This eBook was produced by Joel Erickson joeloneporpoisecomCharles Franks charlzlvcablemodemcom and Juliet SutherlandPAULATHE WALDENSIANby Eva Lecomte_Adapted and translated from the Spanish Version by W M Strong_PREFACEI Hope and trust that the young people who read this book will have as muchjoy in the reading of it as I have had in its writingPaulas Saviour wishes to be your Saviour too Paula was by no meansperfect but she did love God with all her heart and her neighbor asherselfThis simple country girl young and strong yet so tenderhearted andforgetful of self appears to me sometimes like one of the clear brooks ofmy beloved land pure and fresh slipping noiselessly between floweredbanks of forgetmenots It was by love that she conqueredas we shallseeIf some day you should come to my country do not forget that I would havegreat joy in seeing any of those who have read this book I live in thelittle town of Villar at the bottom of the valley where on every sidethere are hills and mountains as far as the eye can reach To me it is theloveliest country in the world and I am sure that Paula thought so tooAnd so goodbye dear young reader I must not keep you any longer for Iam sure you have a great desire to know about Paula and anyway I supposeyou will have done what I would have done at your age namely read thestory first and left my poor preface to the lastfor which I have alreadypardoned youAnd now may God bless you Paula dear as you walk among these my youngfriends who read about you My prayer is that you may shed over them thesame sweet ray of celestial light that you have already shed over othersEVA LECOMTEVillarPellice FranceTranslators notePaula was originally written in French and translated from thence intoSpanish and the present translator having discovered this literary andspiritual jewel felt that it should be given also to the young people ofthe Englishspeaking world not only that they might know Paula herselfbut that through her they might become more intimately acquainted withPaulas Saviour and accept Him as their own Redeemer and LordW M STRONGCoihueco Chile South America 1940CONTENTSPART ONE1 AN UNEXPECTED LETTER2 MEMORIES3 PAULA ARRIVES4 PAULAS TREASURES5 LOUIS WATCH6 IN THE MIDST OF DARKNESS7 CATALINAS ILLNESS8 THE FIVEFRANC PIECE9 A LITTLE GLIMPSE OF HEAVEN10 IN THE COUNTRY11 THE CAT MOTHER12 A TREASURE RESTORED13 THE SCHOOLTEACHER AND HER BROTHERPART TWO1 SOME YEARS LATER2 THE BRETON3 SAVED4 THE YOUNG SCHOOLMISTRESS5 THE NIGHTSCHOOL6 THE HOUSE OF GOD7 IN HIS PRESENCEPART ONECHAPTER ONEAN UNEXPECTED LETTERClearly engraved on the walls of my memory there still remains a picture ofthe great gray house where I spent my childhood It was originally used formore than a hundred years as the convent of the White Ladies with itsfour long galleries one above the other looking proudly down upon thehumbler dwellings of the village On the side of the house where ran thebroad road from Rouen to Darnetal a high rugged wall surrounded a wideyard guarded at the entrance by two massive doors studded with enormousspikes The naked barrenness of this yard was to say the least forbiddingin the extreme but the fertile fields on the other side of the housespread themselves like a vast and beautiful green carpet dotted here andthere with little villages crowned with church spires and theircorresponding belfries from which on a Sunday morning pealed out thecheerful call to prayer and worship The ancient convent long before ourstory begins had been transformed into a lovely dwelling with an immensegarden on one side edged by a dozen little brick houses that seemed sosmall that they made us children think of certain dollhouses that we usedto see in the Paris magazines They were known locally as the RedCottages A long avenue of ancient elms separated us from these houses ofour neighbors and in front of the cottages stretched a line of stonebenches where in the shade of the great trees the old men of the villageused to sit and recount to us tales of the days when the Conventflourished Some of these stories made us shiver Indeed they had a habitof straying into our dreams at nightThe rest of the land around the Convent had with the passing of the yearsfallen into the hands of the villagers themselves Each one had a smallspace for flowers in front and a vegetable garden behindOf course our own garden covering the whole space in front of the RedCottages was a much more pretentious affair with its deep well itsmanycolored kiosks and its noisy beehives In fact it was in our eyesthe most enchanting corner of the earthI dont remember all the details about the special thing that happened oneday but I know that I shall never forget it to the end of my lifeWe were at tea in the garden Teresa our old servant was walking up anddown in her kitchen She never seemed to have time to sit down to eat Dearold Teresa She always seemed like a mother to me for we had lost our owndear mother when I was still in the cradleMy brother and I had quarrelled over a mere nothing when we were called into tea by our father Of course we did not dare continue our disputeopenly in front of him but we continued our warlike activities by kickingeach other under the tableLouis was ten years old and I was nine As he was older and a boy he ofcourse considered that he had the right to the last word Now kicks hadreplaced words but as we were seated at quite a distance from one anotherwe did not succeed in causing very great damage to each others shinsNotwithstanding this I began to lose patience and in order to end thematter knowing that Louis was not very courageous I leaned my chair asfar inside as I could and let him have one terrific kick At this his facechanged color and my father now disturbed by the extra noise of my kickfinally began to