be best! -- 'Little traveller
Zion-ward' -- I wish we were all up at those gates, O Lord! --"

The last words were spoken with a heavy sigh, and then the old
woman changed her tone.

"Winnie! -- Winnie! -- go to bed -- go to bed! Your mother'd say
it if she was here."

Winnie raised her head and opened her eyes, and Karen
repeating her admonition in the same key, the child got up and
went mechanically out of the room, as if to obey it.

It was by this time very late in the night; the rest of the
inmates of the house had long been asleep. No lights were
burning except in the room she had left. But opening the door
of the kitchen, through which her way lay to her own room,
Winnie found there was a glimmer from the fire, which usually
was covered up close; and coming further into the room, she
saw some one stretched at full length upon the floor at the
fireside. Another step, and Winnie knew it was Winthrop. He
was asleep, his head resting on a rolled-up cloak against the
jamb. Winnie's tears sprang forth again, but she would not
waken him. She kneeled down by his side, to look at him, as
well as the faint fireglow would let her, and to weep over
him; but her strength was worn out. It refused even weeping;
and after a few minutes, nestling down as close to him as she
could get, she laid one arm and her head upon his breast and
went to sleep too. More peacefully and quietly than she had
slept for several nights.

The glimmer from the fire-light died quite away, and only the
bright stars kept watch over them. The moon was not where she
could look in at those north or east kitchen windows. But by
degrees the fair April night changed. Clouds gathered
themselves up from all quarters of the horizon, till they
covered the sky; the faces of the stars were hid; thunder
began to roll along among the hills, and bright incessant
flashes of white lightning kept the room in a glare. The
violence of the storm did not come over Shah-wee-tah, but it
was more than enough to rouse Winthrop, whose sleep was not so
deep as his little sister's. And when Winnie did come to her
consciousness she found herself lifted from the floor and on
her brother's lap; he half sitting up; his arms round her, and
her head still on his breast. Her first movement of awakening
was to change her position and throw her arms around his neck.

"Winnie --" he said gently.

The flood-gates burst then, and her heart poured itself out,
her head alternately n