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away and then come back again. She wondered if 
it was in the water, or in the flower, or in the ground, 
or whether God took it away and gave it back again 
whenever he pleased. She thought it must be 
something that could never die, for she knew it 
lived in her little brother when he seemed to be dead 
and lay still in the cradle, and could not move or 
smile or kiss her; for her mother told her his soul 
was living with God then. Yet her mother could 
not tell her what life was. She only told her never 
to hurt any thing that seemed to feel its life, for she 
knew not how much pain she might give. Mary 
asked her mother if she might not kill the ants 
when they crawled upon her, and the bees that 
stung her ; but when she heard what wonderful 
habitations they make and how hard they work, 
and what care they take of their young, and what 
good the ants do, by eating up those things which 
