ignorant boy prized more highly his three
leaves of a Bible, picked out of the waste-basket, and possibly was
going to know more about it than he, Edgar Ryan, had gleaned from his
own handsomely bound copy, wherein his Christian mother had written
years ago his own loved name. Mr. Ryan, the cultivated young lawyer,
took down his handsome Bible from the shelf of unused books as soon as
he had reached his office, dusted it carefully, and turned over the
leaves to discover something about Habakkuk.

As for Tode, he literally poured over his three leaves. Very little of
the language did he understand--the great and terrible figures were
utterly beyond his knowledge; yet as he read them once, and again and
again, something of the grandeur and sublimity stole into his heart,
helped him without his knowledge, and now and then a word came home, and
he caught a vague glimpse of its meaning. "Thou art of purer eyes than
to behold evil." That was plain; that must mean the great All-seeing
Eyes, for Tode knew enough of human nature to have much doubt as to
whether any human eyes were pure. But then those unsleeping eyes _did_
behold evil--saw. Oh, Tode could conceive better than many a
Sabbath-school scholar can just how much evil there was to behold. How
was that? Ah! Tode's brain didn't know, couldn't tell; but into his
heart had come the knowledge that between all the evil men and women in
this evil world, and those pure eyes of an angry God, there stood the
blood-red cross of Christ.

There were many guests to be waited on; the tables were filling rapidly.
Tode was springing about with eager steps, handling deftly coffee,
oysters, wine, anything that was called for--bright, busy, brisk as
usual. As he set a cup of steaming coffee beside Mr. Ryan's plate, that
gentleman glanced up good-humoredly and addressed him.

"Well, Tode, how is Habakkuk?"

"First-rate, sir, only there's some queer things in it."

"I should think there was!" laughed Mr. Ryan, spilling his coffee in his
mirth. "Rather beyond you, isn't it?"

"Well, _some_ of it," said Tode, hesitatingly. "But it all means
_something_, likely, and I'm learning it, so I'll have it on hand to
find out about one of these days, when I find a lawyer or somebody who
can explain it, you know."

This last with a twinkle of the eye, and a certain almost noiseless
chuckle, that said it was intended to hit.

"You're learning it!" exclaimed Mr. Ryan, undisguised astonishment