llants do strange things at strange times, the lady
divided the seeds, and counted them seeking a lucky number or some
such freakish quest. And by the rosary, and by his mother, she made
him swear that when he had found fortune and a plantation in the new
world, he would plant with his own hands the seeds there, and send for
the lady to come by ship as chatelaine! Failing the plantation, he was
to return, and her own relatives would find on land or sea an office
fit for his talents:--only he was to faithfully guard the seed of the
fruit eaten in a happy hour, and her prayers would meet his own across
the waters.

"It may be that women with prayers for him had not been
plentiful--whatever the vow was it was made and sealed with the prayer
of the lady. When the savages took her rosary they gave no heed to
some brown seeds in a leather pouch--no more of them than you could
count on your fingers! A man alone for long in a wilderness gives
meaning to things he would not remember at happier times. And the
training of the Holy Church returns to even the most gardened men in
their hours of stress! So it was that the prayer of the willing dame
kept him company, as he looked on the seeds. They had become his
rosary--and were the last evidence of the nightly prayers promised by
the lady.

"Thus:--because of their smallness had they been unnoted of his
several captors. Having slipped between the lining and the cover of
the pouch he had ceased to remember them after the Indian maid
lessened his loneliness. But he went searching for them now--even one
peach seed was still with them--and some grains of the bearded
wheat--that by a special grace had fallen into a pocket on ship board
while handling grains, and as a jest on himself he had added it to the
others for the plantation to be made for the waiting dame.

"He could truly say they were 'medicine' given with prayers. But with
forgetfulness of truth, he also added much as to their divine
origin--and the wondrous power they held.

"Gladly the Indian girl let go the gold for the unknown seeds! She
further signified that now she could know always that he was a God,
for the gift of the seeds fitted some myth of her own land--some thing
of one of their false gods who brought seeds and fruits and great good
to the people.

"In that way was made the exchange of medicine for medicine beside
some pool by the palms, and well it was it was made that day, else
never would we have this g