it long on a Friday; he's a great one for
hurrying."

Uli took his Freneli by the hand and walked with her toward the church;
solemnly the solemn peals echoed in their hearts; for the sexton rang
the bells with all his skill, so that the clappers struck on both edges,
and not as if they were lame, now on one edge, now on the other. As they
came to the churchyard, the grave-digger was just busy at a grave, and
it was quiet about him; no sheep, no goat came and desecrated man's last
resting-place; for in this village the churchyard was no pasture for
unclerical animals.

Suddenly an irresistible melancholy came over Freneli. The venerable
mound, the digging of the new grave, woke gloomly thoughts. "That's no
good omen," she whispered; "they are digging a grave for one of us."

Before the church stood a baptismal party, one godmother holding a child
on her arm. "That means a child-bed for one of us," whispered Uli, to
comfort Freneli.

"Yes, that I'm to die in one," she answered; "that I must leave my
happiness for the cold grave."

"Just remember," said Uli, "that the dear God does everything and that
we mustn't be superstitious, but believing. That our graves will be dug
some day is certain; but that digging a grave means death to those who
come along I never heard. Just think how many people see a grave being
dug; if all of them had to follow soon, think what a lot of deaths
there'd be."

"Oh, forgive me," said Freneli; "but the more important a journey is the
more alarmed the poor soul gets and wants to know what will be the
outcome, and so takes every encounter as an omen, bad or good; do you
remember when you did the like?"

Then Uli pressed her hand and said, "You're right; but let us put our
trust in God and not worry. What He shall do to us, or give or take, is
well done."

They entered the church softly and hesitatingly; went separately to left
and right; saw a child taken into the covenant of the Lord; thought how
beautiful it was to be permitted to commend such a tender and feeble
being, body and soul, to the especial care of its Saviour, and how great
a load it must take from the parents' breasts, when they received in the
baptism the assurance that the Lord would be with them and let them feed
the child with His spirit, as the mother fed it with her milk. They
joined very reverently in the prayers, and thought how seriously they
would take it when they should have to promise as godparents to see to