er get that way, saints knows!--and I hope them that's above 'll bear
it in mind when things come to be reckoned up like."

That was Isel's religion. It is the practical religion of a sadly large
number of people in this professedly Christian land.

Agnes turned and spoke a few words in a low voice to her husband, who
smiled in answer.

"My wife wishes me to thank you," he said, "in her name and that of my
sister, for your goodness in taking us strangers so generously into your
home. She says that she can work hard, and will gladly do so, if, until
she can speak your tongue, you will call her attention, and do for a
moment what you wish her to do. Ermine says the same."

"Well, that's fair-spoken enough, I can't deny," responded Isel; "and
I'm not like to say I shan't be glad of a rest. There's nought but hard
work in this world, without it's hard words: and which is the uglier of
them I can't say. It'll be done one of these days, I reckon."

"And then, friend?" asked Gerhardt quietly.

"Well, if you know the answer to that, you know more than I do," said
Isel, dishing up her salt fish. "Dear saints, where ever is that boy
Romund? Draw up the form, Haimet, and let us have our supper. Say
grace, boy."

Haimet obeyed, by the short and easy process of making a large cross
over the table, and muttering a few unintelligible words, which should
have been a Latin formula. The first surprise received from the foreign
guests came now. Instead of sitting down to supper, the trio knelt and
prayed in silence for some minutes, ere they rose and joined their hosts
at the table. Then Gerhardt spoke aloud.

"God, who blessed the five barley loaves and the two fishes before His
disciples in the wilderness, bless this table and that which is set on
it, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

"Oh, you do say your prayers!" remarked Isel in a tone of satisfaction,
as the guests began their supper. "But I confess I'd sooner say mine
while the fish isn't getting cold."

"We do, indeed," answered Gerhardt gravely.

"Oh, by the way, tell me if you've ever come across an English traveller
called Manning Brown? My husband took the cross, getting on for three
years now, and I've never heard another word about him since. Thought
you might have chanced on him somewhere or other."

"Whither went he, and which way did he take?"

"Bless you, I don't know! He went to foreign parts: and foreign pa