"

"I don't know much of the world," said Faith,--"but I suppose the
_shining_ good deeds aren't so very many."

"What makes a good deed _shining?_" said the doctor.

Faith glanced at Mr. Linden. But he did not take it up, and she was
thrown back upon her own resources. She thought a bit.

"I suppose,"--she said,--"its coming from the very spirit of light."

"You must explain," said the doctor good-humouredly but smiling,--"for
that puts me in absolute darkness."

"I don't know very well how to tell what I mean," said Faith colouring
and looking thoughtful;--"I think I know. Things that are done for the
pure love of God and truth, I think, shine; if they are ever so little
things, because really there is a great light in them. I think they
shine more than some of the greater things that people call very
brilliant, but that are done from a lower motive."

"I should like"--said the doctor--"Can you remember an instance or two?
of both kinds?"

Well Faith remembered an instance or two of _one_ kind, which she could
not instance. She sought in her memory.

"When Daniel kneeled upon his knees three times a day to pray, with his
windows open, after the king's law had for bidden any one to do it on
pain of death,--" said Faith.--"I think that was a shining good deed!"

"But that was a very notable instance," said the doctor.

"It was a very little thing he did," said Faith. "Only kneeled down to
pray in his own room. And it has shined all the way down to us."

"And in later times," said Mr. Linden,--"when the exploring shallop of
the Mayflower sought a place of settlement, and after beating about in
winter storms came to anchor Friday night at Plymouth Rock;--all
Saturday was lost in refitting and preparing, and yet on Sunday they
would not land. Those two dozen men, with no human eye to see, with
every possible need for haste!"

"That hasn't shined quite so far," said the doctor, "for it never
reached me. And it don't enlighten me now! I should have landed."

"Do you know nothing of the _spirit_ of Say and Seal, as well as the
province?" said Mr. Linden.

"As how, against landing?"

"They rested that day '_according to the commandment_.' Having promised
to obey God in all things, the seal of their obedience was unbroken."

"Well, Miss Faith," said the doctor--"Now for a counter example."

"I know so little of what has been done," said Faith. "Don't you
remember some such things yourself, Dr. Harrison?--Mr