A GOOD THOUGHT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2009, 25 August 1892, Page 41

A GOOD THOUGHT.

(Written for the Witness Little Folks, by "Alice.") (Continued.)

Willie gathered the white flowers, and took them to his father. He filled the cold hands full of them, then piled the rest about him. Ho was so quiet that people wondered, and for once Mrs Payne wished that she could see his face aud see how he looked. Poor little face, it was very wistful, and as he turned away from the cemetery he was pondering those words that his blind friend had spoken. " God took him."

— Pondering them over and over as he had done since they had been spoken. All day and half the night they troubled him. Annie went home with him and wept softly, her head falling iuto the old despondent attitude upon her hands, her elbows upon her knees, by the fire in her brother's room till Martha came to take her home. Then Mr Tanner, troubled beyond expression at the lad's silent grief, came into the little room above the stable and sat down as before upon the bed. Willie did not move, but with big, wistful eyes, sat gazing into the fire.

"Blyboy, what can I do to comfort you?" asked the man.

" I want to know about God," was the strange reply jerked out suddenly. " I want to knoiv all about it — bad as I wanted to earn that half crown." " Why, sonny, why ? " " Well, God took him — she said so, and she knows what for. Why did he do it ? Haven't I been a good enough little cbap ? P'raps not. Well, I've been good as I could, for I wanted daddy. I wanted him to save the money for, and work for when I'd grown up. He's got all the other people, and heaven. He might have left me him."

It was a wild little white face that turned round to Mr Tanner, and the man felt powerless to answer.

" I want to know," continued the boy, speaking loudly, "all about God. I don't understand Him. He can do all things, they say, cm' lie did that. If I was a great king I wouldn't 'a' liked to play it so low down on a little feller." " Hush, sonny ! Ido not know. I'm afraid I do not know as much about these things as I ought to do. I suppose it is all right, but it does not look like it."

"It seems all wrong," tho boy replied, and then the Hushed little face fell upon his arm, and he murmured passionately, " Daddy."

Before the night was over Mr and Mrs Tanner saw that the child was really ill, and all night long the strong man ministered to the wants of the sick boy, cooling the hot head, and holding the restless hands. When morning came a doctor was sent for, and he pronounced the boy to be seriously ill. As soon as Annie heard this she flew to her brother, and hushing him in her arms as though he were a. baby, sang to him softly all the songs she kne»v. "It always comforted him when he was a baby," she said, "and when he was crying of the hunger when he was a little boy." His big eyes closed now, and he ceased his weary questioning — questions which no one seemed able to answer. But when night came again, and Annie was asleep, he asked his master again and again, with wide open, pitiful eyes, " Why God took him, and where heaven was." All the night he rambled on in his delirium about his father. Now he was waiting in the cold to take him safely home, and begging of him to come ; then he fancied that his dream had come to pass, and that they were all in the country. In all his ravings Mr Tanner read the unselfish love of the boy, and more than once as some tender, pitiful words passed the feverish lips the man's eyes dimmed. He was a childless man, but the fatherhood that dwells in every good man's heart was stirred. It seemed so hard to him that all this child's love should go to waste, and the question that the lad asked, " What is God ? " he asked himself a hundred times. But the blind lady was to answer them. She came one day when the lad's loud cries were pitiful to hear .* " I waut to where heaven is ? I tell you I want to know." Then a soft hand was laid upon his head, and a firm sweet voice arrested his attention : " Heaven is where God is, aud God is where good is. It is not in some far distant shore, but heaven lies in the heart. God is in your master's love for you and yours for your father, and in mine for Annie and hers for you. There is no journey for you to take before you can have the peace of God which passeth all understanding ; it is the peace of good," and much more to that effect ; and then the child seemed to feel that through good we are made participators in all that belongs to God, that; no time or space can separate us from all that is His. " Your father is as much yours now as Le ever was," she concluded, and then the ravings ceased. "You have your father's love in all love, and in loving others you are loving him." " I lovo you, sonny," said Mr Tanner to the sick boy ; and then, as though in half apology to Mrs Payne for what he considered a weakness, he said, " The little chap can't live without giving and receiving alEectiou — it is life and food and health to him. If ho thinks there is no one in particular for him to live for he will die." And indeed it seemed as though Willie would die. For many days he lingered between life aud death. The misery had left his face, and ho would smile aud say, "I know what God aud heaven are now — they are both love." One night he lay scarcely breathing, and the doctor said before the morning they would know for certain how things would be. Annie lay prone upon the rug, and would neither move nor cat, wi-ile Mr Tanner and George watched every movement of the white shadowy face. Mr Tanner found, as he knelt there listening for every faint breath, how very dear this little life had grown to him, and he prayed as he knelt there that the child might be spared to him. He acknowledged that he wauted tha lad, and that a hundred new interests and thoughts had centred themselves round the frail little body. About midnight the boy stirred, and his watchful nurse bent low for the muttered words. 11 1 like you to hold me, father. It is father ; isn't ifc?" "Yes, sonny," said Mr Tanner, kissing him. "Are you a new father — are we in heaven r " Very near it." 11 Then I like heaven. P'rhaps it's a dream, and it will all go." " No ! " said the man very wistfully. Then Willie slept with his head resting on Mr Tanner's arm, and George, the coachman, who came in and out softly all night, said to cook at breakfast: " Lor', you ought to have seen the master !

He never stirred the whole blessed night, and his eyes were fixed on Willies white face, bis own growing whiter and whiter every minute. He were that stiff and sore when the daylight came that he could scarcely stand when I helped him up off his kneea. Willie scarcely stirred all night. TheH suddenly he woke uo, his eyes all bright and sensible-likc, an' lookin' at the master he smiled and iaid, ' Why, you must be the man I was dreamin' about,' and the master he said gofb as a woman : 11 • What man, 'sonny ? ' 11 « The new father I thought God 'ad given me.' " ' I'm that man,' said the master. " 'But he was a new father,' went on Willie. •• ' So am I, Willie, God willin',' said the master very earnestly. ' I have wanted & son all my life, an' now I know why God gent you to nae. From this day forward you are no more my servant, but my son,' an' he means it too. Willie smiled an' went off to sleep, an' the master he's gone to lie down. Tho missus came in to take hiß place, an' he said, » Emily, my dear, our boy will live and be the pride of our old age.' " ' Our boy ! ' saya she, puzzled like. " ' He is our adopted son,' says the master, and she starts to cry a little, and he says, 'you will grow accustomed to the thought in time, and like it better every minuto. We both have hungered for a son, and he was dying for his father.' The missus is smilin' to herself as she sits watchin' of him, and she says to me just now " ' George, I believe he'll be a clever man.' " ' I sureof it, mam, says I. i '"Do you think he'll get into Parliament when he is a man ? ' asks she lookin' at the poor little bundle of skin and bones, an' I said, " ' I'm sure on it, mam, as sure as he nearly got into heaven.' " (Tt be continued.)