"Much-Afraid," said the Shepherd again,
"tell Me, what is the matter. Why were you so fearful?"
"It is the way You have chosen for me to go," she whispered.
"It looks so dreadful, Shepherd, so impossible. I turn giddy and faint whenever I look at it. The roes and hinds can go there, but they are not limping, crippled, or cowardly like me."
"But, Much-Afraid, what did I promise you in the Valley of Humiliation?" asked the Shepherd with a smile.
Much-Afraid looked startled,
and the blood rushed into her cheeks and ebbed again, leaving them white as before.
"You said," she began and broke off and then began again.
"O Shepherd, You said You would make my feet like hinds' feet and set me upon mine High Places."
"Well," He answered cheerily, "the only way to develop hinds' feet is to go by the paths which the hinds use- like this one."
Much-Afraid trembled and looked at Him shamefacedly.
"I don't think- I want- hinds' feet,
if it means I have to go on a path like that,"
she said slowly and painfully.
The Shepherd was a very surprising person. Instead of looking either disappointed or disapproving, He actually laughed again.
"Oh, yes you do," He said cheerfully.
"I know you better than you know yourself, Much-Afraid. You want it very much indeed, and I promised you these hinds' feet."
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