THE MOOR.

The night began to descend and he to be weary, and look about him
for a place of repose. But there was a long twilight before him,
and it was warm.

For some time the road had been ascending, and by and by he found
himself on a bare moor, among heather not yet in bloom, and a forest
of bracken. Here was a great, beautiful chamber for him! and what
better bed than God's heather! what better canopy than God's high,
star-studded night, with its airy curtains of dusky darkness! Was
it not in this very chamber that Jacob had his vision of the mighty
stair leading up to the gate of heaven! Was it not under such a
roof Jesus spent his last nights on the earth! For comfort and
protection he sought no human shelter, but went out into his
Father's house--out under his Father's heaven! The small and narrow
were not to him the safe, but the wide and open. Thick walls cover
men from the enemies they fear; the Lord sought space. There the
angels come and go more freely than where roofs gather distrust. If
ever we hear a far-off rumour of angel-visit, it is not from some
solitary plain with lonely children?

Donal walked along the high table-land till he was weary, and rest
looked blissful. Then he turned aside from the rough track into the
heather and bracken. When he came to a little dry hollow, with a
yet thicker growth of heather, its tops almost close as those of his
bed at his father's cottage, he sought no further. Taking his
knife, he cut a quantity of heather and ferns, and heaped it on the
top of the thickest bush; then creeping in between the cut and the