THE BASKET OF FLOWERS: Chapter 9

The winter had now set in with threats of severity. Already the mountain and valley around the farm were covered with deep snow. 

The weakness which old James had been feeling for some time now culminated in a severe illness. Obtaining her father’s consent, Mary asked a physician from a neighbouring village to visit him. 

The doctor came to see James and prescribed for him. Full of foreboding, Mary followed him to the door to ask him if he had any hope of her father’s recovery. 

To this, the physician replied that the old man was in no immediate danger, but that he suffered from a disease which would make his recovery as an old man very improbable. 

It was with difficulty that Mary bore up under the news, and, after the physician had gone, she had a fit of passionate sobbing. For the sake of her father, however, she wiped away her tears and endeavoured to appear calm before she went to him. 

During the succeeding days, Mary attended to her father with the utmost devotion and loving care. Rarely had he to make his requests known, for his daughter could read in his eyes all that he wanted. 

Mary spent whole nights by his bedside. If at any time she consented to be relieved for a little rest, it was but rarely that she could close her eyes. 

If her father coughed, she trembled with apprehension; if he made the least stir, she immediately approached him softly and on tiptoe to know how he was. 

She prepared and brought to him in the most delicate forms the food which best suited his condition. She arranged his pillows from time to time, read to him, and prayed for him continually. 

Even when he dozed for a little she would stand by his bed with her hands clasped and her tearful eyes raised to heaven. 

Mary had a little money which she had saved from her hard-won earnings. To scrape together this small sum she had often spent half the night in sewing and knitting articles for sale. 

Now, in her father’s illness, she made use of this little store to procure for him everything which she thought would be of any service. 

Good old James, although occasionally he felt himself a little stronger, was never deceived about his condition, but felt only too sure that he was on his deathbed. 

The thought had no power to disturb him, and he spoke to his daughter of his approaching death with the greatest serenity. 

“Oh,” said Mary, crying bitterly, “do not speak thus, my dear father. I cannot bear the thought. What will become of me? Alas, your poor Mary will no longer have any one upon the earth!” 

“Do not cry, my dear child,” said her father affectionately, holding out his hand to her. “You have a kind Father in heaven who will never forsake you, although your earthly father be taken away from you. 

“I do not feel anxious about the manner in which you will gain a livelihood when I am dead, for the birds easily find their food, and you will find enough to nourish you. 

“God provides for the smallest sparrow; will He not also provide for you? The thought that distresses me,” he continued, “is that you will be left alone. Alas, my dear child, you have little idea of the wickedness that is in the world! 

“There will be moments perhaps when you will feel inclined to do evil; moments when you will perhaps yourself be persuaded that sin is not so very wrong. 

“Listen to the advice which I now give you, and let the last words of your dying father be forever deeply impressed on your heart. Forbid every action, every speech, every thought for which you would have to blush if your father knew. 

“Soon my eyes will be forever closed, I shall no longer be here to watch over you, but remember you have in heaven a Father whose eyes sees everything and reads the secrets of your heart.” 

After a little while, when he had recovered breath, he continued: “You would not wish by an act of disobedience to hurt the father whom you have on earth; how much more then should you fear to offend your Father which is in heaven? 

“Look at me once more, Mary. Oh, if you ever feel the least inclination to do wrong, think of my pale face and of the tears which wet these sunken cheeks. Come to me, put your hand into mine which will soon fall into dust. 

“Promise me never to forget my words. In the hour of temptation, imagine that you feel this cold hand which you now hold on the border of the grave. 

“My poor child you cannot see, without weeping, my pale and hollow cheeks; but know that everything passes away in this world. There was a time when I had the bloom of health and the fresh colour which you now have. 

“The time will come when you too will be stretched on the bed of death, pale and emaciated, as you now see me, if God does not sooner take you to Himself. The friends of my youth have disappeared like the flowers which have passed away with the spring, and for whose places you seek in vain, like the dew which sparkles for a moment on the flowers and is gone.” 

The next day, James feeling that his end was near felt it his duty and delight, though weak in body, to continue his advice to his daughter. 

“I have seen the world,” said he, “as well as other people, in the days when I accompanied the young count on his travels. If there was anything in the large cities superb or magnificent, I went there. 

“I spent whole weeks in pleasure. If there was a brilliant assembly or a lively conversation, I saw and heard as well as my young master. I shared in the most exquisite meals, and of the scarcest wines, and always had more than I wished for. 

“But all these worldly pleasures left me with an empty heart. I assure you solemnly, my dear Mary, that a few moments of peaceful thought and fervent prayer in our arbour in Eichbourg, or under this roof that covers us now, gave me more real joy than all the vain pleasures of the world. 

“Seek then your happiness in a life of service to our blessed Saviour. You will find Him and He will bless you. 

“Too well you know, my child, that I have not been without misfortune in this life. When I lost your dear mother my heart was for a long time like a dry and barren garden, whose soil, burned by the sun, cracks open, and seems to sigh for rain. 

“In this way I languished, thirsting for consolation, and at last I found it in the Lord. Oh, my dear daughter, there will be days in your life when your heart also will be like dry and barren ground; but let it not dishearten you. 

“As the thirsty ground calls not for rain in vain, but God sends the refreshing showers, so if you seek your consolation from God, He will refresh your heart as the sweet rain refreshes the thirsty parched earth. 

“Let your confidence in your heavenly Father be unshaken. Firmly believe that there is nothing He will not do for those He loves. Sometimes He may lead us by paths of grief, but be sure that these paths lead to unmingled happiness. 

“Do you recollect, my good Mary, all the grief you felt when, after our painful walk, I fell down with fatigue in the middle of the road? Now you can see that this accident was the means which God made use of to procure for us the comforts which we have enjoyed for three years with the good people of this house. 

“Had I not taken ill that day then we should not have come before their door, or their hearts would not have been touched with compassion for us. All the pleasures which we have enjoyed here, all the good which we may have been enabled to do, are so many benefits which sprang from the sickness which at first so sorely distressed you. 

“But you will always find, my dear Mary, that in the troubles of life there are proofs of the Divine goodness, to those who will look for them. 

“If the liberal hand of the Lord has scattered with flowers the mountains and valleys, forests and river-banks, and even the muddy marshes, to give us everywhere the opportunity of admiring the tenderness and beauty of nature, He has also imprinted on all the events of our life the evident traces of His great wisdom, and all His passionate love to man in order that the attentive man may learn by them to love and adore Him. 

“In all our life, we have never had to suffer more than when you were accused of theft, when you were chained and likely to be doomed to death. We were weeping together in prison and lamenting our affliction. 

“Well, even this trial has been a source of great good to us. Looking back upon it we can see that when the young countess favoured you above other young girls, honoured you by admitting you to her company, made you a present of a beautiful gown, and expressed a wish that you should always be near her, there was a danger that these great advantages of life would render you vain and trifling, fond of the things of this world, and apt to forget God. 

“Doubtless the Lord consulted our highest interests when He changed our condition, and banished us from happiness into despair. 

“In the misery of our state, in prison and in poverty of circumstances, we have been enabled to live nearer to Him. He has brought us far from the corrupt influences of large towns into this lonely country where He has prepared for us a better home. 

“Here you are like a flower flourishing in solitude, where, if it has not the admiration of man, it has nothing to fear from his hand. 

“The good and faithful God who has done all these things for us will give a still more happy turn to your life. For I firmly believe that He has answered my prayer, that He will one day show to the world your innocence. 

“When that time shall come I shall be no more, but I can die in peace without seeing it, for I am convinced of your innocence. 

“Yes, my daughter, the pain which you have suffered will yet be the means of leading you to much happiness on earth, though this kind of happiness is the least, and you will see that God’s great design in afflicting us was to sanctify our hearts, and to prepare us for that home to which we can arrive only through tribulation and suffering. 

“Believing this, let not your heart be troubled that you are in misfortune. Believe firmly that God’s tenderness watches over you, and that His care will be sufficient for you in whatever place He chooses to take you. 

“In whatever painful situation you may be placed, say, ‘It is the best place for me. Notwithstanding all that, I am safe, for He has brought me here.’”✿