"You mustn't be left, Peter; they must take you too!"
Then I thought of the first rule on my card: "Do nothing that you would not like to be doing when Jesus comes." I certainly should not like to be sitting drinking whiskey and neglecting my duty, as I was doing then.
I thought of the second rule on my card: "Go to no place where you would not like to be found when Jesus comes." I certainly should not like to be found in this public-house, and in the company of the idle drinking fellows with whom the room was filled.
I thought of the third rule on my card: "Say nothing that you would not like to be saying when Jesus comes." There were a great many silly and foolish things I had said since I came into that place which I should not like to have been saying if that flash of lightning had been the flash of glory at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. What if He were really to come while I was there!
I felt very much afraid, and Jack told me I was as glum as an old sulky owl. I was very glad when the rain was over, and I could get outside again. Then I bid Jack good-day, and hurried home as fast as I could.
I took off my tidy clothes, and went at once into the stable to clean and polish the harness. I kept an anxious eye on the road all the afternoon, hoping to see the doctor's carriage on its way to the house. But the hours went by, and tea-time came, and he had not arrived.
"Master Reggie has got a bad turn, he has," said Bagot to his wife; "it's going to be croup, our lady thinks. I wish that doctor would look sharp; I do indeed."
But time still went on, and no doctor appeared. Could Mike have delivered my letter, or was it possible that he had forgotten it? I got more and more anxious every moment.
At last I could bear it no longer, and I did what I ought to have done long before—I told the whole story to Bagot. I did not omit to tell him of the storm, and how it had reminded me of the three forgotten rules.
"Ay, Peter, my lad," he said, "it's a sad tale, that is; but I'm glad you've made a clean breast of it, I am, and I'm very thankful the Lord didn't come to-day and find you wandering out of His ways. I'll step across and tell our lady, and see what she thinks had best be done."