m twinkled in the grass under
the hedge, but no ray of light pierced the impenetrable gloom within. He
returned to his room, and, after sitting for a while at the open window,
looking down on the sluggish waters of the tranquil river, he threw
himself on his knees beside his bed. One by one he prayed for each of
his children. The red cross that he had seen on so many doors seemed to
have stamped itself upon the retina of his eye; it blazed before him
even whilst the lids were closed in prayer.

'Lord, have mercy on us!' said the legend under the cross.

'Lord, have mercy on us!' cried Mr. Petherick over and over and over
again.

He thought of the morning's text, but it only mocked him, as the
sunshine mocked him on his way to church.

'I could not say it,' he moaned. 'If my children were snatched from
me--my fine boys and my lovely girls--the treasures that _she_ left
me--how could I _rejoice in the Lord and joy in the God of my
salvation_?'

He broke into a fresh outburst of supplication. Again he mentioned each
of his children by name. 'Spare him; oh, spare him!' he cried; and, as
he thought of the girls, 'Spare her, O Lord; have pity, I beseech Thee!'

He wiped his face; it was damp with perspiration. He allowed his
forehead to rest upon his folded arms; and then, bowed there in the
solitude of his room and in the stillness of the summer night, a strange
thought took possession of him.

V

He remembered to have prayed as fervently as this before--many, many
years ago. In those days--the days of his earliest religious
experiences--he had prayed, almost as earnestly as this, for his own
spiritual prosperity, for the extension of Christ's Kingdom and for the
enlightenment of the world. It seemed like a dream as he recalled it. He
was scarcely more than a boy in those days. The ardor and intensity of
that distant time had deserted him so gradually, and had vanished so
imperceptibly, that he had never missed it until now. Love had come into
his life, irradiating and transfiguring everything. Love had led to
marriage; four happy children had brought added gladness to his home and
fresh contentment to his heart; and he had abandoned himself without
reserve to these domestic cares and comforts. The things that had so
completely captivated his soul were all of them _good_ things--just as
the fig and the vine and the olive, the corn and the flocks and the
herds were all of them _good_ things--but he had allowed the