"Then it was God who took care of you in the storm?"
"It is God who gives us everything good. He is so very good, and He loves us so much!"
"Did you ever hear Him speak?" asked the Child, after another silence. "You seem to know Him so well."
"No, I never heard Him," replied the maiden; "but when I look at this," she added, folding the parchment close to her, "He talks to me in my heart!"
The Child clasped his hands round his knees as he sat on the ground, and looking up into her face, he said, "It is very wonderful. I should like to know more about it. But who told you?"
The little girl could not answer him: she burst into tears, and could only sob, "My mother—oh, my mother!"
The Child was frightened to see her cry so bitterly. He kissed her and told her not to cry, and then he brought her all his prettiest shells to look at; but she would not look at them, nor be comforted, but kept sobbing, "Mother, mother!—shall I never see you any more?—are you lost in the deep, cold sea?—will you never speak to me again?" So at last he sat down and began to cry too; for he thought of the storm, and the wailing voices, and the little faithful mother-bird spreading her wings over her brood, and he felt something very sad must have happened to the little girl, and she must have lost what was dearest to her in the world. At length, as she wept on, he nestled his hands into hers, and whispered timidly, "Cannot God help you?—speak to Him!"
Then the little maiden became quieter, and the two little ones knelt down together, and she murmured, "Our Father who art in heaven."
Her tears fell fast, and she could not say any more; but when she rose, her face was beaming, and her eyes smiled gravely through her tears: and the Child felt there was One who loved them and was near them, wherever they were.
But he was afraid to ask her any more questions, so he led her into the wood. He thought she might not like to go beside the sea. And there, among the flowers, and the sunbeams, and the birds, the two children forgot their tears, and rejoiced in the joy of all the happy creatures.