﻿LAURA LEE AND HER DOG POMPEY. 175 



mountain daisy. Yes, the angel of life plucked every thorn from 

 her early pathway ; she was the only child of her father, and he was 

 widowed. Her mother died when she was a very little baby; so 

 very small that she could n't even hold up her head ; but her father 

 was all in all to her. He surrounded her with the warm atmosphere 

 of love, and she looked upon the world through the fresh glass of 

 an inexperienced heart. The baubles of wealth glittered about her, 

 but God sent a cloud athwart her heaven, to refine her spirit, and 

 draw her nearer to himself. 



Deadly disease fastened upon her father's frame ; his face grew 

 paler day by day, and often, as he pressed his cheek to hers, she 

 would feel his tears upon her lip ; and then he would draw her very 

 close to his heart, as though he could not spare her. 



He died ; and they took her into the dark room, and turned back 

 the damp death-cloth, and told her that was death. She looked 

 very long at first she was sure that her papa was sleeping! Then 

 she bent do\vn her little head and listened, waiting to hear the 

 breath ; but the lips were stiff and cold ; and when she softly raised 

 her hand against his cheek, she shrank back, for it felt just like ice. 

 She never saw any one dead before, arid could not understand it. 

 Her old nurse tried to tell her, and then she climbed up close by his 

 side, and began to talk " Father, father, wake up! Laura is all, 

 all alone ! Why did not I die too ? Let me die ! Oh, father ! they 

 will lay thee in the dark ground, and the cold wind will blow, and 

 the snow will pile up over thee ! Nobody will love Laura now ; 

 nobody will hear her sing ; nobody will kiss her, and rock her 

 asleep ! Father, wake up, or else let Laura die too ! " 



Her kind nurse carried her out of that still room, and told her 

 though her father was dead, and his cheek felt so cold, yet the soul 

 was not dead, that had gone to heaven ; and by and by, if she 

 was a good child, and loved God, that she would go there too. 

 They would bury her father in the ground, but the green grass 

 would spring up over his grave, and the little daisies would blossom 

 there ; and the brook would go rippling by ; and the robins would 

 build their nests in the trees overhead, and sing all their pleasantest 

 songs ! 



The tears dried on her cheek as she listened to the old nurse's 

 tale, and she promised not to cry any more. 



