eep, wooded hillside, and the broken pastures and
scattered houses north of Poketown, along the shore of the lake. This
spot was on the promontory that flanked the bay upon one side. From
this point it seemed that all of the great lake, with both its near and
distant shores, lay spread at their feet!
In the northwest frowned the half-ruined fortress, so heroic a landmark
of pre-Revolutionary times. Nearer lay the wooded, rocky isle where a
celebrated Indian chief had made his last stand against the encroaching
whites. Yonder was the spot where certain of those bold pioneers and
fighters, the Green Mountain Boys, embarked under their famous leaders,
Allen and Warner, upon an expedition that historians will never cease
to write of.
It was a noble, as well as a beautiful, view. God's world _did_ look
bigger and greater from The Overlook. Sitting by her side, the
minister held the girl's hand, and listened to her artless expressions.
She told him quite frankly what all this view meant to her,--how it
helped and soothed her worried spirit, brought comfort to her grieving
heart. Here were many square miles of God's Footstool under her gaze;
and there were many, many thousands of other spots like this between
her and the Mexican mountains in which her father was held a prisoner.
And God had the same care over one bit of landscape as he did over
another!
"Then," she said, softly, in conclusion, "then I just seem to grasp the
idea of God's _bigness_--and how much He has to do. I won't complain.
I'll wait. And meanwhile I'll do, if I can, what Daddy told me to."
"What is that, Janice?" asked the minister, still gazing out over the
vast outlook himself.
"I must _do something_,--keep to work, you know. Try and make things
better. You know: 'Each in his small corner.' And there's so much to
be done in Poketown!"
"So much--in Poketown?" ejaculated the minister, suddenly brought out
of his reverie.
"Yes, sir."
"But I thought Poketown was a particularly satisfactory place. There
really is very little to do here. We have a very clean political
government, remarkably so. Of course, that fact would not so much
interest you, Janice. But the life of the church is very
spiritual--very. We have no saloons; we seldom have an arrest----"
"Oh, I never thought of those things," admitted Janice. "There isn't
really anything for young people to do in the Poketown Church, I know.
But outside----"
"And what c
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