ers, and that knew nothing of the little human lives that
fretted themselves out in the thin air above. That day was to him like
the opening of a door into the vast heart of God.

But for all his happiness, the thought weighed upon him, day after day,
of all the grief and unhappiness that there was about him. A dying bird
that he found in a pool, and that rolled its filmy eye upon him in fear,
as if to ask why he must disturb it in its last sad languid hour, the
terror in which so many of the small fish abode--he saw once, when the
sea was clear, a big fish dart like a dark shadow, with open mouth and
gleaming eye, on a little shoal of fishes that sported joyfully in the
sun; they scattered in haste, but they had lost their fellows--all this
made him ponder; but most of all there weighed on his heart the thought
of the world he had left, of how men spoke evil of each other, and did
each other hurt; of children whose lot was to be beaten and cursed for
no fault, but to please the cruel temper of a master; of patient women,
who had so much to bear--so that sometimes he had dark thoughts of why
God made the world so fair, and then left so much that was amiss, like a
foul stream that makes a clear pool turbid. And there came into his head
a horror of taking the lives of creatures for his own use--the
shell-worm that writhed as he pulled it from the shell; the bright fish
that came up struggling and gasping from the water, and that fought
under his hand--and at last he made up his mind that he would take no
more life, though how he would live he knew not; and as for the world of
men, he became very desirous to help a little as best he could; and
there being at this time a wreck in the bay, when a boat and all on
board were lost, he thought that he would wish, if he could, to keep a
fire lit on dark nights, so that ships that passed should see that there
was a dwelling there, and so keep farther away from the dangerous rocks.

By this time it had become known in the country where he was--his figure
had been seen several times from the cliffs; and one day there had come
a boat, with some of those that knew him, to the island. He had no wish
to mix again with men; but neither did he desire to avoid them, if it
was God's will that they should come. So he came down courteously, and
spoke with the master of the boat, who asked him very curiously of his
life and all that he did. David told him all; and when the master asked
him why