ed.

"See, my Lily, I will take his flower back to him, only do not cry so,"
said the jailer.

"Father, may I take it to him?" said the little girl, raising her
tear-stained face to her father's, and gazing at him eagerly.

"Won't it do if I take it?" asked the jailer.

"Oh, _please_ let me take it," said the child.

The rough jailer had such tenderness for his child that it was
difficult for him to refuse her anything. So it was that when the
prisoner lifted his weary head as he heard his door open, he beheld a
beautiful child with blue eyes and yellow hair, and in her hand
stretched out to him was the water-lily.

"Oh, but it is an angel!" cried the prisoner, a smile lighting his
haggard face. "An angel from heaven; I must be going to die."

"No, poor man, it's little Lily," said the child, and she slid a round
arm about his neck. "I am so sorry for you!"

The prisoner burst into passionate weeping, and kissed the small hand
that lay upon his shoulder.

The jailer blew his nose like a trumpet.

"You may be called anything," said the prisoner, "but you are surely an
angel."

From this time Lily came to see her prisoner every day, and he grew
almost gay.

In the meantime the water-lily drooped and died, but she was happy, for
she had fulfilled her mission.

The prisoner took the dead flower and laid it on his heart. "Poor
little dead flower," he said, "it was you who brought me my little
comforter."

As he said these words he fancied he felt the dead flower move; but it
might have been the beating of his own heart.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOM, DOT AND TALKING MOUSE AND OTHER
BEDTIME STORIES***

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