“Sara...looked long and hard at his face.'Are you learning me by heart, little Sara?' he said...'No,' she answered. 'I know you by heart. You are inside my heart.”

“Are you learning me by heart, little Sara?" he said, stroking her hair."No," she answered. "I know you by heart. You are inside my heart.”

“Someone has broken your heart. I knew there was something about you. That's it, isn't it?'A little," Sara said, suddenly self-conscious.I'm sorry.'It happens." She shrugged, straining for nonchalance.Maybe,' he said. 'But if it's your destiny, what can you do but accept it.”

“You really love her don't you," she said.With all my heart."She looked as sad as I'd ever seen her.What's your heart telling you to do?"I don't know."Maybe", she said gently,"You're trying to hard to hear it.”

“if you want to know me, look inside your heart.”

“She bent forward to look, then gave a startled little cry and drew back. There was indeed a seed lying in the palm of his hand, but it was shaped exactly like a long, sharply-pointed thorn… ‘The seed looks very sharp,’ she said shrinkingly. ’Won’t it hurt if you put it into my heart?’He answered gently, ‘It is so sharp that it slips in very quickly. But, Much-Afraid, I have already warned you that Love and Pain go together, for a time at least. If you would know Love, you must know pain too.’Much-Afraid looked at the thorn and shrank from it. Then she looked at the Shepherd’s face and repeated his words to herself. ’When the seed of Love in your heart is ready to bloom, you will be loved in return,’ and a strange new courage entered her. She suddenly stepped forward, bared her heart, and said, ‘Please plant the seed here in my heart.’His face lit up with a glad smile and he said with a note of joy in his voice, ‘Now you will be able to go with me to the High Places and be a citizen in the Kingdom of my Father.’Then he pressed the thorn into her heart. It was true, just as he had said, it did cause a piercing pain, but it slipped in quickly and then, suddenly, a sweetness she had never felt or imagined before tingled through her. It was bittersweet, but the sweetness was the stronger. She thought of the Shepherd’s words, ‘It is so happy to love,’ and her pale, sallow cheeks suddenly glowed pink and her eyes shown. For a moment Much-Afraid did not look afraid at all.”