as if she would go by him; but the boy
would not suffer her to pass on, and, stopping her, said to her,

"Well, and what have you got?"

The child looked at him fearfully, and remained silent; but the boy did
not heed her half-imploring look, but proceeded to lay hold of her pail,
in which she had had hot corn to sell, and, opening it, discovered there
six pennies instead.

"Ah," he cried exultingly, "that is what I wanted! You have done well
with your corn; you may go on now;" and, despite the poor child's cries,
he took away the pennies, and, in resisting the little struggle the
child was able to make, he threw her down upon the pavement.

This was in a dark street, filled with people wicked like this boy, and
where was no one who cared to take the child's part.

But those angel-children were silent witnesses of this scene, and they
put out their hands, so the little girl was not much hurt in her fall.
Then they looked at each other in dismay; the pearly tears again came
into their bright eyes, and they asked each other what they might do for
this wretched boy. They remembered when the boy and girl played together
in the fair garden of God; and it was not possible for them to remember
that, and look unmoved upon this fearful change which had come over
him. "O, this is a sad earth-life!" murmured the baby's spirit; and he
nodded his head again in sorrow. "Why may not I, too, become like this
boy?"

"But _must_ the earth-life bring this change?" asked another of the
angel-children, who saw the anguish of his friend, but knew not how to
comfort him. "Do we not remember the poor boy who worked so hard, and
had no rest, yet he was patient and good, and kept bright, and hung the
cord which tied his soul to heaven with the tear-drops which fell for
his dear, dead mother? When tried, he gave back no hard words. He was
better than we, who are happy always and have no trials."

Not long after, they found the wicked boy asleep; he had thrown himself
down, in the corner of a dirty alley, on a little straw. The children
hovered over him, trying how they might approach him. They drove hence
the dark spirits, one by one, who hindered their approach, and then they
carried him off by the sea-shore in a dream; they made him sit upon the
sand and listen to the roaring of the waters; the large rocks stood
scattered on the beach, and the sea-mosses and shells were thrown up by
the waves. Afar off, upon the water, he saw a long lin