The Angel Children | Page 6

in tones of loving cadence,
"Look, little one, thy work was accepted long ago!" and, looking as he bade her, she saw Hepsa at her side, to whom, so long ago, she had spoken of heaven, when she had found her a dirty, ignorant girl.
"You have worked well," said the angel tenderly. "Go now into the garden, and ere long I will come to put you into the Christ's arms."
So Hepsa and Genevieve together walked through the gates, and the angels who would be their teachers went with them; but I cannot tell you of the beauty and glory of those scenes. I only beg you too to work well, that the angel may speak as lovingly to you.

THE GARDEN OF GOD;
OR,
THE BABY'S FIRST SMILE.
In a very lovely little cottage, around which grew sweet-briers and rose-trees, and up whose windows climbed honeysuckles and jessamines, lived a mother with her baby.
The mother was a young woman, with golden hair, kind blue eyes, and fair white skin. There was always a look of love in her eye, and in the gentle tones of her voice the most soothing tenderness. People said the baby looked like her; but he cried so much that his face was continually distorted, and so the resemblance was not of any use to him.
Now there was a great deal of discussion about the baby's looks, as to which he most resembled, his father or mother; some decided in favor of his father, who was a tall man, with black hair, and black eyes, and large, sharp features. It was a difficult question to answer, inasmuch as the baby had yet but a very few hairs on his head, and his features were not easily distinguishable; and as each person's decision affected only his own opinion, there was a great deal of discussion and comparing of the poor baby's little face with those of his parents, and, through dint of being often shown them, the father and mother began to find the most remarkable resemblance to each other in their little child.
Well, one day he had been crying very hard, and his poor mother was nearly worn sick with trying to quiet him. She had walked all over the house, shown him everything on the tables, taken up books and shaken them before his eyes, carried him to the windows and cried "See there! see there!" with fresh tones of love and pity, without his seeming to be in the least edified by it all. She tossed him before the looking-glass; but he did not seem to be comforted by the glimpse of himself, done up in a blanket, which he caught; until, at last, after putting everything into every place in which it didn't belong, and trying to make him look at things he didn't care to see, she resolutely put him in the cradle, rocked him with his head moving now on this and now on that side of the pillow, until he fell fast asleep.
He had no sooner closed his eyes to sleep than he left his baby's body in the cradle, and ran straight off to the gardens of God in heaven, towards that place where dwell the angel-children who are yet to go down and live upon the earth. As he came near the tall flowers, whose golden petals were spread, and in whose cups lay sweet dew, he clapped his hands with joy, and a bright smile lay on his lips, which before had been distorted with grief.
Not far from him there rose a bright fountain, which, falling, dashed its water gently down into a broad, silvery basin beneath. In the midst of the falling spray a large bird, with long, blue plumage, played, now diving beneath the water, and now catching the drops as they fell from the fountain. Then came other birds, some in gay scarlet plumage, with white feathers about their necks and at the tips of their wings and tails; they, too, played in the fountain, and chased each other over the sparkling waters.
Then there were tall trees, of such a bright green as is seldom seen on the earth, and on them were fruits which looked a little like those we see here, but a thousand times more beautiful, for they shone like precious stones. About everything was a glory which it is impossible to describe.
At a little distance was a troop of fair children at play, and when they had seen the little child from the earth they ran towards him, and would have kissed him joyously, but that they saw the tears he had so recently shed still standing upon his cheeks; at this, sorrow shone over their faces, and tears like pearls entered their own eyes, as, in the tenderest manner, they asked him the cause