“But I was not so very naughty,” said Kitty with a big sob.
“You were naughty. I should not love you if I did not say you were naughty,” the sweet voice continued, talking in Kitty’s ear. She sometimes lost what it said, but she heard the sound like a lullaby.
“Punishment always follows naughtiness. It comes like the shadow that follows you in the sunshine. It may not be in pain to your body that it will come. It may come in grief for seeing another suffer for your fault; but punishment must follow wrong-doing.”
Then again the tender voice spoke:
“Your little heart tempted you to wake Johnnie. You ought to have resisted, to have said ‘No; what will comfort me may make Johnnie suffer.’” Then again the voice said: “We must resist temptation ... to win a blessing.”
CHAPTER III
DOWN THE SNOW STAIRS.
“Get up! get up! get up!” said another voice.
Kitty was wide awake and sitting up in a moment. Some one was standing by her bedside. Was it nurse? Her white cap and apron glimmered through the dusk.
“How is Johnnie?” cried Kitty, starting up.