From these, they learned to look upon the riches, honors and pleasures of earth as the things to be most earnestly coveted, most worthy of untiring efforts to secure.
Life at the Crags was a strange puzzle to the Ion children: no blessing asked at the table, no gathering of the family morning or evening for prayer or praise or the reading of G.o.d"s word.
"Mamma, what does it mean?" they asked; "why doesn"t Uncle Ross do as papa does?"
Elsie scarce knew how to answer them. "Don"t let us talk about it, dears,"
she said: "but whatever others may do, let us serve G.o.d ourselves and seek his favor above everything else; for "in his favor is life" and his loving kindness is better than life."
CHAPTER EIGHTH.
"To each his sufferings: all are men Condemn"d alike to groan; The tender for another"s pain, The unfeeling for his own."
--GRAY.
The weather was delightful: because of Phil"s return the children were excused altogether from lessons and nearly every day was taken up with picnics, riding, driving and boating excursions up and down the river.
They were never allowed to go alone on the water or behind any horse but "Old Nan," an old slow moving creature that Phil said "could not be persuaded or forced out of a quiet even trot that was little better than a walk, for five consecutive minutes."
The mothers were generally of the party;--Lily continuing so much better that Elsie could leave her, without anxiety, in the faithful care of her old mammy--and always one or two trusty servants were taken along.
One day Philip got permission to take old Nan and the phaeton and drive out with the two older girls, Gertrude and Elsie.
They were gone several hours and on their return, while still some miles from home were overtaken by a heavy shower, from which they took refuge in a small log-house standing a few yards back from the road.
It was a rude structure built in a wild spot among the rocks and trees, and evidently the abode of pinching poverty; but everything was clean and neat, and the occupants, an elderly woman reclining in a high-backed wooden rocking-chair with her feet propped up on a rude bench, and a young girl who sat sewing by a window overlooking the road, wore an air of refinement, and spoke English more correctly and with a purer accent than sometimes is heard in the abodes of wealth and fashion.
The door stood wide open and the moment Philip drew rein, the girl at the window called to them to come in out of the wet, and directed the lad to shelter his horse and phaeton underneath a shed at the side of the house.
Gertrude ran lightly in with a laugh and jest, Elsie following close at her heels.
The girl rose and setting out two unpainted wooden chairs, invited them to be seated, remarking as she resumed her work, that the shower had come up very suddenly, but she hoped they were not wet.
"Not enough to hurt us," said Gertrude.
"Hardly at all, thank you," I said Elsie. "I hope our mammas will not be alarmed about us, Gerty."
"I don"t think they need be so long as there"s no thunder and lightning,"
answered Gertrude. "Ah, see how it is pouring over yonder on the mountain, Elsie!"
The pale face of the woman in the rocking-chair, evidently an invalid, had grown still paler and her features worked with emotion.
"Child! child!" she cried, fixing her wild eyes on Elsie, "who--who are you?"
"They"re the young ladies from the Crags, mother," said the girl soothingly.
"I know that, Sally," she answered peevishly, "but one"s a visitor, and the other one called her Elsie, she"s just the age and very image of--child, what is your family name?"
"Travilla, madam," the little girl replied, with a look of surprise.
"Oh, you"re her daughter; yes, of course I might have known it. And so she married him, her father"s friend and so many years older."
The words were spoken as if to herself and she finished with a deep drawn sigh.
This woman had loved Travilla--all unsuspected by him, for he was not a conceited man--and there had been a time when she would have almost given her hopes of heaven for a return of her affection.
"Is it my mother you mean? did you know her when she was a little girl?"
asked Elsie, rising and drawing near the woman"s chair.
"Yes; if she was Elsie Dinsmore, and lived at Roselands--how many years ago? let me see; it was a good many; long before I was married to John Gibson."
"That was mamma"s name and that was where she lived; with her grandpa, while her papa was away in Europe so many years," returned the little Elsie; then asked with eager interest, "But how did you happen to know her? did you live near Roselands?"
"I lived there; but I was a person of no consequence; only a poor governess," remarked the woman in a bitter tone; an expression of angry discontent settling down upon her features.
"Are you Miss Day?" asked Elsie, retreating a step or two with a look as if she had seen a serpent.
Her mother had seldom mentioned Miss Day to her, but from her Aunts Adelaide and Lora she had heard of her many acts of cruelty and injustice to the little motherless girl committed to her care.
"I was Miss Day; I"m Mrs. Gibson now. I was a little hard on your mother sometimes, as I see you"ve been told; but I"d a great deal to bear; for they were a proud, haughty family--those Dinsmores. I was not treated as one of themselves, but as a sort of upper servant, though a lady by birth, breeding and education," the woman remarked, her tone growing more and more bitter as she proceeded.
"But was it right? was it just and generous to vent your anger upon a poor little innocent girl who had no mother and no father there to defend her?"
asked the child, her soft eyes rilling with tears.
"Well maybe not; but it"s the way people generally do. Your mother was a good little thing, provokingly good sometimes; pretty too, and heiress, they said, to an immense fortune. Is she rich still? or did she lose it all by the war?"
"She did not lose it all, I know," said Elsie, "but how rich she is I do not know; mamma and papa seldom talk of any but the true riches."
"Just like her, for all the world!" muttered the woman. Then aloud and sneeringly, "Pray what do you mean by the true riches?"
"Those which can never be taken from us; treasure laid up in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and thieves break not through to steal."
The sweet child voice ceased and silence reigned in the room for a moment, while the splashing of the rain upon the roof could be distinctly heard.
Mrs. Gibson was the first to speak again. "Well I"d like to have that kind, but I"d like wonderfully well to try the other a while first."
Elsie looked at the thin, sallow face with its hollow cheeks and sunken eyes, and wished mamma were there to talk of Jesus to this poor woman, who surely had but little time to prepare for another world.
"Is your mother at the Crags?" asked Mrs. Gibson turning to her again.
Elsie answered in the affirmative, adding that they had been there for some time and would probably remain a week or two longer.
"Do you think she would be willing to come here to see me?" was the next question, almost eagerly put.
"Mamma is very kind and I am sure she will come if you wish to see her,"
answered the child.