“Oh, you must not die!” Virginia cried; “we need you; so does God’s work in this sad world.”
“God does not need us, dear child: it is we that need him. You will always be true and faithful to your holy vows, and when the day comes for you to go to England and to your people, you will have teachers sent to these people who are yours by adoption.”
Somehow the thought of going to England added to Virginia’s pain at that moment, and she drew closer to Iosco as the speaker fell into a state of unconsciousness. Looking up into Iosco’s face, she read something new that she had never seen there before. He had longed for the Christian faith; he had wished for his baptism; he had believed all that Martin Atherton had taught. The service that morning had changed him. Those blessed drops “had worked wonder there, earth’s chambers never knew.” The right of a new birth, the perfect faith of the man before him, had given Iosco something he could not explain, but he knew and felt that the dear Lord was very near, and the knowledge of that perfect love filling his heart, his whole life, brought a peace which the world could never take away. It made him worthy of human love, and yet it made him feel it was quite possible to live without it. When we can say truthfully in our hearts, “Thy will be done,” God sends us often so great a blessing that it almost frightens us as we receive it.
The little congregation had moved away. Hours slipped by. Only Virginia and Iosco watched by their friend, who still lay as if dead, with only the slight, uneven fluttering of his heart to show that there was yet life in the worn-out body.
Virginia looked up at Iosco, and speaking softly, said, “If he really gets better, you ought to send him to his people, that he may see them before he dies.”
“The blessed priest shall be carried before the sunrise and laid among his people if he lives. Iosco’s warriors shall keep him from harm by Powhatan. The Owaissa can then go without fear to her people, and be happy,” he replied.
“To-morrow, Iosco? So soon? O Iosco”--Virginia faltered. Looking down suddenly into her upturned face he read her great love. The two looked into each other’s eyes long and earnestly, and each read the other’s heart. Iosco knelt, putting his arm around her, and whispered, “Owaissa, my Owaissa!” He kissed her forehead again and again; and she laid her head on his breast and clung to him as she said, “I will never, never go, Iosco. Your people shall be my people. We shall be all to each other now.”