"You remember when you read us Dante 'Thou who through the City of Fire
alive art passing'? You used to preach in church about beginning the
eternal life now, and making a little heaven below, I'm sure that is as
true of hell. I began my eternal life five years ago, but it was in
hell, and I shall go on living in that fire of torture forever, apart
from all I love. I tried to get out by doing good to others, but it was
of no avail. I thought never to tell you this, but something made me,
after you--you gave your life for me--!"
"And had you forgotten," said the minister tenderly, "That the blood of
Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin? And that he said, 'Come
now and let us reason together, Though your sins be as scarlet they
shall be as white as snow?'"
"I gave up all right to that when I gave up God on the mountain."
"But God did not give up you," said the minister. "Do you think a true
father would cast out a child because it got angry and shook its fist
in his face? You will find Him again when you search for Him with all
your heart. You have told Him you were sorry, and He has promised to
forgive. You can't save yourself, but He can save you. Now, son, go and
tell Marilyn everything."
"Do you mean it,--Father?"
"I mean it--Son. The doctor is coming by and by to take off
these bandages, and I want the first thing that my eyes rest upon after
my dear wife's face, to be the faces of you two. My beloved children."
* * * * * Sabbath Valley lay tucked warm and white beneath a blanket of snow. All
the week it had been coming down, down, in great white flakes of
especially sorted sizes, filling the air mightily with winter clean and
deep. Here in the fastnesses of the hills it seemed that the treasure
troves of the sky had been opened to make all beautiful and quiet while
winter passed that way. Lone Valley was almost obliterated, pierced
with sharp pine trees in bunches here and there, like a flock of pins
in a pincushion, and the hills rose gently on either side like a vast
amphitheatre done in white and peopled thick with trees in heavy white
furs.
The Highway was almost impassable for a day or two, but the state snow
plow passed over as soon as the snow stopped falling, and left a white
pavement with white walls either side. The tunnel through the mountains
was only a black dot in the vast whiteness, and Pleasant View Station
wore a heavy cap of snow dripping down in lavish fringes edged with
icicles. The agent's little shanty up the mountain was buried out of
sight behind a snow drift and had to be dug out from the back, and no
Lake Train ran any more. The express was five hours late. Stark
Mountain loomed white against the sky. And over in Sabbath Valley the
night it stopped snowing all the villagers were out shovelling their
walks and calling glad nothings back and forth as they flung the white
star dust from their shovels, and little children came out with rubber
boots and warm leggings and wallowed in the beauty. The milkman got out
an old sleigh and strung a line of bells around his horse. The boys and
girls hurried up the mountain to their slide with home made sleds and
laughing voices, and the moon came up looking sweetly from a sudden
clearing sky.