"Run away, child, to Miss Falkner. It is getting late, you have been
here long enough."
Jill obeyed, wondering why her sister spoke so crossly.
It was a few days after this that Jill discovered two more trespassers
in the vicinity of Bethel.
She was by herself, and did not feel quite so ready to arrest them when
they proved to be Mona and Captain Willoughby.
They had been wandering through the plantation, and Captain Willoughby's
voice was very low and earnest when the sudden appearance of Jill
startled and disconcerted him.
"You can't come any further, I'm afraid," said Jill barring the way;
"for you'll be trespassing."
Mona looked at her in amusement.
"Whose wood is this? Yours or mine?" she asked.
"This corner is ours," answered Jill firmly, "No one used it before
we did."
"But what have you been using it for?" inquired Mona.
Jill looked a little rebellious. Captain Willoughby seized hold of her.
"You are the little trespasser, not us, I fancy," he said. "Now then I
have got you. Come along, and don't pull away from me unless you want
a sore wrist."
So Jill was dragged captive before her board and pile of stones.
Mona looked at it curiously.
"Now what on earth does it mean, Jill? Explain."
"You're trespassers both of you," said Jill stubbornly. "It's got to do
with _us_, and we are the ones that know about it."
"The mighty _US_!" said Captain Willoughby, who loved to tease her
sometimes.
But Mona stopped him, and drew Jill's hand out of his very gently.
"Never mind, Jill dear. We will own ourselves trespassers if you will
explain this. What does 'Bethel' mean? It is a Bible word, is it not?"
Jill was quickly appeased. When Mona spoke to her kindly she was ready
to tell her anything.
"It is a secret place, and a religious one," she said.
"Of course it comes out of the Bible, and it's not idolatry, though
Sam's father says it is."
"I know!" said Captain Willoughby. "It's an altar, and you offer
sacrifices on it."
"No, we don't," said Jill indignantly, "we wouldn't be so wicked!"
"But the good people in the Bible always offered sacrifices," argued the
young Captain.
Jill looked at him thoughtfully.
"Well, we don't," she said.
"What do you do?" asked her sister. "This is a kind of altar, isn't it?"
"It is a kind of one," admitted Jill, "though Jacob did not call it an
altar. He made a heap of stones and called it Bethel, and so we've done
it too."
"Oh, I see," said Captain Willoughby. "This is Jacob's heap of
stones. Isn't one of them in the King's coronation chair, by the bye?"
"But what use is this to you?" asked Mona, wanting to get to the bottom
of it.
"It has to do with our vow," said Jill, speaking fast and earnestly. "We
have done what Jacob did, we've told God we'll give Him our tenth. 'Of
all that Thou shalt give me, I will surely give a tenth unto Thee.' That's
the vow. And if anybody wants to make it I shall let them come here
and make it, and they won't be trespassers any longer."
"That's a grand inducement," murmured the Captain, "but what does
your tenth consist of, Jill? Sweets and currant-buns, and dolls, and
picture-books? I should like the system explained."
"It's the tenth of our money, of course," said Jill, "I thought everybody
knew that."
Mona was silent. She was looking a little troubled. Then she turned
suddenly to Jill--
"Is this where you brought Mr. Arnold the other day?"
"I found him here," said Jill. "He was a trespasser. That's why he gave
me five shillings."
"What have you done with it?"
"I've put it into our bag. Miss Falkner made us a red bag and all our
tenth goes into it, and then I take it to Mr. Errington, and he's going
to build a mission church on Chilton Common with it!"
Mona gasped, then she began to laugh.
"Hopeful Mr. Errington! I admire his ambition, but I fancy many years
will roll by before that church is built!"
"I knew you would laugh," said Jill reproachfully.
"Well," said Mona, looking first at Jill and then at her pile of stones,
"I always did say you children had the bump of invention. But I, with
Mr. Arnold, will plead guilty of the charge of trespassing; and you
must do the same, Captain Willoughby. What will you fine us, Jill? Five
shillings? I think we cannot escape with less than that."
"Be merciful," pleaded Captain Willoughby. "If I had known this visit
of ours would have entailed such a loss to my pocket, I would have kept
a long way off from it!"
Jill looked perplexed.
"I don't want to get money out of people," she said, "but you really
are trespassers, and it will be lovely for our bag!"
Mona took her purse out of her pocket, and put half a sovereign into
her little sister's hand.
"There!" she said. "Run away and put that into your bag. It is for a
good object. Now, Captain Willoughby, we must go back to the house. I
promised to drive with Miss Webb at four o'clock, and it is that already."
Jill turned over the gold coin in amazement and delight. She thanked
her sister effusively.
"I knew our bag would get on, I was sure it would," she said; and then
she scampered back to the school-room, where Miss Falkner was teaching
Jack how to arrange his stamps geographically in his stamp album, and
Bumps was looking admiringly on.
"Look!" she cried. "Mona has given this to me for our bag! Isn't it
perfectly lovely."
She got plenty of sympathy from the school-room party. Miss Falkner had
heard at last about "Bethel," but she had respected Jill's wish about
it, and had never been there.
That evening when the children were in bed she sat by the open school-room
window. Her thoughts were not sad ones, though she had had much in her
life to make her sad. And when a slender figure in a black lace gown
came across the dusky lawn and spoke to her, it was the young heiress's
face that looked weary and troubled, not the governess's.
Miss Falkner looked up brightly.
"Isn't it a delicious evening?"
"Is it? Yes, I suppose so. I wish I enjoyed things as you do, Miss
Falkner."
There was a little silence.
Then Mona sat on the low window-ledge and put her light shawl over
her shoulders.
"I must have some one to talk to to-night, or I feel I shall go crazy,
and I have come out of doors to get away from Miss Webb, because she
is so cross with me."
Miss Falkner looked her sympathy but said nothing.
"Jill has altered a chapter in my life to-day, and I don't know whether
I am glad or sorry."
"I hope she has done good, not harm," said Miss Falkner.
"From your standpoint--yes. From mine--I'm not so sure. I was about to
yield to persuasion, when she interrupted us, but after her interruption,
I--well I altered my mind. What a lot of bother one's memory gives one!"
"Sometimes it does."
Mona moved in her seat restlessly.
"Seven years ago, Miss Falkner, I quarrelled with some one that I liked
very much. It was about a certain subject. It is strange that this week
the same person and the identical subject have both cropped up again."
"I should say," said Miss Falkner, "that the coincident has occurred
for a purpose."
"Yes, I knew you would say that." Then after a pause she said--
"Do you believe that prosperity is good or bad for one?"
"I think if we regard our wealth as a trust it will be good for us,"
said Miss Falkner.
Mona laughed a little bitterly.
"Of course. It is the same old story. People can't give because it's
right to give. I hate being forced."
"No," said Miss Falkner gently. "It is only when we love the One to whom
our wealth belongs that we love to give it back to Him."
"Then," said Mona, "I must love first, before I can give."
She rose, then looked a little wistfully at the young governess.
"Sometimes I wish I could change places with you," she said, and before
Miss Falkner could make any reply she slipped away.