IN a solitary farm-house at― there lived, some thirty years ago, a young Christian woman who acted as housekeeper for her unmarried brother. One market-day he left home with a large drove of cattle, intending to be absent till the morrow, and in the course of the evening, the only servant girl in the house asked permission to go home to see her mother who was ill. As the girl’s home was at some distance, and her services would not be required till the morning, her kind mistress considerately gave her permission to be absent for the night. She was thus left entirely alone in the house, as the farm-laborers had retired to their usual resting-place over the stables at some distance from the dwelling. Locking the doors as the old clock in the kitchen struck ten, she went into the parlor to fetch the basket of plate, intending to carry it, as was her custom when her brother was absent, into her bedroom for safety, but had no sooner entered the room, than to her utter terror and amazement she saw the legs of a man partly concealed under the table! By a strong effort she was enabled to suppress the inclination to cry out, and quietly leaving the room, closed the door gently behind her; though trembling from head to foot, she made no undue haste, but proceeded leisurely to her chamber. She dared not raise any alarm, well knowing that her cries could not reach the sleeping men in their dormitory, but would only arouse the robber to desperation.
Happily for her, he was all unconscious that he had been seen, and she reached her bedroom in safety. Locking her door, she cast herself upon her knees, and with beating heart and trembling lips besought her heavenly Father to make a way of escape for her. She was beyond all human help; to attempt to leave the house would have excited the suspicions of the lurking robber; to remain would be to risk her life. As the moments fleeted by, she expected to hear the creak of the opening parlour-door, and the dreaded stranger’s footsteps on the stairs. Again and again she asked the Lord to show her what to do; and then as she rose from her knees, her eye fell upon a box of store candles which the grocer had brought that day, and which instead of being stowed in the usual place had, by one of those unaccountable chances (as they are called), on which sometimes so much depends, been carried up into the chamber. In a moment an idea flashed across her mind which she at once proceeded to put into execution. With hurried, nervous fingers she fixed a number of them as closely together as she could in the large bow-window of her bedroom overlooking the highroad, and then set light to them, in the prayerful hope that some passer-by, mistaking the flames for a fire, might give the alarm. As the blaze lit up the window, she waited with clasped hands and bated breath for the result, nor had she to wait long. Presently she heard voices in the road, and then a shout burst upon her gladdened ears, a shout loud enough to alarm the sleeping men in the distant barn and bring the help she needed. The robber below startled by the unexpected noise made his escape, but she was delivered from the danger that had threatened her; the Lord had made a way of escape in answer to her prayer, when her way seemed hedged up on every hand. “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the earth, to show himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect towards him.”