104 MARTIN RATTLER.

diamonds found in ezghty years. Yes, that is true.
But the people of Brazil are not well off They have
everything that is necessary to make a great nation ;
but we are not a great nation, far from it.”

The hermit sighed deeply as he ceased speaking,
and fell into an abstracted frame of mind.

“It’s a great country intirely,” said Barney, knock-
ing the ashes out of his pipe, and placing that much-
loved implement carefully in his pocket—“a great
country; but there’s a tremendous big screw loose
somewhere.”

“Tt seems curious to me,” said Martin, in a rumin-
ating tone of voice, “that people should not get on
better in a country in which there is everything that
man can desire to make him rich and happy. I
wonder what it wants. Perhaps it’s too hot, and the
people want energy of character.”

“Want energy!” shouted the hermit, leaping from
his seat, and regarding his euests for a few moments
with a stern expression of countenance ; then, stretch-
ing forth his hand, he continued, in an excited tone:
“Brazil does not want energy; it has only one want
—it wants the Bible! When a country is sunk down
in superstition and ignorance and moral depravity, so
that the people know not right from wrong, there is

only one cure for her-—the Bible. Religion here is