Chapter XV - The Little Cup of Tears

There was once a mother and a child, and the mother loved this her only child with her whole heart, and thought she could not live without it; but the Almighty sent a great sickness among children, which also seized this little one, who lay on its bed sick even to death. Three days and three nights the mother watched, and wept, and prayed by the side of her darling child; but it died. The mother, now left alone in the wide world, gave way to the most violent and unspeakable grief; she ate nothing and drank nothing, and wept, wept, wept three long days and three long nights without ceasing, calling constantly upon her child. The third night, as she thus sat overcome with suffering in the place where her child had died, her eyes bathed in tears, and faint from grief, the door softly opened, and the mother started, for before her stood her departed child. It had become a heavenly angel, and smiled sweetly as innocence, and was beautiful like the blessed. It had in its hand a small cup, that was almost running over, so full it was. And the child spoke: “O! dearest mother, weep no more for me; the angel of mourning has collected in this little cup the tears which you have shed for me. If for me you shed but one tear more, it will overflow, and I shall have no more rest in the grave, and no joy in heaven. Therefore, O dearest mother! weep no more for your child; for it is well and happy, and angels are its companions.” It then vanished.

The mother shed no more tears, that she might not disturb her child’s rest in the grave and its joys in heaven. For the sake of her infant’s happiness, she controlled the anguish of her heart. So strong and self-sacrificing is a mother’s love.