



Produced by Greg Bergquist, Matthew Wheaton and the Online
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    A CHILD'S DREAM OF A STAR.

    BY CHARLES DICKENS.


    _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY HAMMATT BILLINGS._


    BOSTON:
    FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO.
    1871.


    Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870,
    BY FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO.,
    in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

    UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & CO.,
    CAMBRIDGE.




    LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

    ENGRAVED BY W. J. LINTON.


                                                PAGE
       I. THESE TWO USED TO WONDER                 5
      II. ONE CLEAR SHINING STAR                   6
     III. THE SISTER DROOPED                       7
      IV. A LITTLE GRAVE                           8
       V. A GREAT WORLD OF LIGHT                   9
      VI. "IS MY BROTHER COME?"                   10
     VII. THE COMPANY OF ANGELS                   11
    VIII. "THY MOTHER IS NO MORE"                 12
      IX. A MAN, WHOSE HAIR WAS TURNING GRAY      13
       X. "I SEE THE STAR!"                       14
      XI. IT SHINES UPON HIS GRAVE                15




A CHILD'S DREAM OF A STAR.


There was once a child, and he strolled about a good deal, and thought
of a number of things. He had a sister, who was a child too, and his
constant companion. These two used to wonder all day long. They
wondered at the beauty of the flowers; they wondered at the height and
blueness of the sky; they wondered at the depth of the bright water;
they wondered at the goodness and the power of GOD, who made the
lovely world.

They used to say to one another, sometimes, Supposing all the children
upon earth were to die, would the flowers and the water and the sky be
sorry? They believed they would be sorry. For, said they, the buds are
the children of the flowers, and the little playful streams that
gambol down the hillsides are the children of the water; and the
smallest bright specks playing at hide-and-seek in the sky all night
must surely be the children of the stars; and they would all be
grieved to see their playmates, the children of men, no more.

There was one clear shining star that used to come out in the sky
before the rest, near the church-spire, above the graves. It was
larger and more beautiful, they thought, than all the others, and
every night they watched for it, standing hand in hand at a window.
Whoever saw it first cried out, "I see the star!" And often they cried
out both together, knowing so well when it would rise and where. So
they grew to be such friends with it, that, before lying down in their
beds, they always looked out once again, to bid it good night; and
when they were turning round to sleep, they used to say, "God bless
the star!"

But while she was still very young, O, very, very young, the sister
drooped, and came to be so weak that she could no longer stand in the
window at night; and then the child looked sadly out by himself,
and when he saw the star, turned round and said to the patient pale
face on the bed, "I see the star!" And then a smile would come upon
the face, and a little weak voice used to say, "God bless my brother
and the star!"

And so the time came, all too soon! when the child looked out alone,
and when there was no face on the bed; and when there was a little
grave among the graves, not there before; and when the star made long
rays down towards him, as he saw it through his tears.

Now, these rays were so bright, and they seemed to make such a shining
way from earth to heaven, that when the child went to his solitary
bed, he dreamed about the star; and dreamed that, lying where he
was, he saw a train of people taken up that sparkling road by angels.
And the star, opening, showed him a great world of light, where many
more such angels waited to receive them.

All these angels, who