happy children gathered about them. She thought of the time when she too
could tell her father everything, and the thought doubled her sense of her
own loneliness, and of the happiness of those other children.

And the child had become so much interested in the life beyond the hedge,
and so almost fond of that good father and mother, whom she had been
watching, that the thought of going away again as her aunt threatened, was
a very sad one. She could not go to sleep. Presently she seemed to see the
children with their kind father again, and her own father was standing
with them, and she heard these words,

"God holds us in his hand,
God knows the best to send."

And so she fell asleep, and in her dreams she again saw the shining
apple-tree, and the merry group under its branches.

On investigating the cause of the fire, it was discovered that Wili and
Lili had conceived the happy thought of turning the riddle into a
transparency, so that suddenly the company might see it shining with red
light behind it, like the motto behind the Christmas tree, "Glory to God
in the highest."

So they withdrew silently from the company, fetched two candles, climbed
upon some high steps, which had been brought when the placard was put in
place, and held the candles as near as possible to the card. As they did
not perceive any expression of surprise on the faces of the company at the
table, they raised their candles higher and higher, nearer and nearer,
until the paste-board suddenly took fire, and the flame quickly spread to
the bushes above.