own on a rock, for
mamma was not well then, and could not walk long without a rest; and
as she looked across the smooth water, she said, 'And the building of
the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto
clear glass.' Though I was a good deal smaller than I am now, I knew
what she meant, and of what she was thinking, for mamma used to talk
about leaving me then; and I laid my head in her lap and cried a
little, and said,--

"'Oh, don't talk of that, mamma, for what am I going to do?'"

Noll choked a little here at the remembrance, and Hagar drew a long
breath.

"Then," continued Noll, with a quivering voice, "she bent her face
over me and the tears in her eyes ran over on to my cheeks, and she
said,--

"'Oh, my little Noll, if mamma could feel sure that you were ready to
come after her into that city, she would never cry or mourn again!'

"It seemed as if my heart would break to see her cry and to know that
I was _not_ ready, and that I could not stop her tears. I wanted to
scream and groan, my heart swelled so."

"Ob course ye did," said Hagar, with ready sympathy.

Noll was silent for a long minute. Somehow, the talk with Uncle
Richard in the library had brought back the remembrance of all these
past events so brightly and vividly that it was like living them over
again. But he had not yet got to the "promise," and Hagar was waiting
patiently. So he continued, with a slight effort, saying,--

"Mamma dried her tears very suddenly, for papa came in sight just
then, and I suppose she feared he would be worried or anxious about
her, and though she said nothing more to me about the city to which
she was going, I couldn't forget her tears, nor that she was sorrowful
and unhappy on my account. It made me miserable. I didn't want to walk
with her the next day, for fear I should see her tears again; and I
knew I could not bear _that_. So when it came time to go, I hid away,
and she went alone."

"Poor honey!" said Hagar, reflectively.

"But that only made it all worse. I knew that I was all wrong, and
that I ought to try and find Jesus, through whom, mamma said, she
could only enter into the city. But it seemed as if he had hidden away
from me; and the way was all dark and I was afraid and wretched and
miserable."

"Oh, chile," said Hagar, "de bressed Lord was waitin' an' ready to
take ye up in his arms de berry minnit ye frowed yerself on his
mercy!"

"Yes," said