g my lesson and going on the
errand and winding the skein, all at the same time, and now I have got
all tangled up in the wool, and I cannot walk either forward or back,
and oh! dear me, what ever _shall_ I do?"

"Sit down!" said the Angel.

"But it is school-time!" said the child.

"Sit down!" said the Angel.

"But father sent me on an errand!" said the child.

"SIT DOWN!" said the Angel; and he took the child by her shoulders and
set her down.

"Now sit still!" he said, and he began patiently to wind up the skein.
It was wofully tangled, and knotted about the child's hands and feet; it
was a wonder she could move at all; but at last it was all clear, and
the Angel handed her the ball.

"I thank you so very much!" said the child. "I was not naughty, was I?"

"Not naughty, only foolish; but that does just as much harm sometimes."

"But I was doing right things!" said the child.

"But you were doing them in the wrong way!" said the Angel. "It is good
to do an errand, and it is good to go to school, but when you have a
skein to wind you must sit still."

THE NURSLING

Yesterday, the kind nurse, Yesterday, the wise old woman, sat by the
fire with her nursling on her knee.

"Still, my babe, be still!" she said. "Listen now, till I sing you a
song!"

"Oh! I know all your songs," said the child. "I know them by heart, the
sleepy bed-time songs. But the lovely lady yonder, who smiles at me from
the doorway, sings a new song, new and strange, and sweet, sweet. If I
listen to her, may be I shall learn it."

"Nay! listen not to her, the gipsy!" said Yesterday. "Bide here by the
fire with me, my babe, and I will tell you a story shall do you good to
hear."

"Oh! I know all your stories," said the child, "know them every word,
and some of them are false, and all are dull. But the lovely lady who
beckons me from the doorway murmurs strange words, in a new tongue, yet
clear as light; if I go with her, may be I shall learn it."

"Child, child," said the old nurse, "listen not to her gipsy talk; it is
full of peril, and these new words have wicked meanings. Come with me,
my darling, and I will show you my garden, full of sweet flowers and
delicate fruits and precious herbs. See! they have grown from all time,
and I gathered them from the four ways of the world, and all for you."

The child laughed, and his laugh rang cruel clear, as when a bird sings
loud and merry over a new-made grave.

"Your flowers