Little Pilgrim at Aunt Lou's

It was a long time after Christmas, and the snow and ice had all melted, and the trees were green again, and the flowers and birds had all come back.

Summer was just beginning again; and on the very day that she was five years old the little pilgrim started on a long journey with papa and mamma and Aunt Lillie.

They were going into the country to Aunt Lou’s, to stay for a great many weeks—mamma and Aunt Lillie and Bessie; and papa was going to take them there and stay one night, and then go home again, because he had to attend to his business.

Grandpapa was not going at all now, because he could not leave his church and his poor people; but by and by, he said, when the days and nights were both too hot for him, he would take a vacation like the school-children, and go to Aunt Lou’s for a month.

Rosy and Jane had promised to take good care of the house, and they both stood at the gate watching the family off.

At first the little pilgrim thought it very fine to go off in the steam-cars and watch the houses and trees fly past the windows, for this is what they seemed to do; but the cars did the flying, while the houses and trees stayed just where they were before.

There was not a happier little girl to be found that morning than Bessie. She had a beautiful little trunk with her that held all Blanche’s clothes, and the key of the trunk was on a ribbon around her neck. Blanche, you know, was her best dolly—the one her mamma gave her on her last birthday—and she had always taken great care of her, so that she was now almost as good as new.

When mamma began to pack the trunks her little daughter brought nearly every plaything she had to be packed too, for she seemed to think that everything she had must go with her to Aunt Lou’s. But mamma told her that there was not room for all her toys, and that she must choose a few things to take with her, and leave the rest.

Bessie was very much puzzled what to choose, and which of her dollies to leave behind. She was afraid that if she took Blanche, Sarah Jane would feel badly; and if she took Sarah Jane, Blanche would not like to be left behind.