FullReads

“Haven’t you spelled it wrong?” asked his father. “I guess it’s ‘l-e-a-s-t’–‘least’–smallest.”

“It’s in my new red book,” answered Martin, perching on the watering trough. “I’ll find the place.”

Martin did not know much about New Testament books or chapters, but he knew that verse was on the eighty-second page. Martin had noted the little numbers at the bottom of the pages.

“Here ’tis!” triumphantly exclaimed Martin.

His father took the book. Martin’s eager finger pointed to the verse.

“Lest coming suddenly, he find you sleeping.”

The words faced the stage-driver. Well did he know their meaning. Years ago in his mother’s home he had been taught from the Bible. His eyes now ran over the preceding verses. He caught parts of them. “The Son of man is as a man taking a far journey.” “Watch ye therefore.” “Ye know not when the master of the house cometh.” “Lest coming suddenly, he find you sleeping.”

“Don’t you know what ‘l-e-s-t’ means?” asked Martin, eager for the explanation.

“Oh–why, yes,” responded his father. “It means ‘For fear’ he should come suddenly.”

“Who?” asked Martin.

“The Lord,” returned his father gravely.

“Why shouldn’t they be sleeping?” asked Martin.

“Who?” said his father, turning to attend to the horses.

“I don’t know,” said Martin. “I mean my verse.”

“Martin,” stated the stage-driver, “I’m no hand at explaining. Don’t ask any more questions.”

Every Sunday after this Miss Bruce persisted in asking whether the boys read in their Testaments.

“It’s mean the way some of the boys don’t read any, after her giving us all nice red Testaments,” Martin told his father. “I don’t read much, but I ought to read some, after her fringing that red ribbon! Most verses I read are short, like ‘Lest coming suddenly, he find you sleeping.'”

The stage-driver moved uneasily at the words.

“He hasn’t forgot that verse after all these weeks?” thought the man.

“I know what that verse means now,” went on Martin. “Miss Bruce told me. She says some folks forget they’ve got to die, and they ought to be ready for that. A good many folks don’t become Christians, and Miss Bruce says she’s afraid they’ll be like that verse, ‘Lest coming suddenly, he find you sleeping.’ You and I won’t be that way, will we, father? I’m going to try to be ready. Ain’t you? Miss Bruce says folks ought to always be.”

His father’s eyes were on the harness he was buckling.

“I hope you’ll be ready, Martin,” answered the father, “even if I ain’t.”

The place where Martin lived was a small settlement distant from town. Martin’s father, Mr. Colver, not only three days in the week drove the stage, but other days acted as a sort of expressman, bringing freight in a large wagon over the miles from town. One night about nine o’clock, Mr. Colver was on the long, lonely road coming toward home. He had a very heavy load on his wagon. The wheels scraped on the wagon bottom, and the team went with a heavy, dragging sound.

As the heavy wagon came opposite a clump of white blossoming buckeye trees, one of the fore wheels of the dragging wagon suddenly gave way and fell off. Mr. Colver was thrown violently from the wagon’s high seat into the road, among the tumbling heavy boxes and barrels. The sharp corner of one box struck Mr. Colver’s head near the temple.

The weary horses waited to be urged forward again. They did not know that their driver lay insensible in the road.

It was early gray morning before one of the teamsters who boarded at the Colvers’ found Mr. Colver lying still insensible, and brought him home. The blow on the head had been a very dangerous one. Martin gazed awestruck at his father’s shut eyes and unconscious face.

“I wonder if pa’s going to die?” the boy anxiously thought. “I wonder if pa’s ready?”

The sorrowful hours came and went. Mr. Colver regained consciousness, but for weeks he felt the effects of the blow that might have smitten him never to rise.

One night when Martin was going to his room, his father called weakly to the boy.

Martin turned back. He found his mother sitting beside his father.

“Martin,” said his father with grave earnestness, “your mother’s been reading to me from your Testament. We’ve been talking about Bible things that we haven’t paid much attention to. We were both brought up better, Martin. The Lord’s had mercy upon me. He might have taken me suddenly that night, but he knew I wasn’t ready, and he had mercy on me. And now, lad, your mother and I thought we would just kneel right down here to-night, and ask the Lord to take each of us, and make us his own. You want to, don’t you, my son?”

Martin nodded, and for the first time the stage-driver’s family knelt together. They whose souls had been sleeping were awake.