Teddy's Button by Amy Le Feuvre

And then there came the moment when his efforts met with
success, for placing his hand against the little heart he felt a feeble
throb. He redoubled his efforts; the breath began to appear, a faint color
tinged the blue lips, and at last the heavy eyelids raised, and a faint
voice said, 'Mother!'
Mrs. John sank on her knees. 'Thank God!' was all she said, and
then she fainted.
Much later in the evening Teddy was placed in his own little bed at
home; but though alive, his condition was most critical, and he lay in a
heavy stupor, from which it seemed impossible to rouse him. The doctor
said he must have struck his head against a stone when first he dived
into the river, and this had produced concussion of the brain. Nancy
had been taken home before he came, but the news was brought to her
that he was still alive, though in great danger, and that was a great
comfort to her poor little sorrowful soul.
For many days he lay between life and death. The inquiries after
him from every one of his schoolfellows, the Hall, and the different
farms and places round, told his mother how much her little son had
been beloved. And when on the following Sunday Mr. Upton gave out,
in a faltering voice, 'The prayers of this congregation are desired for
Edward Platt, who is very dangerously ill,' there was not a dry eye in the
church, and one or two audible sobs came from the boys' seats in the
gallery.
Mrs. John never left her boy's bedside—night and day she was by
him, and many wondered at her calm peacefulness. After the first great
shock, she had been able to hand over her child into her Father's loving
hands, and rest content with the result; and so she was able, in perhaps
the most anxious time of her life, to look up and say, 'Father, not my
will, but Thine be done.'
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