Stuart Milburn did not feel very good-natured. "The whole world has
gone crazy," he muttered; "anyway this little snipe of a village has.
Why can't they let a fellow alone? I don't want them to look after me,
and I don't feel in need of their interference either. I never saw
such a time; I can't turn in any direction but some old maid will ask
me something stupid; and the girls are as bad, and the boys are
worse."
Now, what do you suppose all this was about? You will be surprised
when you hear, for no doubt you think from his picture that Stuart was
a sensible boy.
The truth of the matter was just this: Stuart's home was in the city,
but he had come to the country to spend the summer vacation at his
uncle's, and have a good time. In his uncle's family were five
cousins, three boys and two girls. Robert, the oldest, was five years
older than Stuart, and, being a college graduate, Stuart looked up to
him and respected his opinion. He, as well as the others, were
Christians.
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Now, it so happened that when the family of cousins heard that Stuart
was coming to spend the summer, they entered into an agreement to pray
for him every night and morning, and to do every thing that they could
to get him to be a Christian. A most reasonable and unselfish thing,
you will say. What would Stuart have thought of them if they had
possessed any other good thing in this world, and had kept all
knowledge of it to themselves!
But it was this very thing that had vexed him, and sent him off alone
with Tiger, that summer morning, instead of joining the cousins in
their fun. And yet they had been very pleasant about it all; they had
not tried to force him into doing anything that he did not want to
do. I hardly know what made him so absurd.
"Stuart," his Cousin Will said, "I wish you were going to Yale with me
this fall."
"I wish I were, with all my heart, old fellow," said Stuart, with the
utmost heartiness. "I worked like a Jehu to get ready to enter, but I
didn't accomplish it; never mind, just you look out for me next fall.
I'll be there as sure as my name is Milburn."
"Stuart," his Cousin Robert said, a little later, as they were coming
up the walk together, "I wish you were going this road to heaven with
me," and Stuart answered nothing and looked annoyed and wished his
cousin would let him alone. Now, if you see any sense to that you see
more than I do.
As to the "old maids" there was only one of them in his uncle's
family, and as she was his own mother's own sister, and he had often
been heard to say that she was the very best old aunty that a fellow
ever had, one would think he might have excused her for wanting him to
go to heaven where his mother had been waiting for him for three
years.
However he didn't. It was her softly spoken sentence as they rose from
prayers that morning: "I prayed for you all the time, Stuart," that
had sent him off in a pet with his fishing rod over his shoulder.
"You may go along," he said to Tiger; "thank fortune you can't talk;
if you could no doubt you would ask me to go to prayer-meeting
to-night. What a preaching set they are! I wish I had known it, and I
would have steered clear of them and gone home with Randolph. Well,
I'll have one good day; there isn't a house within four miles of the
point where I am going, and fishes can't preach. I will live in rest
for one morning. We will have some good rational enjoyment all by
ourselves, won't we, Tiger? And carry home a string of trout for Aunt
Mattie, to pay her for looking so sober at us this morning."
Saying which he snapped his fingers cheerily at the dog, and sent him
in search of a ground squirrel, and made believe that he was perfectly
happy. What do you suppose came into Stuart's mind and heart before
he had held his rod in the water ten minutes, and followed him up with
a persistent voice all the morning? Nothing so very new nor strange,
nothing but what he had known ever since he was a little boy five
years old, and had stood at his mother's knee, one summer Sunday
morning, and said it to her; it was just this little verse: "Follow
me, and I will make you fishers of men."
It was wonderful with what a clear voice that seemed to be said over
in his ear. He looked around him once, startled, half expecting to see
some one, and once he muttered: "I was mistaken, I see, about the
fishes; they have caught the preaching fever, and can do it as well as
any of them."
But afterwards there came a wiser thought; those were the words of
Jesus Christ; what if he were repeating them in his ear. Did he really
and truly want him, Stuart Milburn, to follow him?
"Pshaw," said Satan, "that was said to the fishermen at Galilee
hundreds of years ago." Still came the mysterious sentence: "Follow
me;" "fishers of men!" he said over aloud; "what a strange idea. Worth
while, though, to catch men. I should like to be able to lead people.
They wouldn't be led, though, I suppose any more than I will."
Over and over sounded the verse, "Follow me." Stuart grew very grave.
The moments passed; a fish jerked and wriggled at the end of his line
in vain; he did not notice it. Tiger jumped at his heels and talked
loudly in his way, but the fisher paid no attention. An important
question was being settled.
Suddenly he jerked out his rod, threw back the fish into the water and
wound up his line.
"Come, Tiger," he said; "let's you and I go to the woods and find the
boys; I have made up my mind to 'follow.'"
Up in her own little room at home, his Cousin Sarah, who was just
Stuart's age, and thought he was almost perfect, locked her door and
prayed this prayer:
"Dear Jesus: He has got vexed at us all and gone off fishing, by
himself. Don't let him have a good time at all; don't let him have any
more good times until he finds them in thee."
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