“I didn’t know—much. I heard ’bout it at the Mission School, and told Bess. We wanted to go like Christiana. We met a man in the square last summer, an’ he told us ’bout his Lord Jesus, that he could cure little hurted legs that hadn’t ever grown any and couldn’t walk. An’ he promised to go to heaven with us. We was goin’ to start then, but we didn’t just know the way. I’d learned ’bout the river in the Mission School. An’ he said he’d bring us the book ’bout Christiana, an’ then we’d know; but we better wait, for it would be so cold before we got there, an’ the cold shrivelled up poor little Bess so. Well, we waited an’ waited, but he did come, an’ he brought the book. It was so lovely.” Dil gave a long, rapturous sigh, and a glory shone in her eyes. “An’ we found out ’bout crossin’ the river an’ the pallis. We see her goin’ up the steps. An’ then mammy took the book an’ burnt it up in a tantrum, an’ we couldn’t read it any more, but we’d got the pictures all fixed in our minds. Curis, isn’t it, how you can see things that ain’t there, when you’ve got thim all fixed in your mind?”
“And you were going to heaven?” Nurse was amazed at the great, if misplaced, faith. “And your friend—”
The soft, suggestive voice won Dil to further confidence.
“He had to go ’way crost the ’Lantic Oshin. But he would have come back. He did just what he told you, always. An’ that’s why I must get well an’ go back an’ see him an’ tell him—”
The voice faltered, and the eyes overflowed with tears. Dil’s hearer was greatly moved.
“Bess has gone to heaven first, my poor dear,” but her own voice was tremulous with emotion.
“Oh, she couldn’t. Why, she couldn’t walk, with her poor hurted legs, ’n’ ’twas so cold ’n’ all. An’ she wouldn’t ’a’ gone to the very best heaven, not even the pallis shinin’ with angels, athout me.”
“But you don’t understand”—how should she explain to the literal understanding. “The Lord came for her, took her in his arms, and carried her to heaven.”
“Oh, he wouldn’t ’a’ taken her athout sayin’ a word, and leaved me behind, ’cause he must ’a’ knowed we was plannin’ to go together. No; she’s just dead like other folks. An’ he can’t see her when he comes.”