And so said little Fairy Treetop, and my sister, in the year 1872 wrote the account of it, which I much doubt any present-day person has read, so I will tell you the true story again, of which I was a witness. It happened one day, as I was passing through the Mint on the way to my daily visit to the Exeter Home for poor girls to redeem their character. I was visiting Mrs. Treetop, and her little Fairy was told to go an errand. “I’ll be back in a minute,” she said, but mother replied, “Say, if the Lord will.” “No,” said her sick brother, “we needn’t say if God wills for everything, for trifles.” “Yes,” said mother, “to everything, thinking if God wills.” That day, as I entered Mrs. Treetop’s house, I noticed a tall ladder some distance off, and that ladder was God’s messenger for Fairy. “Yours has been a long minute, Miss Fairy,” said her mother. “It is not Fairy, I wish it were,” said her minister, dropping into a chair, looking pale and ill. “Dear friend,” he said, “can you bear to hear?”
When they heard the sound of other feet and measured tread bearing a lifeless body and a face so crushed that they hid it from sight, the men, as she ran past, cried out, “Run, run to the other side,” but she stood still and looked to see — too late — and so the last two rungs of the forty feet ladder fell on the child. With a dying shriek lay Fairy, a disfigured corpse. All was over, over forever with this life, but we can praise the Lord that Fairy was a true child of God and loved her Saviour with all her heart. So her mother and brother, agonized by her swift and sudden death, were able to rejoice in her blessed presence in Paradise, awaiting the time when the Lord will return to take His saved ones to be with Him forever.
If any of us are not sure yet that we really believe in and love the Lord Jesus, oh! do see to it and come to Him today, for we none of us know how soon we may be called away. Seek earnestly and you shall find, truly find life, Christ, heaven and happiness.
Emily P. Leakey.