which, starting from the skin, slowly crept into her very
soul. She stood there, very unobtrusive, drinking in the sadly sweet
sounds. Up on the stained-glass window the sunlight filtered through
blue-and-red-and-golden angels, sending shafts of heavenly colour across
the floor; and the fibres of her soul, enmeshed in music, seemed to
stretch out to mingle with that heavenly colour. It was hard to separate
herself from that sound and colour which was not herself. Tears came to
her eyes; she couldn't tell why, for she wasn't sad. Oh, if she could
stand there listening forever!--could feel like this forever!

The choir was practising for a funeral that afternoon, but Melissa
didn't know that. She had never attended a funeral. She didn't even know
it was a funeral song. She only knew that when, at last, they stopped
singing and filed out of the choir-room, she could hardly bear to have
them go. She wished she might follow them, might tuck herself away in
the auditorium somewhere and stay for the church service. But her mother
didn't allow her to do that. Mother insisted that church service and
Sunday-school, combined, were too much for a little girl, and would give
her headaches.

So there was nothing for Missy to do but go home. The sun shone just as
brightly as on her hither journey but now she had no impulse to skip.
She walked along sedately, in rhythm to inner, long-drawn cadences.
The cadences permeated her--were herself. She was sad, yet pleasantly,
thrillingly so. It was divine. When she reached home, she went into the
empty front-parlour and hunted out the big, cloth-covered hymnal that
was there. She found "Asleep in Jesus" and played it over and over on
the piano. The bass was a trifle difficult, but that didn't matter. Then
she found other hymns which were in accord with her mood: "Abide with
Me"; "Nearer My God to Thee"; "One Sweetly Solemn Thought." The last
was sublimely beautiful; it almost stole her favour away from "Asleep in
Jesus." Not quite, though.

She was re-playing her first favourite when the folks all came in from
church. There were father and mother, grandpa and grandma Merriam who
lived in the south part of town, Aunt Nettie, and Cousin Pete Merriam.
Cousin Pete's mother was dead and his father out in California on a long
business trip, so he was spending that summer in Cherryvale with his
grandparents.

Melissa admired Cousin Pete very much, for he was big and handsome and
wore more stylis