She paused for a moment, quite exhausted; but presently looked up with a smile and added, "I shall see Mr. Munson and tell him about Sallie. Wont he be glad?"
The widow was quite overcome but tried to control herself.
"Tell him," she said, "that I'm almost through. I'm trying to bear his loss with patience. Tell him God has been true to his promise: 'As thy day is so shall thy strength be.' I trust we shall meet soon and never be parted again."
She stooped silently over the sick child, kissed her, and was going out when Hatty whispered,—
"Tell Sallie good-bye. It's all peace here," laying her hand on her heart. "I'm not afraid to trust my Saviour."
Mrs. Foster followed her to the door. "It's a scene I never shall forget," she said, sobbing. "Such a lesson as that child has taught me. Oh, if I'd only done my duty, she might have lived for years."
"Jesus loves her and wants her with him," answered Mrs. Munson. "You know he prayed his Father that those who loved him might be with him where he is, that they may behold his glory. Think how happy she will be."
As hours passed on, that room became almost like heaven. An indescribable expression of peace was stamped on the pale features. Heaven had indeed come down into her own heart. For hours she lay in a kind of rapture. Once or twice she sung a part of her favorite hymn, repeating over and over the lines,
"No words can express,
The sweet comfort and peace
Of a soul in its earliest love."
Through this day and the next the house was thronged with schoolmates and friends, come to take a last look of one so dear. Matilda and Cynthia, Ethel and Bill, pressed forward to thank her for the example she had always set them.