e might some day come to the city, to see His sons
there--for the priest had told him that all men were His sons. So the
porter kept watch for the Father's coming; and he hoped that he might
know Him if He came.

Now one day there was a great storm of rain and wind. The wind beat
on the tower, and the rain rustled in the moat; and Cerda at sundown
drew up the dripping bridges, and made all safe, knowing that he would
not be disturbed again that night. He sat long that night listening to
the wind, which seemed to have a sad and homeless voice in it, and
then he remembered suddenly that he had not eaten, and he began to
prepare his food. He had a little piece of meat in the house, which a
citizen had given him, and bread, and a few berries which he had
gathered in the wood; so he began to cook the meat; and it was about
midnight, and the storm was fiercer than ever; when in a pause in the
gust he thought he heard a cry out of the wood across the moat. He
listened, but it came not again, and so he fell to his cooking. Then
all at once the wind stopped, and he heard the rain whisper on the
wall, when suddenly came the cry again, a very faint cry, like the
crying of a child. He threw open the shutter of the window that looked
to the wood, and in the glimmering dark, for there was a sickly light
from the moon which laboured among the clouds, he thought he saw a
little figure stand on the edge of the moat. It was dreary enough
outside, but he went to the wheel and let the small bridge down, and
then he went to the little gate and crossed the slippery plank with
care.

There, near the lip of the moat, stood a little child, a boy that
seemed to be about ten years old, all drenched and shivering, with his
face streaming with rain. Cerda did not know the child, but asked him,
as well as he could for his stammering speech, what he was doing there
and what he desired. The child seemed frightened, and covered his face
with his hands; but Cerda drew his hands away, not unkindly, and felt
how cold and wet the little arms were. Then the child said that he had
wandered from the way, and that seeing a light he had come near, and
had found himself on the edge of the moat, and had cried out in case
any one might hear him. Then Cerda asked him again what he was doing;
and the child said timidly that he was about his father's business.
Cerda was vexed that a father should be so careless of his child, but
he could not understand from the chi