She never forgot while
teaching him, that he had within him a priceless treasure of which he knew
nothing--that immortal spirit which must go on living always,
somewhere--and so, more and more earnestly her cry went up to God: "Teach
me how to teach this boy about Thee!"
At last the opportunity come. One day Jack pointed upwards at the sun, and
showed by signs that he wished to know who had made that great light in the
sky--had his lady made it?
She shook her head, as he next made signs for the names of two or three
people, asking whether the sun had been made by them; and then she pointed
to heaven and spelled G-O-D. She told him three things about God: He was
great, He was kind, He was always looking at Jack.
Soon after this the boy came again with his eager "_What? what?_"--and
explained that he could not find out how the sun was made, because it was
so bright that he could not keep looking at it; but he said he knew all
about the moon. It was rolled up into a ball and then sent across the sky,
just as he would roll a marble along the floor. And the stars--he knew all
about them too; someone had cut them out with a pair of scissors, and stuck
them into the sky.
I need not tell you that the children, who had just been learning that the
stars are suns, were much amused at this notion of Jack's.
And now this poor boy began to search for God. He came to his lady and told
her that she was "bad Ma'am," and had told what was not true; for he said
he had been everywhere to look for God, he had even got up in the night to
try to find Him; but nowhere, in the streets or in the fields, had he seen
anyone tall enough to reach the sky, so that he could put up his hand and
stick the bright stars there.
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