I came at length to the garden Where they laid His form away, And then in the course of telling I came to the Easter day-- The day when sorrowing women Came there to the grave to moan, And the lovely shining angels Had rolled away the stone. I think I made her understand As well as childhood can, About the glorified risen life Of him who was God and Man. This year the fair Easter lilies Will gleam through a mist of tears, For I shall not see sweet Bessie In all of the coming years. When the snow lay white and thickest She quietly went away To learn from the lips of angels The meaning of Easter day. We put on the little body The garments worn in life, And laid her deep in the frozen earth Away from all noise and strife. We took all the dainty playthings, And the dollies new and old, And placed them in a sacred spot With a tress of shining gold. Were it not for the star of Bethlehem, And the dawn of Easter day, It would be to us most bitter To put our darling away. But we know that as the hard brown earth Holds lilies regal and white, So the lifeless, empty, useless clay Held once an angel of light. And I hope on the Easter morning To look from the grave away, Thinking not of the child that _was_, But the child that _is_ to-day. EMILY BAKER SMALLE. [Illustration: MY SWEET LITTLE NEIGHBOR BESSIE.] _Volume 13, Number 24._ Copyright, 1886, by D. Lothrop & Co. _April 17, 1886._ THE PANSY. [Illustration: "THE SEA TOOK ON ITS SULLEN LOOK."] WHERE I WENT, AND WHAT I SAW. FIRST, through some of the busiest, narrowest, noisiest, dirtiest streets of New York City; if you have never hurried down them, you have no idea how much that means. A ferry boat, a bit of a ride, and I was in New York no more, but in New Jersey. The Jersey Central train stood waiting. "All aboard for Long Branch," shouted an official. I did not want to go to Long Branch, but I hurried along as fast as though I did; the truth was, I knew my stopping place was not far away from that famous spot. In a few minutes we were off; not long before the smell of old ocean began to steal in at the windows, and at last we caught glimpses of beach stretching away in the distance. Not a long ride, only a matter of a couple of hours on an express train, despite the many stations called out: "Matawan," and "Red Bank," and "Little Silver," and I know not how many more. At last, "Long Branch" and "Elberon;" then, in a few minutes more, "Ocean Grove and Asbury Park." At this, a great company of us began to scurry around and find our shawl straps, and lunch baskets, and what not.