The King's Talisman — page 85: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

76 THE KING'S TALISMAN. ‘*- Your stars?” half reprovingly and half inquisitively re- turned the woman. “Ay, Ossifrage,” replied the old man, ‘‘ my stars.” «‘The stars are God’s, and his alone—the only true, the only living God’s,” uttered the old woman, as-she looked up into her visitor’s face, without ceasing from her work. ‘“They are most surely God’s,” Abdah Nazor said, ‘‘ but not hisalone. JI am God’s, and nature is mine. ‘The mid- “night wanderer upon the trackless desert owns the stars, and they are his, if he but knows the great goodness that gave them. Tell me, Ossifrage, do we not realize gifts from God?” | «< Yes, my brother, and hencelI praise him.” ‘‘And has he not given us the twinkling lights that gem the night-sky? Has he not given them to us for our Joy and comfort on earth?” ‘* He has lent them to us.” ‘“No,” said the old dervise. ‘‘ He has given them to us, for we are his, and what he bestows upon us, he gives to himself. In the economy of the one God, nothing is wasted. All things are his, and so he giveth jewels to his children without losing them to himself. Hence I love to praise God, that he has given to me those night-gems of beauty to make glad my eyes.” The old woman had dropped her reeds by her side while — Abdah Nazor spoke, and for several moments after he closed she maintained a thoughtful silence; but at length she raised her eyes, and uttered: ‘“‘T have learned from thee a lesson. Henceforth I will accept those gifts and render thanks accordingly, and all excepting life itself will I take as his gifts.” ‘« My sister, life is the only thing that God has given to us forever. Life is the only one of all his gifts that he will never take from us. This poor body of dust may molder away from this desert of earth, or become food for the eagle Eomicboo <S (Elo)