Little Dot

Little Dot by O.F. Walton (1869)

Little Dot* by O.F. Walton is a short Victorian Christian tale set in a town cemetery, following the brief life and lasting spiritual influence of a small child named Ruth, called Dot because she is such a tiny thing. The story opens with Dot, a girl of about five or six, wandering into the cemetery near her family's cottage and discovering old Solomon Whitaker, the grave-digger, at work in a freshly dug grave. She mispronounces his name as Mr. Solemn, and the nickname sticks. Solomon, long widowed and solitary, finds himself charmed by the child, who quickly becomes his constant companion. She follows him about the grounds, watches him dig, asks him endless questions about death and graves, and develops the habit of gathering daisies to scatter into each grave he finishes, believing this makes the resting places prettier and more welcoming. When Solomon digs a grave for a small girl named Lilian Stanley, roughly Dot's own age, Dot becomes especially absorbed. She watches the funeral from behind a hawthorn bush and later befriends Lilian's mother, who comes to tend the grave. The grieving mother tells Dot what Lilian had said the night before she died: that her sisters should not think of her as lying in the cemetery, but should look at the blue sky and understand that she was up there with Jesus. This idea of the soul ascending to heaven while the body remains in the earth puzzles Dot deeply, and she repeatedly interrogates Solomon, who cannot satisfy her curiosity. Lilian's two surviving sisters, Violet and Ethel, later visit the grave to sow flower seeds and explain to Dot, as best they can in childish terms, the distinction between the body and the soul. Their father, Mr. Stanley, then appears and reads to the children the inscription on the newly placed marble gravestone: the text White in the blood of the Lamb. He explains to the children, including Dot, that Jesus shed his blood to cleanse souls of sin, and that no sin may enter heaven. When Dot asks if Jesus will wash her too, Mr. Stanley assures her He will if she asks, and teaches her a short prayer: Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. This prayer becomes the centre of Dot's inner life, repeated constantly and earnestly throughout her remaining days. Dot faithfully waters the flower seeds on Lilian's grave through the summer and spends her days at Solomon's side, gradually sharing with him her growing understanding of heaven, the soul, and the mercy of Jesus. She urges the old man to say her prayer himself, and he begins to do so, with increasing sincerity. As autumn arrives, Dot grows thin and pale. A persistent cough worsens despite Solomon's attempts to help her, and eventually she is confined to bed. The two remain close, with Solomon visiting her each evening. On the night before she dies, Solomon kneels beside her bed with her parents and prays aloud the words of her prayer on behalf of them all. He declares his belief that the Lord has heard him and granted his petition. Dot dies the following morning. Solomon must dig her grave beside Lilian's, a task he finds nearly unbearable. He collects frost-bitten daisies to scatter in her grave as she once did for others. A small marble stone is placed over her grave, bearing the words Little Dot, and beneath them her text: Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. In the final passage, Solomon grows old and is sometimes thought confused by his neighbours, for he often looks up from his digging as though Dot still stands watching him, and fancies he hears her voice among the trees repeating her prayer. Far from dreading his own approaching death, he is now at peace, comforted by the certainty that he will soon see his little girl again.

By O.F. Walton · First published 1869 · Genre: Children's Literature, Domestic Fiction, Moral Fiction · 9 chapters · 10,940 words

First lines

IT was a bright morning in spring, and the cemetery on the outskirts of the town looked more peaceful, if possible, than it usually did. The dew was still on the grass, for it was not yet nine o'clock. The violets and snowdrops on little children's graves were peeping above the soil, and speaking of the resurrection. The robins were singing their sweetest songs on the top of mossy gravestones-happy in the stillness of the place. And the sunbeams were busy everywhere, sunning the flowers, lighting up the dewdrops, and making everything glad and pleasant. Some of them even found their way into the deep grave in which Solomon Whitaker, the old grave-digger, was working, and they made it a little less dismal, and not quite so dark.

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Little Dot is listed on Textopian as a novella by O.F. Walton, dated 1869 CE.

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Tags

children's literature · Christian fiction · Victorian literature · moral education · family life · faith · kindness · obedience · childhood · domestic fiction · sentimental fiction · religious instruction

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