In The Far North, page 19 by Louis Becke
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He had, as it first began to fall, rushed into his wife's bedroom, and kissed her and the terrified children.
"The rain has come, Myra, thank God," he said, and then he added quietly, "I have more good news for you in the morning."
Mrs. Harrington said she was quite aware of the rain having come--the disgusting noise of the thunder had made the children scream. Had Miss Alleyne come back? And brought the cows? His other good news could keep till the morning.
Harrington turned away from her with a feeling of dulled resentment. He knew what the girl had suffered, and his wife's heartlessness cut him to the quick.
As he stood watching Banks and the black boys filling every available tank and cask on the station from the downpour off the roof, Nellie rose from the couch on which she had been lying, and touched his arm timidly.
"Don't you believe in God's goodness now, Mr. Harrington? See, He has sent the rain, and He has granted my daily prayer to Him that I, too, might help you. And Banks says that this is not a passing thunderstorm, but that the drought has broken up altogether--for see, the wind is from the south."
Harrington raised her hand to his lips. "I have always tried to believe in God and in His mercy, Miss Alleyne."
"Not always, Mr. Harrington," she said softly. "Don't you remember when all the Big Swamp! mob were bogged and dying, that you said that if He would not hear the moans and see the agonies of the beasts He had created, that He would not listen to the prayers of human beings who were not suffering as they suffered? And to-day, as Sandy and I rode along to the Canton Reef, I prayed again and again, and always when I passed a dying beast I said, 'O God! have mercy upon these Thy dumb creatures who suffer much agony!"
Harrington's chest heaved. "And I prayed as you prayed, Miss Alleyne; but I said, 'O God! if there is a God.'"
She put out her hand to him and her dark eyes filled with tears. "He has a