The child climbed into his lap at once, and turned her large blue eyes up to his in perfect faith. "Don't you remember that papa spoke last night of leaving you; but said you would surely meet again?" At this the child's lip began to quiver, and she said: "But papa always comes and kisses me good-by before he goes away." "Perhaps he did, Bertie, when you were asleep in your crib last night." "Oh yes, now I'm sure he did if he's gone away, 'cause I 'member he once woke me up kissing me good-by." "I think he kissed you very softly, and so you didn't wake. Our dear Saviour, Jesus, came last night, and papa went away with him. But he loves you just as much as ever, and he isn't sick any more, and you will surely see him again." "Do you think he will bring me something nice when he comes?" "When you see him again he will have for you, Bertie, more beautiful things than you ever saw before in all your life, but it may be a long time before you see him." The child slipped down from his knees quite satisfied and full of pleasant anticipation, and went back to her play on the piazza. "Do you believe all that?" asked Amy, looking as if Bertha had been told a fairy tale. "I do, indeed. I have told the child what I regard as the highest form of the truth, though expressed in simple language. Miss Amy, I know that your father was ever kind to you. Did he ever turn coldly away from any earnest appeal of yours?" "Never, never," cried the girl, with a rush of tears. "And can you believe that his Heavenly Father turned from his touching appeal last night? Christ said to those who were trusting in him, 'I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am there ye may be also.' As long as your father was conscious, he was clinging to that divine hand that has never failed one true believer in all these centuries. Surely, Miss Amy, your own reason tells you that the poor helpless form that we must bury today is not your father. The genial spirit, the mind that was a power out in the world, the soul with its noble and intense affections and aspirations--these made the man that was your father. Therefore I say with truth that the man, the imperishable part, has gone away with him who loved humanity, and who has prepared a better place for us than this earth can ever be under the most favoring circumstances. You can understand that the body is but the changing, perishing shadow.