d not know, for those purposes were too
great for us, not knowing the end from the beginning, and the hearts of
men were too great for us. We comprehended the evil sometimes, but never
fathomed the good. And how could we know the lesser things which were
working out God's way? for some of these even the angels did not know;
and it has happened to me that our Lord himself has come in sometimes to
tell me of one that none of us had discovered."

"Oh," said the little Pilgrim, with tears in her eyes, "I should like to
have been that one!--that was not known even to the angels, but only
to Himself!"

The historian smiled. "It was my brother," he said.

The Pilgrim looked at him with great wonder. "Your brother, and you did
not know him!"

And then he turned over the pages and showed her where the story was.

"You know," he said, "that we who live here are not of your time, but
have lived and lived here till the old life is far away and like a dream.
There were great tumults and fightings in our time, and it was settled by
the prince of the place that our town was to be abandoned, and all the
people left to the mercy of an enemy who had no mercy. But every day as
he rode out he saw at one door a child, a little fair boy, who sat on the
steps, and sang his little song like a bird. This child was never afraid
of anything,--when the horses pranced past him, and the troopers pushed
him aside, he looked up into their faces and smiled. And when he had
anything, a piece of bread, or an apple, or a plaything, he shared it
with his playmates; and his little face, and his pretty voice, and all
his pleasant ways, made that corner bright. He was like a flower growing
there; everybody smiled that saw him."

"I have seen such a child," the little Pilgrim said.

"But we made no account of him," said the historian. "The Lord of the
place came past him every day, and always saw him singing in the sun by
his father's door. And it was a wonder then, and it has been a wonder
ever since, why, having resolved upon it, that prince did not abandon the
town, which would have changed all his fortune after. Much had been made
clear to me since I began to study, but not this: till the Lord himself
came to me and told me. The prince looked at the child till he loved him,
and he reflected how many children there were like this that would be
murdered, or starved to death, and he could not give up the little
singing boy to the sword. So he remained;