HIS NEW FRIEND.
It was four o'clock, and Bobby was sitting out upon the lawn with his
new friend, Lady Isobel. His grandmother at first told Nurse that she
considered him too small to accept such an invitation; but Nurse for
once spoke up for him, and said she thought it would do him no harm.
It appeared she knew Lady Isobel's housekeeper, and was not sorry to
have an excuse for taking tea with her. So Bobby and Nobbles, with
smiling faces, presented themselves at the appointed time, and Lady
Isobel greeted the small boy most affectionately, Nurse went off to the
house, and then he lost all shyness, and was soon the greatest friends
with the sad-faced woman. It was not very long before he told her of
the beautiful picture he had seen.
'I wish I could read about it,' he lamented, 'but it's in a far away
lang'age, Nurse says.'
'But if it is the Bible your nurse could read it to you.'
'No, it's a diffent Bible.'
He described the cover to her and the pictures. Lady Isobel seemed
quite interested.
'I should like to see it,' she said. 'It must be a very valuable one,
Bobby. I expect some old monks must have painted the pictures in it.
I had a prayer-book once illuminated by them. They had plenty of time
in those days to give to painting, and they did it beautifully.'
'What's a monk?' asked Bobby.
'A man with a bald head in a gown, who lives in a house away from the
world, and makes it his business to be good.'
'In a gown?' repeated Bobby. 'A white one? Me and Nobbles want to
know about white gowns, acause you can't get inside the gates if you
haven't got one on, and'--his lips quivered--'I don't want to be shut
out, I reely don't!'
'I'm sure you needn't be afraid of that,' said Lady Isobel, smiling,
though she sighed at the same time. 'I have always been told that it
is people's own fault if they are left outside.'
'I want to be certain sure I'll get inside the gates,' repeated Bobby,
distress in his brown eyes. 'Me and Nobbles means to be there. I
finks my father will help me get in.'
'I'm sure he will,' said Lady Isobel, cheerfully. 'Now would you like
to come round my garden with me? Shall we pick some flowers for your
nursery? Do you like flowers?'
Bobby assented eagerly.
'The House has a good many,' he said, 'but me and Nobbles never has
none 'cept the daisies, and Tom always cuts them off d'reckly they
comes up.'
He trotted after her along a gravel path that was edged by thick
borders of flowers; roses climbed over arches across their heads. A
smile came over his face as he gazed at the flowers to the right and
left of him.
'Nobbles is rather naughty, sometimes,' he said, looking up into Lady
Isobel's face with twinkling eyes. 'He does love to cut off flowers'
heads, and I can't stop him. He cutted off 'bout a hundred dandelions
one day in the orchard, he _would_ do it, and when I looked at them
their necks were bleeding white milk, and I picked up all the heads,
and I made Nobbles dig and dig their graves, and we buried them all.'
Lady Isobel tried to look shocked.
Bobby had a bewitching smile, and twinkles of humour all over his face
when he was giving free play to his imagination. He continued with a
slow shake of his head as he looked down upon Nobbles meditatively.
'I tells him he mustn't be so fond of cutting off people's heads. You
see he loves fighting. He's been a soger over the sea. He went into
battle and cut off twenty fousand en'mies one day!'
Bobby stole a look up through his long lashes at Lady Isobel to see how
she took this. Then he gained courage, and proceeded:
'Nobbles tells me I needn't never be 'fraid of lions or tigers or
village boys, for he'd whack them all round, and the cocks and hens all
rush away when they see me and Nobbles coming! Once in the land where
the Indians are, Nobbles walked out in the night by hisself--he always
walks when nobody sees him you know--and he met an army coming frough
the jungle. They was all black men, and they were coming to kill all
the white people and burn their houses; he just told them to get in one
'normous line, and he swished, and swished, and cut off their heads
just like the dandelions, and then he walked back to bed and next
morning, when everybodies knew what he'd done, they all called out
hurrah, and gave him a gold crown. Nobbles said it hurt him, so he
left it in a tree, and he likes his red cap best!'
'He looks very brave,' said Lady Isobel. 'May I hold him in my hand?'
'Just for one minute you may; but Nobbles doesn't like no one but
me--no one 'cept father. Nobbles reely loves him!'
It was the same with all Bobby's stories; they invariably turned upon
his absent father. Lady Isobel walked by his side and wondered much if
the absent father knew what a wealth of love and devotion was awaiting
him in his little son's heart and hopes.
Bobby enjoyed every minute of that visit of his. He talked without
stopping; and Lady Isobel's grave sadness began to melt away. When
Nurse at length came respectfully out of the house to take him home,
she found the young widow and the child engaged in a merry game of
'touch-wood.'
'Oh, Nurse!' cried Bobby reproachfully, 'we're having such fun. I
never has anyone to play with me like this?'
'You shall come another day,' said Lady Isobel stooping to kiss the
eager radiant face. 'I don't know who has enjoyed the time most, you
or I!'
The anticipation of another such treat sent Bobby home in smiling
content, but it was some time before he saw Lady Isobel again, for a
few days afterwards he was laid up with a mild attack of measles.
His grandmother and nurse were at first much concerned about him, then
when the little invalid began to recover they regained their usual
stolid composure. It was a very new experience to Bobby; at first he
could not understand it, and thought he was going to die; then he
declared that Nobbles felt much worse than he did, and the doctor must
see him. The doctor, a grey-haired old man, humoured him, assured him
that Nobbles must certainly lie in bed with him and be dosed, whereupon
Bobby's smile shone out and he murmured:
'Nobbles and me is both very ill indeed.'
'Nurse,' he said, 'if I die, shall I go to heaven? I can't if I
haven't a white robe. Do tell me how I can get it.'
'You're not going to die, Master Bobby; you're getting well fast.'
'I'm mis'rable and very ill,' said Bobby in an injured tone. 'Nobbles
and me both is, and I want to see my lady!'
This cry was continually upon his lips, and at last one afternoon nurse
opened the door and ushered in Lady Isobel.
'I am sure it is very good of you, my lady, to come to him; he is
getting a bit fretful now that he's better.'
Bobby held out his arms with an eager cry to the first grown-up person
who had shown a liking for him. Certainly his Uncle Mortimer had been
interested in him, but he had never kissed him or petted him.
'You aren't afraid you'll catch the measles?' he asked as Lady Isobel
kissed his little up-turned face.
'Not a bit afraid,' she said cheerily; 'and I think the doctor would
say you were past the infectious stage now. Has the time seemed dull
and long?'
'N-o-o,' replied Bobby slowly. 'I like my beef-tea and jelly, and so
does Nobbles; but I'm tired of looking at my picsher-books, and I want
to see those lovely picshers in the beautiful Bible downstairs. Could
you fetch it for me to look at?'
Lady Isobel hesitated, and turned to Nurse.
'He's been on so for those pictures,' she said, 'that I think I'll
venture to go and ask the mistress now.'
Nurse left the room and soon returned with the treasured book.
'His grandmother says he can look at it with you, and then I must put
it back again, as it's a valuable book.'
Nurse deposited the Bible upon Bobby's bed, and left the room.
Lady Isobel took it carefully up and looked at the title-page.
'It is a treasure, Bobby. It is an old Italian Bible--Martini's
translation, of course. I know Italian, and used to spend a good deal
of my time in Italy when I was a girl. Now show me your wonderful
picture.'
Bobby took hold of the Bible with flushed eager face, and turned to
almost the last page of it. Then he drew a long sigh of admiration as
he held it up to her.
'Isn't it beautiful?'
'Beautiful indeed,' said Lady Isobel, gazing upon the richly
illuminated page with enjoyment. I don't wonder you like it, Bobby; it
is a dream of glory.'
'It isn't a dream, it's a true picsher,' corrected Bobby. 'Nurse says
everyfing's true in the Bible. Please read me what it says underneath.'
'I will translate it for you; you would not understand the foreign
words:
'"Blessed are they that wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb, that
they may have right to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates
into the City."'
Bobby listened as if his life depended on the words.
'Tell me what it means. Does it tell me how to get a lovely white
dress, like the people going up that beautiful road? What Lamb does it
mean?' His little finger was pointing to the white-robed group in the
picture.
For a moment Lady Isobel paused. She read the verse again slowly.
'I think it means this, Bobby, that no one has a right inside those
gates except those who have had their sins washed away by the Lamb of
God.'
'Who's the Lamb of God?' asked Bobby in a hushed voice. 'Does God keep
sheep and lambs in heaven?'
'It is one of the names of our Lord Jesus Christ, Bobby, dear. I don't
know how to explain it to you; but long ago people used to offer up
innocent little lambs to God as a sacrifice for sins.'
'What's a sacrifice?'
Lady Isobel was not accustomed to a child's questions. She hesitated.
'It is an innocent thing suffering for a guilty, at least the Bible
sacrifices were. I suppose they were just to picture the great
sacrifice on Calvary. How can I put it simply? Sin made everyone
black and wicked, Bobby, and God had to shut up heaven's gates and keep
it outside. Nothing with sin upon it can be in heaven. These people
in the picture who are being turned away are looking black and dirty
and miserable, because their hearts are full of sin.'
'They want white dresses,' said Bobby, 'then they could go in like the
others. The clergyman said in church--I 'members it quite well--that
we must have white dresses on first afore the angel would let us frough
the gates. And me and Nobbles wants to get frough!'
'Yes,' said Lady Isobel softly, 'you are quite right, Bobby, that's
what the text says, we must be washed white first before we have a
right to go in.'
'How?'
'I am trying to tell you. God wanted us to come into heaven, so Jesus
said He would come down upon earth and be punished instead of us. You
will understand when you grow older what a big thing it was for Him to
do. But He died for us, Bobby; He gave His life-blood for us; and it
is by His death our sins can be washed away and our hearts made clean.
That is what it means by washing our robes in the blood of the Lamb.
Jesus was the Lamb, and our hearts must be washed white in His precious
blood.'
'But it says robes,' said Bobby, with a puzzled frown. 'Does hearts
mean robes?'
'I think it is like this, darling. Our hearts are black and soiled
with sin. When they are washed clean it is just like a white covering
over them, a white dress; and God looks down upon them, and says "that
person can come inside the gates, because I see a clean white robe over
him."'
'I see!' said Bobby, with quick comprehension. 'My heart has to have a
white robe inside me, not outside; and the angel at the gate looks
right frough me and sees it.'
'That is it, Bobby.'
'And how can I get it white?'
'You must just ask Jesus Christ to wash it in his blood.'
'Will He do it to-day? I would like it done now.'
He eyed the picture thoughtfully, then a pleased smile crept over his
face.
'And then I shan't never, never be turned away. The angel will say,
"Come in Bobby; I'm very glad to see you." And I'll walk up the road
and be so happy!'
Lady Isobel did not speak for a moment. In explaining the old Truths
to Bobby they seemed fresh to her own soul.
Bobby had no difficulty in laying hold of them.
Even now he was clasping his hands devoutly, shutting his eyes and
bowing his head. He looked up for one moment.
'Nurse says I must say my prayers in bed. I've always said them to God
afore. I think I'll say this one to Jesus.'
'Do, dear. It will be just the same.'
So Bobby spoke aloud. He had not yet got to the stage of praying in
silence.
'Please, Jesus, I want my heart washed white, _quite_ white, please, so
that I shan't be outside the gate. And please will you do it now, for
I don't like waiting, and tell me when you've done it, so that I can
say thank you.'
There was great silence in that room. The earnestness of the child
made the grown-up person very grave.
She had never yet in her life come to this crisis. And then in a very
few minutes came an emphatic 'Thank you very much,' from Bobby's lips
as he wriggled down amongst his pillows with a sigh of satisfaction.
'I feel Jesus has done it,' he said, with a nod of his curly head. 'He
just put His hand on my heart, and it all turned white.'
'I'm so glad, darling.'
Lady Isobel stooped to kiss him with tears in her eyes.
'And now, Bobby, you must always try to be a good boy, and love Jesus
Christ, and do what He tells you to. Isn't there a little hymn:
Oh, dearly, dearly has He loved,
And we must love Him too,
And trust in His redeeming blood,
And try His works to do.'
Bobby nodded again.
'I says that to Nurse sometimes, but I never does understand it. And
now let's look at the other picshers; but first, please, say the text
to me again.'
Lady Isobel repeated it, and Bobby repeated it after her with quiet
satisfaction:
'"Blessed are they that wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb, that
they may have right to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates
into the City."'
Then he wanted to know about the tree of life; and when at length Lady
Isobel left him she said to Nurse:
'He is an extraordinary child, Nurse. I feel as if I had been teaching
in Sunday-school. I have never done such a thing before in my life!'