embroidery. Oh! how reassuring was her sweet and darling presence! I
returned to my task without concerning myself further about the noise of
the maskers, and as I worked I glanced up now and again to look at her
beautiful profile cut in silhouette, because of the darkness without,
upon my tiny window pane.




CHAPTER XXXIII.



I am surprised that I cannot recall whether my desire to become a
minister transformed itself into a wish to lead the more militant life
of missionary, by a slow process or suddenly.

It seems to me that the change must have come at a very early period.
For a long time I had taken an interest in Protestant missions,
especially in those established in Southern Africa, among the Bassoutos.
During my childhood we subscribed for the "Messenger," a monthly journal
that had for frontispiece an interesting picture which, very early in my
life, made a forcible impression upon me.

This picture held a higher place in my regard than those of which I have
already spoken, but by no means because of its execution, its color or
background. It represented an impossible pine tree growing at the edge
of a sea, behind which a resplendent sun was setting, and, at the foot
of the tree, there was a young savage who was watching the approach of
a ship, from a distant point upon the horizon, that was bringing to him