"You are very kind," said Sam, "but I cannot stay, as I have an engagement which must be kept. Never mind, Stephen. I"ll just complete the trip alone, and comfort myself with the a.s.surance that I leave you in good hands. So, good-bye, old boy."
"Good-bye, Twitter," said Stephen, grasping his friend"s hand.
"Twitter," repeated the missionary, "I heard your friend call you Sam just now. Excuse my asking--are you related to Samuel Twitter of Twitter, Slime, and Company, in the city?"
"I"m his eldest son," said Sam.
"Then I have much pleasure in making your acquaintance," returned the other, extending his hand, "for although I have never met your father, I know your mother well. She is one of the best and most regular teachers in our Sunday-schools. Is she not, Hetty?" he said, turning to a sweet-faced girl who stood near him.
"Indeed she is, I was her pupil for some years, and now I teach one of her old cla.s.ses," replied the girl.
"I work in the neighbourhood of Whitechapel, sir," continued the missionary, "and most of the children here attend the Inst.i.tution in George Yard."
"Well, I shall tell my mother of this unexpected meeting," said Sam, as he remounted his bicycle. "Good-bye, Stephen. Don"t romp too much with the children!"
"Adieu, Sam, and don"t break your neck on the bicycle."
In a few minutes Sam Twitter and his bicycle were out of sight.
CHAPTER EIGHT.
A GREAT AND MEMORABLE DAY.
When young Stephen Welland was conducted by John Seaward the missionary into a large field dotted with trees, close to where his accident had happened, he found that the children and their guardians were busily engaged in making arrangements for the spending of an enjoyable day.
And then he also found that this was not a mere monster excursion of ordinary Sunday-schools, but one of exceedingly poor children, whose garments, faces, and general condition, told too surely that they belonged to the lowest grade in the social scale.
"Yes," said the missionary, in reply to some question from Welland, "the agency at George Yard, to which I have referred, has a wide-embracing influence--though but a small lump of leaven when compared with the ma.s.s of corruption around it. This is a flock of the ragged and utterly forlorn, to many of whom green fields and fresh air are absolutely new, but we have other flocks besides these."
"Indeed! Well, now I look at them more carefully, I see that their garments do speak of squalid poverty. I have never before seen such a ragged crew, though I have sometimes encountered individuals of the cla.s.s on the streets."
"Hm!" coughed the missionary with a peculiar smile. "They are not so ragged as they were. Neither are they as ragged as they will be in an hour or two."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that these very rough little ones have to receive peculiar treatment before we can give them such an outing as they are having to-day. As you see, swings and see-saws have been put up here, toys are now being distributed, and a plentiful feast will ere long be forthcoming, through the kindness of a Christian gentleman whose heart the Lord has inclined to `consider the poor," but before we could venture to move the little band, much of their ragged clothing had to be st.i.tched up to prevent it falling off on the journey, and we had to make them move carefully on their way to the train--for vans have brought us only part of the way. Now that they are here, our minds are somewhat relieved, but I suspect that the effect of games and romping will undo much of our handiwork. Come, let us watch them."
The youth and the missionary advanced towards a group of the children, whose souls, for the time being, were steeped in a see-saw. This instrument of delight consisted of a strong plank balanced on the trunk of a n.o.ble tree which had been recently felled, with many others, to thin the woods of the philanthropist"s park. It was an enormous see-saw! such as the ragged creatures had never before seen--perhaps never conceived of, their experiences in such joys having been hitherto confined to small bits of broken plank placed over empty beer barrels, or back-yard fences. No fewer than eight children were able to find accommodation on it at one and the same time, besides one of the bigger boys to straddle in the centre; and it required the utmost vigilance on the part of a young man teacher at one end of the machine, and Hetty Frog at the other end, to prevent the little ragam.u.f.fins at either extremity from being forced off.
Already the missionary"s antic.i.p.ation in regard to the undoing of their labour had begun to be verified. There were at least four of the eight whose nether garments had succ.u.mbed to the effort made in mounting the plank, and various patches of flesh-colour revealed the fact that the poor little wearers were innocent of flannels. But it was summer-time, and the fact had little effect either on wearers or spectators. The missionary, however, was not so absorbed in the present but that he felt impelled to remark to Welland: "That is their winter as well as summer clothing."
The bicyclist said nothing in reply, but the remark was not lost upon him.
"Now, d.i.c.k Swiller," said the young man teacher, "I see what you"re up to. You mustn"t do it!"
Richard Swiller, who was a particularly rugged as well as ragged boy of about thirteen, not being in the habit of taking advice, did do it.
That is, he sent his end of the plank up with such violence that the other end came to the ground with a shock which caused those who sat there to gasp, while it all but unseated most of those who were on the higher end. Indeed one very small and pinched but intelligent little boy, named by his companions Blobby, who looked as if Time, through the influence of privation and suffering, had been dwindling instead of developing him,--actually did come off with a cry of alarm, which, however, changed into a laugh of glee when he found himself in his teacher"s arms, instead of lying "busted on the ground," as he afterwards expressed it when relating the incident to an admiring audience of fellow ragam.u.f.fins in the slums of Spitalfields.
Blobby was immediately restored to his lost position, and Swiller was degraded, besides being made to stand behind a large tree for a quarter of an hour in forced inaction, so that he might have time to meditate on the evil consequences of disobedience.
"Take care, Robin," said Hetty, to a very small but astonishingly energetic fellow, at her end of the see-saw, who was impressed with the notion that he was doing good service by wriggling his own body up and down, "if you go on so, you"ll push Lilly Snow off."
Robin, unlike d.i.c.k, was obedient. He ceased his efforts, and thereby saved the last b.u.t.ton which held his much too small waistcoat across his bare bosom.
"What a sweet face the child she calls Lilly Snow has--if it were only clean," observed Welland. "A little soap and water with a hair brush would make her quite beautiful."
"Yes, she is very pretty," said the missionary and the kindly smile with which he had been watching the fun vanished, as he added in a sorrowful voice, "her case is a very sad one, dear child. Her mother is a poor but deserving woman who earns a little now and then by tailoring, but she has been crushed for years by a wicked and drunken husband who has at last deserted her. We know not where he is, perhaps dead. Five times has her home been broken up by him, and many a time has she with her little one been obliged to sit on doorsteps all night, when homeless. Little Lilly attends our Sunday-school regularly, and Hetty is her teacher. It is not long since Hetty herself was a scholar, and I know that she is very anxious to lead Lilly to the Lord. The sufferings and sorrows to which this poor child has been exposed have told upon her severely, and I fear that her health will give way. A day in the country like this may do her good perhaps."
As the missionary spoke little Lilly threw up her arms and uttered a cry of alarm. Robin, although obedient, was short of memory, and his energetic spirit being too strong for his excitable little frame he had recommenced his wriggling, with the effect of bursting the last b.u.t.ton off his waistcoat and thrusting Lilly off the plank. She was received, however, on Hetty"s breast, who fell with her to the ground.
"Not hurt, Hetty!" exclaimed the missionary, running forward to help the girl up.
"Oh! no, sir," replied Hetty with a short laugh, as she rose and placed Lilly on a safer part of the see-saw.
"Come here, Hetty," said John Seaward, "and rest a while. You have done enough just now; let some one else take your place."
After repairing the b.u.t.tonless waistcoat with a pin and giving its owner a caution, Hetty went and sat down on the gra.s.s beside the missionary.
"How is Bobby?" asked the latter, "I have not found a moment to speak to you till now."
"Thank you, sir, he"s better; much better. I fear he will be well too soon."
"How so? That"s a strange remark, my girl."
"It may seem strange, sir, but--you know--father"s very fond of Bobby."
"Well, Hetty, that"s not a bad sign of your father."
"Oh but, sir, father sits at his bedside when he"s sober, an" has such long talks with him about robberies and burglaries, and presses him very hard to agree to go out with him when he"s well. I can"t bear to hear it, for dear Bobby seems to listen to what he says, though sometimes he refuses, and defies him to do his worst, especially when he--"
"Stay, dear girl. It is very very sad, but don"t tell me anything more about your father. Tell it all to Jesus, Hetty. He not only sympathises with, but is able to save--even to the uttermost."
"Yes, thank G.o.d for that `uttermost,"" said the poor girl, clasping her hands quickly together. "Oh, I understood that when He saved _me_, and I will trust to it now."
"And the gentleman who called on you,--has he been again?" asked the missionary.
"No, sir, he has only come once, but he has sent his butler three or four times with some money for us, and always with the message that it is from Miss Diana, to be divided between Bobby and me. Unfortunately father chanced to be at home the first time he came and got it all, so we got none of it. But he was out the other times. The butler is an oldish man, and a very strange one. He went about our court crying."
"Crying! Hetty, that"s a curious condition for an oldish butler to be in."
"Oh, of course I don"t mean cryin" out like a baby," said Hetty, looking down with a modest smile, "but I saw tears in his eyes, and sometimes they got on his cheeks. I can"t think what"s the matter with him."
Whatever Mr Seaward thought on this point he said nothing, but asked if Bobby was able to go out.
Oh yes, he was quite able to walk about now with a little help, Hetty said, and she had taken several walks with him and tried to get him to speak about his soul, but he only laughed at that, and said he had too much trouble with his body to think about his soul--there was time enough for that!
They were interrupted at this point by a merry shout of glee, and, looking up, found that young Welland had mounted the see-saw, taken Lilly Snow in front of him, had d.i.c.k Swiller reinstated to counterbalance his extra weight, and was enjoying himself in a most hilarious manner among the fluttering rags. a.s.suredly, the fluttering rags did not enjoy themselves a whit less hilariously than he.