Most girls would have thought that Hettie B. had not much to make her happy. She had few friends, and had passed through many trials in her brief life. But the truth of the whole matter was that Hettie was a Christian. There was often a song on her lips, and Mrs. Adams was wont to say, “The kitchen is the brightest room in the house.”
“What a sunshiny disposition your little kitchen girl has!” guests would sometimes say to Mrs. Adams. And the mistress, who knew well the secret of Hettie’s happiness, always answered,
“Yes, it is the sunshine of God’s love in her heart.”
“Hettie,” Mrs. Adam asked one day, “why are you always se happy?”
“Why, ma’am,” she answered, “Jesus loves me, and isn’t that enough to make any one happy.”
“But how do you know He loves you, Hattie?” continued Mrs. Adams,
“He said so, and I couldn’t doubt His Word.”
“Then you think He never forgets, Hettie?” Her face lit up, with a smile.
“O, that is the beauty of such love; we forget sometimes, but He never does.”
“But, Hettie, don’t you ever feel lonely?”
“Not while He is with me; but sometimes when I forget His great love, I repine.”
“Well,” said Mrs. Adams to herself as she stepped out of the kitchen, “what grace He has bestowed upon this girl!”
While Hettie may be a poor kitchen girl, as we view things, yet hereafter a great reward awaits her.
ML 04/21/1940