“Why”—Natalie hesitated—“this is my night to go to the Bible school—if Mother is well enough for me to leave.”
“Couldn’t I go with you? Couldn’t I take care of you? I don’t like to have you going around the streets, in the dark, with a fellow like that tagging after you. May I come for you? What time?”
“Oh, would you go there? You’d like it, I’m sure. The man I told you about speaks tonight. It’s to be at eight o’clock. But I hate to have you feel you must take your time looking after me. Maybe your people will not like it.”
“Why not?” asked Chris, looking down at her sweet eyes.
“I’m not your social class, you know,” she said gravely.
“Neither am I, anymore,” said Chris quickly and laughed, suddenly realizing that the fact did not hurt him as it had. Somehow, there seemed a bond in the fact that they could both laugh over this.
They had come to her door now, and she reached out to take her bundles. Quite a staggering load she had dared that night, because she had been sure that he had gone home and he would not feel he had to carry them. But he did not surrender them.
“These are too many for you to lift. May I come in and put them away for you? That’s potatoes, that sack. I know the feel of them after filling nine million bags of them, more or less, today. You shouldn’t attempt to carry loads like that. A girl isn’t strong enough. That’s a man’s job.”
“Oh, I’m quite strong,” laughed Natalie, and tried once more to take them.
“No, please. I’m taking them in, if you don’t mind,” insisted Chris.
Natalie had a quick vision of her mother, in a big apron, getting supper; Janice setting the table, horrified expressions perhaps on their faces; and her cheeks flamed scarlet in the dark to think that now her mother would worry again. But there was something in Chris’s cultured, pleasant voice that made it necessary for her to surrender. And with a quick prayer that all might be well within, she threw open the door into the tiny hall.
Mrs. Halsey was just taking a lovely bread pudding out of the oven, crisp and brown on the top, and the spicy odor of cinnamon reached out into the hall fragrantly to the hungry boy.
“My, that smells good!” he said as he strode through the hall into the tiny kitchen at the end where the door stood wide open. He walked straight over to the clean kitchen table and deposited his bundles, then turned toward the astonished mother, sweeping off his cap.
“Good evening!” he said with a courteous grin. “You don’t know me. I’m just the delivery boy from the grocery store. I hope you don’t mind my lack of ceremony. I had to lay these down before I take off my hat.”
“Mother, this is Chris Walton,” said Natalie, appearing behind him with shining eyes, very red cheeks, and a belated introduction.
Mrs. Halsey arose to the occasion beautifully, almost cordially.
“You’ve been very kind,” she said, studying the engaging face of the young man searchingly. “I’ve told Natalie she shouldn’t bring so much at once, and she ought not to impose on your good nature.”
“Oh, that’s nothing,” said Chris with a disarming smile. “I live near here, you know, and I’m glad to be of use. How cozy you look here. Is that the pudding that smells so good? It certainly smells good enough to eat.”
“Won’t you stay and help us eat it?” asked the mother, smiling cordially.
“Oh, I wish I could, but you see I’ve got the butter for supper in my pocket, and I expect Mother is flattening her nose against the windowpane this very minute, watching for me. Sorry. That looks like a real pudding, and I’d like to sample it. Perhaps you’ll ask me again sometime?”
“Why of course,” said Mrs. Halsey. “If you really care to come.”
“That’s settled then,” said Chris, turning to Natalie. “There, Natalie, don’t you forget to fix that soon. If you do, I’ll have to remind you. Now, I must hurry or I’ll get a good scolding for not bringing the butter sooner. I’ll be back to go to that school with you, Natalie—at seven thirty, did you say? Or is that time enough?”
“Why, it really isn’t necessary to start before quarter of eight. It’s only a short distance, you know,” said Natalie, not daring to look at her mother.
“I suppose you’ve forgotten me entirely,” said Janice, suddenly appearing in the front room doorway, algebra and pencil in her hand and her curly hair tossed up in a very little-girl way.
Chris whirled and looked at her, bewildered.
“You’re not by chance the little girl with the red tam that I used to draw to school on her sled my last year in high school, are you? Those look like her eyes.”
“The very same,” said Janice, dimpling. “It’s several years since I’ve had a ride on a sled, or anything else for that matter.”
“Sorry, I haven’t a bus to take you out in, but I don’t even own a wheelbarrow anymore. But say, you’ve grown up fast! I suppose you’re in high school now. My, doesn’t that make us seem ancient, Natalie? And it only seems yesterday that I took you on your sled to school. Well I must run along or this butter will melt. See you later.”
And Chris hurried away. But as he rounded the corner into the avenue, he noticed a slow-moving figure in the shadow on the opposite side of the road, pausing now and then to look furtively up and down the street either way. He was glad he had decided to take Natalie to Bible school.
It was Janice that brought the question to debate as the door closed behind him.
“How did that happen, Natalie? I thought you had eschewed the society of gentlemen forevermore and were going to hold Mother’s hand.”
“Oh, Janice, you make me tired!” said Natalie nervously. “It wasn’t my fault. I waited late so he would be gone because I wanted to bring home those lovely potatoes before they were all sold tomorrow. And when I came out the door, there he was, outside. He hadn’t gone at all. I tried to make him understand I could carry my own packages, but it wasn’t any use. He even was almost offended at me, said he wouldn’t bother me if I was annoyed by him, so there was nothing else to do but let him come. And I can’t help it that he is going to Bible school, can I? It was entirely his own idea.”
Mrs. Halsey looked at her usually placid daughter in surprise.
“Why, Natalie, dear, I never meant to have you feel that way about it,” she said anxiously. “I’m sorry. Please forget it, daughter. It was just that I couldn’t bear to have you looked down upon by a rich man’s son, or get interested in someone who might be beneath you, morally or spiritually, or who might show you attention that would make you care too much, when he meant nothing but trifling. But dear, I see I should have trusted you. He seems a very nice boy, and most humble, not a bit spoiled by his wealth.”
“But he isn’t wealthy anymore, Mother,” said Natalie earnestly. “They’re living over on Sullivan Street near the railroad, next to the woman who used to wash for them. They have given up everything they had and are as poor as we, I guess, from what I hear.”
“Well, dear. I was wrong to judge anyone by money or position. I liked him very much in that brief minute or two, and if you want to ask him here to our plain little home, do just as you think best. He’ll be welcome with me. Only guard your heart, my precious girl, and don’t let it go dreaming. You’re my wonderful girl, you know, and I can’t bear to think that anything should hurt you.”
Natalie turned away and pressed her hand against her hot cheeks, as she suddenly remembered the genuine tone in which Chris had said, “I think you are wonderful, you know.”
Then Janice, eyeing her sharply, began to chant in a comical tone:
“You may go and nibble, nibble, nibble,
At the cheese, cheese, cheese,
Little mouse you may nibble
If you please, please, please,
But be careful little mouse,
Of the cunning little house,
For you may someday find
That it’s a trap, trap, trap!”
Janice had a
sweet, clear voice, with a mocking resonance in it, and the words rang out comically through the kitchen. Natalie, almost on the verge of tears, suddenly sat down in a chair and began to laugh hysterically as Janice’s soprano rose in an improvised chorus:
“Oh, my cunning little mouse,
Oh, my darling little mouse,
Oh, you wonderful, wonderful, wonderful little mouse!”
Then Natalie suddenly straightened up and looked soberly at her mother and sister.
“Look here, you two dears. You’ve got to stop this now, once and for all. I just won’t be teased this way. I haven’t any idea of throwing my heart out in the street for every young man to trample over. And I guess when a girl trusts her life to the Lord for leading, He isn’t going to let her go the wrong way and give her thoughts to the wrong one, is He? Chris is a nice boy and, of course, I like him to be polite and kind to me. But I haven’t any funny notions, and you needn’t think I have. If the Lord has someone for me to fall in love with someday, He’ll likely show me without a question when the time comes. But at present, I’m just a girl, and when anybody is friendly and seems to have right ideas about things, I don’t know why I shouldn’t be friendly with them to a certain extent without having to pass an inquisition. Now, if you don’t both think I’m right about that, I’ll go upstairs and stay there, and give him any excuse you like for my not going with him. But I won’t stand for all the anxieties and fears any longer. It takes the joy out of life. If you don’t want me to speak to him, I won’t, but I don’t want to hear any more about it.”
“The worm has turned!” said Janice solemnly into the silence that followed Natalie’s outbreak, and then suddenly they all broke down and laughed together.
Finally, the mother came and put her arms around Natalie, and kissed her softly.
“There dearie,” she said, “you’re perfectly right. I had no idea we were persecuting you so. Forgive it, precious. And I’ll tell you this. He’s a fine, nice boy. I can see that at the start. And if you can help him to know the Lord Jesus, it will be a great thing. I’m with you. And I know I can trust you every step of the way. It’s a great thing when a mother can say that of her child. Now, quiet down, precious, and let’s have supper. It’s getting late.”
“And so I am with you,” proclaimed Janice. “I’m so much with you that I’m going to study my algebra this evening and not go to Bible school till next week. There! How’s that for sacrifice?”
Natalie stopped short in the middle of the kitchen with her hat. “I’ll help you with your algebra after we come home. But I’m determined you shall start in this class right at the beginning of the first lesson. We’re going to take up the book of Hebrews, and it’s important to hear the introduction or you won’t get the same interest. If you stay at home, I shall stay, too.”
“All right, Captain! I’ll go then,” said Janice cheerfully. “I want to sacrifice myself in any way possible to keep peace in this household.”
Then Natalie turned upon her, laughing, and the two girls chased each other round and round the kitchen to the living room, to the hall and back to the kitchen again in a gale of laughter, till they suddenly realized that their mother was doing all the work and dropped their nonsense to help put the dinner on the table.
There was a pleasant excitement on them all as they ate. It was a new thing for the girls to be going out with a young man. Even Janice, scarcely more than a little girl, felt greatly elated, and the mother seemed as pleased as any of them.
“You’d better put on your other dress, Natalie,” said her mother as they began to gather up the dishes. “You run up and dress and I can do these few dishes just as well as not.”
“No,” said Natalie determinedly. “I’m not dolling up just because a boy I used to go to school with is going along. If he doesn’t like me the way I am, he needn’t go. It’s a plain school, and people don’t dress up to go there. I’m going to do these dishes. You got dinner, and I can see you’re tired.”
In the end they all did dishes, the mother sitting down and wiping the silver, and they were done in a trice. And then Natalie did change her blouse and wear her Sunday hat, but neither of them said anything about it. Indeed there wasn’t time, for they could hear Chris’s quick, crisp step on the walk and his clear whistle, and then came the sound of his knock on the door.
“Seems like being regular people, doesn’t it?” said Janice softly under her breath as she started for the door. “The Halsey family is out among ’em!”
And as they started off happily with their escort, Mrs. Halsey sighed half sadly, to think that a simple little pleasure like going out to a religious meeting could bring such delight. They were dear girls. How little real youthful pleasure they had in their lives. If their father had only lived—
Then she slipped up to her room and knelt a long time by her bed, asking for wisdom to guide and guard her children aright, wisdom that should show her distinctly, step-by-step, what the Lord would have her do, and help her not to get her own will in the way of the Lord’s way.
Chapter 12
Chris went to the Bible school that night and heard a wonderful talk from a man who spoke as if he were personally acquainted with Jesus Christ, had talked to Him, face-to-face, and received his instructions from a Bible that seemed to be vivid and real, not just mystical sayings mysteriously handed down from dim, uncertain ages almost forgotten. Chris was deeply stirred.
Under this teacher, words, phrases, even verses and chapters with which he had had verbal acquaintance since childhood suddenly sprang into new, wonderful meaning. It seemed like magic. He looked around on the earnest company who were listening, Bibles and notebooks open on their laps, their eyes fixed on the speaker. There wasn’t one among them who had the look of a doubter. Their faces seemed almost illumined with inner light. And when he glanced at Natalie, she had had the same rapt look. Even young Janice seemed deeply engrossed.
How did this man find out all these wonderful things? Were they merely interpretations? But no, he did not seem to be twisting the words, for he read them as they were printed. Natalie had found the place and handed him a Bible. He could follow along, and lo, the story with which he was familiar was there, and yet meant as clearly as print just what the teacher said it meant. That was entirely obvious. And all just because the teacher had explained the meaning of a Greek word and made them turn to several other references.
The teacher said more than once that scripture must be interpreted by itself, comparing scripture with scripture, and it certainly was wonderful how it worked out and made things clear. Why, some of the passages that were read he had learned by heart when he was a child in the primary class, but nobody ever took the trouble to make them plain to him, and they had never meant a thing in his mind except a lot of words.
He caught a slight vision of the symbolism all through the Bible, of the significance of numbers and the meaning of every proper name in the Bible. He heard references to dispensational truth that made clear as day sentences that he had always considered vague.
When the lesson finally closed with a prayer that left its imprint on his heart, he found that he was distinctly sorry it was over. It seemed as if the talk had been only about ten minutes duration. He would be glad if there were to be another lesson immediately following. He would have enjoyed asking a lot of questions, but he would sooner have cut off a small piece of his tongue than own to it.
The teacher stood at the door as they went out, took Chris’s hand in a warm, quick grip and called him brother, with a sweet, bright look that seemed, when he thought of it afterward, like lightning coming from a strong place with both joy and sorrow.
When they were out in the night again, a silence fell upon the three. At last Janice spoke.
“I think he’s wonderful, don’t you, Natalie?”
“It’s a wonderful book we’re studying,” said Natalie thoughtfully. “And he knows it well.”
“There’s one thing I’d like to know,?
?? said Chris, more as if he were thinking aloud than really expecting to be answered. “He kept talking about ‘saved ones.’ What did he mean? Who did he mean? How could anybody tell whether they were saved or not?”
“Oh,” breathed Natalie earnestly. “You can, of course! Don’t you know whether you’re saved?”
“Why no,” said Chris. “Of course not. Nobody knows about it till after they’re dead, do they? And anyhow, what does it mean, saved from what?”
“Why, saved from the consequences of sin, which is death.”
“I’ve never felt that I was such a great sinner,” said Chris, just the least bit loftily.
Natalie was silent a moment, then she lifted her head bravely. “We’re all great sinners,” she stated quietly.
“I don’t see that,” said Chris stubbornly. “What have you done that’s so awful? What have I? Of course, little things. But I’ve always tried to live a pretty decent life.”
“Of course, the great sin, the only sin, after all, that is terrible, is not believing in Him. Rejecting Him when He did so much for us. The Bible says that in God’s sight ‘all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.’ ”
“Of course, I’ve heard that line all my life, but down in my heart I never did see why so much emphasis was put on sin. Most respectable people are pretty good livers. I never had any real desire to be bad. I can’t really feel that I’m a great sinner, and I don’t see why I should try.”
Natalie was praying silently that she might be given the right answer, and now she said half shyly, “People never do feel they are sinners till they’ve had a vision of Jesus, do they? When you see what He is then you begin to know how far short you fall.”
“Oh!” said Chris blankly. Then after a moment—“How could you do that? He isn’t here. You can’t see a person that isn’t here.”
“Yes, you can. You can find Him in His Word. And you can find Him in prayer. The Holy Spirit has promised to reveal Him to us if we ask Him. But you’ve got to come believing. Belief is the key that unlocks the Word and makes us see things that we could not understand without it.”