Hester said nothing further, but still caught but a glimpse of the doctor’s meaning. We are surrounded with things difficult to understand, and the way most people take it is to look away lest they should find out they have to understand them. Hester suspected scepticism in his remarks—most doctors, she believed, leaned in that direction. But she herself had begun to have a true notion of serving man. Therefore, there was no fear of her not coming to see, by and by, what serving God meant. She did serve him, therefore she could not fail to discover the word that belonged to the act. Only by serving can one find out what serving him means. Some people are constantly rubbing at their skylights, but if they do not keep their other windows clean also, there will not be much light in the house. God, like his body, the light, is all about us, and prefers to shine in upon us sideways, for we could not endure the power of his vertical glory. No mortal man can see God and live, and he who does not love his brother whom he has seen will not love his God whom he has not seen. He will come to us in the morning through the eyes of a child when we have been gazing all night at the stars in vain.

Hester rose. She was a little frightened at the very peculiar man and his talk. She had made several attempts in the dull light to see him as they watched the contortions of the acrobats.

Dr. Christopher was a thick-set man about thirty, in a rough coat of brownish gray with many pockets, a striped shirt, and a black necktie. His head was big, with rather thick, long and straggly hair. He had a large forehead and large gray eyes. The remaining features were well formed but rather fat, like the rest of his not elegant person, with a pale complexion. His voice was somewhat gruff but not unmusical, a thread of sadness in it. Hester declined his offer to see her home.

The next time she went to see the Frankses, which was not for four or five days, she found they were gone. They had told Mrs. Baldwin that they were sorry to leave, but they had to look for a cheaper place.

Hester was very disappointed. In later years the memory of them was always precious to her because it had been with Mrs. Franks that she had first experienced the hope of her calling by many times giving sleep and rest to her and her babe. And if it is a fine thing to delight the audience of a concert room of well-dined, well-dressed people, surely it is not a little thing to hand God’s gift of sleep to a poor woman weary with the lot of women, and having so little pleasure in life.

Mrs. Franks would undoubtedly have differed from Hester in this judgment of her worldly condition, on the ground that she had a good husband and good children. Some people are always thinking others better off than themselves. Others feel as if the lot of many about them must be absolutely unbearable because they themselves could never bear it, they think. But things are unbearable only until we have them to bear. The possibility of carrying them comes with them. For we are not the roots of our own being.