well as in light,for "the darkness and light are both alike to him."
"Oh yes," cried poor Roderick, with great animation, "and I can tellyou a story about that. There was, once upon a time, a little Boy anda Nurse who went out walking, and they walked so long they gotbenighted in a very dark wood, and because it was so dark the Nursescreamed and was very much frightened; and the little boy said,'Nurse, why are you frightened? Don't be frightened; I am notfrightened. God can take care of us in the dark as well as in thelight,'"
"Oh Roderick! what a pretty story," cried his Mamma.
And so thought Roderick; for his eye glistened and his cheek flushedas he came to the conclusion.
And here, dear readers, was the worst difficulty of all; for thoughRoderick's reason was quite convinced that God could take care of himin the dark, he still could not bear to be in the dark without thehelp of candles besides, though he quite knew they could not take careof him at all. So you see by this that Reason, though it may convincea person he is wrong, cannot put him right. There wants some otherhelp for that. And here let me just stop a moment to beg you to bewareof _bad habits_; for you see they become at last more powerful thanreason itself.
I do not know how Roderick first got into his foolish habit, and itdoes not much matter. I know he at one time had a fancy there wassomething unpleasant about the pipes that carried the water about thehouse, and he would not for a long time go by the pipes alone. Now,how you laugh! well, but he got out of that nonsense; and I hope to beable to tell you that he got out of the other too: but at the time Ispeak of, he made his Mamma full of sorrow for his want of sense andcourage.
It must be admitted that there were one or two excuses to be made forthe child. There was a great contrast between the Town House and theSea Castle. The Town House was full of lights. All the sitting roomswere generally lighted, for a great deal of company came there, andthere were always lights along the passages; and the nursery windowslooked into a square, and the square was lighted up by lamps everynight; and it was one of Roderick's greatest pleasures to watch thelamplighter running quickly up the tall ladder to the lamps to lightthem, and then popping down again equally hurriedly, and running along(ladder and all) to the next lamp post, and so on, till the square wasbrilliant all round; and very often, as Roderick lay in his little bedwatching the glimmering thrown by these pretty lamps on the nurserywall, he used to think and think of his friend the nimble lamplighter,till he dropped fast asleep. You see, therefore, he had very little totry his courage in the Town House, and there was seldom or never anyfuss about his fears till the move to the Sea Castle took place; andthen there were no more lamps and lamplighters, and no morecomfortable glimmerings from his bright pets the lamps after he wentto bed; and he used to get silly directly, and declare that he sawbears whenever he shut his eyes; and he seemed to expect to find lionsand tigers under the sofas, by the fuss he made when he was asked togo into the rooms. Certainly there was a grand old fashioned lamp inthe hall of the Sea Castle; but the hall itself was so big, and wentup so high, that the light in one part only seemed to make the shadowand darkness of the other part look blacker still; so that I mustconfess there was something gloomy about the house. Then, too, therewere those two turrets with the winding staircases, and as Roderickhad never dared to do any thing more than peep in at the low entrancedoors below, where he saw nothing but four or five steps going up intocomplete blackness, he had got a sort of notion there must besomething horrid about them.
Well; it was soon after this little boy's sixth birthday, that thefamily arrived at the Sea-Castle, and it so happened, that, on the dayafter their arrival, there was some very stormy and dismal weather.The wind howled very loudly, and there was a good deal of rain; andLady Madeline wished they had waited a week or two longer. The sky wasso charged and heavy, too, that they found the house very dark, evenby day-light; and Roderick, who was a little tired with his journeythe day before, began to fancy all kinds of nonsense; talked moreabout seeing bears than ever; and finally cried tremendously at goingto bed, declaring he was sure there was a tiger in the coal-pan. Nowyou know, my dears, this was a bit of great nonsense; for Roderickknew quite well that there are no wild beasts in England but what arekept in very strong cages; and that the men who take wild-beast showsround the country can by no means afford to let their tigers sleep innursery coal-pans!
Poor Madeline never liked to see any of her children go to bed intears. And Roderick was so gay and merry generally, it seemed quiteunnatural in him; but though at last he left off crying, she could notpersuade him to be cheerful, and smile; for he declared that as soonas ever she took her candle away, he could not help seeing thoseunlucky bears. Was there ever any thing so silly before! She reasonedwith him, but to no purpose. He always said he quite believed in God'spresence, and His being able to take care of him; but, as I saidbefore, his bad habit had got the better of his good sense, and hefinished off every thing that could be said, by seeing bears, anddreading a tiger in the coal-pan.
"What are we to do with that child?" cried Madeline to her husband, asthey were going to bed. "He is beginning as foolishly as ever thisyear, in spite of being a year older. I really shall at last beinclined to think that in spite of all her fair promises of friendshipand assistance, and of never injuring the family, the Fairy Eudoramust secretly frighten the child in some way we don't know of."
"No such thing, my dear Madeline; I cannot for a moment believe it;"said her husband. "I have a better opinion of your relations, theFairies, than you have yourself. I am sure Eudora would not break herword for the world; and there is no mystery about Roderick's folly. Heis full of fancies of all sorts,--some pretty, and some silly ones;and we must do every thing we can to cure him of the silly ones. Itcertainly is a very hard matter to accomplish, for I perceive headmits the truth of every thing you say, and yet is as silly as everat the end. I heartily wish the Fairy Eudora _would_ interfere to curehim of his nonsense!"
"And so do I, if she could, and would," sighed Madeline; "but she hasquite deserted us. Besides, if she were to come, I don't see how shecould possibly do any good. Fairies cannot change little boys' hearts;and I must confess I never yet got any good myself from having a Fairyancestress, and I have no confidence in them.--Still," pursued thegood lady, as she laid her head on her pillow, "I am not able, itappears, to convince Roderick myself; and therefore I feel, with you,that I wish the Fairy would come and try."
"I fear it is in vain to say so now, Madeline. We have wished the poorcreature out of the way so often for the last ten years, that it isnot very likely a single wish the other way will bring her to us."
"No, indeed," murmured the Fairy Eudora, who at that moment wasstanding on the shore of the Fairy Island; "you are a pretty pair, youtwo, to think of such a thing! I begged to be allowed to come aboutthe place years ago, and you didn't refuse; but you always kept meaway by _wishing_ I mightn't come; and now, because you are puzzled toknow what to do with your silly child, you want me with you for thefirst time these ten years! Oh, you selfish people, don't fancy I'llcome near you!" And the justly angry Fairy stamped her foot inindignation, and retired into private apartments in the palace.
Do not be surprised at what you have just heard, my dear children; forthough you may have never thought about the power and importance of_wishes_, there is, I assure you, a great deal of both one and theother belonging to them. Some people talk, indeed, of "mere wishes,"as if they were trifles light as air; but it is not so. To prove this,first think what importance is attached to them in the Scriptures.Wishes are a sort of porch or doorway to actions. In the TenthCommandment we are forbidden to _wish_ for what belongs to ourneighbour;--for who is so likely to break the Eighth Commandment, andsteal, as the man who breaks the Tenth, and wishes for any thing thatis not his?
And so, all the evil in the world begins by _wishing_ something wrong;and if you can cure yourself of wishing wrongly, you will very seldom_do_ wrong.
Now you see, I am sure, how important wishes are for evil;
but theyare equally strong for good. For, if you wish well to any one, youhave opened the first door to doing him a kindness. And if youheartily wish to be good, you have opened the first gate on the roadof becoming so. Of course, wishes will not do every thing; but they doa great deal.
And there is another thing. They never fall to the ground unnoticed.Though you and I cannot look into each other's hearts, or hear thewishes breathed there, there is One who hears them all. Good wishes,my dear children, all ascend upwards to the throne of Grace, likesweet perfume. They are all accepted and remembered; and, I fear Imust add, that bad wishes go up too, and are noted in His book whotakes account of all we do.
Be sure, therefore, that you encourage your hearts in a habit of good,and kind, and charitable wishes; and if ever the bad