Read "The Old Worcester Jug" by Eglanton Thorne online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"DID you have your tea before you came out, Maggie? " asked Mrs. Thornton, when they were alone.
"No," said Maggie; "but I didn't want any."
In truth she had eaten very little that day, and was beginning to feel faint for want of food.
"You shall have some tea with me," said the lady. "I am just going to have a cup. Ring that bell for me, please, and then Mary will bring it."
In a few minutes a very appetizing meal was placed before the child. But she did but scant justice to the dainties which Mrs. Thornton pressed upon her. Her heart was too heavy for her to care much about eating.
"I have been very ill, Maggie, since I last saw you," said the lady, presently.
"Yes, I know; I was very sorry to hear it," said Maggie. "I asked God to make you well."
"You asked God to make me well," exclaimed the lady, in astonishment; "what could make you trouble yourself about me, child?"
"Because I love you; you are so pretty," said Maggie, with the perfect simplicity of childhood.
The lady smiled and blushed. She thought Maggie's artless words a very nice compliment.
"You really are better, aren't you? " asked the child. "You don't think you will die now, do you?"
"Oh dear no, I hope not," replied the lady, with a shudder; "what a question to ask me! My husband says I am out of danger now, and getting well fast. At one time I was dreadfully afraid I was going to die."
"Why were you afraid? " asked the child. "Didn't you think that Jesus would take you to heaven?"
The lady's face flushed again-this time with a flush of shame.
"No, Maggie," she said, in low, tremulous tones, "I could not feel sure about heaven. I thought I knew all about those things; but when death seemed near, I couldn't feel sure that I was good enough to go to heaven."
"Jesus would have made you good enough, if you had asked Him," said Maggie; and then she repeated in a low voice:
"He died that we might be forgiven, / He died to make us good; / That we might go at last to heaven, / Saved by His precious blood.'
"That's a verse of my hymn; do you know it?"
"Yes, I have heard the words before," said Mrs. Thornton. "Can you sing that hymn?"
"Oh yes," said Maggie; "I often sing it."