' GOD'S PEACE ' 355
Half-laughingly, half-seriously I say, 'Take care, dearest, that you are not too sure in your hope. Don't you think there would be time enough later to make our child's garments.'
She looks at me with tears in her eyes. ' You must not talk like that. I won't even think of anything so sad. What is the meaning of all our love, if I should not be able to bear your child, and your child must not come to a poor and unprepared home. Neither shall he wear clothes bought in the shops, strange clothes in which no loving thoughts are hidden. That is the reason I make his clothes now, while I am strong enough and quite well. What later will happen one never knows. But should I happen to die when he comes, you will, later on, when he is old enough to understand, be able to tell him that his mother had looked after him as far as she was able.
'Therefore don't be angry with me and don't think that I am either sentimental or over-confident. Could God possibly be envious of the woman who thinks beforehand of the welfare of the child for A iiom she is ready to give her life.'
These last words she said to me, when in the dark evening we stood together on Rough-Hill, and she gave me her hand in farewell. I drew her towards me and whispered in her ear: 'You dearest of all mothers.'
