ting with sorrow
when I see how few there are of us who are left. But yet can we pray
together; and the whisper of affliction shall as surely reach the ear of
God as the loud, glad song of praise. But first hear ye these words:--

'"The Voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? And the Voice
answered. All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the
flower of the field: the grass withereth, the flower fadeth; because the
spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it: Surely the people is grass."'

Wallis sat up and listened; for as the preacher ceased he heard the
sound of many sobs; and presently a woman, old, gaunt and feeble,
staggered out from the church and flung herself face downwards upon the
burning sand.

'_A mate, a mate tatou_,' she moaned, 'e agi mai le manava Ieova.' ('We
perish, we perish with the breath of Jehovah.')

She lay there unheeded; for now the preacher, with broken voice, was
passionately imploring his congregation to cast themselves upon the
mercy of God, and beseech Him to stay the deadly pestilence which had so
sorely smitten the land.

'And spare Thou, O God Most High, Most Merciful, and Most Just, these
many little children who yet live, for they are but very small, and have
not yet sinned before Thee. Three of mine own hast thou touched with
Thy hand, and taken to Thee, and my belly and the belly of my wife are
empty, and yearn in the night for the voices we shall hear no more. And
for those three whom Thou hast taken, spare Thou three of those who yet
live. And shield, O God, with Thy care, the _papalagi_{*} Ranisome and
his child, the girl Ati' (Addie), 'for she loveth Thy word; and turn
Thou the heart of her father from the drinking of grog, so that he
shall be no more as a hog that is _loia_.'{**} 'And shield, too,
the _papalagi_ Walesi and the woman Lita--she who liveth with him in
sin--for their hearts are ever good and their hands ever open to us of
Nukutavau; and send, O most merciful and compassionate One, a ship, so
that the two white men and the woman Lita, and the girl Ati, and we,
Thy people, may not die of hunger and thirst and sickness, but live to
praise Thy holy name.'

* Foreigner.

** A man or an animal is _loia_ when he or it has eaten or
drunk to such repletion as to lie down and be overrun with
ants--an expressive Samoan synonym for excess.

A burst of weeping, and _Amene! Amene!_ came from his hearers, then
silence; and Wallis, ta