rophets of
old."

All the gloom of the theology of his age was on him as he spoke.
Refined and poetic as was his nature, it was thoroughly imbued with
the Calvinism of early New England.

She lifted her hand wearily and passed it over her aching brow.

"I do not know," she said; "I have never thought of such things, only
it seems to me that God knew best when he gave us our lots in life.
Surely wherever we find ourselves, there he intended us to be, and
there we should patiently work, leaving our higher aspirations to his
will. Is not the ideal life, after all, the one that is kindest and
humblest?"

"But, Ruth," replied the minister, sadly, "while the work you describe
is certainly noble, I have yet felt for a long time that it is not
what God calls me to. Day after day, night after night, I think of the
wild races that roam the forests to the west, of which no man knows
the end. Sometimes I think that I am called to stand before the rulers
of the colony and plead that missionaries be sent to the Indians.
Sometimes I feel that I am called to go and preach to them myself.
Often in my dreams I plead with dark-browed sachems or with mighty
gatherings of warriors to cast away their blood-stained weapons and
accept Christ, till I awake all trembling with the effort. And always
the deadly pain at my heart warns me that what is done must be done
quickly."

The burning ardor that had given such intensity to his sermon came
into his voice as he spoke. The invalid moved nervously on her chair,
and he saw that his enthusiasm merely jarred on her without awakening
any response.

"Forgive me," he said hurriedly, "I forgot that you were not well
enough to talk of those things. Sometime when you are better we will
speak of them again."

And then he talked of other and to her more interesting topics, while
a keen pang rankled in his breast to find her irresponsive to that
which was so dear to him.

But he was very kind to her; and when after a while the old Indian
woman, Cecil's nurse in childhood and their only servant now, came to
tell him that dinner was ready, he would not go until he had first
brought his wife her dinner and waited on her with his own hands.

After his own repast was finished he must hasten away to preach his
afternoon sermon. But he came to her first and bent over her; for
though love never had been, perhaps never could be, between them,
there was a deep domestic feeling in his nature.

"How good