"Don't you say these fearful things. Come now, else Avis will wonder what's happened to me. There's a lot of good life ahead of you, Mr. Bullstone, and a lot of valuable work to be done—so clever as you are."
"There is—I grant that much. Much work for my fellow-creatures. But you can't accept man till you've denied God, Robert. That's a hard saying for your boy's ears, no doubt. Yet so it is. You can't make man your first thought and his welfare your faith, till you've put God Almighty and all other graven images behind your back."
"Don't you think that; you'll come back to God presently. I'm sure He's waiting for you, father."
Jacob shook his head.
"I don't ask you to do the like," he said. "Let every man trust his God so long as he can, and so far as he can. But be honest, and when your dark day comes and you can't trust any more, then fear not to say so."
Bob remounted his pony, which was beginning to shiver.
"I must get on," he declared. "And I pray you'll come down and drink a dish of tea before you start for home. Do now, father."
Jacob appeared to have forgotten him; but then he turned to him again.
"Small creatures fall light, remember. A grasshopper can drop where a bullock would break his neck. Pity's often wasted on those that don't need it and withheld from such as do. I fell heavy. I'm heavy in body and heavy in mind. I'm smashed up for good and all now; but no pity for me—no pity in Heaven above, or on the earth beneath. And I doubt—I very much doubt, between ourselves, whether I'd take it even if 'twas offered, young fellow."
"You'll find peace—you'll find peace. I'm sure there's a lot are praying for you," murmured Elvin. Then Jacob rose off the rock, nodded to him and limped off northward.