not dying more slowly than I could kill him?"

"You must have faith in God," said Zadok earnestly and gravely.

"He is too far away."

"Then you must have love for your neighbour."

"He is too near. My confidence in man was like a pool by the wayside.
It was shallow, but there was water in it, and sometimes a star shone
there. Now the feet of many beasts have trampled through it, and the
jackals have drunken of it, and there is no more water. It is dry and
the mire is caked at the bottom."

"Is there nothing good in the world?"

"There is pleasure, but I am sick of it. There is power, but I hate
it. There is wisdom, but I mistrust it. Life is a game and every
player is for his own hand. Mine is played. I have nothing to win or
lose."

"You are young, you have many years to live."

"I am old, yet the days before me are too many."

"But you travel the road, you go forward. Do you hope for nothing?"

"I hope for nothing," said the sad shepherd. "Yet if one thing should
come to me it might be the beginning of hope. If I saw in man or woman
a deed of kindness without a selfish reason, and a proof of love
gladly given for its own sake only, then might I turn my face toward
that light. Till that comes, how can I have faith in God whom I have
never seen? I have seen the world which he has made, and it brings me
no faith. There is nothing in it."

"Ammiel-ben-Jochanan," said the old man sternly, "you are a son of
Israel, and we have had compassion on you, according to the law. But
you are an apostate, an unbeliever, and we can have no more fellowship
with you, lest a curse come upon us. The company of the desperate
brings misfortune. Go your way and depart from us, for our way is not
yours."

So the sad shepherd thanked them for their entertainment, and took the
little kid again in his arms, and went into the night, calling his
flock. But the youngest shepherd Nathan followed him a few steps and
said:

"There is a broken fold at the foot of the hill. It is old and small,
but you may find a shelter there for your flock where the wind will
not shake you. Go your way with God, brother, and see better days."

Then Ammiel went a little way down the hill and sheltered his flock in
a corner of the crumbling walls. He lay among the sheep and the goats
with his face upon his folded arms, and whether the time passed slowly
or swiftly he did not know, for he slept.

He waked as Nathan came running and stumbling among th