e was a slight movement near the
organ, and glancing up I saw Mrs. Mavor put her face hastily in her
hands. The men's faces were anxious and troubled, and Nelson said in a
voice that broke--

'Tell them what you told me, sir.' But Craig was troubled too, and
replied, 'You tell them, Nelson!' and Nelson told the men the story of
how he began just five weeks ago. The old man's voice steadied as he
went on, and he grew eager as he told how he had been helped, and how
the world was all different, and his heart seemed new. He spoke of his
Friend as if He were some one that could be seen out at camp, that he
knew well, and met every day.

But as he tried to say how deeply he regretted that he had not known all
this years before, the old, hard face began to quiver, and the steady
voice wavered. Then he pulled himself together, and said--

'I begin to feel sure He'll pull me through--me! the hardest man in the
mountains! So don't you fear, boys. He's all right.'

Then the men gave in their names, one by one. When it came to Geordie's
turn, he gave his name--

'George Crawford, frae the pairish o' Kilsyth, Scotland, an' ye'll juist
pit doon the lad's name, Maister Craig; he's a wee bit fashed wi' the
discoorse, but he has the root o' the maitter in him, I doot.' And so
Billy Breen's name went down.

When the meeting was over, thirty-eight names stood upon the communion
roll of the Black Rock Presbyterian Church; and it will ever be one of
the regrets of my life that neither Graeme's name nor my own appeared
on that roll. And two days after, when the cup went round on that first
Communion Sabbath, from Nelson to Sandy, and from Sandy to Baptiste, and
so on down the line to Billy Breen and Mrs. Mavor, and then to Abe, the
driver, whom she had by her own mystic power lifted into hope and faith,
I felt all the shame and pain of a traitor; and I believe, in my heart
that the fire of that pain and shame burned something of the selfish
cowardice out of me, and that it is burning still.

The last words of the minister, in the short address after the table
had been served, were low, and sweet, and tender, but they were words of
high courage; and before he had spoken them all, the men were listening
with shining eyes, and when they rose to sing the closing hymn they
stood straight and stiff like soldiers on parade.

And I wished more than ever I were one of them.

CHAPTER VIII

THE BREAKING OF THE LEAGUE

There is no dou