Eagerly the little faces peered down into it, and then little Olive laughed and clapped her hands.
'A dear little tiny weeny green stem! It's coming up at last!'
'And look! In two other pots I can see something! exclaimed Roland excitedly.
'Ay, I remember the first sight I ketched of it after my loss,' said Bob. 'I were very broken-hearted, but it seemed to bring a tiny spark of hope to my heart, to see what I had only believed by faith was goin' on underground. It's grand to see the Lord's workin's; but mind, you little ones, that there plant is just as much alive before it shows itself. There is a deal goin' on in the silence and darkness that we knows nothin' about, but it's fact all the same.'
The children could talk of nothing else all that day, and little Olive was found by her nurse standing over Bob's graves, giving them most careful scrutiny a short time after.
'What are you doing here?' asked nurse. 'I've been looking for you everywhere.'
'Mr. Bob's lilies have come through the earth at last, nurse,' said Olive, raising her blue eyes earnestly to her nurse's face; 'so I came to see if these graves were cracking yet. They'll be like Jesus' grave in the garden, you know, at Easter.'
Only a few weeks after this, both Olive and her brother lay prostrate in their beds with a severe attack of measles. Their aunts had been so long unaccustomed to children's ailments, that perhaps they may have exaggerated the danger; still, even the family doctor looked grave and talked about 'Indian constitutions,' 'no stamina,' etc., etc., and the old house that had so lately rung with childish voices and laughter now lay hushed and silent in the sweet spring sunshine.
