Smiling, she approached the child and exhibited three fresh new books.
India paper editions of the Bible and “Science and Health,” and the
little brown pamphlet were in her hands.
“Yours?” exclaimed the child.
Eloise nodded.
“Good, good!” Jewel hopped up and down, and forthwith brought Anna Belle
to have her share in the rejoicing.
“You were afraid you couldn't get them. Now see!” cried the child
triumphantly. “As if Divine Love couldn't send you those books!”
“He showed me a way,” returned the girl. “See where I've written my
name. I want you to put 'Jewel' right under it in each one.”
“Oh, in those lovely books?” said the child doubtfully. “I don't write
very well.”
“Yes, I want it, dear, when we go downstairs and can get some ink. Did
anybody fix your hair yesterday?”
“I just brushed it down real smooth on the outside,” returned the child.
“It looks so,” said Eloise, laughing. “Let's fix it before we have the
lesson. By the way, what time is it, Jewel?”
The little girl smiled back at her cousin's reflection in the glass, and
took the open morocco case from the bureau. “Anna Belle and I put him
to bed last night,” she said, looking fondly at the silver cherub on
its velvet couch. “We've named him Little Faithful. He'll come to the
lesson, too. I know he's going to be a lovely Scientist.”
“I'm sure I hope he will, and neither be fast nor lazy,” returned
Eloise, as she unbraided the short pigtails.
“I tell you it wasn't so nice getting the lesson alone yesterday,” said
Jewel. “You were away all day! Did you have a nice ride?”
“Yes,” Eloise responded slowly. “The day was very nice--and so is Dr.
Ballard.”
“Did he enjoy it?” asked the child hopefully. The doctor had been a good
deal on her mind.
“Some of the time,” responded Eloise soberly.
“Why not all the time? Did error creep in?”
The older girl brushed away in silence for a minute.
“I didn't mean to talk about grown-up things,” said the child, somewhat
abashed. “Mother says I must be careful not to.”
“It is all right, Jewel. The new ideas I have been learning have made
me see some things so clearly. One is to perceive what it is that really
draws people together in a bond that cannot be broken. There is only one
thing that can do it and will do it, and that is loving the same truth.
Two people can have a very good time together for a while, and like each
other very much, but the time comes when their thoughts fly apart unless
that one bond of union is there--unless they love the same spiritual
truth.”
The speaker caught, in the glass, the child's eyes fixed attentively
upon her.
“Wouldn't Dr. Ballard look at our book?” asked Jewel softly.
“No, dear.”
The child reflected a minute, and her eyes filled. “I just love him,”
she said.
Her cousin stooped and kissed her cheek. “You well may,” she returned
quietly. “He deserves it.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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