“You only did your duty, my boy.  It would have been a sin and a shame to do otherwise.  And, of course, you would not for the world.”

“Certainly I would not, mother,” he said.

But he felt a little chilled.  Did his mother think it was always so easy for boys to do their duty? and that every one did it?

Other people seemed to think it a very uncommon and noble thing to do one’s duty.  And what, indeed, could the blessed saints do more?

So the slow poison of praise crept into the boy’s heart.  And while he thought his life was being filled with light, unknown to him the shadows were deepening,—­the one shadow which eclipses the sun, the terrible shadow of self.

For he could not but be conscious how, even in the cathedral, a kind of hush and silence fell around when he began to sing.

And instead of the blessed presence of God filling the holy place, and his singing in it, as of old, like a happy little bird in the sunshine, his own sweet voice seemed to fill the place, rising and falling like a tide up and down the aisles, leaping to the vaulted roof like a fountain of joy, and dropping into the hearts of the multitude like dew from heaven.

And as he went out, in his little white robe, with the choir, he felt the eyes of the people on him, and he heard a murmur of praise, and now and then words such as “That is little Gottlieb, the son of the widow Magdalis.  She may well be proud of him.  He has the voice and the face of an angel.”

And then, in contrast, outside in the street, from the other boys:  “See how puffed up the little prince is!  He cannot look at any one lower than the bishop or the burgomaster!”

So, between the chorus of praise and the other chorus of mockery, it was no wonder that poor Gottlieb felt like a being far removed from the common herd.  And, necessarily, any one of the flock of Christ who feels that, cannot be happy, because if we are far away from the common flock, we cannot be near the Good Shepherd, who always keeps close to the feeblest, and seeks those that go astray.

CHAPTER V.

It was not long before the watchful eye of the mother observed a little change creeping over the boy—­a little more impatience with Lenichen, a little more variableness of temper, sometimes dancing exultingly home as if he were scarcely treading the common earth, sometimes returning with a depression which made the simple work and pleasures of the home seem dull and wearisome.

So it went on until the joyful Easter-tide was drawing near.  On Palm Sunday there was to be a procession of the children.

As the mother was smoothing out the golden locks which fell like sunbeams on the white vestments, she said:  “It is a bright day for thee and me, my son.  I shall feel as if we were all in the dear old Jerusalem itself, and my darling had gathered his palms on Olivet itself, and the very eyes of the blessed Lord himself were on thee, and His ears listening to thee crying out thy hosannas, and His dear voice speaking of thee and through thee, ’Suffer the little children to come unto me.’”