CHAPTER V.
CELLAR—WALK TO THE SEA-SHORE—RAINBOW, ETC.
THE next morning it rained again, and the little girls could not go out; but they were not unhappy, because they knew that grandmamma would tell them some stories, or give them something to amuse them.
After their lessons, grandmamma said, ‘Alice and Beatrice, I am going down into the cellar, will you come with me?’
‘Yes, please, please,’ cried both the little girls; ‘we shall like to come with you so much; we have never seen the cellar.’
‘Is it quite dark, grandmamma?’ asked Beatrice.
‘Yes, to be sure,’ said Alice; ‘but Mary has a candle, and will show us light.’
Mary walked on in front, and went slowly down a long, dark, narrow staircase. Alice ran after her, and Beatrice, holding grandmamma’s hand, followed carefully.
The little girls looked about in wonder; they did not know what a large place the cellar was. There were several rooms, all called cellars, which Mary showed them. First, to the right hand, without a door, was a very large and black-looking place, and when Mary lighted it up, the children saw that it was full of coals.
‘That is our coal cellar, miss,’ said Mary; ‘and this,’ opening a door, ‘is for the beer and cider.’
The children looked in, and saw several tubs of beer and cider placed side by side. Then grandmamma unlocked another door, and that was the wine cellar. They all went in; it was much cleaner and drier than the other cellars, and all the bottles were arranged neatly: and just when the children were going to ask some questions, grandmamma remembered that Mary had forgotten to bring down a bottle of wine to exchange for another bottle; so Mary went back with the candle, and Alice and Beatrice were left in the dark cellar with their grandmamma.
At first the two children were quite silent, till Beatrice, who held grandmamma’s hand, said, ‘Grandmamma, can God see us everywhere?’
‘Yes, Beatrice; everywhere and always.’
‘Can God see us in this dark cellar?’
‘Yes, dear children. God sees in the dark as in the light; by night and by day: God sees everybody and everything. In the Psalms[1] you will read, “He who planted the ear, shall he not hear? or he who made the eye, shall he not see?” which means that God who made our ears must be able to hear everything, and God who made our eyes surely can see everything.’
Little Beatrice thought a little while, and then she said, ‘But God cannot tell mamma when I am naughty, can He?’
‘No, my dear little girl; but you must fear God more than you fear mamma. You can never be naughty without God’s knowing it; and are you not afraid of God’s being angry with you?’
‘Mamma says that God is very good and very great,’ said Alice, ‘and that He takes care of us always, and of the whole world; and will God be angry with such a little girl as Beatrice?’
‘If Beatrice did not know that it was wrong to be naughty, God would not be angry with her; but Beatrice knows quite well when she is good and when she is naughty.’
Little Beatrice pressed grandmamma’s hand, and as grandmamma thought she heard her sob, she took her up in her arms, and Beatrice whispered, as soon as her tears let her, that she would try and be very good.
‘You must think more about being good, both of you, when you say your prayers, and when you ask God to help you to be good children.’
Mary now came back with the candle, and grandmamma soon finished all that she wished to do, and then they all went upstairs again; and it seemed so light and bright when they were upstairs, that they could scarcely see, and the sun was shining, and the rain had ceased. The black clouds had gone away far over the hills, and the blue sky was there again.
Alice and Beatrice clapped their hands, and were like the sunshine, gay and bright; all their black clouds had gone away too. They put on their hats and jackets to run down the steep path to the sea for their usual bath; but before they went, grandmamma told them to be careful, for it would be very slippery after the rain.
Alice and Beatrice walked slowly down to the sea-shore with Mary. When they crossed the wooden bridge they were surprised to see how much water was in the little brook. They stopped to look at it, for it was very pretty: there was quite a waterfall just above the bridge, and the water splashed and made a loud noise in falling. The grass looked more green, and the flowers smelt more sweet, and Alice said, ‘Mary, I think that grandmamma is quite right: the rain does a great deal of good. The grass looks much greener, and the flowers look much prettier, and the little brook does not murmur now, but it rushes and roars like the river Sid by the mill. I know some pretty verses about “How welcome is the rain!” but I never thought before how nice the rain was.’
‘When it is over, Alice; but not while it rains and you cannot go out,’ said Beatrice.
‘But grandmamma tells us nice stories, or shows us something. I do not think that I mind the rain now,’ said Alice.
‘Oh! Mary, what is that over the sea?’ cried Alice. ‘How beautiful it is! Look, Beatrice, blue and red and yellow—I cannot count the colours.’
‘It is a rainbow, Miss Alice,’ said Mary.
‘But what is a rainbow, and how does it come there?’
‘You must ask your grandmamma when you go home. I only know that it comes when the rain is over.’
The sea had been very rough early in the morning. A sailor told the children that it was then much too rough for them to bathe; but the rain had come and made the sea smoother, and Alice said, ‘The rain has done good again.’
The waves, or breakers, as they are called, when they came up on the shore, were still too rough for the little girls to move about alone in the water, so Mary let them sit near the edge and held them firmly; and the white waves dashed over their heads and the froth covered them, and they liked it very much.
Fishermen pushing their Boat off to Sea.—
They saw two fishermen afterwards putting a boat into the sea, and they begged Mary to let them stay and see it go off. Several times the men pushed the boat off the shore, and each time a big wave came and lifted it up and threw it back again. Then two other men came to help them, and pushed the boat with great force from the shore far into the water; and the boat rocked up and down so much among the great waves, that the two children were frightened, and Alice began to cry. But Mary told them not to be afraid, for the men were quite safe, as the sea was much smoother as soon as the boat had passed the breakers and was farther off the shore.
When Alice and Beatrice were at home they told grandmamma all that they had seen, and how high the waves were, and that there was so much white froth on the shore.
Then Alice asked grandmamma to tell them about the rainbow that they had seen. ‘It was so beautiful, grandmamma!’
‘I cannot explain to you the reason why the rainbow appears, but I know that it is caused or made by the sun being reflected on the moist air. You know, Alice, what “reflected” means; it is as when the light of the candle is seen again, or reflected in the looking-glass: and the sun shining on the moist air reflects those bright colours on a cloud. When you are older you will learn all about it, and why it is always in the shape of an arch or bow. Every one loves to see a rainbow, because it reminds us of the promise God made to Noah, and all people, after the flood, that He would no more destroy all flesh, which means, every living creature.’
‘I remember all about it, grandmamma,’ said Alice; ‘I have read it in my Bible stories. May I read it to Beatrice?’ and Alice fetched her book and read about the flood and the rainbow to Beatrice; and afterwards grandmamma read to them from the Bible as follows (Gen. ix. 13-15): ‘I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: and I will remember my covenant between me and you and every living creature of all flesh: and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.’
‘So you see, dear children, that God has made a covenant, which means an agreement or promise, never to destroy the earth again by a flood, and the rainbow is a sign of His promise, and reminds us of it.’
‘I am very glad to know about the rainbow, and I will think of God’s promise when I see one again.’
1. Psa. xciv. 9.
