When he seemed to be dying, I bore him to the church in the Velabrum, and laid him before the altar; and scarcely had I finished my prayer, when a light seemed to shine upon his face, and he knew me again, and smiled at me.' Listening, the child took his mother's hand, and pressed it against his wan little cheek.

Then Silvia rang a bell that was beside her, and a woman came to take the child away, he, as he walked in silence from the room, looking back and smiling wistfully.
'I know not,' pursued Silvia, when they were alone, 'how we dare to pray for any young life in times so dark as ours.

But that we are selfish in our human love, we should rather thank the Omnipotent when it pleases Him to call one of these little ones, whom Christ blessed, from a world against which His wrath is so manifestly kindled.

And yet,' she added, 'it must be right that we should entreat for a life in danger; who can know to what it may be destined ?--what service it may render to God and man?
One night when I watched by Gregorius, weariness overcame me, and in a short slumber I dreamt.

That dream I shall never forget.