it was not easy to deal with, and her questions and
objections were not always easily answered.

"I don't know; but I think the `living water' spoken about in the other
verses means all the blessings that Christ has promised to His people."

She paused.

"His people--always His people!" said Miss Gertrude to herself.

"God's Spirit is often spoken of under the figure of water," continued
Christie. "`I will pour water on him that is thirsty!' and in another
place Jesus Himself says, `If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and
drink.' Such an expression must have been very plain and appropriate to
the people of that warm country, where water was necessary and not
always easily got."

Christie had heard all this said; and she repeated it, not because it
answered Miss Gertrude's question, but because she did not know what
else to say. And all the time she was trying to get a glimpse of the
face which the young lady shaded with her hand. She wanted very much to
say something to do her good, especially now that they were about to
part. The feeling was strong in Christie's heart, at the moment, that
though Miss Gertrude might return again, their intercourse could never
be renewed--at least not on the same footing; and though it hurt her
much to know it, her own pain was quite lost in the earnest desire she
felt in some way or other to do Miss Gertrude good. So, after a pause,
she said, again--

"I suppose `to thirst' means to earnestly desire. `Blessed are they who
hunger and thirst after righteousness,' you remember. And David says,
`As the hart panteth after the water-brook, so panteth my soul after
Thee, O God!' And in another place, `My soul thirsteth for Thee.'"

Gertrude neither moved nor spoke, and Christie went on--

"And when it is said of them, `They shall never thirst,' I suppose it
means they shall be satisfied out of God's fulness. Having His best
gift, all the rest seems of little account. `Blessed is the man whom
Thou choosest, and causest to approach near unto Thee, that he may dwell
in Thy courts: he shall be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house, and
of Thy holy temple.' And in another place, `My soul shall be satisfied
as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful
lips.'" And then, as she was rather apt to do when deeply in earnest,
breaking into the old familiar Scottish version, she added--

"`They with the fatness of Thy house
Shall be well satisfied