Thy saints take pleasure in her stones,
Her very dust to them is dear!"
"They loved their land as theirs," said Ian, "and have lost it!"
"I know I must be cast out of it! I know I must die and go from it; but I shall come back and wander about the fields and the hills with you and our father and mother!"
"And how about horse and dog?" asked Ian, willing to divert his thoughts for a moment.
"Well! Daoimean and Luath are so good that I don't see why I should not have them!"
"No more do I!" responded Ian. "We may be sure God will either let you have them, or show you reason to content you for not having them. No love of any thing is to be put in the same thought-pocket with love for the poorest creature that has life. But I am sometimes not a little afraid lest your love for the soil get right in to your soul. We are here but pilgrims and strangers. God did not make the world to be dwelt in, but to be journeyed through. We must not love it as he did not mean we should. If we do, he may have great trouble and we much hurt ere we are set free from that love. Alister, would you willingly walk out of the house to follow him up and down for ever?"
"I don't know about willingly," replied Alister, "but if I were sure it was he calling me, I am sure I would walk out and follow him."
"What if your love of house and lands prevented you from being sure, when he called you, that it was he?"
"That would be terrible! But he would not leave me so. He would not forsake me in my ignorance!"
"No. Having to take you from everything, he would take everything from you!"