"Home again, and it's nice to get home!" exclaimed Lulu, skipping up the
steps of the veranda and across into the wide hall where all was light
and warmth and beauty.
Violet and Grace had preceded her and her father was following with
little Elsie in his arms.
"I am glad to hear you say that; glad my daughter appreciates her home,"
he said in a cheery tone.
"I'd be a queer girl, papa, if I didn't appreciate such a home as this
is," she returned with warmth, and smiling up into his face. "Don't you
say so, Max?" catching sight of her brother who, riding his pony, had
arrived some minutes ahead of the carriage and was now petting and
fondling his dog at the farther end of the hall.
"Yes, indeed!" he answered; "I think if we weren't happy and contented
in this home we oughtn't to have any at all. Papa, Prince is a splendid
fellow!" stroking and patting the dog's head as he spoke.
"So I think," said the captain.
"And I too," said Violet; "he is a very acceptable addition to the
family. My dear, home does look exceedingly attractive to me, as well as
to the children. But little Elsie's eyes are closing; mamma must see her
babies to bed."
"I wonder where my pussy is?" Grace was saying, from the library door.
"I thought she'd be lying on the rug before the fire here, like she was
the other night; but she isn't."
"Oh, and my Polly!" cried Lulu. "Is she in there?"
"I will carry Elsie to the nursery, my love," said the captain. "Lulu
and Gracie, you may perhaps find your pets in your own little sitting
room."
"Oh yes!" they cried in chorus, and started up the stairs after their
father and Violet.
Outside the night was cold, but within the house the atmosphere was that
of summer; doors stood open, and in the halls, and the rooms used by the
family, lights were burning; also the air was sweet and fragrant with a
faint odor of roses, heliotrope and mignonette, coming from the
conservatory and from vases of cut flowers placed here and there; all
the result of Capt. Raymond's kind forethought for the comfort and
pleasure of wife and children, and the careful carrying out of his
orders by the faithful housekeeper Christine.
No wonder home looked so attractive to its returning occupants, even
coming from a former one quite as beautiful and luxurious.
"Oh how sweet it does look here!" exclaimed both the little girls as
they entered their little sitting-room.
"Oh! and there is my pussy lying on the rug all curled up like a soft
round ball!" added Grace. "You are having a nice nap, pretty kitty, and
I don't mean to wake you, but I must pet you just a little bit,"
dropping down beside her, and gently stroking the soft fur.
"And there's my Polly in her cage and fast asleep too, I do believe,"
said Lulu, "I want ever so much to hear her talk, but I'll be as good to
her as you are to your pet, Gracie; I won't wake her.
"Now we must take off our things, Gracie, for you know papa always says
we mustn't keep them on in the house, and that we must put them away in
their places."
"Yes; but I'm so tired! Papa would let me wait a minute."
"Of course, you poor little weak thing! I'll take them off for you and
put them away too; and you need hardly more," Lulu said, hastily
throwing off her own coat and hat.
Then kneeling on the rug beside her sister, she began undoing the
fastenings of her coat.
"Dear Lu, you're just as good to me as can be!" sighed Grace in tender,
grateful accents. "I really don't know what I'd ever do without my nice
big sister."
"Somebody else would take care of you," said Lulu, flushing with
pleasure nevertheless. "There now, I'll go and put both our things in
their right places."
When she came back she found Grace brimming over with delight because
the kitten had waked, crept into her lap, and curled itself up there for
another nap.
"O Lu, just see!" she cried. "I do believe she's fond of me. Isn't it
nice?"
"Yes, very nice; but you're burning your face before that bright fire.
Oh you do need your big sister to take care of you!" lifting a screen in
between Grace and the glowing grate.
Then seating herself on a hassock, "Now put your head in my lap and
stretch yourself out on the rug. You can rest nicely that way and we'll
have a good talk. Such a nice, big, soft rug as this is! I should think
it must have taken several big sheep skins to make it, and it was so
good in papa to have it put here for us."
"Yes, indeed! our dear papa! how I do love him! he's always doing kind
things to us."
"Yes, O Gracie, if I were only good like you and didn't ever do and say
naughty things that make him feel sad!" sighed Lulu. "Oh do you know we
are going to have a party on New Years? All the folks that were at Ion
are to come; the grown up ones to be papa's and Mamma Vi's company, and
the young ones your's and Maxie's and mine."
"Yes, I know. And we're all to go to Fairview to spend Monday."
"Won't it be nice?"
"Yes--" a rather doubtful yes--"but I--'most think I like being at home
the best of all."
"Why? didn't you enjoy yourself at Ion?"
"Yes; but I believe I'm a little bit tired now."
"Tired?"
"Yes; of being with so many folks. It's nice for a while, but after that
it sort of wears me out; and I'm glad to get back to my own dear home
where I can be just as quiet as ever I please."
"Oh, there is papa!" exclaimed Lulu, turning her head and seeing him
standing in the open doorway.
He was smiling on his darlings, thinking what a pretty picture they
made--the little slender figure on the rug with the kitten closely
cuddled in its arms, the golden head lying in Lulu's lap, while her
blooming face bent tenderly over it, one hand toying with its soft
ringlets.
"Tired, Gracie, my pet?" he asked, coming forward and stooping to scan
the small pale face in loving solicitude.
"Only a little, dear papa," she answered, with a patient smile up into
his face. "I think I shall be quite rested by to-morrow morning, and I'm
so glad we're at home again."
"Yes; and just now the best place in it for my weary little girl is her
bed. Lulu and I will get you there as soon as we can."
"Mustn't I stay up for prayers?"
"No, darling, you are too tired and sleepy to get any good from the
service. I see your eyes can hardly keep themselves open."
"I believe they can't, and I shall be so glad to go right to my nice
bed," she returned sleepily, pushing the kitten gently from her.
So she was lifted to her father's knee and Lulu sent for her night
dress.
In a few minutes she was resting peacefully in her bed, while the
captain and Lulu went down hand in hand to the library, where they found
Max sitting alone, reading.
He closed his book as they entered, rose and wheeled an easy chair
nearer the fire for his father, who took it with a pleasant "Thank you,
my son," and drew Lulu to a seat upon his knee. "What were you reading,
Max?" he asked.
"'Story of United States Navy for Boys,'" answered the lad. "Papa would
you be willing for me to go into the navy?"
"If you have a strong inclination for the life, my boy, I shall throw
no obstacle in your way."
"Thank you, sir; I sometimes think I should like it, yet I'm not quite
sure I'd rather be there than anywhere else."
"You must be quite sure of your inclination before we move in the
matter," returned his father.
"Is there something you would prefer for me, papa?" asked Max.
"If I were quite sure you were called of God to the work, I should
rather see you a preacher of the gospel, an ambassador for Christ, than
anything else. Yet if you lack the talent, or consecration, you would
better be out of the ministry than in it."
"I'm glad I'm not a boy and don't have to go away from home and papa,"
Lulu said, nestling closer in her father's arms.
"Home's a delightful place and nobody loves to be with papa more than I
do," said Max, "but for all that I'm glad I'm going to be a man and able
to do a man's work in the world."
"And I," said the captain, "am glad that God has given me both sons and
daughters, and that you two are satisfied to be what God has made you."
For some moments no one spoke again, then Lulu remarked thoughtfully,
"This is the last Saturday, and to-morrow will be the last Sunday of
the old year. Papa, do you remember the talk we had together a year
ago?"
"On the last Sunday of that year? yes, daughter, quite well. And now it
is time for another retrospect, and fresh resolutions to try to live
better, by the help of Him who is the Strength of His people, their
Shield and Helper."
"It hasn't been nearly so good a year with me as I hoped it would be,"
sighed Lulu.
"Yet an improvement upon the one before it, I think," remarked her
father in a tone of encouragement. "You have not, so far as I know,
indulged, even once, in a fit of violent anger--and knowing my little
girl as most truthful and very open with me--I certainly believe that if
she had been in a passion she would have come to me with an honest
confession of her fault."
"I'm sure Lu would," said Max; "and I do think she has improved very
much."
"No; I haven't been in a passion, papa, and I hope if I had, I wouldn't
have been deceitful enough to try to hide it from you. But oh I've been
very, very naughty two or three times in other ways, you know; and you
were so good to forgive me and keep on loving me in spite of it all."
"Dear child!" was all he said in reply, accompanying the words with a
tender caress.
"I, too, have come a good deal short of my resolves," observed Max,
with a regretful sigh. "Yet I suppose we have both done better than we
should if we hadn't made good resolutions."
"No doubt of it," said his father. "I feel it to be so in my case,
though I, too, have fallen far short of the standard I set myself. But
shall we not try again, my children?"
"Oh yes, sir, yes!"
"And try, not only to make the new year better--if we are spared to see
it--but also the three remaining days of the old?"
"Yes," sighed Lulu, "perhaps I may get into a dreadful passion yet
before the year is out."
"I hope not, daughter," her father said; "but watch and pray, for only
so can you be safe. There is One who is able to keep you from falling.
Cling close to Him like the limpet to the rock."
"Oh I will!" she replied in an earnest tone. "But papa what is a limpet?
I don't remember ever having heard of it before."
"It is a shell-fish of which there are numerous species exhibiting great
variety of form and color. The common limpet is most abundant on the
rocky coasts of Britain. They live on the rocks between low and high
tide marks.
"They move about when the water covers them, but when the tide is out,
remain firmly fixed to one spot; so firmly that unless surprised by a
sudden seizure, it is almost impossible to drag or tear them from the
rock without breaking the shell."
"How can they hold so tight?" asked Max.
"The animal has a round or oval muscular foot by which it clings, and
its ability to do so is increased by a viscous or sticky secretion."
"Please tell some more about them, papa," requested Lulu, looking
greatly interested. "Have they mouths? and do you know what they eat?"
"Yes, they have mouths and they live on seaweed, eating it by means of a
long ribbon-like tongue covered with rows of hard teeth; the common
limpet--which, as I have told you, lives on the British coast--has no
fewer than one hundred and sixty rows, twelve teeth in a row. How many
does that make, Max?"
"Nineteen hundred and twenty," answered the lad after a moment's
thought.
"Right," said his father. "The tongue when not in use, lies folded deep
in the interior of the limpet."
"Are their shells pretty, papa?" Lulu asked.
"Those of some of the limpets of warmer climates are very beautiful," he
answered; "large too. I have seen them on the western coast of South
America, a foot wide; so large that they are often used as basins."
"Oh I'd like to have one!" she exclaimed. "Is it for their shells
people try to pull them off the rocks?"
"It may be so in some instances, but the limpet is used for food and
also as bait, by the fisherman.
"Try, my children, to remember what I have been telling you about it;
but most of all let your thoughts dwell upon the lesson to be drawn from
its close clinging to the rock.
"God is often spoken of in the Scriptures as his people's rock, because
he is their strength, their refuge, their asylum, as the rocks were in
those places whither the children of Israel retired in case of an
unexpected attack from their foes.
"David says; 'The Lord is my rock and my fortress.... Who is a rock save
our God?'
"Jesus is the rock on which we must build our hope of salvation; any
other foundation will be as the sand upon which the foolish man built
his house; 'and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds
blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell; and great was the fall of
it.'
"The limpet is wiser; it never trusts to the shifting sand, but holds
firmly to the immovable rock. Be like it in resisting all attempts
whether of human or spiritual foes, to drag you from your Rock."
"Papa," said Max, slowly and with some hesitation. "I wish to do so--I
think it is my settled purpose--but I--I feel afraid that sometime I
may let go. I'm a careless, heedless fellow you know, and--and I'm
afraid I may forget to hold fast to Jesus, and be overcome by some
sudden and great temptation."
"There is danger of that, my boy," the captain returned with feeling,
"yet I should have greater fear for you if I heard you talk in a
self-confident and boasting spirit. Trusting in ourselves we are not
safe, but trusting in Jesus we are. We are safe only while we cling to
our sure foundation, the Rock Christ Jesus; but our greatest security is
in the joyful fact that he holds us fast and will never let us go; if we
have indeed given ourselves to him.
"He says, 'My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me;
and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand.'"
"Such sweet words, papa, aren't they?" Lulu said softly.
"Yes, words that have been an untold comfort and support to many of
God's dear children on their way Zionward. The sword of the Spirit with
which they have fought Satan's lying assertion that they might yet be
lost in spite of having fled for refuge to Him who died on Calvary."
"Is it those words the Bible means when it speaks of the sword of the
Spirit, papa?" asked Max.
"Not those alone, but _all_ the word of God. And in order to be prepared
to wield that sword we must store our memories with the word, we must
hide it in our hearts. David says, 'Thy word have I hid in mine heart,
that I might not sin against thee.'
"Christ is our pattern; we must strive to follow his example in all
things; and it was with the sword of the Spirit he repelled every
temptation of the devil there in the wilderness--beginning each reply to
the evil suggestions with 'It is written.'"
"That is why you have us learn so many Bible verses, papa?"
"Yes; open the Bible lying on the table there, Max, and turn to the
sixth chapter of Deuteronomy."
Max did so, then read, by his father's direction, the sixth and seventh
verses.
"And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart;
and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk
of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the
way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."
"I think you obey that command, papa," said Lulu; "indeed I think you
try to obey every command in God's word."
"I do," he replied, "and I want my children to follow my example in
that. In the eleventh chapter of the same book the command is repeated
and these words are added, 'That your days may be multiplied, and the
days of your children, in the land which the Lord sware unto your
fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.'
"Speaking of the law, the testimony, the statutes, the commandments of
the Lord, the psalmist tells us that, 'in keeping of them there is great
reward.'
"True happiness is known by none but those who are at peace with God;
but living in the light of his countenance, one may be full of joy even
in the midst of great earthly tribulation.
"Ah, my darlings, I can wish nothing better for you than that you may
thus live!"
At that moment Violet joined them.
"The babies were unusually wakeful and troublesome to-night," she
remarked, "but have at last fallen asleep and so released mamma from
attendance upon them."
"To our great content," added her husband, gently putting Lulu off his
knee and rising to give his wife a seat, while Max sprang up and
gallantly placed a chair for her; selecting the most comfortable and
placing it close beside his father's.
She thanked him with one of her sweetest smiles, the captain remarking,
"Max was too quick for me that time."
"Like his father, he is extremely polite and attentive to ladies," said
Violet. "How cosy you are here! and you two children have been having a
pleasant time, no doubt, with papa all to yourselves."
"We have missed you, my dear," said her husband; "at least I may speak
for myself."
"And would have been glad if you could have come to us sooner," added
Max.
"Have you been laying plans for the entertainment of our expected guests
who are to keep New Year's day with us?" she asked.
"No, my dear; your help will be needed in that," replied her husband.
"Can't we have some charades again?" asked Lulu.
"I see no objection," answered her father, "provided something new can
be thought of."
"Misunderstand, I think might do for one," said Max.
"Yes, Max, I think that might be very good," Violet said; "and perhaps
madman would do for another."
"We'll need several words for our charades, I think," said Lulu, "and a
number for the sports at Fairview."
"But fortunately we are not responsible for the entertainment there,"
remarked Violet pleasantly.
"No," said the captain, "and I think we will dismiss thought for our own
for the present. It is time now for evening worship. Max you may ring
for the servants."
As usual the captain went into Lulu's room for a bit of good night chat
with her, about the time she was ready for bed.
"Papa," she said, nestling close in his arms. "I have been thinking more
about the kind of year this has been to me, and oh I think I must always
remember it as a good one because in it I have learned to love Jesus! I
know I have done some very wrong things even since I begun to try to be
his servant," she went on, hanging her head in shame and contrition,
"but O papa I do love him and want to serve him all my life! How glad I
am that he is so loving and forgiving, and that he says he will never
let any one pluck me out of his hand!"
"Yes, dear child, it is a most precious assurance and we may well
rejoice in it;--you and I and all his people.
"But ever let us keep in mind and obey those other words of our blessed
Master, 'Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation.'
"Remember that we are to be good soldiers of Jesus Christ, and that we
have a great battle to fight with the evil that is in our own hearts,
the snares of the world, and the powers of darkness;--Satan and his
hosts of wicked spirits whose great desire and aim is to ruin our souls
and drag us down to the dreadful place prepared for them."
"Papa, sometimes I feel so afraid of them," she sighed, shuddering. "But
Jesus is stronger than any of them, and will not let them hurt me if I
trust in him?"
"Stronger than all of them put together, and will not let any, or all of
them, pluck you out of his hand. We are safe there. In the eighth
chapter of Romans we find these triumphant words,
"'I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!'"