There was something in mother’s tone that made me forget myself and my
sorrow, and look; and there she was, as she hadn’t been before for six
months, half risen from the bed, one hand up, and her whole face white
and shining with confident faith. Well, when I see all that such trust
has buoyed mother over, I wish to goodness I had it: I take more after
Martha. But never mind, do well here and you’ll do well there, say I.
Perhaps you think it wasn’t much, the quiet and the few texts breathed
through it; but sometimes when one’s soul’s at a white heat, it may be
moulded like wax with a finger. As for me, maybe God hardened Pharaoh’s
heart,——though how that was Pharaoh’s fault I never could see;——but
Dan,——he felt what it was to have a refuge in trouble, to have a great
love always extending over him like a wing; he longed for it; he couldn’t
believe it was his now, he was so suddenly convicted of all sin and
wickedness; and something sprang up in his heart, a kind of holy passion
that he felt to be possible for this great and tender Divine Being; and
he came and fell on his knees by the side of the bed, crying out for
mother to show him the way; and mother, she put her hand on his head and
prayed,——prayed, oh! so beautifully, that it makes the water stand in my
eyes now to remember what she said. But I didn’t feel so then, my heart
and my soul were rebellious, and love for Dan alone kept me under, not
love for God. And in fact, if ever I’d got to heaven then, love for Dan
’d have been my only saving grace; for I was mighty high-spirited, as
a girl. Well, Dan he never made open profession; but when he left the
house, he went and asked Faith to marry him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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