Page:Saxe Holm's Stories, Series Two.djvu/198

188 seemed carried out of himself by the sight of it. "It brings more to my mind the thought of the crystal gates of the heavenly city," he said, "than anything I have ever seen. Who knows but it may be one of the gems mentioned in Revelations whose names are not now well known.

Dr. Miller smiled, half reverently, half pityingly.

The village called Dr. Miller an atheist, because of the blunt speech in which he set his contempt for creeds which they held sacred. But so much the more, by all the scorn which he felt for the picture of God as framed in the phrases of men, did he love the picture of God as framed in a rock, or a mountain, or a daisy.

"I 've a notion, parson, that God makes jewels for more practical purposes than for gates to his heaven," he said. "If we 've got a mine up on Black Ledge of such gems as this, it 's a fortune for some of us. I own a big piece of the ledge to the south myself, and I 'm going up the first thing in the morning with these boys, to see if there are any more stones like this one."

Dominie smiled, also half reverently, half pityingly. The two men loved each other.

At dawn Jim and I sprang up. Jim went to the window. In a tone of utter despair he ejaculated:— "Will!"

The ground was white with snow—deep, solid, level snow. It must have snowed furiously all