und than she? How long she had known this story! How long
she had known and believed of a certainty that Jesus Christ lived and
died that she might have salvation, and yet she had never in her life
thanked him for it! Nay, she had spurned and scorned his gift! So much
worse than though she had not believed it at all! For then at least she
could not have been said to have met him with the insult of
indifference.

Then the chorus swelled out on the still air. Only those who heard it
under the trees at Chautauqua have the least idea how it sounded; only
those who hear it, as Ruth Erskine did, can have the least idea how it
sounded to her.

"I've been redeemed, I've been redeemed!"

Over and over the strain repeated. Now in clear soprano tones, and anon
rolled out from the grand bass voices. And then the swelling unison:

"I've been redeemed--
Been washed in the blood of the Lamb."

The girls had stopped, and almost held their breaths to listen. They
stood in silence while verse after verse with its triumphant swell of
chorus rolled out to them. The great tears gathered slowly in Ruth's
eyes, until, as the last echo died away, she turned to Flossy, and her
voice was clear and triumphant:

"I believe I _have_. Flossy, I believe I have. It is a glorious
thought, and a wonderful one. It almost frightens me. And yet it thrills
me with perfect delight. The fountain is deep enough for us all--for
them and for me. I have 'been redeemed,' and if God will help me I will
never forget it again."

CHAPTER XXIV.

SWORD THRUSTS.

By the next morning it became clear to our girls that a change of
programme was a necessity. Ruth had by no means recovered from her shock
and the sleepless night that followed, and some of the comforts of
invalidism must be found for her. At the same time she utterly
repudiated the idea of Saratoga, which was now urged upon her; it had
lost its charms; neither would she go home.

"I have decided to stay until the _very_ last meeting," she said, with
quiet determination.

Flossy laughed softly; she knew what charms Chautauqua had taken on,
but the others supposed it to be a whim, resulting from the ridicule she
had suffered because of the Saratoga scheme.

After many plans were discussed it was finally decided that Flossy and
Ruth should seek quarters at the hotel in Mayville, Ruth coming over to
the meetings only when her strength and her fancy dictated, and having
some of