With that, the little girl remembered that she had walked on the deck, had walked down the stairs and into the cabin—that no one had carried her.
"Now come down off the table," said one, "and let us see whether you can walk."
She crawled from the table to the chair, and from the chair to the floor. Yes, she could both stand and walk.
How they rejoiced! Their hopes had not been in vain; the object of the journey was fulfilled. The little girl was not going to grow up a helpless cripple, but a normal human being.
The grown folk said it was the splendid baths at Strömstad that had wrought the change. With tears of joy and gratitude, they blessed the sea, the air, the city and all therein—glad they had come.
The little girl, meanwhile, had her own thoughts about it. She wondered if it was not the bird of paradise that had helped her. Was it not the little marvel with the quivering wings which had come from that land where feet were not needed that had taught her to walk here on this earth, where it was such a very necessary thing?
