In a tumble-down cottage, a little I crippled boy named Jackie Benson lived with his father, whom everyone called “Ned Dick.” Jackie’s mother had died when he was but a child. Often did he long for her tender love and care, for his father was a rough, ill-tempered man who did not treat his little boy as kindly as he ought to have done. Ned Dick used to make baskets and mats for a living, and Jackie did all he could to help him. However, when the sales of his baskets and mats were poor, his father would come home in a bad temper, so Jackie had never known a happy home life since his mother died.
One evening when Jackie was sitting at the door of the cottage, he heard a voice singing in a neighboring garden:
There is a happy land,
Far, far away,
Where saints in glory stand,
Bright, bright as day.
Presently, a small face with curly hair appeared over the fence, and a voice inquired, “Who are you, boy?”
“I am Jackie Benson,” replied the crippled lad.
“Then, Jackie, I’ve got something for you,” said little Mary Reid, and leaning over she threw a large red apple down on the ground.
Jackie’s eyes sparkled. He had watched these apples grow and ripen on the tree in the neighbor’s yard for weeks, and how often he longed for one. Now he was to have one for himself, and such a big one! He thanked his new little friend with all his heart.
But the apple was not the uppermost thing in his mind at that moment. He was thinking of “the happy land,” about which he had heard for the first time only a few minutes before. Such a beautiful place it must be, he thought, so different from his own unhappy home.
Jackie thought that the little girl would know, so he asked her to tell him all about the happy land. Mary told him all she knew, and promised to come and tell it over again the next day. However, the poor boy was not permitted, in good health, to hear it again. That evening his father came home in a worse temper than usual, having sold very little. As he gave Jackie his meager supper he remarked that it was quite enough for a good-for-nothing cripple. Poor Jackie’s eyes filled with tears at his father’s remark but he did not reply.
He went to bed that night with a heavy heart. The next morning he was too ill to get up, and for many days he lay sick in bed. During that time he was visited regularly by his little friend Mary. He often heard about “the happy land,” and of how Jesus, the good Shepherd, died to take poor sinners there.
One bright moonlit night in winter he managed to hobble down to the river side, for the river was frozen over, and there were many young folks skating on the ice. He had heard that his Mary was to be there too. He watched the skaters as they glided to and fro over the ice but none of them attracted him as much as the movements of Mary. Then suddenly she glided across the spot which he had heard some men say was very dangerous for the ice was thin there. All at once the ice gave way beneath her and Mary disappeared. Jackie waited no longer, but jumped in crutches and all. Grasping hold of the sinking girl, he held her until some of the other skaters came to the rescue. Soon both of them were pulled out of the freezing water and carried to the little girl’s home.
Jackie was at once put to bed and covered with blankets, but being already ill, the shock he had sustained in the cold water was too much for his feeble frame. He lingered for a few days, during which he heard more of the Lord Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who gave His life for the sheep. Jackie came to know and to really love Him as his Saviour. As the end came a peaceful smile played on his face, and he passed away, leaving behind his sorrows and sufferings for the joy and bliss of the Saviour’s presence. He had gone to be forever with Him he loved in the Happy Land.
“I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth His life for the sheep.
ML 06/13/1965