When the people next opened the church, they found a dead child in one of its corners. A little tambourine lay by its side, which, when they
picked it up, gave out pleasant, cheering tones; but, when they laid the dead body of the child in a cold, damp grave, they little thought what happy songs the living spirit of it sang with its mother in the lovely gardens of God.
THE STORY OF MAGGIE'S JOURNEY.
Little Maggie lived all alone in a small house which contained but one room. She had lived alone ever since the time her mother had gone to the palace of the Great King. At first Maggie had cried very bitterly to think of living alone without her mother; so did her mother, too, as for that matter, for no mother ever loved her child more dearly than she did Maggie.
"Maggie," she had said to her, when she knew she must go, "I shall love you just as tenderly as ever, and always think of you, even while I am in the Great King's palace. It is a long journey thither, and I expect I shall be obliged to go through a great many dark and strange places before coming there; and I fear, the most of all, to leave you in this little old house all alone; but you know I cannot disobey the King, and so must
follow this servant whom he has sent to bring me. But, O, Maggie, do follow me some time, for I shall be anxiously watching for you till you come! Be sure, now, and don't disappoint me; and when you come I think you had better start early in the morning, for the road is a long and dangerous one."
Perhaps this was a long speech to make; but when mothers go on such journeys as Maggie's mother was to go on, it is not an unusual custom for them to do so,—and especially when we remember how she would leave Maggie all alone; it was only to be wondered she said no more.
When her mother had really gone, the first thing Maggie did was to sit down upon the door-step and cry bitterly. She could not bear to think her mother had really gone, and that if ever she wanted to see her she must start upon that long, long journey. At first I don't think she loved to think about the Great King who had taken her mother away, and she was obliged to think over the beautiful things her mother had said of him many times, before she could be glad he had called her mother. But at last she rose