Part 18 (2/2)

To Flossy this day was like the revelation of a new heaven and a new earth. Her first Sunday in Christ!

There was no suns.h.i.+ne, neither was there rain. Just a hush of all things, and sweetness everywhere.

After breakfast Ruth and Marion lolled on their cots and studied the programme, while the other two made hasty toilets, and announced their intention of going to Sunday-school.

”What in the name of sense takes you?” queried Marion, rising on one elbow, the better to view this strange phenomena.

”Why I have a mission,” Eurie said. ”About three thousand people have been talking all this week about teaching a few Bible verses to some children to-day, and I am going to find out what they are, and what is so wonderful about them. Besides, I was taken for a being named Miss Rider, and on inquiry I find her to be what they call an infant-cla.s.s teacher, so I am going to hunt her up and see if we look alike and are affinities.”

Flossy chose to make no answer at all, and presently the two departed together to attend their first Sabbath-school since they were known as children. As they pa.s.sed a certain tent Eurie's ready ears gained information from other pa.s.sers-by:

”This is where the little children are; Miss Rider is going to teach them.”

Eurie halted.

”_I'm_ going in here,” she said, decidedly, to Flossy. ”That is the very lady I am in search of.” And seeing Flossy hesitate, she added: ”Oh, you may go on, it is just as well to divide our forces; we may each have some wonderful adventure. You go your way and I will go mine, and we'll see what will come of it.”

The tent was full apparently; but that spirit which was rife at Chautauqua, and which prompted everybody to try to look out a little for the comfort of everybody else, made a seat full of ladies crowd a little and make room for her. Rows and rows of little people with smiling faces and s.h.i.+ning eyes! It was a pretty sight. Eurie gave eager attention to the lady who was talking to them, and laughed a little to herself over the dissimilarity of their appearance.

”Hair and eyes and height, and everything else, totally unlike me!” she said. ”She is older than I, too, ever so much. She doesn't look as I thought Miss Rider would.”

But what she was saying proved to be very interesting, not only to the little people, but to Eurie. She listened eagerly. It was important to discover what had been so stirring the Sunday-school world all the week.

She was not left in doubt; the story was plainly, clearly, fascinatingly told; it was that tender one of the sick man so long waiting, waiting to be helped into the pool; disappointed year after year, until one blessed day Jesus came that way and asked one simple question, and received an eager answer, and gave one brief command, and, lo! the work was done!

The long, long years of pain and trial were over! Do you think this seemed like a wonderful story to Eurie? Do you think her cheeks glowed with joy over the thought of the great love and the great power of Jesus?

Alas, alas! to her there was no beauty in him. This simple tender story did not move her as the commonplace account of a common sickness and common recovery given in a village paper would have done. The very most that she thought of it was this: ”That Miss Rider has a good deal of dramatic power. How well she tells the story! But dear me! how stupid it must be. What is the use of taking so much trouble for these little midgets? They don't understand the story, and of what use would it be to them if they did? Something that happened to somebody hundreds of years ago.”

But now her attention was arrested by the sound of a very loud whisper just behind her, given in a childish voice. ”Miss Rider, Miss Rider,”

the child was saying, and emphasizing her whisper by a pull at a lady's dress. Eurie turned quickly; the dress belonged to a young, fair girl, with fresh glowing face and large bright eyes, that shone now with feeling as she listened eagerly to this story, and to the comments of the children concerning it. Then she in turn whispered to the lady nearest her: ”Is it Miss Rider who is teaching?” ”No, it is Mrs. Clark, of Newark. That is Miss Rider leaning against a post.”

Then Eurie looked back to her. ”She is no older than I,” she murmured; ”indeed not so old, I should think. Her hair must be exactly the color of mine, and we are about the same height. I wonder if we _do_ look in the least alike? What do I care!” Yet still she looked; the bright face fascinated her. The little child had won the lady's attention; and the lips and eyes, and indeed the whole face, were vivid with animation as she bent low and answered some troubled question, appealing to the diagram on the board, and making clear her answer by rapid gestures with her fingers. The lady beside Eurie volunteered some more information.

”Miss Rider was to have taught this cla.s.s, I heard. I wonder why she didn't?”

”I don't know,” Eurie answered, briefly. Then she looked back at her again. ”She is jealous,” she said to herself. ”She was to have taught this cla.s.s this morning, and by some blundering she was left out, and she is disgusted. She will say that such teaching as this amounts to nothing; she could have done it five times as well; or, if she doesn't _say_ that last, she will think it and act it. I have no doubt these rival teachers cordially hate each other, like politicians.”

Nevertheless that fresh young face, with its glow of feeling, fascinated her. She kept looking at her; she gave no more attention to the lesson.

What was it, after all, but an old story that had nothing to do with her; the fact that it was taken from the Bible was proof enough of that.

But she watched Miss Rider. The session closed and that lady pressed forward to a.s.sist in giving out papers. The crowd pushed the willing Eurie nearer to her, so near that she could catch the sentence that she was eagerly saying to the lady near her.

”Isn't Mrs. Clark delightful? It was such a beautiful lesson this morning. I think it is such a treat and such a privilege to be allowed to listen to her. Yes, darling,” this last to another little one claiming a word, ”of course Jesus can hear you now, just as well as though He stood here. He often says to people, 'Wilt thou be made whole?' He has said so to you this morning.”

Eurie turned away quickly. She had had her lesson. It wasn't from the Bible, nor yet did she find it in those hundred little faces so eager to know the story in all its details. It was just in that young face not so old as hers, so bright, so strong, so thoroughly alert, and so thoroughly enlisted in this matter. The vivid contrast between that life and hers struck Eurie with the force of a new revelation.

She went to the general service under the trees; she heard a sermon from Dr. Pierce, so full of power and eloquence that to many who heard it there came new resolves, new purposes, new plans. I beg her pardon, she did not listen; she simply occupied a seat and looked as though she was a listener.

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