Chapter XXI: Under the Stars

AUNT RUTH had been out all the evening, and when she came home the children were walking up and down the gravel path, waiting for her.

The darkness had fallen, and the young moon had set, so that there was nothing now but the blue vault of heaven studded with twinkling, sparkling stars.

"I love starlight," said Jean, pressing close to her side.

"Yes; the stars seem to bring one so near to God!"

"Where have you been Auntie?" asked Tom.

"I've been to the prayer-meeting," she said. "I want to tell you about the old woman who went to the prayer-meeting last week! It's a lovely story. I have wanted to get home quickly so that I might repeat it to you—"

"Did she tell you?" asked Oswald.

"No; she told a neighbour the next morning, and the neighbour told me, with tears in her eyes, just now."

Aunt Ruth spoke in an unusually eager voice, and all the while she seemed gazing up into the sky.

"This is what the neighbour told me. There is a dear old woman who comes to the prayer-meeting very often. She is very poor, and is thankful for any little bits of work that are put in her way."

"Last week, as she was coming home from the meeting, and looking up at the stars, as we are, she suddenly thought, 'God is my Father! I'll tell Him!'"

"So she said very simply and gently, 'Lord, you know we're very hungry, and there's nothing in the cupboard at home. Please, dear Father, send us something, because you know we are hungry.'"

"So, with a heart at rest, she made her way home, and opened the cottage door."

"'Look here, wife,' called her invalid husband, 'here's a great basket that somebody's sent us!'"

"The old woman cast her eyes upon the hamper, and then, instead of opening it, she sank on her knees by the table."

"'Dear Lord,' she said, 'I knew you'd not forget your hungry children! Thank you, dear, heavenly Father!'"

"Then she rose with a wonderful happiness, and opened the basket."

"As she took out the things one by one, she told her neighbour 'it was just like the Lord,' for there was bread, and butter, tea and sugar, and a piece of bacon! 'And didn't we have a good supper!' she concluded."

"And did that really happen here, auntie?" asked Rose.

"Really happened here!" said Aunt Ruth. "The Lord is the same Lord always, 'rich unto all that call upon Him.'"

"But sometimes we ask for things and don't get an answer?" ventured Tom, in his downright fashion. "Why do you think that is, Auntie?"

"I think it may be this," said Aunt Ruth, slowly, "'your Heavenly Father knoweth what things you have need of.' Sometimes we ask for things we think we have need of, and God sees that to have them would have been the very worst thing for us."

Tom looked thoughtful for a minute, and the others were thinking of instances when they had asked and not received.

"Then how are we to know?" asked Tom at last.

"Ask for the thing you want, simply and trustfully, and say from your heart, 'If it is best for me, if it is according to Thy will—Thou knowest best,' and then leave it."

There was a pause. Then, emboldened by the darkness and the tenderness of the conversation, Jean said softly:

"I did so want something the other day, and I prayed for it; I daresay you'll think it nonsense, but I thought my tennis shoes were too shabby to go to that party in. But God did not send them, and I did not think I ought to ask mother for them—"

"Well?" said Aunt Ruth gently, pressing her arm. "What did you do?"

"When I found mother said nothing about them, I felt bad for a little while; then I prayed again, and asked Jesus not to let me mind so much—"

"And then?" asked Aunt Ruth softly.

"Then—well, I forgot all about it in the end, and had a very nice afternoon."

"That is just the way I find the Lord Jesus does help," exclaimed Aunt Ruth. "To the old woman who is hungry, He sends bread and all she wants, and to the little girl who is worried about her shoes, He sends the best thing for her in His wisdom and love—an acquiescence in His provision, and then forgetfulness of what she thought would spoil her day!"

They turned indoors now, and Jean with tear-filled eyes ran up to her bedroom, and knelt down for one instant.

"Dear Lord Jesus," she whispered, "I know you know best; help me to trust you always!"