'Dearest,' he said, putting his arm round her, 'you would not cry if you had seen his face.'
'But such a lonely death!'
'He is glad now,' said Roger, with something like a sob.
Was it a lonely death? Who knows? It may be that, bearing the summons home, God had sent some messenger from the unseen world, who had been suffered to become a visible presence to the closing eyes. It may be that some voice—perhaps his mother's—had sounded once again in the ears, where its echo had lingered so long. We cannot tell.
Only no child's head was ever pillowed more peacefully in its dreamless sleep, than was Wandering Willie's, resting on the stone round which the snow had drifted.
And who, that looked into his restful face, could doubt that the old man's prayer was heard?
Down to the white moorland the Master sent at last, the message of recall, and hearing it even through the deep snow-sleep of that winter's night, His servant arose gladly, and from earth's storms and weariness he departed in peace.
LONDON: PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE
AND PARLIAMENT STREET
BOOKS FOR THE YOUNG.
ALICE'S ADVENTURES in WONDERLAND. By Lewis Carroll. Twenty-second Thousand. Crown 8vo. with 42 Illustrations by Tenniel, cloth gilt, 6s. The same in French and German, each 6s.