Chapter V: Willie in Bed

WHAT a shriek Willie gave! Poor nurse was startled, indeed, to hear it, and still more to see Willie going down with such a splash into the water. She jumped up, and ran down the beach as fast as she could, while poor Lucy came crying after her. By the time they reached the water's edge, Willie had managed to struggle to his hands and feet, and to scramble back to shore.

Very wretched he looked, dripping with water from head to foot, and with tears of mingled alarm at his fall, and fear of nurse's anger, running down his cheeks.

"Oh, Master Willie!" was all nurse said. "I thought I could trust you to do as you were told. You must come home now as fast as you can, and take off your wet things. I don't know what your mamma will say."

Willie began to sob; but nurse hurried him up the beach and towards the house, while the water ran from his clothes, making little puddles on the parade and the road; and people turned in great surprise to look at the wet tearful little boy, and to wonder what was the matter.

Mrs. Gray was not in the house, rather to Willie's relief, for he dreaded her hearing all that had passed.

Nurse took him upstairs, and after pulling off his soaking clothes made him get into bed. Willie did not like this at all, and begged hard that he might sit up, but nurse would not allow it.

"No, Master Willie," she said. "If it was not your own fault, I would let you put on your best things; but now it is all through your being so naughty as to do what I said you must not, you must lie in bed till your things are dry. Now, Master Willie, if you cry and make a noise, I shall have to punish you by keeping you there longer still," she added. "You should be a wise boy, and show you are sorry for being so naughty, by being now as good and quiet as you can."

"It's so hard to lie in bed," sobbed Willie. "I don't like it at all, nurse. It is so unkind of you."

"I don't wish to seem unkind, Master Willie," said nurse gravely. "But when you don't obey me, I must punish you for it. You know very well that your mamma will say I am quite right. It would be no real kindness to pass it over, and treat you as if you had been a good little boy."

But Willie felt cross and angry with himself, and therefore with every one else besides. He rolled about in the bed, and sobbed aloud, until nurse left the room, hoping he would be more quiet alone.

When there was no one to hear him, Willie did not care to go on crying, and he quite left off, until there was a step outside the door, and Mrs. Gray came in. Then the tears began to fall again.

"Willie! Willie! I am sorry to hear this of you," she said, sitting down on the bed, and speaking sadly. "I did hope my little boy could at least be trusted to do what he was told."

"It is so unkind of nurse to put me to bed," sobbed Willie.

"No, Willie, not unkind. Nurse is never unkind. She was quite right to punish you for such conduct."

"I didn't mean any harm, mamma. I thought the sand was quite strong."

"Willie," said Mrs. Gray, "what had nurse told you only five minutes before?"

Willie twisted his face away, and almost hid it in the pillow.

"Nurse thinks I can't do anything, mamma. I'm not a little baby now!"

"No, but I am afraid you are likely to become something much worse, Willie, if this is the way you mean to behave," said Mrs. Gray, so sadly, that Willie could not help looking at her.

Were those tears in her eyes? Willie could not quite bear that, and he jumped up and put his arm round his mother's neck.

"Mamma, I didn't mean to make you sorry. I'll try not to do it again."

"Indeed, Willie, I hope it is the last time I shall hear of such a thing. You have grieved me very much this morning."

"I am sorry, mamma," said Willie.

"If you are really sorry, Willie dear, you know that I am quite ready to forgive you. But there is One whose pardon you ought to ask even before mine."

Willie hung his head.

"I know, mamma," he said, in a low voice.

"And will you do it, Willie?" asked Mrs. Gray gently. "May I hope that my little boy will indeed ask God to forgive him for Jesus Christ's sake, and to keep him from such naughty conduct in the future."

"I'll try, mamma," said Willie softly.

Mrs. Gray kissed him, and then went on:—

"Now, Willie, I want to ask you one or two questions. Did you really think this morning that you—a little boy of six—could judge better than nurse of what you ought or ought not to do?"

Willie's face grew red, and he hung his head again.

"I don't know, mamma. I thought I was big enough to take care of myself. Nurse always fancies that I can't do things."

"You see now, Willie, that nurse knew better than you did. If you had done as she told you, you might have been playing out on the sands all this time, instead of lying here in bed."

"Yes, mamma," was all Willie could say, for he felt very tearful at the thought of the bright sunny shore and sparkling waves.

"I daresay, Willie, that you thought it a rather grand thing to do what you were told not to do. You felt very big and old,—did you not?—almost too old to obey nurse."

Willie blushed scarlet, for Mrs. Gray had just guessed his thoughts.

"Well, Willie, I do not think you ever made a greater mistake in your life. You will find when you grow older that the best and greatest and wisest men in the world are almost always those who are the most ready to 'obey' when it is right."

"Shall I, mamma?" asked Willie.

"Indeed you will, dear. And, Willie, when the Lord Jesus Christ was a little child, he did not think himself too wise or too old to obey his mother and Joseph. And yet they were only a poor carpenter and his wife, and knew very little, while he was the Son of God, and knew more than any one in the whole world. Can you tell me a verse which I showed you last Sunday, proving that he did obey them?"

Willie thought a minute, and then said:

"Wasn't it after he had been in the temple, mamma, and the Bible says, 'He was subject to them?'"

"Quite right, Willie. I am glad you do not forget. You can tell me what 'subject to them' means?"

"He did what they told him," said Willie.

"Yes, Willie. And yet, though only a child of twelve years old, he could answer and perplex all the grave learned doctors, and amaze them with his wisdom. If ever a child might have thought himself too old and too wise to obey his parents, surely the Lord Jesus might have done so."

"He was 'so' good," said Willie, slowly.

"Yes, Willie, he was so good and holy, too humble and meek for any such thing. Willie, will you try and take the Lord Jesus Christ for your pattern?—Try and act like him?"

"I don't know how," said Willie gravely.

"Not know how?" said Mrs. Gray gently. "Willie, there is only one way in which you can do it, and that is to become one of his little lambs. The only way is to go to him, and ask him to wash away all your sins in his precious blood, and to give you a new heart, and to make you meek, and gentle, and loving, like himself. You are a very little boy, but you are not too young to serve the Lord Jesus Christ."

"I don't know how," said Willie again, in a low voice.

"There are many ways, Willie, in which even a little boy like you may serve him. By always doing what you are told, and by being kind and gentle to all, and by giving up your own will for the sake of others, and by striving to honour him in your conduct. If it is all done out of love to Jesus, then you are serving him, but not if it comes only from the love of praise or the fear of blame."

"I should like to be good, mamma," said Willie.

"So should I like to see you so, Willie. You know that no one in the world is ever truly 'good,' or ever has been so, except the Lord Jesus. But I cannot tell you how happy it would make me to know that my little boy was indeed one of his little lambs. Jesus is so ready to receive little children, Willie. He will never cast out one of them that come to him. And his promise is that those who seek him early shall find him. You can tell me the verse I mean."

"'I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me,'" said Willie.

"Right, dear. Try not to forget that, Willie. I must leave you now, for I am wanted in the drawing-room. But I hope that when nurse comes in, you will tell her you are sorry for having done what she told you not to do."

"I'll tell her, mamma," said Willie rather slowly, and Mrs. Gray kissed him.

"I am sure you 'feel' sorry for it now, Willie. If it is a little hard to tell nurse so, you must not mind, for it is the right thing to do."

"Mamma, I always do what you and papa tell me," said Willie.

"I hope you do, Willie. What do you mean, dear? What is it you want to say?"

"Nurse isn't the same," said Willie, blushing and half afraid.

"Not the same, Willie! Not when papa and I have chosen her to take care of you, and trust you with her? Did you not know it was my wish that you should obey her? Have I never told you to do so?"

Willie hung his head.

"If you do not obey nurse, it is the same as not obeying me, Willie," said Mrs. Gray. "I hope you will not forget this again."

"I'm sorry," said Willie, raising his face. "I'll tell her so, mamma, and I'll try never to do it again."

"With God's help, Willie," said Mrs. Gray gently, and after giving him one more kiss she left the room.

Nurse came in soon after, with the now dry clothes in her arms, and Willie did not forget his promise. He felt much more happy when nurse kissed him, and told him she quite forgave him.