"Yes. Sometimes, if mother had lodgers and could not go in the mornings, she used to send me alone, and then in the evenings we generally went together. Mother used to say that Easter Sunday was the brightest, happiest day of all the year."
"Why?" he asked curiously.
"Because on Easter Sunday we think of Christ's rising from the dead, and it comes in the spring when—"
Mousey paused abruptly, overcome with a sudden shyness, and mindful of Maria's warning not to speak of religion to her companion; but the old man bade her go on and tell him what she had been about to say.
"Easter comes when everything is springing into life after the winter," Mousey proceeded in a low voice. "Mother said the sight of the trees budding and the flowers blooming ought to remind us that there is no such thing as death."
"No such thing as death!" he echoed in amazement. "Why, child, it was only a month ago that your mother died, and yet you say there is no such thing as death!"
"I'm afraid I can't quite explain what I mean," the little girl answered in slightly troubled tones; "but I know, I know! When Jesus died they put a great stone in front of His grave, but on the third day He rose from the dead; and we shall all rise from the dead, too, Mother told me that death is only the gate of life."
"And you believe that?"
"Why, of course I do, Cousin Robert."
They had now come to a park tastefully laid out, with winding paths passing between flower-beds gay with spring blossoms. They sat down on a seat, for it was warm and pleasant in the sunshine, and they had walked a good way.