434 THE LAND OF THE LION 



which may have been my due. But the friendship they gave 

 with it, was a thing beyond purchase. 



To have known two such men, one a heathen, the other 

 a Christian, both natives of East Africa, would make it 

 impossible for me to be pessimistic as to the natives' future. 



The shore recedes. I shall see those kindly dark faces 

 no more. Some have a Christian hope; to more of them 

 that hope means nothing at all. But surely if an Almighty 

 Fatherhood looks down on all the children of men, black 

 and white, then those who have striven here, with most 

 unequal chances accorded them, to do what their hands 

 found to do, following such light as was given them, shall 

 have some not unworthy place and task assigned in "the 

 company of just men being made perfect." 



"For, like a child, sent with a flickering light, 

 To find his way across a gusty night, 

 Man walks the world. 

 Again and yet again 

 The lamp may be 

 By fits of passion slain, 

 But shall not He 

 Who sent him from the door, 

 Relight that lamp once more 

 And yet once more ? " 



