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 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?’