"But he doesn't let you attend church yet?"
"No, but I think he will some day."
"Courage, Paula," said the old woman, "the Lord Jesus has said, 'Be thou
faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life!' How happy I
shall be when your uncle permits you to attend with us. I know the Lord has
saved you and given you eternal life, and He will do exceeding abundantly
above all you can ask or think. I've learned to say to Him, 'Thy will be
done!' While here on this earth we're all students in His school. Sometimes
the hours are long and the bench is hard, but if we are attentive and apt
in the learning of our lessons, He is faithful, and oh, so generous in
giving us of His good things! Some things He's tried to teach me, but I'm
too dull yet to comprehend, but I do know that some day He'll let me see it
all quite clearly. For example, it's difficult to understand why He should
have given me the Breton and his children for neighbors. Do you know the
family?" she asked us.
"Oh, yes, indeed," said I; "I should say we did." This long conversation
had made me sleepy, but the mention of the Breton had brought me wide-awake
again.
"It I had known," continued the old lady, "that on the other side of the
partition I was to hear nothing but quarrels and fightings and cursing, I
would never have moved in here, but more that that, not content with
disturbing the peace from within his own apartment, he even comes over to
my side to torment me here in my small room. The Breton indeed is a
terrible man when he's drunk. I have tried to talk to him to see if I could
do something to change his evil ways, but so far all my efforts have been
useless."
I interrupted her to ask if she knew he had been liberated from the jail
that very day.
"Oh, yes," she said; "he made a terrible scene this morning bullying his
poor wife around. The poor soul is certainly worthy of our pity. But here I
am talking on and on without enquiring once as to Catalina's health."
"It was Catalina herself who sent us with this package for you," said
Paula. "For me!" cried the old lady. "What's all this?" and she nervously
untied the strings. Then as she saw the good warm dress, her eyes filled
with tears. "May the Lord bless the dear girl! He surely must have revealed
to her my need!"
"Would you mind, please, putting it on? Catalina wanted us to find out if
it fits you," I said.
The good woman nothing loath tried on the dress as she exclaimed, "My, oh
me, how handsome I am for once in my life, at least," and a merry twinkle
danced in old Celestina's eyes, "I'll have to keep this for Sunday wear
only."
"No," said Paula, "Catalina said to be sure to tell you it was for everyday
wear, for you see how it keeps out the cold."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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