was
intended primarily for him, he did not show any resentment. He listened
attentively, then added:

"Yes; water has always held an important place among nations. Cicero
tells us that Thales the Milesian asserted God formed all things from
water--Out in Utah, Chester," said the father, turning abruptly to the
young man, "you have an illustration of what water can do in the way of
making the desert to blossom."

"Yes; it is truly wonderful, what it has done out there," agreed
Chester. Then being urged by both his father and Lucy, he told of the
West and its development. He was adroitly led to talk of Piney Ridge
Cottage and the people who lived there, their home and community life,
their trials, their hopes, their ideals. Ere he was aware, Chester was
again in the canyons, and crags and mountain peaks, whose wildness was
akin to the wildness of the ocean. Then when his story was told, Lucy
said:

"I know where I could get well."

"Where?" asked Chester.

"At Piney Ridge Cottage."

Chester neither agreed nor denied. Just then a steamer came into sight,
eastward bound. It proved to be an "ocean grayhound," and Captain Brown
coming up, let them look at it through his glass.

"She's going some," remarked the captain; "but I'll warrant the
passengers are not riding as easy as we."

"Somehow," said the father, "a passing steamer always brings to me
profound thoughts. Now, there, for example, is a spot on the vast
expanse of water. It is but a speck, yet within it is a little world,
teeming with life. The ship comes into our view, then passes away.
Again, the ship is just a part of a great machine--I use this figure for
want of a better one. Every individual on the ship bears a certain
relationship to the vessel; the steamer is a part of this world; this
world is a cog in the machinery of the solar system; the solar system is
but a small group of worlds, which is a part of and depends on,
something as much vaster as the world is to this ship. This men call the
Universe; but all questions of what or where or when pertaining to this
universe are unanswerable. We are lost--we know nothing about it--it is
beyond our finite minds."

Captain Brown stood listening to this exposition. His eyes were on the
speaker, then on the passing steamer, then on the speaker again.

"Mr. Strong," said he, "at the last church service I attended in
Liverpool, the minister was trying to explain what God is,--and just
that which you hav