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