"Because I think the Good Shepherd has been callin' him, my dear."
Meg could turn her head now; she raised herself on her elbow, and gazed at the little face.
"Jem," she said helplessly, and laid her head back on her pillow with a sob.
Her mother-in-law bent over her.
"Let me take him for a little while, my child; it will be better so."
Meg made no objection, and her mother lifted the tiny form to her lap, and crossed its wee hands on its breast.
"May it go in my cradle, just for once?" asked Meg beseechingly.
And so he was laid in the little cot that Meg had prepared with such loving hands, and Jem put it on a chair by her side; and then he sat down again by her, and they both wept together.
After a long time Meg wiped away her tears.
"Jem," she said softly, "I can say it now: 'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.'"