"I hope you are not a true prophet; if we strike the blow too soon we shall fail. As I said before, we are not ripe for independence." "And so long as the Spaniards rule over you they will take care that you never do ripen, so that your hope of independence is a dangerous dream." "Dangerous it may be, but it is no dream," said Marcelino, rising excitedly to his feet; "I know my own countrymen and I have faith in the future of my native country. No great work can be performed without danger; there are heroes amongst us who fear no danger; let the danger come, they will teach us how to meet them. I tell you, my friend, before these black hairs of mine have turned grey you will see the rise of a great Republic on the shores of La Plata." "In establishing it you will do your share of the work nobly," answered Gordon. "May God help you, for I believe you have a hard task before you." "Do you believe there is a God?" asked Marcelino, reseating himself and looking steadfastly at his friend. "I do, as surely as I see you sitting there before me." "I think there is too; but I do not think that he takes any interest in the affairs of men." "That is most illogical," replied Gordon. "In all God's works around us we see the greatest evidence of care and foresight in preparing this world for our habitation, how then shall he care nothing for us who are his chiefest work?" "I wish I could think as you do. Do you know, one of the first days when you were ill at our house I went in to look at you, you were delirious, I thought you would die, and the thought made me very miserable; I would have done anything to save you and could do nothing. I fell down on my knees by your side, I don't know why, and I prayed wildly to God that he would let you live. It is in moments like that that one feels that there is really a God. When I thought what I was doing I jumped up again to my feet ashamed of my weak folly, but I went away quite happy for I felt sure that you would live. Do you think that God would listen to a prayer addressed to him in that way?" Tears swam in Gordon's eyes at this new proof of his friend's care for him. "Those are just the prayers that God does listen to," he answered. "When men can do nothing then they feel their dependence upon God and trust entirely to him. That is simple faith, and is just what God requires of us." "Some men would call it superstition," said Marcelino. "You acknowledge that there is a God, and you know that he must be infinitely greater and more powerful than you are, therefore to trust in him is no superstition. To trust in dead men or in ceremonies of man's devising, that is superstition." "Who shall mark the line between faith and superstition?" asked Marcelino.