re is a cosey little car for you. How like your cradle it is, for it
is snug and warm, and it rocketh this way and that way, this way and
that way, all night long, and its pillows caress you tenderly. So step
into the pretty nest, and in it speed to Shut-Eye Town.

"Toot! Toot!"

That is the whistle. It soundeth twice, but it must sound again before
the train can start. Now you have nestled down, and your dear hands
are folded; let your two eyes be folded, too, my sweet; for in a
moment you shall be rocked away, and away, away into the golden mists
of Balow!

"Ting-long! Ting-a-long! Ting-long!"

"All aboard!"

"Toot! Toot! Toot!"

And so my little golden apple is off and away for Shut-Eye Town!

Slowly moveth the train, yet faster by degrees. Your hands are folded,
my beloved, and your dear eyes they are closed; and yet you see the
beauteous sights that skirt the journey through the mists of Balow.
And it is rockaway, rockaway, rockaway, that your speeding cradle
goes,--rockaway, rockaway, rockaway, through the golden glories that
lie in the path that leadeth to Shut-Eye Town.

"Toot! Toot!"

So crieth the whistle, and it is "down-brakes," for here we are at
Ginkville, and every little one knoweth that pleasant waking-place,
where mother with her gentle hands holdeth the gracious cup to her
sleepy darling's lips.

[Illustration: "Nestle down close, fold your hands, and shut your dear
eyes!"]

"Ting-long! Ting-a-long! Ting-long!" and off is the train again. And
swifter and swifter it speedeth,--oh, I am sure no other train
speedeth half so swiftly! The sights my dear one sees! I cannot tell
of them--one must see those beauteous sights to know how wonderful
they are!

"Shug-chug! Shug-chug! Shug-chug!"

On and on and on the locomotive proudly whirleth the train.

"Ting-long! Ting-a-long! Ting-long!"

The bell calleth anon, but fainter and evermore fainter; and fainter
and fainter groweth that other calling--"Toot! Toot! Toot!"--till
finally I know that in that Shut-Eye Town afar my dear one dreameth
the dreams of Balow.

This was the bedtime tale which I was wont to tell our little Mistress
Merciless, and at its end I looked upon her face to see it calm and
beautiful in sleep.

Then was I wont to kneel beside her little bed and fold my two
hands,--thus,--and let my heart call to the host invisible: "O
guardian angels of this little child, hold her in thy keeping from all
the perils of darkness an