"Anybody with half an eye could see that, mum; and a mighty dirty spot you picked out for such a nice little rag to lie in."
This was her only response. Then the discomfited experimenter told herself that she was a blunderer. How could the poor fellow be expected to know what she meant? Why had she not _asked_ the service from him?
She would try again.
Would he be kind enough to pick it up for her? It was long afterwards before Mrs. Roberts could think of his answer without a sinking heart.
Fixing bold, saucy eyes on her, he spoke in deliberate tones, loud enough to be heard half-way across the room:--
"Why, pick it up yourself, mum! It is as near to you as it is to me, and you don"t look weakly."
She picked it up, her poor cheeks burning, but she did not forget it.
Various after-school conferences told their different stories.
"Well!" Mr. Durant said, stopping in the act of mopping his hot forehead to shake hands with her, "Mrs. Roberts, I honor your courage. Those boys were simply fearful to-day; I really feared some outbreak that would be hard to quell. I"m afraid we shall have to give them up. Yes, I know how you feel: but you haven"t been here to see what we have borne from them. All sorts of teachers have been tried. We have given them the best material we had, both men and women, and every one has failed. Then you actually want to try it for another Sabbath! Well, I"m glad of it. Oh, _I_ don"t want to give them up; it makes my heart ache to think of it; but if we can"t keep them in sufficient order to get any benefit, nor find a teacher who is willing to hold on to them, what else is there for us to do? But that last complaint I needn"t make so long as you "hold on," need I?" This last with a genial smile. "Well, G.o.d bless you; I couldn"t begin to tell you how much I hope you will succeed."
But his face said: "However, I know you won"t."
He turned from her and said as much to young Ried:--
"She is in earnest, Ried, and she has resources; but she won"t catch them, simply because they don"t mean to be caught; they come here to make trouble and for nothing else. Just look at the way they have performed to-day--worse than ever, and they never had a better teacher.
I"ve watched her, and I believe she knows how. I"ll tell you what it is, Ried, we must hold on to her, and when she gives up those boys we must secure her for that cla.s.s of girls down by the door. I really think we have a prize."
Now, if he had but known it, Mrs. Evan Roberts meant to teach no other cla.s.s at the South End Mission save those boys.
"Flossy Shipley!" This was Gracie Dennis" exclamation; when she was very much excited, she went back to the old name. "What _are_ you trying to do with those horrid boys? and how can you endure their impudence? I never saw anything like their actions in my life, and I thought I had seen bad boys. You look completely worn out, and no wonder. I shouldn"t think Mr. Roberts would let you do this. What good can you do such creatures, Flossy?"
"My dear Gracie, don"t you think that Jesus Christ died to save them?"
"Well!" said Gracie, hesitatingly. It was a favorite phrase with her, as it is with many people when they don"t know what to say next.
"And don"t you think he wants them saved? And will he not be pleased with even my little bits of efforts if he knows that my sincere desire is to save these souls for his glory?"
"But what I mean is, what good can you do them so long as they act as they do now? They didn"t listen to a word you said, so as to get any good out of it."
"I don"t know that, dear, nor do you. Don"t you think the Holy Spirit sometimes presses words on people that they do not seem to be heeding?
In any event, that is a part with which I have nothing to do. I tried; and if I failed utterly I have but to try again. It isn"t as though there were some good teacher ready to take them. n.o.body will make a second effort. Now there is one thing I can certainly do. I can keep on making efforts; who knows but some of them may bear fruit? By the way, Gracie, I want ever so much of your help."
"Mine?"" said Gracie, with wide-open eyes. "I don"t know how to help people; I"m not good." And her face darkened in a frown,--some unpleasant memories that went far toward proving the truth of that statement coming to mind just then. After a moment she spoke in a somewhat more gentle tone: "Don"t count on me, Flossy, for help about those boys. They frighten me; I never saw such fellows. I couldn"t help wondering what--papa would have said to them."
Between the "wondering" and the noun there had been an observable pause.
Mrs. Roberts suspected that the thought in Gracie"s mind was rather what Mrs. Dennis, who was supposed to have much knowledge of boys, would have thought of them. But since her arrival Gracie had studiously avoided any reference to her stepmother, and Mrs. Roberts had humored her folly.
"Never mind, you can help them; and when you begin to realize that, you will forget your fears."
"Do you expect to see one of the creatures to-morrow evening? What in the world would you do with them if they did come?"
"I"m not sure that I _expect_ them. I only hope for them. As to what to do with them, I trust to you to help answer that question. I want to give them an idea of what a nice time is."
"I cannot help," said Gracie again, but she was _interested_, and referred again and again to the subject, cross-questioning Mrs. Roberts as to her plans and hopes, until that lady gave a satisfied smile to the thought that her seven boys had begun their work.
The first part of this conversation was held while they waited in one of the cla.s.s-rooms for Mr. Ried to give in his report before joining them.
The waiting suggested to Gracie another question.
"Who is this Mr. Ried, who seems to have us in charge?"
"He is one of the clerks from the store, which accounts, in part, for his attendance on us. But I am interested in him for other reasons. He had a wonderful sister; that is, she was a wonderful Christian; she died when quite young, but one might be ready to go to heaven early if one had accomplished as much as she did. By one of those strange arrangements, which I should think would go far toward making observing people believe in a special Providence, her life, or I might almost say her death, was the means of changing the current of my husband"s life.
He says he was a gay young fellow; a member of the church, but giving just as little attention to religion as many do whom you and I know.
An accident to one of his family held him for several weeks in the town where this Ester Ried lived; and her physician, with whom he became acquainted, introduced him to her. It seems she was very much interested in young men, in their Christian development. He went to see her several times; and, to use his own expression, she first made him realize that there was such a thing as zeal, and then she set it on fire. What she had begun in life she finished in her death. Evan attended her funeral services, and the walls were hung with Bible texts of her selection.
The most wonderful texts! All about Christian work, and about being in earnest, because the time was short. Evan says he began to understand, then, that the service of Christ was first, best, and always.
"Wasn"t it a singular Providence that led him under the influence of that young girl during the closing weeks of her life? Only think, he has been doing her work ever since,--doing it, possibly, in ways that she could not compa.s.s. That is one reason why I am so much interested in those boys. It seems to me as though they were her boys. Did I tell you that her heart went out especially after the neglected? I learned about the boys through Mr. Ried. He was but a child when his sister died, and yet she succeeded in so enthusing him with her ideas that he is all the time trying to carry out her plans. She had some wonderful ones. This idea of inviting the boys, socially, I had from her. Do you see how plainly she is working yet, though she has been in heaven so long?"
"Do you think," asked Gracie Dennis, a timid, gentle sound to her voice, "that all Christians ought to put religion "first, best, and always,"
as your husband said? I fancied that some were set apart to do a special work."
"We are all set apart, dear, don"t you think? Given to Him to use as He will. The trouble is that so many of us take back the gifts, and use our time and our tongues as though they were our own."
"Our _tongues_!" repeated Gracie, amazement in her voice.
"Why, yes; didn"t you give Him your tongue when you gave Him yourself?
And yet you are fortunate if you have not dishonored Him with it many a time."
Said Gracie, "What a queer way you have of putting things."
Then came Alfred Ried in haste, and apologizing for the long delay.
Gracie Dennis, watched him curiously; listened critically to his words.
Was it to be supposed that this young man put religion "first, best, and always"; and considered his tongue as given to the Lord? Alfred bore the scrutiny well. He took very little notice of Miss Gracie, being entirely absorbed with another matter. He had settled opinions about Mrs. Roberts now, from which he would not be likely to waver. He had seen much of her during the week, and he knew she had not been idle. She had given him much valuable information concerning the boys in whom he had been interested all winter; and whom she had known for a week. Also he was aware that Sally and Mark Calkins had seen much of her, to their great benefit. She had made him her messenger on one occasion, and he had seen Sally Calkins take from the basket the clean, sweet-smelling sheets that were to freshen her brother"s bed, and bestow on them rapturous kisses, while she murmured, "I"d walk on my knees in broad daylight through the gutter to serve her,--that I would."
"Sheets aren"t much, I suppose," moralized the young man, as he walked thoughtfully homeward. "People with much less money than she has must have furnished them. It is thinking about things that makes the difference between her and others."
But he had not quite found the secret. The main difference between her and many other people lay in the fact that she set steadily about doing the things she thought of that would be nice to do.
On the whole, young Ried was fully prepared to sympathize with Mr.
Durant"s opinion, that the South End Mission had secured a prize. Not that he was very hopeful over those boys. He felt that their conduct, under the circ.u.mstances, showed a depth of depravity which was beyond the reach of Mission schools; but it was a comfort to think that good things were arranged for them if they had but chosen to receive. He began at once to talk about them.
"Mrs. Roberts, they are worse than I had supposed. I am afraid that your patience is exhausted."
Her answer was peculiar.
"Mr. Ried, I want you to spend to-morrow evening with me. I have invited my boys, and I depend on you and Gracie here to help entertain them."
"Are you equal to such formidable work as that?" asked Gracie, with a mischievous smile.
He did not respond to the smile; he was looking at Mrs. Roberts, studying her face as one bewildered with the rapidity of her moves.
"I want to be," he said, with feeling; "I want to know how to work, and I"m learning. Mrs. Roberts, I moved to my new boarding-house last evening, and my room is a perfect little gem. There is an illuminated text in it, and all around it is twined an ivy, growing,--don"t you think! Hidden, you know, behind the frame in a bottle; and the text is one of my sister"s treasures. Isn"t that a singular coincidence?"
"It is very nice," said Mrs. Roberts, with satisfied eyes. She still made much use of that little word.