THE STORY OF A STRAY WAIF.
For a moment Katherine felt as if she were being made the target
for the arrows of error from every quarter; for here was another
lawless girl on her hands, and another infraction of rules which
threatened to involve her in disagreeable complications.
But, after silently declaring that "evil could not make her its
channel, either directly or indirectly," she resolutely put
disturbing thoughts away, determined that her mind should not be
distracted from the lesson.
She did observe, however, that Jennie paid the strictest attention
throughout the service, joining in the Lord's Prayer, and in the
hymns with a vigor which indicated thorough enjoyment of that
portion of it.
The moment the benediction was pronounced she came directly to her
and greeted her with a half-deprecatory air, but with a roguish
gleam in her saucy eyes.
Katherine lingered a little to speak to some acquaintances, and
also introduced her companion; then they passed out of the hall
together.
"Did you have Prof. Seabrook's permission to come here this
morning, Jennie?" Katherine inquired, when they were on the
street, but feeling confident of receiving a negative reply.
Jennie took refuge in one of her comical grimaces and shrugged her
plump shoulders.
"Ask me no questions and I will tell you no--stories," she
laughingly rejoined.
"I am answered," Katherine gravely observed.
"I don't care. I wanted to come, and I knew it wouldn't do to ask
the professor, after what he said to you about Christian Science,"
said the girl, in self-justification, but flushing consciously
beneath the look of disapproval in her companion's eyes. "I think
the service was just lovely," she went on, glibly. "How happy all
those people seemed--as if there wasn't a thing in the world to
trouble them. And that 'silent prayer'!--it just made me think of
Elijah and the 'still small voice,' after the tempest and the
earthquake. I was sorry when it was over."
"I am glad you enjoyed the services, Jennie. They are always very
restful to me, and Sunday is my day to be marked with a 'white
stone' for that reason," and there was a look of peace in the
soft, brown eyes that assured Jennie of the truth of her words.
"Oh, I think Sunday is a bore, as a rule," she observed, with
another shrug. "I'm always lonesome if I don't go to church, and,
if I do, I never know 'where I am at'--as the Irishman put it--
after listening to a long sermon. That was a queer idea, though,
in the lesson to-day, about there being only one Mind in the
universe. Where do you get your authority for that, Miss Minturn?"
"There is but one God, who is Spirit or Mind, and He is
omnipresent," Katherine explained.
"What are you going to do with us, then? I mean your mind and
mine?"
"This mortal mind is only a counterfeit--"
"A counterfeit of what?"
"Of the One Mind, or the divine intelligence. The same as gas and
electric light are counterfeits of real light from the sun, or the
one source of light; but, oh, dear! I am talking Science, Jennie,
and Prof. Seabrook said I must not," said Katherine, cutting
herself short.
"The idea of trying to bridle anyone's tongue, in any such way, in
this free country!" cried Jennie, aggressively. "But that lady
read from the Bible that there is 'nothing covered that shall not
be revealed, neither hid that shall not be made known'; then the
man read something about it being a law of God for truth to
uncover error. Do you believe that, Miss Minturn?"
"Yes."
"Do you Scientists really know how to find out anything that is
hidden or--or secret?" eagerly inquired the girl.
"I think I don't quite catch your meaning, Jennie."
"I'll tell you why I asked you that," she replied, an intense look
in her dark eyes, her cheeks flushing crimson. "Perhaps you have
heard something about me--that--that I am a kind of waif?"
"Yes, I have, dear," Katherine admitted.
"Well, it is true, and I'll tell you all about it," was the
confidential rejoinder. "My aunt--she taught me to call her so,
though she isn't related to me in any way--was traveling from
Kansas City to Chicago, about sixteen years ago, and there was a
terrible accident. Auntie was in a rear car and wasn't hurt in the
least, but the first and second sleepers were completely wrecked.
A good many people were killed, and others so badly injured they
didn't live long. As soon as auntie could pull herself together
she went out to see if she could help anybody, and she found me, a
little tot only a year old, screaming in the gutter beside the
track. She took me back into her car and looked me over, to see if
I was injured; but, aside from a few bruises and scratches, I
appeared to be all right, and, after a while, she quieted and
soothed me to sleep. Then she went out again to try to learn to
whom I belonged; but she could not get the slightest clew, and
everyone said the person or persons I was with must have been
among the killed. She advertised, and the railroad officials made
every effort to find my friends for a long time; but nothing ever
came of it. Auntie began to grow fond of me, and said she would
never let me go until she had to give me up to my own folks. Of
course, they have never been found, and so I grew up with her."
"But wasn't there anything about you by which you could be
identified?" inquired Katherine, who had been deeply interested in
the pathetic story.
"Nothing but a string of amber beads with a queer gold clasp, and
with the initials 'A. A. to M. A. J.' engraved on the back of it.
Now, do you think that Christian Science could solve such a riddle
as that?" demanded the girl, in conclusion.
Katherine smiled faintly.
"There is nothing of clairvoyance in Christian Science, dear, and
that is a hard question to explain to you," she said. "I mean
difficult to answer so that you would clearly understand me. But
it is sufficient for every human need, and very wonderful things
have been demonstrated through the right comprehension of it. I
know of men who govern their business by it, and who have solved
some very perplexing problems. But I am talking again!" she
exclaimed, and breaking off suddenly once more.
"Oh, if I could only find out who I am, I'd be a Christian
Scientist, or--anything else!" cried Jennie, with tears in her
eyes, but gritting her teeth to keep the drops from falling. "It
is dreadful to feel yourself to be such an enigma! Think of it! to
have your identity lost. I get awfully worked up over it
sometimes. Auntie is a dear, and I love her with all my heart, for
she has been an angel of goodness to me. She isn't very well off,
but she wanted me to have a first-class education and be with nice
girls; so, after talking with Prof. Seabrook, she said if I would
be willing to work for a part of the expense she would try to make
up the rest."
"How perfectly lovely of Miss Wild!" said Katherine, earnestly.
"And you, too, Jennie, deserve great credit for your own efforts
to get a good education. But--"
"But what?"
"I wonder if I may say it?" mused Katherine, doubtfully.
Jennie slipped her hand within Katherine's arm and gave it a fond
little hug.
"Miss Minturn, I've loved you ever since the day you came to
Hilton. You are a dear--you have been just as kind as you could be
to me, and you may say anything you like," she impulsively
returned.
"Thank you; that is giving me a good deal of license," was the
laughing response; "but what I wanted to say was--make the getting
of your education, instead of fun, your chief object, and don't
spoil your record by breaking rules."
"As I have to-day, for instance?" supplemented Jennie, flushing.
"Yes, to-day, and--on some other occasions that I could mention."
The girl gave vent to a hearty, rollicking laugh.
"You manage to see considerable with those innocent eyes of
yours," she said, after a moment. "But I don't get very much fun
after all. With all my work and my studies there is precious
little time left me for recreation, and, sometimes, I get so full
I just have to kick over the traces. But--surely you don't think I
could get any harm from your service to-day," she concluded,
demurely.
"That is not the point, Miss Mischief, and you know it. Of course,
there was nothing but good in the service for you, or anyone. But
you didn't find anything in it--did you?--to countenance
disobedience?"
"No," said Jennie, seriously; "and I suppose, too, that if any of
the teachers or girls had seen me come away from the hall with you
it might have given the impression that you had countenanced my
going. But, Miss Minturn, I have wanted to get at the secret of--
of your dearness, ever since you came here. But I promise you,
though, I will not put you in jeopardy again by running away to
your church."
Katherine nodded her approval at this assurance, then changed the
subject, and they chatted pleasantly until they reached the
seminary.
After dinner Katherine repaired, as she had been requested, to
Miss Reynolds' room. She found her teacher sitting at her desk,
her Bible and "Science and Health" open before her.
"You see, I cannot let the great subject alone," she said,
welcoming the girl with a smile and glancing at her books. "Now
that I have begun to get a glimpse of the truth, it is like a
fountain of pure, cold water to a man perishing from thirst--I
cannot get enough of it; I just want to immerse myself in it. And,
see here," she added, touching a letter lying beside the books, "I
have written to the publishing house in Boston for several of Mrs.
Eddy's works. I want them for my very own."
"You are surely making progress," Katherine returned, with shining
eyes.
She was very happy, for this eager, radiant woman seemed an
entirely different being from the helpless sufferer to whom she
had been called less than forty-eight hours previous.
"Sit down, Kathie," said her teacher, indicating a chair near her.
"I hope I am making progress," she added, growing suddenly grave.
"I find there is need enough of it, and I have been both on the
mount and into the valley to-day."
"That is the experience of everyone," was the smiling reply, "but
it all means progress just the same."
"I see that everyone who begins to get a glimpse of the truth, in
Christian Science, must also begin to live it at once, if he is
honest."
"Yes, we have to live it in order to prove it."
"And the first thing to do is, as Jesus commanded, to have one God
and to love our neighbor as ourselves. That word 'love' has taken
on a new meaning for me to-day, Kathie. It means an impersonal
love, which, like the 'rain'--in Jesus' simile--'falls alike upon
the just and the unjust.'"
Katherine lifted questioning eyes to the speaker, for her voice
was now accusingly serious.
"And one cannot demonstrate the Love that is God," she went on,
"unless he loves in that way--without regard to personality."
"That is true--how quickly you grasp these things!" said her
companion.
"Ah! but I have grasped something, with this, that is not at all
agreeable," said the woman, with a peculiar glitter in her eyes
which the girl had never seen there before.
"How so? Pardon me, though, I should not have asked that,"
corrected Katherine, flushing.
"But I am going to tell you all the same," said Miss Reynolds.
"Ten years ago my father died. He was supposed to be a rich man,
but when his affairs were settled my mother and I were left with
almost nothing. His partner represented that the firm was heavily
involved, but said if we would sign our interest in the business
over to him, for a certain amount, he would perhaps manage to pull
through and save us the expense of having things adjusted by law.
We were not at all satisfied with the state of affairs, but we
were helpless, as we had no money to spend in litigation, and we
were forced to accept his terms. He made over to us a small house
on the outskirts of our town, together with a mere pittance, which
barely served to support us until I secured a position as teacher.
I have taken care of my mother and myself ever since. But that man
and his family have never abated their style of living one whit,
and are to-day rolling in luxury. There can be no doubt that we
were robbed of a fortune, and yet there was no possible way of
proving it. I have never been able to meet or even think of that
man since, without smarting as under a lash, and with a feeling of
resentment and a sense of personal injury that never fail to give
me a sick headache, if I allow my thoughts to dwell upon him. That
isn't love, Kathie."
"No," gravely; but the voice was also very tender.
"Everything is either 'for' or 'against' in Christian Science?"
"Yes."
"There is, I see, no middle ground; so, if one cannot think
compassionately, even tenderly, of one's enemy one is guilty of--
hate?" said Miss Reynolds, with quivering lips and averted eyes.
Again Katherine was silent; but her glance was very loving as it
rested on her teacher's troubled face.
"Tell me how to get rid of these feelings, Kathie," she resumed,
after a moment, "for they make me wretched at times. I find myself
mentally going over the same ground, again and again, holding
imaginary conversations with the man who has wronged me, arguing
the case and bringing up evidence, as if it were being tried
before a judge and jury. How would you conquer it in Science?"
"Every wrong thought we hold has to be reversed--"
"Oh! do you mean I must declare that that man is not dishonest--
that he has not wronged me? That I have not been injured and do
not resent that injury?" interposed the woman, looking up with
flashing eyes, a scarlet spot burning on either cheek. "Child, you
don't know what I have suffered. My father took that man into his
business and gave him a start when he had not a dollar in the
world, and it was such base ingratitude to rob his family and let
them sink into poverty. Ah! the bitter tears I have shed over it!"
Then she suddenly relaxed and sank back in her chair with a
deprecatory smile.
"Kathie, you did not suspect your teacher of having such a
seething volcano concealed in her breast, did you?" she observed,
sadly.
"What you have told me makes me think of a verse of 'The Mother's
Evening Prayer,' in 'Miscellaneous Writings,'" [Footnote: By Mary
Baker G. Eddy, page 389.] said Katherine, gently; and she repeated
in a low tone:
"Oh! make me glad for every scalding tear, For hope deferred,
ingratitude, disdain!
Wait, and love more for every hate, and fear
No ill, since God is good, and loss is gain."
"Say that again please, clear," pleaded Miss Reynolds, with a
sudden catch in her breath; and Katherine went through it the
second time.
"Ah! that shows how she has risen to the heights she has
attained," said Miss Reynolds, in a reverent tone. "We are to be
'glad' for whatever drives us closer to God, to 'wait' and 'love'
through all."
"And to know that every man is our brother--the perfect image and
likeness of God, and we must not bind heavy burdens of sin and
dishonesty upon him in resentful thought."
"Yes, I see; we have to 'blot it all out,'" said Miss Reynolds,
wearily. "I caught something of that in my study to-day and that
was what sent me down into the valley, for it seemed such an
impossible thing to do. You could see what a strong grip it had on
me in rehearsing it to you."
"All wrong thought brings the sting--the smart of the lash; but
love--right thinking--brings the 'peace of God,'" said Katherine.
"Ah! it is a case of 'as ye sow ye shall also reap,'" said Miss
Reynolds, drawing a long breath. "But, Kathie, do you think it
will be possible for me to so reverse my thought about that man
that I can grow to love him?"
"You do love him now; only error is trying to make you think that
a dear brother is not worthy of your love," said the girl, softly.
"Oh, Katherine! we have to come under the rod, don't we?" and her
voice almost broke.
"There is also the staff," was the low-voiced reply. "Truth, the
rod, uncovers and smites the error; then Love, the staff, supports
our faltering steps--'meets every human need.'" [Footnote:
"Science and Health," page 494.]
Silence fell between them, during which both were deeply absorbed
in thought, while the fire gradually faded from the elder woman's
eyes and the scarlet from her cheeks.
At length she turned with an earnest look to her companion.
"Kathie," she said, in a clear, resolute tone, "I have put my
'hand to the plow,' and I am not going to 'look back.'"
"Then everything will come right," said the girl, with a brilliant
smile, as she bent forward and kissed her on the lips.