Imagine the feelings of the boy, as he groped unsuccessfully on the floor of the cavern for the lost match box.

Finally, he gave up in despair.
Fritz was not a cowardly boy, but while searching for the matches, he, without thinking, had turned around several times, lost his bearings and knew not in which direction to go to reach the opening of the cave.

He heard strange noises which he imagined were bats flopping their wings.

There appeared to be something uncanny about the place, and Fritz devoutly wished himself out in the sunshine, when a quotation he had frequently heard his father use came into his mind: "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of." So Fritz knelt down and prayed as he had been taught to pray at his mother's knee, but more earnestly than he had ever prayed before in his life, that God would help him find his way out of the cave, believing that his prayer would be answered.

And who shall say it was not answered?
For, stumbling onward in the darkness, not knowing if he were coming toward the cave's entrance or going in the opposite direction, he eventually hailed with joy a faint streak of light which he followed, and it soon brought him to the mouth of the cave.