I wouldn't let
you see me, for fear you should see also that your words had gone in
deeper than I cared to show. I was the ganger of the woodmen,' he
continued, taking Stephen's arm in his and compelling the little
Quaker to walk beside him as he talked. 'It all happened in this way.
We had moved forth into the forest, and were putting up more shanties
to live in, when I discovered that I had left my lever at the old
settlement. So, after setting my men to work, I came back alone for my
instrument. As I approached the old place, I heard a voice. Trembling
and agitated, I drew near, I saw you through the chinks of the timber
walls of our dining-shanty, I listened to you; and as I listened, your
words went through a chink in my heart too, though its walls were
thicker than those of any dining-shanty. I was determined you should
not see me. I crept away and went back to my men. The arrow stuck
fast. I was miserable for many weeks. I had no Bible, no book of any
kind, not a creature to ask about better things.'

'Poor sheep! Poor lost sheep!' Stephen murmured gently; 'I knew it; I
knew it! The Good Shepherd knew it too!'

'We were a rough lot in those days,' continued the other, 'worse than
rough, bad; worse than bad, wicked. There wasn't much about sin that
we didn't know among us, didn't enjoy too, after a fashion. That was
why your sermon made me so miserable. Seemed to know just all about
the lot of us, you did. After it, for weeks I went on getting more and
more wretched. There seemed nothing to do, me not being able to find
you, but to try and get hold of the book that had put you up to it.
None of us had such a thing, of course. It was a long time before I
could lay hands on one. Me and a Bible! How the men laughed! But they
stopped laughing before I had done with them. I read and read till I
found what you had said about the Good Shepherd and the lost
sheep--'and God so loved the world,' and at last--eternal life. And
then I wasn't going to keep that to myself. It's share and share alike
out in the backwoods, I can tell you. I told my men all about it, just
like you. I never let 'em alone, I gave them no peace till they were
one and all brought home to God--every single one! I heard you asking
Him: "Every single soul for Thy service, every single soul for Thee, O
Lord." That was what you asked Him for,--that, and more than that, He
gave. It's always the way! When the Lord begins to answer, He does
answer! Every s