less that was the best that
was possible. He had not seen the revelation of "life everlasting,
incorruptible and immortal." But he knew that even if he could live his
earthly life over again, it could not be otherwise than it had been.

One more lingering pulsation of the earthquake quivered through the
ground. A heavy tile, shaken from the roof, fell and struck the old man
on the temple. He lay breathless and pale, with his gray head resting
on the young girl's shoulder, and the blood trickling from the wound. As
she bent over him, fearing that he was dead, there came a voice through
the twilight, very small and still, like music sounding from a distance,
in which the notes are clear but the words are lost. The girl turned to
see if some one had spoken from the window above them, but she saw no
one.

Then the old man's lips began to move, as if in answer, and she heard
him say in the Parthian tongue:

"Not so, my Lord! For when saw I thee an hungered and fed thee? Or
thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw I thee a stranger, and took thee
in? Or naked, and clothed thee? When saw I thee sick or in prison, and
came unto thee? Three-and--thirty years have I looked for thee; but I
have never seen thy face, nor ministered to thee, my King."

He ceased, and the sweet voice came again. And again the maid heard it,
very faint and far away. But now it seemed as though she understood the
words:

"Verily I say unto thee, Inasmuch as thou hast done it unto one of the
least of these my brethren, thou hast done it unto me."

A calm radiance of wonder and joy lighted the pale face of Artaban like
the first ray of dawn, on a snowy mountain-peak. A long breath of relief
exhaled gently from his lips.

His journey was ended. His treasures were accepted. The Other Wise Man
had found the King.

A HANDFUL OF CLAY

There was a handful of clay in the bank of a river. It was only common
clay, coarse and heavy; but it had high thoughts of its own value, and
wonderful dreams of the great place which it was to fill in the world
when the time came for its virtues to be discovered.

Overhead, in the spring sunshine, the trees whispered together of the
glory which descended upon them when the delicate blossoms and leaves
began to expand, and the forest glowed with fair, clear colours, as
if the dust of thousands of rubies and emeralds were hanging, in soft
clouds, above the earth.

The flowers, surprised with the joy of beauty, be