Dorothy Page Part 24

It was an interesting spectacle that she presented on the next Sunday morning as she marched into the Sunday school with four girls whom she had ferreted out during the week, and who had promised to come with her on the following Sunday if she would come for them. The sight of Dorothy--beautiful in face but far more beautiful in soul--bending with such loving tenderness over her little quartette, put new zeal into the other teachers.

At the first visit that Dorothy made to the church she noticed its bare furnis.h.i.+ngs, but she gave no sign that she saw these things. Many plans had already begun to form in her mind as to improvements that might be made. When she heard the pastor announce a meeting of the Ladies' Aid Society for the next Tuesday afternoon she determined to be on hand. At the meeting she asked the ladies to tell her what work the society sought to do. They replied that they tried to raise money for different purposes; sometimes for coal, sometimes for pastor's salary, and that they had been hoping to raise something for improving the church building, but the other expenses were so heavy their money was needed to meet them.

At the next meeting she suggested that they make special effort to raise money for painting the church, and the plan she advised was that they make bonnets and ap.r.o.ns for sale. They agreed to this and set about the task. The women said they had very little money to give. They decided that in addition to the little money that they could donate they would also give some of their time and labor that could be turned into money.

They determined to rent an empty store and offer their goods for sale.

This was done. It had already been well advertised and the whole town was talking about the enterprise of the little Baptist church, and the happiest of all was Dorothy as she labored with the other women.

It was the announced purpose of the society that every article must be up to the standard in quality and that every purchaser must get the full worth of his money. They asked no buyer to be a benefactor. The women considered they were giving as much, if not more, than they were receiving. The giving and the sacrifice were not on the part of the buyers, but on the part of those women who had given their time and labor. When they counted up their gains they found they netted over a hundred dollars. But some good news awaited them. A paint dealer in the town, hearing of their brave purpose to paint their chapel, asked the privilege of donating a part of the paint. Two of their own members agreed to do the painting by working in the early hours of each day.

'Twas a happy day for Dorothy and for the church when the last touch of the brush was put on the church and the work was completed. They next decided that the church building must be lifted to the level of the street, and the ladies a.s.sumed that as their task. The men promised their labor at their off hours. A lumber merchant heard of their valiant struggle and made them a large gift of lumber, and thus the skies brightened for them. Dorothy's fingers, as well as the fingers of the older ladies, were busy making garments to be sold. Without going into details, let it be stated that the little church found itself at last on a level with the street and with an excellent Sunday school room in the bas.e.m.e.nt.

Dorothy's cla.s.s had grown to a band of twenty girls and it was a picture worth going far to see--that of Dorothy surrounded by her girls, and herself the happiest of them all.

During all this time Sterling was wrestling with a racking experience.

It had become apparent to him that convictions had arisen within his soul that were at variance with the cardinal doctrines of his church.

He loved his church and her history; he was devoted to the work in his Sunday school and his church. He determined, however, to remain with his people, even though he felt that his church was in error on certain points.

Thoughts of Dorothy filled his mind day and night. The past few weeks had been doleful ones for him. When Dorothy joined the Baptists he felt as if he had lost her forever. A gulf seemed to open between her and himself. In a way she seemed to have stepped into a higher realm, far above him.

Her work for her church and her Sunday school occupied the largest part of her time, and it was only occasionally that he had the pleasure of a tennis game with her.

CHAPTER XVI.

STERLING SCORES.

At this time Sterling found it necessary to take a trip through the West visiting his branch houses. It was a doleful trip for him. The spell of Dorothy was on him and he had never realized how dependent he was on her being near him. It was with a happy step that he bounded from the train at the end of his trip and hastened home with the thought of seeing her that evening.

Dorothy could hardly have explained it, but things had not seemed just right during Sterling's absence. That she was missing him she had not admitted to herself, but it is a fact that she found herself looking forward to his return with eager pleasure.

Each day Sterling sought an excuse for a few words with her. If he could not make an engagement for a tennis game or an automobile ride in the country he would ask for a drive with her on one of her rounds of visiting among her scholars. In fact, it was one of his greatest treats to go with her on such visits. He was sure that no lovelier sight had ever been presented than that of Dorothy in her happy ministrations to her scholars. She found comfort in confiding to him her plans regarding her cla.s.s and her church, and in them he was keenly interested. Many of his suggestions were helpful to her.

He told her one day that his convictions as to Bible doctrines were the same as hers, that the investigations through which they had gone had brought him to that point, but that he did not think that was a reason for his abandoning the church in which he had spent all his life--the church in which there had been a long line of his ancestors before him.

He said he expected to remain there and work, but that he would feel free to state his convictions whenever he thought it proper, and he would rejoice if the day should ever come when his church would see and abandon its error.

When Sterling found it necessary again to be absent--this time for a week--Dorothy found herself counting the days until his return. The sympathetic interest that he had shown in her new experience had made his company very acceptable. She started a game of tennis with her brother on the third afternoon after Sterling's departure, but she soon grew tired of the game and announced that she must do some visiting, and she immediately set out for the homes of her scholars. Sterling cut short his trip and arrived home on the third day after his departure. As he went speeding up to his office from the depot he espied Dorothy on the street. What a shock she received as she saw him stepping out of the machine to greet her.

"I know what you are up to!" he exclaimed. "You are off on another one of those angel visits to your neglected ones, and you must let me go with you. My machine will enable you to make twice as many of them happy as you could with your walking."

Dorothy yielded to his insistent invitation and she found herself whirled along to the other section of the town; and after the visit Sterling headed the machine for a spin into the country.

Thus the days sped by, but there was never a day on which Sterling was not with Dorothy. Into his ear she told all her experiences and her plans in her new church life.

Sterling was called away one morning by a telegram to Louisville.

Dorothy knew nothing about it, and when he did not appear on the tennis grounds that afternoon, and she had not yet heard anything from him, she thought it strange; and when bedtime came and still no news, she was first surprised and then resentful that he should act in such neglectful fas.h.i.+on. When she heard nothing from him on the next day she found herself nervous and uneasy. She could not get her consent to make inquiries about him, and when she retired that night it was with a headache.

She was standing in her front porch next morning when his automobile dashed up to his gate and Sterling stepped out. He saw her and hurried over and gave her an almost hilarious greeting. He noticed an apparent reserve in her manner, and yet the thought pa.s.sed from his mind.

"It seems like a small century since I saw you, Dorothy. A telegram pulled me off for Louisville early Tuesday morning, and from that moment until I boarded the train I have been in a mad dash to finish my work and get back, and I tell you I am prodigiously happy to be here."

If Dorothy had studied his eyes during the last remark she might easily have read the reason for his desire to return.

"And now I must make up for lost time. I have had no pleasure ride since I left and I must have one this afternoon. Don't deny a dilapidated traveler the pleasure, but be ready at two-thirty for a ride, and after that for a tennis game." Before she could give her answer he decided it for her and told her that he would be on hand at the time mentioned.

For two hours that afternoon they sped along the country road in happy converse. In fact, their ride was lengthened into nearly three hours.

That evening found him again at her side. The clock struck eleven. He had started to leave a half hour before the time, and still he lingered.

Suddenly he turned his eyes upon her and said:

"Dorothy, do you know why I dashed through my Louisville trip at such break-neck speed this week?"

"Why, you had to get back to your business, did you not?"

"Dorothy, it was you that pulled me back, and I tell you there can be no real life for me without you, and I must have you mine forever. From the first moment of our meeting I have been yours. G.o.d intended us for each other."

"You speak very confidently," she said with a smile, but with her heart filled with a strange new happiness.

"Speak, Dorothy, do we not belong to each other?"

"I do not deny it."

Never had the town witnessed a more beautiful marriage than that of Dorothy Page and Gilbert Sterling. That was the verdict of the people when the blissful pair smiled their adieus at the depot and moved off on their wedding tour.

It amounted to a sensation when the rich Presbyterian elder severed his connection with his great church and joined the Baptists. It meant a bright era for the Baptist church. Before a year rolled around a handsome new building had been erected on a commanding lot in the center of the town. Without offering any opposition to his old Presbyterian church, Sterling plunged into the work of his new charge with whole-hearted devotion. He made a study of the Baptist denomination in the state of Kentucky and in the South and North. One of his first acts was to subscribe for several Baptist papers, and it was interesting to Dorothy to note with what eagerness he read everything in the papers, and each time his reading was punctuated with exclamations of surprise at the world-wide activities of the Baptists as he saw them recorded in the columns of the papers. He found himself enthusiastic about their history and their present enterprises The efforts of the State Mission Board greatly interested him, and he determined to get into close touch with it. He told his wife that he intended to identify himself with all these denominational movements and share their burdens.

The Baptists of Kentucky and of the whole country have reason to be grateful for the day when Gilbert Sterling enlisted in their ranks. He is as yet on the threshold of his usefulness. He is studying the needs and tasks of his denomination, seeking to know how he can devote his strength and his possessions most effectively to its upbuilding. There is no happier Baptist family in Kentucky and none destined to a wider usefulness than that of the Sterlings.

(THE END.)