It was good to have Aunt Sue living up in the big woods near them. In no time, three pairs of bare feet had worn a twisty path through the woods between their two houses!
Aunt Sue even had her piano shipped out from the East. Mother could play hymns, and many evenings they enjoyed a “hymn sing.” Uncle Bob played his mandolin, and the girls thought it sounded just beautiful.
When school started again in the little schoolhouse up the trail, Peggy Jean still liked to go too when the weather was nice. But often she stayed with Aunt Sue.
There were so many interesting things to see in Aunt Sue’s house. There were things she had brought from “home in Scotland,” where she had lived until she was eighteen. Then she had lots of fascinating things she had bought when she had visited France and Switzerland on one of her vacations.
She had two little dolls that Peggy liked especially. One was a Swiss “goat boy” with a knapsack on his back. When you pushed the knapsack to the one side, there was a little mirror underneath.
The other was a dear little kewpie doll. It had one curl on the top of its head, and it stood with its hands out on both sides of a pretty flared skirt. Somehow, Peggy felt sure Aunt Sue planned to give it to her someday — but that was so far away! How could she ever wait?
Aunt Sue kept it standing on her bureau in her bedroom. Every morning when she came for the day, Peggy would run in to look at the doll before she even took her coat and hat off. Again she began to break God’s commandment, “Thou shalt not covet.”
One day, as she stood looking longingly at the doll, a wicked thought came into Peggy’s mind. If the doll should fall onto the floor, that wouldn’t be as wrong as to take it right from the top of the bureau — would it?
After that, she often tried to shake the bureau to help it fall, but the little doll stood firmly.
One morning the doll was gone! Down on her knees went Peggy Jean, and yes! there was the doll on the floor behind the bureau. Surely it wouldn’t be so bad to take it from down there. Why, she had not even shaken it this morning!
Quickly, she hid the doll under her coat and ran to the “company” bedroom where she usually laid her coat and hat. Very carefully she tucked the doll under her hat where it could not be seen.
Later that morning, Aunt Sue noticed that the little doll was missing. “Does anyone know what happened to the little doll I keep on my bureau?” she asked.
No one answered. Peggy Jean pretended to be very busy playing with some toys on the living room floor.
“Alice, come help me look, please. It can’t be very far away. I don’t see it on the floor ... ”
Together, Aunt Sue and Alice looked for the little doll. Finally they went to the bedroom where Peggy had laid her coat and hat. Peggy Jean became very uncomfortable.
“Aunt Sue!” Peggy called in a frightened voice.
“Yes, Peggy?”
“Don’t — don’t look under my hat!”
“Peggy Jean!” Aunt Sue came out of the bedroom with the doll in her hand and a very sad look on her face. “I did not think you would ever steal something that belonged to me. I will have to tell your mother when she comes home.”
What an unhappy day that was! When Mother came for Peggy, Aunt Sue told her all about the stolen doll. Mother sat down with Peggy Jean and read and explained Bible verses which told about the dreadfulness of sin and that God must punish sin because He is a holy God. She read Bible verses that even Peggy could understand about how wicked lying and stealing were.
When they got home to their own house, Peggy Jean had a spanking and had to go right to bed.
Snow came early that winter. Soon it was deep, and the Indians sometimes came silently through the woods and across the lake on their snowshoes, walking all the way to town for things they needed.
Father and Uncle Bob cut down trees and sawed them up for firewood. It took great stacks of firewood to keep their little houses in the woods warm in the long winters.
One wintry day, some exciting news went around the neighborhood. A fine Bible teacher, Dr. Walter Turnbull, was coming up to the north woods. He would be preaching every night for a week in their little Jasmir Schoolhouse.
The children helped to put everything in the very best order. The girls straightened all the books and washed the blackboards. The boys swept the floor and shoveled snow so the horses and sleighs would have a place to pull off the trail. Long planks of wood were brought in and placed from seat to seat to make more places for people to sit. Folks would be coming from far away too.
Every evening Mother and Father and the three girls dressed warmly for their ride in the sleigh. Father put fresh hay in the sleigh, and Mother wrapped hot sadirons in an old blanket to tuck under the girls’ feet. Queenie and Jenny seemed excited too and did not need to be coaxed to trot briskly. The runners hissed in the snow, and little sparks flew out from striking a hidden stone.
The sleigh ride was always over far too soon, but it was exciting to come into the warm schoolhouse, brightly lit by a hissing gas lantern hanging from the ceiling.
How different it looked with so many big folks, instead of just boys and girls, filling the room. The men and big boys sat in the back near the stove, and as the snow began melting from their boots, a “barn smell” filled the room, but everyone was used to that and did not mind.
“Isn’t there someone here who wants to be sure his sins are forgiven and he is on his way to heaven? If there is, why don’t you come up and sit on one of these empty seats in the front so I can help you.”
No one stirred. Then Helen slipped out of her seat and walked bravely up to the front.
Dr. Turnbull smiled lovingly at her, and then said, “God has said, ‘A little child shall lead them’! Won’t someone else follow this little child’s example?”
There was a stir here and there, and several others came up to the front seats.
Peggy Jean had not been listening as carefully to Dr. Turnbull’s message as Helen had. She had thought he was just talking to the grown-up people. But the next day, as Helen and Peggy sat out on the doorstep where it was warm in the sunshine, Helen tried to explain all about it to Peggy. Helen was a good big sister and always loved to share everything with her little sister.
“Peggy, I got saved last night and I know now for sure that I will go to heaven — and I want you to come to heaven too. You need to get saved, because you are a sinner — you know that, don’t you, Peggy? You steal and tell lies about it, and lots of times you’re naughty.”
Peggy Jean nodded her head miserably, for she remembered the stolen doll, her sisters’ Easter eggs, Mother’s cheese — and oh so many other things she had stolen and then lied about to escape punishment.
“Listen carefully now, and I’ll try to explain it from the Bible, just like the preacher told me. He read this verse in the book of John, chapter five and verse twenty-four.”
Helen found the place in her little New Testament, explaining as she read. “It’s the Lord Jesus talking, and He starts by saying, ‘Verily, verily.’ That means He is saying something very important that everyone should listen to because it’s real true — ‘I say unto you, He that heareth My word’ — and you’ve heard His words, Peggy. You’ve heard that you’re a sinner, but God loved you so much He sent the Lord Jesus to die for you on the cross.”
Peggy nodded her head, and Helen continued, “Then it says next, ‘And believeth on Him that sent Me’ — do you believe God sent Jesus to be punished for your sins?”
Very seriously Peggy said, “Yes, I do.”
“Then look what God says next!” Helen continued happily. “He says you have everlasting life and won’t come into condemnation, but you are already passed from death to life! That’s a little hard for me to understand, but he explained Jesus was already condemned and punished for my sins, and that means for yours too, Peggy!”
With a happy face, Peggy Jean jumped to her feet and ran into the house to tell Mother the good news. “Mother! I’m saved too,” she cried.
But to Peggy’s disappointment, Mother didn’t get very excited. She was afraid Peggy was just being a copycat of her big sister Helen. She was peeling potatoes for dinner, and she asked quietly, “What makes you think you are saved, Peggy?”
Peggy Jean stood looking solemnly at Mother for a moment. Then she asked, “Didn’t Jesus die for the sins of little children, as well as for big folks?”
“Yes, He did!” Mother answered. “The Bible says He died for the sin of all who trust in Him.”
“If Jesus died for me, I’m saved!” Peggy responded happily.
Mother put some raisins in their pockets, and the two girls ran out to play.
What a happy day that was! Peggy Jean’s heart was bubbling over with joy. Oh, how wonderful it was to know that God knew all about her, and He still loved her so much that He had sent the Lord Jesus to be punished and to die for her sins.
That night, as she knelt to pray, she thanked God that this wonderful treasure was hers - the treasure of His love, and His salvation that would last forever. She thought about what Mother had told them the night she had cried because her balloon was broken.
She could remember other things that had been a disappointment. There was the doll whose nose got smashed when she dropped it, the skates that became too small for her growing feet and lots of other things.
Peggy Jean knew in her heart that this treasure would never disappoint her, and no one could take it away from her. It would even become more wonderful and satisfying, the more she learned to understand about it.
This treasure would last forever! It was God’s gift of eternal life, the treasure given to a little girl named Peggy Jean — and to think she had found this treasure in the big woods!
Many years have gone by, and Peggy Jean is now a great-grandmother. She has not forgotten the joy God put in her heart when she learned about God’s forgiveness, so she has written the story of her life in the big woods so that you can put your trust in the Lord Jesus, for He loves you and died for you as well!