You and I,
Cosmo, would have our house a place of refuge.--But you had better
go to bed now. There is no reason in tiring two people, when one is
enough."
"But, papa, I got up because I was so cold I could not sleep. If
you will let me, I would much rather sit with you. I shall be much
more comfortable here."
That his son should have been cold in the night distressed the
laird. He felt as if, for the sake of strangers, he had neglected
his own--the specially sent. He would have persuaded Cosmo to go to
his father's bed, which was in a warmer room, but the boy begged so
to be allowed to remain that he yielded.
They had talked in a low voice for fear of disturbing the sleeper,
and now were silent. Cosmo rolled himself in his plaid, lay down at
his father's feet, and was soon fast asleep: with his father there,
the chamber had lost all its terrors, and was just like any other
home-feeling room of the house. Many a time in after years did that
night, that room, that fire, and the feeling of his father over his
head, while the bad lord lay snoring within the dark curtains, rise
before him; and from the memory he would try to teach himself,
that, if he were towards his great Father in his house as he was
then towards his earthly father in his, he would never fear
anything.
To know one's-self as safe amid storm and darkness, amid fire and
water, amid disease and pain, even during the felt approach of
death, is to be a Christian, for that is how the Master felt in the
hour of darkness, because he knew it a fact.
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