have lifted a broom-stick, over the the door-sill, and long after I heard the steady flow of John's great, honest voice, broken in upon by the shrill tones and smothered sobs of his wife patience, patience, good husband."" CHAPTER XXXIV. Speak not! he is consecrated Breathe no breath across his eyes; Lifted up and separated, On the hand of God he lies In a sweetness beyond touching-held in cloistral sanctities. E. B. BROWNING. [FROM THE JOURNAL OF ERNEST.] Sunday. The day is one of exceeding beauty. The birds are jubilant in the sunshine, and the pair of robins which have for years built their nest in the elm which shades my window, are busy providing for their young. One of these robins many years ago, by some mischance, broke his wing; but I do not see that he is less alert, or less joyous. Ah! well would it be for us did we also cling to the beautiful, and ignore all that would mar this divine sense. As Julia came from her room to join us on our way to church, I observed that her eyes were red and swollen with weeping. Willy looked into her face with a child's questioning, and then drew her down and kissed her very softly. He took her gloved hand between his two fat palms, and caressed it and kissed it many times. Bertha was seated in the porch, with Lily at her knee, and the warm, gentle air, waved the vines to and fro, and gave a lovely light to each. Jane carried the babe, Perdita, in her bravest manner, spreading out her long, embroidered robes, so as to make a great show of them. Tiger shambled along beside us, and thus we entered the church. A short prayer commenced the ceremonial, and amid the low play of music, the mothers of the village bore their babes forward to the altar. I had decided that my family should be last. I had given them no training, trusting to the sweet spontaneities of childhood, and knowing that Perdita was easily amused. First came forward Mrs. Pettingal. She bore her youngest hopeful in her lank arms, very much as a boy would carry a stick. I wished in my heart I might have been spared this child as the prelude to the beautiful rite. The Deacon and his wife, both lank and old, had countenances of a most forbidding aspect; and when the former took the little, blue, skinny looking creature and held it up to receive the sacred drops, I half recoiled from my duty. The child seemed all angles, hard and bony, and stuck out feet and hands in a very unpleasant, threatening sort of manner. It looked as if the old age of all the Pettingals had come down upon its head. It was weazened and dry, and to my inner vision, not a creation of a few months, but of centuries. I fear me my benediction was not as cordial as it should have been. Other infants followedfine little animals-fat, and screaming lustily, as if rejecting the sacrament. My own family now gathered around me. I, a fatherless man, with my lovely group of children-I observed that Tiger came also among them. I took little Perdita in my arms, who smiled in my face, while I addressed my people, she holding on to my thumb, and looking about, and crowing as babies will. The congregation was hushed as death, and every eye eager to see my household. As I went on to speak of the misery and destitution to which these children might have been exposed, and as I blessed the good Father who had put it into my heart to save them, every eye was wet; and now, for the first time, Ernest Helfenstein had the hearts of all his people with him. I called the dear ones after my own name. As I sprinkled the water upon the brow of Perdita, she closed her pretty eyes, and then snapped them open with such a lovely babe-glee, that I kissed her tenderly before handing her to the arms of Jane. Next came Willy, led by Julia, with a sweet, downcast look. The boy bent his neck, and sobbed inwardly; and as I closed, he lifted up his head for a kiss. I felt my heart arrested as it were when Bertha approached with the beautiful Lily. Her face was without color, her step faint, and beneath her long veil I could see that a flood of tears poured from her eyes. "Call me Lily, dear father," whispered the child, and she knelt down and clasped her pretty hands before her. Oh, how inexpressibly holy looked the child !-how natural did it seem that a ray of sunshine should struggle through the little window, and rest like a glory upon her beautiful head! Then, too, the attitude of Bertha-half bent, with one pale hand resting its fingers tenderly upon the shoulder of Lily, her long white veil falling to her feet, and her white robe stirred by the wind, she seemed like a pure spirit bending protectingly above her. I did not weep, but my lips broke forth in words of joy and praise, and I longed to send forth into all the world the spirit of pure love that rested then in the hearts of the people of Beech Glen. Lily arose from her knees as I ceased, and stepping back a pace, leaned her little arm over the shoulder of Tiger. I had not observed him till now. There knelt the huge ungainly figure, but a gleam as of something holy was in his eyes, and I said, "Yes, Tiger, thou shalt receive the seal also. Thou shalt be owned as a part and parcel of our divine humanity, effaced, and bruised, and broken as thou art." Tiger wept and kissed my hand, and played in a moment more with the golden curls of Lily, as if she were the angel of his poor, dim world. I preached no sermon from any text that day; but I went from place to place. I rebuked one, and encouraged another. I spoke as if the soul of each one were visible to me, and each one hailed me as a father. Then I administered the sacrament not to a few elected ones, but to all-man, woman, child. We went home all of us, as if we had been at the very gates of heaven that day. Many of the people went with me, and we sang hymns, and we planned to make Beech Glen a garden of beauty-a home in which should be no more found envy, or jealousy, or uncharitableness. * * * |