ep and Little Boy Blue and others.

And high above all these homely pictures, which were exaggerated just
enough to be really fascinating--like the pictures at the side-show of
the circus--fluttered the soft pennons.

The curtains themselves wavered deliciously, so that you could guess
something was going on behind them. The music which made your heart
tender never ceased to flow from its invisible place.

Closer and closer the children pressed, still scarcely daring to
breathe, and feeling certain that their parents would not be much
longer withheld from them. They were becoming more and more eager.
Even the little black dog manifested the greatest excitement.

And at last Truth stepped forward purposefully and took her place just
in advance of the band of children. She had never seemed more
impressive. Her white dress gleamed in the bright light, and the gem
in her hair was of every color one could imagine.

She began to speak.

"I very seldom make a speech," she said. "Scarcely once in a hundred
years do I make a speech in public. But if you will bear with words
for once, instead of deeds--upon my assurance that deeds shall
immediately follow--I have this to say to you:

"It is a very great thing when children find their parents again after
losing them; but the last good of all, and perhaps the greatest, is
when parents find their children whom they have lost.

"You who have assembled here have found your parents at last. This I
know, not because you have come here into their presence--for you must
know they are behind yonder painted curtains, which we shall presently
lift--but because you have learned to know the need of them, and
because you have come in very truth to love them.

"We shall see now if your parents have found you."

The children caught at that saying, which seemed wholly obscure to
them, and wondered what meaning could lie behind it. But in the
meantime Truth had turned toward the curtains. She gazed at them one
after another in an intense manner, and finally she stepped close to
the one whereon the likeness of the Old Woman who lived in a shoe was
painted.

In a commanding voice she cried out, "Old Woman who lived in a shoe,
appear!"

The curtain moved; it was thrust forward a little at one side, and the
Old Woman who lived in a shoe stepped out!

To her Truth spoke calmly yet with a certain majesty. "I have come,"
said she, "to restore your children to you, to be yours for