right for the church to know what it was about it should be able to think and talk understandingly of the road that its representatives in the home as well as the foreign field were called upon to tread for two full hours he poured the power of his knowledge and his heart upon them once or twice he attempted to stop and the calls came from all over the church go on go on never mind the time give us the rest of that story when at last he sat down the row of ministers on the platform were rubbing their spectacles and their eyes and looking at one another finally the oldest one among them with the tears still shining on his face arose and said brethren the only word that we can speak to you after that is received the benediction prominent in the throngs that pushed and elbowed their way out from that memorable service was mrs john potter long before that she had forgotten her errands and her belated dinner even the claims of hospitality were almost forgotten she had something else on her mind she turned back once to give peremptory orders to her guest you make your way to the middle door and stand there i'll come just as soon as i can i've got to see two or three people first she made her way with the expedition of one accustomed to looking out for herself to the side entrance and reached there just in time mrs warren mackentire was about to step into her carriage she had very slight acquaintance with that lady who was only a summer resident and so wealthy that women like mrs john potter supposed that she must of course feel exclusive mrs potter's usual manner was to stand at one side at so great a distance that the lady could not be friendly if she desired but all that was now forgotten mrs warren mackentire was her present objective point and she plucked at her sleeve with decision and spoke rapidly don't you think mrs mackentire that it would be possible for me to slip around among a few of the people who heard him and raised the money to send for his wife and daughter and let them come to this meeting and go on and see her mother and surprise them all it seems a shame that that old mother had to be disappointed again and she ought to see her grandchild couldn't it be done mrs mackentire withdrew her foot from her carriage step and spoke with exceeding cordiality why my dear friend what a lovely idea i should never have thought of it i don't see why it couldn't be carried out they telegraph money orders do you mean you will see at once what you can raise if you will report to me this afternoon of course you can count on my help i will make up whatever is needed i'll do it said mrs john potter energy written on every line of her strong handsome face there's mrs armatage i'll ask her this minute she accomplished her object of course she was a woman who was used to accomplishing what she undertook besides she had a tower of strength to fall back on had not mrs warren mackentire promised to make up whatever was lacking she spent a busy and not unpleasant afternoon being a shrewd woman with a fair knowledge of human nature and a wide acquaintance in the city she chose her subjects with care and met not a dissenting voice it was dinner time when she presented herself at the mackentire home well pleased with her success and her fine face fairly glowed with pride and satisfaction when mrs mackentire promptly doubled the amount then being a business woman herself she entered it once into details i am afraid that we cannot manage the surprise part my dear mrs potter that is so far as mr randall is concerned mr mackentire thinks it will have to be explained to him and that he must send the telegram he says that any other arrangement would frighten the ladies they would be sure to think that he was very ill or had met with some accident that is so said mrs potter a slight shadow on her face it seems too bad doesn't it i had counted on giving that man a nice surprise well it's common sense and i have always noticed the common sense has to come in sooner or later if a thing gets done right how shall we manage it it required some management mr randall was a guest of the mackentires and that lady undertook to make plain to him the desire of their hearts he was bewildered and grateful and doubtful all at once at first it was evident that the doubts predominated it was kind it was wonderfully kind and oh he was grateful could anything but a stone fail of gratitude for such service but and then the gracious woman who had been explaining laid a gentle hand on his arm and spoke quietly dear friend there is nothing strange nor strained about this we are all children of one father and these are sisters are at the front bearing some of our burdens for us and we want to meet and clasp hands with them on the way will you not let us he looked in her kind earnest eyes and smiled she and helen would be kindred spirits and there was the child and what was that prayer he had prayed for her but this morning was this the answer while they were yet speaking i will hear was the promise and the reverend spencer randall laid down his doubts and his pride and set himself to the making of that telegram it was a work of art he grew up hauled as he struggled over its necessary length amid the chaos of astonishment and delight into which he had been thrown one thought stood out clearly helen and ester must not be frightened nevermind the length of the telegram said the merchant prince who was as used to telegrams as he was to air the operator won't mind its length but it will cost a fortune said the home missionary and while he struggled with it trying to strike out a word here and there and being dismayed afresh by his inability to make it brief the rich man stood marveling over the limitations of such a life and the constant petty sacrifices which it suggested and got a clearer view of the name home missionary than ever before the idea he said to himself that the number of words in an important telegram should actually trouble him that particular day a way out in the little western home had been a trying one the fierce heats of summer were supposed to be over yet there had come sweeping across the trackless sand a sudden and unexpected hot wave fiercer apparently at least harder to cope with than the august heats had been and october though it was ester randall had watched the effect of the heat upon her mother all that day she has kind of beat out a friendly neighbor had said who lingered to sympathize with the anxious daughter it ain't the heat so much as it is a long spell of overdoing and no rest nor change if she could only have gone with the elder now what a good thing it would have been seems like a body has got to have a change once in a while especially a woman when i went out to alvire's last spring i was all done over you may say i hadn't the strength of one of our old cats and they're about the laziest things i know of but land when i got home i felt just like a cold and it wasn't anything but a change you don't know no way for your mother to get away somewhere for a spell i suppose no i reckon not it's a pity we ain't some of us forehanded your uncle joram comes the niest to it i guess but i suppose he couldn't oh no said esther quickly he couldn't no i suppose not well you'll just have to get married esther to a rich man so you can give your ma a change though the land knows where you'll find him in these parts you feed her up good on that chicken broth i brought it's nice and rich and it's real strengthening you know she called back this last item as she was disappearing around the turn in the road leaving esther with a heightened color not over the advice about getting married the woman was sympathetic and well intentioned and esther was used to her but she could not keep her face in good order over a hint of help from that new uncle of hers she laughed a little though in another minute as she recalled that never forgotten trip out to alvirees and the change that a journey of 35 miles over land had given but almost immediately she sighed when had her mother enjoyed even so much changes that she peeped in on her anxiously as she lay on the wide old-fashioned lounge in the living room the dusk was falling rapidly yet the breathless day had not freshened as according to all reasonable precedent an october day should have done at nightfall esther as she stood there in the doorway having returned from seeing her visitor to the gate wondered if her father's letter received that morning giving an account of all the wonders and glories of his trip thus far had rested and helped her mother or made her feel her weakness and weariness more sensibly then suddenly all her pulses seemed to stop for a single definite moment and then give a sudden bound into quickened action down the long dusty road there loitered a boy who served as general messenger for all sorts and manners of errands having to do with the post office the station or the corner store in his hand he held a yellow envelope of that peculiar kind that could mean only a telegram and some instinct told the girl it was for them and must be from or about her father who else was there to convey news to them in such manner and if from father then it meant evil tidings of some kind father had no money to waste on common places she turned and swiftly and noiselessly closed the door then set her brave young heart to bear the first shock whatever it was and shield her mother as long as she could yes it was for them the boy stopped whistling when he saw her and handed up the envelope in respectful silence it was addressed to her mother never mind she and her mother were too entirely one to make hesitation on that score necessary and she must see it first and break its message carefully she read it once twice three times all the blood in her body seeming to surge into her face as she read what did that remarkable message mean then she be thought herself to pay the messenger and dismiss him no wiser than when he came though respectful curiosity spoke on every line of his freckled face then she went slowly thoughtfully into her mother how was she to prepare her for such a message as that end of chapter 27 recording by trisha g chapter 28 of ester reads namesake this libra box recording is in the public domain ester reads namesake by pansy chapter 28 an eminently sensible person oh mother said ester speaking in nervous haste as though she had but that moment succeeded in getting courage for her utterance oh mother must i go couldn't i stay with aunt sara or somewhere and let you go on without me mrs randall was bending over a large box that did duty as a closet selecting there from certain articles to be packed in the worn little trunk that had waited many years for its packing she straightened herself at sound of these surprising words and looked wonderingly at her daughter why ester she said and the tone was more nearly a rebuke than ester had heard for years the girl's face flushed to her forehead but she said no word she was sure that her mother understood after a moment's silence the mother spoke with gentle dignity we will both stay daughter if you think so if that is the right way have you thought it over very carefully from that viewpoint dear don't you think we might safely trust your father we have done it these 20 years and he has never brought humiliation to us nor given us cause to feel other than proud of him he is a man of refined feeling dear and when one thinks calmly of it what is there that should be offensive we are kin's folk the elder brother is theirs you know as well as ours the blood that had receded rolled again in rich waves over the girl's face how thoroughly her mother had understood her although she had not put her reluctance plainly even to herself she came swiftly over to her mother and kissed her mommy dear she said humbly you will have to forgive me you are a better woman than i shall ever be i have always suspected it of course i can trust my father and we will do exactly as he says nevertheless it had been hard for ester randall this planning to take a journey at the expense of others people whom not only she had never seen but who were strangers to her father and mother with no claim to kinship and no excuse for their extraordinary scheme but that of pity subjects of their benevolence she told herself and she could not keep her eyes from flashing and confessed to herself that she hated it yet her mother needed change even the commonplace sluggish country folk perceived that and would openly rejoice over the charity that had enabled them to seek it the telegram that had wrought such mischief and that it had troubled mr randall to word read as follows two hundred dollars at express office to your order you and ester take first convenient through express for this city why are me date of starting nothing the matter anywhere just a happy surprise from good women spencer dixon randall mrs. mackentire had argued with the good man over the unnecessary character of the last three words but even at the expense of the berevity his soul longed for he stood out sturdily for them he was sure that they would help helen to understand and she had and was happy after the manner of a woman who had had long experience in putting aside all phases of self and entering into the joy of others the two women who stood the next evening on the platform of a city railroad station waiting for the eastbound express train would not have suggested to even a close observer that they had a close acquaintance with poverty or that they had spent the entire previous night in planning and carrying out ways to make a decent appearance before the traveling public both women had about them that unmistakable and indescribable something which marks the lady irrespective of the clothes she wears which is able indeed to dignify every article of clothing she puts on moreover ester randall had always possessed in large measure that which for want of a better word may be called knack her friends at school used to say of her in half complaining tones give ester randall a bit of ribbon and an inch of lace that the rest of us would think was good for nothing but the ragbag and she will come out well dressed there was an element of truth in this ester had not served for years under the guidance of a capable mother in helping to make the two ends meet respectively not to have developed all the skill that she possessed of course the one good dress that each lady always contrived to have would be called upon this year to do extra duty and of course they would hardly outlast the winter but mrs randall when reminded of this by her sister sarah had quoted cheerfully sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof and had added moreover sarah i have always found that the blessings thereof are also sufficient isn't it good that we have a father whom we can trust as this good woman waiting at the station found time to survey her daughter she had a comfortable and grateful feeling that the good women to whom her husband's telegram had referred would have no reason to be ashamed of her on the morning of the day in which the ladies were expected mr url mackentire lingered in the dining room to keep his mother company while she finished her breakfast he had risen from the table to signal a car for their guest mr spencer randall who had an early appointment at the church and remained standing idly by the window watching the passers by and chatting with his mother mr mackentire senior had been called by an early train to his business house in the greater city some 50 miles away but his son was enjoying the closing days of his vacation and had announced that for the next few days he meant to take no early trains nor any other kind of trains and to do nothing methodical or systematic or even sensible if he could help it he proposed to give himself a few days of complete relaxation before university work began laying him isn't coming after all he said as he glanced again at a letter he held in his hand a friend of his is ill and has sent for him to go to bayville for the week i am not very sorry to miss him just now his mother said smiling i think our other guests will be more comfortable with fewer strangers to meet but if the professor laying him whom these two were so lightly putting aside could have known what stranger was coming as a guest to that house that day not all the bayvills and sick friends in the world would have kept him from being there to meet her ours is a small world after all and it is not so easy to divide interests as on the surface it appears mrs mackentire broken upon her son's musings with a question url are you going to the meeting this morning he turned from the window to give her a comical grimace my dear mother have you forgotten already my stern resolutions i make concessions in favor of sunday but no weekday meetings for me at present then can you go with the carriage to meet our guests i find that i must be detained at home this morning guests by train who is coming ah i remember this is the fateful day on which the amazons are to arrive is it not how are they expected to distinguish themselves from 500 other females am i supposed to walk up to all the doubly dressed women in disordered collars and frowsy headgear and ask if their name is randall mr randall will be there my son he rushed off to this committee meeting before the appointed hour that he might hurry the work through in time for the train but i thought it would be pleasant to have a member of the family there still if you don't wish to do it url never mind perhaps your father will get home in time or if not i can plan to go myself at this her son moved toward her and bending kissed her whimsically on her nose as he said my beloved mother you do me injustice i am entirely willing to be sacrificed in your behalf on the altar of benevolence i will meet the pioneers with alacrity and literally overwhelm them i have no doubt with attentions such as they never even dreamed of url mr randall is a gentleman so he is my precious mother and i respect and honor him i am also in fullest sympathy with your heroic efforts to make his trip east forever memorable i am intending to aid and to bet you in all possible ways to the best of my poor abilities at the same time my beloved mother another kiss this time on her ear i consider it but kindness to remind you that all heroisms have crosses and that you should be prepared for the worst the husband it is true is a gentleman but we must remember that his profession has kept him more or less in touch with the civilized world and with men of education and culture moreover men do not for some reason lose the effect of their early polish so soon as women i haven't the slightest doubt that his idolized helen is a good and true woman worthy of all honor but we must be prepared nevertheless to have her wear gowns that never approached the thought of what you ladies call tailored and cotton gloves frayed at the fingers and an impossible arrangement for her head also she will have forgotten what ladies in society do with either feet or hands now if such is the condition of the mother and i ask you beloved if what i have said is not in accordance with my usual excellent sense what shall we say of the daughter who has probably never in her life been away from western wilds be reasonable dearest and don't expect miracles his mother laughed and looked after her son with complacent pride as he prepared to depart everything about him satisfied her and in truth he was all that a wise as well as a fond mother could have desired she knew and rejoiced in the fact that she was still his dearest and she knew also that she could rely upon him to give not only proper but kindly and gracious attention to her guests no matter how dowdy or otherwise objectionable the western young woman might be two hours later young mackentire was pacing the platform of the railway station keeping argous eyes on the motley crowd that pushed an elbowed its way through the gates eager to get as far as possible from the through express that had held them prisoners somewhat anxious eyes they were also the reverend spencer randall had not appeared and neither so far as he could learn had the expected guests it was very annoying there seemed nothing for him to do but wait and stare several times he had selected two whom he mentally called females as answering fairly well his conception of those for whom he was watching only to see them pounced upon by an eager husband or lover and carried off in triumph meantime two women had been for several minutes attracting his attention he believed that they were mother and daughter and they must have been on the through train although there was no trace of night travel about them if they were travelers they were evidently cultivated ones thoroughly accustomed to looking out for themselves and being able to meet the little inconveniences and annoyances of the way without losing their self-boys he decided that they were ladies from one of the neighboring cities who had come to attend the great missionary meeting and had expected a friend to meet them they stood quietly at one side like persons who were waiting they were not disconcerted but seemed to be considering what step to take next having nothing better to do while he still waited for the possible appearance of mr. Randall he continued to study them he confessed to being somewhat fastidious about a lady's costume especially for the street and he decided that these women were faultlessly dressed with exceeding simplicity as good taste required but with such faultless regard to color and shape and such exquisite neatness that they might have come from a reception instead of a railway train the face of the younger one he told himself was peculiar he felt that the memory of it would stay with him he felt a strange regret over the fact that they were total strangers and there was no possible likelihood that he should ever see them again wait was it possible that they might be in need of a little information with regard to routes and distances he would like to show them a courtesy if there was opportunity he looked about him annoyed that there were no officials of any kind in sight and said to himself that there ought to be a different state of things how were strangers expected to find their way perhaps these two were really embarrassed by failing to meet their friends at that moment mr. Randall touched his arm and spoke anxiously I didn't see you before I don't understand it they seem not to have come after all yet this was the train and my wife would surely have telegraphed if and then he was interrupted father called a voice that even then Earl McIntyre told himself was peculiarly clear and pure and fitted the girl's face for mr. Randall turned quickly and made a rush for the strangers and tried then and there to take them both into his hungry arms it was the last week of his vacation and Earl McIntyre had resolved not to do anything that was even sensible if he could help it yet his conduct during the next few days however surprising it may have been to others always seemed to himself eminently sensible end of chapter 28 recording by Trisha G