"'If any be Little in stature, against his desire, he shall be Great.'"
Freddie opened his eyes very wide. Would it be possible to be big at once, without waiting all that long dreary time? How glorious that would be!
"But this," said Aunt Amanda, "this is the last and the best. I don't know—whether I can—read it right—" her voice broke, and she blew her nose and cleared her throat—"but I will try. Oh! do you suppose it could be true? Would a good Quaker captain, with a sister in New Bedford, say it if it wasn't true? With the sea raging and both masts gone, and the ship filling up with water, and——"
"Aunt Amanda," said Toby, "if you don't read the rest of it this minute——"
"Ah, yes, Toby, I will," said Aunt Amanda. "It must be true, or a good man like that wouldn't have said it. This is the last part, and the best:
"'If any be Prevented unjustly of Beauty or of Children or of Love or of Other like desires, there shall be found for him of these a great Store: So that there shall be an End of repining, and none in that Place shall say, Thus and thus might I have been also, had I been but justly entreated.
"'And so I commit my Body to the sea, and my soul to——'"
"Go on! go on!" cried the company—excepting, of course, Mr. Hanlon.
Aunt Amanda blew her nose again, and laid down the map on the table. "That's all," she said. "I suppose he didn't have time to finish it."