leless wonder, and the woman beside whom she stood laid a
light, protecting hand upon her shoulder.

That little child! How the sight of her held us in pity as the barge
sailed slowly round. She was so near to us at times that we could almost
have touched her when the barge came near the wall; and yet she was
utterly remote, miles of space might have lain between; it was as if we
and she belonged to different planets. And yet our little ones who might
have been as she, were so close--we could almost feel their loving
little arms round our necks at that moment--this child, how far away she
was! Had one of us set foot on the place where she stood, the friendly
thousands about us would have changed in a second into indignant furies,
and so long as the memory of such impiety remained no white face would
have been welcome at the Floating Festival.

We stood by the wall awhile and watched; the sorrow of it all sank into
us. There in the holiest place of all, according to their thinking,
close to the emblems of deity, they had set this grievous perversion of
the holy and the pure. Right on the topmost pinnacle of everything known
as religious there they had enthroned it, and robed it in starlight and
crowned it as queens are crowned. "Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of
holiness!" "One thing have I desired of the Lord . . . to behold the fair
beauty of the Lord"--such words open chasms of contrast. God pity them;
like those of old, they know not what they do.

We came away, our books all sold and our strength of voice spent out,
for everywhere people had listened; and as we came home, strong
thanksgiving filled our hearts, thanks and praise unspeakable for the
little lives safe in our nursery, for the two especially who but for
God's interposition might have been on that barge--and oh, from the
ground of our heart we were grateful that He had not let us miss His
will concerning these little children. We thought of those special two
with their dear little innocent ways. We could not think of them on the
barge. We could not bear to think of it--again and again we thanked God,
with humble adoring thanksgiving, that He kept us from missing our
chance.

But the mere thinking of that intolerable thought brought us back upon
another thought. What of that girl by the fireside? What if she misses
her chance? We know, for letters confess it, that many a life has missed
its chance. What of the woman, strong and keen, with pent-up en