“Oh, I’d let her gone. Was it that way?” The tears stood in her eyes, and her voice trembled with tenderest emotion.
“God loves us all as you loved Bess. But we do not all love him. We are not ready to do the things he tells us, to be truthful and honest and kindly. But he is ready to forgive us to the very last. And he knows what is best for us.”
“Then that other body went to heaven,” she said after a long silence. “An’ I know now she must have been in some lovely place, ’cause that Sunday she come to me in Cent’l Park she was all smilin’ an’ strange an’ sweet, an’ beautiful like that picture you made. She looked jes’ ’s if she wanted to tell me somethin’. An’ the Lord Jesus let her out of heaven ’cause I was so lost like ’n’ uncertain.”
The small face was illumined with joy. And to John Travis it was as the face of an angel.
He owed her so much. Again had God chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty. He thought of that other soul whose throes he had watched; whose guide-posts of science and philosophy had shed no light on the unknown hereafter; and how both of them had at last become little children in the faith. For when he promised to go to heaven with Bess and Dilsey Quinn, he meant to search out the way of truth if such a thing was possible. His had been a slower and more toilsome way, but Dil had seen and believed, and was among the blessed already. And he had come to a realization of the higher truths, not according to the lights of human knowledge, but faith in the Lord Jesus.
“I shall be so glad to see Bess. I’m most worn out an’ wasted away longin’ for her. But when I see her all straight an’ strong an’ lovely in heaven, I’ll feel rested right away. I d’n’ know how the Lord Jesus can care so much ’bout poor sick folks, when there’s so many splendid people.”
“Just as you cared for Bess.”
“Oh, was that the way?” Her smile had the radiance of the everlasting knowledge. “But you see, I’d had Bess alwers an’ loved her, ’n’ he didn’t know much about us, stowed away there in Barker’s Court. So he’s better ’n any folks. He had all that lovely heaven, an’ he didn’t need to come down. He must have loved people uncommon. It was like your stoppin’ that day an’ talkin’ to us poor little mites. Why, ’twas jes’ if you’d made a new splendid world for us!”
She stopped a moment and drew some long breaths. Then an eager light flashed across her face.
“Oh!” she cried, “I’ve found the lady who gev the wild roses to Patsey that day. She’s here, ’n’ all the children are jes’ crazy ’bout her. An’ she told me ’bout the picture you put me in. She said you’d be sure to come.”