She began in a low, sweet voice,—
“My God, my Father, while I stray,
Far from my home in life’s rough way,
O teach me from my heart to say,
Thy will be done,
Thy will be—”
She stopped, for sobs choked her voice. “I am sorry I cannot, Johnny. But I cannot bear to think how soon we must part.”
“Only for a short time, mother, a short time. I said a long time just now, but now it looks to me quite short, and I shall be with God. I see it all now so clearly. Do you remember those lines—
“‘The soul’s dark cottage, battered and decayed,
Lets in new light through chinks that time has made.’
“How true they are! Oh, darling mother, how very, very good you have always been to me, and I pay you with all my heart’s whole love.” He pressed upon her lips a long, long kiss, and said, “Good-night, darling mother. I am falling asleep, I think.”
His arms relaxed their loving embrace, and glided down from her shoulder; his head fell back; the light faded from his soft and gentle eyes, and he was asleep.
Rightly he said “asleep”—the long sleep that is the sweetest and happiest in that it knows no waking here; the long sweet sleep that no evil dreams disturb; the sleep after which the eyes open upon the light of immortality, and the weary heart rests upon the bosom of its God. Yes, Daubeny had fallen asleep.
God help thee, widowed mother; the daily endearments, the looks of living affection, the light of the boy’s presence, are for thee and for thy home no more. There lies the human body of thy son; his soul is with the white-robed, redeemed, innumerable multitude in the Paradise of God.
For hours, till the light faded into darkness, as this young life had faded into death, she sat fixed in that deep grief which finds no utterance, and knows of no alleviation, with little consciousness save of the dead presence, and of the pang that benumbed her aching heart. And outside rang the sound of games and health, and the murmur of boy-voices came to her forlorn ear. There the stream of life was flashing joyously and gloriously in the sunshine, while here, in this darkened room, it had sunk into the sands, and lost itself under the shadow of the dark boughs. But she was a Christian; and as the sweet voices of memory, and conscience, and hope, and promise whispered to her in her loneliness their angel messages, her heart melted and the tears came, and she knelt down and took the dead hand of her son in hers, and said, between her sobs, while her tear-stained eyes were turned to heaven, “O God, teach me to understand Thy will.”