KATE'S SECOND THOUGHT.
LET me have the basket; I'm sure it is mine," Esther said. "Well, I'm sure it isn't," declared Kate. "I set mine down right by that big stone; and besides, I know I had more berries than you, for I picked all the time you were chasing that butterfly."
Then there was a good deal of talk about this same thing, which of two baskets, just alike, save that one had more berries in it, belonged to Esther, Roger sided with Kate, and Wheeler thought that the fuller basket was probably Esther's; and Kate told him he always took Esther's part, right or wrong; and really they were in danger, all of them, of saying things that would need forgiving, when Esther said suddenly,—
"Why, what's that?"
"That," said Wheeler, parting the bushes, and looking out into the sky, "was a clap of thunder; unusually loud, too. We are going to have a storm."
Sure enough, the big raindrops began to patter around them while he spoke. Not a very hard shower, only the thunder sounded unusually loud, and the lightning was very sharp. They stopped picking berries, and waited under shelter of the great trees, peeping out now and then at the prospect.
"Isn't it strange what thunder is?" said Esther.
"Why, no," said Kate; “it isn't strange, I suppose. People who have studied know all about what makes it. I used to think it was God's voice. Mamma says when I was a little bit of a girl, whenever it thundered, I would say, 'Hark! God speaks!' "
"Maybe his voice does sound a little like thunder," Roger said thoughtfully; "and maybe the
lightning is a little like the way Jesus looked when he was up on the mountain and shone so that the disciples were afraid."
Roger had been studying his Sabbath school lesson, and talking it over with his mother just before he came out. His mind went back to it now.
"Oh, you don't think God's voice really sounds like thunder, though" said Wheeler.
"Why, I don't know," Roger said. "Some folks thought so, you know. When God spoke to Jesus once, and said he had glorified his name, the people standing around thought that it thundered."
"Does it say that in the Bible?"
"Certainly; it's one of the references in our lesson."
"I don't wonder they were afraid," Esther said.
She was the youngest of them, and was always just a little bit afraid of thunder and lightning. Kate turned and put her arm around the little sister. When the rain was over, they went back to their berries.
"Essie, I guess maybe that was your basket.
Anyhow, you can have it."
"No," said Esther, "I don't feel exactly sure; and I would just as soon you had it."
But Kate kissed her again, and urged that she ought to have it anyhow, because she was the younger; and they exchanged baskets.
"What made you do that?" Roger asked, as they walked homeward.
"Do what?"
"Give Essie your basket. I am sure it was yours."
"I don't hardly know what made me do it, only I thought perhaps I was mistaken, and it was hers.
And then I went to thinking about thunder being like God's voice, and about Jesus up on the mountain with his face shining like the lightning; and I thought if he should come now, and talk with me, he wouldn't like it if I didn't give Essie the basket; and then I remembered that he knew all about it, and I thought I would like to please him."
The Pansy.