A stream of neighbors came in from everywhere. It was in those last moments
as these humble friends passed before that unconscious form that we came to
comprehend how many lives had been touched by the simple country girl from
the Waldensian mountains. Some remembered her just from the smile with
which she always greeted young and old as she passed up and down the long
street at our end of the town. Others spoke of the loving adoration of the
children whom she had protected and defended. Still others mentioned the
kindness she had shown them, and poured out many stories of Paula's
universal love for all--of her visits to the poor and sick, and of how she
had pointed them to the Saviour who had died to take away their sin;
bringing joy and hope and liberty into many a home where only discord and
misery had reigned before.
So the tears of many of our humble, friendless neighbors mingled with our
own as we waited for the end.
But there was one on whom the blow fell more terribly than on any one of
the rest of us, for it was a bitter mixture of remorse and shame that Louis
had to bear. When he arrived at the house after being summoned from our
uncle's place, and came to a full realization of what had happened, for an
instant he seemed turned to stone. Then a sharp cry came from him. In that
short moment he seemed to change from a careless, selfish boy to a man--a
man awakened at last to his terrible need of a change and with a
transforming purpose in his life from that day forward.
Louis demanded that I tell everybody present what had happened that
afternoon. When I refused, he poured out the whole sorry, sordid story of
his selfishness without one word of excuse, saying as he finished, "So you
see, it was I who killed her, for there was no need of her stirring from
the house." Then he turned to my father imploring him to punish him
severely. He said he could ask no pardon, for he had done what he
considered unpardonable. For answer my father took him in his arms; and I
knew that at that moment my father and Louis came to understand each other
better than they had ever done in their lives before.
"No, my poor boy," my father said; "you need no further punishment. Now go
to your heavenly Father and ask Him to make you His child." And I know that
Louis did so.
* * * * *
In silence we waited. Paula was the bond of love that had united us all;
not only to one another but now also to God. How wonderful, how beautiful,
had been that short life, and how she had poured out her love upon us.
Again the scene came back to me of that moonlight night at this same
bedside, when at prayer she had seemed more like an angel talking with the
One who had sent her to us, than merely the simple, honest-hearted country
girl that she really was.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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