r-choked throats, like the distant
murmuring of the sea. Hopkins sat down, saying no more.

Minister Graves had sunk into his chair, and on the girl's last words
the congregation drew a long, gasping breath. The eyes of the babe gazed
steadily on into the shadows of eternal silence; the water seemingly
unfelt upon its head. The small boy was slipping away to that place of
mystery where his father, Myra and Ben Letts had gone. The long days of
suffering with the child in the hut rushed over Tess. She dropped on her
knees, facing the pulpit, and hugged him to her breast, and whispered,

"Suffer little children to come unto me--"

Then another voice, shrill, sobbing and terrible, hushed her prayer. The
squatter instinctively shifted her position toward the Dominie's pew.
Teola Graves was standing up, tall and pale, and was looking directly at
the minister.

"Father," she cried, "Father, if you don't take the baby and baptize him
in the name of the Saviour, you will consign to everlasting darkness--"
She lost her breath, caught it again, and finished, "your own flesh and
blood. God! dear God, take us both to Dan!... Tessibel, Tessibel, give
me my baby!"

She wrenched herself loose from Frederick's detaining fingers, and was
in the aisle before her brother realized what had happened.

"He's my baby," she cried, between the spasmodic pressures upon her
chest. "Tess! Tess, is he dead?"

"Yep, he air dead," fell from Tessibel; for she had seen the large,
glazed eyes draw in at the corners and the little face blanch. The tiny
spirit fled as the frantic girl-mother clasped her babe to her breast.

"But he air gone to his pappy," consoled the squatter.

For one awful moment, Dominie Graves looked into the accusing eyes of
his congregation. Bill Hopkins was seated, with his face in his hands,
but Augusta Hall, with her new baby folded tightly in her arms, was
looking at him in dark-eyed disdain.

Graves swayed dizzily, ... caught at the pulpit table for support.

"Jesus," he appealed dizzily, "Christ Jesus."

Frederick pressed his way to his sister's side. The squatter threw up
her head before him: for the first time since that last dreadful night,
she looked directly into his eyes, her dishonor slipping from her like a
loosened garment. Frederick's soul shone forth in the glance he sent
her. God in His own time had given her back the student.

Tessibel turned, and passed up through the mute gathering. Bill Hopkins
p