Part 1.
SEVERAL years ago a colporteur, traveling with his pack full of Bibles and tracts, came to a village in the south of France where he succeeded in selling thirty New Testaments to the school-teacher for the use of the children.
Much interested in what the effect of the study of the Word of God would have on the children, he returned to the same village a year or two afterwards and went straight to the school. But, alas! there was a new school-teacher who did not believe in teaching the Bible to the children.
“They are all there on the shelf as I found them,” she said.
“Not one has been used!” said the colporteur, greatly disappointed.
“Well, I am mistaken,” said the schoolteacher, “one has been sold to a little girl who wanted it very much. If you want to know more about it, go to that little house yonder on the left, where the child’s parents live.”
The teacher went back to her school and the colporteur went to the house indicated. It was a cottage, little, but very pretty, hidden among flowers and bushes. At the end of a tiny garden was a summer-house which was always cool, even in the hottest hours of the day. A little girl was sitting there. The colporteur saw her, and hoping that she was the child that the school-teacher had told him of, he went up to her to ask her some questions. The little girl looked up at him, but did not seem to understand. He repeated the same sentences several times, but still no answer. He then concluded that the child was deaf. He raised his voice, but for answer the child put her hand on her mouth to show that she could not speak.
“Oh! deaf and dumb!” murmured the colporteur. “Poor child, what a trial the Lord has sent you.”
“Nevertheless, she is not so unhappy as you would believe,” said a man who was standing behind the colporteur. “The Lord has comforted her in such a marvelous way that she scarcely has need of our compassion.”
“The Lord be praised,” said the colporteur, as he acknowledged the salutation of the man whom he easily recognized as the child’s father. “I confess I was very sad to find a deaf and dumb child. But I should be very grateful if you would tell me a little of the history of your little girl.
“Very willingly,” said the father, “but come into the house and let me give you something to eat. We can talk better than here in the open air.”
The colporteur, followed by the little girl and her father, went into the cottage. The room which he entered was simple but pretty. The furniture was of white wood; the arrangement showing the taste and order of the inmates. The mother at once put on the table bread, cheese and wine; and while the colporteur refreshed himself, the father began his story.
“Only ten months ago our Jeanne was one of the strongest and healthiest children in the place. But at that time there broke out a nervous fever which, being very contagious, claimed its victims in almost every house. Our child, too, was attacked by the scourge one morning at school, and they brought her home seriously ill.
“The doctor did not hide from us the great danger in which she was, and in spite of all his care, she grew worse every day, so that we soon lost all hope. One day she noticed our distress, called us to her bed and said to us:
“‘Papa and mamma, don’t worry about me. I believe that I shall die soon, but I am not afraid of death. I love the Lord Jesus Christ, and He has promised to take me to heaven.’”
ML 10/08/1916