us, and will you not now do the work which you have so often done with us before?" So he sped on with them, but his voice was silent and his heart wept.

They soon came to the earth, and then, unseen by any one, they made their way towards a little,

dingy house, in one room of which sat a little boy upon a bench, driving pegs into the sole of a boot. On one side lay all the boots in which he had driven pegs, and on the other a great many more in which he must still drive them. He looked sad and pale, and the sweat lay in large drops upon his forehead. By his side sat a large, stout man, with his shirt-sleeves rolled up, displaying strong, brawny arms, while his face was red and stern. He was also at work, but watched the boy well, and if he saw his arm rested for a moment he would give him a little push, bidding him mind his work; and so the poor boy had to drive the pegs into the soles of the boots, even though he was weary and his face pale and sad.

Then the angel-children, seized with one feeling of love and pity (for they could remember how the poor boy used to be one of them and play in the garden of God), soared above him. One came down and wiped off the drops of sweat from his brow; another passed his soft hands over the boy's face, and rested him; and another put comforting thoughts into his soul.

Then the master looked up, and when he saw

how the boy seemed suddenly refreshed, he told him it was good to work and silly to be tired; and when the boy heard these hard words, tears came into his eyes, and he thought of his mother who used so tenderly to care for him, but had now been gone long to the home of the angels.

Then some of the angel-children wiped away the tears which had come into the boy's eyes, and another shook his beautiful wings over his head, so that at once a cool breeze fell over him and hopeful words entered his soul. Some of the children moved his arm up and down as he drove the pegs into the boot, and he wondered how easily he was able to work.

All this time our earth-child stood apart, nodding his head sadly, and when the others asked him the cause, he answered, "O, you do not know how hard it is to live on the earth! See this poor boy; how far different was it with him when he played with us in the gardens up there!"

The children were silent; they knew not how to comfort him. They thought, too, of the time when they should live on the earth.

Then they flew along and came to a large city,

in which lived many homeless children, who were led about by unkind and evil spirits; and passed constantly by men and women, who did not so much as give them one kind word.

As the angel-children wandered among them they shuddered: such strange words filled the air, and so dark and dingy looked the houses where they went in and out. Could it be that these children, who talked together in angry moods, who rather sought the opportunity to trouble each other, had ever played in that fountain, and laughed together in the heavenly fields? "O," they sighed, "could we but once drive the evil spirits from one of them, and whisper in his ear of the kind love of God!"

Then their wings fluttered and folded themselves over the head of a large boy, whose clothes were dirty and tattered, his hair matted and disordered, his body thin and wan, while the expression of his face was very old and vacant. A slight girl, holding a little pail in her hand, came along near him, and made as if she would go by him; but the boy would not suffer her to pass on, and, stopping her, said to her,

"Well, and what have you got?"

The child looked at him fearfully, and remained silent; but the boy did not heed her half-imploring look, but proceeded to lay hold of her pail, in which she had had hot corn to sell, and, opening it, discovered there six pennies instead.

"Ah," he cried exultingly, "that is what I wanted! You have done well with your corn; you may go on now;" and, despite the poor child's cries, he took away the pennies, and, in resisting the little struggle the child was able to make, he threw her down upon the pavement.

This was in a dark street, filled with people wicked like this boy, and where was no one who cared to take the child's part.

But those angel-children were silent witnesses of this scene, and they put out their hands, so the little girl was not much hurt in her fall. Then they looked at each other in dismay; the pearly tears again came into their bright eyes, and they asked each other what they might do for this wretched boy. They remembered when the boy and girl played together in the fair garden of God; and it was not possible for them to remember that,

and look unmoved upon this fearful change which had come over him. "O, this is a sad earth-life!" murmured the baby's spirit; and he nodded his head again in sorrow. "Why may not I, too, become like this boy?"

"But must the earth-life bring this change?" asked another of the angel-children, who saw the anguish of his friend, but knew not how to comfort him. "Do we not remember the poor boy who worked so hard, and had no rest, yet he was patient and good, and kept bright, and hung the cord which tied his soul to heaven with the tear-drops which fell for his dear, dead mother? When tried, he gave back no hard words. He was better than we, who are happy always and have no trials."

Not long after, they found the wicked boy asleep; he had thrown himself down, in the corner of a dirty alley, on a little straw. The children hovered over him, trying how they might approach him. They drove hence the dark spirits, one by one, who hindered their approach, and then they carried him off by the sea-shore in a dream; they made him sit upon the sand and listen to the roar

ing of the waters; the large rocks stood scattered on the beach, and the sea-mosses and shells were thrown up by the waves. Afar off, upon the water, he saw a long line of bright clouds, which seemed to climb up to heaven to meet the bright, twinkling stars. The moonlight shone softly down upon him.

Then they laid him down upon the sand, and made him look up into the sky to feel the rest and peace of it; still more came the moonlight upon him, and the stars seemed to open and close their eyes for pity. The wind came towards him and passed along his brow and over his heart. Then came into his soul an indescribable longing, such as he had never felt before—a longing which the noise of the sea, the beauty of the clouds, the peace of the sky, and the tenderness of the wind, had aroused in him.

He felt that something inexpressibly dear had been lost to him, and he feared never again to regain it; the quiet moon and the pitying stars made him fear. A deep grief entered his heart, and he wept as from an everlasting sorrow. As he wept the angels rejoiced, and hovered over his head in a

halo of light; for they knew that these tears would bring him into the path that led to heaven!

Not far off lived a man who cared for destitute and ignorant children; the angel-band flew to bring him, and when the boy opened his eyes, in which the tears of repentance still lay, the ocean and bright clouds had disappeared; but there was bent upon him a pitying, benignant look, which went to the boy's heart, and a kind voice lingered in his ear, subduing him by its very strangeness. So he at once received the proffered hand, and arose and went with him to his home.

After that, the angel-children went into a splendid mansion, where, in a large, handsome chamber, lay a little girl