ll, the boldest and most hopeful became
uneasy, and the Master of the Harvest despaired.

But his wife had risen no more from her bed, where she lay in sickness
and suffering, yet in patient trust, watching the sky through the
window that faced her pillow, looking for the relief that came at
last. For even at the eleventh hour, when hope seemed almost over, and
men had half learned to submit to their expected trial, the dark days
began to be varied by a few hours of sunshine; and though these passed
away, and the gloom and rain returned again, yet they also passed away
in their turn, and the sun shone out once more.

And the poor sick wife, as she watched, said to those around her that
the weather was gradually changing, and that all would come right at
last; and sighing a prayer that it might be so with herself also, she
had her Bible brought to the bed, and wrote in the flyleaf the text,
"Some thirty, some sixty, some an hundredfold"; and after the text the
date of the day, for on that day the sun had been shining steadily for
many hours. And after the date the words, "Unto whom much is given,
of him shall much be required; yet if Thou, Lord, be extreme to mark
iniquity, O Lord, who may stand?"

And day by day, the hours of sunshine were more in number, and the
hours of rain and darkness fewer, and by degrees the green corn ears
ripened into yellow, and the yellow turned into gold, and the harvest
was ready, and the labourers not wanting. And the bursting corn broke
out into songs of rejoicing, and cried, "At least we have not waited
and watched in vain! Surely goodness and mercy have followed us all
the days of our life, and we are crowned with glory and honour. Where
is the Master of the Harvest, that he may claim his own with joy?"

But the Master of the Harvest was bending over the bed of his dying
wife.

And she whispered that her Bible should be brought, and he brought it,
and she said, "Open it at the flyleaf at the end, and write, 'It is
sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in
dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised
in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body!'"
And she bade him add the date of the day, and after the date of the
day, the words, "O Lord, in Thy mercy say of me--She hath done what
she could!" And then she laid her hand in his, and so fell asleep in
hope.

And the harvest of the earth was gathered into barns, and