nd on." "We are
those who were old," a number of them called out to her, with a murmuring
sound of laughter, one looking over another's shoulder. And one woman
said, "The angels say to us, 'Did you never think the Father had forsaken
you and the Lord forgotten you?'" And all the rest answered as in a
chorus, "There were moments that we thought this; but all the time we
knew that it could not be." "And the angels wonder at us," said another.
All this they said, crowding one before another, every one anxious to say
something, and sometimes speaking together, but always in accord. And
then there was a sound of laughter and pleasure, both at the strange
thought that the Lord could have forgotten them, and at the wonder of the
angels over their simple tales. And immediately they began to remind each
other, and say, "Do you remember?" and they told the little Pilgrim a
hundred tales of the hardships and troubles they had known, all smiling
and radiant with pleasure; and at every new account the others would
applaud and rejoice, feeling the happiness all the more for the evils
that were past. And some of them led her into their gardens to show her
their flowers, and to tell her how they had begun to study and learn
how colors were changed and form perfected, and the secrets of the growth
and of the germ, of which they had been ignorant. And others arranged
themselves in choirs, and sang to her delightful songs of the fields, and
accompanied her out upon her way, singing and answering to each other.
The difference between the simple folk and the greatness of the others
made the little Pilgrim wonder and admire; and she loved them in her
simplicity, and turned back many a time to wave her hand to them, and to
listen to the lovely simple singing as it went further and further away.
It had an evening tone of rest and quietness, and of protection and
peace. "He leadeth me by the green pastures and beside the quiet waters,"
she said to herself; and her heart swelled with pleasure to think that it
was those who had been so old, and so weary and poor, who had this rest
to console them for all their sorrows.

And as she went along, not only did she pass through many other villages,
but met many on the way who were travelling towards the great city, and
would greet her sweetly as they passed, and sometimes stop to say a
pleasant word, so that the little Pilgrim was never lonely wherever she
went. But most of them began to speak to her in