s on
the wall.

'See how quick it is!' said he as the rays flashed with the speed of
lightning. 'That is the only traveller from Heaven that travels fast
enough to ever get to earth.

Then came the words that had a mighty fitness for his tongue.

'Hail, holy light! Offspring of Heaven first born.

His voice rose and fell, riding the mighty rhythm of inspired song. As
he stood swinging the lantern, then, he reminded me of a chanting priest
behind the censer. In a moment he sat down, and, holding the lantern
between his knees, opened its door and felt the candle. Then as the
light streamed out upon his hands, he rubbed them a time, silently, as
if washing them in the bright flood.

'One dollar for this little box of daylight,' he said.

'Blind?' said the stranger as he paid him the money.

'No,' said Riggs, 'only dreaming as you are.

I wondered what he meant by the words 'dreaming as you are.

'Went to bed on my way home to marry,' he continued, stroking his long
white beard, 'and saw the lights go out an' went asleep and it hasn't
come morning yet--that's what I believe. I went into a dream. Think I'm
here in a shop talking but I'm really in my bunk on the good ship Arid
coming home. Dreamed everything since then--everything a man could think
of. Dreamed I came home and found Annie dead, dreamed of blindness, of
old age, of poverty, of eating and drinking and sleeping and of many
people who pass like dim shadows and speak to me--you are one of them.
And sometimes I forget I am dreaming and am miserable, and then I
remember and am happy. I know when the morning comes I shall wake and
laugh at all these phantoms. And I shall pack my things and go up on
deck, for we shall be in the harbour probably--ay! maybe Annie and
mother will be waving their hands on the dock!

The old face had a merry smile as he spoke of the morning and all it had
for him.

'Seems as if it had lasted a thousand years,' he continued, yawning and
rubbing his eyes. 'But I've dreamed the like before, and, my God! how
glad I felt when I woke in the morning.

It gave me an odd feeling--this remarkable theory of the old man. I
thought then it would be better for most of us if we could think all our
misery a dream and have his faith in the morning--that it would bring
back the things we have lost. I had come to buy a lock for my door, but
I forgot my errand and sat down by Riggs while the stranger went away
with his lantern.

'You see no re