Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-10-16
The Child of Prophecy.

The Child of Prophecy.
One that was in his day a person of great
place and consideration. and has left a
name which future generations shall surely
repeat so long as the world may last found
nc better rule for mans life than that he
should incline his mind to move in charity.
rest in Providence and turn upon the poles
of truth This condition, says he, is heaven
upon earth. and although what touches
truth may better befit the philosopher who
uttered it than the vulgar and unlearned,
for whom. perhaps. it IS counsel too high,
and therefore dangerous, what comes be-
fore should surely be craven by each OF
US on the walls of our hearts. For any
man who lived in the days that have seen
must have found much need of trust in
Providence. and by no whit the less of
charity for men. In such trust and charity
/ have striven to write; in the like i pray
you to read.
/, Simon Dale, was born on the seventh
DAY of the seventh month in the year of our
Lord 1871. The date was good in that the
divine number was thrice found in it. but
evil in that it fell on time of sore trouble
both for the nation and for our own house:
when men had begun to go about saying
that if the king would not keep his prom
Uses, ii was likely that he would keep his
head as little. when they who had fought
hid brought new tyrants, when the vicar
was put out of his cure, and my father,
having trusted the king first, the parlia-
ment afterward. and at last neither the one
nor the other. had lost the greater part of
his substance, and fallen from wealth to
straitened means Such is the common re-
ward of an honest patriotism welded TO an
open mind However. the date. good or
bad, was none of my doing. nor, indeed,
folks whispered. much of my parents,
either. seeing that destiny overruied the al
fair. and Betty Nasroth, the wise woman,
announced its Imrlinence more than a year
beforehand For she predicted the birth on
the very day wherein / came into the
world within a mile of the parish church
of male child who-and the utterance had
certainly a lofty sound about 1t-Shouid
love what the king loved. know what the
king hid and drink of the kings cup
Now inasmuch as none lived within the
limits named by Betty Nasroth. save on
the one side sundry humble laborers whose
progeny could expect no such fate and on
the other my Lord and Lady Quinton, who
We're welded but month before my birth
day. the prophecy was fully as pointed as
it had any need to be. and caused to my
parents small questionings- 1t was the
third clause or term of the prediction that
gave most concern alike to my mother and
TO my father. to my mother because al
though of discreet mind and a sound
churchwoman. she was from her earnest
years a Rechabite, and had never heard OF
a king that drank water: and to my father
because of his decayed estate. which made
il impossible for him to contrive how prop
erly to fit me for my predestined company.
"A man should not drink the kings wine
without giving the king as good. my
father reflected ruefully. Meanwhile i.
troubling not at all about the matter. was
content to prove Betty right in point of the
date. and leaving the rest to the future,
achieved this triumph for her most pune
tually.
Whatsoever may await man on his way
through the world. he can hardly begin life
better than by keeping his faith with a
lady.
She was a strange old woman this Betty
Nasroth. and would likely enough have
Jared badly in the time of the kings father.
Now. there was bigger game than witches
afoot. and nothing worse befeH her than
ened mockery of children. She made free
reply with curses and dark mutterings but
me she loved as being the child of her
vision. and all the more because, encoun-
tering her l rode in my mothers arms, 1
did not cry. but held out my arms, crow
ing and struggling to get to her; whereat,
suddenly. and to my mothers great terror,
she exclaimed, Thou see'st Satan,' and
fell TO weeping, a thing which. as every
woman in the parish knew. a person abso-
lutely possessed by the evil one can by no
means accomplish (unless, indeed, bare
three drops squeezed from the left eye may
uSurp the name of tearS).
But my mother shrank away from her
and would not allow her 10 touch me; nor
was it until | had grown older and ran
about the village alone that the old wo-
man, having tracked me to lonely spot
took me in her arms. mumbied over lay
head some words cid not understand and
kissed me. That a mole grows the spot
she kissed is but fable-for how do the
women know where her kiss fell, save by
where the mole grows? And that is to
reason pOOrly-or at the most the purest
chance Nay. if it were more | am content
Tor the mole does me no harm, and the