What Necessity Knows

What Necessity Knows

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Title: What Necessity Knows
Author: Lily Dougall

Release Date: July 30, 2005 [eBook #16398]
Language: English
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WHAT NECESSITY KNOWS
by
L. DOUGALL
Author of "Beggars All," etc
New York Longmans, Green, and Co. 15 East Sixteenth Street
Typography by J.S. Cushing & Co., Boston.
1893

TO MY BROTHER JOHN REDPATH DOUGALL THIS BOOK IS
INSCRIBED WITH REVERENCE AND AFFECTION
PREFACE.
One episode of this story may need a word of explanation. It is reported
that while the "Millerite" or Adventist excitement of 1843 was agitating
certain parts of North America, in one place at least a little band of
white-robed people ascended a hill in sure expectation of the Second
Advent, and patiently returned to be the laughing stock of their
neighbours. This tradition, as I heard it in my childhood, was repeated
as if it embodied nothing but eccentricity and absurdity, yet it naturally
struck a child's mind with peculiar feelings of awe and pathos. Such an
event appeared picturesque matter for a story. It was not easy to deal
with; for in setting it, as was necessary, in close relation to the
gain-getting, marrying and giving in marriage, of the people among
whom it might occur, it was difficult to avoid either giving it a poetic
emphasis which it would not appear to have in reality or degrading it
by that superficial truth often called realism, which belittles men. Any
unworthiness in the working out of the incident is due, not so much to
lack of dignity in the subject, or to lack of material, as to the limitations
of the writer's capacity.

Lest any of my countrymen should feel that this story is wanting in
sympathy with them, I may point out that it does not happen to deal
with Canadians proper, but with immigrants, most of whom are slow to
identify themselves with their adopted Country; hence their point of
view is here necessarily set forth.
I would take this opportunity to express my obligation to my
fellow-worker, Miss M.S. Earp, for her constant and sympathetic
criticism and help in composition.
L.D.
EDINBURGH, June, 1893.

BOOK I.
"_Necessity knows no Law._"

WHAT NECESSITY KNOWS
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION.
"It is not often that what we call the 'great sorrows of life' cause us the
greatest sorrow. Death, acute disease, sudden and great losses--these
are sometimes easily borne compared with those intricate difficulties
which, without name and without appearance, work themselves into the
web of our daily life, and, if not rightly met, corrode and tarnish all its
brightness."
So spoke Robert Trenholme, Principal of the New College and Rector
of the English church at Chellaston, in the Province of Quebec. He sat
in his comfortable library. The light of a centre lamp glowed with
shaded ray on books in their shelves, but shone strongly on the faces

near it. As Trenholme spoke his words had all the charm lent by
modulated voice and manner, and a face that, though strong, could light
itself easily with a winning smile. He was a tall, rather muscular man;
his face had that look of battle that indicates the nervous temperament.
He was talking to a member of his congregation who had called to ask
advice and sympathy concerning some carking domestic care. The
advice had already been given, and the clergyman proceeded to give
the sympathy in the form above.
His listener was a sickly-looking man, who held by the hand a little boy
of five or six years. The child, pale and sober, regarded with incessant
interest the prosperous and energetic man who was talking to its father.
"Yes, yes," replied the troubled visitor, "yes, there's some help for the
big troubles, but none for the small--you're right there."
"No," said the other, "I did not say there was no help. It is just those
complex difficulties for which we feel the help of our fellow-men is
inadequate that ought to teach us to find out how adequate is the help of
the Divine Man, our Saviour, to all our needs."
"Yes, yes," said the poor man again, "yes, I suppose what you say