ROSA STEVENSON'S SISTER.
As Christmas drew near Marty found herself very busy, for besides some
little presents she was making for her "own folks," she and her mother
set to work to mend some of her old toys, to dress some new cheap dolls,
and to make a few picture-books of bright pretty cards pasted on silesia
and yellow muslin, for the little Torrences and other poor children they
knew of.
Edith, also, was engaged in the same way, and the little girls often
worked together.
Though they had received some money on their birthdays, they concluded
to wait until Christmas to give Jennie her Bible, as everybody appeared
to think it would be a very suitable Christmas gift for her. They got
Mrs. Ashford to go with them to buy it, and with her aid succeeded in
getting a very nice one, good size, clear print, and pretty cover, for
the money they had set aside for the purpose.
Their mothers gave them permission to run down the afternoon before
Christmas to carry the Bible to Jennie, as there would not possibly be
time to go Christmas day when there was so much going on. They were to
call and ask Cousin Alice to go with them; but when they stopped at her
house they found she had already gone over to Landis Court, but had left
word for them if they came to follow her.
When they arrived at Mrs. Scott's room they found Miss Alice very busy
indeed, hanging up some wreaths of green and otherwise decorating the
room. She was hurrying to get it all in order before Mrs. Scott returned
from her work, as it was to be a surprise to her. Jennie, sitting in the
rocking-chair with the doll in her arms, was watching the operation with
the greatest interest, every now and then exclaiming, "Oh, that's
splendid! What'll mother say to that!"
When Marty and Edith appeared something else seemed to occur to her, and
turning from the decorations she cried eagerly to them, "Oh, did you
get--!" and then glancing at Miss Alice, covered her mouth with her
hand, laughed very much, but would not finish what she had begun to say.
She nearly went wild over the beautiful Bible and could hardly thank the
givers enough.
"And I can read it my own self too, 'cepting of course the long words,"
she said. "How queer it'll be to be sitting up reading a chapter to
mother 'stead of her reading to me!"
"You might read to her those Christmas verses in Luke to-morrow that I
read to you not long ago," Miss Alice suggested.
"Oh! I will. Where are they, I wonder?" said Jennie.
Edith found the place, while Marty snipped off a little bit of her blue
hair-ribbon for a mark.
Some cakes and fruit Mrs. Howell and Mrs. Ashford sent Jennie were also
highly appreciated. They had also sent some small but useful and pretty
presents for her mother, which Jennie was to have the pleasure of giving
to her. Thus they all tried to bring some Christmas joy into the poor
little girl's life.
When Marty and Edith went home they each found a small parcel that Jimmy
Torrence had left for them. They contained nicely crocheted
bureau-covers for their dolls' houses, and were marked in Miss Alice's
handwriting, "For Marty, from Jennie," and "For Edith, from Jennie."
"Ah! this was the secret she had with Cousin Alice," exclaimed Marty.
"Just look mamma! isn't it a pretty cover?"
Edith was equally pleased with hers, and Jennie seemed much pleased with
their hearty thanks.
"I really believe she enjoyed making and giving those little things more
than any other part of Christmas," said Miss Alice. "I suppose it made
her feel as if she was in the Christmas times."
Marty never enjoyed any Christmas season so much as this one, when she
worked so hard to give happiness to the poor. She had her temptations to
overcome, too; for when the stores were filled with beautiful things
that she would like to buy for herself or her friends, it was very hard
to keep from entrenching on the money she had saved up for a special
Christmas missionary offering. But her year's training in missionary
giving had not gone for nothing, and she was able to make a missionary
offering a part of her Christmas celebration.
The members of the band had not forgotten the talk they had had over
Mrs. C----'s letter, when they resolved to try very hard to double their
usual amount. The most of them were trying, and the sum was "rolling
up," the treasurer said. Whether or not they would succeed in what they
were aiming at, remained to be seen, but Miss Walsh encouraged them by
saying that they would certainly come much nearer success by making
continual efforts than by making no effort at all.
One morning when the holidays were over, and the little girls were on
their way to school, Edith had a great piece of news to tell.
"What do you think!" she said. "Rosa Stevenson's grownup sister is
going away next month to be a missionary!"
"_Is_ she really?" exclaimed Marty.
"Yes; going to Japan, and Miss Agnes has asked her to come to the
meeting next Saturday and tell us about it."
The news spread, and the next Saturday every one of the Twigs was there,
gazing with wide-open eyes at the fair young girl who was going so far
from home to carry the gospel to her ignorant sisters. Sitting there
with tearful Rosa's hand clasped in hers, she told the girls that when
she was studying in college, God had put it into her heart to carry the
tidings of his salvation to the people who knew him not. She said that
though it was very hard to leave home and friends, she felt it was her
duty and privilege to go, and she was thankful that the way was open for
her.
Then she showed them on the map what city she was going to, and told
them something of the school in which she was to teach. She promised to
write to the band some time, and in closing she earnestly appealed to
them to do all they could for missions.
"Even be ready to go yourself if God calls you," she said. "When I was a
little girl in a mission-band, saving up pennies and learning about
these foreign lands, I never thought that one day I should be going to
teach the girls of one of these countries and try to win them to Christ.
So there may be some among you whom God will call to this work, and I
hope none of you will slight his call, but be ready to do his will in
this matter as in all others."
Marty was very deeply impressed by what Miss Stevenson said. She thought
it would be a grand thing to go away off as a missionary. She wondered
if God would call her to go. She hoped he would. Only she would not wish
to go to such a civilized country as Japan; the very worst part of
Africa or the wildest part of Asia would be what she would choose.
Her mind was so full of the subject that she did not want to talk about
anything else, or to talk at all, and was glad that Edith was going to
her aunt Julia's from the meeting, so she could walk home alone. She
concluded that as soon as she reached home, she would go into her room
and pray that she might be a missionary. Then she could not wait until
she got home, and being on a quiet street, she slipped behind a tree-box
and offered this little prayer: "Dear Lord, if missionaries are still
needed by the time I grow up, I pray thee let me be one. For Jesus
Christ's sake. Amen."
She walked in home very soberly for her, and going directly to her
mother, asked, "Mamma, should you like me to go away over the seas and
be a missionary?"
"No, indeed!" said her mother emphatically. "I should not like it at
all. You mustn't think of such a thing."
"But if God calls me to go?" said Marty, with quivering lip.
It would be hard, after all, to leave this dear home. She scarcely knew
whether she wanted her prayer answered or not.
"What do you mean?" inquired Mrs. Ashford, drawing her on her lap.
Then Marty told all about the meeting, and what she had been thinking,
and how she had prayed to be a missionary.
"I want to be one if God wants me to, but I don't see how I _can_ go
away and leave you all," she said, half crying.
"Well," said her mother soothingly, seeing she was trembling with
excitement, "we need not talk about it yet. It will be a long time until
you are old enough or know enough to go. You will have to go to school
many years yet, and then, perhaps, to college, for you know the better
missionaries are educated the more good they can do. Then you must learn
to make your own clothes and take care of them, and it is well to know a
good deal about housekeeping also, for missionaries have to know how to
be independent, and be ready for any kind of life. You would hardly be
prepared to go before you are twenty, anyway, and that is ten years
yet."
"Nine and a half," put in Marty.
"In the meantime you can be doing as much as possible for missions at
home."
"Yes," said Marty, wiping her eyes and looking comforted, "that's so. We
needn't think of my going away yet, and I s'pose the right way is to do
as Miss Agnes says. She says the best way in mission work, as in
everything else, is just to do the nearest thing and do it as well as we
possibly can, and then be willing to let God lead us along from one step
to another."
"She is certainly right," said Mrs. Ashford.
"I have taken some steps since Edith got me started, haven't I? I've
learned a good deal about missions, and I find it a great deal easier to
give money regularly now than when I began. Don't you remember how at
first I either wanted to give every cent I had or else not to give
anything? But I found out that wasn't the best way to do."
"And another thing," said Mrs. Ashford, "you have been the means of some
of the rest of us taking steps. Seeing how well your systematic giving
is working, I have started in to do the same way."
"Oh! _have_ you, mamma?" exclaimed Marty. "Are you going to have a box
for tenths? How delightful!"
"No, not a box--my square Russia-leather pocketbook. And not tenths
exactly, but what you call the New Testament way."
"That's just lovely!" said Marty, caressing her. "I'm so glad. So we'll
both be mission workers the rest of our lives, wont we?"
"With God's help, we will," replied her mother.
"And p'r'aps dear little Freddie will begin, too, when he gets old
enough. You know there are boy bands. But where is Freddie? He was here
when I came in."
Just then a high-pitched little voice from the next room called, "Whoop!
Marty!"
"There he is. I wonder what sort of a funny place he's hiding in this
time," said Marty, laughing and running to see.
Freddie had taken one of his papa's large handkerchiefs out of the lower
drawer of the bureau, and spreading it out over his head was standing in
the middle of the room, hiding. How he laughed when Marty found him!
Soon after Mrs. Ashford and Marty began studying the Bible with the help
of the concordance, they agreed that it would be pleasant to read a
chapter together every night before Marty went to bed. Sometimes she was
too sleepy to read more than a few verses, but generally she tried to
get ready in good time so that she would be wide enough awake to read a
whole chapter, unless it was a very long one.
They were reading in Luke's Gospel now, but the evening of this day
Marty said,
"Mamma, mayn't we read that chapter that has in it, 'Here am I; send
me'? Miss Stevenson read that verse to us to-day when she was talking
about us going, any of us. Do you know where it is?"
"I think I can find it pretty easily," Mrs. Ashford replied. "I know it
is in Isaiah. Here it is--the sixth chapter."
They read it, and the eighth verse coming to Marty, she read slowly and
reverently,
"Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who
will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me."
After they had finished reading, she said,
"I think that is a very hard chapter. The only verses in it that I
understand are this one where it says, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of
hosts,' and the eighth verse about 'Whom shall I send?'"
"Well," said her mother, "if you understand those two, they will give
you plenty to think of, and when you are older you will be able to
understand more."
After a moment's silence Marty said,
"You were saying a while ago that I'd have to go to school and learn a
great deal before I could be a missionary. I s'pose I'll have to study
the Bible a great deal too."
"Oh, of course. I didn't mention that particularly, because I took it
for granted you would know that any one who undertakes to show others
the way of life must know the way herself, and the Bible is the book
that points out that way. You remember Jesus says, 'Search the
Scriptures; they are they which testify of me.'"
"But how am I ever to learn? Some people seem to know just where
everything is, all the verses that explain other verses, and so on. They
can so easily find something in the Old Testament that exactly fits into
something in the New Testament. I often wonder how they do it."
"They love the Word of God, study it, and pray over it."
"I want to love it too," said Marty, pressing her face against the open
Bible on her mother's knee. "Whether I'm a missionary or not, I want to
be a Christian and do some work for the Lord."
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Transcriber's note:
The original spelling of "wont" for "won't" was retained.
Punctuation was corrected where appropriate.
Captions for the illustrations were created by the transcriber.