Pine Needles

by Hildegard G. Frey

  CHAPTER XIII.

  "I like that," said Maggie sedately.

  "How curiously near it seems to bring the Middle Ages!" said Meredith."The picture of Graf Walo!--and Pastor Harms has seen it."

  "Why couldn't Walo build a schoolhouse without making a cloister of it?"asked Maggie.

  "There were really reasons, apart from religious ones," Mr. Murrayreplied. "You remember your views of old castles on the Rhine, perchedup on inaccessible heights?"

  "It must have been very inconvenient," said Flora. "Imagine it!"

  "It would have been worse than inconvenient to live below in the valley.A rich noble could not have been sure of keeping any precious thing hishouse held--unless his retainers were very numerous and always on duty;and in that case the lands would have come by the worst. The only reallysecure places, Maggie, were the religious houses."

  "What dreadful times!" said Flora.

  "So these stories show them."

  "Uncle Eden," said Esther, "it is time to go in and get ready fordinner."

  "Is it? Oh, this pine wood is better than dinner! Look how the light iscoming red through the boles of the trees! Feel this air that is playingabout my face! Smell the pines!"

  "But you will want dinner, Uncle Eden, all the same, and it will beready."

  "Well," said Mr. Murray, rousing himself so far as to get up on oneelbow.

  "Where shall we go for our reading to-morrow afternoon?" said Maggie.

  "The Lookout rock," suggested Meredith.

  "Do you like that, Uncle Eden?"

  "I like it all, Maggie. If to-morrow is like to-day, I think the Lookoutrock will be very enjoyable."

  "And then you can look at the sky while you are talking to us," saidMaggie comfortably.

  "Why precisely at the sky?" Meredith asked laughing.

  "Oh, it's so beautiful up there sometimes."

  They sauntered slowly back to the house, through the sweet pines, underthe illuminating red rays which were coming level against thetree-stems. Then out of the wood and among the flower-beds and shrubberysurrounding the house; with the open view of sky and river, purple-brownand ruddy gold lights flowing upon the sides of the hills, reflectingthe western brilliance, which yet was warm and rich rather thandazzling.

  "I never saw such a place as this!" exclaimed Meredith for the fourth orfifth time.

  "The world is a wonderful place generally," observed Mr. Murraythoughtfully. "Rich--rich! 'the riches of His grace,' and the riches ofHis wisdom."

  They were a very happy party at dinner. Fenton, it is true, came outsingularly in the conversation, and gave a number of details respectinglife at school and his views of life in the world. Mr. Murray's answershowever were so humorous, and so wise and sweet at the same time, thatit seemed Fenton only furnished a text for the most pleasant discourse.And after dinner Maggie got out stereoscopic views, and she and othersdelighted themselves with a new look at the Middle Ages.

  "What a strange thing it must be," said Meredith, "to live where everyfarm and every church has a history; of course every village."

  "Haven't farms and villages in our country a history?" Maggie inquired.

  "No," said Esther; "of course not."

  "A few," said Mr. Murray. "Such New England farms, for instance, asstill bear the names 'Lonesome' and 'Scrabblehard.' But the historiesare not very old, and refer to nothing more picturesque than thestruggles of the early settlers."

  "What struggles?" Maggie wanted to know.

  "Struggles for life. With the hard soil, with the hard climate, and withthe wild Indians. But such struggles, Maggie, left an inheritance ofstrength, patience, and daring to their children."

  "Why haven't we stories like those of the Saxons?"

  "Why!" exclaimed Fenton impatiently, "are you such a simple? There wasnothing here but red Indians till a little while ago."

  "We have not been a nation for more than a hundred years, Maggie," saidMeredith.

  "And before that, were the Indians here at Mosswood?"

  "No, no," said Fenton. "You had better study history."

  "As _you_ have," put in his uncle. "Won't you tell Maggie when the firstsettlements of the English were made in America?"

  However, Fenton could not.

  "In the beginning of the seventeenth century it was, Maggie, that thefirst colonies were established here. The Dutch came to New York, andthe Puritans to New England, and a little earlier the English coloniststo Virginia. We are a young country."

  "Is it better to be a young country, or to be an old one?"

  "The young country has its life before it," said Mr. Murraysmiling;--"like a young girl."

  "How, Uncle Eden?"

  "She has the chance still to make it noble and beautiful."

  "We can't have these grand old castles, though," said Meredith, lookingat the view of Sonneck.

  "Those are the picturesque scars remaining of a time which was notbeautiful--except to the eye. I suppose it was that."

  The conversation took a turn too historical to be reported here.

  The next day was a worthy successor of the preceding. All the party wentto church in the morning; on account of the distance, nobody went in theafternoon. Mr. Candlish would not have his horses and servants calledout in the latter half of the day. The dinner was early; and so thenafter dinner the party set out upon a slow progress to the Lookout rock,carrying Bibles, and Meredith with his little German volume in hispocket.

  Another such afternoon as the yesterday's had been! Warm, still,fragrant, hazy; more hazy than ever. The outlines of the distant hillswere partially veiled; the colours on the middle distance glowing,mellow and soft, all the sun's glitter being shielded off. Slowly andenjoyingly the little company wandered along, leaving the lawns andpleasure ground of flowers behind them; through the cedars, past thespot where a day or two ago they had sat and read and eaten theirchicken pie. Past that, and then up a winding steep mountain road thatled up to the height of the point above. Just before the top was reachedthey turned off from the way towards the left, whence glimpses of theriver had been coming to them, and after a few steps over stones andunder the trees which covered all the higher ground, emerged from bothupon a broad, smooth, top of a great outlying mass of granite rock whichoverhung the river. Not literally; a stone dropped from the edge wouldhave rolled, not fallen, into the water; a stone thrown from the handeasily might have done the latter. The precipice was too sheer to letany but those sitting on the very edge of the rock look down its rugged,tree-bedecked side. However, Mr. Murray and Meredith at once placedthemselves on that precise edge of the platform, while the girls andFenton sat down in what they considered a safer position. A hundred feetbelow, just below, rolled the broad river; Mosswood's projecting pointto the right still shutting off all view of the upper stream, while thejutting forth of Gee's point below on the other side equally cut off thesouthern reach of the river. The trees at hand, right and left, aboveand below, standing in autumn's gay colours; the hillsides and curves ofthe opposite shore showing the same hues more mild under the veil ofhaze and the distance. Not a leaf fluttered on its stem in the deepstillness; but far down below one could hear the soft lapping of thewater as it flowed past the rocks. The stillness and the light filled upthe measure of each other's beauty.

  For a while everybody was silent. There was a spell of nature, whicheven the young people did not care to break. Flora drew a long breath,at last, and then Maggie spoke.

  "Uncle Eden, we came here to talk."

  "Did we?"

  "I thought we did--to talk and to read."

  "Nature is doing some talking, and we are listening."

  "What does Nature say?"

  "Do you hear nothing?"

  Maggie thought she _did_, and yet she could not have told what. "It isnot very plain, Uncle Eden," she remarked.

  "It becomes plainer and plainer the older you grow, Maggie,--that is,supposing you keep your ears open."

  "But I would like to know what your ears h
ear, Uncle Eden."

  "It will be more profitable to go into the subjects you wanted todiscuss. What are they?"

  "I made a list of them, Uncle Eden," said Maggie, foisting a crumpledbit of paper out of her pocket. "Uncle Eden, Ditto read to us somestories which you didn't hear,--it was just before you came,--about poorpeople who gave the only pennies they had to pay for sendingmissionaries, and went without their Sunday lunch to have a penny togive; and Flora said she thought it was wrong; and we couldn't decidehow much it was right to do."

  "It is a delicate question."

  "Well, how much _ought_ one, Uncle Eden?"

  "You do not want to go without your lunch?"

  "No, sir. Ought I, Uncle Eden?"

  "My dear, the Lord's rule is, 'Every man according as he purposeth inhis heart, so let him give. What you _want_ to give, that is what theLord likes to receive."

  "Don't He like to receive anything but what we like to give?"

  "He says, 'The Lord loveth a cheerful giver.'"

  There was a pause.

  "But, Mr. Murray," said Flora, "isn't there such a thing as a duty ofgiving?"

  "There is such a thing."

  "That is what we want to know. What is it? What is the duty, I mean?"

  "What does the Bible say it is, you mean?"

  "Yes, sir, certainly."

  "I am afraid you will think the rule a sweeping one. The Lord said,'This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you.'"

  Another pause.

  "But we were talking of _giving_, Mr. Murray."

  "Love will give where it is needful."

  "But will nothing but love give?"

  "Not to the Lord."

  "To what, then?" said Flora hastily.

  "To custom--to public opinion--to entreaty--to conscience--to fear--tokindness of heart."

  "And isn't that right?"

  "It is not giving to the Lord."

  "Well, Mr. Murray, take it so; how much ought one to give, as you say,to the Lord?"

  "All."

  "And be a beggar!" said Flora quickly.

  "No; only the Lord's steward."

  "That is exactly what I thought Mr. Murray would say," said Meredith.

  "Then it comes back to the first question, Mr. Murray. Suppose I am asteward, how much must I give away out of my hand?"

  "If you are a good steward, your question will be different. It willrather run thus--'What does my Master want me to do with this money?'and if you are a loving servant, naturally the things which are dear toyour Master's heart will be dear to yours."

  "You are speaking in generals, Mr. Murray," said Flora frettedly; "cometo details, and then I shall know. What objects are dear to His heart?"

  "Don't you know that, Miss Flora?"

  "No, I don't think I do. Please to answer, Mr. Murray, what are theobjects, as you say, dear to His heart?"

  "All the people He died for."

  Flora paused again.

  "I can't reach all those people," she said softly.

  "No. Do good to all those who come within your reach."

  "What sort of good?"

  "Every sort they need," said Mr. Murray smiling.

  "Do you think it is wrong to wear diamonds, Mr. Murray?"

  "Certainly not,--if you think the money will serve the Lord best in thatway, and if your love to Him can express itself best so."

  A muttered growl from Fenton expressive of extreme disgust was just notdistinct enough to call for rebuke.

  "Then I suppose, according to that, I am never to buy a silk dress thatis at all expensive," said Flora, the colour mounting into her handsomeface. "And costly furniture of course must be wrong, and everything elsethat is costly."

  "_Your_ conclusions--not mine, Miss Flora," remarked Mr. Murraygood-humouredly. "It is a matter of loving stewardship; and love easilyfinds its way to its ends, always."

  "And Meredith wants to know what he shall do with Meadow Park," saidMaggie.

  "Yes. Ah, Mr. Murray! do say something to stop him," added Flora. "Donot let him spoil Meadow Park."

  "To turn the Pavilion into a pretty little church would spoil nothing,Miss Flora, as it seems to me."

  "No, but that is not all. Meredith is persuaded that he must make theplace a home for old women, and a refuge for sick people, and fill itwith loafers generally. Mamma and I will have to run away and be withoutany home at all; and don't you think he owes something to us?"

  "I have not decided upon anything, Mr. Murray," said Meredith smiling,though he was very earnest. "I just wish I knew what I had best do."

  "Pray for direction, and then watch for the answer."

  "How would the answer come, Mr. Murray?" asked Flora.

  "He will know when he gets it. Come, Meredith--read."

  "About the man with the catechism?" said Maggie.

  "If you like. It will be a change from the Saxon times," said Meredith.And he wheeled about a little and reclined upon the rock, so as to turnhis face towards his hearers. "But what a delicious place to read andtalk, Mr. Murray!"

  "Nothing can be better."

  "This story begins with Pastor Harms's account of part of one of theMission festivals that used to be held at Hermannsburg every year."

  "Will that be interesting?" said Flora.

  "Listen and see. I pass over the account of the first day."