ath in Jason Day's wood
lot. One glowing, warm October afternoon the girl and the gentle little
parson met on the cow path through Mr. Day's upper pasture.
"Ah, my dear!" he said, shaking hands. "Where are you bound for?"
"I don't know whether I had better tell you, or not, sir," she returned,
smiling, yet with some gravity. "You see, I was going to get comfort."
"Comfort?"
"Yes, sir. You see, sometimes I get to thinking of--of Daddy so much
that the whole world seems just made up of _my_ trouble!" said Janice,
with a sob. "Do you know what I mean, sir? Just as though me and my
troubles were the most important things in existence--the _only_ things,
in fact."
"Ah--yes. I see--I see," whispered Mr. Middler, patting her shoulder,
but looking away from her tear-streaked face. "We are all that
way--sometimes, Janice. All that way."
"And then I go somewhere to get out of myself,--to--to get comfort."
"I see."
"And so I am going now to the place I call The Overlook. It's a great
rock up yonder. I scramble up on top of it, and from that place I can
see so much of the world that, by and by, I begin to realize just how
small I really am, and how small, in comparison, my troubles must be in
the whole great scheme of things. I begin to understand, then," she
added, softly, "that God has so much to 'tend to in the Universe that He
can't give me first chance _always_. I've got to wait my turn."
"Oh, but my dear!" murmured the doctrinarian. "I wouldn't limit the
power of the Almighty--even in my thoughts."
"No-o. But--but God does just seem more _human_ and close to me if I
think of Him as very busy--yet thoughtful and kind for us all.
Just--just like my Daddy, only on a bigger scale, Mr. Middler."
The minister looked at her gravely for a moment and then took her hand
again. "Suppose you show me that place of comfort?" he suggested,
quietly.
They went on together through the pasture and up into the wood lot. They
came out upon an unexpected opening in the wood, at the beginning of a
great gash in the hillside. At the center of this opening was a huge
boulder, surrounded by hazelnut bushes, to which the brown leaves still
clung.
"You can climb up easily from the back. Let me show you," said Janice,
who had by now got control of her tears, and was more like her smiling,
cheerful self.
She ran up the incline, sure-footed as a goat; but at the more difficult
place she gave the minister her hand. He was muc
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