Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1851-03-08
OLD SERIES VOL. II, NO. IL
THE DEAD CHILD AND THE ANGlh.
By Hhns Christain Anderson. As soon a

good child dies, one of Gods angels de-
cends upon the earth, takes the child in his
arms, spreads out his large white wing,
and flies over all the places that were dear
10 the child, and plucks handful of flowers,
WHICH he then carrie. 10 Heaven, in orderthat
they may bloom still more beautifully there
than they did here on ear,h The loving God
presselh all these flowers to his bosom and
then il receives a voice and can sing and Join
i'll the universal bliss.
An angel of God related this as he bore
dead child TO heaven aud the child heard as
in dream and they flew over all the spots
around the house where the little one had
played, and they passed through gardens with
the loveliest flowers. (Which one shall we
take with you and plant in heaven ?" asked
the angel.
! And beautiful slender r0se-tree was stand~
! ing there !; but a wanton hand had broken the
stem, so that all the branches full Of large
half-open rose-buds hung down quite wither~
! ed.
"Thc poor tree,' said the child take it 40
that it may bloom again on high with God"
And the angel took it and kissed the child;
and the little one half opened its eyes they
gathered some Of the despised daisy and wild
pansy too.
s'Now we have flowers" said the child,
and the angel nodded, but they did no, yet
fly up TO Heaven.
1t was night it was quite still They stray
ed in the great city they foated to and fro in
one of the narrow streets, where great heaps
of straw, of ashes, and rubbish lay about there
had been removal There lay broken pot,
sherds and plates-plasteI figures, rags, crowns
of old hats nothing that was not displeasiug
10 the sight
And amid the devastation, the angel point
ed 10 the fragments Of flower.pot, ard 10 a
clod of earth that had fallen out of it, and
which was only held together by the roofs of
a great wilhered flower but it was good for
nothing now, and was therefore thrown out
into the street.
"Ne will take that one with us,' said The
angel, Sand | will tell you abou, it while we
are flying"
And now they flew on and the angel rela-
ted.
"Down yonder, in the narrow street, in the
low cellar, lived once a poor sickly boy, He
had been bedridden from his very infancy
When he was very well indeed, he could just
90 a few times up and down the little room
on his cruches that was all.
Gone day in spring his neighbours son
brought him some wild flowers, and among
them was by chance one with root; it was
therefore planted in a flower pot and placed
in the window close by his bedside. 1t ihriv-
ed put forth new shoots, and every year had
flowers To the sick boy it was the most
beautiful garden, his little treasure upon earth
he watered and tended it, and took good care
that ii got every sunbeam to the very las,
that glided by on the lower pane. And the
flower grew up in his very dreams with its
color and fragrance ; 10 it he turned in dying
when the loving God called him TO himself
: He has now been year with God year
= has the flower stood in the window, wiihered
e and forgotten, and now, at the removal, it ha,
n been thrown among the rubbish into tht
5 street And that is the flower which we
J.. have taken into our nosegay for this flowe
$ has caused more JOY than The rarest fowe
, in the garden of queen
II "But how do you know all ths'" asked
$ the child which the angel was carrying up tc
= Heaven.
J, II know it," said the angel; was mysel
L the little sick boy that Went on crutches
o must surely know my own flower again"
e And the child opened his eyes and looke'
5 in the beautiful, calm face of the angel an,
! at the same moment they were in heaven
d where vas only JOY and besseduess.