eneath her
footsteps, and gay birds hopped among the boughs of the trees, making
the air melodious with their songs; the brooklets ran murmuring by the
road-side, and Maggie's Dove cooed with joy.

O, Maggie knew this was the road leading to the palace of the Great
King--the very one her mother had travelled--the road, too, which she
had been told did not exist! She met many children here, who sought the
same she did; and they talked with Maggie, and she loved them, and with
them thanked the King who had made for them such a lovely road to his
palace.

At last, one day, there came the same servant who had carried away her
brother, and gently, softly, took her in his arms. So often had she
thought of his coming that she felt no kind of fear. He told her that
the Great King wanted her, and that her mother was all ready to receive
her. O, how her heart leaped at this, to hear a real word from her
mother, and to think the Great King wanted her! As she lay in his arms,
the servant, who wore on his head his bright stars, kissed her eyes and
her brow. He carried her a long distance, sped through many a long, dark
valley, and then they came out upon a bright shore, where were many
people dressed in shining clothes.

Maggie looked at herself, and saw, with amazement, that she too was
dressed likewise, and that the servant who had brought her hither had no
longer a black robe, but a silver one, which sparkled so, Maggie was
scarce able to look upon it. She had soon crossed the sea, and then her
mother caught her in her arms, and wept for joy.

"O, Maggie, Maggie!" she said; "I have watched your journey all along,
and my sorrow was so deep when I saw you mistake the roads. It was I
whom the Great King sent when you was sick, that I might bear his love
to you, and make you well. Come, now, and go with me before his throne."

Upon this they joined the crowd who were entering the palace;--but we
cannot enter it,--we must first finish our journey.

THE OLD WOMAN AND THE ENCHANTED SONG.

Ruth had two sisters,--Grace and Jessie. Now Grace and Jessie were
twins, and everybody praised their blue eyes and rosy cheeks, and when
they laughed, people said, "How sweetly they smile!"--and when they
wept, people said, "Poor little ones!" and immediately took them in
their arms, and strove to bring back the dimpling smile to their faces.

Grace and Jessie played together always, and little Ruth, who was
younger than either of the