“By and by He began to talk to the disciples; speaking with authority, perhaps, it even sounded severe to them as He charged them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.
“Then they began to talk among themselves: what had they done to be thus bidden to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees? Leaven reminded them of bread! Oh, now they knew! They had but one loaf in the ship; they had forgotten to bring bread with them; perhaps the Lord was hungry and knew that they had not enough for Him and for themselves. It may be that He overheard them reasoning among themselves, or perhaps, forward Peter asked Him if He were rebuking them for forgetting the bread; for as soon as He knew what was troubling their simple hearts, how He talked to them! Seven questions, one after another, He asked them, ending with: How is it that ye do not understand?
“And you are like them, child. The Lord has suffered you to be led into trouble that He may teach you something about Himself and you fall down at His feet bemoaning yourself; you forget Him and the great lessons He has to teach you and think only of yourself and some little thing that you missed doing; you missed it, blinded with tears in your eagerness to do right, you meant to be so good and true, and because you made a mistake in your blindness and eagerness, you think Him such a harsh, unloving Father that all He cares to do is to punish you! Trust Him, Tessa! Don’t moan over a loaf of bread forgotten before Him who has love enough, and power enough to give you and somebody beside a thousand thousand loaves. Do not grieve Him by crying out any longer, ‘Do not punish me; I meant to be so good?’”
Tessa’s head kept its position. When she raised it, after a long silence, she said: “I will not think so any more; you don’t know what I suffered in thinking that He is punishing me.”
“‘How is it that ye do not understand?’”
“Because I think about my own troubles and not of what He is teaching me,” said Tessa humbly.
XI.—ON THE HIGHWAY.
In June, Tessa gathered roses for Miss Jewett, and every evening filled the tall glass vase with white roses for the tea-table; in June, Dunellen Institute closed for the season and Dinah was graduated; henceforth she would be a young lady of leisure, or a young lady seeking a vocation. In June, Mrs. Wadsworth scolded Tessa for “taking it so coolly about the dreadful thing that had come upon young Harrison.”
“How many times have you called to see Laura since her poor brother has been so poorly?”
“I have called every two days,” answered Tessa in her quietest tones.