nd he
answered, "Nothing--only a piece of plain wood, for a purpose." So
when evening came they had removed all; and the island, that had rung
all day with shouts and talk and the feet of men, was silent again;
but before they went, David said that he had a great desire to see a
priest, if a message could be sent; and this they undertook to do. But
David was very heavy-hearted for many days, for it seemed to him that
the sight of the world had put all the peace out of his heart; and his
prayers came hollow and dry.

A few days after there came a boat to the rock; the sea was running
somewhat high, and they had much ado to make a landing. David went
down to the water's edge, and saw that besides the fishermen, whom he
knew, there was a little wizened man in a priest's dress, that seemed
bewildered by the moving of the boat and the tossing of the big waves
with their heaving crests, that broke upon the rocks with a heavy
sound. At last they got the boat into the creek, and the little priest
came nimbly ashore, but not without a wetting. The fishermen said that
they would return in the evening, and fetch the priest away.

He looked a frail man, and David could not discern whether he were
young or old; and he felt a pity for a man who was so unhandy, and who
seemed to be so scared of the sea. But the priest came up to him and
took his hand. "I have heard much of you, my brother," he said, "and I
have desired to see you--but this sea of yours is a strange and wild
monster, and I trust it not,--though indeed it is God's handiwork. Yet
King David, your patron, was of the same mind, I think, and wrote in
one of his wise psalms how it made the heart to melt within him."
David looked at him with much attention as he spoke, and there was
something in the priest's eye, a kind of hidden fire, joined with a
wise mirth, that made him, all of a sudden, feel like a child before
him. So he said, "Where will your holiness sit? It is cold here in the
wind; I have a dwelling in the rocks, but it is hard to come by except
for winged fowl, and for men like myself who have been used to the
precipices."

"Well, show the way, brother," said the priest cheerfully, "and I will
adventure my best." So David showed him the way up the crags, and went
slowly in front of him, that he might help him up; but the priest
climbed like a cat, looking blithely about him, and had no need of
help, though he was encumbered with his robe.

When they were got