Ariel Custer (21 page)

L
ittle Dick Smalley’s sturdy frame had been worn thin with anxiety during the days that preceded the trial. While the interest of the town centered in the courthouse, Dick had been alert and inexhaustible. He and Stubby were on hand at the door ready for service at any hour of the day, and the lawyers learned to know his freckled, anxious face. But only Emily Dillon’s lawyer dared ask a favor of him, for they had learned by experience where his sympathy lay and that he would not lift finger for any other, be it Dillon or Granniss or Boggs. He scorned them all.

He had scarcely slept at all for nights, tossing, and finally brought to the extremity of thumping his grimy knees down on the bare floor and trying to pray; though his petition was more in the nature of advice than prayer.

While the actual trial was going on he would not eat, and his lean body was growing almost emaciated. He looked white and drawn, and more than one looked at him passing and said: “That boy looks sick.” Yet nothing could abate his energy in service.

And when the great ending of the trial had come so suddenly and unexpectedly, it was Dick who had first caught sight of Emily from his post at the courthouse door where he was altering between retreat from fear of hearing the worst, and approach because he couldn’t keep away.

The car that brought Emily and her husband to the door of the courthouse swept up, and Dick swept down simultaneously and swung the car door open for her with the air of having been waiting for this exact moment for days. And Emily, with all her eagerness to hasten, turned to her husband: “Oh, Nate, this is Dick. And there is Stubby! Dear Stubby!” Then remembering, anxiously, “Are we in time, Dick?”

“Yep. Just on the dot. Get a hustle on. The other team’s makin’ a last home run. But you’ll can ’em all right! Oh, gee!” and Dick’s cap went up in the air with one triumphant fling. He caught it as he ran and was in time up the steps to swing the door noiselessly before them. And so, in breathless wonder, he stood and saw the final act of the tragedy that had turned suddenly into a comedy.

But when the end had come and they looked around for Dick because he had been so a part of Ariel’s and Jud’s plans for the last three days that they could not even rejoice without him, Dick had disappeared.

Down one street after another went Dick, his nimble feet fairly flying, and not far behind, Stubby, spinning away like a streak, his weak foot held in the air as much as might be, straight over hedges and through devious ways, till they came to the back door of Harriet Granniss’s bode. Stealthily and swiftly he climbed the neat steps, exulting in their cleanliness, and grasped the top of the garbage can, flinging it down into the velvety grass beneath, Stubby wagging approval below. Out went Dick’s hand to the hook, and he had almost made the motion that would have flung the contents of that pail once more over the cleanly scrubbed porch, when a sudden thought arrested him.

He paused, the weight of the heavy pail in his hands. That wasn’t the kind of thing those two he loved would do, or would like. Those
three
, he might say, for Miss Emily wouldn’t approve it either. It
ought
to be done. He would like to do it. But he couldn’t do it for their sakes. He had begun to go to Sunday school as soon as Ariel began to teach, and he knew a lesson about vengeance and that it wasn’t his business, it was God’s. That’s what all three of his friends would say. That’s what God would say. And God had answered his prayer. He hadn’t expected it at all—but He
had answered it.
He, just Dick, not even a Christian, had had an important prayer answered, and this wasn’t
fair
to treat God this way—!

Slowly, deliberately, he lifted the deadweight of the can and swung it back on the hook; more slowly he retraced his steps down to the grass, picked up the cover, and replaced it on its can. He paused. He couldn’t bear to have that woman go without a sign of how people thought of her—and yet! Well? There was that coal-of-fire business they had in Sunday school awhile back! Why not try that? That was legitimate. But where find a coal? He knit his brows and then was off again across the back fence, across the fields, the railroad track, and down to the flower beds when he ducked behind the station shed and gathered wildly armfuls of late asters, blue and white and purple and pink, from the beautiful station flower beds.

He tore up the last by the roots, removing the length of stems as he fled back again. He searched in his pocket for string and tied them to the front doorknob, escaping just in time, Stubby and all, as Harriet Granniss, unattached, rounded the corner and came to her lonely door. The Boggs girl had gone off with their lawyer on a joyride.

Harriet paused as she came up the steps, looked perplexed a moment, put out her hand to throw the flowers angrily away, then drew them carefully from their binding and looked at them, strangely touched.
Where
had they come from?
Why
had they come? They were the only sweet and pleasant thing that had come into her life in many a long day. She bur ied her grim old face in their sweet, cool fragrance and brought them into the house, and while she placed them carefully in water, the tears were raining down her cheeks. Who knows but the ice in her heart, too, was breaking up, for the flowers had touched what no punishment or blows had ever reached. Dick’s coal had found its place of burning.

Jud and Ariel had gone straight to their little house. Without putting it into words, they had gone of one accord; and standing there together before their own hearth, they looked into each other’s eyes with awe.

It was a long time before they spoke, and then Jud, with his arms close around Ariel, said in low, earnest tones, “Ariel, you’ve won. It’s true. He
did
care for us! I believed it, and now I
know
it. This morning I read a strange new verse. It said, ‘He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways,’ and I almost felt like sneering. Then I made up my mind I wouldn’t. I
would
trust even if this were the end! And now He’s proved it true!”

And Ariel lifted her eyes full of joy and said, “It would have been true anyway, no matter how it had come out! But oh, I’m so glad it has come out this way!”

Outside they heard the sound of a car, and Emily and her husband came driving up, with Dick on flying feet and Stubby just behind.

“Why can’t we be married right here, now, dear?” said Jud. “Dick’ll go and get the minister.” He raised his voice. “Won’t you, Dick?”

“Sure thing,” sang out Dick Smalley’s weary young voice alertly. “What is’t you want?”

Ariel smiled through the mist of joy in her eyes and said tenderly, “Jud, I think he’s been one of God’s angels, don’t you?”

And Jud answered fervently as Dick entered breathlessly: “He certainly has.”

R
ACE
L
IVINGSTON
H
ILL
(1865–1947) is known as the pioneer of Christian romance. Grace wrote more than a hundred faith-inspired books during her lifetime. When her first husband died, leaving her with two daughters to raise, writing became a way to make a living, but she always recognized storytelling as a way to share her faith in God. She has touched countless lives through the years and continues to touch lives today. Her books feature moving stories, delightful characters, and love in its purest form.

Love Endures
Grace Livingston Hill Classics

Available in 2012

The Beloved Stranger
The Prodigal Girl
A New Name
Re-Creations
Tomorrow About This Time
Crimson Roses
Blue Ruin
Coming Through the Rye
The Christmas Bride
Ariel Custer
Not Under the Law
Job’s Niece