The Kings Daughters | Page 8

where he shouldn't be, that's the place where you
commonly find him. Baby can't walk yet, so she's safe; but whatever I
shall do when she can, I'm sure I don't know! I can't be in all the places
at once where two of them shouldn't be."
Rose could not help laughing.
"Little maid," she said kindly, "thy small shoulders will never hold the
world, nor even thy father's cottage. Hast thou forgot what thou saidst
not an half-hour gone, that God takes care of you all?"
"Oh yes, He takes big care of us," was Cissy's answer. "He'll see that
we have meat and clothes and so forth, and that Father gets work. But
He'll hardly keep Will and Baby out of mischief, will He? Isn't that too
little for Him?"
"The whole world is but a speck, little Cicely, compared with Him. If

He will humble Himself to see thee and me at all, I reckon He is as like
to keep Will out of mischief as to keep him alive. It is the very
greatness of God that He can attend to all the little things in the world
at once. They are all little things to Him. Hast thou not heard that the
Lord Jesus said the very hairs of our heads be numbered?"
"Yea, Sir Thomas read that one eve at Ursula's."
Sir Thomas Tye was the Vicar of Much Bentley.
"Well," said Rose, "and isn't it of more importance to make Will a good
lad than to know how many hairs he's got on his head? Wouldn't thy
father think so?"
"For sure he would," said Cissy earnestly.
"And isn't God thy Father?"
Just as Rose asked that, a tall, dark figure turned out of a lane they were
passing, and joined them. It was growing dusk, but Rose recognised the
Vicar of whom they had just been speaking. Most priests were called
"Sir" in those days.
"Christ bless you, my children!" said the Vicar.
Both Rose and Cissy made low courtesies, for great respect was then
paid to a clergyman. They called them priests, for very few could read
the Bible, which tells us that the only priest is our Lord Jesus Christ. A
priest does not mean the same thing as a clergyman, though too many
people thoughtlessly speak as if it did. A priest is a man who offers a
sacrifice of some living thing to God. So, as Jesus Christ, who offered
Himself, is our sacrifice, and there can never be any other, there cannot
be any priests now. There are a great many texts which tell us this, but I
will only mention one, which you can look out in your Bibles and learn
by heart: the tenth verse of the tenth chapter of the Epistle to the
Hebrews. It is easy to remember two tens.
Cissy was a little frightened when she saw that Sir Thomas walked on

with them; but Rose marched on as if she did not care whether he came
or not. For about a year after Queen Mary's accession Sir Thomas had
come pretty regularly to the prayer-meetings which were held
sometimes at the Blue Bell, and sometimes at Ursula Felstede's at
Thorpe, and also sometimes at John Love's on the Heath. He often read
the Bible to them, and gave them little sermons, and seemed as kind
and pleasant as possible. But when Queen Mary had been about a year
on the throne, and it could be plainly seen which way things were
going--that is, that she would try to bring back the Popish religion
which her brother had cast off--Sir Thomas began to come less often.
He found it too far to John Love's and to Thorpe; and whenever the
meeting was at the Blue Bell, which was only a few hundred yards
from the Vicarage,--well, it certainly was odd that Sir Thomas was
always poorly on that night. Still, nobody liked to think that he was
making believe; but Alice Mount said so openly, and Rose had heard
her.
CHAPTER FIVE.
IN DIFFICULTIES.
Cissy Johnson was not old enough to understand all the reasons why
her father distrusted the priest; but she knew well that "Father didn't
like him," and like the dutiful little girl she was, she was resolved not to
make a friend of any one whom her father disliked, for she knew that
he might have good reasons which she could not understand. But Cissy
had been taught to be civil to everybody, and respectful to her betters--
lessons of which a little more would not hurt some folks in the present
day. People make a great mistake who think that you cannot both be
respectful to others and independent for yourself. The Bible teaches us
to do both. Being