Morning came at last, bringing light and warmth, and the children were up and ready for the remainder of their journey. Mr. Hill and Ned were sober now, and luckily the bottle was empty. They were very cross and out of sorts from the effects of their drinking, but able to help with the work. Mr. Hill could limp about on his injured leg, and so they were soon off to their first camp.
At last they drove to the place that Mr. Hill had previously chosen to set up camp, and soon the tent was up and the stove ready for the fire, and the few cooking-utensils in place. While part of the company were doing this, one man had already gone to the field, and the sound of the mower, as it cut the fragrant grasses, came in a merry tune to their ears.
Since the brown bottle that had caused them so much grief on their journey was empty, things went on very smoothly in camp. The girls did very well with the cooking, with Austin’s ever-ready help when they were in perplexity. Everything took on a more hopeful air.
“I am not going to work today, Father,” said Austin quietly the first Sunday morning.
“Not going to work! Are you sick? What is the matter with you?” gruffly answered his father.
“This is Sunday, the day set for worship, and I wish to have it for study and prayer even if I can not go to church.”
“We have no time for sentiment here. This work must be done in the quickest time possible. We are all going to work today the same as any other day,” said Mr. Hill decidedly.
“Do not count me in for today. I shall not work,” said his son just as decidedly.
Henry Hill looked at his son in a puzzled manner. He wanted to force him to do as he had bidden him, but he remembered another time when Austin had said just as decidedly that he would not do as he had been told, and the consequence of trying to use force. So without a word he turned about and went on to his work.
Austin thought a principle was at stake in this. His father had no sympathy with his desire to serve God and would have been glad to hinder him from careful obedience. If he gave in to ignore what he thought to be the teaching of the Word and to ignore the dictates of his own conscience in working on Sunday while he was here in the hay-field, he could not hope to have freedom in service to God in other things. He remembered how his first pastor had warned him to be bold and fearless in his home in serving God and he would keep the victory. When Mr. Hill had gone out, Austin helped the girls get their morning work done and dinner planned, then with his Bible in hand he strolled off to the shade of a hay-stack and spent a profitable season in study and prayer. The days had been so full that he had had little opportunity for communion with God during the week, and this was very refreshing to his soul.
“I see where you have the best of us,” said Ned at the dinner-hour, “for you get a day’s rest, and we do not.”
“My team and I can work all the better tomorrow for our rest today,” said Austin with conviction. “My father will lose nothing by my keeping Sunday. Man and beast need one day of rest out of the seven on a job like this.”
Austin was to see many trying places where neither his father nor his brother would be any help to him in his service to God, and it is well for his future progress that he learned right at the first to stand by his convictions. But it is not more true in his case than in the case of every young Christian. Those who will stand faithful in the tests of life are the ones who gain the crown at last. While it is true that God has promised to keep his children in the most trying circumstances, it is also true that the child must put his trust wholly in God and live obediently. The Christian can go through any dark place and endure any hardness if he keeps a firm trust in God and, his purpose strong and true, but he will falter in the smallest trials if he is not firm.
The young Christian need not hope to be always surrounded by those who are in sympathy with his religious life, but each must learn to serve God in spite of circumstances and surroundings. And the service of God is not a thing to be hidden away. If a man is a Christian, he will show it out every day. It will make a difference in his whole life. There will in all that he does and says be an influence for God and good. This is especially true of the young man who is thrown among those who are sinful and rough. The difference in the tone of his life and theirs is a constant reproof to sin that will, as in the case of Austin and his father, bring embarrassment to the sinner.
The days moved by in quick succession, with very little variation in the order of the day’s work. They rose early and worked late. Three meals a day were waiting for them in the tent, prepared by the faithful little cooks. Only on Sunday was there a variation in the routine, and on that day Austin refused to go to the field at all.
The hay had been finished around the first camp and they had moved back to another good center, only in a few days to move again. Now they had come to their last camp, which was but ten miles from town. Another week or ten days would let them out of their job and they could go home, but often the last week is the longest week when one is isolated. Austin longed to be back to his Sunday-school and to meet again with the congregation at the little chapel.
“Father,” he asked on Saturday evening before the sixth Sunday out, “may I have a horse to ride to town tomorrow?”
“What do you want to go to town for? We are not especially needing anything,” ungraciously replied his father.
“Tomorrow is Sunday and one team will be idle. I want to get back to my Sunday-school class and to meet with the people in church once more. I will not ride fast if you will let me have a horse.”
“No, you can not have a horse. I have them out here for work, not to run about,” snapped the man.
Austin said no more and went quietly back to his reading. Mr. Hill thought he had scored a victory and felt elated accordingly, but Austin was only waiting to consider what his duty might be. In the morning he rose before day and prepared himself for a journey. He took nothing to hinder his progress, but with his Bible under his arm he set out for town. If he had no bad luck, he could get a part of the Sunday-school and all the preaching service.
“Where is Austin?” asked his father at the breakfast-table, for his place was vacant.
“He started for town before we were up. He wants to get there in time for church,” said Amy.
“Ten miles to church. That is a record and no mistake,” laughed Ned. Wilbur and his father joined him in the merriment, but Mr. Hill felt a twinge of conscience. “I might have let him have a horse if he was so determined to go,” he said.
“I wonder how Austin made it this morning. Wonder if he will be back for work tomorrow,” remarked Wilbur at the dinner-table.
Austin was entirely unmindful of these remarks. He walked the full ten miles to town and arrived in time for about half the Sunday-school. He was too late to teach his boys, but promised to be with them the next Sunday. He went out to the house and rested during the afternoon and remained in town for the night service. He rose early the next morning and started back to his work, but this time he did not have to walk the whole way.
“Good morning, Parson, want a ride?” a cheery voice called. Austin looked up, a little abashed at being addressed as Parson, but glad for the offer.
“Thank you, sir, I should be glad to ride,” he said, climbing in.
“I took you for a parson when I saw that book under your arm, but you look too young for the part,” said the man looking at him curiously.
“No, I am not a preacher, but a hay-hand from Jenkin’s ranch. I walked in to church yesterday, and am just getting back this morning.”
“You are more serious about such things than some people I know, to walk that far to hear a sermon,” laughed the man.
“Perhaps, but I find it worth being serious about,” good-naturedly replied Austin.
The ride carried him within a short distance of his work, and he was ready to be in his place when the grass was dry enough to cut. He felt none the worse for his journey, and greatly refreshed in spirit for having met with the people of God.
Before the week was out they had finished the last acre of cutting, and retraced their steps to their home at the edge of town.
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