Page:The pilgrim's progress by John Bunyan every child can read (1909).djvu/250

234 It is not always necessary to grant things not asked for, lest, by so doing, they become of little value; but when the want of a thing is felt, then he who needs it feels its preciousness; and so when it is given it will be used. Had my Lord granted you a conductor, you would not either have so bewailed that oversight of yours, in not asking for one, as now you have occasion to do. So all things work for good, and tend to make you more wary.

Shall we go back again to my Lord, and confess our folly, and ask one?

Your confession of your folly I will present Him with. To go back again you need not; for, in all places where you shall come, you will find no want at all; for, in every one of my Lord's lodgings, which He has prepared for the care of His pilgrims, there is sufficient to furnish them against all attempts whatsoever. But, as I said, He will be asked of by them, to do it for them. And 't is a poor thing that is not worth asking for.

When he had thus said, he went back to his place, and the pilgrims went on their way.

Then said Mercy, "What a sudden blank is here! I made account we had been past all danger, and that we should never see sorrow more."

"Thy innocence, my sister," said Christiana to Mercy, "may excuse thee much; but as for me, fault is so much the greater, for that