Derry looked at his watch.  It was after twelve.  The servants were all demoralized.  “See here,” he said, “you sit still for a moment, and I’ll go down for your tray.”

He brought it up himself, presently, bread and milk and fruit.

They sat on the oasis and ate, with the patient purple camels grouped in the shade of the jonquil palm.

Then Derry asked, “Shall I tell you the story of How the Purple Camels Came to Paradise?”

“Yes,” they said, and he gathered little Margaret-Mary into his arms, and Teddy lay flat on the floor and looked up at him, while Derry made his difficult way towards the thing he had to tell.

“You see, the purple camels belonged to the Three Wise Men, the ones who journeyed, after the Star—­do you remember?  And found the little baby who was the Christ?  And because the purple camels had followed the Star, the good Lord said to them, ’Some day you shall journey towards Paradise, and there you shall see the shining souls that dwell in happiness.’”

“Do their souls really shine?” Teddy asked.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because of the light in Paradise—­the warm, sweet light, clearer than the sunshine, Teddy, brighter than the moon and the stars—.”

The children sighed rapturously.  “Go on,” Teddy urged.

“So the patient camels began their wonderful pilgrimage—­they crossed the desert and rounded a curve of the sea, and at last they came to Paradise, and the gate was shut and they knelt in front of it, and they heard singing, and the sound of silver trumpets, and at last the gate swung back, and they saw—­what do you think they saw?”

“The shining souls,” said Teddy, solemnly.

“Yes, the shining souls in all that lovely light—­there were the souls of happy little children, and of good women, but best of all,” his voice wavered a little, “best of all, there were the souls of—­brave men.”

“My father is a brave man.”

Was, oh, little Teddy!

“And the purple camels said to the angels who guarded the gate, ’We have come because we saw the little Christ in the manger.’

“And the angel said, ‘It is those who see Him who enter Paradise,’ So the patient purple camels went in and the gates were shut behind them, and there they will live in the warm, sweet light throughout the deathless ages.”

“What are de-yethless ages, Cousin Derry?”

“Forever and ever.”

“Is that all?”

“It is all about the camels—­but not all about the shining souls.”

“Tell us the rest.”

He knew that he was bungling it, but at last he brought them to the thought of their father in Paradise, because the dear Lord loved to have him there.

“But if he’s there, he can’t be here,” said the practical Teddy.

“No.”

“I want him here.  Doesn’t Mother want him here?”

“Well—­yes.”