Little Alices Palace | Page 6

her blue eyes, as the dew-drops sparkle through the sunlight in the violets.
"We'll go and see her now," continued she; "and I'll show you two other little exiled princesses." And she took Lolly and Maddie down by the brook-side, and bade them look in her great mirror; and there they saw themselves and Alice--all children of the great King.
"Ah, now I know!" said Maddie, clapping her hands. "You are the little princess, Alice, and Miss Mason is the good lady. Is she so nice as all that?"
"Just as nice, dear Maddie," replied Alice; "and if you and Lolly will go with me to the Sunday-school, she'll tell us a great many more beautiful stories, to help us on our way to our heavenly home.
"But come. It is nearly time for us to go now. Mother will be looking for me. Good-bye."
And the little girl with the sunny heart bounded into the cottage with a smile and a kiss for her mother.
CHAPTER V.
When Alice left the children, they went sauntering along the road towards home. Very slowly they walked, and not joyously and hopefully, as little children do who think of their father's house as the brightest and dearest spot in the whole world.
It was a long distance from the brown cottage of their friend; but the freshness of the evening made it delightful to be out, and they had been resting so many hours that they were not weary. Besides, the twinkling stars came out in the sky, and there was shining above them the calm, bright moon; and altogether it was so serene and lovely, that they almost wished they could be always walking in some pleasant path that should have no unpleasant thing at the end--such as they felt their home to be. Presently they came to a bend in the road, and a few steps from the corner was a low-roofed house, a ruinous-looking place, with rags stuffed in the broken window-panes. There were green fields around it, and tall trees gracefully waving near it; but the old house spoiled the landscape by its slovenly, shabby appearance.
A dim light was burning in the room nearest the children; and as they approached, they could see their father and mother sitting at a table, eating their coarse supper of bread and cold salt pork.
Lolly thought what a pleasant table Alice had by the brook-side, and the scent of the violets seemed even now to reach her, and the music of the waters was in her ears, and the bright, happy face of her little playmate came freshly before her, making the dingy room where her parents sat, with the gloom of the dim light and the tattered dusty furniture, still more uninviting and cheerless.
Lolly lingered outside the door, while Maddie entered. She sat down upon the step, and called to mind all that Alice had said to them that day.
She was younger than Maddie by a year or two, but her soul was older--that is, it was more thoughtful and earnest; and instead of dwelling always on the things of earth, she had a wistful longing for something higher and better, which Alice's words had begun to satisfy.
The cool breeze played upon her cheek, and the sound of the air, as it rustled the leaves, and the breath of the flower-scented meadows fell soothingly upon her senses; and as she looked up into the starry sky, with its myriads of gleaming lights, and recalled the story, she felt within herself that indeed she was a little princess as well as Alice, and that far above all the glory of the heavens her Father was awaiting her return to the heavenly palace.
"Maddie and I mustn't forget these things," said she to herself; "but must try to get ready for our better home."
So much was Lolly thinking of the things she had heard in the story, that she might have sat there in the dew all night, but that her mother called her to eat her supper and go to bed.
Maddie was already fast asleep upon a trundle-bed, that was pushed under the great bed by day, and drawn out at night; for there were only the two rooms in the house, and they had to make the most of all the space.
Lolly had never felt the house so small and close as on this night; for her soul was swelling with such large free thoughts, that the four narrow walls of the bedroom seemed to press in upon her and almost to stop her breath.
She could not go to bed until she had opened the window and looked up once more into the bright sky; and as she did so, she said very earnestly, "O my Father!"
She did not know any prayers. She had never been taught to call upon