He shook his head.  ’They could not see us; they would not know us.  We should be to them as dreams.  If they do not take comfort from our Lord, how could they take comfort from you and me?  We could not bring them back their child.  They want their child, not only to know that all is well with him,—­for they know that all is well with him,—­but what they want is their child.  They are to blame; but who shall blame them?  Not any one that is born of woman.  How can we tell them what is the Father’s secret and the child’s?’

‘And yet we could tell them why it must be so?’ said the little Pilgrim.  ’For they prayed and besought the Lord.  O brother, I have no understanding.  For the Lord said, “Ask, and it shall be given you;” and they asked, yet they are refused.’

’Little sister, the Father must judge between His children; and he must first be heard who is most concerned.  While they were praying, the Father and the child talked together and said what we know not; but this we know, that his heart was satisfied with that which was said to him.  Must not the Father do what is best for the child He loves, whatever the other children may say?  Nay, did not our own fathers do this on earth, and we submitted to them; how much more He who sees all?’

The little Pilgrim stole softly from his side when he had done speaking, and went back into the darkened house, and saw the mother where she sat weeping and refusing to be comforted, in her sorrow perceiving not heaven nor any consolation, nor understanding that her child had gone joyfully to his Father and her Father, as his soul had required, and as the Lord had willed.  Yet though she had not joy but only anguish in her faith, and though her eyes were darkened that she could not see, yet the woman ceased not to call upon God, God, and to hold by Him who had smitten her.  And the father of the child had gone into his chamber and shut the door, and sat dumb, opening not his mouth, thinking upon his delightsome boy, and how they had walked together and talked together, and should do so again nevermore.  And in their hearts they reproached their God, the giver of all, and accused the Lord to His face, as if He had deceived them, yet clung to Him still, weeping and upbraiding, and would not let Him go.  The little Pilgrim wept too, and said many things to them which they could not hear.  But when she saw that though they were in darkness and misery, God was in all their thoughts, she bethought herself suddenly of what the poet had said in the celestial city, and of the songs he sang, which were a wonder to the Angels and Powers, of the little life and the sorrowful earth, where men endured all things, yet overcame by the name of the Lord.  When this came into her mind, she rose up again softly with a sacred awe, and wept not, but did them reverence; for without any light or guidance in their anguish they yet wavered not, died not, but endured, and in the end would overcome.  It seemed to her that she saw the great beautiful angels looking on, the great souls that are called to love and to serve, but not to suffer like the little brethren of the earth; and that among the princes of heaven there was reverence and awe, and even envy of those who thus had their garments bathed in blood, and suffered loss and pain and misery, yet never abandoned their life and the work that had been given them to do.