with a strange
surprise, that it was thought that he was a very holy man, much
visited by God, who not only had been shown how, by a kind of magical
secret, to save ships from falling on that deadly coast, but as one
whose prayers availed to guard and keep the whole place safe. He tried
to show her that this was not so, and that he was a simple person in
great need of holiness; but he saw that she only thought him the
holier for his humility, so he was ashamed to say more.

Then he went to the chief man in the village, and told him wherefore
he had come--that there was a wreck on the shore of the islands, and
that there were bodies that must be buried. One more visit he paid,
and that was to the little maiden whom he had seen the last when he
went away. She was now nearly grown to a woman, and her grandmother
was very old and weak, and near her end. David went there alone, and
said that he had returned as he had promised; but he found that the
child had much lost her remembrance of him, and could hardly see the
friend she had known in the strong and wild-looking figure that he had
become. He talked a little quietly; the old grandmother, who could not
move from her chair, was easier with him, and asked him, looking
curiously upon him, whether he had found that of which he went in
search. "Nay, mother," he said, "not found; but I am like a man whose
feet are set in the way, and who sees the city gate across the
fields." Then she smiled at him and said, "But I am near the gate."
Then he told her that he often thought of her, and made mention of her
in his prayers; and so rose to go; but she asked him to bless her,
which David did very tenderly, and kissed her and departed; but he
went heavily; because he feared to be regarded as he was now regarded;
and he thought in his heart that he would never return again, but
dwell alone in his cave with God. For the world troubled him; and the
voices of the children, and the looks of those that he had known
before seemed to lay soft hands about his heart, and draw him back
into the world.

The same day he returned to the cave; and the boats came out and took
the bodies away, and they were laid in the burying-ground.

Then the next day many returned to clear away the wreck; and David
came not out of his cave while they did this; for it went to his heart
to see the joy with which they gathered what had meant the death of so
many men. They asked him what they should leave for him, a