en, one big
thaler had flown into my lap. With these I was able to buy mother many
things that she stood in sore need of, and, though she died on New
Year's morning, she had had many little comforts during her last days.'

"The Anointed cast another look full of meaning at Peter, when a large
and beautiful angel, the spirit of the mother of the cherub, began: 'If
you will permit me, O, holy Jesus, I, too, would like to say a word in
favor of the condemned. Before Hannele came home with the nuts, I lay in
bed without hope, or help in my great suffering. I had lost all faith,
for my prayers had not been heard, and in the bitterness of my heart,
it seemed that you, who were said to be the friend of the poor on
earth, and God the Father, had forgotten us in our misery, in order to
overwhelm the rich with greater gifts. In my distress, and that of the
child; I had learned to curse the day on which we were born. Oh! how
wild were my thoughts during the time that Hannele was trying to sell
the sheep, and did not come home; though I needed her so sorely. I was
often so thirsty that my mouth burned as with fire, and the moments when
I gasped for breath were frequent, and almost unbearable when no one was
there to lift me up. I called those people liars who would persuade the
poor that they had a merciful Father in Heaven, who looked upon them
as his children, and cared for them. But when Hannele came home, and
lighted the little lamp, and I saw her tiny face, where for a long time
I had seen no smile, but only pain and grief, now beaming with joy, when
I saw the nuts and the other good things which she had brought, and saw
her pleasure in them, my belief in thee, O Lord, and in the kind Father
returned, and I ceased not to be grateful to the end. If now, in the
glory of thy magnificence, I know bliss unutterable, I owe it to that
woman, and to the fact that she was good enough to throw the nuts into
Hannele's apron.'

"Peter nodded affirmatively. Then he bowed before the Saviour and said:
'The little gift of the condemned soul has indeed borne better fruit
than I imagined; yet when I tell you what a great sinner she was on
earth....'

"'I know,' the Son of God interrupted him. 'Before we decide upon the
fate of this woman, let us hear what the child did with the rest of the
nuts, for we know that she did not eat them all. Now my little angel,
what became of the last of them? Speak on. Gladly will I listen to you.'

"Hannele