CHAPTER XV
RALPH RETURNS INTO THE SEA
Ralph and Suzanne reached their outspan place in safety a little beforesunset. I used to know the spot well; it is where one of the numerouswooden kloofs that scar the mountain slopes ends on a grassy plainof turf, short but very sweet. This plain is not much more than fivehundred paces wide, for it is bordered by the cliff, that just here isnot very high, against which the sea beats at full tide.
When the oxen had been turned loose to graze, and the voorlooper set towatch them, the driver of the waggon undid the cooking vessels and builta fire with dry wood collected from the kloof. Then Suzanne cooked theirsimple evening meal, of which they partook thankfully. After it wasdone the pair left the waggon and followed the banks of the littlekloof stream, which wandered across the plain till it reached the cliff,whence it fell in a trickling waterfall into the sea. Here they sat downupon the edge of the cliff, and locked in each other's arms, watched themoon rise over the silver ocean, their young hearts filled with a joythat cannot be told.
"The sea is beautiful, is it not, husband?" whispered Suzanne into hisear.
"To-night it is beautiful," he answered, "as our lives seem to be; yet Ihave seen it otherwise," and he shuddered a little.
She nodded, for she knew of what he was thinking, and did not wish tospeak of it. "Neither life nor ocean can be always calm," she said, "butoh! I love that great water, for it brought you to me."
"I pray that it may never separate us," answered Ralph.
"Why do you say that, husband?" she asked. "Nothing can separate us now,for even if you journey far away to seek your own people, as sometimes Ithink you should, I shall accompany you. Nothing can separate us exceptdeath, and death shall bind us more closely each to each for ever andfor ever."
"I do not know why I said it, Sweet," he answered uneasily, and justthen a little cloud floated over the face of the moon, darkening theworld, and a cold wind blew down the kloof, causing its trees to rustleand chilling the pair, so that they clung closer to each other forcomfort.
The cloud and the wind passed away, leaving the night as beautiful asbefore, and they sat on for a while to watch it, listening to the musicof the waterfall that splashed into the deep sea pool below, and to thesoft surge of the waves as they lapped gently against the narrow beach.
At length Ralph spoke in a low voice. "Sweet, it is time to sleep," hesaid, and kissed her.
"It is time," she whispered back, "but, husband, first let us kneeltogether here and pray to the Almighty to bless our married life andmake us happy."
"That is a good thought," he answered, for in those days young men whohad been brought up as Christians were not ashamed to say their prayerseven in the presence of others.
So they knelt down side by side upon the edge of the cliff, with theirfaces set towards the open sea.
"Pray for us both aloud, Ralph," said Suzanne, "for though my heart isfull enough I have no words."
So Ralph prayed very simply, saying: "Oh, God, Who madest us, hear us,Thy son and daughter, and bless us. This night our married life begins;be Thou with us ever in it, and if it should please Thee that we shouldhave children, let Thy blessing go with them all their days. Oh! God, Ithank Thee that Thou didst save me alive from the sea and lead the feetof the child who is now my wife to the place where I was starving, andSuzanne thanks Thee that through the whisperings of a dream her feetwere led thus. Oh! God, as I believe that Thou didst hear my prayer whenas a lost child I knelt dying on the rock, so I believe that Thou dosthear this the first prayer of our wedded life. We know that all life isnot made up of such joy as Thou hast given us this day, but that it hasmany dangers and troubles and losses, therefore we pray Thee to comfortus in the troubles, to protect us in the dangers, and to give usconsolation in the losses; and most of all we pray Thee that we who loveeach other, and whom Thou hast joined together, may be allowed to liveout our lives together, fearing nothing, however great our peril, sinceday and night we walk in the shadow of Thy strength, until we pass intoits presence."
This was Ralph's prayer, for he told it to me word by word afterwardswhen he lay sick. At the time the answer to it seemed to be a strangeone, an answer to shake the faith out of a man's heart, and yet it wasnot lost or mocked at, for the true response came in its season. Nay, itcame week by week and hour by hour, seeing that every day through thoseawful years the sword of the Strength they had implored protected thosewho prayed, holding them harmless in many a desperate peril to reunitethem at the last. The devil is very strong in this world of ours, or soit seems to me, who have known much of his ways, so strong that perhapsGod must give place to him at times, for if He rules in heaven, I thinkthat Satan shares His rule on earth. But in the end it is God who wins,and never, never, need they fear who acknowledge Him and put their faithin Him, trying the while to live uprightly and conquer the evil of theirhearts. Well, this is only an old woman's wisdom, though it should notbe laughed at, since it has been taught to her by the experience of along and eventful life. Such as it is I hope that it may be of serviceto those who trust in themselves and not in their Maker.