honestly. The half-mystical
spirit of his Uncle Benn had flowed on to another generation through
the filter of a woman's sad soul. It had come to David a pure force, a
constructive and practical idealism.

Now, as Faith read, there were ringing in the old man's ears the words
which David's mother had said before she closed her eyes and passed
away: "Set him in the garden in the sun, where God may find him--God
will not pass him by." They seemed to weave themselves into the
symbolism of Benn Claridge's letter, written from the hills of Bagdad.

"But," the letter continued, "the Governor passed by with his suite, the
buckles of the harness of his horses all silver, his carriage shining
with inlay of gold, his turban full of precious stones. When he had
passed, I said to a shepherd standing by, 'If thou hadst all his wealth,
shepherd, what wouldst thou do?' and he answered, 'If I had his wealth,
I would sit on the south side of my house in the sun all day and every
day.' To a messenger of the Palace, who must ever be ready night and day
to run at his master's order, I asked the same. He replied, 'If I had
all the Effendina's wealth, I would sleep till I died.' To a blind
beggar, shaking the copper in his cup in the highways, pleading dumbly
to those who passed, I made similar inquisition, and he replied 'If the
wealth of the exalted one were mine, I would sit on the mastaba by the
bake-house, and eat three times a day, save at Ramadan, when I would
bless Allah the compassionate and merciful, and breakfast at sunset with
the flesh of a kid and a dish of dates.' To a woman at the door of a
tomb hung with relics of hundreds of poor souls in misery, who besought
the buried saint to intercede for her with Allah, I made the same
catechism, and she answered, 'Oh, effendi, if his wealth were mine, I
would give my son what he has lost.' 'What has he lost, woman?' said
I; and she answered: 'A little house with a garden, and a flock of
ten goats, a cow and a dovecote, his inheritance of which he has been
despoiled by one who carried a false debt 'gainst his dead father.' And
I said to her: 'But if thy wealth were as that of the ruler of the city,
thy son would have no need of the little house and garden and the flock
of goats, and a cow and a dovecote.' Whereupon she turned upon me in
bitterness, and said: 'Were they not his own as the seed of his father?
Shall not one cherish that which is his own, which cometh from seed
to seed?