(John Rossitter and Betty)
"All right," he said, "I know;" and passed by her and went into the little parlor, and sat down in the same chair that he had sat in the night before, and again involuntarily lifted the missionary-box in his hand. Presently Betty, having partly recovered herself, sidled into the room, glad of company in the "unked" quiet of the house. He asked no questions; and by and by she summoned courage to tell him how the quiet end came at midnight. "Miss Baker have been in this morning already, asking me no end of questions; and she were quite put out with me because I hadn't nothing to tell, and because Miss Toosey, poor dear! hadn't said a lot of texes and fine things. She says, 'Was it a triumphal death?' says she. And I said as how I didn't know what that might be; and then she worrited to know what was the very last words as ever Miss Toosey said, and I didn't like for to tell her, but she would have it. You see, sir, the old lady said her prayers just as usual; and when I went in to see as she were all right on my way to bed, she says, 'I'm pretty comfortable, Betty,' says she; 'good-night to you; and you've not forgotten to give Sammy his supper?'—as is the cat, sir. And them's the last words she uttered; for when I come in half an hour after, hearing her cough, I see the change was a-coming. But Miss Baker she didn't like it when I told her, though it were her own fault for asking; and she says, 'So she didn't testify to her faith,' says she. And I didn't know what she might mean, so I says, 'She were always good and kind to me and every one,' says I; and so she were," added Betty, touching unknowingly on a great truth; "and if that's testifying to her faith, she've done it all her life."
And then she left him sitting there and musing on the quiet close of a quiet life, or rather the quiet passing into fuller life; for what is death but "an episode in life?" There was nothing grand or striking in Miss Toosey's death—there very rarely is; it is only now and then that there is a sunset glory over this life's evening; generally those around see only the seed sown in weakness and dishonor; generally when the glad summons comes, "Friend, come up higher," the happy soul rises up eager to obey and leave "the lower places" without giving those left behind even a glance of the brightness of the wedding garment, or a word of the fulness of joy in the Bridegroom's presence.
And presently John Rossitter came away; and though he held the missionary-box thoughtfully in his hand, he put nothing into it. Had he forgotten his promise to Miss Toosey, which he said he regarded as a debt, to give something to her Mission?
* * * * * * * *
"And so there is an end to poor Miss Toosey and her Mission!" said Mr. Peters a few days later, as he met Mr. Glover returning from her funeral at the cemetery; and Mr. Glover echoed the words with a superior, pitying smile: "So there is an end of poor Miss Toosey and her Mission!"
Poor Miss Toosey! Why do people so often use that expression about the happy dead? Surely they might find a more appropriate one for those who have left the sordid poverty of life behind them and have entered into so rich an inheritance! Of course they do not really mean that it was "an end of Miss Toosey," for did they not say every Sunday, "I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting"? and how could they call than an end which was only the beginning of new life? So this was only a figure of speech. But perhaps you will echo Mr. Glover's sigh over the end of her Mission, and regret that such zeal and ardor should have been wasted and produced no results. Wait a bit! There is no waste in nature, science teaches us; neither is there any in grace, says faith. We cannot always see the results, but they are there as surely in grace as in nature.
That same evening John Rossitter wrote to the Bishop of Nawaub, and very humbly and diffidently offered himself, his young life, his health and his strength, his talents and energies, his younger son's portion, all that God had given him, for his Master's use; and the Bishop who never ceased to pray "the Lord of the Harvest to send forth laborers into the harvest," "thanked God and took courage."
[Transcriber's Note: Illustration captions in round brackets were added by the transcriber.]