The Aged Mother

In a large town there was an old woman who sat in the evening alone in
her room thinking how she had lost first her husband, then both her
children, then one by one all her relations, and at length, that very
day, her last friend, and now she was quite alone and desolate. She was
very sad at heart, and heaviest of all her losses to her was that of
her sons; and in her pain she blamed God for it. She was still sitting
lost in thought, when all at once she heard the bells ringing for early
prayer. She was surprised that she had thus in her sorrow watched
through the whole night, and lighted her lantern and went to church. It
was already lighted up when she arrived, but not as it usually was with
wax candles, but with a dim light. It was also crowded already with
people, and all the seats were filled; and when the old woman got to
her usual place it also was not empty, but the whole bench was entirely
full. And when she looked at the people, they were none other than her
dead relations who were sitting there in their old-fashioned garments,
but with pale faces. They neither spoke nor sang; but a soft humming
and whispering was heard all over the church. Then an aunt of hers
stood up, stepped forward, and said to the poor old woman, "Look there
beside the altar, and thou wilt see thy sons." The old woman looked
there, and saw her two children, one hanging on the gallows, the other
bound to the wheel. Then said the aunt, "Behold, so would it have been
with them if they had lived, and if the good God had not taken them to
himself when they were innocent children." The old woman went trembling
home, and on her knees thanked God for having dealt with her more
kindly than she had been able to understand, and on the third day she
lay down and died.
