ery softly against the shore, a little wave every now and then
falling gently, followed by a long rustling of the water on the sand,
and a silence till the next wave fell. He waded on till he could swim,
and then struck out to where the Isles stood, all sharp and bright in
the moon. He swam with long quiet strokes, hearing the water ripple
past; and soon the great crags loomed out above him, and he heard the
waves fall among their rocky coves. At last he felt the ground beneath
his feet; and coming out of the water he dressed himself, and then--for
he would not venture on the cliffs in the uncertain light--gathering up
some dried weeds of the sea, he made a pillow for his head and slept, in
a wonderful peace of mind, until the moon set; and not long after there
came a pale light over the sea in the east, brightening slowly, until at
last the sun, like a fiery ball, broke upwards from the sea; and it was
day.

Now when David awoke in the broad daylight, he found himself full of a
great joy and peace. He seemed, as it were, to have leaped over a wide
ditch, and to see the world across it. Now he was alone with God, and he
had put all the old, mean, hateful life away from him. It did not even
so much as peep into his mind that he would have to endure many
hardships of body, rain, and chilly winds, a bed of rock, and fare both
hard and scanty. This was not what had troubled him in the old days.
What had vexed his heart had been unclean words and deeds, greediness,
hardness, cruel taunts, the lack of love, and the meanness and baseness
of the petty life. All that was behind him now; he felt free and strong,
and while he moved about to spy out his new kingdom, he sang loudly to
himself a song of praise. The place pleased him mightily; over his head
ran up the cliff with its stony precipices and dizzy ledges. The lower
rocks all fringed with weeds, like sea-beasts with rough hair, stood out
black from the deep blue water that lay round the rocks. He loved to
hear the heavy plunge of the great waves around his bastions, the thin
cries of the sea-birds that sailed about the precipice, or that lit on
their airy perches. Everywhere was a brisk sharp scent of the sea, and
the fresh breeze, most unlike the close sour smell of the little houses.
He felt himself free and strong and clean, and he thought of all the
things he would say to God in the pleasant solitude, and how he would
hear the low and far-off voice of the Father speaking