THE PEACEFUL DEATH.
IN three days Sallie was out of danger, and from this time she recovered
rapidly. The minister and her Sabbath school teacher visited her often,
but she wondered Hatty did not come. At last, one day when she was able
to sit up, her mother told her Hatty had taken the fever the day she
visited her, and now she was very sick.
"Who will take care of her?" asked Sallie, beginning to cry.
"They sent for her aunt, who has never been near them since their mother
died, and she's there now. She has money, and she says the poor child
shall not want for anything that money will buy."
"Oh, mother! to think that I have killed her! I feel almost sure she
will die. She's so good, I used to tell the girls, she ought to go to
heaven; but it is dreadful that I killed her."
Sallie sobbed so violently that her mother became alarmed; but for some
time she tried in vain to soothe her.
"They'll all blame me. I never shall dare to see uncle Oliver or Esther
again. They can't live without her. Oh, oh dear! I wish she never had
come. Mother, do please go over there quick, and tell them how very
sorry I am. Hatty taught me to love the Saviour, and how can I let her
die?"
To please her child the widow went. Hatty lay in the bedroom adjoining
the sitting-room, which was usually occupied by uncle Oliver. Close by
her side sat Esther, looking pale and wan as if months instead of hours
of racking anxiety had passed over her. Mrs. Foster was preparing some
medicine near the window, while the old man, with a heart almost broken
with sorrow, was cutting up wood at the side of the house farthest from
the chamber.
As the widow entered the room, Hatty turned her eyes to the door and
recognized her.
"Are you in much pain?" she asked, greatly moved.
"Jesus helps me bear it all."
This was said with a gasp.
"She never complains," faltered Esther, with quivering lips.
"Sallie, how is she?" murmured the sick girl.
"Much better, if she were not so distressed about you."
"I am safe with Jesus. He gives me perfect peace."
Her aunt began to weep.
"Don't cry, dear aunty," she said caressingly. "You will come too; you
and Esther, and uncle Oliver. We shall all be there. Mother will be
there, too, for Esther says she used to pray."
She paused for a moment, quite exhausted; but presently looked up with a
smile and added, "I shall see Mr. Munson and tell him about Sallie.
Wont he be glad?"
The widow was quite overcome but tried to control herself.
"Tell him," she said, "that I'm almost through. I'm trying to bear his
loss with patience. Tell him God has been true to his promise: 'As thy
day is so shall thy strength be.' I trust we shall meet soon and never
be parted again."
She stooped silently over the sick child, kissed her, and was going out
when Hatty whispered,--
"Tell Sallie good-bye. It's all peace here," laying her hand on her
heart. "I'm not afraid to trust my Saviour."
Mrs. Foster followed her to the door. "It's a scene I never shall
forget," she said, sobbing. "Such a lesson as that child has taught me.
Oh, if I'd only done my duty, she might have lived for years."
"Jesus loves her and wants her with him," answered Mrs. Munson. "You
know he prayed his Father that those who loved him might be with him
where he is, that they may behold his glory. Think how happy she will
be."
As hours passed on, that room became almost like heaven. An
indescribable expression of peace was stamped on the pale features.
Heaven had indeed come down into her own heart. For hours she lay in a
kind of rapture. Once or twice she sung a part of her favorite hymn,
repeating over and over the lines,
"No words can express,
The sweet comfort and peace
Of a soul in its earliest love."
Through this day and the next the house was thronged with schoolmates
and friends, come to take a last look of one so dear. Matilda and
Cynthia, Ethel and Bill, pressed forward to thank her for the example
she had always set them.
"What shall we do," cried Ethel, sobbing aloud, "when our peace-maker
has gone?"
With a heavenly smile she replied, "You shall be peace-maker. See how
God keeps his promise to me. 'They shall be called the children of God.'
"Ethel," she went on, "you've always been like a real brother to me. For
my sake will you be kind to Esther?"
"Yes, I will."
"And I too," sobbed Bill; "but we shall miss you dreadfully."
"Give your hearts to Jesus, and 'twont be long before we shall meet
again."
The end came at last. Hatty's sufferings were nearly over. She lay
propped up with pillows, her head resting against her aunt's breast.
Esther sat near, holding her hand, which she continually covered with
kisses. Uncle Oliver sat in his arm-chair, at the foot of the bed, his
face shaded with his hands, his breast heaving convulsively.
The minister stood where Hatty's eyes rested on him. He was reading from
the twenty-third Psalm: "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want....
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil, for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort
me."
"Yes, yes," murmured the white lips. "He is with me. I'm not afraid. He
has pardoned all my sins, and washed me in the fountain filled with
blood; I'm--going to be--with him--forever,--I'm so--so happy!"
She lay so quiet that all feared her soul had fled away; but presently,
with a bright smile, she murmured,--
"I--I'm going now--good-bye--all. He gives me peace--perfect--peace;"
and then fell sweetly asleep in Jesus. "He giveth his beloved sleep,"
repeated the kind minister. "Look at her now! The peace of God which
passeth all understanding dwells in her now and forevermore."
The next Sabbath her body was carried to the church, where a sermon was
preached from her favorite text,--"Blessed are the peace-makers for they
shall be called the children of God."
The clergyman reminded the children of her who had so truly and
earnestly been a peace-maker, and entreated them to follow her example,
that they might have peace in life and triumph in death.
The influence of Hatty was long felt. By her entreaties on her dying
bed, her aunt and uncle Oliver, long estranged, were brought together,
and ever after lived as she would have had them, caring tenderly for
poor Esther, till her own peaceful death, two years later.
My dear little reader, will you not try to be a peace-maker?
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Text spells the contraction "won't" without the apostrophe (wont). This
was retained.
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
Page 62, "peacably" changed to "peaceably" (peaceably with all men)