INVITED TO BECOME A DOPPER. 279 



Poor old fellow ! This was spoken so earnestly, so 

 full of feeling, that I felt the loss of his partner had 

 been a great and lasting sorrow. 



And the pretty little girl, quite unconscious that she 

 had been offered in marriage, came in childlike simplicity 

 and placed a stool at her grandfather's feet, busied 

 herself replenishing his pipe, after accomplishing which 

 she performed the same office for myself. 



"Will you go with us to the new home we are about 

 to make? You say you have no home, and we will 

 give you one. You have no people, you shall be of us. 

 You are also learned, you can read and write, and know 

 foreign lands : when I am called away you would be 

 the father of the folk." 



" How can I answer now ? I must think the matter 

 over," I responded. And the pretty girl looked up in 

 my face with a pleading coaxing glance, so that I felt it 

 necessary to brace myself, pull myself together, for past 

 experience told me that I never could successfully face 

 a battery composed of woman's eyes. 



Again the old man started the conversation. " You 

 read ' the book J (Bible), and believe it the same as 

 we do." 



" Yes ; it is a wonderful book. And so, too, is the 

 world we live in ; only to think that it is not only 

 revolving on its axis " here the old man seemed 

 puzzled, so, to simplify matters, I added " but going 

 round the sun." 



" Going round the sun ! " exclaimed the old gentle- 

 man. " No ; this world stands still, and the sun goes 

 round the earth. I would have thought your learning 

 and ' the book ' would have taught you different." I 

 had evidently fallen very much in his estimation. 



