Uncle Joe hastened to do her bidding, while Harold felt her pulse and questioned her in regard to her illness.
She complained of misery in her head, misery in her back, and being "pow'ful weak," finishing up with the query, "Is I gwine die dis day, suh?"
"I think not," he replied, "you may live for weeks or months. But life is very uncertain with us all, and I advise you to promptly make every preparation for death and eternity."
"Dat's what I gwine do when mistiss tell me how," she groaned, with a look of keen distress directed toward Mrs. Travilla.
"I will try to make the way plain to you," that lady returned in compassionate tones. "It is just to come to the Lord Jesus confessing that you are a helpless, undone sinner and asking him to help you—to take away the love of sinning and wash you in his own precious blood. The Bible tells us 'He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him.' And he says, 'Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.' So that if you come, truly seeking him with all your heart—desiring to be saved, not only from eternal death but from sin and the love of it—he will hear and save you."
"Won' you pray de good Lawd for dis ole darky, mistiss?" pleaded the woman. "You knows bes' how to say de words, an' dis chile foller you in her heart."
At that Mrs. Travilla knelt beside the bed and offered up an earnest prayer couched in the simplest words, so that the poor ignorant creature on the bed could readily understand and feel it all.
"Dis chile am berry much 'bliged, mistiss," she said, when Mrs. Travilla had resumed her seat by the bedside. "I t'ink de good Lawd hear dat prayer an open de gate ob heaben to ole Silvy when she git dar."
"I hope so indeed," Mrs. Travilla replied. "Put all your trust in Jesus and you will be safe; for he died to save sinners such as you and I. We cannot do anything to save ourselves, but to all who come to him he gives salvation without money and without price. Don't think you can do anything to earn it; it is his free gift."
"But de Lawd's chillens got to be good, mistiss, aint dey?"