so
little that he never yet had spoken word, he stretched his tiny form out
on his bed and died.

Again the child dreamed of the opened star, and of the company of angels,
and the train of people, and the rows of angels with their beaming eyes
all turned upon those people's faces.

Said his sister's angel to the leader,--

"Is my brother come?"

And he said, "Not that one, but another."

As the child beheld his brother's angel in her arms, he cried, "O sister,
I am here! Take me!" And she turned and smiled upon him, and the star
was shining.

He grew to be a young man, and was busy at his books when an old servant
came to him and said,--

"Thy mother is no more. I bring her blessing on her darling son!"

Again at night he saw the star, and all that former company. Said his
sister's angel to the leader,--

"Is my brother come?"

And he said, "Thy mother!"

A mighty cry of joy went forth through all the star, because the mother
was reunited to her two children. And he stretched out his arms and
cried, "O mother, sister, and brother, I am here! Take me!" And they
answered him, "Not yet." And the star was shining.

He grew to be a man whose hair was turning gray, and he was sitting in
his chair by the fireside, heavy with grief, and with his face bedewed
with tears, when the star opened once again.

Said his sister's angel to the leader, "Is my brother come?"

And he said, "Nay, but his maiden daughter."

And the man who had been the child saw his daughter, newly lost to him,
a celestial creature among those three, and he said, "My daughter's head
is on my sister's bosom, and her arm is round my mother's neck, and at
her feet there is the baby of old time, and I can bear the parting from
her, God be praised!"

And the star was shining.

Thus the child came to be an old man, and his once smooth face was
wrinkled, and his steps were slow and feeble, and his back was bent. And
one night as he lay upon his bed, his children standing round, he cried,
as he had cried so long ago,--

"I see the star!"

They whispered one another, "He is dying."

And he said, "I am. My age is falling from me like a garment, and I move
towards the star as a child. And O, my Father, now I thank thee that it
has so often opened, to receive those dear ones who await me!"

And the star was shining; and it shines upon his grave.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * **

End of the Project Gutenb