Divorce -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Marriage -- Fiction
After dwelling for a time upon the loiterers in God's vineyard, the
idlers from choice, who worked not for lack of an inclination to do so,
he spoke next of the class whose whole life was a weariness for want of
something to do, and to these he said: "Have you never read how, when
the disciples rebuked the grateful woman for wasting upon her Master's
head what might have been sold for three hundred pence and given to the
poor, Jesus said unto them, 'The poor ye have with you always,' and is
it not so, my hearers? Are there no poor at your door to be fed, no
hungry little ones to be cared for out of the abundance which God has
only loaned you for this purpose? Are there no wretched homes which you
can make happier, no aching hearts which a kind word would cheer?
Remember there is a blessing pronounced for even the cup of cold water,
and how much greater shall be the reward of those who, forgetting
themselves, seek the good of others and turn not away from the needy and
the desolate. See to it, then, you to whom God has given much. See to it
that you sit not down in idle ease, wasting upon yourself alone the
goods designed for others, for to whom much is given of him much shall
be required."
Attracted, perhaps, by the deep black of Daisy's attire, or the
something about her which marked her as different from the mass of his
hearers, the speaker had seemed to address the last of his remarks
directly to her, and had the dead Tom risen from his grave and spoken
with her face to face, she could hardly have been more affected than she
was. The resemblance was so striking and the voice so like her cousin's
that she felt as if she had received a message direct from him; or, if
not from him, she surely had from God, whose almoner she henceforth
would be.
That day was the beginning of a new life to her. Thenceforth there must
be no more repining; no more idle, listless days, no more wishing for
something to do. There was work all around her, and she found it and did
it with a will--first, from a sense of duty, and at last for the real
pleasure it afforded her to carry joy and gladness to the homes where
want and sorrow had sat so long.
Hearing that there were sickness and destitution among the miners in
Peru, where her possessions were, she went early in November, and many a
wretched heart rejoiced because of her, and many a lip blessed the
beautiful lady whose coming among them was productive of so much good.
Better dwellings, better wages, a church, a schoolhouse followed in her
footsteps, and then, when everything there seemed in good working order,
there came over her a longing for her native country, and the next
autumn found her in New York, where in a short space of time everybody
knew of the beautiful Miss McDonald, who was a millionaire and who owned
the fine house and grounds in the upper part of the city not far from
the Park.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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