ddled with it, nor tore it down.

"And I will tell you one reason why this was, and you will think it
strange that it should have played such a part in the history of the
village, as in my own life. You must know that people living in secluded
places are mostly superstitious. Well, when my fort was built to such
proportions that a small ladder must be used to fix new mud and mortar
in place upon it, something happened.

"Once a year there came to Balmore--and he had done so for a
generation--one of those beings called The Men, who are given to prayer,
fasting, and prophesying, who preach the word of warning ever, calling
even the ministers of the Lord sharply to account. One day this Man came
past my fort, folk with him, looking for preaching or prophesy from him.
Suddenly turning he came inside my fort, and, standing upon the ladder
against the wall, spoke to them fervently. His last words became a
legend in Balmore, and spread even to Glasgow and beyond.

"'Hear me!' cried he. 'As I stand looking at ye from this wall, calling
on ye in your natural bodies to take refuge in the Fort of God, the
Angel of Death is looking ower the battlements of heaven, choosing ye
out, the sheep frae the goats; calling the one to burning flames, and
the other into peaceable habitations. I hear the voice now,' cried he,
'and some soul among us goeth forth. Flee ye to the Fort of Refuge.'
I can see him now, his pale face shining, his eyes burning, his beard
blowing in the wind, his grizzled hair shaking on his forehead. I had
stood within the fort watching him. At last he turned, and, seeing me
intent, stooped, caught me by the arms, and lifted me upon the wall.
'See you,' said he, 'yesterday's babe a warrior to-day. Have done,
have done, ye quarrelsome hearts. Ye that build forts here shall lie in
darksome prisons; there is no fort but the Fort of God. The call comes
frae the white ramparts. Hush!' he added solemnly, raising a finger.
'One of us goeth hence this day; are ye ready to walk i' the fearsome
valley?'

"I have heard my mother speak these words over often, and they were,
as I said, like an old song in Balmore and Glasgow. He set me down, and
then walked away, waving the frightened people back; and there was none
of them that slept that night.

"Now comes the stranger thing. In the morning The Man was found dead in
my little fort, at the foot of the wall. Henceforth the spot was sacred,
and I am sure it stands there as when