gently with his
soul.

His first care was to find the cave that was to shelter him. He spent
the day in climbing very carefully and lightly all over the face of the
rock. Never had he known his hand so strong, or his head so sure. He
sate for a time on a little ledge, to which he had climbed on the crag
face, and he feasted his eyes upon the sight of the great cliffs of the
mainland that ran opposite him, to left and right, in a wide
half-circle. His eyes dwelt with pleasure upon the high sloping
shoulders of rock, on which the sun now shone very peacefully, the strip
of moorland at the top, the brushwood growing in the sloping coves, the
clean shingle at the base of the rocks, and the blue sky over all. That
was the world as God had made it, and as He intended it to be; it was
only men who made it evil, huddling together in their small and filthy
dens, so intent on their little ugly lives, their food and drink and
wicked ways.

Presently he found the cave-mouth, and noted in his mind the best way
thither. The cave seemed to him a very sweet place; the mouth was all
fringed with little ferns; inside it was dry and clean; and in a few
hours he had disposed all his small goods within it. There was a low
slope, on one side of the rocks, where the fern grew plentifully. He
gathered great armfuls of the dry red stalks, and made himself a
rustling bed. So the day wore pleasantly away. One of his cares was to
find water; but here it seemed that God blessed him very instantly, for
he found a place near the sea, where a little spring soaked cool out of
the rock, with a pleasant carpet of moss and yellow flowers. He found,
too, some beds of shell-fish, which he saw would give him food and bait
for his fishing. So about sundown he cast a line from the end of the
rocks and presently caught a fish, a ling, which lives round rocky
shores. This he broiled at a small fire of driftwood, for he had brought
tinder with him; and it pleased him to think of the meal that the
Apostles took with the risen Christ, a meal which He had made for them,
and to which He Himself called them; for that, too, was a broiled fish,
and eaten by the edge of the sea. Also he ate a little of the bread he
had brought with him; and with it some of a brisk juicy herb, called
samphire, that sprouted richly in the cliff, which gave his meat an
aromatic savour; and with a drink of fresh spring water he dined well,
and was content; then he climbed within the cave,