"Yes, and what then?"
"Oh, go on creeping and grubbing till one dies, I suppose."
"And then?"
"That's all; a grave perhaps, with no name to put over it. Nothing more."
"Yes, Guy, think again; the grub days over, the wings unfold, the angels of God bear home the blood-bought soul, and the Lord Himself pronounces the welcome of His humblest follower who has lived by faith, and obeyed and honoured Him. 'Well done, thou good and faithful servant,' from the Master's lips, will obliterate all life's sorrows and disappointments, inaugurate joys that, until then, 'eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart to conceive, but which God hath prepared for them that love Him.' Oh, my son, we shall then know fully what it is to be a Christian, not in name only, but in deed and in truth."
Guy gazed at his mother with a feeling almost of awe, half expecting to see the wings she spoke of; and there was a long silence, while his face lay hidden in the grass. At last he looked up.
"Mother, I will try for both. I will be diligent in business, and take what it brings; but I will have the wings and the welcome whatever else I lose."
"By the grace of God, dear child. 'Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find'; and be sure that you shall stand one day, glory-crowned, in the presence of the King of kings."
While the mother and son indulged in silent thought on the subject of their conversation, the voices of Evelyn and Maude sounded merrily from a neighbouring walk, and before Guy could rise, he was covered with wreaths of wild flowers and denounced as the very impersonation of idleness.
"Now if you will be civil, I will convince you that I am not idle," said Guy, composedly, making strokes upon a paper or drawing-book as he lay on his face on the grass; "look if you ever saw anything like this."