ssy one day. They were standing at the
window one May morning, waiting for their father and mother to come to
breakfast. It was a Sunday morning, so there was no hurrying off to
school. "Don't you _love_ summer, Ted?"

"Yes, summer's awfully jolly," he replied. "But so's winter. Just think
of the snowballing and the skating. I do hope next winter will be a
regular good one, for I shall be ever so much bigger I expect, and I'll
try my best to beat them all at skating."

His face and eyes beamed with pleasure. Just then his mother came in;
she had heard his last words.

"Next winter!" she said. "That's a long time off. Who knows what may
happen before then?"

She gave a little sigh; Ted and Cissy looked at each other. They knew
what mother was thinking of. Since _last_ winter a great grief had come
to her. She had lost one who had been to her what Ted was to Cissy, and
the sorrow was still fresh. Ted and Cissy drew near to their mother. Ted
stroked her hand, and Cissy held up her rosy mouth for a kiss.

"Dear mother," they said both together, and then a little silence fell
over them all. Cissy's thoughts were sad as she looked at Ted and
pictured to herself how terrible it would be to lose a brother as dear
as he, and Ted was gazing up at the blue sky and _wondering_--wondering
about the great mystery which had lately, for the first time in his
life, seemed to come near him. What _was_ dying? Why, if it meant, as
his father and mother told him, a better, and fuller, and nobler life
than this, which he found so good and happy a thing, why, if it meant
living nearer to God, understanding Him better, why should people dread
it so, why speak of it as so sad?

"I don't think," thought little Ted to himself, "I don't _think_ I
should be afraid of dying. God is so kind, I couldn't fancy being afraid
of Him; and heaven must be so beautiful," for the sunny brightness of
the May morning seemed to surround everything. But his glance fell on
his mother and sister, and other thoughts rose in his mind; the leaving
them--ah yes, _that_ was what made death so sad a thing; and he had to
turn his head away to hide the tears which rose to his eyes.

There was, as his mother had said, a long time to next winter--there
seemed even, to the children, a long time to next summer, which
they were hoping for so eagerly. And an interruption came to Ted's
school-work, for quite unexpectedly he and Cissy went away to London for
a few weeks wit