And the friends catching the word shouted aloud for joy, while Grace, holding her new daughter a little way from her, looked in her sweet face and murmured—
“Dear one, may God abundantly bless you and make your married life as happy as mine has been. Come home and see your brothers and sisters, they will all welcome you to their hearts as I do. Come, you are tired and excited, but in our home you will find peace and rest.” And Mary went with her mother, her mind all awhirl. In those few moments she realized how fully she had severed herself from all the past, and with Grace’s strong arm round her and her husband striding by her side knew of a certainty that she had done well.
That was the most exciting day in the history of the little community. What with the landing of the very necessary and welcome consignment, listening to the tale C. B. had to tell, welcoming the fine old American gentleman Mr. Stewart, and occasionally breaking out into songs of praise, it was midnight before the friends sought their homes, and even then there were many who did not sleep until morning.
My story is really done, for although in novels generally the story ends with the marriage of the lovers, mine has not done so, but has carried them on through the trials and developments that always follow marriage, which after all is to most people but the beginning of a life story. It would be quite easy to spend many pages in describing how the new-comers were introduced to the many quiet sweet joys of their chosen home, as easy as it would be to find fault with them for quitting the world of effort for this peaceful nook. But to do so would be merely repeating the earlier descriptions in the book, and so I do what seems to me the right thing, merely record that with an ease that was marvellous Mary and her father slipped into their allotted places in the simple island scheme of existence.
And presently they wondered how they had ever been able to bear the burden of so-called civilization, and the thousand and one miseries which the possession of wealth and the maintaining of a place in society, supposed to be incumbent upon the wealthy, brings in its train. Mary summed up her feelings upon the subject to her father one Sunday night when after the usual united meeting for prayer and praise they all sat upon the verdant hillside in the warm moonlight by saying—
“Daddy dear, I do not believe we ever knew what it really was to live, and I am sure that we had no conception of the lovingkindness of God until I met my Bounty Boy.”
