Somebody loves Me

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Nov 13, 1879

"Somebody loves Me."

Two or three years ago the Superintendent of the Little Wanderer's home, in R——, received one morning a request from the judge that he would come to the Court House. He complied directly, and found there a group of seven little girls, ragged, dirty and forlorn, beyond what even he was accustomed to see.

The judge, pointing to them (utterly homeless and friendless), said:—

"Mr. T——, can you take any of these?"

"Certainly, I can take them all," was the prompt reply.

"All! What in the world can you do with them!"

"I'll make women of them!"

The judge singled out one, even worse in appearance than the rest, and asked again:—

"What will you do with that one?"

"I'll make a woman of her," Mr. T—— repeated, firmly and hopefully.

They were washed and dressed and provided with a supper and beds. The next morning they went into the school-room with the children. Mary was the little girl whose chance for better things the judge thought small. During the forenoon the teacher said to Mr. T—— in reference to her:

"I never saw a child like that. I have tried for an hour to get a smile and have failed."

Mr. T—— said afterward, himself, that her face was the saddest he had ever seen—sorrowful beyond expression; yet she was a very little girl, only five or six years old.

After school he called her into his office and said, pleasantly:—

"Mary, I've lost my little pet. I used to have a little girl here that would wait on me, and sit on my knee, and I loved her very much. A kind lady and gentleman have adopted her, and I should like for you to take her place, and be my pet now. Will you?"

A gleam of light flitted over the poor child's face, and she began to understand him. He gave her ten cents and told her she might go to the store near by and get some candy. While she was out he took two or three newspapers, tore them in pieces, and scattered them about the room. When she returned he said:—

"Mary, will you clear up my office a little for me, and pick the paper and see how nice you can make it look?"

She went to work with a will. A little more of this kind of management—in fact, treating her as a kind father would—wrought the desired result. She went into the school-room after dinner with so changed a look and bearing that the teacher was astonished. The child's face was absolutely radiant. She went to her and said:—

"Mary what is it? What makes you look so happy?"

"Oh, I've got some one to love me!" the child answered earnestly, as if it were heaven come down to earth.

That was all the secret. For want of love that little one's life had been so cold and desolate that she had lost childhood's beautiful faith and hope. She could not at first believe in the reality of kindness or joy for her. It was the certainty that some one had loved and desired her affection that lighted the child's soul and glorified her face.

Mary has since been adopted by wealthy people and lives in a beautiful house; but more than all its beauty and comfort running like a golden thread through it all, she finds the love of her adopted father and mother.