aid Reuben standing up.

"I thought--" said the doctor, "I had got an impression that you were
not a thorough-going Pattaquasseter--but you looked so much at home
there.--Where _do_ you live? whereabouts, I mean; for the shore
stretches a long way."

Reuben gave the vernacular name of the little rocky coast point which
was his home, but the point itself was too much out of the doctor's
'beat' to have the name familiar.

"How far off is that?"

"About four miles from here, sir."

"May I ask what you are studying so diligently four miles from home at
this hour?"

Reuben coloured a good deal, but with not more than a moment's
reluctance held out his book for the doctor's inspection. It was a
Bible. The doctor's face changed, ever so little; but with what
feeling, or combination of feelings, it would have taken a much wiser
reader of men and faces than Reuben to tell. It was only a moment, and
then he stood with the book in his hand gravely turning it over, but
with his usual face.

"I once had the pleasure of asking you questions on some other
matters," he remarked,--"and I remember you answered well. Can you pass
as good an examination in this?"

"As to the words, sir? or the thoughts?--I don't quite know," said
Reuben modestly.

"Words are the signs of thoughts, you know."

"Yes, sir--but nobody can know all the Bible thoughts--though some
people have learned all the Bible words."

The doctor gave a little sort of commenting nod, rather approving than
otherwise. "You are safe here," he paid as he handed the book back to
Reuben; "for in this study I couldn't examine you. What are you
pursuing the study for?--may I ask?"

"If you don't know!" was in the boy's full gaze for a moment. But he
looked down again, answering steadily--"'Thy word have I hid in my
heart, that I might not sin against thee!'--I love it, Dr.
Harrison--and it shews me the way to serve God."

"Well," said the doctor rather kindly--"if I hadn't interrupted you,
how much more study would you have accomplished before you thought it
time to set oft for that four miles' walk home--to that unpronounceable
place?"

"I don't know, sir--I am not obliged to be there by any particular time
of night."

"No, I know you are not. But--excuse my curiosity!--are you so fond of
the Bible that you stop on the way home to read it as you go along? or
are you waiting for somebody?"

The words brought the colour back with a different tinge, but Reuben