IN ANOTHER'S STEAD.
CLOSER pressed the ranks of brave men who were to strike a final blow
for the good cause, nearer, nearer, marching on with a steady, crushing
step. The nation rejoiced over victories, but firesides, from palace to
hovel, missed and mourned some dear, familiar face, some cheerful voice
that would never speak again.
Kathie used to watch daily. The campaign was growing more exciting as it
approached the end. Her heart used to beat chokingly as she glanced down
the lists. And this was what she saw one day: "Missing, William
Morrison."
"O mamma!" with a quick cry, "did you read this?"
Mrs. Alston looked. "Oh!" she exclaimed, with sudden pain. "Uncle Robert
and Mr. Morrison have gone to the nursery to select a few more
fruit-trees. They will doubtless hear of it at the village."
"You do not think--he has been--killed!"
Kathie's face was very pale and her sweet voice faltered.
"Hardly," returned Mrs. Alston. "But one can never be quite certain what
becomes of the missing."
Kathie put on her shawl and hood presently, and walked slowly down the
winding drive. She had not sufficient courage to enter the cottage,
though through the window she saw Ethel and Jamie having a game of
romps. The child's cheeks were like roses, and now and then a careless
laugh floated out to Kathie, who shivered with something more than cold.
Presently the wagon approached slowly. When Uncle Robert caught sight of
his little niece he sprang out and greeted her warmly.
"I have some good news for you, Kitty," he said, in his bright, breezy
tone. "Mr. Meredith is really better. They hope to bring him home before
long. Why--isn't it delightful?" seeing that she made no answer.
"Yes, I am very, very thankful."
"But, Kathie--what has happened, little one?"
"Our other soldier--"
"Mr. Morrison--O child, what tidings of him?"
"There has been another battle, and he is--missing."
"The news might be worse then. There is a little hope, so do not despair
at once."
Kathie grasped his arm tighter, and they walked nearly to the house in
silence. Then he said, "Of what are you thinking, my darling?"
There were tears in her soft, violet eyes.
"Uncle Robert, what a strange and solemn thing it is to have any one die
for you,--in your stead."
"Yes. I wonder if we do not sometimes forget the One who died eighteen
hundred years ago? But this brings it home to you and me in a manner
that we shall always remember."
"And, looking at that, all our little trials and burdens seem as
nothing. I thought it quite hard to be treated so unjustly at school,
but what was it compared with giving up one's life?"
"It is something, my darling, when we bear reviling from that highest of
all motives,--His sake. Even the little steps are precious in his sight.
We are not all called upon to walk the sorrowful way he trod."
"But poor little Ethel!"
"We promised, you know, to make all the amends in our power to her."
"But it seems to me that nothing could comfort me if you were gone."
He took the cold little face in his hands, as they were standing on the
broad porch now, at the very door.
"Do you love me so well, my child? But we must not forget that those who
stay at home are sometimes called from the earthly ranks. God asks of us
that his will and pleasure shall be ours as well."
"Yes, I know "; but her voice was quite faint as he kissed her.
It was dusk, and as he opened the door the cheerful light and warmth of
the hall were most grateful. Kathie gave a shiver as if she were shaking
off the wintry cold.
"Do not anticipate the worst," he said, pleasantly. "To-morrow's news
may be different."
She smiled faintly. "I am not a very good soldier, after all," she
returned, with a little faltering in her tones.
"My darling, when our Captain calls us out to fight, he always gives us
grace and strength. But we must never look away from him; that is part
of the promise."
She hung up her hood, smoothed her hair, that had been blown about by
the wind, and went in to supper. They all talked a little about Mr.
Morrison, but it appeared to Kathie that they were wonderfully hopeful.
Indeed, the news from Mr. Meredith was so very encouraging that it
seemed to dim the force of the other.
Afterward Mr. Conover went down to the cottage. Freddy brought his
solitaire-board to Kathie.
"I've forgotten how it is done," he said, "and I want you to show me.
Let me take them out, and you just tell me when I go wrong."
It really seemed that Fred had a marvellous faculty for going wrong.
Kathie felt very much as if she did not care to be bothered. She was
restless and nervous, and wanted to curl herself up on Aunt Ruth's
lounge and think a little.
"Greater love hath no man--" the words kept running through her mind.
But the love began in little things, even the love which suffered at
last upon the cross. So she roused herself to patience and interest.
Uncle Robert looked quite grave when he returned. The Morrisons had
heard the tidings, and were very anxious.
"I must write to Mr. Morrison's captain to-morrow," he said. "We must
make every effort to find him. He may have been wounded and carried off
of the field unnoticed."
Kathie prayed fervently for Mr. Morrison's safety. Uncle Robert made
immediate inquiries, and they waited in half fear, half hope. In the
mean while events in Virginia had the stirring ring of near victories.
All was breathless excitement throughout the land. Sorties, surprises,
battles, Sherman coming up from his march to the sea, Sheridan brave and
dashing as ever, and Grant going slowly with his men, like some
ponderous machine that was to crush at last.
And then the telegraph flashed the news far and wide: "Lee has
surrendered!" "Richmond has been taken!"
It seemed so odd to Kathie to be going on in her quiet, uneventful
fashion. School lessons, music practices, home duties,--nothing grand
or heroic. Mrs. Wilder's lecture to the girls had been productive of a
little good, beside breaking the foolish cabal; for in it she had
touched upon dress and parties, and tried to set before them the urgency
of paying some attention to their studies. So there were fewer bows, a
plainer arrangement of hair, and less talk of fashion.
"I think it was mean to crowd Kathie Alston out," declared Sue Coleman.
"Mamma says the Alstons are people one might be proud of anywhere; and
they are extremely well connected. She met them one evening at Mrs.
Adams's, and that elegant Mr. Langdon thinks Mr. Conover about perfect.
Mamma is so sorry that we did not have her in the tableaux. Every one
noticed it. That was your fault, Belle!"
"Of course you are all quite at liberty to choose your own friends,"
Belle answered, loftily; "I'm sure you agreed to it. You did not want
Mary Carson and all that rabble."
"Mary and Kathie are not friends in our acceptation of the term. She is
polite to Mary, and I am not sure but that a ladylike courtesy is more
effectual in keeping people at a distance than absolute rudeness. I
believe Kathie and Emma Lauriston are the only two girls in the school
who have not indulged in rudeness in some form or other."
"If she is not hand and glove with Mary Carson, she has another friend
who is no better, whom she visits and sends pictures to, and I don't
know what all. It's a second or third cousin of our cook. Of course
these Strongs are rich; so it is not the breeding as much as the money.
But, as I said, you can all do as you like. It seems to me that half of
the town has gone crazy on the subject of Kathie Alston."
Emma was a little troubled with these talks about Sarah Strong. She had
a certain delicacy which held her aloof from any such associations.
"Kathie," she said at length, "I wish you would tell me how you came to
take a fancy to those people who were at--the Fair, I believe."
Kathie colored a little. "I don't know as you would understand it," she
answered, slowly.
"I am beginning to comprehend some things," her eyes drooping a little,
and glancing past Kathie.
"I noticed them at the Fair--because--something was said to hurt their
feelings--"
"O, I know! Lottie Thorne came over to our table and made fun of the
woman. But--do you not think--such people always take advantage of a
little notice?--and then it leads to mortifying embarrassments."
"Maybe that is just one of the things God puts in the daily warfare to
make us good soldiers. It is like being a private in the army. Sometimes
people sneer at the hard, rough work the soldiers have to do, and yet it
often helps the officers to gain the victory."
"And the officers have the credit. That looks rather unjust, doesn't
it?"
"It would seem hard if God did not remember it all."
"But how did you come to visit the Strongs?"
Kathie told the whole story. "I cannot explain these things to you just
as Uncle Robert does," she went on, with a rather perplexed smile.
"Always when I am in any doubt or trouble I go to him. He thinks when
people are anxious for mental or social improvement a helping hand does
them so much good. Persons in their own station cannot give it, as a
general thing. And the Saviour said, 'Inasmuch as ye have done it unto
the least of these--'"
"Yes, I see. But it is harder to do your good in that way, Kathie."
"Digging in the trenches"; and Kathie smiled.
"Ah, you have gone out as a private in the ranks; and I am afraid, after
all, that very few of us like to be privates," Emma returned. "But it
certainly did show a good deal of delicate feeling and remembrance when
Sarah Strong sent you the lichen."
"I thought so. And our visit was very pleasant."
"Only, if she had not spoken to you that day in the street, it would
have saved you a good deal of pain and trouble," returned Emma.
"Maybe it was just what I needed. Life is so pleasant and lovely to me
that I might forget who gives it all if every once in a while something
did not bring me back to Him. And it is so good, when others
misunderstand and blame, to know that God sees all, and never makes a
mistake in his judgment."
Emma was silent. It was the keeping near to Him that rendered Kathie
meek, patient, and full of love. And it seemed to Emma as if she strayed
continually.
Was it because Kathie always had some good work in hand?
But amid all the rejoicing, and the certainty that Mr. Meredith would
recover, the other shadow seemed to be growing deeper. Three weeks, and
not a word of Mr. Morrison yet. His captain remembered the man, and
could only account for the disappearance by supposing that he had been
buried among the rebel dead. Twice since the battle they had exchanged
prisoners, and he had not been returned among the well or wounded; and
now every one was flocking to the Union lines.
"Mr. Darrell went to Washington to-day," Uncle Robert announced to
Kathie. "He is to bring Jessie and Mr. Meredith home."
"Here,--to Brookside?"
"Yes," with a smile. "He needs the quiet and the country air, and I
fancy there are two or three people here whom he is longing to see."
Kathie's heart beat with a great bound.
By and by she found herself rambling slowly toward the cottage. Hugh was
busy with some spring preparations, pruning trees and vines. He nodded
to her, but did not seem inclined to stop and talk, and Jamie caught
hold of her dress, begging her to come in.
Grandmother took off her spectacles and wiped them; she often did this
now, for her eyes grew dim many times a day.
"So you have had good news," she said, after the first greeting. "I am
glad there is a little joy saved out of the great wreck. Such a handsome
young man as Mr. Meredith was too; but there's many a bonny lad sleeping
under the sod, who was fair enough to his mother."
Kathie slipped her hand within the one so wrinkled and trembling.
"It is such a sorrow to us all," she said, in her soft, comforting tone.
"I keep thinking of it day and night. It was so noble in him to go--to
suffer--"
"It is the one thing, Miss Kathie, that gives me a little resignation. I
shall always feel thankful that he went in your dear uncle's stead, not
for the money merely. And if it has saved him--if it has kept you all
together; but this is too sad a talk for you, dear child."
The tears were dropping from Kathie's long bronze lashes.
"Dear grandmother, there has not been a morning nor night but that I
have remembered him and his generous deed. I know his life was as
precious to you as Uncle Robert's was to us, and now poor little Ethel
is an orphan--for my sake. How strange that the whole world keeps doing
for one another, and that, after all, no one really stands alone in it!"
"We are nearer than we think for--rich and poor, when one takes God's
word aright. We can't any of us do without the other unless there comes
a sense of loss and something that is not quite right. You and yours see
further into it than most folk. I'm glad to have the precious comfort of
knowing that William went safely, and that in the other country he has
met his dear wife. I shall soon go to them, and I know well that little
Ethel will never lack for friends. William felt it with great
certainty."
Another duty was laid upon Kathie. This orphan was to be more to her
than any chance friend. What could she do of her own self? Only to show
her now how truly she appreciated the sacrifice and loss, and to put a
few simple pleasures in her life, to give her tenderness and affection
that might make some slight amends.
She thought of something else that evening.
"Uncle Robert," she said, "do you believe there is any hope that Mr.
Morrison may still be alive?"
"It is very slight now," he answered. "And yet I can hardly be
reconciled to the loss amid this general rejoicing. It seems so much
harder to have him dead now that the war is over and many of the
soldiers will soon return home."
"I feel so sorry that he had to die out there alone. If some one could
have given him only a cup of cold water--"
"Perhaps they did."
"But if it had been you!" Kathie clung closely to him as if there might
be danger yet.
"It was not, my darling. God seems to hold me in the hollow of his hand,
and while he takes such care of me I feel more than ever the need of
doing his work. And now little Ethel has been added to us."
"Uncle Robert, I think I ought to take a special share in it, since God
has left me the delight of your love."
"As Ethel grows older, there will be many things that you can do."
"But I have thought of this one now. The interest on Ethel's little
fortune amounts to almost one hundred dollars."
"A little more than that. I put it in bonds."
"And if it could be saved for her,--since she will want but very little.
She will have her home with her aunt, and need only her clothes. I'd
like to buy those for her as a kind of thank-offering."
"But, my darling, in a few years more you will be a young lady, and
there will come parties, journeys, and pleasures of different kinds,
where it may be necessary for you to be dressed in something besides the
simple garments of childhood. Perhaps you will want more money
yourself!"
"I never have to give up anything needful, but I was thinking that I
should like now and then to make a real sacrifice, relinquish some
article that I wanted very much, and use it for her instead. It would
help me to remember what her father had done for me."
Uncle Robert stooped and kissed her, touched to the heart by her simple
act of self-denial.
"It shall be as you wish," he replied, tenderly. "And, my dear child, I
am glad to see you willing to take your share in the great work there
is to be done in the world."
"It is so little, after all, and so many blessings come to me."
Ah, was it not true that God restored fourfold? After many days the
bread we have cast upon the waters comes floating back to us. Well for
us then if we are not shamed by niggardly crumbs and crusts flung out
impatiently to some wayside beggar while we ourselves feasted. For God's
work and love go together, and there is always something for the willing
hand.