‘That is very nicely borne in mind,’ said father-stork.
‘It is very little!’ said the stork-mother; ‘she could not have done less.’
And when Helga saw them, she got up and went out into the verandah to them to pat them on the back. The old storks curtsied with their necks, and the youngest of their young ones looked on, and felt themselves honoured.
And Helga looked up to the bright stars which shone clearer and clearer; and between them and her a form seemed to move still purer than the air, and seen through it, that hovered quite near her—it was the dead Christian priest; so he came on the day of her festivity, came from the Kingdom of Heaven.
‘The splendour and glory which are there surpass everything that earth knows!’ he said.
And little Helga prayed gently and from her heart, as she had never prayed before, that she only for one single minute might dare to look within, might only cast one single glance into the Kingdom of Heaven, to the Father of all.
And he raised her into the splendour and glory, in one current of sounds and thoughts; it was not only round about her that it shone and sounded, but within her. No words are able to describe it.
‘Now we must return; you are wanted!’ he said.
‘Only one glance more!’ she entreated; ‘only one short minute!’
‘We must go back to the earth; all the guests have gone away.’