what I want to know
is why, since He has arranged all things, He ever put me into that pain
and danger. I have, in my opinion, more occasion to blame than to
praise. You would not thank me for pulling you out of that river if it
was also I who pushed you in. The most which you can claim for your
Providence is that it has healed the wound which its own hand
inflicted."

"I don't deny the difficulty," said the clergyman slowly; "no one who is
not self-deceived _can_ deny the difficulty. Look how boldly Tennyson
faced it in that same poem, the grandest and deepest and most obviously
inspired in our language. Remember the effect which it had upon him."

'I falter where I firmly trod,
And falling with my weight of cares
Upon the great world's altar stairs
Which slope through darkness up to God;

I stretch lame hands of faith and grope
And gather dust and chaff, and call
To what I feel is Lord of all,
And faintly trust the larger hope.'

"It is the central mystery of mysteries--the problem of sin and
suffering, the one huge difficulty which the reasoner has to solve in
order to vindicate the dealings of God with man. But take our own case
as an example. I, for one, am very clear what I have got out of our
experience. I say it with all humility, but I have a clearer view of my
duties than ever I had before. It has taught me to be less remiss in
saying what I think to be true, less indolent in doing what I feel to be
right."

"And I," cried Sadie. "It has taught me more than all my life put
together. I have learned so much and unlearned so much. I am a
different girl."

"I never understood my own nature before," said Stephens. "I can hardly
say that I had a nature to understand. I lived for what was
unimportant, and I neglected what was vital."

"Oh, a good shake-up does nobody any harm," the Colonel remarked.
"Too much of the feather-bed-and-four-meals-a-day life is not good for
man or woman."

"It is my firm belief," said Mrs. Belmont gravely, "that there was not
one of us who did not rise to a greater height during those days in the
desert than ever before or since. When our sins come to be weighed,
much may be forgiven us for the sake of those unselfish days."

They all sat in thoughtful silence for a little, while the scarlet
streaks turned to carmine, and the grey shadows deepened, and the
wild-fowl flew past in dark straggling V's over the dull metal