“But I would, though!” said Taffy, eagerly, and as if he half believed it would happen. “I’d take it, if it was ever so nasty, but the doctor Jim fetched, he said he couldn’t do nothing for me, only make me a little easier. Do you s’pose he knew?”
“Yes,” said Johnny, gravely, “I’m afraid he did, Taffy; but we needn’t be afraid, either of us. The Saviour is stronger, and cares more about us, than all the doctors in the world.”
Taffy did not answer; he lay back, looking up through the window at the little patch of blue sky that showed between the tops of the tall houses. Johnny could not tell whether or not his words had given any comfort. He read a little story from a paper Tiny had sent, and Taffy listened with eager interest; then a distant clock struck four, and Johnny rose to go. Taffy made no objection to being left alone, but when Johnny took his hand for goodbye, he said,—
“Come to-morrow. I want to hear more about Him.”
“I will if I can,” said Johnny, “but I go to school, you know. To-day was a half holiday.”
Taffy made no answer to this, but he nodded and smiled, as Johnny backed out of the door.
Mrs. Leslie went the next day to see the poor little boy, and many times after that; Tiny was allowed to go once or twice, but she was not so strong as Johnny was, and felt everything more keenly, so her mother did not think it best to let her go often.
And now Johnny had a full chance to test his desire for self-denial. Taffy could not himself have told why he preferred Johnny to every one else, but so it was, and many were the hidden battles which Johnny fought with self-love, not always coming off conqueror, but struggling up again, after each defeat, with a fresh sense of his own helplessness, and a stronger dependence on the “One who is mighty.”
It was hard to tell just when Taffy passed out from under the cloud of fear into the full sunshine of the “knowledge and love of God,” but, as his poor little body grew weaker, the eager soul seemed to strengthen, and be filled with love and joy. Then he began to express his wish that “everybody” might be told about the Saviour, and he lost no chance of telling, himself, when kind-hearted neighbors came in to help Jim with him.