Happy As It Made Me To Know That Death Would Not Put An End To
My Existence, My State After The First Joyful Relief Was Not One Of
Perfect Happiness.
All she said to comfort and make me brave had
produced its effect - I knew now that death was but a change to an even
greater bliss than I could have in this life.
How could I, not yet
six, think otherwise than as she had told me to think, or have a
doubt? A mother is more to her child than any other being, human or
divine, can ever be to him in his subsequent life. He is as dependent
on her as any fledgling in the nest on its parent - even more, since
she warms his callow mind or soul as well as body.
Notwithstanding all this, the fear of death came back to me in a
little while, and for a long time disquieted me, especially when the
fact of death was brought sharply before me. These reminders were only
too frequent; there was seldom a day on which I did not see something
killed. When the killing was instantaneous, as when a bird was shot
and dropped dead like a stone, I was not disturbed; it was nothing but
a strange, exciting spectacle, but failed to bring the fact of death
home to me. It was chiefly when cattle were slaughtered that the
terror returned in its full force. And no wonder! The native manner of
killing a cow or bullock at that time was peculiarly painful.
Occasionally it would be slaughtered out of sight on the plain, and
the hide and flesh brought in by the men, but, as a rule, the beast
would be driven up close to the house to save trouble.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 46 of 355
Words from 13143 to 13441
of 98444
