her great mirror; and there they saw themselves and Alice—all children of the great King.
“Ah, now I know!” said Maddie, clapping her hands. “You are the little princess, Alice, and Miss Mason is the good lady. Is she so nice as all that?”
“Just as nice, dear Maddie,” replied Alice; “and if you and Lolly will go with me to the Sunday-school, she’ll tell us a great many more beautiful stories, to help us on our way to our heavenly home.
“But come. It is nearly time for us to go now. Mother will be looking for me. Good-bye.”
And the little girl with the sunny heart bounded into the cottage with a smile and a kiss for her mother.
CHAPTER V.
When Alice left the children, they went sauntering along the road towards home. Very slowly they walked, and not joyously and hopefully, as little children do who think of their father’s house as the brightest and dearest spot in the whole world.
It was a long distance from the brown cottage of their friend; but the freshness of the evening made it delightful to be out, and they had been resting so many hours that they were not weary. Besides, the twinkling stars came out in the sky, and there was shining above them the calm, bright moon; and altogether it was so serene and lovely, that they almost wished they could be always walking in some pleasant path that should have no unpleasant thing at the end—such as they felt their home
to be. Presently they came to a bend in the road, and a few steps from the corner was a low-roofed house, a ruinous-looking place, with rags stuffed in the broken window-panes. There were green fields around it, and tall trees gracefully waving near it; but the old house spoiled the landscape by its slovenly, shabby appearance.
A dim light was burning in the room nearest the children; and as they approached, they could see their father and mother sitting at a table, eating their coarse supper of bread and cold salt pork.