CHAPTER VI.
Lolly was awakened in the morning by the fretful voice of her mother, as she went scolding about the house, trying to pick up something for breakfast; and she heard her father answering her in no pleasant mood, and kicking about the floor whatever came in his way.
It was a sad awakening for poor Lolly, and, for the minute, it put wholly out of her mind the pleasure of the previous day, and the lesson learned in the green and sunny place by the brook-side; and she was sorely
tempted to cover her head with the bed-clothes, and sleep again, until her parents were off to their work, and then give herself up to idleness and play, as she had always done. But the bright happy face of Alice came before her to help her, and she was out of bed in a minute.
“Maddie, Maddie!” said she, leaning over her sister and giving her the least bit of a shake in order to arouse her; “come, get up. The sun is shining on the wall, and it is a beautiful day. I want you to go with me for Alice.”
“Get away!” returned Maddie in a huff. “I haven’t slept half enough!” And, settling herself again, she dropped off into a heavier slumber; while Lolly, seeing that it would do no good to disturb her, dressed herself and went into the other room.
Her mother was baking a cake, and
her father sat near, idle. Both looked surprised to see Lolly up so early.
There was a woollen-factory in the village, perhaps half a mile away, and they were off generally long before the children were up; and Maddie and Lolly usually ate such pickings as they left upon the table, and spent their days as they pleased, with little thought or care from their parents.
Lolly could not wait to get her breakfast. She cared for nothing to eat, now that her mind was intent upon some great thing, and she sped away over the dewy grass to find her new friend. She had never been in Alice’s house, for they had only lived a little while in the place where they now were, and Maddie alone had found out their neighbour. Her sister would not always let her play with her, and it was only a mere chance that led her to follow Maddie
the day before and get acquainted with Alice.
I did not mean to say chance. I would rather say a kind watchful Providence—which is the true and right word for a Christian to use; because everything that happens in this world is governed by God’s over-ruling power for some good purpose; and Lolly was led to the spot where her sister and Alice were at play, expressly that she might learn something of her bright, eternal home.
Now that she had seen the sunny-hearted little girl once, it took her but very few minutes to find her again.
The distance seemed nothing at all; and, from the time she left her own door, she could see the cheerful face all along her way, making her walk very pleasant and not in the least lonely.
The cottage door was wide open, and the sunlight lay in golden streaks on the floor at the entrance, where Tabby had stretched herself comfortably. Lolly could see into the little square room at the right.
The table was spread with a neat, white cloth, and Alice and her mother were eating their breakfast together. There were two white plates on the table, and white cups and saucers, and a smoking dish of porridge. All this Lolly could see as she stood hesitating near the door; but, in a minute, Alice caught a glimpse of her little, shy face, and ran to lead her in.
“You must have some of this nice breakfast,” said she, giving Lolly a plateful of the porridge, and pouring some milk on it from a small white pitcher.
Lolly looked timidly at Alice’s mother, to see if she might eat it; and
the kind pleasant smile she received made her feel quite at home, so that she needed no further urging.
Soon after the mother went away, and left Alice to put the room in order; and, when all things were right, Alice said “she could go with Lolly as well as not that day, and they would make a pretty place of the shabby cottage; for it was just in the best spot—so wild and shady and green.”
It was rather a sorrowful task at the beginning, and almost any other little girl than Alice would have been quite discouraged.
There was a great deal of rubbish in the sitting-room, and the floor and windows looked as if they had never known anything of soap and water. Maddie sat upon the top of a half-barrel, swinging her brown, soiled feet, and playing with a black puppy,
that was snapping at her toes; while the table was strewn with crumbs and dirty dishes from the morning’s meal, and chips and sticks and bits of rags were upon the floor.
She looked as if she had just got out of bed. Her face was dull, and her hair showed no touch of brush or comb, and her nails were long and dirty; but she jumped from her perch with some signs of shame as she saw Alice, so neat and tidy, at the door; and she began to scramble about as if she wished to make things a little better.
“May I help you to-day, Maddie?” asked Alice. “I haven’t any work at home, and I like to get things tidy. We’ll make such a room of this before night!” And, without another word, she began in earnest to bring order out of strange confusion.
Lolly was a capital helper, because
her heart was in the matter, and she really wanted a pleasant, cheerful home; but Maddie was content to look on, and scarcely moved a finger to help.
They packed away the wood and chips in the closet under the lowest shelf, and washed the dishes and set them up edgewise in their proper places; and they mopped the floor, and scrubbed the windows and table, and brought boughs of evergreen to hang upon the nails around the walls and make it cheerful and pretty.
Alice thought of this. She said, “Rich folks hang paintings on their walls—and these are God’s pictures, the work of his almighty fingers, and so beautiful! Why not put them where we can always look at them, and in them see his love and kindness?”
Lolly thought her the most wonderful
little girl in all the world, and clapped her hands for joy as she looked upon the altered room.
Then they went outside, and swept the sticks and chips from the lawn; and Maddie managed to hunt up a hammer and some old rusty nails, and to help Alice to fasten the loose boards upon the door, which improved it more than anything else could do.
It was so low from the roof to the ground that by stepping on a chair they could easily reach; and they trained a running rose-bush, that had been long neglected, and hung, trailing, over the grass, so that it nearly covered the whole side of the cottage, and would soon be like a bright green mantle over the dark walls.
CHAPTER VII.
Just as they had finished their labours, and Alice had prevailed upon Maddie to put herself in a little better order, and the three young friends had seated themselves upon the step to get something from Alice’s Bible—some words of love and blessing, as Alice said, from their heavenly Father—there came a lady up the road towards them. She was walking very slowly along, with her parasol shielding her face, so that it was quite concealed from the children; but Alice knew her dress, and ran quickly to meet her, crying joyously, “It is Miss Mason, dear Lolly!”
Maddie ran into the cottage and hid behind the door, like a foolish little girl; but Lolly sat still, very glad that the good teacher was coming to speak to her, yet trembling with a
sort of nervous fear; because she was a shy little girl, and so seldom saw strangers.
She wondered that Alice dared go so fearlessly up and walk along, with her hand in Miss Mason’s hand, and her face upturned towards the lady’s, while she talked as freely as if it had been herself or Maddie listening. But when Miss Mason stood by the step and stooped down to kiss her sun-burned cheek, and said sweetly, “So this is your little friend Lolly, is it, Alice?” she did not wonder any longer; for her heart leaped to meet the gentle lady, and she could not take her eyes from such a kind and loving face.
“Where’s Maddie?” asked Miss Mason, with a smile.
She could see her peeping through the crack of the door; and, understanding the case, she said carelessly,—
“I suppose she will join us by-and-by. We will sit here and read in Alice’s book until she comes, and then I want to talk to you. Alice told me you lived here, Lolly, and I want you to go to the Sunday-school. We are very happy there, are we not, Alice?”
Alice answered with a beaming face, and she and Lolly sat, one on each side of the teacher, and listened as she read to them from God’s holy Word.
She read first about the creation of this beautiful world, and the garden where Adam and Eve were placed; and, when she had made Lolly and Maddie understand all about how sin came—for Maddie, attracted by the sweet voice and pleasant manner, had crept softly from her hiding-place and curled herself upon the step behind the lady—Miss Mason turned to the
New Testament and read to them a few verses about Jesus, who took upon himself our nature and suffered for our sins.
The children were much impressed by the story of the Saviour’s sufferings and death; and when the teacher told them that every naughty word and deed of theirs was like a nail in the Saviour’s feet or hands, they felt that they would never again do a wicked thing.
Then she told them how impossible it would be for them to keep from sin without God’s continual help; and she taught them how to look up to him and ask for his aid and blessing. And when she had made sure that they could say a short prayer, and had obtained a promise from them that they would go every Sunday to the Sunday-school, she kissed them all three very affectionately, and went on to search
for others of her heavenly Father’s wandering children.
“When she had gone quite out of sight, and they were taking another good look at the changed rooms, that seemed so grand to them all, Lolly said thoughtfully to Alice,—
“Do you think the great King will like to come here now?”
“He is here,” said Alice reverently. “Don’t you feel it, Lolly? We never see him, you know, as we see each other; but we feel that he is near, just as you feel that your mother is in the room even when the darkness hides her from your eyes.”
Lolly repeated the little prayer softly, “O my heavenly Father, I will try to love thee. Wilt thou not come unto me, and be with me wherever I am, and help me to be thy child?” And, as she said the words, she knew that God was with her, and
that from that hour there was a Presence in the house that would drive away all the gloom, and make such brightness as filled the cottage of her little friend.
It was time for Alice to go; but she lingered a little while longer to teach Maddie how to prepare the supper, so that when her mother came home weary from her labour, there might be no more hard work for her to do, but real comfort and rest.
“Now, don’t get tired of housekeeping,” said she, as she tied on her sun-bonnet to go. “I shall run over some day to see how you get on; and I’m sure it’s so much prettier to be sweet, and clean, and tidy, that you’ll love to keep the house nice.” And away she tripped to make things pleasant for her own dear, hard-working mother.
Sunny little girl! She knew how
many tiresome steps her diligent hands and loving heart could save her poor widowed mother; and in everything she did there was a tender thought of the warm heart against which her infant head had lain when her little feet and hands were weak and helpless.
She was glad now that they had grown strong to aid, that she could give back some of the care and effort. Alice never dreamed of growing impatient in her mother’s service. She did not wait to be asked to help her, but watched for opportunities, and so proved a great blessing and treasure in the lowly cottage home, that would have been very dismal and sad without her sunny, buoyant little body.
CHAPTER VIII.
Peter Rand and his wife came lagging up the road as the sun was setting. They had passed an uncommonly laborious day, and were completely tired out with their toil. They were very silent, and were thinking what a sad, miserable home was theirs, and how little of cheer they had in life. Nothing seemed bright to them, although the earth was like a paradise for greenness and fragrance and beauty. As they drew near the house, Mr. Rand was very much surprised by the great change in the outward aspect of the place. He could scarcely believe that he had not mistaken the road, and come to some other cottage than the slovenly one that he had left in the morning.
His wife, intent upon the supper that her hungry appetite craved, had
pressed forward in haste to prepare it.
As she entered the door, however, she started back with the strange feeling that she was in the house of some neighbour; but Pug, the little dog, ran frisking about her, and convinced her that is was indeed her own house.
The table was set in the middle of the room, and the dishes were arranged in nice order; and just in the centre was Lolly’s pewter mug, with a bunch of sweet, blue violets to grace it all.
There was the savoury odour of the baking cake from the fire, and the fumes of the steeping tea filled the room, and already gave a sense of refreshing to the weary work-people.
The rags were taken from the windows, and square bits of paper were pinned over the openings; and the floor was neat and clean, and the beautiful green boughs hung upon the
walls, and the children sat, with clean hands and faces, awaiting the return of father and mother.
They looked so bright and happy that the weary couple quite forgot their fatigue, and chatted merrily over their pleasant meal, praising the children for their thoughtful work, and saying they didn’t believe there was a more beautiful home in the world than theirs.
Altogether, it was a very happy evening. Maddie and Lolly made their father and mother sit down quietly while they cleared off the table, and washed the dishes, and swept the crumbs away; and then they all had a cozy little time, talking of new hopes and plans. For the change was so comfortable that it put life and spirits into every soul; and the father said he would get some glass and putty and mend the windows;
and the mother would make some white curtains, and the children would get evergreen and form it into wreaths to loop them up. Oh, it takes so little to make a cheerful, happy home! It is only the idle and vicious that need be really miserable. If God does not always give us plenty of money, he furnishes us with so many rich things in this world of his, that we may adorn even a lowly and barren place until it shall appear richer than the gayest palace. Maddie and Lolly found this out through Alice; and every day they hunted the woods for mosses and flowers, and their father made little shelves to put them on, and formed many a pretty seat of twisted branches of trees; so that by-and-by their cottage was one of the prettiest places anywhere around, and attracted the notice of everybody that passed it.
Miss Mason came very often, now that she had found them out; and she not only prevailed on the parents to send their children to Sunday-school, but they themselves went regularly to church, and tried to serve the great and holy God who had put it into the hearts of their children to make their earthly place of abode something akin to the better home.
So soon as they began to feel the presence of the heavenly King, all the despondency and gloom vanished, and, even though poor and hard-working, they were happy in the possession of such riches as nothing but the love and favour of our heavenly Father can give.