It is the most beautiful thing in the book, and I want to hear it again." Her sister did as she wished, and, taking down "Jemima's Vow," Jeannie's _own_ copy as it was called, being the very first that had come into the house, she opened it at the part Jeannie had asked for and read aloud, keeping her voice as steady as she could.

As a matter of fact, however, the scene itself was as powerful as it was pathetic, and quite sufficient to account for any unseemly exhibitions of feeling on the part of the reader.

However, she struggled through it till the last sentence was reached.

It ran thus:--"And so Jemima stretched out her hand to him and said 'Good-bye.' And presently, knowing that she had now kept her promise, and being happy because she had done so, she went to sleep." "Ah!" murmured the blue-eyed child who listened.

"I wish that I was as good as Jemima.