As they went along they heard of a sudden the
crowing of several cocks above. At this sound, which she had not heard
for twelve years, little Elizabeth felt her heart so affected that she
could contain herself no longer, but throwing her arms about John's
neck, she bathed his cheeks with her tears. At length she spake--
"Dearest John," said she, "everything down here is very beautiful, and
the little people are kind, and do nothing to injure me, but still I
have always been uneasy, nor ever felt any pleasure till I began to
love you; and yet that is not pure pleasure, for this is not a right
way of living, such as it should be for human beings. Every night I
dream of my dear father and mother, and of our church-yard, where the
people stand so piously at the church-door waiting for my father, and
I could weep tears of blood that I cannot go into the church with
them, and worship God as a human being should; for this is no
Christian life we lead down here, but a delusive half heathen one. And
only think, dear John, that we can never marry, as there is no priest
to join us. Do, then, plan some way for us to leave this place; for I
cannot tell you how I long to get once more to my father, and among
pious Christians."
John too had not been unaffected by the crowing of the cocks, and he
felt what he had never felt here before, a longing after the land
where the sun shines.
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