w lie still and sleep, dearest. You are tired also."

She lay quiet for a time, gazing, while the light remained, into the
face of the sleeping child, and listening, when the light failed, to her
gentle breathing. Then she babbled and crooned over her with a childish
joy. "Yes, yes, father is right, and mother must lie quiet--very quiet,
and so her little Naomi will sleep long--very long, and wake happy and
well in the morning. How bonny she will look! How fresh and rosy!"

She paused a moment. Her laboured breathing came quick and fast. "But
shall I be here to see her? shall I?"

She paused again, and then, as though to banish thought, she began to
sing in a low voice that was like a moan. Presently her singing ceased,
and she spoke again, but this time in broken whispers.

"How soft and glossy her hair is! I wonder if Fatimah will remember to
wash it every day. She should twist it around her fingers to keep it in
pretty curls. . . . Oh, why did God make my child so beautiful?. . . .
Dear me, her morning frock wanted stitching at the sleeves, it's a
chance if Habeebah has seen to it. Then there's her underclothing. . . .
Will she be deaf and blind and dumb always? I wonder if I shall see her
when I. . . . They say that angels are sent. . . . Yes, yes, that's it,
when I am there--there--I will go to God and say, 'O Lord! my little
girl whom I have left behind, she is. . . . You would never think, O
Lord, how many things may happen to one like her. Let me go--only let me
watch over her--O Lord, let me be her guar--'"

Her weakness had conquered her, and she was quiet at last. Israel sat in
silence by the post of the bed. His heart was surging itself out of his
choking breast. The black woman stood somewhere by the wall. After a
time Ruth seemed to awake as from sleep. She was in great excitement.

"Israel, Israel!" she cried in a voice of joy, "I have seen a vision. It
was Naomi. She was no longer deaf and blind and dumb. She was grown to
be a woman, but I knew her instantly. Not a woman either, but a young
maiden, and so beautiful, so beautiful! Yes, and she could see and hear
and speak."

Israel thought Ruth had become delirious, and he tried to soothe her,
but her agitation was not to be overcome. "The Lord hath seen our
tears at last," she cried. "He has put our sin beneath His feet. We are
forgiven. It will be well with the child yet."

Israel did not try to gainsay her, and at sight and sound of her joy,
se