ed the Partaness, with whom she was far more amused than
puzzled. But her heart was drawn to the young woman who sat in a corner
rocking her child in its wooden cradle and never lifting her eyes from her
needlework: she knew her for the fisher-girl of Malcolm's picture.

From house to house he took her, and where they went they were welcomed.
If the man was smoking, he put away his pipe, and the woman left her work
and sat down to talk with her. They did the honors of their poor houses in
a homely and dignified fashion. Clementina was delighted. But Malcolm told
her he had taken her only to the best houses in the place to begin with.
The village, though a fair sample of fishing villages, was no ex-sample,
he said: there were all kinds of people in it as in every other. It was a
class in the big life-school of the world, whose special masters were the
sea and the herrings.

"What would you do now if you were lord of the place?" asked Clementina as
they were walking by the sea-gate: "I mean, what would be the first thing
you would do?"

"As it would be my business to know my tenants that I might rule them," he
answered, "I would first court the society and confidence of the best men
among them. I should be in no hurry to make changes, but would talk openly
with them and try to be worthy of their confidence. Of course I would see
a little better to their houses, and improve their harbor; and I would
build a boat for myself that would show them a better kind; but my main
hope for them would be the same as for myself--the knowledge of Him whose
is the sea and all its store, who cares for every fish in its bosom, but
for the fisher more than many herrings. I would spend my best efforts to
make them follow Him whose first servants were the fishermen of Galilee,
for with all my heart I believe that that Man holds the secret of life,
and that only the man who obeys Him can ever come to know the God who is
the root and crown of our being, and whom to know is freedom and bliss."

A pause followed.

"But do you not sometimes find it hard to remember God all through your
work?" asked Clementina.

"Not very hard, my lady. Sometimes I wake up to find that I have been in
an evil mood and forgetting Him, and then life is hard until I get near
Him again. But it is not my work that makes me forget Him. When I go
a-fishing, I go to catch God's fish; when I take Kelpie out, I am teaching
one of God's wild creatures; when I read the Bib