"Wayside"; the waking dream of a soul before an open wood fire
vS? Ss. ' k '^"'"' <ili!r'r //'iJ /)//"> H '4 /'«' I//. r' fyxmll Uttivmitg pilr»g . GLJ..,?^4yv-i?.. .. .'^i THE GIFT OF _^ .B-J>i.'\liQ ..■■■■■.. ^■^y^.'<g.. 7583 Cornell University Library PS 3515.A398W3 Wayside ":the waking dream of a soul bef 3 1924 022 458 743 The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022458743 'WAYSIDE" THE WAKING DREAM OF A SOUL BEFORE AN OPEN WOOD FIRE BY EDWARD ALLEN BOSTON SHERMAN, FRENCH & COMPANY copyhight, 1914 Shebman, French 6= Company TO THE "ONLY GIEL"— A MEMORY INTRODUCTION An old colonial mansion upon an eminence, sur- rounded by a forest of giant oaks, towering elms, and graceful hickories. A long, broad, spacious room in that mansion, fronting the east and south. A huge old-fashioned fireplace in which blazes and flashes a fire of seasoned logs. An easy chair before the fire in which is seated a man with hair like the driven snow. An open Bible is upon his knee, in which he has been reading the story of Sinai. The old man stops reading to rest his eyes, and the white head lies back against the cushioned chair, and with closed eyes his thoughts are busy with the story which he has read. Suddenly he is climbing a mountain slope alone. Up and up he goes steadily, to find upon that mountain top he knows not what, but still some- thing draws him on. At last the summit is reached and he stands alone with uncovered head in the presence of his conscience and his God. He looks around him and beholds no Being, but he feels a Presence there, and some inner sense tells him he is upon holy ground. Before him is a bush gleaming red like fire, with the beautiful carmine of the autumn days, and 1 2 INTRODUCTION around him are other plants and bushes and trees, glorious in their coloring of crimson and purple and gold. He listens, but no voice comes to him audibly; only from somewhere, everywhere, there comes to his senses, now curiously alert, a mes- sage which needs no spoken words to carry it. He lifts his eyes in worship of the Presence which fills the place, and to his soul comes this message, clear and plain and unmistakable. " Soul, be still and learn, for you are now in the presence of your Creator, the Power which made and governs all things. I am the Spirit of the ages gone, and of the eternity which is to come. I am Creator, and Ruler, and the Moving Force of the universe. I am the Mental Force which holds the worlds in the hollow of its hand. I am the Everlasting Arms, and the hope of every human soul. I am the divine Mental Conscious- ness of time and eternity, a part of which you are ; and in me, and through me, and because of me, you live and move and have your being. Your spirit is a part of me ; I am the Father and you are my child, created of me and destined to grow into my image, an individual personality which is a part of the Great Personality of the universe. " Behold, I give you the commandments of life ; and if you understand them and obey them, life and peace will be yours for everlasting. Through me you will reach an eternity of existence in peace and happiness, even as I am. These are the com- INTRODUCTION 3 mandments which I give unto you, and I demand obedience to them continuously. " Think rightly. This is the first and greatest commandment ; for upon this depends all others. Guide your thoughts in ways of love and purity, and into harmony with the All-Good. "Live rightly. This is the second great com- mandment, for upon the keeping of this command rests your destiny and your chances for eternal life. " These two commandments are the sum and substance of immortal happiness, and upon their strict observance depends life everlasting. Em- bodied in these two great commands are many others, each necessary to be obeyed of itself, but each a part of these two great commandments. " Thou shalt work, for in labor, both physical and mental, lies the secret of growth and develop- ment. " Thou shalt be earnest, for only in earnest and honest effort and striving can progress be made in the physical life. " Thou shalt be brave, for where fear enters, there happiness cannot dwell. " Thou shalt be loving, for love is the pathway to eternal life, and there is no other. " Thou shalt be clean, for no unclean thing shall enter the Kingdom of God. " Thou shalt be well, for in health only is hap- piness, and happiness is the gateway through which all who reach eternal life must enter. 4 INTRODUCTION " Thou shalt worship no other God but Good, for only in good and happiness and purity and health lies the way to salvation of human souls. " Behold, by the operation of my beneficent laws I have given you a physical body for your use and habitation, while gaining the physical life experience necessary to the making of a soul. Take good care, then, of this beautiful habitation, the gift of thy Creator. Preserve it, and watch over it. Study the laws which govern it and obey them, for no clean soul inhabits an unclean body, and no saved soul dwells in a physical body defiled or self-abused. " Behold, I have placed all things necessary to thy salvation within thy own reach, and all my laws are within thy comprehension, which are nec- essary for eternal life. If thou wilt search them out and obey them, the reward of immortal hap- piness shall be thine." The vision fades, and the old man raises his head. The Bible has fallen to the floor, and he places it again upon the table. Then, rising, he lifts his face and his heart toward the invisible Presence which he feels was just now with him, and makes again a firm resolve to so live, — fear- lessly, happily, honestly, cleanly, and worthily, — that he shall at last stand eternally in that kingdom where the Spirit of Good forever dwells. Somewhere in the great world to-day there lives some one in whose mentahty I will be able to strike INTRODUCTION 6 with this story an answering harmonious chord, and that person will read and understand and en- joy this tale which I am about to relate. My hope is that there may be many such readers, but that there will be at least one I am positive and sure. I think that one who will appreciate most fully will be a girl, and I picture her as a dainty little lady with deep wide brown eyes, and luxuri- ant brown hair, bearing in certain lights a hint of gold, as if the sunshine had kissed it in bene- diction. I picture my one best reader thus be- cause my soul holds in its inmost depths the image of just such a girl, beautiful, sympathetic, friendly, who was my wife for twenty happy years. She would have read this book, I know, and would have called it good. So, aided by the memory of the girl that really was, and cheered by the image of the girl that somewhere is, I will endeavor to tell the story of this soul which is still young be- cause it will be ages in the making, for it will en- dure and grow ceaselessly in the eternity which lies before it. I picture this one best beloved reader as young, just entering into womanhood, and married to the man whom she adores. Yesterday was the first anniversary of their marriage, and the manly boy-husband fortunately remembers just as he leaves the office where he works, that this day is their wedding anniversary, and he resolves to take her a little gift to show that he has not forgotten that which has been the uppermost thought in her 6 INTRODUCTION mind all day, and knowing that she values best of all gifts a book, he enters a book store to make a selection. " I want a little gift book for a lady," he tells the girl behind the counter, and she, in quick ap- preciation, places before him book after book, with covers done in beautiful design and leaves filled with sentimental selections, and embellished with many pictures. The wealth of assortment confuses him, and he hesitates about making a choice. At last the girl drags out of an obscure corner, where it has been almost smothered be- neath volumes of more pretentions, this little mod- est book. " Maybe she would like this," she says ; and as something in the title or the text strikes his fancy, he suddenly decides to take it, and he bears it home and places it beside her plate at the dinner table. That was yesterday, and to-day she is reading the little book with shining eyes because of thoughts of the giver. It is a fair October day with just a touch of autumn keenness in the air, and a blazing wood fire is burning in the generous grate to take the " chill " off the room. I see hei; draw a long cushioned seat before the fire, and with the great south window at her back, settle down to read. In imagination I sit down beside her and watch the fascinating changes upon her face as she reads. Here a smile curves the cor- ners of her mouth, and the enticing dimples show INTRODUCTION Tf for a moment in her cheeks. Now a sober light comes into her eyes, and the dimples fade away. Anon her sweet lips quiver, and, as I live, tears, great tears, fill her beautiful eyes and slowly roU down upon her cheeks. Quickly she dashes them away, and glances apprehensively in my direction, as though she sensed a presence which her phys- ical vision could not see. Reassured by the seem- ing absence of observers, she smiles again, a faint phantom of a smile, and continues her reading. So the hours pass quickly and unwearingly, and the light is beginning to grow dim, when the door suddenly opens and her handsome boy-husband en- ters the room and sits down beside her, exactly in the place where I am sitting. But he does not see me either, and totally oblivious of my pres- ence, he puts his arm around her and she lays aside the book and rests her head upon his shoul- der. What happens then causes my heart to wince and my pulse to quicken, as I remember when I, too, held a wife like that in my loving arms, and felt the glory of a love returned. " Do you like the book, Evelyn ? " he said. " Oh, yes, Scott ; I like it very much. It is beautiful." Witness now, you moUusk, who threw down this same book in disgust a moment ago, finding noth- ing in it. This dainty little lady, whose discern- ment is worth a dozen such as yours, likes it very much and calls it " beautiful." Now, what do I care if the ninety and nine will have none of it, so 8 INTRODUCTION long as this dear one-hundredth reader " likes it very much." Thus you multitude of unapprecia- tive and undiscriminating common souls may cast the hook aside or ignore it, if it suits you, for here is my reward in the pleasure of this delightful mental entity, this dear little lady Evelyn, for whom I write and in whom I can confide. To you, then, my Beloved, the creation of my imagination, but the image of the girl who was and the dream of the girl who now is somewhere, as I verily believe, I will address myself, and let the rest of the world find such precarious enjoy- ment as they may in other things. First of all, then, Evelyn, I will tell you some- thing of this soul with whom you are to sympa- thize and with whom you are to smile, I hope, and be glad, and with whom and for whom the tears, perhaps, may come into your beautiful eyes sometimes as you read this life story in the little book which you nevertheless " like very much." My name is John McLain, though you may call me " Jack " if you like, for so some who love me do, and I am living to-day, as I write, in the house where I was born some sixty years ago. The house was built of solid masonry and great tim- bers of living oak, in the days when timber was abundant and lumber was cheap, and the great oak beams of its mighty frame have grown, in these passing years, as hard as iron, and the old house stands as solid to-day, to all appearance, as the day when my father finished it the year be- INTRODUCTION 9 fore I was born. My father's farm consisted of three hundred and twenty acres, forty acres of which, surrounding and adjoining the house, was, and still is, heavily timbered. The house stands back from the highway some three hundred feet, upon a ridge sloping down to the road in front, and back to a beautiful little lake covering about one hundred acres, which forms a part of the farm boundary upon the north. The house was a man- sion in the days when it was built, standing two full stories and a generous half in height, and is flanked by broad verandas to the east and west. The highway, aJong which a trolley line runs in these later days, leads from the great city twenty miles to the north, into and past a little village one mile to the south, and so on indefinitely, through the country to other towns beyond. Upon one of the great posts which mark the gate- way of the entrance drive in front is a name plate bearing the one word " Wayside," which is the name my young wife christened the place when she first came here to live. Here I was born, and here I lived until, tiring of the unbending rule of my father, I left home one summer night when I was but a boy of eighteen, and here my father lived and died, being to the last a firm, unyielding Pur- itan, with an unswerving faith in a literal burning lake of fire and brimstone, and the existence of a terrible and Calvinistic God of wrath. Here my gentle, sweet-faced mother lived her patient, un- complaining life of self-denial and usefulness, rais- 10 INTRODUCTION ing her family of three sons and one daughter, to see them drift away from the old home one after another, — the sons to settle in other states, the daughter to elope with an actor who took her to England. Here I came back just before the death of my father to take up my life and to occupy again the room which I had left so suddenly long years before, and here I had brought my beautiful young wife one year after my father's death, and here my mother received her into a loving compan- ionship which was not marred by unkind word or unpleasant look so long as my mother lived, and here my mother passed away the next year after my marriage. Here my darling baby daughter was born, and here, five years later, her soul passed into the Great Silence, to be followed a few years later by her mother, my perfect wife, leaving me desolate and undone. Here there come to me often old friends and true, chief among them being two who were school comrades and playmates of my boyhood days — Robert Manning, who became a Presbyterian min- ister in the city, and who during the first years of his ministry preached the funeral sermons of my father and my mother, and later read the beauti- ful service of the church over the cold and silent bodies of my child and the dear wife whom I so loved; the other is Charles Scott, a physician in the city, who has been my family doctor through all the years of his practice. He was at the bed- side of my parents in their last illness ; he it was INTRODUCTION 11 who did all that mortal man could do to save the life of my fever-smitten child; and it was he who met me at the door on that dread day when my wife's drowned body lay stark and silent in the darkened room of my suddenly empty house. Later it was his hand which took mine in friendly clasp, and as I looked with dry and aching eyes into his, which were full of tears of sympathy, he laid his kind hand upon my shoulder and bade me give sorrow voice, for fear the o'erwrought heart might break, or reason totter upon her throne. I walked the floor that night, in my despair and des- olation feeling nothing, caring nothing, save my great sorrow; and in the morning this same kind friend took me to her room, the room in which she and the babe had slept, during its short life, and in which it had died. It was a room held sacred to the memory of that dear young soul, and draw- ing the curtains aside, he let in the glorious sun of that summer day, and around me were the child's toys and playthings. There were pictures of the child and her mother upon the walls, and lying across the foot of the bed were the clothes which she had worn upon that last day in life, and the hat which she had swung by its ribbon in her hand when she went down the path with me that last morning to the car, and had kissed me good-bye and Godspeed as the car came in sight around the turn in the road. Suddenly I knelt down upon the floor by the bed with my arms across the dress which she 12 INTRODUCTION had worn, and the fountains of my great grief were opened up and the hot tears fell from my eyes like rain. My friend wisely left me so, and in that room with its sacred memories I fought my bitter fight, and kind nature won at last, and I slept the sleep of utter exhaustion, lying prone across the bed where she had slept with the child, — years ago or yesterday, I had forgotten which. Now my wife has been gone ten years, and again the old house resounds to the laughter and music of young voices, for I had remodeled the house after my mother's death, putting in water and heating systems, and finishing ofF the upper story into a ballroom where our friends often gathered to make merry. Sometimes now, when a party of my young friends wish to have a quiet dancing party, I let them come here, for I know that she would wish it so, and I have arrived at a view of life which has brought me consolation and a happiness which I did not at one time consider possible. These young friends of mine have taught me that life is still good to live, and while I never will quite see the old happiness back again, still I am finding a new happiness and enjoyment which has again grown very dear to me. The same broad fireplace is at one end of the great living-room, and here my friends, young and old, sit with me in the days or evenings when a " fire feels good," and upon the wide western ve- randa when the weather is warm enough to make that more pleasant. I am head accountant in a INTRODUCTION 13 great manufacturing plant in the city, as I have been for many years, and go daily to my work by. the cars which pass the door. My two brothers still live in a western city, both of them married' and prosperous, and the old homestead now be- longs to me alone. This all by way of introduction, Little Lady of my waking dream, so now you know who it is that talks to you. CHAPTER I It is October and the evening air is cold enough to make a little fire a very pleasant thing. I have brought Robert Manning and Charles Scott home with me to dinner, and the meal being over, we have adjourned to the living room, where a fire of logs is throwing out a grateful heat into the room. We had settled down for a reminiscent talk, when Charles arose and walked to a picture of my wife which hung upon the wall. " John," said he (we are John and Charles and Robert to each other. Little Lady, and so we may be to you, if you do not mind), " that is a good picture of your wife." " Yes," I said, " that is just as she looked the first time I ever saw her. It was a cool breezy day in the early fall, and she was wearing those light furs. She had the picture taken in them that same week." " Well," said he, " I saw a girl to-day who' looked so like her that I was startled. By the way, did you know that Mrs. Wilson had re- turned.'' " " Yes," I said, " and they did not find the body' of her daughter who was lost on the yachting cruise somewhere in the South Seas. They do not know exactly where the yacht went down, and 15 16 " WAYSIDE " a great deal of time and money has been spent by the friends of those on board to try and re- cover the bodies." " It is too bad," said Robert, " for it would be such a satisfaction to give the bodies a Christian burial." " Yes," I said, " but in my own case I do not attach much importance to where my body finds its last resting place; and as far as I am person- ally concerned, if I should be lost at sea, or in any other place where my body would be difficult to recover, I would not want my friends to go to a moment's trouble or to any expense to try and recover it. When I leave this body I am through with it, and there is no possibility of my ever wanting it again. It has served its purpose for me, has furnished me a habitation for this life ex- perience, in which to make growth and develop- ment, and having done this, I can have no further use for it. Wilson's had recently died there, a widower, leav- " WAYSIDE " 17 ing an only child, a daughter about twenty-four years old, who was supporting herself as gov- erness in an English family. Mrs. Wilson found her by accident, took a fancy to her, and after much difficulty succeeded in persuading her to come home with her, begging her to take the place of this daughter who was drowned. I saw Mrs. Wilson yesterday, and she said they would be out to-night to see me. She mentioned the girl, but there is something about her which she did not tell me, only saying that I would be surprised when I saw her. I suppose she is birthmarked in some way, or possibly a cripple." Just at this moment came the sound of a motor car stopping outside, and in a moment Edward Wilson, an associate of mine in the manufacturing company, stood in the doorway, and beside him was his wife and a girl who, as she stepped for- ward into the light and spoke in answer to her aunt's introduction, sent the quick blood from my face and made me stand for a moment, still and speechless. " How do you do, Mr. McLain ? " said the girl, holding out her hand. " I am glad to meet you, for I have heard much about you." I heard as in a dream, for there before me stood my wife, my dear, young, beautiful wife, just as she had stood upon that day long years ago when she had been introduced to me on the deck of a Mississippi River steamboat, and she was dressed now as she was then, — - the same furs, the 18 " WAYSIDE " same becoming hat, the same dress, and not only that, but it was my wife's voice which spoke to me, and the same words she uttered. For the instant I stood in amazement ; then, " My dear, my dear," I said, taking hold of her hand, " come here and see this picture," and I led her before the picture of my wife. " Have I dreamed all these years, or am I dreaming now? " " No," she said, " you are not dreaming. I am just Kate Wilson, but my aunt has told me how much I resemble your wife. Is that why you wanted me to dress in this way. Aunt Rachel.? " " Yes," said Mrs. Wilson, " I wanted the pic- ture to be complete. I told you, John, that you would be surprised." " I am not so surprised at the physical like- ness," I said, " although that is remarkable enough, but that the voice should be so like my wife's. I would have recognized it instantly, even though I had not seen the speaker." " It is a well known fact," said Charles, " that certain voices have for certain persons a peculiar fascination. They strike some chord in their consciousness which vibrates in harmony, and I have sometimes wondered if the tones did not awaken a sleeping memory in the subconscious mentality of something beyond and before the present physical life." " It has always been so with me," I said. " ' The most beautiful in the world,' I said, and with a blush the owner of the eyes stepped a little closer to the captain, to whom she had spoken, and not to me. As the captain and I were friends, he at once introduced us, and offering me her hand, the girl said, just as you said now, my dear, " ' I am glad to meet you, for I have heard much about you.' " The tones of her voice thrilled me as by an electric shock, and seemed to arouse in my con- sciousness a faint, dim sense of remembrance, as though the tones were familiar to me, and yet I someway knew that I had not heard the voice be- fore in this life. I was fascinated by the mellow, silvery music of it as much as by the beauty of the girl who owned it. It is needless to say that I 20 " WAYSIDE " made the most of my opportunities, and it devel- oped in our conversation that the girl's home was just across the lake here from my own home, that she knew my mother and had heard much about me before coming to Saint Louis on a visit to friends. Her parents had bought the farm on the opposite side of the lake and moved there after I had left home. " That night when I went to my stateroom I tried my best to remember where I had heard that voice before, but in vain ; and finally I fell asleep and dreamed a dream, so real and so wild, but still so loving and so tender, that its vivid recollection cast its influence over me for many days. " I stood in the forest glades of old, in that dim day when might made right and force made law, and by my side stood a girl who to my savage eyes seemed beautiful. Straight I stood, and lithe and muscular, and in my hand I held a heavy, knotted war club. The girl spoke, and my whole being answered to that voice. It was the note to which my soul was tuned. Clear as the tone of a flute, mellow as the voice of a trombone, sweet as the sound of the violin, it fell upon my ear with the silvery clearness of a bird's trill. " ' No,' she said, ' I will not go with you, but if you love me as you say you do come with me to the chief, my father, and demand me of him as a man should.' " ' I will go,' I said, ' at once.' " Together we walked through the forest to the " WAYSIDE " 21 rude village, and standing before the chief I de- manded his daughter for a wife. " ' Will you fight for her? ' he said. " ' Aye, that I will,' I answered, ' as I would fight for life or air were these denied me. Bring on my adversary; I am ready.' " ' There are three of my strongest warriors who ask for my daughter's hand. These you must fight, and I will give my daughter to the victor.' " Oh, the joy of that combat! The first I laid low quickly and easily. The second succumbed at last to my furious fighting, and finally the last and strongest stood before me. " ' Will you rest,' the old chief asked, ' before this last trial.? ' " ' Rest ! ' I said, ' I will never rest until I win the girl.' " And so we fought, this last strong warrior and I, until at last, there in that forest old, I felt my strength giving way, my eyes growing dim, and I was nearly conquered when the girl spoke to me. " ' Kill him, brave heart,' she said. ' He must not win.' " At the sound of that magical voice my strength returned, the light came back to my fad- ing eyes, and I attacked him with a fury which he could not withstand, and he fell before me. Proudly the girl and I left the village together — and a change came over the nature pf my dream. 2g " WAYSIDE " I stood in a little hut, and upon the floor was stretched the lifeless body of the girl, cold in death. Steadily and long I gazed upon her, and then, raising my clenched hands to Heaven with a cry of anguish upon my lips, I awoke, — to hear the trampling of many feet, the clanking of chains, and loud shouts of command. Quickly I dressed and went out upon the deck, to find the steamboat lying at the wharf of a little city where the company's warehouses were on fire, and the boat's crew were helping to extinguish it. The fire was under control when I reached the deck, and as the morning light was just beginning to streak the east, I did not return to my stateroom, but sat down in a chair upon the deck, and with my mind still full of my curious dream, wondered what this girl had to do with that savage vision of the long ago. For some days I had been read- ing an Oriental book on the transmigration of souls, and as the idea was new to me I was much interested in it. This, with the strong impres- sion which the girl and her beautiful voice had made upon me, lingered, I suppose, in my con- sciousness after my waking mind had, partly at least, resigned control, and so came this impos- sible dream, born of that weird, fantastic philos- ophy, and the magic of the girl's voice. " We were a week together upon that trip, a happy, glorious week, and at parting the girl said, " ' You should come back home to live, for your " WAYSIDE " 23 father is failing fast, and both he and your mother need you there.' " ' I will,' I said ; and in a short time I had made arrangements to leave the West and come back home to stay, allured, I must admit, as much by the charming personality of the girl and the music of her beautiful voice as by duty to my parents. And so I came here in the following December to my childhood's home, arriving on Christmas morning, and that same evening I made a call at the white house across the lake to see the girl who was then, and always has been since that time, the ' Only Girl ' to me." " My Aunt Rachel tells me that you are a singer and musician," said Kate, " and this will be an additional bond of interest between us, for I dearly love music." " My wife was a fine musician," I said, " and she possessed one of the sweetest soprano voices I ever heard, and we derived a great deal of pleas- ure from our music." " Kate is also a singer," said Mrs. Wilson, " and when I found her she was devoting all her spare time to music, in the hope to one day make a living by means of it. Now, will you two not play and sing something together.'' We would very much like to hear you." Kate seated herself at the piano, and I took up my violin, and I soon found that she was indeed a good musician. As I looked at her, she seemed so like my wife that I could scarcely realize that 24 " WAYSIDE " I was not back again in those happy days when the " Only Girl " and I played and sang together, and all the world was joy. Rapt in the music and the allurement of the time, I finally swung into the melody of an old- time love song which was a favorite with my wife, and which she and I had sung together on that last evening of her life, and soon I was singing softly the words of the song, and then Kate joined me with her clear, sweet voice, so like my wife's, making the enchantment complete. When the song was ended and the last lingering note died away, I noticed that Mrs. Wilson was crying softly, and even Robert's eyes were moist, for he was ever a kindly and sympathetic gentleman. " That was beautiful," said Charles ; " and what a gift of the gods music is. I think there is more good in that music of yours than in most of the sermons which will be preached in the churches to-morrow." As the Wilsons were leaving, I said to them, " I wish that you would come and see me more often. I am very much alone, and would enjoy it greatly." " We will," said Mr. Wilson, " and to tell the truth, we would have called here more in the past,- but we have both been strict Presbyterians for many years, and we knew your peculiar religious views and your likelihood to speak them at any time, so did not want our faith disturbed nor doubts awakened by your unorthodox remarks." " WAYSIDE " 25 " Well, I will promise to be good if you will bring Miss Kate along, and we will have music in- stead of discussion." After they were gone, Charles said, " Now there is a wonderful thing. Here are two members of the Presbyterian Church who have grown grey in its sei-vice, and have wor- shipped, we should suppose, intelligently for many years, and yet they are afraid that a few mo- ments' conversation with John here may unsettle their faith and make them doubt. What sort of a tender belief is this which cannot stand criticism nor discussion for a moment.'' If my faith could not stand against all argument or discussion or contention, I would change it at once for one which could." " As far as I am personally concerned," I said, " I have no criticism to make of any man's re- ligious belief if it enables him to live a better life, and I seek no controversy over his creed. There is no virtue in belief aside from inducing us to live more nearly in harmony with the good laws of life. Any belief is good which helps us to live cleanly, happily and growingly, and any belief which does not so help us is a vain and worthless thing. " And I believe fully and implicitly in the value and necessity of existence of the orthodox church and its organization, and the maintenance of re- ligious societies. I am ready to give them any help which may be in my power, and gladly con- 26 " WAYSIDE " tribute to their support from my substance while I lend them my presence and approval, for the aim and design of the church is to make the world better, and anything which has that end in view has my hearty accord. Religion and worship in its many phases have been civilizing and uplifting agents through the ages, and their influence the world could not do without. The ways and meth- ods of religious bodies have not always been per- fect or even commendable, but the end sought has been the betterment of mankind, and of this all honest men must approve. Personally, I could wish that the church would not consider it neces- sary to cling so closely to ancient superstitions and outgrown fable, but with its evident and man- ifest intent for good I am most fully in sympa- thy. " I am ready to acknowledge the Bible's won- derful power for good in the world, and grant its efficacy to those of simple faith, and to all those who study it honestly and earnestly ; yet I believe that eternal salvation does not rest upon a simple credence of authority, but upon personal knowl- edge and personal mental strength. Every man's salvation is a matter of his own mental develop- ment and evolution from the simple and credulous faith to the confident and self-evident knowledge of a personal understanding. " I believe that the man who worships an idol of clay or wood has started along the path which leads at last to salvation and eternal life. It is " WAYSIDE " 27 evidence of the cosmic urge to better things, and of the influence of the omnipresent divine Mental upon the individual mentality, which I believe is that organization we call the soul. " Anything which makes for higher thinking and better living is a good thing, and anything which develops the individual mentality in har- mony with the divine mentality is helping to work out the great divine scheme of life." CHAPTER II A month has gone past since I talked last to you, Little Lady. Just think of that. Thirty beautiful days slipped away while you were turn- ing the page. How time does fly, to be sure ; but it matters not, for there is just as much of it left as ever. I imagine time to be a circle, a wheel, made up of two eternities, and life is co-existent. The wheel turns slowly round, and the process of its turning gradually creates human souls, which grow and develop in this strange machinery. At definite places in the revolving circle is a dense visible physical life, and between these visible physical lives are rests, or places where souls can move more freely, unhampered by the gross phys- ical of the darker places. In these lighter spots the universal light which envelops the great wheel shines through and through the rarified physical, while the darker places are so gross and sleeping that the light cannot fully penetrate ; and yet, as each soul passes along its journey, now in the dark, now in the light, gradually the darker places are becoming rarified and filled with light by the influence of these souls' progress, until the end will be that there will be no more darkness, but the whole circle will be full of light. I have seen Kate many times during this past 28 « WAYSIDE » 29 month, for she often comes into the office where I busy myself, and twice she and her uncle and aunt have passed the evening with me at " Wayside." We are growing to be very good friends. She calls me " Uncle Jack " at my request, and I call her Kate, and she seems to feel at home at " Way- side," which pleases me very much. To-night she will go home with me to dinner, and her uncle and aunt are to come out later, as also are some other friends, among them Robert and Charles. It seems very proper and appropriate for Kate to be sitting opposite me at the dinner table, and it brings back vividly those days of the long ago, when the " Only Girl " presided there so grace- fully. They are very nearly alike, those two, not only in looks but in manners and ways of thinking, and I find myself growing fonder of this girl every day. " Uncle Jack," said Kate, " I wish that you would tell me about this terrible religious belief of yours, of which my uncle and aunt seem so much afraid. I have been brought up in the Church of England faith, and I know very little of any other." " Well, Kate, I will tell you something of the confident conclusions at which I have arrived after years of study and careful thought. It is a be- lief which brings me happiness, and health, and contentment in every day of life. " First, I believe the physical body of man to be a product of physical evolution, of growth and 30 « WAYSIDE " development from the primary or single cell. I believe this evolution, this growth and develop- ment, to have been made not only possible, but inevitable, because of the omnipresence, the in- dwelling in all the universe, of an omnipotent and omniscient intelligence, which is a moving force. 