"Poor little maiden! it is weary work waiting."
"When the lambs are very tired, and cannot walk any more, the Lord Jesus lifts them in his arms and carries them, does he not?" she said dreamily.
"Yes, yes, of course."
"And dost thou know, my friend, that I saw that lamb's face, and it was Violet's; and the Lord Jesus was going to put her into her mother's arms to rest herself."
"When? where?" asked the policeman, growing frightened at the words which the child was so slowly uttering; and even in the darkness he could see the strange paleness of the little face.
"In the meadow with the other little girl."
"What little girl?"
"The little one who sent me this watch. She was a very sick little girl like me—oh, so sick the doctor said; but she flew up in the spring with the flowers and the larks to heaven, and she—"
At this moment a loud clattering on the stairs outside made itself heard over everything, and the door of the room burst open with a startling haste.
It was Ella, breathless and panting loudly, who, rushing blindly forward in the darkness, first fell over the handle of the carriage which stood in the middle of the room ready for its first journey, and then over a low stool by the stove. She recovered herself quickly, however, and made for the corner where the dim outline of Violet's head was visible against the holland blind.