"Oh, no! you can't, Sir," said Ellen, sadly.
"Well, let us see," said he "perhaps I can. What is it that has troubled you so much?"
"I have lost my mother, Sir," said Ellen.
"She is very ill, Sir, and obliged to go away over the sea to France, to get well; and papa could not take me with her," said poor Ellen, weeping again, "and I am obliged to go to be among strangers. Oh, what shall I do?"
"Is your mother obliged to go to Europe for her health?"
"Oh yes, Sir; nothing else would have made her go, but the doctor said she would not live long if she didn't go, and that would cure her."
"Then you hope to see her come back by-and-by, don't you?"
"Oh yes, Sir; but it won't be this great, great, long while; it seems to me as if it was for ever."
"Ellen, do you know who it is that sends sickness and trouble upon us?"
"Yes, Sir, I know; but I don't feel that that makes it any easier."
"Do you know _why_ he sends it? He is the God of love he does not trouble us willingly he has said so; why does he ever make us suffer? do you know?"
"Sometimes he sees that if he lets them alone, his children will love some dear thing on the earth better than himself, and he knows they will not be happy if they do so; and then, because he loves them, he takes it away perhaps it is a dear mother, or a dear daughter or else he hinders their enjoyment of it, that they may remember him, and give their whole hearts to him. He wants their whole hearts, that he may bless them. Are you one of his children, Ellen?"
"No, Sir," said Ellen, with swimming eyes, but cast down to the ground.
"Why are you afraid not? What makes you think so?"
"Mamma said I could not love him at all, if I did not love him best; and, oh! Sir," said Ellen, weeping, "I do love Mamma a great deal better."
"You love your mother better than you do the Saviour?"
"Oh yes, Sir," said Ellen; "how can I help it?"
"Then, if he had left you your mother, Ellen, you would never have cared or thought about him?"
"I don't know, Sir," said Ellen, weeping again "oh, Sir! how can I help it?"
"Then Ellen, can you not see the love of your heavenly Father in this trial? He saw that his little child was in danger of forgetting him; and he loved you, Ellen; and so he has taken your dear mother, and sent you away where you will have no one to look to but him; and now he says to you, 'My daughter, give _me_ thy heart.' Will you do it, Ellen?"