Franks," rejoined Hester, "you musn't talk like a heathen."
"I didn't know as I was saying anything wrong, miss!"
"Don't you know," said Hester, smiling through tears, "that Jesus died
and rose again that we might be delivered from death? Don't you know
it's he and not Death has got your Moxy? He will take care of him for
you till you are ready to have him again. If you love Moxy more than
Jesus loves him, then you are more like God than Jesus was!"
"Oh, miss, don't talk to me like that! The child was born of my own
body?"
"And both you and he were born of God's own soul: if you know how to
love he loves ten times better."
"You know how to love anyhow, miss! the Lord love you! An angel o' mercy
you been to me an' mine."
"Good-bye then for a few minutes," said Hester. "I am only going to
prepare a place for you."
Only as she said the words did she remember who had said them before
her. And as she went through the dark tunnel she sang with a voice that
seemed to beat at the gates of heaven, "Thou didst not leave his soul in
hell."
Mrs. Franks threw herself again beside her child, but her tears were not
so bitter now; she and hers were no longer forsaken! She also read her
New Testament, and the last words of Hester had struck her as well as
the speaker of them:
"And she'll come again and receive us to herself!" she said.
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