"I know what you mean now," she said slowly. "I couldn't see it before." Then with a little smile she went on--"Yes, Mr. Linden, I am willing. But what must I do?" "'Only believe--'" he answered. "Do what you say you are willing to do." "But," said Faith, looking at him with a face which certainly spoke her near the 'little child' character which Christians do bear,--"there must be something else. I must not be like what I have been. I want to know what I ought to _do_." "Christ's own words tell you better than I can,--'My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me'--that is the description of a Christian on earth. And then it follows--'I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.'" There was silence; and then Faith said, "But how am I to follow him?" "How did the people do to whom he said those words when he was on earth?" "I don't know!" "'They arose, and left all, and followed him.'" "Well, Mr. Linden?"-- "It is just such a following that we are called to now--only that it must be in heart and life instead of actual footsteps. Just so must we rise up from doing our own will and pleasure, fix our eyes upon Christ, and follow him!" "But how are we to know--how am _I_ to know," said Faith, "what _I_ ought to do?" "Study Christ's summing up of the ten commandments,--does not that cover the whole ground? And then--do every little duty as it comes to hand. If we are truly ready to do God's will, he will send us work,--or if not-- 'They also serve, who only stand and wait.'" Faith looked an earnest, wistful, sorrowful look at him. "But then," she said,--"I don't do anything well--how can I know that I am right? You know what you said--of the two roads only one led to the shore. I keep thinking of that--ever since." "A traveller in the right road," said Mr. Linden, "may walk with very weak and unsteady pace,--yet he knows which way his face is set. Which way is yours?" Faith's face was in her hands. But Mrs. Derrick's step just then sounding at the front door, she sprang away before it could reach the parlour. CHAPTER VIII. The decision of Mr. Linden on the school question was duly communicated to Judge Harrison; and the time fixed was Thursday, the fifth of October. The place chosen, after much care, was the Judge's own house and grounds adjoining, which were spacious enough, and afforded good opportunity for setting tables and also for spreading them. So all that was fixed; and all Pattaquasset was a tip-toe; and Mr. Linden submitted to what he could not help, with as good a grace as he might. And September was sliding off into October with the gentlest, sunniest, softliest grace.