the sea, and the child was much hurt, for it has never walked,
nor yet spoken a word, and there are those who say it never will."

"And what said my cousin Nanna?"

"She held her peace both to men and women; but what she said to God
on the matter he knows. It is none of thy business. She has grown
stronger and quieter with every sorrow; and it is out of a mother's
strength, I tell thee, and not her weakness, that good can come."

Then David rose to his feet and began to walk furiously about the
small room. His face was white as death, and he spoke with a still
intensity, dropping each word as if it were a separate oath.

"I wish that Sinclair were here--in this room! I would lay his neck
across my knee, and break it like a dog's. I would that!"

"It would be a joy to see thee do it. I would say, 'Well done, David
Borson!'"

"I am glad that God has made Tophet for such men!" cried David,
passionately. "Often I have trembled at the dreadful justice of
the Holy One; I see now how good it is. To be sure, when God puts
his hook into the nose of the wicked, and he is made to go a way
he does not want to go, then he has to cease from troubling. But I
wish not that he may cease from being troubled. No, indeed; I wish
that he may have weeping and wailing! I will stay here. Some day
Sinclair will come back; then he shall pay all he owes."

Suddenly David remembered his father's sad confession, and he was
silent. The drowning of Bele Trenby and all that followed it flashed
like a fiery thought through his heart, and he went into his room,
and shut the door, and flung himself face downward upon the floor.
Would God count his anger as very murder? Would he enter into
judgment with him for it? Oh, how should a sinful man order all his
way and words aright! And in a little while Barbara heard him
weeping, and she said to herself:

[Illustration: NANNA AND VALA]

"He is a good man. God loves those who remember him when they are
alone and weep. The minister said that."

This day had indeed been to David a kind of second birth. He had
entered into a new life and taken possession of himself. He knew
that he was a different being from the youth who had sailed for weeks
alone with God upon the great waters; but still he was a riddle to
himself, and it was this feeling of utter confusion and weakness and
ignorance that had sent him, weeping and speechless, to the very
feet of the divine Father.

But if the mind is left quite pa