A few minutes later Julia Cloud watched them go off into the dusk to
the Christian Endeavor meeting. She was to follow them in a little
while and meet them for the evening service. She wondered as she saw
them disappear into the shadows of the long maple-lined avenue whether
perhaps she was not overdoing the matter a little in the way of
meetings, and was almost sorry she had not suggested staying home from
the evening service. It would not do to make them weary of it all on
this first Sunday.
As they walked along together, the brother and sister were thinking
deeply.
"Say, Allison, isn't this the very funniest thing we ever did, going
off like this to a prayer meeting alone? What did we do it for?" asked
the sister.
"Well, I guess just because Cloudy wanted it," replied the brother.
"She's given up her home and everything for us; we ought to. But say,
Les, there's a whole lot in what Cloudy was reading this afternoon. If
it's all true, it's a wonder more people don't try it. I've often
wondered why we were alive, anyway, haven't you? There doesn't seem
much sense to it unless there's something like this." "Oh, I don't
know, Allison; it's nice to be alive. But of course we never will feel
quite as if this is the only place since Mother and Dad aren't here
any more. Aren't things queer, anyway? I wish there was some way to be
sure."
"Well, I s'pose the Bible claims to be sure. Perhaps we could find out
a lot if we read it."
"We're likely to read it quite a good deal, don't you think?" asked
the sister archly. "But really, now, it was interesting, and isn't
Cloudy a dear? If Christians were all like that, I'd believe in
them."
"Perhaps they are, real Christians. Perhaps the ones we mean aren't
anything but shams."
"Well, there's a good many shams, then."
The big, noisy bell began to bang out a tardy summons now; but the two
young people did not feel the same antipathy toward it that they had
felt the night they heard it first. It seemed somehow to have a
homely, friendly sound. As they neared the open door, they grew
suddenly shy, however, and drew back, lingering on the corner,
watching the few stragglers who walked into the pathway of light that
streamed from the doorway.
"Some bunch!" growled Allison. "I should say they did need waking up,
but I don't hanker for the job."
They slipped in, and followed the sound of voices, through a
dimly-lighted hall, smelling of moldy ingrain carpet, into a wide,
rather pleasant, chapel room. There were branches of autumn leaves
about the walls, reminiscent of some recent festivity, and a bunch of
golden-rod in a vase on the little table by the leader's chair.
Two girls were turning over the hymn-book, picking out hymns for the
evening; and a tall, shy, girlish young fellow was making fancy
letters on a blackboard up in front. Three more girls with their arms
about one another had surrounded him, and were giggling and gurgling
at him after the manner of that kind of girl. Another plain-faced,
plainly-dressed young woman sat half-way up at one side, her hands
folded and a look of quiet waiting on her face. That was all that
were in the room.
Allison and Leslie found a seat half-way up on the other side from the
plain-faced girl, and sat down. No one noticed them save for furtive
glances, and no one came near them. The three giggling girls began to
talk a little louder. One with her hair bobbed and a long view of
vertebrae above her blue dress-collar began to prattle of a dance the
night before.
"I thought I'd die!" she chortled. "Bob had me by the arm; and here
was my dress caught on Archie's button, and he not knowing and
whirling off in the other direction; and the georgette just ripped and
tore to beat the band, and me trying to catch up with Archie, and Bob
hanging on to me, honest.--You'd uv croaked if you could uv seen me.
Oh, but Mother was mad when she saw my dress! She kept blaming me, for
she knew I hated that dress and wanted a new one. But me, _I'm_ glad.
Now I'll get after Dad for a new one. Say, when's Mary's surprise? Is
it true it's put off till next week?"
"I'm going to have a new dress for that and silver slippers," declared
the girl next her, teetering back and forth on her little high-heeled
pumps. "Say, Will, that letter's cock-eyed. What are you giving us?
What's the old topic, anyway? I don't see any use in topics. They
don't mean anything. I never can find a verse with the words in. I
just always ask for a hymn, and half the time I give out any old
number without knowing what it is, just to see what it'll turn out."
"Oh, say! Did you hear Chauncey Cramer singing last Sunday night?"
broke out the third girl with a side glance at the strangers. "He was
perfectly killing. He was twisting the words all around in every
hymn. He had girls' names and fellers' all mixed up, and made it rhyme
in the neatest way. I thought I'd choke laughing, and Dr. Tarrant was
just coming in, and looked at me as if he'd eat me. Oh, my goodness!
There he comes now. We better beat it, Hattie. Come on, Mabel. Let's
sit back in the last row."
The three girls toppled down the aisle on their high-heeled pumps, and
rustled into the back row just as the pastor entered and looked about
the room. His eyes brightened when he saw the brother and sister, and
with a pleasant "Good-evening" to the three whispering misses in the
back seat he came over to shake hands with Allison and Leslie. But,
when he expressed a most cordial hope that the two would come in and
help in the young people's work, Allison was wary. He said they would
have to see how much time they had to spare after college opened. It
was altogether likely that they would be exceedingly busy with their
college work.
The minister, watching their bright faces wistfully, and knowing their
kind, sighed, and thought how little likelihood there was that his
Christian Endeavor society would see much of them.
A few more people straggled in, and one of the girls who had been
picking out hymns went and sat down at the piano. The other girl sat
near her. The young man at the blackboard took his place at the little
table in front of the desk, and the elaborate colored letters which he
had just made were visible as a whole for the first time.
"The Great Companion: How to Live with Him."
There was something startling and solemn in the words as they stood
out in blue and gold and crimson and white on the little blackboard.
Allison and Leslie looked and turned wonderingly toward the young
leader. He had corn-colored hair, light, ineffective blue eyes, and a
noticeably weak chin. He did not look like a person who would be
putting forth a topic of that sort and attempting to do anything about
it. His face grew pink, and his eyelashes seemed whiter in contrast as
he stood up to give out the first hymn. It was plain that he was
painfully embarrassed. He glanced now and then deprecatingly toward
the visitors with an anxious gasp as he announced that they would open
the meeting by singing number twenty-nine. The two young strangers
opened their hymn-books and found the place, marvelling how such a
youth had ever been persuaded to get himself into such a trying
situation. Allison found himself thinking that there must be some
power greater than the ordinary influences of life that made him do
it. He seemed so much out of his element, and so painfully shy.
"All to Jesus I surrender!" chirped the little gathering gayly. They
had good voices, and the harmony was simple and pleasing. Allison and
Leslie joined their beautiful voices in with the rest, and liked it,
felt almost as if they were on the verge of doing something toward
helping on the kingdom of heaven.
They sang another hymn, and more young people came in until there were
twenty-four in the room. Then the leader called upon Tom Forbes to
read the Scripture, and a boy about fourteen years old read in a clear
voice the story of the walk to Emmaus. To the brother and sister whose
Bible knowledge was limited to the days of their very young childhood,
it was most interesting. They listened intently, but were surprised
to notice a tendency to whisper on the part of some, especially the
girls in the back seat, who had been joined by three young fellows of
about their own age and caliber. Leslie, glancing over her shoulder at
the whisperers, saw they had no thrill over the story, no interest
save in their own voluble conversation. The story went on to the point
where Jesus at the table blessed the bread, and the two men knew Him,
and He vanished out of their sight, without an interruption in the
whispering. The Great Companion had come into the room and gone, and
they had not even known it.
The leader rose, and cleared his voice with courage; and then in a
tone of diffidence he recited the few words he had learned for the
occasion.
"Our topic to-night is 'The Great Companion: How to Live with Him.' It
seems hard to realize that Christ is still on the earth. That He is
with us all the time. We ought to realize this. We ought to try to
realize it. It would make our lives different if we could realize that
Christ is always with us. I expect some of us wouldn't always feel
comfortable if we should find Him walking along with us, listening to
our talk. We ought to try to live so we would feel all right if we
should find Christ walking with us some day. And I heard a story once
about a boy who had been a cripple, and he had been a great Christian;
and, when he came to die, they asked him if he was afraid; and he said
no, he wasn't afraid, that it was only going into another room with
Jesus. And I think we ought to all live that way. We will now listen
to a solo by Mame Beecher, after which the meeting will be open, and I
hope that all will take part."
It was a crude little speech, haltingly spoken, and the speaker was
evidently relieved when it was over. Yet there had been amazing truth
in what he had said, and it came to the two visitors with the force of
newness. As he mopped his perspiring brow with a large handkerchief
and sat down, adjusting his collar and necktie nervously, they watched
him, and marvelled again that he had been willing to be put in so
trying a position. There had been a genuineness about him that brought
conviction. This young man really believed in Christ and that He
walked with men.
Allison, always ready to curl his lips over anything sissified, sat
watching him gravely. Here was a new specimen. He didn't know where to
place him. Did he _have_ to lead a meeting? Was he a minister's son or
something, or did he just do it because he wanted to, because it
seemed his duty to do it? Allison could not decide. He knew that he
himself could have made a much better speech on the subject, but he
would not want to. He would hate it, talking about sacred things like
that out to the world; yet he was frank enough to see that a better
speech might not have been so acceptable to God as this halting one
full of repetition and crudities.
The girl up by the piano was singing the solo. Why did she let herself
be called "Mame" in that common way? She was a rather common-looking
girl, with loud colors in her garments and plenty of powder in
evidence on her otherwise pretty face; but she had a good voice, and
sang the words distinctly.
"In the secret of His presence how my soul delights to hide!
Oh, how precious are the lessons which I learn at Jesus' side!"
The words were wonderful. They somehow held you through to the end.
The girl named Mame had that quality of holding attention with her
voice and carrying a message to a heart. There were two lines that
seemed particularly impressive,
"And whene'er you leave the silence of that happy meeting-place,
You must mind and bear the image of the Master in your face."
Leslie found herself looking around the room to see whether any one
present bore that image, and her eyes lingered longest on the quiet
girl in the plain garments over on the other side of the room. She had
a face that was almost beautiful in its repose, if it had not worn
that air of utter reticence.
There was a long pause after the soloist was done, and much whispering
from the back row, which at last terminated in a flutter of Bible
leaves and the reading of three Bible verses containing the word
"companion," without much reference to the topic, from the three girls
on the back seat, passing the Bible in turn, with much ado to find
their respective places. Another hymn followed, and a prayer from a
solemn-looking boy in shell-rimmed spectacles. It was a good prayer,
but the young man wore also that air of reticence that characterized
the girl on the other side of the room, as if he were not a part of
these young people, had nothing in common with them. Allison decided
that they were all dead, and surely did need some one to wake them up;
but the task was not to his liking. What had he in common with a bunch
like that? In fact, what had any of them in common that they should
presume to form themselves into a society? It was rank nonsense. You
couldn't bring people together that had nothing in common and make
them have a good time. These were his thoughts during another painful
pause, during which the pastor in the back seat half rose, then sat
down and looked questioningly toward the two visitors. The young
leader seemed to understand the signal; for he grew very red, looked
at Allison and Leslie several times, cleared his throat, turned over
his hymn-book, and finally said with painful embarrassment:
"We should be glad to hear from our visitors to-night. We'd like to
know how you conduct things in your society."
He lifted agonized eyes to Allison, and broke down in a choking
cough.
Allison, chilled with amazement, filled with a sudden strange pity,
looked around with growing horror to see whether it was really true
that he had been called upon to speak in meeting. Then with the old
nonchalance that nothing ever quite daunted he rose to his feet.
"Why, I," he began, looking around with a frank smile, "I never was in
a Christian Endeavor meeting before in my life, and I don't know the
first thing about it. My sister and I only came to-night because
somebody wanted us to; so I can't very well tell about any other
society. But I belong to a college frat, and I suppose it's a good
deal the same thing in the long run. I've been reading that pledge up
there on the wall. I suppose that's your line. You've got good dope
all right. If you live up to that, you're going some.
"I remember when I first went to college the fellows began to rush me.
I had bids from two or three different frats, and they had me going so
hard I got bewildered. I didn't know which I wanted to join. Then one
day one of the older fellows got hold of me, and he saw how it was
with me; and he said: 'You want to look around and analyze things.
Just you look the fellows over, and see how they size up in the
different frats. Then you see what they stand for, and how they live
up to it; and lastly you look up their alumni.' So I began to size
things up, and I found that one frat was all for the social doings,
dances, and dinners, and always having a good time; and another was
pretty wild, had the name of always getting in bad with the faculty,
and had the lowest marks in college; three fellows had been expelled
the year before for drunkenness and disorderliness. Then another one
was known as ranking highest in scholarship and having the most
athletes in it. I looked over their alumni, too, for they used to come
around a good bit and get in with us boys; and you could see just
which were making good out in the world, and which were just in life
for what they could get out of it; and I made my decision one day just
because of one big man who had been out of college for ten years; but
he had made good in the world, and was known all over as being a
successful man and a wonderful man, and he used to come back to every
game and everything that went on at the college, and sit around and
talk with the fellows, and encourage them; and, if anybody was falling
down on his job, he would show him where he was wrong and how to get
into line again, and even help him financially if he got in a tight
place. And so I thought with men like that back of it that frat was a
pretty good thing to tie up to, and I joined it, and found it was even
better than I expected.
"And I was thinking as I looked at the blackboard, and heard you
talking about the Great Companion, it was something like that man. If
all that's true that you've been reading and saying to-night, why,
you've got pretty good things back of you. With an Alumnus like
that"--nodding toward the blackboard--"and a line of talk like that
pledge, you sure ought to have a drag with the world. All you've got
to do is to make everybody believe that it is really so, and you'd
have this room full; for, believe me, that's the kind of dope
everybody wants, especially young people, whether they own it or
not."
Allison sat down abruptly, suddenly realizing that he had just made a
religious speech and had the interest of the meeting in his hands. His
speech seemed to set loose something in the heart of the young leader;
for he rose eagerly, alertly, his embarrassment departed, and began to
speak:
"I'm glad our friend has spoken that way. I guess it's all true what
he has just said. We've got the right dope; only we aren't using it. I
guess it looks mighty like to the world as if we didn't really believe
it all, the way we live; but believe me, I'm going to try to make
things different in my life this week, and see if I can't make at
least one person believe we have something here they want before next
Sunday."
He seemed about to give out another hymn, but the plain girl spoke up
and interrupted him. She was sitting forward in her chair, an almost
radiant look upon her face that quite changed it; and she spoke
rapidly, breathlessly, like a shy person who had a great message to
convey. She was looking straight at Allison as if she had forgotten
everyone else in the room.
"I've got to speak," she said earnestly. "It isn't right to keep
still when I've had such a wonderful experience, and you spoke as if
it might not all be true about Christ's being our companion every
day." In spite of himself Allison met her eyes as though they were
talking alone together, and waited for what she should tell.
"I've always been just a quiet Christian," she went on; "and I don't
often speak here except to recite a Bible verse. I'm sort of a
stranger myself. But you all ought to know what Christ has done for
me. When my people died and everything in my life was changed, and
troubles came very thick and fast, there wasn't anybody in the world I
could turn to for every-day help and companionship but Jesus; and one
day it came to me how my mother used to feel about Him, and I just
went to Him, and asked Him to be my companion, as He used to be hers.
I didn't half believe He would when I asked Him; but I was so hurt and
alone I had to do something; and I found out it was all true! He
helped me in so many little every-day ways, you wouldn't believe it,
perhaps, unless you could have lived it out yourself. I guess you
really have to live it out to know it, after all. But I found that I
could go to Him just as if I could see Him, and I was so surprised the
first day when He answered a prayer in a perfectly wonderful way. It
all came over me, 'Why, He loves me!' And at first I thought it was
just happening; but I tried it again and again, and every day
wonderful things began to come into my life, and it got to be that I
could talk with Him and feel His answer in my heart. If it were not
for Him, I couldn't stand life sometimes. And I'm sure He'll talk with
any one that way who wants Him enough to try and find Him," she
finished; and then, suddenly conscious of herself, she sat back, white
and shy again, with trembling lips.
The meeting closed then; but, while they were singing the last hymn
Allison and Leslie were watching the face of the quiet girl with the
holy, uplifted light on it.
"I think she is lovely, don't you?" whispered Leslie after the
benediction, as they turned to go out. "I'd like to know her."
"H'm!" assented Allison. "Cloudy would like her, I guess."
"I mean to find out who she is," declared Leslie.
The minister came up just then with cordial greeting and urgent appeal
that the young people would at once join their Christian Endeavor.
"That was a great talk you gave us to-night," he said with his hand
resting admiringly on Allison's shoulder. "We need young blood. You
are the very one to stir up this society."
"But I'm not a Christian," said Allison, half laughing. "I don't
belong here."
"Oh, well," answered the smiling minister, "if you take hold of the
Endeavor, perhaps you'll find you're more of a Christian than you
think. Come, I want you to meet some of our young people."
The young people were all gathered in groups, looking toward the
strangers, and came quite willingly to have a nearer glimpse of them.
Last of all, and by herself, came the plain-faced girl; and the
minister introduced her as Jane Bristol. He did not speak to her more
than that, and it occurred to Allison that she seemed as if she came
more at the instigation of some higher power than at the call of her
pastor; for she passed quietly on again in a pleasant dignity, and
did not stop to talk and joke with her pastor as some of the other
young people had done.
"Who is she?" asked Allison, hardly aware that he was asking.
"Why, she is the daughter of a forger who died in prison. Her mother,
I believe, died of a broken heart. Sad experience for so young a girl.
She seems to be a good little thing. She is working at housework in
town, I believe. I understand she has an idea of entering college in
the fall. You are entering college here? That will be delightful. My
wife and I will take pleasure in calling on you as soon as you are
ready to receive visitors."
Leslie's eyes were on Jane Bristol as she moved slowly toward the
door, lingering a moment in the hall. None of the other girls seemed
to have anything to do with her. With her usual impulsiveness Leslie
left Allison, and went swiftly down the aisle till she stood by Jane
Bristol's side.
"We are going to meet my aunt and stay to church. Would you come and
sit with us to-night?" she asked eagerly. "I'd like to get acquainted
with you."
Jane Bristol shook her head with a wistful smile.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I wish I could. But I take care of a little
girl evenings, and I only get off long enough for Christian Endeavor.
It's dear of you to ask me."
"Well, you'll come and see me when I get settled in my new home, won't
you?"
Jane looked at her thoughtfully, and then gave her a beautiful smile
in answer to Leslie's brilliant one.
"Yes, if you find you want me when you get settled, I'll come," she
answered, and, giving Leslie's little gloved hand an impulsive
squeeze, she said, "Good-night," and went away.
Leslie looked after her a minute, half understanding, and then turned
to find her brother beside her.
"She thinks I won't want her because she works!" she said. "But I do.
I shall."
"Sure you will, kid," said her brother. "Just tell Cloudy about
her. She'll fix things. That old party--I mean, the reverend
gentleman----"
"Look out, Allison, that isn't any better; and there comes Cloudy.
Don't make her feel bad again."
"Well, parson, then--doesn't seem to have much use for a person who's
had the misfortune to have her father commit forgery and her mother
die of a broken heart, or is it because she has to work her way
through college? He may be all right, sister; but I'd bank on that
girl's religion over against his any day in the week, Sundays
included."
Then Julia Cloud came up the steps, and they went in to a rather
dreary evening service with a sparse congregation and a bored-looking
choir, who passed notes and giggled during the sermon. Allison and
Leslie sat and wondered what kind of a shock it would be to them all
if the Great Companion should suddenly become visible in the room. If
all that about His being always present was true, it certainly was a
startling thing.