chose. Why should the Lord give me fever so that I could not nurse it, and
make a snake bite the cow so that it died? If the Lord's ways are such,
then those of the savages are more merciful."

"Janey, Janey, do not blaspheme," her father had exclaimed. "You should
rejoice that the child is in Heaven."

"Then do you rejoice and leave me to grieve. From to-day I only make one
prayer, that I may never have another. John," she added with a sudden
outburst, "it is your fault. You know well I told you how it would be. I
told you that if you would come this mad journey the babe would die, aye,
and I tell you"--here her voice sank to a kind of wailing whisper--"before
the tale is ended others will die too, all of us, except Rachel there, who
was born to live her life. Well, for my part, the sooner the better, for I
wish to go to sleep with my children."

"This is evil," broke in her husband, "evil and rebellious--"

"Then evil and rebellious let it be, John. But why am I evil if I have the
second sight like my mother before me? Oh! she warned me what must come if
I married you, and I would not listen; now I warn you, and you will not
listen. Well, so be it, we must dree our own weird, everyone of us, a
short one; all save Rachel, who was born to live her life. Man, I tell
you, that the Spirit drives you on to convert the heathen just for one
thing, that the heathen may make a martyr of you."

"So let them," her father answered proudly. "I seek no better end."

"Aye," she moaned, sinking back upon the cartel, "so let them, but my
babe, my poor babe! Why should my babe die because too much religion has