"Sandy," continued John Shafto, his voice growing more and more earnest, "I don't think I could bear to live if I didn't know all that. Sometimes when I'm in great pain at nights till I can hardly keep from crying out—and I don't like to wake mother, she has to work so hard—I feel as if I heard Him speak to me. Sometimes He says, 'John, lovest thou me?' And I say, half aloud, 'Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee.' Then He says, 'Bear this a little while, for my sake.' And I remember what pain He bore for me; and all my pain seems as nothing. Sandy, if you could hear Him say, 'I'm taking care of little Gip and if you love me, some day you shall have her again,' that would help you to bear it, wouldn't it?"
"Ay!" answered Sandy, with a deep sigh; "but how am I to know it?"
"I will tell you the very words Jesus said Himself," replied John; "listen:
"'For the Son of man,' that's Himself, you know; 'the Son of man is come to save that which is lost. How think ye? if a man have a hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine, and go into the mountains, and seek that which is gone astray? And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety and nine that went not astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.'
"Not one of them, Sandy; not one of the hundreds and thousands of little children in London. He is looking after them all, every one; and He knows little Gip as well as you do. I thought of that when I saw such lots and lots of them, and I was afraid one might be little Gip, and me not know her.
"'Lord,' I said, 'Thou knowest her quite well. Take care of her for Sandy, and bring her back some day.'
"I think He will, perhaps before I die.'"
"I will tell you the very words Jesus said Himself,"
replied John. "Listen!"
"Mr. Johnny," said Sandy, in a frightened voice, "you're not goin' to die, are you?"