“If Missy read where He say, ‘Let not your heart be trouble’; an’ how He go to make a place for dose what follers Him.”
Bessie found the fourteenth of John, and read it carefully and distinctly, the old man listening intently. When she came to the fourteenth verse, he raised his hand and said,—
“I t’ought so. I t’ought dere war a promise like dat. Now I know sure some day He gib me a Bible, I allers do ax it in His name, an’ He promise allers stan’ sure.”
“Yes,” said Bessie, thoughtfully; then added, in a tone of some self-reproach, “but, Joe, I forgot that promise once this morning.”
“But Missy mind it now?”
“Yes,” answered Bessie. “You see we had such a dreadful trouble, Joe, and it’s not quite over yet. Somehow the cars took us away without papa and mamma, and we didn’t know where we were going, and there was no one to take care of us. It was worse than once when I was lost in New York; cause that was my own country where I live, and the policemen were there; and it seemed to me that even our Father couldn’t help us in such a trouble as this. But in a minute I knew that was wrong, and I asked Him to send us help: and right away he did; for a kind gentleman came who we saw in the cars before, and he is taking care of us, and will take us back to papa and mamma. That is the gentleman there by the tree.”
Joe nodded, as much as to say he knew, as indeed he did; for the story of the little wayfarers had come to his ears. Little he thought when he first heard it, what a blessing they had brought to him.
“And, Joe,” continued the child, “I think maybe our Father had a purpose in letting us be run away with, and bringing us to this place.”
“Sure, Missy,” replied the old man. “He allers hab a purpose in what He do, an’ a good one too; but sometimes we don’t see it, we ain’t fait’ enough.”
“But I think I do see it now,” said Bessie, her tiny fingers still resting on the blessed words of Jesus’ promise. “I think He sent me here, so I could bring you my little Testament.”