Chapter V: Saved by Love

SUSIE could not understand the alteration in Elfie, but altered she certainly was. Sometimes she would stay away for two or three days together, and then come home and be as affectionate as ever, and give Susie all the money she had been able to get; but she would never tell her how she got it or where she had been. Then, after staying about in the same neighbourhood, she would go off no one knew where, leaving Susie to lie listening for her to come home at night, and to feel very dull and lonely by herself.

Poor Susie had other anxieties to trouble her, too, besides those she suffered on Elfie's account. Work was becoming scarce; and soon after the winter set in, she was told she had better look out for something else to do, as they could not give her the sewing much longer.

"What shall I do—what can I do?" said Susie, when she told Elfie of this.

"I must get some more money," said Elfie. "I daresay I can get enough for both of us, and then you need not do this work."

"But can't I help you?" asked Susie. "I shouldn't like you to do everything."

"You can't help me get money," said Elfie evasively.

"Oh, I won't mind going into the market with you, if you'll ask the men to let me mind the baskets as well as you," said Susie.

Elfie laughed. "You couldn't," she said.

"Oh yes, I could—I would," added Susie. "I'd do anything to earn some money."

"Could you fight the boys if they came to take the things?" asked Elfie.

Susie shook her head, and looked greatly disappointed. "Oh, what can I do?" she said. "This is the last lot of shirts I shall have to make, and I must do something to earn some money."

Elfie thought for a minute or two of all the means she had tried to earn money, but there was only one in which Susie was likely to succeed.

"You might clean doorsteps," she said slowly.

"Oh yes; mother taught me how to clean the hearth and scrub the floor," said Susie quickly.

"Can you clean knives and forks as well?" asked Elfie.

Susie nodded. "I know how to do all sorts of cleaning," she said.

"I don't," said Elfie; "I can just clean steps. And so when the people asked me to clean the knives and forks, and I couldn't, they wouldn't let me do the steps. But if you can do all sorts of work, you can soon get some. I'll show you how to manage."

Elfie kept her word. As soon as the last bundle of shirts was carried home, and before the money was expended, the two girls went out together in search of some employment for Susie.

A short distance from Fisher's Lane there was a respectable neighbourhood, where the people seemed to pride themselves on the neatness of their doorsteps, but where very few could afford to keep servants to clean them. Here Elfie had often earned a few pence, and might have gained more, if she could have done more than clean the steps. For occasionally she had been asked to clean knives and forks, and windows. There she brought Susie, and boldly knocked at a door, asking if they wanted the steps cleaned.

"Not to-day," answered the woman; "and besides, the girl who cleans my steps must do the knives and forks as well."

"She can clean knives and all sorts of things," said Elfie, pushing Susie forward.

The woman looked at her. "Have you learned to scrub?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am," answered Susie quietly.

"Well, then, you may come to me to-morrow and I'll give you something to do."

Susie was delighted, and Elfie looked pleased. "You'll be sure to get on now," she said complacently.

"Do you clean all these steps?" asked Susie, looking down the neat quiet street.

Elfie laughed. "I don't clean steps now, I tell you," she said, rather sharply.

"Why not?" asked Susie; "Do you get so many baskets to mind now?" she asked.

"I don't mind baskets either," said Elfie fiercely. "I'm just street rubbish—just what people said I was long ago; and I don't care a bit. No, I don't care; and I won't care," she added, "though you do talk about that school, and try to coax me to go with you."

Susie looked at her angry face in silent surprise. What could have provoked this outbreak she could not tell, for she had not ventured to mention the Ragged School to her for some weeks past, although she had not given up all hope of persuading her to go with her.

"Elfie, what's the matter—what do you mean?" she asked.

Elfie looked somewhat subdued. "Why, you're not to bother me about what I do to get the money," she said, rather more quietly. "I cleaned steps as long as I could, but I never had anybody to teach me to do things like you had; and then the people in the market called me a thief, and I couldn't get the baskets to mind."

"Never mind, Elfie; I know you ain't a thief, and I love you," said Susie, in a gentle, soothing voice.

But Elfie shrunk away from the proffered caress. "I'm bad, I tell you, and don't want you to love me."

"Oh, but I will love you, even if you are bad," said Susie with a smile.

The altercation ended, as usual, in both girls promising they would never leave each other; but a feeling of uneasiness was left in Susie's mind, and she could not get rid of the wish to know more about the way in which Elfie spent her time now. She loved her companion very dearly, in spite of her strange behaviour sometimes, and she wished Elfie would tell her how she got the money she brought home. It was often silver now, as well as pence; but the possession of it never seemed to give her any pleasure, and she was sure to be fierce and angry if she asked where it came from, and would refuse to eat anything that was bought with it!

This was very puzzling to Susie, and the more she thought about it, the more unhappy did she become. And yet she was afraid to tell Elfie of her unhappiness, for fear she should put her oft repeated threat into execution, and never come home any more.

She was earning a little money still herself, but she could not depend upon earning a regular amount as when she did the sewing; for people did not want their steps cleaned every day. She managed to give satisfaction in this new work, and the first to employ her, recommended her to several neighbours; but it was only one or two days a week that she was wanted, and the rest of her time passed very slowly if Elfie did not come home all day.

One morning Susie thought she would walk a little further, and venture to inquire in another direction if a girl was wanted to do house work. She had heard that girls sometimes could get a place to go to every morning, and have part of their meals each day. Now, if she could do this it would be so much pleasanter, and she would not mind how hard she had to work; and she made up her mind to inquire for such a place as this before she left home.

Which way to turn she did not know, and she stood at the top of Fisher's Lane looking up and down the road debating this point, until at length she lifted her heart in silent prayer to God to guide her aright. Then she walked cheerfully on down the road for some distance, until she came to some quiet side streets, and at the corner of one of these, she went into a grocer shop, and asked if they knew any one who wanted a girl.

The man asked her how old she was, and what work she could do; and then told her his wife wanted some one to help her with the work in the morning, and asked her to step into the back parlour and speak to her. Susie's heart beat high with hope as she went into the room, while the grocer called his wife. Surely God had directed her steps, that she should hear of what she wanted so soon!

The grocer's wife asked Susie a good many questions, but seemed to be satisfied with her answers. She could not, however, quite decide about taking her, she said; she must talk to her husband first: she did not know what he would say about taking her without a character, and from such a bad place as Fisher's Lane, too, and so she must come again the next morning.

Susie promised to do so, hoping the answer would be favourable, for she thought she should be very comfortable working under such a kind mistress; and then the wages offered—eighteen-pence a week and her breakfast and dinner—seemed to promise almost riches. Her heart was light although it trembled with anxious expectation as she went through the shop again.

Just as she reached the street she noticed there was a little commotion lower down—a group of boys and girls, and a policeman half dragging, half carrying somebody along. Susie's heart almost stood still as she caught sight of the little ragged culprit, and she could only totter forward a few steps past the grocer, who had stepped out on to the pavement, when she became sure it was Elfie in the policeman's hands! "O Elfie, Elfie I what is it; what is the matter?" said Susie, darting forward.

At the sound of her voice Elfie ceased her struggles. "Go away, Susie," she muttered hoarsely, staring at her wildly.

"No, no, I can't go away," said Susie, trying to catch hold of her frock. "Tell me what it is, Elfie."

"No need to ask what it is," laughed two or three boys: "she's a regular little thief, she is; but she's caught at last, and serve her right."

Elfie looked defiant, and renewed her kicking and struggling; but Susie burst into tears. "Oh, don't take her away," she sobbed, appealing to the policeman; "oh, please let her come home with me, and she'll never do it any more."

"Home with you!" said the man roughly. "Then you're one of the Fisher Lane thieves too, I suppose?"

Susie's pale face flushed and a look of shame stole over it; but still she did not attempt to leave Elfie's side, although she knew all that crowd of boys and girls were staring at her and calling her a thief as well as Elfie.

"Why don't you go away, Susie? I don't want you; I never want to see you any more," said Elfie, in a hard, defiant tone.

But Susie did not go away. They had got into the broad open road now, and everybody turned to look at them—looks that seemed to crush poor Susie and make her heart almost stand still with horror and anguish; but still she kept on walking in the centre of the little crowd.

"If Elfie has been stealing, you must take me up too," she said to the policeman, "for I had part of the money."

"I daresay you did. There's a nice lot of thieves round in Fisher's Lane, I know," said the man.

And as the gates of the police station were reached, he took good care that they should close on Susie too.

She had no wish to escape, although she trembled as they entered a room where another man asked their names and where they lived.

While this was being done, the policeman who had brought them, whispered to one of the others, and then they were taken to a dark room and locked up. Elfie screamed with terror as the door closed, and they were left standing there in the cold, dark room, with only the rift of daylight that struggled through the grating high up in the wall. Susie shuddered, but she was not so frightened as Elfie, who fell sobbing on her neck.

Susie clasped her arms round her. "What is it, Elfie? What have you done?" asked Susie in a whisper.

"Just what they said. I've done it many a time," sobbed Elfie; "but I didn't do it to-day, for I saw somebody coming, and put the boots down."

"O Elfie! You've been stealing," said Susie sadly.

Elfie tried to twist herself away from Susie. "Why don't you say you hate me? I know you do," she said.

"No, I don't, Elfie, or else I shouldn't have come to prison with you," said Susie, holding her more tightly in her arms.

Elfie yielded to the loving embrace and sobbed again. "That's the worst of it," she said. "I shouldn't care so much for what the policemen could do to me, if you didn't know about it."

"But God would know, if I did not," said Susie, in a gentle whisper.

Elfie shuddered. "Does God know everything?" she said.

"Yes; everything we say and do," answered Susie. "He knows how many times you stole things, although you may forget."

"Well, I don't care," said Elfie defiantly. "He don't love me."

"O Elfie, he does; and it makes him sorry, and angry too, when we do anything that is wrong;" and Susie burst into tears.

"Don't cry, don't cry, Susie, and I'll never do it any more. I'll try and get some honest work, though it is so hard," said Elfie, and her tears broke out afresh. The two sat down together on the hard, cold floor, and with their arms round each other's necks, Elfie promised never to steal again, if Susie would leave off crying and love her still. "I will try to be honest, and mind the baskets, and clean steps," she sobbed. "But they called me a thief when I wasn't; and then when we wanted that twopence for the rent, and I couldn't get it any other way, I thought I'd steal it, only you shouldn't know."

"O Elfie, did you steal that sixpence?" asked Susie.

Elfie sobbed. "I stole some things and sold 'em to get that," she said; "that was the first time since I'd known you," she added.

"Did you steal before?" asked Susie.

"Yes, sometimes, when I was very hungry. And they knew it at the Ragged School; that was why I wouldn't go with you," said Elfie, who seemed determined to make a full confession now.

"What did you steal?" asked Susie.

"All sorts of things—anything I could see in shops and run away with. I never felt bad about it before; but when I took the things to get that sixpence for the rent, I felt I was wicked, and God seemed to be looking at me all the time, though I wanted to forget all about him."

"Yes, God was looking at you," said Susie; "and he was sorry about you too—more sorry than I can be, because he loves you more than I do."

"More than you do!" repeated Elfie. "He can't, for you've come to prison with me, though all the people were looking at you and calling you a thief."

"Yes, he has," said Susie. "Don't you remember I told you about the Lord Jesus being God as well as man? Well, he came down from heaven to die for our sins—to save us just because we had all been doing such wicked things as stealing, and telling lies, and forgetting him. But to do this he had to suffer a dreadful, cruel death. And he wasn't compelled to do it either, for he did not deserve it; it was us who deserved it, but he loved us so much that he took our punishment instead."

"But he won't love me now," said Elfie. "It's no good telling me about this now."

"Yes, it is. Elfie, if you will only ask him to help you to be honest in future," said Susie.

"But I've been stealing—I've done such lots of bad things," said Elfie.

"But Jesus will forgive them all, if you ask him," said Susie quickly. "He loves you still, Elfie; though you've been trying to forget him, he hasn't forgot you. He wants you to believe in his love and love him too."

"O Susie, are you sure about it? Are you sure Jesus will love me as much as you do?" asked Elfie.

"He loves you a great deal more than I do. That's why God wishes us to love each other, that we may understand his love," said Susie. "Mother used to say we could never understand God's love, if it wasn't for having father and mother or brothers and sisters to love us."

"I never had a father and mother to love me," said Elfie. "I never had anybody but you, Susie."

"Never mind; I'll be your sister, and love you," said Susie.

"And then, perhaps, by-and-by I shall understand about God's love," whispered Elfie, as she laid her head Susie's shoulder.