y as far as she
had gone, she would finish it.

"Well," said Caleb, "I will. Once there was a blind boy, and his name
was Samuel; and, you see, he was going through the woods, and his father
was with him. And his father walked along, and he walked along, and it
was stony, and he said he would do just what his father said, because
his father knew best,--and--and so he took hold of the string again."

"What string?" said Dwight.

"Why, it was his father's string," said Caleb, eagerly, looking up into
Dwight's face.

"What did he have a string for?" said David.

"Why to lead him along by," said Caleb.

"Yes--but why did not he take hold of his father's hand?" asked Dwight.

"Why,--why,--there was a snake in the road, I believe,--wasn't there,
grandmother?"

His grandmother smiled,--for Caleb had evidently got bewildered, in his
drowsiness, so that he had not a very distinct recollection of the
story. She, therefore, began again, and told the whole. When she got to
the place where she left off before, that is, to the place Samuel heard
a splash in the water, Dwight started up, and asked, eagerly,

"What was it?"

"A stone, I suppose," said David, coolly.

"No," said Madam Rachel, "it was only the end of the stem of a small
tree, which Samuel's father was trying to fix across the brook, so that
he could lead his blind boy over. It was lying upon the ground, and he
took it and raised it upon its end, near the edge of the bank, on one
side, and then let it fall over, in hopes that the other end would fall
upon the opposite bank. But it did not happen to fall straight across,
and so the end fell into the water, and this was the noise that Samuel
heard.

"He drew the stick back again, and then contrived to raise it on its end
once more; and this time he was more successful. It fell across, and so
extended from bank to bank. In a few minutes he succeeded in getting
another by its side, and then he came back to Samuel.

"'Samuel,' said he, 'I have built a bridge.'

"'A bridge!' said Samuel.

"'Yes,' said he, 'a sort of a bridge; and now I am going to try to lead
you over.'

"'But, father, I am afraid.'

"'You said you would trust yourself entirely to me, and go wherever I
should say.'

"'Well, father,' said Samuel, 'I will. You know best, after all.'

"So Samuel took hold of his father's hand, and, with slow, and very
careful steps, he got over the roaring torrent, and then they soon came
out into a broad