her little arms to twine them round her neck, and Clara and Lily rejoiced over the coming of baby Anna. Indeed there was more joy amongst all the children at her arrival than they had felt before, for she had passed through that golden gate so young she had fewer earthly stains about her.
"'Let us crown her with flowers!' said one. 'Let her play with our white lamb!' said another. 'Let us take her to sail in the lily-boats!' cried another. 'Let us ask our dear guardian to sing to her!' Little Anna was tenderly laid on the lap of the guardian angel, and the hearts of the three sisters overflowed with perfect joy.
"That angel was once on this earth, a heavenly, minded girl. She had loved young children very dearly, and, when she died, her occupation in heaven was to instruct and watch over the children and infants who came from earth to that paradisiacal garden. If the mother, who mourned so deeply over her three lost treasures, could but have seen them there, would she not have exclaimed—
Our love was well divided;
Its sweetness following where they went,
Its anguish stayed where I did.
And give them all the sweetness;
To us the empty room and cot—
To them the heaven's completeness.
