OUT INTO THE WORLD.
"So you wouldn't like to be my little girl and go to school and be
educated for a lady," said Mr. Alfred Robertson to his niece, a few days
after he had made his unexpected appearance among his relatives.
"I'd like to go to school and study, of course," said Katie. "Uncle,
don't think me very rude or ungrateful, but I wish you would send
Alfred."
"Why, rather than yourself?"
"Because Alfred is a boy, and he wants to be a doctor like father. He
never told mother, because he thought it would make her feel badly. He
knew she hadn't any money to send him to school or college, so he just
worked on at the mill, though I know he hates it."
"But, little girl, it would cost a great deal of money to send a boy
through college and support him while he was studying a profession. Have
you thought of that?"
"I don't know, sir. I don't know much about money. You are not rich
enough to do it then? I'm so sorry," and there was a tone of great
disappointment in the young voice.
"I am rich enough perhaps, but"--
"Oh, sir! Alfred would be sure to pay it back as soon as he became a
doctor. I could begin to pay you now. I make six dollars a week in the
mill as it is, and I could make more if mother would let me work over
hours. Alfred wouldn't like to take charity, and I wouldn't like to have
him."
Her uncle laughed. "So it is because she is an independent little piece
that she does not want to go to school and learn to be a lady," said he.
"I'd like very much to learn to be a _teacher_," said she. "Miss Eunice
thinks that teachers can do a great deal of good, and I could make money
to help mother with, just as well or better than I can in the mill."
"Well, you shall go to school on your own terms. You shall have the
education anyway, and do what you like afterward. And since you are so
very independent, I will lend you the money and you may pay it all back
to me when you begin to make your fortune by school-teaching. Is it a
bargain?"
The little girl blushed with delight, threw her arms around her kind
uncle, giving him a kiss by way of thanks, and rushed off to tell her
wonderful news to her mother. But she found it was not quite such news
as she expected it to be. Mr. Robertson and his sister-in-law had talked
it all over after the little folks were in bed, and he had definitely
offered to give the two children the education which their mother had so
greatly desired. He had amassed considerable property during his
seventeen years' sojourn in California, and having no children of his
own, was anxious to make up to those of his brother for his long
neglect.
"I never thought anything about my duty toward them," he said, "until
God brought me to myself, and showed me what a sinner I was, and then
brought me to himself, and showed me what a Saviour he is. Then I began
to remember all my neglected duties, and I determined to come home and
atone for the past as soon as I could."
The proposal of sending Eric, also, to school had been made to him. But
he gratefully declined. He was almost a man now, and was used to his
work and liked it. He stood well with his employers, and hoped before
many years to rise to the position of superintendent of one of the
departments. His one great ambition was to become such a manufacturer as
Mr. James. And in the meanwhile he would be at home to watch over his
mother and contribute to her support. His uncle admired his pluck and
independence, and did not press his offers farther upon him. Alfred was
delighted. It was as Katie had said: he had endured the bindery because
he must, and he was a boy of too good principles to worry over the
inevitable, or to make people unhappy because of his likes or dislikes.
But, all the same, he had disliked his work, and longed to do something
more in accordance with his tastes. Only to Eric and Katie had he
confided his indefinite longings, and his mother had never guessed how
much he had desired a change. Now he was full of plans for the future;
looking forward especially to the days when he should restore his
father's sign to its old position, fit up the house and office as it
used to be, and support his mother in ease and comfort once more.
But that was a long way off. A great deal of hard studying had to be
done first, and Alfred was far behind other boys of his age--in book
knowledge, at least. Perhaps he had, during his three years' experience
in the factory, learned a good deal which would eventually prove very
useful in a profession which dealt with practical details of practical
things. About one thing he was quite decided. Delicate little Katie
should never again work for her living. When she left school she should
be a lady, like Miss Eunice and Miss Etta at the great house, and idle
all day long if she chose to do so.
"But I don't choose," laughed Katie. "Do you think an independent young
lady, who has made her own living for more than a year, will ever
consent to be dependent upon any one, even if he is her brother?
Besides, who wants to be idle? I am sure Miss Eunice isn't idle; nor
Miss Etta, now. They are both as busy as they can be all the time; and
Mr. James, too. Think how much good he does, and all of them!"
"Oh, if you mean _that_ kind of work! Miss Eunice and Miss Etta don't
get paid for what they do. They don't work for a living."
"I think they do," said Mr. Robertson, who had listened quietly to the
talk of the children. "I think that every noble, honorable man and woman
works, and is glad to work, for a living. The old saying that 'the world
owes us a living' is a very fallacious one. The world doesn't owe us
anything, and God does not either. Indeed, he has said: 'If any man will
not work, neither shall he eat.'"
"Everybody does not work--for money, I mean," said Alfred. "Some people
are gentlemen and ladies."
"If you call idlers gentlemen and ladies, we do not agree as to terms;
but if you mean, as I suppose you do, that some people, especially a
large proportion of women and girls, do not formally receive a definite
amount of money for a definite amount of work, that is true. Don't you
think, though, that mothers and sisters and wives, who keep house, take
care of little children, do all the family sewing, care for the sick,
and attend to the many details of a woman's life, work?--yes, do a great
deal of work for a very small amount of living? Think of your mother for
a moment."
"Yes, sir; I see."
"And," continued his uncle, "when ladies devote themselves faithfully to
good works, Sunday-school work, work among the poor, teaching, etc.,
they are as really working for their living as if they were in a
factory."
"It doesn't seem so."
"No, it doesn't seem so, because we have wrong ideas about the nobility
of labor. If we really believed what the Bible says,--that the servant
of all is the chiefest of all,--we should value work and workmen just in
proportion to the use which the work they do is to the community and the
world. In that sense, Alfred, a doctor's work or a minister's work might
stand a little higher than a manufacturer's, a teacher's position be
more desirable than that of a factory-girl, because in all of these
professions there is more opportunity to do good to the bodies and souls
of men; and yet I doubt if any are in a position to do more good than
your Mr. James Mountjoy and his family. And as to being gentlemen or
ladies, it is just as much your duty and just as possible to be those in
the rag-room as in a palace, should your lot be cast there."
"It is not considered so genteel," said Tessa, who had not quite
forgotten the teachings of her novels.
"By whom? Foolish butterflies? or men and women of sense? Gentility
meant, originally, gentleness: that gentleness which better
opportunities of education were supposed to give. But so much culture as
that is now within the reach of every one, and there is no reason why it
should not exist in the mill and the counting-room, the kitchen and the
store, as well as in the parlor and the library."
"But after all," said Mrs. Robertson, "there seems something low and
sordid in working for money."
"That is because we should not work for money--as the motive of work, I
mean. If every one in the world were a Christian, and did the work which
came to him to do, upon Bible principles, endeavoring to fulfil the
precept: 'Whether ye eat or drink or whatsoever ye do, do all to the
glory of God,' and accepted his living, small or great, from his hands,
just as a little child accepts his from his father's hands, we should
hear nothing about the degradation of service. Every one would
constantly say: 'Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?' And we should take
our daily bread, as well as all the pleasant things of our lives,
thankfully from him who has given us all things to enjoy."
Mr. Robertson was rather answering his sister and talking a little above
the level of his auditors, but some of them understood and remembered
his words. To Katie, henceforth work had an added dignity. It was raised
even above the high level upon which she had thus far placed it,--that
of helping her mother,--and became something that she might do for Jesus
who had done, and was still doing, so much for her. She was quite
impatient to enter upon those studies which were to fit her for future
usefulness, and many a time during her school life, when the novelty had
worn away and her energies might have flagged, she was stirred up to
new zeal and perseverance by the recollection of this conversation.
To the other girls also this talk about work and compensation was
beneficial. Perhaps they might have felt a little jealous at Katie's
apparent elevation above themselves,--even Christian girls have wrong
feelings sometimes,--but if factory-work could really be done to the
glory of God as much as teaching could, there was nothing degrading in
their work, nothing aristocratic in Katie's. God had given her one kind
of work to do, and them another--that was all. They could please him as
well as she; and he would give to all alike a great deal more than they
deserved.
And now began a busy time in the doctor's old house. Brother and sister
must be fitted out for school with such wardrobes as they had never
possessed in their lives before. Uncle Alfred's ready purse provided
these, but he was careful not to destroy the independent spirit of his
young relatives, and let them consider this as the first instalment of
his loan.
Katie left the factory at the close of the week, receiving with her
usual weekly wages an extra five-dollar bill, as a testimonial from Mr.
James for her uniform faithfulness and the good example she had always
set in the mill.
"We are sorry to lose you, Katie," he said, "but I am glad that you are
to be advanced to better work and a wider sphere of usefulness. Wherever
you go, the prayers of Squantown Sunday-school will go with you, and I
am sure that you will always find, as you have done already, the truth
of the words:--
"'Commit thy way unto the Lord, and he shall bring it to pass.'"
Nor did the pleasant incidents stop here. On the Wednesday following,
Miss Eunice again invited all the girls of her sister's class to unite
with those of her own. There was no lesson that night, and very little
work done. All the brothers and friends, who usually acted as escorts,
were invited to come to tea, and all the members of the "Do Good
Society." There was room for all, and all had "a splendid time." Games
were played, and songs sung, and everybody was made to understand that
this was a farewell party in honor of Katie Robertson.
At nine o'clock Mr. Morven came in, and, with a few pleasant and
earnest words, presented the little girl with a beautifully bound Bible,
to the purchase of which every one present had contributed a little.
"I trust," said he, "that our little Katie will make this book 'the man
of her counsel, and the guide of her youth,' in the new life upon which
she is entering, and that, as the Saviour to whom she has consecrated
herself will surely keep his promise 'never to leave or forsake her,'
she will be faithful 'in all her ways to acknowledge him,' and grow in
grace as she does in knowledge."
Then, calling his little congregation to join with him, the good pastor
prayed that the dear Lord would guide and guard this lamb of his through
"all the chances and changes of this mortal life, and finally bring her
to his heavenly kingdom."
And so, with loving kisses, and gifts, and solemn words of prayer, they
sent Katie Robertson out into the world to meet its responsibilities.
The next morning, in the early dawn, she and her brother set out with
their uncle for the schools in which they were to be fitted for their
life-work. And as these schools were a long way off, and the journey
thither rather expensive, it was many months before Squantown saw them
again.