"Has she told you everything but that?" said Mr. Linden smiling, and giving the farmer's hand good token of his presence.
"Where under the sun did you come from?" said the farmer returning his grasp with interest, and looking at Mr. Linden as if indeed one of the lights of the solar system had been out before his arrival. Faith sat down mutely and as quietly as possible behind Mr. Linden.
"From under the sun very literally just now—before that from under a shower. I have been down to Quapaw, then home to Mrs. Derrick's, then here. Mr. Simlins, I am sorry to see that you are nursing yourself instead of me. What is the matter?"
"I'd as lieves be doin' this, of the two," said the farmer with a stray smile. "There aint much the matter. How long have you been in this meridian?"
"Two days." And stepping from before Faith, Mr. Linden asked her "if she had come there in a dream?"
"Do you ever see such good-lookin' things in your dreams?" said the farmer. "My visual pictures are all broken down fences, or Jem or Jenny doin' somethin' they haint ought to do. How long're you goin' to stay in Pattaquasset, Dominie?"
"Some time, I hope. Not quite so long as the first time, but longer than I have been since that. Do you know, Mr. Simlins, your coat collar is a little bit turned in?—and why don't you give the sunshine a better welcome?—you two sick people together want some one to make a stir for you." Which office Mr. Linden took upon himself—lightly disengaging the collar, and then going to the window to draw up the shade and throw back the shutters, stopping on his way back to straighten the table cover, and followed by a full gush of sunlight from the window.
"It is so glorious this afternoon!" he said. And standing silent a moment in that brilliant band of light-looking out at the world all glittering and sparkling in the sun, Mr. Linden repeated,—"'Unto you that fear my name, shall the Sun of Righteousness arise, with healing in his wings.'—What a promise that is!"
"Where did you get those words?"—said Mr. Simlins, after the sunlight and the silence had given them their full effect.
"From the Bible—God's book of promises. Do you want to see the place?"