Seven Sisters

“ Bill Nye.
To the Seven Haired Sisters, 'Steenth Street, New York:
Mesdames, Mamselles and Fellow-Citizens—I write these few lines to say that I am well and hope this will find you all enjoying the same great blessing. How pleasant it is for sisters to dwell together in unity and beloved by mankind. You must indeed have a good time standing in the window day after day, pulling your long hair through your fingers with pride. When I first saw you all thus engaged, for the benefit of the public, I thought it was a candy pull. ”

“ Sisters generally soften boys, tone them down, and give them a tender grace.”
“And what are the brothers’ graces?” I asked.
[Pg 42]
“Boys have numberless virtues, we must concede,” he returned laughingly. “I think they perfect your patience, broaden your ideas, and add a general symmetry. They keep you from getting too set in your ways.”
I saw him smile down into my face in the soft moonlight, and it did annoy me. Men are always thinking themselves so superior!
“Our mother died when Stuart was a baby. She was always an invalid. ”

“ It also occurs in a folk-tale of the Southern Province which I contributed to The Orientalist (vol. ii, p. 53) . As other incidents in that story resemble some in the tales given below, I give it in full here.
I may add that however improbable the marriage of seven brothers to seven sisters may appear, it has been nearly matched in recent years in England. The Daily Mail of January 20, 1908, contained the following words regarding an old lady who had just died:—“She was one of seven members of her family who married seven sons and daughters of a neighbouring farmer.” [108]
1 Loku māmā. ”

“ There were not after all so many Sisters like Sister Angela; and Sister Mary Felice, who watched the little blue-checked-apron girls playing in the sand; and Sister Ignatius, who cooked the cakes with the caraway seeds in them; and Sister Theckla, who taught the little girls to Count and to Sing.
Why, the whole world, surely the up-on-the mountain-world, seemed full of Only-Just-Ladies.
Not just a Lady here and there, coming to visit with hats on, to talk a little to the Sisters, to look at the little girls with blue checked aprons on. ”

“ It is unnecessary to multiply examples. It is not the splendour of the Papacy or the episcopate that is the true glory of the Church of Rome, but the steady and modest devotion of her working Orders. What is more beautiful than the life of a Sister of Charity or a “Little Sister of the Poor”? Good Catholics call them “My Sister” when speaking to each of them individually, and so do I who am not a Catholic, for are they not sisters of all of us who may be laid one day on a bed of sickness? If we do not need their gentle watching for ourselves, it soothes our suffering brethren. ”

“ Like a blackbird's wing among the convent doves.
Sister Martha.
He only has the skill to turn her mind
From grief—unsoftened yet by Time—unhealed!
All the Sisters.
He is so droll! It's cheerful when he comes!— He teases us!—But we all like him well!—
—We make him pasties of angelica! ”

“ There is nothing so exquisite left on earth. They are classics." Most eminently of all, they were Sisters. A childhood of strange peril and suffering, in which their hearts clung so close together that they grew into one, had fitted naturally dissimilar natures into an utter harmony of desire and deed. ”

“ Wherever a Sister moves she has the prayers and blessings of the poor soldier, and the thanks and gratitude of 278 the officers. Beside whatever bed death has laid his hand, there is seen a Sister seeking to alleviate the suffering of the patient and to prepare the parting soul for the judgment so soon to be pronounced upon it.”
The following reference to the Holy Cross Sisters from the pen of Father Corby is apropos:
“Sixty Sisters of the Holy Cross went out under Mother Angela. ”

“ And it is probable that many—for instance, nuns in their convents, and Moravians—call each other sisters, or sister-souls, with the view of giving some sort of expression to the nature of their sentiments for each other; since sisters are just the very people who quarrel the most. ”

“ Then the children have been well and happy, and the source of almost unmitigated joy and comfort. And Helen's presence in this home, her sisterly affection, her patience with the children and her influence over them, is a benediction for which I cannot be thankful enough. How delightful it is to have a sister! I think it is not often the case that own sisters have such perfect Christian sympathy with each other as we have. ”

“ Every right-hearted sister has a peculiarly warm and tender interest in the welfare of her brothers. It is a feeling not to be neglected, but carefully nursed and deepened. This narrative shows it to be in the line of God's providence that sisters and daughters shall prove instruments of deliverance to their relations. It is blessed when they are so even in earthly things, but [159] far more glorious when, through faith and prayer and unwearied interest, they are enabled to win them to Christ, and turn them into living epistles for Him. ”

“ Nothing is farther from my wish than to do that. Her sister shall be a nun and a saint, and if by any miracle of science and skill her blindness may be cured, it shall be so done, that even by that the Church shall receive honour, and her power be extended and strengthened. Your ‘little Jewess,’ your ‘butterfly,’ shall be allowed to shine in society, and to take her fill of the pleasure she tasted last year. A few years with the good sisters first will do much for her. When she is properly submissive to those who have a right to direct her, she shall have her own way. ”

“ In connection with the London West Central Mission there is an association of ladies called the Sisters of the People. “They are expected to be worthy of the beautiful name they bear. They are true sisters of the unprivileged and the disheartened; as ready to make a bed, cook a dinner, or nurse a baby as to minister to the higher need of the immortal spirit. ”

“ THE three old sisters, Rachel and Nancy and Camilla, lived in the house in which they had been born. They were very old in years—the youngest was nearly seventy—but they were, after all, the most youthful maidens in the village. Not a child dragging her doll-carriage past their windows, not a young girl strolling by in the twilight on her lover's arm, was as young as they, for the youth in them had actually triumphed over age, and gained, as it were, a species of immortality in this world. ”

“ Younger Sisters In the softest silk is our sister dressed, With silver rubies upon her breast, Where a dearer treasure to-night will rest. Dancing Girls See! his hair is like silk, and his teeth are whiter Than whitest of jasmin flowers. Pity they marry him thus. I would change my jewels against his caresses. Verily, sisters, this marriage is greatly a loss to us! Bride Would that the music ceased and the night drew round us, With solitude, shadow, and sound of closing doors, So that our lips might meet and our beings mingle, While mine drank deep of the essence, beloved, of yours. ”

“ There was sympathy expressed on Sister Eliza's homely features as she replied:
"No wonder, Sister Catherine, after what you have been suffering. But brighter days will come."
"Never, never! Sister Eliza—but I have sent for you to learn the whole truth. What has happened—what do they say now?"
[281]
"Fools and cowards!" exclaimed the boarding-house keeper, contemptuously; "they do not know their own minds."
"I thought it would be so; and what do they say? Tell me all!"
"The Sisters are in a very discontented mood; they grumble at everything. ”

“ Of course it must never be forgotten that through all the centuries since the Christian Church was founded, there had been Catholic sisterhoods with whom the real and the ideal were one—Sisters of Mercy, who were not only refined and cultivated gentlewomen, but the most devoted and self-sacrificing of human souls. ”

“ All, however, are woven by these three Sisters - thought, action, and desire - with which the ignorant build walls of mud and bricks of slime between themselves and truth; while the pure of heart weave from these radiant threads garments of celestial beauty. ”

“ Is there an individual sister in this Church out of the reach of doing good? Not one. "Why," exclaims a sister, "I am sick, weary, diseased; I cannot work—I cannot do anything." Is doing good beyond her reach? No; that sister who is sick and unable to cook her own food, wash her own clothing, or to knit or mend her stockings, can give good counsel to her brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, to the members of the family in which she lives, to her neighbors, and to all with whom she may associate. Says she: "I am sick and feeble, but I do not drink any tea. ”

“ The childhood's playmate feeds the brother's love, and becomes, even then, his "blessing." The very thought of the absent sister is like a "flash of light" cheering the loneliness of college chambers. ”

“ I can't go into details, but they should teach dress, speak and act, aright, diffuse correct principles, and let us have sisters growing up fit to associate with the angels of God. I want you to make home a heaven for your husbands, that when they come there they will feel happy, cheerful, and comfortable in their households. Do away with evil speaking—let love, kindness, and friendly feelings prevail ”

“ Those of us who cavil at Catholic pretensions, sneer at their assumption, and ridicule their observances, must acknowledge that the Sisters are far ahead and above any organization of the sort of which Protestantism can boast. The self-sacrifice, the devotion, the single-mindedness, the calm trust in a Power unseen, the humility of manner and rare unselfishness which characterize the Sisters, has no parallel in any organization of the reformed faith. ”

“ They will put on their spectacles and turn you round to the light, to see if you look like the Carters, or who you are like; won’t they, grandma? Are we going to that queer little town where those three sisters live, the ones who are so old? Annis, they are so funny; the youngest one is nearly seventy, and her two older sisters always treat her as if she were such a young, frivolous thing that they are afraid she might elope with the milkman, or do some equally giddy thing, if they didn’t keep a strict watch over her. ”

“ Come to thy sister—come to thy wife—
Come to thy wife, oh thou who makest the heart to rest.
I, thy sister, born of thy mother, go about to every temple of thine,
Yet thou comest not forth to me:
Gods, and men before the face of the gods, are weeping for thee at the same time, when they behold me!
Lo, I invoke thee with wailing that reacheth high as heaven,—
Yet thou hearest not my voice. Lo I, thy sister, I love thee more than all the earth—
And thou lovest not another as thou dost thy sister—
Surely thou lovest not another as thou dost thy sister! ”

“ The establishment at Dinan, over which Jeanne Sugon herself presides, being under repair, and not quite fit for the reception of visitors, we will go over the Sisters' house at Paris, which is conducted on exactly the same plan.
We are ushered into a small parlor, scantily furnished, with some Scripture prints upon the walls. A Sister enters to us with such a bright look of cheerfulness as faces wear when hearts beneath them feel that they are beating to some purpose in the world. ”

“ It is, however, in Eugénie's memory as a sister that this record of her is here given. And she stands out for all time as an example of one of the world's most devoted sisters. Her depth of love, her intense sympathy, her self-sacrificing zeal, her unswerving purpose, her deep piety, were all directed or intensified by the master passion of her soul—the love of her brother—and we cannot but believe that such love brings its reward, that is not only for time, but that, immortal as its origin, it has, at last, been fully satisfied. ”

“ For half the twelvemonth wrapt in sombre skies,
Two sisters loved one man. He being dead,
Grief loosed the lips of her he had not wed,
And all the passion that through heavy years
Had masked in smiles unmasked itself in tears.
No purer love may mortals know than this,
The hidden love that guards another's bliss. ”

“ I assure my readers that convent life must crush every bit of self out of its victims. I was crushed by the life, and not seldom felt inclined to drown myself.
[108]
CHAPTER X.
DAILY ROUTINE AT LLANTHONY.
At 1.45 every morning the sisters are called by the words, “Benedicamus Domino.” Each sister must instantly arise, saying, “Deo gratias,” then prostrate herself and kiss the floor; and after tidying herself, she must kneel upright with her back toward the bed, in silent prayer, until the first chime of the bell ceases. ”

“ The three sisters, Mary, Gwendolen and Alice, daughters of James Cartaret, the Vicar of Garth, were sitting there in the dining-room behind the yellow blind, doing nothing. In their supine, motionless attitudes they seemed to be waiting for something to happen, to happen so soon that, if there had been anything to do, it was not worth their while doing it. ”

“ I have seen and heard an elder sister thus leading the family choir, who was the soul of harmony to the whole household, and whose life was a perfect example of those virtues which I am here endeavouring to inculcate. Let no one say, in reading this chapter, that too much is here required of sisters; that no one can be expected to lead such a self-sacrificing life; for the sainted one to whom I refer was all that I would ask my sister to be; and a happier person never lived. 'To do good and make others happy,' was the rule of her life ”