ave declaration of our sense of a literary flaw in
the matchless psalm, "it seems to us to lose the sweet, simple
melody and to close with strange, heavy chords when it changes to a
scene of banquet hospitality. Do you mean that it actually keeps
the shepherd figure to the end?"

"Certainly, good friends."

With keen personal interest I asked him to tell us how we might see
it as a shepherd psalm throughout. So we listened and he talked,
over the cooling teacups.

"It is all, all a simple shepherd psalm," he began. "See how it
runs through the round of shepherd life from first word to last."

"With softly modulated voice that had the rhythm of music and the
hush of veneration in it, he quoted: "'_The Lord is my shepherd; I
shall not want_.'"

"There is the opening strain of its music; in that chord is sounded
the keynote which is never lost till the plaintive melody dies away
at the song's end. All that follows is that thought put in varying
light."

I wish it were possible to reproduce here the light in his face and
the interchange of tones in his mellow voice as he went on. He
talked of how the varied needs of the sheep and the many-sided care
of the shepherd are pictured with masterly touch in the short
sentences of the psalm.

"Each is distinct and adds something too precious to be merged and
lost," he said.

"'_He maketh me to lie down in green pastures_,'--nourishment,
rest. '_He leadeth me beside the still waters_,'--the scene
changes and so does the meaning. You think here of quietly flowing
streams; so you get one more picture of rest; but you miss one of
the finest scenes in shepherd life and one of the rarest blessings
of the soul that is led of God. All through the day's roaming the
shepherd keeps one thing in mind. He must lead his flock to a
drinking-place. The refreshment of good water makes the coveted
hour of all the day; the spot where it is found amid the rough,
waterless hills and plains is the crowning token of the shepherd's
unfailing thoughtfulness. When at last the sheep are led 'beside
the still waters,' how good it is, after the dust and heat of the
sheep-walks!

"Would you get the shepherd meaning here? Then remember that
streams are few in the shepherd country of Bible lands. The
shepherds do not rely on them. Even where streams are found, their
beds and banks are usually broken and their flow rough. Sheep are
timid and fear a current of water, as they well may fo