flocks drinking, I chanced to notice that the tea-ball was again
quietly at work. As we sat thinking on that picture up in the
mountain, a good hand offered our guest a fresh cup. He received
it with a low bow, sipped it in quiet, then with a grateful smile
began speaking again:

"'_He restoreth my soul_.' You know," he said, turning to me,
"that soul means the life or one's self in the Hebrew writings."

Then addressing us all he went on: "There are perilous places for
the sheep on all sides, and they seem never to learn to avoid them.
The shepherd must ever be on the watch. And there are private
fields and sometimes gardens and vineyards here and there in the
shepherd country; if the sheep stray into them and be caught there
it is forfeited to the owner of the land. So, 'he restoreth my
soul' means, 'The shepherd brings me back and rescues me from fatal
and forbidden places.'"

"'Restores me when wandering,' is the way it is put in one of our
hymns," I interposed.

"Ah, sir, that is it exactly," he answered, "'restores me when
wandering!'

"'_He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's
sake.' Often have I roamed through the shepherd country in my
youth and seen how hard it is to choose the right path for the
sheep; one leads to a precipice, another to a place where the sheep
cannot find the way back; and the shepherd was always going ahead,
'leading' them in the right paths, proud of his good name as a