ined way, which meant never less than "act to follow
word."

"It would be fine, glorious!" Yaspard mused; then shutting the
"Wanderings of Waterton" with a clap, he exclaimed, "We'll do it,
Harry--you and I--some day. We will go off as the Vikings did, and
explore the world."

"As you are going to-morrow, eh?" said Garth.

"Boys play at what men achieve," answered Harry.

And then was begun a dream which Yaspard and Harry realised in later
years.

In the evening, Amy, seeing Yaspard still hankering after Garth's
Scandinavian travels and lore, said, "Do, Garth, read us what you have
written about the Jews and the Norsemen. I am so fond of that little
bit. I suppose because my family was of Jewish extraction."

"I believe it was composed in compliment to you," laughed Gerta,
bringing a blush to the sensitive young author's face by her words.
But his father seconded Amy's request, so Garth read--

"There are two races of men who have retained their peculiar
characteristics through long ages and through many vicissitudes. They
have wandered over the whole globe, and become part of almost every
people now existing. They have conquered and been conquered. Their
blood has mixed with that of all the other tribes of earth. As
independent nations they no longer exist, and yet the personality of
the Jew and the Norseman is as distinct to-day as it was when they were
mighty ruling powers on the earth.

"The Egyptian of old, the Greek and Goth, where are _they_ now? They
have left grand memories, but have become 'mixed races,' and the
peoples of to-day who bear their names have few, or any, of their
attributes.

"Not so have the wandering Arab and the restless Scandinavian obeyed
the law of nature that says--

'The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfils Himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.'

"Like the two currents that roll side by side in one channel, distinct
in their nature, those two great races have come down the ages bearing
to all lands and all peoples a God-derived power and a God-given
message. They have not been lost in each other; and in blending with
those among whom they dwelt they have yet never ceased to leave
indelible traces, which have made them recognisable always. _They_
have absorbed, but never been absorbed.

"When our hearts thrill to some glowing page of Eastern imagery, when
we listen enraptured to some sacred song, some i