‘Hulloo! what have you come here for?’ he asked.

‘To talk to you,’ and, without more ado, Nancy squatted down beside him.  ‘What are you doing?’ she went on; ‘and what’s your Sunday book?’

’It’s the Pilgrim’s Progress.  I love it; don’t you?  I haven’t been reading it though for a long time.  I’ve been having a beautiful make-up.’

‘Tell me,’ and Nancy’s tone was eager.

Teddy looked away to the purple hills in the distance, and beyond and above them to the soft evening sky, with its delicate fleecy clouds flitting by, and taking every imaginable form and shape as they did so.

The dreamy, far-away look came into his eyes as he said slowly,—­

’It’s a Sunday make-believe, quite one to myself, and I’ve never told it to any one.  I can only tell it to myself out of doors, when it’s still and quiet, and then I feel sometimes it’s quite real!’

‘Do tell me,’ pleaded Nancy coaxingly.

‘Well, it’s getting to heaven—­after I’m got there, you know.’

Nancy’s eyes grew big with awe.

‘Shall I tell you how I begin it?’

She nodded, and Teddy, turning over on his side, brought forth another book—­a New Testament.

Turning to an open page he began to read with great emphasis,—­

’"And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God."’

‘That’s the Bible,’ said Nancy.

’Yes; now listen.  I’m lying here in this field; it’s very, very still.  I hear a little rustle behind.  I don’t look round, and then, flash! comes a beautiful white angel.  Now he’s standing in front of me.’

‘What’s he like?’

’He’s dressed in white shiny stuff, and he has very white feathery wings.  His face is smiling.  He has eyes like mother’s, and hair like Sally White’s.’

‘Flaxen, mother says it is,’ put in Nancy.

’Yes; he stands quite still.  Hush! hear him!—­“Teddy, I’ve come to fetch you to heaven.”  And then I stand up.  I listen hard, but I don’t say anything.  He says, “You haven’t been altogether a good soldier, but the Captain says He wants you.  Come along.”  Then I get up and sit myself between his wings, and put my arms round his neck, and he begins to go up.  I see mother, and granny, and Uncle Jake, and I wave my hand to them, and mother throws a kiss at me and calls out, “Give my love to father,” and away we go, over our fields and across the high road, and over Farmer Green’s fields, and then we fly right to the top of that mountain over there!’

‘Do let me come, too!’ said Nancy.  ’I want to be on the angel’s back with you.’

’P’raps you can follow behind on another angel; I want mine all to myself.  We get up to the top of the mountain, then I stand down on the ground.’

‘And me, too!’ put in Nancy.

’You mustn’t keep stopping me; I can’t feel it if you do.  I stand there, and I think at first I can’t see nothing but a lot of little soft clouds, one above the other, just like those over there; but the angel says, “Put your foot on one of them, and then on the next one—­they’re the steps to heaven!"’