d sadly.

"Did thee never notice," said the lumberman gently, "how nature loves to
reclaim a ruin?"

"In what way?"

"By covering it with vines and moss."

The unexpected nature of this answer and the implied encouragement
produced a deep impression on the mind of the gambler, but he answered:

"I shall never be reclaimed. I have gone too far. I have often tried to
find the true way of life, and prayed for a single glimpse of light!
Have you ever heard how Zeyd used to spend hours leaning against the
wall of the Kaaba and praying, 'Lord, if I knew in what manner thou
wouldst have me adore thee, I would obey thee; but I do not! Oh! give me
light!' I have prayed that prayer with all that agony, but, to me, the
universe is dark as hell!"

"There is light enough! It is eyes we need!" said the evangelist.

"Light! Who has it? Many think they have, but it is mere fancy. They
mistake the shining of rotten wood for fire!"

"And sometimes men have walked in the light without seeing it, as fish
swimming in the sea and birds flying in the air, might say, 'Where is
the sea?' 'Where is the air?'"

"But what comfort is it, if there is light, and I cannot see it? There
might as well be no light at all!"

"The bird never knows it has wings until it tries them! We see, not by
looking for our eyes, but by looking out of them. We say of a little
child that it has to 'find its legs.' Some men have to find their eyes."

"It is an art, then, to see?"

"I would even call it a trick, if I dared."

"Can you impart that capacity and teach that art?"

"No, it must be acquired by each man for himself. We can only tell
others 'we see.'"

"I only know that I wish I could see!"

"We see by faith."

"And what is faith?"

"It is a power of the soul as much higher than reason as reason is
higher than sense."

"Some men may possess such power, but I do not."

"You at least have an imagination."

"Yes."

"Well, faith is but the imagination spiritualized."

Mantel regarded the man who spoke in these terse and pregnant sentences
with astonishment. "This," said he, "is not the same language in which
you addressed the people in the Battery. This is the language of a
philosopher! Do all lumbermen in the west speak thus?"

The evangelist began to reply, but was interrupted by David, who now
burst out in a sudden exclamation of joy and gratitude. He had been too
busy with reflections and memories to participate actively in the
co