Ww. V.

“Are you crying, Uncle Big-John?”
asked W.V.; for “his voice sounded just
like as if he was crying,” she explained
afterwards.

“Crying! no, my dear; there’s no need
to kiss the crystal tear away! But, you see,
I’m tired, and it’s jolly cold and dark ; and,
as Mother Earth is good to little children
——” He paused to see how he should
be best able to make herunderstand. “ You
remember how that little girl that was lost
went to sleep in a hollow of the grass and
heard the Mother talking to her? Well,
you must just lie snug like that, you
see.”

“ But I’m not lost.”

“ Of course, you’re not lost. Only you
must lie snug and sleep till it stops snowing,
and I'll sit beside you.”

Littlejohn took off his plaid and his thick
tweed jacket. He wrapped the child in the
latter, and half covered her with snow.
With the plaid, propped up with his stick, he
made a sort of tent to shelter her from the
driving flakes. He then lay down beside her
till she fell asleep.

68