Happy Nancy’s Secret

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 5, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 10.

Happy Nancy’s Secret.

THERE once lived in an old brown cottage a solitary lame woman. She tended her little garden and knit and spun for a living. She was known from village to village by the name of “Happy Nancy.” She had no money, no family, no relatives, and was half blind, lame, and crooked. There was no particular comeliness in her; and yet, there in that homely, deformed body, God had set his royal seal!

“Well, Nancy, singing again?” said a visitor one day.

“Oh, yes, I am forever at it.”

“I wish you would tell me your secret, Nancy? You are alone, you work hard, you have nothing very pleasant surrounding you. What is the reason you’re so happy?”

“Perhaps it’s because I haven’t got any consolation but in God,” replied the good creature looking up. “You see, rich folks, like you, depend upon their families and their houses; they’ve to think of their business, of their wives and children, and then they are always afraid of trouble ahead. I have not got anything to trouble myself about, you see, sir, ’cause I leave it all to the Lord. I think, well, if he can keep this great world in such good order, the rolling sun day after day, and the stars a-shining night after night, and make my garden things come up just the same season after season, he can surely take care of such a poor simple thing as I am; and so, you see, I leave it all to the Lord and the Lord takes care of me.”

“Well, but Nancy, suppose a frost should come after your fruit trees are all in blossom, and suppose—”

“But I don’t suppose, sir; I never can suppose; I don’t want to suppose, except that the Lord will do everything right. That’s what makes people like you, sir, unhappy, you’re all the time supposing how; why can’t you wait till the suppose comes, as I do, and then make the best of it?”

“Ah, Nancy, it’s pretty certain you’ll get to Heaven, while many of us, with all our worldly wisdom, will be shut out.”

“There you are at it again, sir,” said Nancy, shaking her head, “always looking out for some black cloud. Why, if I was you I’d keep the enemy at arm’s length, instead of taking him right into my heart. He is sure to do you a world of mischief.”

And was not “Happy Nancy” right? We do take the demon of care, of distrust, of melancholy forebodings, of ingratitude, right into our hearts. We canker every pleasure with this gloom and fear of coming ill; we seldom trust that blessings will enter, or hail them when they come.

Would it not be well for us to imitate “Happy Nancy” and “never suppose”? If you see a cloud, don’t suppose its going to rain. If you see a frown, don’t suppose a scolding will follow. Do whatever your hands find to do and there leave it. Be more childlike toward your heavenly Father; believe in his love; learn to confide in his wisdom and not in your own; and above all “wait till the suppose comes and then make the best of it.”—Sel.