“I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help,” said mother.
“There’s no help there!” called Dan. “There’s no God there! He wouldn’t have let a little child run into her damnation!”
“Hush, hush, Dan!” murmured mother. “Faith never can have been at sea in such a night as this, and not have felt God’s hand snatching her out of sin. If she lives, she’s a changed woman; and if she dies, her soul is whitened and fit to walk with saints. Through much tribulation.”
“Yes, yes,” muttered father, in the room beyond, spitting on his hands, as if he were going to take hold of the truth by the handle,——“it’s best to clean up a thing with the first spot, and not wait for it to get all rusty with crime.”
“And he!” said Dan,——“and he,——that man,——Gabriel!”
“Between the saddle and the ground
If mercy’s asked, mercy’s found,”
said I.
“Are you there yet, Georgie?” he cried, turning to me. “Here! I’ll go myself!” But he only stumbled and fell on the bed again.