at every seeming manifestation of evil. See good shining there, and I will turn his own weapon against him.”

It was as my master said. We sat there, we four, looking at one another. Being the weaker of the four, for my brother was as versed in evil as his master, I closed my eyes and saw good filling the room, the hut, pouring down through my brother and Johan. Occasionally, I opened my eyes and saw serpents crawling over the floor, huge bats flying around the room, and strange and awesome things standing about. For one minute my nerve failed and those things startled me. I glanced back and forth at Kimbaw, but saw such a peaceful look upon his face that it renewed my courage. I closed my eyes, and when I again opened them, these things had vanished and fouler things had taken their place, strange things that crept on their bellies and oozed loathsome slime.

Again I closed my eyes, noting as I did the sweat standing out upon the foreheads of my brother and his master. The battle went on during the night, during the next morning and the afternoon, until I thought I would faint from weariness. Then things changed. A gentle radiance filled the room; stringed instruments started playing. Where my brother and Johan had sat there were now but two pools of water, that even as I watched—evaporated.

When we returned that evening to the village, we found the people rejoicing, the scourge of ants had disappeared; the damage to the houses had repaired itself; the very food was replaced.

The next morning when I went into my room to meditate, I looked at the withered flower lying on the floor. I understood. I closed my eyes and knew there was no death; there was no decay; everything was life, abundant and overflowing. When I opened my eyes, where my poor flower had lain was a freshly cut rose, covered with dew, filling my room with its perfume.

WHEN we accept the order of Nature which shows forth God’s kindness and wisdom; when we can love the offender and forget the offense; when we can free our hearts of all bitterness, asking nothing but to spend and be spent for others; when we shall do this, the real sweetness of life begins for us. —Leo Tolstoy.