The calendar of months named December, and before it, excited, expectant
little people stood daily, counting first the weeks, then the days to
that one day of all the year which the children love best.
Carol had to listen again and again to all the wonderful and mysterious
things which always happened at the Manor on Christmas Eve and Christmas
Day. Price lists and illustrated catalogues were the only books in
requisition after lessons were over. The elder children wondered how
they could have bought their Christmas presents if there were no parcel
post. Carol was especially the helper and confederate of the three
little girls in the nursery. He assisted them in choosing their
"surprises," wrote the letters, and enclosed the postal orders; and
certainly, from the marvellous list of things they were able to
purchase, their little accumulated heap of pennies must, in some magic
way, have changed into sovereigns in his hands. The joyful excitement
of the three little girls, when the parcels arrived, gave Carol the
greatest pleasure he had ever known. Only Nurse was allowed to be
present when the parcels were opened, and she promised to lock them
securely away where no one could catch a glimpse until they were brought
out on Christmas eve.
It wanted only one week to Christmas day, when Rosebud came to the
school-room one morning, saying: "Mover wants 'ou, Tarol."
Carol went at once to his aunt's room. She was sitting with an open
letter in her hand, a rather graver than usual expression on her face.
"Carol, dear," she said, "for some little time I have been thinking I
ought to let you go home for Christmas. It seems to me it is what your
dear father would wish; but I could not let you take the long journey
alone and there seemed no other way until this morning. I have just
received a letter from a dear old friend in which she mentions that she
will be travelling to Exeter in two days' time. So I could take you to
London to meet her there, and you could travel with her to Exeter, where
Miss Desmond might meet you. I do not like to part with you, even for a
month or six weeks, my 'little porter at the door of thought.'"
"Auntie, it won't make any difference if I am here, or in Devonshire. I
can still bar the door to error."
"Yes, dear; I believe you can. It is really not that only. I am
thinking we shall all miss you so. You seem to be everyone's
confederate for their Christmas surprises. Would you rather go, or stay,
dear?"
"I should be happy to stay here, or happy to go home for Christmas,
Auntie."
"Yes; I think you would, dear. So we must consider other people. Miss
Desmond, I know, would rejoice to have you, and it seems the right of
both tenants and servants to have the 'little master' amongst them at
Christmas. So I have decided it will be right to let you go."
But when this decision was made known in the school-room and nursery
there were great lamentations. No one had given a thought to the
possibility of Carol not being with them for the Christmas festivities;
and Mrs. Mandeville was besought again and again not to let Carol go
home before Christmas.
But, having well considered the matter, she was firm. A telegram was at
once despatched to Miss Desmond apprising her of the arrangement. The
answer that quickly came satisfied Mrs. Mandeville that she had been led
to make a right decision. Brief but expressive was Miss Desmond's wire:
"Great rejoicings on receipt of news. Will gladly meet Carol at
Exeter."
There was yet another little person to whom the news was not joyful.
Eloise's lips quivered and her blue eyes filled with tears when she
heard. Carol was so much to her, and she to him. She thought of him as
a brother; and a sister of his own name could not have been more
tenderly loved by the boy. The bond between them was closer and dearer
than that of human relationship.
"It will be only just at first, Eloise, that we shall seem to be far
apart. Then you will be able to realize there is no distance in Mind.
At first, when I came here, I seemed to be so far away from Cousin
Alicia; but I never feel that now. I just know her thought is with me,
and thought is the only real. It will be lovely to hear her voice
again, and to feel my hand clasped in hers, but still that won't make
her very own self nearer to me."
"I do not quite understand--yet, Carol," Eloise answered a little sadly.
Then she had some news to give him. Early in the New Year the Burtons
were going to live in London. True to his promise, Dr. Burton was
giving up his medical practice, and was going to join that little band
of men and women whose lives are consecrated to the work of destroying
the many manifestations of sin and disease, in the way the Master
taught.
"And, when you come back to the Manor, Carol, we shall not be here."
Eloise in one sentence regretfully summed up the situation.
"I shall miss you, dear Eloise. But you will write to me, and I shall
write very often to you, and when I go home in the summer, perhaps Mrs.
Burton will let you come, too. Then Cousin Alicia will be happy to have
both her children in Science with her."
"That will be lovely, Carol! I am sure Mother will like me to visit
Miss Desmond again. It seems a long time to look forward to, but time
really passes very quickly. Sometimes the days are not long enough for
all I want to do. I am to go to school when we live in London. All the
beautiful things I have longed for are coming to me. Carol, I do wish
every little girl and every little boy knew how to ask Divine Love for
what they want. When I am older that is the work I want to do,--to
teach other children as Miss Desmond taught me."
"And I, too, Eloise. Love is so near, but we didn't know it till we
learned it in Science, did we?"
"No, Carol; I didn't know it, when I used to sit all day in my little
wheel-chair, longing to walk like other children. It was like living in
a dark room until some one came and opened the shutters to let the
sunlight in. The sunlight was there all the time, but I did not know it.
I was God's perfect child all the time, but I believed I was lame, until
Miss Desmond taught me the Truth."
"When I go to bed, Eloise, thoughts come to me. I tell them to Auntie
sometimes, but not to any one else. Shall I tell you what I was
thinking last night?"
"Please, Carol, I should like to know."
"I began first by thinking if any one asked me, where is heaven, I
should answer: Heaven is where God is. Then I remembered, God is
_everywhere_. There is no place where God is not. Then I knew that
everywhere must be heaven, and we have only to open our eyes, and just
as much as we can see of good--God--just that far we shall have entered
heaven. So it won't matter, Eloise, if you are in London, and I am in
Devonshire, if we are both looking steadfastly all the time to see only
good around us, we shall both be entering the Kingdom of Heaven. There
is only one gate--a golden gate--into that Kingdom, and 'Christ in
divine Science shows us the way.'"
----
The little country station seemed to be quite full of people when the
train that was to carry Mrs. Mandeville and Carol to London drew up at
the platform. The hour they were to leave had become known in the
village, and, besides all his cousins, their nurses and Miss Markham,
Mr. Higgs, his daughter and grand-daughter, Dr. and Mrs. Burton, and
Eloise were there. At the last moment the Rector hurriedly stalked in.
"Almost too late, dear Raymond," Mrs. Mandeville said as he greeted
them.
"So, Carol, I learn you have succeeded in planting Christian Science in
this village."
The boy looked up with his quiet, fearless eyes.
"Not I, Uncle Raymond!"
"Who then?"
The boy's head was bowed as he reverently answered: "Christ. I am
happy, Uncle Raymond, if I have been a little channel for Truth. I could
do nothing myself."
Carol met the grave look on the Rector's face with his bright smile.
"You _are_ glad, are you not, Uncle Raymond, that Mr. Higgs and his
little grand-daughter, and dear Eloise--I, too--have found the Christ,
and have been healed?"
The engine gave a shrill whistle. Mrs. Mandeville drew the boy farther
into the carriage; a porter closed the door as the train began to move;
the question was unanswered. Mr. Higgs waved his hat, saying fervently,
"God bless 'ee, Master Carol; and bring you back to us soon."
Eloise ran along the platform, holding Rosebud by the hand, wafting
kisses to be carried to Miss Desmond. When the train was out of sight
and she returned to join the others, she saw the Rector was watching her
with the kindly smile his face used to wear in the days when she was not
able to run about. Clingingly clasping his arm, looking up to him in
her winning way, and remembering the question which to Carol had been
unanswered, she said: "You _are_ glad, are you not, Rector, that I can
run about, and that I have been taught the Truth that makes us free?"
"Yes, little girl, I am very glad. Perhaps I have been mistaken in my
judgment. Tell me, Eloise, what is this Truth of which you speak?"
Eloise hesitated a moment; then, looking up beyond the Rector into the
broad blue heavens, she said: "It is just _knowing_ that God is _All_,
and there is nothing beside. All the _real_ God made; whatever He did
not make is shadow. When I quite understood that God could not make an
imperfect thing--that He never, never made a lame little girl--the
shadow disappeared, and I could walk."
The Rector turned to Mr. Higgs who was standing near. "Is that what my
nephew has been teaching you, Higgs?"
"Yes, sir; but I've been slower to grasp it. Seems to me the Truth is
very simple, but we need the childlike mind to take it in."
"Maybe you are right, Higgs--maybe you are right. 'Whosoever shall not
receive the kingdom of God as a little child ... shall not enter
therein.' The Master's words."
Thoughtfully, with bent head and downcast eyes, meditating deeply, the
Rector walked back to the Rectory. Words very familiar came to him with
a different meaning: "Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make
you free;" and with the words came a desire that was prayer: "Lord,
teach me this Truth. Grant me the childlike mind."
----
"Carol, I have been thinking of something," Mrs. Mandeville said, as the
train bore them along.
"Should you like to know of what I have been thinking?"
"Please, dear Auntie; I should very much like to know."
"Well, dear, I have been thinking if it should occur to the young Master
of Willmar Court to send Rosebud and me an invitation whilst he is at
home, we should accept it."
"Oh, Auntie, what a lovely thought! To have you and Rosebud, and Cousin
Alicia, all together!"
"I want Miss Desmond, Carol, to teach me some of the things she has
taught you."
There was a long silence. The boy's heart was too full for words. Then
he said: "Auntie, I know now how the little bird felt when the King
opened the cage door, and he sang and sang for joy. My heart is singing
to _my_ King. I wonder if--perhaps--He will say, some missing note has
come into Carol's song."
"Indeed, my darling, I think so."
He nestled closely beside her. Looking down she saw on his face the
reflection of a great joy--a great peace; and she knew that he had just
crept into Love's arms.
"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under
the shadow of the Almighty.... He shall cover thee with His feathers,
and under His wings shalt thou trust. His Truth shall be thy shield and
buckler."
PSALM 91.