into his jacket pocket, he said with a smile, "I won't bring
it back with me, I'm thinkin'. Ye'll maybe tell us some more about the
Good Shepherd next time, and I can hold at the spellin' when I'm
herdin', and maybe I'll soon be able to get into the Bible itself," he
added, still firm in his belief that the only entrance lay through the
spelling-book.

Grace, remembering little Jean's dislike to the exit through the dark
passages, led the way to a door which opened into a path to the garden.
Jean manifested undisguised satisfaction when the dim still-room
precincts were fairly left behind, and they got into the pleasant old
walled-in garden, where the yellow afternoon's sun was lying on the
opening fruit-blossom, and bringing delicious scents out of the
newly-blown lilac and hawthorn. She kept pulling Geordie's corduroys, to
draw his attention to all that captivated her as they walked along the
broad gravel walk. This was certainly a much pleasanter way home than
along the dim passage, and Jean decided that the best part of the
afternoon had come last. Presently Grace opened the door of one of the
greenhouses, and they stood among richer colours and sweeter scents than
before. The children had been surveying with admiring wonder the
dazzling house glittering in the sun, which was making each pane sparkle
like a diamond, but they never dreamt that it would be given to them to
enter it, or indeed that it had an interior which could be reached, so
entirely did it seem to belong to the region of the sun, not to the
world of thatched cottages and grey walls.

"Eh, but surely this will be something like the happy land you were
singin' aboot," Geordie said at last, with a long-drawn breath, after he
had wandered about in silence for some time, revelling in the exotic
delights of the first greenhouse he had ever seen.

"Oh yes, Geordie; there will be all this, and a great deal more; things
so beautiful and, glorious that our poor minds can't even imagine what
they will be like," said Grace, glowingly, feeling a thrill of pleasure
to hear that the hymn had any meaning for the boy, so desponding was she
concerning her efforts. "Look here, I'll just read to you about the
pleasant place where the Good Shepherd leads his flock, after their
journey on earth is over." And leaning against an old orange-tree,
Grace read to her little scholars about that wonderful multitude "which
came out of great tribulation, and have washed their ro