e eyes, as
the dew-drops sparkle through the sunlight in the violets.

"We'll go and see her now," continued she; "and I'll show you two other
little exiled princesses." And she took Lolly and Maddie down by the
brook-side, and bade them look in her great mirror; and there they saw
themselves and Alice--all children of the great King.

"Ah, now I know!" said Maddie, clapping her hands. "_You_ are the little
princess, Alice, and Miss Mason is the good lady. Is she so nice as all
that?"

"_Just as nice_, dear Maddie," replied Alice; "and if you and Lolly will
go with me to the Sunday-school, she'll tell us a great many more
beautiful stories, to help us on our way to our heavenly home.

"But come. It is nearly time for us to go now. Mother will be looking
for me. Good-bye."

And the little girl with the sunny heart bounded into the cottage with a
smile and a kiss for her mother.

CHAPTER V.

When Alice left the children, they went sauntering along the road towards
home. Very slowly they walked, and not joyously and hopefully, as little
children do who think of their father's house as the brightest and
dearest spot in the whole world.

It was a long distance from the brown cottage of their friend; but the
freshness of the evening made it delightful to be out, and they had been
resting so many hours that they were not weary. Besides, the twinkling
stars came out in the sky, and there was shining above them the calm,
bright moon; and altogether it was so serene and lovely, that they almost
wished they could be always walking in some pleasant path that should
have no unpleasant thing at the end--such as they felt their home to be.
Presently they came to a bend in the road, and a few steps from the
corner was a low-roofed house, a ruinous-looking place, with rags stuffed
in the broken window-panes. There were green fields around it, and tall
trees gracefully waving near it; but the old house spoiled the landscape
by its slovenly, shabby appearance.

A dim light was burning in the room nearest the children; and as they
approached, they could see their father and mother sitting at a table,
eating their coarse supper of bread and cold salt pork.

Lolly thought what a pleasant table Alice had by the brook-side, and the
scent of the violets seemed even now to reach her, and the music of the
waters was in her ears, and the bright, happy face of her little playmate
came freshly before her, making the ding