Be Courteous | Page 7

the milk, as though it were a pity to drink it up; and Mary stood looking at her, until she thought that perhaps it was not polite to do so, and turned away.
"Don't go," said Emma, "unless you choose to be by yourself. Sit down here just a minute. I have queer thoughts about this milk; and since we are all alone, I will tell you what they are. You read the Bible, Ma--,--I mean Miss Palmer?"
"Yes; but call me Mary, if you please. I am not used to being called Miss."
"Well then, Mary dear," said Emma, drawing closer to her, as they sat upon the log, "you remember where the Bible speaks of the sincere milk of the _word_" Mary smiled; for she was much pleased, and a little surprised. Mrs. Lindsay and her family, with their Sabbath rides and evening dancing parties, were not of course considered religious people. "What do you suppose," continued Emma, "is meant by the sincere milk of the word?"
"When a very little girl," replied Mary, "father bought me a small book called 'Milk for Babes,' and said it was for children who wanted to learn the first principles of the doctrine of Christ. That little book was all about charity."
"Was it?" said Emma, with animation, "how strange that I should have the same thoughts, without knowing anything about it! When you gave me this milk I thought of that passage, and of the one about the cup of cold water; and now, Mary, please to say why you took all this pains for me. Was it just to be polite?"
"No," replied Mary, smiling; "I was afraid that you might think me _im_-polite for offering you milk in a tin dipper, but I saw you looking pale and tired, and thought that it might do you good."
"That was giving it to me in the name of a disciple," said Emma, in a low voice, looking at the milk again, as though it was now hallowed and blessed of God. "It is delicious," said she, taking the cup from her lips, "and I feel better. I am not so weary; my head aches less, and my heart is refreshed."
"Then I have not lost my reward," said Mary. "But here come Fanny and Alice. They are very entertaining, and the day will be less tedious if you can manage to keep with them. Fanny is plain spoken, but people call her a good-hearted girl; and Alice is so funny."
"If you please," replied Emma, "I had rather be with you. I am not afraid of plain-spoken people, if they are kind. Dora is very careful to tell me my faults, but then her manner is such that I can't help feeling that it is because she loves me so well; so I am neither pained nor vexed. I used to be very partial to funny people; but I feel serious now nearly all of the time. I can love Fanny and Alice; but, Mary dear, I had rather be with you, if you please."
"O," replied Mary, "I love to have you with me."
She was prevented from saying more, for Alice now called out, "Forward, march! Do you hear the drum?"
"It is not probable," said Fanny, "that a religious person like Mary Palmer will march to the tune of Yankee Doodle upon a kettle-drum."
Emma looked at Mary, and saw the deep blush upon her face, and the tear that, in spite of herself, trembled in her mild blue eye.
"How unkind," thought Emma, "and so rude too! This plain-spoken girl has not a good heart, if people do think so. I shall ask Dora about her."
"It is the signal for dinner," said Mary, recovering herself in a minute, and turning with a smile toward Emma. "Henry wants us to go to the wagons." So they walked along arm-in-arm, while Alice and Fanny whispered together about this sudden intimacy, and prophesied that hot love like that would soon be cold.
"I mean to tell Mary just what I think of it," said Fanny; "for I am not afraid to speak my mind to anybody."
"Well," replied Alice, "I cannot imagine what Miss Emma likes in Mary, or why Mary is so charmed with her. This much I will say, but don't you name it to any one--neither of them is at all to my fancy."
It was not wonderful that Alice did not know the secret of that affection between two who were comparatively strangers to each other. The reason was not plain even to Emma and Mary, for neither of them yet knew it by the Scripture name, which is "unity of the Spirit." Each had loved the other while as yet no word of communication had passed between them, because each had a portion of that Spirit which binds heart to