“Oh, dear, no. I dare say she knows quite as well as I do what is good for Edgar. She is a very sensible little woman.”
Arthur did not find that the North family were much more subdued and orderly the next day than they had been the evening before. This was holiday time, and with no lessons to do, it could hardly be expected but that there should be a commotion all the day.
Happily the school-room was some distance from the room where the sick boy lay, so very little noise found its way there.
Mrs. North wished to see Arthur the next day. He felt rather shy of going; but as it had to be done, he made up his mind to do it. He thought her something like her daughter Maude, only more quiet and gentle, and there was a sweeter look on her face than Maude usually wore.
When the evening came, a message was sent that Edgar wanted to have Arthur with him again. He was always better at that time; and he would sit up with the pillows around him, and the crimson curtains looking so dark and red behind his pale white face; but the firelight that glowed around, and showed Arthur how thin and sunken his face was, showed him, too, that a calm, happy peace was spreading there, and making it very beautiful.
“Arthur,” said Edgar, “I want you to have my Bible and my watch; will you? and keep them always for my sake.”
“But, Edgar, you don’t know you are going to die; you don’t know it for certain,” said Arthur, his voice trembling a little.
“Oh, yes, I do; I know I am dying; but, you know, Arthur, I am only going to the Lord Jesus, and He wants me so much; for He has died instead of me, and all my sins are washed away in His precious blood. Cousin Amy used to sing something so nice; I cannot remember it all, but some of it was this—
“‘Like a bairn to its mither, a wee birdie to its nest,
I wad fain be ganging noo unto my Saviour’s breast;
For He gathers in His bosom witless, worthless lambs like me,
And carries them Himsel’ to His ain countree.’
“And that is just the way I feel, Arthur. I feel just going to my home; and I shall never be tired or cross there.”