Christie, the King's Servant: A Sequel to "Christie's Old Organ"Walton, O. F., Mrs.
Religion
Christie, the King's Servant: A Sequel to "Christie's Old Organ"
Walton, O. F., Mrs.
Christian life -- Juvenile fiction; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction
Every evening Tom and I walked together, and we explored all the country
for miles around. Sometimes we went by train and walked back by the
cliffs. The train seemed to land us at each station in the midst of
fresh beauty, and I came to the conclusion that Yorkshire was indeed,
what I had always been told by my mother, the most beautiful county in
England.
'Now, Jack,' said Tom on Saturday morning, 'we'll have a really good day
to-morrow. You won't want to paint, will you?'
'No,' I said hurriedly, 'I don't paint on Sundays.'
'All right,' he said, 'it's much the best plan; you come fresher to it
on Monday. "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." That old
couplet must have been made for you, Jack. Well, then, let's see, where
shall we go? Suppose we make a long day of it, and go to Scarborough. We
must see Scarborough before we go home, must we not? We will go by the
early train, and come back as late as we can. The worst of it is there
are not so many trains to choose from on Sunday, but I daresay we shall
find one that will suit'; and, without saying another word, he went off
to my lodging for a _Bradshaw_.
What was I to do? A few weeks ago a Sunday spent in pleasure would have
been just what I should have chosen, and many a time had Tom and I been
up the river on Sunday together. There was hardly a place within easy
distance up the Thames which we had not visited in this way. But now I
felt very differently about these things. Sunday was my Master's own
day: every moment of it, I felt, must be consecrated to Him. No one had
talked to me about Sunday observance, but my conscience told me very
clearly what was right in the matter. Yet, although I had no doubt as to
what I ought to do in the matter, I am ashamed to say that for some time
I hesitated. Tom would be so terribly disappointed, I said to myself,
and he had been a good friend to me, and I did not want to vex him;
surely there would be no great harm in obliging him this once! Besides,
when I get to Scarborough I may have time to go to church, and then,
after all, where is the difference? I argued with myself; I shall take a
longer journey to church, that is all.
And then Tom came back, full of his plans for the day. He had already
settled the train we were to catch, and he told me that he looked
forward to seeing Scarborough immensely, as his mother had stayed there
a year ago, and she had told him it was the most beautiful
watering-place she had ever visited.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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