AND THE MAN. 189

 

Thus murmured the hermit, as he arose
from his prostrate attitude.

When night came, the hermit’s cell, far
away in the deep, untrodden forest, was
tenantless.

THE MAN.

A fearful plague raged in a great city.
In the narrow streets where the poor were
crowded together, the hot breath of the
pestilence withered up hundreds in a day.
Those not striken down, fled, and left the
suffering and the dying to their fate. Ter-
ror extinguished all human sympathies.

In the midst of these dreadful scenes, a
man clad in plain garments—a stranger—
approached the plague-stricken city. The
flying inhabitants warned him of the peril
he was about encountering, but he heeded
them not. He entered within the walls,
and took his way with a firm step to. the
most infected regions.