"Yes, Heidi, it is beautiful here; but what do you think? If you brought a sad heart, how could you make it well, so that you could enjoy all this beauty?"

"Oh, oh!" exclaimed Heidi quite gayly. "Nobody ever has a sad heart here--only in Frankfurt."

A smile passes over the doctor's face, but it quickly vanished. Then he added:

"And supposing someone should come and bring all his sorrow with him up here from Frankfurt, Heidi; do you know of anything that could help him then?"

"He must tell everything to the dear Lord, if he does not know what to do," said Heidi with perfect assurance.

"Yes, that is really a good thought, child," observed the doctor. "But if what makes you so very sad and miserable comes from Him, what can you say to the dear Lord?"

Heidi had to think what ought to be done in such a case; but she was very certain that one could obtain help from the dear Lord for every sorrow. She sought a reply from her own experience.

"Then you must wait," she said after a while with assurance, "and keep thinking: 'Surely now the dear Lord knows some you which is to come out of this by and by, so I must be still for a little and not run away from Him.' Then all at once it will happen so that you will see quite cleary that the dear Lord had nothing but good in His mind all the time; but because you could not see it so at first, and only had the terrible sorrow all the time before you, you thought it would always remain so."

"That is a beautiful faith, and you must hold it fast, Heidi," said the doctor. [...]