"Meanin' me. Well, mebbe I have tried to make things jest as easy fur myself as possible, but I 'ain't never tried to make 'em no harder fur other people. I like to think of the Master as a good gentle friend, an' mebbe I 'ain't shifted so many o' the burdens He put on me that He won't let me in at last."
"'Liphalet, I didn't say what I said fur no slur ag'in' you. You're as good a Christian man as— well, as most."
"I know you didn't mean no slur, Hester. It was jest yore dooty to say it. I've come to realise how strong yore feelin' about dooty is, in the years we've been together, an' I would n't want you to be any different."
The calm of old age had come to these two. Life's turbulent waters toss us and threaten to rend our frail bark in pieces. But the swelling of the tempest only lifts us higher, and finally we reach and rest upon the Ararat of age, with the swirling floods below us.
Eliphalet went on with the letter. "He says some more about that little girl. 'Alice is a very nice and sensible girl. I like her very much. She helps me to get out of myself and to be happy. I have never known be-
