s his own;
Whose treasure on the celestial shore
Could neither be less than his nor more."

Once more his prayer was answered. The angel came to him, and told him
to go to a certain village on the other side of the mountain, and to a
small farm in it, where two women lived. In them he should find two
souls like his own, in God's sight.

When the hermit came to the door of the little farm, the two women who
lived there were overjoyed to see him, for every one loved and honored
his name. They put a chair for him on the cool porch, and brought food
and drink. But the hermit was too eager to wait. He longed greatly to
know what the souls of the two women were like, and from their looks he
could see only that they were gentle and honest. One was old, and the
other of middle age.

Presently he asked them about their lives. They told him the little
there was to tell: they had worked hard always, in the fields with
their husbands, or in the house; they had many children; they had seen
hard times,--sickness, sorrow; but they had never despaired.

"But what of your good deeds," the hermit asked,--"what have you done
for God?"

"Very little," they said, sadly, for they were too poor to give much.
To be sure, twice every year, when they killed a sheep for food, they
gave half to their poorer neighbors.

"That is very good, very faithful," the hermit said. "And is there any
other good deed you have done?"

"Nothing," said the older woman, "unless, unless--it might be called a
good deed--" She looked at the younger woman, who smiled back at her.

"What?" said the hermit.

Still the woman hesitated; but at last she said, timidly, "It is not
much to tell, father, only this, that it is twenty years since my
sister-in-law and I came to live together in the house; we have brought
up our families here; and in all the twenty years there has never been
a cross word between us, or a look that was less than kind."

The hermit bent his head before the two women, and gave thanks in his
heart. "If my soul is as these," he said, "I am blessed indeed."

And suddenly a great light came into the hermit's mind, and he saw how
many ways there are of serving God. Some serve him in churches and in
hermit's cells, by praise and prayer; some poor souls who have been
very wicked turn from their wickedness with sorrow, and serve him with
repentance; some live faithfully and gently in humble homes, working,
bringing up children, ke