(TOS Ev. Freikirche Missionswerk)
"There's another side," said the minister's wife softly.
"How do you know?" asked the visitor who had told the discreditable little tale strictly in confidence, as she herself had learned it in the bosom of the Wednesday afternoon sewing circle. The minister's wife had not been present, and it was only right that she should be put right about this family of newcomers in the parish. "Some things had come to the ears of the sewing circle that were not--well, not exactly--''
"There's another side!" repeated the minister's wife, not so softly this time. In fact, there was a noticeable little ring of indignation in her tone, which died out in a sort of wondering pity as she noticed the challenging look of her caller. "You're glad there is another side, aren't you? Why, of course you are. And, you see, I know all about it."
"You weren't at the meeting," said the other stiffly. If you had been, you--"
"No, I was there--at the house. And I saw--I saw--oh, Mrs. Babbitt, if you could have seen what I saw."
"I saw, too--with my own eyes! That daughter of theirs is an opium--"
"She isn't their daughter--not any relation; not even a friend or a friend's daughter, just a poor girl who had been sick so long and suffered so terribly that the doctors themselves had made her a victim of the opium habit. And they have undertaken to try to cure her. They have given up their home--their very lives--to it. They don't say a word about it. I just found it out--with the help of the doctor."
The visitor rose suddenly, almost unceremoniously. For a moment the hostess looked troubled and aghast. Had she spoken too sharply, discourteously, even? Her mind fled back over the interview as she faltered: "You are not going yet? You--oh, you aren't offended at anything I've said?"
"Yes, I'm going. Offended--I? I'm going round to see all our ladies, every single one of them!"
"And tell them?--"
The minister's wife held her breath for the answer. One may be very bold, but it sometimes means a great deal to offend "the ladies."
"And tell them," said the caller, gathering her wraps about her, "that beautiful 'other side!'"
"Oh!" breathed the minister's wife gratfully. "And tell them, won't you, that there always is another side, always! And it is our Christian business to try and find it."-- Anna Burnham Bryant, Zion's Herald
