Froze the ice on lake and river,
Ever deeper, deeper, deeper
Fell the snow o’er all the landscape.”
Longfellow.
The winter after Virginia was seven years old was one which could never be forgotten by those who lived through it. The snow fell thick and fast for days together. Then came a cold wind, which blew until the streams were frozen like iron, and the great snow mounds became as mountains of shining metal. The wind sang dirges among the leafless trees; the hunters went out day after day, and returned empty-handed; the forest seemed deserted by all living things. The children cried for food, and not getting it, sickened and died. The women made fires and offered gifts to the Great Spirit of the Hunt. Manteo and his Christian people offered prayers daily. But all appeared to be of no avail.
Mrs. Dare was lying on her tussan of skins, and Virginia kneeling by her, with her arms tightly round her mother’s neck. They were talking as they often did together. Virginia was saying, “But, mamma, why does God send trouble and sorrow and pain to us if he really loves us?”
“It is just because he does love us, darling, that he sends us sorrow to lead us to love him,” was the gentle reply.
“But, mamma, dearest, you love God, yet he sends you so much pain. And you have not enough to eat, either. It cannot be to make you love him,” said Virginia.
“Yes, my darling; we may love him all our lives, and yet not give him all the love we owe him. He never sends a pain or sorrow that is not for our good, though we cannot always know why it is. When you were a very little girl, almost a baby, and your gums were so sore, it was because I loved you and wanted to save you from pain that I lanced the sore place and gave you great pain just for a moment. You could not understand why then, even if I had explained it to you, but you never doubted my love. You knew I would not hurt you unnecessarily. We must trust God in the same way, dear, for he loves us even more than I love you.”
“O mamma! you make me good; when I am with you I can do anything. I don’t even mind being hungry;” and Virginia’s great blue eyes were full of tears as she looked into her mother’s face.