In that humble way which was so touching, he said to his child, "I doubt I have not done right in letting you go on so long without learning to say your prayers, Maggie. But now you have begun, you must go on. I'm glad Sarah has given you a start."
To the amazement of the children, Adam was the one to kneel beside them that night, though all he found words to say was, "Lord Jesus, bless the children and their mother and me. Help us to do right, and forgive us all our sins." Then he repeated "Our Father," bidding the children say the prayer after him, and that was all.
When they were at rest, he got the large Bible, for Sarah had taken hers to the meeting with her, and though there were no marks to guide him, he remembered whereabouts he had found such sweet words of encouragement. By seeking, he discovered many more, and the lonely hour was happily and profitably spent.
Only Adam's heart was full of longing that his wife could share his newborn happiness, the experience which in after days, every child of God can recall to mind as the first desire of an awakened soul.
[CHAPTER XIV.]
THE LETTER AND ITS ANSWER.
THE next morning's post brought a letter from Mrs. Livesey, with news of her safe arrival. Adam was delighted to receive it, but it took a long time to make out its meaning. His wife had a style both of writing and spelling peculiar to herself, the natural result of having had little practice in either for many years past, and fingers stiffened by rough work.
By dint of much painstaking, Adam gathered that she had been met at the station by Ann's husband, sent by her mother for that purpose. That Mrs. Allison had rallied, and might live for weeks, though she could not get better, and that she begged her daughter to remain with her to the last.
The thought of being so long absent from Adam and the children troubled Mrs. Livesey, but what could she do? Adam must let her know, somehow, what he thought about it, and if he said she must come home sooner, she would come.
Adam gathered other particulars from the queer scrawl.