70 Lily and Water-Lily.

 

came so strongly, and as he bent down to look closer,
Ruby recognized the white lily whom Pearl had
wanted to pick that morning in the glade.

What did it mean?

Had she picked it after all? and was this the cause
of her sad plight?

The leaves of the lily were strong, and his starry
face looked patiently up to the moonlit sky, as though
he were waiting for something that he hoped to
happen: he was not dying yet, but Ruby knew that he
would die, only now he could think of nothing else
but his poor little sister.

He did not notice how still the little mouse sat
upon Pearl’s bosom, close to where the lily lay, and
how his restless eyes travelled incessantly from the
white flower on her heart to her little pale face, as
if he too expected something to happen.

At another time Ruby would have wondered at the
mouse, and why he sat there, and was not even afraid
of him as he used to be.

But now he could only kneel with Pearl’s little cold