Audrey : $b or, Children of lightWalton, O. F., Mrs.
Religion
Audrey : $b or, Children of light
Walton, O. F., Mrs.
Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Children and death -- Religious aspects -- Christianity -- Juvenile fiction
Were the two grandchildren who died young looking out for him at the
glorious gate? Was the mother who had died when he was born waiting and
watching for her boy? We cannot tell, we do not know; but we can tell,
we do know, that the dear Lord he loved, the Saviour who had taken
away his sin, and who had removed him from the Kingdom of Darkness
to the Kingdom of Light, was there to welcome him to His paradise of
everlasting glory, where the Children of Light dwell in no earthly
sunshine, but the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the
Light thereof.
They all missed him terribly, yet they tried to comfort themselves by
thinking of his joy, and they all looked forward to the day when they
would see him again.
"Mr. Robin, sir, you must teach me as you taught my little lad," said
Stephen's father, as they walked home from the tiny grave in the
cemetery where Stephen's body had been laid.
"God helping me, I will!" said Mr. Robin, with tears in his eyes.
It was wonderful how Stephen's loss drew them all together. Even Aunt
Cordelia, who used to pride herself on making no neighbours, seemed to
have become one of a very loving family. As for old Joe, his one desire
was to do all the little lad would have liked him to do. He comforted
Audrey, he watered the graves, he went to church on Sunday—above all,
he said the prayer Stephen had taught him, and he tried to walk as one
of the Children of Light.
Mr. Robin and Audrey made another expedition to the market on a
Saturday afternoon late in the autumn. Audrey's face was very sorrowful
this time as she carried the basket. They were not buying flowers, for
there were few flowers in the market now; they were looking for bulbs,
and the bulbs were for little Stephen's grave.
"I think they ought to be white," said Audrey, with a sob; "it will
look more like a Child of Light—won't it, Mr. Robin?"
So they chose white snowdrops, white crocuses, and large white
hyacinths for the little grave in the cemetery.
It was one of a long row of little graves, children's graves, which had
been made side by side, at the edge of the path. Very carefully, very
tenderly, they worked at it, and the bulbs were planted and covered
over with soil.
"It doesn't look very pretty now," said Audrey; "it is all brown and
bare."
"Wait a bit," said Mr. Robin; "we will come again in the spring."
So the winter came, and the white snow lay thick on Stephen's grave
in the cemetery, and in the churchyard on the grave of the two
grandchildren who died young. But when the warm spring sunshine had
melted the snow, and was turning the trees green, and bringing the
flowers on the lilac bush, the old man and Audrey went once more to the
cemetery.
A tiny white stone now stood at the head of the small grave, and on the
stone they read these words:
LITTLE STEPHEN,
WHO DIED YOUNG,
A CHILD OF LIGHT.
And in front of the stone was a lovely mass of pure white flowers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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