“That was not an angel!” said the child.
“No, indeed!” said the mother. “Nothing like one!”
The child danced on again, leaping and running from side to side of the road, and the mother followed as best she might.
By and by the child met a most beautiful maiden, clad in a white dress. Her eyes were like blue stars, and the blushes came and went in her face like roses looking through snow.
“I am sure you must be an angel!” cried the child.
The maiden blushed more sweetly than before. “You dear little child!” she cried. “Some one else said that, only last evening. Do I really look like an angel?”
“You are an angel!” said the child.
The maiden took him up in her arms and kissed him, and held him tenderly.
“You are the dearest little thing I ever saw!” she said. “Tell me what makes you think so!” But suddenly her face changed.