pathising eyes, until she could trace the whole
weary journey through the arid desert sands.
"And now tell me, friend," Clarice ended, "why our Lord deals so
differently with thee and with me. Are we not both His children? Yet
to thee He hath given the desire of thine heart, and on mine He lays His
hand, and says, `No, child, thou must not have it.'"
"I suppose, beloved," was Heliet's gentle answer, "that the treatment
suitable for consumption will not answer for fever. We are both sick of
the deadly disease of sin; but it takes a different development in each.
Shall we wonder if the Physician bleeds the one, and administers
strengthening medicines to the other?"
Clarice's lip quivered, but she rocked Rose's cradle without answering.
"There is also another consideration," pursued Heliet. "If I mistake
not--to alter the figure--we have arrived at different points in our
education. If one of us can but decline `_puer_,' while the other is
half through the syntax, is it any wonder if the same lesson be not
given to us to learn? Dear Clarice, all God's children need keeping
down. I have been kept down all these years by my physical sufferings.
That is not appointed to thee; thou art tried in another way. Shall we
either marvel or murmur because our Father sees that each needs a
different class of discipline?"
"Oh, Heliet, if I might have had thine! It seems to me so much the
lighter cross to carry."
"Then, dear, I am the less honoured--the further from the full share of
the fellowship of our Lord's sufferings."
Clarice shook her head as if she hardly saw it in that light.
"Clarice, let me tell thee a parable which I read the other day in the
writings of the holy Fathers. There were once two monks, dwelling in
hermits' cells near to each other, each of whom had one choice tree
given him to cultivate. When this had lasted a year, the tree of the
one was in flourishing health, while that of the other was all stunted
and bare. `Why, brother,' said the first, `what hast thou done to thy
tree?' `Now, judge thou, my brother,' replied the second, `if I could
possibly have done more for my tree than I have done. I watched it
carefully every day. When I thought it looked dry, I prayed for rain;
when the ground was too wet, I prayed for dry weather; I prayed for
north wind or south wind, as I saw them needed. All that I asked, I
received; and yet look at my poor tree! But how didst thou treat thine?
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