SOMETHING, "arg

black spot! I cried as loud as I could, but nu one heard me;
I was too far from the people. Soon the storm would burst, and
the ice would break, and all who were upon it would be lost with-
out remedy. They could not hear,me, and I could not come out
tothem. Oh, if I could only bring them ashore! Then kind
Heaven inspired me with the thought of setting fire to my bed,
and rather to let the house burn down, than that all those people
should perish miserably. I succeeded in lighting up a beacon for
them. The red flame blazed up on high, and I escaped out of
the door, but fell down exhausted on the threshold, and could get
no farther. The flames rushed out towards me, flickered through
the window, and rose high above the roof. All the people on the
ice yonder beheld it, and ran as fast as they could, to give aid to
a poor old woman who, they thought, was being burned to death,
Not one remained behind. I heard them coming; but I also
became aware of a rushing sound in the air; I heard a rumbling
like the sound of heavy artillery ; the spring flood was lifting the
covering of ice, which presently burst and cracked into a thousand
fragments. But the people succeeded in reaching the sea-wall
—I saved them all! But I fancy I could not bear the cold and
the fright, and so I came up here to the gates of Paradise. Iam
told they are opened to poor creatures like me—and now I have.
no house left down upon the rampart: not that I think this will
give me admission here.”

Then the gates of heaven were opened, and the angel led the
old woman in. She left a straw behind her, a straw that had
been in her bed when she set it on fire to save the lives of many;
and this straw had been changed into the purest gold—into gold
that grew and grew, and spread out into beauteous leaves and
flowers.

“ Look, this is what the poor woman brought,” said the angel
to the critic. ‘“ What dost ¢houw bring? I know that thou hast
accomplished nothing—thou hast not made so much as a single
brick. Ah, if thou couldst only return, and effect at least as
much as that! Probably the brick, when thou hadst made it,
would not be worth much; but if it were made with a good will,
it would at least be something. But thou canst not go back, and
I can do nothing for thee !”

Then the poor soul, the old dame who had lived on the dyke,
put ina petition for him. She said,

“ His brother gave me the bricks and the pieces out of which
I built up my house, and that was a great deal for a poor woman
like me. Could not all those bricks and pieces be counted as a
single brick in his favour? It was an act of mercy. He wants
it now; and is not this the very fountain of mercy ?”

Then the angel said,

“ Thy brother, him whom thou hast regarded as the least
among you all, he whose honest industry seemed to thee as the