Pearl laughed, and attempted to pull away her hand. But the minister held it fast.

     "A moment longer, my child!" said he.

     "But wilt thou promise," asked Pearl, "to take my hand, and mother's hand, to-morrow noontide?"

     "Not then, Pearl," said the minister; "but another time."

     "And what other time?" persisted the child.

     "At the great judgment day," whispered the minister; and, strangely enough, the sense that he was a professional teacher of the truth impelled him to answer the child so. "Then, and there, before the judgment-seat, thy mother, and thou, and I must stand together. But the daylight of this world shall not see our meeting!"

     Pearl laughed again.