HEIDI
he would not eat his potatoes; all he did was to creep off to bed as quickly as possible and hide under the bedclothes and groan.
“Peter has been eating sorrel again, and is evidently in pain by the way he is groaning,” said Brigitta.
“You must give him a little more bread to take with him; give him a bit of mine to-morrow,” said the grandmother sympathizingly.
As the children lay that night in bed looking out at the stars Heidi said, “I have been thinking all day what a happy thing it is that God does not give us what we ask for, even when we and pray and pray, if He knows there is something better for us; have you felt like that?”
“Why do you ask me that to-night all of a sudden?” asked Clara.
“Because I prayed so hard when I was in Frankfurt that I might go home at once, and because I was not allowed to I thought God had forgotten me. And now you see, if I had come away at first when I wanted to, you would never have come here, and would never have got well.”
Clara had in her turn become thoughtful. “But, Heidi,” she began again, “in that case we ought never to pray for anything, as God always intends something better for us than we know or wish for.”
“You must not think it is like that, Clara,” replied Heidi eagerly. “We must go on praying for everything, for everything, so that God may know we do not forget that it all comes from Him. If we forget God, then He lets us go our own way and we get into trouble; grandmamma told me so. And if He does not give us what we ask for we must not think that He
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