There were several men gathered round the fire, and
in a corner, on a miserable kind of bed, I saw the sick child.
His eye met mine the moment I went in, and I thought I had
seen him before, but couldn't at first make out where. Do you
remember, Alice, a little ragged boy, with a remarkably
bright, pleasant face, who has planted himself regularly every
Sunday morning for some time past in the south aisle of the
church, and stood there all service time?"
Alice said no.
"I have noticed him often, and noticed him as paying a most
fixed and steady attention. I have repeatedly tried to catch
him on his way out of the church, to speak to him, but always
failed. I asked him to night, when I first went in, if he knew
me. 'I do, Sir,' he said. I asked him where he had seen me. He
said, 'In the church beyant.' 'So,' said I, 'you are the
little boy I have seen there so regularly; what did you come
there for?"
" 'To hear your honor spake the good words.'
" 'What good words?' said I; 'about what?'
"He said, 'About Him that was slain, and washed us from our
sins in his own blood.'
" 'And do you think he has washed away yours?' I said.
"He smiled at me very expressively. I suppose it was somewhat
difficult for him to speak; and, to tell the truth, so it was
for me, for I was taken by surprise; but the people in the hut
had gathered round, and I wished to hear him say more, for
their sake as well as my own.
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