ry
subject of our gossip.

He strode up, looking neither to right nor left, and with the first word
that fell, low and damnatory, from his lips, we knew that the moment had
come when, whether for good or evil, he intended to cast us from him and
acquit himself of further responsibility in our direction.

"Behold!" he cried, pausing over against us, "I go from among ye! Behold,
ye that have not obeyed nor inclined your ear, but have walked every one
in the imagination of his evil heart! Saith the Lord, 'I will bring evil
upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall
cry unto Me, I will not hearken unto them.'"

His voice rang out, and a dark silence fell among us. It was pregnant,
but with little of humility. We had had enough of this interloper and his
abuse. Then, like Jeremiah, he went to prophesy:--

"I read ye, men of Anathoth, and the murder in your hearts. Ye that have
worshipped the shameful thing and burned incense to Baal--shall I cringe
that ye devise against me, or not rather pray to the Lord of Hosts, 'Let
me see Thy vengeance on them'? And He answereth, 'I will bring evil upon
the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.'"

Now, though I was no participator in that direful thing that followed, I
stood by, nor interfered, and so must share the blame. For there were men
risen all about, and their faces lowering, and it seemed that it would go
hard with the stranger were he not more particular.

But he moved forward, with a stately and commanding gesture, and stood
with his back to the well-scoop and threatened us and spoke.

"Lo!" he shrieked, "your hour is upon you! Ye shall be mowed down like
ripe corn, and the shadow of your name shall be swept from the earth! The
glass of your iniquity is turned, and when its sand is run through, not a
man of ye shall be!"

He raised his arm aloft, and in a moment he was overborne. Even then, as
all say, none got sight of his face; but he fought with lowered head, and
his black beard flapped like a wounded crow. But suddenly a boy-child ran
forward of the bystanders, crying and screaming,--

"Hurt him not! They are hurting him--oh, me! oh, me!"

And from the sweat and struggle came his voice, gasping, "I spare the
little children!"

Then only I know of the surge and the crash towards the well-mouth, of an
instant cessation of motion, and immediately of men toiling hither and
thither with boulders and huge blocks, which the