er wept to see it, that not more dumb
in that great hour of gladness was she who was born so than he to whose
house had come the wonderful work that God had wrought.

No heed had Israel given yet to the bodeful signs in Naomi's face, in
joy over such as were joyful. When he had taken her in his arms she had
known him, and she had clung to him in her glad surprise. But when she
continued to lie on his bosom it was not only because he was her father
and she loved him, and because he had been lost to her and was found, it
was also because he alone was silent of all that were about her.

When he saw this his heart was humbled; but he understood her fears,
that, coming out of a land of great silence, where the voice of man
was never heard, where the air was songless as the air of dreams and
darkling as the air of a tomb, her soul misgave her, and her spirit
trembled in a new world of strange sounds. For what was the ear but a
little dark chamber, a vault, a dungeon in a castle, wherein the soul
was ever passing to and fro, asking for news of the world without?
Through seventeen dark and silent years the soul of Naomi had been
passing and repassing within its beautiful tabernacle of flesh, crying
daily and hourly, "Watchman, what of the world?" At length it had found
an answer, and it was terrified. The world had spoken to her soul and
its voice was like the reverberations of a subterranean cavern, strange
and deep and awful.

In that first moment of Israel's consciousness after he entered the
room, all four black folks seemed to be speaking together.

Ali was saying, "Father, those dogs and thieves of tentmen and muleteers
returned yesterday, and said--"

And the bondwomen were crying, "Sidi, you were right when you went
away!" "Yes, the dear child was ill!" "Oh, how she missed you when
you were gone." "She has been delirious, and the doctor, the son of
Tetuan--"

And the old Taleb was muttering, "Master, it is all by God's mercy. We
prayed for the life of the maiden, and lo! He has given us this gateway
to her spirit as well."

Then Israel saw that as their voices entered the dark vault of Naomi's
ears they startled and distressed her. So, to pacify her, he motioned
them out of the chamber. They went away without a word. The reason of
Naomi's fears began to dawn upon them. An awe seemed to be cast over her
by the solemnity of that great moment. It was like to the birth-moment
of a soul.

And when the black people