All this I saw as in a horrible dream from which I hoped to awake at any
moment. But, no!--I soon realized it was all too true. This was the first
real grief of my life, and I had to sustain it alone for I had not yet
yielded to Him who sends comfort to His children in their time of anguish.
He did take pity on me, however. In the next room I hid my grief in
Teresa's arms--Teresa, who more than anyone else, knew the love that had
united me to Paula.
"Oh, Teresa," I cried, when I found myself alone with her, "she must not
die! She must not! I simply cannot live without her, you know that! Oh,
pray for _me_, dear Teresa. God will hear your prayer. He probably wouldn't
hear mine. Tell Him! Oh, please tell Him, Paula must not die!"
"No, Lisita," Teresa said as she dried my tears; "We must leave Paula in
God's hands. He loves her more than you and I could ever do. If you could
see that poor broken body as I've seen it you would not ask that she should
live! Yes, indeed, she was happy with us. She was to us all like an angelic
messenger sent from God to draw us to Him and to show us the way to heaven.
And now He's called her to Himself almost without suffering, for she
appears to have become insensible from the instant that the horses struck
her down. Listen to me, Lisita! Soon Paula will be in heaven at her
Saviour's side--her Saviour whom she loved so well; and in her dear
father's company of whom she spoke so often.
"We must think of her happiness, dear Lisita, not our own, from this day
forward. Paula, you remember, never thought of herself. Her thought was
always for others, and it was for another that she died. She gave her life
to save that little boy. So she followed in the footsteps of her Saviour,
as a good soldier of the Lord Jesus who died to save all who repent and
believe on His blessed name."
The voice of our old servant, so tender, so motherly, seemed to heal my
sorrow. When I became calmer she told me some of the details of the
tragedy. Paula had, dashed in front of the horses just in time to throw the
child out of danger but had been unable to escape herself. That much I
understood; but from that day to this, I have never been able to bring
myself to ask for any more details. It seems I had fainted, and they
carried us both home.
Poor Teresa, I knew how ardently she, too, loved our Paula, but courageous
and unselfish her only thought, as ever, was for us. In consoling me she
forgot her own sorrow. As I looked at that strong calm face lighted up as
from an inner brilliance, it seemed to take on a striking likeness to the
dear one whose life was ebbing away in the next room. There came to my mind
a verse from a Bible story that Paula had told us once. It was this:
"The spirit of Elijah hath fallen on Elisha."
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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