Christ said unto them: “Why are ye fearful? oh, ye of little faith!” and He rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.
But even after this the disciples did not seem thoroughly to understand our Saviour; for the scripture tells us that “they marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey Him?”
SOME OF MY LITTLE FRIENDS:
LENA.
Lena is the name of the little friend of mine I am going to tell you about. You may see by the picture that she is not an English child, nor does she belong to the class which we call gentlefolk. Lena is German, and the daughter of a fisherman; nevertheless she is one of my dearest little friends. She lives in a cottage on the banks of the river Rhine, a short distance from the city of Coblenz. Her father earns his living as a boatman and fisherman upon the river; her mother takes care of the cottage, of their only child, and of the poultry: she finds plenty of time for making lace besides. I will tell you how I came to make little Lena’s acquaintance.
I passed one summer not long ago at Coblenz, at a villa on the banks of the river just outside the city. One evening, after a very hot day, I wandered a little way along the road by the side of the great beautiful river. I watched the lights gradually appearing, like fireflies in the distance, in the windows of the old castle or fortress of Ehrenbreitstein, which crowns a rocky hill on the opposite bank; and I watched, too, the lights and shadows borne on the breast of the swift river beneath. I stood looking at the restless ever-flowing water, comparing the river in its course to my own life, or to the lives of others; and thinking many thoughts which you, my little readers, would hardly understand.
At length my meditations were disturbed by a woman who came out of a cottage close by, and who, walking to the edge of the bank, there sat down, threw her apron over her head, and began to cry bitterly. It seemed as if she had come out of the cottage on purpose to have a good cry without disturbing some one within. After a moment’s hesitation, I went up and begged her to tell me what was the matter. She replied that her little girl was very ill with low fever, and the doctor had told her that very evening that he had scarcely any hope.