The Fair Haven | Page 8

plant
as the love of a child for its parents. Nature has allowed ample margin
for many blunders, provided there be a genuine desire on the parent's
part to make the child feel that he is loved, and that his natural feelings
are respected. This is all the religious education which a child should
have. As he grows older he will then turn naturally to the waters of life,
and thirst after them of his own accord by reason of the spiritual
refreshment which they, and they only, can afford. Otherwise he will
shrink from them, on account of his recollection of the way in which he
was led down to drink against his will, and perhaps with harshness,
when all the analogies with which he was acquainted pointed in the
direction of their being unpleasant and unwholesome. So
soul-satisfying is family affection to a child, that he who has once
enjoyed it cannot bear to be deprived of the hope that he is possessed in
Heaven of a parent who is like his earthly father--of a friend and
counsellor who will never, never fail him. There is no such religious
nor moral education as kindly genial treatment and a good example; all
else may then be let alone till the child is old enough to feel the want of
it. It is true that the seed will thus be sown late, but in what a soil! On
the other hand, if a man has found his earthly father harsh and
uncongenial, his conception of his Heavenly Parent will be painful. He
will begin by seeing God as an exaggerated likeness of his father. He
will therefore shrink from Him. The rottenness of stillborn love in the
heart of a child poisons the blood of the soul, and hence, later, crime.
To return, however, to the lady. When she had put on her night-gown,
she knelt down by her bedside and, to our consternation, began to say
her prayers. This was a cruel blow to both of us; we had always been
under the impression that grownup people were not made to say their
prayers, and the idea of any one saying them of his or her own accord
had never occurred to us as possible. Of course the lady would not say
her prayers if she were not obliged; and yet she did say them; therefore
she must be obliged to say them; therefore we should be obliged to say
them, and this was a very great disappointment. Awe- struck and

open-mouthed we listened while the lady prayed in sonorous accents,
for many things which I do not now remember, and finally for my
father and mother and for both of us--shortly afterwards she rose, blew
out the light and got into bed. Every word that she said had confirmed
our worst apprehensions; it was just what we had been taught to say
ourselves.
Next morning we compared notes and drew the most painful inferences;
but in the course of the day our spirits rallied. We agreed that there
were many mysteries in connection with life and things which it was
high time to unravel, and that an opportunity was now afforded us
which might not readily occur again. All we had to do was to be true to
ourselves and equal to the occasion. We laid our plans with great
astuteness. We would be fast asleep when the lady came up to bed, but
our heads should be turned in the direction of her bed, and covered with
clothes, all but a single peep-hole. My brother, as the eldest, had clearly
a right to be nearest the lady, but I could see very well, and could
depend on his reporting faithfully whatever should escape me.
There was no chance of her giving us anything--if she had meant to do
so she would have done it sooner; she might, indeed, consider the
moment of her departure as the most auspicious for this purpose, but
then she was not going yet, and the interval was at our own disposal.
We spent the afternoon in trying to learn to snore, but we were not
certain about it, and in the end regretfully concluded that as snoring
was not de rigueur we had better dispense with it.
We were put to bed; the light was taken away; we were told to go to
sleep, and promised faithfully that we would do so; the tongue indeed
swore, but the mind was unsworn. It was agreed that we should keep
pinching one another to prevent our going to sleep. We did so at
frequent intervals; at last our patience was rewarded with the heavy
creak, as of a stout elderly lady labouring up the stairs, and presently
our victim entered.
To cut a long story