Storybook Manual An Introduction To

Working With Storybooks

Therapeutically And Creatively 1st
Edition Pia Jones
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Storybook Manual: An Introduction To Working With
Storybooks Therapeutically And Creatively
This resource has been designed to support practitioners and parents with practical
and creative ideas on how to use illustrated storybooks therapeutically with children.
Whilst this book is also available to purchase as part of a set, with three therapeutic
fairy tales, all the content, worksheets and activities can be used with any illustrated
story. Exercises have been created to encourage imagination and free play, develop
confidence and emotional literacy as well as deepen engagement and understanding
of stories. It is a book that can be returned to again and again to inspire creative
engagement with stories with individuals or groups.

Key features include:

• An exploration of the importance of stories to modern life, and their use as a

creative and therapeutic tool
• Guidance for working with stories and their illustrations, including conversation
starters, prompts and worksheets for process-orientated creative activities
• Accompanying online activities designed for specific use with the storybooks in
the Therapeutic Fairy Tales series

This is an invaluable resource for all professionals looking to work therapeutically

with stories and images. It will be particularly valuable to those working in child
and family mental and emotional health, social and youth care, community and
participatory arts, school and education, and specialised health and hospital
environments.

Pia Jones is an author, workshop facilitator and UKCP integrative arts

psychotherapist, trained at the Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education, London.
At the core of her practice, Pia uses arts and story to help children and adults
connect with inner resources during times of loss, transition and change. You can
find out more about her work at www.silverowlartstherapy.com

Sarah Pimenta is an experienced artist, lecturer in creativity and workshop

facilitator with children and adults. Her specialist art form is print-making which
brings texture, colour and emotion into a variety of educational, health and
community environments in the UK and abroad. You can find out more about her
work at www.social-fabric.co.uk
Therapeutic Fairy Tales
Pia Jones and Sarah Pimenta
978-0-367-25108-6
This unique therapeutic book series includes a range of beautifully illustrated and
sensitively written fairy tales to support children who are experiencing trauma,
distress and challenging experiences, as well as a manual designed to support the
therapeutic use of story.

Titles in the series include:

Storybook Manual: An Introduction To Working With Storybooks Therapeutically And

Creatively
978-0-367-49117-8

The Night Crossing: A Lullaby For Children On Life’s Last Journey

978-0-367-49120-8

The Island: For Children With A Parent Living With Depression

978-0-367-49198-7

The Storm: For Children Growing Through Parents’ Separation

978-0-367-49196-3
Storybook Manual
AN INTRODUCTION
TO WORKING
WITH STORYBOOKS
THERAPEUTICALLY AND
CREATIVELY

Pia Jones and Sarah Pimenta

First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2021 Pia Jones and Sarah Pimenta

The right of Pia Jones and Sarah Pimenta to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in
accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. The purchase of this copyright material confers the right on the purchasing institution to
photocopy pages which bear the photocopy icon and copyright line at the bottom of the page. No other part of
this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission in writing from the
publisher.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only
for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Jones, Pia, author. | Pimenta, Sarah, illustrator.
Title: Storybook manual : an introduction to working with storybooks therapeutically and creatively / Pia Jones
and Sarah Pimenta.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2020. | Series: Therapeutic fairy tales | Includes
bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020001171 (print) | LCCN 2020001172 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367491130 (hardback) |
ISBN 9780367491178 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003044628 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Narrative therapy. | Metaphor--Therapeutic use.
Classification: LCC RC489.S74 J66 2020 (print) | LCC RC489.S74 (ebook) | DDC 616.89/165--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020001171
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020001172

ISBN: 978-0-367-49117-8 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-003-04462-8 (ebk)

Typeset in Antitled
by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire
Contents
Introduction to the Storybook Manual .................................................................... 1

Chapter 1: Background: The ancient art of storytelling........................................... 5

• The ancient art of storytelling 6

• Using story and metaphor to make sense of the unknown and unfamiliar 7
• Fairy tales, picture books and storytelling in modern culture 9
• The bedtime story ritual 10

Chapter 2: Introduction to working with storybooks therapeutically and

creatively, aims and benefits..............................................................13

• Working with storybooks therapeutically and creatively 14

• The use of storybooks to help promote therapeutic art-making 16
• Storybooks as a creative tool to explore existential challenges 17
• Storytelling and storybooks as a prompt to explore the therapeutic
relationship 18

Chapter 3: Setting the scene for safe therapeutic and creative storytelling.............19

• Creating the right conditions 20

• Attending to psychological processes evoked in the child and
practitioner 23
• Getting ready to listen to and notice children’s responses to the story 25
• Getting ready to enter the world of metaphor and speak its language 27

Chapter 4: Working with story ........................................................................... 29

• Suggestions for conversation starters and prompts 30

• Example worksheets for process-orientated story activities 37

v
 Contents

Chapter 5: Using stories and storybooks as a basis for creative art-making

exercises.......................................................................................... 47

• Building upon the story – setting the scene for creative art-making
exercises 48
• Guiding principles behind building a creative mindset 50
• Creative materials and storage of children’s artwork 55
• Helping children warm up with spontaneous creative exercises 57
• An introduction to using creative art-making to explore and expand
upon storybooks 59
• Top tips to remember when working with children and art-making
exercises 67
• Example worksheets for process-orientated warm-up creative activities 71
• Example worksheets for process-orientated creative art-making
activities 77

Summary and conclusions..................................................................................87

Bibliography ..................................................................................................... 89

Permissions .......................................................................................................91

vi
Acknowledgements
Many thanks to the Speechmark editorial and production team for all their skill in
turning our Storybook Manual into a practical and creative resource. Specific thanks
to Katrina Hulme-Cross, Leah Burton, Cathy Henderson and Alison Jones.

Many thanks also to Jo Parker, Tamsin Cooke and Katrina Hillkirk for their feedback
and creative input into the Storybook Manual. To Eugene Hughes, who brought Sarah
and I together as creative practitioners a decade ago, always supporting our work. To
Louise Austin, for her scholarly insight.

A thanks goes also to Loris Malaguzzi (1920–1994) who developed the Reggio
Emilia Approach which acknowledges children as authors of their own experience
and puts play and experimentation at the core of children’s learning. Also, to Virginia
Axline (1911–1988), Donald Winnicott (1896–1971), Ann Cattanach (1937–2009)
and Violet Oaklander, for inspiring us to place children’s creativity and imagination
at the centre of their well-being, recovery and growth.

A huge thank you to all the school children we’ve worked with, as well as our own
children, who have strengthened our belief in the power of art to heal, connect and
bring joy.

Thanks also to the storytellers and illustrators who captured our imagination either
as children or adults and continue to inspire us: Eric Carle, Sandra Dieckmann,
Maurice Sendak, Jackie Morris, Oliver Jeffers, Gemma O’Neill, Shaun Tan and so
many others ….

vii
Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis Group
http://taylorandfrancis.com
Introduction to the
Storybook Manual
This Manual has been designed to support practitioners with practical and creative
ideas on how to use illustrated storybooks – both story and image – when working
with children therapeutically. The Manual is hopefully a book that lives ‘off the shelf’,
something that can be dipped into as and when needed.

It accompanies the Therapeutic Fairy Tales, a Speechmark/Routledge, Taylor

& Francis series of picture books for children going through times of loss and
transition, although it does not have to be used exclusively with these stories. This
Manual has been created for practitioners interested in working with storybooks in
general.

The Manual, after a brief historical context of oral storytelling, myth, fairy tales and
metaphor, and therapeutic stories, will cover the following:

1) Creating the right conditions for working with storybooks therapeutically and
creatively
2) Prompts and conversation starters on how to read and explore storybooks with
children
3) Further creative ideas and exercises on how to use story and image as a
therapeutic tool.
At the end of key sections, we have included worksheets with examples of process-
orientated creative activities.

The Storybook Manual can be used by a range of professionals in:

• Child and family mental and emotional health

￮ Talking therapists, counsellors, clinical psychologists, trainees
￮ Creative therapists, art therapists, play therapists, trainees

1
 Introduction to the Storybook Manual

• Social and youth care

￮ Social workers, youth workers, trainees
• Schools
￮ Teachers, TAs, learning support, school counsellors, SENCOs
• Community and participatory arts; theatre, performance, storytelling, art making
￮ Creative arts facilitators, workshop leaders, students
• In specialised health scenarios (relevant to The Night Crossing in the Therapeutic
Fairy Tales series), it may be useful for those working in hospital and hospice
contexts – nurses, carers, etc.
• People who see adults in therapeutic settings and social care may find it useful
to help older clients revisit themes in relation to childhood, and/or their own
children.
• Although designed primarily for one-to-one work, prompts and ideas in this
Storybook Manual can be adapted to group work.

It is our hope that the Manual introduces new skills based on blending creative and
therapeutic fields:

1) A creative process-orientated framework for ‘talking therapy’ practitioners

2) A psychological process-focussed framework for creative practitioners

For the sake of clarity, throughout this Storybook Manual we refer to the therapist/
social worker/responsible care-worker as the ‘storyteller’ or ‘practitioner’. We
will refer to the user as ‘child’ or ‘client’. In exercises, we have aimed to use
language that is age-appropriate for 7+ year olds. For younger children, some
words and phrases may need to be adapted accordingly. Practitioners also need to
be mindful that chronological and developmental age in children may not always
be the same. Storybooks can also be chosen to explore particular developmental
themes.

This Manual is based on the respective experiences of the authors, Pia Jones and
Sarah Pimenta, in arts psychotherapy and arts education over the last 20 years.
It has been formed by collecting and writing down the basics of what has worked
for us. Our experiences equally draw upon the ideas and expertise of therapeutic,
educational and creative thinkers dedicated to supporting children and families
with emotional and creative health and well-being. Where possible, we’ve included
sources and references.

2
 Introduction to the Storybook Manual

It is equally our hope that the Manual not only gives guides and suggestions for
practice but sparks a passion for story and creativity in all its different forms –
books, theatre, animations, film, television, song – so that practitioners can inspire
and be inspired by the children they work with. Equally, we hope practitioners will
take this inspiration forward to encourage parents and caregivers to engage in
storytelling with children. Stories are such a simple yet powerful tool to help promote
bonding and building healthy relationships in families. Stories also offer children an
opportunity to explore what it means to be authors of their own lives.

3
Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis Group
http://taylorandfrancis.com
Chapter 1
Background: The ancient
art of storytelling
 Chapter 1

The ancient art of storytelling

“Stories are the most important thing in the world.
Without stories, we wouldn’t be human beings at all.”
© Philip Pullman, circa 2000

Oral storytelling forms part of our collective human history. Like breathing, it
appears that it’s how we are made, with an innate need to share stories between
families, peers and our wider communities.

Perhaps quite simply, story creates a thread for us to hang feelings and experiences,
bringing a sense of order and meaning to life events. There are the stories we each
tell in our daily lives, and those we inherit and receive from our wider culture.
Evidence of myths, legends, folk and fairy tales are found in all corners of the world
(Campbell, 1993). These ancient storytelling forms enabled generations to pass on
experiences and culture to the next (Whittick, 1960). It is one of the ways that we
understand and share our historical past, be that personal or collective.

In times past, storytelling often took part as a ritual, in a circle around a fire, a table,
or in a special open-air place, like an amphitheatre. A designated storyteller would
bring to life stories be it through their voice, physical actions, singing, music, masks
and/or instruments such as a drum (Jones, 1996). This storyteller would ‘guide’
their audience through the story.

Our ancestors most likely told these more ‘formal’ stories for many reasons – to
share learning with communities, to rule, to warn them, to celebrate important
occasions, to preach, to explore the unknown, to entertain and enlighten.

Another important reason may have been to help people

find meaning during times of painful change and loss.
When going through any major life transition, unfamiliar
feelings can frighten and overwhelm us, whether child
or adult. Yet, attempts to block or avoid these
emotions altogether can take away the very energy
we need to support and guide us through times of
change (Brett, 1988). Dealing with grief, loss,
illness, sudden change, the vagaries of Nature, may
well have fallen into the realm of story (Jung, 1984).

6
 Background: The ancient art of storytelling

Using story and metaphor to make sense of the unknown

and unfamiliar
As children, we learn about the world and make sense of it through story and
metaphor. From an early age, objects, teddy bears and toys are imbued with real-life
properties, ‘as if’ these objects were alive and communicating with us (Winnicott,
1971). Fairies, witches and demons, talking animals, superheroes all speak to a
child’s imagination. Children are naturally at ease with metaphor, speaking its
language and intuiting its deeper meaning (Mills & Crowley, 1986).

Bruno Bettelheim, child psychoanalyst, proposed that reading fairy tales enabled
children to explore fears and themes of growing up that perhaps felt too big and
unknown to discuss openly:

More often than not, he (the child) is unable to express these feelings in
words, or he can do so only by indirection: fear of the dark, of some animal,
anxiety about his body. The fairy tale takes these existential anxieties and
dilemmas very seriously and addresses itself directly to them: the need to be
loved and the fear that one is thought worthless; the love of life and the fear
of death.
(Bettleheim, 1976: 10)

Equally for an adult audience, story remains important. The struggles and adventures
of ‘characters’ or ‘heroes’ in myths and stories become metaphors – imaginary
vessels to carry some of the conflict and difficulty in everyday people’s lives.
Story enables us to bear some of life’s inevitable losses by creating a safe distance
between audience and material (Jennings, 1998). Yet, even when it’s not our own
story, if emotionally resonant, we identify with elements of a character’s situation
(Jones, 1996).

By wrapping existential difficulties in metaphor and symbol, story can paradoxically

bring children and adults more aware of and closer to their real feelings. The Ancient
Greeks (Aristotle) coined the term “catharsis” to describe what they felt happened
in audiences during theatre performances; “the process of releasing, and thereby
providing relief from, strong emotions” (Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,
2005).

7
 Chapter 1

Whether feelings arrive quietly or noisily, it doesn’t matter. The importance is

that the experience feels real and meaningful to the audience/reader, enabling
a therapeutic process to begin. As the audience projects their own feelings and
experiences onto the characters, the story can be used as a tool for psychological
growth.

8
 Background: The ancient art of storytelling

Fairy tales, picture books and storytelling in modern culture

Like language itself, over time stories shift and change shape. Myths, fairy and
folk tales have been written down, turned into poems, plays, scripts, song. Printing
presses and illustration techniques have brought us beautiful picture books, tangible
objects to hold, look at and share.

Pictures and images speak to different parts of ourselves (McNiff, 1992). An image
can contain different elements – multi-sensory feelings, themes, conflicts, potential
resolutions. Most children don’t need to be taught visual literacy; they naturally
respond to pictures and images in storybooks. Picture books seem designed to be
shared and read together in a relational setting (Spitz, 1999). An image calls out
look at me, as do verbal metaphors (Siegelman, 1990). This must-see quality of
images enables readers to become a witness, with children often showing a real
hunger to see images in picture books (Bulmer, 2000).
Stories are now told through a variety of new broadcast media; radio, film, TV,
computers, tablets, mobile phones. Sharing images and photos have become an
integral part of the modern world’s diet. Yet, despite the speed at which technology
changes, the content often doesn’t. Many themes from our oldest stories still
survive, finding their ways into our favourite TV programmes, songs, films and
books. Just the words – once upon a time – evoke expectations around a storytelling
experience. Traces of modern-day rituals in storytelling
can be found all over the world.

Scouts/guides, forest schools, youth and

drama clubs often tell stories and sing songs
together. Some of these will take place in
nature around a campfire. In nurseries and
early school education, circle-time is a place
to read out-loud stories and nursery rhymes
to a group of young children. Shamans
in non-Western cultures guide and heal
through story and drumming. Audiences sit
in groups to watch theatre and films.

9
 Chapter 1

The bedtime story ritual

In many parts of the world, bedtime stories are another left-over of a rich oral
tradition. The deceptively simple act of reading a bedtime story to a young child
can be key in promoting healthy, intimate relationships. If both parties are engaged,
much goes on:

1. Adult reader and child listener/s position themselves, normally in comfort, and
close physical proximity, so participants can see the book, both its words and
pictures.
2. As the story begins, an air of relaxed concentration forms. Child and adult
enter another space, what is often described as a liminal or transitional space,
‘another world’ (Winnicott, 1971; Levine, 1992). Even the concept of time might
feel different, slower, stretchy.
3. In order to bring the story to life, the reader often slows down, changing voices
for different characters. The cadence of ordinary speech changes. The reader
‘performs’ the story, speaking the words out loud, mediating the story for the
child (Spitz, 1999).
4. The child seems to gain a surprising focussing ability to spot mistakes on the
part of the reader. They may say: “You missed a bit!”
5. For the child ‘receiving’ the story, they may react in different ways, soaking it up
in silence, or becoming an active participant, asking questions.

10
 Background: The ancient art of storytelling

6. Often, the bedtime story, offering both visual and verbal stimulus, enables
children to speak more freely about their life; thoughts, feelings or worries
troubling them. Making associations and links with characters in a book can help
a child reflect on their own life, get in touch with their own fears and anxieties,
equally encourage their problem-solving abilities.
7. The story and its pictures can serve as a container for potentially difficult and
painful themes, showing children that they are not on their own (Cattanach,
1994).
8. The reader and child have been on a shared journey, often feeling close and
connected, and sharing an emotional bond as a result.

Bedtime stories are important because reading stories in therapy or a therapeutic

setting draw upon some of the components of the ‘special’ feel of bedtime stories.
Bedtime stories provide clues on how to create the right conditions for working with
story and image with children in a professional setting, when a safe and trusting
relationship needs to be built.

Practitioners do need to be mindful that not all children will have positive
associations around storytelling. If a supposed source of safety was instead a
source of pain (Jennings, 2005), practitioners need to attend to any fears and
difficulties communicated by children. In allowing children to voice real feelings in a
safe environment, therapeutic storytelling can offer the opportunity of a reparative
experience.

11
Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis Group
http://taylorandfrancis.com
Chapter 2
Introduction to working
with storybooks
therapeutically and
creatively, aims and
benefits
 Chapter 2

Working with storybooks therapeutically and creatively

Working with storybooks therapeutically draws upon some of the innate power of
the bedtime story ritual, and the familiarity most children will have with books and
stories in some form or another. Like bedtime reading, it can be useful to think about
creating a kind of theatre and performance, a special space.

However, unlike reading purely for entertainment, the aims and benefits of
therapeutic storytelling are to:

• Help children connect with their own story through the medium of metaphor
• Provide a mirror for children’s own emotions and experiences (Stern, 1995)
• Help normalise children’s feelings, so they don’t feel so alone in difficulty
• Validate the range of feelings and behaviours triggered in difficult situations
• Help children become aware of feelings and needs that they may be blocking
• Support children in feeling safe so they can learn to listen to their own feelings
• Help build confidence in expressing difficult emotions – giving them a language
• Activate children’s imaginations to help them explore, express and make sense
of thoughts, needs and feelings, some of which may be conflicting and painful
• Enable different parts of a child to come out – their own internal cast of
characters

14
 Working with storybooks therapeutically and creatively, aims and benefits

• Help children get in touch with new inner resources and qualities
• Create a greater sense of order, place and meaning during a period of chaos
• Support children in making links, thinking and reflecting about their situation
• Develop greater communication skills in general
• Help children think about the stories they are told about themselves
• Build confidence in clients to tell their own story, express, process and
integrate feelings and experiences, what Bowlby (pioneer of Attachment
Theory) described as autobiographical narrative competence (Bowlby, 1988;
Holmes, 1993).

15
 Chapter 2

The use of storybooks to help promote therapeutic art-making

A natural extension to working with storybooks is to encourage visual imagination
and creative art-making with children (Winnicott, 1964). Art-making and play form
the basis of children’s early years education as a tool to learn and engage with
the world around them. Used therapeutically, the arts are a powerful way to bring
emotional landscapes to life in the outer world in a child-friendly way. Through art-
making, children can start to make sense of feelings and difficult experiences, as well
as invent new stories and realities.

Aims and benefits for therapeutic art and image-making

• Making images helps children externalise thoughts, feelings, experiences
• Art can hold complexity; different/conflicting emotions and non-verbal aspects
• Art images hold strong feelings in safe ways, enabling talks around self-
regulation: e.g. volcanos, blowing their top or releasing steam
• The physical act of making can help release feelings for children, helping them
get in touch with previously unknown, hidden emotions
• Activating imagination helps children further explore their own personal
situation, empowering children as a result
• Sharing images with another is a tangible way to look and explore themes and
feelings together, and can lead to children feeling witnessed and understood
• Attitudes to art-making can also flush out negative beliefs about the self,
enabling practitioner and child to work on blocks to growth
• Gaining confidence in self-expression for art-making can build stronger sense of
self, enabling children to become more at home with themselves, their creativity
• Image-making is another way to help children tell their own stories, helping
them to make sense of or learn to stay with uncertainty
• Creative activities enable children to see their own stories from other
perspectives, giving them an opportunity to see themselves differently
• Working with imagination can help activate children’s problem-solving abilities
• Art-making gives permission to play with new ideas and possibilities
• Clearing up arts materials together can help children explore themes of
teamwork and collaboration

16
 Working with storybooks therapeutically and creatively, aims and benefits

Storybooks as a creative tool to explore existential challenges

Aside from exploring specific themes in the story, working therapeutically with
storybooks can also serve to prompt wider discussions about the existential fears
and challenges that affect everyone, child or adult, during times of loss, transition
and change:

• Our relationship with feeling helpless and vulnerable

• Ideas on how and when we decide to seek and accept help
• Fears around being overwhelmed by strong, difficult emotions
• Difficulties in feeling and letting go of strong emotions
• Pacing ourselves; deciding when we don’t want to go into feeling if it’s too much,
or not the right time
• Learning to read feelings, find a language for them, enabling better
communication
• Helping us re-find a sense of centre when we feel scattered by external events
• Lessons on how we access and develop different qualities/parts of ourselves:
resilience, acceptance, determination, bravery, honesty, sharing vulnerability etc
• Exploration of themes of separation and togetherness with significant others
• How we start to see ourselves and others differently during times of challenge
• Giving an opportunity to develop more compassion for self and others
• Introducing a sense of being part of a wider human family

17
 Chapter 2

Storytelling and storybooks as a prompt to explore the

therapeutic relationship
Not only can storybooks be used to explore both specific and existential themes in
the life of a child, but equally they can lead to conversations about the therapy itself,
exploring some of the more subtle aspects of the relationship between storyteller and
child.

• Opportunities to explore feelings and themes brought up by being read to

￮ Intimacy/separation
￮ Control/lack of control
￮ Autonomy/passivity
• What might a child be expecting in this reading context based on their past
￮ Potential for being ignored/shamed/humiliated/criticised/overwhelmed, etc
￮ Any neglect or abuse that a child might have experienced
• Gives children an opportunity to share real feelings and fears
• Who is leading and who is being led?
• Exploring how to set up reading in safe ways with an adult without fear of
reprisal
• Reading provides opportunity to model safe rules in relationships
• Storytelling can help establish safe boundaries and mutual reward in reading

For children who have experienced neglect or abuse, having a positive storytelling
experience with a safe adult can be deeply reparative.

18
Chapter 3
Setting the scene for
safe therapeutic and
creative storytelling
 Chapter 3

Creating the right conditions

The right conditions needed for therapeutic and creative storytelling are the same
for any therapeutic activity; the creation of a sense of safety, an open attitude,
authenticity, warmth, trust, holding/containment, stillness, receptivity, an ability
to listen, balancing a mental and emotional freedom with a sense of boundaries
(Axline, 1947; Rogers, 1980). In addition, children benefit when practitioners bring
in qualities of playfulness, acceptance, compassion and empathy (PACE model:
Hughes, 2007). The aim is to create an atmosphere of relaxed concentration, where
children are invited to participate without feeling under pressure to do so.

As storyteller, you will be a child’s guide through the storybook. Before beginning,
it’s important to consider a child’s individual needs and real-life story. The challenge
is to strike a balance between not overwhelming a child while at the same time
creating a safe space for feelings to emerge. Children who have experienced neglect
or trauma may find entering their imagination initially difficult (Greenalgh, 1997).
Working therapeutically with storybooks requires a gentle, natural pace. The process,
just like feelings, cannot be rushed (Oaklander, 1988). Some key things to think
about before introducing a book:

Readiness of your relationship with the child you’re working with

• How long have you been working together?
￮ Is there enough safety and trust?
￮ Have you enough of a working alliance relationship or are you keen to use
the book to help build one?
• How is this book going to fit into your existing work together?
￮ Use of other storybooks

Child-led or practitioner-led
• Whose idea is it to read the book?
• Is the child asking for a story that relates to a particular theme?
• If it is the practitioner’s idea, how to introduce the book in a natural way that can
empower the child and help them feel their life-story is of interest and important
￮ E.g. relating back to a child’s reflections or questions from a previous
session

20
 Setting the scene for therapeutic and creative storytelling

• Invite the child to be a co-storyteller irrespective of who has chosen the

book

Differences in chronological and developmental age in children

• As chronological and developmental age do not always correlate, it’s useful to
think about how old your child may be from a developmental point of view
• In some cases, older children will benefit from younger stories that deal with
relevant themes to the developmental stage they are going through
• Equally, you may want to explore a particular developmental theme with a client
(child or adult) and choose the story accordingly
• Or it may be a story transcends age and speaks to universal, archetypal
themes

Setting up a therapeutic reading corner reflective of bedtime stories

• Explore how to create physical comfort without breaking boundaries around
touch
￮ Creating an opportunity to explore themes of healthy togetherness and
separation/boundaries between therapist and client
￮ Sitting close to a safe, responsible adult can be ultimately reparative for
children who have experienced neglect or abuse, but it may also feel initially
threatening
• Invite the child to create and design their own cosy reading corner or den
￮ Using cushions, beanbags, blankets, depending on what’s available
￮ Enabling children to decide how much space they need, what feels safe
• If a child is bed-bound in hospital, with low energy levels, explore their
preferences
￮ Whether to listen first, to see pictures after, or do both together
￮ Think about how they can experience the story in the most comfort
￮ And how to make the experience feel special – for example, having torches,
reading in the dark
• Having a child un-make and undo the reading corner/den can also be a way to
prepare for the ending of a session

21
 Chapter 3

Timing, pacing and delivery

• Make sure there is enough time in a session for reading and processing a story
￮ You may want to stop and consider the story and pictures along the way
￮ Your child may want it read again, so best not to introduce a storybook too
late in a session
￮ Children may also want to read parts themselves – you can invite them to
do so
• When reading, try to keep a steady breathing and relaxed reading rhythm, given
the natural tendency we all have to speed up
• Be aware of your tone of voice, how to make the storytelling a gentle, pleasurable
auditory experience as you take the child into an imaginary world
• Try to allow the story to settle, incorporate pauses, taking cues from the child
￮ Enabling digestion, listening and reflection time for you and your reader
￮ So much will happen in the non-spoken, the non-verbal
• Model active listening skills where you attune to your child’s needs

Explaining that this is not a school-based activity, separate from

learning reading skills
• Not all children have had positive reading or learning experiences at home or
school
• Based on differing skill levels and interest, the idea of storybooks may evoke
positive or negative feedback in the reader, or storybooks may feel unfamiliar
• Set up therapeutic storytelling as a different or new kind of activity
￮ No right or wrong, or any relation to success/failure
￮ Not a test about listening and remembering the story or feedback
￮ An opportunity to explore a new character’s feelings, journey, story

22
 Setting the scene for therapeutic and creative storytelling

Attending to psychological processes evoked in the child

and practitioner

Remain aware of impact of storytelling process itself

Before beginning, it’s useful to stay aware of the impact of the storytelling process
itself on your relationship with the child; what is evoked in them and you. The very
act of therapeutic storytelling, a potentially close encounter, may activate specific
feelings. The child may transfer feelings from their own past experiences, either
at home or at school, on the current situation. As already mentioned, in cases of
neglect, abuse and trauma, the child may be activated by storytelling situations. In
psychodynamic and psychoanalytic therapy, transferring the past onto the present
are described in terms such as transference and countertransference, and are seen
as primarily unconscious processes (Winnicott, 1947; Casement, 1985; Geldard &
Geldard, 1997).

Transference is an opportunity to learn more about the child’s history and inner
world. It also offers an opportunity for a different, reparative experience (Balint,
1968/89). Equally, the therapist or reader will have their own countertransference
responses; what is provoked in them. In order to work creatively with these
dynamics, it’s useful for practitioners to remain curious and aware in non-
judgemental ways of what is evoked in the child. For example:

• Depending on the child’s own history, working with storybooks may activate
feelings around significant loss or deficits such as lack of care, attention and
affection
• Stay attuned to any display of fears and/or lack of skills around reading and
concentration, or any associations with failure and school
￮ Notice their quality of attention, sitting back, distracted, etc …
￮ Look out for any attempts to win approval, or expectations of disapproval
￮ If they disengage, it’s an opportunity to learn what might be difficult
• In some cases, children may have experienced abuse such as grooming by adults
through storytelling, so it’s important to stay attentive to any potential triggers
• Stay aware, as therapist, of a child’s need for control, merging, distraction, or
sabotage, or any other acting-out behaviours that give you clues to unmet needs

23
 Chapter 3

• One way to help empower your child is to let them lead and design a reading
corner, exploring the best sitting positions, distances, what feels most safe for
them
￮ Establishing their role as co-storyteller
￮ There may be times when they want to lead, or want you to lead, or that you
find a common way together
• Storytelling can then become a reparative experience to show safe boundaries
and mutual reward in reading together

Self-care for the practitioner – knowing the story and your own
‘triggers’
In working with storybooks therapeutically, there is equally a need for self-care on
the part of the practitioner. Given the stories that are chosen to be read may be
dealing with difficult themes and feelings, as storyteller you need to know what’s
coming. Being aware of how the story affects you personally will help separate out
your own feelings from potential countertransference moments that may emerge in
the session with your child/reader.
• Reading the story in advance will flag up emotional areas where you might feel
activated, enabling you to work through feelings beforehand in preparation
• Practise and rehearse it out-loud beforehand so you get a feel for the material
• Equally, it’s worth thinking about your own bedtime story experiences, or
associations around school reading, whether these were positive or difficult
experiences
￮ How will you respond if a child corrects/criticises you?
￮ Or doesn’t seem to be listening?
• Being able to laugh gently at yourself around reading skills might help you
connect with your child and move reading away from school associations of
getting it right or wrong, instead modelling skills such as flexibility, resilience
and permission to make mistakes
￮ Did I say that word differently to how it’s written?
￮ Yes, I’ve always found that word tricky, it’s like a tongue-twister …
￮ How about you … what words do you find tricky?

24
 Setting the scene for therapeutic and creative storytelling

Getting ready to listen to and notice children’s responses to

the story
A key benefit of working with storybooks therapeutically is to provide an opportunity
to explore their relevance to the child’s inner world. A few things to keep an eye
out for:

• Notice non-verbal responses: a child’s body posture, breathing, sighs,

colouring in cheeks, movement, restlessness, stillness, silence all communicate
responses to a story. Different children will have their own preferences in
exploring a story
￮ You may want to pause, take your time after each page, to discuss
￮ You and your child may want to sit in silence after the story to let feelings
emerge naturally or your child may speak spontaneously and take the
lead
￮ Or equally, there may be moments when you want to prompt discussion
￮ Perhaps your child is withdrawing or not engaging, showing you that the
story, or a part of it, feels too much at this time
• Try to make reading a shared and collaborative journey where you are both
going on a voyage of discovery, rather than setting yourself up as expert reader/
teacher/therapist. Where relevant and appropriate, you might want to take turns
and share the reading together
￮ Starting suggestions with phrases such as “let’s look at this together”, “let’s
read this together”, help build a sense of co-creation
￮ Make sure the child knows they have a role as co-storyteller if they want it
￮ Introduce the story as a starting point for both of your questions and
conversation, rather than setting it up as the way things are or should be
• It’s natural for children and adults to express personal tastes. However, rather
than taking any ‘this is good or bad’ comment at face value, follow up by
exploring the meaning behind these statements. Here lies an opportunity to
move away from absolutes – either/or statements – and explore what it’s like to
see different elements side by side
￮ What is it that you really like/don’t like about this character, this bit?
￮ What is it that feels a bit difficult, or that seems to interest you here?

25
 Chapter 3

￮ I notice you are really drawn to this page/I notice you turned the page
quickly
￮ What’s it like to see this character you don’t like next to the one you do?
￮ How do each of them feel being next to each other?
￮ If you’d like to move them apart, where would you move them, how far?

26
 Setting the scene for therapeutic and creative storytelling

Getting ready to enter the world of metaphor and speak its

language
Metaphor creates its own world within a story, outside of the rational and the logical.
Rather like the dreams we have while sleeping, metaphor responds well to its own
language (McNiff, 1992). Staying in metaphor and the make-believe can help
build a sense of trust and safety in children, rather than too direct communication
which can feel intrusive or overwhelming. Sometimes, adults are tempted into
making premature links with the real, outer world, which can interrupt a child’s own
imaginative process. At the beginning, we’d recommend staying inside the world
of metaphor and imagination with your child (Oaklander, 1988). Below are a few
pointers to help facilitate the imaginative process.

• Model curiosity about characters, creatures, habitats in the stories you’re reading
• From the outset, stay attuned to notice the visual and verbal metaphors that
speak most strongly to the children – it could be the habitat in the books or the
characters themselves, or other creatures. Follow a child’s natural interest and
focus. It might be something completely unexpected and different to your own
preconceptions
￮ Where possible, don’t make assumptions of what a metaphor means and wait
for a child’s description before offering up your own
￮ This scary monster in your eyes might not be wholly so for a child
￮ Or equally a friendly character might raise questions for a child
￮ Look together at where they live, and what the characters are doing – are
they hiding, jumping out, or conflicted, torn in two?
• Try to stay attuned to the qualities and literal function of the metaphors that a
child focusses on; be it a cloud, an animal, an island, a doorway, an obstacle.
This offers up opportunities to explore polar themes and what might lie
between – for example:
￮ If it’s a gate, you can explore themes of open and shut, or half-shut
￮ If it’s an island, explore themes of safety and isolation, and bridges
• Role-play and dialogue are simple techniques which can bring any metaphoric
element of a story to life for children. For example:
￮ If this creature or magic object could speak, what might it say or do?
￮ “Let’s make-up a conversation between two characters or objects”

27
 Chapter 3

• Metaphor can also be used to invite reflection on the therapeutic process

together
￮ If a child is finding it hard to end a session, you can use the story metaphor
itself, for example: “it looks like we’re both finding it hard to leave this
Island, Cave, Mountain, etc …”
￮ “This character has gone off and hidden … I wonder if that’s what you’d like
to do here sometimes too?”
• Stay attuned to whether your child wants to stay within the story and metaphor
framework or if they prefer to make links to their own real-life situation. Ideally,
it’s better not to guide them out unless they start making personal references to
their own story
• When/if they are ready, children may start making links to other stories, or
friends, or family members. At the right time, linking can be a useful tool in
creating layers of additional meaning and context, also empowering a child to
make their own insights. It’s a joy to see a child surprise themselves by making
their own meaning, rather than have it given to them by an adult. Yet, we need
to be careful here. Some children may not want to ‘own’ particular aspects of
a story. In some cases, being too direct about similarities can close off further
exploration. The story itself may be enough to resonate with a child’s themes
(Oaklander, 1988; Jennings, 1998).

28
Chapter 4
Working with story
 Chapter 4

Suggestions for conversation starters and prompts

In the sections that follow, we’ve outlined a variety of prompts to help children
engage and reflect on themes when working with storybooks. Given the wide range
of conversation starters included here, it would certainly be counterproductive and
intrusive to use them all. Any therapeutic interventions – questions, suggestions,
observations, role-play activities, creative exercises – need to be selected and
rotated in ways that feel natural in the room. Too much questioning can lead to a
child withdrawing and/or waiting for you to do the work. The idea is to build a sense
of wonder and curiosity about storybooks.

Where possible, listen to the child first and frame any reflections or questions using
a child’s own language. At other times, it may be that sitting in silence together is
most appropriate. In revisiting the book, it could be that some sections become more
relevant. Taking your lead from the children will help determine which therapeutic
intervention is most needed, and equally, tell you when it’s time to take a break and/
or stop. It can be useful to think of any therapeutic intervention as an invitation – a
key to open your child’s story.

Immediate responses after reading the story for the first time
• I wonder what is happening in this story, what’s going on?
• Anything that stays with you, stands out? Any surprises?
￮ If needs be, the practitioner can model their own response, “for me, I was
drawn to this bit here …” or “I didn’t expect this to happen … how about
you?”
• Can you show me any pictures that grab your attention, make you curious?
￮ Ones you like, or ones you find difficult and/or really touch you?
• I notice that you really wanted to stay a bit longer on these pages
• If beneficial, invite children to put their finger on a particular image of interest
￮ Let’s look at this together
￮ What does this image make you feel/think of?
￮ What is it about this image that attracts you?
￮ If this page were to come to life, what might we see happen?
• I wonder what this story leaves you with overall – feelings, thoughts, questions

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 Working with story

After a first reading, sometimes it’s nice just to take time to go through
all the pictures again
• Let’s look together at all the pictures again slowly – e.g. Look at this!
• What do you notice is going on in each image?
• What elements draw you in, make you curious?
• Discuss together which page/s are your favourite
• Anything new surprises, going through the book again?

Entering the character’s world, exploring their feelings

• Let’s look at the characters and what happens to them during this story
￮ What do they want or wish for?
• How do they deal with or respond to changes in their lives?
• When do they show their real feelings, and when do they hide them?
• Let’s look at what the character is feeling in different pictures
￮ Explore facial expressions, body postures together
￮ Is there more than one feeling? (Conflicting feelings, or changes over time)
￮ The practitioner can lead this: “I notice here, she feels this, then it changes”
• Let’s look at what’s hard or challenging for the characters
￮ Events, experiences, decisions, feelings, dilemmas
• Let’s look at what’s supportive, comforting and/or freeing for the characters
￮ Events, experiences, decisions, feelings, resolutions
• Can you imagine what it would be like to be this character?
￮ What might you be feeling in their place?
￮ Is there anything different that you would want to do in their place?
• Which character would you most like to be in this story?
• Let’s act out different scenes together from the story
￮ How does it feel to step into these characters’ shoes?
￮ I wonder what everything looks like from this point of view

Relationships/friendships between key characters

• What do you see happening between the main characters in the story?
￮ How would you describe what goes on?
• What might be difficult or challenging between them?

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 Chapter 4

• What do you imagine they are trying to change or make happen?

￮ What’s important to them, what are their interests?
• What do you see that works well and not so well between characters?
• What might characters need to say or tell each other that they are keeping to
themselves at the moment?
• What do you think their lives might have been like before this story?
￮ Any sense of back-story, or prequel, that might have led up to this point?
• What else do you think needs to happen between characters in the story?

Exploration of transition, loss and change

• What do the main characters learn in the story about themselves, and others?
• How do they change through the story, and/or what changes for them?
• What kind of personal qualities do these characters develop in the story?
￮ Help children find their own language for qualities such as acceptance,
resilience, bravery, vulnerability, independence, sadness, relief etc …
• How do the pictures show that these characters change and grow?
￮ Which pictures show this?
• Moments of a dilemma or decision-making
￮ What do you think makes this character decide or behave the way they do?
• Let’s look to see if any pictures feel particularly supportive of change
￮ Do any communicate a sense of comfort/peace/hope/safety?

Obstacles and blocks on the character’s path

• What or who gets in the way of the character’s story?
• What kind of obstacles do they have to deal with?
• How do they get around obstacles and difficulties?
• What new skills do they have to learn to get around obstacles?
• What other obstacles might they meet on their journey?

Engaging with ideas of asking for help and self-support

• What or who helps the main characters in the story?
￮ What are they like these ‘helpers’?
￮ What qualities do they have?

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 Working with story

• How do they help the main characters, what’s useful?

￮ I wonder what it is they do or say that gives hope/comfort/understanding?
• What’s it like for the characters to ask for or accept help in these stories?
￮ What are some of the challenges to asking for help?
• How do the characters help and support themselves through the story?
￮ Explore qualities, strengths and anything they might find hard
• What kind of creature/character would you invent to help children?
￮ Let’s make up a story about your creature/character

Validation of feelings of characters in a story

Storybooks offer an opportunity to model empathy, understanding and compassion
for characters, their feelings and motivations, validating what they are going
through. Some useful phrases can be:

• I imagine that must be so hard for that character

￮ In this situation, feeling this, and also feeling that
• I can see why that character might cry, hide, shake or shout here
• That decision must be difficult to make, I wonder what helped them make it?
• What a lot of courage (or other quality) that character shows by being/doing
x, y, z
• Invite the child to make their own commentary and observations
￮ Make links to storybooks or films they know, if relevant
• It’s an opportunity to notice qualities the child has shown while working with you

Exploring and using habitats as a metaphor

• Let’s look at what the pictures show us about where the characters live
• Can you imagine what it would be like to live here? The weather, landscape,
etc …
• Use any place of the story as a metaphor – islands, bridges, home, etc
￮ E.g. What it would it feel like to be on an island, how do we get off islands,
what’s it like to get stuck on an island?
• I wonder if where the characters live change through the story?
• How would you improve where these characters live? What do you think they
need?

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 Chapter 4

Parts of the story that don’t make sense or invite us to question

• Can you show me any parts or pictures in the story that don’t make sense to
you?
• Is there anything the characters do or say that leave you with questions?
• What would you do here instead? Would you do or say something different?
￮ Would you get the characters to behave differently?

Exploring choices and decision-making

• Sometimes characters in books must make difficult decisions and/or actions
￮ What do you think it’s like for them to make these?
￮ Why do you think they chose what they did?
￮ What might you do in their situation?
• What if they were to make a different choice or decision?
• Experiment with inventing a new story based on a different choice or decision

Imagining alternative outcomes/endings

• What do you think might happen next, after the end of this story?
• If you were going to change or retell any part of the story, what would it be?
• Use role-play to retell the story
￮ What would you have these characters do, if it were up to you?
￮ What helpers would you send them and how would they help?
• What qualities and strengths would you give your characters?
￮ What might they look like? How might they be different?
• Is there anything you feel that is left unsaid in the book or doesn’t make sense?

Exploring the story through the eyes of a different character

• I wonder if there is another character you are interested in?
￮ It might be another main character or someone/something in the
background
• What might this story be like from their point of view?
• Step in their shoes, paws, being, etc. – what would they see, hear, experience?
• What might be difficult or comforting/reassuring for them?
• What are they learning through this story?

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 Working with story

• If you could tell the story through another character, who would it be, what would
their story be?
• Bring to life through role-play and acting out scenes

Taking a break in the storytelling

If a child initiates a break, respect their wishes, and follow up in a gentle, curious
manner:

• I notice we’ve left the story here, maybe there is something difficult in this
story?
• I wonder if there is something else that’s taken your interest?
￮ Can you tell me/show me?
• Look out for any links to the story or feelings in the story in the activity that the
child might be now choosing
• Explain to the child that it’s up to them if they want to go back to the book

Looking at endings
• Many stories give us happy endings, but often life doesn’t turn out like that
￮ There are different endings and sometimes new, unexpected beginnings
• Explore in the stories what kinds of endings come up for characters
￮ How do they deal with what happens to them?
￮ What do they imagine happening afterwards?
￮ I wonder what kind of new beginnings happen (if relevant/appropriate)?
• Let’s look at what feelings come up when dealing with endings
￮ Sadness, anger, other strong feelings – it’s natural to feel these
• What/who can help us with our feelings around endings?

Making links with children’s real-life stories and feelings

If a child makes links to their own experiences, stay with their natural focus of interest:

• You said that you sometimes feel the same way, can you say a bit more?
￮ Have you ever had something happen like this to you?
￮ What’s it been like for you? What have you found difficult, or helpful?
￮ In what ways has your experience been different?

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 Chapter 4

• What has been your experience around help?

￮ What and who is helping you?
￮ Anyone you’d like to help you?
￮ Any questions you wish you could ask?
• Can you share something about your own feelings?
￮ Where you feel fear or worry in your body?
￮ Or hope, calm and comfort?
￮ What helps calm you down, what helps make you feel safe?
• Help children see how qualities like bravery, compassion develop over time
￮ Not necessarily innate or fixed, ‘made not born’ through experiences
￮ Help children locate specific qualities in themselves and others
￮ I wonder what you are learning, about yourself, and others?

Making links with other stories from different media

• I wonder if these pictures/images remind you of anything else you’ve seen?
￮ Other stories, pictures, comics, films, games, etc
• What are some of your favourite stories, characters?
• Any stories you’ve read again and again, or films you’ve seen many times?
• What is it about these stories and characters that interests you?
• What are their challenges? What do they learn? How do they change?
• Any images, pictures or lines that you find supportive?
• If you could create your own library of support?
￮ Make a list of films, books, cartoons, etc, to be included here

In reading and discussing storybooks in reflective ways, children are invited to

connect with and express feelings around their own story. In this way, the storybooks
can serve as tools for psychological release, understanding and growth.

36
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 “Oh, I could not choose but go
Into the woodlands hoar.

“Into the blithe and breathing air,

Into the solemn wood,
Solemn and silent everywhere!
Nature with folded arms seem’d there,
Kneeling at her evening prayer!
Like one in prayer I stood.

“Before me rose an avenue

Of tall and sombrous pines;
Abroad their fanlike branches grew,
And where the sunshine darted through,
Spread a vapour soft and blue.
In long and sloping lines.

“And falling on my weary brain,

Like a fast falling shower,
The dreams of youth came back again;
Low lispings of the summer rain,
Dropping on the ripen’d grain,
As once upon the flower.”

He told her of his happy progress, from that first dawning of hope to the full
joy of steadfast faith. He ran over the history of the past year, in which from
day to day he had looked forward to this meeting; and he told with what joy
he had slowly added coin to coin, until he had saved a sufficient sum to
carry him home. Then, when he had finished, the sister and brother mingled
their thanksgivings and happiness together, and Christian’s heart swelled
full and overbrimming: she could have seated herself upon the floor, like
Ailie, and poured out her joy as artlessly. But it is Halbert’s turn now to ask
questions. When will little Mary be home? how long she stays. Halbert
wearies to see his little sister, but he is bidden remember that she is not little
now, and Christian sighs, and the dark cloud, that she fears is hanging over
Mary’s fate, throws somewhat of its premonitory gloom upon her heart and
face. Halbert, unnoticing this, is going about the room, almost like a boy,
looking lovingly at its well-remembered corners, and at the chairs and
tables, at the books, and last his eye falls on a card lying in a little basket,
and he starts as if he had encountered a serpent, and his eye flashes as he
suddenly cries out, almost sternly, as he lifts it and reads the name.
“Christian, what is this—what means this? Mr. Walter Forsyth a visitor
of yours; it cannot be. Tell me, Christian, what does it mean?”
“It is Mr. Forsyth’s card,” said Christian gravely; “an acquaintance, I am
afraid I must say a friend of ours. Indeed, Halbert, now that you are home
with us again, this is my only grief. I fear we shall have to give our little
Mary into his keeping, and he is not worthy of her.”
Halbert is calmed by his long trial, but his natural impetuosity is not
entirely overcome, and he starts up in sudden excitement and disorder.
“Walter Forsyth the husband of my sister Mary! Walter Forsyth, the infidel,
the profligate; better, Christian, better a thousand times, that we should lay
her head in the grave, great trial as that would be, and much agony as it
would cause us all, than permit her to unite herself with such a reptile.”
“Halbert,” said Christian, “the name misleads you; this cannot be the
man—the Forsyth who wrought you so much unhappiness and harm, and
has caused us all such great grief and sorrow; he must be much older, and
altogether a different person. This one is not even a scoffer, at least so far as
I have seen.”
“Christian,” cried Halbert vehemently, “I feel assured it is the same. Do
not tell me what he pretends to be, if he has any end to serve he can be
anything, and put on the seeming of an angel of light even. I tell you,
Christian, that I am sure, quite sure, that it is he. I met him as I came here,
and I shuddered as I saw him, and even felt myself shrinking back lest his
clothes should touch me; but little did I suspect that he was about to bring
more grief upon us. Does Mary, do you think, care for him?”
Christian could not but tell him her fears; but she said also that Mary had
always avoided speaking to her on the subject. What could they do? What
should be done to save Mary? Halbert, in his impatience, would have gone
to seek her out at once, and have pointed out to her the character of her
lover; but Christian only mournfully shook her head, such a plan was most
likely to do harm and not good.
“You must be calm, Halbert,” she said, “this impetuosity will be
injurious—we must save Mary by gentler means, she is far too like yourself
to be told in this outspoken manner—the shock would kill her.”
 But old Ailie is stealing the door of the room open timidly, to break in on
the first hour of Christian’s joy, and when she entered she did it with a look
of sober cheerfulness, widely different from her late joyful frenzy.
“Miss Mary came in a while since,” she said, “and ran straight up to her
own room, without speaking, or waiting till I telled her of Mr. Halbert’s
home coming, and she looked pale and ill like; would you not go up, Miss
Christian, and see?”
The Melvilles are Ailie’s own children, and she has a mother’s care of
them in all their troubles, bodily or mental. So at her bidding Christian rose
and went softly to Mary’s room: the door was closed, but she opened it
gently, and standing hidden by the curtains of Mary’s bed, was witness to
the wild burst of passionate sorrow and disappointed affection in which
Mary’s breaking heart gushed forth, when she found herself once more
alone. Herself unseen, Christian saw the scalding tears welling out from her
gentle sister’s dim and swollen eyes, she saw the convulsive motions of her
lithe and graceful figure, as she rocked herself to and fro, as if to ease or
still the burning grief within: and she heard her broken murmurs.
“Had he but died before I knew this, I would have mourned for him all
my life, even as Christian mourns, but now—but now!—such as he is”—
and her burst of sobbing checked the voice of her sorrow. A moment after
she started up and dashed the tears from her eyes, with some vehemence.
“Should I not rather thank God that I have been saved from uniting myself
with a godless man—with my poor brother’s seducer?” and she sank on her
knees by the bedside. Poor Mary’s grief was too great for silent
supplications, and Christian stood entranced, as that prayer, broken by many
a gush of weeping, rose through the stillness of the quiet room. She had
never, she thought, heard such eloquence before of supplicating sorrow, had
never seen the omnipotence of truth and faith till then; gradually they
seemed to subdue and overcome the wildness of that first grief, gradually
attuned that sweet young sobbing, struggling voice, to sweetest resignation,
and ere Christian echoed the solemn “Amen,” Mary had given thanks for
her deliverance, though still natural tears, not to be repressed, broke in on
her thanksgiving, and silent weeping followed her ended prayer. But when
she bent her head upon her hands again, Christian’s kind arm was around
her, Christian’s tears were mingled with her own, Christian’s lips were
pressed to her wet cheek in tender sympathy, and the voice of Christian, like
a comforter, whispered,
 “I know all, Mary, I know all; may God strengthen you, my dear sister—
you have done nobly, and as you should have done; may God bless you,
dearest Mary.”
And Mary’s head, as in her old childish sorrows, nestles on Christian’s
bosom, and Mary’s heart is relieved of half its heavy and bitter load. Poor
Mary! the days of childhood have indeed come back again, and, as the
violence of the struggle wears away, she weeps herself to sleep, for sorrow
has worn out the strength of her delicate frame, already exhausted by the
varied and contending emotions of the day, and now the tears slide slowly
from beneath her closed eyelids even in her sleep.
But Halbert is at the door anxiously begging for admittance, and
Christian leads him in to look at little Mary’s sleep. It was a child’s face, the
last time he looked upon it, a happy girlish face, where mirth and quick
intelligence rivalled each other in bringing out its expressive power; he sees
it now, a woman’s, worn with the first and sorest struggle that its loving
nature could sustain, and a kind of reverence mingled with his warm
affection as he bent over his sleeping sister; he had yielded to temptations,
oh, how much weaker, since his heart was not enlisted on the tempter’s
side; he had made shipwreck of his faith and of his peace, for years,
fascinated by attractions a thousand times less potent than those which this
girl, her slight figure still trembling with her late emotions, still weeping in
her sleep, had withstood and overcome; and Halbert bent his head, humility
mingling with his rejoicing. Had he only been as steadfast as Mary, how
much sorrow and suffering would they all have been saved.
They have left the room awhile with quiet footsteps, and there is much
gladness in those two hearts, though trembling still mingles with their joy;
for, if Christian fears the effect of this terrible shock on Mary’s health, at
least she is delivered; there is great happiness in that certainty, she has
found out Forsyth’s true character, though it passes all their guessing and
conjectures to tell how.
And now Halbert is asking about his father, and James and Robert, and
expressing his fears as to how they will receive him, the truant son. His
brothers will be rejoiced; but Christian shakes her head half doubtful, half
smiling, when Halbert, “and my father”—she cannot say, but an hour or two
more will bring that to the proof.
 “Do you know, Christian, I feel myself like one of the broken men of the
old ballads, and I am in doubt, in perplexity, and fear, about this meeting.”
“If you are broken, if your ship has been cast ashore, we will get it
mended again,” said Christian, with more of humour and lightheartedness
than she had either felt or used for many a day. “But no more of that,
Halbert, just now. Tell me, will you go to see James to-night?”
“No, I can’t; it would be unseemly besides.”
Halbert will not leave his sister the first night of his return, and Christian
feels relieved; after a pause, he continues:
“How do you like Elizabeth now, Christian; are James and she happy
together?”
“I have no doubt they are,” said Christian, evasively; “why should they
not be?”
“But you don’t like her.”
“I never said so, Halbert.”
“Well, that’s true enough; but I inferred it.”
“Nay, you must make no inferences. Elizabeth can be very pleasant and
lovable; if she is not always so, it is but because she does not choose to
exercise her powers of pleasing.”
“So she can be lovable when she likes. But it was she, was it not, that
introduced Mary to Forsyth?” said Halbert, his brow darkening.
“You must forgive her that, Halbert; she was not aware of his character
when she received him as her cousin’s friend,” and Christian looked
distressed and uneasy, and continued; “and Halbert, you must not cherish a
vindictive feeling even against Forsyth, bad as he is, and great as is the
mischief he did you; promise me that, Halbert, promise me, now.”
“Well, I do promise you; I could not, if I would; and I now pity him
much more than hate him.”
They sat together conversing, till the shadows began to lengthen, when
Christian, compelled by domestic cares and preparations for the evening,
left her new found brother for a time.
 CHAPTER IV.

Bear a lily in thy hand;

Gates of brass cannot withstand
One touch of that magic wand.

Bear through sorrow, wrong and ruth,

In thy heart the dew of youth,
On thy lips the smile of truth.—Longfellow.

HE day wore away, and now the evening darkened fast, and old
Ailie’s beaming face, illuminated by the lights she carries,
interrupts brother and sister, again seated in the cheerful fire-light,
which, ere the candles are set upon the table, has filled the room
with such a pleasant flickering half-gloom, half-radiance. And there, too, is
Mr. Melville’s knock, which never varies, at the door. Halbert knows it as
well as Christian, and grows pale and involuntarily glides into a corner—as
he had done of old when he had transgressed—but Christian has met her
father at the door, and whispered that there is a stranger newly arrived in the
room. It fortunately so happens to-night that Mr. Melville has come home
more complacent and willing to be pleased than he has done for many a
day. Some speculation suggested by James, and agreed to with sundry
prudent demurring by the heads of the house, has turned out most
successfully, and Mr. Melville has taken the credit of James’s foresight and
energy all to himself, and is marvellously pleased therewith. “A stranger,
aye, Christian, and who is this stranger?” he says most graciously, as he
divests himself of his outer wrappings; but Christian has no voice to answer
just then, and so he pushes open the half-shut door, and looks curiously
about the room; his son stands before him, his eyes cast down, his cheeks
flushed, his heart beating.
“Halbert!”
The human part of Mr. Melville’s nature melts for the moment, the
surprise is pleasurable; but he soon grows stern again.
 “Where have you been, sir? what have you been doing? and why have
you never written to your sister?”
Halbert’s trial has taught him meekness, and his answers are in words
which turn away wrath, and his father turns round to seek his easy-chair on
the most sheltered and cosiest side of the glowing fire.
“Humph!” he says; “well, since you are home, I suppose it’s no use
making any more enquiries now, but what do you intend to do?”
Halbert looks astonished; it is a question he is not prepared to answer; he
feels that he ought not and cannot ask his father to enable him to carry out
the plan he has been dreaming of for the past twelve months, and he is
silent.
“There is plenty of time for answering that, father,” said Christian
briskly; “we can consult about that afterwards, when we have all recovered
ourselves a little from this surprise which Halbert has given us; and here
comes Robert.”
Robert came merrily into the room as Christian spoke, and not alone, he
had a companion with him whom he brought forward to introduce to
Christian, when his eye caught his brother. What! are we going to have old
Ailie’s extravagances over again. Poor Robert’s laugh is hysterical as he
tumbles over half a dozen chairs, and lays hold of Halbert, and his shout
electrifies the whole household, wakening poor sleeping Mary in her lonely
chamber. “Halbert! Halbert”—Robert is a fine fellow for all his
thoughtlessness, and is almost weeping over his recovered brother, and
Halbert’s newly acquired composure has forsaken him again, and he sobs
and grasps Robert’s hands, and thanks God in his heart. This is truly a
prodigal’s welcome, which Halbert feels he deserves not.
Robert’s companion hangs back bashfully, unwilling to break in upon,
lest he mar this scene of heartfelt family joy, which a good brother like
himself fully appreciates; but Christian’s kind and watchful eye is upon
him, and has marked him, and she comes forward to relieve him from the
awkward position in which he is placed, Marked him! yes, but what a
startled agitated look it is with which she regards him, and seems to peruse
every lineament of his countenance with eager earnestness. What can it be
that comes thus in the way of Christian’s considerate courtesy, and makes
her retire again and gaze and wonder? What a resemblance! and Christian’s
heart beats quick. But Robert has at length recollected himself, and now
brings the young man forward and introduces him as his friend Charles
Hamilton. Christian returns his greeting, but starts again and exchanges a
hurried glance with Halbert, who also looks wonderingly on the stranger.
Christian soon leaves the room, she has Mary to seek after, and attend to;
but as she passes Halbert’s chair, she bends over it and whispers in his ear,
and her voice trembles the while,—
“Is not the resemblance most striking—and the name?”
“It is most extraordinary,” answered Halbert aloud, gazing again on the
mild ingenuous face of the stranger. Christian glided away.
“What is most extraordinary, Halbert?” asked Robert, with a slight
impatience in his tone.
“Oh, nothing; at least only Mr. Hamilton’s great resemblance to an old
friend of ours long since dead.”
The young man looked towards him and smiled. Can that picture still be
hanging in its old place in Christian’s room?
Our poor Mary has slept long and calmly, and when Robert’s shout
awoke her, she started up in astonishment. She was lying in the dark room
alone, with silence round about her, and her pillow was wet with tears.
Mary raised herself in her bed, and throwing back the disordered hair which
hung about her face tried to collect her bewildered thoughts. The memory
of her grief has left her for the moment, and she is wondering what the
sound could be that came indistinctly to her ears; it sounded, she fancied,
very like “Halbert.” Who could be speaking of him, and as she repeats his
name the full knowledge of what has passed, all the momentous events and
misery of this day come upon her like a dream. Poor Mary! a heavy sigh
breaks from her parted lips, and she presses her hand over her painful eyes.
She does not see the approaching light which steals into the little room; she
does not hear the light footstep of its gentle bearer, but she feels the kind
pressure of Christian’s arm, and most readily and thankfully rests her head
on Christian’s supporting shoulder.
“I have news to tell you,” whispers Christian, “which you will be glad of
and smile at, though you are sighing now. You remember Halbert, Mary?”
Remember him! but Mary’s only answer is a sigh. Halbert’s name has
terrible associations for her to-night; she has remembered him and his
fortunes so well and clearly this day.
“Mary, Halbert has come home, will you rouse yourself to see him?”
 “Come home, Halbert come home!” and the poor girl lifted up her head.
“Forgive me, Christian, forgive me, but I have done very wrong, and I am
very, very unhappy;” and the tears flowed on Christian’s neck again more
freely than before.
“You have done nobly, dear Mary—only rouse yourself, shake off this
grief; you have done well, and God will give you strength. Let me bathe
your temples—you will soon be better now,” said Christian, parting the
long dishevelled hair, and wiping away the still streaming tears. “That man
is not worthy one tear from you, Mary: be thankful rather, dearest, for your
deliverance from his cunning and his wiles.”
A deep blush flitted over Mary’s tear-stained face, as she raised herself
and began with Christian’s tender assistance to remove the traces of her
grief. Christian wondered as she saw her begin to move about the little
room again; there was a still composure gathering about her gentle features,
which the elder sister, accustomed to think of Mary as still little more than a
child, could only marvel at in silence. Her eyes were almost stern in their
calmness, and her voice was firmer than Christian could have believed
possible as she turned to speak.
“Yes, Christian, I am thankful—thankful beyond anything I can say; but
do not ask me about anything just now,” she continued, hurriedly, as
Christian looked up to her as if about to speak. “I will tell you all
afterwards, but not to-night—not to-night, dear Christian.”
“Would you not like to see Halbert, Mary?” said Christian, taking the
cold hands of her sister in her own. “Do you care or wish to see Halbert
now, Mary?”
“Yes, yes,” was the answer, and Mary’s eye assumed a kinder and more
natural glow. “I forgot, tell him to come here Christian, I would rather see
him, I cannot meet him down stairs.”
Halbert was speedily summoned, and when his step paused at the door,
Mary ran forward to meet him with pleasure in her eyes. True, Halbert’s
tone of affectionate sympathy brought the remembrance of that scene of the
morning, and with it the tears to Mary’s eyes; but Christian rejoiced to see
how gently they fell, and hoped that the sorest and bitterest part of the
struggle was past; and so it was, for Mary went down with untrembling step
and entered the room where her father, brother, and the stranger sat with a
sweet and settled calmness, which allayed all Christian’s fears.
 It seemed now that however strange the stranger was to Christian, he
was no stranger to Mary Melville. Mr. Charles Hamilton was in truth well
known to Mary—yea, that Robert looked arch and intelligent, and his
young friend blushed as he rose to greet her on her entrance. This
acquaintanceship was soon explained, Mary had met him several times at
Mrs. James’s parties, and the casual mention which Robert and Mary had
made of him among the host of Elizabeth’s visitors had not been sufficiently
marked to attract the attention of Christian, engrossed as she was then with
such great anxiety regarding poor Mary’s unfortunate attachment.
Charles Hamilton’s qualities of head and heart were much too large for
Mrs. James Melville, and, accordingly, though she received him as a guest,
and was even glad to do so, from his social position and prospects—she
regarded him with much the same feeling which prompted her attacks on
Christian, and having noticed what poor Mary was too much occupied to
notice, the bashful attention with which the young man hovered about her
fair sister-in-law, Mrs. James had decided upon entirely crushing his hopes
by exhibiting to him this evening, at her party, the crowning triumph of her
friend Forsyth. Poor Mrs. James! how completely she had over-reached and
outwitted herself. That evening found her accomplished friend the rejected
—rejected with scorn and loathing, too—of simple Mary Melville, in no
humour for contributing to the amusement of her guests, and Charles
Hamilton in a far fairer way of success than even he himself had ever
dreamt of, for Christian’s eyes are bent on him from time to time, and there
is wonder blended with kindness in her frequent glances on his face, and
her pleasant voice has an unconscious tone of affection in it as she speaks to
him, as though she were addressing a younger brother. But the time has
come when they must prepare for Mrs. James’s party; Christian will not go,
Mary will not go, how could she? Halbert will not go, and the young
stranger’s face grows suddenly clouded, and he moves uneasily on his chair,
and at last rises reluctantly. Mr. Melville and Robert must go for a time at
least, to excuse the others that remain at home, and tell James of Halbert’s
return, and Charles Hamilton in vain hunts through every recess of his
inventive powers to find some reason that will excuse him for sitting down
again. But all fail, he can find nothing to offer as an excuse; he is intruding
on the family this night, sacred as it is—the evening of the wanderer’s
return—and when he may suppose they all so much desire to be alone; and
so he must take his leave, however loth and reluctant so to do. But while so
perplexed and disappointed Christian takes him aside, Christian bids him sit
down and speak to her a moment when Robert and his father have gone
away, and he does so gladly. Mary wonders what Christian can have to say
to him, a stranger to her till the last hour, and looks over, with interest every
moment increasing, towards the corner where they are seated side by side,
and so does Halbert too; but there is no astonishment in his face, though
there is compassionate affection beaming from his eyes. Their conversation
seems to be most interesting to both, and the look of sad recollection on
Christian’s gentle face seems to have been communicated to the more
animated features of her companion, and at length he suddenly starts and
clasps her hand.
“Christian Melville!” he exclaims, “Oh that my mother were here!”
The tears stand in Christian’s eyes—some chord of old recollection has
been touched more powerfully than usual, and Christian’s cheeks are wet,
and her eyes cast down for a moment. Mary can only gaze in astonishment,
and before she recovers herself Christian has led the young man forward to
them, and then she hurries from the room, while Halbert extends his hand to
him cordially. What is the meaning of this? both the young men join in
explanations, but Charles Hamilton’s voice is broken, half with the
recollection of his dead brother, and half with the pleasure of discovering
such a tie already existing with Mary’s family. Yes, Charles’s brother was
the original of that saint-like portrait which hangs within reach of the
glories of sunset on the wall of Christian’s room. The grave where Christian
had buried her youthful hopes was the grave of William Hamilton, and that
one name made the young man kindred to them all; and when Christian
after a time came down stairs again, she found him seated between Halbert
and Mary as though he had been familiar with that fireside circle all his
days, and was indeed a brother.
It was a happy night that to the group in this bright room, a night of great
cheerfulness and pleasant communion, just heightened by the saddening
tinge which memory gave it, and Mary, our sweet Mary, marvels at herself,
and is half disappointed that there is so little of romance in the fading of her
sorrow; but marvel as she likes, the unwitting smile plays on her lips again,
and you could scarce believe that those clear eyes have shed so many tears
to-day. She feels easier and happier even, now the weight of concealment,
which disturbed and distressed her in Christian’s presence of late, is
removed from the spirit; and she is the same open, single-minded,
ingenuous girl as heretofore; the secret consciousness that it was not right to
yield to Forsyth’s fascinating powers is gone now, and Mary Melville is
herself once more, aye, more herself than she has been for months past,
notwithstanding the bitter suffering of that very day. God has graciously
tempered the fierceness of his wind to the tender and trembling lamb, and
Christian’s confidence is restored, and she feels sure that time will make
Mary’s heart as light as ever, and efface from her memory the image of that
evil man, and blot out the traces of this day’s agony; and a smile flits over
Christian’s cheerful face as she fancies the substitution of another image in
the precious entablature of Mary’s heart. Who can tell but Charles Hamilton
may gain a right to the name of brother, which she already hesitates not to
accord, better than his present claim, precious to her mind as it is.
Mrs. James Melville’s party is sadly shorn of its lustre this year, when
we compare it with its last predecessor, only a short twelvemonth since; and
already, in spite of all the attractions of gossip, music, and flirtation, her
guests are beginning to yawn and look weary. Mrs. James was never so
annoyed in her life, all seems this night to have gone wrong. Her very
husband had deserted her—she had seen him fly down stairs three steps at a
time, and skim away through the cold street towards his father’s house.
Mrs. James was enraged to be left alone at such a time for any Halbert of
them all.
“A nice fuss was made about him, as much nonsense when he went
away as if there wasn’t another in the whole country, and now when he
thought fit and had come home——”
Mrs. James could not finish the sentence, for spite and vexation
overmastered her. Forsyth was not there, her chief attraction; Mary was not
there, and even Christian’s absence, little as she liked her, was another
source of annoyance; and this flying off of James was the finishing stroke.
We hardly think, however, that even Mrs. James would not have melted had
she seen her husband in the middle of yon cheerful group, with his beaming
joyous face, shaking Halbert’s hands over and over again, to the imminent
danger of bone and joint. We really think she could not but have helped
him.
There was a voice of thanksgiving in Mr. Melville’s house that night, of
thanksgiving which told in its earnest acknowledgment of many mercies;
thanksgiving whose voice was broken by the sobbings of one and
accompanied by the happy tears of all, for Halbert led their devotions, and
when his earnest tones rose up among them there was not a dry cheek in the
kneeling family, not James, though it might be thought his heart was
alienated from the overflowing affection of home, by the remembrance of
his own; not Charles Hamilton, permitted, nay requested, to stay, for who so
well as Halbert could give thanks for that double deliverance.
There are dreams to-night hovering with drowsy wing about the
dwelling, dreams which alight on Charles Hamilton’s young head as he
hastens home, his heart full of the last scene of the evening, and his voice
repeating—

“In dwellings of the righteous

Is heard the melody
Of joy and health: the Lord’s right hand
Doth ever valiantly;”—

dreams which enter Halbert Melville’s long shut chamber, welcoming its
old dreamer back again—dreams which float about Christian’s resting-place
—above the fair head laid on Christian’s shoulder, calm as in the happy
days of childhood; sweet, hopeful, cheering dreams, that open up long
vistas of indistinct and dazzling brightness, all the brighter for their glad
uncertainty before their eyes, and fill the hearts which tremble in their joy
with a sweet assurance that calms their fears into peace. Even Ailie
dreamed, and her visions were of a gay complexion, fitting the nature of her
doings through this eventful day, and had various anticipations of bridal
finery floating through them. Nay, the very wind which whistled past Mr.
Melville’s roof-tree had a language of its own, and admirable gleesome
chuckle, which said plain as words could speak that happy as this night had
been beneath it, there would be merrier, happier doings here next new
year’s day.
 CHRISTIAN MELVILLE.

EPOCH V.

Sweet is the sunshine lacing with its light,

The parting storm-cloud after day of sadness;
That ere the even darkens into night
O’erflows the world with glory and with gladness;
But sweeter is the flood of pleasantness,
That breaks at noonday through the clouds of morning,
While yet the long glad hours have power to bless,
And the earth brightens ’neath its warm adorning
Of scattered sunbeams. So their fate excels
In blessedness, upon whose noonday story
The heavenly sunshine of God’s favour dwells,
While yet their tongues are strong to speak His glory;
And blessed they, O Lord! who, saved and free,
Stretch out compassionate hands to draw men near to thee!

CHAPTER I.
 They thicken on our path,
These silent witness years;
A solemn tenantry, that still land hath
Wherein were spent our bygone smiles and tears;
Graven on their secret tablets silently,
Stand deed, and thought, and word,
Beyond the touch of change or soft decay,
’Stablished perpetually before the Lord!
* * * * *
Season of labour, time of hope and fear,
Kind to our households let thy varyings be;
With thee we give a sigh to the Old year,
And do rejoice us in the New with thee.—Y.S.P.

EN years have passed away, and again it is a fireside scene that

we have to depict, and a fireside conversation we have to
chronicle. The room we now stand in is large and pleasant, and
bright with the radiance of merry faces—faces of every age and
size, but all marvellously alike in features, as in happiness, from the grave
seniors down to the crowing baby, through all the gradations of stature and
sobriety that crowd around that well-spread table. The assembly is too
large, and the children too near each other in age to allow you to think them
all members of one household; and two fathers half checked, half
encouraged the merry crowd, and two mothers took sweet counsel together,
praising each other’s little ones, and exchanging domestic experiences with
each other. We must try and find in these merry faces the traits of those we
have known before. Let us see whom we have before us. A man of goodly
presence is the elder; grave, it seems, habitually, but with a smile that is like
a sunbeam, and which has an electrical effect in the saddest house it beams
in; and many, many houses of sorrow does it see, and many mourners are
cheered by the words of hope and comfort that flow from these
sympathising lips; for you will see, if you look at his apparel, and mark his
manner, that he holds a high vocation, no less than a labourer about that
glorious vine which has the Eternal Father for its husbandman; a labourer,
one who, like the bee, seeks honey from every flower, and from his pulpit,
and standing by beds of suffering, and in the dark, close, and fœtid haunts
of sin, seeks to have souls for his hire as the labour of his life and the joy of
his existence. No mere Sabbath day worker in his pulpit, but one that never
tires, that is always ready, and almost always with his harness on his back;
like a good knight of the olden time, prompt to succour the distressed. The
lady too, who sits beside him, has about her a gentle dignity that is akin to
his; but with her blooming cheek and bright eye we can boast no old
acquaintance, though when she lays her white hand on his arm and calls
him “Halbert,” we are half ashamed to say so much of Halbert Melville’s
wife.
But on the other side of the fire sits a younger lady, with a calm air of
matronly self-possession, which almost sets our memory at defiance; it is
true that her face looks so youthful in its eloquent expressiveness that, but
for that copy of it that shines at her knee, through the fair straggling locks
of a little merry girl, you might fancy her still the Mary of ten years ago; but
in the silent depths of her dark eyes sits such serene and assured happiness,
at once so calm, and deep, and full, as makes one sure this cannot be the
disconsolate inhabitant of yon dim chamber, weeping in her sleep in the
first agony of womanly woe. Yet so it is, and lightly have these ten swift
years—long, oh, how long and dreary to many—flown over her, effacing so
entirely everything but the remembrance of those passages in her history
from her mind, that when she looks back now upon that troubled time, she
half smiles, half blushes for her old self, and reckons of her brief but
agonising trial, as sick men recall to their memories the terrible dreams of
some delirious fever fit. For Mary Melville has found entire and perfect
kindred in the heart of one whom then she little recked of and cared not for,
and she wonders now how she, ever the object of Charles Hamilton’s warm
and full affection, could have overlooked his nobler qualities, and preferred
instead Forsyth’s deceptive and hollow brilliancy, and the glitter of well-
displayed accomplishments, which threw the blushing youth into the shade.
And the blushing youth of our last chapter blushes no longer when he
speaks to Mary, nor has his bashfulness been seen, Halbert says, for nine
long years and more; never since one bright autumn evening, when Mary
and he surprised Christian in her solitude by the whispered communication
of an important agreement come to between them, and which was carried
into effect, ratified and sealed, on the following new year’s day, fulfilling,
in the most joyous manner, old Ailie’s dream. At this transaction Halbert’s
presence was indispensable, albeit he was again, after Christian’s kind
persuasions and James’s spirited remonstrances had shamed their father into
liberality, finishing the long forsaken studies so disastrously interrupted of
old, with a vigour and ardour that was unquenchable. True, he did not come
to James’s wedding when it took place; but Christian, and Mary, and
Charles Hamilton were each and all immovable in their demands; they
could not do without Halbert, and so he was present at the ceremony,
exciting Charles’s wrathful contradiction, and Christian and Mary’s
curiosity, by hinting merrily of another Mary, whose presence would throw
the bride of to-day into the shade, though no one at that blithe bridal looked
on Mary Melville with more affectionate admiration than her brother
Halbert. And lo! when the time of Halbert’s study and probations was over,
and Providence had so ordered that the place of his ministry should be the
same as that of his birth, and the dwelling-place still of his nearest and
dearest kindred, then came about another bridal, and the name of Mary
Melville was resuscitated, though Mrs. Charles Hamilton’s proud husband
would never allow that the old bearer of the name was equalled by the new.
But there is no rivalship between the sisters—sisters in affection as much
as in name—and the children, whose fair heads have sprung up like flowers
beside and about them, are like one family in their cordial intercourse. But
where is Christian? Our enquiry is echoed by half-a-dozen merry voices.
“Where can Aunt Christian be?” There will be no need to ask the question a
moment hence, if indeed we can discern our old friend through the pyramid
of children that are clustering about her; the little girl that stood by Mary’s
knee has left for Aunt Christian, and now stands on a chair beside her, with
her round arms about her neck, and her rosy face beaming on her shoulders;
the sturdy boy who leant on Halbert’s chair has left that place of honour for
Aunt Christian, and he stands proudly at her right hand as prime minister,
helping at the distribution of the great basketful of new year’s dainties—for
this is again the first night of another year—which she has brought to
gladden these youthful hearts. The whole host of her nephews and nieces,
absorbed a moment since in their various amusements, have left them all for
Aunt Christian, and are gathered about her, one clinging round her waist
and one hanging at either arm, greatly impeding the action of her gift-
dispensing hand. Sure enough here is Christian, how blithe! how happy!
Time has dealt gently with her, and though he has drawn a thread of silver
through the rich dark abundance of her plainly braided hair, there is not one
in this room that would not start up in indignant surprise, if you said that
Christian was either looking or growing old.
 “Nay, nay,” said Halbert, not long ago, when some indifferent friend of
the family suggested this, “Christian will never grow old. When years come
upon her, she will glide away like a streamlet into a river, but she will not
fade. Christian’s spirit will always be young.”
And so it is; her soft clear voice stills all that little childish hubbub in a
moment. The very baby stays its scream of joy, as if it too would listen to
Aunt Christian, and little Mary on her shoulder, and strong Halbert at her
right hand, and every separate individual of their respective hosts of
brothers and sisters would dare in single-handed valour any full-grown
Goliath that would presume to interrupt the expression of Aunt Christian’s
pleasure, pleasant as it always is. It is a great day this, with these two united
families. A day of childish jubilee to the younger members, and of joyful
commemoration to the older, for Halbert looks back with glistening eyes,
and rejoices in the union of ten years ago, a beginning of happy, laborious
years to him; and Mary remembers her early trial, and thanks God most
earnestly for deliverance, and participates with her husband in the happier
recollections of their marriage day; and the other Mary, with generous
affection, sympathises with each and all; and Christian? Christian’s heart,
open at all times to generous impulses, seems to have its sluices of
overpouring and constant love thrown wide open for the free passage of its
swelling tides, each new year’s night, and if you heard her fervent
thanksgiving when she kneels before God alone, you would think that flood
of blessings had been all poured out upon her, not that its fulness had
flowed upon her friends, but that she herself was the individual recipient of
every separate gift. For Christian identifies herself with those dear ones so
entirely, that she looks upon their happiness as a peculiar blessing bestowed
upon herself. Christian has, however, now seated herself in the empty chair
waiting for her—jealously kept for her, indeed—at the brightest corner of
the cheerful fireside, and taking a little namesake of her own, a grave,
serious, thoughtful child, who has begun to lisp wisdom already with her
infant tongue, upon her knee, she joins in the conversation which her
entrance, and still more her equitable distribution of the basket of good
things had interrupted.
“Father,” questioned Halbert Melville, second bearer of the name, “do
you keep new year’s day because it is new year’s day?”
“Why do you ask, Halbert?” said his mother, smiling, as she drew the
boy towards her.
 “Because, Mamma, nobody else cares about it here; and I’ve heard Aunt
Christian say how foolish it was for people to keep their birthdays, as if
they were glad that time was going away from them, people that don’t use
their time well either,” moralised Halbert, looking earnestly in his mother’s
face, “and isn’t new year’s day just the same as a birthday and—” the boy
hesitated and seemed unwilling or unable to say more.
“And what, Halbert,” said Christian, as the boy paused and looked down,
“and what—what was it you were going to say?”
“I don’t know, Aunt Christian,” hesitated Halbert, “I don’t know whether
it’s right or not, but shouldn’t we be rather sorry when the new year comes,
than glad that the old year has ended?”
“And why sorry, Halbert?” said his father, who had hitherto been
listening in silence, “why do you think we should be sorry?”
“Because, father,” said Halbert, quickly, raising his eyes, “because you
said in your sermon last Sabbath, that when once a year was gone, if we had
not spent it well, it was entirely lost for ever, for we could never bring a
minute back again.”
“And therefore you think we should be sorry, do you, Halbert?” rejoined
his father.
“Yes, father,” was the answer, and again young Halbert’s face was cast
down, “for you say often that nobody spends their time well, or as right as
they should do.”
The elder Halbert did not answer, but he took little Christian, who had
been gazing with her large eloquent eyes at every one that spoke in turn,
and had attended diligently and earnestly to the unusual conversation, upon
her aunt’s knees. “Well, little one, do you think we should be sorry when
the new year comes?”
“I think we should be both sorry and glad, papa,” was the prompt
answer.
“Well, Christian, Halbert has told us why we should be sorry; now do
you tell us what it is we should be glad for.”
There was a murmur among a little knot at a corner of the table, and a
half-suppressed laugh before Christian had time to answer her father’s
question.
 “Who is that? what is it that makes you so merry?” said Halbert, smiling
and shaking his head at the merry urchins, who were congregated in a
group.
“It’s only our Halbert, uncle, it’s only our Halbert,” whispered little
Mary Hamilton, deprecatingly.
“Well, Mary, we are impartial to-night, so we must hear what our
Halbert has to say; come here, sir.”
And Halbert Hamilton, the wildest little rogue that ever kept nursery in
an uproar, or overcame nurse’s patience, or conquered her heart by his feats
of merry mischief, half hid himself below the table in pretended fear and
dismay at his uncle’s summons, and did not stir.
“Come, Halbert,” said Mary, his mother, as Charles drew his incorrigible
son into the middle of the little circle, “what did you say over there?”
Halbert the third looked down and blushed, and then laughed outright.
“He only said we should be glad when the new year comes, because we
have plenty of fun,” interposed Mary Melville, her wild cousin’s constant
defender and apologist.
“Quite right, my boy,” said the elder Halbert, laying his hand kindly on
the boy’s head, “the coming of plenty of fun is a very good and proper thing
to be glad for; but sit you down now, and let us hear what little Christian
has to say.” And Halbert sat down at his uncle’s feet to listen.
“Well now, Christian, what should we be glad for? Is it because there is
plenty of fun, as Halbert says?”
“No, papa,” said the little, grave girl, seriously, shaking her head
solemnly, “no, it is not that. I think it’s because we have another to be good
and do right in. Isn’t that it, Aunt Christian?”
And the little girl looked over to her aunt inquiringly, to see if her
childish conclusion was a correct one.
“Just so, my dear,” was Aunt Christian’s answer, as Halbert patted the
child’s soft cheek, and then permitted her to make her way over to her
accustomed seat.
The children were gathered now about their parents’ knees, and even
wild Halbert Hamilton was silent and attentive. “Yes, children,” said the
kind father and uncle, as he looked round upon them, “yes, children, there is
a better reason for being glad than even having plenty of fun. There is a new