The Little Pilgrim | Page 4

The Sage only shook his head at her, smiling. 'Can one love too much?'
he said.
'O brother, it is very hard to live and to see another--I am confused in
my mind,' said the little Pilgrim, putting her hand to her eyes. 'The tears
of those that weep have got into my soul. To live and see another
die,--that was what I was saying; but the child lives like you and me.
Tell me, for I am confused in my mind.'
'Listen!' said the Sage; and when she listened she heard the sound of the
children going back with a great murmur and ringing of pleasant voices
like silver bells in the air, and among them the voice of the child asking
a thousand questions, calling them by their names. The two pilgrims
listened and laughed to each other for love at the sound of the children.
'Is it for the little brother that you are troubled?' the Sage said in her ear.
Then she was ashamed, and turned from the joyful sounds that were
ascending ever higher and higher to the little house that stood below,
with all its windows closed upon the light. It was wrapped in darkness
though the sun was shining, the windows closed as if they never would

open more, and the people within turning their faces to the wall,
covering their eyes that they might not see the light of day. 'O
miserable day!' they were saying; 'O dark hour! O life that will never
smile again!' She sat between earth and heaven, her eyes smiling, but
her mouth beginning to quiver once more. 'Is it to raise their thoughts
and their hearts?' she said.
'Little sister,' said he, 'when the Father speaks to you, it is not for me
nor for another that He speaks. And what He says to you is--' 'Ah,' said
the little Pilgrim, with joy, 'it is for myself, myself alone! As if I were a
great angel, as if I were a saint. It drops into my heart like the dew. It is
what I need, not for you, though I love you, but for me only. It is my
secret between me and Him.'
Her companion bowed his head. 'It is so. And thus has He spoken to the
little child. But what He said or why He said it, is not for you or me to
know. It is His secret; it is between the little one and his Father. Who
can interfere between these two? Many and many are there born on
earth whose work and whose life are ordained elsewhere,--for there is
no way of entrance into the race of man which is the nature of the Lord,
but by the gates of birth; and the work which the Father has to do is so
great and manifold that there are multitudes who do but pass through
those gates to ascend to their work elsewhere. But the Father alone
knows whom he has chosen. It is between the child and Him. It is their
secret; it is as you have said.'
The little Pilgrim was silent for a moment, but then turned her head
from the bright shining of the skies and the voices of the children
which floated farther and farther off, and looked at the house in which
there was sorrow and despair. She pointed towards it, and looked at
him who was her instructor, and had come to show her how these
things were.
'They are to blame,' he said; 'but none will blame them. The little life is
hard. The Father, though He is very near, seems far off; and sometimes
even His word is as a dream. It is to them as if they had lost their child.
Can you not remember?--that was what we said. We have lost--'

Then the little Pilgrim, musing, began to smile, but wept again as she
thought of the father and the mother. 'If we were to go,' she said, 'hand
in hand, you and I, and tell them that the Father had need of him, that it
was not for the little life but for the great and beautiful world above that
the child was born; and that he had got great promotion and was gone
with the princes and the angels according as was ordained? And why
should they mourn? Let us go and tell them--'
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