NEWS FROM DISTANT FRIENDS
ing to cut the air in two, and then ran off with his goats after him.
The climax to all the beautiful things that Clara had already seen upon the mountain came at the close of the day.
As she lay on the large soft bed in the hay loft, with Heidi near her, she looked out through the round open window right into the middle of the shining clusters of stars, and she exclaimed in delight,
“Heidi, it’s just as if we were in a high carriage and were going to drive straight into heaven.”
“Yes, and do you know why the stars are so happy and look down and nod to us like that?” asked Heidi.
“No, why is it?” Clara asked in return.
“Because they live up in heaven, and know how well God arranges everything for us, so that we need have no more fear or trouble and may be quite sure that all things will come right in the end. That’s why they are so happy, and they nod to us because they want us to be happy too. But then we must never forget to pray, and to ask God to remember us when He is arranging things, so that we too may feel safe and have no anxiety about what is going to happen.”
The two children now sat up and said their prayers, and then Heidi put her head down on her little round arm and fell off to sleep at once, but Clara lay awake some time, for she could not get over the wonder of this new experience of being in bed up here among the stars. She had indeed seldom seen a star, for she never went outside the house at night, and the curtains at home were always drawn before the stars came out. Each time she closed her eyes she felt she must open them again to see if
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