Aunt Chloe had known sorrows many and bitter, not the least of them the untimely death of Elsie's mother, and with none left to her in whose veins her own blood flowed, clung to this nursling with a love that would have hesitated at no sacrifice for the good of its object, a passionate, yearning tenderness that would have led her to choose death for herself rather than separation. The big tears chased each other down her sable cheeks at the bare thought of such a possibility, as she held her sleeping treasure in her arms that night.
She knew little of the child's father, nothing whatever of the grandfather or any other of the paternal relatives, and her heart misgave her lest there might be trouble in store for herself and her beloved charge.
Some one came in softly through the open door, and Chloe looked up with the tears still on her cheeks, to find the housekeeper close at her side. "What is it, Aunt Chloe?" she asked, in a tone of alarm; "the dear bairn is not ill?"
Chloe only shook her head, while her bosom heaved with half-suppressed sobs.
"Ah, I know what it is!" sighed Mrs. Murray; "your heart trembles wi' the vera same fear that oppresses mine:—lest the darling o' our dear love be torn frae our arms. But we winna greet for sorrow that may never come; we winna doubt His love and power who doeth all things well. Let us no forget that He loves her better far than we do.
"Said the saintly Rutherford, 'I shall charge my soul to believe and to wait for Him, and shall follow His providence, and not go before it, nor stay behind it.' Let us make the same resolve, Aunt Chloe, and be happy while we may; be happy alway; for His loving kindness shall never fail.
"Dinna ye mind his word, 'I am the Lord who exercise loving kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the Lord?'"
"Ef dey take my bressed lamb away, dis ole heart break for sure!" sobbed Chloe, clasping the child closer. "I's done gone los' eberyting else!"
"No, no, Aunt Chloe! not the Lord!"
"No, missus, not de Lord! dat true. Hope He forgib de sinful word!"