CELLAR—WALK TO THE SEA-SHORE—RAINBOW, ETC.
THE next morning it rained again, and the little girls could not go out;
but they were not unhappy, because they knew that grandmamma would tell
them some stories, or give them something to amuse them.
After their lessons, grandmamma said, ‘Alice and Beatrice, I am going
down into the cellar, will you come with me?’
‘Yes, please, please,’ cried both the little girls; ‘we shall like to
come with you so much; we have never seen the cellar.’
‘Is it quite dark, grandmamma?’ asked Beatrice.
‘Yes, to be sure,’ said Alice; ‘but Mary has a candle, and will show us
light.’
Mary walked on in front, and went slowly down a long, dark, narrow
staircase. Alice ran after her, and Beatrice, holding grandmamma’s hand,
followed carefully.
The little girls looked about in wonder; they did not know what a large
place the cellar was. There were several rooms, all called cellars,
which Mary showed them. First, to the right hand, without a door, was a
very large and black-looking place, and when Mary lighted it up, the
children saw that it was full of coals.
‘That is our coal cellar, miss,’ said Mary; ‘and this,’ opening a door,
‘is for the beer and cider.’
The children looked in, and saw several tubs of beer and cider placed
side by side. Then grandmamma unlocked another door, and that was the
wine cellar. They all went in; it was much cleaner and drier than the
other cellars, and all the bottles were arranged neatly: and just when
the children were going to ask some questions, grandmamma remembered
that Mary had forgotten to bring down a bottle of wine to exchange for
another bottle; so Mary went back with the candle, and Alice and
Beatrice were left in the dark cellar with their grandmamma.
At first the two children were quite silent, till Beatrice, who held
grandmamma’s hand, said, ‘Grandmamma, can God see us everywhere?’
‘Yes, Beatrice; everywhere and always.’
‘Can God see us in this dark cellar?’
‘Yes, dear children. God sees in the dark as in the light; by night and
by day: God sees everybody and everything. In the Psalms[1] you will
read, “He who planted the ear, shall he not hear? or he who made the
eye, shall he not see?” which means that God who made our ears must be
able to hear everything, and God who made our eyes surely can see
everything.’
Footnote 1:
Psa. xciv. 9.
Little Beatrice thought a little while, and then she said, ‘But God
cannot tell mamma when I am naughty, can He?’
‘No, my dear little girl; but you must fear God more than you fear
mamma. You can never be naughty without God’s knowing it; and are you
not afraid of God’s being angry with you?’
‘Mamma says that God is very good and very great,’ said Alice, ‘and that
He takes care of us always, and of the whole world; and will God be
angry with such a little girl as Beatrice?’
‘If Beatrice did not know that it was wrong to be naughty, God would not
be angry with her; but Beatrice knows quite well when she is good and
when she is naughty.’
Little Beatrice pressed grandmamma’s hand, and as grandmamma thought she
heard her sob, she took her up in her arms, and Beatrice whispered, as
soon as her tears let her, that she would try and be very good.
‘You must think more about being good, both of you, when you say your
prayers, and when you ask God to help you to be good children.’
Mary now came back with the candle, and grandmamma soon finished all
that she wished to do, and then they all went upstairs again; and it
seemed so light and bright when they were upstairs, that they could
scarcely see, and the sun was shining, and the rain had ceased. The
black clouds had gone away far over the hills, and the blue sky was
there again.
Alice and Beatrice clapped their hands, and were like the sunshine, gay
and bright; all their black clouds had gone away too. They put on their
hats and jackets to run down the steep path to the sea for their usual
bath; but before they went, grandmamma told them to be careful, for it
would be very slippery after the rain.
Alice and Beatrice walked slowly down to the sea-shore with Mary. When
they crossed the wooden bridge they were surprised to see how much water
was in the little brook. They stopped to look at it, for it was very
pretty: there was quite a waterfall just above the bridge, and the water
splashed and made a loud noise in falling. The grass looked more green,
and the flowers smelt more sweet, and Alice said, ‘Mary, I think that
grandmamma is quite right: the rain does a great deal of good. The grass
looks much greener, and the flowers look much prettier, and the little
brook does not murmur now, but it rushes and roars like the river Sid by
the mill. I know some pretty verses about “How welcome is the rain!” but
I never thought before how nice the rain was.’
‘When it is over, Alice; but not while it rains and you cannot go out,’
said Beatrice.
‘But grandmamma tells us nice stories, or shows us something. I do not
think that I mind the rain now,’ said Alice.
‘Oh! Mary, what is that over the sea?’ cried Alice. ‘How beautiful it
is! Look, Beatrice, blue and red and yellow—I cannot count the colours.’
‘It is a rainbow, Miss Alice,’ said Mary.
‘But what is a rainbow, and how does it come there?’
‘You must ask your grandmamma when you go home. I only know that it
comes when the rain is over.’
The sea had been very rough early in the morning. A sailor told the
children that it was then much too rough for them to bathe; but the rain
had come and made the sea smoother, and Alice said, ‘The rain has done
good again.’
The waves, or breakers, as they are called, when they came up on the
shore, were still too rough for the little girls to move about alone in
the water, so Mary let them sit near the edge and held them firmly; and
the white waves dashed over their heads and the froth covered them, and
they liked it very much.
[Illustration:
Fishermen pushing their Boat off to Sea.—_Page 43._
]
They saw two fishermen afterwards putting a boat into the sea, and they
begged Mary to let them stay and see it go off. Several times the men
pushed the boat off the shore, and each time a big wave came and lifted
it up and threw it back again. Then two other men came to help them, and
pushed the boat with great force from the shore far into the water; and
the boat rocked up and down so much among the great waves, that the two
children were frightened, and Alice began to cry. But Mary told them not
to be afraid, for the men were quite safe, as the sea was much smoother
as soon as the boat had passed the breakers and was farther off the
shore.
When Alice and Beatrice were at home they told grandmamma all that they
had seen, and how high the waves were, and that there was so much white
froth on the shore.
Then Alice asked grandmamma to tell them about the rainbow that they had
seen. ‘It was so beautiful, grandmamma!’
‘I cannot explain to you the reason why the rainbow appears, but I know
that it is caused or made by the sun being _reflected_ on the moist air.
You know, Alice, what “reflected” means; it is as when the light of the
candle is seen again, or reflected in the looking-glass: and the sun
shining on the moist air reflects those bright colours on a cloud. When
you are older you will learn all about it, and why it is always in the
shape of an arch or bow. Every one loves to see a rainbow, because it
reminds us of the promise God made to Noah, and all people, after the
flood, that He would no more destroy all flesh, which means, every
living creature.’
‘I remember all about it, grandmamma,’ said Alice; ‘I have read it in my
Bible stories. May I read it to Beatrice?’ and Alice fetched her book
and read about the flood and the rainbow to Beatrice; and afterwards
grandmamma read to them from the Bible as follows (Gen. ix. 13-15): ‘I
do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant
between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a
cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: and I
will remember my covenant between me and you and every living creature
of all flesh: and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all
flesh.’
‘So you see, dear children, that God has made a covenant, which means an
agreement or promise, never to destroy the earth again by a flood, and
the rainbow is a sign of His promise, and reminds us of it.’
‘I am very glad to know about the rainbow, and I will think of God’s
promise when I see one again.’
[Illustration]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Illustration]