anald shook his head. "I am far from forgetting that."

"And are you forgetting the great mercy of God to your father?"

"No, no," said Ranald; "I often think of that. But when I think of that
man, something stirs within me and I cannot see, for the daze before
my eyes, and I know that some day I will be at him. I cannot help my
feeling."

"Ranald," said Mrs. Murray, "have you ever thought how he will need
God's mercy like yourself? And have you never thought that perhaps he
has never had the way of God's mercy put before him? To you the Lord has
given much, to him little. It is a terrible thing to be ungrateful for
the mercy of God; and it is a shameful thing. It is unworthy of any true
man. How can any one take the fullness of God's mercy and his patience
every day, and hold an ungrateful heart?"

She did not spare him, and as Ranald sat and listened, his life and
character began to appear to him small and mean and unworthy.

"The Lord means you to be a noble man, Ranald--a man with the heart and
purpose to do some good in the world, to be a blessing to his fellows;
and it is a poor thing to be so filled up with selfishness as to have no
thought of the honor of God or of the good of men. Louis LeNoir has done
you a great wrong, but what is that wrong compared with the wrong you
have done to Him who loved you to His own death?"

Then she gave him her last word: "When you see Louis LeNoir, think of
God's mercy, and remember you are to do him good and not evil."

And with that word in his heart, Ranald went away, ashamed and humbled,
but not forgiving. The time for that had not yet come. But before he
left for the shanties, he saw Mrs. Murray again to say good by. He met
her with a shamed face, fearing that she must feel nothing but contempt
for him.

"You will think ill of me," he said, and in spite of his self-control
his voice shook. "I could not bear that."

"No, I could never think ill of you, Ranald, but I would be grieved to
think that you should fail of becoming a noble man, strong and brave;
strong enough to forgive and brave enough to serve."

Once more Ranald went to the woods, with earnest thoughts in his
mind, hoping he should not meet LeNoir, and fighting out his battle
to victory; and by the time the drive had reached the big water next
spring, that battle was almost over. The days in the silent woods and
the nights spent with his uncle in the camp, and afterward in his cabin
on the raft, did th