The doctor says he cannot live through the day, and I felt as if I must come to church." "Very right, very right.

Do you stay here and I will go to your house at once; my husband will not mind waiting." "Thank you very much, but Katharine is staying with the boy and he is quite safe there." "Then I will stay and pray with you for the dear little child." Dada had not missed a word of this simple dialogue.

The woman whose child was ill at home, and who had come here to pray for strength or mercy, had a remarkably sweet face; as the girl saw the two friends bow their heads and fold their hands with downcast eyes, she thought to herself: "Now they are praying for the sick child..." and involuntarily she, too, bent her curly head, and murmured softly: "O ye gods, or thou God of the Christians, or whatever thou art called that hast power over life and death, make this poor woman's little son well again.

When I get home again I will offer up a cake or a fowl--a lamb is so costly." And she fancied that some invisible spirit heard her, and it gave her a vague satisfaction to repeat her simple supplication over and over again.
Meanwhile a miserable blind dwarf had seated himself by her side; near him stood the old dog that guided him.

He held him by a string and had been allowed to bring his indispensable comrade into the church.