"I wait till it is clear again, and feel that it is there, although
I cannot see it, sir. I hope it never will be taken down, for the
light upon the cross seems like that I see in dear Bessie's eyes
when she holds me in her arms and calls me her 'patient Jamie.' She
never knows I try to bear my troubles for her sake, as she bears
hunger and cold for mine. So you see, sir, how many things I have to
make me a happy child."
"I would gladly lie down on your pillow to be half as light of heart
as you are, little Jamie, for I have lost my faith in everything and
with it all my happiness;" and the heavy shadow which had lifted for
a while fell back darker than before upon the anxious face beside
the bed.
"If I were well and strong like you, sir, I think I should be so
thankful nothing could trouble me;" and with a sigh the boy glanced
at the vigorous frame and energetic countenance of his new friend,
wondering at the despondent look he wore.
"If you were poor, so poor you had no means wherewith to get a crust
of bread, nor a shelter for the night; if you were worn-out with
suffering and labor, soured by disappointment and haunted by
ambitious hopes never to be realized, what would you do, Jamie?"
suddenly asked the young man, prompted by the desire that every
human heart has felt for sympathy and counsel, even from the little
creature before him ignorant and inexperienced as he was.
But the child, wiser in his innocence than many an older counsellor,
pointed upward, saying with a look of perfect trust,--
"I should look up to the cross upon the tower and think of what Bess
told me about God, who feeds the birds and clothes the flowers, and
I should wait patiently, feeling sure he would remember me.
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