Part 53 (2/2)
He took from under his pillow Mrs. Fairbanks' letter and gave it to The Don, who read it in silence. Poor Shock! He was opening up wounds that none had ever seen, or even suspected, and the mere uncovering of them brought him keen anguish and humiliation.
As The Don read the letter he began to swear deep oaths.
”Stop, Don. You mustn't swear. Now listen to me. I think she has a perfect right to do as she has been doing. But--Lloyd”--Shock seemed to get the name out with difficulty,--”was my friend, and I think he has not been fair.”
”Fair!” burst out The Don. ”The low down villain!”
”But listen. The question with me has been how to forgive him, for I must forgive him or keep far from Him who has forgiven me, and that I cannot afford to do. Now read.” And The Don took up the Bible from the little table beside Shock's bed, and read that most touching of all tales told of the Saviour of the sinful.
”'Wherefore I say unto thee, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.'”
As The Don finished reading, a sound of sobbing broke the silence in the room.
”Who is that? Is that you, Nell?” said Shock. ”What is the matter, Nell? That is for you, too. Now we will have Don read it again.” And once more, with great difficulty, The Don read the words, so exquisitely delicate, so divinely tender.
”That is for you, too, Nell,” said Shock.
”For me?” she cried. ”Oh, no, not for me!”
”Yes, Nell, my sister, it is for you.”
”Oh,” she cried, with a tempest of sobs, ”don't call me that. It cannot be. I can never be clean again.”
”Yes, Nell, He says it Himself. 'Her sins, which are many, are forgiven,' and He can make you clean as the angels. We all need to be made clean, and He has undertaken to cleanse us.”
It was a very humble and chastened man that went out from Shock's presence that evening. Through the days of the week that followed The Don went about his work speaking little, but giving himself with earnestness and in a new spirit, more gentle, more sympathetic, to his ministry to the sick in the camps and shacks round about. But still the gloom was unlifted from his heart. Day by day, however, in response to Shock's request he would read something of the story of that great loving ministration to the poor, and sick, and needy, and of infinite compa.s.sion for the sinful and outcast, till one day, when Shock had been allowed for the first time to sit in his chair, and The Don was about to read, Shock asked for the story of the debtors, and after The Don had finished he took from his pocket Brown's letter and said:
”Now, Don, forgive me. I am going to read something that will make you understand that story,” and he read from Brown's letter the words that described Betty's last hour.
The Don sat white and rigid until Shock came to the words, ”G.o.d forgives us all, and we must forgive,” when his self-control gave way and he abandoned himself to the full indulgence of his great sorrow.
”It was not to grieve you, Don,” said Shock, after his friend's pa.s.sion of grief had subsided. ”It was not to grieve you, you know, but to show you what is worth while seeing--the manner of G.o.d's forgiveness; for as she forgave and took you to her pure heart again without fear or shrinking, so G.o.d forgives us. And, Don, it is not worth while, in the face of so great a forgiveness, to do anything else but forgive, and it is a cruel thing, and a wicked thing, to keep at a distance such love as that.”
”No, no,” said The Don, ”it is not worth while. It is wicked, and it is folly. I will go back. I will forgive.”
XIX
THE REGIONS BEYOND
The visit of the Superintendent to a mission field varied according to the nature of the field and the character of the work done, between an inquisitorial process and a triumphal march. Nothing escaped his keen eye. It needed no questioning on his part to become possessed of almost all the facts necessary to his full information about the field, the work, the financial condition, and the general efficiency of the missionary. One or two points he was sure to make inquiry about. One of these was the care the missionary had taken of the outlying points. He had the eye of an explorer, which always rests on the horizon. The results of his investigations could easily be read in his joy or his grief, his hope or his disappointment, his genuine pride in his missionary or his blazing, scorching rebuke. The one consideration with the Superintendent was the progress of the work. The work first, the work last, the work always.
The announcement to Shock through his Convener, that the Superintendent purposed making a visit in the spring, filled him with more or less anxiety. He remembered only too well his failure at the Fort; he thought of that postscript in the Superintendent's letter to his Convener; he knew that even in Loon Lake and in the Pa.s.s his church organization was not anything to boast of; and altogether he considered that the results he had to show for his year's labour were few and meagre.
The winter had been long and severe. In the Pa.s.s there had been a great deal of sickness, both among the miners and among the lumbermen. The terrible sufferings these men had to endure from the cold and exposure, for which they were all too inadequately prepared, brought not only physical evils upon them, but reacted in orgies unspeakably degrading.
The hospital was full. Nell had been retained by The Don as nurse, and although for a time this meant constant humiliation and trial to her, she bore herself with such gentle humility, and did her work with such sweet and untiring patience, that the men began to regard her with that entire respect and courteous consideration that men of their cla.s.s never fail to give to pure and high-minded women.
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