One warm day when I visited Little Jakey his bed had been drawn around
facing the window, and I found him sitting bolstered up there, with his
long black curls lying out on the pillows.
"My dear," said I, "I have brought you a bouquet, and let us pull it
into pieces and see what we can make of it."
Soon Little Jakey's bed was strewn over with the flowers. I do not
remember ever having seen him so cheerful as he was that evening.
Making a little hoop from a piece of wire, I twined him a wreath, while
he amused himself handing me the flowers for it, and feeling over their
soft leaves, and asking their names. Whether large or small, he never
asked the name of the same kind of flower but once. When we placed it
on his little head,--
"Vy!" he exclaimed, "von time my moder have vear ze flowers like dis.
Ce go vare von lady sing vot have come fon Italy; my fader go mit her
dare. And von time ze lady come to my moder's house, and ce sing to ze
harp, and ce sing to ze piano, and my moder and my fader sing mit her;
and ce stay dare to ze supper, and much peoples come to ze supper."
I remained with Little Jakey that night, and when all were still, and
the night taper was glimmering faintly through the room, I felt his
little hand pull mine, as if he would draw me closer to him.
"What, dear?" I said, stooping over him.
"I tink I die," he whispered; "I tink I go im Himmel mit my moder, and
mit ze baby, and mit Meme."
"Why, Jakey," I asked, coaxingly, "what makes you think so?"
"Vy, ven ze baby die, ce be sick; and ven my moder die, ce be sick; and
ven Meme die, ce be sick; and I be sick, and I tink I die."
"So you are, very sick indeed, dear Jakey," I said; "but you will not
be sorry to die, will you, dear?"
"No, I not sorry; but all ze time I tink, How vill it be? Ven Gott take
me im Himmel, vill he come mit me in ze leetle boat? zen vill he come
mit me in ze big boat, mit ze big fire? and zen vill he come in ze big
ship, mit ze tree vay high, and mit ze sail? and ven ze vinds blow too
hard, and ze ship come crash on ze rock, and all ze peoples cry, vill
Gott hold me tight in hees arms, like my moder?"
"Yes, you dear, dear child," I said, "God will surely keep you close in
his arms always, and when you come where he is, dear Jakey, your sweet
eyes will have the light in them. You will see the stars then, and the
angels, and all the good people who have gone to heaven from this
world, and God, and his dear Son, Jesus. You know about him, do you
not? He loves little children."
"Yes, I know him," he said; "my moder have tell me dot von time he have
come fon Himmel in ze vorld, and ze wicked men have kill him; zey have
nail him to ze tree; and my moder say dot Jazu be ze Lord, and dot he
love ze little children, and von time he have lif zem in hees arms; and
he say dot he love zem all, and dot he vill bring zem im Himmel mit
him, ven zey bees good. Meme ce know him too, and much times ce talk
mit him in ze prayer vot ce say; and ce say dot he hear her, ce know he
do. Ze good man know him, and much he talk mit him in ze Meeting; but
to ze table he not talk, he tink mit him, mit hees hands so (crossing
his own little ones, as if in the act of devotion). Georgy do dot vay,
and Franky, and zey all; and Mary tell me, and I do dot vay."