"Could we not sleep in the day-time if we were tired, papa?"
"We might sleep, but not as well or as pleasantly as we now do when all is dark and quiet."
"Then if I was to wish for two suns, I'd better wish we should never be tired or sleepy."
"So you might go on wishing forever, and if you had the power, changing first one and then another of the wise laws which our Father in heaven has made for the good of all. And what distress and confusion this would make! What a miserable, unhappy world this would be if you, or some other weak, human creature who cannot see the end from the beginning, and cannot tell what would be the consequence of his wishes, were allowed such power. No, we may thank God, not only that he does what is best for us, but also that he has allowed none but himself to be the judge of this."
"So I had better be contented to have the night as it is, papa; is that what you mean? Perhaps other people would not like to have things as I did, and they might think I was a very disagreeable child to have them my way; and I should not like that at all."
"I would not be glad if there was never any night," said Bessie, who was always more ready than her sister to go to rest.
"Then I wont wish it," said Maggie; "and I shall just always try to think 'our Father' knows best, even if I don't feel quite suited myself."
One afternoon, about dark, it began to snow, much to the children's delight; for grandmamma had promised a sleigh-ride whenever it should be possible. All night the soft, feathery flakes fell gently and steadily, so that in the morning the ground was covered thickly with a beautiful white mantle.
Since the weather had become cold, each day, after breakfast, Maggie and Bessie were allowed to throw out crumbs for the sparrows and chickadees, who came about the house to find something to eat. The birds seemed to know the hour almost as well as the children, and seldom came for their breakfast before the right time. But on this morning the little girls were scarcely down-stairs, when their brother called them to come and see what a flock of their pets had already gathered on the piazza and window-ledge. For the ground being all covered with snow, there were no stray crumbs or seeds to be found; and the chickadees and sparrows, being early risers, found themselves hungry and in need of their regular breakfast rather sooner than usual; and now the prints of their tiny feet were to be seen all over the snow, while twice the ordinary number of birds hopped about the piazza, or perched upon the railing and window-ledge, chirping away, twitching their little heads from side to side, and watching the children with their bright, twinkling eyes as if asking what made them so late.
Away ran Maggie to ask Patrick for a piece of bread, and came back with a rush and a jump and a sudden shove at the window which put every mother's bird of them to flight. In her hurry to feed them, she quite forgot that they were so easily startled, and was much distressed when she saw them all flying off in a great fright.