“No; just a mite to see what ther like,” returned the girl, dipping up a huge spoonful of the cream and hastily transferring it to her widely-opened mouth; while a little crowd of younger children, who, from the farther side of the room, had been staring in silent curiosity at the captain and Lulu, burst out all together, “Gimme some, gimme some, Mandy; ye shan’t have it all, so ye shan’t.”
“No; ye cayn’t none on ye have none; it’s all fer yer poor sick ma, and ye’d orter to be ’shamed to be axin’ fer it,” returned Amanda sharply.
“Let them have a taste all around,” said the captain kindly. “I’ll have some more made and sent over by the time your mother wants it. But don’t wash the things; just empty them and put them back in the basket.”
“Yes, Mandy, ye might break ’em; put ’em back jes so,” panted the invalid from the bed.
When the children had quieted down, Capt. Raymond, taking a Testament from his pocket, asked if he should read a few verses.
“Yes, sir; oh yes, ef yer ain’t in too big a hurry. Please read about the blood; the blood that kin wash a sinner bad as me, clean nuff to git to heaven; them verses runs in my mind all the time. The Lord above knows I’ve need nuff o’ that washin’.”
“Yes,” he said, “we all need it more than any thing else; for in no other way can we be saved from the wrath to come! There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved!”
Then turning over the leaves of his Testament he read: “But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometime were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.”
“If the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
“And these things write we unto you that your joy may be full. This then is the message that we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth; but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”