The World Before Them: A Novel. Volume 2 (of 3)Moodie, Susanna
General
The World Before Them: A Novel. Volume 2 (of 3)
Moodie, Susanna
Fiction
"Ah, you will forget all the bodily suffering when the glorious day of
your release comes, you will then own with trembling joy, that it was
good for you to have been thus afflicted. But where is Rachel, Jones?"
he continued, looking round the room. "In your helpless state, you
cannot well be left alone."
"Please, sir, mother is gone to Storby to buy bread," said the little
girl. "She left me to take care of neighbour Francis, during her
absence."
"How long has she been away?"
"Since the morning."
"And my poor old friend has not been turned in his bed all day?"
"Ah, it's very weary lying in the one position for so many hours,"
sighed the paralyzed man. "But I have borne it as patiently as I could."
Stepping up to the bed, Mr. Fitzmorris raised the sufferer in his strong
arms, adjusted his pillows comfortably, and turned him gently on his
side, with his face to the open door, that he might be refreshed with a
view of the country beyond. Then taking a little flask from his
carpet-bag, he gave him a glass of wine, and handing another bottle to
Dorothy, he told her to go into the next house, and warm the broth it
contained at Martha Brown's fire. When Dorothy returned with a bowl of
rich broth, she found the vicar sitting on the bed, reading to the old
man from a small pocket Bible. The rapt look of devotion in the sick
man's face, and the heavenly expression which played like a glory round
the calm brow of the vicar would have made a study for a painter.
Dorothy paused in the door-way to contemplate it. To her it was a living
picture of beauty--and when, after the chapter was concluded, and in his
sweet solemn manner, Mr. Fitzmorris said, "Let us pray," she knelt down
by the humble bed, and upon the broken floor, and prayed with all her
heart.
What a simple touching prayer it was that flowed from those gracious
lips; it seemed to embody the spiritual wants of all present--but when,
on rising from his knees, Mr. Fitzmorris proceeded to feed the old man,
who was utterly incapable of helping himself, she could not restrain
her tears.
"Oh, let me do that," she said.
He answered her with his quiet smile.
"Not to-day, Dorothy. To me it is a blessed privilege to administer to
the wants of a suffering servant of Christ. When you have experienced
the happiness it imparts, you will go and do likewise."
On leaving the impotent man, he paid a visit to the three other
dwellings, which were all comprised under the one roof.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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