The old lady, who had meanwhile entered the room again, looked at the scene with a touched heart, and when she heard how kindly and thankfully he spoke to his dog, the tears came into her eyes.
“Now, my boy, tell me, had you no other friend in the forest than your dog?”
“No one!” said William sadly.
“All alone in the forest?” continued the kind old lady in sympathetic tone. “Poor child! but you can tell me tomorrow where your home is, and how it happened you got lost in the forest. O!” she said in astonishment and fright when touching the little fellow’s clothes, “you are all wet; how did that happen?”
“I waded through the creek, which crosses the path not far from here.”
“Through that swift stream? How is it possible?”
“I heard the wolf behind me, and so there was nothing left for me but to go through it,” replied the boy; “but I would surely have been drowned had not Caesar pulled me toward the shore.”
While the boy was telling her, the old lady got a woolen blanket out of her closet and began to strip the poor lad of his wet clothes. She looked at him so pitifully and lovingly that the tears came again to William’s eyes.
“Why do you cry, my boy?” she asked him.
“Because you are so kind and loving to me, and I am so thankful God has led me to you. I was afraid I would never see anyone again. I was alone and so afraid of the wolves.”
“Dry your tears, my child,” said the old lady with much feeling; “you are now safe, and the bad wolves cannot harm you.” With that she kissed him several times on his pale cheeks.
After putting the clothes up to dry and rubbing William’s body thoroughly, she wrapped him in a woolen blanket and had him climb into her bed. After warming a pan of milk on the fire she gave him some, feeding him herself, because his arms were wrapped up in the blanket.
William relished the warm milk, and soon felt his blood begin to circulate again. Satisfied, he fell back against his pillows, saying, “I can’t go to sleep until I have thanked the Lord for His gracious care and protection. This I have been doing since my father was sick. I feel as if I must kiss you, for you are just as kind and loving as my father has been to me.”
“But haven’t you a father any more?” inquired the kind lady.
“No!” answered William with a deep sigh; “he died a few days ago. I still have five brothers, but they do not love me. When father was dead—he died in the night while I fell asleep on a chair by his bed—they buried him close to our cabin and took me with them on a donkey into the forest. Two days we marched till we came to a place where four paths met. Last night, while I slept, they left me, and have probably gone home again. When I awoke this morning, I did not know what to do. Then I asked the Lord Jesus to help me; He has helped me and has brought me here. O, if I could only stay here; it is so nice here, much nicer than in our cabin at the other side of the forest.”
“Yes, you shall stay here, my child,” she replied, very much touched; “I am all alone and have often desired to have somebody with me. Since my son left me, I have always been alone; and now I am an old woman and have nobody in this world. Yes, stay with me, my boy; we will work together, and thank the Lord together for His kindness. You must love the Lord very much since you know how gladly He answers the prayers of the young, don’t you?”
“Yes, I love Him; my father told me much about Him, how He came from heaven to die for sinners; and how He loved little children so much and took them up in His arms and blessed them. O, it was so nice when father told me such lovely stories, like that of Moses in the little ark, or of Abraham and Isaac, or David and Solomon. He said that all this was in a large book that is called the Bible. We had no Bible, but he said his mother had owned a Bible and had often told him all these nice stories when he was young. But that was many years ago, and for a long time he had not thought of them and did not care for them. My brothers too, did not care for them, and laughed and mocked when father spoke to them of the Lord Jesus.”
The little narrator paused because his eyes became heavy with sleep. But the old lady, whose curiosity had been aroused, desired to know more. She had followed the boy’s talk with the closest attention.
“Tell me a little more about your father, my boy.”
William told in his child-like and truehearted manner all that had happened in the last months and weeks before his father’s death. He did not neglect to tell what his father had said about his young years, what a naughty boy he had been, and how he had run away from his God-fearing mother, a widow. He told further with clearness—for it had made a deep impression on him—how thoroughly his father repented of the sins of his youth, and how he had longed to see his mother once more before his death, and to ask her forgiveness, and how he had become so happy through faith in the Lord Jesus, and had, in peace, gone home to be with Him.
“In peace let me resign my breath,
And Thy salvation see;
My sins deserved eternal death,
But Jesus died for me.”