Part 4 (1/2)
As they neared the village, Lucy suddenly recollected their unexpected guest. ”I wonder how Nelly got home! Did she stay long after we left, Alick?” she said.
”No; she said her mother would be angry if she were out late, so she set off at a run.”
”Lucy,” said Stella, ”I wonder how you can have anything to do with such a vagabond-looking child! I'm sure she was watching to see whether she could pick up anything; and she looked just like a gipsy.”
”Oh, Stella! how can you be so suspicious?” exclaimed Lucy indignantly. ”I don't believe Nelly would do any such thing! No wonder the poor child was watching us while we were at tea; didn't you see how hungry she was?”
”Well, I know we've had things stolen by just such children, and papa says it's best to keep such people down; for they're sure to impose on those who are kind to them, and charity is quite thrown away upon them.”
”A convenient belief to save trouble,” Lucy was just going to say, but wisely repressed the impulse, feeling that it would not sound very respectful to Stella's father, who, she felt, must be a very different man from her own.
”Stella,” said Alick, ”did it ever occur to you what you might have been if you had been left, motherless and almost fatherless, to run all day on the streets, listening to bad words and seeing all sorts of evil, without any one to say a kind word to you and teach you what is right? I wish you could have heard the poor little thing's story as she told it to me.” And in a few words he gave them an outline of Nelly's history.
”Papa says you never can believe their stories,” objected the city-hardened Stella.
”I know you can't always,” replied Alick; ”but I think I'm not easily taken in, and I'm willing to stake my judgment on this being no sham.
And how would _you_ have turned out from such a bringing-up, Mademoiselle Stella?”
”And where is her father?” Lucy asked.
”Oh, her father works on a boat, and is seldom at home. They came to live here because it is cheaper, and they can have a pig and raise potatoes.”
”I wonder whether she can read,” said Lucy.
”I shouldn't think so, for she never was at school in her life, nor at church either, since they left Ireland, till last Sunday.”
”I wonder,” said Stella, ”whether she understood anything she heard.”
”Possibly she might be able to give as good an account of the sermon as some other people,” remarked Alick mischievously. ”Come, Stella, what was the text?”
”I don't believe you know yourself,” retorted Stella, colouring; and, fortunately for her, Alick's attention was just then directed to the care of landing his pa.s.sengers.
As they walked home, Stella and Marian in front, eagerly engrossed in a children's party which the former was describing, Lucy remarked impatiently to Alick, ”How can Stella talk in that hard, unfeeling way about poor people?”
”Poor girl!” said Alick, ”it is sad to see any one so spoiled by living in a cold worldly atmosphere. As you know more of the world, Lucy, you will be more and more thankful for such a home as you have always had.”
Lucy was silent. Her cousin's words made her feel that she had been indulging in self-righteous and uncharitable feelings, and she felt humbled at the lesson which she had thus received from one who did not profess to be a Christian, in one of a Christian's most important graces. But she accepted the rebuke, and she added to her evening prayer the pet.i.tion that she might be made more humble, and less ready to condemn; as well as that Stella's heart might be opened to receive the love of Christ, and, through this, of her poor earthly brothers and sisters.
The little party were soon a.s.sembled at home, and after cheerful ”good-nights,”--Harry remarking that ”he was awful tired, but there never had been a nicer picnic,”--the wearied excursionists soon lost all sense of fatigue in peaceful slumbers and happy dreams.
VI.
_A Mission._
”And if this simple message Has now brought peace to you, Make known the old, old story, For others need it too.”
Two days after the picnic was the day fixed upon for Miss Preston's wedding, to which, as has been said, Lucy had been invited to accompany her father and aunt. Stella had not been included in the invitation, which she privately thought a great omission. It would have been such a good opportunity for showing the Ashleigh people how they dress in the city, and she felt sure that, tastefully attired in a lovely white grenadine, which would have been just the thing for the occasion, she and her dress would have added no small _eclat_ to the wedding.