ALL through the cold dark days of winter Dora's hands were filled with household cares too numerous to mention, yet all needing patience, care, and at least some degree of knowledge and skill.
My readers must not run away with the idea that I wish them to think of Dora as a model housekeeper.
She was only just entering her sixteenth year, and so could have but little of the wisdom that can only be gained by experience. But one good habit formed in her childhood was a great help to her in her new home, that of painstaking.
More than once, however, the kind doctor who attended Mrs. Grange had said, "Dora only needed a little training to make a first-rate nurse: she was so quiet and orderly in a sick room.”
Sometimes, but not very often, she was free to spend an hour or two with her friend, Miss Lee, and always returned from her visits cheered and refreshed; for Dora, too, was beginning to pray about everything, and very blessed and precious to her soul were the moments when, in the quiet of her own little room, she was able to tell out to her Savior all her joys and sorrows.
Early in the New Year, Dora hoped for a visit from her mother, but to her great disappointment Mrs. Hilton was not free to accept the loving invitation of her brother and his wife to spend a few weeks under their roof, as for a time she had left Myrtle Cottage, and was taking care of a family of motherless children.
So the days went on till it only wanted a week of the time when Dora would have been for a year an inmate of her uncle's home.
Constance and Eva were in the garden, and Harry in the sitting-room with his father and mother. Dora sat alone in the nursery, mending a frock Eva had torn in her play. As she worked her thoughts went back to the Saturday evening with which my story opened, when as the shadows deepened round them in the pleasant little parlor of Myrtle Cottage her mother's words about Stewardship had been so lovingly spoken.
How many things had not the Lord put her in trust with since that well-remembered evening?
What account could she give of her stewardship?
These and similar questionings filled Dora's mind when she heard the sitting-room door open and Willie came bounding upstairs three steps at a time.
“It's all settled, Dora, and it's splendid, I tell you, it's just splendid.
“Now why don't you throw down your work and begin to jump about and say it's first-rate news?”
“But you have not told me the news yet, Harry, and see, I am all attention." Dora said laughing.
“Why, we are all going to stay at Sandrock-by-the-sea, you know, Dora, for a whole month. We are all going, you too, and father said I might come and tell you: indeed, I don't think we should get on very well without Cousin Dora.
“Father wrote to a friend of his there, to take lodgings for us, but he was not sure of being able to take his holiday till to-day, so only mamma knew a word about it. We are to go to-morrow week, father says, if the Lord will, the boy added in a reverent whisper. But I must be off now and tell the girls.”
Dora's heart beat quickly, and a brighter color than usual glowed in her cheeks, as Willie, with all a boy's delight at being the bearer of such important news, scampered off to join his sisters in the garden. For though her early years, which were spent among the fields and lanes of Kent, had made her familiar with country sights and sounds, she had never seen the sea, and much as she longed to look on her mother's face and listen to her voice, she felt the proposed visit to the seaside would be a great treat, and a fresh proof of the loving kindness and tender mercy of the Lord.
But Aunt Lucy was calling "Dora! Dora!" so she folded her work and went to join Mr. and Mrs. Grange.
“Well, Dora, what have you to say to our plan of a visit to Sandrock?" Mr. Grange asked.
“Oh, uncle, I think it will be delightful. You don't know how I have wished for a peep at the sea, ever since I was quite a little girl. When I used to read of ships sailing away over its blue waters, I used to shut my eyes, and try to picture to myself what the sea must be like, I could only feel sure that it is very grand and glorious.”
“The sea is His, and He made it," Mr. Grange repeated, as if in answer to Dora's words, and she felt sure by the far-away look on her uncle's face that he was thinking of things unseen.
But in a few moments he again joined in the conversation, helping Mrs. Grange and Dora to arrange for the journey.
The week that followed was a busy, and it must be owned, rather a trying one to Dora; so many things had to be thought of, so much must be done. Mrs. Grange did not feel herself strong enough to undertake shopping, so employed Dora a good deal in going errands for her, while the children, whose holiday had begun, wanted a great deal of her advice and help in the disposal of their various possessions.
Eva's favorite doll had to be packed and unpacked at least a dozen times before the little girl could be persuaded that it would travel safely. Harry, too, needed all her tact and patience to convince him it would be impossible to take his pet rabbits, book chest, and a variety of other schoolboy's treasures to Sandrock.
But all was ready in good time, and on the last evening of their stay in town, Dora very gladly availed herself of a little free time and went to say good-bye to Miss Lee.
Very gladly Miss Lee welcomed her young friend, and entered with such real interest into all Dora told her of her uncle's plans for making their visit to the seaside a very pleasant one, that as the latter rose to go, she could not help saying, “How I wish you were going to Sandrock too, dear Miss Lee. I shall feel as if it were almost wrong to enjoy my holiday when I think how lonely you will be in your quiet room.”
“But you must not think of me as lonely or alone, Dora, for it would not be true," Miss Lee replied, and as she spoke a glad light seemed to break over her face. "No, dear," she continued after a pause, " I am never alone, for the Lord Jesus has made His presence and love so very real to me, that I often find myself saying,
‘Lonely, no not lonely,
While Jesus standeth by,
His presence fills my chamber,
I know that He is nigh.'
I know the Lord Jesus as the One who bore all my sins in His own body on the cross. I know too, that He has said, 'I will come again and receive you unto myself.' (John 14:33And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:3).) But sometimes, Dora, I think daily strength and comfort flow into my soul from the knowledge of what He is now doing for me. I am afraid no words of mine can make you understand how precious I find it to know that the One who is even now at the right hand of God the Father, is the One who loves me, the One who knows all about my every need.
“But I must not keep you any longer now, dear, for it is getting late, and I am sure you must all be tired, and will need a good rest if you are to be strong for your journey tomorrow.”
Every one under Mr. Grange's roof seemed to wake early on the following morning, and though the children were in such high spirits, Dora was afraid their noise would make her aunt quite tired before they really set out on their journey. Mrs. Grange said she was feeling stronger than she had done for many weeks, and when they were all comfortably seated in the railway carriage, Dora found as much to amuse her as any of the party in the different objects of interest kindly pointed out by her uncle.
Once they passed an old castle which Mr. Grange told them had been a Norman stronghold. It was almost a ruin, and sheep were feeding in what must have been part of the interior. But Dora, who was always interested in English history, found it easy to recall scenes that might have taken place there long ago. She thought she could almost hear the clang of steel and the tread of men clad in heavy suits of mail armor: A favorite text of her mother's came into her mind, and looking up she said aloud, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower." (Prov. 18:1010The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe. (Proverbs 18:10))
Mr. Grange was about to answer, when a cry of delight from Harry, who had been for some time standing at the carriage window, made the whole party look round. Yes, the sea, with its blue waves glittering in the sunshine, lay before them, and Dora looked on it with ever-deepening wonder and admiration.
The pretty station of Sandrock, bright with creepers and flowering plants, was soon reached. In half an hour our travelers were at their lodgings, all ready to do justice to the good tea they found had been prepared for them.