CHOOSING A HOME 41 



the stagnant water from the moorland pools. So the 

 missionaries talked it over. This will not do," they 

 said. " However much we would like to live among 

 these heathen folk, it will not do. We must have 

 running water, and we must find a safer anchorage 

 for the ship." 



They climbed to the height of the island, and, like 

 the great man of old, they viewed the landscape 

 o'er. It seemed but a sorry sort of promised land 

 on which they gazed rocks and swamps, stunted 

 and bewizened trees, grey rocks patched with snow, 

 a sullen sea strewn with icebergs no crops, no 

 flocks, a bare, bleak land. But below them lay a 

 deep, small bay, sheltered by massive hills, a stony 

 beach circled it, and the missionaries, as they stood, 

 could see the glint of running water as the brook 

 went tumbling down to the sea. 



Now at last our brook comes into its own. 



"That is the place," they said ; "there let us 

 build our house and church, by the side of the brook. 

 It is but two or three miles from the heathen village ; 

 we can go to and fro and preach to these poor folk." 

 And the captain of the ship agreed. " It is a good 

 anchorage, and well sheltered," he said. 



So there, by the banks of the brook in that 

 sheltered bay, they laid the foundations of their 

 home, and the sound of saw and hammer rang 

 among the silent rocks. 



They found fish in the deep waters great fine 

 cod and fat sea-trout. There were birds and hares 

 upon the hillsides ; there were eatable berries among 

 the stunted scrub upon the slopes. They did not 



