Part 27 (2/2)

”No! no! my son,” cried the hermit, and now his tears were tears of joy ”God has reht even as mine, who have prayed and preached for forty years Your treasure waits for you on the heavenly shore just as mine does”

”As YOURS? Father, you mock me!” said the clown

But when the herel's answer, the poor cloas transfigured with joy, for he knew that his sins were forgiven And when the hermit went home to his mountain, the cloith him He, too, became a herether they lived, and worked, and helped the poor And when, after two years, the man who had been a clown died, the hermit felt that he had lost a brother holier than himself

For ten yearsalways of God, fasting and praying, and doing no least thing that rong Then, one day, the wish once , and once --

”Whose soul in the heavenly grace had grown To the selfsame measure as his own; Whose treasure on the celestial shore Could neither be less than his nor el cae on the other side of the mountain, and to a small farm in it, where tomen lived In theht

When the hermit came to the door of the little farm, the tomen who lived there were overjoyed to see him, for every one loved and honored his naht food and drink But the herreatly to knohat the souls of the tomen were like, and froentle and honest One was old, and the other of e

Presently he asked them about their lives They told him the little there was to tell: they had worked hard always, in the fields with their husbands, or in the house; they had many children; they had seen hard times,--sickness, sorrow; but they had never despaired

”But what of your good deeds,” the hermit asked,--”what have you done for God?”

”Very little,” they said, sadly, for they were too poor to give much

To be sure, twice every year, when they killed a sheep for food, they gave half to their poorer neighbors

”That is very good, very faithful,” the herood deed you have done?”

”Nothing,” said the older woood deed--” She looked at the younger woman, who smiled back at her

”What?” said the hermit

Still the woman hesitated; but at last she said, timidly, ”It is not much to tell, father, only this, that it is twenty years since ether in the house; we have brought up our families here; and in all the twenty years there has never been a cross word between us, or a look that was less than kind”

The herave thanks in his heart ”If my soul is as these,” he said, ”I aht came into the her God Some serve him in churches and in hermit's cells, by praise and prayer; some poor souls who have been very wicked turn from their wickedness with sorrow, and serve hiently in hu kind and cheerful; some bear pain patiently, for his sake Endless, endless ways there are, that only the Heavenly Father sees

And so, as the herht,--

”As he saw the star-like glow Of light, in the cottage s far, How many God's hidden servants are!”