A Child's Dream of a Star, written in 1850 on a sudden impulse, is simple and unpretending; and it gains its beauty from this unpretentious simplicity. This is a short story about a brother and sister who used to wonder about the stars all day long. On an ordinary day, one clear, shining star would appear before the rest, and every night they watched for it, standing hand in hand at a window. But while she was still very young, the sister died, breaking the little boy's heart. One day, when the star made long rays down toward him, he saw his sister's angel through his tears. But, throughout his life, his sister's angel told him it was not time to join her. He lived a long, full life, and it was not until the old man died was he able to rejoin his sister. Charles Dickens told one of his biographers that as a child he used to wander at night about a churchyard, near their home, with his sister. This sister died only two years before this poetic fantasy was written. Perhaps it was the sincerity of his grief for this lost sister which keeps this story as simple as it is in its sentiment.