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Page 32
"No, I don't understand it, but I know it's so."
"Well, my dear boy," said his aunt, seriously, "what if there was
something hidden within little Nora, which was alive too, and which,
leaving the poor dead shell behind, has flown on shining wings away to
distant heights, where it is entering on a new and happy life!"
Fred stood thoughtful a few moments, and then said, "I never thought of
it in that way, aunty. Now I shall have a very different idea about
Nora. How glad she must be to fly away on her new wings from the sick
body in which she was imprisoned! Are not you glad, aunty, that you know
about the chrysalis, and isn't it wonderful?"
"It certainly is; and it teaches us that there are many things about us
that we cannot understand, and yet which are true, though no one can
explain them. So by and by, Fred, when you are a learned man, as I hope
you will be, when you come to something you cannot understand in nature,
you must say modestly, 'This is beyond my powers of explanation; this is
the work of God'; and so stand reverently before his greatness, that is
about and above us all."
Fred handled his chrysalis with respect as he laid it away with his
other treasures. A new thought had come to him about that and about
other things.
Clarissa had arrived; but her coming did not bring comfort to the
sorrowing mother; on the contrary, it seemed only to renew her grief.
Clarissa would have been glad to hear all about her darling's last days,
and how the end came, but the mother could not bear any allusion to the
subject, and Clarissa kept silence. She consoled herself by looking at
Nora's peaceful face, that seemed to have a message of comfort for her.
When she heard that Elsli had been alone with Nora when she died, she
was very anxious to see the girl, and sent for her to come and speak
with her. When Elsli came into the pleasant room where she had passed so
many happy days, and glanced towards the empty window-seat, she was
overcome with fresh grief. Clarissa took her by the hand, and, drawing
her to a seat by her side, immediately began to ask about Nora; and soon
Elsli was pouring out her whole heart; and she told Clarissa all that
she and Nora had said to each other about the heavenly land, and she
repeated the hymn that Nora had taught her. Then she told how quietly
Nora had left her at last, and said that she hoped to follow her soon
into her beautiful home.
Clarissa hung upon every word that fell from Elsi's lips with gratitude
and satisfaction. It was she who had taught Nora that hymn as she sat
upon her knees when she was a very little child, and as she heard it
repeated now it was with the same tones, the same motions of hand and
head that the child had used who learned it from her own lips; it seemed
to Clarissa as if Nora lived again in Elsli. Weeping with mingled joy
and sorrow, she went in search of Mrs. Stanhope.
"Surely," she exclaimed, "this child is the image of our darling; it is
her sister, with her voice, her words, her very thought. This, too, is
our child."
Mrs. Stanhope roused herself for a moment to listen to Clarissa's words,
but she was not moved by them; she threw herself again on her bed and
would not be comforted. Clarissa was not disheartened by this
indifference; she was so completely impressed herself by the wonderful
resemblance between the children that she led Elsli into the room where
the hopeless mother lay in full indulgence of her grief, and said:--
"I bring you this little girl, Mrs. Stanhope; for I look upon her as a
legacy that our Nora has left us."
Mrs. Stanhope looked for a moment into the girl's face; then she
suddenly kissed her and said:--
"Elsli, Nora loved you, and you loved her. You shall stay with me
always"; and they all three wept together, but there was healing in the
tears.
Like one in a dream Elsli went home that day. She understood, but not
wholly, what had happened. She had believed that Nora would ask her
heavenly Father to call her to heaven, and would come herself to meet
her; and now it seemed as if she had already come to meet her to lead
her elsewhere than to heaven.
Clarissa went to make the arrangements with Marget, about which there
was no difficulty whatever. For as soon as Marget understood that not
only was Elsli to be provided with a home for life, but that the help
which she might have afforded her parents as she grew older was to be
made good to them, she was overjoyed. She said that Elsli was not fit
for hard work, and that the care of the little boys was quite beyond
her, especially since Hans was growing more and more troublesome. So she
gladly agreed to let her go, with the understanding that she should
return home at least once a year for a visit.
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