a transcontinental express was speeding across the prairies to its pacific coast terminus. two hours before it shrieked its approach to a foothill city, the local police received a message which, being interpreted, read: "detain lavina berson, travelling on no. 96; age about fifteen, black hair, very attractive. travelling in company of two men when train left b——."
when no. 96 pulled into the dep?t, two plain-clothes officers boarded the train and soon located the girl wanted. at first the flashing black eyes looked defiantly into the face of staff-inspector kenney as he requested her to accompany him. but the law must be obeyed, and on being shown a detective's badge the little runaway passed with her escort comparatively unnoticed into the city street.
at the police-station she sat in the ante-room with the matron, while the inspector, the staff-inspector and the plain-clothes detective discussed the case. the girl's youthfulness and attractiveness appealed to their sympathies.
"it's too blamed bad to send a pretty youngster like that to the cells," said one.
"why not send her to that new rescue home till we get more particulars? they'll take care of her. there's a woman there that knows her job alright."
and so to the redemptive home lavina was sent, the authorities giving the usual instructions governing such a case. for a few hours the new-comer was silent, but few girls could long be silent in the presence of the big-hearted, winsome superintendent of that home. it was a new experience for lavina; the only kindness she had known was the traitorous type, and it was hard for her to believe that there was such a thing as unselfish love. forty-eight hours from the time she crossed the threshold of the home, the hand that was almost ready to strike any one who seemed to have co-operated in checking her reckless career was slipped along the forearm of the superintendent.
"everybody thinks i'm bad, and i guess i am, but i believe if i had lived with you i might have wanted to be good."
the words did not come easily, but when the superintendent stroked the black hair and put an arm around the wanderer, drawing the head to her shoulder, she realized that love had won its first battle in that misguided life.
the following morning a young man rang the door-bell of the home in an impatient manner. when the superintendent appeared he said, "is this where lavina berson is?"
"yes," was the reply.
"well, i want her, and i want her d——d quick. she's a d——d nuisance. she's never been any good. nobody can do anything with her." then, drawing a rope from his pocket, he said, "i'll bind the little devil with this, and if that won't do i've something else in here (putting his hand over his hip-pocket) that will settle her." his face was red with passion, and his eyes flashed with anger. "oh! you needn't tell me," he continued. "i know all about her; i'm her brother. i'm sick of getting her out of difficulties. i say she's a d——d nuisance, and i ain't going to let her forget this trip i've had to take, not on your bottom dollar i ain't. i've got something else to do than to be chasing over the country after her."
"you cannot get possession of your sister to-day," answered the superintendent. "even if i were not under obligation to the authorities to detain her, pending their instructions, i could not let her go with you just now. she is a friend of mine, and i love her. she has told me her story; she is only just sixteen. ropes and pistols and policemen are not the remedy, sir; she needs a brother—a real brother. if you call in the morning i shall be glad to have a quiet talk with you."
ten days later, in her own town, the court-room was crowded when the case of lavina berson was called. the trial resulted in a mass of evidence to show that she was bad. there seemed no other course open to the judge but to send her to a reformatory. she had associated with the fastest boys and girls, and with the most lawless men and women her town had known. the policeman, giving evidence, made it clear that the town would be well rid of her. not one witness, even to the girl's mother, had any hopeful word to speak.
in the face of such evidence there seemed only one course open. when the word "reformatory" reached the girl's ear she broke into a passion of weeping, so that the judge hesitated a moment. then there was some movement and whispering near the witness-box. the superintendent mentioned had journeyed eastward to be present at the trial, and she was now conferring with the morality inspector.
the weeping girl looked appealingly through her tears at the one who had befriended her. "oh, please," she whispered, in a voice broken with sobs, "don't let them send me to that awful place. it'll only make me worse; take me with you. i'll do anything you tell me; please, oh! please, miss moffatt."
turning to the judge the superintendent said, "your honour, i am a stranger to you, but as a representative of the women's council of the —— church in canada may i say a few words?" the judge nodded assent, and with a heart full of love for the wayward, miss moffatt made one of the most impassioned appeals conceivable. in closing, she said, "i ask your honour to give this girl into my charge for one year. in view of the evidence given, may i be allowed to say that she has been brutally sinned against. no man who has spoken has referred to her partners in sin, nor has any man suggested that the stronger sex has any responsibility to be a brother and protector of girls. the evidence reveals the fact that plenty of men co-operated in her downfall; apparently not one made any effort to uplift. some of her betrayers are still counted as respectable men, while she receives all the blame and the shame. one remedy does not seem to have been tried, and in the name of the one who long ago said, 'neither do i condemn thee; go, and sin no more,' i ask you to be gracious enough to allow me to try a corrective which i believe will be more effective than what has been suggested."
the judge caught the light in those eyes, and with manifest emotion addressed the accused: "lavina, you have found a friend; so long as you are true to her you will not again be called to appear before this court. may heaven's blessing rest upon such women as the one who has spoken in your behalf! the case is dismissed."
once again lavina journeyed westward. once again she was on no. 96, but no longer with betrayers. by her side was the superintendent with her sweet, sheltering influence.
and so life began again for lavina in the redemptive home. in view of her past life, it was worth crossing a continent to see the gladness in her eyes when one day miss moffatt put her hand upon her shoulder and said playfully, "lavina is my right-hand girl; i think she'll soon be assistant superintendent."
as one of the workers was passing along the hallway upstairs some months later she was arrested by the sound of a pleading voice—some one was offering a prayer. noiselessly she drew near the room from which the voice came. the last petition was being uttered, "o god, please help the other girls to be good like you helped me, for jesus' sake. amen." the little dark-eyed girl was kneeling by the bedside with arm around the shoulder of a young hungarian maiden who had been rescued from a life of shame. it developed later that these two rescued ones were daily praying for others who were being sheltered in the home.
how it all reminds one of that far-away scene! "no man could bind him; no, not with chains; because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him.... jesus said unto him, come out of the man, thou unclean spirit." and the modern evil spirit and its rebuke is like unto that. "nobody can do anything with her; i've got this rope to bind the little devil with." and then this: "o god, please help the other girls to be good like you helped me, for jesus' sake. amen." on the heels of the failure of all others jesus comes and reveals himself to-day, as of old, as the master of demons.
what the future days hold for lavina berson we know not, but the height of her ambition to-day is that she be accepted for training, so that some day she may work among those of the class to which she once belonged.