" said Wilhelm, "and I am sure she is the child of a _Ketzer_
[heretic]; for what think ye a child like that did ere she went to bed?
She prayed, and my wife says never a word said she to the Virgin, but
spoke just straight to God."

"_Ach_, poor _Maedchen_!" said another of the men; "does she think the
Lord would listen to the prayer of a child like her? The blessed Virgin
have pity on her;" and as he spoke he crossed himself.

"If these things be so," said the chief man, by name Jacob Heine, "then
it is plain one of us must go off to Dringenstadt, see the _Pfarrer_,
and settle about the funeral."

His proposal was at once agreed to, and as he was overseer of the
wood-cutters, and could not leave his work, Johann Schmidt, in whose hut
the man had died, was chosen as the best man to go; whilst Wilhelm
should return to his home, and then take the child to see her dead
father.

"Yes, bring the _Maedchen_" (little maid), said all, "and let us see her
also; seems as if she belongs to us all, found in the Forest as she
was."

There was no time to be lost, for the sun was already well up, and the
men should have been at work long ago.

So they dispersed, some going to their work deeper in the Forest,
Wilhelm retracing his way home, and Johann taking the path which led
through the wood to the little town of Dringenstadt.

As Wilhelm approached his door, the little Frida darted to him, saying,
"Have you found my fader? Oh, take me to him! Frida must go to her
fader." Tears rose to the wood-cutter's eyes, as lifting the child in
his arms he entered the hut, and leaving Frida there with Hans, he
beckoned his wife to speak to him outside; and there he told her the
story of the man who had died in Johann's cottage.

"Ah, then," said Elsie, "the little Frida is indeed an orphan, poor
lambie. How shall we tell her, Wilhelm? Her little heart will break.
Ever since she woke she has prattled on about him; ay" (and the woman's
voice lowered as she spoke), "and of a Father who she says lives in
heaven and cares both for her earthly father and herself. And, Wilhelm,
she's been reading aloud to Hans and me about the Virgin's Son of whom
my mother used to speak."

"Well, never mind about all that, wife, but let us tell the child; for I
and my mates think she should be taken to see the body, and so make sure
that the man was really her father."

* * * * *

"Fader dead!" said the child, as she sat o