-j?za 
A CHILD OF NATURE 
ministered. Ralph had travelled far 
and sought truth at the ends of the 
earth ; here had lived and died one 
to whom truth had come by force 
of those deep affinities by which 
the soul reaches out and draws to 
itself the things which are its own. 
When the nights lengthened and 
the world was wrapped in the si- | 
lence of those vast snowfalls which 
descend out of hidden skies with 
a hush that shuts man in with his 
deepest self by the blazing fire, 
the spirit of John Foster seemed 
to pervade the house, as if seeking 
every inlet into a consciousness akin 
to its own, and swift to comprehend | 
what all others had been slow to un- 
derstand. Ralph felt as if a pathetic 
w 
■s . 
^ 
I 
w? 
W 
m 
