"I ask your pardon," replied Bessy, humbly. "Sometimes, when I've thought o' my life, and the little pleasure I've had in it, I've believed that, maybe, I was one of those doomed to die by the falling of a star from heaven; 'And the name of the star is called Wormwood; and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.' One can bear pain and sorrow better if one thinks it has been prophesied long before for one: somehow, then it seems as if my pain was needed for the fulfilment; otherways it seems all sent for nothing."
"Nay, Bessy--think!" said Margaret. "God does not willingly inflict. Don't dwell so much on the prophecies, but read the clearer parts of the Bible."

'I ask your pardon,' replied Bessy humbly. 'Sometimes, when I've thought o' my life, and the little pleasure I've had in it, I think I'm one of them as is prophesied to die in Revelations. Otherwise it seems all for nothing.'
'Nay, Bessy!' said Margaret. 'God does not willingly afflict. Don't dwell so much on the prophecies, but read the clearer parts of the Bible.'
