Fern Leaves from Fanny's Portfolio Author:Fanny Fern Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 18 THE WIDOW'S TRIALS. down like a flower. God is the God of the widow and the fatherless. I suppose you find it so ? " said he, looking into the widow's face... more ». " I can searcely tell," said Janie. "This was a lightning flash from a summer cloud. My eyes are blinded ; [ cannot see the bow of promise." "Wrong; all wrong," said Uncle John. "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. You ought to be resigned. I 'm afraid you don't enjoy religion. Afflictions are mercies in disguise. I 'll lend you this volume of ' Dew-Drops' to read. You must get submissive, somehow, or you will have some other trouble sent upon you. Good morning." Uncle John was a rigid seetarian, of the bluest sehool of divinity ; enjoyed an immense reputation for sanctity, than which nothing was dearer to him, save the contents of his pocket-book. It was his glory to be the Alpha and Omega of parish gatherings and committees; to be consulted on the expediency of sending tracts to the Kan garoo Islands; to be present-at the laying of cornerstones for embryo churches; to shine conspicuously at ordinations, donation visits, Sabbath-sehool celebrations colportcur meetings, — in short, anything that smackco of a church-steeple, or added one inch to the length at:,i brc,- Jth of his pharisuic-al skirt. He pitied the poor, us every god Christian should ; but he never allowed them to jut their h;m,l-. i;i nis pocket: — that was a territory THE WIDOW'S TRIALS. 19 over which the chureh had no control, — it belonged entirely to the other side of the fence. Uncle John sat in his counting-room, looking very satisfactorily at the proof-sheets of " The Morning Star," of which he was editor. He had just glanced over his long list of subscribers, and congratulated himself that matters were in such a prosperous ...« less