"No," replied Aunt Faith, "I have heard nothing of her." Sibyl
colored, and Mr. Leslie looked surprised; a slight shade rested on his
frank face a moment, but soon vanished in the interest of the story.
"Margaret Brown is a poor working girl about twenty years of age, Mrs.
Sheldon; an orphan with a younger sister and two younger brothers to
support, and nothing but her two busy hands to depend upon. She is a
sewing-girl and a skilful workwoman, so that by incessant labor over
her machine, day after day, she is able to keep her little family
together, and, more than all, to send them to school. She realizes the
disadvantages of her own ignorance, and she feels a noble ambition to
educate those orphan children. Her faith is great; it is like the
faith of the primitive Christians who lived so near the times of the
Lord Jesus, that, in their prayers, they asked for what they needed
with childish confidence. It was her great faith which first drew me
towards her; she was a regular attendant at the chapel service, and in
the course of my visits, I went to see her in the little home she has
made in the third story of a lodging house at South End. It was
Saturday, and I saw the three children, already showing evidences of
improved education in their words and looks, while, busily sewing on
her machine, sat the sister-mother, pale and careworn, but happy in
the success of her plan. It seemed to me a great load for one pair of
shoulders, and I said so. The children had gone into another room, and
as I spoke, rashly perhaps, the overworked girl burst into tears. 'Oh,
sir,' she said, 'it is the wish of my life to give them a good
schooling, and I don't mind the work. But sometimes it is _so_ hard!
If it was not for the prayers, I could not get through another day.'
"'Your prayers are a comfort to you,' I asked.
"'They are more than that, sir,' she replied earnestly; 'they are life
itself. Every morning I kneel down and just put the whole day into the
Lord's hands, asking Him to give us bread, and help us all,--me in my
work and the children in their lessons. And while I'm asking, some way
a kind of peace comes over me, and although I may know there is not a
crumb in the closet, or a cent in my purse, I always get up with a
light heart. The Bible is true, indeed, sir; I can't read it myself,
but my little sister, she reads to me evenings. It says, 'the Lord
will provide.' He does; He has. So far, me and mine have not suffered,
although I can never see my way a week ahead.'"
"Mr. Leslie," said Aunt Faith, "I must try and help Margaret; please
give me her address."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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