Jerry stepped into the house.
Here was Scamp's golden opportunity.
Did he lose it? Not he. Half a moment later he might have been seen athis old game of diving and scuttling, his tail again tucked under hislegs, a hangdog look on his face, but victorious for all that, forJerry's brownest and most crusty loaf was between his teeth.
Woe to any one who attempted to dispossess Scamp of that loaf; his bloodwould have been up then, and serious battle would have ensued.
In safety he bore it through the perilous road, down the ladder into thecellar, and panting and delighted, looking like one who had done a gooddeed, which indeed he had, he laid the bread under Flo's nose.
The smell of the good food came sweetly to the nostrils of the starvingchild, it roused her from the stupor into which she had been sinking,she opened her eyes, and stretched out her hot little hand to clutch atit eagerly. The dog crouched at her side, his lips watering, his teethaching to set themselves once more into its crisp brown crust.
Just then footsteps stopped in reality at the cellar door, footstepsthat had no idea of going away, footsteps that meant to come right inand find out about everything.
For a moment Flo's heart stood still, then gave a great cry of joy, forlittle Mrs Jenks stood by her side.
"Who sent you?" asked the trembling child.
"God sent me, little Darrell," said the woman, bending over her with,oh! such a tender, loving face.
"Then there be a God, after all," said Flo, and in her weakness andgladness she fainted away.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
THE BED GOD LENT TO FLO.
Yes, there was a God for Flo--a God and a Father.
For some wise and loving reason, all of which she should know some day,He had tested her very sorely, but in her hour of extremest and darkestneed He sent her great and unexpected succour, and that night Flo leftthe gloomy and wretched cellar in Duncan Street, never to return to it.She was unconscious of this herself, and consequently gave the miserableplace no farewell looks.
From that long swoon into which she sank she awoke with reason quitegone, so was unaware of anything that happened to her.
She knew nothing of that drive in the cab, her head pillowed on MrsJenks' breast; nothing of that snowy little bed in Mrs Jenks' roomwhere they laid her; nothing of the kind face of the doctor as he bentover her; nothing of anything but the hard battle with fever and pain,the hard and fierce conflict with death she had got to fight. For aweek the doctor and Mrs Jenks both thought that she must die, andduring all that time she had never one gleam of reason, never oneinstant's interval from severe pain. At the end of that time the crisiscame, as it always does, in sleep. She fell asleep one evening moaningwith all the exhaustion caused by fever and suffering, but the faithfullittle woman who sat by her side marked how by degrees her moans grewless, then ceased; her breathing came slower, deeper, calmer.
She was sleeping a refreshing, healing sleep.
Late that night Flo awoke.
Very slowly her eyes, the light of consciousness once more in them,travelled round the apartment. The last thing she remembered was lyingvery ill and very hungry on the damp cellar floor, the dog's faithfulface close to her, and a loaf of bread within reach of her starvinglips. Where was she now?
In a pure, white, delicious bed, in a room that might have been a littleroom out of heaven, so lovely did it look in her eyes. Perhaps she wasdead and was in heaven, and God had made her lie down and go to sleepand get rested before she did anything else.
Well, she had not had enough sleep yet, she was dreadfully, dreadfullytired still. She turned her weary head a very little--a dog was lyingon the hearth-rug; a dog with the head, and back, and eyes of Scamp, andthose eyes were watching her now lazily, but still intently. And seatedfarther away was Mrs Jenks, darning a boy's sock, while a boy's jacketlay on her lap.
The sight of the little woman's pale face brought back further and oldermemories to Flo, and she knew that this little room was not part ofheaven, but was just Mrs Jenks' beautiful little earthly room.
How had she got here? however had she got here from that cellar whereshe had lain so ill and unable to move?
Perhaps after eating that bread that Scamp had brought her she had gotmuch stronger, and had remembered, as in a kind of dream, herappointment with Mrs Jenks, and still in a dream, had got up and goneto her, and perhaps when she reached her room she had got very faintagain and tired, and Mrs Jenks had put her into her little bed, to restfor a bit. But how long she must have stayed, and how at home Scamplooked! It was night now, quite night, and Mrs Jenks must want to liedown in her own nice pleasant bed; tired and weak as she was, she mustgo away.
"Please, mum," she said faintly, and her voice sounded to herself thin,and weak, and miles off. In an instant the little pale woman wasbending over her. "Did you speak to me, darling?"
"Please, mum," said Flo, "ef you was to 'old me werry tight fur a bit,I'll get up, mum."
"Not a bit of you," said Mrs Jenks, smiling at her, "you'll not get upto-night, nor to-morrow neither. But you're better, ain't you, dearie?"
"Yes, mum, but we mustn't stay no later, we must be orf, Scamp and me.'Tis werry late indeed, mum."
"Well, so it be," said Mrs Jenks, "'tis near twelve o'clock, and wotyou 'as got to do is not to stir, but to drink this, and then go tosleep."
"Ain't this yer bed, mum?" asked Flo, when she had taken something veryrefreshing out of a china mug which Mrs Jenks held to her lips; "ain'tthis yer bed as I'm a lyin' in, mum?"
"It is, and it isn't," replied Mrs Jenks. "It ain't just that exactlynow, fur God wanted the loan of it from me, fur a few nights, fur one ofHis sick little ones."
"And am I keepin' the little 'un out o' it, mum?"
"Why no, Flo Darrell, you can hardly be doing that, for you are the verychild God wants it fur. He has given me the nursing of you for a bit,and now you have got to speak no more, but to go to sleep." Flo did notsleep at once, but she asked no further questions; she lay very still, adelicious languor of body stealing over her, a sense of protection andrepose wrapping her soul in an elysium of joy. There was a God afterall, and this God had heard her cry. While she was lying in such deepdespair, doubting Him so sorely, He was busy about her, not fetchingJaney, who could do so little, but going for Mrs Jenks, who wascapable, and kind, and clever. He had given Mrs Jenks full directionsabout her, had desired her to nurse and take care of her.
She need have no longer any compunction in lying in that soft bed, inreceiving all that tender and novel treatment. God meant her to haveit--it was all right. When to-morrow, or the day after, she was quitewell and rested again she would try and find out more about God, andthank Him in person, if she could, for His great kindness to her, andever after the memory of that kindness would be something to cheer andhelp her in her cellar-life.
How much she should like to see God! She felt that God must bebeautiful.
Before her confused and dreamy eyes the angels in their white dresseskept moving up and down, and as they moved they sang "Glory, glory,glory."
And Flo knew they were surrounding God, and she tried to catch a glimpseof God Himself through their shining wings. She was half asleep whenshe saw them, she was soon wholly asleep; she lay in a dreamless,unbroken slumber all night. And this was the beginning of her recovery,and of her knowledge of God. When the doctor came the next day he saidshe was better, but though the fever had left her, she had still verymuch pain to suffer. In her fall she had given her foot a most severesprain, and though the swelling and first agony were gone, yet it oftenached, without a moment's intermission, all day and all night. Then herfever had turned to rheumatic, and those little thin bones would feelfor many a day the long lie they had had on the damp cellar floor. ButFlo's soul was so happy that her body was very brave to bear this severepain; such a flood of love and gratitude was lighting up her heart, thathad the ceaseless aching been worse she would have borne it with patientsmiles and unmurmuring li
ps. For day after day, by little and little,as she was able to bear it, Mrs Jenks told her what she herself calledthe Story of God.
She began with Adam and Eve, and explained to her what God had done forthem; she described that lovely Garden of Eden until Flo with her vividimagination saw the whole scene; she told how the devil came and temptedEve, and how Eve fell, and in her fall, dishonesty, and sin, and misery,all came into the world. And because sin was in the world--and sincould not remain unpunished--Adam and Eve must die, and their childrenmust die, and all men must die. And then she further explained to thelistening child how, though they were sinners, the good God still caredfor them, and for their children, and for all the people that shouldcome after them; and because He so loved the world He sent His onlybegotten Son into the