and the con-se-quent joy that would be at his heart when he re-trod
those ve-ry fields on his re-turn, la-den with rich-es to throw in-to
his mo-ther's lap.

[Illustration: THE LITTLE TENT.]

As these thoughts rush-ed through his mind, they gave him much com-fort;
and he even hummed an air as he trot-ted on, to show his man-li-ness and
cou-rage.

Pre-sen-tly, as he pass-ed through a val-ley which was la-den with the
sweets of wild flow-ers that bloom-ed on ei-ther side, a cu-ri-ous and
al-most trans-pa-rent flee-cy cloud ap-pear-ed a-cross his path, from
which a-rose _two e-nor-mous hands_. He start-ed, and well he
might, for he saw no-bo-dy be-long-ing to them: no, there they were,
on-ly hands. There was no fear of them, for they were spread o-pen up-on
the grass be-fore him with-out the slight-est ex-pres-sion of
threat-en-ing in them.

As he stood ga-zing with won-der up-on them, a voice, which ap-pear-ed
to pr-oceed from the cloud, said,--

"Wil-lie, be not a-fraid: I know the praise-wor-thy er-rand that you are
on, and I come to be-friend you. Per-se-vere in your de-sire to be
in-dus-tri-ous, and. I will be e-ver rea-dy to as-sist you. I shall be
in-vi-si-ble to all eyes but yours, and will work when the need
ap-pears. Come on, then, and fear not; the road to suc-cess is o-pen to
you, as it al-ways is to in-dus-tr-ious re-so-lu-tion."

"Thank you, good hands," said Wil-lie; "I am sure you mean me good, for