The children from the rainbow walked slowly up the aisle between the row of beds, and, strangely enough, no one seemed to look at them or pay the least attention, any more than if they had not been there, and at last Teddy began to believe that they could not see them.
Often the little strange children stopped to smooth a pillow or to softly stroke the cheek or hand of one of the little earth children.
Here and there one would linger behind the others, by some bed, and after a moment would lay its bunch of flowers on the pillow. Then the little child in the bed would turn its head and smile, even if it were asleep, and its face would shine as if with some inward happiness. The whole room seemed filled with the perfume of flowers, and Teddy wondered that no one paid any attention to it.
At last they came to a bed where a little child was lying fast asleep, and a woman was sitting beside the child and fanning it. Suddenly its eyes opened, and the moment they turned toward the rainbow children, Teddy knew that it saw them.
It lay looking for a moment and then it smiled and feebly tried to wave its hand. “What is it, dear?” asked the woman, bending over the child, but it paid no attention to her, for it was gazing at the rainbow children.
“Oh, he sees us! he sees us!” they cried, clapping their hands joyfully. “He’ll be coming across the rainbow soon.”
Then the rainbow children gathered about the bed and began talking to the child, but Teddy could not understand what they said to it. The little child on the bed seemed to understand them though, and it smiled and tried to nod its head.
“Come soon! Come soon!” cried the little children, waving their hands to it as they moved away, and the eyes of the child on the bed followed them wistfully, as though it were eager to follow.
Teddy and Ellen still went with the other little children, and a moment after they were out on the rainbow bridge again, high up above the world, but they were alone, for the little strange children were gone.
Ellen stood still and drew a long breath. “Oh! wasn’t that lovely?” she sighed. “I wonder where it was!”