ngs."

"But, Fred, I don't understand how that can be possible! How can a poor
worm, that only crawls about all its life, die, and then suddenly turn
into a beautiful new creature with wings, and fly away leaving its old
body behind? Do you understand it, Fred?"

"No, I don't understand it, but I know it's so."

"Well, my dear boy," said his aunt, seriously, "what if there was
something hidden within little Nora, which was alive too, and which,
leaving the poor dead shell behind, has flown on shining wings away to
distant heights, where it is entering on a new and happy life!"

Fred stood thoughtful a few moments, and then said, "I never thought of
it in that way, aunty. Now I shall have a very different idea about
Nora. How glad she must be to fly away on her new wings from the sick
body in which she was imprisoned! Are not you glad, aunty, that you know
about the chrysalis, and isn't it wonderful?"

"It certainly is; and it teaches us that there are many things about us
that we cannot understand, and yet which are true, though no one can
explain them. So by and by, Fred, when you are a learned man, as I hope
you will be, when you come to something you cannot understand in nature,
you must say modestly, 'This is beyond my powers of explanation; this is
the work of God'; and so stand reverently before his greatness, that is
about and above us all."

Fred handled his chrysalis with respect as he laid it away with his
other treasures. A new thought had come to him about that and about
other things.

Clarissa had arrived; but her coming did not bring comfort to the
sorrowing mother; on the contrary, it seemed only to renew her grief.
Clarissa would have been glad to hear all about her darling's last days,
and how the end came, but the mother could not bear any allusion to the
subject, and Clarissa kept silence. She consoled herself by looking at
Nora's peaceful face, that seemed to have a message of comfort for her.
When she heard that Elsli had been alone with Nora when she died, she
was very anxious to see the girl, and sent for her to come and speak
with her. When Elsli came into the pleasant room where she had passed so
many happy days, and glanced towards the empty window-seat, she was
overcome with fresh grief. Clarissa took her by the hand, and, drawing
her to a seat by her side, immediately began to ask about Nora; and soon
Elsli was pouring out her whole heart; and she told Clarissa all that
she and Nora h