tears.

"I was thinking of dear Auntie, who is gone from us."

"She is not gone from us, mother."

"My darling, she is with Jesus."

"Well, mother, Jesus is ever with us--you tell me that--and if she is
with him she is with us too--I know she is--for sometimes I see her. She
sat by me last night and stroked my head when that ugly, stormy wind
waked me--she looked so sweet, oh, ever so beautiful!--and she made me go
to sleep so quiet--it is sweet to be as she is, mother--not away from us
but with Jesus."

"These little ones see further in the kingdom than we," said Rose
Standish. "If we would be like them, we should take things easier. When
the Lord would show who was greatest in his kingdom, he took a little
child on his lap."

"Ah me, Rose!" said Mary Winslow, "I am aweary in spirit with this
tossing sea-life. I long to have a home on dry land once more, be it ever
so poor. The sea wearies me. Only think, it is almost Christmas time,
only two days now to Christmas. How shall we keep it in these woods?"

"Aye, aye," said old Margery, coming up at the moment, "a brave muster
and to do is there now in old England; and men and boys going forth
singing and bearing home branches of holly, and pine, and mistletoe for
Christmas greens. Oh! I remember I used to go forth with them and help
dress the churches. God help the poor children, they will grow up in the
wilderness and never see such brave sights as I have. They will never
know what a church is, such as they are in old England, with fine old
windows like the clouds, and rainbows, and great wonderful arches like
the very skies above us, and the brave music with the old organs rolling
and the boys marching in white garments and singing so as should draw the
very heart out of one. All this we have left behind in old England--ah!
well a day! well a day!"

"Oh, but, Margery," said Mary Winslow, "we have a 'better country' than
old England, where the saints and angels are keeping Christmas; we
confess that we are strangers and pilgrims on earth."

And Rose Standish immediately added the familiar quotation from the
Geneva Bible:

"For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
For if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out
they had leisure to have returned. But now they desire a better--that is,
an heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed of them to be called their
God."

The fair young face glowed as she repeated the