_Surely this were a fit evangel only for sheep and
oxen_, _or for such human kine as covet the fat pastures rather than
the high places of existence_. _For whoso is ill-content to live long
and see good days_, _save he may also live much and see great days_,
_will not be so tamely gospelled_, _seeing that every past is mother
of a future_, _and that there is no history but is a prophecy as
well_.

In our late digression on the conditions and circumstances of our life at
Borth, we have somewhat anticipated the narrative of events. But it was
a plan agreeable to the facts of the case, that narrative should pass
into description at the point where the stream of our little history,
after descending the rapid of alarms and difficulties, abrupt resolves
and swift action, fell quietly again into the smooth channel of a new
routine. Not that the story of the succeeding months was really
uneventful. If our readers suppose that from this point onward we led a
prosperous untroubled existence, it will be due to the illusion, which,
in fiction, makes us cheerful over the woes of the struggling hero,
because we have glanced at the end of the book, and view the present
trouble in the light of the successful issue: what the end would be we
did not know, nor when it would come. And if, to resume our metaphor,
the current of the enterprise flowed for the most part smoothly, there
were rocks underneath which those who saw them could not forget, though
they seldom raised an eddy on the surface. Here, however, we must ask
the reader to believe us that it was so, without demanding explanations,
which at this date would be inconvenient. We will go on then to notice
the chief incidents of the term.

The wooden school-room, the slow completion of which had been watched
with some impatience, was ready for use on April 29th. On the next day,
being Sunday, we inaugurated it by reuniting under its shelter our
scattered congregations, hitherto distributed over the three largest
rooms at our disposal. It was not a noble building, being,
architecturally, a long shed of rough planks against the bowling-green
wall, which was whitewashed for the better lighting of the room. But it
was apt to the conditions of a colony, looking as it did like a log-house
in a backwoods-clearing. Internally it was well lighted and ventilated,
and just sufficient for our numbers. _Heureusement il n'y on a pas
beaucoup_. This was not the only