Molly E. Jamieson

“ She knows she ought to go back to help old Davis and yet she cannot—cannot!
Then a great flash of light comes before her eyes, and Ruby suddenly wakens to find herself in her own little bed, the white curtains drawn closely to ward off mosquitoes, and the morning sun slanting in and forming a long golden bar on the opposite curtain.
The little girl rubs her eyes and stares about her. She, who has so often even doubted reality, finds it hard to believe that what has passed is really a dream. Even yet the angel voices seem to be sounding in her ears, the heavenly light dazzling her eyes. ”

“ But Ruby’s words have come to him this summer morning awakening old memories long slumbering, and his thoughts wander from the dear old days, up—up—up to God’s land on high, where, in the fair summer morning of Paradise, one is waiting longingly, hopefully—one who, even up in heaven, will be bitterly disappointed if those who in the old days she loved more than life itself will not one day join her there. ”

“ Though she loves her husband as much as it is possible for such a nature to love any one, it has been a bitter trial to Dora Thorne, reared midst the refinements of a Scottish home, to leave friends and kindred for his sake, and to exchange the well-known, well-loved heather-hilled land of her birth for the hardships and uncertainties of the Australian bush. So perhaps it is no wonder that her time is so taken up in commiserating herself that she has but little leisure left to commiserate or sympathize with any one else. ”

“ The red sun, like a ball of fire, is setting behind the dark, leafless tree-tops when at last they turn to go, and everything is very still, save for the faint ripple of the burn through the long flats of field as it flows out to meet the sea. Fast clasped in Jack’s is Ruby’s little hand; but a stronger arm than his is guiding both Jack and Ruby onward. In the dawning, neither Wat nor Ruby’s mother need fear disappointment now. ”

“ And in great, glorious unison the grand old Christmas carol rings forth—
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace; good will toward men!”
Open-eyed and awestruck, the little girl stands gazing upwards, a wonder fraught with strange beauty at her heart. Can it be possible that one of those bright-faced angels may be the mother whom Ruby never knew, sent from the far-off land to bear the Christmas message to the child who never missed a mother’s love because she never knew it? ”

“ All around the child is the monotonous silence of the Australian noon, unbroken save by the faint silvery wash of the creek over the stones on its way to the river, and the far-away sound of old Hans’ axe as he “rings” the trees. To be “kind,” that is what the Christmas text means in Ruby’s mind, but there is no one here to be “kind” to.
“And of course that card would be made in Scotland, where there are lots of people to be kind to,” the little girl decides thoughtfully.
She is gazing out far away over the path which leads to the coast. Beyond that lies the sea, and beyond the sea Scotland. ”

“ And it is in those kind arms that Ruby sobs out her story. “I can never do it now!” that is the burden of her sorrow.
The late Australian twilight gathers round them, and the stars twinkle out one by one. But, far away in the heaven which is beyond the stars and the dim twilight of this world, I think that God knows how one little girl, whose eyes are now dim with tears, tried to be “kind,” and it may be that in His own good time—and God’s time is always the best—He will let old Davis “know” also. ”

“ Heaven has never been a very real place to this little girl, although her mother is there; the far-off city, with its pearly gates and golden streets, holds but a shadowy place in Ruby’s heart, and before to-night she has never greatly desired to enter therein.
The life of the present has claimed all her attention, and, amidst the joys and pleasures of to-day, the coming life has held but little place. ”

“ Slowly the glory fades away, the angel faces grow dimmer and dimmer, the heavenly music dies into silence, and the world is calm and hushed as before. Still Ruby stands gazing upwards, longing for the angel visitants to come again. But no heavenly light illumines the sky, only the pale radiance of the moon, and no sound breaks upon the child’s listening ear save the monotonous music of the ever-flowing water. ”

“ Jenny goes indoors again, and Ruby can hear the clatter of plates and cups echoing across the quadrangle as she makes ready the early tea. The child’s eyes are dim with the glare at which she has so long been gazing, and her limbs, in their cramped position, are aching; but Ruby hardly seems to feel the discomfort from which those useful members suffer. She goes in to tea with a grudge, listens to her stepmother’s fretful little complaints with an absent air which shows how far away her heart is, and returns as soon as she may to her point of vantage. “Oh, me!” sighs the poor little girl. ”

“ Dolls have no easier a time of it in the Australian bush than anywhere else.
It is not amiss, this hot December morning, to paddle one’s hands in the cooling water, and feel that one is busily employed at the same time. The sun beats down on the large white hat so diligently bent above the running creek. Ruby, kneeling on a large boulder, is busily engaged wringing out Bluebell’s pink calico dress, when a new idea comes to her. She will “tramp” the clothes as they are doing in the picture of the “Highland washing.” ”

“ Ruby, left alone, stands by Smuttie’s head, consoling that faithful little animal now and then with a pat of the hand. It is hot, scorchingly hot; but such cold dread sits at the little girl’s heart that she does not even feel the heat. In her ears is the hissing of those fierce flames, and her love for dad has grown to be a very [Pg 55] agony in the thought that something may befall him. ”

“ The little girl hardly hears her father as he goes on to tell her how the old man’s end came, suddenly and without warning, crushing him in the ruins of his burning cottage, where the desolate creature died as he had lived, uncared for and alone. Into Ruby’s heart a great, sorrowful regret has come, regret for a kind act left for ever undone, a kind word for ever unspoken. ”

“ Jack Kirke asks. “It is too dark now for you to go by yourself.” He looks straight into the eyes of the girl he has known since she was a child, the girl who has refused his honest love because she had no love to give in return, and May’s eyes fall beneath his gaze.
“Very well,” she acquiesces meekly.
Ruby, looking out after the two as they go [Pg 95] down the dark avenue, pities them for having to go out on such a dismal night. The little girl does not know that for them it is soon to be illumined with a light than which there is none brighter save that of heaven, the truest land of love. ”

“ Her heart is sick within her. She has never seen a fire before, and it seems so fraught with danger that she trembles when she thinks of dad, the being she loves best on earth. “Go you away to the fire, Dick,” adds Ruby, very pale, but very determined. “I’m not afraid of being left alone.”
The fire is gaining ground every moment, and poor old Davis’s desolate home bids fair to be soon nothing but a heap of blackened ruins. Dick gives one look at the burning house, and another at his little mistress. There is no time to waste if he is to be of any use. ”

“ Dad does not answer just for a moment, and Ruby, glancing quickly upwards, almost fancies that her father must be angry with her; his face is so very grave. Perhaps he does not even wish her to mention the name of the old man, who, but that he is “so old,” should now have been in prison.
“Old Davis will never need another house now, Ruby,” Dad answers, looking down into the eager little upturned face. “He has gone away. God has taken him away, dear.” ”

“ Black Prince has been put into the paddock, and Ruby goes into the house, hanging on her father’s uninjured arm. The child’s heart has grown suddenly light. The terrible fear which has been weighing her down for the last few hours has been lifted, and Ruby is her old joyous self again.
“Dad,” the little girl says later on. They are sitting out on the verandah, enjoying the comparative cool of the evening. “What will he do, old Davis, I mean, now that his house is burnt down? It won’t hardly be worth while his building another, now that he’s so old.” ”

“ The white moonlight is flooding the land when at length they retire to rest. Ruby’s dreams are all of her new-found friend whom she is so soon to lose, and when she is awakened by the sunlight of the newer morning streaming in [Pg 26] upon her face a rush of gladness and of sorrow strive hard for mastery in her heart—gladness because Jack is still here, sorrow because he is going away. ”

“ Besides, perhaps dad wouldn’t like me.”
“Good will toward men! Good will toward men!” Again the heavenly voices seem ringing in Ruby’s ears. There is no angel host about her to strengthen and encourage her, only one very lonely little girl who finds it hard to do right when the doing of that right does not quite fit in with her own inclinations. She has taken the first step upon the heavenly way, and finds already the shadow of the cross.
The radiance of the sunshine is reflected in Ruby’s brown eyes, the radiance, it may be, of something far greater in her heart. ”

“ Ruby says compassionately.
The old man’s face is hot enough in all conscience. He raises his broad-brimmed hat again, and wipes the perspiration from his damp forehead with a large blue-cotton handkerchief.
“It’s desp’rate hot,” Dick puts in as his item to the conversation.
“You ought to take a rest, Hans,” the little girl suggests with ready commiseration. “I’m sure dad wouldn’t mind. He doesn’t like me to do things when it’s so hot, and he wouldn’t like you either. Your face is just ever so red, as red as the fire, and you look dreadful tired.” ”

“ The “station” is built in a quadrangle, and across one corner of this quadrangle Ruby has to go ere she reaches the kitchen. If it is hot in the living room, it is ten times hotter here, where Jenny, a stout, buxom Scotchwoman of forty or thereabouts, who for love of her mistress has braved the loneliness of bush life, is busy amidst her pots and pans getting ready the Christmas dinner.
“Dad’s not come yet, Jenny,” Ruby says as she reaches down a tumbler and prepares the cooling drink which her step-mother has requested. ”

“ Ruby does not know that the “May” of the carefully cherished card is a little girl of whom Jack but rarely speaks, though she lives in his thoughts day and night. Far away in Scotland a blue-eyed maiden’s heart is going out in longing to the man who only by his absence had proved to the friend of his childhood how much she loved him. Her heart is in sunny Australia, and his in bonnie Scotland, all for love each of the other. ”

“ Through the sunlight, across the cleared space of grass which surrounds the station, a horse and rider are coming. With the sunny glare in her eyes, it is not until he is quite near that Ruby sees that the approaching figure really is her father. Strangers do not come often to Glengarry; but it [Pg 12] so chances that now and again a stray traveller on his way to the coast claims the hospitality of the station.
He swings off his horse at the garden-gate, flings the reins to Dick, the stable-boy, and stoops to kiss the face of the little girl who has run out to meet him. ”

“ It is no one’s fault that the wrong woman seems to have been put in the wrong place, that the fearless Scottish lassie who would fain have proved her love for her husband by braving peril and hardship for his sake, had comfortable circumstances and a peaceful life for her lot, and that the fair-faced, ease-loving woman who came after her should have had to brave those very hardships which the first had coveted. ”

“ RUBY goes about her work and play very gravely for the next few days. A great sorrow sits at her heart which only time can lighten and chase away. She is very lonely, this little girl—lonely without even knowing it, but none the less to be pitied on that account. To her step-mother Ruby never even dreams of turning for comfort or advice in her small troubles and griefs. Dad is his little girl’s confidant; but, then, dad is often away, and in Mrs. Thorne’s [Pg 64] presence Ruby never thinks of confiding in her father. ”