"How ashamed you must have felt! I suppose he thought you the old dame's daughter, or a beggar, perhaps. I'm glad you did not bring him to our cabin; how it would look beside his palace in the golden city above! What did he say to you?"
"'Blessed, O Daisy, are the merciful,' he said; I was hungry, and you gave me food; thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was sad, and you cheered me; tired, and I rested on your arm.'
"'O, no,' I answered, 'you must be thinking of some one else. I never saw you before, except in my vision once.'
"He took my hand, and looked into my face with such a gentle smile that I did not feel afraid, and pointed at the wood: 'This burden was not the old dame's, but mine; the blood you wiped away was mine; when you fed and comforted this little one, you were feeding and comforting me. You never can tell how much good you are doing, Daisy; poor girl as you are, you may give joy to my Father's angels. Look through your spectacles.'
"So I looked, and there sat the poor little beggar, (see, she has fallen asleep from weariness!) moaning and sobbing in the grass, as when we found her first; and an angel stood beside her, weeping, too."
"An angel beside her?" interrupted Maud.
"Yes, a beautiful angel, with the calm, holy look which they all wear in heaven, but I never saw upon this earth; he wept because she had no friend; and, just then, I was so fortunate as to come past, and, not seeing the angel, I asked her to take my hand, and run along beside me.
"But now I saw that, when the child began to smile, the angel also smiled, and lifted his white wings and flew—O, faster than lightning—over the tree tops, and past the clouds; and the sky parted where he went, until I saw him stand before the throne, in the wonderful city above.
"And Christ said, 'He stands there always, watching her, unless she needs him here; and when her earthly life is over, he will lead her back, to dwell in my Father's house. For the great God is her Father, and yours, and mine; she is my sister: should I not feel her grief?'"
Maud's heart fell, for she felt that the being whom she had met must also have been Christ, and asked Daisy if he looked sad and tired, and had wounds in his hands.