A Wayside Harvest [pp. 402-411]

A WAYSIDE HARVEST.
around ready and let them make friends
with us. That's what Sister Hale
wanted,- that our right hand should give
to the left, and that the left should not
feel ashamed, but as one who has the
right, as an equal and a friend, should
return to that right hand tenfold; and
that the right hand should never say, or
even think,' I but receive my own again
from my creature whom I have made!'
Sister Hale wanted a good deal.
"We know how well she planned, but
we did n't help her. We are Christians,
peaceable and law-abiding,- when we
keep our fences up and the bars closed,but we knew we could not work together.
We knew that bickerings and jealousies
and suspicions would creep in as they
have always crept in,- and we could n't
pull together. Too long have our hands
been against every man, and every
man's hand against us! Sister Hale
could n't carry out her plan alone. It
needed money to start with, and she
was n't a rich woman,- so it fell through.
Those children have been growing up
with idle hands. With idle hands? Who
creep into our gardens at night and steal
our choice fruits? Who rifle our henhouses? Who, as we walk across the
street in our respectable black coats,
jeer at us, and call after us,' Ain't ye
never hearn tell of Christ?' Oh, they
know us! They've been to our Sundayschools,- once in a while.
"No, we did n't help her, but she did
what she could. She let them know
that she understood them and felt for
them, even if't was only a matter of
stealing rides on the electric cars. I don't
think she ever asked them if they loved
Jesus,- why should they love Jesus?but I've seen her sit down on a dobr
step and explain the use of the brakes
and the trolley, and tell them of the good
and ill worked in this world by that potent force now acting under the guidance
of the motor-man, though you could n't
hear it, or see it, or feel it- with the
hands- but you could feel it all through
you, like a conscience! Do you suppose
one of them will ever forget it? or that
there was one of them who did n't tack
a moral to it? I've seen those little
boys flush up under the dirt, and twist
around on one foot when she went by,so afraid she would n't see them! Why,
that was their way of lifting their hats!
And I've seen the little unkept girls
clinging to her gown and holding her
hands!
"We all approve of this. It is a little
light shining in a dark place, and we approve. Sister Hale did other things of
which we did not approve. She closed
the saloons in this town,- yes, we may
say she did it. Some of us have n't forgiven her for it yet. Our sister city gets
all our trade! Oh, there are some things
which cannot be forgiven, even to the
dead!
"You know how we've prayed to
save the fallen women of our town.
What we've intended to save them to,
I'm sure I don't know. We did n't intend to give them work,- I'm sure of
that. We would n't have them around.
We never could know that they had
really reformed. We can't trust such
people. We did n't intend to give them
love and sympathy,- I' m sure of that.
We could n't. Something inborn, something fine and high, hedged us about as
with armor. We called a meeting in
their behalf, and invited Sister Hale.
She came. She spoke. We have not
yet recovered from the shock of her
words. You know that after that, some
of us had to drop her acquaintance. We
could n't have the very citadel of purity
stormed like that.
"Some of her friends are here today.
You don't know them. I don't know
them. Is there not one among us who
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