liverance?' I made no answer, and
the woman, after a pause, said, 'Excuse me, young man, but do you know
anything of God?' 'Very little,' I replied, 'but I should say He must be
a wondrous strong person, if He made all those big bright things up above
there, to say nothing of the ground on which we stand, which bears beings
like these oaks, each of which is fifty times as strong as myself, and
will live twenty times as long.' The woman was silent for some moments,
and then said, 'I scarcely know in what spirit thy words are uttered. If
thou art serious, however, I would caution thee against supposing that
the power of God is more manifested in these trees, or even in those
bright stars above us, than in thyself--they are things of time, but thou
art a being destined to an eternity; it depends upon thyself whether thy
eternity shall be one of joy or sorrow.'

Here she was interrupted by the man, who exclaimed from the other side of
the tree, 'Winifred, it is getting late, you had better go up to the
house on the hill to inform our friends of our arrival, or they will have
retired for the night.' 'True,' said Winifred, and forthwith wended her
way to the house in question, returning shortly with another woman, whom
the man, speaking in the same language which I had heard him first use,
greeted by the name of Mary; the woman replied in the same tongue, but
almost immediately said, in English, 'We hoped to have heard you speak
to-night, Peter, but we cannot expect that now, seeing that it is so
late, owing to your having been detained by the way, as Winifred tells
me; nothing remains for you to do now but to sup--to-morrow, with God's
will, we shall hear you.' 'And to-night, also, with God's will, provided
you be so disposed. Let those of your family come hither.' 'They will
be hither presently,' said Mary, 'for knowing that thou art arrived, they
will, of course, come and bid thee welcome.' And scarcely had she spoke,
when I beheld a party of people descending the moonlit side of the hill.
They soon arrived at the place where we were; they might amount in all to
twelve individuals. The principal person was a tall, athletic man, of
about forty, dressed like a plain country farmer; this was, I soon found,
the husband of Mary; the rest of the group consisted of the children of
these two, and their domestic servants. One after another they all shook
Peter by the hand, men and women, boys and girls, and expressed their