ike to lie down and never get up again.
Hanseli is getting dreadfully heavy, and I can scarcely carry him any
longer, but he won't walk, and only screams and kicks if I put him
down."

"I'm glad to find somebody who knows what it is to be tired; now we can
talk about it, can't we? Don't you feel sometimes as if you never wanted
to stand up again, and wouldn't you like to have something happen that
would make you over new and take all the tired feelings away?"

"But nothing can happen; you only just have to get up again."

"I mean something different from usual; wouldn't you like to lie down
and die, Elsli?"

"Why, no; I don't think I should like to die. I never thought of that.
What makes you think of it?"

"I suppose you don't know what it will be like. Clarissa told me all
about it, and we have talked it over a great many times together. I
never talk to mamma about it, because she always begins to cry. But I
will tell you, and then you will be glad too to think about going to
heaven. I'll tell you the pretty song that Clarissa taught me. Would you
like to hear it now?"

Elsli would have been glad to hear the song, but at that moment Mrs.
Stanhope entered the room. She was much surprised to see the two little
girls already on such good terms, and still more so when Nora said:--

"Mamma dear, there is really no hurry about the silk and the pencils,
nor about the eggs either; I don't care for any of them just now; it
will do as well by and by. I'd rather have Elsli stay here with me."

Her mother was well pleased, and answered,--

"Certainly; Elsli can stay with you now; it will be time enough for the
errands when she comes in the afternoon."

The two children were equally delighted; Nora at the prospect of
pleasant intercourse to enliven her weary hours, and Elsli at the
thought of sitting in peace and quiet by this friendly new acquaintance.

As Mrs. Stanhope sat down with them, nothing more could be said about
the Song of Paradise, and Nora must put off till another time her
account of all that Clarissa had told her about the happiness of the
heavenly life. So at first there was silence between them, but then she
asked Elsli about her life at home, and Elsli told about her little
brothers and the baby, and then about Fani; and once started upon that
topic she hardly knew where to stop. She told how kind he was to her,
and how clever at his lessons, how he helped her with her exercises, and
she did not kno