ver a scourge was lifted, there
was she to receive the blow; and whenever a dungeon was unbarred,
thither she came, to cast herself upon the floor. But in process of
time, a more Christian spirit--a spirit of forbearance, though not of
cordiality or approbation--began to pervade the land in regard to the
persecuted sect. And then, when the rigid old Pilgrims eyed her rather
in pity than in wrath; when the matrons fed her with the fragments of
their children's food, and offered her a lodging on a hard and lowly
bed; when no little crowd of schoolboys left their sports to cast stones
after the roving enthusiast--then did Catharine return to Pearson's
dwelling, and made that her home.

As if Ilbrahim's sweetness yet lingered round his ashes, as if his
gentle spirit came down from heaven to teach his parent a true religion,
her fierce and vindictive nature was softened by the same griefs which
had once irritated it. When the course of years had made the features of
the unobtrusive mourner familiar in the settlement, she became a subject
of not deep, but general interest; a being on whom the otherwise
superfluous sympathies of all might be bestowed. Every one spoke of her
with that degree of pity which it is pleasant to experience, every one
was ready to do her the little kindnesses, which are not costly, yet
manifest good-will; and when at last she died, a long train of her once
bitter persecutors followed her, with decent sadness and tears that were
not painful, to her place by Ilbrahim's green and sunken grave.

THE ANGEL

By HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN

Whenever a good child dies, an angel from heaven comes down to earth,
and takes the dead child in his arms, spreads out his great white wings,
and flies away over all the places the child has loved, and picks quite
a handful of flowers, which he carries up to the Almighty, that they may
bloom in heaven more brightly than on earth. And the Father presses all
the flowers to His heart; but He kisses the flower that pleases him
best, and the flower is then endowed with a voice, and can join in the
great chorus of praise!

"See"--this is what an angel said, as he carried a dead child up to
heaven, and the child heard, as if in a dream, and they went on over the
regions of home where the little child had played, and they came through
gardens with beautiful flowers--"which of these shall we take with us to
plant in heaven?" asked the angel.

Now there stood near them