On the morning they meant to leave, Chris’s sister developed a stomachache.
At first she said she only wanted to lie down a little longer. Then she grew pale and refused even the warm bread she loved. Christiana set down the luggage and asked Charity to send for Mr. Skill, the physician who lived nearby.
While they waited, she stayed by the bed. Had the child’s blanket slipped off in the night? Had she made her walk too far the day before? Her daughter buried her face in the pillow and began to cry.
“I ate the fruit beside the road.”
Before they climbed the hill, she explained, there had been bright red fruit beyond a fence. A sign said not to pick it, and Great-heart had warned them too. But it looked so tempting that she secretly picked some and hid it in her bag. At Palace Beautiful she had eaten more.
“I saw her,” Chris said from the foot of the bed. “I told her not to, and she said she’d only have one. I was afraid you’d be angry, so I didn’t tell.”
Christiana stood so quickly that her chair scraped the floor. Both children fell silent. She looked at their faces, then slowly steadied the chair.
“First tell the physician what you ate, and how much,” she said. “Don’t leave anything out because you’re afraid of being scolded.”
Mr. Skill asked careful questions and examined the fruit left in the bag. He cared for the child and told the grown-ups to stay and watch her. They could not judge whether fruit was safe by its color, he said. Christiana followed his instructions about food, and Charity stayed near enough to be called whenever needed.
When her daughter felt a little better, she asked, “If the Lord has forgiven me, why does my stomach still hurt?”
“His forgiveness does not make what happened disappear,” Christiana said. “You must confess taking the fruit, and you must also let the physician care for you. I was forgiven for not listening to your brother. I still have to learn to listen properly to you both.”
“Does that mean all sick children have done something wrong?”
“No,” her mother said at once. “There are many reasons people become ill. The Lord Jesus did not teach us to look at someone suffering and decide they must be worse than other people. You needed to tell us about the fruit because you knew you had eaten something you were told not to eat.”
Chris stood by the door. His mother called him in and admitted her own wrong. Her anger in the past had made telling the truth difficult. “But when you know your sister might be hurt, you must still find a grown-up. We cannot all keep a secret and leave her in greater danger.”
Chris nodded and sat beside the bed. His sister asked him to read a little story from the book. He opened it and read about coming to the heavenly Father for help instead of hiding.
Two days later, the little girl wanted porridge again. Following Mr. Skill’s advice, they rested a while longer before traveling. Christiana washed the fruit bag and hung it by the window. She did not keep it to reproach her daughter every day.