house began to think of retiring, she was generally fast
asleep. About ten o'clock, therefore, the next night, just as a great
round moon was peering above the horizon, with a quantity of mackerel
clouds ready to receive her when she rose a yard or two higher, Willie,
taking a soft shawl of his mother's, went into Agnes's room, and having
wrapped her in the shawl, with a corner of it over her head and face,
carried her out into the garden, down to the trees, and up the stair
into the midst of the great boughs and branches of the elm tree. It was
a very warm night, with a soft breath of south wind blowing, and there
was no risk of her taking cold. He uncovered her face, but did not wake
her, leaving that to the change of her position and the freshness of the
air.

Nor was he disappointed. In a few moments she began to stir, then
half-opened her eyes, then shut them, then opened them again, then
rubbed them, then drew a deep breath, and then began to lift her head
from Willie's shoulder, and look about her. Through the thick leaves the
moon was shining like a great white fire, and must have looked to her
sleepy eyes almost within a yard of her. Even if she had not been half
asleep, so beheld through the leaves, it would have taken her a while to
make up her mind what the huge bright thing was. Then she heard a great
fluttering as if the leaves were talking to her, and out of them came a
soft wind that blew in her face, and felt very sweet and pleasant. She
rubbed her eyes again, but could not get the sleep out of them. As last
she said to Willie, who stood as still as a stone--but her tongue and
her voice and her lips could hardly make the words she wanted them to
utter:

"Am I awake? Am I dreaming? It's so nice!"

Willie did not answer her, and the little head sunk on his shoulder
again. He drew the corner of the shawl over it, and carried her back to
her bed. When he had laid her down, she opened her eyes wide, stared him
in the face for a moment, as if she knew all about everything except
just what she was looking at, put her thumb in her mouth, and was fast
asleep.

The next morning at breakfast, her papa out, and her mamma not yet come
down, she told Willie that she had had such a beautiful dream!--that an
angel, with great red wings, came and took her in his arms, and flew
up and up with her to a cloud that lay close by the moon, and there
stopped. The cloud was made all of little birds that kept fluttering
the