So it was with everything else in life; Thomas did not think, he gulpedit down. Thus in these matters of faith, if other young folk ventured totalk of "allegory" or even to cast unhallowed doubts upon such pointsas those of the exact method of the appearance on this earth of theirMother Eve, or whether the sun actually did stand still at the biddingof Joshua, or the ark, filled with countless pairs of living creatures,floated to the top of Ararat, or Jonah, defying digestive juices, infact abode three days in the interior of a whale, Thomas looked on themwith a pitying smile and remarked that what had been written by Mosesand other accepted prophets was enough for him.
Indeed a story was told of him when he was a boy at school which wellexemplified this attitude. By way of lightening their labours a verynoted geologist who had the art of interesting youthful audiences andmaking the rocks of the earth tell their own secular story, was broughtto lecture to his House. This eminent man lectured extremely well. Heshowed how beyond a doubt the globe we inhabit, one speck of matter,floating in the sea of space, had existed for millions upon millions ofyears, and how by the evolutionary changes of countless ages it hadat length become fitted to be the habitation of men, who probablythemselves had lived and moved and had their being there for at least amillion of years, perhaps much longer.
At the conclusion of the entrancing story the boys were invited to askquestions. Thomas Bull, a large, beetle-browed youth, rose at onceand inquired of their titled and aged visitor, a man of world-widereputation, why he thought it funny to tell them fairy tales. The oldgentleman, greatly interested, put on his spectacles, and while the restof the school gasped and the head master and other pedagogues staredamazed, studied this strange lad, then said:
"I am outspoken myself, and I like those who speak out when they do sofrom conviction; but, my young friend, why do you consider that I--well,exaggerate?"
"Because the Bible says so," replied Thomas unabashed. "The Bible tellsus that the world was made in six days, not in millions of years, andthat the sun and the moon and the stars were put in the sky to light it;also that man was created four thousand years B.C. Therefore, either youare wrong, sir, or the Bible is, and _I_ prefer the Bible."
The eminent scientist took off his spectacles and carefully put themaway, remarking:
"Most logical and conclusive. Pray, young gentleman, do not allowany humble deductions of my own or others to interfere with yourconvictions. Only I believe it was Archbishop Ussher, not the Bible, whosaid that the world began about 4,000 B.C. I think that one day you maybecome a great man--in your own way. Meanwhile I might suggest that acertain sugaring of manners sweetens controversy."
After this no more questions were asked, and the meeting broke up inconfusion.
From all of which it will be gathered that since none of us is perfect,even in Thomas there were weak points. For instance, he had what isknown as a "temper," also he was blessed with a good idea of himself andhis own abilities, and had a share of that intolerance by which this isso often accompanied.
In due course Thomas Bull became a theological student. Rarely was theresuch a student. He turned neither to left nor right, worked eight hoursa day when he did not work ten, and took the highest possible degrees onevery subject. Then he was ordained. About this time he chanced to heara series of sermons by a Colonial bishop that directed his mind towardsthe mission-field. This was after he had served as a deacon in an EastEnd parish and become acquainted with savagery in its western form.
He consulted with his friends and his superiors as to whether his truecall were not to the far parts of the earth. Unanimously they answeredthat they thought so; so unanimously that a mild fellow-labourer whomhe bullied was stung to the uncharitable remark that almost it looked asthough they wanted to be rid of him. Perhaps they did; perhaps they heldthat for energy so gigantic there was no fitting outlet in this narrowland.
But as it chanced there was another to be consulted, for by this timethe Rev. Thomas Bull had become engaged to the only daughter of adeceased London trader--in fact, he had been a shop-keeper upon a largescale. This worthy citizen had re-married late in life, choosing, orbeing chosen by a handsome and rather fashionable lady of a somewhathigher class than his own, who was herself a widow. By her he had noissue, his daughter, Dorcas, being the child of his first marriage. Mr.Humphreys, for that was his name, made a somewhat peculiar will, leavingall his fortune, which was considerable, to his young widow, charged,however, with an annuity of 300 pounds settled on his daughter Dorcas.
On the day before his death, however, he added a codicil which angeredMrs. Humphreys very much when she saw it, to the effect that if shere-married, three-fourths of the fortune were to pass to Dorcas at once,and that she or her heirs were ultimately to receive it all upon thedecease of his wife.
The result of these testamentary dispositions was that one house,although it chanced to be large, proved too small to hold Mrs. Humphreysand her stepdaughter, Dorcas. The latter was a mild and timid littlecreature with a turned-up nose, light-coloured fluffy hair andan indeterminate mouth. Still there was a degree of annoyance andfashionable scorn at which her spirit rose. The end of it was that shewent to live on her three hundred a year and to practise good works inthe East End, being laudably determined to make a career for herself,which she was not in the least fitted to do.
Thus it was that Dorcas came into contact with the Rev. Thomas Bull.From the first time she saw her future husband he dominated andfascinated her. He was in the pulpit and really looked very handsomethere with his burly form, his large black eyes and his determined,clean-shaven face. Moreover, he preached well in his own vigorousfashion.
On this occasion he was engaged in denouncing the vices and pettiness ofmodern woman--upper-class modern woman--of whom he knew nothing atall, a topic that appealed to an East End congregation. He showed howworthless was this luxurious stamp of females, what a deal they thoughtof dress and of other more evil delights. He compared them to theFlorentines whom Savonarola (in his heart Thomas saw resemblancesbetween himself and that great if narrow man) scourged till they wept inrepentance and piled up their jewels and fripperies to be burned.
What do they do with their lives, he asked. Is there one in ten thousandof them who would abandon her luxuries and go forth to spread the lightin the dark places of earth, or would even pinch herself to supportothers who did? And so on for thirty minutes.
Dorcas, listening and, reflecting on her stepmother, thought howmarvellously true it all was. Had he known her personally, which so faras she was aware was not the case, the preacher could not have describedher better. Also it was certain that Mrs. Humphreys and her friends hadnot the slightest intention of spreading any kind of light, unless itwere that of their own eyes and jewels, or of going anywhere to do so,except perhaps to Monte Carlo in the spring.
How noble too was the picture he painted of the life of self-sacrificeand high endeavour that lay open to her sex. She would like to leadthat higher life, being in truth a good-hearted little thing full ofrighteous impulses; only unfortunately she did not know how, for herpresent mild and tentative efforts had been somewhat disappointing intheir fruits.
Then an inspiration seized her; she would consult Mr. Bull.
She did so, with results that might have been anticipated. Within threemonths she and her mentor were engaged and within six married.
It was during those fervid weeks of engagement that the pair agreed, notwithout a little hesitation upon the part of Dorcas, that in due coursehe would become a missionary and set forth to convert the heathen inwhat he called "Blackest Africa." First, however, there was much to bedone; he must go through a long course of training; he must acquainthimself with various savage languages, such as Swahili and Zulu, and somust she.
Oh! how poor Dorcas, who was not very clever and had no gift of tonguescame to loathe those barbaric dialects. Still she worked away at themlike a heroine, confining herself ultimately, with a wise and practicalprescience, to learning words and sentences that
dealt with domesticaffairs, as as "Light the fire." "Put the kettle on to boil." "Sister,have you chopped the wood?" "Cease making so much noise in thekitchen-hut." "Wake me if you hear the lion eating our cow." And soforth.
For more than a year after their marriage these preliminaries continuedwhile Thomas worked like a horse, though it is true that Dorcasslackened her attention to Swahili and Zulu grammar in the pressure ofmore immediate affairs. Especially was this so after the baby was born,a girl, flaxen-haired like her mother, whom Thomas christened by thename of Tabitha, and who in after years became the "Little Flower" ofthis history. Then as the time of departure drew near another thinghappened. Her stepmother, Mrs. Humphreys, insisted upon going to a ballin Lent, where she caught a chill that developed into inflammation ofthe lungs and killed her.
The result of this visitation of Providence, as Thomas called it, wasthat Dorcas suddenly found herself a rich woman with an income of quite2000 pounds a year, for her father had been wealthier than she knew.Now temptation took hold of her. Why, she asked herself, should Thomasdepart to Africa to teach black people, when with his gifts and hermeans he could stop at home comfortably and before very long become abishop, or at the least a dean?
Greatly daring, she propounded this matter to her husband, only to findthat she might better have tried to knock down a stone wall withher head than induce him to change his plans. He listened to herpatiently--unless over-irritated, a perfectly exasperating patience wasone of his gifts--then said in a cold voice that he was astonished ather.
"When you were poor," he went on, "you vowed yourself to this service,and now because we are rich you wish to turn traitor and become a seekerafter the fleshpots of Egypt. Never let me hear you mention the matteragain."
"But there is the baby," she exclaimed. "Africa is hot and might notagree with her."
"Heaven will look after the baby," he answered.
"That's just what I am afraid of," wailed Dorcas.
Then they had their first quarrel, in the course of which, be itadmitted, she said one or two spiteful things. For instance, shesuggested that the real reason he wished to go abroad was because he wasso unpopular with his brother clergymen at home, and especially with hissuperiors, to whom he was fond of administering lectures and reproofs.
It ended, of course, in her being crushed as flat as is a broken-wingedbutterfly that comes in the path of a garden roller. He stood up andtowered over her.
"Dorcas," he said, "do what you will. Stay here if you wish, and enjoyyour money and your luxuries. I sail on the first of next month forAfrica. Because you are weak, do I cease to be strong?"
"I think not," she replied, sobbing, and gave in.
So they sailed, first class--this was a concession, for he had intendedto go third--but without a nurse; on that point he stood firm.
"You must learn to look after your own children," he said, a remark atwhich she made a little face that meant more than he knew.
II
The career of Mr. and Mrs. Bull during the next eight years calls forbut little comment. Partly because Tabitha was delicate at first andmust be within reach of doctors, they lived for the most part at variouscoast cities in Africa, where Thomas worked with his usual fervourand earnestness, acquiring languages which he learned to speak withconsiderable perfection, though Dorcas never did, and acquaintinghimself thoroughly with the local conditions in so far as they affectedmissionary enterprise.
He took no interest in anything else, not even in the history of thenatives, or their peculiar forms of culture, since for the most partthey have a secret culture of their own. All that was done with, hesaid, a turned page of the black and barbarous past; it was his businessto write new things upon a new sheet. Perhaps it was for this reasonthat Thomas Bull never really came to understand or enter into the heartof a Zulu, or a Basuto, or a Swahili, or indeed of any dark-skinned man,woman, or child. To him they were but brands to be snatched from theburning, desperate and disagreeable sinners who must be saved, and heset to work to save them with fearful vigour.
His wife, although her vocabulary was still extremely limited and mucheked out with English or Dutch words, got on much better with them.
"You know, Thomas," she would say, "they have all sorts of fine ideaswhich we don't understand, and are not so bad in their way, only youmust find out what their way is."
"I have found out," he said grimly; "it is a very evil way, the way ofdestruction. I wish you would not make such a friend of that sly blacknurse-girl who tells me a lie once out of every three times she opensher mouth."
For the rest Dorcas was fairly comfortable, as with their means shewas always able to have a nice house in whatever town they might bestationed, where she could give tennis parties and even little lunchesand dinners, that is if her husband chanced to be away, as often hewas visiting up-country districts, or taking the duty there for anothermissionary who was sick or on leave. Indeed, in these conditions shecame to like Africa fairly well, for she was a chilly little thing wholoved its ample, all-pervading sunshine, and made a good many friends,especially among young men, to whom her helplessness and rather forlornlittle face appealed.
The women, too, liked her, for she was kindly and always ready to helpin case of poverty or other distresses. Luckily, in a way, she was herown mistress, since her fortune came to her unfettered by any marriagesettlements; moreover, it was in the hands of trustees, so that theprincipal could not be alienated. Therefore she had her own account andher own cheque-book and used her spare money as she liked. More than onepoor missionary's wife knew this and called her blessed, as through herbounty they once again looked upon the shores of England or were ableto send a sick child home for treatment. But of these good deeds Dorcasnever talked, least of all to her husband. If he suspected them, afterone encounter upon some such matter, in which she developed a hiddenstrength and purpose, he had the sense to remain silent.
So things went on for years, not unhappily on the whole, for as theyrolled by the child Tabitha grew acclimatised and much stronger. By thistime, although Dorcas loved her husband as all wives should, obeying himin all, or at any rate in most things, she had come to recognise that heand she were very differently constituted. Of course, she knew thathe was infinitely her superior, and indeed that of most people. Likeeverybody else she admired his uprightness, his fixity of purpose andhis devouring energy and believed him to be destined to great things.Still, to tell the truth, which she often confessed with penitenceupon her knees, on the whole she felt happier, or at any rate morecomfortable, during his occasional absences to which allusion has beenmade, when she could have her friends to tea and indulge in human gossipwithout being called "worldly."
It only remains to add that her little girl Tabitha, a name sheshortened into Tabbie, was her constant joy, especially as she had noother children. Tabbie was a bright, fair-haired little thing, clever,too, with resource and a will of her own, an improved edition ofherself, but in every way utterly unlike her father, a fact thatsecretly annoyed him. Everybody loved Tabitha, and Tabitha lovedeverybody, not excepting the natives, who adored her. Between theKaffirs and Tabitha there was some strong natural bond of sympathy. Theyunderstood one another.
At length came the blow.
It happened thus. Not far from the borders of Zululand but in thecountry that is vaguely known as Portuguese Territory, was a certaintribe of mixed Zulu and Basuto blood who were called the Ama-Sisa, thatis, the People of the Sisa. Now "Sisa" in the Zulu tongue has a peculiarmeaning which may be translated as "Sent Away." It is said that theyacquired this name because the Zulu kings when they exercised dominionover all that district were in the habit of despatching large herds ofthe royal cattle to be looked after by these people, or in their ownidiom to be _sisa'd_, i.e. agisted, as we say in English of stock thatare entrusted to another to graze at a distance from the owner's home.
Some, however, gave another reason. In the territory of this tribe wasa certain spot of which we shall hear more later, where t
hese sameZulu kings were in the habit of causing offenders against their law orcustoms to be executed. Such also, like the cattle, were "sent away,"and from one of these two causes, whichever it may have been, or perhapsfrom both, the tribe originally derived its name.
It was not a large tribe, perhaps there were three hundred and fiftyheads of families in it, or say something under two thousand souls inall, descendants, probably, of a mild, peace-loving, industrious Basutostock on to which had been grafted a certain number of the dominant,warlike Zulus who perhaps had killed out the men and possessedthemselves of the Basuto women and their cattle. The result was thatamong this small people there were two strains, one of the bellicosetype, who practically remained Zulus, and the other of the milder andmore progressive Basuto stamp, who were in the majority.
Among these Sisas missionaries had been at work for a number of years,with results that on the whole were satisfactory. More than half ofthem had been baptised and were Christians of a sort; a church had beenbuilt; a more or less modern system of agriculture had been introduced,and the most of the population wore trousers or skirts, according tosex. Recently, however, trouble had arisen over the old question ofpolygamy. The missionaries would not tolerate more than one wife, whilethe Zulu section of the tribe insisted upon the old prerogative ofplural marriage.
The dispute had ended in something like actual fighting, in the courseof which the church and the school were burnt, also the missionary'shouse. Because of these troubles this excellent man was forced to campout in the wet, for it was the rainy season, and catching a chill, diedsuddenly of heart-failure following rheumatic fever just after he hadmoved into his new habitation, which consisted of some rather glorifiednative huts.