the morrow was a question of far greater importance to these simple folk.

concerns.

Their pastor set them the example of indifference to worldly Nothing in his sermons ever hinted that Germany and the countries around were filling the heavens with such flames of fire as the world had never seen before. If Pastor Remmert made any chance allusion to these events, it was when referring to the horsemen in the Apocalyptic vision, who had no power over the souls of believers. The pastor received no official communications concerning the conduct of temporal affairs; and no functionary troubled himself as yet about the island. The few who died upon it were buried by their pastor in the little consecrated patch of ground beside the church. He joined in the bonds of marriage the two or three couples who desired it. He baptized the new-born children, conducted the daily village school, prepared Uwen for the University, fulfilled his pastoral duties with unrelaxing zeal, and worked at his various theological compositions. No human being could spend his time with greater diligence, fidelity, and forgetfulness of self. One day with him was exactly like another. It was the same in every house throughout the village; the hours, the days, the months, the years went by, like drops of water regularly falling, drip, drip, drip!

It was in the midst of this unbroken monotony that the three children, Teda, Freda, and Uwen, grew up and throve. They never felt the wearying sameness that surrounded them; they wanted nothing else, for each day brought them something which they had found in themselves, and which gave wings to the passing hours. They continued to seek each other's companionship, for they required something different to that which sufficed for the fishermen's children, and long association had made them inseparable. Thus they had grown up together, scarcely conscious of any change in their relations.

At her often-renewed request Freda had at last been allowed to share in the higher lessons of the two other children, but as she was decidedly inferior in mental power to Teda, her studies were confined to such subjects as she could most easily grasp. She joined in their lessons of history and geography, but left the room when Uwen's lessons in Latin and Greek began. Teda remained behind, not that she was taught with the boy, but she listened to the instruction he re

ceived, and it happened not unfrequently that she understood and remembered what he had missed; and so, according to her early tendency, she could assume the rôle of teacher. Time brought him ever more under her sway; whenever bodily strength and dexterity had to be used, he stood forth as the elder brother, whose duty it was to care for her; in questions of mental interest his part was that of the younger brother. Teda had reached the age when she was capable of understanding her father's creed, that eternity was the only proper aim of man; she proved herself in every respect his child, and by her religious zeal fulfilled his highest hopes.

Still, by a singular contradiction, Teda proved herself equally the child of Deena Swidder. When she indulged in visions of a future life all earthly things seemed to her as worthless; but when, at another time, she was seized with a desire for anything, she thought of no one but herself, and expected everyone to give way to her claims. She exacted attention and service, without ever thinking that these were due from herself in return. She could not bear the least pain or trouble, and even when she had brought it on herself, she was ever ready to lay the blame upon the innocent.

With these two main characteristics Teda also possessed a third, which presented a striking and inexplicable contradiction. This was a wildly passionate temper, for the most part concealed, but occasionally manifesting itself in some violent outburst. This disposition could only be accounted for by the circumstances attending her origin. The characteristic seemed rather that of the flesh than of the spirit; it was like a sudden, fierce rebellion, a physical reaction of the blood against some tyrannous thraldom. Teda struggled with this temper, but her efforts were often in vain ; it overcame her, as if it were some power that she had not strength to resist.

Perhaps it might be accounted for in some degree by her unusually early physical development, which made Freda, although of the same age and quite as tall, appear but a child beside her. In Teda's outward appearance there was a similar contradiction. A face of marble whiteness was overshadowed by masses of dark hair, from underneath which gleamed eyes that shone like stars, and gave the impression of a mind lifted up above all earthly things, while the finely developed figure showed that she was in the fullest sense a woman.

Teda Remmert was strikingly, singularly beautiful, and she

gave every promise of becoming still more so. Looking at her, you seemed to see the head of an archangel on the body of a Venus, and a close observer of her words and actions could not fail to notice that spirit and sensuality were continually at warfare in her heart.

Freda Roeluf, on the other hand, still looked only like an unusually tall child, and this impression was increased by the peculiarity in the style of her dress. She still wore the same kind of bodice and short skirt as did the other village children; while Teda, who had learned from Walmot how to ply her needle, had begun to make her own dresses, and took especial care that they should be becoming. She often scolded Freda for falling back in summer time into the old childish practice of running over the downs without shoes or stockings. With regard to polish and elegance, indeed, she considered that both the dress and manners of Freda required improvement, and she undertook the office of teaching her in this respect, as she had formerly undertaken that of teaching her to speak correctly. Freda never treated her fault-finding as an offensive assumption, but rather as a sign of her friendly interest, and for that interest in her she was duly grateful. Though ever true to the unerring instincts of her own heart, her mind was open to receive instruction, and she was entirely free from vanity and selfconceit. When her good sense recognised the justice of Teda's remonstrances, she at once obeyed her directions, though, in truth, these were but little needed, seeing that her own instinct guided her infallibly to all that was in the truest sense becoming, and attractive, and amiable in maidenly deportment. Whatever was contrary to her natural simplicity she quietly refused, but in such a way as to avoid any unpleasantness. Freda's constant desire to oblige was the real cause of the unbroken union, year after year, of these three children.

Her outward appearance, however, had not as yet developed to her advantage. Tall and slim as a maypole, her angular limbs had lost all their early grace of movement and proportion. When she was running, she presented a most comical appearance, reminding one more of a long-legged heron than of the golden sunbeam, which once used to flit across the sandy downs. Her hair was still of the same lovely colour, but the pretty round face beneath had become lengthened; it was not the old face nor yet was it quite a new one; only now and then did the deep blue eyes shed over the altered features a

passing gleam that served to recall, under the present plain appearance, her former charms as a little child.

Freda regularly attended the Sunday service at the church, and she was to be confirmed at Easter along with Teda and Uwen. During her preparation for this rite her answers indicated how far she had herself understood and accepted Pastor Remmert's peculiar religious dogmas. She knew, as well as her two companions did, all the articles of faith, and when she was questioned, she could repeat them without a mistake; but she had learnt them as a purely mechanical task, and they seemed to her to have no real connection with herself. On the other hand, all the commands of the Gospel that refer to our earthly life, enjoining justice, charity, and brotherly love, fell not merely from the lips of Freda, but expressed the deepest feeling of her soul.

It often seemed as if the Catechism were quite superfluous, as if she had only to consult her own instincts in order to hit upon the right and proper answer. In this she not only far surpassed Teda, but offered a decided contrast to her, as the latter was solely occupied with seizing and fixing in her mind the rules of faith; everything else seemed to her a matter of indifference.

Uwen resembled Teda in this religious fervour, but far more through the influence of her example than through the pastor's inculcation of his transcendental views. At the same time, the boy often showed, by a very illogical contradiction, that his thoughts were still engrossed with the things of this world, from which, indeed, he found it no easy matter to free himself. It was only in externals that he had cast aside his boyish appearance, and passed the threshold of man's estate; inwardly he was still yielding and irresolute, like a boat without a keel, swaying hither and thither with every motion of the waves. The theological profession seemed to him the highest of human earthly aims, and he regarded it with enthusiasm, but none the less did he feel bound to Mother Walmot by an indissoluble tie, so that not a day passed in which he did not find time to run across to her cottage for at least one greeting.

He had long called her, after the custom of East Frisian children towards elderly women, Mother Walmot, but the tone in which he uttered the first word indicated a far deeper feeling than that which it ordinarily implied. In this instance alone he was not, as in all others, compliant and submissive to

Teda. The latter acknowledged, indeed, the good they had often derived from their visits to Walmot, but stories had ceased to interest her, and the other sayings of the motherly woman were to her of no importance; it was only the prattle of a fish-wife who had no real knowledge and education. Uwen's daily unnecessary visits to the cottage were therefore regarded by Teda as a waste of time, and unworthy of his higher spiritual aims. He never attempted to argue with her, but, by his conduct, manifested a silent opposition, and remained true in his attachment to Mother Walmot in spite of her lack of scholastic training. Uwen also maintained his long-accustomed friendly relations with Freda. He was not, indeed, quite the same as he had been at first; he had been much fonder of her then, she felt. Not that he had become in any way unfriendly towards her, but he was more indifferent. His scientific and classical studies gave him subjects to think about of which she was ignorant, and which she could not discuss with him as Teda could. She often grieved about it, but it could not be helped; the time for child-play on sea and sand was past, and in the discussions now held it was natural that Teda, as the best-informed, should chiefly carry on the conversation with Uwen.

THE Confirmation of the three young people took place in the year 1806. Easter fell late in April that year, and an unusually mild spring day gladdened the isle. All the villagers assembled in the church to witness the ceremony. Walmot herself accompanied Datya, and also brought Roeluf Hemmen to join with her for the first time in religious worship. She presented him, as it were, to the congregation as a new member. She could very well do this, for with the exception of his still habitual silence, which was in no ways remarkable amongst the other laconic fishermen, there was nothing in his appearance now to recall the half-witted vagrant, shattered in body and mind, that he had been, when he arrived on the island. Healthy and strong, with a fearless look and clean