fast
marriage ceremony, signed and counter-signed by a missionary
brother who meant business.

You say it is a sordid tale? Mate, I know a certain spot in this
Land of Blossoms, where only foreigners are laid to rest, which
bears testimony to a hundred of its kind--strange and pitiful
destinies begun with high and brilliant hopes in their native land;
and when illusions have faded, the end has borne the stamp of
tragedy, because suicide proved the open door out of a life of
failure and exile.

Sada's father was saved suicide and long unhappiness by a timely
tidal-wave, which swept the village nearly bare, and carried the
man and his wife out to sea and to eternity.

The child was found by Susan West who came from a neighboring town
to care for the sick and hungry. Susan was a teacher-missionary.
Not much to look at, if her picture told the truth, but from bits
of her history that I 've picked up her life was a brighter jewel
than most of us will ever find in a heavenly crown. Instead of
holding the unbeliever by the nape of the neck and thrusting a
not-understood doctrine down his unwilling throat, she lived the
simple creed of loving her neighbor better than herself. And the
old pair of goggles she wore made little halos around the least
speck of good she found in any transgressor, no matter how warped
with evil.

When she was n't helping some helpless sinner to see the rainbow of
promise at the end of the straight and narrow way, Susan spent her
time and all her salary, giving sick babies a fighting chance for
life. She took the half-drowned little Sada home with her, and
searched for any kinsman left the child. There was only one, her
mother's brother. He was very poor and gladly gave his consent
that Miss West should keep the child--as long as it was a girl!
Susan had taught the man English once in the long ago and this was
his chance to repay her.

Later on when the teacher found her health failing and headed for
home in America, Uncle Mura was still more generous and raised no
objections to her taking the baby with her.

Together they lived in a small Western town. The missionary reared
the child by rule of love only and went on short rations to educate
her. Sada's eager mind absorbed everything offered her like a
young sponge, and when a few months ago Susanna folded her hands
and joined her foremothers, there was let loose on the world this
exquisite girl with her solitary legacy of untried i