the missionary had been a far journey to an isolated tribe of indians outside his own reservation. it was his first visit to them since the journey he had taken with his colleague, and of which he had told hazel during their companionship in the desert. he had thought to go sooner, but matters in his own extended parish, and his trip east, had united to prevent him.
they had lain upon his heart, these lonely, isolated people of another age, living amid the past in their ancient houses high up on the cliffs; a little handful of lonely, primitive children, existing afar; knowing nothing of god and little of man; with their strange, simple ways, and their weird appearance. they had come to him in visions as he prayed, and always with a weight upon his soul as of a message undelivered.
he had taken his first opportunity after his return from the east to go to them; but it had not been as soon as he had hoped.[254] matters in connection with the new church had demanded his attention, and then when they were arranged satisfactorily one of his flock was smitten with a lingering illness, and so hung upon his friendship and companionship that he could not with a clear conscience go far away. but at last all hindrances subsided and he went forth on his mission.
the indians had received him gladly, noting his approach from afar and coming down the steep way to meet him, putting their rude best at his disposal, and opening their hearts to him. no white man had visited them since his last coming with his friend, save a trader who had lost his way, and who knew little about the god of whom the missionary had spoken, or the book of heaven; at least he had not seemed to understand. of these things he was as ignorant, perhaps, as they.
the missionary entered into the strange family life of the tribe who inhabited the vast, many-roomed palace of rock carved high at the top of the cliff. he laughed with them, ate with them, slept with them, and in every way gained their full confidence. he played with their little children, teaching them many new games and amusing tricks, and praising the quick wits of the little ones; while their[255] elders stood about, the stolid look of their dusky faces relaxed into smiles of deep interest and admiration.
and then at night he told them of the god who set the stars above them; who made the earth and them, and loved them; and of jesus, his only son, who came to die for them and who would not only be their saviour, but their loving companion by day and by night; unseen, but always at hand, caring for each one of his children individually, knowing their joys and their sorrows. gradually he made them understand that he was the servant—the messenger—of this christ, and had come there for the express purpose of helping them to know their unseen friend. around the camp-fire, under the starry dome, or on the sunny plain, whenever he taught them they listened, their faces losing the wild, half-animal look of the uncivilized, and taking on the hidden longing that all mortals have in common. he saw the humanity in them looking wistfully through their great eyes, and gave himself to teach them.
sometimes as he talked he would lift his face to the sky, and close his eyes; and they would listen with awe as he spoke to his father in heaven. they watched him at first[256] and looked up as if they half expected to see the unseen world open before their wondering gaze; but gradually the spirit of devotion claimed them, and they closed their eyes with him, and who shall say if the savage prayers within their breasts were not more acceptable to the father than many a wordy petition put up in the temples of civilization?
seven days and nights he abode with them, and they fain would have claimed him for their own, and begged him to give up all other places and live there always. they would give him of their best. he would not need to work, for they would give him his portion, and make him a home as he should direct them. in short, they would enshrine him in their hearts as a kind of under-god, representing to their childish minds the true and only one, the knowledge of whom he had brought to them.
but he told them of his work, of why he must go back to it, and sadly they prepared to bid him good-bye with many an invitation for return. in going down the cliff, where he had gone with them many a time before, he turned to wave another farewell to a little child who had been his special pet, and turning, slipped, and wrenched his ankle so badly that he could not move on.[257]
they carried him up to their home again, half sorrowful, but wholly triumphant. he was theirs for a little longer; and there were more stories he could tell. the book of heaven was a large one, and they wanted to hear it all. they spread his couch of their best, and wearied themselves to supply his necessity with all that their ignorance imagined he needed, and then they sat at his feet and listened. the sprain was a troublesome one and painful, and it yielded to treatment but slowly; meanwhile the messenger arrived with the telegram from the east.
they gathered about it, that sheet of yellow paper with its mysterious scratches upon it, which told such volumes to their friend, but gave no semblance to sign language of anything in heaven above or earth beneath. they looked with awe upon their friend as they saw the anguish in his countenance. his mother was dead! this man who had loved her, and had left her to bring them news of salvation, was suffering. it was one more bond between them, one more tie of common humanity. and yet he could look up and smile, and still speak to the invisible father! they saw his face as it were the face of an angel with the light of[258] the comfort of christ upon it; and when he read to them and tried to make them understand the majestic words: "o death, where is thy sting? o grave, where is thy victory?" they sat and looked afar off, and thought of the ones that they had lost. this man said they would all live again. his mother would live; the chief they had lost last year, the bravest and youngest chief of all their tribe, he would live too; their little children would live; all they had lost would live again.
so, when he would most have wished to be alone with his god and his sorrow, he must needs lay aside his own bitter grief, and bring these childish people consolation for their griefs, and in doing so the comfort came to him also. for somehow, looking into their longing faces, and seeing their utter need, and how eagerly they hung upon his words, he came to feel the presence of the comforter standing by his side in the dark cave shadows, whispering to his heart sweet words that he long had known but had not fully comprehended because his need for them had never come before. somehow time and things of earth receded, and only heaven and immortal souls mattered. he was lifted above his own loss and into the[259] joy of the inheritance of the servant of the lord.
but the time had come, all too soon for his hosts, when he was able to go on his way; and most anxious he was to be started, longing for further news of the dear one who was gone from him. they followed him in sorrowful procession far into the plain to see him on his way, and then returned to their mesa and their cliff home to talk of it all and wonder.
alone upon the desert at last, the three great mesas like fingers of a giant hand stretching cloudily behind him; the purpling mountains in the distance; the sunlight shining vividly down over all the bright sands; the full sense of his loss came at last upon him, and his spirit was bowed with the weight of it. the vision of the mount was passed, and the valley of the shadow of life was upon him. it came to him what it would be to have no more of his mother's letters to cheer his loneliness; no thought of her at home thinking of him; no looking forward to another home-coming.
as he rode he saw none of the changing landscape by the way, but only the granville orchard with its showering pink and white, and his mother lying happily beside him on the strawberry bank picking the[260] sweet vivid berries, and smiling back to him as if she had been a girl. he was glad, glad he had that memory of her. and she had seemed so well, so very well. he had been thinking that perhaps when there was hope of building a little addition to his shack and making a possible place of comfort for her, that he might venture to propose that she come out to him and stay. it was a wish that had been growing, growing in his lonely heart since that visit home when it seemed as if he could not tear himself away from her and go back; and yet knew that he could not stay—would not want to stay, because of his beloved work. and now it was over forever, his dream! she would never come to cheer his home, and he would always have to live a lonely life—for he knew in his heart there was only one girl in the whole world he would want to ask to come, and her he might not, must not ask.
as endless and as desolate as his desert his future lay stretched out before his mind. for the time his beloved work and the joy of service was sunk out of sight, and he saw only himself, alone, forsaken of all love, walking his sorrowful way apart; and there surged over him a great and deadly weakness as of a spirit in despair.[261]
in this mind he lay down to rest in the shadow of a great rock about the noon hour, too weary in spirit and exhausted in body to go further without a sleep. the faithful billy dozed and munched his portion not far away; and high overhead a great eagle soared high and far, adding to the wide desolateness of the scene. here he was alone at last for the first time with his grief, and for a while it had its way, and he faced it; entering into his gethsemane with bowed spirit and seeing nothing but blackness all about him. it was so, worn with the anguish of his spirit, that he fell asleep.
while he slept there came to him peace; a dream of his mother, smiling, well, and walking with a light free step as he remembered her when he was a little boy; and by her side the girl he loved. how strange, and wonderful, that these two should come to him and bring him rest! and then, as he lay still dreaming, they smiled at him and passed on, hand in hand, the girl turning and waving her hand as if she meant to return; and presently they passed beyond his sight. then one stood by him, somewhere within the shelter of the rock under which he lay, and spoke; and the voice thrilled his soul as it had never been thrilled in life before:[262]
"lo, i am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."
the peace of that invisible presence descended upon him in full measure, and when he awoke he found himself repeating: "the peace which passeth understanding!" and realizing that for the first time he knew what the words meant.
some time he lay quietly like a child who had been comforted and cared for, wondering at the burden which had been lifted, glorying in the peace that had come in its place; rejoicing in the presence that he felt would be with him always, and make it possible for him to bear the loneliness.
at last he turned his head to see if billy were far away, and was startled to see the shadow of the rock, under which he lay, spread out upon the sand before him, the semblance of a perfect mighty cross. for so the jutting uneven arms of the rock and the position of the sun arranged the shadows before him. "the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." the words came to his memory, and it seemed to be his mother's voice repeating them as she used to do on sabbath evenings when they sat together in the twilight before his bedtime. a weary land! it was a weary land now, and his soul[263] had been parched with the heat and loneliness. he had needed the rock as he had never needed it before, and the rock, christ jesus, had become a rest and a peace to his soul. but there it lay spread out upon the sand beside him, and it was the way of the cross; the christ way was always the way of the cross. but what was the song they sang at that great meeting he attended in new york? "the way of the cross leads home." ah, that was it. some day it would lead him home, but now it was the way of the cross and he must take it with courage, and always with that unseen but close companion who had promised to be with him even to the end of the world.
well, he would rise up at once, strong in that blessed companionship. cheerfully he made his preparations for starting, and now he turned billy's head a trifle to the south, for he decided to stop over night with his colleague.
when his grief and loneliness were fresh upon him it had seemed that he could not bear this visit. but since peace had come to his soul he changed his course to take in the other mission, which was really on his way, only that he had purposely avoided it.
they made him welcome, those two who had made a little bit of earthly paradise out of their desert shack; and they compelled him to stay with them and rest three days, for he was more worn with the journey and his recent pain and sorrow than he realized. they comforted him with their loving sympathy and gladdened his soul with the sight of their own joy, albeit it gave him a feeling of being set apart from them. he started in the early dawn of the day when the morning star was yet visible, and as he rode through the beryl air of the dawning hour he was uplifted from his sadness by a sense of the near presence of christ.
he took his way slowly, purposely turning aside three times from the trail to call at the hogans of some of his parishioners; for he dreaded the home-coming as one dreads a blow that is inevitable. his mother's picture awaited him in his own room, smiling down upon his possessions with that dear look upon her face, and to look at it for the first time knowing that she was gone from earth forever was an experience from which he shrank inexpressibly. thus he gave himself more time, knowing that it was better to go calmly, turning his mind back to his work, and doing what she would have liked him to do.
he camped that night under the sheltered ledge where he and hazel had been, and as he lay down to sleep he repeated the psalm they had read together that night, and felt a sense of the comfort of abiding under the shadow of the almighty.
in visions of the night he saw the girl's face once more, and she smiled upon him with that glad welcoming look, as though she had come to be with him always. she did not say anything in the dream, but just put out her hands to him with a motion of surrender.
the vision faded as he opened his eyes, yet so real had it been that it remained with him and thrilled him with the wonder of her look all day. he began to ponder whether he had been right in persistently putting her out of his life as he had done. bits of her own sentences came to him with new meaning and he wondered after all if he had not been a fool. perhaps he might have won her. perhaps god had really sent her to him to be his life companion, and he had been too blind to understand.
he put the idea from him many times with a sigh as he mended the fire and prepared his simple meal, yet always her face lingered sweetly in his thoughts, like balm upon his saddened spirit.
billy was headed towards home that morning, and seemed eager to get on. he had not understood his master these sad days. something had come over his spirits. the little horse neighed cheerfully and started on his way with willing gait. however lonely the master might be, home was good, with one's own stall and manger; and who might tell but some presentiment told billy that the princess was awaiting them?
the missionary endeavoured to keep his thoughts upon his work and plans for the immediate future, but try as he would the face of the girl kept smiling in between; and all the beauties of the way combined to bring back the ride he had taken with her; until finally he let his fancy dwell upon her with pleasant thoughts of how it would be if she were his, and waiting for him at the end of his journey; or better still, riding beside him at this moment, bearing him sweet converse on the way.
the little shack stood silent, familiar, in the setting sunlight, as he rode up to the door, and gravely arranged for billy's comfort, then with his upward look for comfort he went towards his lonely home and opening the door stood wondering upon the threshold
