One Sunday morning, Jinnie sat with Lafe in the shop. In hours like these they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. The quietude of these precious Sabbath moments made the week, with its arduous tasks, bearable to the sensitive girl.
For several days past Jinnie had noticed Lafe had something on his mind, but she always allowed him to tell her everything in his own good time. Now she felt the time had come. His gray face, worn with suffering, was shining with a heavenly light as he read aloud from a little Bible in his hand. To-day he had chosen the story of Abraham and Sarah. When he came to the part where Abraham said: "Lord, if now I have found favor in Thy sight, pass not away, I pray Thee, from Thy servant," he pronounced the last word with sobbing breath. One quick glance was enough for Jinnie's comprehension.
She leaned forward breathlessly.
"What is it, Lafe?... Something great?"
"Yes, something great, lassie, and in God's name most wonderful."
Before Jinnie's world of imagery passed all the good she had desired for Lafe. His softly spoken, "In God's name most wonderful," thrilled her from head to foot.
"And you've been keeping it from me, Lafe," she chided gently. "Please, please, tell me."
Lafe sat back in the wheel chair and closed his eyes. "Wait, child," he breathed hesitatingly. "Wait a minute!"
As Jinnie watched him, she tried to stifle the emotion tugging at her heart--to keep back the tears that welled into her eyes. Perhaps what he had to tell her would make her cry. Jinnie hoped not, for she disliked to do that. It was so childlike, so like Blind Bobbie, who always had either a beatific smile on his pale lips, or a mist shining in his rock-gray eyes.
At length Lafe sighed a long, deep-drawn sigh, and smiled.
"Jinnie," he began---"Yes, Lafe."
"I've been wonderin' if you remember the story of the little feller God sent to Peg an' me--the one I told you would a been six years old."
"Yes, I remember, Lafe."
"An' how good Peggy was----"
"Oh, how good Peggy always is!" interjected Jinnie.
"Yes," breathed Lafe, dreamily. "May God bless my woman in all her trials!"
Jinnie hitched her chair nearer his and slipped her arm about his neck soothingly.
"She doesn't have trials you don't share, Lafe," she declared.
Lafe straightened up.
"Yes, Peg has many, lassie, I can't help 'er with, an' she'll have a many more. To get to tell you something, Jinnie, I asked Peg to take Bobbie out with 'er. We can't turn the little feller from the club room when he ain't out with Peg; can we, Jinnie?"