BILLY AND HANS 



had passed, and then he lay quietly in 

 my hand until another spasm came on, 

 and when he breathed his last in my 

 pocket, I knew that he was dead only 

 by my hand on his heart. I buried 

 him, as I had wished, in his native 

 forest, in his bed of rose-leaves, dig- 

 ging a grave for him under a great 

 granite boulder. He had survived 

 his companion little more than six 

 months, and if the readers of my little 

 history are disposed to think me weak 

 when I say that his death was to me 

 a great and lasting grief, I am not 

 concerned to dispute their judgment. 

 I have known grief in all its most 

 blinding and varied forms, and I thank 

 God that He constituted me loving 

 enough to have kept a tender place 

 in my heart " even for the least of 

 these," the little companions of two 

 years ; and but for my having perhaps 



