ands were still weak, and yet I clenched
them as I thought of the vexatious affair. 'I will punish him,' I
muttered to myself.

"Then I heard the door of the room open, and I saw three men
respectfully approaching a fourth. He greeted them with dignity, but yet
with friendliness, and rolled up a scroll which he had been reading, I
would have called out, but I could not open my parched lips, and yet I
saw and heard all that was going on around me in the room.

"It all seemed strange enough to me then; even the man's mode of
greeting was unusual. I soon perceived that he who sat in the chair was
a judge, and that the others had come as complainants; they were all
three old and poor, but some good men had left them the use and interest
of a piece of land. During seed-time one of them, a fine old man with
long white hair, had been ill, and he had not been able to help in the
harvest either; 'and now they want to withhold his portion of the corn,'
thought I; but it was quite otherwise. The two men who were in health
had taken a third part of the produce to the house of the sick man, and
he obstinately refused to accept the corn because he had helped neither
to sow nor to reap it, and he demanded of the judge that he should
signify to the other two that he had no right to receive goods which he
had not earned.

"The judge had so far kept silence. But he now raised his sagacious and
kindly face and asked the old man, 'Did you pray for your companions and
for the increase of their labors?'

"'I did,' replied the other.

"'Then by your intercession you helped them,' the judge decided, 'and
the third part of the produce is yours and you must keep it.'

"The old man bowed, the three men shook hands, and in a few minutes the
judge was alone in the room again.

"I did not know what had come over me; the complaint of the men and the
decision of the judge seemed to me senseless, and yet both the one and
the other touched my heart. I went to sleep again, and when I awoke
refreshed the next morning the judge came up to me and gave me medicine,
not only for my body but also for my soul, which certainly was not less
in need of it than my poor wounded limbs."

"Who was the judge?" asked Stephanus.

"Eusebius, the Presbyter of Kanopus. Some Christians had found me half
dead on the road, and had carried me into his house, for the widow
Theodora, his sister, was the deaconess of the town. The two had nursed
me as if I were their de