You may ask, in doubt, “Can such things be? Are such things allowed in a Christian land?” and we answer: “Yes; here in your boasted civilized country, little children, the pride and flowers of humanity, are permitted to struggle up through poverty, hunger, cold, and misery; and then you wonder at the existence of crime, the spread of evil.”
SHADOWS ON EARTHLY PATHS.
The child of the wealthy parents passed to the higher life, leaving that elegant home lonely and desolate, and those parents’ hearts sad and sorrowful. The mother of the little street-waif also passed on to the other world, leaving her beloved boy homeless and destitute; for the authorities, finding that the woman was no more, sent to her former home to ascertain the whereabouts of her friends. The neighbors could tell the messenger nothing, only that there was a little boy of about eight years; but they had seen nothing of him of late. Of the woman they knew little; she had been a hard-working, decent body, who minded her own business and did not talk much.
Concluding—without taking the trouble to investigate the matter—that the child had been taken care of by some one who knew its mother, the city authorities ordered the burial of her remains, stripped her former abode of its humble possessions, and when in the coldness and darkness of night the child crept home to his bed, he found the door locked, and himself unable to gain admittance.
And thus it happened that he wandered off, until, faint and weary, he sank down upon a door-stone, where he was found by a night-watchman and taken to the nearest station. Having been warmed and fed, our little waif told his story. He was then given a place to sleep, and in the morning taken to a charitable institution for children, and left in charge of its matron.
Just three weeks after these events, a wealthy farmer arriving from a Western city visited the institution in search of a boy to accompany him home and learn to do chores on the farm. Our friend Georgie was selected to accompany him; and after giving the references required by the institution concerning his character and ability to care for the child, the stranger departed, taking the little one with him. But arriving at his destination, it transpired that the man of wealth had not taken the child into his own service, but had brought him from the East to deliver into the hands of a neighbor of his, a hard, grasping, relentless man, who proved to be a most terrible and heartless task-master to our little boy, whose life now became one of drudgery and abject servitude.
Time passed; the health of the child began to suffer severely under the severe treatment received. This only served to harden his master toward him. It seemed that death must soon come to his release, when an event happened which changed the entire life of the boy, and brought him under conditions favorable for the growth of his hitherto stunted powers, as well as for the unfoldment of happiness within him.
We are not unmindful of the work of the spirit; in this case, the work of many spirits. The poor mother who had breathed her earthly life away upon a hospital cot had joined her husband and found a sweet home in the spirit world; but she had not forgotten her little, homeless boy on earth, and it was now her purpose and her mission, aided by her companion, to work early and late for that child’s welfare.
With sorrowful hearts did they watch over their loved one, with anguished feelings did they behold the misery of his daily life, caused and promoted by the severity of his cruel master; and it was with the greatest anxiety that they sought to guard him from evil, and to guide his spirit in the path of right.