“Does Winny know you’ve come?” I cried, “dear mamma.”
But when I looked at her I saw that her face was very white and sad, and my poor aunties were crying. Still mamma smiled.
“Poor Meg!” she said.
“What is the matter? Why is everybody so strange to-day?” I said.
Then mamma told me. “Meg, dear,” she said, “you must try to remember some of the things I have often told you about Heaven, what a happy place it is, with no being ill or tired, or any troubles. Meg, dear, Winny has gone there.”
For a minute I did not seem to understand. I could not understand Winny’s having gone without telling me. A sort of giddy feeling came over me, it was all so strange, and I put my head down on mamma’s shoulder, without speaking.
“Meg, dear, do you understand?” she said.
“She didn’t tell me she was going,” I said, “but, oh yes, I remember she said good-bye last night. Did she go alone, mamma? Who came for her? Did Jesus?” Something made me whisper that.
Mamma just said softly, “Yes.”
“Had she only her little pink dressing-gown on?” I asked next. “Wouldn’t she be cold? Mamma, dear, is it a long way off?”