After her visitors were gone, Mrs. Price cut the beef into three pieces, to make Tommy some broth, and she planned to make it last three or four days by keeping it in a cool place. She kindled a little fire, and chopped the meat very fine to make it quickly. After twenty minutes had passed, during which Lucy had watched the pot boil, her mother reached from the shelf a little yellow basin, and poured in the broth. Then she soaked some bread in it, and drew near to Tommy's bed.
"What is it, Mother?"
"Taste and try, Tommy. It seems good, doesn't it?"
"Yes, it doesn't seem like our kind of broth," and the little fellow smacked his lips.
He finished about a teacupful, and then said, "No more now; it's your turn and Lucy's"
"This was sent to you, Tommy, by kind Farmer Clark, and we don't want it."
"Your cheeks look pale too. Do have some, Mother." And so, to please him, she and Lucy took a few spoonfuls.
"It was God who put it in Mr. Clark's heart, Tommy."
"Ah, you see He remembers, Mother — Jesus and Him," said Tommy, sleepily.
Before she went to bed she beat up an egg for the little fellow, and he drank it off with relish, and by morning seemed a little revived, so that his mother left him in Lucy's care.
"I wish you'd go to the pasture field and get me some flowers, Lucy, and bring leaves too, will you?" asked her brother.
"Yes, I'll run after I've cut myself a slice of bread and given you a boiled egg, Tommy," and before half an hour had passed, she had started for the flowers.
By the side of the road was the stile leading to the pasture field, and the fresh morning air made Lucy so brisk that she sprang over it in quite a lively manner. She knew where all the pretty flowers grew, the "Ragged Robins," and wild geraniums, and pretty tall white and yellow ones, and in her eagerness to get the finest, she plunged her hand into a thicket, and scratched it badly. But she did not care much, though it smarted somewhat, for she had gathered a lovely bunch for Tommy. After stopping a moment to get a drink at the stream, she spoke to three merry children, who were dabbling their chubby hands in the water, and laughing loudly in their fun. Then she turned towards home, and met the Squire's children on their way to school, with their nurse.
They were prettily clad in light dresses and summer hats, while they chatted eagerly, as they walked along carrying their school books. Lucy sighed. They seemed far removed from her, with their pretty faces, good dresses, and lively talk. She did not go so far as to wish she were one of them — it hardly occurred to her — but she thought of the good things that she had once seen on the kitchen table, ready to go in for dinner, and she thought, "If our Tommy could always get plenty, he wouldn't be ill. If those people only knew!"
But a surprise awaited Lucy when she reached the cottage, and bursting in with the flowers, cried, "See, Tommy!"
She found Miss Rowland sitting there, and Mr. Rowland talking to his little scholar.
"Lucy, you'll get some too," said Tommy gently. "See the good things! Oh! what pretty flowers! And Mr. Rowland's been telling me a story."
There on the table was a nice baked milk pudding in a dish, and some ripe plums, a chicken, and a plate of thin cut meat.
Food was what Tommy needed, good food that he could eat, poor little fellow, and here it was.
Lucy's eyes sparkled as she saw the good things, and when Mr. Rowland put some money into her hand for Mother, she blushed, and dropped her lowest curtsy, while she gasped,
"Oh! thank you, Sir, Mother will be glad."
"If you are glad, Lucy, thank the Lord. He sent it," said the gentleman, kindly. "He is the good Shepherd, who watches over the little ones who put their trust in Him. I want you to trust Him. He loved you enough to leave His bright home and His Father, and come down to be born and to die for us. Jesus was often hungry, tired, and suffering, that He might pass through all that His people will pass through. And if we love and trust Him, we shall feel it a great comfort that Jesus knows all about our little trials, for He has felt the same."
On getting home, the poor mother was delighted to see the good things, which soon revived little Tommy. As he was well taken care of for some days, he recovered his former strength, which was not very great, but it enabled him to walk about in the meadows again, and pick the flowers of which he was so fond.
As little Rose Rivers walked away from Mrs. Price's cottage with Susan and Robin, she said, with rather an effort,
"Susan, there's one thing I do want." "What is it, Rose?"
"Well, I have been wishing I could, or you could, tell some of those lazy people in the village about Jesus. There are so many boys standing about doing nothing. They seem as if they didn't care a bit, or know where they are going. If I only had a little Testament to give some of them!"
"Well, Rose, you can ask the Lord about it. If He has given you a desire to speak to someone about Him, He will show you the way.
"Or some old women," said Rose. "If you would let me go with you, Susan, I could take them something. I have my money quite safe which Miss Marian gave me. If we were to go and give them something first, perhaps afterwards they would listen if we told them about the Lord Jesus and the way to heaven. At least, Susan, if you would speak, I would give a little book," she added, coaxingly.
Susan smiled. "I know an old woman I want to go and see some day when I get time."
"Who?"
"Jenny's old grandmother. She is getting rather shaky, and I am not sure that she is happy; I think she is one of those who try to do the best they can to save themselves, and look to God to do the rest. Those people are never happy, because they are leaning partly on themselves. As Miss Rowland says, it is a sandy foundation, which will fall away."
"Well, let us go to see her, Susan dear, please," said Rose, skipping along.
"And are you so at rest about yourself as to be able to speak to others, Rosie?"
Rose looked a little puzzled, but answered slowly,
"I'm not good, I know I am often naughty, but— “
"Well, tell me, dear."
"But I know that Jesus is my Saviour, and He has forgiven me, because He died, and put away my sin. You know, Susan, I trust Him, and I want to please Him now."
"I believe you do. But remember, Rosie, that it is by keeping in His presence that we grow like Him, by speaking to Him, and praying to Him, and reading of Him daily in His precious Word."