Villages -- England -- Fiction; Yorkshire (England) -- Fiction
"They are sure to want a service at the chapel, for I am the oldest
member, and a class leader. But I do so dislike doleful singing, so I
have been thinking it over and I have put down on a paper which you
will find in my Bible the hymns which I should like to have sung. Ask
them to sing first 'My God, the spring of all my joys,' to the tune of
'Lydia.' You won't know the tune, love, for it is a very old-fashioned
one, but I have always liked it, and it goes with a rare swing. Then I
_must_ have 'Jesu, Lover of my soul' to 'Hollingside,' for that is the
hymn of my experience; and to conclude with let them sing a child's
hymn. I'm afraid you will laugh at me, Grace, but I would like to have
'There is a better world, they say.' I think these will be sufficient,
and they are all very cheerful hymns and tunes."
"And the minister?" I asked, for her calmness was infectious.
"Oh, either of them, love," she said; "they are both good men, and they
must arrange to suit their own convenience. Now give me a kiss. I am
so glad to have got this done, and though I am tired I feel ever so
much better."
I saw the lawyer in the afternoon, and he called with the draft on the
following day, and by the next it had been signed, witnessed and
completed.
Mother Hubbard did not go to chapel on the Sunday, but on the Thursday
she expressed her fixed determination to take her class. I protested
in vain; the motherkin had made up her mind.
"I must, love; it is laid upon me, and I am not at all excited."
"But, dear," I urged, "I shall worry terribly whilst you are out of my
care. You are not fit to go--you are not strong enough."
"It is only a step, love," she replied, "and the evening is warm; why
need you worry when you can come with me?"
She had never suggested this before--indeed, when I had laughingly
suggested it she had been visibly alarmed, and I admit that the idea
was not attractive. Somehow or other I distrusted the Methodist class
meeting. But my love for the class leader prevailed.
"Very well," I said; "if you go, I go too."
We went together and found eight or nine women of various ages
assembled in the little vestry. Mother Hubbard took her seat at the
table, and I sat next to Widow Smithies, who moved up to make room for
me.
We sang a hymn, and then Mother Hubbard prayed--prayed in a gentle
voice which had much humility in it, but an assured confidence which
showed her to be on intimate terms with her Lord; and when she had
finished I read the 103rd Psalm at her request, and we sang again.
Then she spoke, and her voice gathered strength as she proceeded. I
cannot write down all she said, but some of the sentences are burned
into my memory, though the connections have escaped me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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