origin for religious influence Alma seemed
to look upon as if it were a sort of superior aristocratic form of
vaccination. Alma went on to describe the saintly princess as she had
heard her spoken of by both her father and her mother, whose respect
and affection she had so justly won.

How the image grew and fixed itself in Nono's mind of a real, living
princess who sold her rich jewels to build and sustain a home for the
sick poor! He heard how she, in her own illness, surrounded by every
luxury, could have no rest until she had planned a home where they too
could have comfort and tender care. The dark eyes of the listener grew
moist as he heard of the hospital the princess now had for crippled and
diseased children, where they were made happy and had real love as well
as a real home.

Nono was a happy boy when he went out from Alma's room with a little
engraved likeness of the princess in his hand, and a glow of warm
feeling for her in his fresh young heart. For certain private reasons
of his own, she seemed very near to him, and the thought of her was
peculiarly precious.

When old Pelle and Nono were going home that evening, he produced his
little likeness of the princess, and told Pelle all about her.

Pelle's eyes sparkled, and he said as he rubbed his hands together,
"That princess does belong to the royal family! She is a daughter of
the great King!"

"May I put her up in your room, Uncle Pelle?" asked Nono. "I do not
quite like to have her in the cottage, where the children can get at
her. They might not understand that this is not like any other
picture."

"That you may," said Pelle; "and come in to see her, too, as often as
you please. A sick princess and a Christian too! She wouldn't mind
having her likeness put up in my poor place, if she is like what you
say. God bless her!"

Nono had a way of taking what was precious to him to Pelle to keep, and
curious were the boyish treasures he had stored away in Pelle's room.
It had been a bare little home when the old man went into it, but he
had made it a cosy nest in his own fashion. Pelle had been for a time
a sailor in his youth, and had learned to make himself comfortable in
narrow quarters. A fever caught in a foreign port had laid him by, and
left sad traces behind it in his before strong body. Other and better
traces had been left in his life, even repentance for past misdoings
and resolutions for a faithful Christian course. As a gar