devout man. Some even said that, if the people of Israel had not
ceased to look for prophets, they would have counted him a prophet. I
remember well that, when he rose in the synagogue, it seemed as if
some wisdom from on high touched his lips, and he would speak with
such hope and courage of the light that should yet shine in our
darkness and of the help that should yet arise to Judah, that the
people's faces would glow with joyful expectation."

Stephanus paused a moment and started forward, as his eye was turned
toward his own shadow upon the rock, cast by the rising moon. Did the
old man's figure that he saw remind him of the patriarch of whom he
was talking?

Soon he went on.

"Ah! but they should have heard my father talking here by night, under
the stars. It was here upon these hills where the royal shepherd used
to sing, that his tongue was loosed and he spoke wonderful words. So
it was that night, fifty years ago. I remember it as if it were
yesterday. My father sat in this very niche, where I am sitting now;
James and Hosea were on either side of him. I was lying at their feet,
as you now lie at mine. Their faces kindled and the tremor of deep
feeling was in their voices as they talked together; and the other two
had lingered here three or four hours after the sun had set. It was
not a moonlit night like this, but all the stars were out and all the
winds were still.

"Suddenly I saw my father rise to his feet. Then the other men sprang
up, with astonishment and wonder upon their faces. It had grown light
all at once, lighter than the brightest moon; and as I turned my face