MIGHTY I ATOM

MARIE CORELLI

LIBRARY

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IRVINE

[BRARY

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CAT [FORNIA

GIFT OF

LEISURE WORLD LIBRARY
LACUNA HILLS

THE MIGHTY ATOM

By

MARIE CORELLI

AUTHOR OF " THE SORROWS OF SATAN,
" BARABBAS," " CAMEOS," " VENDETTA," ETC.

PHILADELPHIA

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
1897.

Mis Florenct G. Bailey
76 Fellsway, West

Somerville Massachusetts

COPYRIGHT, 1896,

BY
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.

ELECTROTVPED AND PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A.

TO

THOSE SELF-STYLED " PROGRESSIVISTS,"

WHO BY PRECEPT AND EXAMPLE

ASSIST THE INFAMOUS

CAUSE OF

EDUCATION WITHOUT RELIGION

AND WHO, BY PROMOTING THE IDEA, BORROWED FROM

FRENCH ATHEISM, OF DENYING TO THE

CHILDREN IN BOARD-SCHOOLS

AND ELSEWHERE,

THE KNOWLEDGE AND LOVE OF GOD

AS THE TRUE FOUNDATION OF NOBLE
LIVING,

ARE GUILTY

OF A WORSE CRIME THAN MURDER.

THE MIGHTY ATOM

CHAPTER I.

A HEAVY storm had raged all day on the north
coast of Devon. Summer had worn the garb of
winter in a freakish fit of mockery and masquer-
ade; and even among the sheltered orchards
of the deeply-embowered valley of Combmartin,
many a tough and gnarled branch of many a
sturdy apple-tree laden with reddening fruit, had
been beaten to the ground by the fury of the
blast and the sweeping gusts of rain. Only now,
towards late afternoon, were the sullen skies be-
ginning to clear. The sea still lashed the rocks
with angry thuds of passion, but the strength of
the wind was gradually sinking into a mere breeze,
and a warm saffron light in the west showed
where the sun, obscured for so many hours, was
about to hide his glowing face altogether for the
night, behind the black vizor of our upward-moving
earth. The hush of the gloaming began to per-
meate nature ; flowers, draggled with rain, essayed

i* 5

6 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

to lift their delicate stems from the mould where
they had been bowed prone and almost broken,
and a little brown bird fluttering joyously out of
a bush where it had taken shelter from the tempest,
alighted on a window-sill of one of the nearest
human habitations it could perceive, and there piped
a gentle roundelay for the cheering and encourage-
ment of those within before so much as preening
a feather. The window was open, and in the room
beyond it a small boy sat at a school-desk reading,
and every now and then making pencil notes on
a large folio sheet of paper beside him. He was
intent upon his work, yet he turned quickly at
the sound of the bird's song and listened, his deep
thoughtful eyes darkening and softening with a
liquid look as of unshed tears. It was only for
a moment that he thus interrupted his studies,
anon, he again bent over the book before him
with an air of methodical patience and resignation
strange to see in one so young. He might have
been a bank clerk, or an experienced accountant in
a London merchant's office, from his serious old-
fashioned manner, instead of a child barely eleven
years of age ; indeed, as a matter of fact, there was
an almost appalling expression of premature wisdom
on his pale wistful features ; the " thinking furrow"
already marked his forehead, and what should still

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 7

have been the babyish upper curve of his sensitive
little mouth, was almost though not quite obliter-
ated by a severe line of constantly practised self-
restraint. Stooping his fair curly head over the
printed page more closely as the day darkened,
he continued reading, pondering, and writing; and
the bird, which had come to assure him as well
as it could, that fine bright weather, such weather
as boys love, might be expected to-morrow, seemed
disappointed that its gay carol was not more appre-
ciated. At any rate it ceased singing, and began
to plume itself with fastidious grace and prettiness,
peering round at the youthful student from time to
time inquisitively, as much as to say, " What won-
der is this ? The rain is over, the air is fresh,
the flowers are fragrant, there is light in the sky,
all the world of nature is glad, and rejoices, yet
here is a living creature shut up with a book which
surely God never had the making of! and his face
is wan, and his eyes are sad, and he seems not to
know the meaning of joy !"

The burning bars of saffron widened in the western
heavens, shafts of turquoise-blue, pale rose, and
chrysoprase flashed down towards the sea like re-
flections from the glory of some unbarred gate of
Paradise, and the sun, flaming with August fires,
suddenly burst forth in all his splendour. Full on

8 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

Combmartin, with its grey old church, stone cot-
tages, and thatched roofs overgrown with flowers,
the cheerful radiance fell, bathing it from end to end
in a shower of gold, the waves running into the
quiet harbour caught the lustrous glamour and
shone with deep translucent glitterings of amber
melting into green, and through the shadows of
the room where the solitary little student sat at
work, a bright ray came dancing, and glistened on
his bent head like the touch of some passing angel's
benediction. Just then the door opened, and a
young man entered, clad in white boating flannels.

" Still at it, Lionel !" he said, kindly. " Look
here, drop it all for to-day ! The storm is quite
over ; come with me, and I'll take you for a pull
on the water."

Lionel looked up, half surprised, half afraid.

" Does he say I may go, Mr. Montrose?"

" I haven't asked him," replied Montrose, curtly,
" / say you may, and not only that you may, but
that you must! I'm your tutor, at least for the
present, and you know you've got to obey me,
or else !"

Here he squared himself, and made playfully
threatening gestures after the most approved
methods of boxing.

The boy smiled, and rose from his chair.

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 9

" I don't think I get on very fast," he said,
apologetically, with a doubtful glance at the volume
over which he had been poring " It's all my stu-
pidity, I suppose, but sometimes it seems a muddle
to me, and more often still it seems useless. How,
for instance, can I feel any real interest in the
amount of the tithes that were paid to certain
bishops in England in the year 1054? I don't
care what was paid, and I'm sure I never shall care.
It has nothing to do with the way people live now-
adays, has it ?"

" No, but it goes under the head of general in-
formation," answered Montrose, laughing, " Any-
how, you can leave the tithes alone for the present,
forget them, and forget all the bishops and kings
too if you like ! You look fagged out, what do
you say to a first-class Devonshire tea at Miss
Payne's ?"

" Jolly !" and a flash of something like merriment
lit up Lionel's small pale face " But we'll go on
the water first, please ! It will soon be sunset, and
I love to watch a sunset from the sea."

Montrose was silent. Standing at the open door
he waited, attentively observing meanwhile the quiet
and precise movements of his young pupil who was
now busy putting away his books and writing ma-
terials. He did this with an almost painful care:

10 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

wiping his pen, re-sharpening his pencil to be ready
for use when he came back to work again, folding
a scattered sheet or two of paper neatly, dusting the
desk, setting up the volume concerning " tithes" and
what not, on a particular shelf, and looking about
him in evident anxiety lest he should have forgotten
some trifle. His tutor, though a man of neat taste
and exemplary tidiness himself, would have preferred
to see this mere child leaving everything in a dis-
orderly heap, and rushing out into the fresh air with
a wild whoop and bellow. But he gave his thoughts
no speech, and studied the methodical goings to and
fro of the patient little lad from under his half-
drooped eyelids with an expression of mingled kind-
ness and concern, till at last, the room being set in
as prim an order as that of some fastidious old
spinster, Lionel took down his red jersey-cap from
its own particular peg in the wall, put it on, and
smiled up confidingly at his stalwart companion.

" Now, Mr. Montrose !" he said.

Montrose started as from a reverie.

" Ah ! That's it ! Now's the word !"

Flinging on his own straw hat, and softly whistling
a lively tune as he went, he led the way downstairs
and out of the house, the little Lionel following in
his footsteps closely and somewhat timidly. Their
two figures could soon be discerned among the flow-

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 1 1

ers and shrubs of the garden as they passed across
it towards the carriage gate which opened directly
on to the high road, and a woman watching them
from an upper window pushed her fair face through
a tangle of fuchsias and called,

" Playing truant, Mr. Montrose ? That's right !
Always do what you're told not to do ! Good-bye,
Lylie!"

Lionel looked up and waved his cap.

" Good-bye, mother !"

The beautiful face framed in red fuchsia flowers
softened at the sound of the child's clear voice,
anon, it drew back into the shadow and disap-
peared.

The woods and hills around Combmartin were
now all aglow with the warm luminance of the de-
scending sun, and presently, out on the sea which
was still rough and sparkling with a million dia-
mond-like points of spray, a small boat was seen,
tossing lightly over the crested billows. William
Montrose, B.A., " oor Willie," as some of his affection-
ate Highland relatives called him, pulled at the oars
with dash and spirit, and Lionel Valliscourt, only
son and heir of John Valliscourt of Valliscourt in
the county of Somerset, sat curled up, not in the
stern, but almost at the end of the prow, his dreamy
eyes watching with keen delight every wave that ad-

12 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

vanced to meet the little skiff and break against it in
an opaline shower.

" I say, Mr. Montrose !" he shouted " This is
glorious !"

"Aye, aye!" responded Montrose, B.A., with a
deep breath and an extra pull" Life's a fine thing
when you get it in big dosesjjj

Lionel did not hear this observation, he was ab-
sorbed in catching a string of seaweed, slimy and un-
profitable to most people, but very beautiful in his
eyes. There were hundreds of delicate little shells
knitted into it, as fragile and fine as pearls, and every
such tiny casket held a life as frail. Ample material
for meditation was there in this tangle of mysterious
organisms marvellously perfect, and while he mi-
nutely studied the dainty net-work of ocean's weav-
ing, across the young boy's mind there flitted the
dark shadow of the inscrutable and unseen. He
asked within himself, just as the oldest and wisest
scholars have asked to their dying day, the " why"
of things, the cause for the prolific creation of so
many apparently unnecessary objects, such as a sep-
arate universe of shells, for example, what was the
ultimate intention of it all ? He thought earnestly,
and, thinking, grew sorrowful, child though he was,
with the hopeless sorrow of Ecclesiastes the
Preacher, and his incessant cry of " Vanitas vanita

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 13

tern!" Meantime, the heavens were ablaze with
glory, the two rims of the friendly planets, earth
and the sun, seemed to touch one another on the
edge of the sea, then, the bright circle was covered
by the dark, and the soft haze of a purple twilight
began to creep over the " Hangman's Hills," as they
are curiously styled, the Great and the Little Hang-
man. There is nothing about these grassy slopes at all
suggestive of capital punishment, and they appear to
have derived their names from a legend of the
country, which tells how a thief, running away with
a stolen sheep tied across his back, was summarily
and unexpectedly punished for his misdeed by the
sheep itself, who struggled so violently as to pull the
cord which fastened it close round its captor's throat
in a thoroughly " hangman"-like manner, thus killing
him on the spot. The two promontories form a bold
and picturesque headland as seen from the sea, and
Willie Montrose, resting for a moment on his oars,
looked up at them admiringly, and almost with love
in his eyes, just because they reminded him of a
favourite little bit of coast scenery in his own more
romantic and beautiful Scottish land. Then he
brought his gaze down to the curled-up small figure
of his pupil, who was still absorbed in the con-
templation of his treasure-trove of sea-weed and
shells.

14 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

" What have you got there, Lionel ?" he asked.

The boy turned round and faced him.

" Thousands of little people !" he answered, with
a smile, " All in pretty little houses of their own,
too, look !" and he held up his dripping trophy,
" It's quite a city, isn't it ? and I shouldn't wonder
if the inhabitants thought almost as much of them-
selves as we do." His eyes darkened, and the smile
on his young face vanished. " What do you think
about it, Mr. Montrose ? / don't see that we are a
bit more valuable in the universe than these little
shell-people."

Montrose made no immediate reply. He pulled
out a big silver watch and glanced at it.

"Tea-time!" he announced, abruptly "Put the
shell-people back in their own native element, my
boy, and don't ask me any conundrums just now,
please ! Take an oar !"

With a flush of pleasure, Lionel obeyed, first
dropping the seaweed carefully into a frothy billow
that just then shouldered itself up caressingly
against the boat, and watching it float away. Then
he pulled at the oar manfully enough with his weak
little arms, while Montrose, controlling his own
strength that it might not overbalance that of the
child, noted his exertions with a grave and some-
what pitying air. The tide was flowing in, and the

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 15

boat went swiftly with it, the healthful exercise
sent colour into Lionel's pale cheeks and lustre
into his deep-set eyes, so that when they finally
ran their little craft ashore and sprang out of it,
the boy looked as nature meant all boys to look,
bright and happy-hearted, and the sad little furrow
on his forehead, so indicative of painful thought
and study, was scarcely perceptible. Glancing first
up at the darkening skies, then at his own clothes
sprinkled with salt spray, he laughed joyously as
he said,

" I'm afraid we shall catch it when we get home,
Mr. Montrose."

"/ shall, you won't," returned Montrose, im-
perturbably. " But, as it's my last evening, it
doesn't matter."

All the mirth faded from Lionel's face and he
uttered a faint cry of wonder and distress.

" Your last evening ? oh, no ! surely not ! You
don't, you can't mean it !" he faltered, nervously.

Willie Montrose's honest blue eyes softened with
a great tenderness and compassion.

" Come along, laddie, and have your tea !" he
said kindly, his tongue lapsing somewhat into his
own soft Highland accentuation ; " come along,
and I'll tell you all about it. Life is like being
out on the sea yonder, a body must take the

1 6 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

rough with the smooth and just make the best of it.
One mustn't mind a few troubles now and then,
and and partings and the like ; you've often heard
that the best of friends must part, haven't you ?
There now, don't look so downcast ! come along to
Miss Payne's cottage where we can get the best
cream in all Devonshire, and we'll have a jolly
spread and a talk out, shall we ?"

But Lionel stood mute, the colour left his
cheeks, and his little mouth once more became set
and stern.

" I know !" he said at last, slowly, " I know
exactly what you have to tell me, Mr. Montrose!
My father is sending you away. I am not surprised;
oh, no ! I thought it would happen soon. You see
you have been too kind, too easy with me, that's
what it is. No, I'm not going to cry," here he
choked back a little rising sob bravely, "you
mustn't think that, I am glad you are going away
for your own sake, but I'm sorry for myself, very
sorry ! I'm always feeling sorry for myself, isn't it
cowardly ! Marcus Aurelius says the worst form of
cowardice is self-pity."

" Oh, hang Marcus Aurelius !" burst out Montrose.

Lionel smiled, a dreary little cynical smile.

" Shall we go and have our tea ?" he suggested,
quietly " I'm ready."

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 17

And they walked slowly up from the shore to-
gether, the young man with a light yet leisurely
tread, the child with wearily-dragging feet that
seemed scarcely able to support his body. Painful
thoughts and forebodings kept them silent, and they
exchanged not a word even when a sudden red and
golden after-glow flashed across the sea as the very
last salutation of the vanished sun, indeed they
scarcely saw the fiery splendour that would, at a
happier moment, have been a perfect feast of beauty
to their eyes. Turning away from the principal
street of the village they bent their steps towards a
small thatched cottage, overgrown from porch to
roof with climbing roses, fuchsias and jessamine,
where an unobtrusive signboard might be just dis-
cerned framed in a wreath of brilliant nasturtiums,
and bearing the following device :

CLARINDA CLEVERLY PAYNE.

NEW LAID EGGS. DEVONSHIRE CREAM. JUNKETS.
TEAS PROVIDED.

Within this rustic habitation, tutor and pupil dis-
appeared, and the pebbly shore of Combmartin was
left in the possession of two ancient mariners, who,
seated side by side on the overhanging wall, smoked

1 8 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

their pipes together in solemn silence and watched
the gradual smoothing of the sea as it spread itself
out in wider, longer, and more placid undulations, as
though submissively preparing for the coming of its
magnetic mistress, the moon.

CHAPTER II.

THAT same evening, John Valliscourt, Esquire, of
Valliscourt, sat late over his after-dinner wine, con-
versing with a languid, handsome-featured person
known as Sir Charles Lascelles, Baronet. Sir
Charles was a notable figure in " swagger" society,
and he had been acquainted with the Valliscourts
for some time, in fact he was almost an " old friend"
of theirs, as social " old friends" go, that phrase
nowadays merely meaning about a year's mutual
visiting, without any unpleasant strain on the feel-
ings or the pockets of either party. Whenever the
Valliscourts were in town for the season at their
handsome residence in Grosvenor Place, Sir Charles
was always " dropping in," and dropping out again,
a constant and welcome guest, a purveyor of fashion-
able scandals, and a thoroughly reliable informant
concerning the ins and outs of the newest approach-
ing divorce. But his appearance at Combmartin was
quite unlooked-for, he having been supposed to have
gone to his " little place" (an estate of several thou-
sand acres) in Inverness-shire. And it was concern-
ing his present change of plan and humour that Mr.

'9

20 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

Valliscourt was just now rallying him in ponder-
ously playful fashion.

" Ya-as !" drawled Sir Charles, in answer " I
have doosid habits of caprice. Never know what
I'm going to do from one day to another! Fact,
I assure you ! You see a chum of mine has got
Watermouth Castle for a few weeks, and he asked
me to join his house-party. That's how it is I
happen to be here."

Mrs. Valliscourt, who had left the dinner-table
and was seated in a lounge chair near the open
window, looked round and smiled. Her smile was
a very beautiful one, her large flashing eyes and
brilliantly white teeth gave it a sun-like dazzle that
amazed and half bewitched any man who was not
quite prepared to meet it.

" I suppose you are all very select at Water-
mouth," observed Mr. Valliscourt, cracking a wal-
nut and beginning to peel the kernel with a de-
liberate and fastidious nicety which showed off his
long, white, well-kept fingers to admirable advantage
" Nothing lower than a baronet, eh ?"

And he laughed softly.

Sir Charles gave him a quick glance from under
his lazily drooping eyelids that might have startled
him had he perceived it. Malice, derision, and
intense hatred were expressed in it, and for a second

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 21

it illumined the face on which it gleamed with a
wicked flash as of hell-fire. It vanished almost as
quickly as it had shone, and a reply was given in
such quiet, listless tones as betrayed nothing of the
speaker's feelings.

" Well, I really don't know ! There's a painter
fellow staying with us, one of those humbugs
called ' rising artists,' gives himself doosid airs
too. He's got a commission to do the castle. Of
course he isn't thought much of, we keep him in
his place as much as we can, still he's there, and
he doesn't dine with the servants, either. The rest
are the usual lot, dowagers with marriageable but
penniless daughters, two or three ugly ' advanced'
young women who have brought their bicycles and
go tearing about the country all day, and a few stupid
old peers. It's rather slow. I was bored to exhaus-
tion at the general tea-meeting this afternoon, so
knowing you were here I thought I'd ride over and
see you."

" Delighted !" said Mr. Valliscourt, politely" But
may I ask how you knew we were here ?"

Sir Charles bit his lip to hide a little smile, as he
answered, lightly,

" Oh, everybody knows everything in these little
out-of-the-way villages. Besides, when you take the
only available large house in Combmartin you can't

22 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

expect to hide your light under a bushel. It's really
a charming old place, too."

" It's a barrack," said Mrs. Valliscourt, speaking
now for the first time, and looking straight at her
husband as she did so. " It's excessively damp, and
very badly furnished. Of course it could be made
delightful if anybody were silly enough to spend a
couple of thousand pounds upon it; but as it is, I
cannot possibly imagine why John took such a hor-
rid little hole for a summer holiday residence."

" You know very well why I took it," returned
Mr. Valliscourt, stiffly " It was not for my personal
enjoyment, nor for yours. I am old enough, I pre-
sume, to do without what certain foolish people call
' a necessary change,' and so are you for that matter.
I was advised to give Lionel the benefit of sea-air,
and as I was anxious to avoid the noise and racket
of ordinary sea-side places, as well as the undesirable
companionship of other people's children who might
endeavour to associate with my son, I chose a house
at Combmartin because I considered, and still con-
sider, Combmartin perfectly suited for my purpose.
Combmartin being off the line of railway and some-
what difficult of access, is completely retired and
thoroughly unfashionable, and Lionel will be able
to continue his holiday tasks under an efficient tutor
without undue distraction or interruption."

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 23

He said all this in a dry methodical way, crack-
ing walnuts between whiles, with a curious air as of
coldly civil protest against the vulgarity of eating
them.

Mrs. Valliscourt turned her head away, and looked
out into the tangled garden where the foliage, glis-
tening with the day's long rain, sparkled in the silver
gleam of the rising moon. Sir Charles Lascelles
said nothing for a few moments, then he suddenly
broke silence with a question. " You are giving
Montrose the sack, aren't you ?"

" I am dismissing Mr. Montrose, yes, certainly,"
replied Valliscourt, his hard mouth compressing
itself into harder lines, " Mr. Montrose is too young
for his place, and too self-opinionated. It is the
fault of all Scotchmen to think too much of them-
selves. He is clever ; I do not deny that ; but he
does not work Lionel sufficiently. He is fonder of
athletics than classics. Now in my opinion, athletics
are altogether overdone in England, and I do not
want my son to grow up with all his brains in his
muscles. His intellectual faculties must be de-
veloped "

" At the expense of the physical ?" interposed Sir
Charles "Why not do both together?"

"That is my aim and intention," said Valliscourt,
somewhat pompously " but Mr. Montrose is not

24 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

fitted either by education or temperament to carry
out my scheme. In fact, he has refused point-blank
to go through the schedule of tuition I have formu-
lated for the holiday tasks of my son, and has taken
it upon himself to say to me, to me ! that Lionel
is not capable of such a course of study, and that
complete rest is what the boy requires. Of course
this is an excuse to obtain a good time for himself in
the way of boating and other out-of-door amuse-
ments. Moreover, I have discovered, to my extreme
concern, that Mr. Montrose has not yet thrown off
the shackles of superstitious legend and observance,
and that in spite of the advance of science, he is
really not much better than a savage in his ideas of
the universe. He actually believes in Mumbo-
Jumbo, that is, God, still ! and also in the im-
mortality of the soul !" Here Mr. Valliscourt
laughed outright. " Of course, if it were not so
ridiculous, I should be angry, all the same, one
cannot be too particular in the matter of a child's
training and education, and I am considerably an-
noyed that I was not made aware of these barbarous
predilections and prejudices of his before he took
up a responsible position in my house."

" Of course you would not have engaged him if
you had known ?" queried Sir Charles.

" Certainly not." Here Mr. Valliscourt looked

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 25

at his watch. " Will you excuse me ? It is nine
o'clock, and I told Montrose to attend me at that
hour in my study to receive the remaining portion
of his salary. He leaves by the early coach to-
morrow morning."

Mrs. Valliscourt rose, and moved with an elegant
languor towards the door.

" You had better come into the drawing-room,
Sir Charles, and have a chat with me," she said,
favouring the baronet with one of her dazzling
smiles as she glanced back at him over her
shoulder, " I suppose you are in no very special
hurry to return to Watermouth ?"

" No, not just immediately !" he replied with an
answering smile, as he followed her out across the
square oak-panelled hall and into the apartment she
had named, which had the merit of being more
comfortably furnished than any other part of the
house, and moreover boasted four deep bay-win-
dows, each one commanding different and equally
beautiful views of the surrounding country. Mr.
Valliscourt meantime went in an opposite direction,
and entered a small parlour, formerly a store-room,
but now transformed into a kind of study, where he
found William Montrose, B.A., awaiting him.

" Oor Willie" looked pale, and his lips were hard
set. His employer nodded to him carelessly in

2 6 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

passing, and then sitting down at his office-desk,
unlocked a drawer, took from thence his cheque-
book, and wrote out a sum that was more than
"oor Willie's" due. As he handed it over, the
young man glanced at it, and coloured hotly.

" No, thank you, Mr. Valliscourt," he said,
" The exact sum, please, and not a farthing over."

" What !" exclaimed Valliscourt, in a satirical
tone " A Scotchman refuse an extra fee ! Is this
the age of miracles ?"

Montrose grew paler, but kept himself quiet.

" Think what you like of Scotchmen, Mr. Vallis-
court," he returned, composedly " They can get
on without your good opinion, I daresay, and cer-
tainly they need none of my defending. I merely
refuse to accept anything I have not honestly
earned, there is no miracle in that, I fancy. It
is not as if I took my dismissal badly, on the
contrary, I should have dismissed myself if you
had not forestalled me. I will have no share in
child-murder."

If a bomb had exploded in the little room, Mr.
Valliscourt could not have looked more thoroughly
astounded. He sprang from his chair and con-
fronted the audacious speaker in such indignation
as almost choked his utterance.

" Ch ch child-murder!" he spluttered, trem-

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 27

bling all over in the excess of his sudden rage
" D d did I hear you rightly, sir ? Ch child-
murder!"

" I repeat it, Mr. Valliscourt," said Montrose,
his blue eyes now flashing dangerously and his
lips quivering " Child-murder ! Take the phrase
and think it over! You have only one child, a
boy of a most lovable and intelligent disposition,
quick-brained, too quick-brained by half! and
you are killing him with your hard and fast rules,
and your pernicious ' system* of intellectual train-
ing. You deprive him of such . pastimes and ex-
ercises as are necessary to his health and growth,
you surround him with petty tyrannies which
make his young life a martyrdom, you give him
no companions of his own age, and you are, as
I say, murdering him, slowly, perhaps, but none
the less surely. Any physician with the merest
superficial knowledge of his business, would tell
you what I tell you, that is, any physician who
preferred truth to fees."

White with passion, Mr. Valliscourt snatched up
the cheque he had just written and tore it into frag-
ments, then opening another drawer in his desk,
he took out a handful of notes and gold, and count-
ing them rapidly, flung them upon the table.

" Hold your insolent tongue, sir !" he said in

28 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

hoarse accents of ill-suppressed fury, "There is
your money, exact to a farthing ; take it and go !
And before you presume to apply for another situa-
tion as tutor to the son of a gentleman, you had
better learn to know your place and put a check on
your Scotch conceit and impertinence ! Not another
word ! go !"

With a sudden proud lifting of his head, Montrose
eyed his late employer from heel to brow and from
brow to heel again, in the disdainful " measuring"
manner known to fighting men, his eyes sparkled
with anger, and his hands involuntarily clenched.
Then, all at once, evidently moved by some thought
which restrained, if it did not entirely overcome his
wrath, he swept up his wage lightly in one hand,
turned and left the room without either a " thank
you" or " good-evening." When he had gone, John
Valliscourt burst into an angry laugh.

" Insolent young cub !" he muttered " How such
fellows get University honours and recommenda-
tions is more than I can imagine ! Favouritism and
jobbery I suppose, like everything else. An in-
efficient, boastful, lazy Scotchman if ever there was
one, and the worst companion in the world for
Lionel. The boy has done nothing but idle away
his time ever since he came. I'm very glad Pro-
fessor Cadman-Gore is able to accept a few weeks

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 29

of holiday tuition, he is expensive, certainly, but
he will remedy all the mischief Montrose has done,
and get Lionel on ; he is a thoroughly reliable man,
too, on the religious question."

Soothed by the prospect of the coming of
Professor Cadman-Gore, Mr. Valliscourt cooled
down, and presently went to join his wife and Sir
Charles Lascelles in the drawing-room. He found
that apartment empty, however, and on inquiry of
one of the servants, learnt that Sir Charles had been
gone some minutes, and that Mrs. Valliscourt was
walking by herself in the garden. Mr. Valliscourt
thereupon went to one of the deep bay-windows
which stood open, and sniffed the scented summer
air. The day's rain had certainly left the ground
wet, and he was not fond of strolling about under
damp trees. The moon was high, and very beau-
tiful in her clear fullness, but Mr. Valliscourt did
not admire moonlight effects, he thought all that
kind of thing " stagey." The grave and devotional
silence of the night hallowed the landscape, Mr.
Valliscourt disliked silence, and he therefore coughed
loudly and with much unpleasant throat-scraping, to
disturb it. Throat-scraping gave just the necessary
suggestion of prose to a picture which would oth-
erwise have been purely romantic, a picture of
shadowed woodland and hill and silver cloud and

30 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

purple sky, in all of which beauteous presentments,
mere humanity seemed blotted out and forgotten.
Mr. Valliscourt coughed his ugly cough in order to
get humanity into it, and as he finished the last
little hawking note of irritating noise, he wondered
where his wife was. The garden was a large and
rambling one, and had been long and greatly neg-
lected, though the owners of the place had shrewdly
arranged with Mr. Valliscourt, when he had taken
the house for three months, that he should pay a
gardener weekly wages to attend to it. A decent
but dull native of Combmartin had been elected to
this post, and his exertions had certainly effected
something in the way of clearing the paths and
keeping them clean, but he was apparently incapa-
ble of dealing with the wild growth of sweet-briar,
myrtle, fuchsia, and bog-oak that had sprung up
everywhere in the erratic yet always artistic fashion
of mother Nature, when she is left to design her
own woodland ways, so that the entire pleas-
aunce was more a wilderness than anything else.
Yet it had its attractions, or seemed to have, at
least for Mrs. Valliscourt, for she passed nearly
all her time in it. Now, however, owing to the
long shadows, her husband could not perceive
her anywhere, though presently, as he stood at
the window, he heard her voice carolling an ab-

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 31

surd ditty, of which he caught a distinct fragment
concerning

" Gay

We're not particular what we do
In gay Bo-hem-i-a^,"

whereat his face, cold and heavy-featured as it was,
grew downright ugly in its expression of malign
contempt.

" She ought to have been a music-hall singer !"
he said to himself with a kind of inward snarl
" She has all the taste and talent required for it.
And to think she is actually well born and well
educated ! What an atrocious anomaly !"

He banged the window to violently and went
within. There was a smoking-room at the back
of the house, and thither he retired with his cigar-
case, and one of the dullest of all the various dull
evening papers.

CHAPTER III.

EARLY the next morning between six and seven
o'clock, little Lionel Valliscourt was up and dressed
and sitting by his bedroom window, cap in hand,
waiting eagerly for Montrose to appear. He was
going to see his friendly tutor off by the coach, and
the idea was not without a certain charm and excite-
ment. It was a perfect day, bright with unclouded
sunshine, and all the birds were singing ecstatically.
The boy's sensitive soul was divided between sadness
and pleasure, sadness at losing the companionship
of the blithe, kindly, good-natured young fellow who
alone, out of all his various teachers, had seemed
to understand and sympathise with him, pleasure
at the novelty of getting up " on the sly" and slip-
ping out and away without his father's knowledge,
and seeing the coach with its prancing four horses,
its jolly driver and its still jollier red-faced guard, all
at a halt outside the funny old inn, called by various
wags the " Pack o' Cards" on account of its peculiar
structure, and watching Mr. Montrose climb up
thereon to the too-tootle-tooing of the horn, and then
finally, beholding the whole glorious equipage dash
away at break-neck speed to Barnstaple ! This was
32

THE MIGHTY ATOM.

33

something for a boy, as mere boy, to look forward
to with a thrill of expectation ; but deep down in
his heart of hearts he was thinking of another de-
light as well, a plan he had formed in secret, and
of which he had not breathed a word, even to Willie
Montrose. The scheme was a bold and dreadful
one, and it was this, to run away for the day. He
did not wish to shirk his studies, but he knew there
were to be no lessons till his new tutor, Professor
Cadman-Gore arrived, and Professor Cadman-Gore
was not due till that evening at ten o'clock. The
whole day therefore was before him, the long beau-
tiful sunshiny day, and he, in his own mind, re-
solved that he would for once make the best of it.
He had no wish to deceive his father, his desire for
an " escapade" arose out of an instinctive longing
which he himself had not the skill to analyse, a
longing not only for freedom but for rest. Turning it
over and over in his thoughts now, as he had turned
it over and over all night, poor child, he could not
see that there was any particular harm or mischief
in his intention. Neither his father nor mother ever
wanted him or sent for him except at luncheon,
which was his dinner, all the rest of the time he
was supposed to be with his tutor, always engaged
in learning something useful. But now, it so hap-
pened that he was to be left for several hours with-

34

THE MIGHTY ATOM.

out any tutor, and why should he not take the chance
of liberty while it was offered him ? He was still
mentally debating this question, when Montrose
entered softly, portmanteau in hand.

" Come along, laddie !" he said, with a kind smile,
" Step gently ! Nobody's astir, and I'll aid and
abet you in this morning's outing. We're going to
breakfast together at Miss Payne's, the coach won't
be here for a long time yet."

Lionel gave a noiseless jump of delight on the
floor, and then did as he was told, creeping afcer his
tutor down the stairs like a velvet-footed kitten, and
reddening with excess of timidity and pleasure when
the big hall-door was opened cautiously and closed
again with equal care behind them, and they stood
together among the honeysuckle and wild rose-
tangles of the sweetly-scented garden.

" Let me help you carry your portmanteau,
Mr. Montrose" he said, sturdily " I'm sure I
can !"

" I'm sure you can't !" returned Montrose with a
laugh. " Leave it alone, my boy, it's too heavy for
you. Here, you can carry my Homer instead !"

Lionel took the well-worn leather-bound volume,
and bore it along in both hands reverently as though
it were a sacred relic.

" Where are you going, Mr. Montrose ?" he asked,

THE MIGHTY ATOM.

35

presently, " Have you got another boy like me to
teach ?"

" No, not yet. I wonder if I shall manage to
find another boy like you, eh ? Do you think I
shall ?"

Lionel considered seriously for a moment before
replying.

" Well, I don't know," he said at last," I sup-
pose there must be some. You see when you're an
only boy, you get different to other boys. You've
got to try and be more clever you know. If I had
two or three brothers now, my father would want to
make every one of them clever, and he wouldn't have
to get it all out of me. That's how I look at it."

" Oh, that's how you look at it," echoed Montrose,
studying with some compassion the delicate little
figure trotting at his side, " You think your father
wants to get the brain-produce of a whole family out
of you ? Well, I believe he does !"

" Of course he does !" averred Lionel, solemnly,
" And it is very natural, if you think of it. If you've
only got one boy, you expect a good deal from him !"

"Too much by half!" growled Montrose, sotto-
voce, then aloud he added " Well, laddie, you
needn't fret yourself, you are learning quite fast
enough, and you know a good deal more now than
ever I did at your age. I was at school at Inverness

36 THE MIGHTY ATOM,

when I was a little chap, and passed nearly all my
time fighting, that's how I learned my lessons !"

He laughed, a joyous ringing laugh which was
quite infectious, and Lionel laughed too. It seemed
so droll for a boy to pass his time in fighting ! so
very exceptional and extraordinary !

" Why, Mr. Montrose" he exclaimed " what did
you fight so much for ?"

" Oh, any excuse was good enough for me !"
returned Montrose, gleefully. " If I thought a boy
had too long a nose, I pulled it for him, and then we
fought the question out together. They were just
grand times ! grand !"

" I have never fought a boy" murmured Lionel,
regretfully, " I never had any boy to -fight with !"

Montrose looked down at him, and a sudden
gravity clouded his previous mirth.

" Listen to me, laddie," he said, earnestly " When
you have a chance, ask your father to send you to
school. You've a tongue in your head, ask him,
say it's the thing you're longing for, beg for it
as though it were your life. You're quite ready for
it ; you'll take a high place at once with what you
know, and you'll be as happy as the day is long.
You'll find plenty of boys to fight with, and to
conquer ! fighting is the rule of this world, my
boy, and to those who fight well, so is conquering.

THE MIGHTY ATOM.

37

And it's a good thing to begin practising the busi-
ness early, practice makes perfect. Tell your
father, and tell this professor who is coming to
take my place, that it is your own wish to go to a
public school, Eton, Harrow, Winchester, any of
them can turn out men''

Lionel looked pained and puzzled.

"Yes, I will ask," he said "But I'm sure I
shall be refused. Father will never hear of it. The
boys in public schools all go to church on Sundays,
don't they? Well, you know I should never be
allowed to do that /"

Montrose made no reply, and they walked on in
unbroken silence till they reached the abode of Miss
Clarinda Cleverly Payne, where on the threshold
stood a bright-eyed, pleasant-faced active personage
in a lilac cotton gown and snow-white mob-cap of
the fashion of half a century ago.

" Good-morning, sir ! Nice morning ! Good-
morning, Master Lionel ! Well now, toe be sure, I
dew believe the eggs is just laid for you ! I heerd
the hens a-clucking the very minute you came in
sight ! Ah dearie me ! if we all did our duty when
it was expected of us, like my hens, the world
would get on a deal better than it dew ! Walk in,
sir ! walk in, Master Lionel ! the table's spread
and everything's ready, the window's open too, for

4

38 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

there's a sight o' honeysuckle outside and it dew
smell sweet, I can assure you ! Nothing like Dev-
onshire honeysuckle except Devonshire cream !
Ah, and you'll find plenty o' that for breakfast !
And I'm sure this little gentleman's sorry his kind
master's going away, eh ?"

" Yes, I am very sorry, ma'am," said Lionel, ear-
nestly, taking off his little cap politely as he looked
up at the worthy Clarinda's sunbrowned, honest
countenance " But it isn't much use being sorry, is
it ? He must go, and I must stay, and if I were to
fret for a whole year about it, it wouldn't make any
difference, would it ?"

" No, that it wouldn't," returned Miss Payne,
staring hard into the pathetic young eyes that so
wistfully regarded her, " But you see some of us
can't take things so sensibly as you do, my dear !
we're not all so clever !"

" Clever !" echoed Lionel, with an accent of such
bitterness as might have befitted a cynic of many
years' worldly experience " I am not clever. I am
only crammed."

" Lord bless us !" exclaimed Clarinda, gazing
helplessly about her, " What does the child
mean ?"

"He means just what he says," answered Mon-
trose with a slight, rather sad smile, " If you

THE MIGHTY ATOM.

39

had to learn all the things Lionel is supposed to

know "

" Larn ?" interrupted Miss Clarinda, with a sharp
sniff " Thank the Lord I ain't had no larnin 1 ! I
know how to do my work and live honestly without
runnin' into debt, and that's enough for me. To
see the young gels nowadays with their books an'
their penny papers, all a-gabblin' of a parcel o' rub-
bish as doesn't consarn 'em, it dew drive me wild,
I can tell you ! My niece Susie got one o' them
there cheap novels one day, and down she sat,
a-readin' an' a-readin', an' she let the cream boil
and spoilt it, an' later on in the day, she slipt and fell
on the doorstep with a dozen new-laid eggs in her
apron and broke eight o' them, then in a week or
two she took to doin' her hair in all sorts o' queer
towzley ways, and pinched her waist in, till she
couldn't fancy her dinner and her nose got as red as
a carrot. I said nothing, for the more you say to
they young things the worse they get, but at last I
got hold o' the book that had done the mischief and
took to readin' it myself. Lor! I laughed till I
nearly split ! a parcel o' nonsense all about a fool
of a country wench as couldn't do nothing but make
butter, and yet she married a lord an' was took to
Court with di'monds an' fal-lals ! such a muck o'
lies was printed in that there book as was enough to

40 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

bring the judgment of the Almighty on the jackass
as wrote it ! I went to my niece ancl I sez to her,
sez I ' Susie, my gel, you're a decent, strong, well-
favoured sort o' lass, taken just as God made ye,
and if you behave yourself, you may likely marry
an honest farmer lad in time, but if ye get such no-
tions o' lords and ladies as are in this silly lyin'
book, an' go doin' o' your hair like crazy Jane,
there's not a man in Combmartin as won't despise
ye. An' ye 11 go to the bad, my gel, as sure as a
die !' She was a decent lass, Susie, an' she knew I
meant well by her, so she just dropped the book
down our old dry well in the back yard, seventy feet
deep, and took to the cream agin ! She's married
well now and lives over at Woolacombe, very com-
fortably off She's got a good husband, a poultry-
farm and three babies, an' she's no time for novel-
readin' now, thanks to the Lord !"

This narrative, delivered volubly with much ora-
torical gesture and scarcely any pauses, left Miss
Clarinda well-nigh out of breath, and as she and
her visitors were now in the one " best parlour" of
the cottage, she ceased talking, and bustled about to
get them their breakfast. Montrose leaned out of
the open lattice-window where the " sight o' honey-
suckle" hung in fragrant garlands, and inhaled the
delicious perfume with a deep breath of delight.

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 41

" It's a bonnie place, this Devonshire," he said,
half to himself and half to Lionel " But it's not so
bonnie as Scotland."

Lionel had sat down in the window-nook with
rather a weary air, the Homer volume still clasped
in his hands.

" Are you going to Scotland soon ?" he asked.

" Yes. I shall go straight home there for a few
days and see my mother." Here the young man
turned and surveyed his small pupil with involun-
tary tenderness. " I wish I could take you with
me," he added, softly " My mother would love
you, I know."

Lionel was mute. He was thinking to himself
how strange it would seem to be loved by Mr.
Montrose's mother, as he was not loved by his own.
At that moment, Clarinda Cleverly Payne brought
in the breakfast in her usual smart, bustling way ;
excellent tea, new milk, eggs, honey, cream, jam,
home-made bread, and scones smoking hot, were
all set forth in tempting profusion, and to crown the
feast, an antique china basket filled with the rosiest
apples and juiciest pears, was placed in the centre
of the table. William Montrose, B.A., and his little
friend sat down to their good cheer, each with very
different feelings, " oor Willie" with a hearty and
appreciative appetite, the boy with only a faint

42 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

sense of hunger, which was over-weighted by
mental fatigue and consequent physical indifference.
However, he tried to eat well to please the kindly
companion from whom he was so soon to be parted,
and it was not till he had quite finished, that Mon-
trose, pushing aside his cup and plate, addressed the
following remarks to his late pupil,

" Look here, Lionel," he said, " I don't want you
to forget me. If ever you should take it into your
head to run away," here a deep blush crimsoned
Lionel's face, for was he not going to run away that
very day? "or or anything of that sort, just
write and tell me all about it first. A letter will
always find me at my mother's house, The Nest,
Kilmun. I don't, of course, wish to persuade you
to run away" (he looked as if he did, though !)
"because that would be a very desperate thing to
do, still, if you feel you can't hold up under your
lessons, or that Professor Cadman-Gore is too much
for you, why, rather than break down altogether,
you'd better show a clean pair of heels. I expect
I'm giving you advice which a good many people
would think very wrong on my part, all the same,
boys do run away at times, it has been done !"
Here his merry blue eyes twinkled. " And if you
have any more of that giddiness you complained
of the other day, or if you go off in a dead

THE MIGHTY ATOM.

43

faint as you did last week, you really mustn't
conceal these sensations any longer, you must
tell your father and let him take you to see a
doctor."

Lionel listened with an air of rather wearied
patience.

" What's the good of it !" he sighed" I'm not
ill, you know. Besides, I've had the doctor before,
and he said there was nothing the matter with me.
Doctors don't seem to be very clever, my mother
was ill two years ago, and they couldn't cure her.
When they gave her up and left her alone, she
got well. Things always appear to go that way,
the more you do, the worse you get."

Montrose was quite accustomed to such a hope-
less tone of reasoning from the boy, yet somehow,
on this bright summer morning, when he, in the
full enjoyment of health and liberty, was going
home to those who loved him, the absolute loneli-
ness of this child's life and his pathetic resignation
to it, smote him with a keener sense of pain than
usual.

"And as for running away" continued Lionel,
flushing as he spoke " I might do that perhaps for
a few hours, . . . but if I tried to run away for good
and go for a sailor, which is what I should like, I
should only be brought back, you know I should.

44 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

And if I wrote to you about it, I should get you
into dreadful trouble. You don't seem to think of
all that, Mr. Montrose, but /think of it."

"You think too much, altogether," said Mon-
trose, almost crossly, it vexed him to realise that
this boy of barely eleven years was actually older
and more reflective in mind than himself, a man of
seven -an d-twenty ! " You are always thinking !"

" Yes" agreed Lionel, gravely " But then there's
so much to think about in this world, isn't there ?"

To this Montrose volunteered no answer. He sat
gazing at the dish of rosy apples in front of him
with a brooding frown, and presently Lionel laid
one little cold trembling hand on his arm.

" But I shall never forget you, Willie !" he said,
pausing before the name " you know you said I
might call you Willie sometimes. You have been
very good to me, you are the youngest tutor I
have ever had and the kindest; and though I
can't keep all the lessons in my head, I can keep the
kindness. I can indeed !"

He looked so small and fragile as he spoke, his
sensitive little face a-quiver with emotion, and his
soft eyes full of wistful affection and appeal, that
Montrose was much inclined to give him a hearty
kiss, just as he would have kissed a pretty baby.
But he remembered in time all the dry morsels of

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 45

so-called wisdom that had been packed into that
little curly head, all the profound meditations of
dead-and-gone philosophers that were stored in the
recesses of that young mind, and he reflected, with
an odd sense of humorous pity, that it would never
do to kiss such a learned little man. So he gave
him a couple of pleasant pats on the shoulder in-
stead, and answered " All right, laddie ! I know !
Only just think now and again of what I've said to
you, and when you're getting puzzled and dazed-like
over your books, go into the fresh air and never
mind the lessons, and if you get a thrashing for it,
well, all I can say is, a thrashing is better than a
sickness. Health's the grandest thing going, a far
sight better than wealth." At that moment the
" too-too-tootle" of the coach-horn came ringing
towards them in a gay sonorous echo, and he started
up. " By Jove ! I must be off! Miss Payne !
Clarinda !"

" Now, if it isn't like your impudence, Mr. Mont-
rose," said Miss Payne, appearing at the doorway
with her strong bare arms dusty with the flour of the
scones she had just been making, "to be calling
me Clarinda ! Upon my word I don't know what
the gentlemen are coming to," heres he giggled and
simpered in spite of her fifty-two years, as Montrose,
nothing daunted, dropped more than the money due

46 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

for the breakfast into her hand, and audaciously
kissed her on the cheek, (he had no scruples about
kissing her, oh, no ! not at all ! though he had
about kissing Lionel, ) " Really they seem to be
quite reckless nowadays, it was very different, I
dew assure you, when I was a gel "

" Oh, no, it wasn't, Clarinda, I dew assure you !"
laughed Montrose, with a playful mimicking of her
voice and manner " It was just the same, and
always will be the same to the crack of doom !
Men will always be devils, and women, angels !
Good-bye, Clarinda !"

" Good-bye, sir ! A pleasant journey to you !"
and Miss Payne bobbed up and down under her
rose-covered porch, after precisely the same fashion
in which the greatest ladies of the land make their
" dip" salutation to Royalty " Hope to see you
here again some day, sir !"

" I hope so, too !" he answered, cheerily, waving
one hand, while he grasped his portmanteau with
the other and walked with a swinging stride down
the village street, followed by Lionel, to the " Pack
o' Cards" inn, where the coach had just arrived. It
was a picturesque " turn-out," with its four strong,
sleek horses, its passengers, all rendered more or
less bright-faced by the freshness of the morning
air, its white-hatted coachman, and its jolly guard,

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 47

who blew the horn more for the pleasure of blow-
ing it than anything else, and Lionel surveyed it in
a kind of sober rapture.

" You are glad to go, Mr. Montrose" he said
" you must be glad to go !"

" Yes, I am glad in one way" replied Montrose,
" But I'm sorry in another. I'm sorry to le'ave you,
laddie, I should like to be living here for awhile
just to keep you out of harm's way."

" Would you ?" Lionel looked at him sur-
prisedly. " But I am never in the way of harm,
nothing ever happens to me of any particular sort,
you know. One day is just like another."

" Well, good-bye !" and Montrose, having given
over his portmanteau to the coach-guard, laid both
his hands on the boy's fragile shoulders " When
you get home, tell your father it was I who took
you out with me this morning to see me off, and
that if he wants to question me about it, he knows
where a letter will find me. / take all the blame,
remember ! Good-bye ! my dear wee laddie ! and
and God bless you !"

Lionel's lip quivered and the smile he managed
to force was very suggestive of tears.

" Good-bye !" he said, faintly.

" Too-too-too-tootle-too !" carolled the guard on
his shining horn, and Montrose climbed nimbly

48 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

up to his place on the top of the coach. The red-
faced driver bent a severe eye on certain village
children that were standing about agape with ad-
miration at himself and his equipage. " Now then !
Out of the way, youngsters !" There followed a
general scrimmage, and the horses started. " Too-
too-tootle-too !" Up the village street they galloped
merrily in the cheerful sunlight, their manes blown
back by the dancing breeze.

" Good-bye ! Good-bye !" shouted Montrose once
more, waving his straw hat energetically to the
solitary small figure left standing in the road.

But Lionel's voice could not now " carry" far
enough to echo the farewell, so he only lifted his
little red cap once in response, the parting smile
soon fading from his young face, and the worn
pucker on his brow deepening in intensity. He
stood motionless, watching till the last glimpse of
the coach had vanished, then he started, as it were
from a waking dream, and found that he still held
the Homer volume, Montrose had forgotten it.
Some of the village children were standing apart,
staring at him, and he heard them saying some-
thing about the " little gemmun livin' up at the big
'ouse." He looked at them in his turn ; there
were two nice red-cheeked boys with red-cheeked
apples in their hands, their faces were almost the

THE MIGHTY ATOM.

49

counterpart of the apples in roundness and shininess.
He would have liked to talk to them, but he felt
instinctively that if he made any advances in this
direction, they would probably be either timid or
resentful, so he dismissed the idea from his mind,
and went on his own solitary way. He was not
going home, no, he was quite resolved to have a
real holiday all to himself, before his new teacher
arrived. And as he knew the ancient church of
Combmartin was considered one of the chief objects
of interest in the neighbourhood, and as, owing to his
father's " system" of education and ideas concerning
religion or rather non-religion, he had been forbidden
to visit it, he very naturally decided to go thither.
And the tears he had resolutely kept back as long
as Willie Montrose had been with him, now filled
his eyes and dropped slowly, one by one, as he
thought sorrowfully that now there would be no
more pleasant tossings in an open boat on the sea,
no more excursions into the woods for " botany
lessons" which had served as an excuse for many
do-nothing but health-giving rambles, and the read-
ing or reciting of stirring ballads such as "The
Battle of the Baltic," and " Henry of Navarre," un-
der the refreshing shade of the beautiful green trees,
nothing of all this in future, nothing to look
forward to but the dreaded society of Professor
c d 5

5

THE MIGHTY ATOM.

Cadman-Gore. Professor Cadman-Gore had a terri-
ble reputation for learning, all the world was as
one mighty jackass, viewed in the light of his pro-
digious and portentous intellect, and the young
boy's heart ached under the oppression of his
thoughts as he walked, with the lagging step and
bent head of an old man, towards the wooden
churchyard gate, lifted the latch softly and went
in, Homer in hand, to stroll about and meditate,
Hamlet-wise, among the graves of the forgotten
dead.

CHAPTER IV.

HUSHING his little footsteps instinctively as he
went up the moss grown path between the grassy
graves that rose in suggestive hillocks on either side
of him, he paused presently in front of an ancient
tombstone standing aslant, on the top of which sat a
robin-redbreast contentedly twittering, and now and
then calling " Sweet !" to its unseen mate. It was a
fearless bird, and made no movement to fly away as
Lionel approached. Just beneath its brown wings
and scarlet bosom the grey headstone had blossomed
into green, tiny ferns and tufts of moss had man-
aged to find root-hold there, and spread themselves
out in pretty sprays of delicate foliage over the worn
and blackened epitaph below,

HEERE LYETH

YE EARTHLIE BODIE OF SIMON YEDDIE
Saddler in Combmartin

WHO DYED

FULLE OF JOYE AND HOPE TO SEE
HIS DEARE MASTER

CHRISTE

ON THE I/TH DAYE OF JUNE 1671. AGED IO2.
" And He lodged in ye House of one Simon, a Tanner"

5'

52 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

With much difficulty Lionel made out this quaint
inscription, standing, as he did, at some little distance
off, in order not to frighten away the robin. He had
to spell each word over carefully before he could
understand it, and even when he had finally got it
clear, it was still somewhat incomprehensible to his
mind. And while he stood thinking about it, and
wondering at the oddly chosen text which completed
it, the robin-redbreast suddenly flew away with an
alarmed chirp, and a man's head, covered with a lux-
uriant crop of roughly curling white hair, rose, as it
seemed, out of the very ground, goblin-wise, and
looked at him inquisitively. Startled, yet by no
means afraid, Lionel stepped back a few paces.

" Hulloa !" said the head. " Doan't be skeer'd,
little zur ! I be only a-diggin' fur Mother Twiley."

The accent in which these words were spoken was
extremely gentle, even musical, despite its provincial
intonation, and Lionel's momentary misgiving was
instantly dispelled. Full of curiosity he advanced
and discovered the speaker to be a big, broad-shoul-
dered and exceedingly handsome man, the bulk of
whose figure was partially hidden in a dark, squarely-
cut pit of earth, which the boy's instinct told him
was a grave.

" I'm not scared at all, thank you," he said, lift-
ing his little red cap with the politeness which was

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 53

habitual to him " It was only because your head
came up so suddenly that I started ; I did not know
anybody was here at all except the robin that
flew away just now. What a big hole you are
making!"

" Aye !" And the man smiled, his clear blue eyes
sparkling with a cheery light as he turned over and
broke a black clod of earth with his spade,
" Mother Twiley allus liked plenty o' room ! Lor'
bless 'er ! When she was at her best, she 'minded
me of a haystack, a comfortable, soft sort o' hay-
stack for the chillern to play an' jump about on,
an' there was allus chillern round her for the matter
o' that. Well ! Now she's gone there's not a body
as has got a word agin her, an' that's more than can
be said for either kings or queens."

" Is she dead ?" asked Lionel, softly.

" Why, yes, s'fur as this world's consarned, she's
dead," was the reply "But, Lord! what's this
world ! Nuthin' ! Just a breath, an' we're done
wi't. It's the next world we've got to look to, little
zur, the next world is what we should all be a-
workin' fur day an' night.

" ' There's a glory o' the moon

An' a glory o' the stars,
But the glory o' the angels shines
Beyond our prison bars !' "
5*

54 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

He sang this verse melodiously in a rich sweet
baritone, digging the while and patting the sides of
the grave smooth as he worked.

Lionel sat down on one of the grassy mounds
and stared at him thoughtfully.

" How can you believe all that nonsense ?" he
asked, with reproachful solemnity " Such a big
man as you are, too !"

The grave-digger stopped abruptly in his toil, and
turning round, surveyed the little lad with undis-
guised astonishment.

" How can I believe all that nonsense ?" he re-
peated at last, slowly, " Nonsense ? Is a wee
mousie like you a-talkin' o' the blessed sure an'
certain hope o' heaven as nonsense ? God ha' mercy
on ye, ye poor little thing ! Who has had the
bringin' of ye up, anyway ?"

Lionel flushed deeply and his eyes smarted with
repressed tears. He was very lonely ; and he wanted
to talk to this cheery-looking man who had such a
soft musical voice and such a kindly smile, but now
he feared he had offended him.

" My name is Lionel, -Lionel Valliscourt," he
said, in low, rather tremulous tones, " I am the
only son of Mr. Valliscourt who has taken the big
house over there for the summer, that one, you
can just see the chimneys through the trees" and

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 55

he indicated the direction by a little wave of his
hand " And I have always had very clever men
for tutors ever since I was six years old, I shall be
eleven next birthday, and they have taught me lots
of things. And why I said the next world was
nonsense was because I have always been told so.
One would be very glad, of course, if it were true,
but then, it isn't true. It is only an idea, a sort of
legend. My father says nobody with any sense now-
adays believes it. Scientific books prove to you,
you know, that when you go into a grave like that"
and he pointed to the hole in which the white-haired
sexton stood, listening and inwardly marvelling,
"you are quite dead for ever, you never see the
sun any more, or hear the birds sing, and you never
find out why you were made at all, which I think is
very curious, and very cruel ; and you are eaten
up by the worms. Now it surely is nonsense, isn't
it, to think you can come to life again after you are
eaten by the worms ? and that is what I meant, when
I asked how you could believe such a thing. I hope
you will excuse me, I didn't wish to offend you."

The grave-digger still stood silent. His fine reso-
lute features expressed various emotions, wonder,
pain, pity, and something of indignation, then, all
at once these flitting shadows of thought melted
into a sunny smile of tenderness.

56 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

" Offend me ? No indeed ! ye couldn't do that,
my little zur, if ye tried, ye're too much of a babby.
An' so ye're Mr. Valliscourt's son, eh ? well, I'm
Reuben Dale, the verger o' th' church here, an'
sexton, an' road-mender, an' carpenter, an' anything
else wotsoever my hand finds to do, I does it with
my might, purvided it harrums nobody an' gits me a
livin'. Now ye see these arms o' mine" and he
raised one of the brown muscular limbs alluded to,
" They ha' served me well, they ha' earned bread
an' clothing, an' kep' wife an' child, an' please God
they'll serve me yet many a long day, an' I'm grateful
to have 'em for use an' hard labour,-rbut I know the
time '11 come when they '11 be laid down in a grave
like this 'ere, stark an' stiff an' decayin' away to the
bone, a-makin' soil fur vi'lets an' daises to grow over
me. But what o' that? I'll not be a-wantin' of 'em
then, no more than I'm a-wantin' now the long
clothes I wore when our passon baptised me at t' old
font yonder. I, who am, at present, owner o' these
arms, will be zumwheres else, livin' an' thinkin', an'
please the Lord, workin' too, for work's divine
an' wholesome, I'll 'ave better limbs mebbe, an'
stronger, but wotsoever body I get into ye may
depend on't, little zur, it '11 be as right an' fittin' for
the ways o' the next world as the body I've got
now is right an' fittin' fur this one. An' my soul

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 57

will be the same as keeps me up at this moment,
bad or good, onny I pray it may get a bit wiser
an' better, an' not go down like." He raised his
clear blue eyes to the bright expanse above him, and
murmured half inaudibly, " Let him that thinketh he
standeth, take heed lest he fall" and seemed for a
moment lost in meditation.

" Please, Mr. Mr. Dale, what do you mean by
your soul ?" asked Lionel, gravely.

Reuben Dale brought his rapt gaze down from the
shining sky to the quaint and solemn little figure
before him.

" What do I mean, my dear ?" he echoed, with a
note of compassion vibrating in his rich voice " I
mean the onny livin' part o' me, the ' vital spark o'
heavenly flame ' in all of us that our dear Lord died
to save. That's what I mean, an' that's what you'll
mean too, ye poor pale little chap, when ye'se
growed up and begins to unnerstand all the marvels
o' God's goodness to us ungrateful sinners. Onny
to think o' the blessed sunshine should be enough
fur the givin* o' thanks, but Lord pity us ! we're
sore forgetful of all our daily mercies !"

" And your friend, Mother Twiley," hinted
Lionel, almost deferentially, " Had she what you
call a soul ?"

" Aye, that she had ! an' a great one, an' a true

58 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

one, an' an angel one, fur all that she wor old, an'
not so well-looking in her body as she must ha' been
in her mind," replied the sexton " But ye may be
sure God found her right beautiful in His sight when
He tuk her to Himself t'other evening just as the
stars were risin.' "

" But how do you know," persisted Lionel, who
was getting deeply, almost painfully interested in the
conversation " Do tell me, please ! how do you
know she had a soul ?"

" My dear, when you see a very poor old woman,
with nothing of world's comfort or world's goods
about her, bearing a humble an' hard lot in peace an'
contentment, wi' a cheerful face an' bright eye, a
smile for every one, a heart fur the childer, forgive-
ness for the wrongdoers, an' charity for all, who can
look back on eighty years o' life with a ' Praise God'
for every breath of it, you may be sure that some-
thin' better an' higher than the mere poor, worn,
tired body o' her, keeps 'er firm to 'er work an' true
to her friends, an' so 'twas with Mother Twiley. S'
fur as her body went 'twas just a trouble to her,
twitched wi' rheumatiz, an' difficult to manage in the
matter o' mere breathing, but her soul was straight
enough an' strong enough. Lord, 'ere in Comb-
martin we knew her soul so well that we forgot all
about the poor old case it lived in, I hardly think

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 59

we saw it ! Our bodies are weak, bothersome things,
my dear, an' without a soul to help 'em along we
should never keep 'em going."

" I believe that," said Lionel, heaving a little
sigh, " I can't help believing it though it's not what
I've been taught. My body is weak ; it aches all
over often. Still, I think, Mr. Dale, that souls, such
as you talk about, must be exceptions, you know.
Like blue eyes, for instance, everybody hasn't
got blue eyes ; well, perhaps everybody hasn't got a
soul. You see that might be how it is. My father
would be very angry if you told him he had a soul.
And I know he will never let me have one, not even
if I could grow it somehow."

Reuben Dale was speechless. He gazed at the
boy's small sad face in wonder too great for words.
Himself a simple-hearted God-fearing man who had
lived all his life at Combmartin, working hard for his
daily bread, and entirely contented with his humble
lot, he had never heard of the feverish and foolish
discussions held in over-populated cities, where de-
luded men and women shut out God from their con-
sciences as they shut out the blue sky by the toppling
height and close crowding together of their hideous
houses, where the very press teaches blasphemy
and atheism, and permits to pass into the hands of
the public, with praise and recommendation, such

60 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

lewd books as might move even a Rabelais to sick
abhorrence. And he certainly had never deemed it
possible that any form of government could exist in
the world, which favoured the bringing up and edu-
cation of children without religion. He had heard
of France,- but he was not aware that it had es-
chewed religion from its public schools and was rap-
idly becoming a mere forcing-bed for the production
of child-thieves, child-murderers, and child-parricides.
He believed in England as he believed in God, with
that complete and glorious faith in mother-country
which makes the nation great, and it would have
been a shock to his steadfast, deeply religious nature,
had he been told that even this beloved England of
ours, misled by those who should have been her best
guardians, was accepting lessons from France in
open atheism, " Simianism " and general " free " mo-
rality. Thus, the child that sat before him was a
kind of unnatural prodigy to his sight, the little
pale face framed in an aureole of fair curling hair
might have aptly fitted an angel, but the elderly
manner, the methodical, precise fashion in which
this young thing spoke seemed to honest Reuben
" uncanny," and he ruffled his beard with one hand
in dire perplexity, quite taken aback, and at a loss
how to continue the conversation. For how could
he give any instruction in the art of " growing " a

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 6 1

soul ? Happily, however, a diversion here occurred
in the sudden almost noiseless approach of a tiny
girl, with the prettiest little face imaginable, that
peered out like a pink rose from under a white
" poke" sun-bonnet and a tangle of nut-brown curls,
a little girl who appeared to Lionel's eyes like a
vision of Helen of Troy in miniature, so lovely and
dainty was her aspect. He had never been allowed
to read any fairy-tales, so he could not liken her to a
fairy, which would have been more natural, but he
had done a lot of heavy translation-work in Homer,
and he knew that all the heroes in the " Iliad" quar-
relled about this Helen, and that she was very beau-
tiful. Therefore he immediately decided that Helen
of Troy when she was a little girl (she must have
been a little girl once !) was exactly like the charm-
ing small person who now came towards him, car-
rying a wicker basket on her arm, and tripping
across graves as delicately as though she were noth-
ing but a blossom blown over them by the summer
breeze.

" Halloa !" exclaimed Reuben Dale, throwing
down his spade, " Here's my little 'un ! Well, my
Jas'min flower ! Bringin' a snack for th' old
feyther ?"

At this query the little girl smiled, creating a
luminous effect beneath her poke-bonnet as though

6

62 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

a sunbeam were caught within it, then she made a
small round O of her tiny red mouth, with the
evident intention to thereby convey a hint of some-
thing delicious. And finally she opened her basket,
and took out a brown jug, full of hot fragrant coffee,
lavishly frothed at the top with cream, and two big
slices of home-made bread and butter.

" Is that right, feyther ?" she inquired, as she
carefully set these delicacies on the edge of the
grave within her father's reach.

" That's right, my bird !" responded Reuben,
lifting her in his arms high above his head, and
giving her a sounding kiss on both her rosy cheeks
as he put her down again " An* look 'ere, Jessa-
mine, there's a little gemmun for ye to talk to. Go
an' say how-d'y-do to 'im."

Thus commanded, Jessamine obeyed, strictly to
the letter. She went to where Lionel sat admiringly
watching her, and put out her dumpy mite of a hand.

" How-d'y-do !" said she. And before Lionel
could utter a word in reply she had shaken her
curls defiantly, and run away ! The boy sprang up,
pained and perplexed ; Reuben Dale laughed.

"After her, my lad! Run! the run'll do ye
good! She's just like that at first, fur all the
world like a kitten, fond o* fun ! Ye'll find 'er a-
hidin' round the corner !"

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 63

Thus encouraged, Lionel ran, actually ran, a
thing he very seldom did. He became almost a
hero, like the big men of the " Iliad !" His " Helen"
was " a-hidin' round the corner," he was valiantly
determined to find her, and after dodging the little
white sun-bonnet round trees and over tombs till he
was well-nigh breathless, she, like all feminine things,
condescended to be caught at last, and to look shyly
in the face of her youthful captor.

" What boy be you ?" she asked, biting the string
of her sun-bonnet with an air of demure coquetry
" You be prutty, all th' boys roond 'ere be
oogly."

Oh, what an accent for a baby " Helen of Troy !"
and yet how charming it was to hear her say
"oogly," because she made another of those little
round O's of her mouth that suggested delicious-
ness, even the deliciousness of kissing. Lionel
thought he would like to kiss her, and coloured
hotly at the very idea. Meanwhile his " Helen of
Troy" continued her observation of him.

" Would 'ee like an aaple ?" she demanded, pro-
ducing a small, very rosy one from the depths of a
miniature pocket, " I'll gi' ye this if s'be ye'se let
me bite th' red bit oot."

If ever a young lady looked " fetching," as the
slang phrase expresses it, Miss Jessamine Dale did

64 THE MIGHTY A TOM.

so at that moment. What with the mischievous
light in her dark blue eyes, and the smile on her
little mouth as she suggested that she should " bite
th' red bit," and the altogether winsome, provoca-
tive, innocent allurement of her manner, Lionel
quite lost his head for the moment, and forgot every-
thing but the natural facts that he was a little boy
and she was a little girl. He laughed merrily,
such a laugh as he had not enjoyed for many a
weary day, and taking the apple from her hand
held it to her lips while she carefully closed her tiny
teeth on the "red bit" and secured it, the juice
dropping all over her dimpled chin.

" I'm to have the rest, am I ?" said Lionel, then,
venturing to hold her by the arm and assist her over
a very large and very ancient grave, wherein reposed,
as the half-broken tombstone said, " Ye Bodie of
Martha Dumphy, Aged Ninety-seven Yeeres."
Long, long ago lived Martha Dumphy, long, long
ago she died, but could anything of her have still
been conscious, she would have felt no offence or
sacrilege in the tread of those innocent young feet
that sprang so lightly over her last resting-place.

" Yes, you're to 'ave the rest," replied Jessamine,
benevolently, then with an infinite slyness and hu-
mour she added " I've got 'nuther i' my poacket !"

How they laughed, to be sure ! Forgetful of" Ye

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 65

Bodie of Martha Dumphy," they sat down on the
grass that covered her old bones, and enjoyed their
apples to the full, Miss Jessamine generously be-
stowing the " red bit" of the second apple on Lionel,
who, though he was not really hungry, found some-
thing curiously appetising in these stray morsels of
juicy fruit lately plucked from the tree.

" Coom into th' church," then said Jessamine,
" Feyther's left the door open. Coom an' see th' big
lilies on th' Lord's table."

Lionel looked into her lovely little face, feeling
singularly embarrassed by this invitation. He knew
what she meant, of course, he had been duly in-
structed in the form of the Christian " myth," as a
myth only, in company with all the other creeds
known to history. They had been bracketed to-
gether for his study and consideration in a group of
twelve, thus :

1. Of Phta, and the Egyptian mythology.

2. Of Brahma, Vishnu and the Hindoo Cults.

3. Of the Chaldean and Phrenician creeds.

4. Of the Greek and Roman gods.

5. Of Buddha and Buddhism.

6. Of Confucius and the Chinese sects.

7. Of the Mexican mythology.

8. Of Odin and the Norse beliefs.

9. Of Mohammedanism and the Koran.

e 6*

66 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

10. Of the Talmud and Jewish tradition.

11. Of Christ, and the gradual founding of the
Christian myth, on the relics of Greek and Roman
Paganism.

12. Of the Advance of Positivism and Pure
Reason, in which all these creeds are proved to
be without foundation, and merely serving as
obstacles to the Intellectual Progress of Man.

The above " schedule" had formed a very special
and particular part of Lionel's education, and he
had been carefully taught that only semi-barbarians
believed nowadays in anything divine or super-
natural. The intellectual classes fully understood,
so he was told, that there was no God, and that
the First Cause of the universe was merely an
Atom, productive of other atoms which moved in
circles of fortuitous regularity, shaping worlds in-
differently, and without any Mind-force whatever
behind the visible Matter. Thus had the intel-
lectual classes fathomed the Eternal, entirely to
their own satisfaction, and, of course, he, poor
little Lionel, was being brought up to take his
place among the intellectual classes, where his
father was already a shining light of dogmatic
pedantry. He was assured that only the poor,
the ignorant, and the feeble-minded still appealed
to God as " Our Father," and believed in the

THE MIGHTY ATOM, 67

socialist workman, Jesus of Nazareth, as a Divine
Personage whose way of life and death had shown
all men the road to Heaven. One of the chief
faults found with Willie Montrose as a tutor had
been his implicit faith in these supernatural things,
and his point-black refusal to teach his young pupil
otherwise. Hence the subject, Religion, had been
removed altogether from Lionel's " course of study,"
and the unswerving firmness Montrose had shown
on the matter had led, among other more trifling
drawbacks, to his dismissal. All this was fresh in
the boy's mind, and now Jessamine said, " Coom
an' see th' big lilies on th' Lord's table!" She,
then, was one of the " semi-barbarians," this pretty
little girl, and yet how happy she seemed ! what
an innocent, dove-like expression of tenderness and
trust shone in her eyes as she spoke ! How very
young she was ! and alas, how very old he felt as
he looked at her! She knew so little, he had
learned so much, and though he was but four
years her senior, he seemed in his own pained
consciousness to be an elderly man studying the
merry pranks of a child.

" Coom!" repeated Jessamine, her "coom" sound-
ing very like the soft note of a ring-dove, as she got
up from the grassy bed of " Martha Dumphy's" ever-
lasting sleep " It be cool i' th' church, we'll sit i'

68 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

th' poopit an' y' shall tell me a story 'bout Heaven.
Y' know all 'bout angels, don't 'ee ? How they
cooms down all in white an' kisses us when we'se in
bed asleep ? Did ever any of 'em kiss 'ee ?"

Lionel's lonely little heart beat strangely. An
angel kiss him! what a sweet fancy, but how
foolish ! Yet with Jessamine's face so near his own
he could not tell her that he did not believe in
angels, she looked so like a little one herself. So
he answered her quaint question with a simple

" No !"

" I would ha' thowt they did," continued Jessa-
mine, encouragingly "Ye bain't a bad boy, be
ye?"

Lionel smiled rather plaintively.

" Perhaps I am," he said, " and perhaps that's
why the angels don't come."

" My mother's an angel," "went on Jessamine
" She couldn't abear bein' away from God no longer
an' so she flew to Heaven one night quite suddint,
with big white wings an' a star on her head. Feyther
says she often flies doon jes' for a minute like an'
kisses 'im, an' me, too, when we'se asleep. Auntie
Kate takes care of us since she went."

" Then she is dead ?" queried Lionel.

" Nowt o' that," replied Jessamine, peacefully
" Hasn't I told 'ee she's an angel ?"

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 69

" But have you ever seen her since she went
away ?" persisted the boy.

" No. I hain't good enough" and a small sigh
of pathetic self-reproach heaved the baby breast
" I'se very little yet, an' bad offen. But I'll see her
some day for sure."

Lionel could find nothing to say to this, and in
another minute they had entered the church to-
gether. The subtle sweet fragrance of the "big
lilies on th' Lord's table" came floating towards
them on a cool breath of air as the heavy old
oaken door swung open and closed again, and they
paused in the aisle, hand in hand, looking gravely
up and down, first at the tall white flowers that
filled the gilt vases on either side of the altar, mys-
tically suggesting in their snowy stateliness, the
words, " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall
see God ;" then, at the patterns of blue, red, and
amber cast on the stone pavement by the reflections
of the sun through the stained -glass windows. The
ancient roof with its crookedly planned oak mould-
ings of the very earliest English style of archi-
tecture, had a grave and darkening effect on the
sunshine, and the solemn hush of the place, ex-
pressive of past prayer, impressed Lionel with a
sweet yet unfamiliar sense of rest. Jessamine
grasped his hand closer.

70 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

" Coom into th' poopit," she whispered " There
be soft cushions there an' a big, big Bible, I'll show
'ee a pictur" here she opened her eyes very wide
" my pictur ! my own very best pictur !"

Somewhat curious to see this treasure, Lionel
climbed with her up the pulpit-stairs, feeling that he
was really having what might be called an adven-
ture on this his stolen holiday. Jessamine was
evidently quite familiar with the pulpit as a coign of
vantage, for she hauled the big Bible she had spoken
of out of its recess with much care and much breath-
less labour and placed it on a velvet cushion on the
floor. Then she curled herself down beside it and,
turning over a few pages, beckoned Lionel to kneel
and look also.

" Here 'tis !" she said, with a soft chuckle of
rapture " See ! See this prutty boy ! you's some-
thin' a bit like, aint'y? An' see all these oogly ole
men ! They'se wise people, so they thinks. An'
th' prutty boy's tellin' 'em how silly they be, an' aw'
in a muddle wi' their books an' larnin', an' how
good God is, an' all 'bout Heaven, see ! An'
they'se very angry wi'm an' 'stonished, 'cos He's
onny a boy, an' they'se all ol' men as cross as sticks.
An' there He is y' see, an' He knows all about what
they oogly men doan't know, 'cos He's the little
Jesus."

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 71

The subject of the picture was Christ expounding
the Law to the doctors of the Temple, and Lionel
studied it with an almost passionate interest. Only
a boy! and yet in His boyhood He was able to
teach the would-be wise men of His day ! " Though,"
thought Lionel, with his usual melancholy cynicism,
" perhaps they were not really wise, and that is why
He found it easy."

Meanwhile Jessamine having gloated over her " own
best pictur" sufficiently, shut the book, put it relig-
iously back in its place, and sat herself down beside
her companion on the top step of the pulpit-stair.

" Wot's y' name ?" she demanded.

" Lionel," he answered.

" Li'nel ? How funny ! Wot's Li'nel ? 'Tain't a
flower?"

" No. Your name is a flower."

" 'Iss ! Our jess'mine tree was all over bloom the
mornin' I was born, an' that's why I'm called Jessa-
mine. I likes my name better'n your'n."

" So do I," said Lionel, smiling " Mine is not
nearly such a pretty name. My mother calls me
Lylie."

" I likes that, that's prutty, I'se cally* Lylie,
too," declared Miss Jessamine promptly, and as she
spoke she slipped an arm confidingly round his neck
" You be a nice boy, Lylie ! Now tell me a story !"

CHAPTER V.

LIONEL gazed at her in deeper perplexity than
ever. What story could he tell her? He knew
none that were likely to charm or interest a creature
so extremely young. It was very delightful to feel
her warm chubby arm round his neck and to see her
dear little face so close to his own, and he thought,
as he looked, that he had never seen such beautiful
blue eyes before, not even his mother's, which he had
till now considered beautiful enough. But Jessa-
mine's eyes had such heavenly sweetness in their
liquid depths, and something moreover beyond mere
sweetness, the untroubled light of a spotless inno-
cence such as sometimes makes the softly-tinted cup
of a woodland flower remind one involuntarily of a
child's eyes. Only a very few flowers convey this
impression, the delicate azure circle of the hepatica,
the dark purple centre of the pansy, the pensive
blue of the harebell, the frank smiling sky-tint of
the forget-me-not, or the iris-veined heart of the
Egyptian lotus. But the child-look is in such blos-
soms, and we often recognise it when we come sud-
denly upon them peering heavenwards out of the
green tangles of grass and fern. Jessamine's eyes
72

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 73

were a mixture of grave pansy-hues and laughing
forget-me-nots, and when she smiled both these
flowers appeared to meet with a pretty rivalry in her
shining glances. And once again Lionel thought of
Helen of Troy.

" Ain't 'ee got no story ?" quoth she, presently,
after waiting a patient two minutes " What book
be that there ?"

And she put a dumpy little red finger on the copy
of Homer left behind by Willie Montrose and still
carried under Lionel's arm.

" It's Homer," replied the boy, promptly " My
tutor went away by the first coach this morning and
he forgot to take it with him. It's his book, and a
favourite copy, I must send it to him by post."

" 'Iss, 'ee must send it to him," echoed Jessamine,
approvingly " What be 'Omer ?"

" He was a great poet, the first great poet that
ever lived, so far as history knows, and he was an
ancient Greek " explained Lionel " He lived oh,
ages ago. He tells all about the Trojan wars in this
book ; it's an epic."

"What's epik?" inquired Jessamine " An' what's
Drojun wors ?"

Lionel laughed softly. The gravity of the old
church roof hung over him, otherwise his laughter
would have been less restrained.

74 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

" You wouldn't understand it, if I told you, dear,"
he said, becoming suddenly protective and manful as
he realised her delightful ignorance and weakness
" Homer was a poet, do you know what poetry is ?"

" 'Iss, 'deed I do !" declared Jessamine, allowing
her head to droop caressingly on his shoulder " I've
'eerd a lot o't. I'll tell you some, it be like this,

" ' Gentle Jesus, meek an' mild,
Look upon a little child,
Pity my simplicitzV,
An' suffer me to come to Thee ! ' "

She looked up as she finished the familiar stanza
with one of her radiant baby smiles.

" Didn't I say that nice ?" she demanded.

" Very nice !" murmured Lionel, while thoughts
were flying round and round in his brain concerning
the " semi-barbarians who still believed in the Chris-
tian myth," which was one of his father's constantly
repeated and favourite phrases.

" Now tell me some more 'Omer an' Drojun wors"
she said, nestling against him like a soft kitten
" Is it 'bout angels ?"

" No," replied Lionel, " It is all about great big
men, very big men "

" Too big to get into this church ?" queried Jessa-
mine in awe-struck tones.

" Yes I believe they would have been too big to

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 75

get into this church" said Lionel, smiling involun-
tarily "And they all fought about a lady called
Helen, who was the most beautiful woman in the
world."

" Why did she let 'em fight ?" asked Jessamine
gravely " She was not a good lady to let the poor
big men fight an* 'urt theirselves for 'er. She should
'ave made 'em all friends."

" She couldn't" said Lionel " You see they
wouldn't be friends."

" They must ha' been funny big men !" murmured
Jessamine " Where be they all now?"

" Oh, dead ever so long ago !" laughed the boy
" Some people say they never lived at all !"

" Oh, then it's all fairy-tale like Puss-in-Boots,"
said Jessamine "Your Drojun wors is a fairy-book
like mine. Only I like Puss-in-Boots better. Do
'ee know my fairy-book ?"

Lionel had never had what is called a " fairy-
book" in his life, fairy-books having been considered
by his father in the same light as that with which
Mr. H. Holman, one of Her Majesty's Inspectors
of Schools, recently regarded them, publicly de-
nouncing them as " dangerous to morality and mis-
chievous as to knowledge, contradicting the most
obvious and elementary facts of experience." (Alas,
good Dry-as-Dust Holman ! How much thou art

76 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

to be pitied for never having been in the least young !
And dost thou not realise that Religion itself in all
its forms of creed, " contradicts the most obvious
and elementary facts of experience" ?) The little
Lionel was unacquainted with Mr. Holman, but he
knew his own father's stern contempt for fairy-tales,
even for those which have, in many cases, strangely
foretold some of the most brilliant recent discoveries
in science, so he replied to Jessamine's question by
a negative shake of his head, the while he gazed
admiringly at the nut-brown curls that rippled in
charming disarray on bis shoulder.

" I'll tell 'ee somethin' in it," she continued, with
the thinking, dreamy air of a child-angel rapt in
some sublime reverie " There wos once a little girl
an' a little boy, 'bout s' big as we be, they wos good
an* prutty, an' they'd got a bad, bad ole uncle. He
couldn't abide 'em 'cos they wos s' good an' 'e wos
s' bad; so one day 'e took 'em out in a great big
dark wood where no sun couldn't shine, an' there
'e lost 'em both. An' when they wos lost, they
walked 'bout, up an' down, an' couldn't get out
nohow, an' they got tired an' 'ungry, an' so they laid
down an' said their prayers, an' put their arms round
each other's necks, so " and here Jessamine cud-
dled closer "an' died jest right off, 'an' God took
'em straight to Heaven. An' then all the robin-red-

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 77

breasts F th' wood were sorry 'bout it, an' they came
an' covered 'em all over wi' beautiful red an* green
leaves, 'cos God told the robins to bury 'em jest so,
'cos they wos good an' their ole uncle was bad, an'
the robins did jest what God told 'em." Her voice
died away in a soft croodling whisper, and her eye-
lids drooped. " Was that a nice story ?" she asked.

" Very !" responded Lionel, almost paternally, feel-
ing quite old and wise, as he ventured now to put
his own arm round her.

"I fink," murmured Jessamine then "that 'oor
bad ole Drojun wors 'as made me sleepy."

And as a matter of fact, in a couple of minutes, the
little maiden was fast asleep, her pretty mouth half
open like a tiny rosebud, and the light rise and fall
of her breathing suggesting the delicate palpitations
of a dove's breast. Lionel sat very quiet, still encir-
cling her with his arm, and looked dreamily about
him. He studied the altar-screen immediately in
front of him, regarding with somewhat of a gravely
inquiring air the ancient, roughly carved oaken figures
of the twelve apostles that partly formed it. He
knew all about them of course, that they were
originally common fishermen picked up on the
shores of Galilee by Jesus the son of Joseph the car-
penter, and that they went about with Him every-
where while He preached the new strange Gospel of

78 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

Love which seemed like madness to a world of con-
tention, envy, and malice. They were just poor
ordinary men ; not kings, not warriors, not nobly
born, not distinguished for either learning or cour-
age, and yet they had become far greater in history
than any monarch that ever lived, they were evan-
gelists, saints, nay almost secondary gods in the
opinion of a section of " semi-barbaric" mankind. It
was very strange ! very strange indeed, thought
Lionel as he gazed earnestly at their quaint wooden
faces, and stranger still that a mere man who was a
carpenter's son should have made the larger and
more civilised portion of humanity believe in Him as
God for more than eighteen hundred years ! What
had He done? Why nothing, but good. What
had He taught ? Nothing but purity and unselfish-
ness. What was He ? A determined reformer, who
strove to upset the hard and fast laws of Jewish tra-
dition, and unite all classes in one broad and holy
creed of love to God and Brotherhood, a union of
the Divine and Human which should ultimately lead
to perfection. Even the various tutors who had
taken their several turns at setting poor Lionel's
little mind like a knife to the grindstone of learning,
had been unable to say otherwise than that this
Nazarene carpenter's son was good and wise and
brave. In goodness none ever surpassed Him, that

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 79

was certain. Socrates was wise and brave, but he
was not actually good ; many sins could be laid to
his charge, and the same could be asserted of all the
other famous moralists and philosophers who had
essayed to teach the various successive generations
of men. But against Christ nothing could be said.
True, He denounced the Jewish priesthood on the
score that they were hypocrites ; " and surely,"
thought Lionel with a prescience beyond his years
" He would have to denounce the Christian priest-
hood too if it is true, as my father says that they all
preach what they don't believe, simply to gain a
living." He sighed, and his eyes wandered to
the " big lilies on th' Lord's table" with a wistful
yearning. Those great white cups of fragrance !
with what sweet pride they stood up, each on its
green stem and silently breathed out praise to the
Creator of their loveliness ! " Behold the lilies of the
field ! they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I
say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not
arrayed like one of these." How true that was!
Put " Solomon in all his glory" or any monarch that
ever existed beside " one of these" tall fair flowers,
and he, in his coronation-robes and crown, would
seem but a mere doll-puppet decked out in tawdry
tinsel. Lionel drew the little Jessamine closer to
him as she slept, and sighed again, the unconscious

80 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

sigh of a tired young thing overweighted with
thought, and longing for rest and tenderness. The
summer sunlight streamed down upon the two chil-
dren with a broad beneficence, as though the love of
Christ for the weak and helpless were mixed with the
golden rays, as though the very silence and purity
of the light expressed the Divine meaning, " These
' little ones' are Mine as the lilies are Mine ! Suffer
them to come to Me and forbid them not, for of such
is the Kingdom of Heaven." And as Lionel mused
and dreamed, becoming gradually drowsy himself, the
church-door swung softly open, and Reuben Dale
the verger entered with another and younger man
who carried a roll of music under his arm, and who
immediately ascended alone to the organ-loft. Dale
meanwhile paused, lifting his cap reverently and
looking about him in evident search for his little
girl. Lionel beckoned to him from the pulpit-stairs,
at the same time laying a ringer on his lips to inti-
mate that Jessamine was asleep. Honest Reuben
advanced on tip-toe, and surveyed the two small
creatures encircled in one another's arms, with undis-
guised and good-natured admiration.

" Now that's jest prutty !" he murmured, inaudibly
to himself " An' as nat'ral as two young burrds.
An" yon poor pale little lad looks a'most as if he
was 'appy for once in's life !"

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 8 1

At that moment a solemn chord of sound stirred
the air, the organist had commenced his daily
practice, and was deftly unweaving the melodious
intricacies of a stately fugue of Bach's, made doubly
rich in tone by the grave pedal-bass with which it
was sustained and accompanied. Lionel started,
and Jessamine awoke. Rubbing her chubby little
fists into her eyes, she sat up, yawned and stared,
then smiled bewitchingly as she saw her father.

" We wos babes i' th' wood," she explained,
sweetly " An' we wos waitin' fur the robins to come
an' cover us up. Onny I 'specs they couldn't git
froo th' windows to bring th' leaves."

" I 'specs not, indeed !" said Dale, the kind smile
broadening on his mouth and lighting up his fine
eyes " Now ye jest coom out o' that there poopit,
ye little pixie it's dinner-time an' we'se goin*
'ome."

Jessamine rose promptly and skipped down the
pulpit-stairs, Lionel following her.

" Coom along wi' us," she said, taking him affec-
tionately by the arm "Ain't 'e a'-coomin,' feyther?
'e be a rare nice boy !"

" If s' be as 'e likes to coom, why sartinly an'
welcome !" responded Reuben, " But he's a little
gemmum as 'as got a feyther an' mother o's own,
an' mebbe they wants "im."

82 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

Lionel stood silent and inert. They were going
away " home," this cheery verger and his pretty
child, and the old creeping sense of oppression and
loneliness stole over the boy's mind and chilled his
heart. The music surging out from the organ-loft
moved him strangely to thoughts hitherto unfamiliar,
and he thought he would stay alone in the church
and listen, and try to understand the subtle meaning
of such glorious, yet wordless eloquence. It seemed
like angels singing, only there were no angels ! it
made one fancy the gates of Heaven were open,
only there was no Heaven ! it suggested God's
great voice speaking tenderly, only there was no
God! A deep sigh broke from him, and all un-
consciously two big tears rose in his eyes and
splashed down wet and glistening on his little blue
woollen vest. In a second the impulsive Jessamine
had thrown her arms about him.

" O don't 'ee ky !" she crooned fondly in his ear
" We'se both goin' 'ome wi' feyther, an' 'e'll be kind
t' ye ! An' when we've 'ad our dinner I'll show 'ee
my dee ole 'oss ! such a nice ole 'oss 'e be !"

Despite himself, Lionel laughed, though his lips
still trembled. Poor boy, he could hardly himself
understand the cause of his own emotion, why his
heart had given that sudden heave of pain, why the
tears had come, or why he had felt so desolately,

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 83

sorrowfully alone in a huge, cold, pitiless world,
but he was grateful to Jessamine all the same for
her sympathy. Reuben Dale meanwhile had been
studying him gravely and curiously.

" Would 'ee reely like to coom an" take a snack
wi' us, little zur ?" he asked gently and with a cer-
tain deference " Ours is onny a poor cottage, ye
know, an* sadly out o' repair, we'se 'ad no lord o'
th' manor coom nigh us for many a year to look
arter us an' see how we be a-farin', none o' them
fine folks cares for either our souls or bodies, pur-
vidin' they gits their money out o' our labour an'
worrit. All we 'as by way o' remembrance from
'em is a ' love-letter' twice a year a-claimin' o' their
rent, they never fails to send us that 'ffectionate
message" and his eyes twinkled humorously " but
as fur puttin' a new fence or a new roof or makin'
of us comfortabler like for our money, Lor' bless 'ee,
they never thinks o't. But if ye'll take us as ye find
us, ye'll be right welcome to coom on an' play wi'
Jessamine a bit longer."

" Thank you very much, I should dearly like to
come," said Lionel, wistfully " You see I am all
alone just now, my tutor went away this morning,
and another tutor is coming to-night to take his
place, but in the meantime there is nothing for me
to do, as the plan of my studies is going to be

84 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

changed, it is always being changed, and so I
may as well be here as at home. I am giving my-
self a holiday to-day " here he raised his eyes and
looked Reuben Dale straight in the face " and I
wish to tell you, Mr. Dale, that I am doing it with-
out my father's knowledge or permission. I am so
tired of books ! and I love to be out in the fresh
air. Of course now you know this, you mayn't wish
to have me, but then if you will please say so, I will
go into the woods for the rest of the day, or stay by
myself in the church. I should like to see more of
the church, it interests me."

Dale regarded the little fellow steadfastly, first in
doubt and perplexity, then with a broadening smile.

" Tired o' books, be 'ee ?" he queried" Well !
ye're young enough, sure-/y / An' books can wait
awhile for ye. Reyther than go wanderin' i' th'
woods by y'self, ye'd better coom along wi' me an*
Jessamine, onny mind, ye must tell yer feyther
where ye ha' been, ye must be sartin zure o' that!"

" Of course I'll tell him," responded Lionel, man-
fully " I always tell him everything, no matter how
angry he is. You see he is very often angry, what-
ever I do or say, though he means it all for my
good. He is a very good man, he has never done
anything wrong in all his life !"

" Ay, ay ! Then he's jest a miracle !" said Reuben,

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 85

drily, " Well now, little zur, Tore we goes I'll take
ye round th' church, there ain't much to see, but
what there is I know more about than anyone else in
Combmartin. Coom ! look at these 'ere altar-
gates."

He spoke in soft tones and trod softly as befitted
the sanctity of the place, and the two children fol-
lowed him, hand in hand, as he approached the
oaken screen and pointed out the twelve apostles
carved upon it.

" Now do 'ee know, little zur," said he, " why this
'ere carvin' is at least two hunner' years old an*
likely more'n that ?"

" No," answered Lionel, squeezing Jessamine's
little warm hand in his own, out of sheer comfort
at feeling that he was not to be separated from her
yet.

" Jest watch these 'ere gates as I pull 'em to an'
fro," continued Reuben, " Do what ye will wi'
'em, they won't shut, see !" and he proved the fact
beyond dispute, " That shows they wos made 'fore
the days o' Cromwell. For in they times all the
gates o' th' altars was copied arter the pattern o'
Scripture which sez ' An' the gates o' Heaven shall
never be shut, either by day or by night.' Then
when Cromwell came an' broke up the statues an'
tore down the picters or whited them out wheresever

86 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

they wos on th' walls, the altars wos made different,
wi' gates that shut an' locked, I s'pose 'e wos that
sing'ler afraid of idolatry that 'e thought the folks
might go an' worship th' Communion cup on th'
Lord's table. S'now ye'll be able to tell when ye
sees the inside of a church whether the altar-gates
is old or new, by this one thing, if they can't shut
they're 'fore Cromwell's day, if they can they're
wot's called modern gimcrackery. Now, see the
roof!"

Lionel looked up, much impressed by the verger's
learning.

11 Folks 'as bin 'ere an' said quite wise-like ' O
that roof's quite modern,' but 'tain't nuthin' o' th'
sort. See them oak mouldings ? not one o' them's
straight, not a line ! They couldn't get 'em exact
in them days, they wasn't clever enough. So
they're all crooked an' 'bout as old as th' altar-
screen, mebbe older, for if ye stand 'ere jest where
I be, ye'll see they all bend more one way than
t'other, makin' the whole roof look lop-sided like,
an' why's that d'ye think? Ye can't tell? Well,
they'd a reason for what they did in them there old
times an' a sentiment too, an' they made the
churches lean a bit to the side on which our Lord's
head bent on the Cross when He said' It is finished!'
Ye'll find nearly all th' old churches lean a bit that

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 87

way, it's a sign of age as well as a sign o' faith.
Now look at these 'ere figures on the pews, ain't
they all got their 'eads cut off?"

Lionel admitted that they had, with a grave little
nod, Jessamine, who copied his every gesture for
the moment, nodded too.

"That wos Cromwell's doin'," went on Reuben,
" 'E an' 'is men wos consumed-like wi' what they
called the fury o' holiness, an' they thought all these
figures wos false gods and symbols of idolatry, an'
they jest cut their 'eads off, executed 'em as 'twere,
like King Charles hisself. Now look up there,"
and he pointed to a narrow window on the left-hand
side of the chancel " There's a prutty colour comin'
through that bit o' glass ! It's the only mossel o'
real old stained glass i' th' church, an' it's a rare
sight older than the church itself. D'ye know how
to tell old stained glass from new ? No ? Well, I'll
tell ye. When it's old it's very thick, an' if ye put
your hand on its wrong side it's rough, very rough,
jest as if 'twere covered wi' baked cinders, that's
allus a sure an' sartin proof o' great age. Modern
stained glass ye'll find a'most as smooth an' polished
on its wrong side as on its right. Now, if ye coom
into th' vestry I'll show ye the real old chest what
wos used for Peter's pence when we wos under Papist
rule."

88 THE MIGHTY A TO AT.

He led the way across the central aisle, Lionel
followed, interested and curious, thinking mean-
while that this handsome white-haired verger could
not exactly be called a stupid man, or even a " semi-
barbarian," he was decidedly intelligent, and seemed
to know something about the facts of history.

"There's an old door fur ye!" he said, with
almost an air of triumph as he paused on the vestry
threshold and rapped his ringers lightly on the thick
oak panels of the ancient portal " That's older
than anything in the church I shouldn't a bit
wonder if it came out o' some sacred place o' Nor-
man worship, it looks like it. An' here's th' old
key" and he held up a quaint and heavy iron im-
plement that looked more like a screw-driver with a
cross handle than anything else, " An' here's Peter's
little money-box," showing a ponderous oak chest
some five feet long and three high " that 'ud 'old a
rare sight o' pennies, wouldn't it ! Now don't you
two chillern go a-tryin' to lift the lid, for it's mortal
'eavy, an' it 'ud crush your little 'ans to pulp in
a minnit. I'll let ye see the inside o't, there
y'are !"

And with a powerful effort of his sinewy arms he
threw it open, disclosing its black worm-eaten in-
terior, with a few old bits of tarnished silver lying
at the bottom, the fragments of a long disused Com-

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 89

munion-service. Lionel and Jessamine peered down
at these with immense inquisitiveness.

" Lor' bless me !" said Reuben, then, laughing a
little, " There's a deal of wot I calls silly faith
left in some o' they good Papist folk still. There
wos a nice ole leddy cam' 'ere last summer, an' she
believed that Peter hisself cam' down from Heaven
o' nights, an' tuk all the money offered 'im, specially
pennies, fur they'se the coins chiefly mentioned i* th'
Testament, an' she axed me to let 'er put a penny in,
I s'pose she thought the saint might be in want
o't. ' For, my good man,' sez she to me, ' 'ave you
never 'eerd that St. Peter still visits th' world, an'
when he cooms down 'ere it may be he might need
this penny o' mine to buy bread.' ' Do as ye like
marm/ sez I, ' it don't make no difference to me,
I'm sure !' Well, she put the penny in, bless 'er
'art ! an' this Christmas past I was a-cleanin' an*
rubbin' up everything i' th' church, an' in dustin'
out this 'ere box there I saw that penny, St. Peter
'adn't come arter it. So / just tuk it!" and he
chuckled softly " I tuk it an' giv' it to a poor ole
beggar-man outside the church-gate, so I played
Peter fur once i' my life, an' not s' badly I 'ope but
wot I shall be furgiven !"

The smile deepened at the corners of his mouth
and sparkled in his fine eyes as he shut the great

8*

9 o

THE MIGHTY ATOM.

coffer, and stood up in all his manly height and
breadth, surveying the two small creatures beside
him.

"Well, do 'ee like th' old church, little zur?" he
asked of Lionel, whose face expressed an intense
and melancholy gravity.

" Indeed I do !" answered the boy " But I think
I like the music even better, listen ! What is
that?" And he held up one hand with a gesture
of rapt attention.

"That's the hymn we allus sings on Harvest
Thanksgiving Sunday,

" ' Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty,

Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee,' "

replied Reuben " It's a rare fine tune, an' fills th'
heart as well as th' voice. Now little 'uns coom
'ome to dinner!"

They passed out of the church into the warm
sunlit air, fragrant with the scent of roses, sweet-
briar and wild thyme, and drowsy with the hum
of honey-seeking bees, Reuben Dale calling Lionel's
attention as he went to a great iron ring which was
attached to the ancient door of entrance.

" Could 'ee tell me wot that ring's there for ?" he
demanded.

Lionel shook his head.

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 91

" Well, ye must ha' read in yer hist'ry books
'bout sanctuary privilege," said Reuben "When
any poor wretched thief or mis'rable sinner wos
bein' a-hunted through the country by all the
townspeople an' officers o' justice 'e 'ad but to
make straight for th' church-door an' ketch 'old
of a ring like this an' 'e was safe. It wos ' sanc-
tuary' an' no one dussn't lay a finger on 'im.
'Twos a rare Christian custom, it wos a'most as
if 'e 'ad laid 'old of our dear Saviour's garment
an' found the mercy as wos never denied by Him
to the weakest and wretchedest among us," con-
cluded Reuben, piously, raising his cap as he spoke
and looking up at the bright sky with a rapt ex-
pression, as though he saw an angel of protection
there " An' that's the meaning o' th' iron ring."

Lionel said nothing, but his thoughts were very
busy. He was only a small boy, but his store of
purely scientific information was great, and yet he
knew not whether to pity or envy this " semi-
barbarian" for his simple beliefs. " I should not
like to tell him that all the clever men nowadays
say that Christ is a myth" he considered, seriously
" I am sure it would vex him."

So he walked on soberly silent, holding the hand
of the little Jessamine who was equally mute, and
Reuben led the way out of the churchyard, across

92 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

the high road, and up a narrow street full of old-
fashioned, gable-windowed, crookedly-built houses
which at first sight appeared to lean over one
another in a curiously lop-sided helpless way, as
though lacking proper foundation and support. At
one of these, standing by itself in a little patch of
neatly trimmed garden, and covered with clusters of
full-flowering jessamine and wistaria, Dale stopped
and rapped on the door with his knuckles. It was
opened at once by a clean, mild-featured elderly
dame in a particularly large white apron, who opened
her lack-lustre yet kindly eyes in great astonishment
at the sight of Lionel.

"Auntie Kate! Auntie Kate!" exclaimed Jessa-
mine, eagerly " This be a little gemmun boy,
nice an' prutty 'e be ! we'se been playin' babes i'
th' wood an' Drojun wors all th' mornin' an' we'se
going' to 'ave our dinner an' see my ole 'oss arter-
wards !"

Auntie Kate did her best to understand this bril-
liant explanation on the part of her small niece, but
failing to entirely grasp its meaning, looked to Reu-
ben for further enlightenment.

" This is Master Valliscourt," said the verger,
then " The little son o' the gemmun wot 'as took
the big 'ouse yonder for summer. He's bin fagged-
like wi's lessons, an' 'e's just out on the truant, as

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 93

boys will be at times when they've got any boyhood
in 'em ; giv' 'im a bit an' a sup wi' us, Kitty, an' 'e'll
play a while longer wi' Jessamine 'fore 'e goes
'ome."

Auntie Kate nodded and smiled, then, in defer-
ence to " Master Valliscourt," curtseyed.

" Coom in, sir ! coom in, an' right welcome !"
said she " Sit 'ee down an' make 'eeself comfort-
able. Dinner's ready, an' there's naught to wait
for but jest to let Reuben wash 'is 'ands an' ask a
blessin.' Now my Jessamine girl, take off your
bonnit an' sit down prutty !"

Jessamine obeyed, dragging off the becoming
white sun-bonnet in such haste that she nearly tore
one of her own brown curls away with it. Lionel
uttered an exclamation of pain at the sight, and
went to detach the rebellious tress from the string
with which it had become knotted. He succeeded
in his effort, and when the bonnet was fairly taken
off, he thought the little maid looked prettier than
ever with her rough tumbled locks falling about
her and her rosy face like a blossom in the midst
of the chestnut tangle. Throwing off his own cap
he sat down beside her at the table, which was
covered with a coarse but clean cloth, and garnished
with black-handled steel forks and spoons, and so
waited patiently till Reuben came in from the wash-

94

THE MIGHTY ATOM.

ing of his hands, which he did very speedily. Auntie
Kate then lifted off the fire a black pot, steaming
with savoury odours, and poured out into a capa-
cious blue dish a mixture of meat and vegetables,
(more vegetables than meat) and set round plates
to match the dish. Reuben stood up and bowed
his head reverently ; " For what we are going to re-
ceive may the Lord make us truly thankful !" said
he, and Jessamine's sweet little cooing voice an-
swered, " Amen !" Whereupon they began the meal,
which though so poor and plain was good and
wholesome. Auntie Kate was no mean cook, and
she was famous in the village for a certain make of
" pear cordial," a glass of which she poured out for
Lionel, curtseying as she did so, and requested him
to taste it. He found it delicious ; and he likewise
discovered, to his own surprise, that he had an appe-
tite. It was very remarkable, he thought, that Reu-
ben Dale's frugal fare should have a better flavour
than anything he had ever had at his father's luxuri-
ously appointed table. He did not realise that the
respite from study, the temporary liberty he was en-
joying, and the romp with Jessamine had all given
room for his physical nature to breathe and expand,
and a sense of the actual pleasure of life when lived
healthily had roused his exhausted faculties to new
and delightful vigour. With this momentary de-

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 95

velopment of natural youthful energy had come
the appetite he wondered at, when the simplest food
seemed exquisite and Auntie Kate's " pear cordial"
suggested the ambrosial nectar quaffed by the gods
of Olympus. The dinner over, Reuben Dale again
stood up and said, " For what we have received may
the Lord make us truly thankful !" and once more
his little girl responded demurely, " Amen !" Then
he proceeded to fill and smoke a pipe before re-
turning to the churchyard to complete the digging
of " Mother Twiley's" last resting-place, and Jessa-
mine, still wearing the " pinny" her aunt had tied
round her while she ate her dinner, seized Lionel by
the hand and dragged him off to the " back yard,"
which was half garden, half shed, where Reuben
kept his tools, and where a couple of smart bantams
with their clucking little harem of prettily-feathered
wives and favourites, strutted about behind a wire
netting and imagined themselves the rulers of the
planet.

" Coom an' see my ole 'oss !" said Jessamine, ex-
citedly " Such a good ole 'oss 'e be ! 'Ere 'e is !
a-hidin' behin* th* wall ! See 'im ? O my bee oo
ful old 'oss !"

And she threw her arms round the neck of the
quadruped in question, which was nothing else but a
battered wooden toy that had evidently once been a

96 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

gallant steed on " rockers," but which now, without
either mane, tail, or eyes, and with only three shaky
legs and a stump of wood to support it, presented a
very sorry spectacle indeed. But to Jessamine this
" ole 'oss" was apparently the flower of all creation,
for she hugged it and kissed its pale nose, from
which the paint had long since been washed off by
wind and weather, with quite a passionate ar-
dour.

" Oh, my dee 1 ole 'oss !" she murmured, tenderly,
patting its hairless neck, " Do 'ee know why I loves
'ee ? 'Cos 'ee's poor an' ole, an' no one wants to
ride 'ee now but Jessamine ! Jessamine can get on
'ee's poor ole back wizout 'urtin' of 'ee, good ole
'oss! Kiss 'im, won't 'ee?" she added, turning to
Lionel, "Do 'ee kiss 'im ! it makes 'im feel comfort-
abler now 'e's poor an' ole !"

Who could resist such an appeal ! Who would
refuse to embrace a superannuated wooden rocking-
horse, described with so much sweetly pitiful fervour
as " poor an' ole" and therefore in need of affection-
ate consolement ! Not Lionel, despite the many
learned books he had studied, he fully entered into
the spirit of all this childish nonsense, and bending
over the dilapidated toy, he kissed its wan nose with
ardour in his turn.

" That's right !" cried Jessamine, clapping her

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 97

hands, delightedly " Now 'e feels 'appy ! Now 'e'll
give us a ride !"

And forthwith she clambered up on the gaunt and
worn back of her beloved steed, showing a pair of
little innocent-looking white legs as she did so, and
jerked herself up and down to imitate a gallop.

" Ain't 'e goin' well !" she exclaimed, breathlessly,
her hair blowing in a golden-brown tangle behind
her and her cheeks becoming rosier than the rosiest
apples with her exertions, while the laughter in her
pretty eyes rivalled the brightness of the sunlight
playing round her " Oh, 'e be a rare nice ole 'oss !
Now, Lylie, 'ee must git up an' 'ave a ride !"

Lionel started at the sound of his mother's pet
name for him, then he remembered he had told
it to Jessamine, and smiled as he thought how
sweet it sounded from her lips. And he answered
gently

" I'm afraid I'm too big, dear ! Your horse
couldn't carry me, I might hurt him."

"O no, 'ee won't 'urt 'im !" declared Jessamine,
springing lightly to the ground " Try an' git on
'im ! I'se sure 'e'll be good t'ye!"

Thus adjured, Lionel threw a leg across the

passive toy, and pretended to ride at full gallop as

Jessamine had done, much to the little maiden's

delight. She danced about and shrieked with

E g 9

9 8 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

ecstasy, till the bantams behind the wire netting
evidently thought the end of the world had come,
for they ran to and fro clucking in the wildest ex-
citement, no doubt imploring their special deities to
protect them from the terrible human thing that
showed its white legs and danced in the sun almost
as if it had as good a right to live as a well-bred
fowl. Reuben Dale, hearing the uproar and having
finished his pipe, came out to see what was going
on, and laughed almost as much as the children did,
now and then playfully urging the wooden steed to
a wilder exhibition of its " mettle" by a stentorian
"Gee-up, Dobbin!" which rather added to the general
hilarity of the scene. When the game was quite
over, and Lionel, flushed and full of merriment, re-
signed the " ole 'oss" to Jessamine, who at once
offered it a handful of hay and whispered tender
nothings in its broken ear, the verger said,

" Now, my little zur, I'm a-goin' back to my
work i' th' churchyard, for I must finish Mother
Twiley's bed 'fore nightfall. Ye'll find me there if
ye'se want me. If s'be ye care to stay on wi' Jessa-
mine a bit ye can, she's a lonesome little un' since
'er mother went to God, an' mebbe you're lone-
some too, a little play '11 do neither o' ye 'arm, an'
Auntie Kate's i' th' 'ouse all day an' she'll look arter
ye. But ye mustn't be away too long from yer

THE MIGHTY A TOM. 99

feyther an' mother, ye must git 'ome 'fore the sun
sets, my lad, promise me that !"

" Yes, Mr. Dale, I promise : and thank you !" re-
sponded Lionel, eagerly " I've had such a happy
time ! you don't know how happy ! I may come
again some day and see you and Jessamine, mayn't
I?"

" Why sartin zure ye may !" said Reuben, heartily,
" Purvidin' they makes no objections at your own
'ome, little zur, ye must make that clear an' straight
fust."

" Oh, yes ! of course !" murmured the boy, but
a shadow clouded his hitherto bright face. He knew
well enough that if his father were asked about it,
not only the acquaintance but also the very sight of
the kindly verger and his pretty child would be alto-
gether forbidden him. However, he said nothing of
this, and Reuben, after a few more cheery words,
strode off to the resumption of his labours. With
his departure a silence fell on the two little creatures
left alone together; the excitement engendered by
the " ole 'oss " had its reaction, and Jessamine grew
serious, even sad.

"\fink I wants my sun-bonnet," she remarked in
an injured tone " My facie burns."

Lionel ran into the house at once and obtained
the desired head-gear from Auntie Kate, whereupon

100 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

Miss Jessamine adjusted it sideways and peered at
him in a sudden fit of shyness.

" 'Specs 'ee'd better go 'ome now," she said, se-
verely " You'se tired of me an' my ole 'oss, I sees
you'se tired !"

"Tired, Jessamine! Indeed I'm not tired, I'll
play with you ever so long ! as long as you like.
What shall we do now ?"

"Nuffink!" replied the little lady, putting the
string of her bonnet in her mouth, which was a fa-
vourite habit of hers, and still regarding him with an
odd mixture of coyness and affection ; then, with
sudden and almost defiant energy, she added, " I
knows you'se tired of me, Lylie !"

" Now, Jessamine dear /" expostulated Lionel, with
quite a lover-like ardour, as he saw that the tiny
maiden was inclined to be petulant " Come and sit
under that beautiful big apple-tree !"

" My big apple-tree !" put in Jessamine, with an
air of grave correction " That's my tree, Lylie !"

" That's why it's such a nice one," declared Li-
onel, gallantly, taking her little hand in his own
" Come along and let us sit there, and you'll tell me
another story, or I'll tell you one. You know I'm
going away very soon and perhaps I shall never see
you again."

He sighed quite unconsciously as he said this, and

THE MIG PITY ATOM. ioi

Jessamine looked up at him with eyes that were an-
gelically lovely in their momentary gravity.

" Will 'ee be sorry ?" she asked.

" Very sorry ?" he answered " Dreadfully sorry !"

Jessamine's doubtful humour passed at this assur-
ance, and she allowed him to lead her unresist-
ingly to the big apple-tree, which was the chief orna-
ment of Reuben Dale's back garden, her tree,
against whose gnarled trunk a rough wooden seat
was set for shelter and repose.

" I'll be sorry, too !" she confessed " 'Specs I'll
ky when you'se gone, Lylie !"

There was something touching in this remark, or
they found it so, and a deep silence followed.
They sat down side by side, under the spreading
apple-boughs laden with ruddy fruit that shone with
a bright polish in the hot glow of the afternoon sun,
and holding each other's hands, were very quiet,
while round and round them flew butterflies and
bees, all intent on business or love-making, and a
linnet, who had just cooled his throat at the bantams'
water-trough, alighted on an opposite twig and es-
sayed a soft cadenza. There were a thousand sweet
suggestions in the warm air, too subtle for the
young things who sat so demurely together, hand in
hand, to perceive or comprehend ; the beautiful
things of God and Nature, which wordlessly teach

102 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

the eternal though unheeded lesson that happiness
and good are the chief designs and ultimate ends of
all creation, and that only Man's perverted will,
working for solely selfish purposes, makes havoc of
all that should be pure and fair. Yet even children
have certain meditative moments when they are
vaguely conscious of some great Beneficence ruling
their destinies, and some of them have been known
at a very early age to express the wonder as to why
God should be so good and their own parents so
bad!

" What will 'ee do when 'ee gits 'ome ?" inquired
Jessamine, presently " Will 'ee ky ?"

Lionel smiled rather bitterly. " No, Jessamine, it
would never do for me to cry," he said " I'm too
big."

" Too big !" she echoed " You'se onny a weeny
bit bigger 'n me! An' I'se little."

" Yes, but you're a girl," said Lionel " Girls
can cry if they like, but boys mustn't. I do cry
sometimes though, when I'm all by myself."

" I seed 'ee ky to-day," observed Jessamine,
gravely " I' th' church, jest 'fore we came 'ome to
dinner. What did 'ee ky then for ?"

" It was the music, I think," answered Lionel,
with a far-away look in his deep-set eyes " I'm very
fond of music, but it always seems sad to me. My

THE MIGHTY ATOM.

103

mother sings beautifully, but somehow I can never
bear to hear her sing, it makes me feel so
lonely."

Jessamine gazed at him sympathetically. He was
surely a very strange and funny boy to feel " lonely"
because his mother sang. Presently she essayed
another topic.

" I knows th' big 'ouse where 'ee lives," she an-
nounced " There's a 'ole in th' edge, an' I can creep
froo, into th' big garden ! I'll coom an' see 'oor
muzzer!"

This statement of her intentions rather startled
Lionel. He looked earnestly into her sweet blue
eyes.

" You mustn't do that, Jessamine, dear !" he said,
sadly "You would get scolded, I'm afraid. My
mother would not scold you, but I expect my
father would."

Jessamine put a finger into her mouth and sucked
it solemnly for a minute, then spoke with slightly
offended dignity.

" 'Oor feyther's a bad ole man !" she said, calmly
" Onny a bad ole man would scold me, 'cos I allus
tries to be good. My feyther never scolds me, nor
my ole 'oss neither."

Lionel was silent. She cuddled closer to him.

" I muss see 'ee 'gain, Lylie !" she crooned,

104 THE MIGHTY ATOM.

plaintively "Doesn't 'ee want to see me no
more?"

Her baby voice was inexpressibly sweet as she
pathetically asked this question, and Lionel, un-
accustomed as he was to any kind of affectionate
demonstration, felt a strange beating of his young
heart as he looked down at the small child-face that
was turned so wistfully towards him.

" Yes, dear, dear little Jessamine, I do want to
see you again, and I ivill see you, I'll come as
often as ever I can !" and daring thoughts of
shirking his tasks and eluding Professor Cadman-
Gore's eye, flitted through his brain, in the same
way as the scaling of walls and the ascending of
fortified towers have suggested themselves to more
mature adventurers as worthy deeds to be accom-
plished in the pursuit of the fair. " I'll come and
play with you whenever I can get away from my
lessons, I promise !"

" 'Iss, do!" said Jessamine, coaxingly "'Cos
I likes 'ee, Lylie, I doesn't like any other boys 'ere,
they'se all oogly. You'se prutty, an' an' \ fink
I'se prutty too ! sometimes !"

Oh, small witch ! That " sometimes" was the
very essence of delicate coquetry, and accompanied,
as it was, by a little smile and arch upward twinkle
of the blue eyes, was irresistibly fascinating. Lionel

THE MIGHTY ATOM. 105

felt, though he knew not why, that this little damsel
must be kissed, kissing seemed imperative, yet
how was it to be done ?

" You are very pretty, Jessamine, dear," he said,
with a winsome mingling of boldness and timidity
"You are just as pretty as a flower!" Jessamine
nodded in serene self-complacency, while her youth-
ful admirer peered at her close-curved red lips much
as a bird might look at a ripe cherry and was silent
so long that at last she gazed straight up into his
eyes, the heavenly blue of her own shining with a
beautiful wonder.

" What's 'ee thinkin' 'bout, Lylie ?" she asked.

" You, Jessamine !" the boy answered, tenderly,
" I was thinking about you, and the flowers."

And bending down his curly head he kissed