cheeks and bright sparkles to their eyes was best of all. It was as Mr. Podmore said, a treat for them. The wives had brought sandwiches and bread-and-butter with them, and water in ginger-beer bottles. (Gribble junior, outside the coach, had two bottles filled with beer--four-penny ale--which he and the driver drank and enjoyed.) The women offered part of their refreshments to the relatives of the dead woman, but not one of the mourners could eat. In the early part of the journey, little Pollypod was inclined to show her enjoyment of the ride somewhat demonstratively, but Mrs. Podmore whispered to the child, "Hush, Polly dear! Lily's mother's in there!" pointing to the coffin. Pollypod had blue eyes, very bright, though not very large; but the brightness went out of them and they grew larger as she learned this fact and looked at the coffin. A little while afterwards, having watched and waited and debated the point with herself, without being able to come to a satisfactory conclusion, Pollypod asked why Lily's mother did not get out of the box. "_I_ would!" said Pollypod. "If I was shut up there, I'd cry, and you'd let me out; wouldn't you? Wicked box! Father couldn't play with me if I was shut up in you!" And listened and wondered why the clay in the coffin did not cry to escape. Once during the ride, Lily nursed Polly for comfort, and the child, with her lips to Lily's ear, said, "Lily, I want to know!" It was one of Pollypod's peculiarities that she was always wanting to know. "Well, Polly?" "Was Lily's mother naughty?" "O, no, Polly! O, no!" "What is she shut up in the box for, then?" "She is gone from us, Polly dear." "Was _you_ naughty, Lily?" continued the inquisitive little Pollypod; "and is _that_ the reason why she's gone?" "No, Polly, dear." "What is the reason, then, Lily?" inquired the pertinacious little maid. "I want to know." "God has taken her, Polly," said Lily, in a tearful voice. "Where has God taken her to, Lily?" "There!" pointing upwards. What did the matter-of-fact little maid do, there and then, but go to the window, and look into the bright sky for Lily's mother? Mrs. Podmore kept her there, and whispered to her that poor Lily was not well and must not be teased. But the child, at intervals, turned her perplexed eyes to the coffin and then to the beautiful clouds, not at all satisfied in her mind, and with all her heart "wanting to know." At length the ride, weary to some and pleasant to some, was over, and they were in the churchyard and by the grave. There a man, taking old Wheels aside, spoke a few words to him. An expression of amazement, almost of horror, came into the old man's face. "It is impossible!" he exclaimed, in a tone of uncontrollable agitation. "Here--beneath God's sky!--Surely you are mistaken." The man replied that there was no mistake. "Where is the minister?" inquired the old man. "Is that his house? I will go and see him. Come, children, come with me."