Family life -- Juvenile fiction; Voyages and travels -- Juvenile fiction
Here, while Cecile was on her knees still praying, a wonderful thing
happened. It might have been called a coincidence, but I, who write the
story of these little pilgrims, think it was more; for into Cecile's
dark corner, unperceived by her, a man had come, and this man began to
fill the great organ with wind, and then in a moment the whole church
began to echo with sweet sounds, and in the midst of the music came a
lull, and then one voice rose triumphant, joyful, and reassuring on the
air.
"Certainly, I will be with thee," sang the voice, "I will be with thee,
I will be with thee."
CHAPTER IV.
THE WOMAN WITH THE KINDEST FACE.
Cecile went back to where she had left Maurice sitting on the church
hassock, and, taking his hand, said to him, "Come."
Her little, worn face was bright and some of the sweetness of the music
she had been listening to had got into her blue eyes.
"Come, Maurice," said Cecile. "I know now what to do. Everything will
be quite right now. I have told Jesus all about it, and Jesus the Guide
has answered me, and said He would come with us. Did you hear that
wonderful, lovely music? That was Jesus answering me. And, Maurice, I
asked Him to let us find a kind woman who will help us to a night's
lodging, and I know He will do that too."
"A kind woman?" said Maurice. "The kindest woman I ever saw is coming
up the church steps this minute."
Cecile looked in the direction in which Maurice pointed.
A woman, with a pail in one hand and a large sweeping brush in the
other, was not only coming up the steps, but had now entered the church
door. Cecile and Maurice stood back a little in the shadow. The woman
could not see them, but they could gaze earnestly at her. She was a
stout woman with a round face, rosy cheeks, and bright, though small
and sunken, brown eyes. Her eyes had, however, a light in them, and her
wide lips were framed in smiles. She must have been a women of about
fifty, but her broad forehead was without a wrinkle. Undoubtedly she
was very plain. She had not a good feature, not even a good point about
her ungainly figure. Never in her youngest days could this woman have
been fair to see, but the two children, who gazed at her with beating
hearts, thought her beautiful. Goodness and loving-kindness reigned in
that homely face; so triumphantly did they reign, these rare and
precious things, that the little children, with the peculiar
penetration of childhood, found them out at once.
"She's a _lovely_ woman," pronounced Maurice. "I'm quite sure she has
got a night's lodging. I'll run and ask her."
"No, no, she might not like it," whispered the more timid Cecile.
But just then Toby, who had been standing very quiet and motionless
behind Maurice, perceived a late, late autumn fly, sailing lazily by,
within reach of his nose. That fly was too much for Toby; he made a
snap at it, and the noise which ensued roused the woman's attention.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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