It was as if God had promised the child this
favor on my behalf, and that I must needs fulfil the contract. I held my
undesirable burden a little while; and, after setting the child down, it
still followed me, holding two of my fingers and playing with them, just
as if it were a child of my own. It was a foundling, and out of all
human kind it chose me to be its father! We went up stairs into another
ward; and, on coming down again, there was this same child waiting for
me, with a sickly smile round its defaced mouth, and in its dim red
eyes. . . . . I never should have forgiven myself if I had repelled its
advances."--ED.]
After leaving the workhouse, we drove to Norris Green; and Mrs. ------
showed me round the grounds, which are very good and nicely kept. O
these English homes, what delightful places they are! I wonder how many
people live and die in the workhouse, having no other home, because other
people have a great deal more home than enough. . . . . We had a very
pleasant dinner, and Mr. M------ and I walked back, four miles and a
half, to Liverpool, where we arrived just before midnight.
Why did Christ curse the fig-tree? It was not in the least to blame; and
it seems most unreasonable to have expected it to bear figs out of
season. Instead of withering it away, it would have been as great a
miracle, and far more beautiful, and, one would think, of more beneficent
influence, to have made it suddenly rich with ripe fruit.
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