n a chorister in a great Cathedral. The
mighty words came back to him. He bent over the woman.

[Illustration: The cry for bread.]

"Bread," he whispered. "The body--"

He shattered the water breaker with his fist. There was a suggestion of
moisture on the inside of the staves of the cask. He drew his finger
across them and touched it to the woman's lips.

"Water," he said hoarsely. "The blood--"

The terror, the yearning, disappeared from the woman's eyes. She looked
at the man sanely, gratefully.

"God bless--" she faltered and then her lips stiffened.

Some tag of quaint old Scripture that had impressed him when he first
heard it because of its very strangeness, but of which he had never
thought in all the years of his rough life since boyhood, came into the
man's mind now. He lifted his head as if to see again that figure.

"A priest forever," he gasped, "after the order of Melchis--"

He did not finish the word. The woman was dead. He knew now for what he
had been kept alive. His task had been performed. He bowed his head in
his hands and entered into life eternal with the others.

Presently a little cloud flecked the sky. Out of the south the wind blew
softly. The smooth sea rippled blue and white in the gentle breeze. The
little boat, cradling its dead, rocked gently as it drifted on.




XI

The Stiller of the Storm




"BE OF GOOD CHEER; IT IS I; BE NOT AFRAID"




XI

The Stiller of the Storm


"It's Christmas eve at home," murmured the young lad after he had said
his prayers and tumbled into his narrow berth on the great ship. "I
suppose they're trimming the Christmas tree now and hanging up the
stockings. I wish I were there."

He was very young to serve his country, but not too young according to
the standards of mankind to be a midshipman on the great steel monster
keeping the leaden deep. It was the first time he had ever been away
from home on Christmas day, too. The youngsters had all laughed and
joked about it in the steerage mess. Th

William Babington Maxwell (18661938) was a British novelist. He was a son of novelist Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Though nearly 50 years old at the outbreak of the First World War, he was accepted as a lieutenant in the Royal Fusiliers and served in France until 1917.

Cyrus Townsend Brady (December 20, 1861 January 24, 1920) was a journalist, historian and adventure writer. His most well-known work is Indian Fights and Fighters. He was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1883. He was also a deacon in the Episcopal church. His first wife was Clarissa Guthrie, who died in 1890. His second wife was Mary Barrett.

Rebecca Sophia Clarke (1833-1906), also known as Sophie May, was an American author of childrens fiction. Using her nieces and nephews as inspiration, she wrote realistic stories about children. She wrote 45 books between 1860 and 1903. The most popular being the Little Prudy books. She lived most of her life in her native town of Norridgewock, Maine, where she lived out her life with her sister, who was also a successful author.