"This learning is entirely new to me," said the lad. "Perhaps it is higher than I am yet able to comprehend. I believe in just precisely what the gospels say, no more, no less; that Jesus is the Christ, only-begotten Son of God, conceived of the Holy Ghost, before there was a creation, and born of the Virgin into the world long after God by him had made all things that are created. But, with thy profound knowledge of all these mysteries, how is it that thou thyself dost not believe? Who and what art thou, thou ancient, learned, yet unhappy man, whom may our Lord soon bless and save?" "I love thee, boy, but I am old, and now too weary to talk more with thee. Wilt thou not come unto me again? I desire to live in seclusion as I have done for years, and beg of thee to speak of me to none; but come again thyself whenever thou canst." "I will return upon the seventh day hence," said Arius, "and speak of thee to none except my father’s family, and thou wilt not be annoyed by them. And so fare-thee-well, sir, and may the peace of God come upon thee!" "Amen!" said the ancient, "and farewell!" CHAPTER VI. FLOTSON OF THE MIDDLE SEA. In the evening of that day upon which Arius encountered the strange old eremite upon the mountainside, draggled skirts of clouds swept across the northern horizon, and distant lightnings gleamed upon the waves. During the night the storm came nearer and nearer, and before sunrise the wind roared wildly over the Baucalis farm, and the troubled sea broke in foam and thunder for many a league along the coast. All day the tempest raged, but with nightfall the clouds broke away, although the turbulent waves continued to roll and tumble on the coast, and the angry waters gurgled through the narrow entrance into the little bay upon which Baucalis fronted. The dwellers at the farm watched the magnificent display from their open windows, but saw no sign of any ship belabored by the storm, and, after their usual religious exercises, retired to rest, thankful that there seemed to be no wreck along their coasts. During the night the sea ran down, and when Arius, early in the beautiful morning, went to the garden’s edge beside the water, there was only a gentle swell perceivable upon the bosom of the deep, and a faint murmur of the waters crowding into and out of the narrow opening of the bay with a gurgling noise from which the farm derived its name. The lad pursued his usual occupation, until his attention was caught by a sound under the bank below him, as if some one gently and regularly struck upon the rock; and the boy then stepped forward, and, parting with his hands the fringe of shrub and weeds that grew upon the verge of the land, he gazed down into the waters of the bay, and at once discovered that the unusual sounds were made by the striking of the ends of some spars that composed a small raft against the rock, with the rise and fall of every wave.