wers on it, but the chickens run through the orchard and
scratch them off; and one day the horrid black pig was grunting with
his nose, and making a great hole in it! I wish he could have a
tombstone; no one cares a bit, and they almost laugh if I say anything
about it.'

'Is that what is troubling you?' asked Mr. Russell kindly.

'That's one of the things, but not the big thing.'

'And what is the big thing?'

Betty was silent; then she said, 'I'll tell it to you--p'raps this
afternoon.'

They went back to luncheon, and then Mr. Russell took his seat in the
shady verandah that ran round the house. It was a still, warm
afternoon. Betty got a stool, and sitting down on it rested her head
against the knee of her friend. Outside the bees were humming round
the roses and amongst the bright flower-beds on the lawn; the birds
were twittering in the old beeches close by; but over the whole scene
hung a Sabbath peace and repose.

The child looked away to the soft distant hills and the deep blue sky.

'Shall I tell you what I promised?' she asked at last, bringing her sad
little eyes to Mr. Russell's face.

Mr. Russell nodded, and clutching rather nervously at his hand, Betty
said a little hurriedly, 'Prince has always been so good, and I've
talked so much to him of heaven, and he seemed to like it, and I--well,
I tried to teach him his prayers, and I've prayed to God for him every
night, that I thought he would be sure to go to heaven, don't you think
so? But I was reading Revelation, and I was thinking how perhaps he
might be able to sing in heaven, perhaps God would give him a proper
voice--for Mrs. Giles told me she had a little deaf and dumb brother
once who died, and she said he would be given a voice when he got
there; and then I read in the last chapter--oh, I can't tell you!'

Down dropped the little head, and a burst of tears came.

Mr. Russell did not speak; he got up and went inside the house to get a
Bible. Coming back, he spread it open on his knee and scanned the
chapter through.

'Well,' he said at length, 'I don't see your trouble, Betty.'

'It says,' sobbed the child, 'that dogs will be outside heaven with all
the wicked persons and all the liars! Prince was never wicked, and
never, never told a lie. I can't make it out, it's so dreadful!'

Mr. Russell almost smiled, but his tone was as grave as usual when he
put his arm round Betty, saying, 'But, my dear child, that is not the
meaning o