Mary Hornibrook Cummins

“ He inspected Gilbert Graham gravely, as though he were an entirely new type of being—as indeed he was to Gerald.
“If you don’t know about ‘a very present help,’” he began, “what would you do if—if—” he looked around, and finally took his illustration from the thing closest at hand—“if a big, oh, a big, big wave—” extending his arms to their utmost limit to express vastness—“was to come and sweep you away?” ”

“ But mamma says it doesn’t matter a bit what the name is, or how rough it is, or how far from shore you are, Love can walk over any sea and come and get you!”
[Pg 19]
Gilbert Graham was looking at the boy with an intent, earnest gaze. Was the gulf so fixed, so impassable, after all? Suppose there was a Power which could cross it and come to a man in his extremity?
“When I was out on the sick sea,” Gerald went on, “and my head was so wobbly that I didn’t know daddy or mamma, Love came and got me, right away. Oh, but ’twas fine when my head didn’t feel wobbly any more!” ”

“ For a sickening moment everything turned black before her eyes, but she fought off the faintness, crying aloud,
“Oh, Thou ‘very present help’—now—now—now!”
And then, with a sob of thankfulness, she saw that a man, strong and supple, was beating his way through the water. He reached the boy, grasped him and held him high in his arms. When the wave broke, the man’s head was submerged, but the boy’s was not.
The mighty volume of water lifted Gilbert Graham even as its predecessor had lifted Gerald ”

“ It seemed to him that there was, indeed, a great gulf fixed, a well-nigh impassable flood, between the fearless thought of this child and the dark clamor and confusion of his own consciousness.
“Mamma was telling me more about the sea last night,” Gerald went on. “She says there’s lots of diff’rent kinds of seas. Some of them have very big names. ”

“ The child drew nearer and stood leaning against his knee as he sat on a low slab of rock. They looked steadily into each other’s eyes. There was something irresistibly winning in the little fellow’s fearlessness and sociable intent. ”