The Nuts | Page 5

.'

"But Peter interrupted her. He had heard enough, and as he knew that it
was impossible for any one in Heaven or Hell to tell an untruth, he
nodded to her, saying: 'That was, beyond dispute, a good deed, but it is
too small to counterbalance the great weight of your bad deeds. Perhaps
it may lighten your punishment. Still great riches were meted out to
you on earth, and what were a few nuts to you! The motive that urged
you to bestow them is pleasing in the sight of the Lord, I acknowledge;
but as I said before, your charity was too paltry for you to be released
from your pains because of it.'
"He turned to go, but a clear voice of wonderful sweetness held him
back. It was that of the Saviour, who advanced with majestic dignity
towards the apostle and spoke: 'Let us first hear if the alms-giving of
which we have just learned was really too small to plead for leniency
towards this sinning soul. Let us hear'--turning to the angel--'what
became of the nuts.'
"'O dear Saviour,' answered the angel, 'I ate half of them, and I was
grateful to you, for I felt that I owed them to your bounty as they were
my 'little Christ child' as the people in the city where we lived called a
Christmas present.'
"'You see, Peter,' the Saviour interrupted the angel. 'Do we not owe it to
the nuts of that woman that a pure child's soul was led to us? That in
itself is no small thing! Tell what further happened to you?'
"'I ate most of them,' the little girl answered, but I had still more to eat
by Christmas-eve; for the people who had looked at me when the
woman threw something into my lap were interested in my suffering,
and soon I had sold all six sheep, and besides many pennies and
groschen, one big thaler had flown into my lap. With these I was able
to buy mother many things that she stood in sore need of, and, though
she died on New Year's morning, she had had many little comforts
during her last days.'
"The Anointed cast another look full of meaning at Peter, when a large
and beautiful angel, the spirit of the mother of the cherub, began: 'If
you will permit me, O, holy Jesus, I, too, would like to say a word in
favor of the condemned. Before Hannele came home with the nuts, I
lay in bed without hope, or help in my great suffering. I had lost all
faith, for my prayers had not been heard, and in the bitterness of my
heart, it seemed that you, who were said to be the friend of the poor on

earth, and God the Father, had forgotten us in our misery, in order to
overwhelm the rich with greater gifts. In my distress, and that of the
child; I had learned to curse the day on which we were born. Oh! how
wild were my thoughts during the time that Hannele was trying to sell
the sheep, and did not come home; though I needed her so sorely. I was
often so thirsty that my mouth burned as with fire, and the moments
when I gasped for breath were frequent, and almost unbearable when
no one was there to lift me up. I called those people liars who would
persuade the poor that they had a merciful Father in Heaven, who
looked upon them as his children, and cared for them. But when
Hannele came home, and lighted the little lamp, and I saw her tiny face,
where for a long time I had seen no smile, but only pain and grief, now
beaming with joy, when I saw the nuts and the other good things which
she had brought, and saw her pleasure in them, my belief in thee, O
Lord, and in the kind Father returned, and I ceased not to be grateful to
the end. If now, in the glory of thy magnificence, I know bliss
unutterable, I owe it to that woman, and to the fact that she was good
enough to throw the nuts into Hannele's apron.'
"Peter nodded affirmatively. Then he bowed before the Saviour and
said: 'The little gift of the condemned soul has indeed borne better fruit
than I imagined; yet when I tell you what a great sinner she was on
earth....'
"'I know,' the Son of God interrupted him. 'Before we decide upon the
fate of this woman, let us hear what the child did with the rest of the
nuts, for we know that she did not eat them all. Now my little angel,
what became of the last of them? Speak on. Gladly will I