[Illustration: Cover art]
[Frontispiece: Wood Cottage]
WOOD COTTAGE
OR
SHELTERED AT LAST
_By_
M. E. DREWSEN
_Author of "Ben and Kit" "Hazel Glen,"
"Gracie and Grant," "The Old House," etc._
PICKERING & INGLIS
14 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON, E. C. 4
229 BOTHWELL STREET, GLASGOW, C. 2
Made and Printed in Great Britain
CONTENTS.
Safely Sheltered
Ben and Kit's New Clothes
A Prayer in the Wood Shed
Lambs of the Flock
Difficulties in the Narrow Path
Ben's Battle Begins
Ben's Return
Schoolboys
In the Storm
The Little Red House
The Sick Man and the Fallen Foe
What A Little Child can do
A Visit to the Sea
A Sunday Evening at the Sea-Side
Kittie in Trouble
Ben's Present
WOOD COTTAGE;
OR,
SHELTERED AT LAST.
CHAPTER I.
SAFELY SHELTERED.
It was between nine and ten o'clock in the evening, at the close of a
hot summer's day.
A few hours before there had been plenty of stir and excitement in
the fields around Wood Cottage. One hundred children belonging to a
Sunday-school in the great city, had been playing and romping about
through the day, and enjoying their yearly treat.
They had been shouting and capering about on the meadows, while the
sun shone bright and sweet breezes blew, and two or three hours
before my story begins they had sung some of their little hymns about
the love of Jesus, and then had started away back to London; back to
the crowded alleys and the dull cheerless streets,--but they carried
with them a happy remembrance of that sunny day spent in the pleasant
fields, where they had sat in long rows upon the grass, and eaten a
plentiful tea of cake and nice bread and butter, while kind ladies
and gentlemen handed them mugs of sweet fresh milk to drink.
A hundred children had started forth in the morning, but only
ninety-eight returned in the evening. Two of the little ones had
found a new home.
And now the sun had sunk behind a black, heavy cloud which was slowly
coming up in the west, and the breeze which had fanned the faces of
the children, was completely lulled; not a breath of air seemed to be
stirring, and it had grown hot and oppressive; a solemn calm seemed
reigning everywhere.
The little birds had gone to their nests or crept under the bough of
the trees. The sheep in the meadow adjoining Wood Cottage had
huddled up close together. The old hen had gathered her chicks very
close under her sheltering wings, and when the first distant roar of
the thunder was heard, mothers came out of their cottage doors and
called in the young urchins who "ought to have been in bed an hour
ago."
Harry Gray and his wife were sitting at their garden door when the
pale lightning flashed across the sky. Mrs. Gray had her baby on her
knee, for he was restless with the heat, and would not sleep.
"See; there is lightning, Harry," she said. "There is going to be a
storm. Oh, how glad I am that our darling Kit is safe beneath our
roof to-night! You should have seen her, how she snugged down in the
little crib between the clean sheets, and in a few minutes fell
asleep. I suppose she has not been in so comfortable a bed since she
left me. Poor lamb; what a life hers must have been! I cannot bear
to think of it now."
"Yes; thank God little Kit is safe," replied the father; "but we must
be very careful with her, she looks so tender, and be sure you don't
over-feed her at first, wife, she has had but scanty fare and can't
stand much yet. Where have you put Ben?"
"In the little room; I had a trouble at first to get her to sleep
away from him, they've always been together, but she was so worn out
that she fell 'over' while I was talking. Before she lay down she
put her hands together and said her little prayer that Ben had taught
her; something like this it began:--
"Jesus, Lord, we come before Thee,
Much we need Thy tender care,
He has been a good boy to her, and his heart seems set on her. We
must do what we can for him."
"Ay, wife, while we have a crust he'll share it," and Harry Gray drew
his hand across his eyes.
"Ah! what a flash!" cried Mrs. Gray, holding her breath, as the whole
heavens were lighted up. Then followed a tremendous peal of thunder
and some heavy drops of rain.
They rose and went into the cottage after this, and the mother,
giving baby Harry to his father, ran up to look again at little Kit,
who opened her eyes, wakened by the heavy peal of thunder.
Little Kit had been separated from her parents for more than three
years owing to the cruel neglect of her aunt, Mrs. Rogers, to whose
care she had been committed by her mother during a severe illness,
and the little girl had lived a life of want and hardship since.
The Grays had tried to find Kit, but Mrs. Rogers removed from one
place to another, and at last they thought she had left the country.
She had married an idle drunken fellow who had brought her to extreme
poverty, and after she had obtained charge of Kit had gone from bad
to worse, and exposed the delicate little baby in the London streets
in order to gain money, then, fearing to be discovered, had hidden
the child from her parents, in one of the slums of London.
Some months before the children's treat Mrs. Rogers had died, and the
little girl would have perished from want had not Ben Rogers, her
cousin--a boy of nine or ten years--cared for her and loved her, and
by selling matches earned a bare living for them both. The man,
Rogers, allowed them to use the room he slept in, but beyond this had
taken little notice of the children until a few weeks before the
treat, when, during a slight illness, Kit's pretty little prattle
about the Lord Jesus had touched his heart, and caused him to feel
more kindly towards the little girl.
The two children had found their way to a Sunday school, and there
had learned the good news of the Saviour's love, and they had been
enjoying themselves with the other little ones in the Hornsey Meadows
when accidentally discovered by Kit's mother, whose joy at finding
her long-lost child was indeed great.*
* See "Ben and Kit," companion volume to this.
The peal of thunder wakened Kit, and when she first opened her eyes
she was frightened. The room was strange with its clean white bed
hangings and neat furniture. She had been used to a dull back room
with a mattress on the floor for a bed, and on it she and Ben had
slept each night. Her mother's face was strange to her, though the
yearning love displayed there would have comforted her little heart
could she have seen it right. But the glare of lightning terrified
her, and she cried pitifully, "Ben, Ben, where are you?"
Another instant Ben sprang into the room. He pushed past Mrs. Gray
and took Kit right out of her crib into his arms, while he tried to
stop her sobs.
"I'm here, Kit, don't cry," he said, patting her. "Let her come with
me into my bed, Ma'am, she ain't used to sleeping alone. I always
sung her to sleep."
There was no other way, so the mother, whose heart longed to be all
in all to the lost little one, gave her up for the time to her old
protector, who certainly had earned his right to her love.
"Kiss me, Kittie, for that is what I used to call you," she said,
"and love me a little, darling. I am very glad you love Ben; he has
been a good kind boy to you."
Kit put up her lips to kiss, and stroked her kind face that bent over
her, then she clasped her arms round Ben and said, "Me does love Ben,
he's a dood boy," and in five minutes both children were fast asleep.
"Let them love each other, there's no fear but they'll get fond
enough of us by and by, wife," said the father upon hearing about it.
"We must remember she would have died had it not been for Ben; but I
know how you feel about it. Your poor heart has been starving so
long, you feel you can't get right hold of her yet."
After they had taken one more look at the sleeping children, and
given God thanks for His goodness in restoring their lost darling,
the father went to his little cash box and put thirty shillings in
his wife's hand.
"Go out to-morrow and buy the children the things they most need," he
said, "I'm glad we've been able to put a little by, and I can spare
you more for them when that's done. We must keep Ben for the present
at any-rate, and you'll find him a smart useful little chap, I think,
and when he's had a little schooling we can get him a place as
message boy. Miss Randolphe, their teacher, told me yesterday she
would speak to her friend, Mr. Goodall, who has a large stationer's
shop near here, and she felt sure he would take Ben and give him a
trial when he wanted him to make a start."