“Yes, yes, and for Nanny too,” said the little maiden; and touching the tips of her small fingers with her lips, she threw them up as if wafting the kisses upward.
“Perhaps the lark will carry our prayers to God,” said Hans.
“Oh no,” replied his brother, looking very thoughtful. “God does not need any messenger to take our prayers to Him, for He is always with us; and even if we just think in our hearts what we wish to ask Him, He knows it all quite well. Father said He was close by at all times.”
“Hark what a pretty song the lark is singing! What a pity we cannot hear what it is about!”
“I will tell you, Nanny, what I fancy he would say,” said Toni. ”‘I thank the good God that He has given me wings, so that I can fly up to the blue sky, and that He has made the sun so warm, and the fields so green and soft where I build my nest.’”
“That is nice, Toni. But listen! there is a bee humming as it flies by. What does it say, do you think?”
“Well, perhaps it is buzzing, ‘Praise God that He lets me rove from flower to flower to sip the dew and gather honey, and that I am such a happy little bee.’”
“Now then,” continued the little girl, “there is a large caterpillar creeping along on the ground. It cannot say anything; it neither sings nor hums.”
Toni was silent a moment; then taking both Nanny’s hands into his, he went on, “I was just thinking, my dear little sister, of something mother used to tell me about that. The caterpillar thinks, perhaps, ‘I certainly am not so beautiful now as many other things in the world, but I have life and can enjoy it. I thank God for that; and some day, when I am tired, He will teach me how to spin myself a cradle in which I may lie down and sleep; then, when I am quite rested, God will come and wake me, and instead of creeping slowly on the ground I shall fly up a lovely thing with wings.’”
“And then, you know,” said Hans, following out his mother’s words, which his brother had recalled, “it will be with our parents something like this butterfly, for first they lived on earth, then God laid them down to sleep in the churchyard, and at last He will come and wake them, and they will be happier and more beautiful than they ever were before.”