sweet children." She
blushed and looked disconcerted. She was evidently unused to people, and
shy with all but her children. However, she thanked me sweetly, and
said:

"I was very sorry about them. The children took such trouble to get
them, and I think they will revive in water. They cannot be quite dead."

"They will never die!" said I, with an emphasis which went from my heart
to hers. Then all her shyness fled. She knew me; and we shook hands, and
smiled into each other's eyes with the smile of kindred as we parted.

As I followed on, I heard the two children, who were walking behind,
saying to each other: "Wouldn't that have been too bad? Mamma liked them
so much, and we never could have got so many all at once again."

"Yes, we could, too, next Summer," said the boy, sturdily.

They are sure of their "next summers," I think, all six of those
souls--children, and mother, and father. They may never again gather so
many ox-eye daisies and buttercups "all at once." Perhaps some of the
little hands have already picked their last flowers. Nevertheless, their
summers are certain. To such souls as these, all trees, either here or
in God's larger country, are Trees of Life, with twelve manner of fruits
and leaves for healing; and it is but little change from the summers
here, whose suns burn and make weary, to the summers there, of which
"the Lamb is the light."

PRINCE LITTLE BOY

BY S. WEIR MITCHELL

A great many children live on the borders of Fairy-land and never visit
it at all, and really there are people who grow up and are not very
unhappy who will not believe they have lived near to it all their lives.
But if once you have been in that pleasant country you never quite
forget it, and when some stupid man says, "It is all stuff and
nonsense," you do not say much, even if you yourself have come to be an
old fellow with hair of two colors, but you feel proud to know how much
more you have seen of the world than he has. Children are the best
travelers in Fairy-land, and there also is another kingdom which is easy
for them to reach and hard for some older folks.

Once upon a time there was a small boy who lived so near to Fairy-land
that he sometimes got over the fence and inside of that lovely country,
but, being a little afraid, never went very far, and was quick to run
home if he saw Blue Beard or an Ogre or even Goody Two-Shoes. Once or
twice he went a little farther, and saw things which may be