This could not last always, and the days as they passed, after a while,
brought their usual soothing.
The quiet routine of the early spring began to come in again. Mrs.
Candy was looking for a girl, she said, but had not found one yet;
Maria and Matilda were not ready to go to school; they were better
getting the breakfast and washing up the dishes than doing nothing. No
doubt that was true.
"Tilly," said Maria, one of these days, when the coffee cups were
getting put in order, going out of Maria's tub of hot water into
Matilda's hands and napkin,--"Tilly! you know next Sunday there is to
be a baptism in the church?"
"Yes," said Matilda.
It was weeks after that other Sunday, when the rite had not been
administered. Spring had come forward rapidly since then. Trees were in
full leaf; dandelions in the grass; flowers were in the woods, though
the two sisters had not gone to see them this year; the apple orchards
around Shadywalk were in a cloud of pink blossoms; and the sun was warm
upon flower and leaf everywhere.
"Who is going to be baptized?" Maria went on.
"I don't know. At least, I don't know all."
"Ailie Swan is," remarked Maria.
"Yes, I know Ailie Swan is."
"And Frances Barth."
Matilda was silent.
"And Esther Trembleton, and George Rice, and Mary and Willie Edwards."
"I suppose so," said Matilda.
"You are not, are you?"
"You know I _was_ going to be," said Matilda. "I am now."
"Tilly, it would be no harm if you waited till another time."
"Why should I wait?"
"_I_ am going to wait," said Maria.
"Why?"
"Why, because I don't feel like it. Not now."
"I do not want to wait," said Matilda. And probably she was going to
say more, but her lip trembled and she stopped.
"It would be no harm, Tilly, if you waited. Nobody would expect it of
us now. _Nobody_ would expect it, Tilly."
"I think One would," said Matilda.
"Who?"
"Jesus."
"But, Tilly," said Maria, uneasily, "I don't think so. It could not be
pleasant for you and me, you know, to go forward and be baptized _now_.
We might wait till another time; and then it would be more easy,
wouldn't it?"
"It is not hard now," said Matilda. "It is pleasant now. I do not wish
to put it off."
"Pleasant?" repeated Maria.
"Yes," said her little sister, quietly, lifting her eyes to Maria's
face so steadily and gravely that the other changed her ground.
"But at least it is not duty, Matilda."
Matilda had dried all the cups, and she threw her napkin down and
covered her face.
"Oh yes!" she said; "it is duty and pleasure too. I'll do what I can."
"But what does it signify, your doing it?" said Maria. "It isn't
anything. And it will look so odd if you do and I don't."
Matilda took up her napkin again, and went to work at the plates.
"Matilda, I wish you would wait. I am not ready to go now."
"But I am ready, Maria."
"If I was to tell Aunt Candy, I believe she would put a stop to it,"
said Maria, sulkily. "I know she does not think much of such young
people doing such things."
"But Jesus said, Let them come."
Maria tossed her head. However she did not speak to Mrs. Candy.
So it was with no notion of Matilda's intention that her aunt that
Sunday took her seat in Mr. Richmond's church. She had heard that a
number of people, most of them young people, were to be baptized in the
evening; she had been to her own church duly in the morning, and
thought she might gratify her curiosity now in seeing how these things
are managed in a different communion. She and Clarissa went alone, not
supposing that the younger ones of the family were at that same moment
getting ready to follow.
"How are you going to dress yourself, Matilda?" her sister inquired.
"To dress myself!" said Matilda, turning her eyes upon her sister in
astonished fashion.
"Why, yes, child! you will go out there in sight of everybody, you
know. Aren't you going to put on a white frock? Clarissa says they
always do in 'her church.'"
Matilda looked down at her own black dress and burst into tears; only
by a vigorous effort she kept the tears from falling, after the first
one or two, and hurriedly and silently began to get herself ready.
"But, Matilda! why don't you speak?" said her sister. "Are you going
just so? and why don't you speak to me? There is no harm in a white
frock."
"I don't want a white frock," said Matilda. "Do _you_ mean to stay at
home?"
"I suppose I am going," said Maria, beginning slowly her own
preparations. "People would think odd if I didn't go. Where are you
going to sit?"
"What do you mean?"
"Why, you are very stupid. I mean, where are you going to sit?"
"Where we always do, I suppose."
"But then you would have so far to walk."
"To walk?" Matilda repeated, bewildered.
"Why, yes, child! When you are called to go up with the rest, you know;
you would have so far to go."
"Oh!" said Matilda. "What of it?"
"Don't you care?"
"Why, no. It don't make any difference."
"Well, I'd have a white frock if I were you," said Maria. "Being in
black is no objection to that; for people do just the same, Matilda,
for a baptism."
"You will be late, Maria," was all the answer her little sister made.
And they were late. Matilda was ready and waiting, before Maria's slow
preparations were made. They walked quick; but service had begun in the
church before they got there. They paused in the vestibule till a
prayer should be ended. And here Matilda was seized upon.
"I thought you were not coming," said an earnest whisper. "What made
you come so late?" It was Norton Laval.
"I couldn't help it," said Matilda.
"And when you came, I all but missed you. They said all of you--you
know--would be in white dresses; and I was looking out for white.
Aren't you going to be baptized, after all?"
"Oh yes, Norton."
"Well, here's some flowers for you," said the boy, putting a bunch of
white heath and lilies into Matilda's hand. "Mamma is here; up in the
Dawsons' pew; it was sold with the place, so we've got it. Come there,
Matilda, it will be a good place for you; yours is farther back, you
know. Mamma told me to bring you."
Maria had gone in, after an impatient whisper to her sister. And
Matilda yielded to a secret inclination, and followed Norton.
The service of baptism was not entered into until the close of the
evening. During one of the intervals of the usual service, which
preceded the other, Matilda questioned with herself if she really would
have done better to put on a white dress? Everybody seemed to expect
it. She could not, from the Daweon pew, which was a corner front one,
see how her companions were dressed. But she presently recollected that
the "fine linen," which Mr. Richmond had talked to them about, "is the
righteousness of saints;" and she quieted herself with the assurance
that the real attire of fitness is inward and not outward. And when the
candidates for baptism were called to come forward, she quietly left
her bunch of lilies with her hat on the cushion of the pew.
"Is that Matilda!" whispered Clarissa to her mother.
"I never heard a word of it!" said Mrs. Candy.
"You cannot stop her now."
"No; if I could I would," answered Mrs. Candy. "This ought not to be.
Such a child!--does not know what she is doing. What a way!"
But Matilda knew what she was doing; and when the candidates were asked
respecting their faith and profession, there was no voice among them
all that answered more clear and free; none that promised with more
calm distinctness to "keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk
in the same all the days of her life." And it was a meek little face,
without a cloud or a doubt upon it, that was raised towards Mr.
Richmond when her turn came.
There was a long line of candidates for baptism, reaching nearly from
one end to the other of the communion rails. Mr. Richmond stood near
one end, by the font, and did not change his place; so each one, as he
or she received the rite, passed to one side, while the place was
filled by another. Without breaking the rank this was done; one set
slowly edging along from left to right, while from right to left, one
by one, the others came to take their turn. It was a pretty sight. So
some thought; but there were varieties of opinion.
One variety Matilda had to encounter that night before she slept. Going
back to Mrs. Laval's pew to get her hat and flowers, naturally she
walked home with her and Norton, and had no annoyance until she got
there. As she went through the hall the parlour door opened and she was
called in.
"I want to speak to you, Matilda," said Mrs. Candy; "and I think it is
proper to do it at once. I want to know about this. How long have you
been preparing for this step you have taken to-night?"
"Ma'am?" said Matilda.
"How long have you been thinking of doing this?"
"Oh, a long while, Aunt Candy."
"Why did you not consult me?"
Her mother would have been the one to speak to about it, and her mother
had been too ill. Remembering this, Matilda stood silent and her eyes
filled.
"You have been intending it for these two months past?"
"Yes, Aunt Candy; and before."
"Well, then, why did you not speak to me?"
"I spoke to Mr. Richmond."
"Mr. Richmond might have had the courtesy, himself." (Which Mr.
Richmond had meant to do, but various pressing matters had prevented.)
"But _you_ ought to have spoken to me, Matilda. You are too young a
child to take such responsibility."
Matilda did not think of anything to say to this.
"I do not think you understand what you have been doing."
"I think I do, Aunt Candy."
"What did you want to be baptized for?"
"Because Jesus says we must."
"Yes, properly; but not improperly, without knowing what you do. What
do you think it means, Matilda?"
"To be baptized, Aunt Erminia?"
"Yes."
"It means," said the child steadily, and with the clear utterance of
pleasure, "that I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ."
"There!" said Clarissa, appealing to her mother.
"I thought so," said Mrs. Candy. "That is not what it means, Matilda."
"It is what I mean, Aunt Candy."
"It means a great deal more, my dear, which you cannot understand. And
you ought to have had a white dress on."
"I don't think God cares," said Matilda.
"Did you ever hear such dreadful teaching as these people have?" said
the mother, appealing to the daughter. "My dear, there is a propriety
in things. And not one of the candidates this evening was dressed in
white."
"But the water means a clean heart," said Matilda; "and if we have
that, God will think we are dressed in white."
"So you think you have a clean heart?"
"I think Jesus has begun to make it clean."
"And what does it mean to renounce the devil and all his works?"
"It means," said Matilda, sighing, "to have nothing to do with anything
that is wrong."
"How is such a child as you to know what is wrong?"
"Why, the Bible, Aunt Candy."
"What is the vain pomp and glory of the world?"
"I don't know," said Matilda. "_All_ the glory, I suppose, except what
God gives."
"What does _He_ give, child?" said Mrs. Candy, with an odd expression
on her face.
"Why, you know, Aunt Erminia," said Matilda, a little wearily.
"I should like to hear you tell."
"I can't tell," said Matilda. "I think it was glory, when He said of
that poor woman, 'She hath done what she could.'"
"My dear," said Mrs. Candy, after a pause, "I am very sorry you have
taken this step without consulting me. Your answers show that you have
not the discrimination necessary for making such vows. However, it is
too late now. You may go to bed."
Which Matilda did, and speedily forgot all that had troubled her in her
aunt's words. For she went to sleep making a pillow to her head of
those other words--
"And white robes were given to every one of them."
Typographical errors silently corrected:
Chapter 3: =been doing to day= replaced by =been doing to-day=
Chapter 3: =than other folks= replaced by =than other folks'=
Chapter 5: =Richmond?'"= replaced by =Richmond'?"=
Chapter 6: =But?--what 'but?'"= replaced by =But?--what 'but'?"=
Chapter 7: =one to 'carry the message?'"= replaced by =one to 'carry
the message'?"=
Chapter 8: =spend it somehow= replaced by =spend it, somehow=
Chapter 8: =Only one day= replaced by =Only, one day=
Chapter 8: =Well what?= replaced by =Well, what?=
Chapter 9: =band of workers= replaced by =Band of workers=
Chapter 9: =to do His will?= replaced by =to do His will.=
Chapter 9: =give thanks?"= replaced by give thanks"?=
Chapter 11: =redeem the time?'= replaced by =redeem the time'?=
Chapter 11: =up opportunities?'"= replaced by =up opportunities'?"=
Chapter 11: =no fun in walking.= replaced by =no fun in walking."=