die till I was over forty. I should know her in a minute if I were to
see her. It would seem queer to see us together--twins so--wouldn't
it?--she a child and me an old woman," said Miss Bethia, with something
like a sob in her voice. "It will be all in her favour--the difference,
I mean."

"`Whom the gods love die young,'" said David. "But that is a Pagan
sentiment. Papa said, the other day, that victory must mean more to the
man who has gone through the war, than to him who has hardly had time to
strike a blow. Even before the victory it must be grand, he said, to be
able to say like Paul, `I have fought the good fight; I have kept the
faith.' And, perhaps, Miss Bethia, your crown may be brighter than your
little sister's, after all."

"It will owe none of its brightness to me," said Miss Bethia, with
sudden humility. "And I don't suppose I shall begrudge the brightness
of other folks' crowns when I get there, if I ever do."

In the pause that followed, David went and laid the baby in her cot, and
when he returned the children came with him, and the talk went on. They
all had something to say about what they should see and do, and the
people they should meet with when they got there. But it would not bear
repeating, all that they said, and they fell in a little while into talk
of other things, and Jem, as his way was, made the little ones laugh at
his funny sayings, and even Violet smiled sometimes. But David was very
grave and quiet, and Miss Bethia, for a good while, did not seem to hear
a word, or to notice what was going on.

But by and by something was said about the lessons of the next day, and
she roused herself up enough to drop her accustomed words about
"privileges and responsibilities," and then went on to tell how
different every thing had been in her young days, and before she knew it
she was giving them her own history. There was not much to tell. That
is, there had been few incidents in her life, but a great deal of hard
work, many trials and disappointments--and many blessings as well.

"And," said Aunt Bethia, "if I were to undertake, I couldn't always tell
you which was which. For sometimes the things I wished most for, and
worked hardest to get, didn't amount to but very little when I got them.
And the things I was most afraid of went clear out of sight, or turned
right round into blessings, as soon as I came near enough to touch them.
And I tell you, children, there is nothing in