Gertrude's Diary - Three

Chapter Three

In Him we live, and move, and have our being.

I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God being with him.

Be not weary in well doing.

We have had a strange time, we girls; I have been so busy that I could not write in my diary, and now I don’t know where to commence.

In the first place we quarreled with Anna Dudley. That isn't strange; you see we are always quarrelling with her, or she is with us; I don't know as there can be a more disagree able girl than she has been. But that isn’t right; I didn't mean to say it. If it were not for spoiling a page in my diary, I would tear it out.

We hadn't spoken to Anna in three days and we said we never would have anything more to do with her. Then her little baby sister got sick, and one day she died! We were just as sorry for Anna as we could be, for the baby was so sweet and cunning! She was two years old, and one day Anna brought her to school, and she kissed us all.

We got together and talked it up, and said we ought to go and see Anna, but we did not want to, for we couldn't think of anything to say to her.

We asked Mr. Neale about it, and he told us to do just what we thought we would like to have Anna do, if we were in her place; and at last we said we would go.

On the way we tried to think of something to say, and we made up two or three things that sounded nice, only none of us wanted to say them. At last Ruthie said: "Girls, let's just kiss her and not say anything."

And that is just what we did. She came down to see us, and we each went up and kissed her, and Prissy gave her a rosebud, and then she began to cry.

"You don't know how she loved flowers," she said, meaning her little baby sister. "She would pucker up her little nose to smell them whenever she saw any; and oh, to think that I will never see her again !"

Then she cried so hard, that all we could do was to cry too. Only what she said made me think of one of our verses, and I spoke right up before I thought: "Why, Anna," I said, "you will see her again, you know. She 'sleeps in Jesus.' He said, ‘Suffer the little ones to come unto me.'"

She stopped sobbing and looked at me. "When do you mean ?" she asked.

"Why, when He comes. 'Even so, them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.' When He comes after all His people He will bring Daisy along; and then you will see her."

"That is so," she said. She remembered the verse, for she always learns her verses. "But then, maybe I will be so afraid that I can't take any comfort with looking at her."

It seemed such a strange thing to say! I did not know how to answer her, but she looked right at me as though she thought I would. "I don't want to be afraid of Him when He comes," I said. It was all I could think of to say, and it was just what I meant. "I don't either," said Ruth; "my father will be along, you know, and I want to be glad to see him. Girls, we ought to get ready, so we would be sure not to be afraid. Just think how dreadful it would seem to have Daisy shouting out after us, and we so scared that we couldn't smile back on her!"

Well, we stayed quiet awhile and talked with Anna, and told her we were sorry for her, and she thanked us for coming to see her, and said she was sorry that she had acted so in school that last day. She said she was so worried about little Daisy then, that she couldn't help being cross. Then we kissed her and came away, and we all said we would try to be real good to Anna after this, and not quarrel with her any more. But to-day in school she was almost as cross as ever, and it was just the hardest work not to tell her she was too hateful for us to have anything to do with her! We all kept pretty still, but it was dreadfully hard work. Namie did say that we had one week of peace this term; she meant the week that Anna stayed out because Daisy was sick. She was sorry she said it, right away, and looked up quickly at Anna, but she had muttered it so that we think Anna did not hear. I told Mother about it tonight, and asked her if she didn't think it strange that Anna should be so cross after we had been good to her. All the answer she made was to ask me if there wasn't another verse on our card that would help us. So I read them all over carefully, after I came up-stairs, and I guess mother means:

"Be not weary in well doing."

Come back on January 13 for Chapter Four!