Little Bessie (annotated)

Little Bessie is a classic short story by Mark Twain. Little Bessie was nearly three years old. She was a good child, and not shallow, not frivolous, but meditative and thoughtful, and much given to thinking out the reasons of things and trying to make them harmonise with results. "Mamma, why is there so much pain and sorrow and suffering? What is it all for?" It was an easy question, and mamma had no difficulty in answering it: "It is for our good, my child. In His wisdom and mercy the Lord sends us these afflictions to discipline us and make us better."