"'I can grant immortality,' said the North Wind, holding up a shield of pure ice, and Neil saw a strange spectacle.
"He beheld a vast amphitheatre, crowded with cruel, hard-featured people, all watching eagerly a boy standing in the arena alone, yet wearing on his upturned face a light that shone upon none of the heathen about him. Above him poised an angel, whispering words of encouragement, as a handsome tiger sprang into the circle from an iron gateway, and approached the boy with crouching, stealthy step. The tiger made a sudden leap, the heathen crowd shouted, and two angels winged their way above the palaces and temples of Rome.
"Next there rolled a dark stream across the mirror, bearing upon the current a woman, with hands roughly bound together. Dark figures loomed against the eastern sky, watching her; but another watcher was there also,—the same angel, shedding a radiance from her golden wings upon the drowning head. Neil saw a great man before a haughty council,—Dr. Martin Luther; he saw many of a humbler class teaching the poor and ignorant, whether in the wilds of savage Africa, or the city streets, it mattered little which; and with each hovered the angel companion. Children, too, there were who were patient and unselfish, doing what they could in little acts of kindness, while the angel smiled even more tenderly upon them. Upon all their faces beamed a joy that separated them from the world.
"'Riches do not always bring happiness,' said the North Wind. 'Fame seldom does, and mere earthly love must fade before the presence of death.'
"'Let me be like those you have shown me,' cried Neil, stretching out his hands towards her.
"The other sisters rose slowly, floating south, east, and west, until they became balls of light again; but the North Wind took the little cripple in her sheltering arms, and bore him swiftly away. Over the sea they went, the North Wind sweeping gracefully along; and Neil felt no fear of her, as he had done when she stood on her cloud throne.
"At first he could see nothing but one vast expanse of water, domed by the clear sky; then, at length, he noticed a dark line on the horizon, which grew more distinct, and proved to be land.
"'You must begin the journey for yourself now,' said the North Wind, alighting on the shore.
"'Oh, don't leave me!' cried the child, clinging timidly to her white draperies.
"'Do not fear: I shall still be with you;' and then she rose above, leading him on the path he should go. She had now become the angel that guided the others.