f by those who had charge of her,
strayed down the winding paths, and was soon hidden among the
grave-stones, which were very thick; for the dead of ages were buried in
that little churchyard. At first she wondered why she had been brought
there; but the sky was so blue above her, and the earth so beautiful
around, that she soon forgot it. The shadow of Death, which falls
heavily on the hearts of men, passes like a light mist over the soul of
a child.

Large butterflies with crimson and golden wings were flying to and fro
in the air, and the wild bee pursued its honey-making in the buttercups.
She sat down in the long grass, and began to weave the blue violets, as
she had seen the basket-maker weave his rushes. Not a month before, a
little girl of her own age was laid with many tears in the mound at her
feet; but the dew hung there as brightly as in the deep meadows, and the
sunshine filled the place, like the smile of God. Nature mourns not like
man for the dead whom she has gathered to her bosom in peace.

By and by little Agnes began to grow drowsy, and in spite of all she
could do to keep awake, she found her eyes closing and her head nodding
on her breast; so she repeated the prayer that her good mother had
taught her to say before going to bed, and committed herself to the care
of her Heavenly Father, and in a moment was fast asleep, and walking in
a dream with the Angels.

In the mean time the good vicar, having finished his exhortation, and
the people having departed, began to wonder at her absence, and searched
for her down the path which he remembered to have seen her take. Looking
right and left among the grave-stones, and calling "Agnes," with a
sweet, low voice, he came to the spot where she had fallen asleep. She
was sleeping still, and beside her stood a little lamb, innocent and
beautiful. Its fleece was whiter than the driven snow, and glistened in
the sunlight like gold. There was a golden collar around its neck, with
an inscription in an unknown tongue; and its eyes were exceeding tender
and beautiful. There were no folds in that country, and how it could
have come there was a mystery which the vicar could not explain; nor
could the child when she awoke. She only remembered to have seen it in
her dream, following a Shepherd in the pastures of Paradise.

As the vicar stood lost in amazement, it drew near him, and looked up in
his face with its tender and beautiful eyes, and then at the child, and
t