'I could look after her. She could blossom here like a violet in a
quiet garden.'

Giving was never too early.

'And I am asking nothing--not for years. She shall live her own life,
and be mother's daughter and my little sister for as long as she likes.
My little sister!' he repeated aloud, as if some voice had contradicted
him. And, indeed, the whole wide morning seemed to contradict his
scheme--the mating birds, the sheep suckling their lambs, the insistent
neighing and bellowing that rose from the fields and farms, the very
tombstones, with their legends of multitudinous families, and the voice
that cried to man and woman, not in words, but in the zest of the earth
and air, '"Beget, bring forth, and then depart, for I have done with
you!"'

A sharp cold shower stung his cheeks, and he saw a slim rosebud beating
itself helplessly against the wet earth, broken and muddy. He fetched a
stake and tied it up. I think,' he said to himself, 'that I was put
into the world to tie up broken roses, and one that is not broken yet,
thank God! It is miraculous that she has never come to harm, for that
great overgrown boy, her father, takes no care of her. Yes, I was meant
for that. I can't preach.' He smiled ruefully as he remembered how
steadfastly the congregation slept through his best sermons. 'I can't
say the right things at the right time. I'm not clever. But I can take
care of Hazel. And that is my life-work,' he added naively, 'perhaps
I'd better begin at once, and go to see her to-day.'

Ah! the gold and scarlet morning as he came home after finding that
resolve, which, as a matter of fact, he had taken with him! How the