"Precisely the point which oppressed us, until Mr. Hammond complimented us by announcing that it was for the purpose of discovering how many of us, after making use of our highest skill in that line, could write a letter that after two years we should be willing to acknowledge as ours."
Ester sat up flushed and eager. "That is a very nice idea," she said, brightly. "I"m so glad you told me of it. Sadie, I"ll write you a letter for that day. I"ll write it to-morrow, and you are to keep it sealed until the evening of that day on which you graduate. Then when you have come up to your room and are quite alone, you are to read it.
Will you promise, Sadie?"
But Sadie only laughed merrily, and said "You are growing sentimental, Ester, as sure is the world. How can I make any such promise as that?
I shall probably chatter to you like a magpie instead of reading any thing."
This young girl utterly ignored so far as was possible the fact of Ester"s illness, never allowing it to be admitted in her presence that there were any fears as to the result. Ester had ceased trying to convince her, so now she only smiled quietly and repeated her pet.i.tion.
"Will you promise, Sadie?"
"Oh yes, I"ll promise to go to the mountains of the moon on foot and alone, across lots--_any thing_ to amuse you. You"re to be pitied, you see, until you get over this absurd habit of cuddling down among the pillows."
So a few days thereafter she received with much apparent glee the dainty sealed letter addressed to herself, and dropped it in her writing-desk, but ere she turned the key there dropped a tear or two on the shining lid.
Well, as the long, hot summer days grew longer and fiercer, the invalid drooped and drooped, and the home faces grew sadder. Yet there still came from time to time those rallying days, wherein Sadie confidently p.r.o.nounced her to be improving rapidly. And so it came to pa.s.s that so sweet was the final message that the words of the wonderful old poem proved a Siting description of it all.
"They thought her dying when she slept, And sleeping when she died."
Into the brightness of the September days there intruded one, wherein all the house was still, with that strange, solemn stillness that comes only to those homes where death has left a seal. From the doors floated the long c.r.a.pe signals, and in the great parlors were gathering those who had come to take their parting look at the white, quiet face. "ESTER RIED, aged 19," so the coffin-plate told them. Thus early had the story of her life been finished.
Only one arrangement had Ester made for this last scene in her life drama.
"I am going to preach my own funeral sermon," she had said pleasantly to Abbie one day. "I want every one to know what seemed to me the most important thing in life. And I want them to understand that when I came just to the end of my life it stood out the most important thing still--for Christians, I mean. My sermon is to be preached for them.
No it isn"t either; it applies equally to all. The last time I went to the city I found in a bookstore just the kind of sermon I want preached. I bought it. You will find the package in my upper bureau drawer, Abbie. I leave it to you to see that they are so arranged that every one who comes to look at _me_ will be sure to see them."
So on this day, amid the wilderness of flowers and vines and mosses that had possession of the rooms, ranged along the mantel, hanging in cl.u.s.ters on the walls, were beautifully illuminated texts--and these were some of the words that they spoke to those who silently gathered in the parlors:
"And that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep."
"But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?"
"What shall we do that we might work the works of G.o.d?"
"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest."
"I must work the work of him that sent me while it is day: the night cometh when no man can work."
"Awake to righteousness and sin not."
"Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."
"Redeeming the time, because the days are evil."
"Let us not sleep as do others, but let us watch, and be sober."
Chiming in with the thoughts of those who knew by whose direction the illuminated texts were hung, came the voice of the minister, reading:
"And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them."
So it was that Ester Ried, lying quiet in her coffin, was reckoned among that number who "being dead, yet speaketh."
CHAPTER XXVIII.
AT LAST.
The busy, exciting, triumphant day was done. Sadie Ried was no longer a school-girl; she had graduated. And although a dress of the softest, purest white had been subst.i.tuted for the blue silk, in which she had so long ago planned to appear, its simple folds had swept the platform of Music Hall in as triumphant a way as ever she had planned for the other. More so, for Sadie"s wildest flights of fancy had never made her valedictorian of her cla.s.s, yet that she certainly was. In some respects it had been a merry day--the long sealed letters had been opened and read by their respective holders that morning, and the young ladies had discovered, amid much laughter and many blushes, that they were ready to p.r.o.nounce many of the expressions which they had carefully made only two years before, "ridiculously out of place" or "absurdly sentimental."
"Progress," said Mr. Hammond, turning for a moment to Sadie, after he had watched with an amused smile the varying play of expression on her speaking face, while she listened to the reading of her letter.
"You were not aware that you had improved so much in two years, now, were you?"
"I was not aware that I ever was such a simpleton!" was her half-provoked, half-amused reply.
To-night she loitered strangely in the parlors, in the halls, on the stairs, talking aimlessly with any one who would stop; it was growing late. Mrs. Ried and the children had long ago departed. Dr. Van Anden had not yet returned from his evening round of calls. Every body in and about the house was quiet, ere Sadie, with slow, reluctant steps, finally ascended the stairs and sought her room. Arrived there, she seemed in no haste to light the gas; moonlight was streaming into the room, and she put herself down in front of one of the low windows to enjoy it. But it gave her a view of the not far distant cemetery, and gleamed on a marble slab, the lettering of which she knew perfectly well was--"Ester, daughter of Alfred and Laura Ried, died Sept. 4, 18--, aged 19. Asleep in Jesus--Awake to everlasting life." And that reminded her, as she had no need to be reminded, of a letter with the seal unbroken, lying in her writing-desk--a letter which she had promised to read this evening--promised the one who wrote it for her, and over whose grave the moonlight was now wrapping its silver robe.
Sadie felt strangely averse to reading that letter; in part, she could imagine its contents, and for the very reason that she was still "halting between two opinions," "almost persuaded," and still on that often fatal "almost" side, instead of the "altogether," did she wait and linger, and fritter away the evening as best she could, rather than face that solemn letter. Even when she turned resolutely from the window, and lighted the gas, and drew down the shade, she waited to put every thing tidy on her writing-table, and then, when she had finally turned the key in her writing-desk, to read over half a dozen old letters and bits of essays, and sc.r.a.ps of poetry, ere she reached down for that little white envelope, with her name traced by the dear familiar hand that wrote her name no more. At last the seal was broken, and Sadie read:
"My Darling Sister:
"I am sitting to-day in our little room--yours and mine. I have been taking in the picture of it; every thing about it is dear to me, from our father"s face smiling down on me from the wall, to the little red rocker in which he sat and wrote, in which I sit now, and in which you will doubtless sit, when I have gone to him. I want to speak to you about that time. When you read this, I shall have been gone a long, long time, and the bitterness of the parting will all be past; you will be able to read calmly what I am writing. I will tell you a little of the struggle. For the first few moments after I knew that I was soon to die, my brain fairly reeled; It seemed to me that I _could_ not. I had so much to live for, there was so much that I wanted to do; and most of all other things, I wanted to see you a Christian. I wanted to live for that, to work for it, to undo if I could some of the evil that I knew my miserable life had wrought in your heart. Then suddenly there came to me the thought that perhaps what my life could not do, my coffin would accomplish--perhaps that was to be G.o.d"s way of calling you to himself perhaps he meant to answer my pleading in that way, to let my grave speak for me, as my crooked, marred, sinful living might never be able to do. My darling, then I was content; it came to me so suddenly as that almost the certainty that G.o.d meant to use me thus, and I love you so, and I long so to see you come to him, that I am more than willing to give up all that this life seemed to have for me, and go away, if by that you would be called to Christ.
"And Sadie, dear, you will know before you read this, how much I had to give up. You will know very soon all that Dr. Dougla.s.s and I looked forward to being to each other--but I give it up, give him up, more than willingly--joyfully--glad that my Father will accept the sacrifice, and make you his child. Oh, my darling, what a life I have lived before you! I do not wonder that, looking at me, you have grown into the habit of thinking that there is nothing in religion--you have looked at me, not at Jesus, and there has been no reflection of his beauty in me, as there should have been, and the result is not strange. Knowing this, I am the more thankful that G.o.d will forgive me, and use me as a means to bring you home at last. I speak confidently. I am sure, you see, that it will be; the burden, the fearful burden that I have carried about with me so long, has gone away. My Redeemer and yours has taken it from me. I shall see you in heaven. Father is there, and I am going, oh _so_ fast, and mother will not be long behind, and Alfred and Julia have started on the journey, and you _will_ start. Oh, I know it--we shall all be there! I told my Savior I was willing to do any thing, _any thing_, so my awful mockery of a Christian life, that I wore so long, might not be the means of your eternal death. And he has heard my prayer. I do not know when it will be; perhaps you will still be undecided when you sit in our room and read these words. Oh, I hope, I _hope_ you will not waste two years more of your life, but if you do, if as you read these last lines that I shall ever write, the question is unsettled, I charge you by the memory of your sister, by the love you bear her not to wait another _moment_--not one. Oh, my darling, let me beg this at your hands; take it as my dying pet.i.tion--renewed after two years of waiting. Come to Jesus now.
"That question settled, then let me give you one word of warning. Do not live as I have done--my life has been a failure--five years of stupid sleep, while the enemy waked and worked. Oh, G.o.d, forgive me!
Sadie, never let that be your record. Let me give you a motto--"Press toward the mark." The mark is high; don"t look away from or forget it, as I did; don"t be content with simply sauntering along, looking toward it now and then, but take in the full meaning of that earnest sentence, and live it--"Press toward the mark!"
"And now good-by. When you have finished reading this letter, do this last thing for me: If you are already a Christian, get down on your knees and renew your covenant; resolve anew to live and work, and suffer and die, for Christ. If you are not a Christian--Oh, I put my whole soul into this last request--I beg you kneel and give yourself up to Jesus. My darling, good-by until we meet in heaven.
"ESTER RIED."
The letter dropped from Sadie"s nerveless fingers. She arose softly, and turned down the gas, and raised the shade--the moonlight still gleamed on the marble slab. Dr. Van Anden came with quick, firm tread up the street. She gave a little start as she recognized the step, and her thoughts went out after that other lonely Doctor, who was to have been her brother, and then back to the long, earnest letter and the words, "I give him up"--and she realized as only those can who know by experience, what a giving up that would be, how much her sister longed for her soul. And then, moved by a strong, firm resolve, Sadie knelt in the solemn moonlight, and the long, long struggle was ended. Father and sister were in heaven, but on earth, this night, their prayers were being answered.
"Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them."
THE END.