Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories; Christian life -- Juvenile fiction; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction
He did not see the startled, disappointed look in Juana's face as he
settled himself again to his book with an air that said he was not to
be further disturbed. Paul's word, ordinarily, was law to Juana, but
in this case she was not satisfied. She could not believe there was no
God. She knew there must be one, and that not by reasoning it out. A
greater than human reason had taught her. If now she could but find out
about Him! She had not looked into a Spanish Bible since she was a very
little child, but she could not go to that for help. She distrusted
everything that the Church of Rome had to do with. "But if a Spanish
Bible tells Catholics about their religion, why should not an English
Bible teach the Protestant religion?" she reasoned. She resolved to
have one, if possible, and when Juana resolved, her strong will left no
stone unturned toward accomplishment.
A day or two after, as her husband was making preparations for another
journey, Juana preferred her request:
"There is one thing I do much want. Will you not please get it for
me, dear Paul, before you go? I do so want it! And that is an English
Bible."
"Pray, what in the world would you do with that?" Paul asked, in much
astonishment. "You cannot read English."
"Ah! Shall I not read it soon if I study much? I can try to read the
stories in it, and it will help make the time to fly, so you will soon
come back to me," she added coaxingly.
Paul was willing enough that other people should have what they
wanted if it did not interfere with his pleasure. So as he went about
attending to various purchases for himself, he remembered Juana's
request, and was at not a little pains to obtain for her a copy of the
Bible. "Every one to his taste," he remarked to himself as he looked it
over. "I think I could find fables that would prove more entertaining
to me than this one."
During her husband's stay at home Juana had much of the time been
carrying on an inward struggle. She had endeavored to quiet her unrest
by plunging into reckless dissipation, but the still small voice
followed her even to the midnight revel. And often, when she had filled
all her waking hours with busy trifles—purposely to crowd out these
intrusive thoughts—she would wake as by a flash, her spirit filled
with a strange dread, and then, in the still solemn hour the eternal
would speak to the mortal, who, shrinking away in conscious guilt, felt
that there were just two things in the universe; herself, and an awful
presence who searched her through.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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