t to Luke, which
was the name of him who had been robbed. Then Luke fell in with the two
and went on with them.

"They came to a city filled with plague so that the dead were buried by
the dying and the dog howled over his master in the street; the son fled
from the father and the mother left her child. They found one man who
tended the sick out of charity and the labor was too great for even his
broad shoulders. He had a broad, ugly face, but in his eye was a clear
fire.

"'Brother, what is your name?' said John, and the man answered that he
was called Paul, and begged them for the sweet mercy of Christ to aid
him in his labors.

"But John said: 'Rise, Paul, and follow me.'

"And Paul said: 'How can I follow the living when the dying call to me?'

"But John said: 'Nevertheless, leave them, for these are carrion, but
your soul in which is life eternal is worth all these and far more.'

"Then Paul felt the power of John and followed him and took, also, his
gray horses which were unlike others, and of his servants those who
would follow him for love, and in wagons he put much wealth.

"So they all rode on as a mighty caravan until they came, at the side of
the road, to a youth lying in the meadow with his hands behind his head
whistling, and a bird hovering above him repeated the same note. They
spoke to him and he told them that he was an outcast because he would
not labor.

"'The world is too pleasant to work in,' he said, and whistled again,
and the bird above him made answer.

"Then John said: 'Here is a soul worth all of ours. Rise, brother, and
come with us.'

"So Matthew rose and followed him, and he was the third and last man to
join John, who was the beginning.

"Then they came to a valley set about with walls and with a pleasant
river running through it, and here they entered and called it the Garden
of Eden because in it men should be pure of heart once more. And they
built their houses with labor and lived in quiet and the horses
multiplied and the Garden blossomed under their hands."

Here Ruth marked her place with her finger while she wiped her eyes.

"Do you mean to say this babble is getting you?" growled Ben Connor.

"Please!" she whispered. "Don't you see that it's beautiful?"

And she returned to the book.

_CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE_

"Then John sickened and said: 'Bring me into the room of silence.' So
they brought him to the place where they sat each day to converse with
God