Farewell at the Forge

Clang, clink, clink. Clang, clink, clink. The sledgehammer beat a steady rhythm against the hot metal sheet on the anvil.

"Papa? What are you making?" Mary spoke loudly because of the roaring fire in the forge.

"When did you come in, wee Mary?"

"I have been sitting on the stool for a while, listening to you work." Mary asked her question again. "What are you making?"

"I am making a lantern," he answered, hitting the metal again.

Mary could tell by the sound that the metal was not yet thin enough for Papa to begin piercing the intricate patterns that would allow light to escape. Once the sheet had been perforated, he would shape the metal into a cylinder. How good it felt to sit beside the warm forge while her father worked the metal! The sounds and smells reminded her of the old times.

"I came out here to think," Papa said. "I can always think better with a hammer in hand."

"Do you want me to go back into the cottage so that you can be alone?"

"Nay, Mary." She heard him put his tools down. He closed the door to the forge. She could feel her father pull his bigger stool next to hers. "There. 'Tis much quieter. We haven't had a good talk in a long time." Her father's strong hands lifted her off her stool and into the familiar nest of his lap. She almost protested that she was not a babe in arms, but she wriggled deeper into the warmth and comfort instead. Inhaling the mixture of wood smoke, soap, and earth that mingled with the beloved scent of her father was a comfort not to be denied.

"'Tis a good thing you are still a wee mite, Mary."

"I am not ..." Mary started to protest but she could feel the chuckles rumbling in her father's belly and she realized that he was teasing her. "Oh, Papa."

"You are no bigger than my anvil. But you are much more interesting."

"Will you tell me what you see ... please?" Nobody could paint a picture with words the way her father, John Bunyan, could. Mary, blind since birth, lived for her father's descriptions. They made her feel as though she could see.

"Aye. Now then, where shall I begin? Picture a thick head of fine hair, curling slightly at the shoulder, eyes the color of this smooth piece of metal," he put a cold piece of metal in her hand, "and an uncommonly tickly mustache. I must confess—I am a handsome man. I stand taller than any in Bedford. I have—"

"Oh, Papa. Do not tease me so and stop tickling me with your mustache! I know what you are like. Everyone talks of you," she said, teasing him right back, "although never have I heard you referred to as handsome."

Papa's stomach bounced her as he laughed.

She felt shy asking, but the older she was, the more she wondered about herself. "Could you tell me what I look like?"

How Papa loved to tease his children. It was hard to get a solemn answer from him. "You may be a little bigger than my anvil." He lifted her high into the air, feet dangling. "Hmm, I would say about five stone in weight."

"I know the lightness of my frame, but I also know I am as strong as an ox." She was getting exasperated. Don't fathers ever know when to be serious with their daughters?

Her father settled her on his knees. "Well, little daughter, I must admit that you are passing fair."

"You mean I am pretty?"

"You have curls the color of wild honey warmed by the fireplace." He pulled on one of her ringlets.

Mary was forever trying to pull Mama's tortoise-shell comb through her tangle of curls, but she loved the picture of warm honey. The smooth richness of honey was hard to forget, even in this month of November. Each summer the honey was warmed so that the wax of the honeycomb would float to the surface. The smell was not easily forgotten. And the taste ... "I do like the sound of that color." She waited for him to go on.

"Your eyes are the same gentle blue of your mama's silky ribbon." His voice had become as soft as the well-worn ribbon.

Mary slept with that ribbon each night since her mama died and kept it tucked in her apron pocket by day.

"Your mama was a beautiful woman, Mary," her father said, reading her thoughts. "She had the same honey hair as you, but instead of your curls, hers was smooth and straight." He sighed, and the slow intake and release of breath shifted Mary ever so slightly on his lap. "When we wed, she brought me the most valuable dowry a man could obtain."

Dowry. The word sounded familiar, but Mary could not place it. "What is a dowry?"

"When a couple marries, the girl's family shares its wealth with the newlyweds. Most often it is silver coins or even gold, but your mama's dowry was far more valuable." He paused and Mary waited for the story. "She brought two books with her to the marriage: Plain Man's Pathway to Heaven by Pastor Arthur Dent and Practice of Piety by Lewis Bayly."

Mary heard a scuffling sound by the far window and another sound that caused fear to grip her stomach—a cynical laugh that could only belong to Gifre. "Did you hear that, Papa?" asked Mary.

"Hear what?"

"I thought I heard Gifre sneaking around outside." Perhaps she was wrong.

"No, I heard nothing over the din of the forge, but my hearing is not as sensitive as yours. Has that boy been bullying you again?" Papa asked.

"He never stopped, but I do not allow it to worry me." Mary stiffened her back. After all, he would not risk hurting her ... would he? "But we were speaking of Mama's dowry—you said the books were valuable. More valuable than gold?"

"These were," her father answered, "for they helped me find my way to the Truth." He paused. "Never have I hidden my own rough youth from you, Mary. It was said that there was no one in the village of Elstow who could blaspheme like the young tinker, John Bunyan. I am not proud of it, mind you, but it is a fact."

"And these books taught you how to stop cursing?" Mary asked.

"Oh, no, I could never have changed my life by myself. They pointed me to the One who would change me. Your mama helped set me on the path too. No question about that."

"If you tried hard enough, surely you could have conquered the habit," Mary said with determination.

"My fiercely independent little daughter," her father said, sighing. "You'll have your own arduous journey to make until you learn that you cannot do it in your own strength. I doubt not that you will come to Christ, but you shall have to discover the Truth on your own, just as I did."

"Tell me what you mean, Father."

"You have spent so many years proving that you are little hindered by blindness that you have developed a fearsome determination. Your toughest lesson may be learning how to depend on God and on other people." Papa was quiet for a time. "Your mama would be proud of you, Mary. Look at how much you have done since she has been gone. You are...