there might not be room at Mr. Lethbridge's house for me; but the little
hut on the cliff is still empty, and I could sleep there."
"You want to go, do you, Simpson?"
"Well, sir----"
"All right," I laughed, "you be ready to come with me." Whereupon he
hurried away with a glad look in his eyes.
Isabella met me at the station on Christmas Eve. It was about five
o'clock when the train drew up, and when I stepped on the platform she
sobbed like one overcome.
"What is the matter?" I asked.
"I--I was afraid you would not come--afraid lest something should
happen."
"Why, what should happen?"
"I don't know, only--even now it seems too good to be true. But there,
you have come. Let me look at you again and make sure."
"Have you any visitors?" I asked presently.
"No; dad would not have any, but he's inviting Mr. Treleaven and his
wife over to dinner to-morrow. You see, he's so anxious to make Mary
happy. Do you know, Frank," and she laughed joyfully, "he seems to think
of himself as your guardian. He has asked me twenty times to-day what
time you are coming, and whether I have had any telegrams from you, and
hosts of other things. I have been waiting at the station for an hour.
He ordered Jenkins to bring around the car an hour too soon. He has read
all about that trial a dozen times, and he is--he is proud of you,
Frank!"
Oh, it was good to be in Cornwall again, good to breathe the pure air,
and to smell the salt of the sea. As the motor dashed through St. Issey
I thought of the time I had first seen it, and remembered the weight
that had rested upon my heart.
"I have spent all the morning helping to decorate the Chapel," said
Isabella, looking towards that structure as we passed it. "We are going
to have a special service there to-morrow. Oh, it is good to have you,
Frank."
A few minutes later we drew up to the entrance of Trecarrel, where both
Mr. and Mrs. Lethbridge stood waiting to greet me, while behind them was
Mary, holding her baby in her arms.
"Is he not a beauty, Frank?" she said, holding him up to me. "He is
beginning to know such a lot of things too. He knows grandad, granny,
and Isabella; you should see him laugh when they come into the room!"
"Now, Frank, warm yourself before you go up to dress," cried Josiah
Lethbridge. "Mother, is the fire in Frank's room all right? He will be
cold and tired, you know."
"Nonsense, Josiah; the fire has been burning there for hours."
"Well, I ordered it to be laid this morning," said the old man, "and
when I went into the room at twelve o'clock the servants had not done
it. Ah, but you are welcome, my boy; we will have a grand Christmas,"
and then he sighed.
I knew what he was thinking about, but I was so happy that I had almost
forgotten Hugh when I entered the drawing-room and found Isabella
awaiting me.
"I have got this new frock especially for you, Your Lordship. How do you
like it?" she said, and my heart leapt as I saw the light in her eyes.
"If you had a decent figure it would look very well," I said, with a
laugh; "but you know, even dressmakers can't ..."
After this I had to show contrition for my rudeness.
"You should have seen the hampers that dad has sent to the trenches,"
she said presently. "All the men in Hugh's company have been remembered.
Oh, Frank, there is such a difference in dad; he is not the same man he
used to be. He is great friends now with the Vicar, and with Squire
Treherne, and all of them."
Precisely at seven o'clock we found our way into the dining-room. The
apartment was resplendent with Christmas decorations; everywhere the
feeling of Christmas abounded. There were only five of us to sit down to
dinner--Mr. and Mrs. Lethbridge, Mary, Isabella, and myself--but six
chairs were placed. The empty chair was at the end of the table opposite
Mr. Lethbridge, and everything had been arranged as though the chair was
expected to be occupied. All of us noted it, although no one spoke aloud
concerning it.
"Dad ordered it," said Isabella to me; "he would have it so."
We took our places at the dinner-table, and then Josiah Lethbridge said:
"We will sing the old Grace, children."
"We thank Thee, Lord, for this our food,
But more because of Jesu's love.
Let manna to our souls be given,
The bread of life sent...."
But we never finished the last line; we heard a quick step in the hall
outside, a bustling noise, then the dining-room door opened, and Hugh
Lethbridge, pale and wan, but still tall and erect, clad in an officer's
uniform, came into the room!
For a moment he seemed to be dazzled by the light, and walked with
uncertain footsteps, while we stood silent with amazement. Then he
caught the look on his wife's face.
"It's Hugh!" she gasped.
Hugh rushed towards her, and a second later they were locked in each
other's arms.
"My wife! My Mary!" he cried.
I will not try to describe what followed, nor attempt to tell how the
mother fell upon her boy's neck with fond words of endearment; how
Josiah Lethbridge put his hand upon his boy's head, felt his shoulders
and his arms, and patted him with infinite tenderness as though he
wanted to assure himself that it was really he and not his spirit; how
Isabella kissed him again and again, with all sorts of endearing terms;
and how Hugh and I shook hands at least twenty times.
"And it is not vacant after all," said Josiah Lethbridge, as he saw his
son sitting in the chair which had been placed opposite him. "Oh, thank
God! Thank God!"
Of course Hugh had a long story to tell. It seems that in the excitement
of battle, after the German officer had shot him, he was left for dead,
and then, before the stretcher-bearers came to him, he had crawled away,
and it was believed that he had been buried with the others who were
killed that night.
Hugh's description was extremely hazy, because he himself scarcely knew
what happened to him. When he awoke to consciousness he found himself in
a French peasant's hut within the German lines, and here he was kept and
nursed by the owners. It seemed a miracle that he should have escaped,
but these peasants, seeing that he was English and hating the Germans,
kept their secret well. Month after month he lay ill, and even when at
length he was well enough to get up, his memory had gone, and he could
tell nothing about himself nor what he wanted to do. By and by, however,
when his faculties were restored to him, he realized the difficulties of
his situation, and for a long time he schemed and planned how to get
through the German lines and find his way back to his friends.
I will not trouble the reader with a recital of all he went through;
suffice it to say that he at length succeeded, and was received by his
old comrades as a man risen from the dead. As may be imagined, no sooner
did he get among the English than all his difficulties vanished. A new
uniform and money were given to him, with a lengthy leave of absence. He
was careful, too, to impress upon his superior officers that he didn't
want any news concerning his safety to arrive in England before he
himself got there. He wanted to give his people a surprise, he said.
This being easily arranged, Hugh returned to England, and arrived in
Cornwall on Christmas Eve. He decided first of all to go straight to
John Treleaven's farm, where he hoped to find his wife, but learning
that she had gone to Trecarrel, he with a great wonder in his heart had
hurried to his old home.
The lights of Trecarrel never went out that night. It was Josiah
Lethbridge's will that they should not. Besides, we all had so much to
say. Hugh would have the baby brought into the room, and Josiah
Lethbridge insisted that Mary's father and mother should be fetched
immediately. And then Hugh had to tell his story at least six times
over, and we all wondered and exclaimed at each recital.
The wonder of that night will never leave me. I had thought that I could
never be so happy again as on the evening when Josiah Lethbridge told me
he would give Isabella to me for my wife. But that Christmas Eve when
Hugh came and the Christmas morning which followed were more wonderful
still. Never shall I forget how the soldier lad held his baby in his
arms, and looked at it with infinite tenderness and wonder; while his
wife, who had believed him dead, clung to him, uttering fond, endearing
terms all the while. Never shall I forget how Mrs. Lethbridge went from
one to another, with tears of joy streaming down her face, or how Josiah
Lethbridge, the old hard look gone from his eyes, told his children
again and again how he loved them.
I will leave my narrative here. My tale is told, even while it is not
finished. While I write, guns are booming, and the war between the
nations goes on; but I do not fear.
"For Right is Right, since God is God,
And Right the day must win."
This great world carnage is horrible beyond words, its madness is
inexpressible, but beyond all is God. He has many ways of teaching His
lessons, and He is now speaking to us out of the whirlwind and out of
the fire.
_Printed in the United States of America_
* * * * *
[Transcriber's Notes: Some odd spellings have been retained as typeset,
i.e., "unforgetable".]
* * * * *
FICTION, JUVENILE, ETC.
_J. J. BELL_
_Author of "Wee Macgreegor," etc._
Just Jemima
Another "Mile of Smiles" with J. J. Bell. His latest creation is marked
by the same dry, pungent humor for which he has long been noted, and
"Just Jemima" will quickly take its place next to "Wee MacGreegor," "Oh,
Christina!" "Johnny Pryde," and Bell's other books, over which millions
have laughed and rejoiced.
_WINIFRED ARNOLD_
_Author of "Little Merry Christmas"_
Miss Emeline's Kith and Kin
A capital portrayal of American country life as it is lived in the
villages of New England. Miss Emeline's dealings with her "kith and kin"
make up a most diverting narrative, one certain to win for Miss Arnold
large additions to the friends she made with "Mis' Bassett" and "Little
Merry Christmas."
_DILLON WALLACE_
The Ragged Inlet Guards
A Story of Adventure in Labrador.
In Wallace's latest story a wartime setting is given to the fascinating
Labrador stage. The four "Inlet Guards" furnish round after round of
exciting adventures, including the thrilling capture of a German
wireless station, while their seniors were fighting "over seas."
_MARY STEWART_
_Author of "Once-Upon-a-Time Tales"_
"Tell Me a Story I Never Heard Before"
With deft and practiced art, Miss Stewart weaves a modern garland out of
blossoms of story-telling as old as the ages. About the Daisy, the
Fleur-de-lys, the Pansy, the Tulip, and so forth, she has entwined
old-world legends of the days of chivalry, of high adventure, of
pastoral romance.
_S. HALL YOUNG_
_Author of "Alaska Days with John Muir," "The Klondike Clan," etc_
Adventures in Alaska
"When a man's actual experiences are more interesting than ingenious
invention, he is wise if he avoids fiction and writes a straight
narrative of his adventures. This is what Dr. Young has done in this
illustrated account of some of his remarkable experiences during over
thirty years work in Alaska."--_The Outlook._
* * * * *
WORTH WHILE FICTION
_NORMAN DUNCAN_
_Author of "Dr. Luke of the Labrador"_
Battles Royal Down North
Appreciation by Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell.
Sir Wm. Robertson Nicoll, LL.D.: "No one can read Mr. Norman Duncan's
marvellous Newfoundland fisher idylls without feeling that an English
Pierre Loti has arisen, a mystic of the unfathomable deeps."
Harbor Tales Down North
Appreciation by Dr. Wilfred T. Grenfell.
Honoré Willsie, in _The New York Times Magazine_. "We lost the best
short story writer in the country when Norman Duncan died."
_MARY CAROLINE HOLMES_
The Knock on the Door
A Story of To-day.
The story of a young man and woman who institute a search for the faith
they have outgrown. Cynthia Holden, the girl, goes far on her quest,
leaving Jim Trefethen, a young clergyman to whom she is engaged, to
"tread the wine-press alone." The ending is a happy one, with an
unexpected vision of a good Samaritan, ministering to an oppressed
people who had fallen among thieves because of the war.
_BURRIS A. JENKINS_
It Happened "Over There"
A story of an American aviator and an English "lady of high degree." Dr.
Jenkins' book is permeated with the atmosphere of these thrilling
heart-searching days, and succeeds in visualizing sights and scenes,
which set forth the unspeakable infamy of the Hun, and the unflinching,
indomitable spirit of the Allies, one and all determined to work, suffer
and endure to the end.
_J. J. BELL_
_Author of "Wee Macgreegor"_
Johnny Pryde
"Should be read aloud--otherwise the family circle wants to know what
the joke is every time you laugh. There's a good laugh in every
chapter--sometimes half a dozen, and it has the real J. J. Bell
touch."--_New York Evening Sun._
* * * * *
STORIES FOR LIVE BOYS
_DILLON WALLACE_
_Author "The Lure of the Labrador Wild," "Ungava Bob," etc._
Grit-A-Plenty
A Tale of the Labrador Wild.
Dillon Wallace, the famous Labrador explorer, has written another book
for boys, of that bleak, hard-bitten region which for interest and
appeal will press hard his other popular stories of boy life in
Labrador. For adventure and realism of the most healthful sort, boys
will find it difficult indeed to beat this latest story from the
surviving companion of Leonidas Hubbard, Jr., the Labrador explorer.
_EDWARD A. STEINER_
Uncle Joe's Lincoln
The popular author of "On the Trail of the Immigrant" has written few
works of greater appeal than this delightful story of the influence of
the life of Abraham Lincoln upon the boys of a far away land, most of
whom eventually found their way to the United States.
_EDWIN C. BURRITT_
_Author of "Boy Scout Crusoes"_
Cameron Island
Further Adventures in the South Seas.
The success of "Boy Scout Crusoes" has furnished the incentive for a new
story of the same sort of thrilling adventures. Here are many new and
wonderful bits of natural history which every wide-awake boy will find
not only interesting but instructive as well.
_ALBERT LEE, F.R.G.S._
At His Country's Call
A Tale of the Great War for Boys.
Lt.-Gen. Sir R. Baden-Powell says: "A most exciting yarn for boys which
should arouse their spirit of patriotic adoration."
Here is a story of the Great War that will make any full-blooded boy sit
up nights to arrive at the end. One climax succeeds another until it
seems as though every adventure and incident occurring in modern warfare
has been woven into this fascinating book.
* * * * *
NEW EDITIONS
_S. HALL YOUNG_
Alaska Days with John Muir
"Do you remember Stickeen, the canine hero of John Muir's famous dog
story? Here is a book by the man who owned Stickeen and who was Muir's
companion on that adventurous trip among the Alaskan glaciers. This is
not only a breezy outdoor book, full of the wild beauties of the Alaskan
wilderness; it is also a living portrait of John Muir in the great
moments of his career."--_New York Times._
_S. R. CROCKETT_
_Author of "Silver Sand," etc._
Hal 'o the Ironsides: A Story of the Days of Cromwell
"Crockett's last story. A rip-roaring tale of the days of the great
Oliver--days when the dogs of war were let loose in English meadows, and
the gallants of England struck home for the King."--_Examiner._
_FANNY CROSBY_
Fanny Crosby's Story of Ninety-Four Years
By S. Trevena Jackson.
"This is, in a way, an autobiography, for it is the story of Fanny
Crosby's life as she told it to her friend, who retells it in this
charming book. All lovers of the blind hymn writer ought to read this
volume. It tells a story of pathos and of cheer. It will strengthen the
faith and cheer the heart of every reader."--_Watchman-Examiner._
_PROF. HUGH BLACK_
The New World
"Dr. Black is a strong thinker and a clear, forcible writer. Here he
analyzes national tendencies toward unrest--social, material, religious.
This he does with moderation yet with courage, and always with
hopefulness."--_The Outlook._
_S. M. ZWEMER, D.D., F.R.G.S._
_Author of "Arabia," etc._
Childhood in the Moslem World
"The claims of millions of children living and dying under the blighting
influence of Islam are set forth with graphic fidelity. Both in text and
illustrations, Dr. Zwemer's new book covers much ground hitherto lying
untouched in Mohammedan literature."--_Christian Work._
* * * * *
ABOUT OTHER LANDS
_HENRY CHUNG_
The Oriental Policy of the United States
A plea for the policy of the Open Door in China, presented by an
oriental scholar of broad training and deep sympathies. The history of
American diplomatic relationships with the Orient, the development of
the various policies and influences of the western powers in China, and
the imperilistic aspirations of Japan are set forth admirably.
_CHARLES KENDALL HARRINGTON_
_Missionary Amer. Baptist Foreign Miss. Society to Japan_
Captain Bickel of the Inland Sea
"Especially valuable at this hour, because it throws a flood of light on
many conditions in the Orient in which all students of religious and
social questions are especially interested. We would suggest that
pastors generally retell the story at some Sunday evening service, for
here is a story sensational, thrilling, informing and at the same time a
story of great spiritual urgency and power."--_Watchman-Examiner._
_HARRIET NEWELL NOYES_
_Canton, China_
A Light in the Land of Sinim
Forty-five Years in the True Light Seminary, 1872-1917.
"An authoritative account of the work undertaken and achieved by the
True Light Seminary, Canton, China. Mrs. Noyes has devoted practically
her whole life to this sphere of Christian service, and the record here
presented is that of her own labors and those associated with her in
missionary activity in China, covering a period of more than forty-five
years."--_Christian Work._
_MRS. H. G. UNDERWOOD_
Underwood of Korea
A Record of the Life and Work of Horace G. Underwood, D.D.
"An intimate and captivating story of one who labored nobly and
faithfully in Korea for thirty-one years, presenting his character,
consecration, faith, and indomitable courage."--_Missions._
* * * * *
BIOGRAPHY AND REMINISCENCES
_JAMES M. LUDLOW, D.D., Litt.D._
_Author of "The Captain of the Janizaries," "Deborah," etc._
Along the Friendly Way
Dr. Ludlow has observed keenly, and thought wisely and deeply; he has
read extensively, traveled widely, and rubbed elbows and wits with men
great and little of many nations and under varying conditions. He is the
"full man" of which the philosopher speaks. And all these intellectual
and spiritual riches garnered from many harvests he spreads before the
reader in a style that is remarkable for its felicity of phrasing, the
color of its varied imagery, and its humor, warmth, and human sympathy.
_HERBERT H. GOWEN, F.R.G.S._
The Napoleon of the Pacific: Kamehameha the Great
The history of the great chieftian who, in the closing years of the
eighteenth century, effected the union of the eight islands of the
Hawaiian Archipelago and welded them into a kingdom. Both student and
general reader will find THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC a richly-stored
mine of deeply interesting information, extremely difficult to come at
in any other form.
_CLARA E. LAUGHLIN_
Foch the Man
W. B. McCormick in the _N. Y. Sun_ says: "Miss Laughlin has let nothing
escape her that will throw light on the development of his character. A
revelation of the man who at sixty-seven put the crowning touch to the
complete defeat of Germany's military pretensions."
_FREDERICK LYNCH, D.D._
The One Great Society
Records of some personal reminiscences and recollections of the author,
who, as preacher, editor and prominent member of one or two
international organisations, has met many of the world's prominent men
in the fields of divinity, philanthropy, literature and reform.