VISITORS were expected at Myrtle Cottage. One look at Dora Hilton and you would hardly have needed to be told in words that friends for whose arrival she was almost impatiently looking, were already on the way to her house.
Tea was on the table; the snowy cloth and bright teapot did one good to look at them; while a vase of fresh flowers, gathered from Dora's own garden, lent the charm of their own brightness and beauty to the simply, almost plainly, furnished room, where Mrs. Hilton and Dora were waiting to receive some guests.
Dora had arranged and re-arranged the tea-table for at least the tenth time, till at length she seemed satisfied with the results of her work, then going to the open window from which she could see for some distance down the road, said eagerly: “Oh, mother, how I wish the time would go faster; I really believe our clock is too slow. Will you please tell me the time by your watch?”
Mrs. Hilton drew out her watch, a relic of richer days, compared it with the clock on the mantel-shelf, and answered: “The clock is quite right, Dora, and it still wants nearly half an hour to the time you fixed for the arrival of your friends, so you cannot accuse them of being unpunctual. As I see you are quite ready to receive them, will you hold a skein of cotton for me to wind, and I will tell you of a strange scene of which your words about the slow flight of time reminded me.”
“Please, mother, perhaps one of our nice talks may make the hands of the clock seem to move a little more quickly. Now I am quite ready.”
“I was thinking of a picture English history gives us of the last hours of an English Queen. You know Elizabeth sat on the throne of the Tudors from the year 1559 till 1603. If we may judge from portraits of her which are still preserved, she must have been gifted with perhaps more than a fair share of good looks, while her education had been so carefully attended to as to enable her not only to read and write, but also to converse with ease in Greek and Latin. Rich, admired, and beloved by her subjects, I have no doubt she became an object of envy to many whose rank was less exalted than her own. Fond of dress, amusement, and flattery, she sought happiness in these things, but sought it in vain. And as the evening of her life closed in, dark clouds seemed to gather round the unhappy queen.
“Her path through life had been a lonely one, for while many had sought her favors, few had really loved the often haughty and imperious Tudor sovereign. Years had brought in their train, weakness alike of mind and body, but they had not sweetened her temper or turned her thoughts from the things of time to those of eternity.
“In her last illness she refused to go to bed, but sat for nearly a week by night and day propped up by pillows in a room of one of her palaces. ‘She refused food, and sat,' wrote one who saw her only a few days before her death, ‘with her finger on her lips, her eyes fixed on the floor, without a word.' She seldom broke the silence, but on one occasion her attendants heard her say, ‘Time, time, millions of gold for an hour of time!'
“Her last words are said to have been addressed to her court physician, who told her Majesty 'She must go to bed.' 'Must,' the dying Queen replied, ‘is must a word to be addressed to princes? Thy father,' she continued, ‘would not have dared to use it to my father.’”
“What a sad story, mother," Dora remarked with a sigh. Then turning to the window she resumed the subject that had occupied her mind so often during the week, by saying, "They can't be long now, do you think they can? How strange it will seem to have a visitor we are not able to speak to, or even tell how glad we are to see her.”
“We must be content, for a time at least, to use Grace's fingers instead of our own, when we wish to talk to Clara," Mrs. Hilton said, smiling at her daughter's anxious face.
“Yes, mother," Dora replied; and then, thinking again of her deaf and dumb friend, said, "I have quite made up my mind to accept thankfully the services of an interpreter. I wonder what Clara will be like. Grace told me she is not tall, but has a bright, pleasant face, with dark eyes and hair. Still I cannot help thinking that one who is deaf and dumb must be in some way different from those who can hear and speak. I wish I could do something to show the poor girl how sorry I am for her.”
“Freely ye have received, freely give," was Mrs. Hilton's answer. As she ceased speaking, Dora caught sight of two figures coming towards Myrtle Cottage, so without another word she ran to open the garden gate for her friends.
Tea was a very pleasant meal. At first Dora felt a little shy of her guest; but as she watched the ease and rapidity with which Grace told Clara what was said by her mother and herself, or translated her silent language into words, she soon regained courage and confidence.
Before leaving, Grace said, addressing Mrs. Hilton, “Clara has just reminded me I must not forget my message, though I do not think there is much fear of my doing that," she added, laughing.
“Now, Dora, I will not be unkind enough to keep you waiting, but tell you at once that mother desired me to say with her love, that as father has so arranged his work as to be free to take a holiday, he has promised, all being well, to drive us over to the Toad Rock on Tuesday, and we shall be very glad if Dora and yourself will join our party. Indeed, it will be a real kindness if you will consent to be our guides, for, as we are newcomers to Riversdale, it will be our first visit to Rust Hall.”
Mrs. Hilton, to Dora's great delight, readily accepted the invitation so kindly given, and soon after the lengthening shadows gave warning it was time for Grace and Clara to say goodbye to their friends at Myrtle Cottage.
Tuesday morning proved to be all that even the most sanguine holiday-makers could possibly wish for. The sun shone brightly, while a few soft white clouds, which relieved the deep blue of the sky, only added to the beauty of the scene. A cool breeze gave promise that the heat of the day would not be too oppressive.
The party had arranged to start early, so as to have ample time to rest or ramble among the rocks. When they were fairly off, Mrs. Bell asked: “Why does the place to which we are going bear such a singular name as the Toad Rock?”
“It is so called, I believe," replied Mrs. Hilton, "from its real or fancied resemblance to a toad. But Rust Hall is a lane of rocks, and Dora, who knows their names better than I do, will be able to point out to you not only our old friend the Toad, but also the Table, the Hen and Chickens, and the Lion Rocks.”
“We have much to learn, I find," Mrs. Bell replied with a smile; "but is there not something unusual in the fact of rocks being found at all so far from the sea coast?”
It was Mr. Bell who this time replied to his wife's question by saying: “Although I have not visited these remarkable rocks, yet some time ago I heard a very interesting account of the districts in which they are found. It is supposed that long ago, in those far away times which, for want of a better name, we call pre-historic, a large sheet of water covered much of what is now known as the county of Kent. It is thought to have been a fresh-water lake, from the soft sandstone of which these rocks are composed, and the absence of such fossils as are commonly met with in places known to have been once washed by the sea.
“But," Mr. Bell continued, after looking for a moment at his pocket map, "I think we cannot be very far from what is marked on the map as Croborough Beacon?”
“We are as near to it as we shall get," Dora answered, as she pointed out a green hill, which rose at a distance of about three miles from the road they were taking.
Mr. Bell drew rein, and looked with deep interest in the direction in which Dora pointed.
“How quiet and peaceful everything looks now," he remarked, after a short pause, "and yet how different the scene must have been when, three hundred years ago, in the year 1588, on the night of the 29th of July, beacon fires were lighted to give warning that the long expected and greatly feared Spanish Armada had really been seen from the Lizard Point. The defeat of that ill-fated Armada is indeed a thrilling page in the annals of our country's history.”
Mrs. Hilton replied, “But how clearly the hand of the Lord was seen in deliverance. How truly, as we recall it, are we led to say with David, 'Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men.' (Psa. 107:3131Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! (Psalm 107:31).)
“But I am afraid we are almost forgetting Clara.”
Mrs. Bell, who had noticed Clara had been for some time seemingly much interested in looking at a mass of soft white clouds, asked her what she was thinking of.
Clara's face lighted up with a smile, and her fingers moved quickly, too quickly for Mrs. Hilton and Dora to understand a word, so Mrs. Bell interpreted her silent language into words for them.
“Clara," she said, "tells me she was thinking of the time when God led His chosen people Israel through the wilderness, His own presence going before them as a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.”
“Please tell her," Mrs. Hilton replied, "that I too was thinking about the clouds; but it was of another scene: how when a risen Savior led His loved ones out as far as Bethany, even while He blessed them, a cloud received Him out of their sight.”
Clara asked, "Is there not a verse in one of the epistles that says, ‘when the Lord Jesus comes for His own, they will meet Him in the clouds?”’
Mrs. Bell took a Testament from her pocket, and pointed her young friend to two verses in the first Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians; they were: "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." (1 Thes. 4:16, 17.)
Dora repeated in a soft, low voice four lines of a well-known hymn:
“Yes, Savior, Thou shalt have full praise,
We soon shall meet Thee on the cloud;
We soon shall see Thee face to face,
In glory praising as we would.”
Pleasant as the drive had been, every one seemed pleased when Dora told her friends they were almost within sight of the Toad Rock. At Mrs. Hilton's suggestion the whole party dismounted, and as soon as Mr. Bell had made arrangements that would ensure the horse being well fed and cared for, Dora acted as guide, and led them by a winding footpath to a spot where, as she laughingly told them, "the very best view of the rocks was to be had." The scene was one of never-to-be-forgotten beauty, and was enjoyed by all.
Grace and Dora were of opinion it would be delightful to spread the cloth for luncheon on a flat rock called the Table Rock. But as their elders objected on account of the heat being too great, Dora led the way to a clump of trees at no great distance, beneath whose waving branches willing hands soon arranged their mid-day meal.
Mrs. Hilton, who felt a deep interest in Clara, was anxious to know more of her history, and also to learn how she had been brought to a saving knowledge of Christ.
Clara seemed to understand Mrs. Hilton's wish, and seating herself on the grass near her, drew a small book-slate from her pocket, and made signs that they could converse by means of writing.
Mrs. Hilton took the slate and wrote, "Do not you feel lonely sometimes?”
The question seemed almost a surprise to Clara, but after holding the pencil for a few moments as if in thought, she wrote in a clear round hand: "No, I am not lonely now, for I know the Lord Jesus, who has said, ' I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,' is always near me: and I speak in my heart to Him.”
Mrs. Hilton then asked, "Can you remember when it was different with you?”
Clara's answer was quickly given, "Yes, before I knew the Lord I was very sad and lonely; you know I was deaf and dumb, and a child who is deaf and dumb is always alone and always afraid-afraid of the dark, afraid of death, afraid of judgment, but most of all, afraid of God.”
“But now you know the love that casts out fear?" Mrs. Hilton wrote; and Clara answered, "Yes, thanks be unto God, for now I know the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7).)
Mrs. Hilton and Clara might have carried on their written conversation for some time longer with mutual pleasure and profit, had not Dora and Grace, who had been invited by Mr. Bell to accompany him in a walk-induced them to join their party.
But as I have already lingered too long over our own pleasant memories of the Toad Rock and its neighborhood, I will only add that our friends spent a very happy holiday, returning in the evening to Riversdale, tired, it is true, but with hearts filled with thankfulness for what each felt to be a fresh proof of the loving-kindness of the Lord.