gives
the place such a forlorn aspect; and she takes them out again and
scatters them, as if it would bring Winnie back, too. The night is very
sad, and so is the morrow; and the next day Mr. Bond comes with a
minister. Winnie is lifted into the narrow coffin, and a fresh bud
graces her breast. Mr. Bond stands a long time gazing upon her white,
white brow, and he fancies he sees a hallowed impress there, as of a
Divine hand. He can not help his strong emotion. Wasn't Winnie getting
deeper and deeper down into his heart every day, and can he see the
little head that lay so often upon his bosom, covered with the cold
earth! The minister thinks her very lovely, as she lies there so free
from spot of sin, and he almost wonders they can weep over her early
release from a world of effort, and toil, and care; but he knows what a
struggle it is to give up a parent's richest possessions, for there are
little ones that used to call him father, now lying beneath the snow,
and he weeps with the afflicted, as he reads the burial-service over
their darling.

There needs but one carriage for the mother and Nannie, and Mr. Bond,
and Pat; and the little coffin is placed on a seat in the middle. They
can not leave it until it is hidden from their sight.

CHAPTER XVII.

"Nannie must go to school," said Mr. Bond to himself the day after the
child's burial. "It won't do for her to stay there moping and pining
after little Winnie! The baby's gone, and it won't bring her back
again."

And so it was settled that she was to begin the next Monday. Mr. Bond
thought it better that she should go to the parish school immediately in
her vicinity, and connected with the church which he attended--not that
he wished to free himself from the slight tax demanded by private
teachers, for many a comfortable donation ten times the worth of so
small a pittance, found its way into the parish treasury from his
liberal purse. Oh! no, that wasn't Mr. Bond's reason. He knew that the
child would be under a good and religious influence there, for besides
being well taught, she would be daily gathered with the rest of the
little lambs into the consecrated chapel, and be made to feel that her
moral culture was of still greater importance than the mental. Besides
he liked to know that she was under the eye of some good shepherd who
would lead her safely on to the great and ever green pasture. It would
be so pleasant to him, too, to see the object of his b