elight, first stood on the mat and acted the girdle picture;
then, growing bolder, advanced out into the open aisle, and, following
the preacher's gestures, reproduced them all exactly. It was a moment of
tension; but if ever a child had a good angel in attendance, Chellalu
has, for something always stops her before the bitter end. I forget what
stopped her then; something invisible, and so, doubtless, the angel. But
we did not breathe freely till we had her safe at home.

[Illustration: CHELLALU, WATCHING THE PICTURE-CATCHER WITH SOME
SUSPICION.

"Whatever is he doing with that black box?"]

Chellalu's visible angel is the gentle Esli, a young convert-helper, of
a meek and lowly disposition. At first sight nothing seems more
unsuitable, for Chellalu needs a firm hand. But firmness without wisdom
would have been disastrous; so as we had not the perfect combination, we
chose the less dangerous virtue, and gave the nursery scamp to the
gentlest of us all. Sometimes, to tell the whole unromantic truth, we
have been afraid less Esli was spilling emotion in vain upon this
graceless soul; and we have suggested an exchange of angels--but somehow
it has never come to pass. Once we almost did it. For a noise past all
bounds called us down to the nursery, and we found the cause of it in a
huddled heap in the corner. "Chellalu! what is the matter?" Only the
softest of soft sobs, heard in the silence that followed our advent, and
one round shoulder heaved, and the curly head went down on the arm in an
attitude of woe. Now this is not Chellalu's way at all. Soft sobbing is
not in her line; and I turned to the twenty-nine children now prancing
about in unholy glee, and they shouted the explanation: "Oh, she is Esli
Accal! She was very exceedingly naughty. She would not come when Accal
called; she raced round the room so fast that Accal could not catch
her, and then she jumped out of her cumasu" (the single small garment
worn), "and ran out into the garden! And Esli Accal sat down in a corner
and cried. And Chellalu is Esli Accal!"

But the pet opportunity in those glad days was when some freak of manner
in friend or visitor suggested a new game. We used to wish, sometimes,
that these kind people understood how much pleasure they were giving to
the artless babe who was studying them with such interest, while they,
all unconscious of their real use, imagined probably she was thinking of
nothing more serious than sweets. After an hou