124 THE BEAUTIFUL LADDER. 
deeply moved was plain from the moisture that 
dimmed their eyes. After a few more words of 
kindness and encouragement, the visitors with¬ 
drew, leaving the happy recipients to enjoy the 
benefactions which a kind Providence had sent 
them in their time of need. 
To the young students the experience was a 
new and strange one—a revelation of life and 
of their own natures to which they had been 
utter strangers. With abundant means, not 
only to supply necessary wants, but also to in¬ 
dulge in coveted gratifications, yet they had 
been ungrateful and dissatisfied; but they had 
met those who were reduced to the lowest 
depths of poverty, bereaved and suffering, and 
who yet were devoutly thankful for a dinner 
of parched corn ! Their shelter was a log hut 
in which they would scarcely consent to stable 
their favorite horses, yet there they had found 
an altar of gratitude for such a shelter from 
the storm and tempest. No wonder that they 
left such a scene of devout trust wearing a 
sobered and thoughtful demeanor. They could 
come to but one of two conclusions—either that 
the Farleys were great fanatics, or that they 
themselves were profoundly ignorant and un- 
