e never tempted or wicked; where there's no need to struggle,
and nobody makes mistakes; where there's neither sickness nor sorrow,
parting nor death--nothing but music and pleasure and happiness all the
year round. Only in heaven are all these joys to be found--the heaven
that awaits us after our work is done, when the blessed Lord Himself
sends His messenger to bring us home."

"Then, dear dwarf, isn't there any Happy Land at all," asked Joan,
fixing upon her friend a pair of wondering, wide blue eyes--"no nice
place where me and Darby can always be quite happy and good, wifout
naughtiness or puttin' to bed same as at Firgrove; where I could keep my
dollies and the pussies wif me, and where there 'ud be no Aunt
Catharine?" she added emphatically. "Tell me, please, isn't there no
Happy Land like that anywhere, wifout bein' deaded and put in a big box
in the ground, the way they did wif muver?"

"Ay, missy, there's a Happy Land sure enough for us all; but each of us
must seek it within, and create it around us for ourselves," said the
dwarf dreamily. "And I think that you surely make yours about you
wherever you are," he added, as he softly smoothed the little one's
tangled yellow curls.

"Please 'splain it to me again, Mr. Bambo," begged Darby, in his sweet,
grave tones; "I'm afraid I don't quite understand your meaning yet. I'm
only seven years old, you see, and not very wise for my age, Aunt
Catharine says."

"And I'm not wise at all," laughed Bambo, shaking his great head in a
droll way, which vastly amused Miss Joan, "although I'm more than three
times your age. I fear I'm not good at explaining, either, for I'm just
a dull, unlearned fellow. I never had no schooling, not since I wore
petticoats!"--here Joan laughed merrily--"and have no knowledge except
what the Master has taught me out under the sky and the stars, from the
hedgerows, the beasts, the birds, the trees, the flowers. But I'll do my
best to tell you what I mean, and the great Teacher Himself will make
the rest clear to you if you are willing to learn of Him.

"I believe that the only truly Happy Land is just wherever the Lord
Jesus is, and He dwells with those who love and desire Him above all
others, no matter what their station or where their habitation may
be--whether in a palace or a caravan; beyond yonder storm-blown hill, or
safe in the snug shelter of Firgrove. Then if He is to walk always
beside us, we must conduct ourselves as befits the