answered the words; and the
youth spoke to the doctor, and both of them went to work with a
will. The effort, even then so desperate, was ere long complicated
by fever and delirium, and when David came to himself it was almost
like a new birth. He was weaker than an infant--too weak, indeed,
to wonder or speculate, or even remember.

He only knew that he was in a large room and that two men were with
him. One was at his bedside, quiet and drowsy; the other was reading
in a Bible, sitting close by the shaded candle. David knew it was a
Bible. Who does not know a Bible, even afar off? No matter how it
may be bound, the book has a homely and familiar look that no other
book has. David shut his eyes again after seeing it; he felt as safe
and happy as if a dear friend had spoken to him. And in a few days
the man with the Bible began to come near him, and to read softly
the most tender and gracious words he could find in that tenderest of
all books.

This was the beginning of an interval of delicious rest to David.
It was as if some strong angel swung and hushed and wrapped him in
a drowsy, blissful torpor. He felt no pain, not even in his tortured
feet, and his hands lay at rest upon the white coverlet, healed
of all their smarting and aching. For once in his hard life they
were not tired or sore. He knew that he was fed and turned, that
his pillows were made soft and cool, and that there was the vague
sense of kind presence about him; that sometimes he heard, like
a heavenly echo, words of comfort that he seemed to have heard long
ago; that he slept and wakened, and slept again, with a conscious
pleasure in the transitions.

And he asked no questions. He was content to let life lie in blissful
quiescence, to be still, and keep his eyes closed to the world, and
his ears deaf to its cries. Gradually these sensations increased
in strength. One day he heard his nurse say that it would be well
to remove him into an entirely fresh room. And he knew that he
was lifted in strong arms, and anon breathed a clearer atmosphere,
and slept a life-giving sleep. When he awoke he had new strength.
He voluntarily opened his eyes, and saw a tree waving branches
covered with fresh, crinkly leaves before his window. It was like a
glimpse of heaven. And that afternoon his preserver came to his side
and said:

"Thee is much better. Can thee listen to me now?"

Then David looked at the young man and smiled; and their eyes met,
and their ha