Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Conscience -- Juvenile fiction
I found that the fever I had just been cured of was returning; the
cold and wet was too much for my strength; I thought I might die,
and I told the kind widow my story, and the name of the clergyman
with whom I had lived in the country, and begged her if I should
grow worse to send for him, for I knew he would be my friend. It was
fortunate I did, for I grew ill very fast; I had a high fever, and
did not know afterwards what I said.
She sent for him. He came and told her that all I said was true; he
got me a nurse and physician, and gave the poor widow money for me,
and said he would pay all my expenses, and thanked her as much, she
told me afterwards, for her care of me as if I had been his own
child.
After the fever left me, a severe rheumatism settled in my back,
which I had strained in lifting my husband. I have never since been
able to stand upright. But O, this was nothing to what I suffered
when they told me, when I was well enough to bear to hear it, they
told me that my baby, my little daughter,--I cannot bear now to
think of it,--she took cold too, and then the weaning her, and all,
it was too much for the little thing; my child went to God who gave
it.
It seemed at first as if I should die; then I remembered that if I
had done as that wicked man wanted me to do, I should have perhaps
been well, my baby alive and well, and all might have seemed
prosperous; and did I regret that I had not saved her life and my
own health by acting against my conscience? no, not for a moment. I
had no longer a kind husband, I had lost my only child and my
health; and yet the light of God's blessing has ever been in my
heart; when I think of all my trials, and remember that I have kept
a conscience void of offence, O, I cannot tell you what peaceful
thoughts I have, what a strange joy I sometimes experience.
My kind friend, the minister, had me removed as soon as I was well
enough to his house, and got me this little room in the
neighborhood, where I have taken in sewing work, and have ever since
got a very good living.
When I inquired about my landlord, I found that the officers came
that morning, found the stolen goods, and carried him to prison. My
friend went to see him, and told him from me that as soon as I could
earn the money, I would pay him what I owed him. This I did with the
very first money I received. I went to see him, and took the rent to
him myself. He did not know me, the stoop had changed me so much.
Certainly, ladies, she added, I have met with what are called great
misfortunes; I have lost all that I loved best on earth, and I am a
cripple for life; but I still rejoice to think that my mother's
prayer has been heard for me; through the blessing of God I have
been saved from the evil that there is in the world, for I have ever
had the testimony of a good conscience.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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