human
I hoped to find you asleep, darling, she said.
gpt
Has it been too much excitement having so many in your room?
human
Oh, no, Auntie. I loved to see them all again. I have had such happy thoughts. Isn’t it nice to be kept awake by happy thoughts? Happy thoughts are good thoughts, and good thoughts come from God. Shall I tell you, Auntie, dear, what I have been thinking about?
gpt
Wouldn’t it be better to tell me in the morning, dearie? It is rather late for a little boy who was an invalid only yesterday to be kept awake even by happy thoughts.
human
I would rather tell you to-night, Auntie. You do not quite understand, do you, that when error is cast out, it is done with, and we do not need to remember anything about it.
gpt
Then tell me, love, what you have been thinking about.
human
I began first of all, Auntie, thinking about Peter.
gpt
Peter, dear?
human
Yes, Auntie, when Jesus called Peter to come to him on the water, at first he was not afraid, and he got out of the boat to go to him. Then he began to be afraid, and as soon as fear crept in, he began to sink. Auntie, I was just like that. At first I was not afraid of the bull. I knew God had given me dominion, and I was trying to realize it. Then the moment I began to be afraid, the bull tossed me. As I was thinking of this perhaps I fell asleep, and it was a dream. But it was so real. I seemed to see Peter standing by the bed, but he didn’t look like the picture in the stained-glass window, and he spoke so kindly and gently. ’Little brother,’ he said, ’you have not learned to trust the Master yet.’ It was just as if he remembered there was a time when his faith had failed. I wanted to ask him something, but he was not there, and I was quite wide awake. May it perhaps be, Auntie, that as Christ ’walks life’s troubled angry sea,’ they are with him, those disciples who were always with Jesus, especially Peter, and James, and John; and they are working now, doing his bidding, as they did it in Galilee, watching over and helping those who are still fighting?
gpt
It may be, Carol, we cannot tell. It seems that events which happened two thousand years ago are to you but as yesterday.
human
Why, yes, Auntie; time in God’s kingdom is not measured by years and weeks and months. I shall just love now to think about Peter, and know that my faith will grow stronger, as his did. There are many people who would not have been afraid of the bull. Cousin Alicia told me of a lady in India who, one day, came quite close to a cobra. But she was not afraid, and as she stood quite still and looked at it, the cobra coiled itself into a heap and went to sleep. Then she told me of a gentleman who was shooting game in Africa, and once he was in a position when he could not fire, and a leopard was only a few yards from him, but the animal did not attack him, it ran away into the desert. The lady and the gentleman knew and realized that they had dominion; I hope I shall understand it better some day, and not be afraid of anything.
gpt
You have been taught some strange things, Carol, still they are beautiful; it seems almost too beautiful to be true.
human
Oh, Auntie, nothing can be too beautiful to be true, because only good, and good is always beautiful, is real; evil, and evil is always ugly, is unreal.
gpt
Carol, darling, I wish I could believe that. You are leading me in strange paths. I must not let you talk any more to-night. I am quite sure that it is time a little boy, who has lost so much sleep lately, tried to make up for it.
human
Auntie, I am so longing for Cousin Alicia’s letter,
gpt
What has made you well so quickly, Carol?
human
Ask Auntie, please, Miss Markham, I am not allowed to talk about it, he replied. Miss Markham’s wonderment was considerably increased, for Mrs. Mandeville had only told her, when the boy first came to the Manor, that he had been taught religious tenets which were altogether unorthodox. She did not then connect that remark with the boy’s quick recovery. He often made remarks which surprised her. Sometimes she pondered over a remark he had made, and found there was more in it than at first had appeared. If she attempted to draw him out by questions, he became strangely silent and reserved. Once, it was during a history lesson, Carol exclaimed,
gpt
But evil could have no power, Miss Markham, if everyone knew that God--good--governs. If we had no belief in evil, evil could not hurt us.