When she was tempted to be idle at school, or to join in the disturbance which most of the children were making, she would say again:
"I am a Child of Light," and the thought would make her work with all her might.
When she lay awake at night, and felt lonely in the little top room where she slept, she would creep out of bed and look into the churchyard, and above the old tower to the stars shining overhead, and would say to herself:
"I am a Child of Light."
And then she never felt afraid; for were not the angels watching over all the Children of Light, their little brothers and sisters in the Kingdom?
As for Stephen, he was happier than he had ever been before; it was his one thought night and day.
He was always asking his father, "Father, are you one of the Children of Light? Have you crossed over the bridge?"
And when he received no answer to his question, he would throw his arms round his father's neck, and would say, "Oh, I do hope you are in the Kingdom of Light, father—the Kingdom of the dear Son!"
It must have been about the beginning of May—just at the time when the lilac on the bush near Granny Robin's window was in full bloom—that a very strange thing happened. The children had seen nothing more of the light in the church since the Sunday when they had called Mr. Robin to see it, and they were beginning to despair of ever seeing it again. Yet still, when Sunday evening came, they climbed on the flat tombstone, and looked in through the window, hoping against hope that it might appear, and that they might be able to prove the truth of their story. But as the days grew longer and lighter, it became more and more unlikely that any one who might happen to be in the old church would require a light until long after Audrey's and Stephen's bedtime.
But it so happened that one Sunday night, Aunt Cordelia told Audrey that when she left church, she was going to see a friend of hers who was ill, and who lived on the other side of the river, almost two miles away. This would take her a long time, as the friend might require her help when she arrived, and in that case it would be late before she was home.