Christian fiction; Didactic fiction; Domestic fiction; England -- Juvenile fiction; Mothers and sons -- Juvenile fiction
"You were kind enough to say that you would help me if you could. Will
you give me a few lines which I may show to any one here to whom I may
apply for work? I am quite unknown here, and my husband and I have
decided that it is better for me not to join him just yet. I think he
will most likely go after a time to my brother in British Columbia, and
there is no use in my going out till I can go there direct. I am a very
good dressmaker, and wish to find work in order to help my husband.
"Your obedient servant,
"JANET RAYBURN."
Mr. Hopper at once sent her a letter which answered her purpose. She
was fortunate enough to get employment in the cutting-out department of
a great shop in Bold Street, where she gave such satisfaction that she
was told that she should be the head of the department when the lady
now over it married, which she was about to do soon. She was free at
about seven o'clock, and might be free rather earlier in winter.
She sent the boys to a little preparatory school in the street in which
she now lodged, Frank to learn, and Fred to be safe; and the servant at
the lodgings undertook to give them their dinner when they came home,
and on fine days to let them play in what she (perhaps satirically)
called the garden, and generally to keep a watch upon them. Then she
was able to write to Fred to say that she had got employment which,
with the few pounds she kept, would support her and the boys for a
time; and she sent him all the rest of the money she still had, urging
him to go to her brother Gilbert, and "not to be longer about sending
for her than he could help, for she felt very sad without him."
Poor Janet! She would not have admitted to any one, even to herself,
that she in the least distrusted her husband. Yet, in doing this, she
was unconsciously influenced by a touch of distrust. She felt that if
she kept money enough to take her and the boys out, maybe Fred would
go on just keeping himself; he had never taken kindly to steady, dull
work, and this kind of life might have some strange attraction for him.
Whereas, if he knew that she was working hard, and that he must send
her the passage-money, he would certainly feel quite differently. As
for herself and the children, she had no fears. God would take care of
them.
But God's ways are not our ways; and Janet's simple faith was to be
sorely tried. And it stood the trial, because it was simple and humble.
When things happened that she did not expect, Janet did not forthwith
conclude that God had forgotten His promises; she concluded that she
had not fully understood them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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