“‘Papa, I cannot bear it—I cannot have it so!’ I cried.
“‘Don’t, my daughter, don’t say so. It is God’s doing.’
“‘Oh! papa!’
“‘It will not be long, my child, that you must be alone!’
“‘But I cannot, cannot live without you—you must not die.’
“‘You have God, my child. It grieves me to hear you speak so.’
“‘But, papa, I cannot see God—He is not near.’
“‘Oh, Mary, He is near, He is about you, He will care for you.’
“I moaned myself to sleep—and woke in the night with a great cry—for I had dreamed that my father was gone. But he was near to soothe me, and from that time till our parting, kept me with him, day and night.
“And so there began to be this shadow over my life. It hid the brightness of the fairest day from my eyes, and came between me and all childish enjoyment. When papa played, I wept because it was so soon to be that I could listen no longer, and his laugh sounded hollow, while my own always ended in a sob. As the time passed, he tried to teach me to receive the blow in meekness, as coming from the hand of the All-Father; and it makes me happy to remember that his own faith and trust in God never wavered.