My wife saw her laugh, the dear angel, and try to catch the image in her tiny hands; but in a moment--with a motion swifter than sight--she sprang from her mother's arms, and sank in the lake, the watery glass into which she had been gazing.

I searched for our lost darling again and again; but it was all in vain; I could nowhere find the least trace of her.
"The same evening we childless parents were sitting together by our cottage hearth.

We had no desire to talk, even if our tears would have permitted us.

As we thus sat in mournful stillness, gazing into the fire, all at once we heard something without,--a slight rustling at the door.

The door flew open, and we saw a little girl, three or four years old, and more beautiful than I can say, standing on the threshold, richly dressed, and smiling upon us.